"...A Pocketful of Mumbles, Such Are Promises..."

I know... You thought I'd gone the way of all things.

You aren't that lucky.

We're still here - still kicking - we've just been sort of quiet about it which is unusual for us.

I've been afraid I'd exceed my lifetime quota of how many times I can blog about how much I miss my kids or how stinkin' sick I am of them still being stuck in an orphanage in Haiti. You have to pace yourself on these things, don't you know...Given that there isn't really an end in sight, I had to back off for a few weeks so that I could still blog between now and when they come home.

Or something like that.

We are going down to see them again on Oct 16th. This trip will be the longest we've had in duration - I think we have nearly 6 days there with them. It will also be our 6th trip in two very long years. Brent's mom is also going to go on this trip with us. We're very grateful she's willing to pay to see her grandkids and we're excited to have her with us.

So let's talk about something else, shall we?

We've recently been adopted by a little neighbor boy. Ironic, I know, but it's about time an adoption happened around here, I guess. B (as I'll call him) has decided we're his best friends - at least that's what he told me the other day. Sometime in August we were outside and B came by on his bike and said, "Will you be my friends?" The rest, as they say, is history. He comes over pretty much every day as soon as I come home from work and stays until we kick him out...I mean... walk him home. :)

B's a special little guy. He's 8, but he's got some learning disabilities and some severe speech issues. I'm learning how to speak his language pretty well and we usually understand each other. B's also very lonely. He doesn't really have friends his age and the school district has moved him to a different elementary school each of his 4 years thus far to shift the number of students in the special needs programs.

Because of B's speech issues he can't say a lot of letters so my name's pretty much shot. We were trying to practice saying it one night and B decided it was just too tough. With a big sigh he told me "I think I'll call you 'Mike.'"

So that's what he does. He calls me "Mike" or "Michael". Even my nickname has a nickname. He calls Brent "Bubba". So I'm sure his parents must be curious about who "Mike and Bubba" are, but what are you going to do.

I tell him he's an "old soul" because sometimes he just floors me with what he says. A few weeks ago he told me that he'd made a new friend that day so I asked him what his friend's name was. He said, "Hmm...Me can't memember. When me was six me could memember everything but now that me older...." (picture him shaking his head with that resigned expression you'd expect)

I asked him if that's what my problem was as well and he nodded and told me sincerely, "me thinks so".

Good to finally have that diagnosed.

The sad thing is that I think I needed something to mother as much as B needed a friend. We just kinda fit each other that way. I never guessed I'd have a little happy place where my name is "Mike" but that's how things have turned out for my little buddy, B and me.

So that's what's up at our house. We're busy with work, busy playing "put-pall" (football) catch with B, busy with church stuff, did I mention busy with work, and waiting.

Always waiting....

Smells Like Teen Spirit

My job at Church on Sunday has been changed around a bit. Now I'm teaching the 3-year old class (called "the Sunbeams"). They are a complete riot - mostly because they don't know they're funny. All ya'll will benefit here because I should have a LOT of "little kid story" material going forward.

Teaching Sunbeams is a bit like being an aerobics instructor but without the cardiac benefits. You have to change things up every few minutes to keep them engaged because a 45 minute class is TORTURE for a 3 year old otherwise. I can't say that I blame them. If you've only lived for three whole years then 45 minutes is a huge percentage of your entire life compared to the adults you know.

Here are just two of the awesome moments from yesterday:

One of the little girls in my class was trying to tell me something so I was trying hard to listen to what she was telling me. One of the little boys in the class starts in with "Guess what I can do. Guess what I can do. Guess what I can do." over and over again as I'm trying to listen. I finally turn and say, "What, sweet friend. What is it you can do?"

His response? He says, "I can pee standing up. Wanna see??"

"Wow... NO! No, I do not want to see, but... uh...good job for... um,...thinking of others... and...I'm going to guess that means you need to go potty, right?"

So I take him to the restroom, and I'm standing outside the stall, holding the door closed for him. Those restroom stall latches are pretty complicated to work when you're only 3. From outside the door I hear him yell, 'Ta-da!!" when he finishes.

Oh, to be 3 again and have everything be magical and wonderful and to appreciate what a big deal it is to be able to accomplish little things!!

_____
And the other story... my friend was sitting next to me, chatting. Her little girl (newly 4 yrs old) was down on the floor and was leaning against her mom's legs so her cheeks was on her mom's knee. My friend was wearing a skirt and cute leather boots. We were visiting and then I hear little E say, "Lori! Lori! Lori! Do you want to smell my mom's boots?"

