~~The Funny Farm~~

Regan's Movie to her Australian Penpal

2011-06-19T16:44:00.001-04:00

Testing a video

2011-06-13T08:09:00.001-04:00

Regan and Konnor have penpals in different countries. Regan's penpal from Australia recently sent her a personal movie including videos and pictures. It was genius!!! I have never made a movie before, but I have spent HOURS the last two days figuring it out. I have used two different computers and can not get the darn thing to save to a CD or a DVD. I am now trying to see if it will embed in a blog and maybe I can just get them to look at the blog. Ugh!!! So frustrating!!! Let's see how it goes!!!

Something New- Friend Makin Monday

2011-05-02T21:32:00.001-04:00

Kenz at All the Weigh has a answer and question session every Monday. This week's post is about bookworms!!!! I LOVE reading!! Because it is more and more difficult to read at home seeing as how I have two five year olds under foot and because I travel alot for my job, I have discovered the beauty of the audio book. LOVE. Anyway, onto the questions:

1. How often do you read?   If I had my way, I would read everyday. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen so I get to read 4-5 times per week. I also listen to audiobooks and we visit the library so often (4-5X week) that the librarians know my kids' and nephew's names.

2) What's the last book you read and loved?   River Marked by Patricia Briggs. I love this entire series:)

3) What book(s) are you currently reading? One Foot in the Grave by Jeaniene Frost. I've already read it before, but I wanted to reread the first couple of books again before I move onto books I have yet to read later in the series.

4) Share a few of your favorite authors.   My 4th grade teacher introduced me to Laura Ingalls Wilder and she is my absolute favorite author of all time. I love that era of time. I love the tv shows, movies, books, etc the revolve around Laura. My more recent author loves are JK Rowling (Harry Potter books 1-5), Carrie Vaughn, Patricia Briggs, Charlaine Harris, Jeaniene Frost, Kelley Armstrong and Kim Harrison.

5) What's next on your list of must-reads? I am trying a new author, Nalini Singh. She is another urban fantasy author I have heard tells an interesting tale.

Link up at All the Weigh and see what other bookworms are reading!!!!!

Looking Back - State Fair 2011

2011-04-28T11:36:00.000-04:00

I realized that I never wrote about the State Fair this year. It didn't disappoint!!! The highlight for Regan was that we arrived at the Elvis Impersonator Show and we got seats off to the side, but close enough so that we had a pretty good blue. Regan kept saying over and over that she hoped that Elvis would wear purple. I was trying to tell her that I had never seen Elvis in a purple outfit and she might be disappointed if she thought he was going to wear her favorite color. I should just shut my mouth, because out came Elvis in a purple jumpsuit!!!!

It gets even better. For some reason, Elvis came down the stage, through the VIP section (yes, there is such a thing at the state fair impersonator contest ....these people don't mess around:) ) and through the front section right to Regan. He then held her hand and talked to her and then proceeded singing to her! Oh. My. Gosh. I thought Regan was going to pass out!!!!! He then went back on stage and finished his show!!! I have no idea why she caught his attention in that sea of people, but she did!!! I of course, had my camera on the wrong setting and did not get a good picture:(

We each rode a couple of rides, but spent most of the day admiring the animals and visiting the animal shows. It was a blast!!!! Shepherd's favorite part was riding the rides (the faster the better and Konnor loved everything.

Swim Bop, Easter, and Jogging

2011-04-17T22:31:00.002-04:00

Today we had a great time at SunSplash (or SplishSplash as Regan calls it;) We got season passes again this year because they were cheap for Cape Coral residents and a welcome relief during the hot summer. This is our third weekend in a row to go and Shepherd got to go today. To backup, Shepherd was not allowed to go last weekend because his behavior was so horrible the week before at the park. Shepherd has a lot of attention seeking behaviors that manifest themselves in negative ways. While in India, his orphanage director had told me that everyone praised Shepherd even if he was doing something he shouldn't be doing because he was disabled and didn't have to follow the rules that everyone else followed. What?!?! That doesn't work in my house, but 20 months later, we are still modifying his behavior. Shepherd LOVES SunSplash, however last week he screamed and cried and whined the entire time we were there because he wanted to monopolize the adults' attention. I ignored the behavior as best I could, but I had a game plan in mind. Last week I picked a time when my brother could watch Shepherd and I left him with his uncle while my mom and I took my nephew and Regan to the water park. I explained to him that he didn't have to go because I was sure he didn't like to go because his behavior showed me that he was having a miserable time. I was very sympathetic when I told him that I didn't want him to be miserable like that again and I certainly didn't want the rest of the family to have their time ruined with his negative behaviors.

When I was putting on my bathing suit to get ready today he asked me to please let him go and promised me he wouldn't cry anymore when we were there. I allowed him to go and he didn't cry and we all had a great time. I know that not everyone agrees with how I deal with his behaviors because not everyone sees these behaviors, but I do what I have to because otherwise he would be out of control. Like my mom says, better to deal with it when they are five years old versus 15 years old. I imagine we will have no more issues with tantrums at SunSplash;)

On really big, big news......Regan learned to swim by herself today!!!! She swims about 2 feet, but she does it all by herself!!! She told me that she was getting big and going into kindergarten and she felt she could learn to swim. So she did!!!! She is my Swim Bop!!!

Shepherd realized that she was getting such attention for learning to swim and so he got brave and tried to swim and then tried to open his eyes underwater. Peer pressure can be a good thing;) I hope the lesson learned is that it is rewarding to earn positive praise.

We also saw the Easter Bunny! Our church had their annual Lenten Party with an Easter Egg hunt, games and crafts. Shepherd really got it this year and loved every minute. Regan loved doing the crafts. Konnor almost thought he was too old for an Easter Egg hunt except he really wanted candy;) We then went down to Bass Pro Shops to see the Bunny. It was so cute, they had an ongoing Easter Egg hunt going on through the store. The kids loved it!! It was a great weekend!

With my news, I have completed Week 5 of the Couch to 5K. I just jogged twenty minutes straight! I love this program. Never in a million years would I have thought that I could do any physical activity for 20 minutes. I really, really struggled in the beginning and although I am not fast by any stretch of the imagination it feels good to get out there and exercise.

Gardens and Monster Trucks

2011-04-10T21:33:00.000-04:00

We got free tickets to see Monster Jam and although it was nothing I would have paid money to see, for free we had an absolute blast. Out of all of them, I think Regan was the most excited in the beginning....until she realized how loud they were!!! Shepherd, who is obsessed (and I mean quirkily obsessed.....crazy obsessed) with cars, he was in hog heaven once he realized what a Monster Jam really was. Konnor loved it also and couldn't wait to see Gravedigger:) All in all, a really fun evening! Regan and I have also been working on a garden. She planted this gladiolus from bulbs and is so excited to see them sprout. She also planted the iris from a bulb and we are hoping the rest begin to bloom. The rest of the plants are annuals because we wanted immediate results:) Shepherd could care less because if he thinks it involves manual labor he wants no part of it;) Next is trying to start a butterfly garden. Regan and I bought some pentas and some milkweed and have our fingers crossed we will have some butterflies in our future. Regan is also saving any change she finds because she wants to buy a rose bush. She is currently obsessed with roses. Maybe the Easter Bunny will have to drop one off at our house:)

Could Ya Grow Already?!?!

2011-04-02T21:57:00.007-04:00

This is a picture of 12 months shorts that we are going to donate to Goodwill because they are too short. Yay!! The shirt is also going because it is too small.

Look how scrawny he really is:(

The above picture was taken about 1 month after he came home....look how sallow he looks, so pale. He is definetly is healthier now.

This are 24 month shorts, but we are celebrating because they no longer fall down!!!

Above and below are pictures of how small his clothes are, but he has finally outgrown some clothes and we hope for continued growth.

I have no problem growing...outwards (darn those salsa and lime chips!). Unfortunately, Shepherd is not growing. Since he has come home almost 20 months ago, he has only grown about 1 inch and about 4 pounds. I kept thinking he would catch up, but this hasn't happened. We have been seeing an endocrinologist for another health issue with Shepherd and he became concerned with Shepherd's lack of growth. I am so glad he was concerned because I had been expressing concern for several months prior to our initial visit with them but no doctor shared my concern. When he told me that Shepherd would be only 4'6" at adulthood if he continued with his lack of growth, I was a little bummed. I have not shared Shepherd's entire health history because it is personal, but believe me when I say that he has several major strikes against him and I didn't want one more for him to overcome. After an MRI of the brain and pituitary, bone age x-ray of his hand, ultrasound of his thyroid and a 7 hour blood test (where he had an IV in his arm and had to sit completely still for 7 hours! Thank goodness he fell asleep after hour 4), it was revealed that Shepherd has a deficiency in his IGF-1 hormone. His human growth hormone is "talking" to his body fine, but with his low IGF-1 his body is not knowing to grow. Of course, the test for IGF-1 deficiency is only about 5 years old as is the growth hormone replacement. It is also a freakin' fortune at ~$45,000-$60,000 freakin' dollars a year!!!! Nuts, I say, Nuts. Thank goodness I just changed insurances and my co-pay is $10 a month. After several months and a gajillion phone calls talking to the insurance company, doctor's office and nurse educator we finally got approved for a 6 month trial of hormone replacement therapy!!! Yay, yay, yay!!!

Two weeks ago, Shepherd started on the hormone. It is injected twice a day and he is doing well with the injections. I give it to him at breakfast and at dinner. It can cause low blood sugar, but so far we have seen no side effects. I really, really hope this helps him to grow. In celebration, we went through his clothes drawer to see what sizes of clothes we have. We have plenty of 3T and 4T clothes because when he first came home he was four and I assumed he would be a little small for his age so I stocked up on 3T clothes. Unfortunately, he has yet to grow into those 3T clothes. He is wearing 12 -18 month shorts and 2T-3T shirts. He is 5 years 7 months old !!!!:( Luckily, he has a lift in his shoes so he doesn't seem quite so short, but he is so scrawny!! The lift is to adjust for his leg length descrepancy, not for cosmetic purposes.) I also want to help him to grow prior to kindergarten because I want him treated age appropriately and not like the 3 year old every thinks he is.......Cross your fingers and wish us luck!!

IEP

2011-02-24T21:27:00.004-05:00

Today was Shepherd's riser IEP. The meeting which determines where he will attend kindergarten. He has made huge gains academically, he knows all of his letters, initial letter sounds, can count to 15, signs all the letters, can write his first name independently and his last name when it is spelled for him, etc. My biggest concern for him is his language, speech, and social interactions. Shepherd needs to learn the power of language. The good and the bad. We are having major struggles with him lying. ALOT. And if I hear one more time that it is his age, I am going to scream!!!! It is not his age, it is deeper than that. It is more hurtful than that and it is damaging to himself and those around him. We got over a stealing stage, where he would come home from church and school with cars hidden in his pockets. He would hide stolen objects under his pillow. We had to "frisk" him before he could come home. We got past that and we have had no recent incidences. Thank God! But, the lying is so ingrained it is scary. I hope that when he understands the power of what he is saying (good and bad) than he will understand more of language. I so hope that this can be mediated. He also has other behaviors that I won't outline on the internet. He needs to learn non verbal communication. He needs to learn academic language. Etc, etc, etc.

It was decided that he would attend an Intensive Language class. The school district intially was telling me he would not qualify because he is an ESOL student. I countered that in that he is not a "true" ESOL student as I don't speak any other language other than English at home. Besides that, what does it matter the cause if the end result is that he is not language ready for kindergarten?!?! I was not pushing for regular ed, I feel he needs more support than regular ed can provide. He will spend the first half of the day in a regular education kindergarten and the last 1.5 hours in an IL class with a speech therapist and an ESE teacher. I am so hopeful that he will receive the support he so desperately needs! As his mommy, I hope that when he has a better ability to express his thoughts and feelings that some of the negative, attention seeking behaviors will subside (please, please, pretty please!!) I also desperately want him to have friends. He has little idea of how to interact with children his own age and would rather hang out with adults. His teacher reports that he has improved in this area and I so hope so, I want him to have a friend soooo badly.

The other bonus of this placement is that he will automatically be assigned to the school that houses the IL class. There is only one in our school zone. Only about 3 in the district. I have already gone to school choice to put Regan in the kindergarten lottery and if she receives my first pick they will be in different schools. This may sound odd, but I am requesting they not be in the same school. Because they are the same age there is the possibility they would share alot of specials and lunch time, etc. I do not want them compared to each other (as they already are) and I want them to develop their own unique personalities independent of one another. They already spend so much time together in extra curricular activities because of their identical ages. I hope this is the best decision for Shepherd.

Guess Where We Are Going This Weekend?!?!?

2011-02-10T21:31:00.003-05:00

Regan is so excited she can barely contain herself!!! We are headed to the Elvis Extravaganza so that Elvis' number one fan can shake her purps to her favorite purp shaker!!!

We had to sit in the back so that Regan could get her groove on. She had her signs all ready and Elvis actually came back to talk to her and tell her that he loves her! She was shell shocked that her idol came to talk to her and she talks about it all the time!!! The videos are of Regan at last year's extravaganza. We went to both "concerts" at her insistence!! :)

Handmade Christmas

2011-02-06T13:57:00.007-05:00

I am just beginning to learn to sew and so I decided to make most of my mom's Christmas gifts. It was a lot of fun!!

I made my mom this laptop sleeve using this tutorial from The Cottage Home! I loved it. I also made the gathered camera strap, but forgot to take pictures!!! It is probably pretty obvious that my mom likes purple!
I have no clue how to do buttonholes on my machine and so I sewed on faux buttons and just added velcro to close the straps. Next week when my grandmother comes down for a visit she is going to teach me how to do buttonholes:)
My grandmother bought Regan a sewing machine because Regan wants to learn to sew REALLY bad!!! She has been "sewing" for hours!!!

My mom also likes chickens and so I sewed for her a sewing machine cover using this tutorial. I have ribbon ties on both sides instead of a fabric strap. The sewing machine organizer thing is from this tutorial on Hoy Joyful. Super cute and easy!! I chose not to make the pincushion, but it turned out cute even without the cushion!

(And yes, I do sew on a tray table. One of these days I'll be able to invest in a real sewing table:) )
Another note: Regan dressed herself:)

New Year's Eve

2011-01-01T10:33:00.002-05:00

I had the best New Year's Eve!! My mom and I were running to JoAnn Fabrics to look for more fabric (go figure) and we decided just to go to DQ and get ice cream for dinner. While there, my mom ran into a friend of hers who told us she drives all the way from Estero (~45 minutes away from the Cape) to see a Christmas light show set to music. We had never heard of this show and when she told us where it was we realized it was about 5 minutes from our homes!!!! We stopped on the way home and watched an amazing 45 minute light show! Fantastic and the kids LOVED it!!!! It was such a great surprise and I loved sharing it with all the kids who had a BLAST! Here are some videos from last year's show that I found on youtube:

Don't you love it when great things just fall into your lap?!?!?

