Maelin's First Christmas

How exciting Christmas is through the eyes of a child! Maelin has absolutely embraced every aspect of the holiday season, starting with her first visit with Santa! Our lower elementary school classes participated in the annual Breakfast with Santa event, and although i prepped Maelin for it ("Santa will give you a present, but you'll have to sit on his lap..."), i wasn't sure she'd be willing. Fortunately, many of her classmates forged bravely before her, so by the time it was her turn, she was fairly confident no harm would come to her!

Here's the annual Christmas picture that Jim dreads so much each year! I have to start talking about it days in advance, just to prepare him - LOL! I'm sure his reticence has nothing to do with the fact that i'm completely anal-retentive about the whole procedure, from clothes and hair to sitting positions, and that i make him suffer through about 20 shots (and sometimes multiple sittings) before i'm even remotely satisfied. It's for posterity, dammit!!

We're all excited that bowling season has started again, because that means Leslie spends weekends with us! Last week we had an extra-special treat: Leslie's sister Brandi (who is a student majoring in Deaf Education at California State University Northridge) came and stayed two nights with us! We also took advantage of the extra time together for Leslie to open her Christmas gifts, since she won't be with us during the two-week Christmas break.

CHRISTMAS MORNING!! Maelin woke up around 7:45am (yes, we're sure it will get much earlier in years to come...) and was thrilled to realize that it was finally time to open all those presents! She got a few small things (clothes, a snow suit, Magnetix, books), but her 'big' gift was a new kitchen set with dishes and food accessories!

After Christmas morning at our place, we got ready and headed to Grandpa Les and Grandma Pam's house for family Christmas with them. I love this shot of Maelin - i think it captures her excitement about the whole day! In the afternoon, we headed to Great Grandpa and Grandma Minkstein's house for a meal and a few more gifts. We also had Christmas Eve at Nana and Papa Gleeson's house (which was really nice) and Christmas at Great Grandma Schmidt's house last week...WHEW!

Happy Christmas and Merry New Year to all of our dear friends and family out there :)

Love,
Mama, Baba, Leslie and Maelin

Much to be Thankful for...

WE HAVE A NEW BABY!! My sister Shelli gave birth to baby #4 this morning at 3:56AM! Josie Kate weighed a very small 7lbs 2oz (her other three were 9lbs 8oz, 10lbs 2oz, and 8lbs 15oz, so this one seems so tiny!) and is 19 1/2 inches long. My mom and i (and Shelli's husband Darrin) were there to watch Josie make her way into the world. What a beautiful experience! I am soooo thankful for a healthy baby niece, an amazingly strong sister, and the opportunity to have seen the births of all four of my nieces/nephews!

We were thankful to wake up on Thanksgiving morning to the first snow of the year! A beautiful blanket of snow (just a couple of inches) on everything...and Maelin was sooooo excited! She and Baba spent some time outside making an awesome snowman...

...and sledding down the not-so-big hills around our house! We were definitely thankful for Baba's safe return home after seven days of hunting up north.

While Baba was up north, Aunt Maureen and Adam came to keep us company and stay overnight with us -- we had a blast! We did some shopping, went out to eat, played at home, and best of all, Mama and Aunt Maureen got to stay up until 2:00AM and talk til we couldn't keep our eyes open any more!

We've made a break-through in our nightly bed-time routine. While Baba was gone up north, Maelin and i started working on her going to bed by herself! We played up the fact that she looooves to do things by herself, and she went to bed that Sunday night while i worked on school work at the table. The first night took 45 minutes and she yelled for me three times (but didn't get out of bed), so i considered it a success for the first night! By the third night, she went to bed by herself without any calling out for me :) Buuuuut, then Baba came home the next night, and she thinks she's missing out on something at bed time! Every night she says, "Not MaeMae bed do-by-self!" She's actually done very well, but it's taking time. I'm thankful for the extra time to catch up on things around the house while she's falling asleep!

