Money Well Spent

The $79.00 spent for our family pass to the Children's Museum of Houston has paid for itself.  Almost twice over.  We've gone at least once per month since January and each visit Gabe has so much fun.  There are some activities he's done every visit like the stained glass flowers and the inclined car track.  Other activities he went from trying to do to accomplishing them; learning how all the different switches work in the house area, manipulating the extra large Light Bright and playing with the Plinko-esque game. 

The Tot Spot is the perfect place for him.  Gabe works both his fine and gross motor skills, he learns different approaches to puzzles and problems.  He makes friends and gains confidence as he accomplishes new things. 

New things like climbing up slides.  Climbing up slides using lefty.  Flushing pretend toilets with lefty.  Pushing cars down the ramp with lefty. 

At the Children's Museum Gabe uses lefty. 

And I watch proudly.

 

Come visit us in Houston and we'll take you to the Children's Museum! Promise!

What Not To Say

Yesterday at HEB I had one of those experiences; when you don't know if you should laugh, cry or shake the person you are talking too.

It probably bears mentioning that I am a magnet for rude comments, inapporpriate questions and probing strangers.

The Scene: What Not to Say to an Expectant Adoptive Mama

The Set: Check out line of HEB

The Actors: Me wearing a Love the Orphan t-shirt and my Ethiopia bracelet, Gabe wearing an Ordinary Hero t-shirt, check out clerk in red HEB vest

The Script:
Clerk: I like your shirt. Where is it from?
Me: Sevenly (then I shared with her about Sevenly and their mission)
Clerk: Is his shirt the same?
Me: No, his shirt is from Ordinary Hero. They help adoptive families fundraise to bring their children home.
Clerk(putting together our shirts and my Ethiopia bracelet): So y'all (obviously we live in the South with her use of y'all) are adopting from Ethipia?
Me: Yes (and give brief explanation)
Clerk: Is it taking a long time?
Me: We've been waiting a year this month for the referral of our child.
Clerk: Wow, that's a long time.
Me: Yeah...
Clerk: I know what you're going through. We picked our dog out of the litter when she was 2 weeks old and then had to wait 8 weeks to bring her home.
Me: silence, dead panned look Clerk hands me the receipt and we leave.
Clerk: left wondering if patron developed an immediate bout of muteness.
End Scene.

There are not many times that I'm rendered speechless. While I may not always have a witty response, I generally have some response. But had I opened my mouth something would have come out. And it wouldn't have been kind. Or grace filled. Or Christlike.

It would have sounded something like "You are comparing adopting a child to buying a dog? For real? Have you lost your mind? Seriously lady, you're joking right? Child? Dog? No freakin' comparison"

So yes, it was better that I was speechless or just struck silent by ignorance. Either way, not having to be removed by HEB security was a good thing.

Surprisingly, I wasn't upset by her.... shall we call it, ignorance. Rendered speechless, yes. Disappointed in her comparison, highly. But more so, just amazed at the stupid things people say.

He's got good hair...

I love Gabe's hair.  So do other women, seeing that they stop us at the mall or Target to compliment his luscious locks.

And friends, Gabe truly does have fabulous hair.  Beautiful blond hair; soft, thick with natural body that some women pay a fortune to achieve with products but never quite achieve the perfect look.  Honey blond with natural high lights that, again, women also pay heavily to have hair colored like the same color as his. 

People ask us constantly (okay, quite often) when we're going to get his hair cut (Hi Dad!) and besides a short trim from my stylist that will happen when we're visiting Ohio, Gabe's long locks are here to stay. 

And c'mon, doesn't he just rock the long hair anyways? 

Wrestlin' and The Claw

Gabe loves wrestling with his daddy. 

Every evening when Matt gets home Gabe makes one of two requests: 

"basketball Jones daddy?" or "wrestle daddy?"

And when the wrestling is done....

in comes Mommy with the Claw.

The Claw is compliments of Uncle Matt.

I won't even attempt the "Jaq di day,"

that is all up to Uncle Matt.

Watching Gabe and Matt wrestle.... takes 2nd place as the highlight of my day.

The true highlight? 

Listening to Matt pray with Gabe before bed.