Welcome to 9, Love of Our Life!

M ~

Hi, Boo! Happy March! Guess what? It's your birthday month!! Woo hoo!! I can't believe you are 9. Halfway to being an adult already! Time is going way too fast. As you get older, our conversations are getting much more mature, especially around big life events like your birthday. I may have fewer and fewer appeasing answers for you as you grow up, but I promise I will always listen and support you. Ok, Monkey? It is just such an honor to learn about and be here with you. I feel very lucky to be your mom.

With that being said, what about the party?! Well...

So, I'm sure you remember that Suzy had a big surgery recently, right?  Unfortunately, with the cost of both the surgery and her recovery, along with some other things we're dealing with lately, we chose to postpone your big birthday bash with friends until slightly later in the year. Better weather might be more fun anyway since March is such a notoriously grey time of year here. *Yay, Ohio* Plus, none of our ideas for your birthday bash were floating your boat. So, postpone the party it is.

However, we did do our traditional birthday breakfast with the kitchen all decorated, brought treats and goodies to school for your class, and had a dinner out with family to celebrate. At this point, I am thinking that we might combine your birthday bash with our family day party and do some type of fun sleepover after the gathering. I don't know, but I'm just glad that you are so appreciative of any type of recognition and celebration we do for you. You are one of the most grateful kids I know. Seriously.

You are also thoughtful too. Below are the texts you and I sent back and forth when I was trying to find treats to take into your third grade class. One of your buddies, Emerson, is allergic to nuts and you are fiercely protective of that. As you can see, you were extremely cautious about any of the treats I was proposing.

Before your birthday, Lao Lao brought over one of her special Pop Up cards for you. A unicorn on a rainbow which you loved. It was almost as magical as you are!

The night before your birthday, we had the crazy surprise of our water heater pooping out on us around 9pm and so Daddy and I took the next day off to not only deal with its repair but had the added bonus of us both dropping you off *and* surprising your class with treats. What appeared to be somewhat of a crisis turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Win win!

you chose Moana themed decorations this year...here was what you
woke up to (balloons, gifts, and birthday donut tower!)

it's hard to see but you had a Pua shirt (the pig
from Moana) with a big 9 on the back

balloons, of course!

obligatory family birthday breakfast selfie

GG was being ornery so I wrapped him in streamers

can you see it? Daddy just had to project his nose on the
magnifier/projector in your classroom
(basically a giant kid!)

the crew that could assemble for your birthday dinner
(of all places, you wanted the China Garden Buffer)

After turning 9, you also committed this act of rebellion...see below. Hahaha!

Shortly after your birthday, we celebrated the International Day of Women at a rally at Goodale Park. No one is too young for activism!

And this is just a silly shot I took one night when you swiped my pants to be goofy.

Long Legs McGee

Suzy is working super hard on healing up nicely and adjusting to cage rest...it definitely helps when she cages herself and actually enjoys it!

One particular night this month, you chose to give me a makeover. Lovely, yeah?

notice the white stripe from my nose to lips?
(yeah, I don't know what it is either. ha!)

Then you gave yourself a makeover too. A little hard to see in this picture, but we are definitely trying some new looks. You constantly surprise me. (and p.s. not sure why this picture -and another couple later on - are flipped...for the life of me they just wouldn't load right. Ahh, technology!)

even sideways, we cute

You also tried to sleep in your own bed a couple times this month. Ultimately, you wound up back in our bed within a half hour, but at this particular moment below you were so stoked when GG came to snuggle with you. You love your kitty.

flipped pic but still super cute

Doing your reading homework by monkey grip.

In the picture below, I want you to look closely and notice the small space to the left of both you and Suzy. See it? Yeah. That's all the space I get to sleep in bed with y'all. Seriously. That's it. Crazy bed hogs!

flipped pic but you get the gist

We also had your Spring Fling Festival at school this month too. Here you are making slime with a friend leaning in behind you to try to make you laugh.

messy!

And while we brought Anabelle with us to the festival, we ended up bringing Darion home with us. You can tell that all of you just ate a large quantity of sugar before piling in the car. Yeah?

Daddy ended up working late on St. Patrick's Day so you and I made a green dinner together ~ green loaded potato soup, green shamrock cornbread muffins, and green berry punch. Yummo!

We also played an impromptu (and super hilarious) game of Hedbandz but not before wrestling and attempting to pick each others' noses first. Ha. 

