Landon's version of Jolly Old St. Nicholas. So funny. Listen carefully in the second verse and he'll tell you his opinion of the gifts he gets from Santa....

Yes, you heard it right. "Down the chimney broad and black, with your CRAP you'll creep."

Actually, I'm not sure what I like best about this video... His version of the song, or the outfit he's wearing. After he was asleep, I laid out his green sweatshirt in case he wanted to wear it. Of course, I assumed he'd wear it over his t-shirt like most people, but not Landon. He has his own sense of style.

The same day he brought home this ornament for the tree:

According to Landon, it is a zombie snowman with blood running down it. Nice. gotta love the imagination. NO, our children do not watch zombie movies. They don't watch anything rated higher than PG. But they do go to public school. :O)

While we are having a Landon themed post, Here is a picture of my little Shark boy, with his permanent teeth coming in behind his baby teeth. Those baby teeth are just not in a hurry to come out. He has a dentist appt. on Wed, and can probably get them pulled then. I am envisioning high orthodontic bills when he is older. Oi.

build a little birdhouse in your soul

When my oldest sister (who is much, MUCH older than me) turned 50 in October, we bought her fun toys and childish things to keep her in touch with her youth. One of the things we got her was a sock monkey. We had to take it out of the original packaging in order to fit it in the box we were shipping. My sweet little Luke, who must be a bit like me in that he does not like to waste things, came and asked if we could make a birdhouse out of the sock monkey box. Hmmm. Why not? What a clever boy he is. He folded the top over, had me tape it together, then got a little lid to put water in, and some sunflower seeds. We stuck a string through it, and tied it to our tree out front. for 3 days, he went outside to look everyday to see if a bird was living in it yet. I kept trying to explain that the birds don't stay in their houses, they go fly around. Then Sunday came. As we were pulling into our driveway after church, I saw a bird in Luke's birdhouse!!! I was so excited to show him. Scott stopped the van, and we all watched the bird hop in and out, and all around the bird house. Luke was over the moon! It was so cute. I actually had my camera in the diaper bag, and tried to get a picture of the bird by the house, but it didn't turn out ;o(

here is the birdhouse. The picture is a little grainy because I was trying to take it through the window glass. I knew the bird would fly away if I rolled down the window.

Ronald needs a forever family!

Look who I found on AdoptUsKids.org
http://www.adoptuskids.org/child/ChildDetail.aspx?tabid=1&id=35354

Oh, my gosh! He is one handsome fella, and he needs a home. click on the link under his picture to watch a video of him. He has really grabbed my heart. If we weren't in the middle of bringing home a different older child, I would have already called on him. Oh, my gosh! I'm not going to sleep until he has a home. Does anyone in blogland know anyone who could be his family?

The DMV: A True Story

So Scott had to go get plates for our new van (the big 12-passenger kind). Below is a breif summary of the transaction.
DMV: After applying the credit from the plates on the vehicle you just sold, you still have a $12.59 credit, so we'll send you a check.
Scott: can we just apply the credit toward our next plate renewal?
DMV: No, sorry, we have to process the refund.
Scott: so, you are going to send me a check for $12.59?
DMV: No, there is a processing fee of $12.00.
Scott: There is a processing fee of $12.00 on a refund of $12.59?
DMV: correct.
Scott: So you are actually going to send me a check for $ .59?
DMV: correct.
Scott: yeah. makes sense.

Anyone else have a love/hate relationship with their DMV?

Reece's Rainbow Christmas Angel Tree 2009

I decided not to choose a child to sponsor until December because we were just fundraising for our local DS Network at the end of October, and November felt like it was too soon to start asking people for money again. Traditionally, we've chosen another child from Serbia to sponsor. No, we still do not have any word on "our" girl. But anyway, I've looked at all the beautiful faces, and the winner of the Spencer family sponsorship is..........

"Lisette"!

No, I didn't make that up. most of the kids are assigned a pseudonym due to country restrictions of posting their real name. And they gave her my name! Andrea (fearless leader of Reece's Rainbow) likes my name apparently. I think she's trying to send me subliminal messages. Now that Serbia is allowing familes to come back a 2nd time, we are being encouraged to consider adopting a different child, and go back for Aunika when she becomes available. Hmmm..... something to consider/ pray about. In the meantime, we'll be taking some of our meager savings for Christmas and donating it to "Lisette's" grant fund. I hope she finds a family soon!

CH-CH-CH-CHANGES!

