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For those of you who are new to our blog… My family of origin is very Swedish (almost 100% Swedish on both of my parents’ sides):
MorMor = “Mother’s Mother” in Swedish
MorFar = “Mother’s Father” in Swedish

A couple of weeks ago my mother called from her cell phone. They were at an antique auction with some friends they were visiting in Vermont. There was a “real trombone” at the auction, they thought they could bid and get it for $40. They wanted to know if they should go for it. I practically screamed into the phone: “OH MY GOD! YES! BUY IT!!!!!!!!!!” They did. My parents then spent approximately 20 hours (yes, TWENTY hours!) polishing the thing. Surely it had been stuck in the corner of someones attic for a very long, long time. My parents said it was very grubby. We said, “don’t worry about it! he won’t care if it is shiny!” But MorMor and MorFar insisted. Only the best and brightest trombone for their boy. By the time MorMor and MorFar carefully packaged this instrument and shipped it off to Pennsylvania, the thing was as beautiful and shiny as you could possibly imagine. Every single time a box has arrived through the mail at our house for the past six months Kyle has said, excitedly, hopefully, optimistically: “Maybe it is a trombone!” For six long months he’s endured disappointment—- “no, it is some books for Mama’s work”; “no, it is a computer part for Papi’s office”; “no, it is a new water filter”; “no, it is new shoes”; “no, it is _________” [fill in the blank, never a trombone]. The poor child. But he’s handled it exceptionally well, all things considered. Never has he expressed anger or upset or frustration. Only just genuine hope that “Maybe the next time it will be a trombone.” For lack of anything better to say, we’ve said, “Yes, maybe.” (not wanting to burst his bubble, but at the same time not very optimistic ourselves at the prospects of him receiving — from us, or anyone else — a “real trombone”… Braydon had done the research on eBay… these instruments, even old and used and beat up, were pricing out in the thousands.) Fast forward to Saturday evening. Unbenounced to the boys, a box had arrived in the mail earlier that day. After dinner, the box was brought out. As always: “Maybe it is a trombone!” Kyle said. “Maybe!” we said. My heart was racing. We were very anxious about how he’d react. The boys got their scissors and we opened up the box. The look on Kyle’s face was priceless. Indescribable. I put my hand over his little chest. His heart was beating so hard and so fast it was practically jumping out of his chest. Yes, it was a real trombone. The 45 minutes that followed were greater than any Christmas morning or Birthday party that Braydon and I have ever witnessed, anywhere, ever, in our lives. This child was beyond cloud 9. “I really love trombones” he kept repeating over and over and over and over. We had wondered if he’d even be strong enough to hold the thing. Yes, he could hold it. We had wondered, even if he could hold it, could he make any sound come out of it. Yes, yes, yes, he could. At the first attempt he could play it, loudly. He could slide the slide in and out and play various ‘notes’ (not pretty sounds, mind you, but sounds, loud sounds). And he could play it and march with it at the same time. It was hard for him to fall asleep Saturday night, just knowing that trombone was in the house. Sunday morning he woke up at 6:45 am and literally ran to our bed– “Papi, please I play my real trombone Papi pllllease?” He was in the basement with his Papi playing the trombone at 6:46 am on Sunday. He had a hard time parting with it at any point yesterday. This morning, same thing– ran to our bed (this time 6:40am), “Please can I play the trombone? Right now? Please?” We told him he had to wait until Owen woke up. They were both downstairs, Kyle playing trombone, Owen playing sand-slide cymbals, at 7:00 am sharp. We had a two-man marching band around and around our bed from about 7:02-7:30am. By 8:30 this morning, less than 48 hours after its arrival, with all four of us in the playroom, Kyle was playing a very short and basic trombone version of Mozart’s Eine Kline Nachtmusic. No joke folks, no joke. You sorta have to see it to believe it. These photos don’t nearly do it justice.

