The Firstbrook Five

Sunday Snapshot - A Case Study

I always thought I'd be the mom to three rambunctious boys. Ha! That wasn't exactly how it worked out. And good thing, 'cause now that I'm older, and um, more mature . . . me and rambunctious boys, we don't work so well together.

Instead of those three wild and crazy boys, the Lord graciously gave me three incredible, albeit incredibly different, girls. My three girls are as different as night and day.

Behold . . . a case study on their differences and (very few) similarities:

Exhibit A: Kelsey

Communication Style: Non-verbal communication preferred. Uses body language to convey thoughts and emotions. (i.e. eye rolling, heavy walking, loud breathing). Most communication done via texting and/or Facebook.

Emotional Stability: Calm, quiet, contemplative. Rarely expresses self with tears. Tends to get frustrated with younger siblings, but has ability to walk away instead of insisting on being right. (Although in her mind she is always right, she just doesn't have the need to verbalize it every time.)

Clothing Preferences: Modern, stylish, picky. She likes what she likes, and won't wear what she doesn't. Chooses clothing carefully and frugally. Would prefer to wear several favorite outfits often rather than many different outfits that she doesn't love as much.

Exhibit B: Emily

Communication Style: Verbal. All.The.Time. She loves to talk. And did I mention . . . All.The.Time.

Emotional Stability: Expressive and explosive. Incredibly sensitive and loving towards others. Likely does not have a day without tears, whether tears of joy, frustration or anger. Often found arguing with younger sibling over who is right. No ability to walk away . . . Must.Be.Right . . . All.The.Time.

Clothing Preferences: Lots of them. Skirts, skorts, sparkles. Loves choices. Loves wild. Loves hats and accessories. The more clothes the better. The more bling the better.

Exhibit C: Katie Mei

Communication Style: Excellent blend of verbal and non-verbal communication, mostly expressed as wants, desires or demands. (i.e. I want to watch TV; Can I have a snack? Turn on the light!!)

Emotional Stability: Pretty much has passive aggressive down pat. Won't budge when her way is not chosen. Will resort to tears if it means a lessening of punishment, but usually is convinced she is right and cannot be convinced otherwise.

Clothing Preferences: Believes clothes are only a necessary evil in order to be allowed to go outside. Would live in pajama's 24/7 if allowed. Most common phrase heard sometime after 1pm at our house, "Do I have to get dressed now?!"

Exhibit D: The Girls

Clearly their differences are more distinct than their similarities . . . and I wouldn't have it any other way. There is not a boring day, or even a boring moment around here with these three . . . and I wouldn't have it any other way. I love them all, for all the ways they are unique and beautiful and funny and brilliant . . . and I wouldn't have it any other way!

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This post is part of Sunday Snapshot . . . a round up of bloggers sharing Snapshots of their family, their life, and their faith. To see more Snapshots, click here:

Wedding Fun

My cousin got married recently . . . it was the first wedding we'd been to in a while.

It was nice to be together with my whole family.

The ceremony was lovely.

The bride and groom were stunning.

Fabulous food was consumed and enjoyed.

We danced and danced and danced and danced.

And then we took fabulous family pictures . . . .

Sunday Snapshot - Crazy Katie

We're constantly learning new things about Katie Mei . . . when you have a 5 year old, life is like that, you know. In fact, just when we think we've got something about that little girl figured out, she likes to change on us. She's a tricky one.

When we went to the Boardwalk recently for a certain 10-year-old Birthday, Katie was super excited to go on the rides. We figured she'd love the little kiddie rides like helicopters that go in a circle and maybe even go up and down.

Yup, she liked it alright.

After that ride she started pulling us towards the bigger (and better in her opinion) rides.

Bumper Cars?

Loved 'em. Really loved 'em when she was "bumping" into her sisters and Daddy!

Next we put her on the kiddie version of the Drop Zone . . . you know, the kind where it shoots you up high and kinda "drops" you down.

She figured it was going to be fun . . .

But once is started it was more than fun . . . it was "the best ride ever!" according to Katie!

We finished the day off at the Pirate Ship. It starts off slowly, but by the end of the ride is flinging you from side to hide, giving your tummy that little flip-flop that we now know Katie looooooves!

(Note that while Katie was having the time of her life, the now 10-year-old whose birthday we were celebrating - not too thrilled!)