One more adoption complete in the Spencer family! Welcome, sweet Nate! Nathan Brent Spencer joined our family in Nov. 08, and his adoption was final Nov. 09. He is a sweet boy, and fits right in. He and Luke (both 4 years old) are partners in crime, but Nate is definitely a lot calmer. With the two girls we are fostering, we now have 2- 7 year olds, 2- 4 year olds, and 2- 1 year olds. What can I say? we like to keep things interesting.

Good Question

I got a good question on one of my recent posts. It was.. "Are you still adopting the little angel with Down Syndrome?"

Dear Anonymous,
Thank you for asking. I don't blog much about our little daughter because I get so discouraged. We have been wanting and waiting to adopt her for well over 2 years now. Our little girl has still not been cleared for international adoption. We did not know she was not officially cleared at the time we committed to adopt her. We have had a very hard time lately deciding what to do. Our options as we see them are:
1. Continue to wait for the beautiful girl we have loved and waited for, and continue to pray that she will someday come home to us.
2. Go to the same country to adopt a different child. This is the easiest and the hardest choice. easiest due to paperwork- we are already approved for adoption in that country and wouldn't have to re-do any paperwork. Hardest because we would be in the same country as the girl we already consider our daughter, and not be able to bring her home. We consider this choice only because we hope we would get to see her, hold her, tell her we love her, and continue to hope that SOMEDAY we'd be able to come back for her. We don't really feel this would be so fair to the new child we would adopt from there. Our focus would be split. If we felt a strong pull to another child in the same orphanage, we would consider this option, go for the new child, and hope to someday go back.
3. switch countries all together and start over again. We have strongly considered this option. We feel a pull to Ethiopia, but so far have not found a child we are pulled to. We feel like we will some day adopt from Ethiopia, but so far, that day is not today.

So far, we have opted for #1. We'll see what our future holds. For now, we continue to grow with adoptions from the US. We are still working on "N"s adoption. His severance trial is tomorrow, and hopefully the adoption trial in a month. He does not have Down Syndrome. He will be 4 in about a week and a half. After his adoption is final, we'll post his name and pictures.

And I will be making an announcement very shortly about another upcoming adoption in our household! Stay tuned.... (I'm waiting until I have more details about when this child will be coming home before I make the official announcement).

Plus, we are still a foster family, so we still have borrowed children from time to time. I do not post about them much due to privacy issues.

Updates on our boys-- N and Luke are in preschool and doing very well-- 3 afternoons a week. They love it. Landon is also doing amazing in school. I love watching him blossom. His favorite thing to do is draw, and he is getting quite good at it.

And Dylan. Our sweet angel with Down syndrome that is already home. HE IS WALKING!!!! well, starting to anyway! he is up to about 8-10 steps at a time. AND he has a tooth, finally-- a molar! AND he is climbing up the stairs all by himself. AND he can climb onto all the furniture. Oh, goodie! another little monkey boy around the house! He is such a doll. He is by far my busiest child. I thought Luke was busy, but Dylan puts Luke to shame. I chase him around all day, getting him off furniture, off the stairs (Scott installed a gate last night), out of the cupboards, etc. He loves watching Signing Time videos, and is learning! He signs "more, eat, ball, music, and all done". "more and eat" are the only two he does perfectly, the others are his version of the sign, but that's okay for now. He is a little smarty pants. I will try to get a video of him walking soon and post it. so cute.

Oh, and about the last post-- our mommy bird flew away and never came back. I'm sure something happened to her. so no baby birds were able to hatch :o(

the uninvited guest

maybe uninvited, yet welcome just the same.

A few weeks ago, Scott laid a couple of boards across our dog's kennel and put a few yard tools up there to keep them away from the kids. We bought a small shed for this purpose, but is isn't put up yet. Anyway, he went out to mow our Jungle, I mean our lawn, and first went to grab the orange extension cord from the top of the boards. He just about touched this little ladies head before she flew away.

Is that a nest up there in those cords?

Yep! And this single egg has since been joined by a second egg. My kids love looking out the window each day to see if the little mommy dove is on her nest. I'm thinking she might be rather a lazy little bird by the looks of that nest, or maybe just very clever to use the power cord to save her some work. All together, my kind of bird!

She is quite diligent in her sitting, though I'm sure the AZ sun keeps that egg plenty warm while she's off eating. And she never strays far. We see her sitting on the neighbors roof from time to time, keeping an eye on things. It will sure be fun to see the end product! I wonder how long Dove eggs take to hatch? sounds like a great computer research project for the kiddos, who only have 2 weeks until school begins.

The best laid plans ....

