Hanging out with friends and "Cheezits"

We have had a fun couple of past weekends... including more time at the lake, dinners with friends and of course more Rock Band. While the housework and workouts were somewhat neglected as a result, we definitely lived it up! Mehandis now thinks that every morning should include doughnuts though since we went to Bodi's Bakery two weekends in a row.

Michael's cousin Kathy and her family joined us a little over a week ago at the cabin. The boys did a World Tour until 1:30 in the morning. Family nap time followed the next day!

Mehandis on maracas.

Julia enjoyed the drums... but her highlight was vocals of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" on the microphone.

More Partridge-esque Family photos :)

Little Ari kept smiling away... such an easy going girl!

This past weekend Maira, Dominique and I took our boys to the children's museum. I had a little delay in departure since Mehandis had taken my keys the day before and "put them away" with the rest of his toys. Glad we found them... just a reminder that it pays to be organized!

I didn't catch a photo of the three boys together, but here are Stefan and Mehandis.

Mehandis was excited to pour his own coffee. He always points out my coffee and also thinks the beverage in wine glasses is coffee as well. No need to correct that right now.

Now onto the "Cheezits" story. I have always prided myself in being able to interpret what Mehandis is saying, comes along with 6 years of speech-language training I guess. But this past weekend Michael got top honors in decoding Mehandis. After dinner Mehandis often gets books and on this night he kept requesting Cheezits... but kept pointing to the bookshelf. He led me to what he wanted but it was higher up towards the adult books. He kept saying Cheezits, Cheezits and I was clueless. Michael figured it out... it was "Jesus". Ends up that Michael was put the books away off our coffee table and one of them was our church directory (pictured below). Mehandis was interested in the stain glass photo on the cover and Michael said "Oh that's Jesus".

"Jesus" is now one of Mehandis's favorite things in the house. He feeds Jesus (as you can see above), washes him and even gave him a time out. In the photo below Mehandis told Jesus, "Two minutes Jesus", and placed him in his time out chair!

The lesson I learned from my teeth.

I actually got an interesting mass email forward this week. My dentist just told me I am feeling extra stress since they see flat spots on my front teeth. This shows that I am grinding them at night which can be 6 times as much force as you would/could during the day. I had no idea, but now can notice clenching when I wake up. So the contents of the email below should be something that I (actally many of us) should keep in mind I guess.

******

The 'L I T T L E' Things

******

As you might know, the head of a company survived

9/11 because his son started kindergarten.

Another fellow was alive because it was

His turn to bring donuts.

One woman was late because her

Alarm clock didn't go off in time.

One was late because of being stuck on the NJ Turnpike

Because of an auto accident.

One of them

Missed his bus.

One spilled food on her clothes and had to take

Time to change.

One's

Car wouldn't start.

One went back to

Answer the telephone.

One had a child that dawdled

And didn't get ready as soon as he should have.

One couldn't

Get a taxi.

The one that struck me was the man

Who put on a new pair of shoes that morning,

Took the various means to get to work

But before he got there, he developed a blister on his foot.

He stopped at a drugstore to buy a Band-Aid.

That is why he is alive today.

Now when I am

Stuck in traffic,

Miss an elevator,

Turn back to answer a ringing telephone...

All the little things that annoy me.

I think to myself,

This is exactly where God wants me to be at this very moment...

Next time your morning seems to be

Going wrong,

The children are slow getting dressed,

You can't seem to find the car keys,

You hit every traffic light,

Don't get mad or frustrated;

God is at work watching over you.

May God continue to bless you

With all those annoying little things

And may you remember their possible purpose.

Oh... we're half way there!

I was on our agency's forum yesterday and found out/realized that we are at exactly the 6 months point of waiting, since our dossier was accepted. Since they are theorizing that most families will wait 12 months from dossier acceptance to referral, that means we are at the half way point until that phone call comes. Wow!

Since my mind has been heavy on rock and roll since last weekend's Rock Band fun... the song "Living on a Prayer" (note title of blog) immediately came to mind. Only I can figure out a way to incorporate Jon Bon Jovi into this milestone!

Here Mehandis and I are rocking out to another Bon Jovi song. I do believe we created a music monster with Rock Band. Mehandis is identifying Michael as "Guitar Dad" and I am either "Rocking Mama" or "Singing Mama". We get many requests to "Rock it" or "Sing it" every day... the problem (or actual good thing) is that the Rock Band game system is only at the cabin. So for now Mehandis just has go retro and play with his battery-less toys (I have a thing for noisy toys!) at home.