The Hated Haircut

You can read here how traumatic David's first haircut was. I've managed to trim a bit around the ears, but nothing else since.




So today we were sneakier about it. Taylor snipped away at David's hair while he played with his train. However, the hair fell all over David's uneaten breakfast food. Oh well! At least his hair is a bit tamer! We miss the curls, but he was getting major tangles.

Looks like they are both hollering in this one!

On My Mind: Love Walked In

Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos

rating: 3 of 5 stars
I loved many things about this book -- the characters of Cornelia and Clare were fun to get to know. I liked the themes of honesty (with oneself and with others) and of love (knowing what you love and why). I listened to it on book-on-tape and enjoyed the dramatic readings and the back-and-forth between the voices of Clare and Cornelia. De los Santos is a poet, and you hear the musical sound to her writing in her prose, too.

What I did not like were some potty mouth language (I can never stand the F word) and the conversations about sex. The author touts the modern world view of sex as gospel. I could do without that!

Considering reading the sequel, "Belong to Me", though one review I read thought the plot line a bit trite.

View all my reviews.

School's Out!

Grades are in, classroom is emptied...summer begins! I'm eager for these things:

• more time with David! more time with Taylor!
  
• finishing off our adoption application (we finally heard that our background check is complete!)
• training for a tri (I have to skip the one in June I was excited about in order to take the Praxis, a teacher exam. But I've signed up for the Jordanelle in August.)
• figuring out paint for our house
• landscaping and starting a garden
• studying up on the math section of the GRE (need to retake, as I will be applying to the Comp Lit MA at BYU)
• taking one course at BYU ("The Theology of Painting" -- can count towards the Comp Lit degree later)
• reading. On my currently reading or to-read list: Dreams of My Father (I'm so behind the times! what I've read so far is great); The Guernsey Literarcy and Potato Peel Society; Sarah's Quilt; Esperanza Rising; Love Walked In; The Read-Alound Handbook; and something that goes over development stages for toddlers (any suggetsions?).
  
• practicing piano. Something I haven't done much of for 15 years!
  
• watching baby sign videos again. Perhaps it's silly, since David speaks so well. But I had so much fun last summer, and I know there is one video with signs on emotions. Being able to identify emotions is a developmental step for David, and I thought that might help.
  
• visiting Meta in June, the Halversons in July, and my parents in August. Must get in trips before David turns 2 and begins costing money! And a trip to Cedar City to see Shakespeare with our friends Mike and Kristen Atkisson.
  

We're Cleared!

We've been at the "background check" stage of adoption clearance forever. We started on that stage back in September of last year in California. Actually we were first told we did not have to get fingerprinted all over again. A month or so later we were informed that was wrong (or laws had changed). So we fingerprinted in October, and finally got cleared...right about the time we moved! Since we changed states, we had to start the clearance all over again. And my first set of fingerprints were not distinct enough, so that drew out the process all over again.

But today we learned the background check is complete. Whew! Now we soon will have our profile posted on LDS-Family Services website. We'll let you know when that's up and we have an official weblink!

Adoption Slander

I received this information from the Palo Alto-Menlo Park Parents Club list (yes, I haven't cut all ties!). I'm so mad about this!

"There is a horror slasher film being released July 24 (Orphan) about a family who adopts an older girl who "is not what she appears to be. Warnings about her go unheeded until it is too late.for everyone". The film is being promoted now (http://orphan- movie.warnerbros .com) and the adoption message being sent is extremely negative. There is actually a line in the trailer that says "it must be hard to love an adopted child as much as your own".

"Without having seen the movie or read the script, it is hard to know if the entire movie is sending a ghastly adoption message, but the trailer certainly leads us to believe it is. This feeds the notion that older adoptees are very troubled and you should beware.... that's not an image any of us want the general public to have of our kids. It plays into people's deepest fears.

"There is a growing group pursuing a boycott of the film, sending out emails and posting on online bulletin boards. I urge you to forward this email to others personally involved in adoption, help disseminate the boycott message and write to the producers and distributors expressing your displeasure with the message being sent.

"The backers of this movie have deep pockets. It is being released by Dark Castle Entertainment with Warner Bros. set to distribute. Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way, which developed the material, is also producing.

"I have been in communication with Evan B Donaldson Intitute, Adoption.com, a number of adoption attorneys and adoptive parents in our area to voice concern about the release. Please let me know if you want to get involved in any way beyond just forwarding this email."

