Friday, July 24, 2009

News!

When you have to go look for a link you posted somewhere else to find your blog...that's bad. Well it's no secret for those that read along that this isn't a steady commitment by any means. I wish it was, I often think..."I should blog that!" I just never seem to get around to it. Tyler is grown by leaps and bounds and so it seems is our family. We decided several short weeks ago that we would be open to adopting again domestically, rather than through foster care, and before we knew it, we were matched! Not only were we matched but it's with an already born baby who is 3 months old today. We have decided to call him Matthew Malachi. We are so in love. Haven't picked him up yet, but are in love none the less :) We will meet him on Tuesday, July 28th, which is also happens is Mike's birthday. We plan to have an open adoption with his birth mother, and hopefully his 1/2 birth siblings as they get older. We can't wait.

Tomorrow we are taking Ty for his last "only child" outing. We are planning to go to Richardson's Dairy. It's a working dairy farm that makes it's own ice cream, and has mini golf too. I don't know why, but I want to take Ty mini-golfing. I'm sure it will be a spectacle. Oh well.

Mike and I are both doing well. I have stopped working because 2 boys, 15 months apart will be work enough, thank you! We still have all the dogs too. I think Daisy will live forever. She's slowing down and turning more grey daily, but she's still a love. Dudley and Dewey are about the same.

Let's see, Ty will be 18 months old on Sunday. Time has flown. I could never have imagined how emotional adopting our second child would be. The raw emotion of Tyler not being my "only" and the deep, intense fear that I will never be able to love another as much as Ty. He's my baby, my little guy. He makes discipline nearly impossible by covering his face with his hands when he sobs. A quick word from Mommy seems to shake my rough tough guy to his very core. Thankfully a hug and kiss and he's quick to forgive and forget, till he does it all over again. He still loves to clap his hands, blow kisses, and call the doggies to come and play. He now calls me "Amy" which is interesting. Loud and clear at the top of his lungs. I'm sure other mothers at the play ground get confused.

Mike has taught him the wonders of puddles, just in time for all the rain we've had. He loves them. Loves all water really. Everyone gets soaked at bath time and he was a star "swimmer" at his lessons earlier this summer. Plays in his little pool for hours, very content with a cup and a couple inches of water. He's a good boy...except when he's not :)

Well I should sign off. I would make all the pretend promises to be here more, but let's be honest, you get what you get. I'm going to have even less time soon :)

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Wonderful Mother's Day

So it's a few days too late, but I just thought I would let everyone know I had a wonderful Mother's Day. I was lucky enough to be driven (by Mike) 8+ hours down to VA so I could spend Mother's Day with my Mom. It was really nice. To top it all off, she sent me home with her "old" embroidery sewing machine since she got a new one. As my mother's day gift from Mike and Ty, I got 3 hours of private lessons on learning to run that thing! It is basically a computer that also happens to sew.

Obviously by this point Ty is walking. Running even. He's into and onto everything he can get his chubby little hands on. He loves being outside, playing in the dirt, or running down the side walk. He also favors walks around the block in his wagon with Daddy pulling. I'm not sure I ever guessed that life would be this great :)

We decided that we're going to wait till after the summer to start foster care. Okay, I think *I* pretty much decided it, and I'm not sure that I'm sure. I think I just want to spend this summer with Ty. I want more kids, but at the same time, I really love this little man. He makes me laugh, he makes me cry, he makes me swear I'm the luckiest Momma in the world and alternately if God hates me all in one day. His complete amazement when his grandmother points out a caterpillar makes me almost cry. Then his complete determination to pick it up and eat it makes me fall over laughing...

He gives kisses now, and even enjoys kissing the picture of his girlfriend Ella that we just got in the mail. He's going to be pretty upset when I break the news to him that I don't think we can make the trip to WI for her birthday party. We'll have to send her something nice :)

Well I have a 30th birthday party to finish planning for this weekend, so hopefully I'll remember to blog again before 2 months goes by!

Monday, March 23, 2009

Back by popular demand...an update!

So once people start commenting that I haven't posted to my blog in a while, I realize...yes...it has been a while! But..but...we've been busy. Story of our lives right?

In the last month or month and a half, we gutted the two upstairs bedrooms completely. We had the roof done, and added a tube skylight to the upstairs landing. We had new framing, pocket doors, spray foam insulation, blue board and plaster done in the rooms. With the help of my mother and step father, we painted, and laid new bamboo floors. The following week, two new windows went in. During the process, several credit cards melted, Mike hurt his right wrist, and my left wrist swelled to twice the size it should be, also developing a large very hard lump that might be a cyst. Trim and touch up paint to go, and Tyler will be OUT OF OUR ROOM! I'm a little tiny bit sad, but mostly, very excited. I do still have to paint a tree on his wall, refinish his dresser, and do some work on his taller dresser. But he can live in there before I do everything but the tree...and I hope to do that this weekend. I can't wait to see all the beautiful things Ty has all set up and in his room. It will be great for him to have his own space, and for us to have another space where we can put some of his toys.

