Our Taiwan Adventure Begins!

Phase One:

So, we all slept well last night. Very grateful for that.

Phase Two:

We arrived at the KCI airport with luggage in tow, booked our two infant tickets, were serviced by the happiest, kindest, most child-friendly staff and TSA personnel I have ever encountered.

Phase Three:

Our flight to Detroit was uneventful. Well, as uneventful as three kids on a tiny airplane can be. Jack discovered the airplane bathroom which was "very, very tiny" and both Jack and London ate much more than a normal morning justifies, but they made it pretty happily. Blake didn't woo any hearts as he fought taking his morning nap and seemed to feel the air pressure on landing. However, we had sympathetic neighbors and all were gracious. As we stood to exit the aircraft Jack decided to announce that today was his birthday, pretty much made everyone's day to be celebrating with him. Instant celebrities. Maybe this is how public figures begin telling tales to gain popularity - his birthday was a month ago.

Phase Four:

London made a friend in the waiting area while we got settled and situated. After charming him with grins and showing him landing airplanes he also announced that he was in need of a diaper change. Not to me, but to the gentleman. It was somewhat hilarious, but maybe you had to be there.

Phase Five:

We had about a 30 minute walk to our concourse. London got fired as the elevator button pusher after he pushed the wrong floor and rang the alarm bell. After Jack hugged a large wet rock that revealed itself to be a very active part of a large water fountain display, Jon and the boys took (Jack wearing his only clean extra shirt) off to ride the express train and stretch a bit. Blake and I grabbed an iced coffee and crashed in our gate waiting area.

I wonder just how many phases it will take to get through the next 14 hr flight? We are impressed that we are all still being nice to each other and things are going smoothly for the first quarter of our adventure. Praising God who answers prayers and gives us grace.

See you on the other side of the ocean!

Saturday

On Saturday we were out front gardening a bit when Sarah asked me what was planted in the back garden. My sullen answer was "nothing." I thought this was utterly true. Last year Stephen and I watered and weeded and planted through the horrible hot summer of drought and got absolutely NO results. Sometime over our winter though...a crop of carrots had grown!

We found about 30 of our Easter Egg Carrots had matured and were ready to eat! We actually did, and they were really good :)

Aunt Bitty was up visiting and cookies were in order. 

Rising to the challenge, the dream team whipped some up. 

The supervisor.

The Wonder of a Child

Where can you scuba dive indoors in a sea filled with lego creatures?

Where can a 1 1/2 year old feed, change, snuggle, and dress 8 different babies?

Where can your toddlers lick telephones (is that what that thing is, mom?),

learn office etiquette,

phone manners,

 and management techniques?

WONDERSCOPE!!

Blake-a-bye

 This week a friend at church offered to loan me his amazing Nikon lens. I happily accepted and have been enjoying shooting some beautiful shots around my kids. I will also get to take a good friend's family pictures tomorrow with it. I thought I would share some of Blake because they look so much like him that I feel it might give you a peek into our third born joy. 

 I often call Blake "Blake-a-bye" or just "Blue". He is a very observant little guy with a sober side. He smiles often but not easily, and usually very full and brief. I have not caught very many grins on camera, but when I close my eyes I can see his smile bursting his cheeks into shiny rounds spots, and making his eyes into little almond-shaped sparkles. He has eyes very like my Grandma's. She passed away 5 years ago, but lived with us for 9 years before that and her beautiful eyes stick with me. They were just the shade of Blake's blues.

 Since birth Blue has loved two things. #1 To see eyes. In the night when he woke to nurse he would instantly cry until a light was turned on and he made eye contact. Eye contact soothed him every time. #2 He loves to hold onto people. He wraps your hand up in a hug surrounded by both of his arms and holds it close to his chest. I speculate that when he fusses in the car, it is not for the soother (pacifier) but for the hand he knows will bring it - he always seizes the arm and talks to it in happy grunts.

 The thing that makes him smile the very fastest is his brothers. Jack lays his head on Blake's tummy and Blake wraps his arms around his wooly head and holds handfuls of Jack's hair while gurgling, drooling, and grinning. London likes to lay cheek to cheek with him and Blake responds with repeated flashes of smiles. I can just imagine him dreaming of keeping up with them as they race around him in the living room.

Though he was born bald, he has put much effort into growing an anonymous color of hair. He may be blond, or brown, or dark colored, but each angle presents a different shade, so we are still waiting to find out. He was the only male to skip getting a hair cut today, we still have time to decide what color his mop top is.

This is my baby, and I love him.