Summer Life

Well we gracefully exited the potty train after Allie was holding her pee for 6 or 7 hours.  She is now back to her happy self and loving her "bye-puhs" (diapers), so I think she's not ready.

Our other summer days have been full-- lots of cleaning and organizing for me and the kids.  Some trips to the pool.  A last lacrosse tournament in VA.  Gray heading off to his first sleep away camp.  Board games, books, playing outside, and movies.  A little kid cooking.  Julia facetiming Rani and going outside to talk on the phone like a teenager.  Plans for us to visit the Sethupathys in NY this summer- yay!  Keeping up with the Mussers in China, who now have their little boy.  Lots to be thankful for these days.

It's not my favorite

Since our little miss is almost 2 and since it will be harder to do once she's going to preschool in the fall, I decided to try to potty train her.  Also I'm already tired of washing diapers and how after awhile they just never smell clean.  Anyway, in my experience, having potty trained 3 kids previously does not make one an expert or guarantee this process will be easy or fun.  I detest potty training and all those feelings came roaring back to me with child #4 as well.  I think we are on day 4 and she's peed in the little froggy potty a couple times, with lots of celebrating from the family, which she loves.

We know from her first month with us that she's fully able to tell us when she has to go and now from the past few days I know she can hold it too--she often won't give in and go for the first time till 11am when she's been up since 7.  And yet, as with all of our other children, she doesn't like to go potty and you can't make her.  :)

So it's not been fun times around here and I may give up and try later if it doesn't get better.  But for now, in this week we have at home with nowhere to be and not much to do, I'm going for it.  We got her some underwear at the store today.  Smallest size they carried.  They will barely stay up on her!  But she was pretty proud of them.

In other similar news, an unnamed big brother (pictured above) bashfully came down this morning and told me that they had all been up playing with Allie and she had such a smelly dirty diaper that he decided to change it by himself.  He didn't do such a bad job at it either.  Put her clean cloth diaper on backwards, but everything was covered.  He felt embarrassed at doing such a disgusting task, but I was pretty proud.  I thought gaining this baby sister might be character building for the other kids and I think that it has been.

Mei Mei

I finally got the kids' pictures in their China shirts!  They all really did a good job giving smiles and having fun with it--not always the case with family photo shoots.  :)

Year of the Tears Continues...

I knew this year would be an emotional one.  We expected we'd travel to China in this year.  We knew  it would be Joshua's last elementary school year.  Didn't know about Allie's surgery and hadn't anticipated the scare we had with my grandmother.  Figured we'd be walking through adoptions with our friends too.  And sadly, I found out last year that one of my closest friends would be moving far away this summer.  That one happened today, so once again, here come the tears.

After our beach trip, Rebecca and kids stayed with us a few days, then stuffed everything and everyone back in the van and headed out this morning.  Sad goodbyes but got a few pictures right before...

We are going to miss this family so much!  Julia and Rani have gotten so close this past year or so and have such a sweet friendship.  I have loved watching them sitting together in church, sharing a bulletin and singing together...and giggling and writing notes to each other too.  They love to pretend and go outside in the woods and make tea parties and write secret letters.  After they left, Julia immediately began spouting off her plan to write to Rani 3-4 times per week "at least for now".  She got two letters written today already.

Boy was it hard to say goodbye and I think in all the busyness of end of school and our trip, I didn't let myself think that she was actually leaving and then it suddenly hit me.  Rebecca and I had known each other for awhile, but these past couple of years we became so close as we realized how much we were alike--our affinity for old movies, seeing as that's all we grew up watching, our enjoyment of crafty projects, our less than stellar house-keeping abilities, our tendency to be that weird one in the group when there's a conviction we can't suppress, our similar struggles.  With our husbands gone so much at night, it was so great having a friend to get together with and talk for hours about the little day-to-day things as well as the big, serious issues and to be understood.  Just to be able to hang out and watch a movie regularly sounds like such a small thing, but when you're with little people all day, it's so refreshing to have that social time.  It's going to be hard having her a 10 hour drive away instead of a 2 minute drive!  

So there's our first week of summer.  Lots of excitement and laughs and fun with our trip, but now we are coming down hard.  It was so quiet in our house today. Six people, but it seemed empty after all the folks we've shared our days with lately.  At one point everyone was sleeping but me and Joshua, with Gray and Julia having fallen asleep right where they were sitting.  We are tired and a bit sad, but life always goes on and it will in this case too.  We wish the best for all of you wonderful Sethupathys!!

