Month: March 2011

All the chaos it took to get Alex’s birthday pictures:

I really like the red planter sitting on my kitchen desk. I like it even better when there is a healthy green plant trailing over the sides. I am on my fourth plant in a year. I’ll take responsibility for one of the losses. One I blame on an unnamed person over-watering. The last one is Tabit’s fault.

The bad part is Tabit only digs in it after we are all in bed. I can’t catch her doing it but already I have seen the dirt on floor again. We’ll see how long this one lasts….

Harper Nicole Ryan arrived yesterday (3/28) at 12:20 pm. She wast 7 lbs. 4 oz. and 18.5 inches long.

I offered to give Amber a little time to herself so Abram came for a visit. The boys were so cute sharing and playing:

My favorite were the attempted hugs:

Who knew how much fun they could be – for both Alex and Tabit:

Actually Alex turned two in February, but I am just now getting around to taking his 2 year pictures. Wade did the photographing:

Today we returned to the Children’s Play Gallery in Delafield – a definite favorite.

There was also an attempted group picture with all three boys:

Before we left we made a stop for the Moms at Tadpoles. The boys even got free water bottles out of it:

Two of Alex’s favorite things.
1.) He is naken (translated to naked).
2.) He asked me to take his picture (“Mommy camera. Take picture”)

Alex and Abram learned to take turns with the cars this morning:

After they had that down pat, we loaded them up for a quick shopping trip to Trader Joe’s.
Later in the afternoon we were reading in Alex’s room. I took his picture (see here). As soon as I had my picture he says, “Alex camera”. He ran downstairs got it and brought it back to take my picture:

When 2011 began, my work asked us to start tracking our hours. I saw this as a giant pain in the butt. We are paid based on the project so there was no benefit to me and instead required a little extra time. I’ve actually found it very enlightening. I used to tell people I worked 10-15 hours a week. It turns out I work more like 5-6. Then came last Friday and an unexpected project. Today is Tuesday and I have already worked 20 hours (including the weekend). Geez. I am happy to say the project is done and hopefully the rest of my work this week will be minimal.
My view for the last four days:

I was cooking dinner tonight and Alex was having a snack of apple slices. I suddenly turned around to see this:

He found Wade’s sunglasses, put them on, and must have been sitting for quite a while before I saw him. As soon as I started laughing he got a very self-satisfied look on his face. This boy definitely needs some sunglasses of his own.

We are still waiting, which is expected. Our hope is to be “matched” with a baby sometime this year. Then we will have to wait another 4-8 months to go get the baby. For those of you interested in the process I have learned a lot while waiting.
When your home study (HS) is complete you are given a date (ours is 6/10/10) and put on the official wait list. The official wait list is not shared with the public or with waiting couples. However there is a forum where you can voluntarily add yourself to a list. We know this list isn’t complete (and my guess is it only has about 30% of the couples waiting). We added our name to the list in December 2010 and have gone from number 17 to number 13. The forum is public if anyone wants to keep up with us – we are HHB. I like to periodically check the forum to see when referrals have been received and the wait time after a referral to receive a travel call (TC).
I initially thought couples and babies were matched straight down the list. This turns out not to be true for several reasons. The biggest reason falls under the heading of “special needs”. In our adoption world special needs can mean anything from a mother who drank during pregnancy, an extra thumb, asthma, a one-time corrective surgery, to epilepsy, down syndrome, or cerebral palsy. In our initial paperwork we received a list of medical conditions and were asked if we would consider a child with any of them. We marked yes to a few and no to most. This document is often the reason people are matched with a child out of order.
We also receive emails every three to four weeks with a couple of babies with special needs. Anyone with an approved home study can review the children’s medical histories and then ask to be considered. All of the interested families are reviewed and a referral is made. In this situation the HS date once again comes into play. We have been asked to be considered for several babies, but haven’t been matched to with one.
The good news: 13 babies (both special needs and direct referrals) have been matched with couples since January 1, 2011. This is much higher than the usual 2-3 referrals a month.

Wade and I have been looking for a new lens (Canon 24-70mm 2.8f) for over a year. We knew we could save $300-$400 by buying a used one, but used ones are hard to find. After a year of looking and two near misses (meaning it sold before we saw the post on craig’s list), we are buying the new one. It should be here by the end of next week!

I think the catalyst for this was Wade having to fix our current lens (Canon 50mm 1.4f prime lens) again. It is very delicate and tends to need repair work after a gentle fall. With a two year old and a Mom who carries it everywhere that happens quite a bit. Wade successfully fixed our lens once again (saving us a large repair fee), but he’s not sure the piece will be repairable next time.

