Potty habits

We had to leave the park tonight because Luke needed to use the restroom. On the way home in the car he said, "Maybe I don't need to use the potty. My butt put the poop away."

Luke on Amtrak

question: Do you like riding on the train?
Luke: It's kind of annoying. You just sit and sit and sit.

Daddy: Do you want to watch a movie?
Luke: Let's just relax.

To a woman with fake nails: Your fingernails are too long. You should cut them.

The ride was L-O-N-G, about 18 hours with delays. It was easier than driving though because both of us could take care of the boys. We would have gotten more sleep, but there was a severely disabled child who yelled "AAAH" at ten second intervals for what seemed like hours at a time through the night. It was incredibly frustrating. Aaron managed to throw toys over the back of our seat a couple of times, startling the sleeping passengers behind him.

Zoo, Spotty Internet

Our Internet service has been going in and out for the last couple of days and no repairman until tomorrow (and that's if we're lucky). We're leaving tomorrow night for Cincinnati to jump on the Amtrak at 3:30 a.m. to go to the east coast to visit Rich's family. It feels like the last hurrah of summer. We'll probably won't post to the blog as much as usual for the next week or so.

Yesterday Meghan and I took a slew of kids to the zoo....Luke, Aaron, and Raha, plus Zachariah and her step daughter Madison. Aaron is finally able to fully appreciate the train and he grinned and giggled through the ride. Raha surprised me by asking several times if the animals were real - with the rhinos, pygmy hippos, and reptiles - which really reminded me of just how limited his experience is sometimes. He was a hoot though, so excited that he easily took 100 photos through the day of all the animals. I'll post some pics of the day when I get a chance around packing and travelling. We had so much fun that we're planning another trip to the zoo before the school year starts, but next time to visit the Australia section and the splash park.

It's the middle of the night and I'm tired and cranky. As usual there are more things I want to do than there are hours in a day. Tomorrow morning I meet with a group of baby teachers to talk about classroom management related to science modules and math investigations. Nice group of teachers and I get to do it with my friend Sabeen, so maybe it is worth being up past midnight to prep?

Speech with Austin & Misc

The camera re-appeared!! Aaron put it in Meghan's diaper bag (much better than the diaper pail where he put the video camera).

Aaron was tired and easily distracted at speech tonight. He'd had a short nap and a bad fall that scraped up his face. Austin read a Sesame Street Book and looked at picture cards with Aaron. He's definitely saying "eye" and when she showed him a picture of a flower he ran to it and blew on the card. Funny because that's what we tell him to do instead of pick flowers.

Aaron was most excited about Zachariah so he was the focus of the speech session for about 10 minutes. He still pets the baby's head and coos and him -- the big change is that Zachariah smiles and coos back! We touched all of the baby's facial features, and played with his toes and fingers, and patted his knees. Aaron was a little teary when Zachariah had to leave, but very enthusiastic about waving bye-bye and blowing kisses. I didn't know that Meghan had taught him to blow kisses, and it's unbearably sweet.

He fussed and fumed and disrupted everyone at dinner before Rich figured out that he was asking us to take him downstairs to bed. It's much more peaceful now, although Luke is tired and overly emotional tonight too.

Rich and I went to a training on sexual abuse at St. Joe's this morning and it was great because we really just talked with Beth about potential issues and questions we had about raising Raha. She's wonderful because she's very earthy and warm, and has raised several adoptive children. I'm going to miss talking to her every week when we're done with classes. In the afternoon Rich and I took a PD session on MovieMaker -- great fun! I'm excited to use the fiction/non-fiction books I scan then use in math class. I'm going to set them to music and add narration, plus use the nice transitions between slides.

Question of the Day

Luke asked at dinner, "What color are my eyebrows when I'm really tired?"

New Anatomy

Luke has a new system for digestion: "I have one tank (pointing to his left ribcage) for food that makes us grow, and one tank (the right ribcage) for treats." Fortunately his ideas of nutrition are developing. He just told me that it's ok if the treat tank isn't full and that you can't fill up the food that makes you grow side with treats because you need that food. Luke suddenly looks so grown up to me. He's long and bony, and his face is still sweet but I can see just what he'll look at as a teenager. There's been such a big shift this summer.

Aaron the Tosser did a big one.....he found the camera and did something with it. Rich went through every bag in garbage, the recycling, the backyard, the toy bins, etc., but we still don't have a camera. We're hoping it turns up in some weird place, but it's hard to be optimistic at this point.

For some reason Aaron is more willing to imitate Raha than anyone else. He's made "la" and "vvvv" sounds for Raha in the last day, and he's waving bye-bye like a mad man.

Letter from Raha

Raha came upstairs a few minutes ago and dropped this in my lap:

Thank you for inviting me into your home. Many homes I have been in have gone wrong. I hope this time it works out. I feel like this will work out but I guess we'll find out sooner or later. I have been searching the world for the right family for me and I think I found it. So thank you. Love, R