Bearby and kiki

One surefire way to win Colby's heart is to provide him with his two fixes in life. Bearby (who has appeared here before) and/or kiki. Kiki wins out over Bearby any day. Kiki is any one of a variety of blankets. We were calling them blankies, but Colby has dubbed them kiki and there you go. Show him a kiki and he will brightly greet it in his chiripiest little voice. His face lights up and he says, "KIKI!!!!" as if he's just found an old friend. Ha ha. It makes me smile every time!

He was up during the night on Wednesday night screaming for his kiki. I assumed it had been lobbed overboard. Groggily I made my way into the kids' room and found him holding kiki and screaming for it - gesturing at the floor. It must have been some serious nightmare to make him think he'd lost his kiki!!

Add to the above holding him in your arms, and you've got a surefire recipe for a happy child!

Our neighborhood is so nice!

Yesterday I took Kailin and the Wonder Twins on a trip to the post office. It's about 3/4 of a mile from our house (maybe). It took us a little over an hour to make the round trip. I suggested that Kailin bring her bear in her little doll stroller and that was assuredly the bottle neck. It was entirely worth it though as we had nothing better to do at the time and she was delighted to push her stroller. She did, at times, note that it was LOUD and pick it up and carry it. I asked her if she thought I'd be able to pick up the stroller I was pushing and she said, "No, Mom. Because I have BIG STRONG muscles!!" Guess she thinks I'm a weakling. Ha ha. In this case, she was right - I had a double stroller and about 57lbs of kids! I probably could've picked it up from the side, but certainly not from the back as she was doing.

Anyway, as we walked along she would stop and pick up an interesting leaf and present it to one of the boys. I asked her why her bear didn't get any and she told me it was because "he doesn't has some hands, Mom!" True. She's got me there. "Mom?" "Yes, honey?" "Our neighborhood is so nice! It's a bu-ful day and sun is shining and leaves are turning into grass (we're working on that one)." She was right. It was an absolutely glorious fall day and her comment made me appreciate it for what it was. I was a little melancholy to think that this time next year she wouldn't be making this trip with me - she'll be away at school. It really gave me a reality check about spending some extra time with her. While I have nearly 11 months left to enjoy her company during the mornings, I know it will FLY by and before I know it she'll be getting on the bus.

A fair view...

This was Steve's view this weekend....

This was mine....

A fair difference? I think so. Although I would've loved to have been up in the Porcupine Mountains of Michigan hiking and backpacking with him, having fun with naked kids (boy that could sound baaaaaad) on an unseasonably warm October day was great, too. I did find myself at wit's end on Sunday when the kids were in desperate need of a nap and I took them upstairs to find that the dogs had gotten hold of a poopy diaper and created an enormous streak mark all the way down the hallway ending with a large display of poopy diaper guts on.... MY BED. I pretty much lost it. The dogs were immediately kenneled and I commenced trying to clean up the streak mark. Kailin kept asking what I was doing (to put it mildly - she actually asked about every half a millisecond) and then I turned around to find Colby playing in the fish tank. NOT one of my finer moments, I can assure you. Seeing the joy on Steve's face and in his voice when he came home eager to share his stories made every second worthwhile, though. (and it didn't hurt that he brought me a really cute mug and the kids got a fun moose CD - ha ha ha)

Please pray...

This is Sam.

He's 3 1/2 and came home from Ethiopia along with his brother, Paul, just six short weeks ago. A week ago Sunday, Sam was involved in a horrific accident. He has lost one leg below the knee and the other at the ankle. His left arm is severely fractured and he's had extensive injuries to the tissue of his back and upper leg. Yet as you can see here - Sam is not only hanging in there, not only out of ICU, but late last week Sam treated his parents to a SMILE! His recovery will be slow and will require many surgeries.

