Mock Not, Lest Ye Be Mocked

Ok, maybe that's not really in the Bible. Or is it? Regardless, it probably applies to Billy and me because we tend to take full advantage of the fact that kids are fun to tease. But remember, it was the youths who were making fun of Elisha who got eaten by the she-bears, not the other way around. (Don't worry, we aren't being MEAN to them. We love them!)

For example:

"J., do you like to play with your toys?" "Yeh."
"J., do you like juice?" "Yeh."
"J., do you love Jesus?" "Yeh." (Noticing a pattern, Mom decides to have some fun.)
"J., do you like to eat spiderwebs?" "Yeh."
"J., are you good at solving quadratic equations?" "Yeh."
"J., do you want Barack Obama to be the next President?" "Yeh." (Suddenly this exercise ceases to be funny any more.)

We Finally Go Fishing

After trying on two separate days the past couple of weeks, we finally made it out of the house to go fishing. I don't think I would be as motivated to go if we didn't have a tub of worms sitting in the refrigerator. I wanted to use them so the money we paid for them wouldn't be wasted. (That's the Nerd in me. We are doing Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University and last week we learned that most marriages have a Nerd and a Free Spirit. I am the Nerd. Billy is the Free Spirit.) ANYWAY, we went to the lake at the Live Oak Park and Billy was able to get rid of some worms. Unfortunately, he did not get any fish in return.

Other than me sitting in a puddle of soda after it spilled on my chair and Billy rescuing J.'s hat after it blew into the lake, it was a nice evening. But the babies got restless after a while and I think this is one activity we are going to cross off the list until they are older.

(I will post a picture as soon as I figure out what's wrong with the camera. Every time I plug in the USB cable the camera turns off.)

Caterpillars Are NOT Cute

The other day I was disappointed to see a large hole in one of our green peppers. I figured the culprit was either some small unseen insect or an opportunistic bird striking while the dogs weren't looking. Billy suggested we try a pesticide, which I wasn't too excited about. Until today when I noticed this:

You can see piles of caterpillar poop under the plant if you look closely. (Not that you want to, of course.)

Forget the pesticide, we need a shotgun.

Mini-Milestones

Little M. is 8 months old today! To get ready for the day she decided to sleep for 8 hours straight last night, something that has not happened for a very, very, very long time. Little D. is in the process of cutting 4 more teeth. The little trooper is handling it pretty well.

Yesterday J. copied the "ba" sound and eventually used it in reference to his ball. He's made the sound before, but hadn't copied it like that. Hopefully he's going to start making more progress now.

The Six-Dollar Watermelon

Yesterday we learned that ten dollars doesn't go very far at a Farmer's Market. That's the amount in WIC vouchers that J. received for fresh produce for the entire summer. We're grateful, of course, just a little disappointed that we couldn't get more.

Watching J. proudly pulling his watermelon around in the wagon was totally worth the trip, though.

A Meeting of the Minds

"D., let's put our heads together and figure why there's a giraffe in this rainforest."

"The sage in bloom, is like perfume . . .

. . . deep in the heart of Texas."

I'm not sure if this is the plant the song is referring to, but it is a Texas sage and today it is blooming. I have heard it will bloom before a rainfall, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up.

This picture of my handsome husband was taken on Easter of 2007. Look closely by the garage and you can see how small the sage was.

This picture was taken today. As you can see, the Plantzilla is threatening to take over our home.

500 502 Babies Celebrate Father's Day

Click here and scroll down a bit to see a cute picture of our kids and the Truwe kiddos wearing their Father's Day shirts. What a crew!!

The Name Game

We have begun filling out some preliminary paperwork regarding the adoption of the boys. There is still the unresolved issue of the intervention filed by some relatives, but we have been told to begin moving forward for now.

