A Post For Braydono

"Papi" is away for "two sleeps" on a "work trip" where he is "talking to the man" but "soon he'll come back" and then he will "absolutely" and "definitely" be ready to "play airplanes" and "be the control tower" (all K & O speak; all quotes from today). Braydono-- here are some photos I took for you this afternoon/evening because I know you, therefore, I know you'll be checking your laptop in your hotel room tonight. ;)
P.S. Mark this date in history-- the boys were better than they've ever been in the grocery store this afternoon, it was actually a pleasure to go food shopping with them today!! Who would have ever thunk it?!?!!!!!

B-- here are O & K in our bathtub;

they spent over an hour in our tub and then shower.

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After bath snack (while I got their supper ready), watching the "new" Diego video you got from NetFlix.

Note: their "snack" was an entire 12 oz (1 full pound!) package of strawberries and an entire 4.4 oz package of blueberries (they ate the entire two packages) and that was after they shared a banana and before they ate their entire dinners. ?!

FYI: The "Otter" video is a huge, huge hit.

And the fact I let them watch a video on a "school day" was a huge, huge hit too! ;)

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Can't help but throw this one in too--

They wanted me to be the Control Tower. I tried. But they told me that they "like the way Papi does it"!!! LOL!!!

I'm sure you're just really missing the planes/masking tape runway... right?! ;0

Even though it is only "two sleeps" we miss you!

Two Interesting Things From Last Night

Owen's Belly Button--
Click here for previous post about Owen's Umbilical Hernia. Never has he ever once said or done anything to indicate that he has any self-consciousness whatsoever about it... until last night. At the dinner table last night, truly out of nowhere, completely out of the blue, Owen says (with seriousness and a tone of real sadness), "Mommy, why I don't have an 'innie' belly button? Why I have an 'outie'? I don't want a big outie, I want to have an innie." My mind started racing the second I heard 'innie' because I knew what he was going to be getting at before he even finished his first sentence. The default answer that immediately shot through my head was to tell him "Because that's how God made you! And you're perfect just the way you are!" or some rubbish like that. But, 1) it is a lie-- that is not how "God" made him-- it is the result of human hands, a poorly tied umbilical at birth, a pretty extreme umbilical hernia, and early starvation so that the hernia could not and will not ever be able to totally heal... and 2) to tell him he's 'perfect just the way he is' would sort of be problematic when, sometime relatively soon, we take him for an operation to correct his umbilical hernia and give him an 'innie'... I tried to think quick. I said: "Owen, you don't want the outie belly button?" He said, "No, I don't want it, I want to have an innie just like Kyle and just like you and just like Papi." I said, "O.k.! Guess what? We're going to go to a special doctor at a hospital who will fix your belly button and make it an innie!" He seemed satisfied with that. Now I've got it on my to-do list for today to start the process to set that up. The surgeon we saw about it when the boys first came home said that he wanted to do the surgery at age four. Braydon and I had already been talking about trying to get the operation set up early, hopefully for this winter, so that we can have it out of the way before the baby is due. Now Owen's given me a push to make it happen. But I find it just so interesting that now suddenly Owen has noticed it and is self-conscious of it. Something must have happened at school yesterday or something, but I have no idea what.

Sibling Love--
[Quick note about Baby Sister's name-- we're not making the name public so on the blog we're writing 'Baby Sister' even when K or O actually say 'Baby ___'. They call her by her name almost 100% of the time.] Last night right before bed, the boys were on Braydon's lap in Kyle's room, just like every night, and Braydon had just finished reading them books. I walked over, just like every night, to say prayers with them. Before I sat down --with my belly just at their face level-- I pulled my shirt up so that K & O could kiss the belly and say 'night night' to Baby Sister (they've been doing this since we told them there is a baby in there). They kiss the belly and whisper things (that Braydon and I usually can't make out) to Baby Sister. They were doing this whole routine last night when out of the blue Kyle says very clearly: "Night Nights. I love you Baby Sister." Then Owen said it too: "I love you Baby Sister." We have never prompted them to say 'I love you' to the baby; we've never even insinuated that they should feel 'love' for this abstract soon-to-be member of our family; and we've never talked about feeling love ourselves for the baby. It was totally sweet and cute, but also totally surprising to hear it. Braydon and I were totally taken aback by it. I find it so fascinating that siblings can start to develop a true bond and an organic love for each other even before they meet and/or even before one is born. There is no doubt that K & O feel love for their Baby Sister, despite the fact that she's still so abstract to them and they've never known another sibling but each other/their twin. And the other part that is so amazing is the miracle of adoption--- the fact that Baby Sister won't be a biological sibling to them, but this has absolutely no significance whatsoever (at least not now) for K & O.

