Tales from the Droolside

Sam loves to eat. Actually love isn’t a strong enough word. He is passionate about eating. He gets giddy with just the thought of eating. The mention of food brings giggles of delight.

In China, my travel group gave Sam the nickname of The Garbage Disposal. And it is so appropriate. He can put away a tremendous amount of groceries in pretty short order.

But the name was given only partly because of how much he eats. One look at him while he eats and you’ll understand that in addition to volume, he consumes food like a garbage disposal. He grinds away, food flying everywhere.

And with the eating, comes the drool (which is the real topic of this post). Don’t get me wrong, Sam can drool any time, any place, for any reason, but nothing gets the drool factory working overtime like eating food. Or the thought of food. Or the sight of food. Or the mention of food. You get the point.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words so here’s photographic evidence of the eating process. And the subsequent drooling process.

Since I don’t want to totally gross you out shock you right from the start, let’s ease into the pictures slowly. It’s kind of like getting into the pool at the shallow end.

Awww, here’s Molly feeding he brother yogurt. Luckily her hand is obscuring the view of Sam’s mouth.

Here are a few more cheesecake pictures of snack time.

Even have some sibling love going on here!

Now things get are getting little messy. Molly is eating a cookie like a dainty little lady. Sam is eating yogurt pretzels like a mad man.

Here’s a close up of the, umm, feeding process.

Peek-a-boo slobber.

Slobbery cuteness.

The Garbage Disposal in action.

Molly and Sam are kind of like Oscar and Felix from the Odd Couple. Anyone remember that show. Take a look at the picture above and then the one below. Which one would you cast for  Tony Randall’s part and which one for Jack Klugman’s? I think the answer is obvious.

I don’t want to leave you with the false impression that drool only happens at mealtime. Drool happens all.of.the.time!

Here’s the cutest little drooler that I have ever seen in all of his slobbery glory.

The single drool drop on the chin making its way to the bib below which, by the way, is soaked in drool.

The dual drool pool. He’s a master at his craft!

This little sweetie can even make drool look good. Have you ever seen such perfection?

My little Garbage Disposal. He’s a 10 in my book, drool and all!

They’re All Over Their Overalls

Before I left for China, I went clothes shopping for Sam. I bought several pair of overalls as I was not sure of his exact size. Overalls are great because they don’t need to be an exact fit. Close enough is just fine.

Turns out that Sam really loves his overalls. Mostly because they have pockets and he loves to put his hands in his pockets. In fact he gets so excited about his overalls that he gives a little giggle when I take them out of the drawer as I am dressing him in the morning. So cute.

Molly, not wanting to be left out of anything that Sam might have, demanded asked politely if she could have some overalls as well. Now, I am not one to cave to every demand of my five year old. Quite the contrary. But when I thought of the photo opportunity that matching overalls would create, who am I to say no?

When we were near the Osh Kosh store, I actually remembered her demand request (amazing for me at my advancing age where brain cells seem to fly from my head at an alarming rate). We popped in, purchased said overalls and matching shirt for $12—what a sale!—and were out of the store in no time flat.

The very next day, my two cherubs were sporting their overalls and I was ready with my camera to catch all of the overwhelming cuteness!

Here are the overalls that started the whole matchy-matchy thing between my kids. So darn cute, isn’t he?

Here is the dynamic duo in their matching overalls. I am quickly finding that it is far easier to get the money shot when there is only one kid. Much more difficult to get both kids looking just right.

All boy meets girly-girl.

Close to perfect, but not quite there.

Love my kiddles!

Overall, I think the results were pretty darn adorable!

Where to Begin?

There has been so many events and special moments during my absence on the ol’ blog. So now that I’m back, where do I begin? I could try to play catch up and post everything that happened during my hiatus, but I’m afraid that I would never quite get there. Caught up, I mean. You would log on in June and I would still be posting Christmas photos.

So I’ve decided to just jump right in. Start in the present. Or at least the not too distant past. If I ever have time to go back to some of the stuff I skipped over, I’ll let you know where to find it.

Since I am jumping right in, what better place to start than a pool party. Get it? Jump right in…pool party? Hello?

*crickets*

Molly was invited to her friend Tapie’s 7th birthday party. Molly has friends her age, a few who are younger, and several that are older. It’s the older ones that get to me. They are not that much older, but every time I attend a party and have to face the reality that Molly isn’t far from being that age, it still shocks me. This party was no different.

Seven years old? Really?  Molly will be there soon? I am still trying to adjust to her turning six later this month.

Tapie’s birthday was at a local YMCA. Local for the people who live in our old hometown, that is. For us it meant a road trip. I loaded the kids in the van (Wow! I have kids! Plural. More than one. Still trying to get used to that.) and headed north so that we could attend.

Molly was a bit hesitant at first. I think that she’s still trying to process all of the changes in her life. She stuck close to me for the first 30 minutes. After that, she warmed up and got into the mix. The cutting of birthday cake can have that effect.

Here’s the gang singing Happy Birthday to Tapie, who is dressed in pink, wearing the headband with the bow.

Molly spies the cake and tries to figure out what flavor it is. Hmmmm……

Let’s see…It has a layer of chocolate ice cream, a layer of vanilla ice cream and some crushed Oreos in the center. That’s different.

It’s good to be different!

Tapie opening her first card. All of her friends are seated  quietly at her feet.

Here is the same shot the moment that she tore off the first piece of gift wrap. Hey, where did Tapie go?

Kids are always the same at this point in the party. They all want a closer look at the presents.

Finally, it was time to swim. Molly, my little mermaid, loved this part of the party. The girl loves the water. Makes me excited to get back to the pool this summer. That is if we can find one to join here in our new hometown.

Happy 7th Birthday Tapie! Thanks for inviting us to share in your celebration.

And yes, I know. I did not take one shot of my adorable son. What was I thinking?

Bad Mommy!

A Confession

Well hello my little blog. Yes I know it’s been a while. Sorry about that. I’ve been a kinda busy you see and I just haven’t had time to…Oh, who am I kidding?  I’ve been unfaithful.

There. I said it.

I’ve been posting somewhere else. Actually I’ve been on a….a…a website. I know it’s horrible and I feel ashamed. Dirty even.

But it’s just that I was out of the country and I didn’t have a VPN to connect with you there. A girl gets lonely when she’s thousands of miles away without her blog. So I succumbed to temptation. In a moment of weakness I created a website and posted to it.

Don’t be jealous. It was nothing really. Just a little fling. It wasn’t even all that important. I was just in China adopting my son and wanted to share it with the world. Okay, so it was kinda important. Well, pretty darn important. Shoot, it was one of the most important events of my life.

But don’t worry. It’s over now. And I’m back, if you’ll have me.

I promise to make it up to you. Now that I have two children, I will have tons of juicy things to blog about. And I promise that I will post it all right here.

Well, mostly here. There is a thing or two left to post on, you know, the website. But it doesn’t mean anything. I just need a little time to say goodbye and them I am yours again. Forever. Promise.

Here. I brought you a little something to make up for my indiscretion.It’s a picture of my son, Sam. Isn’t he the cutest thing ever? And he’s all yours to show off in true bloggy fashion.

(And for anyone out there who didn’t have my website address while I was in China and would like to take a peek at our trip, email me, call me, text me or leave me a message in the comments and I’ll get you the web address ASAP. Just don’t tell the blog. He gets kind of jealous. Blogs are like that.)