Cardinals Win!

Another summer milestone! Liam's (and Coach Jim's) summer Cardinals team won the Championship! It was super exciting for the boys (including Jim) because it was the first season time that they played with umpires, keeping score, and only one team came home with trophies. I kind of have a beef with the fact that all the sports for the real little kids involves every kid getting a trophy at the end, regardless of performance. Yeah, I know it's probably supposed to encourage excitement about the sport...but it does take away some of the "we earned this" excitement once they actually keep score. Not to mention that by the time they are 7 they have a shelf full of trophies that don't mean much other than that they showed up to games. Don't tell the kids, but I'd love to toss all those first "trophies" and just keep the real ones. Much less clutter (is it bad to refer to your child's trophy as clutter? maybe so).

Anyway, the team did a great job in some brutal summer heat to win, and everyone was very excited. The look on Liam's face when he crosses home plate is priceless. He always has this look of amazement, like he can't really believe he did it, and he usually does a little hop at the end. It's very cute.

I'm proud of my boy for never complaining about the heat or the intense number of practices and games in such a short time frame during the summer league. He seems to be enjoying more and more the team camaraderie, the excitement of the competition, and pride in working hard. He was even caught saying the other day before a game that he hoped it wasn't an easy one because the hard ones are better. And I'm proud of my big guy, the Coach, who is passing on his passion for sports and being part of a team. I think he had the most passionate group of kids out there, and a large part of that can be attributed to his love for being the Coach. Way to go Cardinals! I'll even suppress the sigh that pops up involuntarily when I hear Jim saying "practice for Fall Ball starts next week!"

Taking The Plunge

Hooray for summer milestones! Natalie, the ever-resistant swimmer, finally put her head under the water! This is the girl who did the Survival Swim class at 2 and a half years old and screamed for weeks and weeks and never did float. The one who boycotted all swim lessons last summer even though she really liked Liam's teacher, Coach Emily. I think she was just proving her point that we couldn't make her do it, plus she was in emotional chaos after Owen's arrival.

This summer she has happily gone with Coach Emily for lessons, but steadfastly refused to put her face anywhere near the water, which has a funny way of interfering with lessons. Finally, last weekend - a breakthrough! I, of course, chalk it up to my brilliant parenting. I bought a disposable underwater camera and played up the idea of getting her picture taken, and letting her take pictures of me, underwater. After all, my kids DO love posing for pictures. This did cause some major fighting, however, because guess who else wanted to take underwater pictures? Owen would grab the camera and fling it into the pool and then jump in after it, to keep it away from Natalie. He's like that. But maybe that was just the incentive she needed... Or perhaps years of taking her to the pool and watching Liam and other kids swim finally flipped the switch. Or, most likely, she just decided in her own sweet time that, sound the trumpets, NOW she was ready to put her head under, and, sound the trumpets again, perhaps NEXT week she will decide to never do it again. She's like that.

In any case, she is smiling in the picture, and I love it. And NO I'm not posting the ones she took of me, because she did a good job of focusing it on me (which, by the way, is nearly impossible when you are underwater and the little teeny hole you look through is way blurry and foggy, and I really didn't think she'd come close to capturing me on film) and I look so very odd underwater with goggles on. She looks so cute underwater, and I look ridiculous. All worth it for the cause, mind you, but I may have to destroy those images...

Lovefest

Natalie: "Come here Owen, and sit on my lap."
Owen: "Yesss!"
Big hugs all around. Love it!!!

Missing Grandma

Our tribute to Grandma. We love when you visit, and miss you when you're gone!

It was a fast week, but involved lots of baseball (Liam playing, us watching), girlish business (a big trip to the American Girl Doll Store and a very ladylike lunch), and tons of fun - even an old fashioned puppet show. What a wonderful way to mark our "halfway through summer" point!

The Keys To the Forbidden Kingdom

Alternate title: His Mind Is Officially Blown

After a rocky start to the summer, with Natalie and Owen drawing battle lines in the sand, I'm happy to report that there has been a general softening of attitudes, and hearts, lately. Not long ago there was even an hour of time when Natalie invited Owen into her world. The world of girly, glittery, pink and fuzzy things. Without any parental prompting. Out of the blue, she asked him, "Owen. Would you like to play with my Barbie on her bike??" And Owen looked at her very, very seriously and said, "YESHH!" (His yes these days often sounds more like Yesh). I think he was afraid to even jump up and down because he might stir the air around her and cause her mind to change. But he was VERY excited. He LOVES the Barbie bike. This is the little pink bike that can attach to Natalie's real bike, but it is also removable, and Barbie sits on it with her long, stiff legs stuck through two little hoops that anchor her down. Owen loves bikes and motorcycles, and is always trying in vain to get people...Lego people...or Star Wars figures...to sit on some motorcycle or another and they never fit on them, much to his frustration. He has tried to confiscate the Barbie bike before on his own, but Natalie would always scream like crazy and grab it from him. To be handed the Barbie AND the bike for no reason...heavenly.

