Let it be know that Chance is an hour into his nap.  Blogging may abrubtly end at any time....

So, you ask, what were the kids waiting for in the previous post?

What is Kenn measuring for?

What is this picture of the garage for?

Good gravy?  That's a lot of directions!!!

But yes, after shopping around most of last summer, hemming and hawing, and pondering if it was really worth the expense, we came to the conclusion that it would be tax refund money well spend (phew, good thing those taxes came out in our favor as anticipated....) and so when we saw this fantastico playset at Costco we took the plunge. 

The set came in 7 boxes, the contents of which were in no particular order.  That was funny.  Even the hardware was just randomly assigned to seven different bags (17 of these in one bag, 22 of them in another, 1 in a third....). 

Last weekend had great weather and as we decided about how to proceed, who should call but Sara!  Never call someone who has 7 boxes full of playset in their garage, the Friday night before the first nice weekend of the year.  Hehehehe.  But Sara and John are handy and so come Sunday, they arrived, tools in hand.

Construction underway. 

Both kids were happy to help.  Some help was more helpful than others.  Shaeleigh actually hauled some impressive amounts of wood and she and I measured and marked them with chalk.  Chance moved random pieces of wood around the yard and would have happily used the drill if asked which he was not.

Work continues....

Measure twice.   Drill once.

Small helper left unattended heads straight for the ladder.

First real break of the day (end of step 6 of 37).

Helper tires of being told he can't use drill.  Moves on to sandbox.

Then bubbles.

Other helper plays with chalk.

And current swing (as you can see, it's quite an upgrade).

And as of Wednesday (Kenn has been doing what he can when he gets a minute) we have a roof and a ladder.  I believe at this point, we are only a rockwall away from declaring it reasonably safe to play on.  Sadly it's been pouring all day (Saturday) and Kenn has resorted to pre-building what he can in the garage.  If it's nice tomorrow though, we may be able to get the swing side up and going.

Thanks Sara and John!  Come by soon to play.  We'll serve weenies and sit at the picnic table.

And with that, Chance is awake.  I have some photos from the world's soggiest Easter Eggs hunt but I'll get them up tonight.  Cheerio.

Okay, taxes are done.  Blogging to commence tomorrow.

Although, since it fits the day, a conversation from earlier this week:

Shaeleigh:  Jesus died on Good Friday.

Me:  That's right.

Shaeleigh:  And he came back to life on Easter.

Me:  That's right.  And now we can all live forever.

Shaeleigh:  Well...   until the next Good Friday.

Ye haw!  Nothing like a little sunshine.

The jeep has been in the garage since Christmas since there is no where in the house to put it.  Both kids like to sit on it but Chance has been itching to ride it as well.  (Shaeleigh still thinks it too loud).  Kenn put a little block on the pedel and if you "set" the wheels so that they are turned he can ride endless circles out in the street (he hasn't caught on to steering just yet). 

Shaeleigh meanwhile, is content with the little 4 wheeler.  Yes, it appears as if Santa got the name tags mixed up but as long as they are complete agreement over who rides which one, why question it. 

A flower (or two or three) a day keeps the garden void of flowers.  As soon as they bloom she's out to pick 'em (she's worse than a squirrel).  We will just need to plant in volume.

After riding and running around outside we came in for lunch.  I was putting away the groceries and Chance was being so quiet that I started praising him for sitting in his seat and eating so nicely.  Then I looked up and noticed that he had actually fallen asleep.  hehehe

All Aboard!  This was his favorite phrase of the day yesterday.

Future Gap model.

He cracks himself up.

Here he is in his unders.  We took the little potty down from the attic just because he seemed like he might be interested.  We opened a can of worms.  We weren't really planning on potty training - just let him sit on it and such.  He was completely into it and would not keep his pants on once he saw it.  I could only find one pair of training underwear (which he peed in although he ran over to the potty as he was peeing so he does seem to be ready).  I guess I'd better find the rest of the unders - they are somewhere....  

Funky arms.

Ah, it appears (or sounds rather) as if naptime is over.  Toodles......................

How's the new look!  I'm so excited.  Back when we started this blog I decided to use Xanga because a developer in my office was a big Xanga guy.  Since then, with the rise in blogging, it seems to me that all the really good looking blogs are out on Blogspot, which is where most of the adoptive families seem to host their blogs.  Come to think of it, I don't think I know any fellow xangafiles....  Xanga has always had lot of skins (aka:  themes/designs) that you can select but for years they've all been very Goth - very.  And so I've stuck with my plain green design.  But today, on a whim, I checked in to the theme area and I was so excited to see several scrapbooking type themes to choose from.  I need to take some time to figure out how to customize it (yeah, that'll happen) and really, I'd like to just design my own someday (yeah, THAT'LL happen).  Realistically, I might take some time to look through the themes and find something that seems "Smitheroni-ish" but meanwhile, something new and bright and hey, you can't go wrong with ladybugs!  Do want to get our header back though.....  J.