Remember how I said you constantly surprise me? Well, below is a picture of another night when you asked me to put your hair in a ponytail and help you learn how to apply make up. So far, this is completely out of character for you, especially when you said, "I'm beautiful!" Yes, kiddo. You are a beautiful human and I hope you always feel comfortable expressing yourself in any way you choose. Feminine, masculine, or anything in between. You have our support in everything. The most important thing is that you are happy. Ok? Ok!

We also cat-shamed a bit this month as well. GG is by far our most ornery animal and with one too many episodes of terrorizing each of his family members, we took advantage of the dog cage for a little kitty time out. Turd.

A friend of yours (Fatima) who happens to be a great artist has also been drawing you some fun sketches lately. These two you promptly displayed in your room. So cute!

And these are some selfies that I found on my phone one morning...so funny. The angle makes you look like a giant!

We brought Addi home with us one afternoon after school and you had a play date. Addi can sometimes get anxious and tends to shy away from going places sometimes so we feel extra special that she feels so comfortable hanging out with us. She is a very sweet friend.

when I sent this picture to Addi's mom, she asked,
"Is Mali pooping?" Hahaha!

Slowly, very slowly, you are getting a bit more interested in reading. It's not a top choice yet, you much prefer making YouTube videos to reading, but one evening we had family reading time and you insisted on reading one of my favorite books. Trevor Noah's memoir "Born A Crime". I read one of the short, funny stories to you when I was reading it a few months back and since you watch The Daily Show with us as well, you figured it would be a good book to check out. I love it.

We also took advantage of your spring break at the end of this month and you, Lao Lao and I went to Atlanta together. We originally were going to check out their Legoland (which actually ended up sucking), but wound up enjoying a behind the scenes tour of CNN that turned out to be your most favorite thing in Atlanta (aside from the hotel pool, ha). You even said that someday you hope to work there too. Very cool!

there's a giant ferris wheel just over your head
in the pic but you are pointing out CNN
("look, Mom! CNN!")

cool sculpture in Centennial Olympic Park from the 1996 Olympics

On the first day, we got to check out the World of Coca Cola. While there we tried dozens of different Coke products from around the world. I can't remember our favorites (I think they were from some various African countries) but I know that we did not like the ones from India (tasted like dirt) or Italy (tasted like a very bitter grapefruit). Blech. You and Lao Lao got to submit some of your favorite "Coca Cola memories" and you even got to design your own Coke bottle. Very cool!

writing your memory

Lao Lao writing hers

working hard on crafting a very special bottle design

ta dah!

all digitally displayed on the wall above you

we found the bottle display for China

all hopped up on lots of sugary drinks

Then we headed to the Georgia Aquarium. It was huge and very cool. Our favorite part was the dolphin show (but they didn't allow any pictures or videos there so I can't show you here how awesome it was).

pointing out belugas, I believe

crawling into the penguin exhibit

popping up in a penguin bubble

up close and personal with the penguins

We headed over to the Civil Rights Museum and surprisingly, you were very interested in this. I'm not sure if it was because you noticed how moved Lao Lao and I were or if you just naturally are drawn to caring about the rights of others, but you really seemed to be touched by the visit.

Civil Rights Museum...power to the people!

listening to actual recorded speeches from people
like Martin Luther King, Jr. very powerful!

As we left the museum, you said, "That's like a lesson learned for Trump." Yes, dear. I couldn't agree more.

On the way back to the hotel and to Daddy's dismay, you got to try curry chicken on our trip too (Daddy hates curry anything).

And you loved it! Sorry, Daddy!

we didn't eat here, but definitely had to stop to check
out the guitars outside the Hard Rock Cafe

The second day in Atlanta went to Legoland, but like I mentioned before, it was really small and really awful. Nothing too interesting other than getting to see a 4D movie. It was really loud and obnoxious, but a neat experience. Of course, the picture below was how you watched the movie. Haha!

And then...we headed to CNN. It was an impromptu decision to take this tour and I am so glad we did! Our tour guide, ShaRonica, was great and you stuck to her like glue for most of the tour. It was adorable.

with ShaRonica

I had no idea they were in Atlanta...we lucked out!

a little picture you made with your
CNN bear from the gift shop

After CNN, we headed to the airport for our super late flight. Unfortunately, I was hit by a fever and even wound up puking twice while waiting for our plane. Yikes! It was a long trip home for me, but we made it. Regardless of my rough ending, I am so glad we got to add another fun trip to the books for the 3 of us.

I love you so much!!
Happy 9th birthday, Monkeyfish.
Mama

My Funny, Sweet Valentine

M ~

Shoowee! Of all the Februaries that I have experienced, this has been one of the warmest. (Boo, climate change!) However, we took advantage of the nicer weather with our first bike ride of 2017 and had a great time.

