Today is Gotcha Day...1 Year Home for our Sweet Sunshine!

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Guess What Valve Oil Looks Like?

You just missed a classic parenting moment here. As two boys descend the school bus and race inside to fill their STARVING stomachs, as a middle schooler checks out what's for dinner, and as a little girl is checking the buzzing dryer, the phone rings. A teacher. A happy teacher, thankfully. She shares her important news with me and I step on the front porch to hear what she's saying over the mayhem. I walk in to find M smiling happily....but strangely glistening. I stare. I know something's not right....why is she shining like her favorite sparkly sandles?

"Mommy...see water!" Big smiles. Then she holds out N's formerly full bottle of valve oil. Yes. All over her arms, her shirt, her FACE (thank you God for saving her eyes) and her HAIR.

Nothing like a bath at 4 PM while trying to facilitate homework and start supper to make the day complete!

In her defense, she sweetly looked up at me when she realized her error and said, "I sorry, Mommy." I melted.

Heard At the Dinner Table.....

One of our sons (who shall remain initial-less) was talking about his day yesterday and said something like this:

"So I was picking my scab, and my friend, ____, looked over and said 'you like to pick scabs too?'"

What can we say? wow.

Are ALL those Children Yours?

The question every parent of more than 2.5 children hates to hear. Then come the questions about how busy we must be and how much food we must purchase. With three BOYS getting bigger we hear THAT one a lot! I usually find it humorous, but it's hard to quickly explain how we ended up with a life that's more than we can imagine.

We are always busy. There's always someone who needs something. There's always a paper to sign or a book to be read or a meal to prepare. But we're so used to those things it just feels like life to us....isn't EVERYONE this busy? :-)

HOWEVER, today I felt the reality of having four children. OUR DISHWASHER BROKE. AGAIN. The panel is computerized and there's a "glitch" in the programming that keeps going "off code". :-( That's bad. Today the repairman said he needed to order a new part before the work could be done. We might not survive.

I can see the headline now, "Woman dies of styrofoam fumes from using too many paper plates!"

A Real Pro

Almost a year ago we began taking M for regular transfusions at our children's hospital. Whatever her medical experiences were in China, they don't seem to have been positive. She would scream and shake like a leaf whenever she saw a lab coat or a medical facility. We used to have to wrap her in a little sheet like a mummy so her hands couldn't push away the nurses. We also had to use a private room because she screamed like mad which scared other children. Now, she walks in with a little smile talking about her friends and the hospital (the techs and nurses) and what she'll eat for lunch from the cafeteria. This last time, she even began helping place the iv and draw the blood. The nurses were so impressed they brought her a little play bag later in the day with pretend iv's, alcohol swabs, gauze, bandaids, tubes, and a doll. M spent an hour doctoring the doll. A nice distraction at the end of a long day!

First Day of Preschool

Today FINALLY came! M has been BEGGING to go to school since the boys started last week. She picked out her little pink outfit last night and packed her backpack. I tried to get her to wear adorable brown shoes, but she INSISTED on her favorite pink sparkly sandles. Why not? Life's too short to argue about shoes. :-)