(Non)Sleepover

After questioning me at least thirty five times about his arrival time, Grant's dream of having a sleepover with his buddy finally came true. At dinner time our buddies came to spend the night with us and these two had a blast. I know they are both boys but you would'nt have guessed it by all the chatting and giggling coming from Grant's room at 10 o'clock. Bobby had to go up there 3 times to get them to go to sleep. Here is a pic of the Chatty Cathies just as they hopped in the sack. With my three crazies plus two add on's there were five rambunctious boys running full tilt here. We ate pasta, chocolate chip cookies and popcorn and watched a great little movie. I'm going to be thankful for sleepovers of this kind. There will probably be a day that I'll have to be on my guard about boys plotting to sneak out and roll (or toiletpapering for some of you) the neighbors! Right now, as far as toilet paper is concerned, it's not so much the "rolling" as the "UNrolling" I have to be on the lookout for.

Little Buddy's newfound pottying also entails lots of tp trails. I've learned that our toilets can accept upto approximately a half a roll and that small children will do just about anything for M&M's. That includes devious business like ripping shreds of cardboard from a shoebox and dropping them into the toilet and then proceeding to attempt to pass them off as "number 2". It ALMOST got me.......but really, folks. I'm smarter than that. Errr.........maybe Grant clued me in and made me give it a second glance. Whatever. picture not attached due to implied nature of photograph.

It's Monumental

You know, there are days that will forever and always stand out in your mind. In my mind there's the day Bobby proposed. Then there's 9/11. And the day my children were born. The day I went to the mall to buy jeans and was told The Gap was closed for renovation. Kennedy's assasination........wait. I wasn't there for that one but I've heard alot and seen alot about it so I feel like it should be included as one of those moments. Then there is today. A day that will forever stand the test of time. A day when barriers were broken and goals were met that at one time we all doubted. Today is the day that, despite all the wetness outside, Little Buddy's pants remained DRY. Yes, friends. It's happening. The day we thought would come on the heels of starting middle school alas has come early. He tried to save face, literally, to avoid the ever haunting "potty shot" and only because he said "Please don't take my picture" I declined another shot.

Just to show his enthusiasm he did, however, give me a proud thumbs up. This is a day I shall weep over. I only hope that I haven't spoken, or blogged, out of turn. 'Cause in this house, you never know what tomorrow may bring..........

Conversation Piece

It is always interesting to have a conversation with a 4, well excuse me, 4 and a HALF, year old. Today was one that particularly got me tickled. It was quiet in the car. I usually don't play any music because beats and such intertwined with all the chatter, yelling, whining, and/or giggling usually just puts me over the edge. So, in an odd enough moment, no one was making a peep. Then enter Grant with his thinking cap on.

"Mom? Where does all the meat come from that we eat?"

Me: "Well, it comes from animals."

G: "You mean we kill all the animals and then eat them??"

Me: "Yep." I knew from the look on his face in the rearview mirror that he was seconds away from forcing me to initiate training for a vegan diet. Instead, he says

"Well, how do they get the meat to be in such thin strips?"

Rhett pipes in insert raspy voice and scary face" They chop them up with knives!" Thank you, Rhett for being so blunt.

Strangely, Grant just let it be after that. We pulled into Pub#lix parking lot, got out of the car and climbed into the very large, obtrusive, mommy cart that has a park bench attached to it and proceeded to the deli. When we pulled up Grant looked into the big glass container holding the meat and said,

"So, those are all dead animals in there?"

Me: "Yeah, pretty much. Except the cheese." I'm sure he's not going to eat the piece of ham the nice lady is about to offer him. But, in a wacky twist of fate he looks at the lady and says,

"Can I try the tiger?"

She and I just both laughed and I spent the rest of the grocery trip explaining which animals we DO eat and which we don't.............in America. I didn't have the energy to tell him he MAY be able to eat tiger SOMEPLACE on earth, you know, like, the same places that fry up cats and such. Nope. That'll be another story for another grocery day.

