I Spy… a Sense of Humor

Cullen thinks books are funny, really funny. He laughs out loud at certain books and it’s so funny to listen to his laugh when I’m reading out loud. In the book Diary of a Fly there is a page with a boy with a messy face from eating a sucker and the page says something like, “First graders are disgusting”. This is really funny to him.

Last night Cullen was talking to me when he let a burp sneak out. I looked at him and said, “Cullen what do you say?”
To which he laughed and replied, “I guess I’m a first grader.”
I knew what he was getting at but still asked him, “What do you mean?”
He laughed saying, “First graders are bgusting!”
Did I mention he doesn’t say disgusting correctly? It’s just part of his charm.

Geremu was up in my face the other day and delivered a knock, knock joke. I had no idea he even knew what a knock, knock joke was, so I was completely blown away when he started. The best part of him telling the joke is he really doesn’t understand that they should be funny to everyone, not just himself.

Here is what his first joke was…
Geremu: “Knock, knock”
Me: “Who’s there?”
Geremu: “Pizza man”
Me: “Pizza man who?”
Geremu (laughing so hard he can hardly spit-out): “Pizza man Geremu!”
Good one, I never saw that one coming!

These pictures are from right after the 4th of July at my parents house still.

Geremu the shoe thief

Mt. Tiki is broken so this cool sprinkler was taken out and Geremu was amazed that the ball stayed afloat.

Geremu recruits help to try staying on top of the water like the ball.

The boys back home now, set up a bike wash.

We hung out with our friends, Katie and Carson at the beach enjoying the beautiful weather.

Geremu and Carson off to the races.

I just love this time of day, getting ready for bed.

Pooped out after a hard day of play.

A Post We Never Imagined Writing...

We've been avoiding this post but feel like we can't and shouldn't avoid it any longer. We had accepted a referral for a young boy at the beginning of April. We didn't formerly announce it on our blog because Cullen and Geremu only knew they would be getting a brother and not much more than that. We didn't feel like it was fair to them to announce it to the world before they got more information. We did share our news with family & friends, we are now sharing via the blog to spare us from having to retell this.

At the end of last week we received more information about "our" little guy. Without going into details we are heartbroken to say we have since turned the referral down. This was not an easy decision to make and we consider it very personal, we are sorry for our lack of details. If you are the praying type, please add "our" little guy into your prayers that he is matched with a forever family quickly.

We are sad and NEVER imagined when we started down this adoption journey that it would have a similar ending as so many of our pregnancies... this is just a different sort of loss. We feel very blessed to have the boys we have, and at this point we are unsure as to where we will go from here.

Happy 4th of July

The boys started the day off with a hike through the marsh. Cullen LOVED seeing the animals and Geremu enjoyed the time outside.

Tonight we had a bit of a party. The big cookie was a hit with the theme "God Bless My Underwear", which is one of the boys favorite songs.

After dinner the crowd gathered around to watch Mike propose to Katherine on video.

Then we headed down to watch the firework display along the river. Before the fireworks started the boys entertained us with their wrestling, how long does this stage last?

Then Cullen kept getting "stuck".

Luke and Colleen all ready for the show.

So this is how it started, Cullen watching the fireworks first on his own...

and Geremu plugging his ears on Nick's lap.

Cullen slowly made his way to Granny Bird's lap...

while Geremu climbed on me saying, "Go home blue house Mom?" (ears still plugged)

This was Cullen's final place of resting to watch the fireworks...

and here is Geremu's.

It was Geremu's first time seeing fireworks and to be honest he didn't enjoy them as much as everyone else. Both boys were pooped out when we got home to Granny and Pop's house.

A Lesson Learned

One quick story before I tell you what we are up to. I was playing with Cullen two days ago and he was sitting on me as we were singing his name song (completely made-up but he loves it). He started laughing so hard at the dance I was forcing his arms to do that he let a little toot fly on me, which in turn made him laugh harder. He doesn't do this a lot but it has happened more recently when he laughs hard. So I thought I would take this opportunity to talk with his about it. I explained how he was going to be in preschool this next year and that letting toots go was basically frowned upon. I don't want him to be "that kid" that people remember as the mad tooter, etc... I finished by saying something like he really need to learn to squeeze his butt-cheeks to muffle the sound. (I'm a rookie at this stuff)

Fast forward until today, Cullen is in the bathroom and yells, "MOM, I SQUEEZED MY CHEEKS BUT IT STILL SMELLS IN HERE." Clearly something wasn't communicated properly, just because it didn't make a sound doesn't mean it won't smell. At least it's a step in the right direction:)

We are back in my hometown for a little 4th of July action. The weather is finally warming up and the boys enjoyed an eventful day outside. This morning Nick went hiking with the boys, I can't believe how big they are getting when I look at pictures. No stroller necessary and they went quite a ways.

They found a great hiding place and plenty of animals to tell me about.

This afternoon we went down to Riverfest to listen to a singer that the boys like. Anytime the singer would asked for volunteers Geremu would follow all the kids up to the front of the stage. Cullen would not go, he was more comfortable sitting back watching the kids. Geremu would hop right in the crowd and follow the kids. The singer would give the kids directions then start the song. Geremu never followed the directions, he would stand there and give us dirty looks like, "why the hell am I up here?" Cullen never went up but Geremu went every time (like 4 times). I'd post a picture of the dirty looks but it's too hard cutting the other kids out, remember his father's day card? That's pretty much what he looked like:) Below he is up in front not participating in the actions.

Geremu had a great time on all the activities. Cullen didn't want to go on any of them, he was pretty content cheering Geremu on.

Cullen did like the fountain, he would have jumped in if I'd have let him.

We got to see the water skiing squirrel.

Then sat down to watch the action on the river and a little air show.

Hey There...

Future American Idol?

House Guests

We have been lucky enough to spend the day and night with Carson and Sophia while their parents pack up their house for their big move to the north side of town tomorrow. We started out the day at the park and the kids all played on the playground for a bit.

Sophia stayed busy staying cute (as always).

Then the boys headed off to explore, Carson didn't make the picture as he was too fast down the hill.

We had an abrupt ending and the 2 stooges headed to the vehicle to find the 3rd stooge.

The 3rd Stooge, I'll just refer to him as Co-Pay, was already in the van waiting to head to the doctor. He was running down the hill and his head beat his legs down. Not sure what he fell on but he cut both is forehead and eyelid, both are swollen now and are kept shut with a glue (no stitches necessary). As you can see from the below picture he was in a bit of pain:)

Sophia had an evening snack and kept her eye on the boys while they watched Peter Pan before heading to bed.

The boys all wore their Cars PJ's and headed to bed out on the porch.

The boys are asleep and I just asked Nick if they were cold and he said, "Carson has six blankets on him".

Family Time

This weekend we headed to the center of the state. I was able to spend a little time with both Nick's family as well as my Aunt Madalyn, Maggie and Michael.

Saturday we had a shower for Shana, Dan's bride to be.

In the afternoon the boys headed to the Great Grandparents with their cousins.

That night the cousins camped out in Angie's backyard.