SHE'S HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ah, S'mores (aka:  Smorsie) arrived last Friday.  I suppose the smile tells it all.  Despite the fact that there were warnings all over the box (inside and out) that a parent should assemble S'mores without a child present, it really was not going to happen that way.  I told Shaels that her head was not attached (the horse's that is) and Shaels made some comment like "You can just put it on" and so it was clear that the "magic" was not going to be impacted at this particular junction.

There was a bit of concern at first as we put the batteries in and S'more began to neigh incessantly.  We had to wait the weekend because Hasbro was closed but come Monday Hasbro suggests we change the batteries yet again and asked if we used the same batteries that had been in the broken horse.  We had.  We did.  And Wahoo!  S'mores is eating carrots and blinking her eyes.  Ah, life is good.

Love at first sight.

And like all good friends, time is spent chatting. 

Oh girlfriend, you did NOT just tell me that!

Happy St. Paddies Day!

O'Chancie looking like a fine Irish lad.

Well, what can I say?  He enjoys the strangest things but he has always laughed and laughed when we use the bulb to clean his nose out.  Now, like everything else, he likes to "I do, I do" and so he do.  He's a funny kid.

He had his 2 year old well visit today.  Poor little guy,  they took blood and when they put the big rubber arm band on he screamed, "No BANDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAID, no like, no like, no like."   But other than that he did just fine.  He weighed in at 22.4 pounds (with his clothes) and is 32.5 inches tall.  I must document such things on this blog because I am doing a poor job at keeping up with the baby books.  Sigh....

And a happy birthday to Dr. Seuss - a few weeks late.

Chancie Pants turned two on Friday! 

Chance is a big fan of "bobots" so Kenn made him a bobot cake. 

The party was Saturday so we celebrated his actually birthday with cupcakes the day before. 

Mmmmm....

Of course Shaeleigh is the professional cupcake eater by now. 

Giving little brother some love.

I was looking at the postings from last year and it seems he has grown!  Sometimes I wonder because he is still wearing a lot of 12 month clothes - always good to look back at older photos for proof. 

His language development still strikes us as odd - he has a pretty large vocabulary and is really starting to put together 2-3 word sentences but he still can't distinguish Mommy/Daddy.  We thought he had Shaeleigh (he always calls Shaeleigh, Shaeleigh) but now he's started other kids Shaeleigh.  He calls all rounds things "bubbles" and all beverages "water."  He calls Mr. Potato Head "Play-Doh" and all snack foods "cereal."  While Shaeleigh is taking her ballet class at the community center, Chance loves to run down this long hallway which has a window at the end looking into the pool.  There was a HUGE inflated alligator in the pool on Saturday.  I said, "look at the alligator."  Chance repeated, "al-gator," but then we were walking back down the hall he turned back to the pool and said, "I see lion."  I said, "alligator,"  he said, "al-gator" and then runs back to the window and says, "I see lion."  And so it went.  He would repeat back alligator but every time he pointed to it or referred to it himself, it was a lion.  Wonder if this is related to his desire to sit on the table and eat food off the floor?  hehehe

Cheers...................

Shaeleigh finished her second round of ballet classes today so the parents were allowed to go in and watch.  Probably better entertainment than anything up for an Oscar.  (Shaeleigh is third from the left in the hot pink tutu).

Hm... one of these things is not like the other... 

Thank you Suzanne for my new hairband.  I wore it to the recital today!

Cowboy Bob here.  Just testing out my sister's underwear for no particular reason.

Dr. McSteamyStinky.

Serious operating room demeanor (My Little Pony unders aside and all....)

Okay, got my football, just need my cleats. 

Poor Chance, surely there's something more manly in the camera....

Ah, there we go.  He is a man of many disguises.

And Shaeleigh, well, the more things change, the more they stay the same.  She still sleeps in a pile of "buds" and seems to just blend right in.

Happy Birthday Aunt Lo!!!  We were glad you were able to visit.  We love you!

And now, I'm off to do the taxes (well, I suspect I will get as far as loading the software).  But before I go, because so many have asked, there is no update to give on Butterscotch.  We received a letter from Hasbro letting us know "our item" was out of stock.  Not sure if they meant Butterscotch or S'mores or what.  We'll wait a few more weeks and then maybe give a call.  Shaeleigh has been pining.

