Christmas 2013

Let's see if I can wrap up 2013 before it's February 2014!

Tulsa and Kansas Christmas:

Christmas this year was so much fun! Since driving went fairly well last year we decided that was the way to go again this year. Unfortunately, we were faced with a bit of crummy weather in the form of sleet and freezing rain but thankfully it didn't slow us down too much and the road conditions were fairly good. LB did amazing on the drive thanks to one of my best parenting decisions yet. Drumroll please. I put an end to the Ipad right after Halloween. I felt like it was getting out of control and was more of a pain than a help. Every time I told LB it was time to turn it off he would try and negotiate "five more minutes" or would just plain throw a fit. I love some of the educational games and puzzles we had for him on the Ipad but the netflix and movies would just suck him away from actual play. So I told him the Ipad was going bye bye until our drive to Tulsa. He shockingly handled it pretty well and didn't really bring it up that much. However, we hadn't even pulled out of the driveway and he asked for it. HA! But I didn't even care because it kept him so entertained. He did play with some of the other stuff we brought for the drive and did a little sleeping and snacking but mostly he was content to play with the Ipad and that was fine with us!

He was asleep when we pulled into the garage at my parents' house and I wish I could have captured his face when he woke up and saw my mom standing next to him! My parents and my sister doted on him the whole time we were there and LB was just as happy as can be.

The morning of Christmas Eve, my dad and LB were playing a fun game of hide and seek. My dad decided to hide in the closet where LB's gifts from Santa were hidden. (In my dad's defense, he was not aware that was the designated hiding place and was just being a good grandpa indulging LB in one of his fave games.) Well, LB found my dad and since he has excellent plane radar he spotted the planes right away! My dad felt badly but in the end it worked out. We told LB that Santa delivered some of his gifts early and LB played happily with his new planes until it was time to go to church. He didn't spot his drum that was also in there so he still got to be surprised by a Santa gift on Christmas morning.

LB continued his tradition of doing a great job at the Christmas Eve church service. He got a little antsy at times but I just gave him a snack and he was fine. He loves all the singing and that helps keep him happy. We sat next to my friend's family and her daughter and LB kept each other happy prior to the service.

At one point, the minister said "King of Jews" but all LB heard was juice, which he then exclaimed quite loudly. I hope I never forget that. Too funny. My mom got a nice shot of D and me as well.

Last year during the candle lighting, I got a really sweet picture of my mom and Ezra with their candles and this year it was D's turn to be with LB. All I can think of when I look at this picture is the line "Wonders of His Love" from the song "Joy to the World." Two of my loves.

Christmas morning was a lot of fun. LB got his drum and my parents spoiled the rest of us as well. We had a yummy breakfast and LB spent the entire day in his PJs. Perfection!

Before LB was in the picture, our family would make the trip to Kansas City to spend time with my mom's side of my family. Several of my Christmas memories from childhood are from time in Kansas City with my cousins and grandma. When LB came home, my aunt, uncle and cousins offered to come to Tulsa instead so we could limit our travel with the little one. We appreciated that so much but found after a few years we wanted to get back to Kansas. So this was the year. The day after Christmas we said goodbye to Tulsa and drove to KC. LB adores my cousins and aunt and uncle and includes them in his nightly prayers even though we usually only see them about once a year. They go all out and play with him from morning until night and it makes such a big impression on LB. Gathering around the table for a post Christmas meal with my family is always a little bittersweet for me. I think we all feel the loss of my Grandma Virginia and Uncle David but we bring up their names often as we happily look back and reminisce and that helps greatly. They would have both loved LB so much. I wish I would have taken more pictures but many memories were made and that's what matters.

Christmas in Yellow Springs:

We celebrated Christmas with D's side of the family the first weekend in January. D's cousins had already opened most of their gifts from Nana and Poppy on Christmas Day and they were very patient while LB opened most of his gifts. D's parents held back a few and we gave them gifts but it was mostly LB opening gifts. He got some great loot, including a scooter, and the kids had a fun afternoon playing together.

I love that the three cousins are so close in age. They are tight and watching them play brings me a lot of joy. I know that D's parents feel the same way. 

Christmas 2013 will be tough to top. This stage is so magical and I hope we have several more years of it.

New Mexico Vacation 2013

I haven't done as thorough a job as I would have liked documenting our summer but LB started preschool this week so I'm feeling the need to move on. However, I can't move on without posting about the absolute highlight of our summer. At the end of July, we boarded a plane for New Mexico and LB had the time of his life. We met my parents and my sister there and we all stayed in a rented house together. This was our first real vacation with LB. We have a traveled a ton with him but mostly for visits to my parents, which is like a vacation but not officially, and he's been to Pennsylvania for my cousin's wedding and St. Louis for my sister's graduation and we went to Florida when he was 11 months old but none of that really counts. This was a true vacation. LB experienced so many firsts and he still talks about them. I think it helped for it to feel like a vacation for D and me since we had three other adults, who happen to love LB and he loves them, with us. I highly recommend the 5 to 1 adult to child ratio when going on vacation, especially since some of his favorite people were with us. I was usually number 5 on the adults he came to for something. I was able to read a whole book. I read, Wild by Cheryl Strayed, which I highly recommend. It was one of those books that I didn't want to end.

LB did great with all the traveling it took to get to Taos. We decided to take a direct flight to Denver and then drive 5 hours to Taos rather than take a connecting flight into Albuquerque and drive for 3 hours. We're still not sure if that was the way to go since the Denver airport was such a pain but that's what we did. LB had a moment during the drive that was unpleasant because he had to go to the bathroom and there was no exit in sight but other than that he handled it all like a trooper. Air travel isn't so bad when you have a child obsessed with airplanes. There was even a time on the plane where I got a glimpse into the future. I hadn't brought anything to entertain myself on the 3 hour flight to Denver because I assumed I would be keeping LB happy and occupied. Well, at one point I looked over at him and he had the Ipad in his lap and some pretzels in his hand and he was perfectly content. I thought to myself, "I should have brought a book!" and "I could have bought a trashy magazine!" It was a crazy thought. But one I welcome. Oh trashy magazines, I have missed you.