I'm also thankful for those of you who are still reading our blog :) Last Sunday marked 8 months since Adoption Day (4-2-07), and we appreciate those of you who are still hanging around!

xoxoxo,

Mama, Baba, Maelin and Leslie

Mae's First Halloween

I mentioned about a month ago that we'd reached the six-month mark since our adoption of Maelin. We had an appointment with our homestudy social worker, who sent a report to our agency in California. Along with the report, we needed a few pictures, so we took an updated family picture last weekend. Aren't we cute?! :) Jim set the timer and we all posed...i figured that Maelin would be completely confused by the timer and no one really taking the picture, but she "cheesed" just perfectly! Now we have a new game: Maelin makes us sit on the hearth in front of the fireplace while she runs over and 'sets the timer' on an imaginary camera, then runs and sits with us, commanding everyone to smile! It's fairly comical!

Maelin and BabaDaddy spent last Saturday afternoon gutting and carving two pumpkins from Papa and Nana. At first she was enthralled, watching BabaDaddy's every move...by the end, she was riding her tricycle around the garage while he finished carving the second pumpkin - haha!

I wondered how Maelin would react to the whole Halloween hustle and bustle, but she did just great! I bought her 'ladybug' costume at Old Navy for $11 (score!), and she was t-h-r-i-l-l-e-d!! The three of us went to a Halloween party at the Deaf Club in Flint on the Friday before Halloween, where she played games and hung out with some of her classmates and schoolmates. It was really a good time. On Halloween day, she wore her costume to school and had a blast trick-or-treating around the school. By that evening, Mama had had enough Halloween, so we only stopped two places to trick-or-treat: Great Gramps and Gram's (Mama's grandparents), and Papa and Nana's house. We stayed at Papa and Nana's house for a while and played with Jacob and Lucas while everyone visited. Then we headed to Uncle Darrin and Aunt Shelli's house for a birthday celebration for Cousin Lauren (who turned 10 on Halloween) and Adrienne (who turned 2 the Thursday before).

Leslie has been staying in the dorm a lot this school year. She comes home one or two nights each week, and Maelin looooves it when Leslie is home! This is the first year that Leslie has chosen to stay in the dorm on Halloween instead of coming home with us...i guess that's a sign of growing up! The end of the first quarter of school is coming up; i've heard mostly positive reports from her 10th grade teachers, so we're hoping for a good report card. :)

With Halloween successfully behind us, we're looking forward to the next big holiday 'first' with Maelin. We're guessing since Christmas involves presents, she'll handle that one alright, as well :)

Love to all,

MamaShonda, BabaDaddy, Leslie and Mae

Random Thoughts

I've decided that our newly-painted bathroom wall is way too plain...it needs a collage of pictures of Maelin in the tub! Here's the first picture in my new collection :)


Leslie stayed with us last weekend for MSD's Homecoming. We loved having her at home for a few days! On Friday night, she went to the Homecoming dance, which was a 50's theme (hence the white t-shirt, black leather jacket, pony tail and scarf!). But she let me put some make-up on her, and i thought she looked beautiful!

Mama's birthday was this past Wednesday, so we had the Frampton and Gleeson gangs over for cake and ice cream. The kids found a bunch of play sunglasses, and i had a blast recording their silly-ness for posterity!

This has got to be one of my all-time favorite pictures of Maelin and Leslie and i ... just us girls :)

I've had an interesting past few weeks. In addition to having a broken ankle (which is getting much better now), i got two spider bites which required a trip to the doctor, a shot and three prescrptions. We had Maelin's 12th IEP meeting (okay, i'm exaggerating, but you know us, we call them every couple of months just for shits and giggles...) which was extremely stressful, and then, because i don't have enough on my emotional plate right now, my purse was stolen from my classroom on Wednesday morning before school! Leslie's sidekick (pager) was taken, as well, so we've spent the last week or so closing accounts, cancelling credit cards, replacing things and doing damage control. *sigh*... But even in light of the stressful events of late, i have much to be thankful for, and i won't soon forget that.

Love to you all,

MamaShonda (which is Maelin's new name for me...ha!)

Six Months

Today is the six month anniversary of Maelin's Adoption Day... I'm thinking back to April 2nd and wondering how much she understood of what was going on. Did she understand that we were her new Mama and Baba? Did she wonder where we were going when we got in the van or on the airplane? I'm thinking of her foster parents and wondering how they coped with the heartbreaking task of letting go of such an amazing child. I'm remembering how much our lives have changed in the last six months, both positive and negative. In some ways, it feels like much longer than six months...i can't remember the last time that i had a couple of hours at home to myself...and i'm wondering what the heck i did with all of my free time before Maelin!!

