Training for New Reality Show

Well, Turkey Day has come and gone. We had a wonderful time. Truly. We spent our holiday training for what we hope will be CBS's next reality show spin-off of the Amazing Race, to be called the Amazing Race...WITH KIDS.

In just a few short days, and total on-the-road time of ONLY 38.5 hours, we survived an infected, spreading bug bite that required a trip to Urgent Care (is it even possible to vacation without Urgent Care?), several close calls with potty stops (and not just the children), more horrendous fast food joints than I ever care to visit again in Louisiana, a highway shut down for a natural gas explosion (and then again on our way home still shut down for who knows what), an eardrum piercing not-enough-sleep-and-my-head-is-about-to-explode meltdown (or two), and a blinding rainstorm that lasted for about the last 11 hours of the trip home.

The beach was warm and beautiful and relaxing, however. And, as always, it was a "Beautiful Day In The Villages", while we were there. Even though I find the cult-like chanting of that mantra a tad bit creepy, it really does seem to be true. The weather was phenomonal, and the golfing from what I hear was terrific.

Thank you Mom and Dad for hosting a wonderful dinner, and doing all the meal planning! We loved seeing everyone. Natalie loved hearing Grandpa whistle. And Liam loved talking to Lucille about golf, and watching slugs with Aunt Nancy, and hanging out with Grandma and meeting Grandma's other more quiet grandchildren (her dolls, Sonny and Annie). We had a wonderful time. Now it's on to Christmas, if we don't pass out first.

Liam's Adoption Musings

Since I've been cranking out paperwork this week, Liam has been my little copycat. When I had to get a floor plan of the house with all the room dimensions (is it just me or does that seem over the top, especially since they will be IN the house for our homestudy interview), Liam sat next to me and drew his own floor plan complete with bath tubs and closets. Then he drew a picture of the baby in Russia, with a very large (warm I guess) sweater with stripes and polka dots and she (he said she!) had orange hair. Then he did a miscellaneous "form" with lots of letters and numbers that actually looked like they could be in Russian. Is it just coincidence that his "sentences" have lots of check marks and X's (like I do in my planner every day, and also like I had to do on a lot of homestudy forms) and also a lot of three little dots... Makes me wonder...do I use the three little dots too much?.... perhaps so...
Anyway, we also got to do some good adoption talk after Liam hopefully and cheerfully asked if we were going to "Throw that one away" (pointing to Natalie) when we get the baby from Russia. Excellent time to jump in there and reassure that no one will ever, ever be thrown away. Except maybe Tigger...but that's a different topic.

The Paper Chase Again

I feel like I've done this before. An adoption Dossier, that is. I was a little disheartened to realize that pretty much nothing transfers over from the China paperwork to Russia, especially since none of the paperwork can be older than a year. So, we're pushing through it all one more time. Pages and pages of questions about every last detail of us and our family lives. Not to mention everything being Notarized and Apostilled (by the Secretary of State) I may be overly optimistic but I think it will go faster this time. US Immigration has a new policy that allows one "free" change of country - most likely because the situation with adoptions in China is causing a lot of people to look at alternatives. I am hoping this change will be quicker than our original Approval, because that was the longest part of our wait last year.
I am also thinking that maybe doing this two years in a row will make me some sort of expert so I can maybe work for an adoption agency. Except, of course, that everything in international adoption is in a constant state of change, so any knowledge I've gained so far would undoubtedly be out of date in another month or so.
But in the grand scheme of things - I know, paperwork is the easy part.

Dino Hunting

I'm not sure why I am always optimistic about outings with the kids. They rarely end up the way the way I envision them when I first dream up a destination. For instance...the Natural History Museum's Dinosaur exhibit. With huge, life-like, animatronic (as in "they move and make sounds!") dinosaurs. What on earth made me think that this would fun for a 2 yr old?? I mean, really, do I imagine that a not-quite 3-feet tall child would find great enjoyment standing at the foot of a very tall, loud, man-eating monster in the middle of a field with nowhere to hide?
The pleasant surprise was that Liam was fine and even somewhat interested in the dinosaurs. Maybe he realized that my body only had so much energy, and all of it was being sucked dry by the terrified 2 yr-old wrapped around my neck like a boa constrictor while I tried to push a stroller with one hand on a gravel path with steps at various points just for extra difficulty. I realized half-way through that I was the only mother who did not understand what type of outdoor exhibit this was. There were very few kids Natalie's age there, and those who were very small were all in those "ride on your back" kid backpacks instead of a stroller. Lesson learned.
At the end of the day though, Liam got to see some dinosaurs and a cool exhibit of poisonous snakes that can be found locally (to make us all sleep easier around here) that had live mice in their cages for dinner. And he also drew a very cool dinosaur picture for me as soon as we got home. I guess I can't ask for more than that.

The big orange thing is the dinosaur (T Rex, I believe), and at the top is the path we took to get to them. The circles are 2 signs - one that says Don't Touch The Snakes, the other that says you can Touch The Snakes (though we didn't actually see one that said that).

Halloween, Birthdays, and Goodbyes

What a busy 10 days we've had! We celebrated Halloween, with our little fairy princess and Spiderman. We celebrated Natalie's 2 yr birthday, and Jim's 40th, and Grandma's birthday too! We've all been on a sugar high from the candy and cakes.

Natalie enjoyed her birthday, but the funniest part was when Jim lit the 2 candles on her cake and set it in front of her - she yelled "Hot! Hot!" and tried to duck under the table (see picture). She did not understand why we would be putting fire on the table. We did eventually get her to try and blow the candles out, but she did it gently, and from a distance.

Grandma was wonderful enough to pass out candy to all the neighborhood goblins while Jim and I walked the kids around on Halloween. They both had a good time this year.

It was absolutely wonderful to have Grandma with us, and we really hope we didn't totally wear her out. We miss you already Grandma!