Summer Kickoff/Last Hoorah

We had such a fun time on our mom/kid beach trip with our friends who are moving.  So great to get away, celebrate summer, and enjoy extended time with each other before the big move.  The kids were (mostly) adorable and fun.  They really enjoyed being together and loved playing on the beach.  It wore the moms slap out, but we are so thankful we got to do it.

 Allie's first time at the beach, as far as we know, though her birthplace was a seaside city.  She loved the sand and the water, as long as I held her.  She kept wanting to go back to the ocean and signing water.

 The kids got really into boogie boarding and there was a moment of excitement at one point when these two seemed to be unable to fight the current and we had to go rescue them.  They were not fazed.

The girls set up house as soon as they stepped in the door.  They had all their clothes in the dresser drawers and were trying on clothes and doing hair before we could blink an eye.  They had their moments of friend drama as they learned how to share each other, but overall they loved it.

 Hand clapping games were in full force every day.  By the end, even the boys were joining in.  And of course the chants would get stuck in your head like crazy.

 Movie time!  The house is still being finished but my in-laws kindly let us come anyway, so we improvised a little and the kids did not mind my tiny computer screen.

Allie warmed up so much to the other kids by the end and was just hanging out with them like she was a big kid.

 Chess was another popular activity, along with some other fun board games that were new to my family.

 We got to see Aunt Kathy for a bit, which was fun!  She helped the kids find lots of shells and got to meet Allie.

 The whole group

End of School Whirlwind

In the midst of getting ready for this beach trip, which has been a little more involved given all the extra stuff that comes with bringing a baby along, we've been busy busy!  Yesterday Allie and I headed to Raleigh for another cardiology check, where we learned all is still looking good and we can wait 3 months for follow up and then hopefully 6 months.  Allie did so great, telling the nurse thank you and clapping when various steps were done, until dum dum dum...she had to lay down and be measured.  Then she let out all her stress and cried for quite a bit after this "terrible" 2 second process.  She did great through the rest, echo and all.  Relieved all is well!

Then Thursday we spent the morning at Joshua's looooong graduation.  Loved all the messages delivered, but my goodness it was getting like a high school graduation in there.  Matt had worked the night before and was asleep through some of it.  Allie ate every crumb I could find to entertain her and then just hung out in the aisle waving at Joshua.  Joshua delivered a commanding performance on stage as always.  If there was a long note in a song, he gave up about a second into it and just stared while others around him carried it out.  That boy does love a good public performance. ;)

Joshua first day of kindergarten...wouldn't even swallow his food he was so nervous.  Cried his eyes out when I left him.  You've come a long way, baby.  :)

The rest of the school day I spent at the 5th grade party, which was pretty wild.  Joshua was not into dancing, though I tried a few times to get him out there, but he did like the photo booth a lot.  I left at the end in a bit of a daze after hours of all that noise and activity!  Fun times though.

Finished the day at Nanny's so Matt could sleep for work again.  Last day of school and beach trip, here we come!

Road Trippin'

We had a whirlwind of a weekend in SC--time with my parents, visit with my grandmother, niece's dance recital, dinner with my older sister, lacrosse tournament, lunch with my younger sister, meeting her foster baby, and lots of time in the car! One night our family of 6 was spread out between three locations, but we did manage to reconnect and make it home.  :)  All loved seeing their relatives and Allie did really well even with no nap time.  Thankful for a flexible little one!  We've got a few days to wrap up the last week of school, another cardiology check, 5th grade graduation and party, and then the kids and I are off to the beach for one last hoorah with our friends who are moving.

Pics...

 Allie and I spent some extra time in Joshua's class Friday.  She is quite the super star among the kids and most of the time she has fun being there.

 Grandmama was soo much better than the last time I saw her when she was in the hospital!

 She loved meeting Allie!

 Meanwhile, the boys were having a blast with their cousins at the lacrosse tournament.

Someone really loved this baby!

 Practicing between game 4 of 5 for the weekend.  Their team won 2, lost 2, and tied 1.  The last game the boys both played really well and Gray got a goal, so he was pumped.

Another boy cousin to join in the Greenville mix!

 Meanwhile Julia was loving girl time at the Leightons' house.

Sweet cousins, getting to know each other.

Pokemon.  Not my fave, but apparently very entertaining for 7-11 year olds.

 This week Allie got a playdate with some China buddies!

 She's got a thing for dogs, even when they are 3 times her size.

Julia: I want to keep my tooth this time since I lost all the other ones so I want you to look under my pillow because I left something special for you and Daddy and I wrote Tooth Mother because some people believe in fairies but you aren't really a fairy and I wanted to give something to you and Daddy, not just you, so I gave you some money and I want you come see.  (or something like that)