First Trip to Disneyland

Last week, our family went on a little trip to California.  M has now been on four airplane rides!  He may be a young little squirt, but he is already quite the traveler.  He has been to as many states as he is months old (five)! 

Spencer and I ate some delicious cupcakes, and M gnawed on his giraffe while we waited for our plane.  M did great on the flight, he slept nearly the whole ride.  He continues to really like his car seat, so he was happy as a clam to hunker down and chew on Pluto’s nose until he fell asleep. 

We went to Disneyland and California Adventure on our first full day in California.  It was such a fun day spent with Grandma and Grandpa and the Satko clan (my sister and her family)!  We were off to kind of rough start when this really rude man sat next to us on the tram.  He took one look at M and then said to me, “Why on earth did you bring him?  He’s going to make your day miserable.”  I was kind of taken aback that someone would say something so mean at the happiest place on earth.  He then proceeded to lecture me on the stupidity of bringing a baby to Disneyland and criticize my ability to put little shoes on M for the duration of the ride.  And then he photo bombed our picture before going on his merry way.

I can kind of see maybe not wanting to bring a baby to Disneyland if you have never been before because it is a busy day for a wee one and they will probably tire out before you have seen everything.  Of course, M won’t remember this adventure, but that’s ok!  We aren’t going to wait until he is old enough to remember everything to take him to do fun things.  It wouldn’t have been half the adventure if Baby weren’t there with us!  Plus, all of our tickets were free, so it didn’t bother us that we weren’t able to do EVERYTHING. 

Even though his unkind words didn’t put us in the best of spirits, by the time we were inside the park I was already in a better mood.  And M proved that meanie wrong, he was a champ all day.  He had lots of fun going on the little rides and when he was tired, he just napped in his stroller.  All of us had a delightful day. 

We went to California Adventure first.  We walked through the new Cars Land; it was really cute!  We didn’t go on any rides in there because that was the most crowded part of the park, but it was fun to walk through.  Mason then napped in his stroller while we used the baby swap to ride tower of terror. 

Once M was up from his nap, we took the babies to the Bugs Life Land to ride some of the little rides. 

And then we went to the pier to ride the newish Toy Story ride.  M really liked that one.  He was rather fascinated by all the bright colors and loud sounds. 

Halfway through the day we headed over to Disneyland.  They had the CUTEST fall decorations up!  I love how they decorate for all the holidays.  I was walking through the park and exclaiming to Spencer, “I LOVE FALL! I LOVE LOVE FALL!”  Then Spence reminded me that I say that about EVERY season except for winter.  It’s very true.  I hate winter but get very excited about the other three. 

We got M some little mouse ears and I kind of died because of his cuteness.  I mean, look at those babies!  Is there anything cuter?

We gave M his first taste of cotton candy and he was in sugary heaven.  We recorded it because it was so dang cute.  What you don’t see is that M was crying right before he got his first taste.  But that sugary goodness happied him right up!  He only got a few tiny tiny bites, but he loved it. 

We had lots of fun riding more little rides in Fantasyland.  M was great until the Dumbos and then he pooped out.  You can’t see his little face, but he was slumbering as we soared through the air. 

There’s the whole group, minus M who was sleeping in his stroller by that point.  It’s funny to me that we look a bit more wilted than when we started the day.  It was HOT!  That’s why the babies get progressively more naked with every picture.  M started out with shorts, socks, shoes… but by the end of the day was just wearing a onesie.  It was just far to warm for clothing. 

It really was such a magical day, I want to go back real bad! 

For Kicks and Giggles

We FINALLY got some video of M giggling. He laughs all the time, but totally clams up when he sees the camera. Little toot. He does the same thing if we are trying to get him to smile for a photo. He will be smiling and cooing and having a grand ole’ time until he sees that camera and then he’s all business. We consider it a major victory if we can actually get a picture of him smiling and will do all sorts of silly things to try to make him grin.

Mr. M giggling like crazy.

His laugh is my favorite sound in the world! I love it so much!  Pardon my totally obnoxious sound effects. He generally laughs harder when I make them, even though I sound like a total goober.

And here’s some photos from his five month shoot. Some of his facial expressions just kill me. He’s such a funny little guy.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand then it was naptime.

Even his cranky face is cute dang it.

Sleeping Cutie

I had to share a few photos of our little angel.  Even when he’s in his room sleeping peacefully, I just have this undeniable urge to sneak in there and kiss that cute punkin head.  It is a good thing that he’s a fairly deep sleeper so I can get away with this kind of thing (smooching cheeks and snapping photos).  

