New resolution

Now that I am no longer a "working mom" (we'll see how long that lasts), I would really like to update this blog at least once a week. Is this because we are an exciting, fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants kind of family? No way, Jose! It's because my kids love to see our updated blog and I love to see our updated blog and keep track of all the mundane, day-to-day minutae that makes up our family life. Example: we are building a new deck in the back. Example: my sister-in-law (and one of my closest friends in the world) is engaged and I am having a blast helping her with wedding plans. You know, the good stuff. So, in the spirit of staying on top of things, here are some pics I love (oldies but goodies)!

You suck, Brad Pitt

I want to use this blog to call Brad Pitt out as a cowardly crapsack who hedges difficult-to-answer question and responds with some bullcrappy platitude. I was reading last week's "People" magazine (yes, this is what I do at 3 in the morning at work) and there was an article in which "commonfolk" could write questions to Fantastic Brad and he would answer them. One woman asked "Brad, my husband and I have 2 children and are considering adoption, but I am worried that I won't be able to bond with my adopted child. How did you bond with your adopted children and is it different than with your biological children"? His answer? "well, that is a great question and I thank you for it. What I can tell you is that I love my children each individually and I can't imagine my life without them" HUH? How does that answer this woman's perfectly valid question? It doesn't. It makes light of and minimizes just how difficult adoption can be. Yes, it is rewarding. Yes, it is a wonderful thing to do. But it is often very, very difficult and not at all the smiley, happy picture people try to paint of adoption. Particularly older child adoption. Or transracial adoption. Or adoptions where there are cultural barriers. I try to stay positive when I post on this blog, but right now, I need to be honest. I deal with adoption related challenges every day. Multiple times. Yes, my Haitian kids are different from my biological kids, or even from Ewan, who was adopted at birth. They were raised, during the most important years of their lives, in a completely different culture with no secure attachments. You cannot expect them to be the same, or act the same. We have had hundreds, if not thousands of dollars worth of our property destroyed by our 9 year-old, and he does not appear to be learning that it's not ok. Our 11 year old refuses to try in school, and is functioning at 2nd grade level, despite 3.5 years of intensive academic help. Our 19-year old left for two weeks to fly to Kansas with a ticket she talked some guy into buying for her, to see a different guy, whom she had met on MYSPACE!!! She told nobody where she was going, or when she was going to be back, we had no idea where to find her, who she was with or what had happened to her. This is pretty routine, and even mild stuff in the course of adoptive parenting. Am I saying my bio kids are better than my adopted kids? Absolutely not. I marvel that these kids are as normal as they are, considering what they endured in their lives. But I wish someone had sat me and Joseph down beforehand and been brutally honest with us about what we were signing up for. We were very naive and figured that since we love being parents and loved kids, and we would have to do is "love" these kids and everything would be Norman Rockwell perfect. It isn't. I can't count the times I have had to go in my room to cry or scream out of total frustration. I love my kids. I know that our family is the way it is supposed to be. But I am not going to lie and say it's easy. I am disappointed that Brad Pitt is such a liar. But, maybe it's totally different when you have an army of nannies raising your kids for you. In any case, this isn't a bid for sympathy, I just needed to get that off my chest because these last two weeks have been very, very hard and Mr. Brad Pitt thinks he is so clever and sweet and admirable, dodging somebody's perfectly good question. You suck, Brad Pitt.

Summer of 09

Some of the things we did this summer:
Went to a midnight show of Harry Potter
Checked out the fountains at the Salt Lake library
Went swimming in the backyard-a lot!
Rocked out
Looked cute for some pictures

Fun with Rylynn

Ok, since I haven't posted in a while, and probably won't for at least another week, this will have to suffice in the absence of anything significant to put on here. On the other hand, it is pretty funny!

Tag for moms! Grab a kid (Rylynn, who is 7, was the first kid available for me) and ask them these questions. Don't edit their answers. Pass it along to other mom's with funny little kids. I am surprised at how well Rylynn has me pegged!

1. What is something mom always says to you? I love you

2. What makes mom happy? When I find her phone for her

3. What makes mom sad? When she gets upset with the kids and then she cries

4. How does your mom make you laugh? When she asks me questions like this

5. What did your mom like to do when she was a child? Go to Lagoon

6. How old is your mom? 20 (good girl, I have trained her well)

7. How tall is your mom? pretty tall

8. What is her favorite thing to watch on TV? Spongebob

9. What does your mom do when you're not around? French kisses my dad (mwahahahah!)

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? Singing

11. What is your mom really good at? being a mom

12. What is your mom not very good at? basketball

13. What does your mom do for her job? cashier

14. What is your mom's favorite food? watermelon

15. What makes you proud of your mom? when she dresses up pretty for work

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? sandy cheeks

17. What do you and your mom do together? laugh

18. How are you and your mom the same? we have matching eyes

19. How are you and your mom different? different hair

20. How do you know your mom loves you? because she says it all the time

21. What does your mom like most about your dad? he cleans her bedroom

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go? Lagoon

Catching up-again!

