The girl's chores include setting the table for dinner. Genevieve has recently felt the need to make everyones plate as she takes the bowls of food out. It's cute because she makes she she and her sister get a "No thank you portion" of the food they dislike. It usually measures out to a bite or two. Unless Genevieve is making plates. Then hers is about 1/2 a bite and her sister gets about 5 bites. Hmmmmm not to sisterly.

girls and friends

Girls being Girls and discovering the fun of make-up. It's better getting a makeover than doing it your self

Look at this - OMG I had no idea I was fashionable

Adopting Asian kids becoming latest fad By Mike Seate PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW Thursday, June 19, 2008 Though I may not be ready for sainthood, I am owed some accolades for having sat through not one, but two, chick flicks with my wife in as many weekends. Few experiences are as emasculating and downright testosterone-sapping as viewing films made exclusively for and marketed toward the female gender. Their plot lines are centered almost entirely around emoting and the dashed expectations of true love. I often find myself enduring their 120-plus minutes by thinking, "Boy, she's going to watch six World Superbike races and a whole season of 'Tank Overhaul' for this one!" Although I spent most of my sentence, I mean time, during this all-estrogen double feature counting lint balls in my pockets and fishing for popcorn caught between my bicuspids and gums, something in both these otherwise interminable films did manage to pierce my thick fog of indifference. In "Then She Found Me," Helen Hunt portrays a neurotic mess of a woman who screws up every relationship in her life and can't tell good men from rotten ones. Unable to conceive a child naturally, Hunt's character decides to reward herself with something guaranteed to make her character and the audience smile: a Chinese baby girl. The film ends with long, lingering shots of the kid's smiling face, and half the women around us were fighting back tears. I was, too, but mine were because I'd never recover those lost two hours of my life. One week later, I suffered through an afternoon screening of the glitzy handbag commercial cleverly disguised as a major motion picture known as "Sex and the City." In that one, Charlotte, one member of the quartet of ditzy, clothes-obsessed main characters, couldn't conceive a child naturally. The solution? She adopts one of those adorable Chinese babies you've heard so much about -- forcing viewers to spend much of the next 90 minutes of film watching these four screwed-up women as they screw up some kid who would be better off in a rice paddy 7,000 miles from any of them. Call me cynical, but since when did Asian children become "must have" fashion accessories for upper middle-class Americans? Along with Calloway golf clubs and season tickets to football games, paying $30,000 to $40,000 to adopt an exotic baby is suddenly viewed as the most chic purchase this side of a pair of Manolo Blahnik pumps. Never mind that thousands of babies of other races -- most of them black -- go without foster homes and adoptions here and elsewhere in this country every year. It doesn't cost tens of thousands of dollars to adopt a black, Latino or mixed-race child. But for some reason, even Hollywood is marketing Asian babies as somehow superior and more desirable. That's a shame. Because if people really wanted to adopt children because of a desire to become parents, they'd just adopt babies, not fashion statements.

Someone learned how to ride a bike without training wheels

This past Friday and Saturday we had a yard sale, did pretty good too. wooooo Hooooo Disney $$$$. My grandson and granddaughter were over for the day. The girls love to play with their nieces and nephews. My grandson who is 6M younger than Genevieve has been riding without training wheels for a year now. What a dare devil. Anyway he told Genevieve he would teach her how to ride like he does. It was so sweet. - That was Friday. They went home about 3pm. Saturday morning Genevieve is taking Keith's bike out of the garage. I ask her what she's doing. She tells me, "I'm gonna ride it". I say OK and keep unpacking boxes to set up for the yard sale. I look up and the girl is riding. Wow, look out world. She is so proud. she had to call everyone she knew and tell them. Sunday Daddy took the training wheels off her bike and took her to the school playground. I get there and realize he did not put on her helmet and knee pads. Grrrrrrrr. She's mad at me because I made them come home. I told her next time she has to wear a helmet and pads because she is going way too fast now and too far. Sometimes I hate being the bad guy. My husband gives me the lecture that we never had helmets, ate food that had sat out and ate with dirty hands. OK a different generation

