Charles is at class and I am home with the kids. I was thinking about trying to do some cleaning and general damage control on our house before the holidays. We've eaten dinner and the kids are reading books on the couch. I tell Dillon that if they want to get into their pajamas they can watch a video for an hour before bedtime. Dillon said, "I don't want to watch a movie. Today is a special day!" I asked why it was special, and he said, "I am Celebrating the Day of Rose!"
And I guess we are. We all dressed up and went to the Children's Court Building this morning. A few family members met us there. We hung out for a while in a waiting room outside the courtroom (having to be shushed often by folks that worked there) being kinda loud. At one point, a probably sixteen-year-old boy was led out of the courtroom in tears and handcuffs. We were told that adoptions were the only nice thing that happened there.
But we were called into the courtroom and Dillon, Charles and I were sworn in and called to testify. Charles got most of the tough questions, I mostly just had to affirm that what he said was correct (and one time stop him from inadvertently lying under oath-he can't remember dates to save his life!) Then the judge asked how Dillon was doing being a big brother, and he shouted "GREAT!" D got asked a few more questions, our social worker testified, and we were pronounced Rose's parents. It was pretty cool. The judge let us take some pictures with him and D got to adjourn the court and bang the gavel. (If you want to see the pics email me for the link.) Then the court reporter or whatever gave D and Rose presents from Harley Davidson. T-shirts and an art supply set, which was really sweet.
Afterwards, we went downtown and checked out some Christmas displays, tried to take a family photo (that was a non-starter), and then went for lunch and ice cream at Bella's Fat Cat (home of giant burgers and giant veggie burgers). It was great, I was hoping for something a bit more upscale to celebrate the occasion, but then I let Dillon pick, so I guess I deserved it. But who could really be mad about fantastically large cheeseburgers?
The rest of the day was just home stuff, but it was nice to have a day together… The kids were particularly sweet to each other. They sat in a beanbag chair with one of those scary stuffed animals where if you punch it in the stomach it sings, "Deck The Halls" really loud in a voice of a chorus of kids. And my kids tried to sing along but they didn't know and couldn't understand the words, so it was mostly an hour of "ma na na la da da da… FALALALALALALALALA!" But it was way less irritating than it sounds, really! Although I suppose everyone thinks that about their own kids.