We go to court and Sunshine shoplifts

Our family of 7
Boys with Nonny
Best buds AK and Sunshine
Not that glad to be brothers today


June 5th was a big day for us. It was Banana Boy's 4th Family Day, the day we were all together as a family for the first time. Four years already! How that time has flown! Our dental hygenist (who has known our family for 17 years!) was commenting on the boys' personalities when we were there today and how different the two boys are. She pointed out that BB is going to me my sweet boy and Sunshine, my challenge boy. Obvious, I know, but I hadn't really thought of it like that before. It made my heart smile to think of BB as my Sweet Boy.

Yesterday was also Sunshine's adoption finalization. We were scheduled to be in court at 8:30 am. That all sounds great and early and all, but keep in mind, we were organizing 6 adults & 5 kids, two cars, driving 35 minutes downtown during rush hour, in the rain, parking, walking to the courthouse and getting through security.

It all went off without a hitch, but my organizational-mom light was blinking pretty hard.

Grandma and Grandpa plus Auntie drove down Wed. night so we could all get up bright an early for the trip to court. Mr. GT took the day off work and we made Rose Bud (oh, mom! I can't miss school!) miss school for part of the day. Auntie being a part of the whole deal helped to salve her disappointment at missing several precious hours of school.

Nonny also came with us as well as godmother AJ, little AK and two of her siblings, Anni and Tiger, who asked if they PLEASE couldn't skip school to come along!

Our immediate family got to sit at the council tables, everyone else sat in the gallery and there was just the stenographer, the judge and the bailiff besides. Sunshine played his part by running around the court room (which the judge kindly said was ok), including up into the jury box! Eep!

The judge said all the formal things, including that what most impressed him in reading the report was how "this family is realistic about parenting." Whatever that means. It was a compliment, I guess!

He pounded his gavel and the deed was done. Oh, must mention that he asked who was all there with us (meaning the kids) and PEPPER, of all people, sallies up to the microphone on the table and says her name! We maybe have a future lawyer on our hands....

Photos with the judge, then everyone out so he can hear the next case, scheduled for 8:40! (it was a cute little black baby girl--she looked maybe Ethiopian)

We signed the paperwork and we were free!

Now we had 2.5 hours to kill before the Indian restaurant opened, so everyone divided up and ran errands.

Somehow we all ended up at Target at the same time, so Sunshine got new crocs, Rose Bud insisted she needed new jean shorts, BB needed underwear, Mr. GT needed a new dish drainer basket for the sink, the boys needed diapers/pull ups and Grandma scoured the clearance racks for cute things for the kids.

Sunshine refused to sit in the cart. He was so over-the-top wound up by now with all the people and all the excitement and all the transistions, he was completely cranky.

He wanted Mom to hold him. No, he wanted Grandma to hold him. No, Dad. No, Papa, No, Nonny, NO, AUNTIE! Rose Bud!

You'd think 6 adults could watch one 3 year old at Target.

You'd think.

Suddenly, I realized he wasn't there. NOONE was holding him and I didn't hear his shrill little voice. No one remembered seeing him lately. Well, Grandpa just left for the restroom. Maybe they were together. Mr. GT went to check. No Sunshine.

I began to rev up into full Mama-panic mode. Nonny went to ask the FOUR cashiers standing around with nothing to do if they had seen a little brown boy. Nope.

I was just getting ready to all-out panic when he popped his little head out of a check-out aisle and said, "HI!"

And WHAT was the little darling doing? No wonder he was so quiet! He had eaten half a pack of Rolos, paper and all! His mouth was caramelled shut!

Does Target NOT have a system in place to guard against shoplifters??????? If I had tried to eat a pack of Rolos in the store, security would have been all over me in 3 seconds! Does no one notice an unsupervised 3 year old snacking in the check-out lane?????? So much for hidden cameras!

Anyway, we high-tailed it out of there (after grabbing a different pack of Rolos for scanning purposes, since Sunshine had eaten the bar code) and luckily it was time to go eat.

We had a lovely Indian lunch buffet to celebrate both boys and Grandpa was so brave to try new things. He even liked what he tried! Grandma thought it all was too spicy. Sunshine was too wound-up and full of Rolos to eat anything except Halwa and Kheer.

We are definitely blessed by Sweet Banana Boy who sticks close and knows how to behave, now that he is an old man of 5, but thanks to Sunshine, we are also blessed with a good laugh.

Might have to change his name to Rolo.