Laina's month.

Laina was born in December. But for me, her month is July. We saw her picture in July for the first time and July was the month that I knew we would be going to meet her soon and checked on the internet every day for news about when the referrals would be coming in for the babies. July 2005 is now 3 years in the past, and Laina is a very dynamic force in our family. So for the month of July, I will be posting about Laina. I'll add some in about Min, too. Her month is November, so you'll have to wait for her month to have her details.

Laina--the source the most frustrating frustrations and the happiest joys.

The dread pirates Plum

My nephew had his 4th birthday on Sunday. It was a pirate party and we were invited. Unfortunately we couldn't attend, so we had to send birthday greetings from afar. Here are our little Pirates giving their cousin some pirate greetings.





I told Min to look "Mean" and "Tough". This is what she came up with. Now, you're all terrified by her mean toughness, aren't you? Oooooohhhhh Shaking in my boots.....



Laina shows you her Pirate tattoos. Thanks Dollar Tree!!


Shiver Me Timbers, it's the dread Pirate Min, waiting to plunder your treasures. Yeah, right.

Just because...

Our beautiful girls...






About a week after we came home, we went to the beach with our friends Gisi and Moni. The girls were in the bike trailer that we converted into a stroller with the push bar. This was the first time the girls had shared close quarters for a length of time and they did great. Min and Laina now enjoy being towed behind the bike on the way to the park or some other place. When we're riding bikes, they'll have their helmets on, but since they were being pushed like a stroller, they didn't need helmets.

Two little piggies playing in the mud...

I got home from running errands and I had to put the groceries away. Laina asked if she could play outside in the back yard. I told her she could, and Min followed. I heard the water for the hose turn on. No big deal, they play in the hose and inadvertently water the lawn, so it's a win-win situation. I put away the food things and go to the window and I'm met by this:








The pink dress that Laina has on has been washed 3 times and the mud still hasn't come out. I don't think it ever will.

I let them continue playing after I stripped them down to panties. They played happily for about 45 minutes and then I had to carry them inside and shower them clean. Then I forbade them to play in the mud without permission. Punishment will be being hosed off by the garden hose instead of a warm shower. So far it's working.

My 7 minutes of Fame.

A few years ago I sent in some pictures of my mosaic coffee tables for consideration on a new show for HGTV. The program director liked them and contacted me and a few weeks later a camera crew was in my garage filming me make a table. Here's the result:



I don't think anyone really watched the show when it aired, but it was fun to do.

HELP, my baby's pregnant!!!

So the other day I was sitting on the sofa and I heard Laina yelling from her bedroom, "Mom!! Hey MOM!! I'm going to have a baby".

"WHAT!!" I yelled back.

"I'm gonna have a baby, come see!"

I grabbed the camera and went to see what was going on.

I was greeted by my lovely daughter, definitely pregnant. She also seemed to be all ready to lactate, but it could be the angle and the lighting.



She looked pretty happy about things and was handling the labor well.


At last the happy moment approaches. Yes, we can see the first glimpse of the joyful arrival making it's way into the world.





Hooray here he is!! It's a boy and he's purple!!! Happy Birthday Purple Bear!!



As long as we stick to pulling Purple Bears out of our shirts for the next 25 years or so, we'll be doing just fine.

You want Sugar Plums? I

I've got 2.