Why, Why, Wild Kratts!

We've got another birthday to celebrate around these parts and let me tell you that we are excited! 
This is a terrible picture and you've got to swear you won't tell the birthday boy, but I just couldn't resist showing you the cutest creature power suits!!

 

#2,000!!!

S: I learned a new shape at school.  A hexagon.

Jon:  Oh yeah?  How many sides does it have?

S:  (holds up 6 fingers)

Jon: Cool.  Do you know what a 12-sided shape is?  A dodecagon.

S:  That's a made up word. 

Thank you, talk like a pirate day.

My favorite part of the evening was listening to them practice their pirate sayings before pulling into Krispie Kreme.   There's just something about three and four year old pirate sayings that will just tickle ya. 

Family Day, 2013

Can you even believe you are reading this post?  Two Years?  How can it be, I ask you.  How can it be? 

Things in the Mot household are calm and sweet these days. We are enjoying our boys and family more than ever.  As usual, Jen Hatmaker wrote a blog post that summed up much of what I was thinking about hitting the two year mark.  We could especially relate to two different points she made.  The first being how life seemed like it was always going to feel hard, even simple little things.  Then one day, the pressure seems to lift and things feel good, sweetly good.  We could also relate to how our opinions and thoughts about orphan care have changed since adopting, much like how new parents might feel differently about parenting a couple years in.  That seems like a weighty sentence.  Perhaps I'll unpack those feelings later in another post.

But here we are!  Two years as a family and feeling extremely blessed.  God is faithful and life is sweet and full of grace around these parts. 

Both of our boys are so in love with their Ababa these days (what's new, I know, I know.).  This morning when Jon came out of the bathroom, Bear said, "There's my favorite guy!"  And to make sure there was no confusion, he points at Jon and says, "You're my favorite guy!" 

Superman has also had some darling prayers recently. 
Jon: Who do you want to pray for?
S: I want to pray for you!
God thank you that Ababa is my daddy.  Thank you that you take care of him.  And thank you that you are with Ababa at work and thank you that you are with me.  Amen. 

Today to celebrate Family Day we went swimming and had some fun kid style.  It seemed too perfect when a child playing nearby asked Superman who his mom was, and he responded with a big smile, "That's her!  With the purple shirt on!  She's my Mama."  Yes, babe, I am.  Forever.

Happy Ethiopian New Year!

Better late than never!  The pictures aren't so great, but we had a blast celebrating and eating wonderful food! 

 

And how could I forget this picture in my photo dump yesterday?  We love these friends!! 

Photo taken by and kids babysat by lfhcreative  ;)

 

Photo Dump!

Bear reading bedtime stories to his bud.

For some reason Sam is in love with Bear's bed and wants to play in it when he comes over.

Sleep tight!  ;)

Superman and a snail!

New tricks!

Superman's OT graduation! 

 

A new batch of rice to play in.

Friends!

Car wash!

Ta da!

A cutie.

Another cutie.

Swimming with friends.

Birthday celebrations!

Yum.

Smile!

Racing at the Science Spectrum.

I think Momo taught him to nap like that.

Bear and Sam, playing while Mama is at work.

The love continues: Day 11

Superman is a school-lover.  This fact literally makes me stop in my tracks and thank Jesus.  Multiple times a day.  He has adjusted so well and his genuine excitement about school is contagious.  A major highlight in my day is picking him up at noon.  I get to watch him play for a few minutes on the playground as his class finishes up recess, then we get lots of smiles and hugs in before hopping in the van.  Then when we get home he always goes on and on about the treasure box and what he and I will do when we play school after lunch.  I always love (love) checking his yellow folder everyday to see what he made or did.  It's just too sweet.

And the songs.  Oh people, he learns some darling songs at school.  And then he comes home and teaches them to me, because I have never, ever heard of the songs those pre-k teachers scrounge up.  I walk around singing, "Oh my!  No more pie!" all day and I do it with tons of expression in an attempt to mimic 4-year old enthusiasm. 

The only snafu he has told me about was, "Mrs. Hollyhondro took my scissors.  I don't think that was very nice of her."  I didn't know whether to laugh, talk about the behavior that led to the scissor removal, or just make a bland, general comment.  "Oh, your scissors, huh."   

