Our Granddaughter for 68 Days

Aria Mai Faulkner on her adoption day, November 13, 2008, in Vietnam.

Aria Grace Thomas on her First Last Day of School, May 25, 2010.

Isn't she adorable?! The princess Karin wanted her to be! Next week, Aria and Kien will both turn 3!!!

Aria's Mom writes a witty, comical blog well worth reading! http://twoinayear.blogspot.com/

Mother's Day Cards

About time I posted them!

Two cards here from the budding artist, Kevin (though there were MANY more!), and a beautiful scrapbooked type card from my brood in Texas along with their gift of garden stones with each grandchild's name (already blogged)!


And I have to include Guinness's card to me! :) Stamped by his thoughtful keepers at the pet hotel.


Kevin made this "poster" at school for his Grandma! :)

Grandma Went Home

Daddy arrived home after Kevin and I were sound asleep. This morning, Kevin awakened before sleepy Daddy, very early. We hugged and rocked, then he lay down on his bed and slept a bit more while I finished packing.

We had little time this morning to report on all Kevin had done during the week, but Daddy was very impressed with his son's mathematical abilities and amused by the note a teacher sent home in Kevin's lunch bag stating that Kevin would like to have Spaghettios one day (I packed them in his lunch the next day!). Grandma and Kevin hugged and kissed a dozen times saying goodbye. After Grandma left, they were going to prepare to go camping. What fun!

Aria's mother, Sarah, has joined the ranks of bloggers with witty accounts of her "Two in a Year" blog -- http://twoinayear.blogspot.com/
She wrote a post "To Some Mommies I Love" on May 8 which is very sweet. One of the Mommies described is Karin:
"Mommy K, whose grace, passion, and love for your children have surpassed this earthly life. Because of you, Chris and I were able to know true joy. I will forever be indebted to you. Your work here on earth enabled us to become a family. You are an angel."

It was one of those mornings... I was up at 6 AM, and Kevin awoke at 6:30 -- 1 to 1.5 hours early! I suggested he lie on the sofa, and I turned on the TV for him, hoping he would go back to sleep. He didn't, but he did relax. I fixed him scrambled eggs for breakfast and asked his opinion on lunch options. He said, "It is pizza Friday! I have to bring money." Fine. But he didn't know how much.

Once we were at school, I asked how much they needed. It is NOT pizza Friday. I told his teachers that I had to go to a dealership in the next town today to have Steve's car serviced (My idea to help him out!). If I went home then to make lunch, I would return during Circle Time. They assured me that was fine. So I ran home, made lunch, made the delivery, and headed for the dealership.

Since this is my last full day, I began gathering my things including the multiple Mother's Day cards Kevin made for me. I thought this one with his phonetic spelling was especially cute --



I picked him up after school with everything we needed to head to Heather's apartment and pool. We stopped at McDonald's for a milkshake as an after school snack on a hot day.



It was a very fun afternoon which ended with taking Heather to dinner at a steak house.

School Work and New Friends

This morning, I awoke Kevin with a story I had recalled about being late once to pick his Mommy up from kindergarten. :\ I had gone shopping at Target and was stopped by a long, slow train on the way from the store to the school. She was traumatized. After that, I always made sure I had enough time to travel to school even if a train held me up! When I galloped into the school yesterday, made my apologies to the teacher, I then had to ask where Kevin was. He did not come running to me, scolding me, nor race to me delighted that I had finally shown up! He was sitting quietly on a cushion in a corner looking at a book. He gave the opposite reaction to what his mother had done! Then he proceeded to show his teacher and me what he was looking at in the book -- unusual.

As mentioned before, Kevin is learning to multiply! :-0 The "flashcards" from school he showed me are for multiplying single digits. He has been bringing home similar papers this week, but they made no sense to me. So I took yesterday's to his teacher this morning to ask what it meant, as it seemed to me Kevin was very confused. It was Grandma who was confused! These papers are about multiplying DOUBLE digit numbers with single digit numbers!!! Oh, my! I am so impressed!

This one is 89 times 1 = 89 (with a reversed 9), plus he has the graph paper upside down. But who cares if the paper is upside down or the number backwards?! He gets the concept!!!

This time he neglected to write times "2" and wrote the answer in the "wrong" boxes, but he has it right!

On this paper he reversed the number to be multiplied, so rewrote it and solved the problem perfectly! Note that he is also learning to write his name in cursive.

This afternoon, he brought home another multiplication paper. This time with a *triple* digit number multiplied by a single digit number! Wow!

Our children always loved seeing themselves in photo albums and on video, so I brought along with me a couple of family videos Karin had taken -- one of our trip to Walt Disney World in 2007 and one of Easter and Kevin's 4th birthday. I showed him the birthday one today. Unfortunately, Karin was the videographer of the family, so you hear her voice but rarely see her. He loved it so much that he wanted to see it again!

How often do two women meet in a park, one being about 25 years older than the other, each with a 6 year old boy, and trade emails to have a future play date? Then, when the older woman writes with a suggested day and time, the younger woman asks the grandma and child to dinner!!?? Well, that is what happened with Fabienne and me. It was a sweet visit! It must have been God-ordained.

