End of 2013 Recap

So it appears any attempt to thoroughly recap 2013 is a lost cause. This will be my lame attempt and then it's time to move on to 2014.

Halloween 

In the months leading up to Halloween, I was pretty sure LB was going to be a pilot. I had this super cute costume picked out and thought he would love it. As we got closer and started talking about it, he was not enthused about the pilot idea. I didn't get it. He's Mr. Plane. Right around that time we discovered the TV show "Jake and the Neverland Pirates." It's on the Disney Channel, which we don't have, but we found it on Netflix. This was also around the time that LB discovered the movie, Peter Pan, which he fell in love with. I did not remember all the sexist and racist comments in Peter Pan so I cringed through the first viewing and thought maybe LB wouldn't like it. WRONG. He's obsessed. He started to say that he wanted to be a pirate for Halloween. It was a tad confusing because his "r" sound still very much sounds likes a "l." So I kept clarifying by asking him, "You want to be a pirate like arrrghhh matey or a pilot that flies planes." He would always answer back "argghhh matey." I found a Jake costume online and showed it to him and we had a winner! As soon as we got it, he had to put it on right away and we also got him a little Jake kit from Tar.get that had a sword, spy glass, gold coins and a map. He was pumped.

Halloween morning they were having a parade at school and the kids were encouraged to wear costumes. I got his out and was super excited. LB decided he wanted nothing to do with it. I was all of a sudden devastated. He flat out refused to wear his Jake costume. My mom had come to town for the week (which was great since D was out of town) and she had brought with her a Pilot shirt from the new movie, Planes. She convinced him to be a pilot for the parade at school. Although he refused to even put the pilot shirt on until we got to school. In hindsight, I think he was overwhelmed by the idea of the parade and kids and teachers wearing costumes. But once he got to school and realized none of the costumes were scary he relaxed and seemed to enjoy it. I would also say that I set my expectations WAY too high for the day and didn't act with a whole lot of compassion towards his refusal to be Jake at school. Expectations always get me in trouble.
Here are a few pics from school:

Yes, his best bud was also Jake and they would have been SO CUTE together but oh well. He's a cute pilot too.

Thankfully, he totally embraced being Jake for trick or treat and he had such a blast that night. My mom is the most amazing grandma and dressed up like the Cat in the Hat. LB has the coolest grandma ever. We have a tradition of trick or treating at our friend's house with another family and they have the perfect street for the kids. Lots of street lights and friendly neighbors. It was such a fun evening! Oh and D made it back in time for trick or treat, which was nice!

November

I tried to do some cute Thanksgiving crafts with LB in the week leading up to the big day and I would say our favorite one was his thankful turkey that we made out of a paper plate. I cut out the feathers and asked him to list 5 things he was thankful for and I wrote them on the feathers. I also cut out the other parts to the turkey and then LB glued everything together. He was really proud of it and we had it displayed in the living room through Christmas.

The weekend before Thanksgiving we met LB's cousins at the zoo for the holiday light show. It was freezing but we endured the cold and had a fun night. The kids also got to see Santa, which ended up being a nice reprieve from the cold, and since not too many people were brave (or stupid) enough to be out in the cold we didn't have to wait in a long line. LB asked Santa for "a plane and a drum." I didn't realize you could ask Santa for two things but I guess LB decided it was okay. He stayed consistent with those requests all through December. (Confession: We ended up seeing Santa 4 times before the big day. LB is a fan.)

Actual Thanksgiving day was a bit of a bust. D's parents were hosting Thanksgiving but not until Friday to accommodate every one's schedules. So our plan was to chill at home on Thursday and put up all our Christmas decorations. It was a good plan but LB woke up in a foul mood and I think I was in a bad mood too. I was missing my family and just felt blah about the whole thing. So the tree got put up and we did some fun Christmas crafts but overall it was just an okay today. Not what I hoped. Thankfully, Friday was fun and we stuffed our faces and LB played with his cousins. Somehow I managed to take zero photos. I must have been too busy eating and drinking.

