Strep, strep, go away and don't come again some other day! Really!
Between the boys, we are now on our 5th antibiotic in, oh, a month, to beat strep.....will number 5 be the magic number?

We talk a lot about adoption. Obviously. It is in our prayers, it is within our circle of friends, it is in our hearts, it is in our family, it is in our books. Most nights, MK asks for a story about when she was a baby in China. So, I tell her the story of how we flew to China, all four of us - at this point in the story she always points out that our dog, Finley, stayed home - and we got on a bus, and we went into a building, rode an elevator and when we got off, we heard her talking and then we saw her there by a couch, looking curiously at us, eating a bag of something with her friend, Chloe. If I leave any part of this out, MK quickly says, "Silly you, you forgot the part about...." Adoption is just simply a part of us. And it is a part of who MK is and who she will be. She will never know any different. Case in point, at 3, she is already telling me about her many babies named Goldilocks - all babies in our home are named Goldilocks and they have BLACK hair, but whatever. The other night MK picked up a Goldilocks and said, "Hey mom, look at my sweet baby Goldilocks. I got her from 'Meijing'." My first thought was, "What? Do you mean Beijing? You have never been to Beijing and that particular Goldilocks is the one we gave you when we met you in Chongqing." I said none of this. MK said, "Isn't she sweet? She loves her mommy. I am her mommy." I said, "Yes, she is sweet. Did you get her in Beijing?" MK says, "Yes, I flew to her on the big airplane and got her and now we are a family." This is her story and she is processing it in a normal 3 year old way. I went downstairs and shared this story with Ryan. He said, "Yeah, you know last night that same Goldilocks was born with a cleft lip and palate. The lip had been repaired in China." At the age of three, MK is so accepting of her story, her adoption and her cleft lip/palate. She even, very confidently I might add, told Colin's friend the other evening that she had the best speech ever because she gets to take lessons! LOL. This acceptance and confident attitude - may this always be a part of her.

A Day With The Boys

Sunday was a day for me and the boys. I spend so much time with them, teaching and mothering. It leaves little time for play. And I like to play. So we all went to church, and then it was time for some fun! First stop, a local restaurant that the boys have been dying to go to. After inhaling the melt-in-your-mouth croissants and finishing them off with a few chicken tenders, it was off to play laser tag. The boys are experienced in this game. Me, not so much. We got suited up and we were off. During our 30 minute jaunt inside this tagroom, I finally realized how to hide and seek. There was screaming, laughter and a lot of "your vest has now been deactivated" going on between the three of us. Following our inside attacks, the boys announced they wanted to ride the bumper boats. The staff tried to discourage us saying it was cold and we were going to get wet. I smiled as I thought to myself, "It is ok. It isn't THAT cold. The boys really want to do this. We won't get wet - we won't bump into one another THAT hard. It will all be ok." Then, as the worker boy was prepping our boats, he said, "Let me find three that have good water pressure for the spraying." Whatt???? Admittedly so, I started out telling the boys to go easy on their old mom, we had church to go to that evening. Then, I turned into the bad guy/fun guy....it was quite entertaining to squirt them with the way too cold water and hear their squeals of laughter. And squeal they did until they would get this look of determination on their faces, each of them, and the favor was returned - I got soaked, not once but many, many times and we all three laughed and plotted against each other the entire time. Next visit, I am going to request a faster getaway boat! Needless to say, our time together was enjoyed by all. I love the moments that I have with them where we can all just laugh freely, talk openly and just be.

Meanwhile, Ryan took MK for a little date. Ryan asked her, "Mason-Kate, what do you think we should do today?" She said, "Well, daddy, look at my fingers, they need to be painted!" I do say, she is all about feeling pretty!

Today she can swing, ALL.BY.HERSELF. Yes, the day, we knew, was coming soon. She has tried and tried and pretended and pretended and then today it all came to be.....first I gave her some pushes and then I realized she was doing it all by herself. Up, up, up she went! We are so proud and showed off this new skill all day to anyone who would watch!

Now, a quote:

Me: "Mason-Kate, you are so awesome!"

MK: "Mommy, I am not awesome. I am cute 'cause I am a girl. Girls can't be awesome!"

Me: "Silly me."

MK: "Yeah, silly you. You just didn't know that girls can only be cute until I told you, right?"

Me: "Right." :)