"Mom My Ride" Video

I saw this one on another blog from my Jan 2007 DTC group. It is really funny!

Why I need to learn Chinese :)

I saw this video clip on youtube and very quickly decided I needed to visit the Rosetta Stone (company that teaches various languages online and with CD-ROMs) kiosk at our local mall! The guy there was very nice and asked if I would like a demonstration of the program. I asked if I could see the Chinese one. Two minutes into it I felt completely panicked! I had absolutely no idea what was going on...I just wasn't getting it & I kept thinking of this youtube video! So he offered to show the program to me in English (for people learning to speak English) so I could see how the program works. Instead I asked him to show me in Italian. I don't speak any Italian but immediately I could understand how the program was supposed to work and I was picking up a little Italian. Then I asked for German because I grew up in a German speaking household. Yes, this Rosetta Stone program was great, I was sure of it! I get it! Then I asked him to show me Chinese again. Again, I just couldn't get it. Here is what was making it so difficult for me. Let's say I wanted to say "The dog is under the table" in Italian. In English it takes 6 words to complete that sentence. In Italian it's around the same I guess (I'll tell you for sure when I get to that lesson! Ha!) but in Chinese it looked like a 25 word sentence. I had no idea of the breakdown of the individual words or articles. Where Italian seemed intuitive, Chinese seemed "foreign". Oh well, in the meantime, the boys and I are having fun learning Italian now but soon enough I will make the big leap to Chinese so I don't end up like the poor Dad in this video ;)

Mardi Gras Carnival

They had a carnival at the elementary school school Evan will be going to next year. It was very crowded and noisy but we had lots of fun. Did you ever see one of those boths that you go into and it blows around money everywhere and you have to catch as much as you can? I think I have seen them on TV on a game show or something. Well they had something like that at the carnival only you had to catch pieces of paper and the paper said how many "dollars" (fake school dollars) you have won. It was very popular and we waited in a long line to try. But it was worth it...Evan loved it! He was grinning from ear to ear the whole time he was in the booth!The second photo is one of Evan, his friend Patty and Ryan. They had a great time!

Wild West Day!

They had Wild West Day at Evan's school last week. I found some cowboy hats and bandanas leftover from a birthday party and stuck his vest on him. Presto...instant cowboy! Of course, his brothers "needed" stuff too so back I went to the basement for more cowboy stuff. I thought, its only a little extra effort on my part and everyone will be happy plus it will make for a good photo. Of course, I wasn't able to get all three in the photo at once with the assorted cowboy gear in the few minutes I had before I had to drive Evan to school. This photo was a close as it came.

Dave's Celebrity Look-a-like

OK, the first celebrity that they matched Dave with was Rodger Daultry! But it was absolutely ridiculous! They also match you with a few other celebrities and David Schwimmer was one of the other celebrities listed. So I posted his photo. "David Schwimmer" is actually the reason we met. It was 1996 at the Beaux Arts Ball held that year at the Philadelphia Naval Station and Dave (my Dave) walked by and I grabbed his arm and said "David. You look like David Schwimmer". He wasn't thrilled about the comparison but it started our first conversation. And that my friends, is the very simple story of how we met.

My celebrity look-a-like!

Someone from my Yahoo DTC group told us about this face recognition site. I tried it out and here are the results. I didn't know this girl but she is apparently from the TV show "Lizzy Maguire". Aside from similar facial patterns we also are both of filipino heritage. Maybe we do look a little alike? :) Check and see who you look like
www.myheritage.com

Barrier Adoption Video Journal (part 2)

I had this video on our blog before but I was having some technical difficulties and had to delete it. Here it is again. I think I got it right this time. This family did a great job putting together this video of their trip to China to adopt their daughter. Recently I received an email from a woman that saw this video on our blog only to realize that the orphanage they were showing was the same orphanage where her twin daughters had lived. It meant a lot for her to see the orphanage. I think she had some photos but not as many as these people were able to get. I can't imagine going through this adoption process without the internet. It has been a lifeline for us in providing us with important information and connecting us to so many others that have adopted or are in the process of adopting. Plus when it all seems so far away I can go to youtube and see all these amazing videos. It has been wonderful!

Cuteness

I know the problem. You make too many expressions!

Years ago, before we had children we used to travel a lot. On one trip, we were in Belize and went on a day trip to go snorkeling with sharks and sting rays. Frankly, I am still shocked that I did it because Jaws somewhat ruined me for open waters. Anyway, when we got into the water Dave was having trouble with his snorkel mask. Every time he went under water the seal would break and let water in and impair his vision. We figured he had a bum mask and so he swapped with the instructor but it was still happening. So the instructor told him to put his mask on and he would watch Dave go under water and see what was happening. They went under and then came up. The instructor proclaimed, "I know what the problem is. You make too many expressions!" At first we were very confused, so I went under and watched Dave too. Sure enough the instructor was right! Every time Dave went under water his eyebrows would go straight up with a look of surprise and this would break the seal on his mask and water would get in. Years later he has passed his many assorted facial expressions as well as his very expressive eyebrows to our boys. I took these photos of Derek today all with in a few seconds. Lets hope he doesn't wasn't to be a snorkel guide one day! :)

Play Date and Lunch

Sometime this summer after we officially started our adoption process, I bought I really huge double burner skillet at Target. For newly found superstitious reasons I wasn't allowing myself to purchase anything for our future little one. However I was allowing myself to purchase things under the premise of having a large family one day. This skillet fell into this category. Every time I break it out it makes me happy :) Today Evan's friend Greta came over for a play date and lunch. The kids requested grilled cheese. Grilled cheese for 4 took up the whole pan and two burners! I am prepared to cook in mass quantities for all my hungry kids. Just look how hungry Derek is with his mouth wide open waiting to be fed like a little bird ;)

The kids also played a lot of Club Penguin. I have a feeling club penguin will be mentioned in several of my blog postings so I won't go into all the specifics here but needless to say, we play a lot of it and the boys give me assignments to earn virtual coins for them when they are sleeping. I am 37 years old and up late playing children's games wondering if I am playing against an 8 year old or a 40 something? If they are good, I assume they are young If they are not good, I assume I am playing against another parent! Ha! ;)

Today is our 2 Month Anniversary!