December

We got a fair amount of snow in early December and LB had more stamina this year in terms of being willing to play in the snow. And he has learned to put his gloves on all by himself which meant I cursed much less this year. Is there anything more annoying than trying to get gloves on a toddler? I think not. 

We had several fun playdates with old friends and new friends. I have loved watching LB develop good friendships at preschool this year and to see him seek out his special friends.

LB had his Christmas program and party at school. I was in love with the shirt I bought him for it. I'm biased but he was so darn cute.

Okay, so I lied. I have rambled enough and I still need to recap our trip to Tulsa for Christmas. That will have to come later. 

Until then..... I hope January is treating you well, friends!

Stick Gathering

As D and I went through the adoption process, I had several little panics and one major panic along the way. We'll save the major panic for another time. But one of the smaller panics came about as I was reading through several of the questions we had to answer on one of the initial forms. It was something along the lines of listing how you and your spouse are involved in your community and what activities you are a part of. I sat there and started to rant to D about how we aren't involved enough and that we had failed our Earlham College educators. He may have rolled his eyes. And I guess I didn't think we would get denied because of it. (Okay fine, maybe I did a little. I was fragile.) But that one little question was really eye opening and it reminded me of Earlham years and what we'd experienced. Obviously, Earlham sets out to help their students become better readers, writers, scientists, etc. but I really think one of it's main goals is teach young people the importance of community and to encourage them to go out into the world and create that space for other people. "They gathered sticks and kindled a fire and left it burning" is engraved on the fireplace of the cafeteria for a very important reason. Yes, it's in honor of the early Quaker founders of the college but it's there to remind us that community is a very sacred and spiritual thing. I think about all the people that rallied around my family when my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and how night after night someone else brought us dinner and reminded us of all the friends and support we had. That's because my parents had created several communities for themselves and for my sister and me over the years. Yes, D and I had wonderful, close friends living near us and D had been at his company for several years and was close to many co-workers and I remained in touch with many of my former co-workers and we had our Earlham friends that were spread out all over the country but we weren't doing what Earlham had encouraged us to do. There wasn't a lot of fire building going on. I think we had gotten stuck in going through the motions of daily life as a double income, no kids couple. D played on an over 30 soccer league and I had gotten involved in some political campaigns but really it was minimal. We went to work and came home and watched tv or read or talked and then we woke up the next morning and did it all over again. On the weekends, we got together with friends and watched Buckeye games together and of course that friendship and those gatherings had meaning. But overall our life was lacking something. We weren't really reaching out. And it wasn't just because we didn't have kids. We simply weren't gathering sticks. We were having fun but we were stuck.

I've been reflecting a lot lately on how that has changed since we started the adoption process and how I feel a part of so many little but glowing fires here locally. Becoming active members in our adoption community has obviously been a big deal for us. I've rambled many times in this space about how beloved and important those people are to D and me. I'll spare you this time. But becoming parents in this new neighborhood of ours has also played a major role in our stick gathering and fire building. I feel surrounded by people who also recognize the importance of gathering for a purpose.

For example, do you see the mom and daughter that are in between LB and the librarian? The mom is wearing a purple tank top and has dark brown hair? Well, that is Jodi. She is a community builder in the truest sense of the word. LB is about 17 months old in this photo and Jodi's daughter, Cora, is probably just over a year old in this photo. We've been going to story time at the library since our kids were little and that's where we first met. We would also often run into each other at the farmers' market where our kids would dance along to the live music. Jodi is an art educator and through her connections at the Columbus Museum of Art has started a toddler time art class for several of the families she knows through music class and story time in our neighborhood. LB and I are lucky to be a part of it. In just two sessions, I've learned a lot from Jodi about doing art with LB at home and in our day to day activities. (Her blog, Outside the Lines, is listed on my sidebar. Check it out.)What I think is especially great though is that Jodi has brought together families from our neighborhood to utilize a resource in our city that we maybe didn't realize was available to us. Yes, when we took the kids in to one of the galleries yesterday it was nerve racking because they couldn't really run and touch and do all the things toddlers do. LB was not on his best behavior. But we've been welcomed. And our kids are learning and exploring together. Jodi's created a community of little, budding artists. For a parent, it doesn't get much better. 