Okay, I'm ba-ack.  Not sure where I've been and the camera doesn't have much on it so there's not much evidence on where I've been either.  Hm....

But I did promise the sad, sad, story of Butterscotch... 

The sad, sad story...  Poor Butterscotch.  For some reason, a few weeks after Christmas "The 'Scotch" started having issues with her head.  It seemed to be stuck to the left.  Even if you manually twisted it over to the right, it would just swing right back to the left and hang there looking not quite right.  And then the neighing began.  Neighing non-stop.  She wouldn't do any of her other motions or sounds - just hanging to the left and neigh, neigh, neigh.  We tried changing the batteries.  When no one was looking we removed the head but that was kind of like looking under the hood of a car.  We just stood there and looked as if something would just suddenly appear to us.  Nothing appeared.  So despite Shaeleigh's belief that, "that's what horses are supposed to do, they neigh," it was obvious that something was wrong.

And so we were in a pickle.  Santa had brought Butterscotch via Craig's List.  We went online and Googled "Butterscotch head stuck to the left" and found a site with a small handful of folks who had given Butterscotch to their kids for Christmas and were now facing the same problem (what did we do before the internet?  Oh yeah, we bought things in stores and returned them hehehe).  I emailed Hasbro (makers of Butterscotch) but got an automated response with the ol' "we will reply in the order we receive...."  This was 2 weeks after Christmas.  I'm guessing the queue was pretty long.

We had to turn The 'Scotch off as only Shaeleigh seemed able to tolerate the neighing.  It wasn't that it was loud so much as it was disturbing.  Shaeleigh remained true to her horse and only seemed slightly bummed that she was broken.  But she did ask every now and then if we could fix her so a few weeks after my email I decided to call Hasbro customer service and got right through.  Hasbro rocks.  I think I can count on one hand the companies that I believe have good customer service but I will now put Hasbro on the list.  I explained the problem, I was asked if I tried changing the batteries and if I tried turning the horse on and off.  After that, I was not asked anything more - not where we bought the horse, not if we dropped the horse, nothing.  She simply apologized for the disappointment and offered to replace her - no request for a receipt or anything.  How about that?!

Now sadly, it was not quite that simply.  Hasbro is not making Butterscotch anymore so they are sending us her sister, "S'mores."  Shaeleigh had already fallen in love with Butterscotch and now we can't simply tell her that she's off getting fixed and will be back.  Poor Shaels.  To add to the mix, Butterscotch was from Santa which meant we had to tell her that we were sending her back to Santa and that Santa was going to send her a new horse.  I felt badly for her.  In typical Shaeleigh fashion, she went around saying, "Well, I don't mind.  I don't mind if you send Butterscotch back.  I don't mind"  and then, "I don't miss Butterscotch.  It's okay, I don't miss her....   really."  She learned too young how to try to hide her feelings.

As for Butterscotch, Hasbro sent us a pre-paid mailing thing and asked that we only send back the head.   Very Godfather that.  Needless to say, we waited until Shaeleigh was out of the house.  We are awaiting the arrival of S'mores and are only slightly concerned about the line in the Hasbro letter that mentioned, "if S'more is not available, we will send a similar product."  Hasbro also makes a talking Triceratops which, while very cute, is not going to go over too well as a replacement for Butterscotch.

A final photo - note the picture attached.  That was for Santa.

Ready?  Chance calls most round things, including balls, "bubbles."  The other day he was playing in the kitchen and starts saying, "bubble bath, bubble bath, bubble bath."  I couldn't figure out what he was talking about.

Then I realized that he had thrown the ball into the sink. 

The kids at the annual New Year's potluck.

Our local group of cuties.  The families include kids born in China, Khasakhstan and Vietnam.

Merrily rolling along.

Chance has fallen in love with "Micko Mouse" - How he latched on to those same wacky video tapes that Shaeleigh was hooked on at his age we don't know but it's torture re-visited again around here.  Everyday, "Micko Mouse?  Micko Mouse?"  And Chance, being Chance, if he thinks he's getting Micko Mouse and you even TRY to put something else on, if you turn the tv on before the VCR and he catches a glimpse of something else, he wails, "Nooooooooooooooo, MICKO MOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" 

I love Micko Mouse. 

Could someone give this piece of cracker a little push.  I'm too comfortable to move.

Some girl in Shaeleigh's ballet class came with a very cute little hair comb/clip that was shaped like a little crown.  Shaeleigh and I tried to re-create it.

Yes, very Princess like.

