Tag Archives: Lena

Everyday Life, Project 365

Lettuce, a Faucet and Tomato

March 7, 2012 Molly 4 Comments

Aaron is known for his ridiculous jokes. Here’s one he told me yesterday…

“What happened between in the race between the tomato, the faucet and lettuce?”

“The lettuce was ahead, the faucet was running, the tomato couldn’t ketchup.”

Anyways, this blog post is me trying to “ketchup” on Project 365.

Oh, here’s a Reed joke for you.

“Why did the chicken cross the road?”

“To get to the other road.”

1. Lasagna Soup (2/21) 2. Reed’s Robot Drawings 3. What we thought was our final trip to Topeka for Apostilles (2/22) 4. Reed’s drawing of taking our dog Nina to the vet for a shot 5. Reed drinking all of his water before dinner (2/24) 6. Lena throwing herself on the floor (basically how I was feeling at that moment) (2/27) 7. Reed asking me to read him all of those books (2/28) 8. My apology to Aaron, in his lunchbox (3/1) 9. Lena’s ridiculous outfit, dress over skirt, athletic socks with dress shoes topped off with a bandaid… on her shoes (3/2) 9. Our cool book find (3/2) 10. …Used for $3.50! (3/2) 10. Reed and I accidently wore the same shirts (3/3) 11. Some napkins I was working on (3/4) 11. Our outing on a beautiful sunny day (3/5) when before two of our dogs got lost 12. Lena playing outside after a nap (3/6) 13. Same as #12

So, not a photo every day, but there should be enough photos to catch me up!

And, here’s a video. Lena singing along to a song that she’s probably never heard before…

And, here’s a short video of the Lena show, performed by Reed, a few days ago…

Everyday Life

Our Family Circus

February 28, 2012 Molly 6 Comments

We had a pretty funny night tonight.

I was downstairs cooking dinner. I went to light the (gas) stove and didn’t notice that there was a paper towel on stove… right next to the burner I was lighting. So that instantly went up in flames.

Then, just a few minutes later (like burgers still on the stove), Aaron comes running in, “Reed locked Lena in your [craft] room!” as he starts to dig through our tool drawer. Ummm, what? I guess they went to put the dogs in their crates and Reed locked her in there! So, as Aaron was digging through the drawer for tools to remove the door knob, I told him to let me try something first, and ran upstairs. [While I told him to take care of the burgers– I didn’t burn the house down in the process.] When I got up there, I said “Lena?” “Yeah, Mama? (sounding totally calm)” “Do you see the door knob?” (I wiggle it) “Can you turn the little button on it?” “Okay!” And voila, she unlocked it! So, we went downstairs to finish getting dinner ready and laugh at Aaron for being so quick to get out the tools. While she listened carefully to my instructions, she must have been VERY nervous. When she came down, she told Aaron about 15 times, “Papa, Mama talk to me and tell me what to do… and I did it myself! All by myself! I did it myself!”

So, Reed’s “punishment” was that he would have to be Lena’s special helper for the rest of the day. He was getting her place ready for dinner and Lena asked Aaron what she should do. Aaron told her that she could go sit down in her seat. He looked over a minute later and she wasn’t there. He went to go find her and he found her up in her room taking the sheets off of her bed! She had already gotten 3 corners of the fitted sheet off! Apparently, she heard “go get your sheets” instead of “get in your seat”. While she is told multiple times a day to go get in her seat, I’m not sure we’ve ever asked her to get her sheets!

Oh, and my kids were cracking me up this morning too. We walked in the house from L’s speech therapy and Reed asked if he could watch a movie. I said “yes… oh, wait, we need to brush your teeth first.” “Okay… you forgot to brush out teeth last night. ” “No, I didn’t. We brushed your teeth last night.” The thing is, I knew what he meant. He says “last night” for any previous time, but I was trying to deny my guilt. So then he said, “hold on, I’ll show you when I’m done.” So, the second he was done, he marched over to the calendar, pointed to yesterday’s date and said, “THIS is the day you forgot to brush our teeth.” And I said, “yes, I did forget.” And then Lena said, in a sassy voice, “Uh-ooooooh, you forgot to brush our teeeeeeeth.”