Please pray for Sam - for his family, friends, doctors, nurses, and all who care for this spunky, spirited little boy. The things he and his family have faced this past week are extraordinary and could have been insurmountable. Yet they've chosen to put their faith in God and be at peace with His plan. They have a CaringBridge site set up and I was reading some of the entries in their guestbook last night. It was truly amazing to see the breadth of people, from all parts of the US, who had heard about Sam in all sorts of ways, all with the same goal - supporting Sam and his family in whatever way they can.

Turning on the news these days often leads to a bleak view of our nation - of our world. Seeing people who don't know each other - or Sam most of the time, come together to support a family in need has been a great reminder that there is still good in this world - in people. I'll try to keep my blog somewhat updated about Sam - with respect to his family's privacy of course. I'm so blessed to know them - and to witness their strength in the face of adversity.

Whadda Monday!

Last Monday (sad that it's taken me six days to post this!) I was off, so the kids and I met up with Kailin's friends Hannah and Chloe and their mom at the zoo.

It was unequivocally the best time I've ever had at the zoo with the kids! There was NO ONE there! We nearly had the playground to ourselves, almost all of the exhibits, and then in the heritage farm dairy complex. The kids had an absolute blast playing in the milk trucks. And that was the other huge breakthrough for Kailin. She actually PLAYED with the girls as opposed to her usual MO of hiding in the stroller. I was so excited for her! She had a wonderful time to say the least! Before I knew it my watch read 3pm and we needed to RACE home to let the dogs out and get some clothes for Kailin for the next adventure of the day.

We met Steve and Kailin's friend Mia and her mom at McDonald's in Jackson for a fun dinner and then it was off to dance for the girls. Mia takes a tap/ballet/tumbling class and it was "bring a friend" week. I was worried. It was out of Kailin's comfort zone to say the least and it was also out of sight of me and she'd had only a 45 min nap. Sounds like a recipe for disaster for sure. We went in and Kailin went into the room willingly. That gave me hope. We sat behind a one way mirror to watch. Class began and she consented to line up with the other girls. She did not, however, choose to point her toe and tap or do any of the other movements the other girls were doing. Soon they formed a circle. She held Mia's hand with no problem, but physically refused to hold the hand of the little girl on her left. She held it behind her back instead and when she lapsed and let it hang and the little girl grabbed it, Kailin gave her a really dirty look. I grimaced. I'm THRILLED to say, though, that by the end of the hour Kailin was willingly participating and didn't want to leave!

It was a remarkable day in so many ways, and I'm so glad that Kailin (and I) can call such wonderful people friends!

I spy....

Kailin is loving "I spy" right now. It is truly entertaining. It's always my turn first. So I spy something and she will patiently guess until she gets it. Then it's her turn. She says, "I spy (used to be I pie, but she's got spy down now)......wif my wittle eyes...suntin....." and then she says a color immediately followed by what it is that she spied. "I spy.....wif my wittle eyes....suntin green! --Trees!!!!" I laugh every single time. Today she took it a step further and told me what color I should spy. ha ha ha. She's such a stinker!

A weekend away....

Not us, but the kids! We sent the kids to stay with Steve's mom this past weekend. We needed the break and they (Kailin) were excited to go. I took them down on Friday morning. We had big plans of watching LOUD movies and playing some video games and getting out to do some geocaching. I'm pleased to report that we accomplished all of our goals.

The geocaching was definitely a highlight. It was a wonderfully beautiful fall day to be tromping around in the woods with someone I love. And we found 4/5 of the caches we sought and our first geo-coin. Steve is hoping to take it to MI backpacking with him this coming weekend so that it can continue it's journey.

This was Colby's first time away from home overnight and I was a little nervous about it. Not worried about how he'd do while he was away, but nervous about how he'd act when he came back home. When Carolyn brought them in, he wanted nothing to do with me and I thought "oh boy, what have we done?!" but thankfully my little man can only hold about a 15 minute grudge and it wasn't long and he was right back to normal. I'm pleased to say as well that having her brother along seems to have reduced the effects of being away and the "re-entry period" was virtually nonexistent for both of them!

I think it was a good weekend for all of us!!