Cheerful Abundance

Two years ago today, Ethiopia called. Newborn twins. Impossibly tiny, no medical information, no photos. All that would come later, if we were actually given the referral. Today, it was just a question. Would we? Could we? We would, we could, we did!

Today we took them back to Target, because that is where I was when I got the call and found out that we were on our way from being a family of 2 to being a family of 4. So, if you were shopping in Target two years ago today, and came across a crazy woman crying into her Blackberry near the 24 cent crayon display, that was me. And two years later, we strolled through Target, buying diapers, while M. graciously waved and said “HI!” to everyone we passed, because she is the Mayor of Target.

The 24 cent crayons are now 25 cents a box. And nobody cried into their Blackberry, although I kind of wanted to, after finding out the government wants a thousand dollars from us to print up the forms that prove that they are US citizens.

Two as in age, not number of babies. Because the number of babies we have, now, is zero. Now we have big girls – girls who can say the word NO, with a dramatic sweep of the arm, and who ask for books by name, and who play funny jokes on us, and walk themselves down the hall for a pants change. Two is their first real haircuts, shearing them down like sheep, which they loved, and two is asking for Elmo videos and being able to make clear which one you want. Two is when you are 3 feet tall, and when your favourite game is taking turns jumping on Daddy’s lap, backwards, without looking to make sure he knows to catch you, and its also asking him when it is your turn, because you know to take turns with your sister. Two is when you are so filled with joy you have to jump it out, and two is when your sister makes you laugh so hard you fall down on the floor together.

We are the kind of strict disciplinarians that do not allow jumping (or in our house, jJumping) on the bed. Ever. And our children obey us without question, as a result of our excellent parenting. If there was a a Nobel Prize in parenting? We would win it. **

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h9LCQJ5qTM]

** this video is post-nap, hence the Cute Outfits. And in it, we are deliberately mocking this stupid parenting book we just read that is all about how you don’t ever tell your kids what to do. Instead, you tell them what you hope they do and don’t do, and apparently they live with the consequences, even if those consequences are driving off a cliff with a car full of other kids, or flunking out of high school. Its the worst book, ever.