Maelin has started calling Jim "BabaDaddy," which i think is completely adorable! A few times she's called me "MamaMommy," but Jim is consistently BabaDaddy :)

We're in our fifth week of school, and Maelin is doing very well. Getting up at 6:30am isn't always easy, but she loves going to school and talks about her classmates all the time. New signs she's started using in the past couple of weeks: who, which, now, remember, again, bib, forgot, new, said, you, excuse me :)

It's late and i'm exhuasted, so that's all for now...good night!

xoxoxo,
Mama (and BabaDaddy, Leslie and Maelin)

School's In!!

So we're smack-dab in the middle of a 'fake smile' phase, but i still think she's beautiful on the first day of school! We worked the 2nd half of the summer on earlier and earlier wake-up times so that 6:30 on Tuesday morning wouldn't be a shock to her system, and it was worth it. She was a little unsure of things that first day -- where are we going, what are we doing? But each day since then has gotten better and better. She rides to school with Mama every morning, and after school she takes a van that drops her off at Baba's work. So far, so good! :)

In other news, i'm officially an invalid. We have been trying to spiff up the place, and it was barn-painting-day on Saturday. Most of my friends know that i will go to just about any length to get out of work (ahem)...so i fell off the ladder while painting and broke my ankle! First broken bone of my life, and it really sucks. Trying to care for a 3-year-old has not been easy (hopping and crawling around the house - ha!), and trying to teach six of them during the school day is truly challenging! But my aides have been wonderful (like they really have a choice - grin), and we'll see how things go.

More later,

xoxoxo,

Shonda

The August Post

Here's my new favorite picture of Maelin! She's sitting on our front porch in her new favorite shirt, which was a gift from Aunt Maureenie :) And when i say it's her favorite shirt, i mean she wants to wear it every day...and if it's in the dirty laundry, she whines for a few minutes until she's sure that i won't just dig it out and let her wear it anyway!

A few weeks ago, we took Maelin on her first rides at a little carnival in Davison (again, the favorite shirt!). She loved the cars, merry-go-round, and slide-ala-burlap-bag, and then went on the big ferris wheel with Mama! I put my arm around her for the first few rotations, and then she moved it away -- no fear at all in this girl! She wanted to ride the bigger rides, but neither Baba nor i would ride them with her!

It's been great to have Leslie with us for a few weeks this summer! We went swimming at the beach, played at the park, and (pictured here with the shirt...did i mention it's her favorite?) rode the Huckleberry Railroad at Crossroads Village. Maelin really enjoyed the train ride :)

We've been doing a few home-improvement projects over the last several weeks -- ripping off wallpaper and painting the bathroom, finishing the upstairs closets, bleaching the gunk off the shingles, experimenting with sandblasting and staining the outside of our house -- and Maelin loves to be in the thick of things! She looooves helping Baba fix things...he says she's going to be an engineer when she grows up :)

I can't believe that the summer is coming to a close! Ten weeks sounds like such a long time, but it really flew for Maelin and i. We've really and truly had a wonderful time together, and althought i'm looking forward to the start of a new school year, i will miss the days at home with Maelin! And just for those keeping track (me!), Maelin's expressive sign vocabulary is at 233 words!! What an amazing little girl...we love her soooooo much :)

xoxo,
Shonda

July already?!

I can't believe that three weeks have gotten away from me since i last posted here! You would think that i could commit to posting once a week, but we've been so busy! Even if Maelin and i stay home and play all day, there just isn't time to do more than check email. Maybe if we had cable internet i would do it more often, but dial-up sucks, and it takes me forever to get logged in and upload pictures. Anyhoo...

Speaking of pictures, the top one is Jim and i on our 3rd wedding anniversary at the end of June. We went out to eat at Damon's in Grand Blanc while Maelin played at Aunt Laura and Uncle Jon's house (thank you Jon and Laura!!).

The second one was taken just a few days ago; we got together with my friend Kara and her two kids for a day at the beach ... what a great time! (The last picture was taken while we were swimming at the beach also.) Before i realized it, three hours had passed! Anyway, Kara and her kids gave Maelin a new towel, and she looked so cute in it, i just had to get the camera :)

The third picture was taken last night. I wanted to water some of my flowers that i can't reach with the sprinkler, so Maelin kept herself busy in some sand...andwater...and made a deliciously messy mud puddle! She said she was 'cooking' and told me over and over, "Don't touch!"