Then she proceeded to ask him if he wanted to play with her My Little Ponies. Yesshh!! Be still, 2 yr old heart. And then she asked him if he wanted to sleep in her bed, and she pulled back the covers and then tucked him in, and there he was with a smile from ear to ear (Yesshh, yesshh, yessshh), all covered in pink.

It was a most glorious hour. I only wish I had thought to get the camera.

One Year Ago Today - Gotcha!!

So today is officially what we call Gotcha Day! The day that Owen was finally home, and the entire family met one another, exactly one year ago - July 8th, 2009. All day I have been grabbing him, hugging him, and saying Gotcha!! So now he has started saying Gotcha Day too. We are in the midst of baking a cake, but for Owen that means a birthday, so he is also singing "Happy, Happy cha cha cha" which is his version of Happy Birthday, with the "cha cha cha" added in like he heard Liam's friends sing to Liam on his birthday.

In so many ways it is impossible to believe that a year has flown by this quickly. I can look back and marvel at all the steps we've made in a year. In another way, it seems impossible that he hasn't always been here. I was thinking last night about how strange it felt, that first week having him with us in Russia. It felt so disjointed, I suppose, because one day we were with no kids (while still in Russia) and then in an instant Owen was just "there." Not there. There. So quickly. (Aside from the fact that it was about 3 years in the making.) But I remember having similar feelings after the births of Liam and Natalie as well. That odd feeling of a little person just appearing out of nowhere and then there they are...forever. Not a bad feeling, mind you. Just a little disorienting to the senses at first. Probably even more so with a toddler fully equipped with a large personality, large muscles, powerful lungs, boundless energy, and a good bit of fear mixed in.

The first evening home, we walked through the door to find Grandma and Grandpa, Liam and Natalie with big eyes, and huge smiles, dancing around in excitement (that would be Natalie - Grandma was excited, but not sure I caught her dancing). Yes, the excitement, especially for Natalie, faded quite a bit the next day. But in those first moments home, I could see it on their faces as well. Not there. There. Amazing!! And Owen, even after a grueling trip across 7,600 miles, seemed happy to meet everyone.

He is still happy to meet people. He loves to meet family and friends, and has a real knack for remembering and saying names (except for Aunt Amy - sorry Amy!). Owen left Baby Home #95 in Novokuznetsk, Siberia with not even the clothes on his back - we had to give those back. Not so much as a diaper. One page of medical records, one prettily decorated record of baptism (very cool, and quite unexpected), and our court documents. But he brought home with him a wonderful zest for life. He took all that we offered him - parents, siblings, a home, love, laughter, food, and activities, and embraced each and every thing (even the cat, after about 6 months). Our littlest boy is always ready for anything. "Me too!" is his favorite phrase. He seems full of genuine joy and wonder in so many things that we take for granted. That is what he brought to us from Russia. Joy.

We're so happy we Gotcha, Owen!

Oh Say Can You Seee

Happy 4th of July (a little late)!

I've been remembering back to last year, when we were sequestered in a hotel room in Moscow, waiting for our Embassy visit. On the 4th last year, Owen was still a few days away from officially being a US Citizen. He was in that strange limbo land of being our legal son and yet still a Russian citizen. Liam and Natalie went to see fireworks with Grandma and Grandpa and the neighbors back home, and we missed them terribly. Everyone was preparing for the big meeting of our new addition.

This year we were all five together. The weather was a little soggy, so the fireworks outing was shorter than usual - parked in the car, mostly (which is not nearly as peaceful as that sounded as I typed it), until the show started, and then we stood outside. Owen was up later than usual, and later than he should be, so needless to say he was very excited about the fireworks. He would shout "boom boom" and some other word that was supposed to be "fireworks" but sounded more like "gargurks." The entire time we watched, he jumped up and down and screamed "gargurks". Oh yes, except for the brief seconds he spent on Jim's shoulders and nearly climbed to the top of his head to give Daddy a new hairdo, never missing a bounce. I was able to get him to yell Go USA!

I laughed to myself a bit, thinking of the consternation it most likely would have caused his Russian caretakers to know how quickly the boy embraced the good old USA. Let's see...it took only days for him to be able to identify a Starbucks frappuccino cup and open and close his mouth like a baby bird to beg for the whipped cream from the top. It took only a matter of weeks before he could identify and get very excited by football and baseball (hockey too, but that could be the Russian or Canadian in him). Not long at all before he would yell Donalds!! whenever we pass the Golden Arches (to be fair, we had "Donald's in Moscow before we left, so we got an early start there). More recently, he's been yelling "Nurpees" whenever we pass a 7-Eleven, ever since Jim started the baseball post-game tradition of Slurpees. And if the Mall or Target are mentioned, he yells "Me too, me too!" Oh yes, the boy has embraced all of our American vices whole heartedly, bless his heart.

Go USA!! (and apologies to Russia...he does love hockey...and smoked salmon...sorry, I'm sure there's more, but that's all I've got right now. And don't tell me that your super secret super spies deep under cover in the suburbs weren't doing the exact same thing!)