Four Years Ago Today

2010-12-20T10:13:00.003-05:00

I became an official mommy to the most beautiful, perfect, amazing, sassy little girl! On the 19th of December 2006, I first held Nan Zi Yun in my arms and she became my "Yunnie". On the 20th, it became official as I signed the papers and put my thumbprint on the papers that recognized legally that we were mommy and daughter.

Today, her most common nickname is Bop although she is also known as Big Boppa Flip Floppa, Baby Bop, Pippity Pop, Pip, Pip Pop, Doodle, Poppin, Yuncakes, etc, etc, etc. I'll never forget her two year old teacher coming to me very concerned that Regan did not recognize her name when she would call for "Regan". When Regan was asked her name, she would respond that her name was Doodle. I laughed when her teacher told me this story and did not share her concern! Regan rarely heard herself called by given name and therefore insisted it was not her name! At the same time, she also called me "Becky" because that is what Konnor calls me......again, just a phase and I was not concerned! So funny now because her teachers often call her "Raygee" or "RayRay" and have also nicknamed her a gagillion names!

I think it is amazing that God placed the most perfect little girl in my arms. She is a little Mommy's girl and I love her so much it hurts. My life is so perfect because she is in it.......I love this girl!!! I'll have to get a picture of her in her 'Gotcha Day " clothes and try to get them to post, but for now here is what I wrote on the one year anniversary:

The happiness I feel in this photo is unbelievable!

Still grinning like an idiot.

Little did I know, but I needed to appreciate this moment very, very, very much because for the next 11 months, Regan going to sleep and sleeping peacefully would not happen very often!

My first glimpse of her "aren't I clever smirk"!

I had to take the required picture in her "gotcha" clothes! She still fits (wish I could say the same for the clothes I wore that day!!!)

Here it is again! Her little smile!!

Warning: Sappy, dramatic posting from an emotional mommy ;)

One year ago today, I was given the most precious gift anyone can ever receive. In my arms was placed a red-faced, sweaty, slight odorous ;), bug bitten, but oh so beautiful and miraculous gift. I met my daughter, Regan NanZiYun. I have been thinking back more and more as this anniversary approached. Part of me rejoices for this day and yet the happiness is a little tainted because the coming months would bring such horror. I can't think of one without the other. December 19th, 2006 was the most amazing day of my life, but I think the day I will truly celebrate is the day my daughter was given to me again...the day she graduated from the hospital.

But, enough of the melodrama....only happy thoughts today! I remember the moment Yunnie was placed in my arms and I felt the weight of her and it became real. I began crying like a baby. She was smiling from the first moment and was thriving in the attention (it would all hit the fan a few days later !!!). I look at her now and think how blessed I am that I was chosen to be her mommy. She is such a funny, loving, active little girl with such a spunky personality! I can't even begin to describe how much I love my little girl, but it is the most amazing feeling.

Some Postcards

2010-08-14T13:34:00.004-04:00

Like I mentioned in my previous post, we have been postcrossing!! Here are some of our recent postcards. I also have the kids signed up to participate in some round robins, where a group of individuals send each other postcards of a certain theme. The kids have already received some native animal cards, Disney cards, trivia cards, and are signed up for lighthouses, map cards, sticker cards, and more. This is so much fun!!!! (and educational :)

This is Samson, on of the most complete T-Rex fossils in existence. Sent from Liza in Oregon!
Sent from Iovanna who also writes a finnish phrase on the back as she is originally from Finland. Hiva Poika - Good Boy

Regan wrote in her profile that she loves horses and so Joanna in Poland sent her a horse picture~

This card is really pretty in person because the gold is really shiny! Kitty writes that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police actually do dress like this, but it is mostly for formal occasions and not for everyday duty.

From Beatrice in Lithuania!!

Ima from Romania sent Regan a picture of a horse farm located in northern Romania.

Konnor received this postcard from Hendrix in the Philippines. It is of a Philippine Tarrier. It is the size of a man's hand!! Hendrix writes that it is the world's smallest primate. Too cool! I have no idea why this saved with that huge white space. It is not like this in real life.

Michelle in Sydney sent this postcard. She also decorates beautiful cakes. This postcard was stamped with the coolest koala stamp!

Sabrina is a 19 year old girl from Switzerland. Aren't all of the stamps so cool?!?!

We have many more favorites, but they haven't been scanned into my computer. I'll have to do that when I have time. Probably my favorite is one of Pippi Longstocking. I loved those books when I was a kid. The card was sent drom Holland and has the cutest picture of Pippi. A person from Belgium even sent Konnor an extra envelope with pamphlets of the Battle of Waterloo and Villers Abby. She also put 8 stamps on the envelope!!

Our New Hobby

2010-08-03T20:33:00.005-04:00

Through another blogger, we have recently discovered our new hobby!! http://www.postcrossing.com/ It is a site where you register to send cards to various places around the world. In return, you receive random cards back! Konnor and Regan have both loved buying postcards and stamps and then finding out where their postcards are traveling. They are even more excited to go to the mailbox everyday to see if they have received any postcards. So far, we have received and/or sent postcards to/from Australia, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Spain, Brazil, Netherlands, US, Belarus, Italy, Japan, Sweden, China, Czech Republic, Russia, Canada, Phillipines, Portugal, United Kingdom, and Lithuania. Both kids now have maps hanging in their rooms to mark the countries they have sent to or recieved from. The video is of a contest Postcrossing had recently where you sent in pictures of yourself sending your postcards. Isn't it amazing that all of these pictures are from people going to their various mailboxes located around the world, sending postcards to foreign countries? It is amazing that all around the world people are uniting for a common purpose and interest. It really is a small world:) Konnor is located a little after 4:40 minutes into the video and Regan is just after 5:50 into the movie!!

http://vimeo.com/13809748 from ana campos on Vimeo.

I Love My Kids, but Man They Tire Me Out Some Days!!

2010-04-28T23:10:00.007-04:00

Back before I had two, I always thought I wanted three;) I'll count my nephew, Konnor, as my third.......he did tell me today that I'm more of a mother to him than his own mother:( I love my kids, but it is hard to be outnumbered!!! I can't wait until summer when all I'm doing it working at KidSpirit, seeing a hospital homebound kid a couple of days a week, finishing my last pre-requisite course for the Speech Language Pathology program, and the rest is playtime and fix the house and yard time (desperately needed!!). Yay!!!

I Stink At Updating

2010-03-20T23:05:00.003-04:00

Cub Scout Camping Trip - lots of fun!!
You can imagine the Dorito mess aftermath.

Nature walk

Wacky Wednesday at School and yes, she is eating popcorn as a pre-breakfast snack.

Shepherd's new leg. He LOVES it, and so do I!

Sibling love.

Obviously as seven months ago we went to India and I haven't even finished blogging about the trip. Anyway, pictures, pictures, pictures.

Flight and Quarantine Scare

2009-08-10T21:46:00.000-04:00

Our flight leaving Tampa to Chicago left on time and Regan loved her first plane ride! We were in the very back row and I was so relieved because I didn't have to worry about her disturbing the people behind us. She loved flying through the clouds and picking through her carry on for what she would like to play with. The excitement of this flight was that it was the bumpiest I have ever been on. The fasten seat belt was on the entire 3 1/2 hours and the pilot came on several times to reassure everyone that everything was okay. The woman across the aisle from me had a very rough time and was obviously terrified. Regan was fine and actually fell asleep for about an hour. The landing was also the bumpiest I have ever been through and there were lots of claps and cheers when we landed. Regan was a little unsure of the landing and held on tight to my arm.

The Chicago leg of the journey started over an hour late. Something about how they couldn't take off without a head wind and so we had to wait for the wind to shift. Regan was a little shifty during this long wait on the plane, but overall did well. My mom was lucky that she had two empty seats beside her and so she was able to stretch out. Our airline was wonderful and the seats had monitors for every seat. Regan thought this was pretty special and loved that she was able to watch her own tv. I tried watching Ghosts of Girlfriends Past about ten times but each time it would start something would happen to interrupt my viewing. Bummer! Another favorite part of Regan's flight was mealtime. She insisted on ordering her own drinks and had a blast arranging her food on her tray. She was thrilled that during breakfast they had cantaloupe.
I have to admit that I was very apprehensive about the flight process with Regan. She is not known to sit still or have an inside voice and I was so worried she would lose it while on the plane. I am happy to say that she did great. She spent most of the fourteen hours of the second flight sleeping. She wanted to sleep on top of me and so I slept on our two seats and she laid on top of me and that is how she slept for several hours.

Once we arrived in New Delhi, we had to sit on the tarmac for an hour while we waited for a gate to open up. Once we arrived, Regan's stroller was no where to be found. I tried to find somebody who knew where it was, but no luck. There were several security guards with machine guns watching the flights disembark. Konnor thought that was pretty neat! Immigration had a huge line and so we stopped to use the restroom. It was one of the filthiest restrooms that I have encountered. Truly disgusting. What was so ironic was that it was right in front of the health checkpoints where they were checking everyone's temperatures to screen for swine flu. Signs all over about washing hands and proper hygiene and not 10 feet away was a cesspool of germs and filth.

At this point, Regan was absolutely exhausted and whiny and refused to walk. I go up to healthcheck point and realize that two of the healthcare workers are pointing and talking about me. They take your temperature by screening you with an infrared light that detects your temperature. Sure enough, I get pulled aside and she tells me that the light is showing that I am running a high temperature. She then takes out an oral thermometer, swabs it with some unidentified substance and tells me that I have to have my temperature double checked. Regan is crying and beside herself at this point, my brother has paid not attention and already gone through customs and my mom and Konnor are on the other side of the line hoping I get through.
The woman pulls out my thermometer and tells me it is registering at 100 degrees. She calls over somebody else who asks me a billion questions about whether I have aches, pains, sore throat etc. He takes my pulse and declares that I look hot to him (and not in a good way!). They allow me to give Regan to my mom and escort me to another waiting area outside the filthy bathrooms where they hand me a mask. I sit there with this scarlet letter of a mask with three other men who are obviously together and think this is all great fun. I could not share in their humor and I begin to cry because I am a cryer (something I so wish I could change about myself, luckily I'm a silent crier!!). Another gentleman comes over and tells me that I am being held and to hand over my passport and wait on the chairs. I am really, really scared at this point. One of the men waiting tells me that this was the holding area that we stay at until they send us into quarantine. After about 30 minutes or so I go into the office to ask them why I am waiting and they shoo me away and tell me to go sit down. Not wanting to cause an international scene I do as I am told but then realize that the other three men are free to mingle and so I go to the gate to give my mom the contact number of the agency and the orphanage director. I wanted her to have the information in case this didn't go well. The gentlemen who took my passport came out to look for me, but was fine when I waved at him to show him I hadn't jumped the fence ;). I return to my seat where I sit for another forty five minutes or so. My mom and brother are on the other side keeping the kids as occupied as they can. As I am sitting there, I realize that I am not going to be totally passive about this situation. I am usually very passive, but I felt fine and did not feel sick at all.

Another gentleman came out to tell me that they were holding my passport and I was being transferred to another area in the airport where I was going to be held in quarantine for 24 hours while they ran tests and continued to take my temperature. If I tested negative and had normal temperatures they would let me go at that time. If I didn't, I would have to stay in quarantine at a hospital for 5 days and receive medications. He tells me to gather my things for the transfer and I tell him that I do not think I am sick, that I had been carrying my daughter throughout the airport while holding a huge backpack and that I think I was overheated. I ask him to please, please retake my temperature. He looks at me with skepticism, but I ask him again to please take it, what could it hurt? He stated he did not know I was holding my daughter and that yes he would have it retaken.

He had me go to another checkpoint where they then took an axillary temperature. The health person calls my gentleman over and they begin to talk loudly with much gesturing and pointing at the other health point check. He tells me nothing and to return to my original seat. He then goes in and has another big discussion with the original official. That official comes out with my passport and I about cry again in relief. He gives me a huge lecture on calling if I feel ill and that they will let me go at this time. I come through to the other side with huge relief!!!

I couldn't get through customs fast enough. This whole time I was being paged to go to the information desk, but they would not let me contact information. The paging was from the airlines as they wondered why I hadn't picked up my luggage. It was now after one am and I was worried that my driver would not have waited as we were almost four hours late. Luckily, he was and so we didn't have to navigate the huge throngs of people outside waiting to accost you. I have never been so glad to reach a hotel!!

We've Arrived

2009-08-10T15:14:00.002-04:00

Updates at www.happyshepherd.blogspot.com or www.journeytome.com

Rocking Worlds

2009-08-01T16:31:00.002-04:00

Today I was walking through the mall because I realized I don't have a suitcase. I guess when I went to China I had borrowed Joel's. Somehow, it took me until today to realize that I didn't have anything to pack my clothes in!

So anyway, I'm walking through the mall and Regan is whining and begging to be picked up. Those of you who know us know that she wants to be carried, sit on my lap, or be somehow touching me at pretty much all times. I have been making her walk more and more because she is 3 1/2 and somedays feels like a ton. Othertimes, I am in a hurry and it is just easier to pick her up and go. As I'm trying to make her walk because I have things in my hands, I realized that this is the last week that my arms will only be devoted to her. That this is the last week that I'll be able to pick her up and carry her without leaving a little boy without a mom to carry him.

I think often about how not only is Shepherd's world about to be rocked, but so is Regan's. Don't get me wrong, we are so looking forward to finally bringing Shepherd into our family, but I also know it is going to be very difficult for Regan and probably myself to adjust. My heart hurts for her because I know that our dynamic is about to change. On the other hand, I also know that we are meant to be a family of three and I love Shepherd dearly. Some people may not understand how you can love a little boy living half way across the world based on a picture and some videos, but I do.

I picked Regan up and carried her through the mall realizing that this is a moment to be enjoyed because not only will my arms be fuller and busier, but pretty soon she will also be too big to be carried.

Just thoughts of the day. I'll post later about Regan and Konnor's week at soccer camp and our Home Depot projects!

I Have The Best Friends in the World!

2009-07-25T11:01:00.004-04:00

I don't know how I got so lucky, because I am surely very guilty of not always being the best of friends (not intentionally, but somehow I never really have my life together!), but I have the best friends in the world!

Especially now, when life is CRAZY busy I have several friends texting, emailing, and calling to make sure that I am okay and to ask how they can help. You guys know who you are and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Thursday and yesterday, I spent ALL day on the internet and phone trying to get plane reservations to India. It seems that mid-August is the worst time to try to book tickets because people are ending their summer vacations. After trying to book online, I realized the online systems would not let me book a one way child ticket. I called the airlines directly and their solution to the problem was just to buy a round trip ticket and use it to get Shepherd home from India and then I could travel back to India sometime within the next 12 months. Um, not so much Continental Airlines. Two thousand dollars later and then I would be stuck in India?!?!? Where is the logic? The online airline places (especially one with a gnome mascot!) really irritated me as I would spend alot of time finding tickets and they would advertise one price and by the time you clicked on the "Buy Now" button, the tickets would jump up in price to almost four thousand dollars. It was all a scam, that initial low price.

