just a few photos

Mommy is finally getting better at Eleanor's hair - we got a pretty good braided hairstyle in less than two hours! Yippee!



Eleanor, however, did NOT want her photo taken. Grouchy girl.




from a recent playground trip: my handsome son



Daddy and Nora swinging



Miles can finally make it across the monkey bars! Now if he'll just let us take the training wheels off his bike...



So the weather's getting cooler, and we REALLY need to buy Juliet some socks. She's borrowing Eleanor's right now:



And finally, an almost-decent photo of all three children (Juliet is truly more attractive than this, but she was on the brink of a meltdown and NOT smiling). Thanks to my friend Kris for sewing Eleanor, yes, a dress that matches the one she made for Juliet! The girls looked pretty cute, and Miles his usual dapper self.

bedtime stories with Daddy

OK, so this went on for an hour before someone noticed and said, "Hey, I thought Scott was reading TO Miles?"

Bringing home Juliet

So a lot has been happening, but I do owe it to our new arrival to put up some photos!

Juliet Thalia Lee, born August 2, adopted August 4, home from Utah August 14. Here she is, wearing a gorgeous hand-sewn dress from our dear friend Kris. How she sewed this and mailed it in time to reach us a few days after we got home ourselves, I have no idea. It's also the only thing we own tiny enough to fit Juliet.



Both big brother and sister are enamored.




Of course, their enthusiastic "helping" has to be carefully monitored; Eleanor in particular thinks she herself is much stronger and wiser in baby lore than she actually is. ("But mommy, baby Juliet WANTS a pruntzel (pretzel)!" "OK, mommy, I will carry Juliet downstairs and hold her on my lap for you." "Mommy, the baby is CRYING!" (while we are driving home from church, stating the painfully obvious))

But they are pretty sweet together...



And of course, the obligatory bathtub photo (with gracefully draped washcloth). She really loves her bath!

Juliet had her first doctor's appointment today, and apparently is pretty healthy and normal, by the way. But ridiculously short (3rd percentile for height)! At this rate she'll never be able to wear Eleanor's clothes, which would be a tragedy to make me weep...

Nora's first professional hairstyle

We had our first morning with "Miss Tamekia" today, and I am totally sold! This wonderful stylist/hair consultant came to our house, gave me a 45-minute lesson on improving my hairstyling techniques, then braided Eleanor's hair (about six times faster than I can), and THEN took me to the store to buy styling products so I can try to copy the process. Eleanor has "fancy" hair now, and I have a new arsenal of ideas and equipment (and now I know why my braids get fuzzy so quickly, how to get my twists to stay put, how to get my knots not to come undone, etc). Besides being good at what she does, this is a lovely and friendly woman who answered all my questions and made both of us feel totally comfortable. I am DEFINITELY bringing her back.

A couple photos (I added the beads myself):






In case you can't tell, she has a zigzag part in front with braids going perpendicular to each other, with two "star" clusters of braids in back coming together to make pigtails of braids, and then some vertical braids at the bottom.

Incidentally, doesn't my daughter have a lovely profile?

How kids perceive race?

You've probably heard that, in general, people have more trouble distinguishing members of other races than members of their own, right? That is, white people have trouble telling Asians apart; Asians have trouble telling African-Americans apart, etc.

So we're looking at photos this afternoon, and Eleanor says, "Is that you, Mommy?"

I say, "No, that's Aunt Gina. And we don't really look very much alike!"

Miles contradicts, "But you have the same skin!"

OK, if that's all it takes, I guess we do look alike... For that matter, how many times have I been asked if Miles and Eleanor are twins? And so far, with only one exception, it's never been African-Americans making that comment. So truly, do my children look that alike to white people? Because they don't to me.

Just an interesting point to ponder.

brief followup to the randomness

We're walking through the grocery store, and I tell Eleanor, "OK, we've got to look for some Worcestershire sauce."

She cheerfully responds, "WE worship GOD!"

misdirected prayer

So we're driving home from church and I ask Miles about the lion puppets he made in Sunday School. It turns out they're learning about Daniel and the lions, and (after some prodding) he tells me Daniel had to go in there because he disobeyed God.

I try to clarify: no, Daniel obeyed God and disobeyed the king, who made a rule that you could only pray to the king, not to God. I go on to say that the Bible tells us we should always only pray to God.

"Why?" asks my practical son. "We could just pray to both; that would be OK!"

Well, no, I explain. Praying to someone else would hurt God's feelings (I left it at that).

Silent until now, Eleanor pipes up. "How about we pray to chickens?!"

Um....