What Did You Say?

Popping bubble wrap. This kept her quietly occupied for a long time.
I love it when they play together. They are driving a boat here.
Isaac took this picture
Quality time with Grandma
First snowmen of the winter

Isaac had some funny words recently. He was talking about his teachers and then he says, "and my prisoner is Mr. Greefkes." He meant his principal. The other night we had ravioli and Isaac kept calling it "granoli." He has still been calling Valentine's Day "Thanksgiving." Isaac and Julia are at the age where they have alot of questions about dying and heaven. We talked about how our family would be in heaven because we love Jesus. Isaac asked if Adam and Eve would be in heaven. He pondered that for a minute and then very sweetly said, "I love Jesus." A more embarrassing moment also happened. Isaac lifted up his shirt and said, "everyone show your boo.." I think you know what I am referring to. I didn't believe my ears and calmly asked him a couple times to repeat himself. It was clear he had no idea that anything was wrong. I told him that is a crude word we don't use and that he can say "chest" instead. He told me a friend told him the word. And it's starting in preschool, ugh.

Julia is full of questions about people's emotions. Whenever we read a book, watch a video or hear a song she asks, "are they sad? why are they sad? are they happy?, etc." I bring the kids to childcare at the gym sometimes. There is a little Asian girl, Mia that attends too. Today out of the blue Julia says to me, "Mia looks like me." I said, "Mia is Asian like you?" And she again said, "Mia looks like Julia." I asked, "because you both have black hair?" She said yes and then changed the subject. This interaction took me by surprise. I know in my head that she is noticing differences in how people look, but I hadn't realized she has internalized it already. I related this story to Nate and he said it makes him a little sad that his daughter will always feel like she looks different than the rest of us. I know this isn't a newsflash, we knew this going into international adoption. It doesn't change the fact God meant us to be a family, just makes us remember we need to be intentional in how we discuss racial differences and the people we surround our family with. One last funny story regarding Julia. I bring her in with me when we drop Isaac off at preschool. Julia loves preschool. She would love it if she could attend right now. As soon as we get in the classroom she makes a beeline for the kids and joins right in. The other day I said goodbye to Isaac and then left the school. As I was walking to my car I thought, "something is off, what is it? Oh yea, I left Julia in the classroom!" I was embarrassed but neither the teacher nor Julia had noticed. Julia is signed up for 3 year old preschool next year, she'll love it.

Caleb's latest obsession is ninjas. He has two Ninjago books that he thinks are the coolest things ever. His imaginary games always include ninjas fighting. He also likes the movie Kung Fu Panda. I can tell he is growing up. We watched The Lion King the other night and he wasn't scared. (And Julia had a ton of questions about why Simba's Dad died. Why does Disney always kill off a parent??) I've also noticed that Caleb doesn't suck on his lip anymore or rub his hair. Those were his nervous habits that we were always telling him to stop doing. He still has awesome grades at school and his reading level still impresses me. So glad he is enjoying school!