Our museum also has a room designated for kids. Maybe your's does too? Check it out. Here is LB playing with all the magnets. He was very serious about his creation. I accidentally touched one of them and was firmly reprimanded. 

Do you ever let yourself think stuff like, "what if we had just gotten pregnant right away?" Or "what if we hadn't decided to change neighborhoods?" "What would my life look like?" I like to think that my parents' influence and my Earlham education would have eventually worked it's way to the surface of my mind and that daily grind, isolated feeling would have gone away. Who knows. I do know that I am so glad that we didn't get pregnant and that we did sell our old house and move. In the end, that's what matters.

Go out and gather some sticks and build a fire. It feels good.

His Favorite

I've neglected to post about LB's other big obsession these days. Airplanes. He has always loved spotting airplanes in the sky and talking about how they go "up up up and down down down." When the plane is taxing down the runway he says it is "running fast." But lately this like for airplanes has grown into a love for airplanes. My mom got him a little airplane and so did my dad's stepsister. He carries those two planes almost everywhere. One for each hand. If we leave the house and forget his airplanes then it is not a pretty scene. He likes to have them just in case we see an airplane so that he can hold his little one up and say "two airplanes!" It's pretty darn cute. If we see anyone while we are out and he has his airplanes he will tell them "airplanes me's favorite." If you know him or you're a complete stranger, he will let you know that they're "me's favorite." We were at the park a few weeks ago and LB was making sure everyone around us knew about the airplane up in the sky. There happened to be a man walking by and he told me that I should take LB to the Ohio State airport. He said there was a restaurant, an observation tower and that you could pull right up to the runway and watch planes take off and land. I knew we had to do it. So the following Saturday we met friends there for breakfast and plane watching and LB was in heaven! Thank goodness for that stranger at the park. (Not a sentence I thought I would ever say.) We spent two and a half hours there that morning. A young man working there noticed LB and his buddy at the fence and would wave every time he drove by, which they loved. At one point he came over to the fence and let LB and his friend hold those orange sticks they use to guide the planes to the gate. He then took us into one of the hangars where they store a lot of planes and LB got to touch them and look inside at the cockpit. So amazing! When we had to leave the hangar, LB insisted on kissing one of the airplanes goodbye. So sweet. I think the guy who was working there saw himself in LB and really wanted to make it special.

I love that he is clinging to his airplane in this photo. It seems like such a quintessential boy moment. The only bummer of the morning is that he DID NOT want to leave. He basically sobbed the whole way home and kept saying, "one more time airplane" through his heaving sobs. It was heartbreaking. He finally stopped crying when we were about 5 minutes from home and exclaimed, "So fun. Airplanes me's favorite." Totally worth it.

I was telling my friend about this and that I wished he hadn't sobbed the whole way home because it made me nervous about taking him back. She then taught me one of the greatest parenting lines ever. I will now pass it along to you. "If you leave happy then we can come back." You are welcome. I have used this line on several occasions over the past few weeks and it works like a charm. We were leaving a park with a huge, awesome sandbox and LB didn't want to go home. He started to get whiny and I told him, "If we leave happy then we can come back again to play in the sand." He repeated back to me, "Leave happy. Come back." I affirmed that he was right and he stopped with the whining. It's like magic! 

This morning I thought it was the perfect day to go back to the OSU airport. The weather was in the 70s and it was sunny so I figured it would be ideal conditions for lots of airplane action. I told him we could go to the airport but he had to promise to leave happy. He got super excited because he has been begging to go back. Thankfully, I was right about the conditions and it was a steady stream of take offs and landings all morning. The second time around did not disappoint. And then it was time to go and I told him again that we needed to leave happy so we could come back. What did he do? He said, "Bye bye airplanes. See you later. Have a good sleep." And we left without a tear. Success.

