Sunset

The other night we were getting ready to eat dinner and the sun was setting. M has trained Buddy to always point out sunsets that he likes. I grabbed the camera and took this picture to see if it would turn out. This picture is looking out from the backyard of our house.

March Showers Bring April Flowers

One of my favorite times of year is April because of the tulips. I should have attached a wedding picture in my previous post showcasing the gorgeous tulips on our wedding day. We were debating between getting married in April or June and having tulips in my wedding photos certainly helped sway my vote. I've never been a fan of how *we* look in our wedding photos, but the flowers certainly make up for the strange-looking subjects.

I have made it a tradition to visit the tulip festival here in Oregon every year. It's a win-win activity for us. I love the flowers and the boys love playing on the farm. We can hardly wait until next year!



And Luke got the answer right from our anniversary post, so I'll give him a prize when he's here in a few days!!! We've been married 11 years (did anyone catch my subtle hint in the title?), I was 21 and G was 23. And we've gained a combined total of 50 pounds, give or take. I've gained by far the most, in case you were curious.

Steel

Today we celebrated our anniversary.

We celebrated like any old-timer married couple does: tball practice, housework, yardwork, grocery shopping, wrangling children, dinner with the kids at Quiznos (fed all four of us for nine bucks thanks to some fancy coupon-work), and hosting a game night for fellow adoptive parents in our area. G was thrilled about that.

The main thing is, we love each other and are still best friends after all these years.

Please leave a comment guessing how many years we've been married. And how old you think we were when we tied the knot. And if you can guess how much combined weight we've gained since then, I'll mail you a prize.

The Day I Succumbed to Peer Pressure

I said no, so the neighbor offered to pay for Buddy. I couldn't have that, so I caved. And Buddy was thrilled, which was worth it, I guess.

Our Naturalist

nat·u·ral·ist

noun
a student of natural history ; especially : a field biologist

I've mentioned here before that Buddy is a great lover of creatures. He's been like this since he was very young and his passion has intensified as he's gotten older.

He usually spends his quiet time every afternoon studying his "animal papers" as we call them. He reads well enough and understands maps well enough to learn quite a bit about each animal like their proper names, where they live, what they eat, how big they are.

Animal papers all over the floor after quiet time.

The bin that holds the rest of the animal papers. Every time I see this mess I thank my aunt, the giver of the animal papers.

He often takes on the personality of an animal and considers it a great compliment if you tell him he looks like a hawk, runs like a cheetah, or is tough like a mountain lion. (And yes, he knows that a mountain lion and a cougar are the same. And yes, he wants to be a BYU Cougar some day. GOOD BOY!) Yesterday I went to let him out of quiet time and he had transformed himself into a tiger.

He started t-ball yesterday and the most thrilling part of the whole experience is that they are calling the team "The Snakes." He claims it was his suggestion. I wouldn't be surprised.

For Easter my cousins gave him a new "Vanishing Species" book that he has been reading like crazy ever since. He is quite concerned that the animals in the book could soon be extinct.

He gets extremely upset if someone harms an animal, even unknowingly. Like when he asked all the neighbors in our last neighborhood who ran over the smashed and dead lizard he found in the road. (That was probably six months ago and just yesterday he told me he still misses the lizard. He didn't even know that lizard until he found it dead and tried to nurse it back to health by building it a nest, finding it food, and checking on it throughout the day. Finally G threw the thing away so we could get on with our lives.) And like the other day when he literally yelled at our new neighbor for accidentally slamming a tree frog in her front door. (He has no idea we have a dead bird problem in our backyard. We don't dare tell him for obvious reasons. He'd be terribly upset and he'd try to bring the birds back...)

One of his favorite places in the whole world is the wildlife refuge down the road from our house. It's a really beautiful place and we go there as often as we have time. We went last week when grandma and grandpa were in town. We left grandma and great-grandma at the top near the parking lot with Sambo and Buddy and I set of to explore for a few minutes. A few minutes turned into over an hour because we ran into a volunteer "naturalist." Before that day I had no idea what a naturalist was. But from all observations (mine and the guy's), Buddy is definitely one. The guy had a bird guidebook and let's put it this way, we'll be picking the same one up soon. (Buddy suggested it for his 5 1/4 or 5 1/2 birthday gift. I thought that was pretty clever. Too bad we don't give gifts for half-birthdays.) The naturalist taught us all sorts of interesting wildlife facts. He walked with us and showed us where a beaver had chewed a tree at least 25 feet off the ground. Buddy was confused because "beavers don't climb trees." "Exactly!" the guy said, "That's how high the river was at one point." He told us where we could see a big turtle sunning itself, helped us know the difference between an egret and a heron, taught us a lot about eagles and hawks, and he told us to get some binoculars and start using them in our backyard when I told him we see red-tailed hawks on a daily basis. And that was only the tip of the iceberg. Buddy was practically frantic having such a wise resource at his fingertips. (I'm not very smart, you know.)

So when we got home G reminded me we do have some binoculars. And this morning when Buddy spotted a bald eagle while he was eating breakfast, I sprang from the kitchen and found them. I didn't used to be an animal lover. But there is something just amazing and inspiring about watching an eagle or hawk flying over our home.

