Colorful

Trying to learn my new camera, and take advantage of some early evening light out in the front yard with the younger two playing.  I like the pictures, but it is a little bittersweet because I just spent quite a while perusing my pictures from the last year to find a dozen or so to attach to our post-placement report for Russia.  (Three years in June - can it really be?)  I think this may be the last report that has to be sent back to Russia to give them an update on Owen.  I will miss it (though not the cost), because I love to pick out my favorite shots and hope that someone back in his orphanage will remember him and smile to know he is happy.  I have heard that the pictures and reports really do make it back to the orphanage, and they do look at them.  I hope so.  Anyway, the bittersweet part is that when I pulled up pictures from last summer I realized how much all of the kids have grown and changed, and that always makes me want to slow down time.  As much as I love their more grown up appearances now, my heart hurts a little when I see the baby looks that they've lost in a year.  Getting teary...

Where Are We?

It's not quite summer yet, but we are practicing for vacation.  Can you guess where the "beach" pictures were taken?  Liam wasn't there for that outing, but the two littles had such a grand time.  Look at Owen making a "sand angel" in the background of the one shot.  I hadn't really planned on giving baths that night...but they had so much fun in the sand.  I took the pictures on my phone and Jim really thought we had gone to the beach.

No...it was just a sand volleyball pit.  It was on our walk to a pond to feed ducks, turtles, and insanely aggressive fish.  There were some teenage girls practicing volleyball on another court, and we stopped to watch.  I'm trying to promote some interest in volleyball with Natalie...still trying to find a good team sport to utilize her height.  I'm not sure if she cared too much about the volleyball, but they both loved the sand.

Jim also took the boys for a little golf practice.  Owen was SO excited to be invited to join the big boys.  Right after that picture was taken he tried to walk off with that golf bag on his back and he fell right over from the weight.  He was NOT happy that we laughed at him.  Well, he was cute, anyway.  Jim had to convince him that it was okay to wear pink, and I think he wore it well.

So we're counting the days until we can use our vacation skills for real!

Mother's Day

Ahhh, Mother's Day.  That day of the year when my regular Sunday grocery trip is hindered by the throngs of fathers, with children in tow, trying valiantly to buy the weekly groceries.  Bless their hearts.  They get in my way.

Some favorite Mother's Day moments from this year:  Being the last person still in bed, awake but listening to Jim herd the children around the house picking up junk.  Then hearing him make breakfast for the kids before heading out to a baseball tournament with Liam.  Priceless.  Much better than the alternative of them making me breakfast in bed, only for me to rise and find the remaining mess in the kitchen.

Second runner-up favorite moment:  Downstairs listening to Natalie and Owen upstairs making a Mother's Day card.  Or, I should say, Natalie making a card and yelling quite a bit at Owen to ensure that he is doing his part properly.  It was a cute card, but from what I could tell "his part" was just signing his name, so the poor boy got an earful of loudly stated advice for just four letters.  Not to mention that his father now wants to refer to him as Damien because the name came out O-M-E-N instead of Owen.  Classic.

The day was mellow, with just a tennis lesson for Natalie, and a baseball tournament for Liam.  I was getting over an illness that made the rounds this week.  I don't like it when I'm sick, and even less when my kids are sick...but...there is the good part of short illnesses.  That part that makes me confident that in those moments when I can hold them close, rub their back, hold back their hair when they vomit, I am where I am supposed to be, doing what I am supposed to be doing, without a doubt.  Being needed (and wanted).  The thing about motherhood that can be so hard at times, and yet the one thing that makes it all feel completely right.

Nine Years Already

Liam is 9!  How can that be?  It truly seems like just yesterday that I brought home that sweet boy and wrapped him up tight like a swaddled baby burrito.  He still loves to be wrapped up tight and warm like that.  He prefers to sleep inside a sleeping bag on top of his regular bed, like a cocooned caterpillar waiting to emerge as a butterfly.  Except that he also stuffs every stuffed animal and blanket that he owns into the sleeping bag with him.

When I look back at his baby pictures, his blue eyes and sweet smile are the same today.

I love hearing the boy (is he a "tween" now?  He thinks so...) he is becoming, when he discusses serious topics or counsels his siblings in the intricacies of elementary school life.

We often describe Liam as cautious, and in many ways he is.  He takes a while to warm up to some new things, although once he decides he is comfortable with something he is perfectly fine.  He has been a picky eater since starting solid food, but I have noticed a number of recent occasions when he took the initiative on his own to try something new.  We don't always recognize that he does have an adventurous spirit too, and embraces some things with gusto.  Rock climbing is one of those things.  Prior to his birthday party, we had gone only once, and he LOVED it without hesitation.  He asked every day for a week if we could go back (and he doesn't make many requests).

I think he had a great party, and I loved seeing him with such confidence.  I was surprised that many of his friends were intimidated by the walls and the height, and quite cautious.  Liam was my little spider monkey, climbing up so high.  He tackled the swinging ladder with much determination too (I can always tell when I see a picture where his tongue is sticking out that he is concentrating hard), and made it higher than just about anyone else (OK, there just may have been a certain 4 yr old who out climbed them all on the ladder, but I'll leave that for a different post).  Then there was the swing...they did have them "latched" onto the seat with a carabiner hook, but I really don't want to think about what it would have looked like if they fell.  The party helper swung them SO high (see how Liam is completely horizontal), and they swung up so they were almost over the rest of the party kids sitting on bleachers, watching.  Some of the boys didn't want to go at all.  Liam jumped right on, the first one to go, and had such a smile.  (The "party helper" said a parent had to go, so I did it too, and can attest that it was a stomach-dropping ride, especially once they stopped simple swinging and started pulling them up close to the ceiling before letting them drop and swing.)

My brave, adventurous nine year old loves rock climbing, go-kart racing, video games with strategy and fighting, discussing right versus wrong in the big picture of life, baseball, the idea of hunting (do not know yet where he will be able to use the bow & arrows, but he did love it!) and America's Funniest Home Videos.  I regret that sometimes I don't listen enough to Liam, because he is not in my face talking loudly (not mentioning names...).  His true birthday was on Monday, so it was a big anti-climactic.  I decided to give him lots of snuggles and just let him talk after I put the others to bed.  He talked about so many things, hardly taking a breath.  I really need to listen to my quietest boy more often.  At one point I thought he was done talking, there was a very long pause and I knew he was tired, but then he said out of the blue, "So that attack on Pearl Harbor sure must have been a surprise!"  And he was off talking again, spouting facts about how many planes there were, how many ships were sunk, how many people died.  I didn't see that topic coming.  I love that boy!