(As a major aside, I just googled snafu.  While I was aware of the general meaning, can I just say I had no idea.  And now I am even cussing on accident.)

I try to ask him detailed little questions about his day so I can learn the common vocab that they use in the classroom.  This is how I learned that the sewn fabric pocket that slips over the back of his chair and holds his pencil box is called the "belly pouch".  This is often where the conversation goes when his water bottle is lost.  As in, "don't worry, it's probably just in your belly pouch."  And the real hilarious part is when Bear picks up this new vocab and has no real idea to what it refers.  Yesterday, we were playing school and Superman, a.k.a. Mrs. Hollyhondro, was telling the dutiful class (me and Bear) that we need to sit criss cross with our hands in our laps.  I think I am sitting correctly, but then I'm shown that you can't simply rest your hands on your lap, you need to push your hands way down in the space created in your legs.  Bear, standing beside me, watching this demonstration pipes in, "Yeah, put your hands in your belly pouch." and I look up to see him standing there with his hands shoved deep in his underwear.  I fall over and die laughing and at that point, you feel bad for the pretend Mrs. Hollyhondro; there is no way she's ever reigning this class in.                

Tales from 30: A $10 Ticket and a Priceless Babe

I'm feeling pretty grown-up these days, which doesn't even have anything to do with the major milestone birthday I just breezed past. 

Nope, my buddy from days long has a tiny baby boy.  I don't think it's totally rational, but I can trace the steps of my thinking.  Somehow her journey into motherhood makes me feel like a bona fide grown up. 

Tracing the Steps #1.  My family moved around a lot growing up, so I consider my college friends to be my oldest buddies ever.  People who continue to get together with High School friends, or (even crazier) grade school friends make me stop and marvel. 

Tracing the Steps #2.  If the friend that you loosely associate with your youth is now a parent, this pretty much means you are probably old too.  Because how can you reckon memories of that very friend trying to light farts on fire with the current image of a tender-hearted mom, content to spend her days doing nothing but stare at the babe in her arms?  See what I mean?  We've clearly grown up.  (As an aside:  We never did have any success in lighting a fart on fire.  I think this was mostly due to lack of technique and/or experience, not lack of gas.) (Another aside:  Have I just lost what I consider to be one of my oldest friendships by telling the internet that story?  Possibly.)

Jon, who will be forever referred to as the wizard, found me a 10 dollar plane ticket so that I got to spend my big 30th birthday weekend with that very pal and two other college buddies.  Or if you think like me, two more of my oldest and dearest friends.  And we had fun in roughly the same fashion as we did in college.  We kind of did nothing, and it was pretty awesome.       

It was a great trip, but I did miss my big guy and my boys.  I shared a bed with Kristen and one night in a sleep induced haze I glanced at her, assumed she was my kid and started talking to her.  She kind of sat up and responded with a perky "what?" and I immediately realized my mistake, was mortified, and pretended to be sleeping.  But that is just the mark of a good pal and a deep friendship; no weirdness the next morning, just laughter.   

We are also an interesting group of conversationalists (says I).  With an adoptive mom (me), a social worker who regularly deals with adoption (Kristen), an individual who has 3 internationally adopted siblings from two different countries (Leah), and a public school teacher in diverse South Carolina (Jessie) we had all sorts of different viewpoints to contribute when talking about race.  Throw in our four very different geographical locations and you've got yourself a topic to last for a long weekend.  Race, movies (including but not limited to sharing favorites on YouTube), trivia, and Syria were all discussed at length.  You know, the stuff grown-ups would talk about.  ;)

Some pictures of the fun:

Jessie and Silas ready to make foot print history. 

 

 Shhhhh!  Artists at work!

 

Not a fan. 

Cuteness!  Kristen and Silas meet and bond for life.  (Not a crazy Twilight reference...)

Leah is clearly pulling away from me in this picture, but I will still choose to love her.  Forever. 

A happy mama. 

Jon is the best.  Look at my surprise! 

Spinach artichoke dip and Martinis.  Living the dream.

My thirtieth birthday!

A sweet family of three. 

 (And by the way Daron, because you married into this craziness you are now also one of my oldest friends.  Deal?)

Watching Jim Gaffigan.  Silas is clearly cracking up in this picture. 

Sushi!

 

 

Let's plan another weekend rendezvous, but next time I'm bringing three more!