Everyday Life, Project 365, Second Adoption

Home and Project 365 Catching Up

February 19, 2012 Molly 2 Comments

We are home. Phew. We got home last night around 8:30.

It is so nice to be home, but I am emotionally fried. R&L seemed to do pretty well with us being gone, but they are understandably a bit more needy than usual.

For Reed, he seemed a bit indifferent that we were back, happy to see us, but kind of eh. Then, today, he was so needy. Constantly needing someone to play with, constantly interrupting conversations, just loud and kind of crazy. My patience was done was him by about 4pm. I told Aaron that I’d do all the dishes for the next 3 days if I didn’t have to have anything to do with bedtime.

Lena’s emotions have been a lot more on the surface. She was so happy she was almost in tears that we were back. Giggling and wanting lots of hugs. She slept for 12 hours straight the night we got back and then I climbed in bed with her for awhile, just to cuddle. I told her how I loved her and missed her. I said “I missed you soooo much.” L: “Too much?” “Yes, too much.” “I miss you too much too.” I love that girl. She has taken to laying on the floor with a grumpy face A LOT. She had been getting away from this for awhile, but it’s back in full force. A quick distraction usually remedies it when I can find the energy.

I am just exhausted myself. Not physically, but emotionally. A lot of emotions and frustration. Yesterday was Helen’s birthday. As happy and excited as we are about “Anderson”, my heart still breaks about Helen and the uncertainty of her future. Be praying for her, okay? Specifically that she gets to be at home with a family soon and that she does not have any medical complications that cannot be handled by doctors in her country, at any time.

Anyways, here is my photo catch-up.

Skyping. Fighting over camera space.

Reading to us from a children’s bible. This went on for ten minutes! “One time…”

Leaving the frigid north.

The little map showing where we are and the flight route. I took this for my mom.

Playing at their grandparents’ house. Please note that L DOES have clip in her hair… I just needed to fix it… again.

I forgot to take any photos today, and then everyone went to bed, but me and the dogs. So, here is Miss Nina, angry that I woke HER up to take her photo. Apparently even my dogs can’t do photos without blinking.

Everyday Life, Project 365

Valentine’s Day Cards (Day 41)

February 11, 2012 Molly 1 Comment

Lola sent Reed and Lena some Valentine’s Day cards and they were the perfect distraction in the car when we were leaving our house…

She didn’t really understand holding up her card!

Yes, that is a mint colored house behind him!

Project 365

Dot and Roscoe (Days 38 and 40)

February 9, 2012 Molly 2 Comments

I needed some time on Tuesday to get some things done without the kids needing anything. So, I built them a fort in their room. It wasn’t super exciting or elaborate, but it was a different little space where they could crawl around.

I may have told them that forts are a special place where only kids can go. No grown-ups allowed.

Err, so I may have not taken a single photo yesterday. Oops! No day 39.

But, I took a bunch of photos today…

We had to take one of our dogs to the vet. She was sick last night and I was afraid that there was something seriously wrong with her and I wanted to get it addressed before we left. So, we all went off to the vet and the vet diagnosed her with… an upset stomach. Oh well, I am relieved to know it’s nothing serious.

Lena had a rough day. She gets that we will be leaving soon and she is not happy about it at all. 😦 The main thing she wants to do is cuddle. She smiled through her tears.

Danae brought us pizza. That girl is awesome. She knew I was super stressed, so she told me that she’d take care of dinner!

My sister sent a package today for Anderson, including this monkey that she made.

We’re going WHERE?!?

Reed and Lena really got a kick out of the monkey tonight. I explained to them that it was for their little brother, but they could play with him gently. They wanted the monkey to help them get ready for bed and tuck them in. It was pretty cute!