Three travel agents later and they said they had super deals for me.....at three thousand dollars a ticket! Not my idea of a super deal. Seems they could not find plane tickets back to the US. I actually talked to somebody in New Delhi directly and although she was very nice, she had no solution to the problem and said I could just try to find plane tickets home once we arrived in India. Not a gamble I'm willing to take. I was on the phone all day yesterday so much that as I was trying to get the passports in the mail for the visas and buy some essentials my battery died. I can't wait to get that phone bill.

As it stands now, I still do not have tickets, but two agencies think they have tickets on hold for us. They both are closed this weekend so we'll see what happens on Monday. Unfortunately, we may be flying out of Tampa, Jacksonville, or Miami as that is they only way to make the tickets under two thousand dollars. Yikes!!!

Regan is also sick again. I think the crazy schedule and her stress is making her sick. For those of you who do not know her well, she is VERY clingy to me. She has a hard time when intially away from me although I know she is find once I'm gone. At home, she even gets jealous if I spend time with the dogs and so we have really been working on her acceptance of that! The only person she doesn't get jealous of is Konnor. I think it is because he has always been there, even from the very beginning while we were in China. She always wants to be held and carried and although I do think having a brother is going to be a positive thing for her, I anticipate she is going to have a very hard adjustment. We talk all the time about what we are preparing for, and I think she is really starting to feel it as she is extra clingy and does not want me out of her sight. So, I am spending time with just her and reassuring her, but she is having some rough patches.

Today, I"m trying to get her well, trying to find my phone charger, and going to paint some rooms in my mom's house. Tomorrow, I"m hoping to get my house repainted. Yay!!

Just Slightly Stressed

2009-07-19T09:17:00.002-04:00

To say I'm just a little stressed is an understatement! I talked with Katie, my social worker, on Friday at 5 PM about time for travel. I was hoping to leave the first week of September. My mom is not allowed to take off from her job at the school district in the month of April because it is the end of their fiscal year (she is assistant director of financial accouting), I am in the middle of a couple of patients at the outpatient clinic that I need to follow up on bracing for the children, I could begin my first two weeks at the schools, Konnor could attend his first week of second grade, etc, etc, etc.

Katie said I had to leave the first week of August because my immigration paperwork expires at that time! Yikes! I knew it expired soon, but thought it would be no big deal to get an extension. For those of you not familiar with international adoption information, you must get preapproval from the Citizenship and Immigration services to bring a child back into the country. It depends on your completed homestudy, fingerprints from the Dept. of Homeland Security, and other things. I would probably be able to update my homestudy and get an extension with no difficulty, but she didn't want it to cause any problems with the US Embassy in Delhi. Vijay, the orphanage director, schedules our Embassy appointment to obtain Shepherd's visa to come into the US. She wants to schedule it right away because of the dates on some of my paperwork, including my 171H (immigration paper). Katie says the embassy appointment will probably be on August 10th. She wants me to leave for India on the 8th. Since I want to see the Taj Mahal before we pick up Shepherd, I will be leaving earlier!

I am so not ready. I have sooooo many things to do to be ready to leave work, and have the house ready for me to leave, and find boarding for the dogs. My grandmother is going to be watching Marmaduke, but Daisy is a runner and so she has to be boarded. That means of trip up to Gainesville to drop off the animals. Sometimes I feel like I am about to lose my ever lovin' mind! I can not believe that in three short weeks, Brudder will be home! Yikes!! I need to get off this computer and start getting stuff done!

All About "Brudder"

2009-07-15T21:38:00.009-04:00

Regan wants to talk all about her "Brudder". This has become his new name although for official purposes he will be known as Asher Shepherd ;) Shepherd is waiting for us in New Delhi, India at the SOS Children's Orphanage. He was born on September 26, 2005 so he will soon be turning four! He is 3 1/2 months older than Regan. Yikes!! I will update tomorrow on the process from India, but it has been a breeze and I recommend this program for anyone. There are so many children waiting, it is heartbreaking. We will be leaving in 3-5 weeks to pick him up!!!!

*I will be taking Regan to see a Speech Language Pathologist in the fall again because I do not like how she sticks out her tongue when pronouncing certain words.

For more about Brudder visit: http://www.happyshepherd.blogspot.com/

The process for a waiting child from India is alot different from the China process. I sent my dossier in October and had to wait for the Indian courts to issue a NOC (No Objection Certificate) stating that they agreed to process my case - they had "no objection!". I got NOC on January 2 of this year. I then had to wait to go through the actual court process. Yesterday I received the call that I had received guardianship. This means that India agrees that I may be Shepherd's guardian. This came more quickly then I thought it would as they usually ask for updated or more paperwork and they asked me for nothing! I finalize the adoption 6 months after arriving home. Also different from China as the adoption was final in China and she automatically became a US citizen as soon as she touch US soil.

On top of all that, I started back to school! I am going to school to pursue a Master's Degree in Speech Language Pathology through USF. Many reasons that I won't bore people with.....I briefly thought about a Doctorate in PT, but it wouldn't change my job position or really benefit me. As a PT and an SLP, I should be secure in either job and will be able to provide for the family no matter how old I am, where I live, etc. I just finished my first semester and have make a decision about what to do for next semester!

This was taken in January. Sorry it is a video of my tv, I can't get my DVD player to work on my computer. I have another video from last month that I'll try to download.

Ta Da!

2009-07-15T12:43:00.003-04:00

You guys are good!!!! More details to follow - I got a couple of emails "suggesting" I let the cat out of the bag!!! I'll post more later tonight! Can anybody guess sex, age, and country?!?!

Regan's Announcement

2009-07-14T16:45:00.002-04:00

Regan has something that she would like to announce. Just for fun, if you think you can guess what it is, leave a comment with your guess. For those of you that might already know, please keep it a secret just to see if anybody else can guess!

Crafting and Maya's Party

2009-07-14T15:46:00.003-04:00

Saturday, we headed up to St. Augustine to celebrate the birthday of my friend's daughter. Little Maya was turning two! We stopped at my grandparent's house as they live about 4 hours north of us. St. Augustine Beach is then another hour or so of driving. Regan was soooo excited to see her mama and papa and ran right into the house to see them. She didn't want to leave to go to the party, but we had to. The night before she slept for 5.5 hours and didn't sleep at all on the way up north. She slept about 20 minutes on our trip to St. Augustine Beach and didn't sleep at all on the way back to my grandparents! I think she was too excited to sleep. I had little sleep too, because I waited until the last minute to make Maya's presents. I made her two shirts and a bag and I also made Regan a shirt. It felt so good to be able to do some crafting.

I Love Summer and Bump Its

2009-07-10T14:16:00.006-04:00

Summer is obviously wearing them out!!
Why can I never get a natural smile out of Regan?!?!?

Hard at work.

In progress.

Below is Regan ready to go out. She does this every day.....picks out her clothes, her accessories, and her shoes. Today she ignored shoes, but had a bracelet, necklace, sunglasses, and a "crown".

This was Regan when she was sick. She didn't eat for days and the only thing she would drink was sweet tea. So, I obliged. I like in this picture how you can see she is fingering her shirt. She has done this since she came home to comfort herself although she prefers my sleeve.

I officially am starting summer vacation. I still work two half days at the outpatient clinic, but it feels soooooo good to be off from work. I could so be a stay at home mom. I really, really want to be one. Anyway, on the fourth, we headed to Home Depot where the kids did a craft. Regan is so into crafts. This one had an extra special bonus as you had to use glue - Regan was in heaven!!

Tomorrow, we are heading to North Florida to spend a couple of hours with my grandparents and Regan is going to her friend Maya's birthday party. It is going to be a long day - about 12 hours travel total. We can't spend the night because of the animals, but I"m really looking forward to seeing my grandparents.

Regan's newest obsession is with Bump Its. Ever seen that stupid commercial for bump its? I say obsessed because Regan never does an interest half way, she jumps right in and talks, and talks, and talks about it. Wants to go to the library to get books about it, has to tell every one about it, etc. She wants Bump Its soooooo bad. I'm going to try to rig something for her, because there is no way I'm buying a ridiculous plastic hair comb for $19.99 (plus shipping and handling!).

Can You Explain

2009-06-30T23:02:00.004-04:00

See how precious she is when she sleeps?!?! I haven't seen too much of that sleeping face lately and mommy needs her sleep! These pictures were taken almost two years ago, look how little she was!

Why it is 11 o'clock in the evening and my child is still not asleep?!?! We have always had sleeping issues, from day one. Just when I think we have conquered a particular stage of some sort of sleep disturbane, we move onto another stage that is equally exasperating. A couple of months ago it was staying in bed. I fixed that by shutting the door each time I caught her up and out of bed. She was not allowed to re-open the door. She HATED having the door closed. I only allowed it to be open an inch or two, but having it shut that couple of inches was something worth staying in bed for, apparently. It sounds mean, but it's better than catching her painting her toenails, climbing the headboard, playing mommy to our Great Dane, having a secret dance party in the closet and many other things (all of which I busted her doing when she was supposed to be in bed). I station myself outside of the door and I learned that the dogs are a dead giveaway. If they start stirring and coming out of the bedroom then that means she is up and moving around. The exception is when they are forced to lie under a blanket and get their backs patted as their "mommy" instructs them that they have to go to sleep because she is tiwerd (tired). So assuming my station and closing the door worked for a couple of months. Now....not so much.

Her new thing is that she will stay in bed and she starts singing musicals at the top of her voice, or having full conversations with herself, and chit chatting to her invisible friend. So, I pulled out my handy dandy door trick and.........it doesn't work!!! She is now perfectly content to sit in the complete dark and converse with herself. So, I can make her stay in bed, I can make her lay down, how do you make her fall asleep?!?! I was ready to go to bed an hour ago, but I can't because if I fall asleep before she does than the mischief she could get into is just too scary to even think about! It also doesn't help that she is worse than a teenager to try to pry out of bed in the morning. You'd think she'd get it that it's better to go to bed at a decent hour than it is to go through all of that morning drama. I'll be glad when this phase is over, but I'm a little scared to think of what the next one could be!!

Pneumonia, Cub Scout Camp, Adigators, VBS, and my new love - Noodle Man!

2009-06-20T08:47:00.009-04:00

Before she started showing signs of being sick. You'd never guess she was not feeling well. She felt good enough for some Marmie love!!!
This week has been CRAZY busy! A week ago Friday Regan, Konnor, and I went to Sunsplash. Regan did great and actually was very comfortable in the water (a big accomplishment for her!). After a couple of hours she said she wanted to go to sleep. Huh?!?!? Regan never willingly goes to sleep! Long story short, she had a temperature of 103ish for the next day and on Sunday I took her to a convenient care as we had a really crappy night of very unpleasant things (I'll spare the details). She was diagnosed with bronchitis, but the MD told me to discontinue the breathing treatments I had been giving her because she said her lungs were clear. I ignored that advice because although I'm not an MD, not only could you hear the junk in her lungs (without the aid of a stethoscope), but you could feel her chest rattling. The next day I took her to her regular pediatrician and she was diagnosed with pneumonia and was put on steroids, continued breathing treatments, and continue with the antibiotics previously prescribed. Poor thing was so, so sick.

I started working summer school (bleh!). Konnor spent last week in Cub Scout Camp and he had a blast!!! He is so bummed it was only a week in length. He will officially start Cub Scouts in August, but this was his first official outing. They teach good morals, do fun things (Konnor is in love with archery now!), and the den leader seemed like a great guy. If I had one complaint it would be the mothers seemed a tad on the agressive, competitive (come on ladies, in the long run does it matter that your child's rocket flew up the highest?!? Let's just have fun!), inpatient and some were downright rude! Konnor got to take home the den flag at the end of the week because his pack leader said he was the most well behaved, mannered child in the den. What a compliment!!

Regan had been talking for over a month about the Adigator coming to host VBS. This year's theme was Crocodile Dock and VBS was held at the church that houses her school. They had a Crocodile sign out front of the church this past month and everyday she would tell me that she couldn't wait to go see the Adigator. Unfortunately, she missed the first day because of being sick and she wasn't feeling well the following two days as she was exhausted. She insisted she wanted to go though so although she was very subdued this week she obviously enjoyed going. Believe me, she would have let me know if she didn't want to go! The kids got CDs of some of the songs from VBS and Regan knows almost all of the words to about 5 of the songs. She obviously was enjoying herself although her face was pretty stoic throughout the whole week! Konnor also loved VBS and was so enthusiatic about the whole thing. I stuck around with my friend, Carolyn, every night for the first hour or so to make sure Regan was doing okay with the new situation and I was so impressed with how this church held an amazing VBS. It was truly awesome!!! The finale included a puppet show that I have included clips of in the following videos. The show was enthralling and I wish it had turned up better on my camera. It is amazing to me that the puppeteers are teenagers, they did so well. You can't see all of the details, but you can get the drift. I'm in love with the Noodle Man!

Mermie Hair

2009-06-06T16:48:00.007-04:00

Regan insisted I take a video of her with hair that she HAD to have after watching it on a commercial.

Regan had a psychological and speech/language testing through our district yesterday. Long story that started about 6 months ago. I was so impressed with how well she attended for over two hours of intense testing. I'll post more later, but basically she scored high average or above average in all testing except visual motor. The child does not like to sit and color! I also had a private speech language test done several months ago as I was concerned about her immature speech and language. I guess I am just an over anxious mom in that area because she scored well on that one too! Yesterday, she blew me away with some of the things she was able to complete - things I had no idea she could accomplish!!

Experimenting with Video

2009-05-30T19:23:00.002-04:00

Another Week

2009-05-02T22:29:00.004-04:00

Regan fell asleep reading a book she got out of the library. The picture doesn't do it justice with how huge this book is!!! I was a little worried it would cut off the circulation to her legs :) She was sooo excited when we picked it up from the library and she has spent hours looking at it while riding in the car, reading to her babies and reading to the dogs!

Above is Regan and her Show and Tell Cow. Below is one of the many outtakes I get when trying to take her picture.

It was show and tell again at school and the theme was farm animals. I had been wanting to make Regan a cow shirt and so this was the perfect time. She loved it! I should have taken pictures again when I picked her up from school though. The shirt was trashed with purple, green, and black paint. Oh, well. It was cute while it lasted.

Regan's First Day of School

2009-04-24T18:56:00.002-04:00

Long story, but two weeks ago Regan had a first day of school at a new school. Basically, I loved the personnel at her old school, but they had no idea how to run a preschool. The director cried when I told her Regan would be leaving and I felt awful, but things were so bad and out of control I had to move her.

I am thrilled to say that Regan is absolutely loving her new school and her new teacher, Ms. Trudy. For the entire school year at her old school I had to pry her off my leg crying and screaming in order to leave her for the day. At her new school, she is practically kicking me out the door so that she can start her day...I love it! They have Show and Tell every Friday and this week's theme was Circus. Regan got all decked out and looked adorable!

Life Has Been Crazy!!!

2009-03-22T16:45:00.004-04:00

Life, and especially February has been crazy!!