"No," I said, "but thank you. I like the smell of leather as well. Do you want to smell them for me?" So she obliged and took a big, deep whiff. "They smell like my Aunt Cheryl," she announced. I guess Aunt Cheryl wears a lot of leather.

That made me wonder if there are smells that my relatives associate with me...

Anyone know what sarcastic angst smell like???

Updates and stuff we need.....

We had a bit of a scare there at first with the Mamba. The mamba mixture has to be mixed with water. Remember, this is only the most malnourished children in our orphanage that are getting this supplement.

Well, unfortunately, somewhere along the lines the children picked up a water parasite (they are in Haiti - these tings happen). So our sickest children were getting SICKER.

They got medical attention for them, and the doctor gave them the go ahead to start the Mamba again. We got word last week that they seem to be doing very well now with the Mamba. We're really hopeful that they'll have a little meat on their bones by the time we get down there in October. (49 days if anyone else wants to count with me)

We also are so excited about the teacher that will be coming in. We are thrilled to be able to do this for the kids at the O as well. There are a few of us parents that have school-aged children that will be covering the cost there. It means, though, that the aunties might have the opportunity to pick up a little English as well. This one little thing will benefit all of the people at the O - and all the children that are old enough to participate will be able to have lessons.

We're also in the process of trying to figure out how to set up a non-profit organization to "handle" the orphanage's needs. If you have any good contacts in Utah for someone that might be able to help us get that paperwork together, I'd love to hear from you.

We're going to St. George next weekend. Nichole, who is the coordinator for our O, is holding a fundraiser down there for the orphanage. If you'll be in St. George this next Friday or Saturday, come find us selling hot dogs in the Walmart parking lot.

I've got a "Christmas Jar" that I put all my change in all year long. It's meant to be given to someone in need at Christmas. I'm gonna take it down with me and add it to our little proceeds. I can't think of anyone more in need that the kids in Haiti.

We're trying to get enough money together to cover a shipment of food for the orphanage. That's the goal. Every little bit helps.

It's crazy how someone like US can be doing something to help kids in Haiti. I never expected this in my lifetime. I never imagined that our children were in Haiti. Now that I've met them, I can't imagine any other way.

Please, Heavenly Father, let us have these kids again this trip. Let them come home soon.

Hurricane

We've had several people ask us if our kids are OK after the hurricane.

This is one of those situations where we have to expect that "no news is good news". We don't get word out of Haiti on a normal basis, and if there really were an issue (kids were in the hospital or something) they would let us know.

We just have to assume that all is well because we haven't heard that all is NOT well.

Ignorance is hell, but that's where we are.

Thanks for your prayers, thoughts and concern for our kids. I can hardly wait for Malot and Jessi to meet all the people that already love and care for them.

Transition Stories

I have to share some of Melissa's stories after bringing home Luc and Lyvi this month. These two, in particular, crack me up!

You need to know that Coltyn is her oldest child, age 7. Seth is her husband.

Story one:

Tonight Seth took the all 3 kids to play mini golf and ride the bumper
boats at a nearby place. There was a snotty little boy who had no adult
supervision and kept coming onto the course that Seth and the kids were on. The
kid whacked Coltyn with his putter and all hell broke loose. Luc and Lyvi
FREAKED out!!! They started yelling in their native tongue at this little boy
and waved their putters at him. At one point Seth said he actually had to hold
Lucio back. Seth and Coltyn were shocked and didn't have any idea what Lucio and
Lyvi were saying to this little kid that picked on the wrong big brother. They
did get something about "brother" and "Coltyn" and that was about all they could
understand. Coltyn thanked them for scaring away that kid for him :-). Coltyn is
a whole head taller than Luc and Lyvi.

For the rest of the evening, every time Lucio or Lyvi saw that little
boy, they yelled stuff at him. Seth said it was hilarious. It was a good bonding
moment for Coltyn and the kids as well to see them stick up for him like
that.

And story two:

The other day Luc and Lyvi "exchanged words" and then Luc kicked her and
made her cry. When I asked what happened, Coltyn was all distraught and told me that Luc kicked Lyvi. I asked him why and he got all frustrated and said, "I
don't know, I don't speak Chinese" and looked at me like I was some kind of
idiot.

Good times, good times!


