Tuma Adoption Journey: June 2013

We've already had a fun start to this month. On June 1st, Ethan turned 3!!! I'm no longer a mom to two 2 year olds! We had a really fun day for Ethan. We took the kids to Dinosaur World, which is basically heaven for Ethan. There are all of these huge models of dinosaurs and they did a fossil dig and there was a super small dinosaur museum. Ethan just wanted to see a t-rex so during our whole dinosaur walk, he just kept saying, "Let's go find the t-rex!" I was just praying that they had one and, luckily, they did. He loved every bit of his birthday and when we sat down to dinner (pizza), before he had even gotten to open his presents, he said, "This is the best birthday ever!" It was a great day. He needed a special day that was all about him!

Then on Tuesday, Ella graduated from Kindergarten. Honestly, I thought the whole thing was kind of silly. I mean, they will all be returning next year to the same school so I wasn't really sure what the point was. Then, the kids came marching in to the Graduation March with their little mortar boards on and so, of course, I lost it. There's something about that song. Ella was so proud and stood up on the risers doing all the songs, flashing me heart signs and blowing kisses, just melting my heart. I changed my mind very quickly. Kindergarten graduation isn't silly at all! Okay, it still is but I am so glad that her school does it. I'm a sentimental fool and was feeling so proud of her all day. It is such a gratifying feeling giving your Kindergartener a graduation card and watching her read it out loud all by herself! What a long way she has come this year! I had no idea she would learn so much in Kindergarten!

The graduation was a perfect example of the difference in our "twins". Yes, they're still twins because they're still only 3 months apart. :-) Ethan could not sit still and was actually running in circles around Erik as Erik recorded the graduation. I could not pull anything out of my bag of tricks to get him to just sit down! Liana, however, would start to slide off of her chair and a little reminder to her to stay on her chair every now and then was all it took. In these moments, yes, Liana is easier. However, the other side that no one sees but us are the things about Liana that make her much more difficult than Ethan at other times. She can be so well behaved but she can also out-stubborn Ethan any day of the week. It is getting better but I'm sure she will always have a stubborn streak in her. That's okay, every one of us has a stubborn streak in this family so she fits right in. :-)

You know that I couldn't do a post like this without posting way too many pictures! :-)

Ethan throughout the years