the little white one

I thought we'd had our excitement for the week when the kids proudly showed me their T-shirt cereal bowls (though admittedly, they look more guilty than proud in the pictures in the post below), but no sir. We had even more excitement on Thursday.

Around 4pm, Ibra came to me in the kitchen - gagging slightly and clearing his throat. "Mommy? Ahem....can I - uh-uh-UM- have a glass of water? Ah-ahem. The thing is in my throat."

Somewhere in the back of my mind, a small flag begins to wave. "What thing?" I ask.

"The little white one that I swallowed."

The flag is flying high now, and I'm taking mental inventory of every little white thing that we have (or had) in our house. Tylenol? No, we're an Advil family. A breadcrumb? Possibly - I hadn't swept in a whole 2 hours, so maybe he found something? But he was looking somewhat somber, so maybe it was something a little more serious. So I ask him to show me where he found it, and he points to the Lego box.

Oh. You're kidding.

But he wasn't. As it turns out, he was merely holding a little white plastic something in his mouth when his sister told him to swallow it. Which he did. So you see, Mommy, it's really all her fault. About that time, Suma hears that she has been implicated and races in to clear herself, "Not me! You get an operation! Me no go to doctor. You in trouble, me no in trouble!" 

Ok, no need to panic. Having a "little white one" floating around his stomach does not mean he needs an operation, but we probably should make some effort to find the "little white one". Whatever it looks like.

After a few attempts at trying to tell me how small it is (was?), he decided that it would be helpful to make a model of it out of play-doh. Props for that, little man.  

Since then, we've had a few conversations about what is NOT food but still ok to eat. 

Suma: Vitamins! Toothpaste! Toothbrush!

Ibra: Quiche!

And maybe we've uncovered the root of the issue right there....

:)

it's not even 8am...

I've always known that I can be a little task-focused. If something catches my attention, it catches ALL of it.

Which is why this happened this morning. Even though I was sitting right next to them.

Yes, that is cereal in the fold of their shirts.

Yes, they are pouring milk over said cereal.

And yes, they ate most of it before I pulled myself away from whatever it was that I was reading. It's not even 8am, friends, so I think we have time to clean up and get to something more productive. Like getting bowls out of the cabinet.

mother's day

Last Mother's Day, Andrew and I were still waiting to receive a referral from our adoption agency. We had no idea who our kids were, what they looked like, when we'd hear about them, where they were living or whether they were even born yet. We prayed constantly for them - that the Lord would watch over them, comfort them, and bring them home soon. We rejoice as we consider how different today is from Mother's Day last year, and we thank the Lord for His gifts to us.

We started celebrating Mother's Day on Friday with a tea at my grandma's home. Snacks, lemonade, big hats and having Mia and Grandma to themselves sent both kids over the top!

She is such a little lady!

Hats are not only for girls.

On Friday evening, the doorbell rang and Andrew brought a rather large box inside. Flowers! (And a box to play with Saturday morning!)

After church this morning, we stopped by to get some balloons for the kids. With all this talk about moms this weekend, we wanted to include their Uganda mamas and dedicate something special for them. So! Each kid chose a balloon at the store. It was a hard task - what color do they think that their Uganda mama would like? We looked at balloons with stars, pearlized balloons, happy birthday balloons, and finally settled on two that they liked. We came home, thanked God for their mamas, and let the balloons go into the sky. We stood in the backyard and watched as the balloons disappeared into the clouds together. 

*No sea turtles were harmed in the releasing of these balloons because the balloons went straight to Uganda...

seen and heard

Or, "why driving around with kids completely cracks me up"


Suma: lalalalala-lallow baby!
Ibra: Swallow a baby?!
Suma: Swallow a baby, swallow a baby!
Me: Suma...I think the song is saying "awesome in power" (Jeremy Camp)
Suma (unfazed): Swallow a baby, awesome! Whale, awesome! Swallow a baby! In power, Jesus! lalala-lallow! Whales swallow babies, going to swallow you, Mommy!

Also heard....

Ibra: Mommy, what's this?
Me: Um...Tony Evans.
Ibra: What he is doing? He is angry?
Me: No, he's passionate. And he's preaching.
Ibra: *huge smile on his face* Shhh - I LIKE this one!
(as we pull in to Target)....No, Mommy! Don't open the door - I am listening!

Ha, little man knows good preachin' when he hears it!

hair care

When we first met our daughter, Sumaya, she had a very close-cropped hair cut. Her home kept all of the babies' hair short, and at first I chalked it up to it being a cultural thing. But after 4 months of caring for this little girl's hair, I discovered the real reason for their little, nearly-bald heads: it's so much easier!

What auntie could sit down with every child to wash their hair, detangle it, moisturize it, style it, etc? Even if they did it once a week, do you know how LONG it would take the poor aunties? Forever. That's how long. Not to mention how it would strain their voices (and their nerves) to tell these little babies not to rub their heads on the floor, the dirt, the couch...stop playing with the clips, and for heaven's sake, stop touching each other's hair.

Case in point: a precious 2.5 year old named Sumaya. 

I confess that for the first 2 months, I didn't do anything to her hair. Nothing. It was short, it was great, no big deal. But then her hair started to grow. And grow. And grow.

So now, we're 6 months into this raising a daughter thing, and I realize that if I want to avoid looks from other mamas about why my child looks so unkept, I better do something. Problem is, I have no idea what to do with curly hair - mine has never held curl for more than 4 hours tops (even when professionally done). So I hear that curly hair is so different, and I have a lot of questions: How often should I wash it? What do I put in it? How do I learn to fix it - without taking cosmetology classes at the junior college, please. Can I use rubber bands? No? Ok, then where can I find some of those soft cloth rubber bands? Oh, Target doesn't have them...um, where do I go?

Fortunately, I found a blog called Chocolate Hair / Vanilla Care that I sat down and read for several consecutive nap times one week. It's fabulous!

So, I'm starting to try some styles on Suma's hair, and I thought it would be fun to post them. They're not great, but they'll be fun to look at when (theoretically) I've gotten better at this in 6 or 12 years. :) 

Attempt #1
March 2012

This was the first attempt at her hair, and I think her face says it all (sorry, girl). The parts aren't remotely straight, the poofs (if you can see them) are different sizes, and the twists are too loose to stay for more than 20 minutes. Fail.

The second attempt at this style was much better - the parts were more defined, the poofs were closer to the same size, twists were tighter and held for a few days before they got frizzy. Yay!

Attempt #2
April 2012

I also tried out finger coils on her hair. They took exactly one viewing of "Robin Hood" to complete and needed touch-ups every day. But they were too cute, they were easy to do, and they didn't need any elastics.

Attempt #3
April 2012

We'll get there, yet!

Attempt #4, May 2012
Two-strand twists! They've gotten a little fuzzy, but they've lasted over a week!