2 Urgent News Bulletins

Ok....so one isn't that urgent, but one is! First to the urgent one....

The Rockstar Nurse and the Flamingo Mama got their baby girl! :) They met Yao-Yao today and were able to take her "home" to the hotel and begin their new journey of getting to know her and grow in love for her. Praise God for them listening to His gentle voice calling them into adoption...this beautiful baby girl will grow up in a home that speaks and praises the name of Jesus...what a gift to her!

Check out their latest here: http://www.1crazyjourney.blogspot.com/

Second news bulletin -

Anna pee-peed and pooped on the potty tonight! Ok, so I won't get to excited, but wow - are we excited!!!! Chris, Hudson, and I all had a potty parade and did a dance for her - she was excited she got to sit on the potty, we were excited that she actually did it. Hudson said, "Mommy, now Anna can use the potty like me!" He was so precious!

Now, for all you developmentalists out there that are freakin' at this moment in time because it is too early to potty train, let me just tell you that I didn't force her to do it. In fact, she's been interested in the potty, watching everyone pee, toilet paper, the flushing and all other throne activities for about 2 months. She will even "hold" her buns at times and say "pee pee. pee pee". I don't think she gets it totally, but maybe more than I thought! She stood up in the bathtub tonight, gave me a very concentrated look and watched herself begin to pee. She stopped, looked at me and I said, "Let's go potty!" She smiled and I sat her on the toilet with the potty seat. I figured she was done, but it was a good learning experience. I signed and asked her, "are you all done?" She shook her head no, so I left her there. 10 seconds later....

She surprised me again. She concentrated really hard and tinkled...and when I gave her a big praise and she heard the "tinkle" sound she got a really big grin. Once again, I thought she was done so I called Daddy. I repeated the "all done" and she shook her head no again. He rounded the corner, and as he did, she concentrated really hard and I heard "plops" (Sorry that was graphic for some of you.). Wow, now that deserves a potty parade! She was so proud of herself! And we are too!

we've hit the sunshine

I blog to you tonight from the cozy little computer corner of my grandparent's winter villa (I call it vacation villa, they may call it home for the cold months). We arrived in Okeechobee yesterday after a day of traveling. The kids did awesome, we had a bit of good fortune, and we were greeted with sunshine and beautiful skies. (It made me miss AZ winters - wow, did I take those for granted!)

We boarded the plane yesterday and made it here 30 minutes early. Praise the Lord! Less time on the plane with 2 kiddos 3 and under! Hudson is a seasoned traveler. I couldn't sleep the other night and I was counting his plane flights in his lifetime...his all of 3 1/2 year old lifetime. I calculated that he has taken close to 30 flights - not roundtrips, but flights. Give or take a few. Anna's had about 10. And that's why Hudson's a pro! He knows what to do approaching security checkpoints, how to hand them his ticket and how to follow Mommy's rule of wiping all seat and tray surfaces with anti-bacterial wipes upon entering our seats on the plane.

What do I take for the kids on the plane to entertain them? Glad you asked - actually, I have been asked before: (side note: each of the kids has their own travel preschool sized backpack)

- plane presents (wrapped small gifts like books, art stuff, new DVD, candy, coloring book)
- portable DVD player
- listening BINGO with earphones
- books, books, and books
- Color Wonder markers and coloring book
- playdough in a small container
- crayons and a drawing pad
- pipe cleaners (fun for making neat sculptures)
- Wikki stix
- toy airplanes
- lunch box (pbj sandwiches, sliced apples, small pickles, cheese cubes, baby carrots)
- empty cup with straw
- going up and coming down food: fruit snacks, lollipops, yogurt raisins, baked Cheetos, smarties
- and other stuff I can't think of at the moment

We got in early to the airport, but our luck had run out (oh, after Anna and I got a whole row to ourselves, as did Mom and Hudson). The rental car company was swamped anddidn't have the car ready until nearly an hour after we got there. The Big E (grandmom's nickname amongst family) was able to broker a free tank of gas and two free hours of rental for her trouble of waiting. Nicely done, I must say. We uneventlfully made it to Okeechobee and have been ahving fun since.

Today we had fun out on Grandaddy's boat. My grandparents live on a canal off of Lake Okeechobee and we were able to spend part of the morning and the afternoon trolling the local waters. Hudson and Anna both had a blast driving with Grandaddy. Anna liked when we went fast and her curls flew all over. Mommy liked being in the sunshine. Grandmom loved watching Hud and Banana. Here's some fun pics from Grandmom's phone camera.

Signing off until posting in Orlando (going there tomorrow) or home...peace, love and grace.

Chris' Thoughts on Praise

Chris shared some thoughts on "praising God in everyday life" at yesterday's service. Here is a link to the blog where the full transcript of what he shared can be found. Hope it can be of encouragement. Blessings.

http://heartandartofworship.blogspot.com/2009/03/what-i-shared-yesterday-about-praise.html

Less than a week...

