Mini Post Monday

Here are some more of my thoughts from this past week:

• The wheels are definitely turning in Andrew's head!  I was playing with him with a football, and I repeated the word "football" several times before handing him the ball.  Once he had the ball, he looked at it and then promptly put it on his foot!

What is it about the dishwasher that no kid on earth can resist?
• I now know why shoving a piece of wood under someone's fingernail is a form of torture.  Let's just say that I have a bleeding bruise extending 1/8 inch past the quick of my nail.  I think 1/8 inch doesn't sound like much until it is measuring how far a piece of wood shoved up under my fingernail.  Then it sounds really, really long.
• I'm going to go on a fast from TV.  I watch way, way too much TV and it gets in the way of doing things that are actually important.  Marie, do you still want to do it with me?  Anyone else want to join?  I know for sure I am going to do it for a week, but I think I will actually extend it until Thanksgiving.  I just went through and deleted shows from my DVR that I knew I could do without.  I may go insane.  Hopefully I won't.
• Ethan read his first real words this week: at, am, an, and ad.  He was so happy to be able to say he actually read something!

Ethan displaying the page in our reading book that he read for me.  Don't you love that look of accomplishment on his face?  Now that's why I homeschool.
• This past Thursday, we marked one full year since our dossier was logged in at the CCAA (China's Central Adoption Agency).  It seems that we are no closer to actually getting our baby girl than we were a year ago.  Our immigration approval expires in December and we are just going to let it lapse because we need a new home study since we had another baby since our last one and there just isn't time.  We'll renew again when we're closer to actually getting our baby.  Right now, our best estimate is another two years, but there is no way to truly know.  I try not to think about it, because honestly, thinking about how far away that is makes me want to cry sometimes.

One of the things that keeps me from crying when I think about the long wait for Hannah, and what keeps me praying for those people who are adopting as their only means of growing their families.  May your wait be shorter than short.
• I found a great recipe for chocolate icing this week.  I'm serious when I tell you that this icing will make you roll your eyes into the back of you head while whispering the words, "Oh, mama!"  It may also cause you to eat large quantities of icing right out of a bowl, for which I will claim no responsibility!  Oh, and it's really cool that this recipe doesn't use powdered sugar for those times that you are out of powdered sugar and for the fact that powdered sugar has cornstarch added and we are allergic to corn.

Okay, so this picture has nothing to do with the posts above or below it, but really, who doesn't want to see a picture of a six year old in a playpen?
• Wanna take a guess at what I'm doing right now while adding the finishing touches to this post?  Nope.  Nuh-uh.  Ooh, you in the back - did you just say making pancakes?  You're right!  I'm making my pancakes for tomorrow morning's breakfast now, at 9:23 PM so that I can go to the gym tomorrow morning rather than stand over a griddle and still have breakfast on the table by 6:45 AM.  You heard it here first, folks.