The Violent and the Theoretical

(This is a picture of Goliath after David killed him. I drew the original mean face, because Iain likes to tape it to a wall and whack it with a bat, yelling "the battle is the Lord's!" But this time, he decided it would be a picture of Goliath already dead. Rather gory, if you ask me. And Iain still taped it to the wall and hit it with things.)

Yes, I do have boys. That means we talk all the time about things like this:

Iain: Mama, would a horse be faster than a train? Would a race car be faster than a regular car? Would a horse be faster than a person? Would a tiger be faster than a race car? Would a giant be faster than a train?

Iain: (looking at the book How the Grinch Stole Christmas) The grinch was mean to steal. I think we should make him dead.

Iain: Cory took my toy! How about a make a big robot to take it back from him?

Me: (Note: never talk about bad drivers in front of small children.) Don't cut me off!

Iain: He did a bad thing, didn't he? Maybe we should make him dead.

Me: No, it wasn't that big a deal, Iain. It's okay.

Iain: How about if we get a giant to make him dead?

Cory: If I saw a bad giant I would chase him into the woods and yell, "Go away!" and I would hit him with my sword!

These boys are obsessed with giants. And making things dead (but just bad things, so I figure it's okay). And swords, bats, guns, robots. 

Iain's other new thing is to imagine rather odd situations and figure out what would happen. Here are a few of his latest ones:

Iain: If we had to live underground, what would happen?

If we lived in our car, what would happen?

If our house floated up to heaven, what would happen?

If we lived in Walmart, what would happen?

Then he follows it up with logistical issues: what we'd have to bring with us (always pillows and blankets), what we'd eat (in the Walmart scenario, we were sleeping on the food so we could eat it in the night), who would sleep where (in the car it was "big people in the front, and little people in the back," and more. Maybe he'll be some kind of disaster response planner someday.

Boys are so much fun.

Congratulations, Phil and Kelly!

Jeremy's brother Phil married his girl Kelly on Saturday, in FL. All three of my menfolk were in the wedding: Jeremy as a groomsman, and the boys as ring-bearers, along with Phil and Kelly's dog Sanford. The wedding was on the west coast beach, which made for lovely sunset pictures and breezes.

Iain and Sanford did great bearing the rings down the aisle. Cory was very grumpy, nervous about crossing the bridge, and generally unwilling to cooperate. He did walk down the aisle, trailing his brother and doggy-cousin by several minutes, and came right to me.

Cory's face here pretty much sums up his disposition through the wedding festivities. As does Iain's actually. That boy was so agreeable, obedient, and chipper.

After the wedding, Grammy broke out glow sticks, and the boys played drums for a good long while. They loved the reggae - Iain especially.

Cory was much happier post-wedding, too.

Dancing to The Way You Look Tonight, one of our songs...

Family pictures. My mom came down for the day to help with the boys, and to take them back to the beach house after the wedding, so I could stay for the reception. She also, true to form, took tons of pictures. All of these are hers, actually.

Jeremy's parents rented an really nice beach house, so the family would have somewhere to gather, shower, and get ready. They very generously let us stay there for the weekend. It was so nice - right across the street from the beach, big and roomy and so comfortable. Iain, in fact, asked several times if we could move there. Staying there made the weekend so relaxing for us; it was like a vacation.

Cory and Jeremy playing Bear Pillow (Jeremy takes a "nap" on Cory-the-pillow, who turns out to be a bear, growling fiercely.):

The boys reading with Yaya (Jeremy's grandmother) on the screened-in porch:

Iain reading with Uncle Don:

I took the boys to the beach on Friday night, and all four of us went on Saturday morning. It was beautiful and so refreshing! Crystal-clear water, chairs and umbrellas provided by the beach house, not too hot, shells, sand, a good book, my family. I could get used to that - and I've never been much of a beach bunny! I have to say, the Gulf is way more relaxing and pleasant than the Atlantic. It just seems friendlier and calmer. And also, I never knew how much better a beach umbrella could make time at the beach. I've been to the beach countless times, almost always without a beach umbrella... I never knew what I was missing.

Anyway, Phil and Kelly are honeymooning, we are home again and back into real life, and I am day-dreaming about hours to read by the sea.

***

And in adoption news, today marks four months of us being DTR (dossier to Rwanda). By the old timeline, that would mean we were about a month away from approval. By the new timeline, it puts us not quite at half-way. Sigh. I seriously don't know how I will make it. 

Jeremy's birthday is on Saturday, and we're thinking (and praying for) a miraculous early approval would make just about the best birthday present he ever got. 

Logs and Elephants

Yesterday, Iain and I did his reading lesson. The story he read went like this: I am a log. I can not run. I can not sit on an ant. An ant will sit on me. (Yes, I typed that from memory; we did read it 896,000 times.) Iain tends to get lazy sometimes and guess what a word is, just from the first letter or two, like he'll see the c in can and he'll guess cat. Yesterday, he got to the word will and guessed structure. What on earth? What three-year-old even says structure? What a nut!

