Happy Birthday Pryce!!!!

As Ryan and I went to bed last night, I looked at him and said, "Eight years ago, at this exact moment, we were frantically trying to get to the hospital." It was midnight. My water had broken. At first, I remember thinking, it was not so bad....water broken, no pain, all good. Then the pain hit and it hit hard. We called the dr. at the hospital who calmly said, "Oh, wait until your contractions are five minutes apart." Yeah, right, had we taken his advice, our son would have been born in the car! We handed Colin off to a neighbor, jumped in the car and Ryan raced us to the hospital. Once there, I remember STANDING at the check-in desk as Ryan and the nurse chatted and laughed about how our social security numbers were so different being that we were born in the south. (We were living just outside of Boston at the time so everything was different.) Finally, the lady realized that I needed to be sitting down and she rallied for a wheelchair to take me up to my room. Once there, they summoned the best ever nurse to care for me, called the dr. and we pushed.....and pushed.....and pushed.....you know, most women tell of how they pushed forever with their firstborn and then only pushed once, at the most twice with their second born. I pushed one time, looked at the dr and asked, "So, is he here yet? I pushed one good time and everyone says you only push one time with your second." He smiled and instructed me to push again. Without the first bit of numbing drugs onboard, Pryce made his debut into our arms and cuddled his way into our hearts! He came so fast that there was no time for intervention, not even an IV! Eight years later, he is so much fun to watch. He is my carefree, live-a-little kiddo. He is happy and silly and always willing to try something new - except food items. He has the sweetest heart and is always quick to compliment others. Once he gets an idea into his head, he IS going to do it, no matter the obstacles. He is a planner. He shares my love for sweets, and he, thankfully, has his father's mind for math. I always remind him of his special place in our family, one that he and I have in common, being the middle child. He fills this role to a tee....he is the compromiser, and the peacemaker. Love him to pieces! Happy Birthday, P!

Pryce made the comment a few months ago that on his birthday he "wanted to be celebrated." So, celebrate we continue to do. Saturday was the celebration kick-off party at home! The boys enjoyed a game of kickball, Deadman on the trampoline, Pin The Saber On Yoda, and Pass The Present. Fun times!

On Sunday, Gran and Pop came for an afternoon visit. We decided to go to a local park. They brought goodies for all of the above and we enjoyed having them with us!

Following Gran and Pop's departure, Pryce hooked up with one of his best buddies, Matthew. Matthew and Pryce have been buds since they were 3 years old. There is never a dull moment when these two are together!

Monday morning, Pryce's actual birthday, he awoke to presents, cards, cake for a pre-breakfast celebration and a day to call his very own. With school being finished, we took the day and made it all in Pryce's honor. His wishes included donuts, tennis, baseball, Lego assembly, pizza and movies. We managed to squeeze in all of the above!

Monday evening, to continue with the celebrating, we went to dinner at Red Robin. Pryce could not have been happier! He was so excited that two of his best friends and their families, joined us for this special time. Pryce, Joseph and Molly were together last year in kindergarten and one year later, they have not missed a beat!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRYCE!

It is time to celebrate!!!! Today, 10 months later, we happily finished our first year of homeschooling! Definitely time to celebrate! A year ago, we made the decision to TRY homeschooling. We all agreed that if it worked, we would continue and if it didn't work, it would be a lesson learned. I am happy to say that it has WORKED. We all loved it and plan to continue next year with bells on.
Backing up a bit, on Monday MK decided to try out flying by jumping out of her crib. When asked why she did this, she simply stated, "Well, I no want to sleep. I wanted to play." Needless to say, the big girl bed will be making its debut soon.

On Wednesday, a new member of our family arrived. His name is Flash and Pryce could not be happier. For Christmas, Pryce received a Grow A Frog kit. We ordered the tadpole about a week ago and on Wednesday he made his grand appearance. After getting Flash settled into his new little home, Pryce could be found reading to him or watching him swim or writing in his journal about the little guy. He is very proud of him!

On Thursday, we watched a most exciting game of baseball featuring Colin. I honestly wish that I had it on video. Colin made one play that I will forever have engraved in my memory. He was on third base. The coach told him to steal home. He ran. Then the coach yelled for him to come back to third. Colin turned around and ran back to third. Then the other team over threw the ball so the coach told him to go home again. He was back and forth, back and forth, the crowd was cheering him on the entire time but the best part was Colin's expression. He was smiling the biggest smile ever during the entire back and forth process and even shot a glance up at us to make sure we were watching. He ended up making a very close slide into home plate and scoring for his team!

The Pond

Ryan and I met almost fifteen years ago. During one of our first dates together, Ryan took me to his family's property in SC to go fishing. I can never remember the exact acreage of the property but it is secluded, quiet and extremely peaceful. Part of the property contains a large pond. So Ryan takes me over to visit, he gives me a fishing pole, and I, acting all like I knew what I was doing, gave the fishing pole one nice whip in the air to cast out and.....well, the fishing pole went flying into the water. Nice. Ryan forgot to mention that the fishing pole was broken.

Yesterday we took the children to visit the pond and to go fishing. The boys have not been fishing in quite awhile and they were more than excited about this adventure.