Hot Air Balloon Festival

Last weekend we went to the hot air balloon festival.  It was SO fun!  We do love hot air balloons you know.

I had been looking forward to the festival for a whole year.  I wanted to go last year, but we were out of town.  So this event had been in my calendar for several months and it did not disappoint.  It was so neat to see all of the balloons take off a few at a time until the whole sky was covered in color. 

M LOVED it.  He was fascinated by all the balloons and was a cheerful little dude the whole time, even though it was a little bit cold when we first got to the park (we arrived before sunrise). 

I was so excited about lots of the photos we took too!  I want to print a few of them for M’s nursery.  I can’t wait for next years event! 

‘Tis the Season Opener

Spencer here.

You know that feeling you have as you run down the stairs on Christmas morning?  How you think to yourself, “I can’t believe it’s here!  It’s HERE!  I’ve been waiting for this day all year and it’s HERE!”

That’s how I felt today.

Even though I typically go to bed early in the evening because of my overnight shift, I’m up well past 10 pm because college football is here.  Or should we call it College Football?  Sir College Football?  His Majesty College Football?

Offseason, why are you so long?  Whitney always asks the same question, but to the football season (she’s crazy, I know).  I sometimes do a little half-jumping dance on the day of BYU’s season opener.  And sometimes I’ll start a chant of “foot-ball! foot-ball! foot-ball!”  But Whitney never joins in.  That’s exactly why I’ve been prepping Mr. M for this day for several weeks. Sure, he was already in bed when the game started tonight, but he’s getting instant dream updates from the football gods.  I’m sure of it.  That’s why I found him sleeping like this:

TOUCHDOWN, BYU!

Yep, he knows.  He was sad when I told him he couldn’t stay up late.  I mean after all, he has played a major role in the game of football already: the ball.

Has the term ‘pigskin’ ever been more appropriate?

(Down….set…hut, hut!)

(Remember – never, ever spike a baby)

Because we don’t have ESPN, I’m confined to radio coverage.  The good thing about that is I get “The Voice of the Cougars,” Greg Wrubell, all up in here (love that guy).  The bad news is that our internet provider stinks worse than the sugar beet factory here in town.  So after about an hour of failed attempts to get online this evening, along with a phone call to someone in Libya who couldn’t really help me, my face looked like this:

(Unnecessary stupidity.  On the ISP.  95 yard penalty).

Fortunately, we magically got our internet back a few minutes after the game started, and we hadn’t even missed a single score.

Our little guy sure is a loyal cougar fan.  He specifically requested that I lull him off to sleep with BYU’s fight song.  Of course for him, I had to omit the “rise and shout” part so he wouldn’t get any ideas.  After all, it was bedtime.

Here’s to a fantastic 2012 college football season!

This That and the Other

I just had to jot down a few updates about our cutie pie so I’ll remember all the fun things he has been doing lately!  As alarming as it is to me  that he is getting to be such a big boy, I have to admit that this stage of life has been so much fun.  We love watching M smile and giggle and explore the world around him.

So first up: TOES!

M has discovered that he has them.  He loves to hold his toes.  It is the cutest thing in the world to me to watch him rolling all over the floor holding on to his piggies.  He learned another trick too.  He loves to raise his legs high in the air and then SLAM them on his mattress.  The first time he did this I got scared and sat up in bed trying to figure out what the heck that loud bang was.  Now I have gotten kind of used to it.  We will often hear him kicking around after we stick him in his crib for the night. 

I love these pictures of him in one of my favorite outfits.  Yup, it’s another whale.  M LOVES whales.  Whales are his favorite.  Whales and elephants.  And no, it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he is a little chubster.  Okay, okay, actually it does.  But this outfit is particularly nostalgic me (see Exhibit A).  I was so excited for our baby to wear it someday.  And it looked so big to me when we first purchased it!  My how time flies. 

Mr. M is somewhat of a spitter upper.  Sometimes I get really clever and holler “SAVE THE WHALE” as I charge at M, burpcloth in tow, whenever he manages to spit up on this particular cute little outfit. 

Did I mention that we got a piano?  Well we did.  It was actually gifted to us by someone in our ward.  I love love love curling up on the couch while Spence plays us primary songs.  Mason loves it too.  He is perfectly content to sit in daddy’s lap while he plays.  He seems just fascinated by the whole experience.  I do believe piano lessons are in his future.   