The next one was taken on the Fourth of July (you can tell i'm pretty concerned about the order in which i've posted them...). The three of us went to North Branch for the annual parade, and Maelin loved it! I think the tractors were her favorite part, but she really liked the horses, too.

Leslie was at summer camp at MSD this past week. She had a wonderful time canoeing, playing kickball, swimming, fishing, and traveling to Lansing to watch a Lugnuts game. Now she's staying the weekend with a girlfriend. They're going to Ohio to hang out on their boat for a couple of days, so that should be fun!

I guess that's all for now. I need to wake up Maelin from her nap if we want any hope of a decent bed time tonight!

xoxo,

Shonda

School's Out!

Isn't she beautiful?!

I'm so thankful to have survived the last couple of weeks of the school year and made it to the point where Maelin and i have ten weeks to spend together :) We are getting back into the groove of being together all day again -- balancing down time at home with short trips out to keep us busy.

The third picture down is our first time putting Maelin in a dress (she's SUCH a tom-boy and so darn active, they seem impractical except for special occations!) so we could go to a wedding reception. One of Jim's second cousins got married, and we attended the reception in Vassar last weekend. Maelin had a great time dancing -- what a hoot!

Our other recent adventure was a mini-surgery to remove any fluid that might be lurking behind her eardrums and causing additional hearing loss. We arrived at McLaren Hospital in Flint at 5:30am (ack!!) on Wednesday morning, and i walked back to the surgery room with her just before 7:00am. I was really worried about the whole thing, especially the anesthesia, but all went well. The doctor found no fluid behind either ear, so we know that her moderate hearing loss is just what we thought -- sensorineural and not affected by any ear infections. She also got her first hearing aids a couple of weeks ago, so we're working on wearing them more and more each day. She hasn't shown any real responses to them yet, but we'll go back to the audiologist in Flint some time next week for a follow-up appointment.

That's all for now. Maelin is sleeping, Jim is gone to a poker tournament, and i'm exhausted. Good night!!

xoxo,

Shonda

Our New Favorite Thing - Swimming!

Well, being back to work all day -- especially at the hectic end-of-the-year time -- and keeping Miss Maelin busy every evening leaves very little time for blogging! As you can see from the pictures above, we have a new favorite pastime: swimming! I took Maelin and Laura (bottom picture) to the Lapeer Rec Center on Memorial Day, and we had a grand ol' time! We have been running through the sprinkler at Uncle Jon and Aunt Laura's house, and we ran through one again at Great Grandpa and Grandma Minkstein's (second pic) this past Saturday. The top picture was also taken at their house. In it, Maelin is sitting with cousin Adrienne, also known as 'baby.' Ha! The third picture happened when Baba and Maelin were jousting for the same piece of faux crab meat one night. I thought it was a perfect 'Lady and the Tramp' moment and couldn't resist catching it on film! :)

Maelin continues to amaze me at the rate she's picking up signs! I have several more to add to our tally, but i think we're at about 85 signs now! She's also picking up a few spoken words, but it's just so obvious that she's a visual language learner at this point. Signing has been such a blessing for us! Our communication with Maelin would be seriously limited without it.

That's all i have time for right now.

xoxo,

Shonda

Surviving the First Week Back

It's been an interesting week! Bright and early Monday morning, i got ready for work and left Maelin and Baba to fend for themselves (Baba wakes her up at 8am, gets her ready for the day, and drops her off at Aunt Laura's house around 9:15am). On my way to work, i heard a sappy country song and started crying ... thankfully, Leslie was sitting next to me, so i had to choke back the tears and kept driving. When i arrived at school, i cried in front of the first person to ask me how i was doing! But the rest of the day was busy and happy, and before i knew it, it was 3:30 and i was jumping in my car and heading off to pick up Miss Maelin! Truly, it is nice to be back at work. I love my job, and i'm happy to be back :) It's hard to know that Maelin is not with Jim and/or i all day, but she's doing just fine at Aunt Laura's house with Jacob and Lucas. She really enjoys having playmates every day. I can hardly blame her -- i'm not nearly as fun as Jacob ;)

Maelin and i have enjoyed spending the long weekend together. It was raining on Friday morning, so we got ready and went to the post office and the grocery store. Baba called us while we were still in Lapeer, so we swung by his work and picked him up for a family lunch :) On Saturday, Stacey (my good friend and MSD co-worker) and her 8-month-old daughter, Josie, came to visit us for a few hours. We had such a nice time visiting with them and playing with the baby!

