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One of my best sister-friends here in PA is Corey Waters. Many of you who read this blog have met her or have heard me talk about her… or at the very least you’ve read my posts about our families-friendships (click here for a post from January, click here for a post from December). Over the time that we’ve known them, Corey and Jason have adopted five kids from Haiti. We’re proud to be able to call this family our best-family-friend. The Waters have made a video, “Hungry in Haiti,” and posted it to YouTube. As hard as it is to watch, please watch it. Click here.

For months and months throughout the entire winter the boys were sleeping until 8:00 or even 9:00 a.m. But for the past two weeks a disturbing trend has begun in our home: They have both been waking up around 6:30 a.m. Braydon and I had been seriously spoiled by the late-sleeping. This morning 6:30 felt waaaay too early. Kyle crawled into bed with us but Owen was already ready to start the day and wanted nothing to do with morning cuddles. We heard him go downstairs and thought, “Well, let’s just see what happens. Maybe he will just play by himself down there.” Of course in our hearts of hearts, Braydon and I both knew better. Truthfully, I’d never let Kyle go down there by himself. I know better… based on prior experience. Kyle is 100% untrustworthy. But Owen is perhaps slightly more trustworthy, and in my mind I thought, “Let’s just take the risk and see what happens. We won’t let it go long.” It was quiet down there (a bad, bad, bad sign). At about 6:34, Braydon got out of bed and said, “I better go down there.” Before he could get out of our bedroom, however, Owen appeared. Braydon said, “Hey buddy! What were you doing down there?” Owen responded cheerfully, “Hi Papi! I was making ICE CREAM!!” In my own mind I thought, “Oh good Lord!!!!!!!” Then Owen came over toward the bed, looked up at me, and told me: “Mommy, I was making ice cream down there.” “Oh, you were??” I said, skeptically. “Yes!” said Owen. And then, quite calmly and matter-of-factly, Owen looked me right in the eyes and said, “Mama, you will be mad.” I immediately told Braydon to get down there ASAP and assess the damage. Turns out Owen had taken a container of ice cream out of the freezer, managed to get a bowl out of the upper cabinet (I have no idea how he reached that), and a [very large] spoon out of the drawer, and had found the jimmies/sprinkles. Braydon and Owen quickly re-appeared upstairs. Braydon was trying hard not to laugh. “I left it for you to see,” he told me. When I got down there I had to take a picture. Owen watched as I snapped the shot. “You are not mad?” he asked. “No,” I said. “But do not do that again.” “O.k. Mama!” he said. And he proceeded to chow down on some sprinkles.

We had a perfect Mother’s Day. Mother’s Day is a semi-strange day for me. I think it is probably true for a lot of adoptive moms. And I think it is probably true for a lot of moms in all sorts of scenarios. For me, Mother’s Day always reminds me of my first Mother’s Day. My first Mother’s Day was also Kyle and Owen’s first birthday. It just happened to fall on the same day. We also (purposefully) had the boys baptized on that day. It was very, very emotional day for me on so, so many levels. So now, on Mother’s Day I can’t help thinking about that first Mother’s Day — about their birthmother (“Mothers” Day), about their baptism day (their baptism was so, so symbolic for me), and about their first birthday (a huge marker in time for our family for a lot of substantial reasons). I also think a lot about waiting mothers on Mother’s Day — mom’s who don’t have their children yet because their adoptions are still in process. I can’t help but remember the heart-break I felt during that time. Last year we were on vacation for my second Mother’s Day and we didn’t really “celebrate” it in any real way. So, this year was kind of a big Mother’s Day for me. It was the first time we really “did” Mother’s Day. Braydon made it perfect. The day started with the baby boys giving me an awesome new sports watch and my husband-partner giving me a beautiful new dress watch. We then went to New Hope and had brunch in our favorite brunch spot, fed the ducks, walked around. The boys took a nice long nap in the car on the way home (a rare treat!), and we spent the rest of the day playing in the yard. I think my favorite part of the day (well, second-favorite… my favorite part of the day was drinking a spicy bloody mary and sharing a huge pile of peel-and-eat shrimp with Braydon on the restaurant patio at brunch…) was after we had eaten brunch our server presented us with a plate full of very fancy desserts. Braydon and I aren’t big sweets fans. But watching Kyle and Owen pass that plate back-and-forth between them was really precious!

