Saturday Morning

I bought Kevin a DVD of Hercules last night. This morning, I turned it on while he ate breakfast. Except... he never did eat breakfast! Even though he has a sticker activity book in front of him, he wasn't paying much attention to that either. His attention was totally absorbed on the movie. In the end, the milk inadvertently ended up on the floor spilling on several pieces of the fort he was building with his construction set (you can see some blue pieces). sigh...

What a cutie! And I had to say goodbye after we had lunch on the sunroom with Daddy.

Sleeping

I checked on the sleeping Kevin, and look what I found!!! How did James get up there??? (Kevin's bed is high like a bunk, but is a fort beneath with slide and ladder to the top.) You can see that gankie is back in bed with him (he stopped using it for a couple of months after Mommy died!), but he no longer sucks his thumb. Now that he has permanent teeth, the dentist told him that he had to stop sucking.

When Kevin awoke Saturday morning at 6 AM, he crawled in bed with me, and James followed!

Frog Night

At dusk, Kevin and I walked over to the frog pond about half a mile away. We heard plenty of croaking and saw some swift movements here and there. We also found eyes peeking out of the murky water.

As nighttime approached, there was a loud chorus of croaks!

On the way home, we saw lots of fireflies in the woods and then three tiny toads along the sidewalk near home!

Fun Dinner

Kevin and I took Heather out to her favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner. While we were waiting for our meal, I noted a pretty purse with hearts. Then I saw who was sitting in the chair with the purse -- Mrs. Miles!!! Kevin and I walked over to their table and stood there silently waiting for them to notice us. Ha!
They were there with their small group from church. Karin and Steve used to be in their group.

Finally a Warm Day!

It has been cool and rainy most of the week. Today was finally a swim day at Heather's pool! Yay!
Kevin is learning to be a little fish! I was so pleased to see his swimming progress.



Another little 5 year old was there with us. We had fun playing with a ball until it was no longer fun and two 5 year olds were whining and complaining. No pictures of the ballgame, because I was the referee.
Heather threw Kevin in the water repeatedly, then Kevin carried Heather around the pool.




We came home to have hotdogs on the sunporch. Heather mentioned that Kevin recently told her that he never wants to forget things about his Mommy, and she felt badly that she has no stories to tell. I am full of stories about his Mommy, and he does hear them from me! The highlight of the meal was dipping strawberries in vanilla yogurt. Yum!

Shopping

Kevin is outgrowing his clothing and needs some larger sizes. Steve sent Heather and me on a shopping trip today to find some more grown up shirts and clothes. We came home with a couple of bags full!
While standing in line at Chick-Fil-A at the mall, a Preschool mother said, "Hi, Nina!" I turned around and there was one of Karin's good friends with her boy, Ben, who was in Kevin's class. So we sat together for lunch and caught up on the kids' activities. Just as they were ready to leave to pick up Ben's sisters, I thought to snap a picture for the blog! ha!

Strawberry Shortcake

Kevin has a book "Cook-A-Doodle-Doo" which is a take off on The Little Red Hen making a "magnificent strawberry shortcake" with the recipe included. So we made it tonight. He does a very good job in the kitchen!!!



It truly is a magnificent strawberry shortcake!

The Country Singer

How would Karin react to this?!!! Steve had subdued his affection for country music during their marriage, but it is now full blown and Kevin is quite enjoying it as well. Steve even took Kevin to a Taylor Swift concert recently!
While we ride in the car, Kevin sings at the top of his lungs knowing almost every word. Today, he and Heather were singing along with the radio.

Bartlet

Bartlet puppet shows are presented every Wednesday and Thursday mornings. Karin used to take Kevin as often as they had the time available, though Preschool interfered greatly in the past three years. It has never worked out that I could attend one of these shows, but today was the day! Those who wish to, can drop a letter to Bartlet in his mailbox, and all letters are read at the end of the show. Kevin drew a two-sided picture (which he called a "card") for Bartlet and composed this note which I penned for him: "Dear Bartlet, I think your show is great! I hope you have a nice day. Love, Kevin" (in his own signature). Two little friends of Heather's joined us for the outing.
Below, Bartlet is complaining about his bad hair day in the rain. Kevin's blonde head and light blue shirt can be seen at the edge of the stage.