We also have been getting a little better about making time to sit down for family dinners on Sundays this month. You (and we all) love them! It's such a simple way to reset our week and I wish we would have gotten serious about starting them sooner. After one in particular, you asked if we could "get our giggles out" before bedtime and wanted to just all get really silly together. It was so cute. (And we did!) I just love our one on one (or three on three?) family time together!

Suzy is still plugging away at healing up after her knee surgery. The recovery is going painfully slow (no pun intended), but we're getting there. The snuggle time from you definitely helps.

Valentine's Day was a bit toned down this year. So many distractions that I have been dealing with personally have really bogged me down. However, given that it's a special day to celebrate how much we love our loved ones, I did leave a surprise of cards for you and Daddy on Valentine's morning. For you, I also left a tiny Beanie baby with a March birthday (because every time we see them you always try to find one with your birth date and March 12th was the best I could find). You loved the surprises and even made a special Valentine for me that night. I loved it (and you!) too!

Here is a picture of you with your special Beanie baby and one side of your Valentine box that you made for the school Valentine exchange. You came home with a lot of sweet notes and yummy treats. I'm glad it was a good day for you.

You also crafted some special cookies that night too. This is a picture of them before the oven because after the oven, they blew up into crazy blobs. But here, you can see a bit of the detail with a heart on the left and then a self portrait on the right. Not too bad!



Another one of my favorite surprises this month was the picture below. I found it on my phone and evidently it was something you had Snapchatted Courtney's girlfriend Vanessa the night before. Definitely made me smile. My little gangsta!



The following two pictures also make me smile and can probably be categorized as part of our newly established activity of "getting the giggles out"...what do you think?

Scotch tape pig noses!

With all of the attention we have been giving to Suzy and her bum leg, GG has also been keeping us busy trying to cause trouble to take some of our attention back for himself. Exhibit A below...climbing our screen and getting stuck. Little stinker!

What did I tell you about it being a warm February? Kind of crazy to think that we had our screen door open this time of year, huh? You and Anabelle actually even tried to wash my car at one point. Crazy kids! You also were discussing possibly starting a money making scheme, a combination car wash and lemonade stand. I definitely see this business entreprise in our future, however I joked that you might only be able to charge half price for the car wash because you two can typically only reach about half of anyone's car. Ha. #shortkidproblems

How do we celebrate Fridays at our house? Well...one Friday we celebrated with DQ chili dogs and a vast amount of gigantic onion rings! Yummy!!

When it did happen to cool off for a quick second during February, I made you and Ana some hot cocoa during a sleepover. And of course, we always have the classiest mugs at our house. Right?

I do have to say, you have been really sweet and helpful since Suzy had her surgery. It's been a huge adjustment for us all this month and you have been very cautious and mindful of making sure she is gated off so she can't get into our bedroom to jump on the bed, that the gate above the stairs is locked too, as well as giving plenty of snuggles and helping me after school in taking care of the animals when we get home. You even have become a bit of a narc with Daddy and telling me every time Daddy will let Suzy go up the stairs without carrying her or when he let her outside without being on a leash. Basically, you are my eyes and ears when I am not home. Daddy may not always be a fan, but I certainly appreciate your help in looking out for Suzy. To be fair, Daddy has done an awesome job of caring for Suzy too. We are a team, after all.

Suzy's face says, "I just got busted sneaking up on the couch"

busted again, in spite of our attempts at keeping her off
with crazy chairs everywhere

"sharing" your dinner with Abby ~ now *you're* busted!

And the following are some snippets as seen on Facebook. Some "memories" of years past and some Mali-isms that I just love to capture.

a silly morning text from you

And finally, with your birthday so close, your birth family is on our minds even more so this time of year. It was interesting timing to realize that 3rd grade is evidently the year where you will begin to learn about inherited vs acquired traits, which can be complicated for an adopted child. On the 28th, you and I chatted at bedtime and you shared a little about this experience for you. I won't go into any details about what specifically that you shared with me since that was a private conversation. All I will share about that conversation is what I will share here...I want to make it known, remind and reassure you that all feelings are valid, every story is different, and most importantly, your story is yours so you can share as much or as little as you want. Or none at all. I also told you how glad I am that you felt comfortable enough to share something so personal with me, reassured you that Daddy and I are here for you, and that we always will be. I don't know how much you took in what I said or exactly how you interpreted it, but I hope that at least my open heart and listening ear helped a little. I hope.

I love, love, love you, Mali.

Love,
Mama