The highlight for Regan was being able to meet her idol: Elvis. We go to the Florida State Fair every year (well, except the year she was in the hospital and we missed it :( ) We were so excited because they were having an Elvis Extravaganza this year and Regan got to go to her first concert!!! She was so excited and although I was a little worried about how she would handle seeing more than one Elvis, she took it all in stride. Somehow, in her head, she picked out the "real" Elvis and then proceeded to yell everytime one of the "fake" Elvises got on stage, "That's not Elvis! You're not Elvis!". Luckily, we were able to get a picture with the "real" Elvis. She was a little star struck and refused to go near him! She was able to wear the Elvis shirt I made her and was so excited to show Elvis that she has him on her shirt. It was too, too cute!!

Regan also enjoyed riding rides for the first time. We spent most of the day at all of the animal shows and exhibits and we had an awesome time!

Regan had her yearly check-up. She currently weighs 29 pounds and is 32 inches tall. She wears 2T clothes (for the most part) and is in a size 6 shoe.

We also spent the rest of February going to parades as we also love to go to the yearly Edison Festival of Light Parade. This celebrates Thomas Edison and for the night parade, every float must have lights. My camera got dropped and broke and so I don't have any pictures of the night floats. The Junior Parade was also a blast and was really big this year. The Junior Parade takes place in the afternoon a week before the Night Parade and so lights are not required. Edison's winter home is located in Ft. Myers and so is the reason we celebrate Edison.

Manatees and Hairdos!

2009-02-07T12:51:00.007-05:00

Another of Regan's hairdos. She calls it Mermie (Mermaid) hair. I'm amazed she sits still for it to be done!
Totally gross picture, but that is Mommy's hair that Regan is holding Ewwww! Mommy got 12 inches cut off for Locks of Love. It was waaaaaaaay over due to be cut. I hadn't had it cut since right before I went to China to pick up Regan in December 2006. Again: Ewwwwwww, yuck!

Happy girl because mommy did braids in her hair (she is very opinionated about how her hair must be done!)
I love how properly she holds all of her utensils.

Scrunchy face!

Wrestling an alligator!

Regan did have one time out during our trip to see the manatees. She couldn't understand why we don't climb the fence and go pet them.

Here it comes!!!

Deep Breaths!

Look what else we saw out at Manatee Park!

Bye manatees!

I feel better about Regan's school this week. I had a conversation with her teacher and I also had a conversation with the daycare director. On Wednesday, we had a meeting of the Parent Advisory Group of which I am a participant. We'll see what happens, but basically the director would like the parents to help with the curriculum and basic involvement, and I'm happy to help where I can because I feel that if I"m going to complain about it, then I need to do something to help solve some of the issues.

On Thursday, we had one of our coldest days yet and I promised Regan we would go see the manatees. Unfortunately, I didn't get out of work on time. So, on Friday I picked her up and met my mom and Konnor and off we went to see the manatees down at the power plant. Regan was soooooo excited. She loves to see the babies and gets so excited to hear the manatees breathe! There were some really loud breathers out there and so it was a great evening!

It's February Already--Are Ya Kiddin' Me?!?!?

2009-02-01T21:18:00.003-05:00

This picture cracks me up, she was so upset to get her hair washed. This was taken about 2 years ago ----Life has greatly improved since then, but I have kind of a venting post below. Be warned!

Compare this picture to the picture below, she looks exactly the same! I just had to post these pictures, they are too funny! Poor thing, I did give her lovin' immediately after I snapped her picture :)

Can you believe the drama?!?!

Three of Regan's favorite things - Elvis, Barbie, and cars. These were the goodies she took to school to celebrate her birthday.

Her wish - Elvis cupcakes. Thank goodness for Shrinky Dinks. You can do anything with those things!

This will be quick as I have had no time to get on the computer (not to mention it is acting possessed again, deleting emails, not sending emails, and it deleted all my favorites!!).

My car has been broken for 3 weeks and yesterday I finally had the time and money to get it fixed. Carpooling at 6 AM to get my mom, Konnor, Regan and I all to school/work so that I could get to work by 8 AM, really stunk. And then my mom would have to stay at work until 7 PM or so until I could get off work from KidSpirit and pick up the kids. Ugh, glad that's over!

Regan still hasn't had her birthday cake or cupcakes, so I think I'll wait until February 13th, the anniversary of when she came home from the hospital. Which is still the day I think off all the time as getting my baby back.

Can I tell you that Regan's school is seriously stressing me out?!?!? They are so nice, but absolutely clueless about developmental skills or curriculum. Her teacher thought she was turning four. I just had to look at her like she was losing her mind. If she thought she was turning four, shouldn't she be slightly concerned about her speech/language, lack of academic skills and overall developmental delay? I'm really starting to look at alternative places for schooling.

Regan worries me that she doesn't know her colors yet (except for pink and blue), and the school has her working on phonics and writing letters. Then her teacher tells me that Regan resists work on tracing the letter "G". Ya think?!? How about working on basic coloring in boundaries, simple shapes, playing with play dough. If she would just learn to sit still for 5 minutes, I would consider it a successful year. Her teacher told me that she can't make her sit during circle time or table top time and so she is allowed to wander and do what she wants. She also doesn't nap at school and so she is allowed to sit and play. I pay the price as she is CRABBY when she gets home and so overstimulated she can't get to sleep. Next year has got to be better.

Sorry for the negative post, it has just been a crazy couple of weeks!

My Baby is Three!!!!!

2009-01-18T20:13:00.003-05:00

2007 - 1 year old
2008 - 2 years old
2009 - 3 years old
How is the world did my baby turn three?!?! Being the total loser mom that I am sometimes, I didn't have her cupcakes ready to take to school on her birthday, January 16. In my defense, my car totally died at work on Monday. Is it worrisome when you know the two truck guy personally because he has towed you so many times?!?! My car died several months ago and had to be towed. When I called AAA to be towed again, they sent the same tow truck guy. He remembered our first meeting and he "fixed" my car from what he said was a bad battery terminal connection. I thought the problem was fixed and drove home - Only to have my car refuse to start again. Because I work so late, I haven't had time to tow it to the garage and so my mom and I have been sharing her van. Not great. So, no coopcakes (Regan talk) at school on Friday.

She did request going to Chuck A Cheese (Regan talk again). We went there once when it first opened and she has wanted to go back soooo bad. That wonderful mouse sent her a coupon for 20 free tokens and those tokens paid for her to have 90 minutes of pure entertainment. She had a blast! Her favorite ride was the horse which she rode twice. She is scared of the Merry Go Round, but will ride the horse that jumps and runs. Go figure.

We took her out to dinner at her favorite restaurant, Bob Evvie. She had her favorite fruit plate and was thrilled with her birthday. I was worried that she would be upset with no presents or party, but she wasn't and talks again and again about going to Chuck E. Cheese.

On Saturday, she requested JayJay make her a Barbie cake and she loved the results. Her only complaint was that it didn't have enough frinkles (sprinkles) on it and so she added those herself. Tomorrow I am hoping to have it together enough to bake her coopcakes to take to school and to have some presents wrapped for her to open. We are also hoping to get her a dairy Queen cake as she loves to look at all of them whenever we go to DQ (which is way too often as my backside keeps telling me as it keeps expanding!). The Newton family may not have it together enough to do it big, but we do just keep stretching it out and celebrating and celebrating and celebrating!

We also wanted to say Happy Birthday to our great friend Grayson! He turns two on the 21st! We went to his birthday party this evening and had a great time! His mom owns half of the therapy clinic that I work at in the afternoons and she is the best boss ever and as a bonus and is great friend also! Regan was thrilled to celebrate even if she wouldn't ride the pony. She said she wanted to ride Chuck A's pony, not the pony with frinkles on his feet (his hooves were painted with blue glitter paint). I guess there is no hope that she will ride any pony if you won't ride one with frinkled feet!

I Realize My Blessings

2009-01-14T21:53:00.004-05:00

It is stories such as these that makes me realize again how blessed I am .....

I will never forget being told my daughter probably wouldn't survive the night. She did survive and thrive and Regan is healthy and spunky and such a personality. Thankfully, our treatment course for Regan's illness was relatively short. Please pray for the Riggs family as they have a very long, difficult road ahead of them. I can not imagine the fear they must be living with, fearing they may lose their daughter.

http://www.riggsfamilyblog.com/

Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend

2009-01-11T12:25:00.008-05:00

Yesterday we had an awesome day! In looking for area 5K races that I could possibly enter, I stumbled upon Disney's Marathon Weekend. Unfortunately, the 5K was full and so I could not enter. Fortunately, they were holding kid's races and they were not full. I signed up Konnor and Regan to participate in the kids' races. It was a blast!!!!

We got up at 5:30 AM and headed to Disney's Wide World of Sports. We arrived around 9AM and the place was quickly filling with very buff, athletic people (unfortunately, I did not fit in this category)! We picked up the kids' packets and I was so tickled that their racing bibs had their names on them! The races didn't start until 11 AM and so we spent the time running on the track, partying to the music, and taking pictures. Regan's race was first and she did much better than the Turkey Trot, but still wanted to hold my hand the entire time. Disney encouraged parents to run with their children because they were encouraing family fitness. It also helped since there were hundreds of kids running around and I wouldn't have sent her into the mob by herself anyway. We were the fourth and last heat of the 100 meter race and had a blast! Konnor was entered into the 400 meter and he was the third and final heat. He did awesome and had a great time! They didn't have awards because they were encouraging running for the joy of running and just having a good time. Each kid got a medal at the end of the race and also had their pictures taken. It was an awesome time. I want to do the Disney Princess 5K and Kids Fest races, but probably we won't get back up there again in March :(.

Following the races, my mom and I decided to hop on some Disney buses and wing it and see where they took us. Another great thing about Disney is that you can take the buses to just about everywhere on Disney property. We love bus hopping and exploring the Disney area. You can do all of this free of charge as long as you don't enter the parks. Jason and Jean decided they would rather go eat at a restaurant and so they went their own way. My mom and I had packed a lunch for us and the kids and so we hopped a bus from Disney's WWoS and headed to the Fort Wilderness Lodge and ate our picnic lunch. Regan really, really wanted to ride the monorail and so we hopped a bus to Epcot where we could pick up the monorail and take it to the Magic Kingdom ticket center. We then took the ferry to Magic Kingdom. We took another bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge where we got to see Zebras, giraffes, white pelicans and many more animals. We thought we were meeting Jason and Jean at Downtown Disney and so we headed down there to meet them. They had already left so we splurged on a quick snack (I love Disney's Rice Krispie treats!). We then had to take a bus from DTD to Pop Century Hotel where we admired the lobby before we headed to Hollywood Studios where we met Jason and Jean. For some odd reason, the only bus to WWoS is from Hollywood Studios via one of the hotels. Our final bus took us to our car and we hit the road at 6PM. We stopped for dinner at Cracker Barrel and got home by 10PM, tired after a great day! Regan and Konnor had a blast and loved riding Disney buses. We loved just winging it and seeing new sights!

Christmas and New Year's Resolutions

2009-01-04T15:18:00.006-05:00

My uncle brought down a hand me down car for Regan to have...she loved it!!
Gift from my grandmother. Regan is in awe of her Barbie that is taller than she is!

Hard to open presents with a 150+ lb dog who insists on being in the middle of things.

A shepherd and his sheep.

Regan copying her idol, Ms. Claire.

I am so behind on posting!!! I have had a great couple of weeks off from the school district. I had to work several days at KidSpirit (pediatric outpatient clinic), but am glad that I have that tiny bit of income. My grandparents came down so we could celebrate Christmas on the 26th. We had a blast. We handmade alot of the gifts and I loved, loved, loved getting back to what Christmas is all about. One day I'll have it all together enough to post some pictures of the gifts. Regan and Konnor had parts in our church play. Regan was originally an angel, but got demoted down to a sheep since she tended to wander all over the stage. She was a perfect angel during practice, but when the actual event went down, she only wanted to be with Ms. Claire (children's director). She loves Ms. Claire and tries to copy everything she does.

Regan's obsession continues with Barbie and Elvis and so many of her presents reflected this obsession. Regan was thrilled yesterday that when we got to the library she got to check out an Elvis book. The book practically weighs more than she does and as it is an adult biography, has very little pictures, but she loves to "read" it. She sat and watched an Elvis biography that was on E! yesterday. I'm so puzzled by where this obsession came from as I have no Elvis music or anything collectible with Elvis, but as soon as she heard my mom's Elvis CD she was in love! It was also a banner day yesterday as You've Got Mail was on tv. This continues to be her favorite movie. I don't get it, but I go with it!!! Update: another Elvis show on today and You've Got Mail was on again! Regan was sooooo excited!

Okay....now for my New Year's Resolutions. I've never made them before, but this year I feel like there is a definite need for change.

Pay off some debt. I am so in debt it is scary, scary, scary. Work is declining during my outpatient evening job, so I'm really worried.
Lose some weight. Since Regan came home, I have been ridiculous with my weight gain. I'm going to put it out there so that maybe I will be more accountable: 30 lbs!!! It started with her hospitilization and eating junk food. Then it continued with stress and being busy. I also think it has something to do with the fact that I live alone. No one around and so I'm not accountable to anyone for what and how much I eat. It is no excuse, but let's face it, if another adult saw how much I ate then I probably wouldn't eat so much! All excuses, but I really need to do something about my weight, it is depressing. I want to be healthy for Regan and I have never been heavier. I am embarrassed to see anyone that I haven't seen in a while because I am so much heavier. Ugh! I have no money for new clothes, so I need to lose weight to fit in my closet full of clothes!
Be more patient. I am such a procrastinator, and yet I can also be very intense about getting things done. When I want something done, I want it done yesterday. I also want things done my way and so I have very little patience when it isn't done just so......I need to learn to let things go and not sweat the small stuff. Part of this is that I often have no time management skills and so I underestimate the time it will take to get something done or I just procrastinate so that it doesn't get done at all. I also need to realize that certain things take time (like weight loss!) and not to give up just because it takes longer than I want it to.
Keep my house picked up. I get so busy that it adds up and I spend my weekend cleaning.

I think that is it for now, I'm sure I'll think of things as we go along.

December Happenings

2008-12-23T09:25:00.004-05:00

Why does Blogger sometimes put your pictures in whatever order THEY want to....not the order You want???? Anyway, here is our month in pictures. Out of order.

Santa Claus!!!! Regan didn't freak out like I thought she would. She knew she had to tell him she wanted a necklace for Christmas. She has been insistent that she wants a necklace from him. She ran up, shook his hand and ran back to me. She thought she was done. This was take two and she did pretty well.

Regan insisted her tree go on the top of Framma's van just like the big tree.

Regan with her Christmas Tree.

Regan picking out her Christmas tree.

Konnor and Regan picking out Framma's tree.

Jingle Bell Express. Regan LOVED it!!!

My mom, Konnor and I did another road relay. 2 miles up the Edison Bridge. I thought I was gonna die!!!

