Does anyone make you laugh like your sister?

~~~ Here's a direct link to the video if the play button above doesn't work in your browser. Sorry the video is dark -- I wish I knew how to edit video like I can edit pictures with Photoshop. Oh well... Thank you so much for the incredibly reassuring/rational comments about "normal" toddler development. I could actually feel my shoulders relaxing (that's saying a lot for a stress puppy like me) as I read each one. One of my favorite comments was "We all have our strengths, toddlers included." So true!!!

Roadtrip wrapup

Well we made it home late last night. Ahhhhhh. Disneyland is great but there's no place like home. The girls don't appear to share that sentiment, by the way. They woke up each day yelling "Me Moss!!" (Ro) or "Mee Mee Moss!!" (Ree), and this morning was no exception. Our last day at the park was fun, but still crowded beyond belief. We're definitely going to check all the nearby school schedules before packing up the minivan next time. The commenters who mentioned that the Arizona schools were also on break were dead on, by the way, the parking lots were just overflowing with AZ license plates. Live and learn! Here are a few pics from the day, including first mouse ears, and lollipops and spicy guacmole chips. View them all on one page, or in a slideshow. And here's a little video of our food-oriented roadtrip back home (as if there was any other kind of roadtrip, haha): Also, last but not least, we had a fun Chinese food dinner tonight with cousin Tadd who's visiting from the east coast. Hooray! Here's a quick pic of the girls mugging it up with their cousin. The picture gives a little hint about what they're going to be for Halloween since we were trying out part of the costumes. Any guesses? PS: To answer a few questions, we stayed at the Residence Inn Marriott Anaheim Resort Hotel -- extremely functional 2-bedroom suites (2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, living room, fully stocked kitchen) and great family-friendly free breakfasts. I ordered the "If I'm lost call ###" anklets (which are actually youth-sized bracelets), at Wristbands Now. And yes we role-played sleeping in the hotel beds again this time to make sure the girls didn't freak out, just like we did for the Utah trip. The funny thing though is that all hotel beds are now called "Utah Beds" and I think they always will be. Ree happily says she likes her "TooTah Bed" -- makes me smile every time.

Good gawd, she loves corn!

Thanksgiving was a HUGE hit with the girls -- how could we miss with a holiday centered around food, food, and more food? TubaDad's in the playroom right now entertaining the girls (I think they're using him as a jungle gym from the sounds of it) so I have to make this quick. Here is Ro, enjoying the heck out of her corn. This video shows some of the personality the girls both have that makes us laugh every day. I was snickering so much I could barely talk, and my mom's comment at the very end of the video is classic. I never knew one-year olds (13 mos really) could be so full of life and have such funny senses of humor. And here's a still picture (haha, "still" isn't quite the right word when it comes to our girls) of Ro doing her "no hands" corn dance in the chair. Ree thought the whole dinner was very exciting and just couldn't help waving her hands in the air during the sweet potato course. You can see that dinner now comes with entertainment at our house. Later that evening the girls were still a little wound up and I saw this on the nursery video cam ---> I nearly peed myself watching it unfold. Sorry it's so dark, we forgot to turn on the other nightlight, but you can still make out the two shadowy mischief-makers standing in the cribs instead of sleeping. The cribs are pushed together in the corner of the room so they make an L shape. The other photos from the day are here (with captions), or you can go here to see the auto slideshow without captions. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and laughed and smiled as much as we did. Now I think I'm going to go sneak in a shower while TubaDad has them entertained. Shhhhh.... Update: almost forgot to mention that I took the Referrals and the Rumors sections out of my top nav. I just don't have time to maintain them right now, sorry! (Showering and eating are getting much-needed priority.) If you need to access those old posts for any reason, there are now links in the sidebar over there on the right called "Links to Old Sections."

The Utah footage you *didn't* see yet...

