Photo Dump

Number one reason I keep the extra car seats in the closet

Chickadee's favorite dress up outfit in boys' size 8 (rolled and rolled and rolled up some more)

Sunshine's rendition of Goodnight Gorilla

What Speed wishes he could do every single night after school

Waiting for the carousel at Sea World

Best dyed eggs of the year

What every single picture taken of Sunshine on Easter morning looks like because she didn't want her picture taken (alone)

UT fountain on Easter morning

What Chickadee climbed in her booster for because she thought this would be an allowable Easter breakfast

Happy Meal Toys

It's impossible to describe the significance of this event:

McDonald's with five kids. Speed says he wants a Little Pony. Gets said Pony but then decides he wants a Skylander toy.

"You can go up and ask the lady to trade you."
"I want you do it."
"I'll stand by you. But you have to do the work."

Long. Pause.

Then much to my surprise, he got in line with me standing off to the side and waited his turn. The lady asked him what he wanted and he held his toy up and said: "Trade please."

She swapped toys. He walked off.

This is the kid who hid in corners 11 months ago. The one who didn't trust anyone over 3 feet tall. And the one who didn't talk for several weeks upon arriving.

Unbelievable.

Siri

from Big Sister today when I wondered out loud if the McDonald's by their house has an indoor playscape, outdoor playscape, or no playscape:

"Do you know who Siri is? You can pick up your phone and say something like 'FIND A MCDONALD's WITH A PLAYGROUND' and Siri will answer you. It's really simple and it works. I saw xxx do it lots of times."

"Yes, but you can also pick up the phone, call McDonald's and ASK THE PEOPLE THERE if they have a playscape."

Which is what I did.

My favorite six year old thinks I am a nut. :)

The Adoption Party

We went to an adoption party for a dear friend yesterday. I spent all week rehearsing in my mind how I would address with the kids what the purpose of this party was. There were presents, but no candles and no one singing Happy Birthday.

In the end, they didn't ask. Sunshine said, "We going to Coco's birthday?" and I replied with "It's not her birthday, it's an adoption party." That was as far as I had to go.

The great thing about the party (aside from the obvious!) was that all three kids moved more than 10 feet from me. They interacted with other kids. Speed actually asked another grown up whom he'd never before met for some help with the bubbles.

I lose perspective. I lose the forest for the trees. Coco, who had not seen the kids in at least six months, was able to see (and tell me, thank you) that they looked and acted different and HOW they looked and acted different.

It was a good, good day!

One Way to Look at Us

A conversation today with a 9th grade student who is absolutely obsessed with TV and knows two, and only two, things about me--that I do not watch TV and that I have "small" children--went something like this:

Him: Have you seen Breaking Bad?
Me: No, remember, I don't watch TV. Tell me about it.
Him: I will but do you mean you don't EVER watch TV?
Me: No.
Him: How about your kids?
Me: My kids are small. They don't watch TV either.
Him: What do you do?
Me: What do you mean? We play.
Him: No, I mean, every single day what do you do instead of watch TV?
Me: I dunno. We keep busy. Last night, we got home, the kids played in the playroom while I cooked dinner, we ate, we walked to the mailbox and played in the field. Then we saw a neighbor and visited with her and then it was bedtime so we read stories and went to bed.
Him: Your family is like....like how do you say it?...Like the PERFECT ALL-AMERICAN TRADITIONAL family. That's cool.

He said that, and I pictured my 3 babies, the condition they were in almost 11 months ago, and where we are today both in progress and in work still to address.  I thought that anyone who looks at us walking down the street knows we are far from traditional and that the point in the kids' case where we are today is anything but a perfect place to be. I smiled and thanked him for the compliment.

We are perfectly imperfect.

Honeys

Sunshine could spend all day outside, turning over rocks and putting Honeys into a bowl. She's very careful with them and speaks ever so sweetly to them.

"Come here, Honey!"
"It's ok, Honey, don't be scared. I just put you in this cup."
"You can go see you friends later, Honey."

When I tell her it's time to clean up, she starts crying: "I want to find more HONEYS!!"

What exactly IS a Honey?

 AKA: Roly Poly