The Best Day in My Life

2008-12-19T17:19:00.008-05:00

Gotcha Day 2006

Gotcha Day Anniversary 2008

2008

2008
Gotcha Day Anniversary 2007. A great picture showing her little smirk!
2007

Two years ago was the best day in my life. I met Regan for the first time. Regan had her flu shot today and I have to tell you....she was a rock star!!! She went right back with the nurse (very unusual) and got herself weighed (29 lbs) and then we went into the room. When she saw the needle, she told the nurse, "I don't want dat". I told her she had to have her shot and she said ok. The nurse gave her the shot and Regan never even cried. She then didn't want to leave! She got mad that I made her come with me. We went and ate Chinese to kind of make up for the rotten present the nurse gave her! So much has changed in two years! Just in growth I am amazed at how she has grown. You can really see the difference in the photos. I, of course, took the traditional photos of Regan in her gotcha clothes. This may be the last year I can get her into the outift, but if fits her well! She went from a size three shoe at Gotcha to she now wears a size 5.5! Weight was 19 pounds at Gotcha and she now weighs 29. I don't have a height right now, but next month is her 3 year old physical and I'll get a height at that time. I can not believe that Regan is almost three. Where has the time gone?!?!?!

One thing that hasn't changed is Regan's fondness of nudity. Last week at church she was wearing new underwear. She thinks they are Barbie (really Ariel, but she loves all things that are Barbie so we go with it). On the way down the aisle from Children's Sermon, she wanted to show everyone her new underwear so she hiked up her skirt and proceeded to try to show the entire congregation that she had Barbie on her underwear. Of course we sit in the last row and so the entire church got to view her walk down the aisle. So classic of her.

Regan also gave herself her first haircut tonight. Nice big chunks. I'm talking enough hair to make a toupee. It is unreal. I'll deal with trying to fix her hair tomorrow. I'm not sure who is the better haircutter, me or Regan!

Anyway, to reminisce, this is what I wrote in my online journal that day two years ago (it is amazingly long as only I know how to ramble, feel free to skim!):

It is 5:45 PM and I am back from the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me. I officially became a mommy to Regan NanZiYun. The families met in the lobby at 3 PM. We then loaded a bus to travel to the Civil Affairs Office. On the way, our ISS guides, Mandy and Mary gave us some information and told us some possiblities of what to expect when we arrived at the building. I was beside myself I was so excited. We drove for about 30 minutes and unloaded in front of the office. We all crowded into the lobby and took turns taking the elevator to the fifth floor. Once we arrived on the 5th floor we all went into a room to verify our personal information and to wait to receive our babies.

They began calling names and you went to the doorway where they were standing in the hallway holding the babies. I think I was the third or fourth person called, I'm not sure it was all such a blur. I remember walking to the doorway and looking at YunYun and not sure if this was my baby or not and so I didn't want to just reach out and snatch her out of their arms! They said NanZiYun and I reached over and picked up my baby for the first time. Then crying began.

Not from Yunnie, but from her mommy. I began crying like a baby. I was so overwhelmed and so happy this moment was finally here and I couldn't really believe it. I tried to stop because I didn't want to scare her! I went over to a couch and all of the activity around me ceased to exist. I apologize to my fellow group mates, because I wasn't sure of people receiving their baby after I had Regan. She was all I could concentrate on. She was wearing a big green puffy outfit, as were several other of the girls. Her name was on a piece of tape that was taped to her right front pocket area. The first thing I noticed is that she is VERY curious and smiles readily. I am amazed, she never blinked an eye and was smiling and curious from the moment they put her in my arms. I can see why they labeled her as restless! She was constantly moving and everything was fascinating to her. She loved looking at my shoes, out the window, at Konnor, everything. There was so much activity in the room and it never seemed to faze her. All of the girls appeared to do very well. I hope that continues. We spent several minutes getting to know the girls and then they called us one by one to take our family photo. You can see Regan squirming during the photo - she is not a girl to sit still!

We went back to the main room and the Director and one of the caregivers was there to answer any questions we may have. We presented them with their gifts. Mom, Mama, and I had made photo albums to give as gifts and I put one of Regan's pictures and her business card in one of the picture sleeves. Her business card has her picture, name, and new address. We also included little mice we made with candy cane tales, felt pencil holders, and tea towels. I hope they like them. We also had some donations to the actual orphanage itself. I asked Director Hu what he could tell me about Regan's personality that he knows that I would be able to tell her when she is older. He says she is very active and fun loving and she is well loved by the orphanage staff. He also says they consider her like an angel in the orphanage. Very nice! He and the nanny then signed a photo album I had brought for people to sign. Happy had signed it in Beijing and then the director and the nanny signed a page each. I will have Mandy or Mary translate for me what they wrote. I will then place a picture of them in the sleeve of the page that they signed. I hope it will be a nice keepsake for Regan.

We then headed out to the bus to head back to the hotel room. During this entire time, it is a bit of a blur because of the enormity of what just happened and the chaos of the room. On the drive back, Regan looked outside of the windows at everything and did not want to be turned around and miss the action outside of the window. She did fall asleep when we had almost reached the hotel. The girls are so beautiful. It was a great thing to see so many families united.

UPDATE: 10 PM

Regan slept for about an hour. Mandy came to the room and gave us a gift bag from the orphanage. Inside was some formula, some rice cereal, a bottle, a thank you card, and a photo album with some extra pictures of Regan. How wonderful. Mandy explained how to make Regan's bottle and then she left with instructions to meet in the hotel lobby at 8:30 AM tomorrow morning. Regan woke up and was instantly smiles again! Unbelievable. She has this little smirk that is so cute! She is developmentally delayed and she is not yet crawling. She is able to get up on all fours, but is uncoordinated. She is able to sit well and rotate into and out of sitting. I think she'll be crawling before we leave China! She also has some fine motor delays with difficulty picking up objects and no pincher grasp. Can you see the physical therapist in me?!?!? She looks healthy, but she has a spot that looks like ringworm on her leg and a horrible rash on her face. She has some congestion and a cough. She is also constanlty sticking her finger in her right ear and so she got a dose of antibiotics. I'm not sure what the rash on her face is, so we will keep it monitored and Mandy says if it is not better in a day or two we will take her to the clinic.

She took a bath after her nap and loved it! You could tell she has probably never had a bath before as she kept trying to pull her legs out of the water. She is too big for a sink bath so we moved her to the tub. Once she was in, she loved it! Splashing and laughing and I heard the first vocalization! All in all, my biggest impression is that I can't believe how curious and happy she is....what a happy baby. She drank an entire bottle and we got dressed and ate dinner downstairs in the lobby of the hotel. She sat in the highchair and was patient as could be, never a fuss. We were playing this game of bumping our foreheads together and she picked up on it right away and would lean forward to put her face in mine. She obviously has never had solid food as she doesn't put anything in her mouth and resists anything touching her lips. She also doesn't know to suck or lick her lips when I put a little yogurt on her mouth.

After dinner it was time for bed and she had different ideas. I placed her in the crib and the crying began, this time on her part! I then held her and rocked her in my arms for about twenty minutes and she just smiled and laughed up at me and played with my hair. She finally settled down and fell asleep. As soon as I put her in the crib she started wailing again! I layed with her on my bed and rubbed her back and she fell asleep while laying on top of me. Right now she is sound asleep in her crib and is snoring nicely!

Two Years Ago

2008-12-13T21:37:00.004-05:00

Two years ago, I was headed on a plane to China. I remember like it was yesterday just the utter disbelief that this was FINALLY happening and I was soon to see my little girl. It seemed so surreal. I remember this feeling that I needed to feel the weight of her in my arms to truly know that this dream was finally coming true. I would love to post pictures of the big event, but for some reason my computer is yet again downloading any picture it wants to. Not necessarily the ones I choose...I'll try again tomorrow.

Tiki

2008-12-06T17:54:00.004-05:00

My dog Tiki died last night. I am so heartbroken.

Happy Turkey Day and the Turkey Trot!

2008-11-27T20:24:00.006-05:00

Konnor, ready to go!
Run, Konnor, run!

You'll notice that Regan is clinging to my leg like a barnacle. We are at the far left, I still have my yellow bib on. I just zoomed on this picture and noticed the line up of kids covering their ears in anticipation of the gun! Too funny!

We've made progress and she isn't attached to my leg, but trying to hide under my shirt.

Proud kids with their ribbons.

Happy Thanksgiving! My grandparents are down visiting and so we are having a wonderful time! Regan has such a special relationship with her grandparents and they absolutely dote on her....it is so wonderful to see.

We started off the morning bright and early at the Turkey Trot. I am really, really going to try to be more active. With work (and life) being so busy and since the wait for Regan, I have gained ALOT of weight because of poor eating habits and stress eating. Weight has always been a struggle for me, but it is getting out of control. I signed up for the Turkey Trot as a walker because I wasn't even sure I wouldn't totally humilate myself. When you are a walker, you will be disqualified if you jog or run and so I am interested in my next 5K to see if I can job and pick up my pace. The nice thing about this 5K was that it was alot of families and varying athletic abilities. I'm a little intimidated by the hard core 5Ks. For me, it was an accomplishment that I finished!!! I actually had a great time and felt good afterwards. The atmosphere is so festive it makes exercise fun. Goodness knows that I avoid exercise like the plague and so I needed something to make it enjoyable!

My mom brought Konnor and Regan by just in time to see me finish and then they had races of their own. Konnor ran in the Fun Mile Run and did great. He had a great time, and I'm really impressed with how well he did. He met a classmate and enjoyed running with her. Regan participated in the Tot Trot 100 meter dash. I figured she would be screaming and crying. She was sooooooo excited to be able to run........until the gun went off for the first 100m dash with the older age group, and then she ran. In the wrong direction! She was out of there! She talked for days about how she was going to run and then wasn't so into it when the time came. The pesky starting gun did her in! She did end up running with mine and Konnor's help and is very proud to show off her ribbon! It was a great holiday event and we'll have to make it a tradition.

The rest of the weekend is going to be crafting with my grandmother and hanging out with my grandfather. I am so excited! I am so thankful for my family, they are awesome!

Halloween Festivities

2008-11-01T16:09:00.007-04:00

Regan had a great Halloween this year. Usually, I am not so excited about Halloween. It just isn't my thing, but this year we had a blast! We started the festivities a couple of week ago when we went to Carolyn and Olivia's house for a Halloween get together. Oliva, Regan, David, and Carly got to play together, eat lunch, decorate cookies and paint cookies. Thanks Carolyn!

Last weekend, we headed to the Calusa Nature Center where we walked The Friendly Forest. We do this every year. We are members of the Nature Center and so we get into all the programs free of charge. We love the Friendly Forest because you walk along the boardwalk and get to pet some animals and trick or treat. Have I mentioned that Regan is OBSESSED with Elvis? My mom has one Elvis CD and Regan wants to hear it over and over and over again. Her favorite song is Good Luck Charm or Hup as she calls it. Listen to the lyrics and you'll know where she gets the title Hup.

We are walking along the boardwalk and Regan starts screaming, "Elvis! Elvis!". I look down the boardwalk and there is a little boy dressed like Elvis. For the next few minutes Regan can't even concentrate on Trick or Treating as she wants to go see Elvis. We talk to the family and Elvis a.k.a. Cameron agrees to take a picture with Regan. Actually, Cameron's mom agrees that Cameron will take a picture with Regan. It was the highlight of Regan's night. Not so much for Cameron. She still talks about seeing Elvis. Back when Regan was completely obsessed with JoJo, I bought her costume for $3.99 from Disney.com and received free shipping. Yahoo!!! Too bad it was so flippin' hot that she started stripping about half way through the walk!

We also woke up very early in the morning last Saturday to watch a 5K run that was taking place at Centennial Park in Downtown Ft. Myers. They had a KidsFest activity and the kids did a small little bouncy slide thing. Regan would have nothing to do with the bounce houses.

Thursday was Konnor's fall festival at his school and the kids loved playing all of the carnival games. Regan was great at the golf! Yesterday, my mom had the day off of work and so she watched Regan. We went to Konnor's school to watch his storybook parade and to see him run in the Monster Mash Dash. Regan had a blast sitting with all of the bigs kids, but couldn't understand why she couldn't run with the kids.

Last night, we officially went trick or treating. Regan's new obsession is Doodlebops. I mentioned this to one of my patient's mom and she mentioned that the older sister of the little boy I see has an old Doodlebops costume. She brought it for Regan to use and Regan was so excited to be DeeDee Doodle. Of course, now that she had a little short dress, it was kind of chilly yesterday. We have had record lows this week. She was very intimidated by some of the costumes, but warmed up to the idea of all the candy. We started the night going to a Trunk or Treat held at one of the city charter schools. It was okay, but nothing to write home about. We then headed over to a local church that also had a trunk or treat. Whoa!!! It was AMAZING! There must have been 50 cars with decorated trunks (my pictures don't do it justice) and the decorations were great! Everyone was so nice and I was amazed at all of the decorations and partying. It was great!

Tomorrow we head up to Sarasota to my adoption agency's welcome home ceremony. Last year, I spoke at the ceremony, but this year I just get to enjoy seeing my good friend Leslie and her daughter, Maya and also Delaney and family. Yeah!!

My Little Yoda

2008-10-21T22:52:00.005-04:00

Recently, Regan has started talking like Yoda. She mixes her words up a little bit and says things backwards. For instance,

I want bread more. (I want more bread)

I've got a butt on my belly. (I have a belly button)

I like rainbow pretty. ( I like the pretty rainbow)

I want off shoes. (I want my shoes off)

Etc, Etc, she has some really good ones that I"ll have to write down because they are hilarious, but I'm too tired to think of them right now!!

She also likes to see things from a different viewpoint. For instance, a conversation we have a thousand times a day goes a little something like this:

Scenario:
Regan and I in a store with Regan touching EVERYTHING even though she knows she isn't supposed to touch:

Me: Regan, are you supposed to be touching?
Regan: No
Me: Then why are you touching the (insert word here, example: brush, toy, food, etc)
Regan: I'm not touching, I wooking.
Me: No, you are touching not looking, there is a difference.
Regan: I wooking with my singers. (I'm looking with my fingers) See, mommy, I smile.

She then will cock her head to the side and give a big smile because she thinks that will get her anything she wants and I do have to admit it is really cute. Doesn't smiling at your mommy negate any wrong doing that just occurred?

And then there are the times that I should really take a good look in the mirror. I told Regan to get ready to go to Framma's house as we were going to my mom's house for dinner. She came out with this get up:

Dirty pajama top, obnoxious pink shorts, bracelet, a Barbie watch, and her new favorite shoes: blue plaid with heels. As I am taking her picture and inwardly laughing at how ridiculous Regan's get up looks, I happen to glance down at my own outfit. I think Regan got her fashion sense from her mommy as I was wearing Tinkerbell lounge pants in the same obnoxious pink as Regan's shorts, an old tourist shirt with cat heads on the front and cat butts on the back, tennis shoes with socks that have pom poms on the back, and my hair was in a pony tail that I didn't actually use a brush to create, but just used my fingers. And the scariest part of all: no make up. I then got the wonderful idea to walk to my mom's house as I certainly could use the exercise. I briefly thought about changing, but was just too lazy to do so. I paid dearly for my laziness as I ran into two different neighbors that wanted to chit chat. I guess that is what I get for laughing at my daughter and her lack of fashion sense. Unfortunately, I am with it enough to realize it is much more acceptable for a two year old to go out in public wearing this get up of questionable taste then it is for a woman of my advanced years!