As you can see, we've been a little busy! Where to start? First, the kids are OUT OF SCHOOL! WOOHOO! I really do enjoy having them out of school. Things are just so much more laid-back. Pictured above are Rylynn and Tristan with their teachers on the last day. They were awesome! End of the year reports were good. Maryn got a Presidential Fitness award, as did Kaydin. Kaydin, Trevin and Rylynn were on the high honor roll all year. Tristan made amazing progress this year. He has worked so hard! Kaydin's teacher and principal want to skip him ahead to 7th grade. They feel he won't be challenged at all in 6th. Kaydin is 100% not interested in doing this, so we probably won't do it. But, it is still pretty cool that he is so smart. If he changes his mind though, I will have a jr. high schooler on my hands. Crazy! We took a trip to the zoo and became members, since a membership was only $4 more than the cost of a one-time admission for a family of our size. So now we can go to the zoo all summer long! The kids attended an end of the year party, which there are also pictures of. They had so much fun, bouncers, pools, volleyball, slip-n-slides, food. Good times! Joseph and I went to our Flight of the Conchords concert. We went to dinner at Chili's first and then to the concert. It was hilarious. I have no good pictures of the concert, as "flash photography was prohibited" but there is a shot of me and Joseph (and yes, that is correct grammar, in this instance it is "me and joseph" not "joseph and I") outside of Abravenel Hall. What a flipping funtastic date. We now have 8 cats! No, I am not the crazy cat lady. One of our 2 cats had SIX kitens. She did Kaydin the honor of giving birth on his bed in the middle of the night, which effectively woke him up. They are super cute, so if anyone is wanting a kitten, they will be ready around the 4th of July. Rylynn turned 7! This is madness and I am not sure how it happened. She just keeps growing. It needs to stop. I love this girl and I am so proud of her. She is sweet and beautiful and smart and talented and I am so blessed to be her mom. Seven years of Rylynn! What did we ever do before she came along? Joseph is still building multi-million dollar homes in Park City, and in his spare time, is building a pretty sweet-looking deck in our back yard. I am still glamming it up at Walmart. Hopefully not for much longer. I am hoping to have my Walmart days behind me when the kids go back to school. I am looking forward to a fun, lazy summer. Maybe do some camping, a lot of hanging out (the kids still have to do school work because I am a nazi-mom), swimming, and just spending time together. Bring on the sunshine!

EWAN IS 2!!!

On May 7th, Ewan turned 2!!! I can hardly believe 2 years have already gone by. It is hard to believe Ewan hasn't always been with us, but at the same time, it doesn't seem like he should already be TWO! Some of his latest accomplishments are: talking A LOT more. We were starting to wonder if he'd ever speak. We taught him to sign a little, and for the longest time that was all he'd do. No words, just signs. But he is starting to make up for lost time. His favorite word, which he always says loudly, is "NO"! He also says puppy, kitty, mommy, daddy, Tiny (Kellyn's nickname) and a bunch of other words. He wakes up in the morning and will sit (or stand) in his crib talking and singing to himself. He loves to be outside and takes about 3 baths a day, on average, because he gets sooooo dirty. He is such a love and gives hugs and kisses and blows kisses all the time. When he is ready to go to sleep, he just starts waving bye-bye to everyone and we will just put him in his crib and he goes right to sleep. We love your big blue eyes, conatgious laugh and all your loves, Ewan! We are so glad you are part of our family!!

Random

What to do? I'm sitting here with a raging case of insomnia, my laptop overheating because it is on my lap instead of a "flat, stable surface", and I am trying to put myself to sleep. Why not blog a little? I had a date with Joseph tonight. We went to dinner and a movie-not the most creative, I know. But just getting to spend some time with him is good for me. Such a great guy-really! How lucky am I! Trevin had a run-in with some neighbors today. He and Kaydin and Tristan all have wands. Ok, they are really just sticks they cut from tree branches. But the looked for the best, wand-looking sticks they could find. A neighbor girl grabbed it and broke it into about 5 pieces. What is up with that? She knew it was important to him and that he was playing with it. It obviously wasn't "just some stick" to Trevin. And it wasn't even his wand-it was Kaydin's. This is how sweet my kids are: Trevin is crying and all kinds of upset because Kaydin doesn't have a wand and he doesn't want Kaydin to be mad at him. Rylynn stomps home and announces she will never play with that girl again-she won't play with someone who is mean to her brother! Kaydin gives Trevin a hug and tells him it's ok and he is not mad. For his part, Kaydin was all for egging and toilet-papering their house. I obviously dissuaded him from doing so (but it was hard, because in my secret heart, I WANTED TO DO THE SAME THING! HOW GROWN UP IS THAT?) But I love that my kids look out for each other and care about their brother and sister's feelings. Only 4 more weeks of school! I can remember being a kid, and that last day of school. It was so exhilarating to finally be FREE for 3 whole months, but also a little sad that you were leaving that teacher behind, and there was always that possibility that a friend would move away over the summer and you wouldn't see them again. But I love having the kids home. We are a little lazy, more relaxed. Swimming and camping and just hanging out. That's what I'm talking about! Ok, I feel sufficiently tired now. It's 3 am. Time to catch some Z's. Hope you have enjoyed this random blog entry, courtesy of my insomnia!