Funny Stuff

Our elf, Matthew, chose to hide on top of my cookbook that is displayed in our kitchen. I was joking around with the boys and I stated that I thought maybe Matthew was trying to tell us he was hungry???? That led to the conversation of exactly what do elves eat? Pryce stated very confidently that he was sure elves liked fish. Colin immediatley questioned this and he announced that there was no way Matthew could eat fish because all of the water was frozen in the North Pole, so how in the world could Matthew like fish? Pryce came back very quickly with, "Matthew has magic powers, Colin. If Matthew wants fish, he just flies by a store on his way home and gets his fish!"



Speaking of food, Pryce's job in the morning is to feed Finley. It worries him if Finley chooses not to eat his food right away. So in order to avoid worrying, Pryce has started making trails with pieces of dog food from the door of our laundry room over to Finley's bowl. Finley likes this game and always participates in eating each piece until he makes it to his bowl. I think it is so cute because Pryce works very diligently on making the trail to the bowl and he talks to Finley while he lays each piece of food precisely where it needs to go. Cute, a boy and his dog.



And lastly, I have to write about my husband. He makes me laugh. Every night after the children are in bed, Ryan will make me a cup of ice cream. I could do this myself but I prefer him to do it because he always gives me more than I would give myself, and he gives me a second serving (I would not be that generous to myself). I like to combine frozen yogurt (Moose Tracks) and ice cream (normally a flavor from Brusters). Well, apparently the freezer was experiencing an ice cream overload. Instead of Ryan questioning why in the world we have so many boxes of ice cream in our freezer, he chose a more subtle approach. He placed all of the ice cream containers from our freezer in a line and took a picture. Then, he just waited for me to respond, knowing very well that I would see the picture on our camera when I went to take a picture of something else. His point was made.

And here's MK posing by the tree this morning......

Sibling-itis

Colin never ceases to amaze us with his inquiries. Yesterday he arrived home from school, started taking everything out of his backpack to begin homework and then he looked at Ryan and me and asked if either one of us had ever heard of "sibling-itis". I was actually on the phone but paused to listen to what Colin was asking. Ryan and I kind of glanced at one another, both of us thinking that he is now feeling some sort of issue with his siblings. "Sibling-itis" apparently is when siblings are a bit jealous of one another. Thankfully Colin stated that he has not experienced this personally but had read about it and wanted to know if we had ever been there.

I cautiously write that Pryce is on the mend. I am from the "anything above 98.6 is a fever" school. I have been taking his temp three times a day, morning, noon and night.....MK has noticed this and now walks around with the thermometer in her hand saying, "mama, pryce?" With that said, his body temp continues to register anywhere from 99 to 99.9. And he is so tired. He has taken a good two hour nap everyday for the past week and then has asked to go to bed at 7:30 in the evening, not like him at all. He has acted more normal today and has not needed cough meds. He will return to school for the remainder of the week but only on a half day basis. We are all praying that he is 100% soon!

And Mason-Kate....she had her six month speech evaluation done today by her therapist. It was not a big shock to me that she exceeded in all areas, scoring over 100 in each category. She knows her colors, she says two word phrases, and so on. I am happy that she is doing so well but with a passing score, this most likely means that we will no longer qualify for speech services. I am going to request another evaluation to be done in three months just to make sure that all is still well.

15 days until Christmas! My boys are so excited! And MK walks around the house sporting her Santa bag and saying "ho, ho, ho". Too cute!

Pryce has pnuemonia. We went back to the dr. today, our third trip in two weeks, and the "crackling" was heard. He is more tired these days and just not himself. Looks like I will have my little partner home with me for a few more days.

This weekend we visited a local Christmas tree farm. We took a hayride to find just the right tree. The boys enjoyed helping to pick the tree out but they honestly had more fun counting the lines on the trunk stubs to see how old the trees were when they were chopped down. We came home and wouldn't you know that the tree wouldn't fit in our 12 year old stand. So, back to the farm Ryan went to get yet another perfect tree. MK loves to look at the ornaments and she always says "Wow!" when we turn the lights on.

Last night we rang in the Christmas season with our church Christmas party. The children enjoyed making ornaments to decorate the church tree and they got to visit with Santa. Mason-Kate cried like no other when she caught sight of Santa. He wasn't even near her but she was hysterical. Luckily we managed to get a picture of Santa and the children. The children took a seat in Santa's chair....Santa snuck up behind them and the photographer snapped the picture. Perfect! No tears!

The boys and I have started reading one of my favorite Christmas stories, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. We all three love it. I read it to them every year and I think it gets better each time!

THE Call

One year ago today I woke up anticipating one thing and went to bed dreaming of my baby girl in China. She finally had a face to go with her name. I remember playing tennis with a friend that morning as I waited for our agency to call me back with what they had stated to be a question regarding our Waiting Child application. My friend, Laurie, asked "what if they have a baby for you?"....I seriously thought that was impossible, we had just applied less than 5 weeks ago and their message stated they just had a question, not a child. The call finally came at 1:00 pm. The rep asked her question, paused for a moment and then said, "We have a match for your family! She is a 10 month old baby girl". That afternoon, Ryan and I opened up her file on the computer, he was at work, I was at home, and we saw her face together for the very first time. Her bright, brown eyes looked back at us and that image will be forever ingrained in my head. We knew she was ours. There was so much I didn't know on that day, but I knew that she was a beautiful child with a cleft palate. I didn't know what I know now. Now I know that she is funny and that she loves to make people laugh. Now I know that she loves books. And her bunny blanket. And her "babu" (baby). And jewelry. And Barney. Now I know that she likes to color. And talk on the phone. Now I know that she is a girlie girl. Now I know she will eat anything and everything that is placed in front of her. Now I know what it feels like to hear her say "mommy". Now I know what it is like to see Ryan with his daughter. Now I know what it is like for the boys to have a sister, someone they protect. Now I know her cry. Her laugh. Now I know her smell. Now I know what it feels like to have a child go through major surgery and recover quickly. Now I know that you can love children who have not come from your body as though they did. Now I know that there are days that I forget she didn't. A year ago, she was just a picture, a face to hold onto in our dreams. Today she is our baby girl, our little sister.