Getting Ahead of Myself

2008-10-13T22:37:00.004-04:00

Tonight as I was sitting on the couch working on a craft project, I patted myself on the back and congratulated myself on how well Regan has been going to bed. As I'm sure I have made very clear, getting Regan to go to sleep is not always easy. For the past couple of weeks, I have been putting a baby gate up in the door so that she can't get out, the dogs can't get in and wake her up, and I can get the door almost closed so that it is very dark and quiet.

Anyway, back to the story. Regan had been in bed for about an hour. She will sing and count and talk to herself until she is sleeping. When all was quiet in the room, I assumed that in record time she had gone to sleep. Ha ha ha, I laugh at that now! Enjoying the quiet, I sat on the couch pleased as punch that my brilliant gate idea was working out so well. Fewer tears, quicker wake to sleep times, you get the picture. So, I"m sitting pleased as can be with myself and with Regan until this comes to the door and asks me for a kleenex because she was a little "messy":

Obviously, as I was patting myself on the back, Regan was busy getting into a few things. The most obvious is that she opened up a box of Desitin and proceeded to put her "lotion" all over her leg. She then emptied an entire box of kleenex trying to get herself clean. She also removed her pull up and undressed herself and then redressed herself. So, I have a dilemma....should I be upset that my plan isn't working and that my child obviously wasn't doing as she knows she is supposed to do? or....do I ignore this whole situation given the fact that:

1. She was working on her fine motor skills opening up a box and popping open the lid of the Desitin.

2. She was exploring some sensory integration activities as she spread the "lotion" as she calls it over her body, but this obviously backfired as she hated the mess on her hands.

3. She practiced some functional skills of dressing and undressing although she needs a little work as the shirt is on inside out and the shorts were on backwards (and on a side note, 9.9 times out of 10 this is always the case: shoes on the wrong foot and underwear and shorts on backwards)

4. She put the empty kleenex box in the trash (we've been working on cleaning up) after she emptied out all 200+ sheets of kleenex (which somehow did not make it into the trash, but were strewn like confetti all over the bed)

5. Marvel over the fact that she did this in complete darkness and completely out of character, did this in silence. I wasn't sure she knew what being quiet meant, but obviously when it works to her advantage she does know the concept of being quiet.

In the end, it was late and I couldn't face the dilemma. I got her cleaned up and put her to back to bed where she promptly fell asleep, obviously exhausted from all of her activities.

Activities

2008-10-04T21:34:00.004-04:00

Below is what happens when mommy is on the back porch letting the dogs outside. As you can tell, she is back to naked mode and doesn't everybody see an ironing board and think it is a great place to have a snack and watch tv? She's just lucky I had already moved the iron as she knows it is an absolute no no to touch. I think judging by the destruction of the purple chair laying on it's side that she used the chair as a step up to the ironing board, but I'm not exactly sure how she got up there. Everytime I turned around she was back up there, so finally it had to come down:)

We have had a busy couple of weeks! A couple of weeks ago, Regan went to her first birthday party. Olivia had a wonderful 3rd birthday party, and Regan had a great time! Thank you Carolyn!

The week before the birthday bash, we took Regan and Konnor to Sunsplash. They were offering a buy one get one of lesser value free deal and we really lucked out getting an awesome cashier! The cashier saw that it was my mom, me and Regan getting in and she worked us a deal that we paid 11 dollars for all three of us!

Last weekend, Regan, Konnor, my mom, brother and I took advantage of the offering of free admission to the Miami MetroZoo. Thanks to Smithsonian Magazine, they were offering free admission to many zoos, aquariums, and museums across the US. I thought there had to be a catch, but there wasn't one and we handed in our printed off admission card and waltzed right in! Regan loved seeing the animals and loved that she got to see many types of snakes and turtles. She is absolutely fascinated with snakes, turtles, and dinosaurs. My favorite part was seeing a baby Joey popping out (very slightly) from his mama's pouch. The day was beautiful and we had an awesome time. We packed a picnic lunch and loved eating in our sandwiches in the beautiful weather. We originally were going to head to Orlando to the Orlando Science Museum, but decided at the last minute that it was probably too mature for Regan. I'm glad we made the decision we did as Regan had a great time! There are more pictures in my previous post.

Given how scary our economy is right now, I appreciate all the good deals we can find! For those of you wanting to save a little money on groceries, I'll share my big deals of the week!

Publix has eggs on sale for $1.39. Print off the Food Lion coupon from here and pay 39 cents for a dozen eggs. Publix accepts competitor's coupons, but they do not accept Target coupons.

Publix also has BOGO free on Betty Crocker potatoes: Click here to get $.40 cents off each box. You can print two (just hit your back button until your printer prints again), making the potatoes $.50 a box!

Publix has Uncle Bens Boil in the Bag Rice on BOGO. Print coupon here for $1 off 2 boxes to make the final price $.79 a box!

Knorr sides are BOGO at Publix also. In the Sunday (or the free Cape Life) newspaper a couple of weeks ago, there were coupons for $.75 off 2 boxes. Makes the final total $.39 cents a bag!

CVS had Cover Girl Foundation for $5.79 and you got back $5.79 in ECBs and so it was free.

CVS also had Gillette Fusion razors for $9.99, get $5 in ECBs back. The paper had a $4 off coupon, making the razor $.99.

I could go on and on, but I won't bore everybody! I'm telling you though, it absolutely is worth the time it takes to organize coupons as I save on average about $15 dollars a week on groceries. With Christmas coming, deals like the razor from CVS are great stocking stuffers. I also save time by following about 4 blogs that match up all coupons to the current store ads. They do the work for me and it makes it very easy!

Beautiful Kids

2008-10-01T00:45:00.000-04:00

Special Happy Birthday

2008-09-26T00:00:00.000-04:00

A very special little boy turns three years old today! Happy Birthday!

Man, I Love This Kid!

2008-09-16T20:36:00.005-04:00

If I could only get the red eye to work, doesn't she look just like a little doll in this picture?

I've mentioned before that I think Regan (and Regan thinks Regan) is pretty funny. She has one of the greatest senses of humor I've ever seen in a two year old. Tonight, she demonstrated how funny she thought she was as she cracked herself up over how clever she was dressing in mommy's clothes. She was going potty and sometimes she can be there for quite a while (if you know what I mean!). I was talking on the phone and pacing around when I walked into the bathroom and this is what I found:a> She had to have the flip flops show up in the picture!

Rear view
She had dressed herself in my clothes and kept laughing and laughing and laughing. Coo Big, I funny (Too big, I"m funny), over and over again. She is so hilarious sometimes it makes me laugh. She had to have it exact, with the shirt tucked in and my flip flops on. And don't worry, those stains are just paint as that is my painting shirt that she found. She always has some kind of get up on and now instead of being naked, insists on getting dressed. Unfortunately, she wants to pick out her outfits and she really comes up with some doozies!

Doesn't everyone wear their bathing suit over their pajamas?

Remembering 9/11

2008-09-11T21:15:00.002-04:00

9/11/01 is like one of those days etched in your memory forever. I was working my first year as a PT in the school district and school had only been in session for a couple of weeks. I remember one of the teachers running into the therapy room telling us to turn on the t.v. It seemed unreal, like some kind of horrid joke. I ran the kids back to class and all of the schools immediately went on lockdown. Parents were rushing to the school to yank their kids out, but it wasn't allowed. No one in and no one out. President Bush was about an hour away in Sarasota speaking at one of the elementary schools. Remember his face when he heard the news? He could have been a professional poker player.

In April of 2002 I was in New York visiting the city with a boyfriend. We went to see Ground Zero. It was absolutely eerie. To imagine the horrors was unreal. I never saw the Twin Towers, but I'll always remember seeing Ground Zero. An awful scene still visible in all that destruction.

Co Sleeping?

2008-09-10T19:28:00.006-04:00

Our second sleeping experiment.
Finally, some sleep! Wasn't she so little back then?!?!
Isn't this precious?!?!
The gratuitous, baby with her rump in the air sleeping photo.

I just read a whole blog and comments regarding co-sleeping and the pros and cons. It's kind of funny to me that there is such hub bub about the whole thing. I must confess though, I was originally very anti-co sleeping (before I was a mom!). When Regan first came home I tried everything to get her to sleep in her crib....or at the very least in her own room. The first three days I tried the crib. She learned to climb out of the crib and became very self abusive when she was in there (to the point you couldn't reason or consule her, she just wasn't "in" her body anymore if you know what I mean) she would bang her head and scratch herself bloody. We then tried sleeping on the floor in her room. Better, but still not great. Finally, we spent a month sleeping together in the hospital. The hospital staff was great about the fact that Regan would not do well in a crib and even though it was against hospital policy, they didn't make a big deal about switching out the crib and moving in a big bed. I just signed a waiver saying I wouldn't sue if she fell out or got hurt in any way. Seeing as how she was sedated and/or hooked up to her central line most of the time, she wasn't moving so much during that time. The two of us sleeping in the hospital bed also had the added bonus of freeing up the only chair in the room (in ICU) so that my mom also spent the night. Again, only one adult was supposed to spend the night, but they allowed my mom to "visit" over night. The hospital staff in ICU was awesome.

After we came home from the hospital, I was just glad to get sleep. In anyway possible. I always say that the silver lining of the hospital stay was that we were a team when we came home. After a month of sleeping together in the hospital I knew there was no way to go back to trying to get her to sleep on her own. My only rule is that she has to be able to go to sleep by herself. I won't go in and lay with her in order to get her to sleep. This rule was implemented after with trial and error I would try to lay day with her to go to sleep. I then realized I was spending several hours each day (nap and nighttime) laying as still as possible trying not to fall asleep myself! When it took longer and longer for Regan to fall asleep because she thought it was playtime, I initiated the mommy doesn't lay down with you rule. My other rationale in deciding to co-sleep is the fact that I am such a deep sleeper (used to be, not so much anymore, but when I"m tired, a train could run through my room and I would be undisturbed). I was very scared that she would wake up in the middle of the night and be scared, get into something harmful, or hurt herself and that I wouldn't wake up to hear her. Especially in the first several months being home when we were getting a tops of 4 hours of sleep at night. When I finally got to sleep, I slept hard! Her bedroom is clear across the house and although our house is not big by any standards, it was still a ways away.

Although we stumbled into co-sleeping, I truly do think it helped to cement our relationship. She knew I was there for her and during a time when she would have night terrors and be inconsolable, I was always there. Now, I love looking over and seeing her sweet little face. I think it is an amazing thing to experience and feel that I would be missing out on a great bonding time if we didn't sleep together. Of course I"m fortunate that I don't have a significant other that adds to the equation when contemplating co-sleeping.

My philosophy is that we won't be sleeping with me until she goes off to college. Eventually, when she is ready, she'll want to sleep on her own and that will be just fine. It is just funny to me that it is such a hot topic in the parenting world. I have learned that different things work for different families. As long as it isn't harmful or enabling, then do what is right for your family situation. Obviously, it isn't right for every family and that's okay. At this moment, it is right for our family.

Happy 7th Birthday Konnor and Being a Coupon Geek

2008-09-07T16:24:00.009-04:00

This might be a long post, so I apologize in advance!

September 3rd was Konnor's 7th Birthday! He really wanted a birthday party with all of his friends, but his birthday is so early in the year that it is always difficult for us to get it together. This year, we are going to try to host an "It's Not My Birthday Party" later in the year so that he can party with all of his friends. To celebrate on the actual day, he picked going to Outback for dinner. He didn't like his meal, but loved that they sang to him!

On Saturday, he, his daddy, and Ronald McDonald went fishing at the McFlats Fishing Tournament. He went last year and had a great time! After the tournament, he had a Wii program at the library. We then ate Chinese at the local buffet (his choice again) and went to see the movie Wall E. Regan liked Wall E, but wasn't behaving very well which is because she didn't have time for a nap. Konnor loved the movie. The adults all thought that it was boring. We got the message and it was a good message, but I wasn't thrilled. Especially since I trying to keep a non-napped 2 year old quiet! We came home and he opened gifts, his real splurge was an electric scooter given to him from my mom. He was so excited. I bought him some Ben 10 stuff and a skateboard ramp for his new manual skateboard. Let's hope I'm not blogging about broken bones in the near future! His mother hasn't seen him in almost two weeks and his grandmother (who lives in town) hasn't seen him in almost a year. This afternoon, they took him for pizza. We were worried they weren't going to acknowledge him at all. My brother has picked some real winners in the women department ;).

On a money saving note, about a month ago I became a coupon geek. I admit it. In an attempt to save more money while shopping, I look at a couple blogs that post deals from the week's newspaper fliers, clip coupons, and keep up with my coupon binder. It is bulky and I look like a dork, but when I am saving a ton of money when I shop, I get over feeling dorky real quick. The binder is filled with baseball card holders that I purchased at Wal Mart. Using them allows me to quickly look at all my coupons instead of the little coupon holders where you have to pull out and juggle all the coupons while shopping with a 2 year old (not fun). To demonstrate the money I've saved, here are some of my deals the past week.

CVS -

Revlon lipstick free after using my card and getting $5.99 in Extra Care Bucks

Chex Mix - free after $1 coupon

Box of Malt o Meal Cereal - free after $1 coupon

L'Oreal Face wash - free after extra care bucks

Aussie Shampoo - 50 cents a bottle after extra care bucks and coupon

Crest Toothpaste - free after $2 in extra care bucks and a $1 coupon

Wal Mart -

Airborne - made $1.50 after buying two on clearance for $1.25 each and I had two 2 dollar off coupons.

Walgreens -

Crest Mouthwash - I made 75 cents on the deal. It was free when you got back $4.99 in Register Rewards and I had a 75 cent coupon.

Pampers pull ups - 89 cents after it was on clearance for $3.14 and I had a $2.50 coupon. Regan still needs these for nap and nighttime.

Publix -

Friday's Potato skins - 19 cents after $3 coupon

Kotex tampons - 48 cents a box after using Buy One Get One and 2 $1 coupons

Silk Soy Milk 1/2 gallon - 54 cents after $2.25 coupon (I don't like soy milk, but Regan doesn't know the difference!)

Target -

Desitin for 75 cents after stacking a store coupon and a manufacturer's coupon.

Prego spaghetti sauce - 50 cents. Was on sale and had coupon.

These are just some examples. With coupons, you just have to make sure not to buy just because you have a coupon and to only buy what you need, can give away, or can store easily. In the Cape Life newspaper, they have the previous week's coupon inserts. So, you can get coupons for free. There are also many websites you can print off coupons. Publix accepts competitor coupons and allows you to use one store coupon with one manufacturer's coupon. Target also lets you stack store coupons with manufacturer's coupons. I actually emailed the company that makes my saline solution because I missed a mail in rebate thing. They sent me a coupon for free saline solution. It is 10 dollars a bottle (it is the only thing that works for me!). Ten dollar savings just like that! It is one area of my life where I am completely organized and I make a list and just hit the stores when I have a free 15 minutes or so (Target, CVS, etc). Publix I usually shop once a week. It is time consuming to use coupons and takes organization, but it is well worth it to me when I am saving so much money. I also set up a binder for my mom and I am the designated coupon organizer for us both. The bonus: My mom got her binder on clearance at CVS for $1.27!

