From the first week home

 

How many kids can fit into an old pack and play?

From the very second they met her, the kids have been completely in love with Mary Clare. They spoil and bother her all day long. MC's expression looks like 'get these crazy people offa me!" She loves them right back and good naturedly tolerates lots of poking, prodding and squishing until she decides she has had enough and then yells for me to rescue her.

FWIW, we only used this pack and play for MC for about a week while she adjusted to her new room and crib. We kept it in our room but now it is put away. She uses the jumper thingy when I am in the shower. Or when I just need a break from following her around making sure she doesn't eat carpet fuzz, which she enjoys along with paper, toys, shoes and other various other bits of misc. stuff that my vacuum misses and her eagle eyes spot. This child eats EVERYTHING she gets her tiny fingers on. Yes, doctor, I do believe she has mastered the 'pincer' grip,. you can check that off your little chart. 

Homeschool

We are going to homeschool Jake and Ryan next year. gulp.

Luke and Laine will be in preschool 5 days a week, 9-12:30 though.

Luckily there is a pretty big homeschooling community around us, but still this will be an adventure. They both have strong math and reading skills already so I feel they have a solid base to move forward.

This is something I have wanted to do, the timing just was never right before. Since we downsized and moved closer into the city I just can't schlep them up to their old school anymore. Last year we did it because we had committed to the school (that we loved) for the year before we made the move, but it was never our long term plan. There is a good private school very close to us that might be an option in the future, but this year HS is the plan.

I am really interested in a classical curriculum, but we haven't firmly decided upon anything yet.

Hi!

Mary Clare learned how to wave "hi!" and "bye!" on Sunday. She was sitting at the table and I was trying to teach her the sign for 'more'* and she started waving "hi!" She was looking at her fingers intently, probably wondering what is it she had to do to get crazy mommy to just feed her another bite already. Then she bent them back and forth and then looked at me and I was giggling like a fool and repeating "hi!" over and over again and wiggling my fingers too. There was this instant when she just 'got' it. I could sorta even see the faint outline of a lightbulb over her head and she grinned and then wiggled her fingers and even tried actually say 'hi!' but it sounds more like 'eh!" right now. Oh and she does it backwards too, you know, her fingers and hand are actually facing herself. After hours of training and intense physical therapy, she now does 'bye!" as well as "hi!". Being the little stinker that she is she doesn't do it quite on command though and seems to really understand how to work the audience into a frenzy before giving her adoring fans what they want.

In related news, Mary Clare is crawling with ease and speed and has moved on to pulling up and almost cruising along. She loves to come up behind me in the kitchen and grab the back of my legs and pull up to stand. It is so sweet to feel those little hands creep up my ankles and calves as she climbs up, as long as her nails are trimmed, otherwise it is a teensy painful. Of course after she is up we are both trapped. If I move she flumps down and is often quite miffed, if I stand still she gets pretty bored, the back of my legs are not that appealing I guess. Usually I move very slowly and try to let her flump down gently and if she is in a mood she will continue to pursue me all over the kitchen. Sometimes I just pick her up though and carry her back to the starting line in the den and try to get some more done before she tracks me down again.

*The sign for 'more' is touching the fingers of both hands together in a point. I am not trying super hard to teach her baby signs, but my other kids all learned 'more' and it actually was helpful in cutting down whining as they became toddlers. 'More' is a great sign bc it works for lots of things, food, holding, playtime etc. Luke and Laine actually morphed the sign for more to mean 'please' bc we would always say 'more please' not just 'more' they used this sign all the time and even used it out of habit when they were almost 3 and were speaking fairly clearly. I think baby signing is pretty cool and maybe I will try some more signs with MC.

Pictures

Rare photo of me and 5 kids all together. Ryan is in the corner, Jake is on the float, I am holding Mary clare and Luke and Laine are in their floaties.







The view of my in-laws pool, isn't is gorgeous?









Mary Clare LOVES the pool. She took to the water right away. She kicks and splashes and her happy squeals make me smile.











The birthday kids











What a grin!

Busy Day

Thanks for the anniversary wishes! It really is a special day around here. We celebrate Valentine's Day as more a family holiday not a romantic one so this is really our day. I am glad the kids know that this day is special to us too. Last night we went out to dinner while my completely awesome in laws kept the kids. We ate at a cute cottagy-ish French place imaginatively named 'Provence'. The food was delish. I had a fried brie salad with warm pears and some yummy vinaigrette, some greens too, then a portabella mushroom stuffed with crab and spinach. Lee's was good too, but not as good as mine which is weird since I am the one who usually is not as pleased with my pick and end up eating off his plate.

