Tell Me Why I Don't Like Moneydays

We're now the not-so-proud owners of a mini-van (taking delivery at the end of October). With 3 kids under the age of 2 1/2, we really didn't have much choice. We chose the Toyota Sienna, in either red or black depending on which is available. At one point Kate said, "the black one looks pretty cool". We exchanged despondent glances and she said, "We'll never be cool, ever again. It's a mini-van". Only Jacob seems truly excited.

In other news, they seem to be learning the days of the week at school. But Jacob refers to the first day of the week as "Moneyday".

My father's visit ended this morning. In return for his yeoman's work with the twins, we gave him a lovely parting gift - the kids' cold. No good turn goes unpunished around here.

And still no word from China. Yes, it's killing us.

Married to a Speed Demon

Kate and I ran the half marathon down in Toronto this morning. She's a little disappointed in her time, but came 61st out of over 4500 women in the race (and 12th out of 807 in her age group)!! I was about 10 minutes behind her, but knocked 8 minutes off my previous best time, so am very happy. And now very stiff and sore.

Where were the twins? At home with my dad, who took over the reins yesterday evening (while we went down to a T.O. hotel for the night) and kept sole custody until this afternoon. Everything went so well at home that I'm going to lose all credibility trying to claim that I have a tough job staying at home with the kids.

More Zoë Photos

The woman who is sending the care package to Zoë managed to get us a couple of recent photos of her, which is wonderful for us now, and helps to fill in some of the documentary gap of her first year.

Zoë Update

Not much new to report. We're waiting for China to give us permission to travel. We're still hoping to head over in the middle of October. In the meantime, we're trying to get ready for her arrival. Her room is almost set up. For those who've visited us here, Zoë will be in the sunroom off the master. We took out the big wardrobe and have put in a carpet, comfy chair, etc.

We also sent her a care package yesterday, including a doll, a soft album filled with photos of us and a couple of cameras so hopefully we'll get some photos as keepsakes of her early months in China. We included a letter to the orphanage staff asking some questions about what her life has been like thus far - trying to figure out what she will want to know when she gets old enough to start asking questions.

I finally got around to converting Zoë's referral photos to jpg format, so now I can post them in the body of a blog post.

First Day of Nursery School

Here are the kids all geared up in their new clothes and backpacks for their first day of nursery school (on Monday). They go for 2 1/2 hours, three days a week. There were no tears on day one, but both seemed a little stunned at the end of the morning. And they seemed happy about going back for their second day today.

- We went for coffee (as we do every morning) and here's a great little video of the kids helping each other jump down a step. I've said it a thousand times, but life would be better if we all had a twin.

- Gathered around Miss Laurie at drop-off time. After saying good-bye to me, Molly ran over to give Jacob a kiss. They are each other's security blanket.

I May Have Exaggerated

So, it didn't exactly snow while we were up north. It was 25C every day and we had a perfect trip. And I'm not just being nice because my mother-in-law looked after the kids 24 hours a day.

Here are some more photos from our trip.
- Around here ya gotta earn your keep. Here's the family mowing homestead lawn

- No need to look so serious fellas, we'll return to civilization soon. Lois brought so much food and toys to the cottage (it's gotten too fancy for me to continue to refer to it as "camp"), that two boat trips were required to haul all the stuff. Today the twins were playing with their cardboard box "boat". They took every toy they could find and filled the box to overflowing and then pronounced it "grandma and poppa's boat".

- During a reading of the 3 Billy Goats (and at other random moments), Molly likes to turn to me and say, "Baba, I eat you up".

- Here's Brent telling the kids, "... blueberry bushes? In my day we didn't have blueberry bushes"

- Some are born to captain a vessel

- Jacob steers the careening boat towards a rocky shore as Brent teaches him to "use the force"

- I've fished with Kate's family four or five times now and there has never been a single catch. But this was the first trip with the fish-finder. So, now at least we know how many fish are getting away.

- Molly thinking, "there would be more action if we were playing ball sports right now"

- One last ride on the beloved tractor

Snowy Thunder Bay

The only time I've ever been to Thunder Bay when it didn't snow was for our wedding. Not sure if deceptive weather is grounds for annulment.

- Here's a photo from our arrival on Friday...

- Fortunately, it seems to have warmed up a little. Here are the kids taking the boat over to camp

- Jacob working on a major feat of engineering on the beach

- Molly doing her Little Sal impression in a patch of blueberries

- Molly agreeing that it's really funny to tease Thunder Bayers about how much it snows here

More Zoë Details

We received our translated referral package yesterday, so we know a little more about our little girl (who turned 7 months old yesterday). She's tiny, but apparently healthy. At five months (when the summary was written), she was turning over, lifting her head and was very active and outgoing. They also commented on her charming smile and how she likes to he held facing outwards, so she can see what's going on.

I wish we could go get her tomorrow.

We Have a Name!!

After a few days of debate and discussion, we've agreed on a name:

Zoë Mei-Lin

We think Mei-Lin is really pretty, and it is a combination of Mei-Mei and Lin. We have been calling "her" Mei-Mei since we first decided to adopt from China 4-5 years ago. Mei-Mei means little sister, and I think we'll continue to use it as a family nickname for her.

Lin is the name that she was given by her caregivers, and we wanted to keep a link to them and to her early months in China.

Together, Mei-Lin means beautiful forest, beautiful jade or plum jade.

As with the twins, she will also have Kate's surname as a middle name and then mine as her surname. It might seem a little clunky to have four names, but we think each of them has an important place.

Play Ball

Last night was the twins' final Playball class. Here are some photos:

- Here they are warming up before the class - yes, we're wearing sweaters in late August.

- a focused Molly is a dangerous Molly

- Jacob practising his goal celebration

- With medals and certificates