Back in the proverbial saddle

School is back in session, so I thought I'd show pictures of my students.

The "P" stands for "preschool," not "problematic pipsqueaks"

 

 I asked him to "hold it higher," and this is his interpretation

 

 Now for the big kiddos... first, the littlest big kid...

 

Not sure what inspired this thuggish expression on Bob

 

I am slightly frightened looking at this "8." This means high school begins next year!!!

 

 

Okay, so how many people does it take to swing a toddler?  Apparently three to help him on the swing, one to document the process.

 

As you can see, it starts off well, LB is all smiles, until....

 

We realize he does not know how to keep himself seated on the swing.  Look at Kimi's reaction, it's priceless.

 

 He clearly could not keep his seat on the seat.  We were able to get him back on, but after a few swings, he fell off when he flipped forward. 

 

  After that traumatic event, he needed comforting from his favorite person.

 

 Others fared better on the swings...

 

"Swing" by and visit us again for more pictures!

 

I got pics, lots of pics.  But that's all people want anyway...

Before I start, I thought I'd address my use of the kids' initials instead of their names.  I was told that it is best to not give the kids' real names.  So I'm going to act like one of those cool mom bloggers who has hundreds of followers and give my kids nicknames.  I'll list them by age, oldest to youngest: Big D., Bob, Sissy, Kimi, Monkey Boy, and LB.

 Here's Kimi teaching LB how to abscond with their older sister's footwear.

 

I was surprised at this one...Kimi wanted LB on her lap while we were reading books.

 

 I think she is starting to enjoy being a big sister.  Technically she's been a big sister since she got here, but now she has a little brother who acts like one.

So do things like this happen in your house?  I heard someone rather urgently calling my name.  After a brief search, this is what I found.  Any guesses who might be in the box?

Were you right? Kind of predictable, huh?

I had to call for reinforcements on this one.  The same child managed to get his head stuck in the banister.  The only way to get him out was to slide him through.

That was, of course, after I snapped some pictures.

This next series of pictures if of my youngest learning how to put on a shirt.  Yes, usually kids his age have been putting on and taking off their clothes for years, okay, months...usually when you don't want them to (oh, like say, dropping their drawers in front of a group and insisting it was okay saying,  "But the girls laughed").  Self-reliance is not one of our son's goals in life.  The other day there was a cord laying across a doorway (it was on the ground, not stretched taut across the doorway).  When LB wanted to go through the doorway, he looked at the cord, pointed to it and loudly and with urgency called, "MAMA!"  The response he received was, "Step over it."  He did.

He starts off enjoying the process...

He realizes that his shirt was not on quite right and tries to correct it.
 

 Now, about those pesky arms...what am I supposed to do with them?

 

 There are no arm holes, this is a trick!!!!!

 

 Not so much fun now, Mom...

 Success, kind of... should we tell him that it's on backward???

 

The next series of pictures we'll call "head shots."

 

Here's one muppity moppity monkey boy

 

 He decided to hide those tresses "under" a special head covering (get it?)

 

We found this great wig when we were at Grandma and Grandpa's.  Not sure if they were trying to look like Grandma... I know I'm totally biased here, but does this kid have a great grin or what?

Bob decided to enhance his look with the addition of a lovely chapeau and handpuppet sidekick.

 

I've got a lot more pictures, but I thought I'd give an update on our present adoption process.  Those of you "in the know" might remember that we were hoping to adopt a little girl at the same time we were in process with LB.  We started a new set of paperwork (dossier) for her, but she was matched with another family.  We still wanted to proceed with another adoption and expected to have our dossier into China this past spring, but were told it would be more like this month.

 

Flashback to a few weeks ago.  It's a long story, but our agency told us they could no longer provide the services we needed in submitting a new dossier.  We would be getting back all the dossier documents we provided, but would have to start over on a brand new homestudy with a new agency.  (A homestudy is basically a report a social worker writes up based on interviews, questionnaires, visits, medical reports, letters of reference, etc.  There's a lot of time and paperwork that goes into a homestudy).  We are now working with two new agencies, each needing its own set of paperwork from us.  Just to give you a sample of what the paperwork looks like, I took a picture of our first sets for both agencies...notice I said first set...

 

Oh well, it'll keep me busy since my life is so dull and uneventful.....

 

 

 

This is the way we do sick, and it's still pouring...

Ugh, I am such a sorry blogger! The time just flies by and I realize that our poor newest son has not gotten nearly the press coverage as our other child from China. It might also be because he is so incredibly easy, I have no really naughty stories or pictures to share. How about just a shot of him because he's cute?

That is corn on the side of his face, he's probably saving it for later.  He loves corn.



Here he is not watching the monster truck video with the other tods.  This kid knows what to do when the camera comes out!

So in my last post I talked about our getting rained out of our camping trip, the car breaking down, and the infectious disease plaguing our home. Thankfully the disease did not extend past the four kids.  We realized later that D and I have already had it.  Not sure about Papa Bear, and L.B. either has had it, or is somehow immune. 

The kids were considered to be contagious until all of their mouth sores had healed.  Consequently, they looked fine and were feeling better, but had to still be quarantined.  This is how they handled not being able to go to church.

 G referred to the Rubbermaid container as the "safety car"

 Sad that his ride is over

 After their thrill ride, they decided to form a "Muppet band."  Here they are being muppets, playing their air instruments:

 Okay, ignore the mess on the table, look at L.B. wondering if it's too late to go back to China...

 He slowly moves his way out of this crazy scene...

 while the rest of the kids let loose...

Yeah, yeah, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.  My sister and I used to play the air guitar in the bathroom, getting ready for school.

The kids are all well now, but the mama is gimpy.  I was rushing through the house, intent on running to the store while I had dinner in the oven.  I ran into one of our heavy kitchen chairs.  I moved, but the chair didn't.  I tried to shake it off, went to the store, walked around, and by the time I got home, my shoe barely fit.  I went to the doctor a few days later, and he told me I had both a broken toe and a sprained foot.  He asked what I did for a living, I told him I stay home with my kids.  He said, "Well, that's work."  I said, "Yeah, I have six kids."  He laughed.  Then he said, "Well, you'll have to stay off your foot as much as possible," and laughed again.  I did too.  That's a pretty funny thought.

I think we're ready for a drought about now......