Franks North meet Franks Central!!

As the Franks family (well 8 of them) poured through the door in an excited rush Tricia bit her dad's hand.  Not too hard, just enough to let him know she knew this was BIG!  I love the idea of telling the world how you feel through your actions and sometimes overwhelmed could most definitely equal the desire to bite down on something reassuring, soft and firm.

The week of meeting some of the Ryan's side of the family could not have gone better.  We watched as our little extravert roamed the house, showing, telling, watching and laughing.  Tricia literally loved on and was loved on by everyone in the family.  See photo albums here https://picasaweb.google.com/113461846703736390919.  With some she was in their arms in 10 minutes.  With others it took a couple days but as a new parent watching our toddler assimilate, I felt sheer joy!  These are the folks who will be in her life from now on.  Granted, Tricia has an unusually large number of folks to get to know but you know how they say that children know where they belong?  Well, Tricia's remarkble sense of self has announced to me and everyone around her that this is where she belongs.  Mimi (Gma Franks) and Grandma (Gma McLennan) were love at first site.  Papa (Gpa Franks) and Grandpa (Gpa McLennan) were love at first silly.  As for the aunties and uncles?  Let's just say Tricia thinks them all quite attractive and has eyed them up, cuddled them up and snuggled them up.  Tonight she even said Maggie for the first time so clearly, yay!

The thing about Tricia is she let's you know how she feels about everything.  You may have noticed this is a theme throughout my postings but it is so fundamental around here I feel I need to touch on it often.  Humour me as I list yet more examples....

• The bird bath is a smallish dish of water sitting on the table in the garden.  For Tricia all water is her water and this water was just so inviting.  As we sat on the patio eating supper we watched as fingers dabbled, toes stretched up, clothes came off, and our girl climbed up to perch atop the bowl just before fully immersing her lower half in the "bath".  She stayed there for almost 45 minutes all the while talking and gesturing to herself about who knows what (see pics and let me know what you think she is saying) PS - the bird bath has been moved from the table to the garden safety purposes
• "I would like to potty train" became clear the night she peed on the potty on the patio with just her and 5 of the Frisbee team boys out back after dinner at roughly 9 pm while the house was brimming with folks (no joke like 30 people).  No treats, no nothing.  Just "yup it's time to pee for the first time" here and now.
• "Light!!"  Tricia is a little obsessed with light switches.  Also, she loves stools for reaching things.  Tonight Daddy said not to touch the kitchen light switches.  He said no twice and the second time was a serious discussion.  The third time Tricia was rushing not be seen and all of a sudden the stool gave way, Tricia's hands dragged down the wall as she smoked her face on the way down.  Bloody lip??  No problem, this is the second round of a bleeding face this week.  The first one was a face plant on the driveway (very sad for mommy and daddy).  Really Tricia doesn't mind these little mishaps as they equal snuggles and ice in a cloth to suck on.  She is fascinated by "bo-bo's", hers or anyone's.  That said, she did not notice last night when her father had his nose broken at Frisbee, or when we left her for the hospital, or when he looked horrible tonight. I guess she thinks he can handle it.  PS - clean diapers are amazing for blood collection.

There are more stories than I can type now.  It is hard to decide what goes in since I have a plethora of options.  Like poop on the patio as just a small part of the amazing journey of potty training.  The getting out bed habit that is forming (get out of bed, remove clean diaper and place in trash, remove dress, put dress back on inside out, return to bed, take a nap).  The new interest in combing our own hair into a massive granny fro of soft curls and so on and so forth.  The fun never stops!!  Neither do the time outs, but that's OK.  We are getting good at "show me gentle" by crossing our arms over our body and "no kicking" Miley when she gets up in our grill.  We are also getting good at saying sorry to everything we are not gentle with: people, mommies, daddies, toys, furniture, plants that land on the floor and lose their lives.  The repentance is sincere and then we move on.

OK, conclusion time.  For some family is a blood line, a succession of generations tracked.  For others it is a group of people you're stuck with.  For the child in my home it is all about relationship.  We are in God's family as His adopted children because we are in a relationship with Him through His son Jesus.  In the same way Tricia knows her family by the love they show for her as they offer her relationship.  She knows her family by their love.  Love that....

Things I have got to blog about.... in no particular order:

• Ry and my 10th Wedding Anniversary!!
• Curry dinner for Nicole (with recipes)
• First solo escalator ride,
• Popsicle making made easy
• Generosity as a habit, or as we call it around our house these days, "sharing".
• Tricia's birth mom would like an update letter (Praise God - this is a total answer to prayer)