Chinese delivery and oh so much funny

So not only does Sedona entertain us with her darting eyes and quiet commentary during meals, but tonight, over Chinese delivery she delivered a real treat.

She had eaten all of her rice and was flirting with the idea of actually eating her veggies and chicken and beef when she gasps"!!What's that on my leg?!" Reaches under the table and returns with 3 little grains of sticky white rice on the very tip of her finger and announces ever so loudly "MY FOUND MORE!!!" and pops it delicately into her mouth.

Another noteworthy clip from this evening:

Jordan ties an oversized dog around his neck by the ears (this dog is larger than Sedona and of the Hush Puppy logo breed). He then stands near the sink and instructs Sedona to attack him. Try to get him. Bring it on baby. Gimme the heater. So she throws this giant orange bouncy ball (the really hard weird squeaky plastic kind) directly at him and what does he do? Take a minute to imagine the scene. Gigantic stuffed dog piggybacking skinny little Jordan and bruiser Sedona without hesitation firing one into that end of the kitchen. What do you think he did? Was it his plan all along?
Yeah. He swung his body weight around and hit the ball with the dog attached to his back. Talk about perversions of a sport. Maybe it was the World Series energy all around that led him to improvise on the time honored sport. Maybe my kids are a stinkin riot.
Well, it went incredibly well. I can't say I know just how the scoring works in this dogball but I do know that he averaged somewhere around 2 out of 3 hits and that's saying a lot considering he's using a dog to bat and the "pitcher" is less than accurate.

My boy now?

So we redid Sedona's room complete with Ikea bed and new quilts, paint etc last spring. Since then, however, she has slept on top of the quilt/covers with just a blanket over her. Last week as the temperatures started to drop I decided "eh, maybe i should put the kid under the covers and increase her chances of actually staying covered through the night".

Bedtime arrives and we go in for the usual routine but I pulled back the covers and said "Sedona, tonight you get to sleep UNDER the covers. In your bed like a big kid. Like Jordan." Or something to that effect. . .

"My boy now, mommy?" confused. slightly concerned but still pretty happy about the prospect.

"No dearest. You are not a boy now. You are just big, like Jordan. Big. Sleeping under covers."

"No. My boy now Mommy."

This continued and was retold to various relatives and friends later that night, thinking it was all in the past. Well come morning, I go in and she jumps up and yells "UNDER MY COVERS MOMMY! MY BOY!!!!"

Oh man.

I prayed with a monkey last night.

Sedona has adopted one of Jordan's old stuffed animals. A purple faced monkey is now an active member in our daily activities. We buckle the monkey's seatbelt. We save a seat for the monkey at the table. You can imagine how this goes on and on.

But the best part of the ritual caring for the monkey is just before we say goodnight. I tuck Sedona in, kiss her, hug her, make sure she has everything necessary for a good night's sleep (3 favorite blankets, a babydoll, her quilt to cover up, her binkie, some water, her music) but then I have to put pants on the monkey.

Pajama pants. Jordan's old pajama shorts. Now, the monkey doesn't wear clothes the rest of the time but come bedtime - put some pants on for goodness sake. (? is this really the rationale? is there even a rationale here when we are dealing in monkey pants?) S/he has been spotted wearing Air Jordan's though but again, without pants. So why the pjs? I haven't the foggiest idea. I made the mistake of throwing the monkey's pajamas in the wash one night and had to go fish them out before anyone was going to get any rest.

So last night I kiss her, hug her, say a short prayer and turn to leave when she shouts "PRAY MY MONKEY MOMMY!"

So yes, I knelt, held the monkey's hands and said a short prayer.

How did it come to this? Talk about those moments that freeze in your mind and you wonder
"is this a defining moment in my life?"
"is this a testament to my love of my child?"
"is this maybe the dumbest thing I've done in the last 5 years?"
"wow i feel like a dork."

Who knew . . .

Who would ever imagine that a conversation about genetics, maternal grandfathers' hair patterns, and the eventual creation of the next generation could lead to this insanity:

"And when you get married and have kids, they will have your wife's father's hair pattern."

---"I'll be what I am until I find her." deadpan. straight faced. calm delivery. very matter of fact.

To which Jordan earned responses such as:
"well, you'll be what you are until aren't." Aren't we a couple of stinkers? Toying with semantics and existentialism with a 7 yr old?

"and when you find her, you'll still be you."

"and she'll love you anyway."

------"No, but I'll be what I am"

"Until you aren't."