One Overheard & One Photo

Yesterday Kyle was walking around the playroom carrying the poor cat around and holding the poor thing waaaaaaay toooooo tight. Our beloved 13-year-old cat Cooper has become pathetically tolerant of K & O's antics. He can usually escape when he really wants to so I more-or-less stay out of it. However, this time I was really starting to get concerned when --from the kitchen where I was-- I heard Cooper yelp out a desperate sounding sound unlike any sound I've ever heard before. I shouted in to Kyle, "O.k., Kyle, that's enough, put Cooper down now." He ignored me. "Kyle! Put Cooper down!" Totally blatantly ignoring me. "KYLE! PUT THE CAT DOWN RIGHT NOW!" And then. This: Kyle, semi-sheepishly and semi-attitudinally (some people would call this passive-aggressively), still holding the cat, calls back (just loud enough so I can hear it) -- "I'm not listening to you Mommy." Then dead silence in the house. Owen was in the playroom but ran fast as lightening to come see my reaction in the kitchen. He peered around the kitchen counter with a look of sheer anticipatory curiosity on his face. "GO TO YOUR ROOM NOW!" I yelled to Kyle (halfway for the sheer disobedience of Kyle, halfway for the wide-eyed audience of Owen). Kyle dropped the cat quick as a wink and ran up the stairs to his room. Owen, still peering around the counter, now with a look of deep satisfaction on his face, says, "Kyle's in big trouble! Big time out!" Then, all dramatically angelic and sticky sweet (as if he's concerned about Kyle) Owen says, "Why mommy?" With the most stern look of 'I'm not buying it' I could muster on my face, I flatly said, "You know why Owen." Then he jumps out from behind the counter and says, all confident and serious, "Oh! Yes! I do know why! Because he talked back to Mommy!" "Yes, that's right," I said. Three minutes later I told Kyle he could come back down. He did the obligatory apology: "Mommy, I'm sorry I talked back to you." Then I did the obligatory, "O.k., don't do that again, o.k., big hug." And literally within about 5 seconds both boys were happily playing with airplanes as if nothing had happened. They were on the floor, just on the other side of the kitchen counter, definitely within easy earshot of me but --from a 3-year-old's perspective-- light year's away from me since they couldn't actually see me with the counter between us. And this is what I hear:
Owen: Kyle, why you worried about Mommy?
Kyle: I'm not worried.
O: Oh.
K: I'm not worried, Owen, I'm mad.
O: Oh! You're mad?!
K: I'm mad at Mommy. I'm super mad Owen.
O: Oh!
K: Mommy is not nice. Mommy is NOT NICE. Mommy is not nice. Right Owen?
O: Oh, right. That's right Kyle.
K: Mommy said hurtful words.
O: Oh. Why she say hurtful words?
K: She said, 'GO TO YOUR ROOM!' That's hurtful words to me.
O: Oh. That is not nice saying hurtful words. But I'm not mad Kyle. I'm not.
K: Oh.
O: O.k. Kyle?
K: Oh, o.k.! O.k.!
O: Oh look Kyle, there's Cooper!!! Come on! We need to catch him!!!!!!!!!!
K: Yes!!!!!!!!!!!! Run fast Owen! Run fast!!!!!!!!!!