Funny story: earlier this week, Maelin pointed to bird poop on her swing, and i told her what it was. We cleaned it off and went on with our lives. The next day, she found some on the ladder to her slide, and we identified it as 'bird poop' again. Then a couple of days ago, i was trying to wipe the gunk out of the corners of her eyes, and she called it bird poop!! I had to laugh at that one!

In the top picture, Maelin is wearing a cape and hat that was hand-made by Ellen, who is the great-grandmother of one of my students, Jason. Even though Jason moved to kindergarten this year, Ellen still stops to visit me in my classroom :) If you can see in the picture, Maelin's baby doll is wearing a matching hand-made cape and hat ... thank you so much, Ellen!!

That's all for now. Hope you're all enjoying the long weekend :)

Shonda

The Weekly Update

It's Sunday morning, and Baba is having breakfast with Maelin, so i thought i'd jump on here and post a few of the more recent pictures of our cutie-pie :) We have been together almost seven weeks as a family. Each week gets better and better as we get to know each other more. She has become a bit of a Mama's girl at night time -- won't let Baba lay down with her at bed time any more! I think it hurts Baba's feelings a little, but it seems logical that she would want Mama when it's 'comfort' time. Baba's expertise lies in the areas of 'fun' and 'outside' :)

Last Monday we finished up Maelin's hearing testing at the audiologist in Flint. When we were done, we ordered hearing aids (our insurance covers most of the cost!!) and made impressions for earmolds. We're hoping to slowly get her used to the hearing aids during the summer months so that, when she starts school in fall, she'll be wearing them full time.

We've also had several 'assessment' appointments with our local school district, in preparation for her IEP. So far, we've met with the teacher consultant for the hearing impaired (sorry, their title, not mine!), the audiologist, a speech/language pathologist, and an early childhood teacher. We have two more left -- another early childhood teacher and one more appointment with the speech/language pathologist. I am hoooooooping that we'll get the IEP scheduled before this school year ends, so that we can get all of the arrangements made before school starts in the fall. Cross your fingers for us!

I am going back to work on Monday (tomorrow) with very mixed emotions. I miss my students and i love my job, so there is some excitement in getting back to work and into that routine. But i have a sick feeling in my stomach at leaving Maelin every day for four weeks. The upside: she'll be staying with my sister-in-law Laura, and if i have to leave her to anyone, i'm glad it's her. Jim is planning to stay home each morning so Maelin doesn't have to get up quite to early. He'll get breakfast for her, get her all ready, and then drop her off at Laura's around 9am or 10am. I'll take off right after work each day and be there by 4pm. And after June 15th, we'll have the whole summer together :)

Leslie is at Desales (in Brooklyn, MI) for an Art Workshop weekend with other deaf and hard of hearing kids. Thankfully, she rode down with one of the houseparents (it's two hours each way!), and she'll ride part-way back with the same woman. We'll pick her up at Great Lakes Crossing this afternoon. Maelin will be happy to see her :)

Take care-

xoxoxo,

Shonda

Mother's Day musings

We've been so busy over the past several days! If we're not grocery shopping or going to appointments, we're playing in the sand box and feeding the fish in the pond :)

Doesn't Leslie look beautiful?!? The above picture of her is from MSD's Prom, which took place this past Thursday night. Leslie asked me to meet her at the dorm before the prom and drive her there, so i did. (Baba stayed home with Maelin, which gave me some much-needed one-on-one time with Leslie, and a dinner out with my friend, Shelly!) After school that day, Leslie's sister Brandi went to the dorm to fix Leslie's hair and make-up ... WOW!! By the time i arrived, she was all dolled up and ready to go :) We drove to the Prom (which was held at the Flint Association of the Deaf), and i went in with her for a few mintues, before leaving her to hang out with her friends. I haven't talked to her since then, so i'm anxious to hear an update on how things went! :)

We've had an eventful last several days. One day last week, we went to lunch with Kaleb (a former student of mine) and his mom, Barb (the second picture is Maelin with the Wendy's happy meal bag on her head!). Last Saturday, we had a visit from Mama's friend Maureen and her son Adam, who is ten days younger than Maelin. We've been down to visit Jacob and Lucas a couple of times (the bottom picture was taken while playing with sidewalk chalk at their house). On Tuesday, we had a play date with Erin and Ryan and their mom, Cindy (Erin was a student of mine at MSD last year). The third picture was taken last weekend at the kitchen table. I was writing out my bills, and Maelin had to be sitting there with me. The calculator kept her busy for a while, and then we added some stickers, just for fun!