I need to start tracking how much I have saved, but a guess would be that this month alone I have saved about $75 dollars. Yeah!!!

Isn't She Beautiful?

2008-08-27T23:27:00.007-04:00

Above is a photo of my pretty girl. Below is her eating lunch in a box, because doesn't everybody eat lunch in a box? Puts new meaning to the word "Box Lunch" !! Ha ha ha, I couldn't resist that one!
Is it wrong of me to look at her little face and think she is the cutest thing ever? And even better, she has such a personality and has such a great sense of humor. She cracks me up every night......she cracks herself up also. Ahhhh, to appreciate your own sense of humor is a gift ;) So, the director at the daycare stopped me today to ask me if I thought she was a handfull. I believe her exact words were, "Do you think Regan is going to be a handfull her entire life?". Uh, yeah, I do. The director calls her "Raygee" and pretty much lets her run the office. The director took to taking her on walks and she says now when she stops in the room if she doesn't let Regan go on errands with her then Regan absolutely will not give her the time of day for the rest of the day. The director also adopted a little girl from China about 6 years ago and I think she has a soft spot for Regan. She likes to go in the director's office and watch the classrooms on the video monitors. She really, really wants me to go outside and wave to her from the camera that views the front door. I did it once, I put my foot down at going outside everyday to wave like a dork at the camera. Isn't it enough that I wave at myself for the camera everytime we go to Publix?!?!?

To back up, Regan got placed in the 3 year old room. Partly at my request, partly at her teacher's request. The first week was dicey. Regan's two year old teacher got moved this school year to teach the threes. I didn't want Regan switched again as she had had three teachers last year and I thought that was ridiculous. Because Regan is potty trained, the daycare made an exception and allowed her and one other little girl to move to the threes. I also wanted her to have older children to help her model better behavior (ha ha ha) and language.

I love how the classroom is more structured. They have circle time, a lesson plan, activities, circle time spots, etc. This daycare has a religious affliation to Lutheranism and they have a bible lesson everyday. I like that and feel it is a bonus to their curriculum. There is also a visual behavior chart consisting of a smiley face, straight face, and sad face. I like that they are backing up their expectations with visual supplements, even though I thought it would go right over Regan's head. Amazingly, it hasn't gone over her head and she puts the dogs on sad faces all the time when they do not act according to her expectations;)

Regan started back to school two weeks ago. The first week she had sad faces (really bad days) for three days! Her teacher was obviously upset with her because she wouldn't keep her shoes on, wouldn't clean up, wouldn't share, was crabby and kept running out the door. Regan and I had many talks about her behaviors, especially running out the door. She is not allowed anymore to even touch a doorknob and if this continued, I was going to have to say she wasn't allowed within ten feet of a door ;) Come to find out, she was running out the door when the teacher was changing the other kids. My thought was that if you had to go into a restroom and change a child, there should be another adult in the room. I had erroneously thought that if Regan had to be potty trained to make it into this class this meant that all the three year olds in the class were potty trained. Guess not.

Anyhoo, I am thrilled to say that she is getting the routine down. I am also pleased that she actually got stamps and stickers yesterday for helping everyone clean up their stations without even being asked. Who says rewards don't go a long way? She hasn't run out the door since Konnor told her that he was not happy with her choices (I have no idea why she chose to listen to him, but I'm not complaining!). The daycare also started a Parent Advisory Group and four other parents and myself were invited to join. I'm really glad as it shows the daycare is looking for support and parental input.

Our other big challenge continues to be drop offs. Regan has been going to this daycare for over a year now. When will she stop crying everytime I drop her off? It is so rough to see her upset like that even though I know she stops soon after I leave (I have been known to lurk to make sure it is alright!) Her teacher wants her to learn to sit still for circle time. I wish her luck on that one. She is only two after all, and one of the most busy little two year olds I've ever seen.

Oh, one other big milestone. Regan is really beginning to enjoy arts and crafts. I mean REALLY enjoy them. I craft whenever I can and she now has her little art box where she will color and draw for quite a long time (30 minutes or so). Her teacher says she worked on her painting today for 50 minutes! She is so proud to show me every afternoon what she finished in class and wants her artwork displayed on the refrigerator.

Things Just a Keep on Breakin'

2008-08-24T23:32:00.002-04:00

The newest in the line of casualties seems to be my computer and possibly my clothes dryer. Both of which I would be lost without. I'll start with the dryer. I could dry my clothes faster by having Regan the whirling dervish hang on to them and run around like she is so good at doing. I LOVE this dryer and will be heartbroken if it doesn't work. It is a hand me down from my mom and is awesome. Nothing special, nothing fancy, but it does it's job:it dries clothes. Or at least it used to. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a laundry quirk. All of my clothes have to be dried and then ironed. Pretty much all of them. While in PT school, I actually burned a hole in a pair or soccer shorts because I thought they needed to be ironed. Silky soccer shorts and an iron do not mix.

Next: the computer. It must have been over a year ago, because Joel and I have been broken up for over a year now, a virus took over my computer and tried to destroy it. I still think somebody (not myself, hint hint) must have downloaded something with a virus. Anway, a friend of my mom's rebuilt my poor computer and it hasn't been the same since. Even though it got all of it's guts revamped, it still suffers. My email is always glitchy. If you haven't had a return email from me, now you know why! I have over 400 unread emails in my box because of my computer and it's haywire ways. I recently tried emailing a person who is adopting a little girl from the same orphanage where Regan lived. I was trying to attach pictures of the orphanage only to find out a couple of days later that I had actually sent pictures of random sightseeing. How embarrassing! So, now I have to double check all emails with attachments to make sure they are the correct attachments. That is if my email works at all. So, if I haven't emailed you back.....I'm trying! I am now going to attach some pictures and hope it works. Regan and Konnor both started school last week. Later this week, I 'll have to talk more about it, right now I"ll get on with the pictures before my crazy computer decides to boot me off (another wonderful trick it has learned.)

Tonight's Entertainment

2008-08-18T22:17:00.007-04:00

It's hurricane season again... Bleh! Hurricane Fay has decided to come and party this evening. Luckily, it won't be as bad as Charley who came as a Category 5. That is the one hurricane I've been through that was really scary. It went from a 4 that would hit north of us to a 5 headed straight towards us. I'll never forget visiting my friend who lived in Port Charlotte (the city north of us), who got the worst of it........her neighbor's toilet was in her front yard tree. It's never a good sign when a toilet has beome a tree ornament. It was hard to drive around here in Cape Coral because all the signs and power lines were gone and so we had no landmarks to go by.....and I had no electricity for 2 weeks(that really sucked)! Regan's first hurricane and she was really hyped up with all the activity and bringing all the lawn stuff into the garage. She thought it was great fun. At least one of us did!!! If we have electricity, I"ll post tomorrow about the last couple of weeks....I am so behind!

2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony - BeijingUpdated See Below

2008-08-09T00:07:00.008-04:00

One World, One Dream. The Great Wall.

Countdown Clock, Tiananmen Square.
Buildings in the Forbidden City getting a much needed paint job and face lift in preparation for the Olympics.

Our guide, Happy, who I so hope is enjoying the Olympic Opening Ceremony.

I just finished watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. I am so in awe of the entire ceremony and the symbolism. One of the things Bob Costas said that really rung true (and this is just one that I am thinking about right, there were many more) was about the complete and soul deep pride the Chinese felt about hosting the Olympics. Our Beijing guide, Happy, talked on and on about the Olympics. She only got to see her parents once every year or two because of how expensive it was to travel. Her biggest dream was to go with her parents to see the opening ceremonies. Back in 2006 when I was in China, there were Olympic emblems everywhere, including the Great Wall. Back then, you could sense the pride that the Chinese people felt over the honor of hosting the Olympics. It is also mind boggling to me to think that Regan is a Chinese daughter who can also share the great pride in her heritage. It actually brought tears to my eyes to see this pride and to be able to relate and to look at Regan and see some of her heritage. As I said in my last post, I am unable to post new pictures. I enjoyed looking back on some of my pictures of Beijing and I so enjoyed being able to see in my mind the Bird's Nest Stadium. We drove by this awesome stadium on our trip to the Great Wall. Back then, it was little more than a shell. I looked back on old pictures and even though I know we took a picture, I can't find one. I am so ready to go back for a visit, China is such a beautiful country.

UPDATE:

I'm scared, People, scared! Regan is really on a roll! Last night, after I stayed up until 3 AM working on a craft, watching some Olympics, printing coupons, etc....I woke up at 5 AM because something just didn't "feel right". That feeling was finding Regan up, having turned on the tv and was happily watching the opening ceremonies that were being replayed on NBC. What did she have to say for herself? "Look mommy, firework". I didn't mention earlier that she was soooo upset with me because I made her go to bed before the ceremonies were over. If this is the kind of stuff she is doing at the age of 2, what in the world is in store for me when she is a teenager?!?!?!?

P.S. I do have a chain on my front door and a locking bar thing on the sliding glass door so that she can't get out. I think a trip to Target is in my future to buy every locking device known to man. And you know the real unfairness? Tricia, I am actually a goody two shoes, and always have been! I learned from my brother what things NOT to do. My brother was the one always in trouble, sneaking out (I only did that once and he was involved in that little escapade), and too many other things to mention. Konnor, his son, is the most well behaved little boy ever (except he is becoming class clown). When Konnor was two, you could look at him funny and he would cry. Tell him not to touch something once and he wouldn't go within ten feet of it, ever. Where is the justice in this?!?!? (I'm lucky that I took lessons from my mom and hopefully can stay one step ahead of Regan. Maybe I should take a note from my mom and go ahead and nail the windows shut now as opposed to waiting until she is sneaking out at 16?~?~?)

Bullets

2008-08-07T00:22:00.004-04:00

I am so far behind on everything in life! I am going to bullet this post because otherwise it would be even worse than my usual rambling, meandering posts!

On Sunday, we took a last minute road trip. Drove five hours to my grandparent's house. Dropped off my mom and nephew. Drove another hour to my friend Leslie who lives in St. Augustine. Met her new baby!!! FINALLY home from Guatemala. She was sooooooo cute (Maya that is, not Leslie!). The purpose of the trip was to drop off a bunch of baby stuff for Maya and Leslie since I won't be needing it any more :( My baby is growing up so fast! Spent a couple of hours with Leslie. Drove an hour back to my grandparents, ate dinner, visited for an hour or so and back on the road for another five hours! Regan was not so pleasant the following day, but I can't blame her since we had quite the trip!

I lost the camera charger to my camera. Borrowed my mom's camera and lost the camera cord. End result: no pictures to put on post, so I am going to do past photos.
I am so excited to see the Olympics! I have been to Beijing and am so excited to see again some of the places we visited! Our Beijing tour guide, Happy, said her greatest wish was to get tickets to see the Opening Ceremonies. I so hope she gets to go, she was an amazing person. In her words, "I crazy like the olympics!".
Konnor got his Stanford Ten (standardized Kindergarten test) results. He did awesome! Scored in the 98th percentile for reading and the 95th percentile for math. Yeah!
Regan has not had any more on purpose potty accidents since the incident in the library. I did the whole ignoring thing. I went back to praising her when she used the potty and it seems like it was a temporary thing...thank goodness!!!
Regan is saying alot more words. She is now using time words: Today, later, now, etc. She picks up a new word just about everyday.
When I bought my new refrigerator, I never thought about the fact that she can get in the freezer section. I was a little surprised the first time I caught her watching tv, totally naked, sitting on the couch eating an ice cream cone!
Note to self: Buy refrigerator door locks.
Regan's trick of the week is to climb the counters. She scared me to death a couple of weeks ago when I found her sitting on the stove. For all the obvious reasons that is not okay. She pulls out the bottom drawer, opens up the cabinet door that is next to the stove and climbs from one to the other.
Note to self: Pull off the knobs on the stove, remove the bottom drawer.
Regan's other trick of the week was to lock herself in the bathroom stall at Burger King. On the big Road Trip, we stopped and had breakfast at BK. I took her to the potty before breakfast. After breakfast, my mom took her to the potty and she ran in, ran to the first stall and locked herself in. She must have noticed what kinds of locks they used during her first visit and cooked up this scheme while walking to the bathroom. Fortunately, she unlocked the door herself although I would have almost paid to see my mom try to crawl under the stall door!!!!
Regan learned to blow bubbles during swim lessons this year. The instructors always made a big deal whenever she would put her face in the water to blow the bubbles. I think they were a little too enthusiastic. Last night, I was getting her stuff together for bedtime. She was told to go potty before bed. I'm in the master bedroom, she is in the master bathroom and I hear a suspicious sound. It sounds suspiciously like bubble blowing. I walk in and her rear end is stuck up in the air as she is blowing bubbles in the dog's water dish. I know what everyone is thinking.....gross! I thought: thank goodness it wasn't the toilet!

Library Stuff

2008-07-23T23:23:00.006-04:00

Regan's new obsession is The Doodlebops or Boo Bops as she calls them. As I have mentioned before, there are very few tv programs she will sit and watch for more than 5 minutes which isn't necessarily a bad thing. She is OBSESSED with the Doodlebops now and asks for them every day. I just happened to have this keytar I got on clearance last year and never gave it to her. I pulled it out yesterday and she is in heaven! Below is Konnor following his Dance Dance Revolution Wii program at the library.

I found a new favorite quote from Dr. Seuss:

Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.

On another note, Regan has a new trick up her sleeve. She first did this little trick at daycare when she didn't like the substitute teacher she had. I thought we were over this particular little unpleasantry and then a couple of days ago she started pulling it out of her bag of tricks again. Her new trick is to wet her pants to show her displeasure about something. She will stand right there, look up at you and say, "I go pee pee" while she wets her pants. She did it yesterday at Sears because I wouldn't let her out of the stroller and tonight at the library because she was upset because the Latin Music Festival program was over. She was able to sit in the circle with "the big kids" and practice playing all the instruments and she loved being able to go to the front (she usually has to sit in the back with me because she is too young for the programs, but this was a program where they sang and danced and she wanted to go so badly I let her go with Konnor and no one minded she was there). She was not so happy we had to leave and let me know it in her most unpleasant way. I had just taken her to the potty about 30 minutes before and had no idea she could leave such a mess. Anyone got any suggestions? And no, I am not putting her back in pull ups after she has been potty trained for almost half a year. I am now packing her going out bag full of shorts, socks, underwear and spare shoes and I thought we had permanently retired that bag:( And can I tell you that I didn't appreciate the guy who stood there and watched me with Regan and gave me a disdainful look because she had her accident?!?!? It was on tile, I cleaned it up and I felt like telling him to give me a break as I am sure he had an accident or two while he was in his growing years!