* * *

And, speaking of my darling little angel boys... A couple of days ago, this happened. The boys were playing, doing whatever, and suddenly it got way too quiet. When that happens it makes Braydon and I very nervous. I called out, "Guys? Kyle and Owen? Where are you? What are you doing?" Silence. "Guys?!?!" Silence. "Kyle and Owen!?!!!" Kyle, from the playroom, says, "We're in here. Doing a project. With tape." Then Owen appears in the kitchen, looking up at me like this:

Baby Sister's Name

Since I've received so many inquiries about it (!!!), I thought I should be sure to make it perfectly clear: Baby Sister's name is not going to be June! ;)

Back to School

The River Valley Waldorf School's Winter Break is over, and today is the boys' first day back to school. Owen was ambivalent about going back to school, but Kyle was very excited about it. They were both, however, very excited to wear their "I'm going to be a Big Brother" shirts to school today. These are now their favorite clothing items of choice. They'd wear them 24x7 if they could. Kyle, especially, just couldn't wait to get dressed this morning. From the time he woke up until Braydon drove off with them 10 minutes ago, Kyle kept saying to me, "Mommy, I can't wait to go to school!" We couldn't tell how much of his excitement was about school vs. how much of his excitement was about the shirt. About 1/2 hour before the boys had to head out Kyle started saying "I don't want to wear my coat today." He's never done this before. It is supposed to be in the 50s today, but still... he has to wear his coat. I kept saying, "Well, you have to wear it." He'd say, "But why??? I don't want to wear my coat. Please no coat?" Finally it dawned on me... I said, "Ky Ky, do you want no coat because you want to walk through the whole school to your classroom so that everyone can see your shirt?!" Huge grin on his face, he shouted "YES! YES! Please? So please?!" Braydon agreed that he would carry Kyle's coat for him so that Kyle could walk into school loud-and-proud with his big-announcement-shirt. From then on Kyle was dancing all around the house singing "I love school, I love baby sister, I love school, I love baby sister, I can't wait for school, I can't wait for baby sister, baby sister is coming after my birthday." At one point he interrupted this song and dance to say, "Hey, I have an idea! When it is my birthday, I can share my birthday presents with my baby sister!!!" This, for Kyle, who is the ultimate-lover-of-birthday-and-supreme-lover-of-presents, was kind of huge. Braydon and I looked at each other in total shock. "No, sweetie," I said, "when it is your birthday your presents are going to be just for you." He lit up with delight, "O.k.!" He said. "I have an even better idea! How about Baby Sister can have her own birthday??!!!!" I said, "Yes! She'll have her own birthday!" Then he continued on with the very animated song and dance until it was time to go. Owen, of course, jumped right on the no-coat-boat with his brother and wanted nothing to do with wearing anything that might cover up his special shirt. I can only imagine the stories Braydon will be telling when he gets back from dropping them off!

Lehigh vs. Princeton

Today we went to Lehigh for a basketball game. Lehigh was playing Princeton, and ended up winning by a landslide. I have a couple of students who are basketball players, but one in particular -- #10 -- is a student I'm pretty close to, have had for several courses, and also just happens to be a Basketball Star. K & O had met him before, and really liked him, so they were especially excited to see him as "a player on the team." Lehigh Athletics is really great for family-friendly sports events. They had set up a huge moonbounce right near the court, and this was of course a highlight of the day for K & O. They spent a lot of time jumping in it. Braydon whispered to me at one point, "It would be worth coming just for this!" He's right-- K & O can burn off quite a bit of energy in a moonbounce. Since it is Winter Break at Lehigh very few students are on campus so the arena was not as crazy as usual (no wild drunken fanatic fans, no shirtless fraternity brothers with their chests painted with "Princeton Sucks," and... very nice for me... not one student approached us the entire game). The boys ate popsicles and ate popcorn and watched the game while actually sitting in their seats for a long stretch of time (a first!!!). Owen was super cute yelling at the top of his lungs "GO NUMBER TEN!!" and "SHOOT THE BALL!!!!" My student, #10, even looked over a few times-- much to Owen's delight. After the game #10 was signing autographs and Owen climbed the court rail to try to be as "high up" (i.e., tall) as his hero. After the game the boys ran around the court with a whole slew of other little kids. Kyle got to shoot a few baskets and came very close to making one-- which very much impressed some of the older kids. Once again I'm reminded of what great family perks come with my job. The boys are already getting exposure to so many things... and they feel right at home on a college campus (an elite college campus at that). It makes me wonder about if/where they'll go to college someday and how things will all play out for them over the next twenty years.