After he read the first sentence (I am a log.) he quite heatedly declared, "But logs don't have mouths! How can the log be telling the story when he doesn't have a mouth? Do logs have mouths, Mama?"

Me: Well, maybe this one does. Let's finish reading and look at the picture; then we can see.

(we finish the story and look at the picture)

Iain: Mama! The log doesn't have a mouth! How can he be telling the story?!

I love the literal phase of childhood. No problem with a talking log, but he's gotta have a mouth. I mean, c'mon!

Then there's Cory. He is amazingly logical for a little guy, thinks about everything, and reasons things out in his head. Love it!

Cory: Can we touch snakes, Mama? (well, he really said 'nakes.)

Mama: If you see a snake, you have to ask me before you touch it.

Cory: (thinks for a minute) But older children don't ask their mamas first.

A few weeks ago, we hosted 14 people from the ACCESS218 college ministry that Kelsey helps lead. They were doing a mission trip to Atlanta. The boys loved having such a big audience, and they loved the yummy food we served (and thus got to eat). Today, I overheard this conversation:

Iain: Cory, let's play Mission Trip?

Cory: What's Mission Trip?

Iain: It's when you eat Bojangles biscuits.

On Mother's Day, Cory grabbed my hand at breakfast and said excitedly,

Cory: We got you a surprise!

Me: You did? What is it?

Cory: Flowers! See? (he leads me to the backyard and I see this)

All the flowers in the backyard: mine for Mother's Day. What a sweet boy. :)

And finally, I resisted as long as I could. I didn't even buy our baby girl a dress at Easter, when the absolute cutest dresses were for sale. I have some garage sale ones, but today... I broke down and bought two little outfits. 

This one is for her to wear on her re-adoption day. Red, white, and blue for her new country, and a giraffe for her homeland. It's really too cute! (FYI: Because of the visas that kids coming out of Rwanda are issued, we will have to re-adopt our daughter once we get back to the States.)

And when I was getting that one, the boys both found this other one. They insisted that we had to get it for the Baby Sister, because it was pink and had elephants. They were so excited to buy it for her!

The boys have been asking all the time lately when the Baby Sister will come home. I explained yesterday that she will come home when the people in Rwanda say yes (how else can I explain it to a 3 and a 2?). So today at Target, Iain saw a woman pushing a basket with a cute little baby girl in it. He very loudly said, "Look Mama! They already got their Baby Sister! The people said yes, today for them!" And again, the next time we saw a woman with a baby girl, "Look! They got their baby sister too! If I was the people in Rwanda, I'd say 'yes, you can have her today!'"

So would I, Iain. So would I.

Fair Winds Trading

For Mother's Day this year, my mom got me the coolest thing (yes, she got me a present - she's weird like that :) ). Beautiful necklaces, bracelets, and a basket from Rwanda - and get this: she got them from Macy's. 

Here's the blurb from their website: 

They have baskets, textiles, and jewelry all made in Rwanda and some in Rwanda and New Orleans. They say that Rwandese women who make the jewelry earn nearly 14 times the average income, allowing them to feed their families and send their kids to school. So shop Macy's!

The Beach - April, 2010

Our trip down to FL included, of course, a beach day. It was absolutely fun! It was really the first time the boys had been to the beach and enjoyed it fully. It helped that about 18 cousins were also there, along with many aunts and uncles.

(Me and my Iain)

(Iain's sweet feet)

(Tired Cory and Seth towards the end of the day)

What a great day!

Garage Sale Results

Grand total for the day: $833.61! Thanks so much everyone who helped.

Garage Sale

For anyone in the Acworth/Atlanta area:

Huge churchwide garage sale - ADOPTION BENEFIT!! 

Saturday, May 8th, on the corner of Old Stilesboro and 92 (Dallas Acworth Highway), in the parking lot on the corner. 

We have so much stuff at this sale: 
- TONS of clothing, especially GIRL CLOTHES. We have about 8 bins full of nice girl clothes - some of it brand new
- FURNITURE: a love seat, chairs, end table, coffee table, gun chest, desks, entertainment centers 
- a REFRIGERATOR 
- a TRAILER
- lots of PICTURE FRAMES 
- some really beautiful, off-beat, Anthropologie-ish VASES and PLATTERS - also brand new 
- HOUSEHOLD ITEMS 
- HALLOWEEN DECORATIONS, including two full-size freaky monsters 
- lots of TOYS and BABY STUFF 
- STUFFED ANIMALS and DOLLS 
- BOOKS and MOVIES 

(thanks to everyone who donated/helped!)

Under the Pillow

When I went in Cory's room this morning to get him up, he had a stuffed blue walrus in his hand that I didn't remember putting him to bed with. I asked him where he got it. He replied, and I quote, "I found him under my pillow. I said 'Ahhhh, there's a walrus under my pillow.'" Then Iain asked him if he knew where a particular hat was. Cory replied, "No, but I found a walrus under my pillow. Actually, he's a goat because he has horns." (Yes, my two-year-old did say the word actually, and the horns? The walrus' tusks.)

Gotta love that boy.