Martha, who knows very well how to write her name, was compaining about writing her name on a worksheet.
“Mommy, I CAN’T write my name. I can’t write a ‘M’ and a ‘A’ and a ‘awe’ and a ‘T’ and a ‘hhhu’ and anoder ‘A’. I can’t … Oh, I can try again.”
Martha: “I wrote this for our baby brothers, so they can come home and we love them very much. Can you give it to our adoption?”
LOVE that girl.
… in the car, looking out at a graveyard with tons of flower memorials in it, Noa said,
“Oh, I just wish I could run through that beautiful field singing, ‘the hills are alive with the sound of music.’”
And the other night as we were cuddling before bed,
“Mommy, I am so glad Daddy found you, and married you, so that you could have me.”
I’m so glad too… SO GLAD. She makes me smile every day.
Recently, whenever it is time to clean up, Martha all of a sudden comes down with some sort of ailment that renders her unable to pitch in. Here are a few of her problems from just the last few days:
*and these are always said from her position of laying on floor where she fell the moment I told her it was time to clean.
“Mommy. If I clean up I will get a choke. I can’t clean up right now.”
or
“My belly hurts really baddy. If I clean up I will have diarrhea.”
or
“I cannot help Noa because my knee is broken.”
I am not a big fan of this – in fact, this is driving me crazy! – and we obviously have some truth-telling issues here. But her creativity will make me smile one day so I had to share…
My kids are playing “Happy Mother’s Day” (in their words). Noa is laying in my bed and Martha is bringing her a pretend breakfast.
How would your kids play ‘happy mothers day’? 
Since we moved to Japan almost 4 years ago, Isabel has sweetly passed on many of her beatiful clothes to Noa. Recently when her family came over, they brought a t-shirt that says “I love Daddy” that Isabel had outgrown to give to Noa.
A few weeks later, when Noa put the shirt on,
Me: “Oh Noa, what a cute shirt. Do you know what it says?”
Noa: “Yea! [pointing to the words] ‘I love Isabel’s Daddy’ “