Saturday Night

The past couple of Saturday nights we've let the boys eat their dinner in the family room while watching a video. They go to bed so early (anywhere from about 6:15, to 7:00 at the very latest), and we're usually out and about on Saturdays and don't want to take the time to make a family dinner, and we don't let them watch videos on 'school days' so Saturday videos are a big deal for K & O. Plus-- Braydon and I like to eat together on Saturdays after they go to bed. ;) So we let them do this a couple of Saturdays in a row... and for K & O, once something happens twice in a row it instantaneously becomes set in stone forever as a beloved ritual. For better or for worse, this Saturday-night-eating-in-the-family-room-while-watching-a-video is now something we seem to "do." They like to sit very close together, so that they are touching, whenever possible. It is really cute. Tomorrow we will take down our Christmas tree, Kyle's much-loved-lawn "blow up", and all of the other Christmas decorations. This is very, very sad for K & O. I'm ready to get it all cleaned up, but at the same time, I am sad about it too. Tonight right before Owen got into his bed, he looked out the boys' bathroom window at our "blow up" and our "Hallelujah lights" and whispered, "Night Nights Blow up! Night Nights Hallelujah lights! You are so beautiful! Tomorrow you go in a box in the basement! I love you! I can't wait for next year! Night Nights!"

*Very* Interesting re: June

For backstory re: the boys' imaginary friend, June, click here.
So, get this---
It has now been exactly one week since we told K & O about Baby Sister. Prior to last Friday we would hear about June at least 20-30 times a day (literally. that is my best guess; I never actually counted, but I seriously think it was probably at least that much). In the past week since we told them about Baby Sister my guess is that we've probably heard about June maybe 10 times total. And that is during a week of no school, with the boys home with us full-time until just yesterday when Alex started back. Today I was with them from the time they woke up until 2:30 when Alex arrived so I could get some work done this afternoon- I purposefully kept an ear out, and did not once hear any mention of June. She was such a huge part of our daily life, but for the past seven days she's been almost entirely absent. Now really, how interesting is that?!

K, O, & Alex in Today's Local Paper

Today we've received a few emails and phone calls from people saying that they saw K & O in the The Morning Call, our local newspaper! We don't even get this newspaper, so we never would have even known it was there. The photo was taken yesterday by a newspaper photographer--- when Owen, Alex, Kyle, and Cyprus (Alex's dog) were out taking a long walk. CLICK HERE for link to the newspaper photo w/ small blurb!

Baby Sister

So… the scoop about “Baby Sister”!!! I’m at 21 weeks; halfway through the pregnancy now. Mostly what I remember about the first trimester was it being one long, 3-month, delirius-blurry-hazey-fog of nausea mixed with desperate exhaustion. (The two photos below, both from late September, pretty much sum it up for me: napping as much and as often as possible, sometimes with K & O... and seriously blurry mornings). Obviously I knew that everyday millions of women around the world are pregnant under extremely much worse circumstances than me, and I reminded myself of that multiple times a day, but those first 10-12 weeks were just plain rough around here nonetheless-- me working more than full-time (with my tenure case decision in the middle of it), Braydon working waaaay more than full-time, two rambunctious 3-year-olds running us ragged, and me just hoping that: 1) I'd get through each of my lectures and meetings without having to run out of the room to puke, and 2) I'd be able to get through the day without falling asleep at the wheel [literally and figuratively]. I remember thinking to myself often, “If Tara Livesay can do this in Haiti with lots more kids than I have, then I can do this here without complaining about it!” (Hi Tara!) I also remember the first trimester being exciting too. Suffice it to say, it is strange to go through a first pregnancy, but with two kids already! Being over 35 I'm considered a "high risk pregnancy" so I have been getting the best of everything plus tons of extra attention and appointments from the best doctors in our area. Knock on wood--- it has been really a terrific experience so far.