Feeling Sappy

*Update: I wrote this post on Friday afternoon but still needed to add some photos so I didn't publish it. Then that night around dinner time we had severe weather and lost power. Then the power came back on. And then it went off again. We got power restored on Monday night and hopefully it's now on for good. Needless to say the stress of the power situation made me feel not so sappy. More like hot and sticky and annoyed. But I don't want to diminish how I was feeling in that moment so I am publishing it anyway. I know that today I should be feeling sappy for my freedom but truthfully I am feeling sappy about the air conditioning and a working fridge and long naps. Just keeping it real.

I'm not entirely sure what triggered this but I have been feeling especially sappy about my boy this week. Of course, I am always amazed by how much joy he brings me but I have been stopped in my tracks on several occasions this week with an overwhelming feeling of gratitude. We've had a fun week together and it's worth noting that bunny did not have to spend any time on the fridge for 5 days in a row. That's a record! I am sure since I am mentioning it bunny will spend all day tomorrow on the fridge. Naturally there have been moments when his behavior has started to go down hill but the idea of bunny going bye bye has really helped him. And don't get me started on how trying bedtime has been recently but overall it's been an exceptionally great week.

Sunday night we met several other adoptive families at one of the local Ethiopian restaurants and I think LB sat in his seat at the table for at least an hour. Another record! He even ate a lot of food, which he doesn't often do when there are a lot of distractions. I posted a photo of my meal on facebook and another adoptive mom commented that she couldn't believe just a few years ago she and her husband had no idea what they were missing. That comment struck a chord with me. I am not sure I would have ever tried Ethiopian food or had the opportunity to experience the hospitality of the Ethiopians who work there if we had never decided to adopt. The owner of the restaurant reserved a section of the restaurant for several of us and arranged for a buffet. He let the kids run all over the place after the meal and one of the waitresses told me how much she loves having the kids and our families there.  They even did a coffee ceremony for us. It's nice to have little moments when you can drink the same beer that we did in Ethiopia and smell the same smells and just soak in the nostalgia of a place that you love and miss. Perhaps it was then that the sappiness set in?

As I mentioned above, we've had some bedtime sleeping issues. We've been lucky in that LB has always been relatively easy to put to bed but the past couple of weeks he's been fighting it. Not sure if it is because it is still really light until 9:30 or his room has been a little warm or a stage or what. But one night he had been tossing and turning for a while and then eventually got frustrated and he called out for us. I went into his room and asked him if he would like me to rock for him a little bit and sing songs. He did so we cuddled up in his rocking chair and he made song requests. At one point I was singing "Somewhere over the Rainbow" and he had his cheek on my chest and I was so happy to have that moment of skin to skin closeness. He looked up at me and we just stared and smiled at each other while I sang. It was a brief moment but I relished it. Of course, I also really wanted him to fall asleep so I could go back to watching the Olympic Trials but I also recognized that those moments of rocking together are dwindling as he gets older. Perhaps it was then that the sappiness set in?

We had two great play dates with LB's buddy, T, this week. T came home a few weeks after LB and his mom and I relied on each other a lot during the wait, in our first few months as moms and even now as we are raising active, two year old boys. Monday we went to the conservatory where they have a butterfly exhibit. We took the boys last year on Earth Day but they were both just starting to walk and were probably a bit young to really enjoy what they were seeing. But this year they were really into it. At one point I managed to get a butterfly to chill on my finger and I wish I could have captured the initial look on LB's face. I am pretty sure I scored some cool mom points. 

The conservatory also has a really great fish pond and some other great things for little kids. LB had a blast. Perhaps it was then that the sappiness set in?

On Thursday, T's mom had a photo shoot so I watched T for her. The boys did awesome together! I love that they are starting to move away from parallel play and actually interact with each other. They were both very concerned about the other boy's comfort item. For LB it is his bunny and blankey and T has a small blankey that he calls "bear yaya." LB was always keeping an eye out for "bear yaya" and any time T dropped it LB would go get it for him. At one point we had a potential for a fight over matchbox cars but I told the boys that the blue car should always be T's and LB would get the orange one. They were both agreeable to this arrangement and at one point LB forgot about it and T picked up the orange one and said, "LB need this." It was super cute. 