After playing outside in their delightful, safe, and inviting surroundings, and having the typical ups and downs of 6 year olds, the boys sat down after dinner to watch TV.

Kevin and I had read his new Amelia Bedelia books this afternoon, and Kevin took them with us in the car. We spoke of them at dinner and explained who and how crazy she is. As we were driving away, Kevin saw them in the car and desperately wanted to go back to show his friend, but we had said our goodbyes and it was getting late. Tears ALL the way home... Ameilia Bedelia would be pleased to be so admired!

New Friends and Animal Life

Grandma spent the day housecleaning for Steve today. I don't clean my own house, so it gave me a workout. When I finished at 2:15, I lay down for a few minutes and set the kitchen timer for 30 minutes. I awoke at 3:10 -- 10 minutes late for picking up Kevin from school!!! I made a mad dash, praying to not be caught speeding and made it there in 5 minutes! Kevin did not seem upset, and the teacher was understanding. I had not met his afternoon teacher before, so in spite of already holding her up, she willingly chatted with me another 15 minutes.

Earlier, I had scouted out a city park very close to their new home under construction. It is huge with ballfields of every description plus two large playgrounds. We stopped there this afternoon for Kevin to check out the play areas. Families were arriving for a ballgame next to the playground, so he met and played with several kids.

Mr. and Mrs. Mallard seemed to have taken up residence next to the playground. Not a very safe place for babies. I hope they decide to move before it is too late!


This little tomboy is not quite 2 and is way too brave for her own good. Kevin took her under his wing and went down the slide with her several times.


The playground was not quite reckless enough for Kevin, so he made up his own daring acrobatics by climbing around and over the top barricades and jumping from high places.

Kevin is very comfortable in his skin in any situation. He went down to the ballfield and climbed up in the bleachers by himself and sat there watching the activity for many minutes. Then he and another new friend were trying to kill bees. ACH!!!

We left the park to have supper at a favorite Faulkner Family fast food restaurant: Chick-Fil-A. From there, we went to the favorite local frozen custard parlor for a banana split! Kevin's first!

We were close to his old neighborhood and I was curious to see the frog pond. It was almost dry! No frogs in sight, so we walked across the street and into the woods to see the lake. We heard croaking and began walking towards the sound when Kevin saw this --

From my Web searching, this seems to be a Copperhead! What say you, MLE? I have never seen one before and don't care to see one again!

Then we walked towards the croaking and saw a couple of heads sticking out of the water occasionally.

Africa and Antics

This morning, Kevin wanted me to stay with him for Circle Time at his Montessori school. As you may recall from several months ago, I discovered that Kevin was introduced to continents at school and he knew a song naming them all. This month, they are learning about Africa; today was discussion on Egypt. When shown a picture, Kevin was the first to identify King Tut (I have told him about King Tut). Something I learned today is -- why is Africa called The Dark Continent? Because it was the last continent to have electricity.

At lunchtime, I made up my Rotary meeting for this week by attending the local Rotary Club which met at the Y where we experienced World Vision's walk-through exhibit titled "Step into Africa" emphasizing the AIDS crisis. A phenomenal, heart-stirring experience!

After school, I informed Kevin that we had errands to run. Big tears. Oh, my... Our first stop was Old Navy to find some additional summer shirts and shorts. He left with the desired clothing plus a hula hoop and a big rubber bone for his new puppy. As I was paying for our items, I turned around to see Kevin kibitzing with the manikins! That is not a purse strap across the manikin; it is his hula hoop!!!

Once in the car, he admitted that it wasn't so bad after all. Easy for him to say!

Next stop was Sears for passport photos as his passport will expire in a few months. I wanted to gather all the information and documents I could to help Steve accomplish the task on time. No complaints about having his picture taken, but he did have trouble not smiling!

Then while I searched for vacuum bags, he bounced on mattresses. Oh, my...



Barnes & Noble was across the street, and Kevin still needed to spend his B&N birthday gift card from Uncle Greg and Aunt Cathi. He wanted to buy out the store! And Grandma couldn't refuse, so Grampy's pockets supplanted the deficit.

Last stop: McDonald's with a play area. But first, Grandma accidentally got on the highway and had to travel about 10 miles to get to the McDonald's across the street. Oh, my...

Then home, watched a home video of our Walt Disney World trip in 2007 on Grandma's laptop (because I can't make the fancy, complicated TV equipment work... :\ ), bath, and bed.

Heather Day

After school, Heather (Kevin's nanny from a year ago) came to visit! We showed her the lot where Kevin's new house will be, took Kevin for a haircut,

and had dinner at Heather's favorite Mexican restaurant.

She fits with us like family! We love her. Like many, she is in a hard place right now... no job... Pray that she can find one!!!

Mother's/Grandmother's Day

This morning, Kevin wanted to eat his breakfast before giving me any presents. First, I opened the box from Greg, Cathi, and family -- heart shaped garden stones, each with the name of a grandchild including Kevin! He was very impressed! They will look lovely in my garden. I just hope stepping on them won't break them!!!