I think so often of what it must have been like for Kyle and Owen’s birthmother when she was pregnant with them. She is on my mind a lot anyway, but during this pregnancy I think of her pretty constantly. And I talk about her at just about every doctor’s appointment I attend. I tell the doctors how grateful I am for what we have, how appalled I am at the disparities of the medical systems across the globe. They surely think I’m nuts. But I can’t help myself. I am in awe at the medical establishment we have. Every time I’m hooked up to an ultrasound machine (even though I’m 100% healthy and the baby is too, because of being “high risk” I’ve already had four!), every time they draw blood, every time they test my urine, every time they put me on the scale, every time we listen to the heartbeat, I think of K & O’s birthmother. I wonder what it would be like to be in Haiti, in Cite Soleil, on the streets, with nothing—not even a mattress—and to be pregnant. Not to mention, to be pregnant with twins. No doctor. No tests. No pre-natal vitamins. No ultrasounds. And I think of other things too--- like what it must be like to be pregnant in a place where there is extremely limited (if any) clean drinking water available, and what it must be like to have to struggle to find food—and to be forced to survive on only rice and beans (on a good day) and/or mud cakes (on a bad day) and/or absolutely nothing (on the worst days). I am so spoiled with my cute new wardrobe from GapMaternity, and my snuggly Boppy Pregnancy Pillow (the best invention ever, by the way! and the best "Happy Pregnancy" gift Braydon ever could have given me!), and my mega grocery store 10 minutes away where Braydon can run to at any time of day or night to get me anything – absolutely anything – I could possibly need or want. It is shameful – not because of what we have here, but because of what they don’t have there, and because of how the two go hand-in-hand. I wonder what it would be like to be her. I ache in my chest for her. I wonder what it would be like to be a baby (or two) growing inside of her. The baby inside of me has been sucking on her hand during our past two ultrasounds. She’s swimming around happily in there without a care in the world. The contrasts are almost more than my mind can bear.

We found out Friday that it is a girl! We didn’t care whether it was a boy or girl, but I was hoping for a girl just to switch things up around here a bit. (Plus, I'm Woman enough to admit it: I can't wait to dress a girl!!!) We had waited until then to tell K & O about the baby—we wanted to get through Christmas before the real countdown-to-baby began. We also wanted to be able to tell them if it was a boy or a girl—thinking it would make it much less abstract for them. I’m so glad we waited. It has been such a joy to share this with them!

They are beyond thrilled. They seem to understand it all much more than I expected that they would. I was worried that they’d be asking 100 times a day about when the baby was coming, but they aren’t—they understand she’s coming in the spring, in May. We told them the baby is going to be born “after their birthday” and they totally get it (I am praying that she waits until then!!! Their birthday is May 8 and Baby is due May 15). Kyle immediately made the mental leap: “I’m having a baby sister when I’m four!!!” he announced. “Yes!” I said. And he’s been repeating that over and over since. True to their word from previous months and years of their begging for a baby, neither of them seem to care in the slightest about the gender—they’re happy to have a sister and have never even hinted at questioning that. They know her name but we’re keeping her name quiet, something just for us to know, until she is born.

Owen is nothing but ecstatic about this new chapter unfolding. He comes to me numerous times a day to press his head and cheeks to my belly. His favorite thing to do is to ‘zerbert’ the baby (by zerberting my belly). If I laugh he reprimands me very seriously: “Don’t laugh Mommy. I’m not zerberting YOU! I’m zerberting BABY SISTER!!!!” He has many, many questions about how she’ll get out. We answer every question (and believe me, there are many!), trying to be as up-front and age-appropriate as humanly possible. His biggest concern is that I will “pee” on Baby Sister when she is being born. He tells me many times a day “Be careful you don’t pee pee on her! Mommy, you can’t pee pee on her when she’s getting born!!!” He also asks a lot about how she got in there. One of the first things he asked was, “You swallowed her?” We struggle with answering these questions, but we’re trying the best we can. It is so complicated with adoption added into the mix—they’re just starting to comprehend the reality of their birthmother… the idea of entering a man into the mix just seems overwhelming at this point. I’ve told Owen that “a man and a woman grow the baby –so tiny at first you can’t even see it- inside the woman’s belly.” He just looks at me dazed and confused. And then rams his head into my belly to zerbert Baby Sister again. Owen tells us about all the things he will do with the baby. He will “change her poopie diapers!”; “teach her to crawl!”; “read books to her!”; “help give her a bath!”; and of course… “HOLD HER!!!”

