Happy Passover

I thought I posted this yesterday. But I was attempting it from my phone while in the car rider line. Happy Passover anyway.

Me to kids (while running apple after apple through the food processor...in the process of making charoset...which I do every year): "Do y'all know what today is?"

Jamal: (looks at his phone) "April 14th. My Gotcha Day?"

me: "No."

Jamal: "My Adoption Day!"

me: "No, Jamal, those are both in October. It's a religious day."

(blank stares)

me: "Easter's on Sunday..."

Kia: "Today's Monday...oh! Better Monday!"


Kia missed most of school today. Let's hope she got there in time for Bible.

Happy Passover, everyone.

photo booth find

a snippet of today

Oh, by the way, that's not her real hair.

Trish to me: (referring to a sick friend of hers who needs surgery) "They can't put him to sleep because he has a heart condition."

Tekia: (surprised) "I didn't know they put people to sleep."

me: "For surgery!"


Thank you, God, for adoption. How boring would our family be if it had ended with me?? 

We went to the beach and took family pictures.

You've been warned.

biogical moms

Hunter and Avery (my oldest nephew and niece) are spending a few days with us. Here's a little bit of our conversation from dinner tonight. It should be noted that Hunter and Avery's mom, my sister-in-law Shelby, was adopted. And of course you know their aunt and uncle were as well.

Oh, it should also be noted that Avery says "biogical" instead of "biological." Anyway... 

me: "Avery, who's your 'biogical' mom?"

Avery: "I don't have one."

Mom/Granna/Trish: "Yes, you do."

Hunter: "No, she doesn't - she's not adopted!"

Oh, the woes of growing up in a big, confusing family. Love it.

All I can say is, I hope no one has head lice.

When our whole family's cooped up in the house together for a day, I can't promise that we won't take turns trying on Mom's old wig. Nine years later, this game is still endlessly amusing. (And, nine years later, it still takes me 10+ minutes to get all of my crazy hair tucked under that thing.)

All I can say is, I hope no one has head lice.

a baby in a wig

Why? Because a 7-month-old Halle in my mom's wig is more fun than cancer. That's why. 

And because it's her birthday! Our sweet little Niva Grace (formerly known as Halle) is TWO today! :-) I can't believe it's been almost two years since I posted this awesome newsflash. 

Happy Birthday, baby girl! We love you!
 

 

Fyi . . . if you don't know who Halle is: 1) I truly feel sorry for you, and 2) she has her own label over in the right sidebar - you can click on it and learn all about her. ;-)

P.S. Trish update coming later, I promise. No news is good news!

thirsty

Caught red-handed. footed? clawed??

Who knows . . . but, recently on one of my days off, I woke up and walked into the living room to find this . . .

Apparently Rocky's bag of treats (i.e., various nuts) was left too close to his cage. He was somehow able to get his grimy little hands (Oh, here we go again . . . claws? paws? feet?) on the end of it and drag it almost all the way into his cage. That bunch of nuts at the bottom gave him a little trouble, but he was still able to get to one nut at a time. So I found him sitting there, in a squirrel's paradise, eating as many nuts as his little heart desired.

And then I took a picture. And a video. And when I approached his cage to do these things, he growled at me. Did you know squirrels can growl? Well, they can. His is a very low, quiet humming kind of growl, but it's a growl nonetheless. I hope you can hear it in the video below! Turn your speakers all the way up and listen really closely. He's not growling in the beginning of the video, but he growls each time I say his name (louder the second time). Needless to say, he was even less pleased when I took away his seemingly bottomless bag of goodies.



And this one's just a little bonus video - one I made a couple months ago but never posted. It includes footage of Rocky "burying" a monkey biscuit (in his home, which is an inside-out, orange flower-shaped pillow with a hole cut in it and the stuffing removed, if you didn't know), eating a nut, and, finally, playing with his toy. My friend was like, "Where do you find squirrel toys?" Umm, try Happy Meals. He loves his Happy Meal toy. Goes crazy with it. Enjoy.

I'm here to keep my eye on her.

The title of this post must be sung. Two points to anyone who can name the movie it's from.

A conversation between Tekia and my mom & me . . .

Tekia: "Is my bed a twin mattress?"

"No."

"Is it a queen?"

"No."

"A princess?"

Yes, Tekia, your bed is a princess bed. Of course.


P.S. Yes, I am pretending like I blog all the time and it hasn't been almost two weeks since my last post and I don't have a ton of much more "important" stuff to blog about and I don't still have to a pick out a new, non-holiday template for my blog. It's called blog denial. Please, join me.

the boogie-woogie piano teacher

If you want to see something awesome, you should probably click here. There you will find my sister-in-law's blog, which is where you will find a video of my nephew Hunter starring as the "boogie-woogie piano teacher" in his school program. And that is awesome - not just in an oh-she-just-thinks-it's-cute-cause-she's-his-aunt kind of a way, but in a wow-that-kid's-really-cool-and-I-wish-he-were-my-nephew kind of way. Trust me.