So Wednesday was my birthday. I hesitated to post this, as I did not want to sound self-aggrandizing. But something funny happened. Scott took the day off, so I had a lovely sleep-in. When I finally dragged myself out of bed, Scott made me yummy french toast... My favorite! I was in no hurry to do anything, so I was still lounging in my pajamas when my sister called me to tell me happy birthday. We chatted for a few minutes, then my doorbell rang. My sister said "Oh, go ahead and answer the door, I'll wait". I looked down at my disheveled pajamas, and had already caught a glimpse of what I looked like in the mirror. I had smeared mascara from the day before around my eyes, had yet to brush my teeth, and had a lovely "flock of seagulls" hairdo. so I said "I'm not answering the door!".
Scott was home, and on his way to answer the door, but LeAnn didn't realize this. Here is how the conversation commenced:
LeAnn: Oh, no, go ahead and answer the door
me: No, S...
LeAnn: Lisette, you have to answer the door
me: I....
LeAnn: LISETTE, TRUST ME, JUST ANSWER THE DOOR!
me: LeANN! Scott is answering the door!
LeAnn: Oh. Okay. I didn't realize he was home. Tell him it's not a mistake.
me: tell him what is not a mistake?
LeAnn: Just tell him before he sends them away. Just say it's not a mistake.
Me: (I'm in the other room, scott can hear me, but not see me) Scott, LeAnn says it's not a mistake, if that means anything.
Scott: Okay. (nothing else, just Okay)
Me: so what's the deal?
LeAnn: Well, I didn't get you a birthday present sent, so I ordered pizza to be delivered to your house for lunch. Then I realized I'd better call at the time it was supposed to be delivered so you wouldn't send the delivery person away thinking it was a mistake. (that sounds like something I'd do)
me: OH!! How sweet, thank you! (then Scott walks around the corner)
Me to Scott: Where's the pizza?
Scott: What pizza?
me: the pizza that was just delivered?
Scott: That wasn't pizza, it was the bug guy.

I just started laughing. LeAnn outed herself for no reason. The pizza guy didn't come for another 10 minutes, but at least we knew not to send him away. Maybe this is one of those "you had to be there" moments, but it was really funny. What are the chances that the bug guy comes at the same time the surprise pizza guy is supposed to come? And what in the world was Scott thinking when I told him it wasn't a mistake? And he just answered Okay. Like this is some sort of ongoing cryptic conversation we always have.

Oh, well. The pizza came, we all had a good laugh, and the rest of the day was lovely.
Scott had my sister-in-law come over to watch the Munchkins (thanks, Misty!) and took me to see the new Star Trek movie, which I had been wanting to see since it came out. I am a big Star Trek fan. Yes, I even have one "StarCon" under my belt. My sister Lisa and I went one year in Colorado and got to see Patrick Stewart speak. Good stuff. No, we didn't dress up. I like Star Trek, but it does not consume my life. Well, not for the most part anyway.
After the movie, we went to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner. My all time favorite is Macaroni Grill (Mmmmm..... Penne Rustica.....), but Cheesecake Factory is much closer, I'd only been once, and it was really good. So now I've been twice. Excellent food both times. And of course cheesecake to bring home. So delicious. Maybe I'll have a birthday again next week. It would almost be worth prematurely aging. Youth is overrated anyway.

And because posts without pics are not nearly as fun, here are a few of the munchkins

I love catching candid moments like these. Luke with his arm around Dylan, and little N on the right. His adoption stuff is moving along, and hopefully I'll be able to post pictures of his sweet little face soon.

Luke and Landon in their Jedi poses
Guess who has discovered he can empty the cupboards?

Landon has enjoyed putting puzzles together recently. He was pretty pleased with himself over this 300 piece puzzle that he had very little help on. Scott and I both helped a little, but just because it was fun to be there with him, not because he needed the help.

color coding my kids - pros and cons

I color code my kids. It started as a way to keep track of whose plate was still on the table, whose towel was on the floor, etc. The nice part is, the kids love it. They take it pretty seriously. So here are their colors:

Landon - Green

Luke - Blue

N- Orange

Dylan - Red

A - Pink

Stix - Yellow

Now, the babies don't really need a color yet, but I didn't want to leave them out either. Their colors are mostly used for my own organizational purposes.

When a child comes to our house, I eventually make them a "snuggle" with their color scheme. A snuggle is a small blankie, about 18" x 24" with fringed edges. I'll admit right now that I have had A and Stix's material for quite some time, and have failed to come up with the finished product yet. Bad, bad mommy. But the general idea is to give them something that is just theirs, that they can snuggle up with in bed.

The also each have a small basket in their color for school papers and such. That goes on a marked Cubby in our bookshelf. They each have 3 marked cubbies for their stuff, the bottom cubby for their shoes, the middle for their backpack, and the top for their basket.

