Nolan Update

We saw Nolan last night at a foster parents' meeting. He's still as cute as ever. His foster mom said that he's doing well, which is good to hear. He's definitely grown in the month since we've seen him!

Make Funny

Today we were watching a show with the kids about bugs. A segment about bees came on.

"Look, William, the bees are making honey!"

"Bees make funny?"

"HONEY. You know. Honey. You eat it. It's food. Bees make food that people can eat."

"Ha ha ha! That's funny. Bees make funny."

Chiquita

Unable to find any stickers within arm's reach yesterday, Aimee pulled the stickers off of the bananas and stuck them on my shirt.

*Sigh*

So This Is What Parenting Is Like...

I have been decorated with stickers from the waist up ever since Aimee arrived. She seems to have an endless supply of stickers. At the salon the other day, as I was getting my hair washed, the hairdresser said, "Oh, I got some conditioner on your face!" and tried to wipe a shiny bumblebee off of my cheek that I had forgotten was there.

And William is just full of silly things to say. At the library last weekend, we walked by the elevator as it was opening to let some people inside.

"Ooooh! an ALLIGATOR!" he said.
"That's an ELE-VATOR," I corrected.
"NO! an ALLIGATOR!"
"That's an elevator. It takes people up to the next floor of the library. It's for people who can't climb the stairs."
"IT'S AN ALLIGATOR! AN ALLIGATOR POTTY! ALLIGATORS GO POTTY IN THERE! ALLIGATORS GO POTTY ON THE NEXT FLOOR! AN ALLIGATOR! AN ALLIGATOR!"

People nearby were laughing. Oh man. What could I do but say "oh, okay" and hope he stops yelling?

Aimee!

Last night we received another foster care placement and so now we have two kids at once! Our new friend is a 3 year old girl, and we'll call her "Aimee."

William and Aimee got along surprisingly well (thank goodness!). They shared their toys and played nicely together and used good manners. Let's hope that they keep it up!

Flowers for William

Our friend, "Aunt Kathy," sent some flowers to congratulate us and to welcome William into our home. Thanks Aunt Kathy!

Here's a picture I took while William was rearranging the flowers:

Good Bye, Boogie Cat

Elliot found our neighborhood cat friend, who we call "Boogie Cat" (although his owners have a different name for him), dead in our driveway yesterday morning. I'm so sad.

We've known Boogie Cat since we moved into this house, and he had been living almost exclusively in our yard for about the last year. Ever since his owners got a second pet cat. Boogie Cat would be outside our front door every morning and every evening when we came home from work. It's weird not seeing him there. We love that little guy.

The thing about having animal friends is that most animals don't live so long compared to humans. I'm always very upset anytime one of my pets dies. But the sadness I feel now is only because I've had so many good times with Boogie Cat. I miss him.

R.I.P. Boogie Cat.

Stopping to Put Gasoline In the Car

On the way home from picking William up from school today, I noticed that I needed to put gas in the car.

"William? I'm going to stop real quick and put gas in the car. Then we'll go home." I want to keep him informed about his environment, since so much has changed for him lately.

"Gas?"

"Yes," Elliot said. "Gasoline. It makes the car go."

"You're put gasoline in?"

"Yep. I'm going to put gasoline in the car now," I said, as I was turning into the gas station.

"No! No! No!" William was very concerned all of a sudden.

"What's wrong?"

"Don't put gasoline on me! Don't put gasoline on me!"

"Not YOU. In the car. I'm going to put it in the car."

"DON'T PUT GASOLINE ON ME!!!"

It took Elliot and me a few minutes to realize why William was freaking out. He has a really great vocabulary for an almost-3-year-old, so it's easy to forget that he doesn't understand the world the way an adult does. He thought I was saying that I was going to put gasoline inside the cab of the car. He didn't understand that there was a place on the outside of the car that lets you put gasoline inside a special compartment of the car without putting gasoline on people.

Poor little guy. I got him so worried.

It was awfully cute, though.

Our Second Foster Care Placement

Elliot and I picked up our second foster care placement after work yesterday, a little boy we'll call "William." He's almost 3 years old and he's so smart. What a vocabulary!

William will probably live with us for a while, so I'm sure you'll see more posts about him soon.