Then Kevin gave me a giant card,

plus paper flower, beaded butterfly keychain, and a wallhanging of grandma descriptions -- the funniest is -- "When my grandma is not taking care of me, and all of my needs, she likes to -- "bounce on the trampoline." :)

We went to their old church this morning and saw lots of friends. As was usual, we were the last to leave.

My request was to go to Bruegger's to pick up bagel sandwiches and Caribou Coffee drinks next door and go to a park for a picnic. As we walked out of Bruegger's/Caribou, an older couple spoke to Kevin, and I thought I recognized them from church as friends. But they were total strangers. ha! Kevin is always super friendly with anyone and everyone; he knows no strangers. The lady asked Kevin his name, and she said her name is Annarella, but everyone calls her Cinderella. I said, "Then we HAVE to take your picture with Kevin!"

Then they offered to take our picture.

Picnic time at the park.

Kevin is learning to swing across the monkeybars.

We met a little friend at the park. They had fun playing together on the play equipment, then playing hide and seek, and finally wandering away from us making us chase them. They stopped at a pool with pollywogs!


By the way, Daddy was telling me Friday night after I first arrived that Kevin is becoming very argumentative. He said that Kevin will take a position opposite Daddy's, even when he does not know much about it, just for the sake of argument. I said, we have a new potential occupation to add to Kevin's list: lawyer!

Speaking of intelligence, I am quite surprised at the curriculum that Kevin is leaning at his Montessori school at "kindergarten" level. He is learning cursive, his addition in his head is very, very good, plus he is learning multiplication!

We had to leave for Daddy to finish packing and catch his plane to California for the week. After dropping off Daddy, we bought some things at the grocery store including a fresh rose for Mommy on Mother's Day.

After setting it in place, Kevin asked what bird was in the tree near Mommy. It was a bluebird!!! Even though the bluebird is the state bird of two states where we have lived (Missouri and New York), this is only the second time I have seen a bluebird! The first was in Karin's backyard after coming home from Vietnam with Kien. I told Kevin that it was "the bluebird of happiness" -- Mommy was happy that we brought her a fresh pink rose. (photo from the Internet!)

Big Day

This morning, I noted that Kevin is developing freckles on his cheeks and nose!!! Mommy had lots of freckles and Daddy has them too. I told Steve that it is uncanny how Kevin has picked up their genes by osmosis! He has their freckles, Mommy's ability to structure life, and Daddy's looks and blond hair.

Mid-morning, some of Daddy's single friends met at a strawberry patch very close to their old house.



Kevin and I picked two big baskets full!
Kevin had fun playing on this tractor and eating his homemade ice cream from the driver's seat.


Steve announced to Kevin on Kevin's birthday last month that they would get a golden retriever puppy. Today, we drove to the breeder's house to see ten five week old puppies. Kevin wanted me to write up this story for him as he dictated (basically) it to me: << We saw the mommy, Bebe, first looking over the gate. When we went upstairs, we saw ten little puppies running all around their pen.

The mommy entered the pen and the puppies ran to her for a drink. The puppies climbed over each other to get to their mommy.

The lady picked up a puppy for Kevin to hold. Kevin carried it to the couch and cuddled the puppy until he started to fall asleep in Kevin's arms. He was very soft, and Kevin said, "I want this puppy and I know he wants me.">>






I thought that we were there to pick a puppy, but the breeder selects the dog that is right for each family.
As we were leaving, Bebe was very sad to see us go!

Kevin wanted to meet some of the breeder's other dogs. She took us downstairs where there were three females.
Kevin's story continues: << When we went downstairs, we met three more dogs and a Cockatiel. Kevin played with the three big dos and they loved Kevin! Kevin sat on the couch and the three big dogs got on top of him and licked him. Then one got off, then another got off, then the third one got off.


Kevin helped to pull hair out of the shedding dogs and gave it to the lady until she had a fist full of hair. Daddy left a downpayment and the lady said we could come back Memorial Day weekend to pick up the puppy. >>

These acts are a testament to Kevin's character:

Daddy left us late afternoon (with the car) for a night out with friends. I suggested that we walk to a MacDonalds nearby. On the way, he saw Courtney's across the street -- one of our favorite breakfast/brunch places. He wanted to go there. I ordered a Tilapia green salad, and he ordered a pasta, but he ate most of my Tilapia! This kid has class!

After dinner, we walked along the lake next to their apartment. He saw a soda can and a chip bag a few feet away. He wanted to pick them up, but I tried to persuade him that we could not clean up the trash without a bag to put it in. He used his ingenuity and placed the can in the chip bag. A few feet farther on the path, there was a trash can. He is always concerned about everything being in its place (except his toys...).

Then he proceeded to pick up treasures to bring home: leaves, sweet gum ball, pinecone, and rocks. He was limited in bringing home only what he could carry, though he eventually stuffed the rocks in his pocket to be able to carry the pinecone. I suggested he put them on the balcony. Here he is very neatly arranging his prizes.