Kyle, as I totally had predicted, takes everything to a whole other level. He is very happy about the baby. But he articulates often his sadness about not having grown in my belly. “I don’t want to be born in another lady’s belly, I want to be in YOUR belly, with Owen.” I feel deeply sad for him; his grief over this is so genuine. He tells us that “it was scary” to be in another lady’s belly. We assure him that his birthmother was “so special” and that she was “so careful” and that he was inside growing with Owen. The solace this (that he and Owen were together in her belly) gives Kyle is truly indescribable. He is so comforted with hearing about this over and over—how two twin babies grow together in one belly. This seems to be the only thing that gives him relief- and it is a true deep relief for him. Most of the time, though, he’s grinning ear-to-ear about the whole thing. He cannot wait to get out his old crib from the attic and set it up in what will become the baby’s new room. He wants to know when we can do this. The sooner the better as far as he's concerned. I’m not sure how long we’ll be able to hold off on it because he wants to do it so badly. Kyle tells us about all the things that he’ll make sure the baby does not do. He is very clear about the rules! “She can’t play with our toys!!! Because she might try to eat them!” and “She can’t eat our food!!! Because she might choke!” and “She can’t read our books!!! Because she’ll be too little!”

We took them for our first baby clothes shopping at Baby Gap in Doylestown on Monday. It was so symbolic because this is where Braydon and I went to buy our first clothes for K & O the day after we got our referral. That seems like just yesterday and I can vividly remember exactly what we picked out for them. It was a sweet, sweet moment to go buy Baby Sister’s first two outfits with the Big Brothers. They each picked out one outfit. Kyle spotted a jean jumper and was very excited about it: “OVERALLS!!!” and that was it— he couldn’t look at one other item in the store (overalls are K & O’s favorite things to wear), so a tiny jean-overalls-dress with a pink t-shirt was what he bought her. Owen found literally the most expensive dress and sweater set in the entire store. It is an absolutely precious white summer dress with embroidered flowers, and a beautiful pale green cardigan that goes with it. What can I say? The boy has good taste! I found it very interesting that they both chose dresses – very girly outfits – and seem to totally embrace the potential girly-girly-girly-ness of Baby Sister. At age three I would have expected that they’d try to find clothes that they would like to wear, or that seemed familiar to them. But no, it was all about the dresses.

~~~

Driving home from the Gap on Monday I brought up for the first time what she might look like. “What color eyes do you think she’ll have?” I asked. They thought about this long and hard in the backseat of the car. Kyle said, “She’ll have brown eyes, just like me and Owen.” Owen thought even longer about that. “I think she’ll have dark blue eyes. Not light blue. Dark blue.” He said. “What color hair?” I asked. They answered this quickly. Kyle said, “Red.” Owen agreed: “Red.” (?!) “And what color skin do you think she’ll have?” This had them seriously stumped. Owen finally said “Yellow!” And Kyle thought that sounded right, “Yes, yellow!” he said. I pushed it a little. “Do you think her skin will look like Mommy and Papi’s? or like Kyle and Owen’s?” They thought and thought about this but never answered. “Yellow” they repeated… and then I understood (or at least I think I do)… yellow is sort of a mix for them, halfway between their brown and our white. So there you have it. The scoop on Baby Sister.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! ...and BIG news to the blogosphere... Kyle & Owen have an EXCITING announcement for 2008...

Baby Sister Due May 15, 2008!

Final Days of 2007

It felt really strange to go from the New Hampshire Winter Wonderland to this (still greenish grass Pennsylvania... land of year-round golfing and biking for K & O!... these two photos taken on Friday):

But boy oh boy do our boys love coming home! We all four love to go-- and we all four love to come home again too. We came back from New Hampshire late Thursday night. Our final days of 2007 have been fun and full! Friday we had a previously scheduled big doctor's appointment and K & O got two hours of non-stop-crazy-frenetic-playtime with our 16-year-old neighbor and one of her friends (the boys LOVE it when they babysit because these girls have soooo much energy!). Saturday we had Zoe's birthday with a fabulous trip with our friends we love, the Petch's, to Chuck E. Cheese's (our very first time there but if K & O have anything to do with it it will definitely not be the last!!!). And Sunday we got a visit from Auntie Sabrina and Dave (the boys were in Heaven! and we even got to have lunch together at Panera with them). Today, our final day of this year, we spent as just a foursome... lunch out and a trip to one of the boys' favorite playgrounds. Tonight the boys were in bed at 7:00 with no real clue about New Year's Eve. Braydon and I have big plans for our first New Year's Eve ever as just the two of us... We're having take-out from our favorite sushi place and watching as many episodes of 24 as we possibly can before we zonk out. It is sad to say goodbye to such an awesome past year. But we're looking forward to an amazing 2008.