They danced to Hoya Hoye,

pretended to be centipedes,

and shared matchbox cars.

Perhaps it was then that the sappiness set in?

All I know is that it doesn't get much cuter than this. 

Touch A Truck

The community center near our house held an event this morning called, Touch A Truck. The weather was perfect and I was really excited for LB to get a chance to actually touch new things. He is really into that these days and one of his most common sentences starts with "I touch." Recently, we left our local aquarium with LB in tears because he wanted to touch the fish. Since I am incapable of moving a big sheet of glass for all the fish to come spilling out on to all the children, that was a request I could not say yes to. But if the event has the word touch in it then I thought he would like it. We got there early before the lines got super long and he was definitely impressed with all the fire trucks, tractors and police cars. He was skeptical to actually get in them at first but he warmed his way up to it. I think when he saw one of his buddies climb into the tractor then peer pressure kicked in and he was willing to try. LB was definitely happy that there were no restrictions on what he could touch or what buttons he could push. He kept saying, "me tall!" I am sure he felt very powerful. They had a helicopter flying overhead the whole time too and that provided tons of entertainment. He got on the smaller tractors at first and then worked his way up to the trash truck, fire truck and semi truck.

In the photo below he is in a police car. The police officer was especially sweet and kept showing LB all the buttons he could push. She even let him play with the walkie talkie. Heaven.

However, the highlight of the morning for LB was the Sports Ohio Peanut. I have no idea why he became so obsessed with him but once LB spotted the giant peanut he was done with the trucks.  He just wanted to follow the poor peanut everywhere. He kept asking for high fives and at one point said to me, "me picture peanut huggie." So I asked the peanut if LB could give him a hug and snapped a quick photo. The entire drive home he talked about that peanut. Not a single word about all the trucks. Funny kid. 

Teething Misery

LB and I had a tough week. LB's week was rough because he is massively teething and is so uncomfortable and unhappy. I am thinking he is cutting some molars. My week was tough because I was trying to keep a very unhappy boy happy. Adding to the teething misery our weather has been nothing but rain all week. That made it difficult to come up with indoor activities to distract him from the pain. This is what LB looked like pretty much all week:

He has not taken his hands out of his mouth. Poor kid. I know that kids aren't supposed to watch TV until they are two but I resorted to a lot of Elmo because it was the only thing that would make him smile. Yesterday afternoon we played outside in the rain. My sanity was on the line! LB didn't seem to mind and actually thought it was pretty cool.

However, today was a good day so I am focusing on that. The rain finally stopped! This morning we met up with LB's best bud, Tesfa, at the park and we got to wish Tesfa and Amy a happy referral day. A year ago, Amy and I were sipping beers and celebrating our referrals. JOY!

LB had a great time playing outside and I was thrilled to hang out with one of my best buds too. (Yes, we were asked again if the boys are twins.)

When we got home I put LB down for his nap and he did the funniest thing. I have to document it here so I don't forget. He has started standing up in his crib. I am not a fan of this new antic. However, he usually just plays for a little bit and then puts himself to sleep. Today it was taking him a long time to go to sleep. At one point things got pretty quiet so I checked the video monitor. He was still standing in his crib and was holding one of his favorite stuffed animals. Then he tossed the animal over the side of the crib and waved goodbye! It was hilarious. Maybe you had to be there? It's a good thing that boy is cute.

Earth Day Outing

Since yesterday was Earth Day, Amy and I decided to take the boys to the Franklin Park Conservatory. It was raining so it seemed like a good indoor outing that was still earthy. I think all four of us had a great time. Here are some photos from the day.

They have a really great fish pond and we let the boys out of their strollers to get a closer look. You can't help but smile when you look at these photos. Such cuties.

Oh yes, and this is what happened when Ezra realized I wasn't right behind him.

He seems to prefer to have me close by these days. Doesn't it look like T is telling him to chill out? As we were leaving a butterfly landed on T's bright orange shirt. I think Amy was a little concerned T might try to eat the butterfly but he just watched it in amazement.

"Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift." -Albert Einstein