A long and beautiful weekend

The wait brought on too much mystery for me to ever feel comfortable in the present. There are times when I feel grateful for the long wait for Cici though. Our family of four got to experience some pretty incredible things, many of which would have been very difficult with a baby. But the thought of when and who was omnipresent for 5+ years and it made its mark on who I was.

Family time feels different these days. For so long we'd do things over long weekends or breaks from school and I'd wonder how it would be with a baby. Now all the wondering is gone and we are just living. It feels good. And it frees up so much of my brain to do other things.

Over this past holiday weekend we decided to head to Vermont to get ready for the ski season and enjoy the foliage and the gorgeous weather. The three day weekend was full of apple pie making, beer-fest enjoying, dancing to live bands,  big kids running around the resort on their own feeling oh-so-big and of course it felt so complete because we were doing it all with a baby in a backpack! We are finally the family of five I'd been dreaming about and I wonder when the novelty of it will wear off!

There are lots of families with a connection to China at the resort we frequent and it is so nice to wander around and chat with people who are reliving their experiences with China adoption when they see Cici - a new baby! The thing about the wait is that new babies from China are not so common any more. There are fewer and fewer of them arriving each year so I love stopping to talk with parents or grandparents of school aged girls from China who are chomping at the bit to tickle Cici's feet. As you can imagine, she gets an incredible amount of attention when we are out. Her cuteness CANNOT be ignored! A close second is the amount of attention Parker the chocolate labradoodle- gets while we are out. People are mesmerized by his color and general cuteness. That is until he offers to show them his special skill of barking for very long stretches of time. He is still a pup which we always need to explain. He is also need of a trainer - one who isn't me.

THAT IS COOKIE ALL OVER HER FACE. MY OFFERING TO KEEP HER ON THE TABLE SHE WAS SITTING ON!

SweetPea continues to be a huge help with her baby sister. And if I ever thought I needed this baby just to complete me, I was dead wrong. She completes SweetPea in ways I never imagined. A sister is such a blessing and I am so glad I have given one to my eldest.

The weather was so magical this weekend that I think it went to SJ's head. He discovered there was a North Face Race to the Summit. He signed up as fast as he could. Sunday morning we all fled the house earlier than we normally would have on a longweekend morning and enjoyed the mountain as the sun began to warm up the resort. He was told to factor in 1 minute for each year of age. He was spot on at 43 minutes. So now you know his time, AND his age. Sorry sweetie - it's out. And yes, he's older than me ; ) I'll always be the younger woman!

As the race took off, I realized I was standing with all the other moms with strollers.  I got a chuckle out of the unison of voices yelling, good luck daddy or go daddy go! The two big kids took off running to explore and have fun while Cici and I searched for coffee. We then took refuge under one of the big white tents which are usually great places to take pictures because of the diffused light.  

 

This is one of my favorite faces. This is her giggle-smile face. I'm so happy and aren't I darned cute face. We see it often.

How was your long weekend?