HAITI ADOPTIONS ARE REOPENING!!!!!!!

enough said

Goin' Green

First off, a big thanks to my friend Melissa over at Full Circle for letting me know about this program. I had no clue that my blog could create carbon dioxide emissions but there is a group that is already helping fix that problem. They are an organization called Makin' It Green, and they are planting trees in northern california to replace those destroyed by wild fire. For every blog that posts about their program, they will plant a tree. How cool is that? so now I can honestly say:



Just click on that handy-dandy button to see how you can have a tree planted for your blog as well!

Any guesses what we’re doing tonight?

Stop it!

Stop it I say!

This month has been a big one for Katya, and I don’t like it one bit! These are all the firsts she has accomplished this month:

sitting up alone
crawling
first teeth
first solid food
first time biting Mommy while nursing (a rite of passage around here)
first time sitting in a shopping cart without a car seat
first time feeding herself
first sit-up bath with siblings
first time pulling herself up to furniture.

Yep, you read that last one  right: Katya started sitting up and pulling herself up to furniture in the same month. She is growing up at breakneck speed and I don’t like it. Can’t we take it just a bit slower?

Here she is tonight, as she finally accomplished what she’s been working on for days. She was overjoyed!

Invention’s Mother

…is named “Necessity.”

Oh, wait. That’s not how it goes….

Anyway, around here my kids are having to get a bit creative since, you know, most all of their toys are still locked down in toy jail.

This morning my boys pulled bins and baking things out of the pantry. Now, most mothers would think that they were ready to make muffins or something, right? No, not my boys!

 

Drum sets! Spencer’s was especially creative, as he used an oven liner as a cymbal. He also really mastered the famous triple-drumstick-click before starting his rhythms, and after he was done pounding away a sequence, he’d throw his drumstick (kitchen spoons) into the air and catch them, like a true drummer! It was so cute. He gave us a concert tonight. I have to say, the kid has rhythm! Here he is, writing his “drumming music.”

Its been fun seeing what they come up with when there are so few toys available.

Thursdays with Carmen

I am Thankful for....what we consider "basics": a nice house, an adequate income, healthy children, education, living on war-free territory, a decent night's sleep.

I'm listening to...Katya gurgle and babble as she crawls around the kitchen floor and explores the toys that have been left there this morning, Lizzie barking at anyone and anything that ventures too close to Vlad's office, Collin scrunching his plastic bag full of pipe cleaners into a ball. It's a new home for his new pet, a fly.

Looking forward to...it would still have to be June in Phoenix.

Praying about...God helping me develop better eating habits, finding and becoming part of a community here in the city.

What's for Dinner Tonight...Lasagna.

Found..Claire's jeans. They were all in the basement, and were recovered when we cleaned it all out.

Missing...Spencer's red coat. I have a feeling we left it somewhere on a field trip.

Burning Question of the Week...How do you deal with a neighbor child who walks into your house, whether or not you've told that child that he/she needs to go home because you're in the middle of having dinner, who says they don't have food at their house even though you know they do and they really just want a Nutella sandwich, and who will genearlly NOT LEAVE and will become rude and defiant if they want to play inside your house or with your children and you tell them it's not the right time?!