Just life stuff...

Little Bitty and I had a "Guatemama" playdate yesterday. We are so lucky in that there are a lot of adoptive families here and so many with children born in Guatemala. We met a couple new friends and saw some that we hadn't seen in awhile. They are all very cool mommies with adorable kids. However, within an hour of leaving the playdate - Little Bitty's cold had progressed to thick, green goo coming from both eyes and her nose and she was visibly miserable. The doc put her on a strong antibiotic - which is helping, although she's missing picture day at school. I say all this really in a long apology to any other mommies at the playgroup. I HOPE that we didn't infect any of your kids - I would not have brought her if I thought she had more than just a runny nose! I really don't want to be that nasty mom who drags her kids around sick.

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What else is new? Let's see... Little Bitty has started loving being read to. It is so cute, she has her favorite little books that she brings me each night (Elmo's So Big, Backyardigans Hide and Seek, Pat the Bunny, Animal Parade). I love that she is enjoying books so much. I do find it strange that her favorite page in the animal book is the vulture and hyena. ?

The other thing is that Brother has started reading to Little Bitty. He'll only read the books that he's SURE of the words - and we aren't allowed to smile or comment how sweet it is... but it is really sweet.

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Daddy has been at a conference this week - we have been missing him very much. He'll be back tomorrow and we have big plans of decorating for Christmas. Brother has already gotten his stocking out and filled it with his rubber lizards* and it now accompanies us everywhere. It's waiting in the car right now so that we'll have it when I pick him up from school this afternoon.

*I have had an inquiry as to where to find rubber lizards. We've had luck at Walmart, Walgreens, Publix, the Orlando Airport and my sister in law got some really cool ones at the Rainforest Cafe.

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Lastly, I told Brother today that in January Grammy, Nonno, Zia and Uncle Pete are all coming for a visit. I commented that Uncle Pete had never been to our house before. Brother replied, "Well, he's in for a treat". I can't tell if my four year old has already mastered sarcasm - or if I'm doing an even better job at this mommy-business than I realize.

Good Times

Brother (calling from the bathroom): Mommy, can you come check on me?

Mommy: Why? Are you done?

Brother: No, but I have a surprise waiting for you.

Mommy (somewhat reluctantly): Ok.

Brother (sitting on the pot, as Mommy opens the door): Look...I can wiggle my nostrils now.

Mommy (relieved, watching the accomplishment): Oh, that is a surprise. Good job!

Happy Thanksgiving - more pics

Happy Thanksgiving.
Well, let's see...my husband is the best spouse and daddy that I can ever even imagine. My kids are so stinkin' cute and unique and loveable (I don't care if I'm biased - I'm just glad I feel that way). Our extended family is all happy, healthy, supportive and loving. That's all that matters. And I am thankful.

More pictures ~

Family hiking at park in our town - beautiful fall day!

Wolverine.

Some pictures...

Not a lot to write about - but some pictures to share. Not much going on for Thanksgiving... but our little family will have a good one (if Mommy gets to the grocery store today). I've been twice this week already - but haven't felt like tackling the Turkey, etc. shopping. But, as we've previously determined, I work best under pressure.
Now - for the pictures! Edited: more pictures to come in another post. Blogspot is being persnickety right now.

Daddy and the kids making Snoopy Snow Cones, how fun is that?!

Brother's newest addition, "Stubby". Yes, each rubber lizard has a name.

Eating spaghetti - always a challenge...

Another hectic Mommy Moment, but all is good.