The story for the month of June is "The Little Red Hen." Children are chosen to come up on stage to assist in the telling of the story. Each is given a puppet or simple costume for acting out their part. It was a very entertaining story with good involvement, yielding a valuable double lesson that hard work and helping others is rewarding.

Then it was time for the mailbox, and guess who was chosen as the Mailman?!!! Initially, I wasn't sure what was going to happen as he was tongue-tied when asked his name. Once he got "Kevin" out, he relaxed and did GREAT! Later he told us that he had never been on Bartlet's stage before!!!

As the Mailman, he held the letters while Miss Polly took one at a time and read it to Bartlet.

The second letter Miss Polly took from the stack was Kevin's, because he placed it on the top. He could hardly contain himself!!!

Miss Polly is opening the letter and card.

Miss Polly got to the bottom where she learned it was from Kevin!!! :)

She held the picture up for Bartlet to see. Bartlet was very pleased with the artwork. Kevin said, "I knew he would like it!"

Kevin is waving goodbye to Bartlet.

Then everyone gave Kevin a round of applause for doing such a good job!

The show ended with a rendition of Twinkle Little Star sung in a low key. This picture was snapped after Kevin began singing in a more comfortable range an octave higher, with his sweet little voice standing out in the crowd!

He continued to sing an octave higher. Unfortunately, it did not occur to me until the last line of the song that I should have been videoing it!!!

As we left the building, I told Kevin, "Your Mommy would have been SOOO proud of you today!" He replied, "She IS proud of me!"

Chores

Heather has created a chore list for Kevin. Feeding the cats each morning is one of the activities which awards him a sticker!

The Grave Marker

Karin's grave marker was installed on Friday. I am in NC to place flowers on her grave now that there is a vase for them. I checked it out Tuesday evening, saw that the grass still isn't growing (after complaining a month ago), thus mud has pooled on the granite slab. But the bronze plaque is gorgeous and impervious to both the mud and the cigarette butt the installer so rudely left behind. I stopped at Walmart for some grass seed as well as some flower arranging supplies.
This morning, Steve, Kevin, and I installed the flowers and spread some grass seed.

Hopefully, the rain that is to come the next few days will give the seed a good start.

Tinkerbell

Before lunch, we watched Tinkerbell. I have to admit, it is the worst/dumbest movie I have seen ever! I napped during most of it.

June 10 - A Milestone

Kien turned 2 June 6. June 10th is his Faulkner Gotcha Day which I celebrated by reminding everyone that one year ago, we (Steve, Karin, Kevin, and I) were in Vietnam. Karin and Steve rode out into the mountain country to adopt a darling boy and bring him back to the hotel where Kevin and I had been playing games all day. Kevin's response at seeing his new brother for the first time was, "I can't take my eyes off him. He is so cute." Kien couldn't take his eyes off Kevin either!



What a happy, happy family we were!!! Look at Karin's delight!

On the way home, we had a stopover in Dallas. Cathi and her kids came to the airport to greet Kien. Look at the expression on Cathi's face as she meets, for the first time, Kien who will be her baby! :) Little did any of us know what was going to transpire in 6 months! Karin was delighted that they got up so early to meet Kien! It was a God thing!



At home:




Regularly, I run into people who do not know our tragic story and the ramifications of it. Today, it was an associate doctor in my regular doctor's clinic. My problem: an abscessed finger from being cut by a large popcorn-type can -- a freebie for buying Guinness's food. Of course, she asked about my last tetanus shot. I did not know when it was, but I told her that it was still effective a year ago right now when I was in Vietnam. She asked why, then asked how the adoption is working out. Oh, my... She was traumatized. "I don't know what to say. That is so tragic." I have not developed an appropriate brief response to that reaction. I am speechless as well. The babies are doing well. The rest of us are recovering, but there is a long way to go.