Each child has their own laundry basket (even the babes). Thanks to the makers of "Duck Tape", I can get tape in all their colors. I put their color tape around the handles of the basket. When I do laundry and sort clothes, each child's clothes go into their basket and the big kids all put away their own. They "fold" as well. I'm not picky about how well it is folded, as long as their drawers all close when they are done.

Each child has a bath towel, hand towel, wash rag, bath pouf, and tooth brush in their color. We hang the hand towels and bath poufs with 3M hooks (love those things!). That way, when Luke goes to wipe off his just-washed-but-somehow-still-dirty hands on the towel, he only gets his own towel dirty, and not the community towel. I used to use paper towels, thanks to the idea from my sister LeAnn. But the kiddos were extremely wasteful, and I'm cheap. Plus, I had a 10th grade Biology teacher who drilled conservation into our heads- Thanks Mr. Strube! While I'm certainly no tree hugger, I do try not to be wasteful, and going through 3 rolls of paper towels a week was a bit much.

We also have plates (both divided and flat), cups, and bowls in each color. The kids dishes are in a low cupboard so they can reach their own. They may use one cup a day. We do a lot of dishes (and laundry) around here, so that helps cut down a bit. They are responsible for setting and cleaning up their own dishes.

One of the main "cons" is my tendency to go overboard with this whole color scheme thing. We were at Wal-Mart and they had cute flip flops and boat shoes in all the right colors. I didn't buy any, but man did I want to. It is a good thing we are poor, or I would definitely take color scheming to an unhealthy level. Such as, when we were recently at Ikea, they had lap blankets on sale in all the right colors. Now, we have 3419 blankets in this house and at least half of those are lap blankets. We live in Arizona. But guess what we came home from Ikea with? Cute new blankets that were entirely unnecessary. They do look cute all snuggled up with them on movie night, though. Another con is passing on the color mania to my children. Now they think they get to buy everything they see in their color. I hear constant rings of "Look, mom, can we buy this? it's my color" while we're at the store. They also think that EVERYTHING at home in their color belongs to them. N thinks the orange power screwdriver is his, Landon is convinced he can use the green sharpie whenever he wants... Why doesn't Luke want anything to do with the blue broom, though?

One of the major "pros" was entirely unforeseen. When little mr. N joined our family, he'd spent quite a bit of time in his short 3 years being bounced around. Having a color that is "his" has helped him feel at home here, I think. No one takes their color as seriously as he does. He LOVES orange. He wears orange as often as possible. He loves knowing that he doesn't have to share his orange plates, orange towel, and orange blanket with anyone. He is the only one that has formed an attachment to his snuggle. He loves that thing and carries it all around the house.

And While I'm on the subject, I owe a big thanks to my sister LeAnn who has been on the lookout for me. She just sent us a lovely package in the mail with orange, pink AND yellow divided plates. Yay!

As for me, I have a plastic filing tray marked with each kiddos color, a small expanding file folder for each child marked with their color (so convenient to grab on the way out the door and know you have the right kids shot record), storage bucket, and various other thing like that to help me keep organized. Maybe one of these days I'll actually FEEL organized. for now, our house is somewhere in the vicinity of slightly organized chaos.

Class Dismissed!

Time for summer break! the kiddos only had 1/2 day today. I actually took N (whose last day of school was yesterday) to the movie this morning (Space chimps- It was pretty funny, and he loved it) while the 3 older munchkins were at school. Scott stayed home with the babies. Then N and I went to the school to take pictures of the kids with their teachers. I am looking forward to a less rigid schedule this summer. We still have things going on, and Dylan still has his home therapies (4 hours a week), but we should have plenty of time to relax. We aired up a small kiddie pool on the patio. It is just the right size for the 4 older kids, and they are having a good time with it. We also found a bike on craigslist for A. Now everyone has a bike to ride. And remember the 127 pound bike that I previously mentioned? Luke finally got the hang of it, and actually prefers it to the bigger bike now. We got N a Diego trike, so we're all set. Now, if we could just get Arizona to turn down the heat this summer.....

Last night was Landon's Kindergarten "graduation". the very idea of it cracks me up. I always think about that line in "The Incredibles" where the dad says something about coming up with new ways to celebrate mediocrity. I'll have to watch again to get the line just right. anyway, the principal introduced them as the class of 2021. She said it several times. I hadn't previously put any thought into what year Landon would graduate. What's sad is that I know it will be here in the blink of an eye.
Another realization today was how much my kids have grown. For the last day of school, Luke wore the same outfit that Landon wore of the first day of school. Getting Luke to stand still long enough to take a picture is challenging, and when he does stand still, he is always hamming it up. So here they are: Landon's first day of school on top, and Luke's last day on bottom. Handsome boys huh?