Less than a week ago we were doing this with snow....today it was 70. This place has crazy Spring weather.

(PS. Check out Anna's ostrich sized egg on her forehead. She fell directly into the corner of the hallway. OUCH! Oh, and Hudson tried to crawl under the garage door as it was closing today.
It closed on his shoulders and neck until it bounced back up. Scared him - and us. The ouchie sock got lots of use today!)

Good Luck?

So, Marion and I were talking on the front porch and she randomly and quite abruptly stops her train of thought to say, "Did you see that bird on your porch?" At this point, I'm thinking she's just had a long day, the kids, the car breaking down, getting ready to leave...."What bird?" "The one behind you!" I turn around to find.....

Wow. That's unusual for sure. Marion thought it was a pheasant (which is plausible because of the big meadow out back), but my neighbor said today he saw it and got a good look at the tail feathers. They believe it was someone's pet peacock that got loose. Too bad I haven't seen him again - he's gonna be a gonner with all the cats and dogs around here. He may not have good luck, but will we have good luck because we saw him? Maybe our house will sell! :)

Dr. Seuss and Toilets

One kid, two kids. Didn't you know kids?

Happy baby, silly baby. You drank what baby?

Drawing here, writing there. There's an author over there!

Splishing, Splashing - where did you go?

One baby covered in yellow snow - say it's not SO!

Yup, if you didn't know, March 2nd was Dr. Seuss' birthday - and a well celebrated holiday in most primary classrooms around the good ole U S of A. Lucky for me, and lucky for Hudson, I was well aware of this fact and able to capitalize upon it. Now, I must confess, I had not planned any Dr. Seuss activities, or any big projects, but knew Hudson would love to know this fact, as Dr. Seuss is one of his "fave" authors at the moment. We did happen to find some cool games for him to play during his computer time. I wish I'd known about these games a few years ago - but I digress.

So my rhyme lovin', Dr. Seuss in training insisted we do a Dr. Seuss "pra-chekt" (read: project for all you non-phonics reading folks). I pushed it off until today, yes...we had plenty of other things to keep us busy. But today preschool was cancelled because of the icy roads and drifting from the snowstorm. I thought I'd be good to go with a simple Cat in the Hat hat. (See above). Yes, he loved that activity, but my budding super genious in training wanted to write his own Dr. Seuss books.

He listed about 5 that he wanted to pen, and I convinced him that we should start with one. So while Anna quietly played (hmmm....what is it about second borns and being able to self-entertain at a younger age - or is it because she's a girl?), we wrote his book. The words I wrote on the pages were his direct quotations and dictated to me. All I have to say is, "What an awful thing that I almost didn't do this with him. How precious did this turn out?" I was so busy that I tried to gloss over the fact and capitalize upon is huge desire to write and and create right now. He sends a letter in the mail everyday to someone that he has "written" to, or that he has painted a picture for. He is so into letters and drawing that I almost missed my opportunity for this priceless treasure. And I had to share. I captioned each one in case you can't read from the picture. The illustrations were his ideas with a little assistance from Mommy for basic structure - but he colored them all by his lonesome.

He took away the Who presents. He made himself into a Santy Claus.

Then he made a sleigh. He tied some "axlers" on his puppy dog Max. Then he said, "Step Number 1." He went riding on the sled. When he got to the Who houses he took away everything. His heart grew. He was nice. He gave back the presents because the Whos didn't sing without him.

Part 2 - Yellow Snow, Say it ain't so!

So while we were blissfully authoring and illustrating, I thought Anna was playing nicely as she normally does. She builds blocks, reads books, plays in her kitchen, happily toddles around the house investigating. Her curiousity got her into a bit of a mess today...literally. She managed to get a door open to the bathroom and was playing in the toilet. Aww, cute, right? Had to take the obligatory toilet picture.

But wait, it gets worse. After I took this picture, I walked in and realized that she had not only managed to empty half the toilet onto the floor, but she had gotten a cup from the counter and was apparently taking the occasional sip from the bowl as she poured it onto the floor. Yup, that's right - I nearly vomitted right there, but there was no toilet water to get sick into. EWWW! I cleaned up the mess while Hudson sat beside the tub talking to Anna about dinosaurs- Anna was in it - and she had a good long soapy soak in that water. I guess you'll just have to stay tuned to see if there are any adverse effects. Thank God she had her Rotavirus vaccine!

snow, snow and more snow....

We got a snowstorm of 7 plus inches on Monday and Chris' meteorological radar was in high gear. He went into work for a bit in the morning (um, he walks to work, and he did, in the blizzard like conditions). He came home for lunch and stayed home for the remainder of the day to work here, considering the church was empty of nearly all employees. I think my weatherman has "OD'd" on weather websites for the past 3 days. Although, it brings him joy, so I should let him be! The kids and Mommy had fun making spaceships, fingerpainting, drinking hot chocolate and hot cider and playing in the snow (Daddy joined in on some of that fun!). Here's a few shots of the day...