There's a grape on your forehead

Daxton has recently given up his morning nap. He is 16 months old today, so it was time. He has been doing pretty good, but by the time nap time rolls around in the afternoons, he is usually
MORE than ready to go to sleep. This morning, Daxton and Corbie decided to wake each other up around 6:00 a.m. We had a rough, tired, whiny morning (and that was just me). Dax was a little grouchy too, so I made him his favorite, mac & cheese, for lunch. He finished that off pretty quick, and I gave him a little piece of banana bread to eat while I ran upstairs to change Corbie's diaper. This is what I found when I came back downstairs 2 minutes later:

Looks like he took a couple of bites of the banana bread, and then just couldn't stand it anymore and laid his tired little head down on his macaroni-sauce-covered tray and went to sleep. His pink milk was slowly spilling everywhere out of his sippy cup, but I picked him up before it got to his face. He had half a grape stuck to his forehead and a piece of macaroni on his nose when I picked him up (sorry, no picture of that) :) I gently brushed off his face then went and laid him in his crib and he didn't wake up at all. Poor little guy.

The Corbieroll and a little dilemma...

A couple of weeks ago Corbie (finally) figured out how to roll over both ways!! She actually learned to roll from back to front first, since she is NOT a big fan of being on her tummy. She doesn't mind it quite as much now since she learned to roll over, thank goodness. Today I actually got around to getting the rolls on video:

I know she will be crawling before I know it and then I am in some SERIOUS TROUBLE.

Now for the dilemma:

A week or two ago Arden went to gymnastics on a different day than usual because we missed her usual day. One of the other moms there inevitably started talking to me about Corbie and Dax and how close in age they are. We talked for a while about the challenges and benefits of having two babies so close together because she had two that were 19 months apart. After chatting for a while, she asked me, "So were your pregnancies difficult?"

I froze.
.
After the incident at Costco (see prior post), I have been a little hesitant to talk about our adoptions with complete strangers. So I blurted out "No" before I really knew what I was doing. I guess I thought it would just be safer and easier. But I immediately felt guilty. I know that it really isn't anyone else's business how my kids came to be a part of our family, but I still felt bad for lying. And I don't want to hide the fact that my children are adopted; I think adoption is a wonderful and amazing thing. But, I started to feel even worse when she mentioned how she might switch her little boy into Arden's regular gymnastics class because of a scheduling conflict she was having.

Ruh-roh.

Most of the other moms at Arden's regular class obviously know that my kids are adopted (I showed up at gymnastics not pregnant, missed a week or two, and then showed up with a newborn Corbie. Not too hard to figure out). One of her gymnastics teachers also adopted her kids and talks to me about it sometimes. So now if this mom does decide to switch classes, she is going to know that I lied about being pregnant the first time anyone mentions anything about the adoption finalization or whatever. What will she think of me? She will probably think I am a liar, because I guess I am. Arrgghh.
.
So what should I have done? What should I do in the future? Like I mentioned above, I am in no way ashamed or trying to hide the fact that my kids are adopted. Adoption is one of the BEST things that have ever happened to me. I love to talk to people who are interested in hearing about adoption and learning more about it. On the other hand, I don't always want to tell my whole life story to every random person I run across. (You would not believe some of the insensitive and VERY personal questions people ask.) But how can I NOT talk about it without lying or being rude? Any ideas?

And just so we can end on a good note, here is a picture of my cute little girl:

Hello, my name is Daxton and I am an addict.

My 15-month old is totally and completely strung out.

On a toy.

He can't get enough. It is the first thing he thinks about when he gets up in the morning, and the last thing he thinks about before going to bed at night. He is an addict. And I don't even know what the thing is called. Here is a picture of the contraption that has captured the mind and the heart of my baby boy:

He got it for his birthday, but it has only been about the last month or so that he has started to dedicate his whole life to it. The first time I saw it I had no idea what it was or how it worked, so let me explain it to you. When you push down on the ladybug button, the purple monkey pops up out of the tree and the thing starts to play music. There is a fan inside of it which then turns on and makes all the other fun happen. It makes the balls in the middle of the toy spin around in circles. There is also a place on the side (pink) to put another ball and it kind of floats up because more air is blowing out of the hole underneath. And, it has three little circles on the side where you can attach three other pieces. Air blows out of these three holes too, and makes the pieces move. The top of the palm tree spins, the elephant's ears twirl, and the alligator's mouth chomps when they are attached. You can also stack the alligator on top of the palm tree and put them on top of the elephant.