Ok, Catharine discovered that I hid a few incriminating photos and stories from you all. So, to make amends, here are two Candid Camera videos from the trip. They're fuzzy because they were taken with my tiny purse camera. This one is Lisa W during an impromptu talent show in her living room (posted with her permission). She guzzled some liquid lubrication (water of course - what did you think?!) and belted out a Louie song. Too funny. Oh, and sorry I missed the very beginning, I was a little shocked and had to fumble around for my camera. Sing it baybee! And here we are rocking out to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Hey don't raise your eyebrows at me, Lisa S started it, that girl is wild I tell you, wild! (*grin*) Yeah, we were a fun-lovin' group, and those singers were really goooood! Alright, that's it from me now. My lips are sealed. Any other stories are going to have to come from Julie, Donna, Tiffany, Lisa S, or Lisa W. Fun trip! Great girls. Can't wait to do it again with our kidlets along for the ride. They'll be too young to tell tales for the first year or two, right?

Doing the happy dance (no, not for *that* reason)

Happy, happy, joy, joy, TubaDad's new tuba arrived yesterday! He could barely stand to go to work today and leave it home all alone. It's big, and shiny, and, uh, well it looks kinda like the old tuba if you ask me. But he's thrilled and that's what counts. It came in a body-sized box. Seriously. I could fit in there with at least one skinny friend or two hefty cats. Tried to make a music video but our real video camera had a dead battery (as usual) so I made do with the faux-video setting on my little snapshot camera. The sound is kinda buzzy and the picture is stretched all funky wide, but here you go (apologies in advance for my horrendous videographer skills - I promise I will get this figured out before China). The second song on there is for the kiddos, see if they can tell what it is: Oh, that reminds me, we were talking about my laughably low tolerance for high-pitched noises, and decided we should make a list of instruments our kiddo will be banned from playing. Yep, banned. Aren't we harsh? At the top of the "don't make mommy's ears bleed" list we have flute, piccolo (shudder), trumpet, and violin. Instruments that would be welcomed in our happy little home: tuba, cello, guitar, piano. There were a bunch more on both lists, but that's enough to give you a taste of our dictatorial plans. Mwa ha ha! So... any odd items/practices banned from your home?

I think I'm going to mess up the date every year!

This 3 days of anniversary celebrating was the best! You probably want me to cut to the chase (Idol dishing and some anniversary pics), so here goes. Idol Finale Recap, Top 10 Thoughts: 1. Thought the video montage of Simon was hilarious, but they could have easily topped it with a montage of Paula's most incoherent moments. (Oh wait, that was all of them...). 2. Those hot twins? I KNEW they had a tv career (or a Playboy shoot) ahead of them after Idol. 3. Was anyone else creeped out by 12-year-old Paris and 80-year-old Al Jarreau singing "We're in this love together"?! 4. Pickler, that's ok honey, I wouldn't eat a snail either. 5. That Meatloaf guy/singer looked like a huge letch. I think Kat was a little afraid he was going to grab her during the song. 6. Elliott looked and sang great in my opinion. Did anyone else think this was the most relaxed and most personality he showed all season? 7. Ok, if someone gives me a new car I'm saying "thank you." I'm just sayin'... 8. Thought Carrie Underwood was great. (Kat should have done that stool-sitting thing instead of rolling around on the floor when she sang.) 9. I'm a sucker for cheesy, I teared up a little when the Brokenote Cowboy trio came out. Anyone else? 10. And the winner? Meh. Anti-climactic after Chris got voted off, but the finale was still great entertainment. Anniversary Highlights:

• Pizza and Idol finale last night (like we would have missed it)
• Golf therapy (uh, I mean golf lesson) today where we once again worked on relaaaaaaaxing. (At one point my instructor said "If you don't loosen that grip I'm going to beat you with the club. Oh god, hahhahaaha, that's not going to help you relax is it?!" and then we both shrieked with laughter.)
• Dinner at the funky Shadowbrook restaurant in Capitola. They have a sideways elevator/tram thing that takes you down the hill, and the building is full of funny nooks, trees, waterfalls, and flowers.