We also have an initial court hearing for N. Hopefully we can get his adoption all wrapped up soon, so I can start calling him by name, and posting his pictures. Trust me, he's adorable.

In the meantime here's Dylan, my little man of a million faces:

How free day at the science center became the most expensive day ever.

Just sit right back and I'll tell a tale, a tale of a fateful trip. It started with free day at the AZ Science center. That's in downtown Phoenix. I live in East Mesa. So, about a 45 minute trip. I tend to stick pretty close to home, and go to downtown Phoenix as little as possible. Scott had to be at Snappy (aka- Crappy), so it was just me and 6 kiddos. I wasn't too worried, I gave them the whole "There are 6 kids and just one mom" lecture. A and N are "buddies" when we go somewhere, as are Luke and Landon. That just means the older child holds the younger childs hand and helps them as needed. I pushed the double stroller with the babes. Well, we get there, see the parking garage, and as I'm pulling up to it, someone that was parked on the street pulled out. Cool! Free parking on the street is way better than paid parking in the garage! I am super cheap. to a fault. As the story will tell. So, I pull in, get the older kids out, and feed them the sandwiches I'd brought. While we are sitting there eating our sandwiches, 3 or 4 different people came up and asked me if parking was free on Saturdays. I had assumed it was, like everyone else. After all, Everywhere I had EVER lived had free street parking on the weekends. I didn't take into account the major budget crisis in our state. But i didn't know for sure. The meters have nothing on them to tell you if they are free on saturdays. We checked every other vehicle on our street, and all the meters were empty, and no one had a ticket on their window. Some of the people that I talked to decided to go back and feed their meter "just in case" and others decided to risk it. I am not a risk taker. I fed my meter before we left. The maximum allowed was 2 hours. no problem, we aren't that far. We can spend some time looking around, then come back to re-feed the meter. So my munchkins and I toodled around the corner to the Science center, and we saw it...... The line that stretched on for miles. It was the longest line I had ever seen, and that includes lines at disneyland. I knew right then that I would have to be completely nuts to stand in that line. But what could I do? I had promised the kids, and they were so excited! I had threatened them to behave, and they were behaving. Believe me, I would have taken any excuse to leave. But they were being REALLY good. So we stood in the line. This line was outside. In Arizona. Now, it was the last weekend of April, so while it wasn't "hell" hot yet, it was still pretty dang warm. Thankfully, I had brought plenty of water. So we waited. and waited. and just when we thought we were getting where we needed to be, we saw it wasn't the entrance, the line just turned and went on some more. the kids were still being little angels. Even the babies. The munchkins would run around a little, have little races to this light post, or that rock, find a hill to roll down. I was wishing I would have saved the sandwiches until we were in line, but oh well. Why did I think we were the only ones who knew about free day? When we were getting close to the actual door, we were under a tree. Finally, some shade! But even the shade had it's price. SPLAT! A bird pooped on me. yes. I know. gross. Thankfully (if there is something to be thankful about when a bird poops on you- how very Betsie ten Boom of me) it only landed on my hand and some on the stroller. I think I would have been more grossed out if it had landed on one of the babies. So glad I had baby wipes and hand sanitizer with me. We finally get inside, in the wonderful air conditioning, and the waiting was just about over. Our turn comes, we each get an armband, and off we go to explore. We had waited in line for one hour. ONE HOUR IN LINE!! I was just so thankful to be in the air conditioning, and out of that line, that the last thing I was thinking of was our meter. I'm sure there was a part of my brain soothing itself with a constant "it's okay, parking is free on Saturdays. If it's not, it should be, so surely you won't get a ticket." I never thought of that meter the entire time we were in the museum. It was all of our first times there, and it is very "hands on", so the kids were having a great time. it is 4 stories. We took our time, and wandered around. One of the favorites of the older 4 kiddos was the nose. it's a giant nose that you throw foam balls into, then the nose sneezes them back out. This same exhibit freaked poor Dylan out. The "sneezing" sound was loud and abrupt, and