M also recently tried cereal for the first time.  The verdict: he LOVES it.  It took him a couple of days to figure out how to eat it.  But now he loves to chow down on his oatmeal.  Cereal time is one of my favorite times of the day.  It is SO darling to watch him eat.  He is such a happy, messy little eater.  And he thinks it’s hilarious when I say “num num num,” for some reason. 

He has also developed a love for blowing raspberries.  I prefer that he doesn’t do this during mealtime, alas, I do believe that mealtime is M’s favorite time to hone this skill.  I was covered head to toe in oatmeal the other night.  We have learned that M has happy raspberries and mad raspberries.  And even though we of course love it best when he is happy, I must admit that it is kind of funny to hear him angrily blowing raspberries in the backseat of the car.

M has recently taken more of an interest in his toys.  He is getting better and better and rolling over to grab toys that are just out of reach.  His favorite toy seems to be his wrist rattler elephant.  He doesn’t love shaking it so much as chewing on the elephants trunk.  Even though he still is showing every sign of teething, no teeth have yet made their appearance. 

Oh, and I just had to share a couple of photos of M in his outfit from Aunt Shari and Uncle Mike.  Don’t you guys think he looks a little like Patrick Jane?   

Just a little bit? 

Man oh man, we love that cutie pie!

 

M, not Patrick.

Hers, Mine, and Ours

Adoption has got me thinking about pronouns. 

Unlike most parents, our baby wasn’t always ours.  And now that he’s here, he’s not only ours. 

When M was first placed with us, it was a slight adjustment to call him mine.  I don’t know if any other adoptive couples have felt this way (I’d love to hear your experiences if so).  You try to be careful about how you refer to the baby that another woman is carrying.  I didn’t really refer to M as “mine” while he was in Nat’s tummy because he wasn’t.  Not that we doubted her decision (Natalie was COMPLETELY unwavering), it was just that we didn’t want to be presumptuous.  We wanted to be respectful of Natalie and the time she was sharing with M.  We occasionally called M “ours” because that term was inclusive of Nat as well.  And once she had asked us to be M’s parents, we would say that we were planning on “our” baby joining us because just saying “the” baby seemed a cold and impersonal way to discuss our future sweetheart.  “The” denotes articles, not people.   

Even once M was officially ours, I still didn’t really say the word “mine” at first.  I didn’t like the word because of some of the feelings it seemed to connote.  It seemed too exclusive a term for how I felt.  Perhaps too possessive?  It conjured images of a child snatching a toy and screaming “MINE” at the top of his lungs.  Or maybe those seagulls in Finding Nemo, hollering “MINE MINE MINE” as they fight over who gets to eat the fish.  This just wasn’t how I felt. 

I adore being M’s mom.  I love being able to say that I am his mother.  I also love that he plays a special role in many people’s lives.  There are many loved ones who can claim him as theirs.  Who can say that he’s “MY grandson,” or “MY nephew,” or “MY cousin.”  I particularly didn’t want to hurt Natalie or take away from the fact that M is hers too.  I guess it just took a day or so for me to realize that calling him mine didn’t make him any less theirs. 

And then I found this quote that I LOVE and that explains it all so perfectly:   

‘He is mine in a way that he will never be hers,  yet he is hers in a way that he will never be mine, and so together, WE are motherhood.’ ~Desha Wood

It may seem like a lot of thought for just one little word.  But that one little word was kind of a big deal at first. 

I should add that I very much think of M as my son and am happy to assume all the roles and responsibilities that calling him mine entails.  Just so we’re all clear on this, I’m not saying that I was reluctant to claim him as mine. Nor am I saying that I didn’t think of him as mine because he didn’t come out of me. 

I’m just saying that there is a language transition that most adoptive couples have to go through.

Nat will always have a special place as M’s birthmomma. And I’m sure she knows that I don’t mean “mine” in a possessive, exclusive way.  Really quite the contrary.  I usually mean “mine” in a proud, “atta boy” kind of way.  I actually practically burst with pride anytime anyone compliments me on that sweet little kiddo.  

“Wow he certainly is a happy little guy.”

“Yep, that’s my boy!”

“Look at those cute little rolls, he must be a good eater.”

“Yep, that’s my boy!”

“Whooooooohoooo that is one STINKY diaper.”

“Yep, that’s my boy!”

I would do anything for that son of mine.  We adore him completely.  He’s the center of our world. 

We don’t just love him AS our own.  He IS our own.

(But we’ll save that discussion on prepositions for another day.)