Happy Birthday Little Man!!

Hard to believe he is FIVE- seems like just yesterday he was a baby.....

And Exactly When Would You Like Me To Do That?

So B was cleared (by me) to drive early March so I calculated (yes, because I am that obsessive) my "stats" on what I accomplished in the 80 days between when he broke his leg and when he began driving again....

3 tours of local day care centers to figure out what to do with X now that our kindergarten is half day rather than full day

1 weekend trip to my parents house

5 functions at church

4 meetings with our local school district regarding IEPs

1 toddler (almost) potty trained

3 parent/teacher conferences, sometimes the parent, sometimes the teacher

26.5 days of actually going to my job and working

1 post placement meeting with our social worker (who thankfully didn't take the fact I was laughing about everything to be a sign I had gone completely crazy)

2 Girl Scout events that I was personally responsible for coordinating and running (including one with K along for the ride in a backpack carrier on my back)

12 meetings for all the things I foolishly committed to without thinking that sometime in the future B might break his leg

8 miscellaneous appointments for unspecified reasons

38 kid related events/lessons/social events (and apparently they have way more interesting social lives than I do

63 appointments with doctors, speech therapists, occupational therapists, psychologists or other people I am hoping my insurance company will pay (Yes, we blew through all $3000 of our yearly medical deductible before the end of January)

and finally, a grand total of 5035 miles driven in 80 days. So to put it another (somewhat more disturbing) way... In the last 80 days I spent 177.5 hours or 7.4 DAYS in my car.

Thank God for satellite radio....

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!!

Happy Third Birthday to D









And probably my favorite shot-A got too close to the cake and she yelled "Mine" and gave him the "look"- you know the one I mean- the universal facial expression for "get your hands off MY cake".

The Inmates are Running the Asylum

To sum up the last several weeks.... (and yes the photos are probably worth a thousand words)






On the streets of New York, this might be a talent



You are supposed to nurture their talents, right???? All things considered, they didn't sound *that* bad, and the girls were really into it. They may be A and X's first groupies.




I can't even begin to explain this (and yes, X is half naked- but at least he isn't answering the door that way- there is at least one Girl Scout who will never forget selling cookies to us...)





And then there was the best one of all (warning: this is not for those with weak stomachs). I came home from a meeting to find the girls in the bathroom playing in the toilet paper. I grabbed the camera and thought "oh how cute" and then after snapping the first two photos noticed the potty chair. Or more specifically, the part of the potty chair that is removable to allow for "dumping". It was upside down on the floor and yes there was "pee pee in the potty", along with it's companion "oo-ey" (as D proudly told me). Needless to say, it was straight to the bath tub

You Must Be Thinking of Someone Else

So one thing you always hear about from other parents who have adopted transracially is the strange comments and questions they get about their children. So far, I haven't had too many really bad ones but I had a weird one today. I teach Sunday School at our church and I always teach the pre-k class so naturally I now have siblings of kids I had previously. So today in class is a little guy whose sister I had for the last 2 years. Their grandmother brings them to church and hangs around the room "helping" us out. Today we had a lesson about families and how families are all different and once thing I mentioned is that sometimes families don't always look alike (as K was sitting on my lap at the time) So we finish the lesson and the kids are all eating snack. I am holding K and Grandma comes up and says "I remember when you were pregnant with this one" Huh????? I sort assumed she meant when we were waiting, or "paper pregnant" but no. She looked all surprised and said "Oh is she adopted then?" (I resisted the urge to be snarky and say that she was just on loan to see if it would work out for us) She said "well I haven't seen you for a while and the last time you must have been pregnant" Yeah, except that I have had your granddaughter in my class for the last 2 years and the last time I was pregnant was 5 years ago- I don't know who she has me mixed up with or maybe it is really time to start that diet I've been putting off.

Although one hand I am glad she doesn't seem to hung up on kids matching their parents, on the other hand she knows all 3 of my youngest kids so I have to wonder exactly what she thinks I "do" in my free time


Not matching but totally mine!

Does It Come In My Size Too?

D has become something of a fashionista lately- She is now going through 3-4 outfits a day (and at least one is always pajamas) This is one from her latest collection. A red and white (with a few sequins) kitty sweater, purple cow pajama pants and knock off pink Crocs (on the wrong feet, no less). She actually had on the pants that go with the kitty sweater before we left for school, but in the time it took me to gather the backpacks and put K in the car seat, she had changed into this outfit. I took her pants to school, but when I got back to pick her up she was still in her purple cow pajama pants. Her teacher said "I wasn't about to try to get her to change" My thoughts exactly.

73 hours

is exactly how long it took me to go through one full tank of gas this week. I filled up on Monday after X's swim lesson and filled up again today 73 hours later (after A's swim lesson) So for those of you still guessing on the poll- that means 320 miles in the last 3 days. I love my car, but honestly, enough is enough. It's a 4 day weekend at A's school and he suggested we drive to a neighboring state (5 hours away) for the weekend to "explore" I told him it was fine with me but he had to buy the gas and drive.

Luckily though, I did spring for Sirius/XM radio and that has been a real blessing. I only listen to 3 stations, but they are good ones.

Coming soon (maybe tomorrow??) The Difference Between... version 2.0