Matching Man Outfits

Before anyone gets offended, let me just say that I have nothing against people who dress their children alike, nor do I have anything against people who dress themselves like their children. Wait. Actually, women who dress themselves and their daughters in identical outfits -- yeah, I might judge them just a tiny bit. But to each his (or her) own. And, yes, kids in matching outfits can be cute. But for some reason, I personally just don't like matching outfits. I even make an effort never to dress my identical twins identically.

So imagine my surprise when my fairly manly husband actually said (and I quote): "I've always wanted a son so we could wear matching polo shirts." Seriously! He said this. With a straight face. And he meant it.

So my manly husband went to the mall and came back with matching white polo shirts. And matching jeans.

Well, they do look pretty awesome.

But the girls and I -- don't expect to see us in matching outfits anytime soon...

Chucktown's First Beach Experience

When we were in Florida in May, Mr. Chucktown had his first experience with sand and beach.

Two things strike me in the sentence I just wrote.

First, although we (obviously) love the name Charlie/Charles, I personally have always strongly disliked the name Chuck (apologies in advance to anyone reading who happens to be named Chuck...however, since no one I don't know reads this blog and no one I know is named Chuck, I am likely safe...). Despite this, I now find myself unable to stop calling him Chuck, Chucktown or, worst of all, Chuckie. I made the mistake of telling the girls why all people my age immediately conjure up images of a red-headed, homicical doll when they hear the name Chuckie. Now every time I say "Chuckie," Lucy says, "Chuckie is an American Girl doll who kills people." (for the record, I told them that Chuckie was the size of an American Girl doll, not that he actually was an American Girl doll...but I digress into my inappropriate parenting style...)

Second, we do indeed live at the beach. And yet, after 7 months home, Charlie had still never been to the beach.

So back to the real point of this post. Here are some pictures of Charlie at the beach.

He loved the sand. He was intrigued by, but not completely sold on, the water. He definitely preferred pool to beach, just like his Mama.

The Pirate

There is a pirate in Florida. He rules the Panhandle, sailing the seas, stealing treasure and jewels. He, however, is a nice pirate. He likes to give gifts to children, and arrange extravagant scavenger hunts. Oh, wait. No, that would be my mother, pretending to be a pirate.

My mother has created the mythical figure of The Pirate. Each year, when we meet my family at my parents' vacation home along the Panhandle coast of Florida, The Pirate leaves a series of beautiful, creative, elaborately designed clues, ultimately leading to a treasure chest of loot for each of the children. Think small wooden treasure chests, with fake jewels glued on. Earrings, shiny rocks, animal-shaped squirt guns, goggles, little wind-up horses...The kids freakin' LOVE it, and honestly, I kinda love it too. Even though it, in the end, leads to lots of little plastic toys and random crap laying around my house.

This picture cracks. me. up. This is Rose, circa 2007, wielding her pirate sword after the pirate hunt. And, I notice just now, wearing Little Mermaid underwear. How apropos.

The first clue of the 2011 Pirate Scavenger Hunt.

Finding another clue

Searching...over the bridge

And finally, with the treasures...

I wish I'd taken more, and better, photographs of this year's Pirate Adventure.

It's a great idea, and a nice family tradition.

Happy Hour

Vacation is over. (Sigh)

We went to Florida, to a beautiful and quiet area in the Panhandle. My parents have a vacation home there, and we go every year to meet my family. Think beautiful houses, white sand, Caribbean-quality blue waters. Ahhh.

On the 9 hour drive home, we took turns describing our favorites memories from the vacation. Though I have many great memories from this vacation, one of my favorites was Thursday afternoon, when Sheref and I took Charlie and biked to a neighboring town 20 miles away. What great exercise!!

Ok, just kidding. We did bike to a neighboring town, but said town is (if that) 1/2 mile away. And we biked there in order to go to Happy Hour at the wine bar...

Wow, this being pulled behind a bike thing totally rocks...

Let's see what havoc I can wreak on this table...

Ok, chopsticks are cool. I'll play with these for a while...

Dude, you guys drank all that?!?

(Two of the glasses are for water, so not really that much wine. We had to bike home, after all.)

A Boy and his Doll

The hazards of 3 older sisters...

...though now that I look at the photo more carefully, he may

actually be trying to poke the baby in the eye.

What made you decide to adopt?

This is a question we get fairly frequently. Among the people we know, having 4 children is unusual. Having 3 kids is considered a large family, and 4?? Just plain craaaaaAAzy. So I'm sure it does seem curious that we would work so hard to get a fourth. So what made us want to adopt?

My honest answer (and I really don't mean this flippantly) is simply:

It seemed like a good idea.

And it still seems like a good idea. In fact, it clearly was a good idea. I mean, seriously: have you met this kid???

Why NOT adopt? We like kids, and wanted another child. There are thousands, if not millions (wait, actually there really are millions...this is well-documented) of children who need families.

{As an aside, did I mention I really hate the word "orphan?" Well, I do.}

We have never once had even a fleeting thought of wondering if we could love an adopted child the same as a biological child. Just never even occurred to us. And really, I think it is a little weird that other people would wonder this. I'm not judging people who think this. I just can't relate to it.

We could not fathom of ever regretting adding another child to our family, nor could we fathom regretting adopting. We could, however, imagine regretting NOT adopting.

So there you have it: we adopted because it just plain seemed like a good idea.

And, as it turns out, we were right.

Aaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!!!

Not sure what else to call this post...

This is obviously a horrible quality photo (taken by Sheref with his i-Phone and emailed to me at work today), but it made me laugh out loud. Jinjin looks like a lunatic about to lunge out of the cart to attack someone. Like a crazed leprechaun or something. Oh my, I'm making myself laugh just thinking about it...