Billie’s Blog

Last year, about this time, I found a recent photo of Anna standing in the kitchen by the sink, and one from the previous year in the same place.  So, this year, I took another photo there, and I’m posting all 3 side-by-side.

I haven’t been able to find similar pictures of Will.  Not sure why, except that he rarely holds still long enough for me to take a nice posed photo like these.  I’ll have to try to duplicate a photo from last year so we can make the same kind of comparison.

On a completely unrelated note, if you have been feeling in need of a good sinus-clearing cry,  please go visit the blog of a China-adoptive family who just lost their 5 year old daughter to acute myelogenous leukemia.  It is absolutely heart-rending, and I hope that I could manage just an nth of the strength, courage and faith of that family if I were in a simlar situation.  All of my sympathy goes out to this family, and thanks for helping me appreciate our blessings and good fortune just a little more.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/lydialimeieikomiyashita

The young banana is laying about being very needy after a morning of vomiting, so I’m unable to accomplish anything other than sitting beside her and playing with my computer.  It gives me a chance to put a few pictures up, so maybe it’s not all bad.  The doctor’s office says not to worry yet, so we’re just hanging out.  She’s starting to keep down a bit of Sprite, so we may try some crackers at suppertime.  Naturally, as it is Thursday and my only day off, we had lots of things to accomplish today, so I had to drag the little sick kid all over kingdom come this morning.  We had to go get our hair done early (which is where the barfing adventures began) and then go directly to the bank, in our slightly soggy and somewhat malodorous clothes, to sign some critical papers. 

Since there really hasn’t been anything else interesting going on lately (just boring old stuff like Mama working long hours every day, and Baba teaching as always),  here are a few pictures from a couple of weeks ago.

Mama got a new hat for Valentine’s Day.  Everyone at church enjoyed it.

 The kids in their new shirts from Grandma.  They also got lovely boxes of stuff from Auntie Nicki, and Aunt Cheryl, and some great cards with a little green in them from Aunt Ina.  Not to mention all the goodies from mama and baba.  Baba got some goodies too, including a new Wii game to share with Will, a new phone, and a Guitar Hero band set for the Wii.  We’re pretending we know what to do with that.  It’s actually pretty fun, although a bit of a challenge to play along with their rules, when you have a little musical knowlege of your own.

I’m out of witty things to say, so I’ll end this post before I sprain something.

A week or so ago, the kids had an art project at school which involved creating an ice structure out of sugar cubes and glue.  I never saw the example structure, but their teacher said they were trying to go for an igloo. 

Now, Miss Anna has been quite focused on China lately, because I produced a DVD slideshow, set to music, of many of our photos from our most recent China trip, and sent it out with Christmas cards (the ones that have gone out, that is – there are a few that haven’t made it out the door yet!)  She is fascinated by the “China Movie” and asks to watch it almost every day.  She loves the photos of her riding in her carrier on baba’s back as we climbed a portion of the Great Wall outside of Beijing.  She decided that her structure was going to be the Great Wall, rather than a silly old igloo.  She did a fantastic job, too, and she apparently made sure everyone knew that’s what she was building.  Not only the teacher pointed it out to me, but one of the mothers who was around that day made sure I knew what Anna had proudly built.

I’m not sure what Will’s structure was, but here it is, for posterity:

Last week while Joe was gone, I was running in between the kids’ bedrooms at night, reading one a story while the other was putting on jammies, etc.  I was reading to Anna, when Will came flying in, very distressed about something with his pajamas, but I sent him back to his room to wait for me.  When I got to his room, he was sitting on his bed, very perturbed about an extra button that had appeared on his pajamas.  Or, rather, the buttonhole that was missing from his pajamas.

I had to put down the camera for a minute to help him find the extra buttonhole that had somehow appeared on the top of his jammies. It never did dawn on him what he had done wrong. He kept insisting that it just wasn’t right, because he couldn’t button that button and buttonhole “down and across!”

So, just file this post under, “Embarrassing videos to show your child’s friends when he’s a teenager!”