Thursday, December 4, 2008

THANKS FOR THE HOLIDAY

We don’t often get to see family. Both sides of our family are spread out in various cities and states. Our children’s schedules amplify the lack of time spent together. We simply can’t find unscheduled calendar time. (This year was no exception.) Despite this, my husband’s family made special efforts to get together this holiday on behalf of their ailing mother.

The highlight was meeting the newest member of the family adopted from China this summer—Katie. It has been almost 5 years since we’ve had a new member. Katie was ‘the belle of the ball’ and rightly so. She is gorgeous! We wanted to smother her with hugs and kisses. She was so overwhelmed by all of us, she wouldn’t let us get anywhere near her. Being the baby with 13 others running around would be overwhelming for anyone. Hugs and kisses will have to wait until next time. :)

Then there’s ‘Sweet Z,’ who would go ballistic if he knew I called him that because name and spelling are exponentially important to 5 year olds. You never know what ‘Z’ is going to say next. He’s a fierce Wii player. He doesn’t get upset often, but every now and then you might hear, "oh, barnacles." Something he learned through his cartoon watching. All of us need to spend more time with 5 year olds. You learn all kinds of things. I could share more Z-isms--maybe in another blog entry??

As for the rest of the crew, we’re gorgeous too in our own special way. Realizing this was one of the greatest outcomes this holiday. We are finally getting to an age where the brothers and wives understand each other. We aren’t so quick to judge the differences and practically celebrate the idiosyncrasies. All the while, the cousins are too busy having fun to notice there are any adults around. Celebrate family!

2 comments:

Jonathan said...

Phew, I'm so glad to pass on the idiosyncrasies to a new generation. I think the world needs to see that I'm not the only one with the ailment of idio (root word idiot), sync (fused as one) ro (root word of rah-rah) sies (root word from the same family as seing)

Therefore it comes out as "an idiot, as one, celebrating, what others see"

As for "Z" the "no I don't want a Barbie girl and makeup, cause I'm a boy!!!!" are the many Z-isms that continue to give me my private chuckles.

Doc said...

Katie's affectionate side was definitely primed by the trip - this week she has been kissing not only us but the babysitter, hugging her teacher, trying to feed us, etc.

She has also started to talk - "dog," "all done," "yogurt,"
"banana," and "cracker" are among her recent attempts. She is also nodding yes and no and signing more than before. Maybe the verbal nature of the rest of the family has rubbed off(or seeing that she couldn't get a word in edgewise has motivated her to be more assertive! The recent food-oriented words may also reflect what she saw in Texas. . .)!

Being around everyone was an excellent distraction from teething, which has continued with a vengeance. We will be happy when this is over, for sure.

It was wonderful to see everyone and I agree with the Dutchess that our collective eccentricities add a lot to the mix.

Thanks to all for a wonderful time, and kisses from Katie!
"Mrs. Doc"