Love and Laughter at the Fountain

Love Blooms in the summertime!

And fun friendships continue to grow!

Rain rain - go away!

Little kids like to splash and play

Mommies hate being inside all day

It better be warm because it's fricken May!

Sun, Sun come and stay

There are berries to pick soon - hooray!

Oregon is the best with the gloom at bay

Keep us surrounded by friends like this I pray

Just sweet pics of cute kids

This second picture is of Adam's beautiful sister, Kristen with our friend Mercy Otim and Adelaine (who couldn't be happier to be with those two girls).

Just some pics from a great day with Adam's family

Beach day fun, including a starfish which I bought and hid in the sand for Lukas to find to forever ruin his trips to the beach with either 1 - disappointment to not find more or 2 - a fee of $100 when he takes a real one from the beach in the future. Mother of the year!

Preschool Goodbyes

This is from the first day of preschool 9 months AGO....

note Lukas is uncomfortable and unsure.

It took a good month or more before

many, many things settled down for him.

There are his good friends Grant and Chance

who he still loves. I asked him if he will miss

them. He said, "No, because I will still see

them". Alright - fine - playdates it is.

This top picture is his happy, slightly overly- confident last day of preschool with his amazing teacher, Mrs. Bernick...who was patient and loving with him all along the way.

Not to be one-sided - it was also Adelaine's last tumbling class. Her teacher loves her. Always marveling at how much tumbling Adelaine unintentionally does when she is running around and not actually supposed to be tumbling. She is fearless and quick to get games and most anything athletic and determined to do everything with no help whatsoever. Also noteworthy - she is NOT a cuddler, but man can that girl get sweet and cuddly fast when she is in trouble. She starts petting our fast and looks in our eyes and says, "Sorry Daddy. I didn't mean to" and then hugs and kisses him. Brutal and uncalled for little girl - and it totally works darn it. Adam and I actually have to call one another out on it to not get suckered into it and just put her in time out for things.

Summer is Near and Trouble is Here

Lukas comments this last week (apparently his speech delay is coming along with a kick):

• After getting in trouble in the car, Lukas softly and sarcastically said to himself from the backseat "Mama is Mrs. Grumpypants"


• Evidence of his "potty humor" Lukas walks to the bathroom after going to bed quietly passing Adam and I and says "Penis"...keeps walking and says "Butt"....he does his business in the batheroom and then after he goes potty he is walking out of the room, moons us and then just casually goes on to bed. WOW (by the way - we don't walk around doing this to each other in our house - granted I giggle sometimes, but it isn't modeled)


• In the theme of Paul....I had "strongly urged" Lukas to stop pestering his sister in the back of the car. He says, "I try to be sweet, but it is so hard."....moments later he calls her "poopy baby"...Adelaine then cries for 5 minutes and he says "I so happy". Nice.


• After Lukas was using the hose to fill up the little kiddie pool in the backyard with water, I turned it off. As the water dribbled out and came to a stop, Lukas said "tap tap tap." If you don't have boys, you may not know what that means.
• In response to to me asking Lukas to clean up (silly me for making it a question), rather than just say "NO", he sang "no" to "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"..."No No No No No No NO"...etc...etc...etc all with a smile

In honor of her brother, Adelaine now is starting her career too early:

• Makes a peeing sound while squating and pretending to pee on things. Thank you Lukas. Need to nip that one in the "butt", if you will.


• After Adelaine pooped again in her underwear, I was too obviously annoyed and Adelaine said, "Mama - you are whining. You hurt my ears." Thanks a lot Love and Logic. I deserve a little whining when I clean poop out of underwear. See how you like it when it is my underwear in 50 years Adelaine! I collect.

I've already emptied my "gifts for teachers and child care workers" box for the year and think I need to begin to fill it early for next year. I think it might be a real peach. Luckily, the sarcasism is only rarely coupled with rebellion and almost always accompanied with laughter and smiles so far. I'll take it for sure!

Hospital Hopping

We jumped hospitals like ......(that sounds like the beginning of a dirty joke)..let's begin again:

We had an amazing last few days frequently visiting friends in hospitals. In one situation, I wish my friend Molly's little boy didn't have to be at a hospital at all, but I treasured my time with Molly and her husband, Christian, I praise God for His Hand in Caden's hip surgury and I applaude Caden's bravery through it all.

We secondly got a phone call at 6am from good friends of ours (Moses and Christine) who are here for a year from Uganda saying that they were in labor. So we got them to the hospital and I got to be a mom of three for a few days, as their little girl Mercy (3 years old) came home with me. Moses and Christine safely had another baby girl (see photo) and I shamelessly matched Adelaine and Mercy in the same dress (also see photo). What fun for all!

Rarely are people so blessed to get to go to the hospital! I am thankful