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There is a photo of Kyle and Owen in the May 2007 issue of Working Mother magazine! I actually really like this magazine, so I’m happy to have them in there. They are on page 60, the opening page of a big article on international adoption. We knew it was coming because the editors of the magazine had contacted us out of the blue a couple of months ago to ask our permission to use the photo of the boys. They had found the photo in another magazine and wanted to use it — the photo they had found was a photo of K & O that we had submitted for the “Family Album” section of Adoptive Families magazine. I was getting so sick of never seeing any black kids featured in Adoptive Families, and was really happy when they notified me that our photo of K & O was chosen for their December 2005 issue. The same photo is now in this month’s issue of Working Mother. It is kind of bizarre to get a magazine in the mail and open it to see your own kids on the page! But the coolest part of this Working Mother “appearance” is that right next to the boys’ photo is a little image of a HAITIAN FLAG!!! (see bottom left hand corner, below) I love it that on the opening pages of their article on international adoption there is a photo of two Haitian kids (mine!), and a HAITIAN FLAG!!!

This is the fourth time a photo of Kyle and/or Owen has been in a magazine. The third time was when Twins magazine published a photo of the boys in their January/February 2007 issue. Again, I was getting so gosh darn sick of never seeing any black kids in Twins — so I wrote a letter to the editor complaining. They ended up publishing the letter along with a photo of K & O. Twins magazine’s actual response to my complaint, though, really bothered me and I decided to no longer subscribe to their pathetically-lily-white mag (the whole magazine is pretty pathetic, actually, but the lily-whiteness of it is what totally pushes me over the edge). We have since cancelled our subscription. The fourth time a photo of the boys appeared in a magazine was definitely the best… One of our absolute favorite magazines is Caribbean Travel and Life. This past summer I entered my first photo contest — Caribbean Travel and Life magazine’s 2006 Photo Contest. I submitted a photo of Kyle that I took while we were on vacation in the Turks & Caicos islands. I was totally shocked when I ended up winning 3rd place for the category of “people”! The photo was published in the October issue of Caribbean Travel and Life and is also on their website (if you want to see the “winning” photo of Kyle, click here, double click on “winners,” and then click on “#10 on the bottom of the box).

I happened to capture this on film…

While the boys were outside playing in the rain this afternoon, Owen found a worm in the driveway. He was holding it. He was showing it to me. He was fascinated by it…

As I was standing there taking pictures of him, and talking with him about the worm, I literally watched his mind kind of think, “hmmm… this worm thing is so interesting! what could I do with it? could I eat it? I wonder what it tastes like?!” And then, suddenly, in a split second, I watched him as he put the worm into his mouth!!!!!!!!!!! Before I could even put the camera down and say anything to him he pulled it out — apparently it tasted yucky!…

A split second later he said, “Mommy, we can’t eat it!” He carried it over to the grass and left it there.

Kyle found a worm too!

But he didn’t try to eat it! He was much more interested in an old umbrella we let him play with… and the puddles of course.

Today Owen learned that he likes puddle-jumping a lot more than worm-tasting!

I’m really glad that Braydon and I both have careers that don’t require extensive travel. We both do need to travel from time to time, but it is nothing compared to what some people have to do. I really don’t know how two-career-couples with work that requires heavy travel do it. Braydon was only gone for three days and three nights, but man are we all happy that he’s back!!! Braydon had taken photos with his cell phone camera while he was away — photos of things that only people like Kyle really appreciate — photos of things like the airplanes Braydon flew on, the inside of the airplanes, the rental car Braydon drove, the inside of the rental car, the hotel Braydon stayed at, the inside of the hotel, the office Braydon had meetings in, the inside of the office conference room… you get my drift?! Anyway, Kyle really loved looking at all these photos on Braydon’s phone. Owen, on the other hand was much more interested in getting down to business: all he cared about was getting Papi down on the floor to play.

And Braydon… well, mostly he was just wanting to cuddle with his boys.

The family from the “Leave it to Avery” and “Burakaeyae” blogs have finally come home with their two beautiful kids from Ethiopia. They’ve posted a family video documenting their adoption journey. I cried watching it. Check it out if you’re interested — but grab a tissue first! (click here for the video)

Was it a Tie Dye project? Or was it an Easter Egg Decorating project? Or was it both???
The truth is that we did not intend to do tie dye. But what started as easter egg decorating resulted in two sets of finished craft products:

Tonight we participated in that beloved annual ritual: Easter Egg Decorating. And this year, beloved by Kyle and Owen it surely was. Braydon and I were remembering last year — how the whole thing had been waaay lost on K & O, how the whole thing had been soooo not worth it. This year though, it was a whole other story! The boys got into it. Like, way way way into it. They really, really liked dying the eggs — dropping them in the little cups and watching them turn from white to bright colors. They loved it! And they were — in typical K & O form — fully engaged in it. Fully. And Braydon and I were FULLY in Damage Control Mode the entire time. It started out nice and tidy, but by the end the egg dye was everywhere… all over the table, all over the boys, and yes– thankfully– all over the eggs too. Let’s put it this way: the clean up took a lot longer than the project. But we all had a lot of fun… We’ve got 10 brightly colored hard-boiled eggs with stickers all over them (we lost 2 along the way due to unruly squishing of eggs by Kyle) PLUS two tie-dye-esque t-shirts to prove it! It’s all good!

Here’s OWEN–

Note we don’t have any photos of the scene once things really got rolling with the dye spilling and the eggs squishing… obviously the camera had to be shelved for that so that I could have both hands free to trouble-shoot the situation.

We are all extremely excited about our upcoming vacation… even though it is still very far away. Braydon, in particular, is *extraordinarily* excited — especially about the prospects for superb snorkeling. Braydon is/was an avid scuba diver before he met me… Me being a non-diver, with no time to commit to picking up a new hobby, I have really cramped his style over the years. And now with Kyle and Owen having joined the family, it is 3 to 1 — we three really cramp his style on vacation; it is impossible for Braydon to devote any time to scuba diving since he vacations with three non-divers. He’s not too worried about it — he knows we’ll all be scuba diving together as a family in no time — but still, he misses it. Snorkeling is not the same thing, of course, but it is the next best thing. So, in true Braydon style, rather than sulk or mope about the temporary loss of scuba diving, he focuses intently on the here and now: snorkeling. I can’t imagine that many parents expect their two-year-olds to be able to snorkel in open seas. But Braydon is not like most. He defies status quo. He is convinced that both Kyle and Owen will be snorkeling with him in the Caribbean on vacation this year. There is no reasoning with him. Believe me. So, to prepare K & O in advance for their snorkeling excursions, Braydon has decided that instructing them in an intensive training program in the bathtub is the way to go. He ordered the equipment and it arrived yesterday. He could not wait to get them into the tub tonight for the first session of SNORKELING 101. I stayed out of the way (cooking dinner downstairs) but reports from all three of them were that Snorkeling 101 was “great!” Owen claimed that he had seen “fishes under there!” Kyle noted that his mask was “too tight,” but that it was “fun!” Braydon is sure that he has two very fine pupils and that they will “definately!” be ready for the Caribbean by the time we go. I’m not so sure, but I’m on-board for a wild ride!