Robins, Monkeys, and Zebras...Oh My!

Adjoa has been busy at school. They are learning about different animals. Here is some of her art work from the last few weeks.

I love looking in her bag to see what she drew - I think it's my favorite after school activity!

She is getting more excited to share what they did during the day. At first she would just say, "We played outside, had a snack, ate lunch, sang a song, and we danced!" Now when we pick her up she tells us all about what animal they learned about that day. It's really cute to see what she found most interesting about the animal.

Oh, and of course, if she got to be the line leader that day she's soooo excited to let us know. It's a high honor, you know, and must be treated as such by parents.

Mama bird is feeding baby bird a worm.... just in case you were wondering what was going on with the bird on the left!

I think this poor monkey is missing toes on a foot - and that's one sweet tail! I bet ALL the other monkeys are jealous!

Pretty great little jail-bird zebra!

First Worm!

Adjoa and I took the girls on an outing today. The sun was shining, and we were all eager to get out of the house for a bit. It was fun to watch the chickens gain confidence and start to explore a little.

At first they would stay all huddled together, but as they started to realize 'outside' was a good thing, they started cheeping happily and pecking at the ground and nibbling at some of the weeds.

I kept them close to the area where their run will be, so hopefully it will feel familiar to them when it's finished.

After about 30 minutes, I spotted a Big Fat Juicy Worm {BFJW} and called to the chicks. The Golden Cochin {Sula?} came over looking at me quizzically. She spotted the BFJW, pecked it a couple times, then scooped it up and started screeching happily.

The Australorp dashed over and snatched the BFJW immediately from {Sula} and started squawking and running all over the little chicken yard. Soon a competition started between all the chicks. Our Australorp fended off most of the attacks until our big, possibly-boy, Easter Egger {who I will now call George Eliot?} grabbed the worm, gave 'er a good tug, and cried out excitedly announcing the half-BFJW {s}he had. It was quickly gobbled up {I think there's a lesson here in not gloating} as {s}he ran around behind a stack of pallets.

Finally, after several minutes of chasing, shrieking, and dashing, our Australorp settled down to enjoy the remainder of the BFJW.

A good outing for all. The girls were highly disappointed to be coming back inside after this debut.




{Sula} stares longingly after our Australorp, having just had her treasure swiped.

Happy to let everyone know she is now in possession of a big juicy worm!

Successfully fending off attacks on all fronts can't go on forever, but it CAN go on a lot longer than you think! These girls chased, squawked, dashed and screeched for a good 10 minutes. I thought the worm would be all dried up by the time it was enjoyed.

Mmmm. delectable! Can it get any better than a BFJW? I submit that it cannot! I love that her eyes are closed! She's hysterical!

The Ever Elusive Seth

How much MORE elusive - or strange - can it get?


http://adoptghana.wordpress.com/2010/04/25/stranger-than-any-fiction/

Miss Independent with Strong Muscles and Pretty Teeth

I'm pretty sure Adjoa is the most independent little 3-year old I've ever met. Either that, or she's sending me messages that I need to pay more attention to her.

Adjoa woke up early and by 7:30 was tired of waiting on me. So she climbed up onto the counter, chose a package of instant oatmeal, poured it into a bowl, and added water. That's about as far as she got, but I'm pretty sure that's only because she couldn't reach the microwave!

The next day, Robert and I were working outside. Adjoa was in and out of the house playing, helping, running amok. She comes skipping up to me and informs me that she made chicken nuggets for us to eat. Wha????? I go inside to take a look and she has carefully arranged frozen chicken nuggets on a cookie sheet. She has a plate for herself with a few chicken nuggets - 3 of which have little nibbles on the corner. Frozen chicken nuggets? Gross!

I go outside, laughing, to share the news about our yummy lunch with Robert. He tells me that the day before, while I was out running errands, he was working on the chicken coop. Adjoa came outside, offering a sandwich she had made: Turkey lunch meat, mustard, and ketchup. Being the good, hungry dad that he is, Robert ate it. {Excuse me for a moment while I dry heave. I'm not much of a ketchup person.}

So far this morning, she has informed me no less than 4 times, that she will get {a snack}, {juice}, {a something yummy that is fruit}, {cereal but no milk because the milk is toooo heavy and it will spill} "all my myself. I can do it myself."

At least she is informing me before she goes into the kitchen to retrieve whatever her little heart desires. It's better than walking into the kitchen to find an inedible mess everywhere. She gets so put out when I tell her I need to help her.

"But I'm a big girl and I have strong muscles!" she says, flexing her guns and gritting her pearly whites.

Adjoa pities the fool who can't have "a something yummy that is fruit".

Crazy Guilt-Ridden

Not only do I feel personally betrayed by someone I trusted for a long time, I told other people they could trust this person. I feel betrayed. I feel enormous guilt. I feel heart-sick. I wish there was more I could do.

Ever Find Out You Thought More of a Friendship Than the Other Person?

I did.



It hurts. But I'm making the best of it... mostly by listening to this song.

Nice Weather + New Princess Gardening Tools = Hours of Entertainment and a Few Less Weeds

For Easter, Nana and Pa sent Adjoa a set of gardening tools featuring all your favorite Disney Pricesses, of course. She LOVED it. {Think those hours of helping Daddy in the garage has had an effect on her?}

Saturday we finally had some nice weather, so we spent the entire day outside working. I forgot how much fun it is to do Spring yard work. {I will NOT be thinking this mid-summer. I will be wondering why on earth I bother with gardens at all, they are "so much work"} I also forgot how tiring it is :)

Adjoa was eager to jump right in, so I put her to work on a new flower bed. Robert finished the raised stone planter toward the end of the summer last year, so it is currently featuring nothing except bare dirt and weeds. Adjoa's job was to pull/dig/wrastle the weeds. She came over to check-in with me and was dripping sweat - I think the weeds were winning. She wiped her brow, sighed, and asked if she could water the pretty ones. Not really knowing what she meant, I agreed because water doesn't usually hurt anything.