And so on.

-------"No. I'll be what I am. A solitary man."

oh.

der.

gasp and chuckle all around as we launch (as a terribly mistuned family) into our favorite and yours - Johnny Cash: the solitary man.

Educate your children in the ways of musical icons and you too can enjoy confusion and repetitiveness disguised as youthful candor around the dinner table.

Swimming socks

Darling, isn't she? Ready for anything. Granted we had just pulled out of the dock. The glasses were a cause of great anxiety all day, Jordan's socks ( in the background) really were not the best boating choice, Sedona's suit was peed through about 3 mintues later and left dangling to dry the better part of the afternoon and Jeremy's shoes (also in the background) were violated 10 ways from Tuesday as he sunk into the clay helping to shore the boat for lunch. Not a good day for footwear. But a stinkin cute picture nonetheless.

Spidey fishing

 

A little bit of fishing

While Jordan was on worm clean-up, Sedona took a go at Spiderman fishing (do notice the Spiderman pole in the next picture). Sadly, the concept of keeping the pole in your posession was lost on her and without Dad's firm grip - Spidey would've been a goner. She kept trying to throw the reel and rod and whole deal AT the fish. To each his own, I suppose. . . .everyone has their own particular style and approach, right?

Tubing

Aunt Michelle was kind enough to allow Jordan a co-captain seat in the tube. What we didn't account for though was his complete and utter lack of body fat. He returned from the water a tiny bluish purple shivering mass. "But it was worth it" he'll tell you.

Captain Jordan

Did I mention the shouting of "ALL ABOARD!!!!!" He sure wore that out. But here he is. 

Pontooning

On Mark Twain Lake enjoying Labor Day weekend. No funny story this time. Not unless you count the skinny little boxer/briefs he is wearing as swimming trunks as funny. Or if you might enjoy an incessant shouting of "ALL ABOARD!" for 6 hours. He tried to free the minnows assigned to bait duty, then when denied that PETA inspired act, he went back to fishing . . .but never could quite keep that minnow from getting loose. Funny, huh?

the getaway

There she goes. 

Walkin the weeds

Out of her "house" for a few minutes, Sedona finds some vines to take for a walk. She bounced them along next to her until deciding she'd had enough of me trying to take their picture, dropped them and ran. When I yelled after her "Where are you going?!" I met only with a suprised "I DON'T KNOW!!" and a cackle. 

Sedona's mobile home

We went out on the Katy Trail (similar to the Prairie Path for our Chicago readers) yesterday and rented bikes and the bike trailer seen here. When Sedona first stepped into the trailer she was a little confused - like "ok so what are you wanting me to do here?". So I explained "you get to sit down and Daddy will pull you behind his bike so you get to ride too. Just sit here and get hooked."
Met with a tone of almost sarcastic compliance I can't possibly capture in words -"Oh. Okay."

So she sits, folds hands in lap and exclaims, "My house! My little house!" 

Fearless she swims

Swim-diaper free and lovin it! She jumped from side and steps and rails without pause. Jordan, as mentioned before, is undoubtedly part fish but we hardly expected her to follow suit so quickly. She has even started bobbing her head in and out of the water. I tried and tried and wore my little point and click finger out trying to get a shot of Jordan but he ducked under water or raised menacing splasher my (and camera's) way each time. We really do love both our children - even if they are not equittably represented in our photos.

I won't tell you how many times we ran to the swampy restroom to peel her suit off only to find it a false alarm. We'll just say it averaged around 13 times per minute. Add in the time it takes to try and reposition said soggy suit and you can imagine the time investment this swimming adventure meant for us all. 

Jordan?

Where'd he go? A master of disguise. 

Maniac behind the wheel.

Jordan and Joey took turns Driving Miss Sedona before she climbed in and took off hoping no one would notice. The screaming and laughing blew her cover though. 

Chicken fighting

Isn't that what it is called? Anyway - Dad came down as backup last week when I had surgery and this is evidence of the frivolity before the "procedure". 

Nevermind

this one is much better. I am posting these as they load from the digital camera and I hadn't really looked carefully at all the photos available to me. oh man. 

Notice the hat

ht epicture is nothing remarkable but I wanted to call attention to the cardboard/paper hat that my child decided to wear in the pool. It lasted longer than any expected and finally fell flat on her soggy head. 

Oh her adoring fans . . .

Miles leans in to sneak a kiss at Lyla's 1st birthday party.