Every day Buddy asks me to print a couple pages from the Internet to color to add to a book he's been working on. Today after seeing the eagle through the binoculars, he added a bald eagle to his book. He colors the page carefully, then writes a few facts like what they eat on the adjoining page.

In a round-about way, he wrote his name and bald eagles eat other birds and fish.

I'm not sure what he'll be when he grows up: he still says Seaworld employee or an FBI agent. He's so well-suited for both, I honestly can't decide. What's your vote?

Happy Easter!

Scene: Dinner tonight

Buddy: I wish you would have taken me to the mall so I could tell the Easter Bunny that I want toy red-tail hawks and eagles in my Easter basket.

Me: Oh, well. Usually you just get-what-you-get in your basket. But the Easter Bunny is magic and he knows things you like. So I bet he'll bring you something really cool.

Buddy: He's not magic. He's a man dressed up.

Me: Yeah right! Why do you think that?

Buddy: Because a "bunny" is a small rabbit, and the Easter bunny is the same size as a man. He's just a man dressed up.

Me: Well than if he's not magic, how will he get into our house?

Buddy: He'll just open the door and walk in.

Me: Well, that won't work because I always lock all the doors.

Buddy: Well, I don't know how he'll get in then. I still hope I get a red-tail hawk, though.

(It was hard to bite my tongue and not mention that the Easter Bunny just bought a house and Easter falls too close to tax day. Therefore, he scrounges around for old candy and shops exclusively at the Dollar Tree.)

Sunshine

The sunshine has finally arrived in Oregon. Buddy has spent pretty much all waking hours outside riding bikes or looking for snakes with the neighborhood kids. And little Sambo has been tagging along trying to do everything the big kids are doing. We've taken several walks around the neighborhood with Sambo walking all by himself. One day he walked so long he fell asleep mid-bite in his highchair during lunch. And the next day after a long walk, he slept for 3.5 hours! Wish it was that easy to wear out his brother.


After a few days of 70+ degree weather, Buddy has turned pink and freckled and screams every time I touch his sunburned neck. And Sambo is already a golden brown and is sporting some sweet tan lines. Too bad the weather is turning back to rain probably tomorrow.

One Size Fits All

We bought this outfit for Buddy to wear to his adoption finalization/sealing BBQ when he was
8 months old.

Today Sambo wore the same outfit for the first time. He is 16 months old.

Growing

Today was Kindergarten Round-Up.

(everybody roll your eyes now)

For the last two years or so Buddy has asked me almost every day how much longer until he gets to go to school. I told him that he'd get to go when he was five.

On his fifth birthday (in November) he woke up, sized himself up in the mirror, and announced how excited he was to get to ride the bus to school that day. It wasn't easy to break the news that he had to wait almost a full year until September. He was devastated. I was relieved.

I dread this next part of my life. Waking up early. The chaos of the morning rush. Homework. Scheduling life around the school calendar. Getting to bed early. The drama of friends. The peer pressure. The phone calls from the school/other parents because of the things my child(ren) will inevitably do. But mostly, I dread being away from him, even if it's just a few hours a day. I remember my mom saying that she was always disappointed when summer was over and it was time for us to go back to school. That always meant a lot to me as a child, but boy do I know exactly what she was talking about now that I'm grown.

I opted out of preschool this year, which was a very good decision for us. And while I'm tempted to keep him home from Kindergarten, it would be for my benefit, and that's not right for him. This kid was made for school. The social experiences, the academia, he'll love it all.

So the two of us went to register today. I didn't really know what to expect, but Buddy was excited. He'll be attending a brand new school that is still under construction, so registration was at the police station. When we arrived, Buddy got to take a school bus ride over to the new school and around the surrounding neighborhood. Who needs Disneyland because from the buzz on the bus, this was pretty much a dream come true for all the children riding. Since the school is still under construction, they got a "hard hat" with their school name and their class year. Class of 2022! They got to plant a sunflower and they were told to watch the sunflower grow and when it gets super tall and blooms, then it's time for school to start. Some volunteer teenagers read the kids the "Kissing Hand" and then they made a kissing hand that their teacher will put on their desk on the first day of school, so they can remember their mom and dad if they get lonely at school. (Buddy won't, but it's really cute anyway.) We mingled with a few friends from church and the neighborhood which was fun too. But the best part (besides the bus ride) was how Buddy attracted the attention of the many staff that were there. He is charismatic and can work a crowd better than anyone. He got the attention of the principle who knelt eye-level and talked with him for ten minutes. And several teachers approached him and said they were told "they had to meet him." Interestingly enough, just yesterday he told me he was worried that the kids at his school wouldn't like him. I don't that will be an issue.

It makes me sick to start this big phase of life, but he's ready and he needs to continue to develop his talents and personality. As awesome as I am, he couldn't totally do that stuck at home all day. The further I get into parenting, the more I realize that it's not really about me.

In related news, I took the boys to the science museum today with several friends. We were just there about a month ago. And while Sambo was walking then, he wasn't sure enough about himself to really wander around and play. But today was another story. It was surreal to see him walk away from me to look at something, to watch him splashing in the water, and to see him handling the learning toys. As much as I hate to admit it, I think he stopped being a baby today.