6 Months

Oh, the time is flying now. Mini turned 6 months old on Saturday and I got out one of my favorite dresses for her to wear and dusted off my camera (ha!) to get some pics for the big occasion.  Who said the second child doesn’t have as many picures as the firstborn?  Because it’s just not true for Mini.  Now, if you were talking about scrapbooks….that’s another thing.  I’ll get to those someday.  I haven’t lost the love for scrapbooking but I just can’t seem to find it right this very moment.

But finding time to lie on the ground singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (which guarantees a smile 72% of the time) and saying sounds like bzzzbapbapbloop to make eye contact with the camera a billion times in a row? I always have the time for that.

I really had fun this go ’round because I think her personality showed through in all the photos.

First of all, remember my signs?  Nice idea but it was crumpled up within the first 30 seconds!  She’s at the age when she’s starting to reach for EVERYTHING!

And it’s all making its way into her mouth (important bit of info: she has finally figured out how to put her pacifier into her mouth the right way.  How do you spell a better night’s sleep? P-A-C-I-F-I-E-R)

Mini loves Taggie, the blue elephant.  She studies and feels every single Tag so seriously.

(this must be when I started singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  Do you see the mesmorized look in her eyes over her mommy’s singing?  Huh, Mike? Do you see it?)

(Mike encourages me to not give up my blogging day job to try out for lead singing gigs)

The picture above is me getting all artsy on you.  But me, a lover of colors, can not do with black and white photos.   Something triggers in my brain and I’m momentarily not the same cheerful woman I used to be.

Oh that’s MUCH better!  I love how the colors in this beautiful dress (thanks Livi) match her room.  It even has a butterfly!  I am a lover of themes, as well.

Wooosh!

That was a flood of beta endorphines right there.  Oh yeah, baby.  My brain is happy.

But then again, I have a lot to be happy about!

Thank you, God, for six wonderful, joy-filled, mesmerizing months with Mini.  She is such a gift.

(I posted one more pic - before the untimely demise of the sign - on my Watch Mini Grow-the pics page)

One More Pic For the Weekend

In case it’s a rainy one, maybe you’ll be doing laundry instead of soaking up the sun

I’m having so much fun now that she’s sitting up (and she is too!)

Can you believe Mini will be 6 months old tomorrow?  I’ll post her pics on Monday.

Hair, Hair, Hair, That’s All She Talks About Anymore

Oooh, you are so nice - thanks for the comments yesterday and for making me smile all day long.  I’m still feeling zingy about the shortness and the only thing I regret is not doing it sooner.  Because, looking back at not-so-distant past pictures, I am noticing a puff in my hair that I did not know existed.  But enough about my hair, let’s talk about something else.

Which reminds me, you should totally go back to my last post and read my own comment about how I now fix my hair in the morning.  Because that is pertinent information to know.  Jen asked me to expound on my definition of the word easy, as I used it in describing this hairstyle.  I don’t want to toot my own horn here, but if you are thinking of going shorter, this is a must-read.

Have your hair questions thoroughly answered at Sincerely Anna, I’m here to help.

Now let’s switch topics suddenly (I do this in real life all the time) to Max, who could care less about my hair right now but is very attentive about his own appearance.  Shanda reminded me to tell you all about the story about him wearing his tie.

That’s a new tie for him that Nana found in her closet two weekends ago when both M & M stayed with her and Pops (lalalala - singing praises for grandparents! I love you guys) and he was all set to wear it to Chuck E. Cheese one night.  Orange shirt, orange tie.  Perfect.

That is part of what’s funny about the story, but really the most hilarious part is the reason he gave Shanda for why he was wearing a tie to Chuck E. Cheese.

It was, in his words, “so all the girls would fall in love with me.”

Shanda laughed so hard and then the next day she asked him if the girls in the playground at McDonald’s were going to fall in love with him, too.

To which he answered, “of course not, I don’t have my tie on”

On Sunday, as expected, he did have his tie on.

I took this picture before we left for church in the morning.  It appears that he is ready for action.

How you doin?

It looks like Daddy had a little talk with him about that and Mini is taking notes.

The Hair

Oh good, I’m so glad you asked me to talk about this new haircut.  I went from this:

To this:

In one single moment of impulsiveness.

I always give my stylist (of 14 years) the same line, “just keep me up-to-date” but this time I added the words “and a little shorter”.  Man, those scissors were a-flying!  She thinned out my bangs, too, and that made me really nervous.  My heart was racing but I was trying to be brave and nonchalant and act like I do this kind of thing all the time.  But when she swiveled me around to see myself in the mirror, I liked it.  I felt like a new me.