Well, folks, there is a lot we don’t blog about. This (see press release below) has been one of those many, many, many things that have been off-the-blog-radar all along. In addition to everything else, for the past 3+ years, Braydon has been working his bum-bum off, round the clock, 24 x 7, to create, start, build, and launch his own business. It is an internet start-up ~~ a social networking music download service. This is a big deal for us. We’ve been investing heavily in this since January 2004. Investing our money, our brain-power, our energy, and most of all… our time… into this. We are hoping it pays off. But either way, Braydon is just incredible for getting it as far as he has. Unless you have ever started your own business from scratch (or supported your life-partner doing it), then trust me, you really can’t even imagine how intense the whole thing is. Believe me. It is a tough row to hoe (especially when you are also in the process of adopting, bringing home, and raising twin Haitian-American boys AND you have a wife with a full-blown career herself). “Tough” is the understatement of the year. Anyway, today the rVibe beta is launching. Big day for the Johnson-McCormick household. Big, big day. I’m so incredibly proud of my brilliant, determined, brilliant, persistent, and BRILLIANT husband and soul-mate. YOU GO BOYFRIEND!!!

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Glory be – a dream come true! I took the boys to the Collegiate Marching Band Festival today. Now just to be clear, this would be Kyle’s dream if he had known such a thing existed. This is not my, Heather’s and not Owen’s dream, but it is most definitely Kyle’s dream. And it was a dream come true – a was a gorgeous day, perfect weather and it was very exciting. Kyle and Owen brought their trumpets (toys) with them and carried them for the entire afternoon.

We arrived and got a chance to see a few bands warming up including the Morgan State Marching Band. I think it was the only all black band there (not entirely sure), so I was thrilled that we happened upon their practice. And they rocked. Really – a good marching band is really something to see.

Once we got to the stadium it was pure Marching Band Action – and both boys were enthralled. We got to see three different Marching Bands perform (there were 17 that day) and for us Morgan State was the best. Kyle Grooved to it, “playing” his trumpet and moving it up and down like the bands were doing. Owen lost interest after a while, but found interest in jumping from bleacher to bleacher and acting as traffic cop/toll gate to people down the stairs.

When it was time to leave we got to walk through where all the buses were and Marching Bands were lined up to go into the stadium and others were doing final touch ups on their performances. Both boys managed to touch pretty much every single instrument and performer they saw on the street.

A marching great day all around!

Since I posted about Owen’s crush on June (click here), I have received a handful of emails from eager parents ready to sign up their precious daughters to marry Kyle and Owen. I knew there was a contingent of people in the adoption community who have adopted from China who were reading this blog. Interestingly, it seems from my own anecdotal evidence (totally unscientific data here…) that most adoptive families of twins in the U.S. adopted from China. Of course adoptive parents of twins are interested in each other’s lives. But I had no idea how many of you would want to line up your girls to marry my boys. Woweeee. I hope that over time my fear of K & O having troubles finding dates (due to racism) will be dead-on-wrong. Maybe?! You all are giving me some hope here! Anyway, for the sake of honesty and truthfulness in blogging I feel I need to make something perfectly clear—

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Kyle and Owen are not available for marriage.

Not because I don’t believe in the idea of arranged marriage either.

Rather,

because…

Months ago I already finalized the deal.

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The boys have already been ‘given away’ to the beautiful and lovely and smoochingly gorgeous Summer & Aubrey (of the Twinchatter blog ~~ click here).

The girls a a year older than K & O (those girls can keep them in line! perfect!!! ), very outgoing/fun (a prerequisite for sure! perfect!!!), love to travel (definitely a must! perfect!!!), and, importantly, I love their mama (I think we’d be best friends if we could live near each other; unfortunately I live in Pennsylvania and she lives in Alaska). In my mind, Aubrey and Summer are clearly the perfect girls for K & O. Owen is going to Summer (the cutie pie on Twinchatter with short hair), Kyle is going to Aubrey (the cutie pie on Twinchatter with long hair). Trish (the boys’ future mother-in-law) and I have already worked it all out. Our husbands, at least from what we can tell, concur. All four children have checked each other out via the blogs and all seem good with the arrangement. Just thought you all should know. See below photos of my beautiful future daughters-in-law, in Alaska, blowing kisses to their future husbands via the blogosphere… Awwwww…. adorable.

P.S. please don’t get all up in arms about me poking fun at arranged marriages. I do know a bit about the custom, and Braydon and I have had friends/colleagues who are in arranged marriages. I know some of you will probably be all bent out of shape re: my cultural insensitivity. just try to keep in mind… this blog post is only half-joking. I fully intend on doing everything in my power to see my boys marry Summer & Aubrey some day.