Kung-Fu Panda, I ((heart)) You

Jack is home sick today.  He spent the entire night throwing up.  And I do mean ALL NIGHT.  He first threw up at 10:45 PM, and proceeded to the final up-chuck at 5:50 AM.  Needless to say, we are both pretty exhausted today.  So it's been a movie day.  After some time with PBS, we watched "Spirit, Stallion of the Cimmaron" which is good- my kids love horses and all that, but it IS like one long Bryan Adams video montage.

Then we watched "Kung-Fu Panda".  We've watched it a billion times, but not for a while.  I have to say I was moved to a whole new level of appreciation for this movie today.  I've always liked it; I love the idea of "there is no secret ingredient" meaning: what you need you already have.  Or as Bono puts it: "What you don't have you don't need it now / What you don't know you can feel somehow" or "What you've got they can't steal it / No, they can't even feel it."  But I digress...

What really moved me about this movie this time around was the way they handled the Panda's adoption.  It's obvious from very early on in the movie that Jack Black's character (Po) is adopted- his father is a Goose, for heaven's sake.  But they don't make a big deal about it.  They never tell us the story of how Po got to be in a goose family, but yet we see them as a family for sure.  It's not treated as unusual at all.  None of the other characters act like it's weird for a goose to parent a panda- it's just accepted!  Beautiful.  And just when we think that Papa Goose is going to tell the Po some version of, "You aren't really my son..." he doesn't!  Instead he tells him the secret of the famous noodle soup!  Which leads us all to believe that there is a great understanding between them of how they became a family, and maybe it is none of our business.  We get to assume that no matter how Po got into this family, his is IN this family.  That goose is his DAD and a proud Dad he is!

I love the scene where Papa Goose is jumping up and down telling everyone that the Dragon Warrior is HIS SON!  So sweet.  Such pride.

Reminds me of the slogan on a great T-shirt one of my FB friends is selling to raise money for their Ethiopian adoption:

Love is not a color.

Nor is it a species.  ;-)

My girl is a SINGER!!! (my heart is so happy...)

My first time trying to upload videos to the blog!



Nothing can deter her from singing this song! Not her brother throwing balls at her, not the "yucky" in her cup... she will not be denied!!!



Barney may have tried to bastardize this song, but I think Lilah redeems it!


And after she sings the "I love you, You love me" song she sings the song I made up in Amharic before I ever met her. Too sweet!  (She gets a little distracted 1/2 way through the song- I usually sing it with her- and decides to take it in a silly direction... but still sweet, nonetheless.)

Here are the lyrics: (with the Amharic spelled phonetically and the translation in parentheses)

Ahn-chee lee-jay-nesh (You are my daughter)
Ahn-chee lee-yoo-nesh (You are special)
Eh-wuh-di-shah-loh (I love you)

Ahn-chee woo-de-nesh (You are precious)
Ahn-chee kwon-jo-nesh (You are beautiful)
Eh-wuh-di-shah-loh (I love you)

LAME BLOGGER! (but some cute pix to make up for it???)

Oh, gee.  So very lame.  I could say that my lame non-blogging is due to:
1.  Busy end-of-school schedule
2.  Excessive tiredness from toddler parenting
3.  My new extreme fitness regimen
4.  General laziness
5.  My goal to give up social media for 3 months.

One or more of the above may or may not be true.  But what IS true is that Tulsa is having CA-RAZY weather and watching the weather man giving us the play-by-play for the last 3 hours has nearly pushed me over the edge.  So to distract myself I shall post lots of adorable pix of my kids that have, for one of the 5 reasons listed above, not made it onto this blog over the past few weeks.  Okay, so they are not really of all my kids.  They are almost exclusively of Lilah.  But don't worry!  I am not photo-neglecting my boys!  (I totally am.)  

Do I even need to say it?  A-DOR-A-BLE!!!!

I totally love this photo of her.  It is the wallpaper on my computer and on my phone.  

She. Is. Gorgeous.

Happiness.

This was on our way to church one morning.  SHE chose the boots!  

These boots used to belong to Jack, then to Ben, now to Lilah!!!

I think she makes them very urban-chic.  :-)

As you can see, she's very into flowers in her hair and sunglasses.  

This is her look every morning when we go for a walk. 

 I must say, I look slightly less glamorous on these occasions.

Ummmmmm...

Yeah... I have no idea what is going on here.  

But they really look cute!!!

Auntie Becky and her family put together a VERY fun package and 

mailed it to Lilah from their home in Atlanta!  

It included princess costumes, a Tiara, 

a Tu-Tu, more sunglasses, and lots and lots of girly-girl stuff.  

(Doesn't she look REGAL in this pic?  Like, give her her Miss Universe crown NOW!)

Here she is sporting the Tu-Tu and various Pocahontas and Princess items.

Oh, gee.  I look at this one and all I can think is:

"We are in sooooo much trouble in about 8 years."

But for now, BEFORE she becomes a full fledged Diva, 

she is just the sweetest, funniest toddler 

with the cutest big toddler tummy

and the best style sense around.

Before the Mother-Daughter Tea at my church!  

My first one ever!

(Just look at her- not me.  I was so sick... I almost missed it.  Boo.)

Tired-eyes mommy, but pretty, pretty daughter!

At the Tea with "Anchee Telly" (Auntie Kelly) and Annie, two of my fav people on EARTH!

I did her hair in these little twists, and I have to say- it turned out really cute!

Roxanne came over and gave her some braids and beads!

And she's cute no matter her hair style.  

(Although I could not get a good pic of her with her braids.  It was fake smile day, I guess.)

Hoping to be less lame in the future... but with SUMMER coming, that may or may not happen.  Welcome SUMMER!!!