Mike was a little surprised when I came home with short hair but I liked his initial reaction and I’ve only asked him four hundred times if he’s sure he likes it.  Husbands love that.

It’s easy to style and I feel zingy.  Well, in a 30-something zingy sort of way.

All Is Fair

Waiting is line is really hard when you are at any age, but when you are 5 years old it is torture.

Especially when you’ve waited for the bus to arrive…

Waited for the bus to load up and go…

And waited for your turn to do this…

This is the first thing he wanted to do at the fair.  Just wanted to walk across the Boy Scouts rope bridge.  Max was so excited about doing this but it required waiting. in. line.

Not easy to do at all.

Can you tell he’s a little bored?

Patience paid off, though.  He got up to the top and said “this is going to be a blast!” then told the man that he was Indiana Jones.  I guess all that waiting was good for his imagination.

After the rope bridge, we walked down with our friends to The Big Cheese for some more waiting for lunch.  The 8 year olds behind the counter were a little slow in their service.  But still.  Mmmm, cheese.

Say cheese!

This is Faith and Kate, my best friends.  They’ve put up with my cheesiness for over a decade.  We were having so much fun.  It was a little windy at the fair.  Not cold, though.  It was sunny and warm, about 82 degrees.  Am I rambling?  Oh well.  What was I saying?  Oh yeah - speaking of hair, do you notice something different about me?  I got a new haircut.

(hey, how’d that picture get in here? okay, I just wanted to show you my new haircut with less wind.  I got it cut on Saturday and it’s taking me some getting used to but I like it.  More importantly, though, doesn’t Mini look cute in her Arkansas outfit?)

Back to the fair.

After lunch, we were off to see the decorated toilets.

You know, just another exhibit at the fair.

Max had a special interest in the toilets, actually.  See, he’s been designing his own as of late.

Say what, you ask?  Take a look.

The seat goes up and down, too.

Maybe he’ll earn one of those blue ribbons at the fair someday.  When he’s old enough to enter.

If he can wait.

Think Outside The Bus

When we told Max that we were going to homeschool next year instead of sending him to Kindergarten, he said it would be okay with him as long as he could ride the big, yellow school bus everyday.

I mentioned that it might be hard to arrange a bus ride from his bedroom to the kitchen, but I’d see what I could do.

Thanks to a friend, I found out that the big, yellow school buses, also known as the coolest ride in town, ran a free shuttle service from the mall parking lot to the entrance of the County Fair this week.

Look at me, Mrs. Think Outside the Box Mom.  I can’t give him what he thinks he wants but I CAN give him what I know he wants.  And what he really wants is a single bus ride plus nachos, cotton candy, ice-cream, funnel cake, and Sprite.

What a creative mom I am.

Thank you.

(we did have a GREAT day at the fair today and I’ll post more pictures tomorrow)

Friendship and More

Well, hello there.  I haven’t blogged in a while and I’ve missed you.  How are you?

My friend, Shanda, and her 8 year-old daughter, Gracie, flew in from Oklahoma last Sunday and stayed until yesterday.  We had so much fun!  Our adventure started out with a spontaneous drive into DC from the airport to show Gracie the historical landmarks she is learning about in school.   “Yeah, sure!” I said to Shanda when she asked me if I knew how to get there.  I’ve lived right outside of DC for 33 years, of course I know my way around.

Uh-huh.

I was feeling oh-so confident as we drove over the Roosevelt Bridge and spotted the Big Pencil, as Gracie called it, and the Lincoln Memorial.  But that’s all we ended up seeing on our big tour of the city.  I missed an exit somewhere and then recovered with a bunch of right turns.  After a series of frantic cell phone calls to my mother for directions, we gave up.  Yeah, uh, it was time to go anyway. Nothing else to see here, Gracie.

We laughed for 5 days straight (I gave us plenty of material to laugh about while I was driving and making u-turns all week).  Shanda has been one of my closest and dearest friends and she has that power over me to make me burst out into laughter or into tears.  Often at the same time.  It’s crazy how our lives have paralleled even though we have lived in different parts of the country since we were in high school.  We are both adoptive moms who are in love with our kids.  And we both have a child who is a “More”, as we say (a reference to the book, Raising Your Spirited Child by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka).

In other words, Max and Gracie have a lot in common and they kept us extremely busy and entertained.  And when their spirited personalities took front and center stage and caused a commotion, it was nice to have a fellow More Mom who completely understood the process we go through to calm down or redirect them.

I took notes from Shanda the whole time.  She is an awesome mom and she has definitely read that book.

Here are some pictures of our “Mores” - they were so funny!