The second room we have other plans for. We have a spare crib that I bought when Bridget was born, and a spare twin bed (there will also be a twin bed in Ty's room). We plan to set the room up, and then submit an application to begin the process to become foster parents. Tyler is 1 now, and it could take us quite a while to get approved. Once you get into classes, it takes 8 weeks just to complete them. A local woman I met is a foster mom and it took her 2 years to get through everything. We might be starting another long road but hopefully it will be worth it in the end. The road to Ty certainly was :)

Tyler's "road" is wrapping up. We got his birth certificate, and it was so wonderful to see that legal document say in black and white our names as his parents. I went to social security today to apply for his SS#. We should get that in 8-10 days, which should be just in time for us to squeak our taxes in before April 15th! Can't wait for that tax return to start paying off all the $$ we paid out to work on the house. Wish there was a flat screen in there somewhere, but there isn't!

Ty isn't walking yet. He walks behind his toys, and cruises everywhere...he's into everything. He is ALL B-O-Y! Over the weekend he gave me a bloody nose when he headbutted me. He likes to scream, and have tantrum. Already. He loves to climb and climb and climb...get everything he shouldn't. He just cut his 5th tooth. 3 new teeth in the last 2 weeks! 6 is right around the corner and 7 and 8 are just starting to swell. He might have been slow to start, but he's fast to catch up!!!

Other than that, I am waiting for summer. We visited the farm yesterday and it was wonderful to be out and see all the new animals, and visit the greenhouses to see all the food that has been started. I can almost taste the tomatoes now :)

Dogs are all good...Daisy keeps jumping the fence though, and that's a real bummer...limits their free time outside.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

A Year Ago...

So the last week or two Mike and I have been having a lot of important 1 year "anniversaries"...On January 26th, Tyler was a year old (Happy Birthday Big BOY!) January 27th was the 1 year anniversary of when we were notified we had been chosen. One year ago on that day, we cried and called family to tell them we were going to be parents. January 28th was the first day we met Tyler, all squished up and wrapped in a blanket, which such a huge head of hair his hats barely stayed on. The 31st was the day we knew for sure he was "ours". We had gone to court and the TPR was no longer revocable. We went and picked him up at Cradle Care, which had been our "home" for 4 days while we spent time with Tyler. We brought him back to our hotel, and were alone with him finally. We spent several days alone with Ty, curled on the couch, watching TV.

One year ago today, February 7th, we were finally able to fly back to Massachusetts. Tyler would finally meet our families. At the airport, hustling toward Tyler and I while Mike waited for our luggage were Erina, and a VERY excited Bridget. I think Erina would have stripped him naked just to see all of him right then and there if she could have. It was wonderful to finally see my sister hold my son.

We have several not so fun anniversaries coming up over the next few days though. Mike's hospitalization and emergency transport to Brigham and Women's....

We'll get through that...we have so much to be thankful for :)

Monday, January 12, 2009

Why am I so Awful at THIS?

I am a terrible blogger. Just accept it, be grateful when I do blog, and don't be angry when i don't...

So we're several days into the new year, and hoping for a calmer year than 2008 would be a useless prayer so why bother? I feel like we live most of our lives in fast forward these days. Something to do, somewhere to be, a task to complete, go to sleep. I made several "resolutions" for our new year as a family, and most of them are looking pathetic so far. I started a journal for Tyler, and I do enjoy writing in it at night. I need to get a little night stand to go on my side of the bed so I can put it there and remember to jot a few notes down each night...maybe a little reading light too, so I don't have the whole room lit up. I'd like to say that blogging more even made the 2009 list, but in reality...it just didn't!

Some of my resolutions for the new year include:

Our family finances. I'd like to have all our debt paid off with the exception of the home equity line, the cars and the house. Those are our "good" debt :) Like that exists right? Those are tangible debts that I don't mind I guess. The home equity line was from Ty's adoption...so it's a large sum indeed, though I'm actually pleased with how little we borrowed compared to how much the adoption total was. You don't want to know. Highway robbery. Someone's getting rich off adoptions...not sure who yet!

Starting a new "addition" to the family. We have several choices for this, and honestly I won't know what road to take till I know. Right now I feel a strong pull towards adopting a sibling group from foster care. We'll see how THAT party goes down when we get started. I wouldn't rule out adoption domestically again, or even Ethiopia.

HOME. We need to get stuff done on our home. By the end of 2009, I would like every room in our house, with the exception of the kitchen and bathroom to be at least 95% done. I don't honestly care that most rooms don't have baseboard. We can tack that stuff up when we go to sell!