One child, though he was all about fishing, he wanted nothing to do with actually killing the fish....he told us that we would be breaking a commandment if we were to kill the fish. He was so cute. Everytime a fish was caught, he would say, "Ok, now let him go. Let him swim away."

P seemed to get a lot of this slimy stuff on his hook. Then, he would want someone else to pull it all off....ewww.

MK chose to learn about fishing from G-Mom. They did quite well together.

In addition to fishing, the children were also entertained with rides in the trailer behind the lawn mower, paddle boat excursions, tromps through the woods, and down hill wagon riding. The wagon riding was the most impressive event and the one that I did not take any pictures of. The children would all pile into this wagon - there was a driver, four passengers and a pusher. The game was much like watching the bobsledding event during the Olympics. The pusher would get everyone going and then jump in the wagon once it was going at a decent downhill speed. Of course, nothing is complete without a crash involved. C was driving and one of the wagon wheels went astray leading he and his crew into the shore of trees that awaited them. Thankfully, they all had helmets on and walked away laughing!

We had a wonderful day at the pond with our family, great memories.

We're going to China, we're going to China, we feel so happy.....this is actually a song from Ni Hao Kai Lan. MK bounces between this show and Super Why - she loves both! It is true, though, we are going to China. Not anytime soon. We have not been matched with a child. We are in the very beginning stages (paperchase) of our next adoption, and if things go smoothly, we hope to be bringing another little sister home to our family in roughly two years. Sweet story.....one evening we were talking with the children, mainly the boys but MK was present as well. We were discussing our plans to adopt again and we were asking general questions to see how they felt about the possibility of having another sibling. They, all three of them, were hands down in support of going to China for another little girl. The boys were pretty adamant that they wanted a sister, MK just wants a baby. We then presented this to them, "How would you feel about not being allowed to go on the actual trip to China? What if it isn't possible for us to go as a family to get the baby?" HMMMM. I knew this one would get them. I knew that some of their excitement about adopting again stemmed from actually being allowed to go to China again. The trip. They loved the trip when we traveled for MK. They loved the airplanes. They loved the fabulous hotels. They loved the attention. They loved feeling like they were celebrities. They loved the friends we traveled with. They loved everything about the trip. Everything. Even the 12 hour flight. So when we presented it as a "you may get to go when we travel again or you may not" kind of deal, I really was interested in hearing their responses. Did they REALLY want another sibling? Of course, MK was all about just telling us about her story, how she cried and cried until we flew on the BIG airplane to get her in Chongqing, China, etc., etc., etc. She was focused on what she understood of the question. The boys were silent for a moment. Then they both spoke almost simultaneously and said they wanted to go on the trip. My first thought was disappointment. I was really disappointed that they did not see beyond the trip. I was disappointed to see that they were putting a three week trip in front of a lifelong relationship. (Disclaimer....yes, I do know they are children) Then the boys continued slowly. One said, "Well, I do want to go to China again. I will save my money everyday so I can go on the trip to get our baby sister. But, if I can't go, I still want to adopt another sibling." OK, one son was totally on-board. The other son said, "Well, I just really want to go to China. I want to ride on the airplane." OK, one is on-board, and the other one, we were thinking, is not. I asked him why it was so important to him to actually go on the trip. He responded, "Because, I really want to be the first one to hold her." I love adoption. I love that our family has experienced adoption. I love that, one more time, we will, as a family, let a child grow in all of our hearts before we ever even lay eyes on her. I love knowing that even now, even in the earliest stages of the process, there is a little girl on the other side of the world who has her forever family praying for her and loving her from afar.

Wordless Wednesday

Different

At church this morning something so small hit me in the largest way. Ryan and I began volunteering in MK's Sunday School class today. The children were all sitting at a table when one little girl asked, "Hey, what's your name?" We introduced ourselves. Then, the lead teacher said, "Mr. Ryan and Ms. Beth are Mason-Kate's parents." Simple statement, one that I do not think twice about on any given day. Today was different. I thought twice. Why? Simply because here we were surrounded by 3 and 4 year old children who will say whatever is on their little mind at any given time. And for one small moment I panicked because I realized that this is the age that little ones notice differences. Differences don't matter so much at this age but they are noticed. And I quickly began to wonder what if one little one stands up and points out the obvious to MK. What if one child notices and says, "She doesn't look like you. You don't look like her. You can't be her parents." I am all about a plan. I am all about thinking ahead and having a plan, I like to be prepared for everything. I wasn't prepared today. I wasn't and I still am not prepared for what to say to the child that asks the inevitable. I want desperately to have just the right words and I will figure them out, but in the meantime, I am going to embrace the innocence.

We are a busy family. That is often said on this blog. However, as busy as we are, we do strive to slow down and just be together as a family, no one else involved, nowhere else to go, just hang out and be. That said, after a long day of appointments at the "office", as MK says, we came home, spread out a blanket in the backyard and had a picnic. Following our picnic, the children played, Ryan and I talked, the kids did some jumping and swinging, giggles were heard, happiness was definitely in the air. Baseball season is in full swing now with the boys. MK is well aware of this as she spends more evenings than not at a baseball park. On this particular evening, as the boys were playing a game with Ryan, MK took it upon herself to try and figure out for herself just how this baseball game works.

Maneuvering this glove thing is tough work!

Steady....she has her eye on the ball.

Step one, two, three and throw the ball. Easy.