Part Two: Who ARE Those Kids?

I am the single mother of six children. Some people are amazed by that fact. To me, it's just who and what I am. My oldest moved out last spring, so I only have five children living at home.

Yes, I can SEE you shaking your head at my use of the word only.

My three oldest children are biological. My three youngest are adopted. Three are boys and three are girls. Yes, I have my own Brady Bunch. *snort* Hardly. Otherwise I KNOW I would have an Alice. And a Mike. For the record, at this point I'd prefer an Alice. I hate housework.

If you want to know the story about HOW I became a single mother read this.

Some of you know my kids from when I wrote before. Others are getting introduced. After this post, you'll all be up to speed.

Trace

My oldest, Trace, is twenty-three now. He moved out last spring and into a condo with his girlfriend Cody and her four-year-old son Gauge. Trace works full-time at a pizza restaurant and is finishing his last semester of collage. He is eager to get out of the food service industry and begin a career.

His girlfriend Cody is the owner/creator of LuandEd She makes the cutest monster bags and tutus. Be sure to check her store out.

Ross

Ross just turned twenty. He lives at home and splits his time between working as an assistant manager at a convenience store and going to our local community college. His major is still undivided. He currently has a girlfriend. Ross lives in a man-cave, otherwise known as our basement, where he happily resides with the 50" plasma screen TV he bought last spring. Needless to say, I don't see a lot of Ross, but he often bring me Starbucks mochas. I think I'll keep him.

Julia

Julia is thirteen and now an eighth grader. Julia is into everything drama, whether it be in real life or on a stage. She just found out she got the lead role as Millie in her school musical, Thoroughly Modern Millie. She is in Show Choir (think Glee) and Honor Choir. Julia has a heart of gold and loves children. She is a much coveted babysitter. If only she liked watching her siblings as much as she enjoys watching other people's kids.

Jenna

Seven-year-old Jenna is a second grader. A product of the Disney Channel, Jenna is hip and sassy, but is actually more sensitive than I expected. She's a girly-girl through and through and would rather play with her American Girl doll than kick around a ball. Jenna is very social and love her friends.

Ryan

Ryan is now four and in Pre-K where he gets speech therapy. Ryan was born with a cleft lip and cleft palate, but they were repaired in China before we adopted him at two and a half. Ryan likes things neat and tidy. He loves nothing more than to boss people around and tattle on them when they don't follow the rules, which explains his nickname: Officer Ryan. When Ross isn't around (most of the time,) he is the only boy in a sea of estrogen. God bless him.

Emma

Three-year-old Emma is the baby. Since the day I met Emma at three months, she has always had a strong will. A character trait to be admired, most of the time, but not when you are battling over the appropriate place to poop-- the toilet versus your panties. It's her very stubborness that helped her survive malnutrition in a Vietnamese orphanage and a case of RSV when she was four months old that left her on a ventilator for six days. While her tenacity can be annoying at times, I wouldn't change it for anything.

Pumpkin Patch

We took our annual trip to the pumpkin patch today.  While last year's trip was warm and sunny, today's trip was the opposite but it didn't seem to dampen any spirits.  The kids were excited because this year they got to go on a hayride!  But first things first. We went to the Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead in Overland Park, KS which has a model  Kansas farm for kids to interact with.  The best part is that the children's farm is free.

As soon as you walk in you are greeted by a chicken pen.  Emma was fascinated with the chickens.  Ryan was scared.  We then moseyed on to the dairy barn which had real live cows. The girls were excited.  Ryan was scared.

 

It also had a saddle right out in the middle of the floor which Jenna and Ryan had to try.  Contrary to the evidence above, Ryan is having a good time.  He just doesn't believe in smiling for the camera anymore.  He's moved on from the wink to a more stoic look.  In fact, his preschool pictures were on Thursday and his teacher told me that she had to literally be attacked by Elmo to make him smile.  I'm not sure which should concern me more: the fact that they had to go to such lengths to make him smile or the fact that he found his teacher being mugged amusing.

 

We then checked out the Indian village, complete with tepees.  The girls quickly decided that they had no desire to live in a tepee.

 

Next was the baby goat pen, which Ryan was afraid of.  He was completely content to stay outside and watch while...

The girls feed the baby goats.  Emma wasn't frightened at all.  I was more concerned that the goats might eat Toodee, who was in her left hand.

Jenna and Julia both had their turn feeding the goats too.

While Gauge found a new friend.

 

Next up was the tractor races because what farm experience isn't complete without tractor races?  The farmstead had an oval track for the kids to race their tractor tricycles.

Finally, it was time for the main attraction:  The Hayride and the Pumpkin Patch.

 

The five of us on the hayride.  I never got a picture of the wagon.  The wagon was pulled by 2 horses which completely freaked Ryan out.  When I came time to climb onto the wagon I had 3 crying children which caused quite the spectacle.  (Good thing I'm used to causing spectacles so it didn't really bother me.)  Ryan was crying because of the horse.  Emma was crying because I put her down to load Ryan onto the wagon and Jenna was crying because she wanted to sit on my lap, which obviously wasn't going to happen.  Once the hayride started, all crying stopped and Ryan thought it was fun.

 

Cody and Gauge on the hayride.

Once we got to the pumpkin patch there were many things for the kids to do.  There was a giant slide on top of hay bales.  While I got several videos of the kids on the slide, I didn't get any pictures.

 

The kids then went fishing in a kiddie pool for wooden pumpkins.

 

While Emma played in a watering trough full of corn.

 

We then moved onto search for the perfect pumpkins.  The entrance fee to the patch include a pumpkin for each person.  Ryan must have gone through about 20 pumpkins before he left with one.  Notice the happy little guy in this photo.