he did not like it one bit. I had to hold him to calm him down until we were far enough away that he could no longer hear it. That was the only time we had even a minor issue. I had brought the baby sling with me, so it was possible to snuggle Dylan and push the stroller at the same time. The kids explored, touched, built, smelled, destroyed, learned, looked, played, and had such a great time. no one whined (a big accomplishment), they all took turns, everyone listened, it was great. They had a Star Trek exhibit, but you had to pay extra for that -- quite a bit extra. I am a big Sci-fi geek, but my extreme cheapness rules all, so we didn't see it. When we had seen all there was to see (of the free stuff anyway), and done all there was to do, we headed back out the door. About 4 hours later. plus the one hour we spent in line. 5 hours on a 2 hour meter. A meter that should have been free on Saturdays. Guess who had a nice yellow envelope on her window? apparently the free parking is only on Sundays. It used to be free Saturdays, but that had just recently been changed. Don't you think they should be required to post ON THE METER which days you have to pay? So, the parking ticket was $31. Still not too bad, I reasoned. If I had payed to go to the museum, it would have cost $52. If I would have paid for parking, it would have cost about $12. And according to the lady screaming obscenities at the parking attendant, the line just to get out of the parking garage was about an hour long. At that point, I was glad I hadn't parked in the garage. I was through waiting in lines. So I took my ticket, and headed home. Do you think that is where the story ends? not even close. I do not watch the news. What does that have to do with anything? well, the first time I had heard anything about the dreaded "Swine Flu" was that same Saturday evening. I am hyper-vigilant about Dylan's health, so if I would have heard anything about this flu earlier, I most certainly would not have taken him to a closed museum with thousands of people. Prbably not a good idea anyway, but there you have it. Monday morning, Dylan was running a fever. Not a high fever, but I was still concerned. Tuesday, same thing. His temperature hovered around 99-100. Wednesday, I was at the doctor with another child for a well check, and asked her how concerned I should be. She asked if I had been around anyone who had been out of the country recently???? I (in a bit of a crazed tone, I'm afraid) told her about my brilliant outing to free day at the museum, and I'm sure at least a few of those thousands of people had been out of the country recently. She assured me if it was the flu, his temperature would be higher, but they could test him if I wanted. I decided to wait and keep an eye on his fever. it finally seemed to break on Friday evening. Saturday he woke up with a red rash all over his torso, diaper area, and little on his neck an face. So I freaked (just a little) and took him in to the after hours clinic. it was Roseola. apparently the rash is harmless, just a bit bothersome. The doc there told me that once he has the rash, the worst is over. What is strange is that when I came home, I read up on Roseola and you are supposed to have a much higher fever with that also. Oh, well. I'm glad it wasn't any higher, and I'm glad it wasn't the flu. And yet, the story continues. last week in the mail, I got an envelope from Automated Traffic Enforcement. What? It was a a "traffic violation notice" . For about 2 miles on the way to the Science center, I was on a stretch of interstate where the speed limit is NOT 65, like every other highway around here. apparently on this short stretch, the speed limit is 55. I was going 69. What's funny here is that I remember seeing the sign saying the speed was enforced by photo radar. knowing they typically don't flash until you are 11 miles over the speed limit, I assumed (again) that I was safe. I thought I was only 4 miles over. Don't ask me how I managed to see the Photo radar enfocement sign, but miss the speed limit sign. Sigh. The moral of this story? just stay home. No, I know what you are thinking. There are several other conclusions, or morals you can draw from this story. Don't speed. Feed your meter. Watch the news. blah, blah, blah. just STAY HOME. that is my new motto. The kids finish school this thursday, and from that point on, we will be sequestered. no bike rides, no malls, no movies, no swimming pools, no parks, no zoos, no back yards, and certainly NO FREAKING MUSEUMS!!!!! Shades drawn, door locked. We will emerge at the end of summer, slightly Gollum-like, in order to start school again. Thankfully, summer break is only 6 weeks long. can you get rickets in that amount of time? note to self, stock up on Vitamin D supplements.