On this paperwork we have to indicate their adoptive names, which means Billy and I have finally had to make a decision as to whether we were going to change them. Since both boys know and respond to their first names we have decided to keep them. Plus, the names are Biblical and you can't go wrong with a name from the Bible unless it's Ehud, in my opinion. J. actually had a two-part first name, but we are just keeping the "J." part and elongating it. We are giving him the middle name of "William" after his new father and grandfather. Baby Boy D. never had a middle name (we asked his birth mother) so the middle name we have chosen for him is . . . "Otto" after his grandfather. I think there is already a nephew on my side of the family that has Otto for a middle name but with 12 grand kids already there are bound to be some repeats.

I apologize to those of you who don't know their first names. I still don't feel comfortable sharing them. At times I half expect someone to show up at our door to try to take the boys from us. Highly unlikely, I know, but not out of the realm of possibility. Just last night we received a phone call after 9:00 from someone who started asking detailed questions about the boys. It turned out it was a lady preparing a report for court, but because she didn't say who she was at first it caught us off guard. So until we are closer to adoption I will continue to refer to them as J. and D.

Father's Day Preview

Here's a sneak peek at what the babies will be wearing for Father's Day. We made these at MOPS. (Thanks, Jamie!) Actually I made these at home because I messed up the one I made at the meeting. Apparently I am inept at using an exacto knife and equally incapable of using an iron. But fortunately I finally figured it out. (Getting the handprints and footprints were no small feat, either. All I'm going to say is there was an accidental fire and I had to explain to M.'s caseworker that the red in her toenails was not blood.)


The green footprints are Baby Boy D.'s and the purple ones are Baby Girl M.'s. I figured J. could handle handprints. But I learned that a toddler with blue paint all over his hands won't listen to you when you say "Don't touch anything!"

IMPORTANT: If any of you fine people in Kerrville are reading this don't mention these shirts when we see you tonight. It's a surprise! Thanks!

Growing Up

Little by little these babies are growing up! Almost 2 weeks ago Baby Girl M. poked out her first tooth. Within that same week she began sitting up on her own and crawling. She skipped the army crawl that Baby Boy D. used at first. Yesterday she pulled up to a standing position all by herself. Our biggest concern right now is that she still sleeps with us. It's the only way any of us can get some sleep, but we really want to break the habit.

D. scurries around the house like he owns it. He loves sneaking into our bedroom and pulling up on the side of the bed. He'll pound it feverishly and laugh like a maniac like this: "ha ha ha - ha ha ha". It's hilariously cute. He cruises along the furniture, can stand without falling for a couple of seconds, and is attempting to climb. At his 9 month check-up we learned he's in the 10th percentile for length and at or below the 5th percentile for head circumference and weight. I didn't realize he was so small. (I should have known, though, because M. is outgrowing him and she is in the 50th percentile for all measurements.)

J. is working on learning all kinds of new words. But he has decided to keep them all in his head for now. We are eagerly awaiting the day when he decides to actually say them. The closest thing to a word is a sort of "yeah" sound for "yes". But he doesn't always use it. He also thinks nodding your head means "I want that". He enjoys running around the backyard, cleaning up spilled formula, and reading books. He does not enjoy naps.

Click It or Ticket

Today while M. was visiting her mother I took the boys grocery shopping. The HEB on that side of town has carts that seat two children up front so I was excited to try it out with the boys. J. was very tickled to have his brother seated next to him.

As I shopped, I noticed a cart with an unbuckled child sitting in the front. Then I noticed another one. And another one. And another one. Am I missing something, I thought? Why wouldn't you buckle your child in? What if they try to climb out? What if there is a cart accident? I began to keep track, and of the 8 carts I observed with children in them, only one child was wearing the seatbelt. I just don't get it. It takes all of 2 seconds to snap it on.

A couple of months ago we were in Target when some older kids climbing on a cart tipped it over. There was a baby in the front, buckled in. I don't think she was hurt, but it was very distressing to watch. My heart kept racing for several minutes after it happened. I hate to think what could have happened if she hadn't been buckled in.

