Sunflower: I choose Gabe.
Me: What?
Sunflower: I choose to marry Gabe.
Me: You are only 4. It is too early to make a choice.
Sunflower: Too late. I already decided.
Me: You don't need to worry about this when you are 4.
Sunflower: Well, it isn't like I would marry Abby's brother.
Gabe would have fun married to me.
Me: Ha. Still you can't decide now.
Sunflower: Mom, focus. Focus on what I'm saying. I choose Gabe.
Sunflower came home yesterday and said there was a new King in her school.
"A new King? Do you mean a kid?"
"No. A King. And it was his birthday.
I think his name is Lewis or something."
"Do you mean Martin Luther King, Jr.?"
"Yes. That's it. I haven't met him yet."
No, Sweetie, I'd imagine you hadn't met him yet. I guess that means President's Day is in February. I really should be able to keep those straight. Maybe I need to go back to preschool.
On the way home from spending New Year's Eve evening with friends, Sunflower was awake after having been asleep for a few hours. So half asleep she started talking...
Some things about being locked in a room, thinking the clothes was a kitten and finding out that it was clothes, needing a pillow...every thought in her head pops out.
It lead to the fact that we would be seeing Uncle B and Aunt H this next Saturday and perhaps their dog will be with them. Now Sunflower is very frightened by dogs, shrieking, climb up walls frightened at times, but she is working on it.
Hang on...I'm getting there.
So she says she does like dogs. Don't we remember how she fed Aunt H's dog last time it was here?
And we praised her for her bravery and courage.
Then..."I hope Aunt H's dog doesn't die."
Me: "I don't think she will die anytime soon, but why?"
"I'll miss it."
Now that surprised us. Sure she loves Aunt H and Uncle B...but their dog...well we don't see her very often.
So since Sunflower was being so open, I decided to ask her a question.
"What do you feel about Sweet Pea?"
A long, long pause.
Then..."If she grows up to be a dog, I'll feed her everyday."
I don't think she could have made a clearer statement of commitment to sacrificial love.
Sunflower: Daddy, can we have dessert tonight?
Daddy: No. You already had popsicles today.
Sunflower: Did Mommy tell you...or do I smell like popsicles?
Mommy: Mommy told Daddy.
I've felt pretty peaceful this last week...when the travel approval comes, it will come. Then God will work out all the details. Now a new friend whose pick-up was the same as ours has received her travel invitation. Probably that means ours is on its way...soon...soon...BREATH!
I don't know if our agency will be able to add us to the March 28th group. It still seems impossible but I can't help pray it will all work out. Their next suggestion is May 2nd. So the latest we'll leave is May 2nd. I'd rather leave sooner, much sooner. Until we have TA we just can't know when.
So TA please come...though maybe knowing it is probably on its way but not when we are leaving will make tonight tax night. Yes, that is a good motivator. After all filing taxes jet-lagged is definitely a really bad plan. And taxes is the only tier one to do list item left. We did after all scrub the top/sides/under the fridge a few weeks ago.
On an unrelated note and just because it makes me laugh...
The other day when Sunflower was growling (yes, she is a 3 year old girl, not a dog, but she growls...) SnapDragon told her, "Sunflower, you are a little aggressive."
"I am NOT LITTLE!" She shouted back.
Sunflower is growing up so fast but apparently there is still a few things she hasn't quite figured out.
Today she brought down a pair of her socks and said they were too big for her.
I told her to put them back in her drawer and she could wear them when they fit her.
She said, "they won't grow any littler! And they won't grow bigger!"
Ummm, no, sweetheart, but you will grow bigger.
I am guessing her answer had something to do with the conversation Oak had with her the other day when he handed her one of her doll's outfits and she said:
"I think my doll outgrew this one."
He apparently had a hard time stopping her from throwing it away. (I wasn't home because I was away at our church's amazing women's retreat...it was oh so very good.)
We finally got a desk so we can bring our main computer downstairs and out of our bedroom. Hopefully it will make it more accessible to the boys as they start to need it more often, but more likely it'll just mean I'm on the computer even more frequently (if that was even possible.)
Oak was putting it together when Sunflower spilled his glass of coke (only to be expected as it was on the floor next to the interesting parts Sunflower kept trying to steal.)
I took the glass and got the carpet cleaner. Then I sat down on the floor to cuddle Sunflower--partly to comfort her as she was upset and partly to keep her away from the mess.
After a little while Oak handed the wet rags towards me and asked, "Can you rinse these out for me?"
Sunflower lifted her head off of my shoulder, looked at the rags, and said, "No. I can't. I'm holding Mom."
Blogger was down the only day this week I had time to write a post (Thursday before I committed to being gone all day today) so I'm going to send you to a link. I found it hilarious. Most of my readers may have already seen it, but for my friends not obsessed with adoption, you should definitely check it out. I believe you will find it funny and it isn't adoption related, in fact far from it.
So go check out my favorite Tonggu Momma and her recent conversation.
It is possible I find this particularly funny because it reminded me of our conversation with our then 5 year old and 9 year old boys about how our DNA is a mix of our mother's and father's with lots of information on chromosomes, etc. but not one question or answer on how they meet.
Also, I just needed a good laugh. Thanks, Tonggu Momma! Happy Packing!
My Sunflower has started calling me "My Mommy." "My Mommy come here." "My Mommy, I watch Dora?"
I found it very puzzling. But this week I figured out why. When I picked her up from child care at Bible Study she waved to her teachers (one a grandma and one a high school student) and said:
"Bye-bye, two mommies."
I guess when you classify all grown-up women as being mommy it is good to clarify that this one is My Mommy.
----------
Last week we found a cordless phone dropped by our mail box. The battery is low, so we don't know how to contact the owner. My husband put it in a plastic bag with some dry-z-air and set it on top of our mailbox. So far no one has claimed it.
Today SnapDragon had an idea of what to do about it.
"Why don't you turn it into the lost and found?"
"There is no global lost and found, honey."
"Then why is there some buildings that say lost and found on them?"
This had us stumped for a bit until he remembered he saw the building at the zoo. The zoo being 25 minutes away from here probably means it isn't the best place to turn in our little lost phone.
Some of you may remember when this article in the Wall Street Journal came out about Amy Chua's book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. It created a maelstrom of blog posts, comments and arguments. I even joined the fray. Today by following a rabbit trail of links starting at Our Little Tongginator, I found my favorite response to it of all time. It is not serious at all and I know my real life friends will find it worth the read. It is also the reason that some days I contemplate becoming a blog of links instead of writing my own posts.
By the way, we are Babylon 5 parents or maybe Stargate SG-1 parents though we are failing even in that since we haven't let the boys watch the shows yet. No! We are Firefly parents--we were already planning on learning Mandarin.
Blogger and Italics have defeated me today, but you cannot take the sky from me.