Yesterday Brother and Little Bitty and I had a delightful play-time at an indoor play area after we picked Brother up from school. They both played hard and had a lot of fun. But - have you ever stayed somewhere about 5 minutes too long? First, had we left a little earlier - I would not have seen that one of the other play area attendees had po-po'd her pants (she was like six or so!) And the subsequent chicken buying experience may not have been so unbearable. It was hot, crowded and after I ordered and paid I saw the 83% rating on the wall - it was stamped "Follow up Scoring" - apparently 83 was an improvement. (And this was not some run down KFC, people. This was the "nicer" chicken place with the cute cows..."eat mor chiken", no thanks.) I had told the kids we would get the food to go - so we stood in the cramped waiting area with me holding Little Bitty because she's at the stage that you can't set her down unless you're prepared to chase her and pry other people's chicken out of her hands. They gave us our drinks and condiments and we waited and waited for the food. Finally, as they are setting our bags of food on the counter, Little Bitty had had enough and she began to wrestle the open bottle of milk I was letting her sip on away from me. At that point, it somehow slipped and flew through the air landing and bouncing - completely spraying and giving a good milk bath to the man in front of us (seriously, all up the back of his pants). As I apologized all over the place and tried to lamely clean the milk up (off the floor - not off his pants) with napkins and my foot (Little Bitty is still in my arms)... Brother yells from across the eating area, "Oh oh, Mommy - something spilled." He has squeezed a mayonnaise packet until it popped and has mayo all over his shirt, hand, table and glass divider. I think said chicken place should thank me for distracting all the customers to the point that most of them may not have noticed their low inspection rating.

I know my last post had a similar waiting-in-line-and-the-kids-are-so-hard-to-handle story... and I really am not one of these people that think being a mom is SO HARD and dread taking them anywhere. When we got home I was mainly laughing as I told Daddy about it. I have two beautiful happy, healthy kids - and honestly - they didn't spill milk or mayo on ME - so, it's all good. :)

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On a completely different random note - does anyone find it odd that every time I listen to the radio here I hear the song Funky Cold Medina? Sure, I like some Ton Loc as much as the next girl - but really - every day? Does he live in this town or something? What is going on?

Work-life balance

It has been 2 1/2 years now that I've been working from home. I appreciate the fact that my company does this SO much - so I try not to complain about having to actually do the work. However, the biggest adjustment - or risk - to working at home is that it is hard to separate the two (home and work) and devote complete separate time to both. I find myself procrastinating on work projects because I know I can cram and get it done at some point - since it is all right there at my house. Case in point - I was up until 2am last night finishing something that HAD to be done by this morning and should have been done a week ago. Some of the "work hours" over the last week have been instead devoted to reorganizing bookshelves and making some cute hand-stamped Thank You cards for Brother's b-day gifts.

I had a professor in grad school tell us to think about our study habits from our undergrad years... and then realize that these will also be our study habits for grad school because just because we were now older, it didn't mean we had suddenly changed our ways. He was so right - and apparently now that I'm even older, I still haven't changed my ways. Ah well - I'm perfect in other ways. ;)

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In family news we had a nice weekend. Brother and Little Bitty had a date with Daddy on Saturday (while I "worked") and went to the Nature Center and then to see The Bee Movie. Our Little Bitty did great at her first theatre movie - Daddy said the only time she fussed was when Brother wanted a sip of the shared soda.

Daddy worked on Sunday but Brother, Little Bitty and I joined him for lunch and then went to Michaels for some baskets to help organize some of my shelves that suddenly jumped to the top of my "to do" list with my looming work deadline. Michaels was packed for some reason and we entertained the whole mass of waiting people by Brother telling me a long, involved superhero story (think Neverending Story with Spiderman, Woody from Toys, and a donkey somehow involved) - all the while Little Bitty yelled "Dada!" into my cell phone and ran from rack to rack "gently" touching everything she could reach then placing most items on the floor then laughing as Mommy scrambled to replace them, tried to catch her, not lose the place in line, and feign interest at the very animated story being shouted at me. Times like that make me laugh so much - I feel like I'm in a movie about a busy mom and I admittedly get a little stressed at points with it all... but really I LOVE IT!

I found a chicken nugget in my purse.