As Mother's Day draws near, i reflect on the happiness that Maelin has brought into our lives in such a short amount of time. But i also think of the two other mommies that she had before me. One of them gave her life -- and we can judge her for abandoning that baby girl, but we don't know what things were like for her. We don't know what a difficult decision it was, or what circumstances surrounded it. We DO know that she placed her baby, bundled and warm, on the steps of the orphanage, with the obvious intention for that baby to be adopted by a loving family and given a better life. I also think of her foster mother, who cared for her for more than two years. I know that she must still be grieving for this beautiful little girl. We've only had her in our lives for six short weeks, and i already can't imagine life without her...

Happy Mother's Day to all you fabulous moms out there ;)

Mama

Tutu Time!

We loved the sunny days this past weekend and spent lots of time outside enjoying them! On Saturday, Maelin and i went to Great Grandma Schmidt's house to visit with her and to meet Uncle Tom and Aunt Chris for the first time. We had a really nice visit, and Aunt Chris won Maelin over with "This Little Piggy Went to Market" :) Afterwards, we went to Aunt Shelli's house and played outside with Drew and Adrienne (poor Adrienne doesn't have a namesign yet, so Maelin calls her 'baby' - ha!). Maelin had SUCH a great time playing with all the cool stuff ... when it was time to go home, she threw a major fit! But she was asleep in the carseat about two miles down the road :)

On Sunday morning, the three of us did the grocery shopping and ran a few errands. When we got home, Maelin napped and Baba mowed the lawn. That evening, we had a wonderful time when Uncle Jon, Aunt Laura, Jacob, Lucas, and Popa/Nana Gleeson all came over for a cook-out and some family time. Fun! Uncle Jon gave Maelin a golf cart ride (top picture), which is always appreciated! We also went for a walk in the woods looking for morrels, but we didn't find any. (Baba is ITCHING to get up north for some proper 'shrooming!)

So far this week, Maelin and i have balanced our week with some venturing out and some staying home. I find that Maelin really enjoys the times that we go out. When we're home for too long, she gets whiny. Maybe it's because she's such a social person? I'm not sure. I still think it's important to spend lots of time at home, but i'm glad she enjoys our time out.

On Wednesday morning, we went to an audiologist in Flint for Maelin's first hearing test. They were only able to do part of the testing (most children need more than one sitting for a complete hearing test due to the time it requires). So far it looks like she has a moderate hearing loss (50-60 dB) in both ears, with the right ear being worse than the left. The audiologist was concerned that Maelin's tympanogram (which measures movement of the eardrum and can signal an ear infection, and therefore, an inaccurate hearing test) showed a possible ear infection, so we went to the pediatrician that same afternoon. He also did a tympanogram (with the same results) and looked carefully at her ears. He does not believe that she has an ear infection, but rather some significant scarring on her eardrums -- which can affect the typmanogram measurement (i think) and contribute to hearing loss. He referred us to an ENT in Flint, so we'll make an appointment and follow up with him soon. We'll also go back to the audiologist again in a couple of weeks to complete the hearing testing.

I forgot to mention that Maelin and i visited Baba at work this morning (see picture above). She loved seeing him in the middle of the day, and he loved showing her off to his coworkers :) Maelin was much less delighted at leaving Baba at work when we left...again, we had a screaming-crying-fit (until Mama drove up to a park and Maelin got a glimpse of the play equipment - then suddenly the tears disappeared!).

Isn't the tutu picture a hoot?! This afternoon, Maelin and i pulled out the dress-up box (thank you, Aunt Jeanie and Amy!), and she has worn the tutu ever since, except for bath time. She insisted in putting it back on after bath, over top of her pajamas! I'm guessing we'll wear it to bed tonight...!

Time for American Idol and some ice cream for The Three of Us :)

XOXO,

Mama, Baba, and Maelin