FAMILY! We made a huge change moving into 2009 where I am a SAHM. Most days! I work 1.5 days outside the home, but Tyler comes with me. I want to get it all balanced and working a little smoother! So far I enjoy it, but I'm having a hard time not obsessing about the house, and Tyler and everything being perfect. I mean let's face it, this house isn't going to be perfect...Neither is my nose picking, back talking one year old...so I should just relax. I'd like to read to Tyler more too. We sing to him a lot, but he enjoys books, so we should work reading in more too.

FOOD: Eat more locally, continue the CSA from March-December. I also have pledged to try and make my own bread, yogurt and cheese while I'm home. It's really important to me that Tyler not eat junk. Okay...mostly not junk with the occasional fish stick. What can I do? The kid loves fish, and I can't whip up a fish dinner a couple nights a week! I also want to work on his palete a lot this year. Studies show that between 1-2 children develop a preference for 90% of the foods they will enjoy the rest of their lives. So the more foods you can cram in and have your kid try between 1-2, the better. We do pretty well with Ty. Haven't found a veggie he won't eat (he eats raw peppers, eggplant....you name it) Fruits also always get the green light. Protiens are hit or miss...usually depending on texture, so I think tha will get easier as he gets more than 2 teeth. He eats whole wheat bread and I'll be hoping to move him over to whole grain, home made bread in the next couple weeks. I think we have a good base. Just have to start on the exotic fruits and sushi before he's two and we'll be good :)

ME: We're going to join the YMCA, and I'm going to GO. And not feel guilty that I'm a stay at home Mom who let's the Y babysit her kid so she can swim a couple mornings a week.

I think that's it? When you read that do I sound nuerotic? I am. I can accept that.

In other updates, Tyler, at less than one year old, has learned to say NO. It comes out sort of like DOE!, or DOH!...very clear what he is saying though. I gave him his first tap on the hand a few days ago when I asked him to stop throwing food off his tray to the dogs, and he said, DOE!. I tapped (and I do mean TAPPED) him on the hand and he desolved into a puddle of crying mush. I'm a monster. He stopped throwing food off his tray though, and ate his lunch. I think I have to ignore bad behavior, it just feels like this baby was born knowing how to push my buttons. He will snuggle up to me, give me a hug, look at me and smile...then whap...slap me upside the head and knock my glasses off my face. Sneak attack.

Miek washed all three dogs yesterday. That might not seem like something worth mentioning to YOU, but in this house, that's a major event. The tub was full of hair, I brushed them all, and got enough hair to full a stop and shop bag, and they are SO shiny and smell nice and are clean. They just fell better too...you can tell that they might not love the bath (well Dudley did) but they love how great they fell after. Dewey, our overgrown guinea pig, is a total brat about getting brushed. He's really sensitive about his butt. No idea why, but our trainer tells us that we didn't pull his butt fur enough when he was a puppy. What ever THAT means. They all seem to love that I'm home now, and they are in and out of the house constantly through the dog door. They do still enjoy dragging things they shouldn't have through it outside so they can enjoy them though. Mike makes a regular trip through the back yard to find the remains of their naughtness. Last trip he found one of my pairs of shoes that I got for Christmas. I got a black pair and a brown pair. I was impressed that although the shoes are stored right next to each other, they got both black shoes, instead of one shoe from each pair. There was also one of Ty's bottles, which I can't for the life of me figure out how they got. It had no top on it, so either that's how they got it, or one of them ate the nipple and ring. We're on poop watch again...YIPPEE! I'm sure the snow is hiding other treasures, not to be found till spring.

As far as work on the house, we are at somewhat of a stand still. When we gutted the first upstairs bedroom we found out...SURPRISE! We need a new roof. Which can't be done till spring. So we'll be tarping the roof on that part of the house, and then we just have to dry out the boards on the underside of the roof before we continue to replace the drywall and flooring. It was no small task. There were 3 layers of wallpaper, 2 layers of drywall, then the horsehair plaster and lath. That is all out, but we're leaving the carpet (pink of course) in there till the last second to help absorb some dust. We took out one wall, which we'll be putting back, but in a different spot. It enlarges the room some, which will help...when we have 12 kids :) Erina is pretty sure we can fit 2 sets of bunk beds in there...in the very least 1 set of bunk beds and 2 single beds! For now when the room is complete we will put our spare queen size bed in there, a twin bed, and the spare crib. I want to have the flexibility in case we do foster care, and for guests. If there is room, I might put the twin bed in Ty's room, so I have a place to sleep in his room in case he has a bad night. Course if the spare crib is in the other room, I could always move him in there, and sleep on the queen bed, which is SO comfy. Love that bed.

Okay well there you go. Not posts for over a month, but that one was a long one. Hope you all enjoyed it, and I'll get here to post more...yada yada.

Happy 2009!