I walked by the planter later and found that she had "removed" all the weeds except those that had any sort of little flower on them. Those she had lovingly and carefully watered.

I supposed I'll have to pull those out myself when she is not looking - or while she is taking a nap. Turns out yard work makes 3 year olds tired too.

Eager to begin her first outside chore of the season. Hopefully she will be as eager at the end of the season...I know I will be struggling!

Hard at work, wrastling the weeds!

I love the little tongue sticking out. Such determined concentration!

Introducing....

The Six-Chicks - but no Tom-Tom. {And hopefully no rooster since they are illegal and it would be a HUGE waste of my time to raise an illegal, noisy rooster}

We are taking name suggestions. I have a whole list of names that I like, but the main problem is that Adjoa wants to name 2 of the chickens after our friends, Aimee and Corbin. I'm not sure A&C would like to have chickens bearing their names for the next 10 or so years. Also, I'm not looking forward to talking about how many eggs Corbin is producing, or that Aimee got attacked by a racoon and is no longer with us. {Not that I'm looking forward to announcing a racoon attacking any of our chickens, but I feel it would be espeically confusing or off-putting if it were Aimee}.

So. Do we let Adjoa name 2 of the chicks Aimee and Corbin?

Here's a few of the names I like:

• Circe
• Zipporah {Heb. meaning 'bird, a beauty'}
• Sula {Heb. meaning 'bird, peace, sun'} I especially like this for the yellow one....
• George Eliot
• Henrietta & Gretta {Possibly for the 2 easter-eggers that look a like}

And here's one of my favorite clips to honor the origianl Six-Chicks {or rather the movie from which they came, the acutal Six-Chicks are not really all that great}.

Check-MATE!

So we were taking a family walk today and Adjoa announced that she was HUN-greee!

To which I jokingly replied, "I'm hungry too. I know! If I eat you, I won't be hungry any more and neither will you!"

Adjoa: "Mom! If you eat me you won't have your child!"
Me: {laugh} "Oh. And then what would happen?"
Adjoa: "Well. You would CRY!"

Checkmate, Adjoa. Check-MATE.

March - In like a Lion and out like a Peregrine Falcon

Which according to internet research {conducted because I had some doubts about Cheetah speed}, is the world's fastest animal {when diving it reaches 200 mph, if we are talking strict flight, the Swift can speed along at 106 mph}.

So, to get you all caught up on my month of March here are just a few things that happened:

• My grandma {aka Gam} passed away. It was difficult for Adjoa. Gam was in a care center up north for a few years {she was losing her eyesight} and Adjoa and I would go visit her occasionally. Adjoa loved drawing pictures in Gam's visitor book. My parents flew in from Hawaii and we all {with the exception of Robert because he is afraid of dead bodies and turns pale and passes out} drove up to Idaho for the funeral.
• It was nice to see everyone, though. The entire family was able to gather and spend some time with each other. Adjoa had a blast with Uncle Cody, Auntie Ashley, Auntie Chambra and Nick.
• Promptly after all our visitors left and life was meant to return to normal, I got sick. It lasted about a week and a half. It was the kind-of-sore-throat-wake-up-and-you-have-no-voice sickness that morphed into a sinus infection and lung complication thingie which required breathing treatments. My doctor is formulating a hypothesis that I have a form of asthma that rears it's ugly head when I get sick or when my seasonal allergies come on. Pretty much every time I get sick, it moves down into my lungs and I have to go in for an asthmatic breathing treatment. She gave me a prescription for an inhaler. Nice. I didn't fill it because I felt better after the treatment and started recovering, but a few weeks later, I still have a cough and my chest feels like it's closing in on me and I think it would be nice to have a little inhaler handy.
• During this time, Robert and Adjoa also got sick. We were a hot mess. Literally. We all had fevers and I don't think I got out of my PJs for a couple days.
• As I started feeling better, I had an I'm-an-old-woman moment. I slipped in the shower. I was afraid to grab the shower curtain and pull the rod out of the wall, so instead I decided the wisest move would be to allow my behind and shoulder to absorb the fall. I couldn't sit. I couldn't walk. I couldn't lay down. So sad. I'm actually thinking of buying those sticky rubber stickers. Robert wants to install a hand rail for me.
• My mom showed up at the airport again. I temporarily forgot that I was co-hosting a baby shower for Cody and Ashley. Fevers and falling will do that to a person. We had another convergence of family over an extended weekend. We had a great time - lots of late nights, eating out, and running all over 2 counties. It was *such a joy* toting a 3-year old along. Considering the circumstances, Adjoa was terrific. She had a melt down on the last night, however, when she thought she needed a toy at Target. {Sorry Aunt Cathy!}
• At 3 am the morning my mom was flying out, I got the flu. Nasty business. It put me out of commission again.
• The next day our computer went kaput. In a big way. It wouldn't even turn on. After phone calls and late night visits from local computer gurus, Robert was able to get it up and running. We were forced into buying a new hard drive and installing everything all over again. Most of our files are on an external hard drive, but there are some things that are locked up in a hard drive that the computer can't see. Hopefully we can still access those files.
• Oh. And I'm a new mother of 6! I'll post some cute pictures soon.... just as soon as Robert has the computer fully restored and I can upload them. You are all going to be soooo excited! I just know it!