As of today it has been 2 months since we have been officially logged in with the CCAA. 2 months down, how many more to go? Latest guestimates are 24 months from LID to refferal but there are rumors of a speed up :) I am keeping my fingers crossed that we can bring our sweet child home sooner than later. We love her already!

Special Friend Day

They had "Special Friend Day" at Evan's school this week. Each child is allowed to invite a special friend or relative to school that day. Evan brought his Aunt Susan! I know Evan was so thrilled that she could make it! Susan came over ahead of time to visit with Ryan and me as well. Later when we had to leave for tennis lessons, Ryan told me he'd rather go to his Aunt Susan's house. I guess he wanted his special friend time with her too :) A big thanks to Aunt Susan from all of us! XO

This is what happens when doughnuts are left unattended :)

Technical Difficulties

For the past couple of days I have tried to post photos and have not been able to do so. Working on solving the problem.
Thanks,
Cindy

Ryan's 3rd Birthday!!!!

Today is Ryan's 3rd birthday! For the past year, every time we would tell him he's cute, he would quickly respond with "No I not! I toddler!" What ever we said he was...cute, nice, smart, funny...the response was always the same, "No I not! I toddler!" So for a while now we have been prepping him for his birthday telling him once he turns 3 he won't be a toddler anymore, he will be a big boy just like Evan. He seemed to accept that so today Ryan is officially a big boy! We couldn't be more proud of him. Ryan is a genuinely sweet, happy go lucky boy and we are so lucky to have him in our family!

Cindy's Ultrasound :)

The Infamous Big Brown Envelope!

We got our Big Brown Envelope this week!!!! Essentially, its an official letter from the American Consulate in Guangzhou, China saying, "Congratulations! The US Citizen and Immigration Services recently notified the US Consulate in Guangzhou that the Dept of Homeland Security has approved your petition to adopt an overseas orphan." Have you ever read anything more exciting????!!!! :) It just makes it seem more real to us to get it and for some reason not everyone gets this letter/aka the big brown envelope so we feel really lucky that we got it. If you don't get it, it doesn't mean anything, your agency will just give you the paperwork to fill out. The Big Brown Envelope is filled with assorted adoption paperwork. Luckily the paperwork is both in Chinese and English :)

Peppermint Pearls Secret Pal!

We have joined a few email groups that let us communicate with people that are adopting from China around the same time we are. It has been wonderful and a great source of comfort, friendship and information. They have so many things that you can participate in i.e. Secret Pal swap, Quilt Square swap, Post Card swap... there is a lot of swapping going on! :) Anyway, today we got our first gift from our Secret Pal. We were late for a b-day perty when we saw it outside. As soon as I saw it I thought, we'll just be late because I have to open it...it's our first gift for our daughter! The theme was nightime comforts. Inside we found (see photo) cute PJs, a CD, a book, a teddy, a candle (for Dave and I) and stickers for the boys. I can honestly say I was as excited for the gifts for our daughter as I was for the stickers for our boys. It really made it so exciting for them and made them feel a part of the adoption process. In turn it makes it that much more special for Dave and I. I am really grateful to our Secret Pal.

We sent our secret pal gift out too this week but I don't want to post what it is in case she reads my blog :)

Evan is registered for Kindergarten

This past Thursday I registered Evan for Kindergarten in the fall! The past 5 1/2 years have flown by and I can hardly believe my sweet Evan is starting elementary school. I am so proud of him and so excited for him. Evan is an extremely bright and sensitive little guy and I hope the transition to kindergarten is a smooth and happy one. I took some pix before we left. You can see how happy Derek is about the whole thing. Unfortunately that very same morning Derek had an allergic reaction to some crackers I gave him. All of our boys and Dave are allergic to peanuts and tree nuts. The crackers I gave him had neither of these things. They were however ranch flavored and Evan had some allergies to pepper spices when he was younger and then eventually grew out of. We are guessing that is what Derek reacted too but to be sure we are making an appt with the allergist for him and Ryan for some further testing. Derek's reaction was pretty immediate. Withing minutes of one bite of the cracker he was vomitting and sneezing all over the place. I had to give him benedryl but did not need the epi-pen. It was pretty scarey but over quickly. Unfortunately to add insult to injury the benedryl I gave him threw off his whole sleep pattern. He is still playing catch up. I hope tonight is an easier night for all of our sakes.
The next pix are of Evan and Ryan before we left for Kindergarten registration. The last photo is with our neighbor's (lauren and Andi) and Evan's best friend Lauren. We all drove over and registered Evan and Lauren together. The had a great time! At one point the prinipal walked up to say hello and Ryan yelled "Monkey Poop". The kids were all hysterical...luckily the principal laughed too :) Outside of Derek's allergic reaction, it was a very good and memorable day!