"Teacher, the squirrel ate my homework."

Only in this family could a statement like that actually ring true.

places to go, people to see

speaking of

My nephew is cuter than your nephew. No, really, he is. He is. Really. I'll prove it to you. Here is a video of my then-22-month-old nephew "reading" Goodnight Moon to himself after hearing it only two times! If you've never read Goodnight Moon, the basic story involves identifying everything in and outside of a room, and then saying goodnight to everything in and outside of said room. You'll hear Chase saying goodnight (actually he prefers "night night") to kittens, stars, a cow, and, my personal favorite, a little toyhouse.



Speaking of Chase, I just discovered that he and Tekia recently had a little fun with photo booth on my computer.

Speaking of Tekia, she's been coughing her head off the past few days (not literally - you know what I mean). Last night at 12:15am, after listening to her cough for a solid hour, I made her try a trick that I'd read about on the internet. When I googled "how to stop coughing", I found that many people swore by putting Vicks Vapor Rub on your feet! I had actually tried it a few times with Halle but was never sure if it really worked. Anyway, after unsuccessful attempts at stopping her coughing with her inhaler, cough medicine, and cough drops, we were desperate. And tired. Tekia thought I was crazy, but she put some Vicks on the bottom on her feet, put socks on, and went back to bed. And, sure enough, it worked! Isn't that crazy? I only heard her cough twice after that, and she was asleep within ten minutes. And so was I. The first thing she said when she woke up this morning was, "It worked."

Speaking of Tekia waking up this morning, she stayed home from school and I was home with her (Mom had HeartLight and cancer stuff to do, and I was off work). Her breakfast order was as follows: "Two pieces of toast. One with jelly and one with mayonnaise. But do not put them together."

And speaking of mayonnaise toast, Tekia asked for seconds. Gross.

a father's day video

I love my dad. Here is a video of him doing some of the things he does best: loving his kids (or, in this case, his foster kids), making people laugh, and calling the hogs.
Calling the hogs is not one of the things Halle does best, however.






Just so you know, seconds before I started recording that, Halle looked like this. I started filming to capture this, not that. But it ended up being funnier that way.


Also, an embarrassing photo of my dad in really short shorts can be found in this Father's Day post.


Anyway. . .

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

comic relief from Tekia

(In case my last post left you in tears, like it did me. Sorry!)

A quote from Tekia, spoken while going over her 7's times table last night in preparation for her test today: "I don't like multiplication. I don't do multiplication. I actually want to be a movie star."

Oh, Tekia, you make things so much more fun.

in Mom's wig, which is still a source of entertainment around here

bugsy

Halle's big, beautiful eyes are her trademark (at least they took over after she finally grew into her extra-long newborn fingers, ha). Everyone comments on them and everyone loves them. A couple weeks ago when I was feeding Halle after church, I had the following conversation with a little boy named Houston, who loves Halle.

Houston: Sometimes her eyes get REALLY big.

me: Yes, they do. She has really big eyes.

Houston (after a few seconds of deep thought): Maybe you should call her "Bugsy." 'Cause she looks a little bit like a bug.

May I present to you our beautiful, bright-eyed Bugsy.

(and please excuse the long line of drool on her shirt)

The bean bag is there as a safety net in case her newfound sitting up abilities fail her.

an Easter thought by Tekia

Tekia was just a little upset today (and perhaps a tad dramatic) when she found out that the mall was closed for Easter. She decided to put her thoughts down on paper.



Whew! Glad she cleared that up. Nice to know her time spent at church this morning wasn't totally wasted.

the new president, as told by Tekia

As you might imagine, the kids' schools have used yesterday's history-making event as an opportunity to educate young minds about presidential elections, inaugurations, and of course our new president, among other things. Tekia has actually taught us quite a lot, too. For instance . . .

Did you know that President Obama has to play Deal or No Deal in order to acquire the key to the White House?

Speaking of the White House, did you know that he's planning on changing its name to the Black House?

And did you know that he's going to change October to Barack-tober?

Probably not. I didn't either. Fortunately we have 3rd graders to inform us of such things.

fairies

"When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies. And now when every new baby is born its first laugh becomes a fairy. So there ought to be." -James Matthew Barrie


(video by Tekia - not bad for an 8-year-old!)

Her first laugh was actually about a week ago, in response to being tickled. But this was her first real laugh at something that she actually thought was funny. We thought she was pretty funny herself. I was laughing so hard I nearly dropped her!