We're Back!

We were in New Hampshire for eight days and seven nights -- a magical Christmas trip jam-packed with tons of wintery-Christmasy-wonder-wonder-land-fun with the Johnson side of the family. My parents had planned an incredible itinerary for us; each day was absolutely loaded with surprises. The boys were way over-stimulated and it was a long time away from home for us, but it was an absolutely fabulous time filled with more memories than I could possibly blog about. The snow was piled higher than the boys had ever witnessed in real life! Braydon and I didn't have to cook or clean up or worry about a thing! And every detail of each day's activities was thoughtful and special. This was a Christmas we'll never forget. And we have more than enough photos to keep the images fresh in our minds (see posts below for some of them!). Just a few of the biggest highlights included~~~~~ the boys' first time skiing (a dream come true for Braydon! and for me really special too: my mother taught me to ski at King Pine when I was age three and now she's taught K & O to ski at the same place at the same age); a truly magical evening ride to visit Santa in the North Pole on the "REAL!!!" (and I do mean, REAL) Polar Express (absolutely no kidding, even I thought this was the real thing); a day-trip to Portland Maine with a New England seafood lunch to die for; the Portland Symphony Orchestra's Magic of Christmas (a Christmas Concert that my parents have brought my sister and I to throughout our entire lives); a private horse drawn sleigh ride through Freedom Village with family and friends; a winter bonfire in my parents backyard-- complete with K & O's first toasted marshmallows and s'mores; a special visit from Santa to MorMor and MorFar's house on the afternoon of Christmas Eve day (and yes! K & O got exactly what they had been wishing for: "toy airplanes that are just like real airplanes", and their cousin Sadie got exactly what she had been wishing for too: a cheerleader costume!); the boys were angels again (not literally... believe me!... but figuratively and in costume) at the Christmas Eve Nativity Pageant at the Freedom Church (nothing nearly as eventful as last year happened, but it was a near-miss... Owen was determined to use the stage to perform "stomping dance" in his angel costume, but luckily he told me about this plan a few minutes before the pageant started, and I was able to successfully divert this crisis by using a bag of Peanut M&M's to bribe him not to do it); MorMor's incredible traditional Christmas Eve Swedish Smorgasbord & tin upon tin of at least a dozen different Christmas Cookies; a magical Christmas morning (including stockings and presents of course, but also including Braydon's favorite, and Owen's favorite now too-- my mother's Danish Butterhorns); Christmas Day pork-roast-dinner made by MorFar; hours spent splashing in, and diving into, my parents' outdoor hot tub; a trip to North Conway (including a fabulous lunch at an earth-oven pizza place); and last but not least... on our final night before heading home... Braydon and my dad took K & O for two straight hours of Night Snow Tubing (the boys still can't decide what they love more-- skiing or tubing!!!). And, as always, the plane flights to-and-from were major highlights for Kyle and Owen who seriously love to travel more than any human being I know (and this time got a special surprise-- on the trip home the pilots invited the boys up to the cockpit to sit in the pilot's seats and "drive" the plane!!!). There were zillions of little highlights that happened in-between all of these big highlights too (like, K & O lovin' my dad's snow-blower and following him around in the snow like little puppy dogs!; Swedish Christmas culinary traditions for me like eating Limpa Bread Toast and Korv for breakfast; the four of us cozied up sleeping all together in one room-- K & O seriously cuddle tighter together than you could even imagine!; sledding; shoveling; jingle-bells-singing; fun playing with "cousin Sadie"; MorMor and MorFar's Santa Train under their Christmas Tree; beautiful wonderful heart-felt presents given and received; etc., etc., etc.). We are so blessed to have all that we have... materially for sure... but what is most important to us (and what we are by far most deeply grateful for) is how truly blessed we are with all that we have experientially. It is easy for us to live every day to the fullest when we're with Kyle and Owen. That, in itself, is the biggest gift that they have given us. We're back from our trip, and we're now officially 'returned' from our Blogging Break!

Christmas Trip - Photos I

Christmas Trip - Photos II

Christmas Trip - Photos III