Elyse Flack
Stars of David /Chicago
3175 commercial Ave.,Suite 100
Northbrook IL 60062-1915
starsdavid2@ aol.com
www.starsofdavid.org

Cascade Springs Take Two (& 1/2)

We love this place! Today we went to Cascade Springs with our good friends Kristin and Mike Atkisson, and their twins Peter and Greta. We've been twice before, though when we went last year with Kausik and Sharyn I had a broken foot and crutches so I stayed in the car with David. So this feels like the second time there for me. This time Mike and Kristin stayed in the car, doing feedings for their twins.










Fauna seen included two deer and lots of fish! Spring flowers as the flora....






When we met back up with Kristin and Mike, Mike squatted in order to get a photo of David. But then David squatted, mirroring the big guy!

Park City

We've been having a great weekend in Midway with our friends Mike and Kristin. Kristin and I went for a run this morning, but she's much faster and stronger than I am. I felt exhausted after about 3 miles! She continued on for another couple of miles, training for a relay endurance run in July.

In the late afternoon we went to Park City. I had only been through the town during the Olympics, and hadn't seen the downtown or anything. We had a nice stroll, stopping for a while in the Family History Center where Kristin knew the couple serving there. The town is decorated as it would have been about 100 years ago, with lots of fun touristy stores.








We enjoyed dinner (I had the best trout ever at Bandits Grill & Bar) and then headed through the town, enjoying the blossoming trees and a friendly bear-on-a-bench!

Water is Wet

David has been helping Taylor to water our trees, two of which we fear died during the 9 months that this house went unoccupied. Taylor does a fantastic job of including David and teaching him about what they are doing. But he also got the biggest kick out of David's encounter with the hose yesterday. I'll let the photos tell the story:

Back at work: You've got to admire this boy's resilience!

David's 1st Prayer

David said his first very own prayer this evening! He grabbed our hands and bowed his head and when Lisa tried to help he said “Shhhhh” several times. Finally we realized that he wanted us to be quiet while he prayed.

His prayer was simple, but profound, full of thanks. “Thank you for hands” (we were holding hands), “thank you for piano” “thank for chair” (we were in the room with the piano and chair), “thank you for child of God” (we’ve been singing the song recently), “thank you for temple”, “thank you for gates” (he was holding two gates pieces from a toy farm set that Taylor put together right before the prayer), “thank you for bath” (he had just had a bath), “thank you for bed”, “thank you for ladders” (he has toy ladders), “thank you for Gossie” (he has a book called Gossie the Gosling).

I felt great joy hearing his little heart poured forth. I also had to bite my lip because I wanted to giggle, as the prayer continued on for about 2 full minutes!

How this boy blesses our lives!

Art City Ball

My brother Bobby gave us a big gift when he watched David so that we could attend Springville's Art City Ball. Reminded us a bit of the Black & White Ball that we attended in Palo Alto last October.

This event was a lot of fun. Taylor hadn't yet been in the Springville Art Museum, so we took some time to look at the exhibits (we still have a lot to see). We enjoyed the Russian art collection, which I didn't even know was there (both times I had been to the Art Museum with David we had stayed on the first floor). There was music and dancing (though both of our sets of shoes were killing us -- we must wear better shoes next year!), an auction (including a James Christensen piece, though I didn't bid on it because I'm eyeing his piece "Virtue"), and food. We didn't know a ton of people there, but did run into the Witesmans (who now live just a block or two from the Museum but who we originally met in Bloomington) and the Witneys from our ward.

Because my wedding dress was a cream-colored tea party type affair, I got by with wearing it, too. Taylor wore his tux and looked fabulous.

Thank you, Bobby!

On My Mind: Tangerine

Tangerine by Edward Bloor

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

Though the villain Eric and his sidekick Arthur were almost too bad to be true, I still really liked this YA book. I liked the theme of truth, though it appalled me to read of Paul's parents and community willing to be so blind. (I was also appalled by the helicopter parenting -- scary!) I liked the way Paul broke down boundaries thrust up before him, both physically and socially.

View all my reviews.

Super David!

My mom made matching superhero capes for the grandsons. Here is David ready to save the world -- or at least the tower that might at any moment collapse!

The cute blocks are thanks to his birth parents (and a few homemade ones with darling photos of cousins, thanks to Meta).

Greek Lessons

This kid loves language! He has his ABCs pretty much down. So Taylor decided to look for the Greek alphabet on Youtube. Here are my two language lovers: alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon....

Mom on Mother's Day

My sister Anna wrote the most beautiful tribute to my mom for Mothers Day. She also posted tons of photos from the past. I'll just direct you to her page, though I will post a few of my favorite photos here:

Mom pees her pants while riding horses on a Mexican beach!

Me Too!

David has taken to asking to have our big shoes placed on his feet!

Around the Block

We just love our neighborhood! It's fun to be able to wave at everyone as we walk down the street (small Mormon wards help with that). Today was a gorgeous day; here are a few shots as we went walking.