I love that Luc and Lyvi were immediately protective of their new adoptive brother (I think the golfing incident was on their 2nd or 3rd day in America). And I love that Chinese and Haitian are equally unintelligible to Coltyn!

I agree, Coltyn! It's all Greek to me, as well!!

Faces

There's nothing quite as heartwarming as seeing the little Haitian children walking together to school. They dress in matching uniforms and each little school wears slightly different colors. They're lucky to be able to go to school and I think they know it.


When our truck broke down on the highway the second time, we ended up on the side of the road. A bunch of little school girls walked by soon. They were involved in chatting with each other at first, but then one of them noticed Katie's white skin and piercing blue eyes peeking out at them through the steel on the side of the tap-tap. She gasped and pointed and all her friends looked where she was directing. They all gasped. And then they hurried away.


I could see they all stopped about 5 feet in front of the truck. They were excitedly talking about what they'd just seen. And then they decided they wanted to walk by again. I could tell that they were involved in the universal school-girl debate: "No - YOU go first. I'll go if you go!" - all wanted to come back by to look at the white people with the blue eyes, but none of them wanted to be first.


Eventually, they linked arms and pretended to be super casual as they strolled back passed us again. They weren't prepared for what happened next.


We stopped them.

We asked them if they wanted a sucker.


I know - every alarm should have been going off in their heads. Not only were they taking candy, but they were definitely taking it from total strangers.

And they were thrilled.


They walked back to their school, suckers in hand. I didn't have my camera out fast enough to get a better shot than this one.

Their school was behind the blue door you can see on the left.

Soon, all the rest of the children were poking their heads out, and trying to confirm the fabulous story they'd just been told about the white people sitting on the side of the road giving out suckers.


In little groups of two or three, they came up to see if they would be so lucky. Fortunately, Nichole had brought a LOT of suckers!

Sharing Is Caring

You don't waste food when you live in an orphanage. You don't know when you'll get more of it.

But it IS acceptable to pawn your cast-offs to someone else.

You can tell when the kids are getting full because they start giving away what's on their plate.

It also turns out that, truth be told, neither of the older kids on this trip like beans. They ate them the first day in their rice, but they've picked more and more out of their rice as the week has gone on. And the look they get when they find a nasty bean in their beans and rice is priceless.

It's amazing how having options gives you the ability to have opinions.

Now that the kids have played together more and are more familiar with us, Malot and Destina are playing together and talking to each other. It's adorable. Destina was pretty quiet at first but she chats up a storm with Malot.

Last night during dinner we were able to watch an interesting exchange. Both kids ended up with similar sippy cups (they like to be able to carry water with them).

I put some soda in Malot's cup and the rough English translation of what happened next is a bit like this.

"Destina, look. I have SODA in my cup."

(Destina's eyes get big. She didn't realize that the ingenious design of the sippy cup would carry other liquids besides water. The water is emptied from her cup and then she convinces her mom to help her pour the soda she has in the hotel's goblet into her sippy cup)

"Malot, I have soda and ice in my cup."

(Malot's eyes get big. He quickly holds his cup up to the light and performs an inspection. No ice!! He manages to indicate to his mom that he needs ice in his cup. Mom puts a piece of ice in Malot's cup.)

"Destina, I have ice in my cup, too."

(Destina picks up her cup and shakes it. The ice in Destina's cup makes a glorious noise at it hits the sides of her cup. Malot observes this with wonder. The cup makes NOISE! Will miracles never cease! Malot shakes his cup and quickly deduces that the lousy piece of ice his poor excuse for a mother gave him doesn't weigh enough to smack delightfully against the sides of the cup. He gestures to Mom to get help to rectify the situation.)

"Destina, I have lots of ice, too."

(Both happily shake cups)

(Destina can actually take the lid of her cup, so she does and shows Malot. Malot cannot take the lid of his cup and uses the phrase that Mom can't repeat but has learned to recognize as "take the lid off this cup, woman")

It continued like that for some time. Please note that there's nothing mean spirited about the entire exchange. The wonder on their faces as they discover things together and mimic is wonderful. We try to pretend we're not watching them because then they get shy and stop but it's fun to watch them interact with someone that "speaks their language".

Destina is the sweetest little girl. She loves to eat ice. LOVES it! But she pulls out pieces on her fork and we caught her feeding it to Malot off her fork yesterday. She just wants him to have the good stuff as well.