Here's a quick tiny video of the tram ride (no I haven't learned how to use my camera very well yet) And here's a shot TubaDad took of us near some purdy flowers at the restaurant. Great time. We've been married 3 years today, and we've had so much fun it just flew by. It's hard to imagine that next year will be even more exciting, but I know it will. Year 4 (with kidlet) is going to be the best one yet. We might have to celebrate that anniversary for 4 days!

No pets were harmed in the making of this blog post

Remember my favorite puppy Harley the Wonder Dawg (my bro's little sweetie with the broken hip)? Well she's more than thriving now. She's so dang smart she goes to dog school and has a tutor. (Seriously!) When we get videos of this canine Einstein we can't help glancing sideways at our cats and thinking "Yo, what have you two done to earn your kitty chow this week?" Poor creatures, if this referral wait gets any more ridiculous we'll lose it completely and start dressing them in pet clothing. (Kidding, just kidding. We're still clinging to a small bit of sanity.) Anyhow, in between high-brow episodes of American Idol and America's Next Top Model, we entertain ourselves by attempting to train the cats. Mmmm, hmmm, I blame the adoption process for this special little bout of the crazies. Bob and Jane have set the bar pretty high. Presenting Harley's cool repertoire, complete with hoop, high five and gimme ten, and the world-famous "ring the bell": And now, for your amusement, our extremely dubious cats and their answer to Harley's challenge, including their own special version of ring the bell, and a fiery hoop jumping (ok, it's just a big frisbee, but hey we're not Ringling Bros here): Yeah, I know, our parents will be so proud.

Welcome to sunny california, so glad I wore my flip flops today

What the heck is going on with the weather?! I was just trying to decide whether or not to go for a walk today (because I am supposed to be logging 5 miles a week for our July DTC Walk to China and I haven't walked at all this week yet, ahem) when it started hailing like a son of a gun! That's right, frozen chunks of ice were raining down out of the skies right here in sunny CA! I was laughing so hard I could barely hold the camera steady: Our video camera has a dead battery (of course) so I took a little mini video with my digital camera so TubaDad could see it when he got home. You can actually hear the hail bouncing off the ground and the glass table on our patio: Video Sharing at DropShots.com It was pretty funny to hear all the neighbors whooping and yelling back and forth - I bet we sounded like a bunch of college kids at a frat party. Boy was it fun! Anyhow, now when I come up embarrassingly short for the Walk to China this week, my July pals will have proof that I wasn't just wussing out. Yeah, that's it... PS: 7:12pm: TubaDad just showed me this picture he took on the way home with his phone - it was hailing so hard it looks like snow!!

Ever heard a tuba & mandolin duet?

In honor of our friends and families who have birthdays in August, Rod and I are attempting something never before heard on the internet: a mandolin and tuba rendition of the happy birthday song. LOOK OUT! I know, I know, it's not quite what you were expecting when you poured your bowl of Cheerios and logged on to your computer this morning, but here it is anyhow. (I'm on the mandolin, by the way, and Rod is playing the tuba, of course.) So Happy Birthday Bobby, Craig, Jeannine, John, Khampa Nomad's dad, Marlayna, Mike, Risa, Sparky, Sweetisu, and all the other August birthdayers. We hope your special day is filled with love and laughter, starting right now with our funny duet:

Hey Wait Up Guys!: In adoptionland, we are somewhat dismayed to note that our To Do list gets longer every day. What the heck? After completing 23 pounds of paperwork for our dossier, isn't it time for a well-deserved break? Nope! Apparently instead of patting themselves on the back and happily lazing around watching movies, golfing, and eating tacos like us, other expectant parents are already making good use of this 6-month referral wait by finishing nurseries, interviewing pediatricians, researching daycare options, making packing lists, and about a million other things that make us look bad. So that's it, starting today we are going to make a plan and start catching up. I'm putting "make a plan" on the To Do list immediately. Uh, right after "practice mandolin," right dad? *Post updated 8/14/05 at 10:59 am to add new names to the bday list. If you want your name added, just let me know.