Music Man

Never a dull moment around this house.

Up

We've recently been blessed with a few conversations with Tyler that have indicated his understanding and feelings about adoption. It has been touching, to say the least.

One of these conversations occurred while we were watching the movie Up. Overall, I thought the movie was all right, but not my favorite Pixar movie. However, the beginning scenes of the movie where Ellie and Carl's story begins is so tender and with such raw emotions, it's hard not to fall in love with these characters.

When we got to the scene where they are shown at the doctor's office and Ellie is sobbing with Carl tenderly comforting her. Tyler looked at me and asked,
"Why is she crying, mom?"

I choked back the tears and explained that the doctor was probably explaining to Ellie that her tummy was broken and she couldn't have babies in her tummy. This concept is obviously not a new one for Tyler.

Then Tyler, with as much compassion and sympathy as any four year old can have, replied,

"They should have a birth mom help them."

I was so touched by his response. To him the solution to their problem was so simple and clear. He was confident that families can be formed in many different ways- that some babies come to their families through a birth mom. It has been interesting to see Tyler's understanding of adoption develop and grow. I'm so pleased that he feels so positively about it and I pray that he always will.

Soccer

This Saturday Tyler will have his last soccer game of the season. It's definitely been an interesting experience. At the beginning of the season, John and I were both very excited for Tyler to have his first experience with organized sports. There's just something so satisfying about seeing your kid dressed in a uniform- so cute! I feel so happy each time we reach one of these parenthood milestones. It's hard to describe, but it's stuff like this that just reaffirms the fact that we are parents- that I'm a mother. I love it. I felt the same way when we bought our van. I know, most of you hate mini vans because of what they stand for, but that's the very reason why I love mine! I'm a mom, how great is that?!?

Anyway, the season started out slow. Tyler wasn't all that into it, and we're discovering that Tyler only likes something if he is successful at it. Soccer was no different. He didn't like that he wasn't getting any goals, so to him, it wasn't very fun. He wasn't very motivated on the field and didn't seem to engage at all with what was going on. About half way through the season, Tyler made a few big kicks and a few goals, and then magic happened when he discovered how good he was at defending the goal. It's like the light flipped on for him. He made several good defensive plays as goalie where he kicked the ball all the way back down the field. You should have seen his face light up! He had been successful, and that was all he needed. He became aggressive (in a good way) and accurate, and really had a great time. I'm really proud of him, and it's been fun to see him progress and be successful at something that was difficult at first.

And now, I'm trying to decide if sitting on a field watching some type of ball game every Saturday for the next 15 years is something I'm really up for....I think maybe we'll take next season off.

Figuring Stuff Out

This is one of my favorite baby stages- the "figuring stuff out" stage, which comes just before the "destroy everything in sight" stage. I love watching Robby make attempts to mimic what he sees us doing. He works so hard to try to figure out the world around him and how it works. Here he is trying to get the sunglasses on his face. I also love watching him play in my Tupperware cupboard. He'll sit for a good 10-15 minutes trying to get the lids on different containers (I have a video, but I just can't get it to upload). But my all time favorite is watching him try to get his socks on his feet. He'll see them sitting on the floor so he'll go over and pick them up and place them on top of his feet. Much to his dismay, they don't stay! So he'll do it over and over. Is it mean that I just sit by and chuckle instead of help him out? It's just too cute!

National Adoption Month

November is National Adoption Month. I hope to dedicate a few extra posts this month to this special topic that is so near and dear to my heart.

The church at which Tyler attends preschool invited the students to participate in a teddy bear drive to collect bears to be given to children in the area who will be adopted on National Adoption Day. It was a nice way for us to celebrate adoption with them and it provided one more way to have an open discussion with Tyler about the different and special ways in which families are formed. We talked about how blessed he was that his birth mom helped him find his family while he was a tiny baby- even before he was born, in fact. We than discussed how some children don't find their families until they are a little bit older, and that we were going to help celebrate by providing a bear for a special child on their special day. I was grateful for yet another positive experience that helps my Tyler understand what a miracle adoption is and what a miracle he is in our lives.

Robby Turns One!

Yep, yesterday was the big day.

Here is a summary of the celebrations from the perspective of the birthday boy himself:

First, dad came home with lots of balloons to decorate the kitchen. I liked pointing and grunting at each one. Then, we had dinner. Mom made my favorite, macaroni and cheese and hot dogs. I ate them with both of my fists as fast as I could- left, right, left, right- I'm really coordinated when it comes to getting the good stuff in my mouth.

After dinner, they brought me a cupcake that was on FIRE! I really, really wanted to grab it and tried with all my might to reach it, but mom held it just out of my grasp until that silly song was over. And since I only wanted to grab the fire, mom blew out the flame for me (I'll have to work on my flame blowing skills for next year). And do you want to know what she did with that cupcake after she put out the fire? She gave it to me! But I didn't have the faintest idea what to do with it since she usually cuts up all my food into little pieces for me, so I went ahead and did some finger painting with the white stuff on top.

Silly me. Once mom showed me that that white stuff is sugar based and it goes in my mouth, I was good to go! First I pulled off all of the sprinkles and ate them and then I went to work on some of the cake. Yum!

Next, it was time to open presents. Big brother showed me the ropes until I got the hang of it. Sometimes I got more distracted by the paper and had a good old time ripping lots of little pieces. When I got to open my animal choo-choo train, I went crazy! I was sooooo excited. I squealed and grunted my approval.

And then they brought out this amazing truck. I loved it! I can ride it, push it, fill it up and dump it out, AND it makes noises just like me!

I was pretty busy the rest of the night.Man, what a great day! I can tell my family sure loves me- dad always wrestles with me, mom kisses my cheeks all the time, and Tyler lets me play with all his cool toys. What would they ever do without me?!? I am one lucky boy!

On Halloween day we...

gutted a pumpkin

carved a pumpkin,

got dressed up,

went trick-or-treating with our friends,

rode the hayride through the neighborhood,

invited the driver of the hayride to slow his speed-(even though the background whizzing by and your cape flapping in the wind makes for cool pictures, it doesn't make for a very safe ride).

We took inventory,

played with friends,

and ate pumpkin pie dessert.

Does it get any better than that?

I think not!

Happy Halloween!!!

*On a side note, the evening actually would have been a little better if my social committee member who volunteered to supervise the hayride wasn't in the hospital, leaving me in charge for the night with no help and if driver of the hayride hadn't shown up late informing me that the hay bales were infested with fire ants...yeah, that would have made the evening a little better.

Pumpkin Patch

On Friday we went to the pumpkin patch. We've had so much rain recently that the place was like one giant mud puddle. I'm still glad we went because the boys seemed to have a good time.

Robby liked the little tractor

Tyler liked jumping off the hay bales

And I liked watching their faces as they enjoyed the whole experience.


...And then Robby let us know it was time to go home!