40 days to Haiti.

No word on the job front for Brent.

And a friend of mine has 3 little boys ages 9, 7 and 6. He said the 6 year old (we'll call him "B") is the biggest handful because he's figured out how to tease and torment his older brothers! He's always "poking" someone to get their reaction.

My friend said the other day the older two started whining again - tell-tale sign that B was at it again. He said, "B! WHAT are you DOING?"

B's response?

"Having the time of my life!!"

:)

You have to admire his honesty! It is fun to poke something and watch it squirm, right?

Why It Doesn't Always Pay to Be Creative for Creative's Sake

I had a weird "remembery" today....

The year was 1978 and I was in kindergarten. For those of you that are younger than me, this was before they'd invented such things as washable crayons and markers that only write on certain surfaces. We used pipe cleaners and tissue paper as art supplies and we liked it that way. (anyone else remember making "hyacinths" for Mother's Day by twisting little squares of tissue paper around the end of your pencil and then gluing the little twists onto the page?)

My teacher was Mrs. Haskell. I remember her not being much taller than me - it's possible I was freakishly tall even then. I was always on the back row towards the center in the class pictures... but I digress.

At some point, sweet Mrs. Haskell (who seemed to be "grandma age" to me) decided to get "creative" with our art projects. She wanted us to branch out and explore our creativity, I suppose. It's also quite possible she was drunk.

That's the only logic explanation I have for why it suddenly seemed like a wonderful idea to her to give the class a very large container of bubble gum, and tell us to chew it up and then make "pictures" by stringing the chewed bubble gum into shapes across our papers.

You heard me right - she intentionally told a room full of five year olds to not only play with their food, but gave them permission to string slobbery, sticky, sugary, chewed bubble gum out into deliciously long strands while sitting in close proximity to the other children. And of course, we all complied. What 5 year old is going to say "no" to permission like that??

I'm not sure how many other girls ended up with so much gum in their hair that it had to be cut out, but I know I was one of the proud members of that list. It seems like it was Jennifer Talley's fault. She was stretching her pre-chewed gum with reckless abandon and a rather large wad of it ended up in my hair. I remember walking home from school that day with a lump o' chewed gum in my hair. It kinda grosses me out now just thinking about it. And yes, Mom tried all sorts of stuff to get it out and nothing worked. we ended up with a good trim to de-gum my hair.

I mean, seriously, what was Mrs. Haskell thinking?

And the 100th Post Is...

Weird. This is my 100th post. A LOT has happened in the last one hundred posts. We even have different kids than we did when I started. Sigh...

It's 54 days until we're in Haiti again. June 8th. We are hoping for peace and calm so that we can travel and meet Malot. Things have calmed down - the rioting stopped for now.

We've been told that it wasn't even safe for Harry to leave the orphanage to get food for the children during the last week. If he doesn't feel it's safe for us to travel when our trip arrives, then we'll cancel the trip. We just hope for the best.

On a completely random note....

Kohl, our little neighbor friend (he's 4) wanted Brent to "sleepover at Kohl's house" yesterday. Kohl suggested that he could "ask Lolo (that's me) when she gets home". It's interesting that, from Kohl's perspective, Lori is to Brent as Kohl's mommy is to Kohl. Hmmm... I may have to remember that. Apparently one of the benefits of being unemployed is that you get invited to all the cool parties!

And finally, I need to add to my Good Stuff list from yesterday. I'm adding:

Jeans. Bags that tear open and then reseal with a ziploc thingy. Having your 4 year old neighbor count you in his best friends.

More Malot

Someone with our agency put this little page together for us.

I just love the picture on the right where he's smiling to himself (at least you can't see his whole face). He has some medicine on his ear, so that's what the white stuff is. And, our friend who was in Haiti with us had some info for us when she found out we were getting Malot. She said that Malot was one of her favorites in the orphanage and that he was one of the nicest boys there and was smiling the whole time. I guess that's the international adoption equivalent of a good parent-teacher conference where you find out your child is exceptionally bright and clever! He seems to be a very happy little boy. We're looking forward to getting more information on him and definitely looking forward to our June visit.

A shout out to MRO - I think what you're doing is very brave and I'm proud of you for taking control of your life, no matter what the comments might be. Know you're loved!

And finally, I started a new medication today - the only one the FDA has officially approved for my condition. There are points in your life when you've had it with medication and there are points in your life where you plead for something to take the physical pain away or at least take the edge off. Here's to hoping that this helps over the coming weeks as it builds up.