The Artist

500 Babies Go To Target

Here are the details of the trip to Target I referred to in the previous post:

My plan was to put the babies in the double stroller and J. would ride in the cart. I had pushed/pulled both at the same time before (at Home Depot while Billy was buying wood.) So it should work at Target, right? At first I thought I was pretty cool, maneuvering stroller and cart each with one hand. The kids were happy and quiet, and I was feeling confident. Midway through the trip, J. started getting antsy. It was nap time, after all. He then stood up in the cart, and after I threatened time out without really thinking through how I was going to implement it, I tightened the seat belt just about as tight as it would go, preventing him from standing up. Ha, I thought. Who's next?

A few minutes later D. wanted a bottle, and after M. saw me getting it out she wanted one too. So I pulled over by the gift wrap and fed both babies at once. "Now that's what I call multi-tasking," a shopper commented as he walked by. You have no idea, I thought. After several minutes of feeding, D. was still crabby and J. was getting restless again. So I decided to switch them around, putting D. in the cart and J. in the stroller. At first J. liked it, but as soon as he realized he was even more restrained than before, he started complaining. D. wasn't totally happy, either, but we had to keep going. Then M. started crying, and I knew she wouldn't stop unless I took her out. So there I was holding M. and still with two wheeled vehicles containing one child each to move along. Throughout the next 15 minutes or so, I tried 4 times to put M. back in the stroller but she arched her back each time and wouldn't let me buckle her in. By this time, I'm beginning to feel stuck. Do I try to check out like this? Do I abandon the cart? But how do I get them all out of the store? I said a little prayer and decided to try musical seats again. While holding M., I pulled J. out of the stroller and told him to go tickle D.'s toes in the cart while I switched M. to the front seat of the stroller. Miraculously, she didn't cry. But the "tickle D.'s toes tactic" didn't last long enough because I looked up to see J. heading the other way down the aisle. I snatched him up, put D. in the back seat of the stroller, reclined it, and gave him another bottle. J. went back into the cart and we hightailed it out of there.

Throughout the trip I made eye contact with no one because I didn't want to see the looks of surprise, amusement, pity or whatever else people might think when they see the spectacle that is the 500 Babies.

Don't feel too sorry for me, though, because somehow I still managed to spend over $70 in the midst of it all.

Did You Know? Because I Didn't.

...that when you put Orajel on your baby girl's teeth and then give her a kiss your lips get numb?

...that toddlers can be trained to bring you the phone when it rings?


...that 500 Babies will entertain themselves for hours with paper plates?

...that a mouse can survive several days (ok, possibly a couple weeks) without water when the hole on its water bottle gets clogged? (all right, maybe I'm not so good with mice)

...that it is possible for one person to take 500 Babies to Target and everyone survives the experience?

Summertime is Here!

School isn't out yet, but something about swimming in your backyard just says "summer" to me. And when it's 100 degrees out, that says to me, "It's ridiculously hot so either get in the water or get inside." And when there are giant cracks in the ground in your backyard, that says to me, "It hasn't rained for 8 months, and funny, isn't that about how long you've had gutters on your house?" Sorry. I'll stop now.

Back to the story! Saturday evening we packed up the 500 Babies and went over to Pastor and Jamie's house. J. got to go "swimming" for the first time with Naomi. He did really well, although you can see that he wasn't too keen on sitting down in the water. You can also see his long, lustrous back hair if you look really closely. Billy and I enjoyed good conversation with friends who are right there with us in baby boot camp (Naomi is 20 months and Micah is 2 months!) It's always nice when you can share poop stories with your pastor. We were hoping some of Naomi's language skills would rub off on J. but no such luck this time.

On Sunday we took the kids outside in our backyard and spent some time splashing in the new baby pool Billy bought Saturday. I didn't get very many good pictures because I was trying to hold M., but here is one shot of D. livin' it up in the water:

He had the best time just splashing away. Little M. seemed to enjoy it, too.

Happy summer, everyone!