Eerily Similar

Yes. This is Hitler. Scary. This is the Hitler wannabe that I found using markers inappropriately in the kitchen. I would've punished him if I hadn't cracked up laughing right off the bat. If it wouldn't be offensive this might be a halloween costume idea.
Apparently Little Buddy has not matured in the area of Proper Usage of Writing Materials in the last year. For a refresher, take a look at him on August 11 2007. Not much has changed. I'm just thankful he didn't eat the tips off the markers this year. It's small steps, my friends. Small ones.

Why......

This is why I don't really "play" with the boys. This is really why I need some estrogen in this house. Be sure to note the amount of weaponry and just imagine the sound level.
This is why I generally end up becoming injured while attempting to play with the boys. You should be afraid, very afraid......of the spiderman kid. He has no fear nor does he respect your personal space or personal bodily areas for that matter. His stance and facial expression alone give me chills when looking at this picture.
And this is why they usually ask for the daddy and not me. I am unable to lift either one of these kids because they weigh close to the same amount as a garbage can filled with concrete. Not a small bathroom garbage can. The kind that you put outside on trash day.
And this is why I will make the boys shower individually from here on out. I already had my camera slung over my shoulder and was taking it downstairs when I heard, in unison and to some unknown tune, "thisarma booooo bays. my booooobays (repeat)". I pulled the shower curtain back and wahla:

Yeah. Nobody can be trusted to behave. I guess boys will definately be boys. Pray for me.

Because People Tend to Ask...

I thought I'd give a little update on what is going on in the Morgan Adoption World. The short version would be

NOTHING.

However, I'll expound. Currently we are waiting on approval from ES government to be able to persue a referral (a child chosen for us). This part of the process was suppose to take 5-7 months. We are at 11 months, 2 weeks, and 5 days........ but who's counting?

There is a committee in El Salv*ador that is suppose to meet monthly to do these approvals but, unfortunately, they have only met three times this year and have given out NO approvals at any meeting. Bummer. We have 2 people ahead of us that are actually AT the committee and most likely our file will not be seen by them until those other families have moved on.

I call our adoption coordinator monthly to find out if any progress is made and so far she's had nothing for me. Very depressing. Very frustrating. Very disappointing. I really try not to dwell on it though because there is not one single, solitary thing that I can do to make it move more quickly. I assure you, however, that if I were in charge of things they would be moving much quicker than this snails pace they are currently on. On second thought, it may be a slight hinderance to the process that I'm not fluent in Spanish, nor do I live in ES or know anything about completing adoptions there. Whatever. I did spend the night at a Holiday Inn Express last night.............

So, there you have it. The official No Update Update. We're praying for approval, hoping for a quick referral, and then seeking training so we can become members of the Hairbow Mafia. Can you wear bows while playing sports?? If not, I'll have to back out on my membership in which case I'll probably be killed since that's how Mafia's work.

Stay tuned. Hopefully '09 will be full of adoption surprises! And, in case you were wondering, that flower actually grew in MY flowerbed. It's amazing the power that water has!

Just Another Day at the Bus Stop

One of these days I'm going to video GW at the bus stop. Every day he runs out with some type of "something cool" and holds it up for his buddy to see. In this pic it's some sort of lego something that he's built. Yesterday it was a lego star wars shirt. His little bud on this bus is always mouthing "WOAH" no matter what type of nonsense Grant runs out there with. It cracks me up every morning. Since the mornings have been cool I was surprised he ran out there wearing his scivies. Of course, according to him these are NOT underwear but actually an entire outfit. He wore them for two days straight. Yes, I allowed it. I banned them from the gym but let him wear them in car rider line for a couple days. Funny enough one of the kids I pick up got in the car and said, "EWW! Your, like, naked!" Grant vehemently denied such and claimed he was wearing shorts and a tank top.

I have yet to be able to convince him that when he picked them out at Target they were in the underwear section. They're Batman and that's all that matters when you are a boy.
And, on a side note, this guy scared the pants off of me when we were waiting for the bus. I never saw him coming and then suddenly he ran past me pacing at least a 6.5 minute mile! I heard the breathing first and then the backpack caught my eye. The thought crossed my mind for a minute that he had robbed someone. He was going so fast it looked more like fleeing than running.

It's a good thing that I came to the realization that he must be training for something because how embarrassing would that have been if I would've ran after him and tackled him in the street just as the bus pulled up with all the elementary school kids on it?!?! Cade would've never lived that down....