I think I have just as much fun at Chuck E. Cheese as the boys. We even learned a fun fact today. When the workers open the store they play all the games to ensure they are in working order. Then they leave the tickets for the kids. We happened to be the first ones in today and the boys gathered up over 150 tickets – more than the normal 10 tickets they accumulate in a visit.

Tonight I introduced Alex to bubble baths:

Alex and Abram spent pretty much all day together. We did some morning playing. (The pretend sleeping might have been the funniest.)

And of course you can’t play in the bed without some jumping too:

Then we played outside after naps. The weather is finally warming up!

Have I mentioned lately how much Alex loves diggers?

Wade and I attended Papa’s funeral today and then loaded up the car for our drive to Milwaukee. It’s been a crazy trip and I think we are all ready to be back in Milwaukee. Alex was once again an awesome traveler.

We spent last night with my sister and her husband, but we got in fairly late. This morning Alex had a lot of fun exploring the newly completed nursery. He tested everything out to make sure it was ready for Harper’s (my niece) arrival (very soon).

Then Melissa introduced Alex to clementines and he ate a couple while watching “monsters” on TV.

We made time for a few more pictures before our drive to Paducah.

We got to Gram’s house and Alex enjoyed a little time outside and a few snacks:

Alex and Gram played the rest of the day while Wade and I attended the visitation for Papa.

Wade and I drove to Auburn and picked up Alex early this morning. Alex must have known I had an agenda, because he napped the entire way back just like I wanted. That left the afternoon free to take Alex to his first basketball game! As soon as we walked in the door we saw the face painting and got a paw print for Alex:

Then we got to our seats to watch the action!

We took Alex to the hospitality area after the game and introduced him to the bean bag game. He couldn’t quite make the throw, but figured out a way to make it work:

Then we took a few pictures before loading up the car and driving to Nashville.

Wade and I made it through two of the four games yesterday. We took off to meet Jamie and her boyfriend for dinner:

Today we enjoyed being with Dad and Laura and watching the Wildcats play! (Fourth row seats didn’t hurt either!)

We received the news this morning that Wade’s Papa had passed away at the age of 92. He died within four weeks of Granny. We’re not exactly sure of our plans, but obviously we will be heading to Paducah for the funeral sometime this weekend.

Alex woke up this morning to two new playmates – Kaley and Amaris. The three of them immediately started playing and didn’t stop all morning!

Then it was time for a group picture before we headed to Atlanta to drop Wade off with his parents.

We successfully got Alex loaded up and headed to Auburn for the rest of the week. Wade and I checked into our hotel, changed clothes, and then drove back South to meet Marshall and Tarver for dinner:

Wade woke Alex up early this morning (7 am) when he headed to work. Since we were up we went for a swim and had a huge breakfast. Then we had to check out of the hotel (see picture here). I didn’t have any great ideas for entertaining Alex so I decided to do something for me. We drove to the Gaffney outlets mainly for the Pottery Barn Outlet. I was rather disappointed with the selection but we still made a few purchases. Alex got to play on the playground before getting back in the car. I gave him his new book to read on the way home and he fell asleep while reading it. (Sadly I was driving and couldn’t get a picture of the book actually covering his face.) For lack of a better idea, I drove to the mall where I could park in the parking deck and Alex ended up with a two hour nap.

Then we went into the mall for lunch (chick-fil-a) and playing (the mall has a great play area). There also happened to be a train and Alex loved his ride!

As soon as Wade was done with work we picked him up and started our drive to Macon, GA. Alex entertained himself with my sunglasses:

We arrived in Macon, GA to have dinner with the Alexanders (and to meet Sam). Adam and Lyz had plenty of things to entertain Alex – the tool bench and air gun being his favorites!

We attempted a group picture, but my lens and no flash made for a blurry picture:

Now we have a short drive to Warner Robins where we are staying with the Gilmans’.

Wade had to work today (boo), but Alex and I continued the fun. Shelley hosted lunch for us and Alex loved all the attention. Lea Ann was happy to read to read his new book:

Alex and I both took a nice nap and then played in the hotel for an hour waiting for Wade. These “Look & Find” books are definitely a favorite of Alex’s (Thanks to Amy for giving him his first one at Christmas!)

The nice part about Greenville is we have family nearby! Wade’s Aunt Louise and Uncle John met us for dinner at Stax Omega. Uncle John must really love his family. Look at what he did at Alex’s request (of course he got the idea from his Daddy):