New Kids on the Block??

I'm hearing snippets that Harry is preparing a referral for us. I gather that there's another sibling group that's been at the orphanage for just a couple of weeks and that he's trying to make sure everything is done and clear before he sends us the referral.

On the one side, I'm grateful that Harry's looking out for us and that, even though what Bernadette did is very rare, he's still trying to make sure we don't have to go through that again.

From another angle, getting accepting another referral would be giving up on Lexi and Nathan. But how long do we wait for something that may never happen? Again, Bernadette is the one with the control here. There's nothing we can do to sway or influence this at all.

There's some level of all of this that makes me feel like..... it's like you lost your favorite salt and pepper shakers, so you contact the store where you bought them and they agree to just look around in the back and see if they can find a comparable set.

My feelings may entirely change when we get the referral. Or maybe Bernadette will change her mind before that happens.

I had a church activity tonight with a bunch of the women that I hadn't talked to in awhile. And unfortunately I had to explain a few times that we've lost our children. "AGAIN?" was the common stunned response. They watched us go through having Asnica's adoption fall through a few years ago. With Lexi and Nathan...I know in many ways the ward felt like they were their children, too- they gathered hundreds of pounds of donations that we took with us in January. Lots of tears. I thought was to the point where I could talk about it in public, but I guess not.

Again, thank you to the friends and family who are supporting us in this time. I've had some very sweet conversations with dear friends that just wanted us to know that we're in their prayers. And that means so much.

I was told a long time ago (and I believe it), "Some days, your family will be praying for you and as a result, you will succeed." I'm quite positive we've been carried by prayers through the darkest of the days we've had. Thank you for sharing your faith and love.

Gloria Gaynor, Where Are You When I Need You?

I might have to make "I Will Survive" my ringtone. I need some reminders.

We got word yesterday that SUDDENLY Lexi has a father in the picture again. When we were in Haiti, her father was listed as unknown.

He apparently, is in favor of Lexi being adopted, but not of her being in an orphanage. Unfortunately, in Haiti, you can't exactly have one without the other. If you don't have a steady home or even a telephone, there's no way for the adoption process to move forward.

I think I'd become fairly adept at dealing with infertility. I'm not sure how to deal with this. Many people have said, 'Maybe you were only supposed to be in their lives to help Lexi when she was so sick." I'm not OK with that and I'm not sure how to resolve myself with that. Does emotionally crawling on your hands and knees still count as bearing your burdens? It seems like the only way this burden could "be made LIGHT" is to quit caring about the situation.

The strange thing about being a parent in Haiti for week – I'm not sure we were prepared for the JOY we had. It seemed like there was a purpose to all the STUFF in life and that we could do this. That's really the first time I think either of us have felt anything close to that type of joy.

If it were my brother beating on me, I'd just cry "Uncle" and he'd leave me alone. Can't figure this one out.

Spackle

There's really no point to the title, other than that I enjoy the sound of that word.

WIAA confirmed that Harry got the letter and pictures we sent. Harry has promised to do his best to find Bernadette and deliver them. I've given myself a "goal" that we'll wait until Harry has confirmed he found Bernadette and delivered our letter and pictures and then give Bernadette a week before I completely despair.

Harry also spoke to the other orphanage directors in the area and let them know the situation. Hopefully if Bernadette takes them somewhere else, we'll still hear about it.

We did ask WIAA for some additional referrals of children from Nadia's orphanage. I think we just needed to see how things felt. There are some boys that Brent can't get out of his head. We'll see what happens. We're both still feeling like somehow someday things will work out with Lexi and Nathan. Maybe we'll have another little boy as well.

Ours is not to question why, I guess.

Shot in the Arm

The day before the surgery was kind of a rough one for me. We didn't know until the doctor arrived Thursday morning that he was doing the "big" surgery and cutting me open, so a lot of my stress was the unknown about what was actually going to happen on Thursday and what they were going to find.

I told Brent I was stressed and he said, 'Then you need to go out to the blog and watch the videos of Nathan. That will brighten any day!"

He's right. It does.

I have one last video of Nathan and thought I'd post it today - for mostly selfish reasons. I kinda overdid it yesterday and I'm suffering for it today.

This video was taken within 30 minutes of meeting Nathan. We're still at the orphanage, and we stepped outside to where it was more quiet so we could get some time with him.