Jackson at Kyle & Owen’s Birthday Party Last Week

Saturday we went to Jackson’s Birthday Party. He turned three just two days after Kyle and Owen turned three. The boys are best friends. Jackson and Kyle and Owen have been best friends since the day they met. I remember that day very well. It was spring of 2005. Braydon and I took K & O to the daycare for our first in a series of short visits to prepare our babies for starting daycare in June of that year. We took the boys into the “Baby Room” and we sat on the floor with them. Amidst a whole bunch of babies and little toddlers, there was a cute little blond haired baby boy sitting several feet away against the wall. Within just a minute or two of being at the daycare, Owen got up from my lap and toddled straight across the room right to that baby. He leaned down, touched the blond head, and then hugged the baby boy. Then they both just stared at each other for a few seconds. Owen and the blond haired boy were exactly the same size (they were 11 months old at the time), and although the baby couldn’t walk (K & O walked “early” at 10 months), he was perfectly happy to crawl around with Owen. Soon Kyle joined in too and that was the start of a great friendship! All of the Baby Room teachers, Braydon, and me just watched in total awe. I remember one of the teachers saying, “Oh my gosh! I can just tell — they’re going to be best friends!!!” and Braydon and I just looked at each other and kind of laughed. “Wow!” I said, “Who is that?” And Miss Barb, the Head Teacher told me, “That’s Jackson!” I said, “How old is he?” And Barb told me that he would be turning one on May 10. For the past two years Jackson, Kyle, and Owen have been Best Friends. They see each other every day at daycare. As the daycare staff say, “the three of them are like three peas in a pod.” One thing that has been really interesting is that Jackson seems to be equally close to both K & O, and neither K nor O seem to “claim” him more than the other. I’ve talked about this many times with Jackson’s mom Julie, and with the daycare staff. Everyone agrees that as far as we can tell, the three of them are truly equally close. Of course the boys all have tons of friends at daycare, but interestingly, Jackson was the only kid from daycare that Kyle and Owen wanted at their birthday party! And for the past two years K & O have been the only non-family members invited to Jackson’s birthday parties! Saturday, at Jackson’s Third B-Day Party, the three of them had a blast. It was a “Cars” theme party — and they were in their glory.

Kyle, Jackson, Owen – at Jackson’s Birthday Party Saturday

Jackson & Owen with the “Cars” cake

Kyle & Jackson Kiss with chocolatey-cakey faces

For the boys’ birthday my parents went overboard, as usual. In addition to a super duper see-saw and a beloved “zip cord” my dad also gave Kyle and Owen Boston Red Sox coats. Wearing Red Sox paraphernalia in our neck of the woods (we are geographically situated deep in Yankees territory) is gutsy. Our next door neighbor, for example, has told us (half-way not jokingly) that it makes her “sick” to see our boys “running around here wearing that Red Sox stuff.” But my father is quite possibly the world’s biggest Red Sox Fan and he expects nothing less of his grandsons than GUTSY. I personally am convinced that in some strange twist of the universe my dad’s twin grandsons being born in 2004 and the Red Sox winning the World Series in 2004 is not a coincidence. MorFar watching Owen hit baseball after baseball in our front yard batting lefty — wearing an authentic Red Sox jacket — quite possibly gives this particular grandfather more pride than the universe of grandparenting pride has previously known. There are people in our life who will just really deeply appreciate this. For those of you (you know who you are!), this post’s for you. Go Sox!

8:00 this morning, waiting for the garbage truck to arrive (if you don’t know how much K & O love the garbage truck just read this blog’s archives). Owen says, “Kyle, how old are you?” Kyle says, “You know Owen, you say it!” Owen says, “Fhree! You are fhree Kyle. And I am fhree too. We are both fhree. We are this many” (and he holds up three fingers). “How old are you?” I say, trying to see if overnight Kyle has mastered the art of holding up three fingers (he can’t seem to do it even though Owen has been able to do it for a long time now). In unison they both say, “Fhree! We are fhree!”

“Ahhhh!” Forget it!! Who cares?!!!~~~

I know it is just a coincidence, but I find it noteworthy to mention that on Kyle & Owen’s third birthday the president of the U.S. and the president of Haiti met face-to-face at the White House. Click here to read a news story on the visit. And click here to read the U.S. State Department’s transcript of Bush & Preval’s very brief public exchange.

We had a small birthday party at daycare today for Kyle and Owen. Upon Kyle’s specific request we had “orange cupcakes.” All the kids and all the teachers in the Toddler Room wore Diego birthday hats and sang Happy Birthday to Kyle and Owen.