That was about two weeks ago. So, this past week when I was traveling for work - I'm sure I looked pretty nervous when the airport security guard told me they needed to search my purse. They had run it through the scanner twice and couldn't figure out some object showing on the screen. I mentally reviewed the list of things I had recently removed; before-mentioned nugget, magnifying glass, three pacifiers, rubber lizard, drug samples from my MD sister, tiny hair brush, multiple tiny hair accessories... the list goes on. This was after our trip to Florida. Now - on my way to Charlotte I was sans kids and having these random things in my possession may come across as bazaar. I told the guard - "there is no telling what you'll find, last week I found a chicken nugget". She laughed - and pulled out an apparently threatening looking ball-point pen (coated in nugget-type crumbs). Shew - that was close.


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A couple pictures from the Pump It Up Birthday Extravaganza (we have many more - but I don't want to post publicly because they all have other people's kids in them):

A good read

Wanted to share this link to an article in the Washington Post. Most of you reading have probably already heard this spiel from me or others and know not to listen to the one-sided media coverage on happenings in Guatemala adoptions. But, if you're interested or want a good article to pass on about the threat to international adoptions...Slamming the Door on Adoption -
check this out.

Four years ago today...

I woke up, five days overdue, determined to meet our son. I had been having pretty consistent contractions since the night before and was doing all I could to keep them going. We headed on foot to the local coffee shop at about 6:00 am and after walking about 1.5 miles we arrived back at the house, contractions still coming... but not in a way that I thought would birth a baby. But maybe - I speculated - this isn't as bad as some people make it seem.

Fast forward about 8 hours. We were at the hospital, checked in and waiting for our son to make his arrival. It felt surreal - it still does as I remember it. We had been to ALL the classes, and taking what we learned very seriously, we had packed our bags with games, magazines, music, movies - we were all set to have a delightful birthing experience. I thought that perhaps I'd even do it without pain medication. HA!

The surreal feeling continued as I agreed to an epidural relatively early on in the process - and as I developed complications that would require an emergency c-section. The memories from this part are somewhat disjointed, scary, a little panicked - and then, finally, the most intense relief and emotion I had ever felt (similar to getting that OUT of PGN phone call for those of you in the Guat adoption world). "Is he OK?" I cried, "Yes, he's perfect. He's huge. And he's perfect," my husband kept replying.

And he was - perfect. We had a couple names picked out - but when we met him - we knew right away which one was for him. He stared up at me when I held him that night. He was all swaddled up with a little hat on and about all I could see were his incredible blue eyes that looked so wise for this newborn baby. Now at four years old - he can still look at me with those eyes and capture my heart and attention in a mere second. I look back at him with wonder and I ask myself how I got so lucky. My little guy's answer is always, "God must really love you." I have struggled some with religion - but our two children are all the evidence I need to know that miracles happen and that, yes, God must really love me.

Happy Birthday, Brother! We love you, snuv you all the time.

A Halloweeny Day

Preparing the pumpkin

Getting down and dirty, Daddy and Griffin create a masterpiece.

Dressed for the big day - MiniMouse and "Batman dressed as Superman"

Ready to head out for the Trick-or-Treating - check out Daddy and Brother's finished pumpkins! Pictures don't do them justice...I think we may take our show on the road soon (I'll cook the chili - they carve the pumpkins).

Little Bitty caught on pretty quickly to the Trick-or-Treating and was soon leaving the rest of us in her dust as she headed to the next house!

A Princess and her little treasures.

The Ghost of Red Sox Past and Brother. Yes, Halloween was a family affair this year.

Back at the bat-cave, Daddy demonstrates to brother the correct way to eat a pixistick. Note the ghosts hanging throughout the house in the background - this was one festive Halloweeny place.
Little Bitty demonstrates the correct way to eat a lollipop.

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Little Bitty has just brought me her wet diaper. She laid it on my lap and then took off. Bare bum and all. That's my cue to stop blogging and start parenting.

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One last question - on a scale from 1 - 10 how bad is it to oversleep and miss your scheduled parent-teacher conference? Is the offense reduced if your child is not quite 4 yet and you know he has many more conferences to come? How about if you took time off yesterday to participate in the class Halloween party?