The house my parents rented was gorgeous and ended up working out perfectly. LB called it "New Mexico." He is still a little unclear on the whole concept of geography. We we would be out and about somewhere and he would say, " I want to go back to New Mexico." And when we'd pull in the driveway he would say, "There's New Mexico." It was so cute that I hesitated to correct him. 

LB woke up the first morning at 4:30am. That was not fun but we expected it would take some time to adjust to the 2 hour time difference. The second morning he was up at 5:30am and by the third morning he was up at his normal time of 6:30am. So it wasn't too bad. That first morning he made himself right at home and set up his planes on the table on the patio outside. His New Mexico runway had much better views than his Ohio runway.

That first morning he was also very eager to check out the hot tub. I think he convinced my dad to get in with him before 8am. He loved it and I'm not gonna lie some days the hot tub served as his bath.

The hot tub was one of several firsts for LB and he responded to all of them with such joy and excitement. He saw a rainbow in the sky, a glider and a hot air balloon. The below picture is right after the rainbow. You can't see the rainbow but you can see the happiness in his smile.

He went on his first hike, saw a waterfall, got to sit in a helicopter and saw all sorts of new bugs. The rest of us had been to Taos several times so I think we all enjoyed viewing it from his first time perspective. He also forced us to notice little things that normally we would walk on pass, like butterflies along the trail or a "really big rock." Some days we would be driving and he would shout "Look at that really big mountain." I loved being there with him.

The food in Taos is amazing and D and I were talking about it before we even got there. Since Taos is such a relaxed place most of the restaurants are very chill and kid friendly. Several of them even have these big outdoor areas where kids can run around and play while the adults finish their beers. And, of course, they all have amazing views.

LB really had a blast. He wasn't perfect. He is three. There were some bedtimes that were challenging and a few times he wanted things he couldn't have but those aren't the moments that I think of when I look back on our trip. I remember the good stuff because there was so much of it. My mom and my sister both came armed with bags of tricks for downtime at the house, which helped tremendously. I was really happy that he was so happy. I guess that's how it works.

On our last night there we went into town to the plaza and there was a bluegrass band playing. LB didn't hesitate and went straight to the area where people were dancing. My mom danced with him for a while but mostly we just watched him.

Here are a few more of my favorite pictures from the week.

Hopefully, we'll go again next year.

Odds and Ends

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July weekend! D and I are still here in New Mexico and I really don’t want it to end. We’ve gone on some hikes, had fabulous food and just relaxed with my family. I am going to really try to savor these last couple of days of vacation. I’ll post some pics next week.

Before we left for vacation I stumbled across a blog post that I wanted to share. From what I can tell this family adopted a son from Ethiopia and then the mom went back when her sister adopted a baby girl from Ethiopia. She takes AMAZING photos and I just couldn’t stop looking at them. When you get to the middle of the post there is a photo of a boy running with all his might to meet her and get some crackers she was giving to the other children. It breaks my heart and I just sat there and sobbed. The photo is so powerful and in many ways speaks larger than any words could. Click HERE for the link to that particular post. She has posted other entries since then about her trip back to Ethiopia and those are also powerful.

I was in a Starbucks yesterday and noticed they have brought their RED products back for a while. If you buy coffee from Starbucks then please consider checking out the RED products. For every 1lb bag of coffee that is purchased they donate a $1 to the Global Fund, which helps people in Africa living with AIDS. They also have RED gift cards so if you go there frequently then you can just load the card and each time you use it money is donated as well.

I heard from our social worker last night that Gladney is done reviewing our home study and they are sending it back to our home study agency. That means we are VERY close to being able to send it to CIS for approval. We are so ready to be done with this first phase of the process. I am hopeful we will be able to send it to CIS soon.

Before I sign off I wanted to say Congrats to my new blogging friend, Sam. She recently got her court date for later this month and I am super excited for her. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Ethiopian adoption process, the courts there close in August for 2 months or so for the rainy season so it is great news she got a date for before the closure. I am hoping she passes the first time and can travel this summer to pick up her little girl. Congrats Sam!

A week from today…

We will be in Taos, New Mexico. I CANNOT wait! My parents have spent many vacations exploring the west over the past several years and Taos is a favorite spot. This will be our third year heading out to join them for a week and we have fallen in love with Taos as well. D and I have been working hard the past couple of months on all the adoption paper work so we are looking forward to some time away. In many ways my mind is already there and I can envision myself finishing a hike to Williams Lake, getting some ice cream from the Taos Cow and watching the gorgeous sunsets from the porch. I think we all need that time every now and then to re-focus and relax and spend time with those people that are most important to us. I’m ready.

Here are some of my favorite photos from last year.

I LOVE that D is wearing his Gap Red shirt in this photo. We hadn’t made the final decision to adopt but it was on our hearts already and was something we were feeling drawn to.

Just one of the many gorgeous views

Abby is our pace setter on the hikes. She always leads the way.

I can't wait to take our little Buster to Taos someday. Our FBI clearances came in the mail last Friday! The FBI must have heard my plea in the last blog post. AND our home study is in the hands of Gladney. This is a huge step. They are reviewing it before it can be finalized. I was hoping we would have the home study sent to CIS before we left for vacation and that may not happen. But the ball is rolling and that is always a good thing. Have a great week!