To All My Female Friends and Blog Followers

Go out and buy a new Brazier. Not one of those flimsy wimpy pebble holders but a real Brazier. Not the one with the 2" patch of lace that rips when you turn. Not the kind that makes you look like you have muffins under your shirt because your chi-chis are trying to escape out the top of it. Not the kind that rub under arms because they are trying to escape from that route instead of the top. And let us not forget the one whose shoulder straps feel like a string bikini and at the end of the day you have those straps embedded under your skin. But instead buy the kind that withstands a kiddo who loves to smash her face in your chest. The kind that holds those chi-chis still when you walk. The kind that keeps your back from killing you at the end of the day. Your shoulders have not been sliced in half from the straps when you take it off. The kind that has the back wide enough to keep it still and in place as opposed to creeping up the back. And more importantly the knid that is not filled with 3" of padding but just enough to make for a smooth fit This has been the best treat I have bought myself in what feels like a million years. Have a great day and go buy a brazier.

China Town Today

The girls at the China Town Library. They have the coolest little sitting area with water falls and lots of plants. While we were there allot of kids were in the childrens area for a reading program. Look at those beautiful little "Ram" Girls The girls watching out the train door at all the trees going by

The past couple of days in our life

A pause in the day from a very long shopping spree at the outlet mall today When you're aunt Barbie is the manager at the best Ice Cream Shop in the midwest, you get all the perks that go along with it. Pretty, Pretty, Princess Poopie Pants. - Wow can she fill a diaper Look at my new shades Grandma bought me. I liked them so much I smiled for her. The quarter to golfball size hail we got hit with yesterday Abigail and Alianna June 15th, 2008 - Happy Anniversary to my son and daughter in-law. One year down 50 to go.

What a difference a year makes

We finally got the pool up and running. Might I add none too soon. Our heat has been aweful this week. I am so amazed at how far the girls have come when it comes to water and playtime. Abigail last year would sit on the raft wrapped in a towel. This is how she played in the pool. The concept of getting wet and feeling cold was not something she wanted to encounter. Genevieve has always loved the water, but to watch her this year is AMAZING. She does flips in the air before jumping in. She does flips under water. She dives for toys. She is my little mermaid. They are loving the freedom that mommy does not have to be "in" the pool this year. I can sit in my chair and watch them and they can splash to beat the band all they want. They are also loving having their friends over to play in the pool this summer.

Isn't she just a cutie. Gosh I love her

Out of the mouths of babes

It's funny the conversations kids have amongst themselves. Genevieve and Abigail have 3 friends that are here Mon-Fri. The baby was napping and the girls were having snacks when the conversation started. Genevieve - "C" why don't you have a sister "C" - I don't know "O" - I want another sister Abigail - Me too Genevieve - Daddy said we have enough brothers and sisters. He said only 7 kids. I want 10 Abigail - Me too "O" - I'll ask my mommy if we can 'dopt another sister and then a brother and then I'll share with you "C" Genevieve - You can have one of my brothers "O" - which one Abigail - No she can't we need them all Genevieve - but if we give "O" one we can get a new one "C" - I wish my mommy would adopt Me a sister Genevieve - It's OK if she won't you can be our sister Abigail - Yep "O" - You can be our sister too "C"- Well that would give me 4 sisters, I only wanted 1 I am at the counter with my back to them laughing so hard. But then all I could think is "How sweet". It's so wonderful that children believe that love makes them family and because they love each other that's all it takes for them to be sisters. Wouldn't it be great if the world would see life the same way.

China Police Woman

Oh my gosh if you have not seen this article you need to. Get a tissue. It had me weeping. http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/22/china.breastfeed/

baby update and stuff.

Isn't this the most beautiful necklace You've ever seen? Maybe not but in my eyes there is NOTHING better. Lexi gave this to me tonight at dinner. She gave it to me to say thanks for everything. Well that was VERY VERY unnecessary, but importantly is the item itself. She chose the 2 intermingled hearts for the baby and I. We will always be connected. OMG I cried like a baby at dinner. That girl is so sweet. If my son don't hurry up and marry her I might kill him. She's such a keeper. These pics are from Saturday at the hospital. The girls were very fascinated with the baby. The first thing Abigail said to Lexi is. "She is so beautiful" What a sweet little girl. The next fascination was feeding time. They could not believe that chicky's have milk in them. Wow now that's cool, Huh. I told Abigail they really do have a purpose besides just for her to check on and make sure they are still there.