.

It sounds weird, but is it hours of entertainment. Hours and hours. Days. Weeks.

It started gradually at first, but slowly over a week or two Dax started to favor this toy over any other toy. It seemed like he had to hit that ladybug more and more times each day to be happy. As even more days went by, it became an obsession. Now when I bring him downstairs in the morning, he squirms to get free so he can get to the playroom and start hitting that ladybug. I have to drag him screaming away from that toy to meals, naps, even to the park. And at the end of the day, we drag him kicking and screaming away from it so he can go to bed. He takes short breaks to chase Arden around, read books, or help me empty the dishwasher, but if ever I turn around and I can't see him, I just listen for the music.

And even when he is away from the toy, he isn't really away from it. He brings at least one and sometimes two of the detachable pieces with him almost everywhere. "Gay-duh" as he calls it, is his absolute favorite, but the elephant will do in a pinch. Gator is there on his high chair tray at nearly every meal, overseeing the eating. In the bathtub, gator is there too. In the car, Gator is along for the ride. He even takes it to bed, and it is not exactly soft and cuddly.

Today, Dax was happily hitting the ladybug, but something wasn't quite right. The balls weren't moving. The palm tree was barely spinning. The song sounded slower than usual. After about 27 more ladybug hits...it stopped altogether. I happened to be in the room feeding Corbie a bottle as all of this unfolded. He hit the ladybug harder and harder a few times, but still....nothing. The batteries were completely dead. (Seriously, I was amazed they had lasted this long). Dax looked at me and yelled "MUN-NIN!" I didn't know what that word meant, and I still don't, but for the rest of the morning I heard it a lot.

Of course when I checked the cabinet we didn't have the required four D batteries to bring the thing back to life, and Corbie was down for a nap, so we couldn't go to the store. So, for the next couple of hours, Dax would hit the ladybug, and the song would play for about 10 seconds, a big smile would come across his face....and then the music would stop. "MUN-NIN!" a distraught Dax would yell. He would come and find me and drag me to the playroom. "MUN-NIN!" he would wail, standing next to his toy. I would turn it off for a minute or two to give it a break. He would eagerly wait for me to turn it back on and then he would hit the ladybug again and get another 10 seconds of song. Big smile. Music stops. Smile disappears. "MUN-NIN!" Repeat. I tried to explain that the toy was tired and needed to rest. No good. I tried to put the toy on a high shelf and get him interested in some other toys. No good. He just kept on hoping that the next time he hit that ladybug, it would have somehow healed itself. He was hard up. He needed a fix, and he needed it BAD. And by the time Corbie woke up it was lunchtime, and right after lunch Dax goes down for a nap, so we couldn't go to the store. So, poor Dax spent nearly the entire day going through withdrawal. It was rough. (I am not sure who it was rougher on, him or me).

As soon as Preston got home I sent him off to the store in search of the coveted D-batteries that would restore order to Daxton's shattered world. He happily spent the evening doing almost nothing except getting his (ladybug) hits in. Preston had to drag him kicking and screaming away from the toy to put him to bed.

If things continue like this, I may have to stage an intervention.

Little bird

We gave Corbie her first solid food this week. We gave her some rice cereal. She liked to chew on the spoon, but pretty much spit out all of the cereal. Here is a picture I took right before we cleaned her up:

Hmmmmm....I don't think she is giving the rice cereal a "thumbs up" review. :)

But despite her thoughts on rice cereal, she really is so cute! She sleeps "through the night" (feed her at 11 p.m., then feed her again around 6:30 a.m.) most nights, but still has a night here and there where she just really wants to have a bottle at 3:30 a.m. But who can say no to this face?

