Language

So M's come a long way in her language skills, but... last night I was reading a book about animals. I was trying to get her to name animals that are little. She was stymied by the vocab. So I tried animals that are big. She was still stumped. I suggested an elephant and talked about how BIG they are. Then I talked about giraffes. So BIG! Then I mentioned a hippo. I asked if she knew what a hippopotamus was. She sweetly smiled and then grew very excited and made this little sound. Over and over she made it until I realized that she was trying to HICCUP. It was hysterical. So...yeah. We're still working on language! :-)

Real Life

I knew the week would be a challenge on the mom front on Sunday morning. I'm in the front of the church doing a last minute rehearsal with our worship team and in walk my boys. Gone were the children I brought sweet and clean; these were hot and sweaty and the service hadn't even begun. As they walked through the doors I saw one bop the other on the back of his head. Not enough to hurt. Just enough to annoy. I'm sure he had no reason; they never do. This time, our whole team got to witness the love fest and burst out laughing. "So you have a normal family!" one guffawed. "Yes," I replied. "We have a lot of normal going on."

Since then we've been privileged to hear:

"My green bean is bigger than yours!"

"Why does he get to have the first pancake?!"

"I picked more basil than you did!"

and

"His ice cream is bigger than mine!"

Sigh.

Even little M got in on the act, covering the pictures in her book so G couldn't see them!

It was enough to make this mom want a vacation - alone! :-)

But today, I piled the kids into the car and took them to a local park where we took a nice long hike. We saw cranes and animal tracks, etc. At one point I looked up and gone were the kids from the week replaced by two boys holding hands on the trail and whispering of nature finds. M was sweetly singing about butterflies and N was smiling ear to ear.

There's just something about nature, I guess. And real life, too. :-)

Life Lately

What a busy week we've had again. Perhaps it's just called "having four children." :-)

M's language is really coming along. She had gotten in the habit of saying a form of "huh?" that sounded more Canadian than Connecticut so we have worked hard to teach her to say, "What did you say?" It sounds like "Wha di da day?" She always says it with a HUGE smile because she's so proud of herself.

This weekend we went to our favorite local ice cream shop. M was giggling with glee. All of the sudden she clapped her hands together and said, "M, ice cream pink big!" which translated means, "M wants a BIG strawberry ice cream cone!" Very cute. We did offer chocolate or vanilla, but she only wanted PINK.

I'm amazed by how many conversations open up with people once they see our family together. Just today at the town pool a woman came over who is a mom at our kids' elementary school. She sat and talked for a good 20 minutes, so curious about our experience and so moved watching our kids play together in the pool. M was tickled pink in her big brother's arms. They were hugging and kissing dripping wet and it was simply beautiful.

Adoption brings out such wonderful things!