I LOVE HIS EYEBROWS at the beginning of this. It's a sliver of insight into the personality in this little man. He's such a happy, content, dynamic little spirit.

In the Haitian culture, they don't cut a child's hair until they're a year old. Nathan has some random braids that the Aunties at the O have put in to try to control his mane. That's what you can see sticking out in places.

Enjoy! And I recommend a big dose of "Nathan" if you're ever having a bad day.

Rosenlofs v. Haiti

It's really like a bad divorce, except Haiti has full-custody and we get them about 5 days per year. What's wrong with this picture?

Don't get me wrong. As a mother-country, Haiti's doing her best. And they're in a good home now with Nadia. I know she takes care of them and does her best. I would just like to think that we will be better.

And so, in a way, we're suing Haiti for full-custody of these children. And because the legal system is involved, we're in for a long, drawn out fight.

A friend of mine posted something on her blog that I'm going to paraphrase - as long as we've been in this adoption process, we've thought of them as OUR kids. The reality is, they aren't. Not yet.
"We can't MAKE them our kids...they just aren't. We can't wish them into being our kids, we can't love them into being our kids, we can't hope them into being our kids...we just have to wait to see if some random man in some random office DECIDES that they are our kids..."

Until then, I'll keep waking up with them on my mind and savor a few moments while I picture what it will be like to have them with me - here... in this house. I picture their rooms. Soccer games. Dance classes. Spelling bees. Fights. Temper Tantrums. Playing with the dog.

They ride along to work with me, filling my thoughts as I navigate the rush hour. And there's nothing I'd rather ponder on than them.

Come home soon, Alexis and Nathan. We love you. We miss you. Sleep well.

A Bird in the Hand... or Not!

HELLO to my friends, Rene and Jack in the Netherlands! It's nice to know you're still checking in!

I thought I'd share a picture given to me by my little neighbor boy, Jeff (who happens to have been adopted from Haiti). Jeff is 8. He drew this during sacrament meeting at church on Sunday and then gave it to me, since I was sitting closest.

As Jeff explained this, it's a picture of a chicken who was kicked out of an airplane by his fellow passengers. At first, Jeff drew the chicken being eaten by a shark, who was in turn eaten by a whale.


I've colorcoded these three below. Chicken = Red, Shark = Blue, Whale = Green
The kid's really got the whole "food-chain-circle-of-life" thing down!



Then he decided he didn't like that so he added a parachute to the chicken, and added some action lines to show him falling into a boat. Then he turned the paper over to show that, conveniently, ON the boat was a "FedAxeUPS" truck. He said the truck would take the chicken back to the farm. In this last picture you can just see the final falling motions from the parchuting daredevil, sky-diving, passenger-annoying, shark-avoiding chicken!

Whew! That's one lucky bird! Like 007 with feathers!

Brent's Fortune Tellers

Brent's getting quite a little collection of fortune cookie fortunes that seem appropriate. He's been taping them inside his wallet so he can be reminded.

From just before we got the referral for Lexi and Nathan:

"Children's laughter, so beautiful to hear, soon will be a chance to have them
very near."

From just days after we found out we were accepted to get Lexi and Nathan:

"A new chapter in your life is being written."

and then from Tuesday of this week....

"Your ability to love will help a child in need."

Singing By Myself

Nathan sings and coos and babbles all the time. Of course, as soon as we started filming him, he stops, but you get a glimpse of the happy, content little baby he is.

This is Nathan sitting on Daddy's lap while we're in the hotel room (you can see the American TV show in the background! We enjoy "Dirty Jobs" with Mike Rowe and the Discovery Channel in general.)

He has a little crooked smile toward the end (after Brent blows on him) that just turns me to a pile of goo every time I see it!

I'm also in love with his lips. :)




That's our boy!!

Spoken Like a True Middle Child...

A good friend sent me this story about her 8-year old niece, Jill:

Yesterday Jill was coloring in a coloring book. When she was done with her page she brought it in to show Jamie and me. The picture was of a bear sitting at a table with a bowl sitting in front of him on the table. She colored the shirt on the bear green. The bowl was yellow and green and she also had accented several other parts of the picture with green.

So anyway she shows us the picture and says, "Can you guys guess what the bear's favorite color is?"

Jamie and I both look at the picture and say, "Ummm, green?"

She says, "Nope! Blue! This is the younger brother. His older brother likes green and he just has to wear his hand me downs!"