More Family Pictures

Wow, this is the third post I have done this week! (Don't get used to it). I have had a couple of requests to post some more of the family pictures we had taken a while back, and this week we finally got around to picking them up from my sister-in-law.

I learned something new while getting these pictures taken. I went into the day having these dreams of the getting the "perfect" picture where everyone is smiling and looking like the perfect happy family. But pretty soon I discovered that getting family pictures taken gets exponentially harder each time you add a child to the family. The odds of everyone not screaming (including parents) at the same time are pretty low. The odds of everyone looking at the camera at the same time are 10,000 to 1 at MOST. And the odds of everyone not screaming, looking at the camera, AND smiling (especially when one of the kids is only 3 months old at the time) are for all intents and purposes Z-E-R-O. Did I mention it was 100 degrees?
.
Even with all of the chaos and screaming and sweating, we got some pretty cute pictures out of it! Here are a few of my favorites:










I really like this one of Arden!

One Last Summer Fling (or in our case...first and last)

Since the end of summer was rapidly approaching, last weekend we decided we had better hurry up and do something summery. We haven't been on very many trips (ok...none) since Corbie was born, so we got brave and took the kids up up to Bear Lake for a long weekend. We weren't brave enough to go alone, of course, and so my parents and my sisters and brother in law came along too.

We drove up on Friday morning, and the drive wasn't too bad, actually. Daxton was getting pretty restless coming down the mountain so we HAD to stop at LaBeaus and get some raspberry shakes and burgers for lunch (or at least that is the excuse we gave for stopping). After we got settled in we headed up to the pool. Arden is my little water baby. She loves to swim, and with her floaters on she is really good. She can swim on her back or her front (as she will happily tell anyone who will listen). She can go for hours and it is HARD to pry her out of a pool once she is in.

Dax on the other hand got tired of swimming after a while and spent a lot of the time chasing the beach ball around the edges of the pool. Unfortunately, the chasing ended when Dax tripped and fell and hit his nose on the cement. I ran over, scooped him up, and took him into the bathroom to clean his bloody nose up. He was soon feeling better, but as soon as I brought him back out too the pool, he started crying again and squirming and reaching for....Grandpa. That kid LOVES his grandpa. He was grandpa's little shadow the entire weekend, practically glued to him. I must admit my feelings were a little hurt to find out I am not the favorite anymore. Preston explained to me that of course Dax likes Grandpa better because never holds Daxton down to change his diaper, never makes him take a nap, and ALWAYS has M&Ms...how can I compete with that????

.

This is the only picture I have of Dax and Grandpa (sorry Dad for the unauthorized swimsuit pic, but you look great! Me on the other hand...why can't I sit up straight???)

The next day we took the waverunners down to the lake. The day started out cloudy but it cleared up by the afternoon. I was worried about how Corbie would do on the beach ALL DAY, but she did great! She even took a couple of really good naps! Here are some shots of my adorable little beach baby:

Arden loves going out on the waverunners, and isn't afraid to go FAST! Dax thought he was ready to drive, and Corbie seemed willing to go along:

It was a fun weekend, and Arden loved playing Frisbee with Amanda and Matt and making them bury her legs in the sand (Amanda made me crop her out of the picture, but that is her leg):

It was a fun weekend! I can't believe it is September now though. I went to Costco today and they had CHRISTMAS stuff set up. What???

My baby is in preschool!

Today was Arden's first day of preschool! She has been talking about it for months, and today was finally the day. Here are some pictures I took of her right before we left (notice the anxiety and apprehension in her eyes....oh wait, there isn't any).


She is still all about the boots.

Showing off the pink backpack:Okay, she is dang cute if I do say so myself.

Here is a picture of me making my sad face and wondering where my little baby went and who this great big preschooler girl is who barely fits in my arms (I don't know what Arden is doing with her face):

I am so proud of Arden! She wasn't afraid at all when I dropped her off. She just gave me a quick hug and ran off to play with her friend Brynn.

Arden had a great day at preschool. She told me her favorite part was the snacks! She is already excited to go back.