Now A Family of *gulp* Six.

There is a couple at church, Kelly and Frank, who attended the same "new member potluck class" that we did, and subsequently joined the church the same time we did. They have an, oh, maybe 6-year-old girl. Soon after Christmas Kelly approached us to announce that she and Frank had decided to adopt from Guatemala and they knew we'd be especially pleased for them. We kept up-to-date with them, and Kelly told me two weeks ago that they were fifth on the list for a girl, and they hoped to get a referral at the end of August or start of September. Today in church Frank got up to make the wonderful announcement - while they had been fifth on the list, a woman in Guat. approached their adoption agency and wanted to choose a family for her newborn daughter. She reviewed the first four families available, but picked Frank and Kelly when she read their information. They will be traveling next week to meet their new daughter, and hope to have her home by the end of the year. The ...

Family camp was successful again this year; most notable was the arrival of my brother and niece, who we hoped would show but didn't really believe would. We arrived right before lunch on Friday and settled in. Roman immediately got to playing with Megan (6 years) and Justin (hmm.. 9, I think). Gradually people continued to arrive throughout dinnertime. Roman did not want to sleep Friday night and eventually, with much high-pitched yelping to get attention, fell asleep on my dad's lap in front of the fire around 10:15pm. Not to be outdone, my niece had a nightmare around 1am and woke a good portion of us with her screaming and sobs. Saturday was spent at the beach. Family VE and S headed down around 10am. Roman refused to go in the lake, and preferred to play with his big plastic train, bucket, and shovel along the water's edge. Niece, brother, and husband dove right in! All the kids received kites to fly at the beach and Doug enjoyed doing that. The afternoon brought some ...

When Mama picked me up from daycare today, she asked what I ate for lunch. I told her, "applesauce... and beans." She asked if that was it. I explained to her that there was chicken on my plate but I did not eat it. She asked why I didn't eat chicken. I told her the following: "Real chickens are from farms. They are for looking and petting... looking and petting only. Real chickens have... um... uh... mama chickens and baby chickens, on the farm. That's why, you can't eat real chickens. They are on farms."

Among the many things that frustrate me, recently traffic and construction is at the top of my list. It's not the amount of traffic in Metro Detroit that bothers me, although sometimes that gets bad. It's the speed limits. For some reason, generally Detroiters drive 5-7 miles SLOWER than the speed limit. For those of us who go the speed limit (or 4 miles above it, as I do) this is beyond frustrating. The main roads around my home are 45 mph. Consistently, since spring, I have noticed I do no faster than 40; usually closer to 38. And today I noticed that the higher the limit is, the slower people drive. I was on a road whose limit was 50; cars were doing - no joke - 35 mph. 35! This is, partly, due to traffic lights - my next complaint. Why do people slow down for green lights? You slow down for yellow lights, you maintain your speed for green lights. Wasn't this taught in driver's training? Gads, there's nothing more irritating then clicking along at my 38 mph to...

We've been busy doing nothing, which is the way I like my summers. Traipsing here and there... art fair in my hometown for a weekend, local pools, and getting ready for camping. Trying to find lots of air conditioning this week! What's been going on... Roman finished his swim class on Monday - Daddy even got to go to watch. Roman was in a strange mood, and didn't really want to cooperate with class. He told me later that he didn't want to do practice by himself anymore, but he'd gladly do it again with Mama in the water. So I did sign him up for the next round of classes. On this last class, I began to chat with a woman who had a little boy about Roman's age. Turns out their son is just 2 weeks younger than Roman. And - of all things - the woman is originally from Russia! We both marveled at that connection, when she told me she'd been in country for 12 years and I explained that Roman was from Russia. We did exchange phone numbers but I think we're...

The event I'm most proud of first - Roman completed a 50 minute swim class all on his very own, without Mama in the pool! They started in the shallow end, went to the deeper area where the kids hung on to the side of the pool when not with an instructor, and then back to the shallow end. Roman asked for me a couple times at the beginning, once in the deeper spot, but then he realized what a thrill it was to be all on his own. We were so proud, we went out for ice cream tonight. THEN, we had a potty talk. Roman had 2 accidents while at daycare today - that's unacceptable. He knows better. So we told him he was going all the time, when Mama or Daddy decided, and he could not have any control over when we took him. He had a hard time with this - he certainly understands "control" and "being in charge." But he pottied 3 times, and with a good scream and cry, actually went #2 in the toilet tonight before bed. Of course, Daddy and I were sitting on the side of...

For a brief moment, that was me. Monday morning, July 10. Me, the best mom in the world. But then I wouldn't do what Roman wanted me to... and I was "not a good mom." Roman is much like his Mama was (still is?!).... into control and being in charge. And it's fast developing that Roman loves a good argument, especially one that has no point and no ending.... the classic "is not!" "is too!" So yesterday morning I asked Roman to take his jammies off, so we could get dressed and go to the train museum (Henry Ford). Believe it or not, this simple request took 45 minutes. He tried everything... "I can't!" while standing still as a statue.... "See, it won't work!" while acting like his arm was stuck in his sleeve... fooling around with toys... getting a book out.... and finally, asking me to help him. I told him he was a big boy and could do it himself. He thought for a minute, smiled up at me and said, "You're the ...

Roman can be summed up in a couple of phrases. "Watch this!" and "Look at me!" We keep forgetting that everything is still new to him. He finds delicious pleasure in being surprised by things - something that squirts, or flicks, or makes a funny noise when you least expect it. Roman is going to be the jokester and we have had to work hard to keep our senses of humor when he's screwing around, remembering that he's performing for us to get us to laugh. He will do all kinds of things for a laugh and I think we squish that sometimes by getting annoyed. A prime example - food. He will play and experiment and mix and squelch and pile and pinch everything on his plate if we let him. Tonight he had thick & creamy yogurt (don't dare get the generalized smooth kind) and would put some on the edge of his tongue, form an "O" with his mouth, and push his tongue (with yogurt) in and out of his mouth... just cuz he could and it felt funny. The other n...

During quiet time and in the evenings I have begun scrapping again. Purely digital, although some paper-pages will be forthcoming as well. The following is one of my favorites: I have been dying to use some of the papers from a "vintage" pack that I downloaded. It turned out pretty neat. To see some of the other layouts that have kept me busy, go here now.