My Kid Circus

I suppose it had to happen sometime.  Our kids fight sometimes, of course, but generally they treat each other very well, and I have always been proud of the loving way they treat each other.

Our boys are truly the best of friends, and are together pretty much every moment we are home.  I am holding out hope that my girls will have the same close relationship, but right now we are having some growing pains.

When Hannah came home, K accepted her with open arms.  Hannah was the first thing she asked about when she opened her eyes in the morning, and she was so thrilled to keep reminding Hannah that they were sisters.  As Hannah has grown and found her own voice, however, it has been harder on K.  Hannah usually wants to play with whatever K is playing with, and K is not loving having to share “her” toys.  More importantly, K is not loving sharing me, which is tough.

Last night I was snuggling with K and she said, “I don’t want a baby anymore.  Let’s find her a new family”.  Although I know that she is so far from the first older sister to say these words, they still stung.

I think that I was prepared for these type of comments last November or December, but it has thrown me that they came 10 months after Hannah came home.

I love you so much my sassy girl, but we are definitely keeping your sister!

First day of second grade for my Z.

Last night he prayed that his family wouldn’t miss him too much while he was away at school.

That is a tough request when he is just such an awesome kid.

I pretty much already miss him like crazy.  I’m sure that there will be some years when I can’t wait for summer to be over, but this just isn’t one of them.

The first day of school is tough on this mom.

I know he will do great, but counting down the hours until I can pick him up! 🙂

This is an incredible time in this house.  The end of diapering days are coming! We are on day 3 of potty training Hannah, and it is going great!

We have one proud girl.

7 years and 8 months worth of diapers coming to an end.  (Not including night time pull-ups, which we will have for a while).  By my calculations, that is around 12,500 diaper changes!

This feels awesome! 🙂

The one good thing that came out of our summer vacation ending early because of Tropical Storm Debby was that we had the chance to go on ANOTHER vacation. 🙂

This time, we took the kids to Orlando.  We spent a day at Legoland and then two days at SeaWorld.  We have been to Orlando twice before, but this was our first time with FOUR kids with NO help.  It was a little daunting, but it was awesome!

Our boys are obsessed with legos.  I could probably find a lego in every corner of every room in our house because they are carrying legos everywhere they go.  That made our decision easy to try out the Legoland theme park.  It was perfect for them!  The boys could do pretty much every ride in the park, and there was plenty for the girls to do also. Plus, there were amazing lego creations everywhere that we looked.  It was a dream come true day for these guys!

The next two days we went to SeaWorld.  I had never been before, and didn’t really know what to expect, but it was incredible.  We were busy every minute of those two days, and only repeated one thing!  K got to ride her first roller coaster, and there were lots of rides that all the kids could do.

We loved the shows!

The kids especially enjoyed the Sea Lion show.  Actually, I did too.  It was hilarious!

The kids also loved playing in the fountains.

Z calling for Hannah to join him in the water.

Mostly, it was just a fantastic, happy time together as a family.  My favorite times are the times that we are all together laughing and having fun, and this trip was abundant in those times.

I can’t wait until next time! 🙂

Up until now, I have considered myself a fairly new adoptive mom.  This week, however, I realized I have a new pet peeve.  I think that having a pet peeve officially moves me out of the “new mom” phase.

Boundaries.  Oh my goodness, boundaries.  They are important, people!

Most mothers know that it can be awkward when you are pregnant and strangers feel like they can come put their hands on your stomach.  Then there are always those people in the grocery store that seem to think they can touch your baby.  I always hated that. Bringing home Hannah, though, I have seen a new level of people demonstrating lack of boundaries.

I really don’t mind the intrusive questions.  I feel passionate about adoption, and I will happily talk anyone’s ear off that asks me friendly questions.  I do feel like it is crossing a boundary, however, to start telling me why I should have adopted from the United States rather than from China.

Worse than that are the people that seem to think it is fine to touch Hannah. When out in public, I have had multiple strangers tell me how cute she is and then touch her face, grab her hands, or even try to hug her.  Three times now someone has actually PICKED HER UP.  That is not okay!  I have been thinking about this all day, and there just has to be something about Hannah being obviously adopted that makes people feel like it is okay to do this.  I have never had a stranger try to hug or pick up any of my other children.

I would be curious to hear if you other adoptive moms out there are experiencing this.  Is my adopted child somehow viewed as less “mine” than my biological children that makes people feel like they can take more liberty with her?

Or maybe it is just her crazy cuteness? 🙂