Updates

Just a quick update on the kiddos--
Landon has learned how to tie his shoes and ride his bike. The kid is amazing. He accomplished both these tasks without Scott or I feeling like we'd actually taught him. We showed him how to tie his shoes a few times, and he's been watching carefully, but we never sat and said "now do this, now make bunny ears, blah blah blah". But he picked it right up. And as for his bike riding-- we just took the training wheels off and told him to push himself along with his feet and work on balancing and steering. He'd push off and lift his feet, then practice steering. Then we told him to work on getting his feet up to the pedals while he was coasting. next step- pedaling. It took him all of 20 minutes to learn. Smart boy. No endless hours of running behind him, holding onto the seat. Yay!
Luke is anxious to be able to do all the things Landon does, so he will probably be an early bike rider. He needs a new bike, so we are looking for one. The one he has weighs about 127 pounds and is so hard to pedal. it's one of those "tonka" 12" bikes. It is cute, and it was free, but he does not have the coordination necessary to pedal a difficult bike. So, we'll pass that on to someone else.
N is Potty trained! I can't even tell you how happy this makes me. Hooray for N! Our school district has 2 weeks off for spring break, and by the end of break, he was in underwear full time. Only a couple of accidents- one at night and one in the day. He's doing so well with his adjustment here. He certainly has a little attitude at times, but that's necessary in a crazy house like ours.
And Dylan. Our little Dylan continues to amaze us. He is crawling! and it is the cutest thing I've ever seen. I don't know if it is just because he had to work so much harder to get to this point, but I break out in a huge grin (and sometimes even a happy tear) STILL every time I see him crawl. He's been at it close to a month now. It is so adorable. And he's pulling to a stand on everything. He tried it on the vacuum the other day with an unhappy ending. He is now sporting a big bruise on his forehead. He had been avoiding crawling on the tile... until today. Now he's unstoppable. Time to Dylan-proof the house. He's precious, and all the boys (and mom and dad) spoil him.
Tomorrow will mark 3 years without our sweet Jacob. The pain of losing him still seems so fresh, and yet, it also seems like it has been a million years since I got to hold my sweet boy. awww, here come the tears. must be time to stop.

Happy Birthday, sweet angel Jacob. You would have been 4 today! I wish I could see you running around the house with your brothers. I miss you more today than I did yesterday. I love you, John Jacob Jingleheimer!

Why?

Do you know what children like Dylan are treated like in Eastern European orphanages? I feel sick to my stomach when I read articles, or watch a news clip about it. My mind quickly scrambles, wondering if there's something more I can do. I look at my little Dylan, and the light he brings to this family, and know the world would be a darker place without him. He's been so sick this past week with RSV. I can't stand to think about him in a place where he's never held, never spoken to, fed once a day, diaper changed rarely, and left to suffer illness on his own. He whimpers, and I hold him close. I stroke his cheeks. I coo in his ear. I let him see me smile at him. I tell him a billion times a day how much I love him, and smother him with kisses. When he's sick, I rub his back, go without sleep so I can hold him up to let him breathe easier, wish with every piece of me that I could absorb his pain and discomfort. Kids with Down syndrome, and other special needs, are not a waste of space. They are PERFECT. They are not put on this earth for us to put up with, they are here for us to learn from. They are not the ones that need to become more like a typical person. Typical people need to become more like THEM. Spend some time with my son, and I guarantee you'll learn something about unconditional love, about faith, about goodness and light. I love you, sweet Dylan. I hope someday I can grow up to be more like you.

a day in the life

Monday:
Landon to school bus at 7:30, N on the bus at 8:15, N home again 11:45, Luke on the bus at 12:15, Landon home 3:15, Luke home 4:00. Scott Leaves for work at 7:30am. after classes, he goes to our business in Scottsdale. He returns home around 9pm.

Tuesday:
Landon to school bus at 7:30, Dylan has Developmental therapy at 10, Luke on the bus at 12:15, Landon home 3:15, Luke home at 4. Scott leaves at 7:30 am, and in the evening teaches a college course. he returns home around 9- 9:30

Wednesday:
Landon on bus at 7:30, N on but at 8:15, N home again 11:45, Dylan has Physical Therapy at 2, Landon home 3:15. Scott leaves at 7:30 and returns home by 5

Thursday:
Landon on bus 7:30, Luke on bus at 12:15, Landon home 3:15, Luke home 4:00. Scott leaves at 7:30 and then goes to the business. home around 9.

Friday:
Landon on bus 7:30, N on bus 8:15, N home 11:45, Landon home 3:15. Scott leaves at 7:30, and sometimes gets to be home by about 4:30, unless it is very busy at the business. Then he has to go there until about 9.

Saturday:
no set schedule for the kids. Scott has to go to the business around 10am, and returns around 5-6.

Sunday:
A day of rest! no work for Scott, Church services are currently from 1-4pm.


This doesn't take into account any doctors visits, dentist visits, trips to the grocery store... or any household chores. Or the Occupational and Speech therapy Dylan is SUPPOSED to be getting, but there just aren't any therapists available currently. Starting this next week, A will be on the same schedule as Landon, and Stix doesn't currently need any services, so her schedule will remain eat, sleep, poop, repeat.

good times.

girls?????

just had to share a little of the cuteness. did you know that in that extra 21st chromosome is where extreme cuteness is found?

okay, so I never really shared the news that I promised. We have another little 3 year old boy in our home that we hope to be adopting soon! I can't post pics or his name yet, so I'll call him N. He is adorable and fits right in around here. there is about a 7 month difference between him and Luke. He goes to preschool, although on a different schedule than Luke. That's good and bad. good that I get some one-on-one time with each boy, bad that I have to keep up with 2 different pre-school schedules. He's doing so well. We had a rough patch earlier this month, but it was short lived, and honestly not that bad. His adjustment has been amazing.

