Many of you know that we are going to have an international student living with us next year.  James and I met her a few weeks ago at a dinner for host families.  Today after school we picked up Ji Young for an afternoon together. 

Peyton had a blast.  He’d been talking about her for days in anticipation of the planned dinner together, and I believe she lived up to his expectations.  She played tag with him, she drew on his white board with him, she played basketball/soccer with him, and she played wii games with him.  Of course, Peyton didn’t like losing (especially on the wii), but we finally found a game where they could be on the same team and we didn’t have a problem after that.  He was very excited to spend time with her, and she seemed to enjoy him as well.

Hopefully she’ll feel the same way after hearing his loud voice at 6:30 am on a Saturday morning.

I finally found the cord to connect the video camera to the computer – here’s our latest video.

**This video has been removed due to America’s Funniest Home Video’s submission requirements.  That’s right, we submitted the video!  Watch for updates on our blog…maybe you’ll see us on TV!**

The slip’n’slide wasn’t what Peyton had hoped.  I forgot that he likes water in his face about as much as I do.  So he sat on it while we turned its sprinklers as low as they go.  I tried to put Lauren’s hand in the stream – she didn’t like it very much.  And she especially didn’t like it when Peyton jumped on the hose and the pressure squirted her in the face.  She was quite angry.

She was even more angry when it happened again a few minutes later.

Oh, and did I mention that she hates – no, abhors – the bath?  She screams bloody murder from the minute I put her down on the rug to take her clothes off until the minute I take her out of the bathroom.  I really hope she grows out of this.  And soon!

We haven’t taken any family pics since Lauren was born, so I finally attempted the timer.  Here are the best results – Lauren decided she was finished with pics before I was finished.  Of course, there’s something very wrong in the second pic.

Lauren’s been rolling side-to-side for several weeks now, but yesterday she finally coordinated her limbs and rolled all the way over.  Of course she was mad afterwards – maybe she didn’t like where she ended up, or maybe she was scared at having moved herself so quickly – and she didn’t do it again for a while.  In the evening, though, she rolled over quite a few times (and each time screaming to be put back).

She has only laughed once or twice more since her first episode a few days ago – that seems to scare her, too.  Oh yeah, I have also found that scaring brother while holder her is not a good idea.  She doesn’t like jumping out of the pantry and hearing someone yell “boo.”

And she also doesn’t like it when brother starts crying in the car while we’re in the McDonald’s drive through.  Of course, Mommy doesn’t really like that either.  Especially since it’s almost impossible to order with two children screaming from the back seat.  And I forgot to get the ice cream I really wanted.

The real purpose of this post: to allow me to access these pics. for some reason they’ve disappeared from James’ computer, and these are the only copies I have!

Here are the pics from last week – they came out very cute!  Here’s a sample, or click the link to see all of them.  https://www.searsphotos.com/?shareid=S206230106lN848HV9B4K

I never put a myspace together and I kept ignoring people who told me I needed to put a facebook page together until last night, when I finally started a profile on facebook.

Because of the amount of my time that’s already been sucked into facebook, I can see why I’d been avoiding it for so long.

There is one quite sad tidbit that I’d like to share before I go to bed.  In high school we often joked about the worst turn-downs.  I can’t go out with you because I have to wash my hair that night.  I can’t make it because I have to clip my grandpa’s toe nails.  You know, the usual.  Well, when I was setting up my “relationships” on facebook and noted myself as married, I was asked to enter the name of my spouse.  When they located James on facebook, they sent him a note to confirm that he’s my spouse.  I considered the merits of this marvelous system, prepared in advance for jokers or stalkers.  Then I read the new text option under his name – “cancel relationship.”  I’m sure they didn’t mean it for this, but that would probably the worst way ever to break up with someone.

As you can see, it’s time for bed.

Because James plays guitar for the church service 3 out of 4 Sundays a month, Peyton, too, wishes to display his talents on the church’s stage.  Interestingly, James is not the only father on the worship team, nor is Peyton the only son who wants to be like his daddy.  Last week when I spoke with the worship leader’s wife I found out that their son Michael, who is in Peyton’s Sunday school class, also begs to perform with his Daddy. 

It wasn’t a surprise, then, when the children’s ministry director called last week and asked if Peyton would be a drummer boy again for this morning’s Sunday School finale.  Despite my chagrin that I had thrown out the drum from his previous stint as drummer boy of the Christmas program (he was never happy with the strap length, so I spent more time adjusting it than he did playing), I said okay – I knew Peyton would love to be on stage again.

And he did.  He seemed to take his part in “Sonlight’s very own Drum band” very seriously, not smiling until he’d finished the offering song.  After the offering, he got a second 15 minutes of fame as the preschooler’s sang a few songs.  Besides being bugged by the kid next to him, who kept covering Peyton’s eyes, Peyton did a great job.  He knew all the words and sang them with all his heart, and he knew all the motions and used all of the space his arms could reach to do them.

Here’s the annoying kid who kept bugging Peyton (Peyton is in the center in blue):

And Peyton singing very seriously.  He only gave a shy smile once he’d finished his part.  

Today was as beautiful as yesterday, but much cooler, thank goodness.  Today was perfect.  After church we picked up McDonald’s to celebrate Peyton’s great singing.  After nap we spread a blanket in the shade of our neighbors’ trees and played for a while.  Peyton finally had the chance to hit a baseball- he’s been begging to play ball for weeks!  When we went back inside, Daddy held Lauren while Peyton & I wrestled around on the carpet, pretending to eat each other.  Lauren must find cannibalism hilarious – she learned how to laugh!  She seemed to frighten herself when she did it, though, because she’d giggle, then immediately become quite serious again, as though contemplating what in the world just came out of her.

Remember the pudding & strawberries that we tried a few days ago?  We’re not going to be doing that any more.