She wanted to wear it to church this morning.  I talked her out of it.  Speaking of church, I must mention our recent adventures with Chance in church.  I decided to start taking him with me and Shaels - thinking he might learn something about sitting still and being peaceful.  Yeah, it doesn't work that way.  The first week he learned how fun it was to play toss-the-bunny-over-the-pew-and-run-around-and-fetch-it over and over again.  We always sit in the front pew near the alter boys.  They have a very nice set of bells that they ring mid-way through mass.  They leave them on the steps going up to the alter at the end of mass.  I was helping Shaeleigh with her coat and darned if Chance didn't bolt out and make a bee-line towards those bells.  Of course everyone is out in the aisles and short of knocking over some old lady, I can't grab him fast enough and sure enough "JINGLE JINGLE JINGLE"  The alterboys were just coming back up the side after walking out in the procession and the look on their faces was priceless.  I don't think they knew what they were suppose to do but they were clearly amused.

Until next time......................

Ah yes, long overdue in my posting....  and here I sit with my camera re-charging so there will be no photos this evening.  But, I'll get some words on the page and then maybe find time tomorrow to add some pics.

Today was a day of extremes.  Chance spent most of it screaming.  He slept in until 7:00 which pretty much translates to "I'm sick."  No fever though but there goes the nose.  The nose that will not stop.  He had a good morning but then we went out and the misery ensued.  He had a meltdown at the doctor.  I unzipped the backpack to get Shaeleigh a sticker book and he starts looking for "cereal"  (and that's in quotes because what he means when he says, "cereal" is yours to figure out).  After 10 minutes of screaming I finally found a half smashed up bag of goldfish in the bottom of the backpack and we survived the doctor.  We were right next to Michael's so I thought it would be a good time to go get some things to make valentines with.  Not a good time.  Actually, it was a very bad time.  Chance screamed for 20 more minutes and I have no recollection of actually seeing anything I have in the bag we brought home.  Whatever it is, we will make valentines out of it.  We had one more stop to make so, thinking that maybe he's STARVING, we stop at Target first to get something to eat because it was the only thing close.  Shaeleigh and I have a nice snack - Chance is all smiles and flirts with the lady at the Starbuck's counter.  He eats nothing.  Then, he screams from the time we go into the Target parking lot until we reach our next destination - dropping off Shaeleigh's Kindergarten application  - he is clearly exhausted when we arrive and looks like he is about to drop off to sleep.  Until we are heading back to the car.  "Run, run, run?" he says so I put him down and he runs after Shaels who is up ahead playing on the ice.  I let them play for a bit and then when it's time to go, he screams bloody murder all the way home.

Then we got home and how Shaeleigh was still in a good mood I don't know.  Usually when Chance starts screaming she starts to get annoyed but we got  home and she and Chance were so good.  They started playing hide and seek - too funny.  We've been playing that a lot as it's a good game that we can all do together.  This is the first time I've seen them play by themselves when Chance seemed to really get it.  Usually if they play together (without Kenn or me) then they both end up hiding together and just yelling random "boo's" and "gotcha's" but today, Chance was hiding all over the place all by himself - under the desk, under the table - it was funny.  And when Shaeleigh hides he walks around, "Where Shaeleigh go?  Where Shaeleigh go?" in a high pitched lilt.  Very dramatic (should I be surprised?).  They also managed, at some point, to put a big stack of pillows under the dining room table and hide out together.

And then it was nap time and then he woke up and commenced to scream again.  Screamed about this and that and the other.  Then I decided to take him to the grocery store and whew, that was a terrible idea, at one point (mother of the year moment) we were standing in the snack aisle and I was just pulling boxes of junk off the shelf asking him if he wanted to eat it "Do you want this?  How about this?  How about this?"  hehehe  JUST STOP SCREAMING.

And then we got home and he screamed some more and now... he's sleeping.  He's hacking quite a bit so I think he's just not feeling well but all the caterwalling (sp?) was originating in "I'm not getting my way."  He was perfectly happy when I put him down in the grocery store but he would take off running and doesn't just run a little bit, he really goes, he doesn't care how far and how fast and he pulls any number of things off the shelves given half a chance.  I tried to give him "tasks" but he didn't want my stinkin' tasks.  Unlike Shaeleigh, he is not hip to the "redirect."  He is unredirectable.  Yes, this is the crux of the problem here.  Sigh.....

But he is cute.  And he's very polite.  He kept getting the hiccups all day and he says, "Scuse me" after every hic.

Okay, enough whining.  Tomorrow we will start fresh.   Think mellow.........................

Ah, and remind me, I must post the sad story of Butterscotch and how her head was returned to the North pole.

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Chuc Mung Nam Moi

Happy Year of the Ox/Cow/Water Buffalo