Now on to girls. We are foster parents. N is a private adoptive placement, not associated with foster care at all, so we had no current foster placements. My licensing worker keeps telling me how badly they need homes right now due to recent influx of children in care :o(

We felt good about opening up one of our beds for placement, as N's adjustment has gone well, and we certainly have the space. I wanted a child 6 yrs old or older. so they called us about a 6 yr old girl - with a little sister. a 4 month old little sister. Well, the reason we licensed for 2 beds in the first place is to try to help keep siblings together. So we just couldn't say no. I like things to be busy around here anyway. So, the tally for anyone keeping track - we currently have in our home: 2- 6 yr olds, 2- 3yr olds, a 13 month old, and a 4 month old. I don't think the girls will be here very long. but while they are, I will refer the the 6 yr old as A, and the baby as Stix. Why Stix? I love the movie Willow, and the little red headed baby there is nicknamed Stix by Val Kilmer's character. The little one we have is a red head-- so cute. So, stix. there you have it. The life and times of the Spencer clan.

Year of the....COW???

When we were in IL to bring home our little man, we were having dinner with the birth family (open adoption) at grandma Sveta and grandpa Felix's house. They gave us some gifts-- okay, they gave us many gifts, and one of them was this cute little pig keychain. They told me that according to the chinese zodiac, Dylan was born in the year of the pig. Okay. cute. I don't put much stock in any zodiac, Chinese or otherwise, but it didn't bother me in the least that they kept track of that. It's just sort of a fun thing for them, I think. fast forward to October, when Sveta and Felix came for a visit. They once more came bearing MANY gifts. For all the kids, plus Scott and I. They truly spoil us. One of the things in my stash was a cow keychain, and it had a button to push that made it moo, and a little light in the mouth come on. Sveta told me that it was to represent my Chinese zodiac sign. I said, Oh, I was born in the year of the cow? The very sentence made me crack up. How appropriate. I was born in the year of the cow. I went to Wikipedia, and it turns out, it is actually an Ox. Ox sounds infinitely better than cow. Probably why the Chinese chose it. Smart Chinese. The pig is also technically a boar. so now I know. Turns out Luke was born in the year of the monkey... how appropriate is that? certainly fits him. Anyway, beginning on the 26th of Jan, we once more enter into the year of the... Ox. Scott is also an Ox. maybe good things will be in store for us this year??

Funny Landon moments

today after school I was working with Landon on his homework. Then I signed a paper that had to go back to school. He looked at it and said "is that your initials?" I told him no, it was my name. He looked at my signature with a very confused look and said "that says 'Mom'?" it was so funny. I love it when kids think your whole name is mom. I remember discovering my mom had a name.
And the other moment was one he shared with daddy, and Scott told it to me. With me being a Beatles fan, my kids tend to pick up Beatles songs quite young. One I sing a lot is "Dear Prudence". but instead of the part where it actually says Dear Prudence, I subsitute the name of whichever son I'm singing to. This is one of Luke's favorites. He even sings it back to me quite often, with the chorus of Dear Mommy, won't you come out to play?... but I digress. Landon is not a morning person so much. I am not either. Which is why Scott is in charge of getting Landon up in the mornings. He was having a hard time getting Landon out of bed the other day, so he started singing "The sun is up, the sky is blue, it's beautiful, and so are you, Dear Landon, won't you come out to play". Landon lifted his head, looked over at his window, and said quite groggily "Dad, the sun is NOT up." and promptly laid his head back down and shut his eyes. That made me laugh. I can't blame him. I though having kids would "cure" me and I would do morning better, but no such luck. There are just 2 kinds of people in this world, and I am NOT of the morning variety. apparently i'm a bad influence on my children as well. Oh, well. They'll survive it.

Sweet bonding moments

So Luke came in and crawled in bed with me this morning and I was snuggling him. He was facing me, and I was rubbing his sweet little face, thinking how much I loved him. here is our conversation.

me: Luke, do you know what my favorite thing is?
Luke: what, mama?
me: snuggling with my Luke

he smiles so sweetly at me .

Luke: Mama, do you know what my favorite thing is?

I smile to myself, thinking I know what he will say

me: What is your favorite thing, baby?

Luke: ....Playing with toys.

HAHAHA!! I love how honest kids are.