Luke and Laine are 4 today and I am wondering how in the world that happened? 4 years ago I was laboring with a failed epi and waiting for them to try it again. Eventually I made it to 10, without the epi ever kicking again. Then they decided that because Laine was breech that they needed to give me a spinal and just do a c-sec. (looking back I am like WTH? why did they wait for me to get to 10cm before that call was made?) So I basically had to clamp my thighs together while I was wheeled from L and D to the OR and try to keep poor Luke from falling out. He was right there and ready and had been for several weeks. Oh and that little Lainey so and so actually turned head down on the way to the OR! I kid you not, the Dr. couldn't believe it when they opened me up and she had finally gotten the memo that south was the way outta there.

So I got that one quick glance and then I was off to la la land and they were off to the transitional nursery. Laine was 4'13 and Luke was 5'11. He ended up staying in the NICU for several days, but tiny Laine was released with me a few days after delivery. They were just so, so small and I know Laine could have just slipped right out from those car seat straps.

Luke is proud to be a big 4 year old and Laine was insisting to me that she is actually 6. Finally after several stories and some documentation I was able to convince her that she is truly 4, just like Luke.

Being a twin mom is just a unique and awesome thing. There is so much more I could say to elaborate on the whole twin experience, but the simplest is, twins are just COOL! period.

Tonight we will go out for pizza, their absolute favorite and they will get their gift, big kid bikes with training wheels. Laine's is a Princess bike sigh and Luke is a cool electric green and black Mongoose bike.

The actual birthday party will in a couple of weeks at Chuck's, as in Mr. Cheese.
See how much I love these kids? Oh, the sacrifices I make for them.......
Really, it is not too bad because they do have beer on draft at this one. Also Lee takes on the strength whacker thing and proves his manliness while scoring tons of tickets. Woo!

10 years

Well, more like 9.

Today is my wedding anniversary. There is a strange paradox in that day seeming like so very long ago, but also like it just happend recently. Lee and I both joke that we wish it was just our 10th already because it just seems more like us. We do have lots to show for it, 5 kids and a love deeper and more mature than either of us ever anticipated.

We have ups and downs and plateaus just like every other marriage. I think our ups are beating our downs at this time.

We were good friends before we dated and that friendship has been so important in keeping us going, in the same direction. Lee really gets the credit for having the cahones to jump start our friendship into something more. He just laid it out to me one night and said hey, let's date! I think we would be great together and so let's go for it. I was very reluctant and surprised he even felt that way about me. I kind of saw him as a brother gasp! I tried to let him down easy and gave some lamo excuses like we shouldn't ruin our friendship yadda yadda and he seemed to buy it. Then I was turning away, trying to make a smooth exit from this embarrasing conversation, he made a move that changed my life and his forever. I remember it so clearly, it was like a movie the way he reached out for my shoulder and drew me back towards him. He lowered his head and gave me an amazing, fireworks and music kiss. Then he pulled back and softly said "damn, I knew you would be a good kisser"

I began to reconsider my hasty relegation of Lee to the hopeless brother status. In fact I think I said something clever like "well, maybe we should go on a few dates. Just to see..." But don't cheer for the happy couple yet, because I was still wary and selfish enough to want to cover my bases and I added that I wouldn't want us to be exclusive or anything, just causally date. Yes, bitchy, I know. But luckily Lee was still in his Hollywood Leading Man persona and said "I am not going to see anyone else. Tracy, you date whoever you want, I'll be here. I know you'll come back to me."

I KNOW! What a stud!! So I went on a couple of half hearted dates, but I finally gave in and told him he was right and fine I will be his girlfriend and not date anyone else. So after like 2 months of dating we were discussing marriage. Both of us, we just knew it was right. That was late '94 and we were finally married on June 14th, 1997.

Every once in a while I still thank him for making me date him. Truly, it is my honor to be his wife and I will be forever grateful he stuck his neck out there for us.

Small changes

Well I have been a rotten blogger lately. During this break though I have thought about what I would like for this blog to be now that we are home with our daughter. I originally started this blog while we were waiting for her and now that we have her home I think I am going to start actually using this space to write a bit more broadly. So, I am going to try to make a links list that will direct folks who would like to know more about our adoption experience. Then I can get to blogging about my everyday stuff. Yeah I know, thrilling stuff.

new(ish) pictures

She fell asleep during dinner and faceplanted into her book.

I moved her head to get a good shot of her face, still, sounds asleep.

first park playdate with Emma