Duncan couldn’t wait to pick up this old coconut that had fallen from the tree. “Totonut”, is how he pronouces the word.

He kept telling me he wanted to drink some coconut juice so my mother got busy and got a few young coconuts for us to enjoy. After a sip of the coconut water, he did not want to drink it. The coconut water was sweet enough but it did not quite taste like the coconut water he was used to drinking .. the kind that had some syrup added to it when we order it from a restaurant!

Oh well, more coconut water and tasty young coconut flesh for me to enjoy!

During the weekends the kids loved to be taken out for ice cream. There is a Baskin Robbins near where we live and if the kids have been good during the week, we’d all go out for ice cream.

They must have their ice cream in a cone, no cup for either of them! Denice loves anything pink, and once she chose a strawberry flavored ice-cream. She didn’t like it at all. So now I will chose the flavors for them. I know they love chocolate and the oreo cookies ice cream, so that was what they both got here.

One of the rules for eating ice cream is that they must wear a bib as they eat it! They make such a mess that that is the only way to keep them decently clean. The bib, however, does not keep the pants from getting ice cream splattered on them!

My kids are recognizing letters and numbers a lot better these days especially with Kathy’s help. Kathy comes in four times a week for an hour to give Denice and Duncan more help with their reading and writing. Denice can write her name really well. Duncan still has trouble with the tails on his ‘n’s and ‘a’s. They always end up on the wrong side!

Some books I’d bought for them recently are those Start To Read books by School Zone publishing company. I have bought The Fox on the Box, Jog Frog Jog, and Beep, Beep! Kathy has gone through those books several times with the kids and I have been reminded to get more of those kinds of books! Ok, I will hop over to Amazon.com right after this!

My kids are only four but since they are already in Pre-K and will enter Kindergarten next fall, I thought they could do with a little more help. They have progressed so much more since before Kathy came to further help them with their reading skills.

I can’t claim they have learned to read yet, but they are heading in the right direction.

Tears streamed down Diana Zerface’s cheeks as she stood before a judge in Tacoma’s Juvenile Court this morning. She couldn’t hold in the emotions, and that had her 3-year-old son concerned.Gabriel Zerface stopped playing with a metal toy train and asked, “Are you OK, Mommy?”“I’m OK,” answered Diana Zerface. “I’m just really, really happy today.”

That’s because Zerface and her husband, Ben, were adding another family member on National Adoption Day. Grace, a 1-year-old wearing a purple dress and a white bow in her black hair, sat in her father’s arms while her parents stood before Judge James Orlando and formally adopted her.

Full story here.

I did not realize that the Saturday before Thanksgiving is National Adoption Day.  I only knew about it today when I heard the radio news with a clip of Laura Bush’s speech about the occasion.

Our daughter is adopted and the word “adoption” has a very special  meaning to us.  If not for adoption Duncan would not have had a sister.  Our house would only have been filled with the sounds and voice of only one child. Denice has made our family complete – a daddy, a mommy, a boy and a girl.  Only a pet is missing from this picture. 

No, her presence in our life is more than just completing the picture of parents and a son and a daughter.  She has brought us joy, blessings and the accompanying parenting challenges of raising two children of about the same age.  We will not trade our daughter for anything in the world!

We are truly blessed for having her in our family!

I bought Denice and Duncan two small water color sets last weekend. They had been telling me that they wanted to paint and when I told them we didn’t have any water colors, Duncan started to pout and cry. He didn’t want to use markers, only water colors.

The above is Denice’s handiwork. I had to remind her not to press the brush too hard on the paper. It is not a pencil, I told her. Anyway, she continued to do her own thing and this was the result of that water color painting session.

This is Duncan’s work. He loved it so much that he wanted me to hang it on the string that I’d strung in their room for hanging artwork. He does have a good sense of colors, doesn’t he?

I do want my children to explore their artistic side.  I know Denice loves to dance and is always twirling around and telling every one she is a ballerina.

Duncan, being the boy that he is, is always trying to show me his cartwheels.  He’s getting better with the cartwheels.  I’ll have a video of him doing it soon.

It was Dress Up Week at my kids’ school two weeks ago. They had Crazy Hair Day, Orange and Black Day, Hat Day, Costume Day, and one day they had PJs Day. That meant they got to go to school wearing their pajamas.

Denice and Duncan in their PJs, and getting ready for school

Most of the kids dressed the part, and even their teachers! Everyone looked comfortable wearing their pajamas and even their bedroom slippers. One of the teachers even said, she felt like getting into bed as soon as she got home since she’s already dressed for bed! Heheh.

Last Saturday, I got busy on my computer and was in my pajamas all day. Doug teased me saying, “That’s pajama media in action”. I only changed my clothes because we decided to go to a nursery. I didn’t even take my shower, just dressed, washed my faced, put on my lipstick, brushed my hair, and off we went.

Duncan loves to fool around by putting things on his head and imagine them some kind of headgear. Last night as he was getting ready for bed, he decided to put on his training pants on his head.

He ran out of his bedroom, shouting about the training pants on his head, and showing everyone what he had done. Then he started doing some break dancing moves!

Sometimes you’ve got to wonder where he learned to do all these. I mean I have been watching and following the Dancing with the Stars TV series, but those are ballroom dancing! But last week there were some special dance guests on the show and they did some really incredible break dance moves.

Daddy asked Duncan where he learned all those moves. “The TV”, he said! Thank goodness it’s just dancing and not something questionable!

“You’re silly, Duncan”, is what Denice likes to tell Duncan when he gets into these kinds of antics.

This morning I was at the kids’ school where they were having their post Halloween party.  The kids, mine as well as the other kids at school, were very happy that they got to wear their costumes again.    I would too, if I were a kid!  It was great to see the teachers dressed in their costumes too.

The dandelions Duncan gave me this morning.

Anyway, before I left, Duncan saw two dandelions on the ground and picked them for me.  “Mommy, for you.”  He is so sweet!  When he was about four months old, I used to take him to the garden where we would smell the flowers.  Now, he cannot pass by flowers without stopping to smell them.  And he would say, “They smell good, Mommy.”

Besides flowers he loves to smell scented candles.  I love scented candles and whenever we pass the aisle where the candles are at Walmart, he would insist we stop and smell the candles!  Unless I am buying some, I would not bother to stop.  But sometimes he is so insistent that I have to stop and let him smell the candles!

He has quite a good sense of smell and if there are smells that the doesn’t like, he will say, “It is stink-ey”.

Have to stopped to smell the flowers lately?