A Happy Life

Maliana ~

Just when I think our lives are slowing down a bit, here comes another busy and fun-filled week. For starters, we celebrated 2 more birthdays, Daddy's and E's!

For Daddy, we surprised him with cinnamon rolls (his favorite) with candles in them, a "Happy Birthday" song with dancing in the kitchen, hiding and jumping out at him (before he was even awake ~ sorry, Daddy), and a life-size drawing of you to wish him "Happy Birthday!" in lieu of a card. He loved it and it felt ah-mazing to begin another day together. I love our little family.

putting the candles in the cinnamon rolls

so, "in a flash" is a current favorite phrase of yours.
after Daddy polished off one of the cinnamon rolls, you said,
"Daddy! You ate that in a flash!" Ha ha.

with your self portrait whose shirt says,
"Happy Birthday Love Dad"

E's birthday celebration was spent at the zoo with you and 2 more of her buddies. It was perfect weather with just a slight chill in the fresh air and lots of beautiful fall colors on the trees. As you can tell by the pictures below, you girls had a great time exploring the zoo!

dead fish for the sting rays ~ yum!

of course, the obligatory photo booth

prairie dogs and a prairie dog hunter, ha.

A slightly more bittersweet celebration also occurred when we attended Senior Night at Lalie's volleyball game. It was her final home game of her high school volleyball career before tournaments begin. It was pretty emotional for their entire family. Heck, I even got choked up a few times too. It was very sweet to see Mark and Jenny so moved and proud of their little girl. I definitely have a deeper understanding when I see parents rejoicing in their children's successes now that I'm a mom myself. Way to go, Natalia!

lots of emotions

saying that you adore Lalie is an understatement

And speaking of being blown away by your kids, you surprised and impressed Daddy and me once again this week. On one particular day on the way home from daycare, you were very frank with me about what is happening with the kids at school, both good and bad. One thing in particular was on the tip of your tongue that afternoon. It revolved around an incident involving the usual run-ins with girls who aren't being the nicest and are beginning to exclude others, just because they can. Uggh. I can't believe it's happening already, but then again, I can't say that I'm surprised as I recall my own school days. As you relayed the story with me, I was very thankful that you are so open and willing to share with me. I also felt thankful that you described other kids at school, friends of yours who are willing to stand up for you and each other. As Daddy and I discussed what you had shared with me later that night over coffee, we both agreed that you are so much wiser than the both of us put together at your age. We are amazed that you can stay so kind and open-minded in the face of some pretty crappy treatment from others. You are like a duck in water with your ability to let things roll off your back. You have a beautiful insistence on seeking out the good in others, rather than writing them off. You are so much more advanced than I could have imagined or hoped for in this department. I told Daddy that I really want his help so that I don't ruin this part of your nature, since I tend to struggle in this area of my own life. He promised he'd help me. And I promise to keep working on myself. In the meantime, I find myself wondering, "How can I be so sure that Mali is not the reincarnation of Buddha? I wonder how I go about finding that out....hmmm".

Also, here are some more fun Mali-isms and/or quirky little details that I loved from this week...
Enjoy!

you told me, "If you are in my family, you have to wear a sticker!"
(so, check out my new belt buckle that I wore all day)

You told me that you really love "basket hounds" (aka basset hounds) and asked if we can get one and name it Clifford (after Clifford the Big Red Dog).

And one day, as you watched a show with a character telling a little girl that she couldn't be a scientist simply because she was a girl, you paused it and looked at me with an incredulous and disgusted look and said, "That's not right! Girls can be anything they want!" ...I LOVE that you can already call B.S. on that $h!t at only 6 years old. You go, girl!

Finally, we wrapped up Sunday of this weekend by sleeping in until almost 10am! Yes, my little late-night SNL buddy (you!) was very well-rested when you sleepily wandered into the living room to climb under a soft blanket and snuggle with me on the couch. We lay there for a while, looking out as the dappled morning sunlight came through the still green leaves of our sweet gum tree outside the front window. I love lazy morning snuggle time. So peaceful.

Later we headed down on a mini road trip to Logan with Lao Lao and Uncle Flint to see Uncle Forge's new apartment and check out where he goes to college. He gave us a tour of the glass blowing studio and even showed us how he blows glass in the "hot shop". It was really cool to get to see this art form up close and personal. Uncle Forge is a pretty talented guy! He even let you pick some colors and made you a paperweight as we watched. You were very surprised and amazed that this was actually where he goes to school! I guess in your 6 years, you are only familiar with a very limited idea of what school looks like...this opened your eyes to something new. Neat stuff.

checking out some of his projects

watching Uncle Forge from a safe distance

blowing the glass

a little assistance from Uncle Flint

putting the colors that you picked out on the glass

heating up the colors onto the glass

twisting it to make the design inside
your future paperweight

rounding it out

checking out the almost finished product

getting ready to set it up to cool

always teasing you. always.

at Uncle Forge's new place

giving Iroh bunny ears

After such a fantastic week and weekend, you were in an even more fantastical mood. You seem to light up when you get solid sleep and spend quality time with those you love. Actually, I think you're on to something. Sounds like at least the beginning of an almost perfect recipe for a good life. Getting plenty of rest + Quality time with loved ones =  A happy life. I know there's more that goes into that equation, but this week highlighted at least those two ingredients for me. I'll have to remember that.

Love you, Squirt.

Love,
Mama