Who would have thought we had an amusement-park-ride-junkie on our hands? By the end of the day, she would never agree to go on the boring helicopter ride again . . . the bigger, the faster, the higher the ride, the better!

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This post is part of the blogging series, Sunday Snapshots.

The F5 in '09

Happy New Year!

It's the Year of the Pig . . . and we've been celebrating all week long! Geesh, in China, they celebrate the new year for an entire week - and so we decided to stretch our celebration out over this past week as well! :)
We started out by visiting Chinatown in San Francisco last Monday. We loaded up the SUV, packed water bottles, a stroller and lots and lots of jackets and headed 2 hours north. We made it to SF before noon and soon realized that we would need to shed most of our layers - it was a beautiful day! The streets of Chinatown were littered with red paper scraps - leftovers from firecrackers the previous night. We wandered in and out of shops, ate lunch, even watched a traditional "lion dance" go up and down the street. It was just as we had imagined and hoped! Katie seemed totally content and unimpressed were her "familiar" surroundings. As long as we kept popping in fortune cookie rejects purchased at the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory - we were good to go!

Kelsey and Emily completely enjoyed their first Cable Car ride . . . Kelsey even stood on the outside while we were traveling across town! :) As we would climb up a hill, Emily would remind me, "make sure you hold your hands up when we go down!" And sure enough, as we headed down a hill, up her hands would go - just as if we were on a roller coaster! Fun stuff! I don't really have great pics from the day . . . I decided I would just sit back and enjoy that day, rather than watching from behind a camera. I'm glad I did!

Today we headed down to Seaside to celebrate the New Year with other families with children from China. We've been meaning to connect with this group of adoptive parents, but just haven't made the time to do so - until now! We all met at a Chinese restaurant and the chaos ensued! :) It was great to reconnect with my friend Shannon, who brought her daughter home through All God's Children, as well. Shannon and her family are now getting closer to bringing home their next daughter, Phoebe, from China! We also met tons of great families - seriously - everyone was incredibly friendly and welcoming and it was so amazing to see so many beautiful China daughters!

One of the highlights of the day was meeting Stacey and her family - including cutie patootie Ryleigh from China! Stacey emailed me early on in our paperchase for Katie and we've emailed off and on since then. They only live 45 minutes away, but again, we've just never made a big enough effort to meet them - until today! I'd post pics of Katie and Ryleigh together - but trust me - Katie was not cooperative!

And that brings me to this . . .
you know how in every crowd, at every social function, there's always that one child. You know what I mean - that child who is crying and clingy and whiney and obstinate and annoying. Well guess what?! That child is our child. It's Katie. I'm serious. I'm thinking Katie just doesn't like a crowd, but if I heard it once, I heard it a thousand times today, "Boy, Katie sure does have attitude, doesn't she?!" Um, yes. You could say that. Thankfully we also heard, "Oh, Katie is so cute!" and "Oh, she sure does love her Mommy, doesn't she?" Those words helped. But not so much when your kiddo is screaming about being fed by a fork instead of a spoon and refuses white cake because she sees her sister eating chocolate. Attitude. And opinions. Lots of them.

Good thing she's so cute . . . as you'll soon see:

And lest you forget we have THREE super cute kids . . . for your viewing pleasure:

Survived

Well, they survived. I survived. The house survived.

God is good.

You see, I was away this weekend . . . away from Friday night until Sunday afternoon. Away from the house, away from Ron, Kelsey, Emily and Katie. Now, I knew the first 3 would be ok . . . but that Katie . . . she's um, well, unpredictable. Predictably unpredictable.

Last week she woke up almost every night for an hour or two between the lovely hours of 3am - 4am. Not ok. And Thursday she was a clingon . . . as in, clinging on to me every second of every minute of every hour of the entire day.

So I was a little nervous, a little unsure of how this weekend would go for Ron and the kiddos. I guess I underestimated them all. Because really, Ron's the best dad in the world . . . .

He bought junk food galore for the girls . . . Cookie Crisp cereal, licorice, waffle cones for ice cream . . . I think I have a stomach ache just thinking about it! They played games, ate food, hung out in pj's . . . had a general, all-around wonderful weekend. And Katie? She just joined right in. Never fussed, played along, loved hanging out with her Daddy! :)

I came home to a clean home, children freshly bathed, and hugs and kisses galore. It was great!!!

