I said to Ryan last night, "I can't believe it is already Friday!" As much as we enjoyed our vacation and the holiday festivities, I was personally glad to get back into our routine. Thankfully, the boys were on board as well and MK didn't think twice about going back to her preschool. We tried a new PE class this week at a local church. The boys really needed this. It has been extremely cold here so they have been spending a lot of time indoors - between you and me, boys need their outside time :) My boys are good but everyone needs their time to run off excess energy. During the PE class, I heard squeaky shoes. Mason-Kate had several pair of squeaky shoes that we brought home with us from China so I clearly recognized the sound. I looked over and there was the culprit - an 11 month old baby girl, just learning how to walk and she was CHINESE. With MK being so into babies lately, I quickly pointed the baby out to her and she immediately asked if we could go see her. Turns out, the baby girl is just home from China AND, the most amazing part, she is from DIANJIANG, MK's orphanage....AND she has the most beautiful repaired cleft lip and unrepaired cleft palate. She is precious and I am so excited to have the opportunity to get to know this family.
In other news, Mason-Kate did the unimaginable. She, for the first time since her adoption, played in her room, all by herself for 45 minutes or more. She looked at books. She worked puzzles. She undressed every single baby she owns. She read to the babies. She constructed Kai Lan's house with her new Lego set. She listened to music. She didn't call for me. She didn't cry. She wasn't unhappy, she was very content. We praised her and she was so proud of herself that she did it again another day when I asked her to. To me, this is huge. Colin never had a problem entertaining himself, he preferred to play, play, play whether I was beside him or not - he just played. Pryce had Colin and pretty much followed him around, doing whatever it was that Colin was doing. MK has always wanted to be right beside us, doing whatever it was we were doing. We put toys in our living room thinking that she could play there and still have us in her sight. It didn't matter, she wanted to be right with us. All along, we haven't discouraged her from wanting to be with us but we have always tried to encourage her to play some by herself even if it was only for a few minutes. Probably my favorite observation of her this week was when she was playing babies. I saw them all lined up, naked of course, against the wall. She said, "Mommy, my babies are crying. They miss their mommy but they in time out." I asked her what in the world those precious little babies could have possibly done. Her reply, "They tell me 'NO!' and I tell them 'No tell me no!' and they in time out, see?" Pretend play. So cute. My second favorite observation would be last night. The girls went to the store while the boys went to a Boyscout meeting. We looked at ballet clothing. MK is so excited about taking ballet class. We purchased a leotard and she promptly came home, took off her new boots, took off all of her clothing and I helped her dress up in her new duds. She was so cute. She immediately put her hands above her head and wanted me to take her picture. It has to be innate with little girls. How does she even know to put her hands above her head and stand on her tiptoes? Needless to say, our little one is upstairs, sleeping soundly as I type, in her new pink leotard - aka her "ballet."
The upcoming week will be a busy one filled with PE, piano, church activities, basketball practice beginning, a trip to see the Wizard of Oz, a loose tooth that is bound to fall out with a mother who is less than excited to see blood - even good blood, a first ballet class, an IEP meeting to hopefully get speech approval for MK in our local school system, grandparents and cousins visiting and MK's 3rd birthday! Stay tuned.

Ryan was putting the boys to bed tonight and I walked in on the tail-end of their conversation. The only words I heard were "not a good idea" and "I think it may hurt", both statements were coming from Ryan's mouth, said in a nice but stern kind of manner. Pryce, noticing the concerned look on my face, said, "Mom, we were just talking about firing people out of cannons and how that would feel and stuff. You know they do that in the circus and I may want to be in the circus one day." I didn't dare laugh. I simply reiterated my rule to him - the rule that says you can do whatever you want to do AFTER you go to college and get your degree. He just looked at me and smiled his sweet little, very loose tooth smile, and said, "Don't worry mom, I have a lot of years to think about all of that!"