Compared to the scared little boy last year.  It's amazing the difference a year can make.

 

Here's the look I got from Jenna most of the day.  From complaining about her boots, to her whining that she was cold, Jenna wasn't a happy girl most of the day.

 

But she seemed pretty happy when she got her pumpkin.

 

Emma spent most of her time in the pumpkin patch picking up sticks.  She had no interest in pumpkins.  In fact, when given a pumpkin this was her response:

Some days I wish I could give a pumpkin a good spike too.

 

We knew it was time to go when spiking pumpkins wasn't fun any longer and Emma just wanted to be held.  Nevertheless, the pumpkin patch was a smashing success.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Fun With Chopsticks

Today my family got to practice their chopstick skills. When you think if chopsticks, I bet you think of this place:

Okay, well maybe not, but we were at the mall food court and the pickings were slim.

Jenna's the old pro and likes to use her chopsticks any chance she can get. We hadn't gotten any chopsticks with our food so a trip to the counter was in order.

Yum! We love lo mien noodles!

Ryan had to practice his chopstick skills too. Another trip to the food counter. I should have known that if one child gets something then all of them want it.

When we got Ryan last summer, his chopstick skills put us all to shame. But then a few weeks after he came home he absolutely refused to use chopsticks and used a fork or spoon instead, even when the rest of us were using chopsticks. It took several months before he would even consider using them again. I would have thought that using chopsticks would be just like riding a bike-- once you learn you never forget. I was wrong. Now Ryan struggles to use them.

But he's pretty pleased with his progress.

Gauge, seeing all of this, wanted to try it too. Obviously, rice is much harder but I showed him how to scoop it up with chopsticks.

Success!

And then there was Emma. Wanting to try but refusing to pay any attention to how it's done.

But she managed to figure it out anyway.

Someone's pretty pleased with herself!

Yum, noodles.

Trace, you're setting a bad example for the children!

After all of this, and me taking pictures, and people staring at us for me taking pictures, I think Cody was beginning to wonder what kind of family she got herself into. Too late Cody! We're like the Hotel California. You can check in but you can never leave.

Goodness, who would ever want to???



Don't forget to check out Teresa's giveaway! More info on the post below or on Teresa's blog Continuing the Journey.

There's Always Room For TWO More

You read that correctly and this time I'm not talking about dogs. Meet the two newest members of our family:

Trace's girlfriend Cody and her sweet little boy Gauge.

Cody and Gauge just moved here on Sunday from South Carolina. They are currently staying with us until Cody gets a job and they find a place to live, not that we mind having them here. (Cody is SO helpful that I'm not sure I want her to move out!) And for those of you who are like me and not strong in math skills, there are currently 9 people living here. While we now have almost as many people as Jon and Kate Plus 8, we still aren't anywhere near the Duggars. Yet.

They arrived on Sunday afternoon and after 2 days of driving they immediately headed for the back yard. Gauge, being a 3 year old boy cooped up in a car so long, needed to play. Notice, however, that my children are hogging the swings.

Ryan is loving have a built in friend although he's not too sure about sharing Trace with Gauge. Emma, being Emma, just does her own thing. Of course, being the opportunist that I am, I'm thinking there might be some potential blog posts out of all this this. I didn't have to wait very long.

Last night I was giving Ryan, Jenna and Emma a bath so Gauge joined in the fun. Gauge is potty trained (here's hoping that Gauge is a positive influence!!!) so when it came time to get in the tub he was just wearing shorts. In one fell swoop he had both his shorts and his boxers off. There stood Gauge, totally naked, waiting to get in the tub.

Ryan had been taking off his clothes and turned to look at Gauge. Ryan's eyes got wide with surprise and he pointed to Gauge's private area and began to squeal with excitement. Now a male can respond to this in a several ways. One is to be proud to have caught the attention and obvious appreciation for his male appendage. Or, the male could be like Gauge, completely caught off guard by the turn of events, semi freaked out and run and hide behind his mother's leg. In the meantime, obviously missing some very important social cues, Ryan continued to express his glee.

At that moment I realized that my son had limited access to views of the male anatomy. Poor boy is surrounded by girls and probably thought he was deformed. I can only imagine how happy he was to see someone who looked like him.

I got Ryan completely undressed and away from Gauge. Gauge, in the meantime, had relaxed a bit and had moved away from his mother's leg. However, Ryan's excitement could not be so easily dampened. Once Ryan was stripped, he arched his back and with both hands began pointing enthusiastically to his male parts, trying to show Gauge that he looked just like him. Ryan then proceeded to walk towards Gauge with the apparent intention of having their parts touch.

I quickly began to wonder if this had been a good idea after all. My son was becoming a pervert. Officer Ryan was going to have to arrest himself of indecent exposure and lewd behavior. I snatched him before there was actual contact and tried to communicate to him that he needed to keep that part to himself. Let's just hope he remembers our little chat in about 13 years.



PS> The actual bath with off with further incidents.

Trace's Big Week

Trace went to South Carolina for Spring Break, not your average Spring Break spot, but he went to visit a long time friend of his, Cody. He and Cody have known each other online for nine years and they recently began talking on the phone.


Trace came home tonight and in his possession were photos of his new girlfriend--Cody of course. (Hi Cody!) Cody has begun reading my blog so I felt it appropriate to give her a shout out. Cody sounds like a wonderful young woman and I'm hoping to meet her soon, along with her darling little boy Gage.

I had a BIG weekend but honestly I'm too tired to do it justice, so stay tuned!