Nos vemos pronto, mis amores...

Half way around the world...

our beautiful God daughter, Cally, wearing her Briar.Claire creation in Hong Kong.

I LOVE that I bought the hat for Cally when the etsy shop was doing a fundraiser for Elizabeth's Tenth Life...

and I L.O.V.E. that Shelley's baby girl, J's sister, is finally home...

(Thank you, Norbyah, for posting these. You absolutely made my day. I love that baby girl and can't wait to get my hands on her this summer!!!)

Written Word-less Wednesday?

Who am I trying to kid?

I was going to let this video stand alone, but there is just too much that I want to say...

I was cleaning up after dinner tonight and loved what I heard coming from our front family room: Emmett and Rubin playing together cooperatively. No crying. No yelling. Just play. Kind and gentle. I even heard Emmett say "thank!" to Rubin.

Heaven

on

earth.

I had to grab my Fl*p and see what they would let me capture.

(They are in diapers because dinner went terribly wrong.)

Spaghetti,

everywhere.

You'll see that my house is an utter disaster.

I have three little boys, people.

Excuse the train tracks... everywhere.

(You should've seen the kitchen...)

I couldn't help but love how the video ends.

Both of them doing something that they probably shouldn't...

for the sake of safety (mine!)

and toy preservation

... be doing.

But, why the heck not?! It ended up being so much fun.

And what's more important than that?!

The rest of the story.

So, if you know me, I suppose it may have been kind-of-sort-of-a-teensy-weensy-bit difficult to feel sorry for me yesterday when I got my V Day pout on... given the fact that Dave and I are leaving on Sunday for 7 days and 7 nights in warm, sunny, snow-and child-free Mexico.

Be that as it may, I had to let a little bit of my truth be told, even if it wasn't Tuesday. I really only divulged the ingredients responsible for the icing on my pity-party-cake (I can only imagine what would have happened if I'd written more!) Evidently, that was just enough to encourage an anonymous commenter to give me the slap on the hands she (or he) felt I deserved, post Valentine's Day whine...

What I'm trying to say is this: there is a reader out there who shamed me this afternoon for complaining about life. A reader who criticized us for taking a vacation without our boys when "less than a year has passed since Rubin came home. What about attachment?!"

I'm sparing you (and myself, the annoyance of reading it repeatedly) the rest of this anonymous reader's opinion. I'm angry with myself, tonight, for letting it get under my skin.

Not that it's anyone else's business: I've thought, through and through, about taking this trip with my husband. Unless you know us, unless you see our day-to-day, unless you've witnessed this family really squish... your comments are not welcome here. You can take your "unfit adoptive mother" and "irresponsible parenting" and (this one, by far my favorite) "selfish rendezvous" and (politely) shove them.

Ahem.

Good night.

A little whine, on Valentine's Day.

I woke up this morning to 3 extremely loud children and an over-tired husband who said,

"Now I understand why spiders eat their young..."

Emmett. Enough said.

I'm tired of winter.

Feeling cooped up.

Runny noses, constant coughs.

Dry skin.

Extra pounds.

A winter layer I just can't seem to kick,

no matter how hard I try.

Theo woke up with an inexplicable limp.

Go ahead and g*ogle "4 year old is limping"

and see what I came up with, to add to my worry.

My camera is still in the shop. I miss it terribly.

My house is a wreck. Constantly.

I can't keep up with the keep up.

I just found out that what I thought is with work maybe isn't.

Time to think about how things will change...

Dinner and dancing.

Actually, the dancing came first...

On Saturday morning Dave, the boys, and I joined our Families through Korean Adoption (FTKA) group for a Kids' Disco at a local restaurant/brewery. More than anything else, it was so darn good to see so many faces that have become so familiar/so comforting to me over the past year. The get together was centered on meeting with a group of current UW students who also happen to be Korean adoptees. These young adults recently contacted my friend Miya and requested more opportunities to connect and have fun with our little ones. And, have fun they did! Dancing amidst a sea of bubbles, shooting pool, playing shuffle board, throwing darts, eating lunch. It was absolutely a do-again!

For dinner, Rubin and I took a little road trip to Rockford! I was thrilled a couple of weeks ago when I received an invite from my bloggy friend, Kris, to attend her adoption agency's Seollal celebration. Since Dave had to work, I enlisted Aunt Sica to man the big boys while Rubin and I headed south. I am so glad that we made it work. Rubin and I had so much fun finally meeting so many families that I feel like we already know. X's family & Cohen's family & Gabe, Josiah, Seth, and Joel's families. Some of these boys I've "known" since their mama's shared their referral photos and stories on their adoption blogs. I had the honor of reading along as they journeyed, in their parents' arms, home. What a joy, meeting then in real life. In real action.

Now, sadly, my camera is still not well. And so, I had to resort to video of the event. My favorite clip has a little piece of all of these boys that I've loved reading about over the course of this past year. It also display's Kris' uncanny knack for settling a crowd of "5 and unders" for a group photo... I love how Rubin is swinging his legs to her song.

Thank you, Kris, for including us. And thank you to all of the wonderful mamas that I've gotten to know thanks, in large part, to our common thread of adoption. I love knowing all of you.

Let the truth be told, on Tuesday.

Sorry, folks.

No photos.

I dropped my camera last week and had to send it away to Ni*kon. I'm anticipating a phone call early next week estimating the cost... I have a feeling it is NOT going to be pretty.

And, speaking of unpleasantries...

(And I'm probably going to come off sounding like an awful mother when I write this, but...)

Emmett.

It doesn't get more unpleasant, right now, than Emmett. The poster child for the terrible twos. I'm not even going to try to sugar coat it at this point with flowery words like passionate or spirited or even intense.

Oh, no, no, no. What I've got on my hands looks more like fiery. Fierce. Loud. Obnoxious. Offensive. Just. Plain. Naughty.

I couldn't help but giggle (because it is either laugh or cry, at this point) when I read my friend Yvonne's blog post tonight. I am that lady, too.

And, right now, I feel like I have that child that I swore I would never have. And, far too often, I feel like I am parenting him in ways that I swore I would NEVER parent.

We're like a segment from Super*Nanny.

Without Jo*Frost.