Hi All,
I owe a big fat apology for not blogging sooner. But no, it’s not to you, Ann or Mom, that I need to apologize. It’s my sweet babies. I try my very best to put down in writing
just how much they are loved and surrounded by people who love and support them
and though I have paid plenty of attention to them in real life, I feel I have
neglected you guys these last 5 months here in cyberland. You have gotten millions of kisses from me here
in the real world since I last wrote, but sometimes I am just better at saying
things in writing than in person. And
writing lasts longer too. So let me tell
you what you guys have been up to in this 5 month long gap since I last wrote
so that 30 years from now you won’t think we sat in our house for 5 months and
did nothing. It’s a lot so it might take
me a while. I believe I left off as
spring was becoming summer…
Grandma Shay came in town at the end of May and meshed
herself into our lives. She came to join
in with our school drop-offs and pick-ups, our naptimes, soccer, and grocery
store runs, our trips to the park and just our general ongoing madness. We didn’t do anything super crazy but just
enjoyed having our far-away grandma super-close for a little while. We just played.
And I’m so happy that Grandma Shay got to see our little
boys in action. She got to see Bek
learning to run (it’s so cute), Rin learning to read (he has begun to write
words in the air as he sounds them out in public places- I’m blown away), and
the interaction between these two boisterous boys of ours. They just flat out adore each other. If Rin falls on the floor, Bek does. If Rin takes out the playdoh, Bek does. If Rin gets out his scooter, Bek does. And Bek literally waits at the window for Rin
when he goes to school every day. It’s
the sweetest. And it is reciprocated.
Bringing Bek home has changed Rin in ways that I never
expected. He has shown a different side
of himself. He has become so generous, so
big hearted, and has sympathy for Bek when I am sometimes at the end of my rope
and just can’t. He reminds me to see
humor in things when I am feeling overwhelmed and frustrated because Bek has
had yet another crazy poo diaper 5 seconds before we’re supposed to walk out
the door. Or when he thinks it is absolutely HILARIOUS to take whatever food he
has in his hands at dinner and throw it straight up in the air to see how high
it can go and it ends up all over the place and I’m mad because I don’t’ know
if I can pick up one more thing off the floor today. He has much more patience than I do. But then again he doesn’t have to clean up
all the messes either. And it is so
reassuring to know that I am doing something right when I hear the things that
come out of my eldest’s mouth when he doesn’t know I am listening like “I’m so
proud of you BekBek! You’re such a good
draw-er!” Or when I catch him giving Bek
a sneaky kiss that he doesn’t want me to see.
I love that Rin is all boy in every way but that he has such a good and
loving heart.
And the changes that I have seen in Bek since we brought him
home are spectacular. Rin is such an
independently motivated person. It’s
just seems to be in his genes. I mean he
was in the baby house crawling at 6 months for gosh sakes. But Bek, well, he was sort of floundering in
the baby house. He sat, he stared, he
cried. That was about it. He didn’t really even interact that much and
he was terrified of anyone new. And
now? Now he is the most interactive
child and it is so wonderful to see. He
wants nothing but love and attention from everybody, everywhere, all the time. He is so cute and so engaging that he just
makes people want have babies.
Seriously, people tell me that all the time. And he may not talk all that much quite yet
(a world of difference from Rin) but he makes his opinions known and he is just
so stinking funny sometimes that I can hardly stand it. Just the looks he gives crack me up. For example, he loves to steal things. He steals my phone and runs away with
it. He steals the clean diaper I was
going to put on him and runs away with it.
He steals all sorts of things. He
thinks it’s the funniest thing that’s every happened in the history of the
universe and he has gotten Rin on it now too.
He and Rin play this game called “Don’t steal the mustard.” I will be fixing dinner (or trying to fix dinner) and leave the fridge
door open for a second and Rin will yell “BEK!
Don’t steal the mustard!” and Bek will immediately hop up from whatever
he is doing and race over and grab the mustard jar out of the door, give me a
sideways look with a mischievous little half smile and a raise of the eyebrow,
and he and Rin run off howling with laughter as I run after them trying to grab
the mustard back. And, as many times as
they do their ‘Don’t steal the mustard’ routine and fall to the floor laughing,
I still laugh too. I just can’t help it. It really IS hilarious.
Sometimes I think about what my life would be like if we
never adopted these boys or if we had ended up with someone different and I
just can’t fathom it. It seems so
lifeless and flat. Our life is so full
and so complex and interesting and they have opened up the world to us. We are so lucky to know them. Mustard would just be a condiment if it
weren’t for them.
And we are so lucky to be able to live somewhere that there
are people from all different places. We
are super lucky that some of them hail from our beloved Kaz. So this year, when we got an invite to join
the Kazakh American Association kids picnic, we were all over it. It was a few hours of fun getting to know new
Kaz friends. There was even a game of
Urik, Urik, word that I can’t remember
right now (that would be ‘duck duck goose’ in Kazakh). It was just so great to be around a group of
people who will be able to tell our kids what it means to be Kazakhstani. We hope to stay in touch with them and are
most definitely planning on going next year too if they invite us back. I’m pretty sure we were well enough
behaved. They didn’t even try to play “Don’t
Steal the Lagman” while we were there.
Love to all, more soon,
-m
Ps- I miss lagman.
Anyone have a good recipe?