When I walked in the door Katie just stared at me for a moment, and then looked at me like, "Wow - you really did come back." Then the kissing started and didn't really stop for about an hour. Good times. I'm thankful that Katie can survive without me for a day or so, and then not punish me for leaving . . . I wasn't sure what her reaction would be - but it was more of a non reaction than anything else! Again, God is good!

And so I don't get nasty emails for not including pictures in this blog post . . . here are a few from January to keep you satisfied . . .

Katie looking adorable in her dress from Auntie Gail:

Emily showing off her "pink fuzz ball" earrings . . . definitely her favorites:

Kelsey enjoying her ipod, courtesy Grandma & Grandpa:

Thank you Grandma

We got a little package in the mail yesterday . . . inside we found Katie's Easter dress.
Yea for shopping Grandma's! :) When all you have is Target and KMart within a 30 mile radius - you count on the shopping Grandma to find all the cute deals!
So, without further ado, here's cute Katie:

How about another look at the cutie (and I don't mean the dress!):

And my attempt at "artsy" photography:

And just so you don't think it's always smiles and cuteness and love and laughter around here . . . here's a picture from Christmas that I've been saving for just the right time:

Lately we've been seeing much more of the screaming face than the smiling face - but we're working on it! I have a friend who keeps saying that Katie has met her match in me. I'm not so sure these days. Most days (and nights) I think I might have just met my match in Katie!!!

How we spent our New Year . . .

having fun, fun, fun!!! Grandpa got a new toy:

Let's just say, EVERYONE enjoyed this toy! Grandpa bought a new go-kart, borrowed a tractor, and made a track on his "back 40." The morning frost made the track a little muddy in the afternoon - but hey - isn't getting muddy part of go-karting?!

Grandpa built a small jump in the middle of the track, and this was, by far, Emily & Katie's very favorite part!

And what, exactly, was Katie's reaction to all of this?

Just so you know - that's her sign for "more." She signed it over, and over, and over, and over, and over . . . .

The Fireplace of our Dreams

For years Ron and I dreamed of remodeling our living room fireplace. It's not so pretty . . . with its cinder-block like facade and big, non-nondescript mantel. We had hoped one day to tear it all down and have my oh-so-handy Dad replace it all. We dreamed of a white wood face and mantel, built-in bookcases surrounding it and maybe even a gas insert.
As we worked our way and waited our way through our adoption process last year, we noticed many of our dreams changing. Take the fireplace for example . . .
Last year at this time we were really struggling with our wait for Katie Mei. When we started the adoption process we were incredibly hopeful that we would have Katie Mei home for Christmas, or at the least, know who she was by Christmas. At this point last December it was clear that not only was she not coming home, but that we were still a few months away from seeing her face for the first time. While we continued to trust God and His timing, we were disappointed to say the least. While we focused on Christ's miraculous birth during our holiday season, we still weren't completely in the "holiday mood" all month long. As we decorated and planned and prepared, all we really wanted was to hang 5 stockings on our mantel and have Katie Mei home with us, safe and secure.
Over time our dreams of what our perfect fireplace should look like changed. We didn't need bigger and better. We just needed Katie. And so as we celebrated Christmas last year, away from home for the very first time, we also waited and prayed for our little one still living in China.
So you can imagine, what joy it was this weekend as we schlepped down the Christmas boxes and began our decorating. We were filled with memories of what it was like last year to celebrate and decorate all while filled with intense longing for Katie. There was incredible joy as we watched Katie check out the tree, play with the Mickey and Minnie Mouse Santa's and squeal in delight when the nutcrackers were placed on our not-so-pretty mantel. And then the best . . . finally . . . five stockings were hung! Suddenly that fireplace we dreamed of replacing became perfect in our eyes . . . don't you think it looks great, too?!

Food and Fun

Katie has celebrated her first thanksgiving . . . . and what did she think of her veritable feast? I submit for your viewing pleasure:

Apparently, rolls, lefsa, turkey, ham & olives meet Katie's approval! :)

Aside from all the feasting Katie did, she also did this:

The faster Daddy went, the louder Katie laughed!

I must admit, we were especially thankful this Thanksgiving . . . it is good to have our girl home and happy. We are so grateful to God for making us a family of five this year!! God is good!