Food Thief

Kade got the movie, "The Good Dinosaur", from Lady A for Easter.  It's the first movie that he's actually sat and watched from beginning to end (not all at once--baby steps, people--but still he saw the whole movie and that's never happened!).
Anyway, one night Kade and Mason were sitting on the couch, each with their own bowl of popcorn, watching it when a somewhat scary part came on.  Even I was a bit disturbed--there's a scene where a pterodactyl, who you think is a good guy until this point, eats a super cute, tiny, furry creature that he had just rescued.
Kade was shocked.  He was literally frozen in fear.  His eyes were wide and unblinking, his hand was stuck in mid air with popcorn still in his fingers and his mouth was wide open.  He wasn't moving.  Mason looked over at his brother, saw Kade in his frozen state, got a tiny little grin on his face and started eating Kade's popcorn instead of his own.  Kade was clueless.  This lasted for a minute or 2 and by the time Kade came around half of his popcorn was gone and Mason still had a full bowl.  It was the cutest and funniest display of "the opposite of brotherly love" Erik and I had ever witnessed.

This morning I made scrambled eggs for breakfast.  Mason had 2 large helpings of his own and then moved over to Kade's plate, after Kade got up, and proceeded to clean up Kade's plate as well.  Then, he grabbed a water bottle, hit Kade on the head with it and while Kade was crying Mason proceeded eat Kade's Cheerios.  While I appreciate Mason's ingenious "distract and steal" method, that move did warrant some discipline.

The thief in action--this is Kade's plate.

Never mind the giant snot blob coming out of his nose.  

Seriously, this kid's nose is ALWAYS running!

A much sweeter picture.

Kade took this picture, I swear he always gets the best shots of Mason's big brown eyes!

The poor kid who's always getting his food stolen out from under him.

No worries, he's not missing any meals either!  At a recent doctor's appointment it was confirmed that he is now 4 ft tall.  4 feet!!  To put it into perspective, I'm 5'1" and he's not even in Kindergarten yet.

Handsome fellas.

During Mason's 2 year appointment I asked AGAIN about his tongue.  I think the dr. was sick of me bringing it up every time so he finally said, "Do you just want me to refer you to ENT?"  UMM, YES!!!  So, 2 weeks ago we went to the appt. and it took exactly 5 seconds for the consultant to look at his tongue and say "That's one of the most tethered tongues I've ever seen.  He needs that clipped now or that's going to cause problems soon.  Is he eating ok?!?"  For the record, yes, he's always ate like a champ--it didn't cause problems in that department!

The next day Erik brought him in for the procedure.  Even though it's simple you still have to check in for surgery and get put under.  Erik said they brought Mason back and the surgeon was back literally 5 minutes later saying it was done and he was good to go!  That night Mason started saying his "T's" like a champ so obviously it was holding him back already!!  And, let's be honest, we were all a bit concerned about his ice cream cone licking capabilities but not anymore!!!

I've been going through all of our pictures, picking out ones to frame for a gallery wall and I came across these oldies but goodies.  I think these 2 pictures might be my favorite of all time of the boys:

A couple weeks ago I had the "adoption conversation" again.  I don't mind having it, I LOVE talking about my boys and adoption is a part of them so it doesn't bother me to repeat their stories to anyone who'll listen!  But, it got me thinking…

The conversation always starts out with, "They're adopted?!  I thought they got their size from their dad!"  And it immediately goes to questions about their birth moms--
"do we know them?"  Yes, we are very close to Kade's birth mom.  We don't know Mason's birth mom, we'd love to but she's not ready and that's completely fine.
"You're close to Kade's birth mom?  Like, she's been to your house???  Is that weird?"  Umm, no!  It's amazing!!  We love her and her family like they are our own family because they ARE part of our family!  She made Kade and Kade is our son!  We wouldn't have it any other way!!  Mason's birth mom emails and reads the blog and we hope, someday, to meet her and have a relationship with her too.
"Do they know they're adopted"?  Well, yes, but they are 5 and 2 so do they get it?  Probably not.  They know they came out of "A" and "F's" bellies and A&F chose us to be their parents.  That's as far as it goes for now, and Mason, obviously, hasn't even gotten that far yet.

Then the conversation leads into questions about their birth dad's and that's where it gets a little trickier. We don't know anything about their birth dads.  Obviously Kade and Mason were unplanned pregnancies and I doubt A&F had any intentions of ever having a baby with them at any point in their lives.  So the birth dad's have never been involved, that's A&F's choice and I respect that.  But eventually the boys are going to figure out how babies are made (please please please not for another 20 years :-).  So, it got me thinking again--how are we going to talk to the boys about their birth dads?  I've had 5.5 years to come up with an answer and this is what I've got so far...

Here goes:  We don't know your birth dad's but God does.  And He must know something pretty great about them because He chose them to help make you and that's amazing.  God creates families in different ways and He did an awesome job creating our family and your birth dad's were a part of that.  Maybe someday you'll meet them, but even if you don't, just know that they allowed God to work through them to create you and God knows what He's doing.

To my 5 faithful readers:  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

God's beautiful creations:

It's That Time of the Year Again...

March Madness!!!  Basketball is in full swing at our house!  Erik has been taking Kade to open gym these past few weeks so Kade is in BB Heaven.  They go to "kid open gym", come home for an hour, and they go back for "adult open gym", eat supper and then they head downstairs for some basement basketball.  

You'd think Kade would get sick of it but it's the exact opposite--he just plays more!  And when he's taking a break from playing, he's walking around the house dribbling the ball.  I'm pretty sure basketball is in his DNA.

A couple weeks ago a few of Kade's friends from school went to open gym too!  I didn't go because it's during Mason's nap time (and we all know naps trump everything) so poor Mase missed out on the action.  Lucky for me a couple of the mom's sent me pictures!

Tucker and Kade

The girl in the blue shirt behind Kade is the star of the varsity team.  Apparently these two went over to her hoop and shot a few baskets with her.  Kade came home, acting all cool-trying not to smile, and said he shot hoops with her.  Tucker went home and informed his mom that he planned on kissing her.  Oh dear, I think we are in trouble.

Future coach of these little all-stars, perhaps??

Nolan, Tucker, Kade, Charlie and Nolan's little brother, Nyle.

Charlie is a wrestler through and through but he was a good sport and shot hoops anyway.  After about 40 minutes of shooting he told Erik he was ready to leave because there were too many balls flying around!  Apparently one open gym wasn't enough to convert him…

Back in the olden days, when Erik played, their biggest rivals were the neighboring town in which Tucker's dad just happened to be one of the stars as well.  Ah, the good ol' days.

Perhaps this is a glimpse of the next generation, except the son's of the old rivals join forces!??  This sounds like the makings of a movie!!

Or it could just be a few really cute pictures of 2 little dudes holding basketballs twice their size.  

That sounds good too :-)

Meanwhile, back at the homestead...

Mason got stuck helping Mom with chores.  Safety first, right Mase?!?