Two kids who have no fear whatsoever

Visiting Boyds Bear Country in Gettysburg, PA

We did a Photo Scavenger Hunt to keep things exciting - which totally worked!

A giant bear! Take a picture! Take a picture! We found the giant bear!

It wasn’t long until the excitement wore off a bit

Here’s a peek into the way Max thinks:  he said to me “Mommy, take a picture of this!  I replied, “what? the Santa?” and he answered, “no! the chair with little brown squares”.

We added “chair with little brown squares” to our scavenger hunt list and checked it off.

One day we went to our favorite one-hour energy burning hang-out, Open Gym

Gracie loved it, too!

Gracie also loved Mini and she was such a big helper to me.

Shanda and Mini bonded, too, and it was so sweet

Speaking of Mini, Shanda and Gracie got to see the transformation of her sitting up with the help of her Boppy

to sitting up all by herself!

Thanks for a great visit, Shanda!  I already miss you!

Summer Fun

I’m entering 5 Minutes for Mom’s Summer Fun photo contest with this picture, one of my all-time favorites of Max.  I laugh so hard when I see this pic because OH! this is Max’s preschool personality.  Going head-first into his summer fun!

And now that he’s almost six and goes for the shirt-and-tie look instead, I better remember these days of cut-loose fun.  Who knows if he’ll ever go back to being this way again.

What am I saying?  Just yesterday he jumped on the merry-go-round at the mall and saluted to the crowd like he was a sailor hanging off the deck of a boat.

Always having fun!

Got a picture that says SUMMER FUN to you?  Visit 5 MInutes for Mom and enter for a chance to win $500 worth of fun!

Extraordinary Mothers

I have to thank Tina for sending this to me in an email yesterday - it is a video clip from CBS News and I know you’ll love to see it (if you haven’t seen it already).  CUTE!

A great adoption story, huh?

Mini’s Birthmom

I was so moved by reading A’s words in her comment on my last post and I just wanted to write something back to her in the presence of all of you - since you have been such a big part of our story, too.

Hi A.,

You are always so thoughtful and kind and your sweet comment last night was a nice surprise to read first thing this morning!  I’m so glad you are doing well.  I know I’ve told you this before, but it makes me smile to know that you read my blog.  And wow - I’m so happy that you went back to read the old posts from Mini’s birth.

Back then we both said that we thought it was a God thing that we were brought together and every time I go back to those posts I can see it again and again.  He thought of everything, didn’t He?

In my mind, I can still go back to how I felt during that first phone call - like we were on Oprah or something getting the surprise of our lives that you and J. hand picked us to be the parents of your baby.  This call became one of those moments in life when I’ll always remember every detail - the sound of your voice, the way I tried to keep myself from pacing around the room because I just knew I’d trip and fall over something, and how I kept wondering if this was real or if I just misunderstood what was happening.  Did J. just say what I thought he said?  Come again? You and he decided what, now?  Maybe I didn’t get that right.  Wasn’t this supposed to be an interview?

After you told me you were having a girl I knew it was real.  Everyone said we were going to adopt a girl. And I believed it, too.  A girl! (squeal)

By the time we had our second phone conversation on New Years Day, early on in the call, I found myself enjoying the ride that God was taking us on.  We talked for an hour and the time flew by - I remember laughing at funny things you said and moving from topic to topic with the greatest of ease.  Like friends do.  I couldn’t believe we were becoming friends so soon.

You and I have an easy friendship, which is a wonderful bonus blessing for our open adoption.  I sincerely enjoyed spending time with you before Mini was born, at the hosptial when she was born, and with you and your family before we left Colorado.

I was amazed by your upbeat personality and thoughtfulness during a hard, emotional time.  I would have totally understood if you wanted to focus all of your attention on Mini, while she was there with you in person.  But instead, you held her and continued to be apart of our conversation.  You fed her a bottle and still giggled over stories about your friends (it was hard for me to keep up with who was who, you have so many!), and you gave her back to me for diaper changes (everyone does…) and trusted me to love and bond with her the same as you have since the day you felt her move inside of you.

I saw the support that your friends and family gave you (even through their own tears) and I was always whispering praises to God for seeing you through the rocky days and nights of saying goodbye to Mini. That snowy morning that we hugged for the last time was really hard.  I read your letter in the car en route to the airport and sobbed over the way you worded your thoughts.  You were so complimentary of us - all of us.  You were going to miss US, our whole family.  You saw us as Mini’s family.  I, Mini’s forever mommy.  I felt the weight of your words and knew they were written with true love.

Open adoption has surprised me two times over.  We love both Max’s birth mom and you with an indescribable love that is given freely in return.   I am forever thankful to experience this kind of love.

Definitely a God thing.