Anyone up for a goat sandwich?

Nature vs. Nurture

Upon viewing Jia's traits, we have wondered which ones she picked up from us, which ones came from her birthparents, and which ones are of her own making. We're sure this will be a lifelong question.

One such question has arisen in the past few weeks. See, we've had trouble going out in public lately because of the general slovenliness of the establishments we patronize, as perceived by Jia. When we enter a coffee shop or restaurant, we can't just settle in. Upon arrival, Jia immediately sees a state of disorder and cries out, "Oh No! Crumb! Clean up! Clean up!", and frantically reaches for a napkin and starts scrubbing away. Never mind that these crumbs were left by other people or that they're wee in size. We have to clean them all up before we can enjoy our time there.

We try to maintain our home as best we can, but we're not that obsessive compulsive about cleanliness, are we?

The Joy of Neighbors

We are blessed with wonderful neighbors all around us. On one side the kids are Cal and Katarina and Mac. On the other side we have Tarek and Nabeal. We have two little boys across the street and more kids up and down the block. It's like we have a little welcoming party each time we come home with Jia.

Cal always wants to arrange a playdate, or at least have Jia come over for a bit. And in our yard the other night, Nabeal made Jia squeal with laughter like I've never heard before. Our doorbell rang five times tonight with requests for Jia to play. And she's not even two years old yet! What a fun life she has ahead of her!

More animal stories...

Jia takes good care of her animals, even after they seemingly attack her. This chicken, a gift from the Easter Bunny, needed to be diapered and fed immediately.

Happy Easter!

Jia participated in three egg hunts this weekend. She enjoyed each of them thoroughly. Because there were treats in every egg, and she had to eat them on the spot, these were some of the longest egg hunts ever! We had such fun celebrating this day with our daughter. Her Easter dress was in corduroy, fitting for our near freezing weather.

In Praise of Pets

We were initially quite worried about how Jia would react to our pets, and vice versa. We hoped that they would at best tolerate each other. We were concerned because our female cat Winnie is a recluse and has been known to hiss at kids, including harmless, immobile babies. We also wondered whether our male cat Harry would receive enough attention, lovebug that he is. We feared too that Jia might be allergic, the reason why our cats were placed with us in the first place.

All our fears dissipated after Jia arrived. She adores the cats and they both enjoy her. Winnie is ever present now due to Jia's messy eating habits. She and Jia also play a version of hide and seek where Winnie hides and Jia finds her, then Winnie hides again and Jia finds her. Poor Winnie. Despite it all, Winnie sticks around and maintains a respectable distance.

Harry, on the other hand, gets right in there and he and Jia play and play (as you can see below). Jia loves it and her first two-word sentence reflects that. We were eating the other day and Harry stopped by briefly to visit us. After a while, Jia said "more, more!" I said, "More what? Food, drink?" She said, "More Harry!"

Because of the cats, Jia has learned how to be gentle. Not just with cats, but every living being. She understands precisely what it means. What a good thing.

Not Us Too!

We saw it happen with both of our neighbors, families with multiple kids. They'd return in their cars from wherever they'd been and get the kids and other stuff out of the car. Then they'd forget to close a car door, leaving it wide open, never to return.

We have shut their car doors countless times over the years, with a chuckle, thinking, oh, they're just so busy and distracted by their kids. We never dreamed this phenomenon could happen to us. Did we think we were special or something? No, we are both such conscientious people that we thought we'd never let something like that slip. We cross our t's and dot our i's. How could we ever forget something like shutting a car door? The cars are right there, in plain view of the house.

Well, there it was. The other night I noticed that my car door had been left open. For hours. And then later it happened with Joe's car. But we only have one kid! With more kids in our future, we'll be the worst of them! We'll have stuff hanging out all over the place! We've already lost numerous items by forgetting them on top of the car. We might as well just put everything on top of our car and let it fly off only to return home, hop out and leave all the doors and the trunk wide open. That is likely the type of family we'll become.

We're okay with that.