On another sad note, the library programs are over for the summer. They were awesome! Konnor has a final summer Wii program this Friday and then they will have sporadic programs throughout the year. They are also stopping the evening story times. I am so upset! Regan went to her second one this Tuesday and actually did pretty good as they had alot more movement involved. They are moving them to mornings. It has been nice and we have really had a great time and Konnor has learned alot, completed several trivia contests, earned two books for his reading, and Regan has really enjoyed herself also. The librarians know Konnor and Regan by name now and Regan goes up to their summer desk to get stamps on her hands. They know what she wants when they see her coming!

Red Letters Campaign

2008-07-20T21:40:00.004-04:00

My blogger friend, Kristi, brought to my attention Red Letters Campaign. As part of my involvement I will try to answer some of the Blog Buzz questions. I have never been very eloquent at putting my thoughts into words, but I would love to give it a try. This week's question is:

“How do I do this, moneywise? I want to adopt, but it seems so overwhelming. We don’t really have $20,000 in the bank, ya know!” Please blog about your experience, ideas, insight, fundraisers and other ideas that worked for you while raising your adoption money.

Especially as a single woman, I get asked this quite often. To be perfectly honest, funding adoption was the most difficult and daunting part of the entire process. I worried and continue to worry that since I am the only breadwinner that if something happens to me how in the world would I pay the bills? I often feel like I am juggling several balls at one time and that at any minute I may drop one of the balls.

With that having been said, there is no possible way I could put a price on the priceless gift that is Regan. When explaining it to other people I would explain that they would never think twice about financing a 20-30 thousand dollar car, so why the stigma associated with the necessary expenses associated with adoption? I have no magic solution to fundraise money for adoption. I personally took out a home equity loan (back when the housing market was decent and I actually had equity!). I personally did not feel comfortable fundraising and asking for donations. On the other hand, my family did and continues to help me tremendously. When Regan was unexpectedly admitted to the hospital for a month with a life threatening infection 3 weeks after she arrived home, it was my family who helped pull us through that awful time. I ended up having to take an extra month off from work and the hospital, doctor, and medication bills were astronomical. My family provided both emotional support and financial support when they could. I began delivering a paper route as my second job and my mother came over after work and helped me bag and throw the route. That being said, I have always worked a second job to assist with finances. I am fortunate to have a job that allows me to work varying hours to meet my schedule. When I work late, my family assists me by picking Regan up from daycare. It is not ideal, but being single it is what it is.

Instead of concentrating on financing adoption, I concentrate on saving money on a day to day basis. One of the things I try to do is save all my change. I always try to pay with dollars and then put away the change in my change bucket. I know it must be irritating to the cashiers, but even if something is 1.02, I try to pay with two dollars so that I'm not using my change.

Another thing I am going to try to start to do is clip coupons. I'm not so good at this because it takes organization and time (two things I'm not great at), but last week I saved 19 dollars by using coupons at the grocery store. Of course, I hadn't shopped in forever so I needed to stock up. I can't imagine I would save that much every week, but hey, even if it is only one time that is 19 dollars I know have in my pocket!

This Christmas, we are going to try to make most of our gifts. I think it will not only be cost effective, but really fun also!

I am really good at shopping sales! I shop clearances for all of Regan's clothes and shoes. It may seem ridiculous to some, but when there is a good sale I stock up on clothes and shoes in sizes that Regan will grow into. Target was having a huge sale on shoes. The most expensive shoe was 4 dollars. The cheapest shoe was less than 2 dollars. Shoes and clothes do not spoil and they never go bad, so I buy clearance and store them for when Regan grows into them. The picture below is of my weekend finds. I bought 32 pairs of shoes for 85 dollars. Three of the pair were for myself. You can't beat that! Several weeks ago that had a clothes clearance and had shirts and skirts for 1 and 2 dollars. I stocked up, of course! If I don't stock up, she is still going to keep growing and I will still have to clothe her (as much as she would be happy naked!) so I might as well stock up on clearances and save myself hundreds of dollars.

Another thing I do is try to find activities to keep the kids occupied that cost little or no money. Who says that to be entertained you have to spend a ton of money? Every summer we attend the free library programs. Konnor loves them and I enjoy them also! We also go to the park, bike ride, nature center, free movies, etc. We have also found that some places (like the nature center) have annual passes that are really cheap and provide entertainment all year! I guess this post is more about how we save money in general as opposed to how to fund adoption, but it really is one and the same in my house!
We played board and card games Saturday night. I promise, I do clothe Regan!!! I never realized how often she strips down to nothing until I pull out the camera and realize she has little or no clothes on!

Just Going for a Stroll

2008-07-15T20:34:00.004-04:00

Heading to the movies. Notice her "collection". She has to bring several things with her whereever she goes. She will systematically collect her things on the way out the door.
Mommy, where are you going? Below is a picture of last year at the movies. Haven't they grown?!?

Do you ever have those moments or experiences where nature just tickles you and you are amazed at what you are seeing?

I do and I had one of those moments today. I was heading home and had to stop in the middle of the road because there were about 10 of these slimy things wiggling around and trying to cross the road. I have never seen anything like it so I stopped to take a picture. They are walking catfish! I guess because of the TORRENTIAL rains we have had that they decided to go out for a stroll and see more of the world. The pictures don't do it justice but just imagine a group of these things "walking" down the road while enjoying the day!

We had a busy day today going to one of the free movies at the movie theatre. We watched The Bee Movie. It was pretty cute. We then ate a quick lunch and Regan had a really quick nap. Then we headed to the library for their program. We went grocery shopping and then headed back to the library for Family Storytime.

I wasn't sure how Regan was going to behave during the movie and she did really good. Not so good during story time. We are REALLY working on Regan sitting still, listening, and not touching. The touching thing she does really drives me nuts!!! She can't keep her hands off of things and we go over it ad nauseum! Grocery shopping is not a good thing. We are going to be going to story time on a regular basis so that she learns and is exposed to a situation where she needs to sit and listen. Hopefully it will rub off and she'll learn before she hits puberty;)

Crafts and Adoption Picnic

2008-07-13T20:36:00.006-04:00

Blurry elephant ribbons.
Just because she is cute!

My little monkey at the playground. She can hang forever!

She didn't want to eat at the picnic, just climb!
More mommy!

My latest craft was to decoupage scrapbook paper to make a key holder. Anybody who knows me for more than 5 minutes knows how scatterbrained I am! I spent countless wasted hours every year looking for my car keys. Hopefully this will solve the problem!
Pony tail holders made out of buttons I covered in fabric.
Hey, did you notice she matches my couch?!?! I obviously have an issue with liking plaid.
I promise I clothe my child. She just loves to be as naked as possible!

I worked on some new crafts this week. I can hardly believe that summer is almost over. How come it never lasts as long as you think it should???

Today we went to a picnic hosted by our adoption agency. A small group of people attended, but most importantly I got to meet the great Delaney! She is 3 1/2 years old and came home to her family 2 weeks ago. I didn't take any pictures of everyone because I just wasn't good about taking pictures. Also, I didn't get to say a very good goodbye because Regan decided it was time to show her little rear end and act up so we left rather quickly. That's life with a 2 year old!

Another new development: I have posted in the past about how Regan calls me Becky. For whatever reason I am now Mommy. Unfortunately, she calls every man she sees "Daddy".

Trying to Catch Up

2008-07-09T17:30:00.007-04:00

You may think that I am taking a picture of my beautiful, dressed herself, don't judge me on the uncoordinating outfit daughter, but I'm not. That little piece of goodness she is standing next to is our new refrigerator!!!

After over a month we finally have a new refrigerator!!!! The only way we survived was by mooching milk from my mother's fridge. We now will have cold goods!!!

On another note, my grandparents came for a visit over the 4th of July weekend. I love when they come to visit for so many reasons. They love Regan to pieces and she gets absolutely spoiled rotten. My 94 year old grandfather plays and plays with her and that is so good to see....for both of them. I also love that it is one of the few times I get to know that there are several other pairs of eyes watching my little bundle of hyperness and I get to craft. My newest thing is trying to make handpainted clothes. Having a little girl who likes JoJo and knowing that all things JoJo are almost obsolete, I decided just to make my own stuff. My family has now decided that Christmas is going to consist primarily of hand made stuff and I am so excited! The following pictures are of my attempts at handpainting clothes. I can't draw worth a flip and so I cheated by following pictures, then just painted them.....it was really easy and didn't take very long at all. It was so much fun to do, now I need to get it together and paint the area around my new refrigerator. I had an entire month and didn't paint the space where the refrigerator sits. I thought there was no need, figuring my new refrigerator would cover the wall. This refrigerator is much smaller than my old one so of course you can see all around it and notice I didn't paint the wall behind uniformly. Arghh!!

Why did they have to take Bear off of tv? No one can cha cha like Bear can.

Below is my grandmother participating in the craftiness, I want her to teach me how to sew next time they come down.

Not so sure I like the shoes, and I absolutely think the socks look like a 1st grader painted them, but Regan likes them so that is all that counts. They started off as white canvas shoes and I bought the last pair. I wish I had thought of this sooner because I could have bought alot of white shoes and just painted them all different colors. Oh well, I am now on the lookout for cheap white canvas shoes.

My JoJo's? That is what she keeps saying.

What do you mean I can't wear them right now?!?!?

We had a good fourth of July just hanging out together and working on our different projects. We didn't make it to fireworks because of the bugs and Regan was scared, but we drove around the neighborhood and enjoyed all the neighborhood fireworks. I think alot of them were better than the real ones! It was really a good time and Regan got to where she really enjoyed watching them.

Our Summer So Far

2008-06-29T18:07:00.008-04:00

Regan's new obsession is with sunglasses (gasses as she calls them)
Posing with two of her favorite things, gases and fwip fwops.
At the fishing tournament.

Whew!! It has been a pretty busy summer so far! I am working summer school, but that ends next week and so the great battle to pay bills begins in earnest as I won't get a paycheck for over a month! I am so sick of money and the lack of money being on the forefront of my thoughts every hour of the day, but then I realize I am so lucky compared to so many and so I need to stop my whining. Okay, I"m done!

I am stalling from going out into the humid, hot, humid, hot, humid weather to finish mowing my lawn. I turned off my sprinklers in the hopes that all my grass would die and most of it did, but unfortunately, the weeks are heartier than that and are taking over. Some of them are ridiculously tall and so I could no longer take it.....I had to mow. I. hate. to. mow.

We have done numerous library programs, including a magic show, reptile show, Ding Darling Animal Refuge Show, a funny singing play, and others. Konnor also got to play a Wii for the first time as they have Wii games on Fridays at the library. They sign up six kids for 1/2 hour slots, for three or fours hours in the afternoon. It was Wii sporting and had a bowling competition going. I was afraid he wasn't going to get how to do it because he had never played before and alot of the kids were very comfortable on the Wii. I shouldn't have worried as he was high scorer out of the entire day!! 586 pins on the game they played!

Regan and Konnor are both in swimming class. Konnor learned how to swim a couple of weeks ago when we went to Sunsplash for the $5 dollar days. He now needs to work on endurance and confidence and he loves it! Regan, not so much. I really need to get her in a pool more often. She loves, loves, loves, water and has a blast when playing in the pool, but hates, hates, hates swimming lessons and clings to me like a barnacle.

We also went to the Calusa Nature Center and went to a summer nights program where we saw more animals, watched a Planetarium Show (I loved it) and went to a camp fire and ate smores (and yes, it was over 90 degrees, but at least it kept the bugs away!). Regan did not like smores, I was quite surprised! They have a turtle tank there, and Regan continued her terror of turtles. We have a membership to the Nature Center so I think we are going to go quite often so that hopefully she will get over her fear.

Konnor went to a fishing tournament this weekend and had a blast! He caught one fish!

My grandparents are coming down for the 4th of July and so we are looking forward to their visit.

Okay, enough stalling, I need to go mow before it starts raining. Why is it that the rain isn't cooling, but just makes it muggy?!?!?!

I've Been Tagged!

2008-06-22T21:26:00.002-04:00

My blogger friend, Amy, has tagged me, and I"m sorry it has taken me so long to finally get it together and answer the questions! I have never been tagged before, so this is a first!

5 Things I was doing 10yrs ago:

1. Let's see, 10 years ago I had just turned 23 (I had to think about that for a second!!) so I was in my first semester of Physical Therapy School. We started that summer.

2. I was working as a rehabiliation technologist making beans for money and so I also waitressed (Chili's - loved me that chip drawer that got my rear end expanding!) and worked at the vet's office (where I proceeded to try and adopt every stray animal that came through until I finally had to say "no more").

3. I was dating a guy that I had been going out with since I was 19.

4. I was driving my most favorite car - a black Del Sol, you know....the ones where the roof came off and it stored in the trunk. My little two seater stick shift that I loved, loved, loved. Several months later and a month before it was paid off, it got totaled.

5. Meeting new friends and starting a whole new avenue in life, and really enjoying college. About a year later, my new found life led to the extinction of the above referenced number 3 as he was the jealous, cheating type.

5 Things on my list to do today???

1. Clean this house!

2. Mow the lawn!

3. Fill out some paperwork forms

4. Call the state of Florida to see about getting a medicaid number so that I can treat patients privately (dorfus, computer illiterate me managed to lock up my application so that I can't move forward).

5. Research mini crabs as that it the next animal I think Regan would enjoy. We love watching them at the local PetSmart!! I love that Regan loves animals as much as I do!

5 Favorite snack foods????

1. Only five, what snack food isn't a favorite?!?!? Okay, let's see: cupcakes, homemade not the store bought ones

2. Cheetos, the puffy kind

3. Cheesecake

4. I am currently hooked on Chick-o-sticks

5. Sour Starburst

5 Things I would do if I were a billionaire????

1. Be a stay at home mom, I so desperately want to stay home with Regan, but seeing as how I am the only income I"m thinking that isn't a possiblity!

2. Take care of all my family's financial needs and let us all be debt free and move out to the country

3. Adopt another child or two (special needs)

4. Set up a fund for spaying and neutering animals and fund no kill shelters for all animals

5. Set up a scholarship fund for needy children

5 Places I have lived????

1. Sad to say, I was born and raised in Lee County and have only lived in three homes my entire life - one in Fort Myers, One in Alva, and now in Cape Coral.

I would move in a second if Konnor's mom didn't live down here. My whole family would probably move further north, the Carolina's, Tennesee or Denver would be my choice!

I am now supposed to tag five people, but can only think of four, so I tag:

1. Tricia

2. Carolyn

3. Anna

4. Darolyn, but since she is currently in China, she is allowed to take awhile to get back with us!!

Heartbreaking

2008-06-16T23:07:00.002-04:00

Today has been pretty rough.....

My niece and nephew were unexpectedly picked up by their mother. This all happened within a 24 hour period and we are all reeling from the shock.

I can't grasp my head around the worry that I have for the future of those two children. I"m not sure they are going to grow up to be well adjusted adults and that breaks my heart and makes me feel so helpless. My nephew especially needs support and assistance that I"m not sure we could provide and I feel for sure he won't get when he goes back to his previous home. What do you do in a situation like that? What is the best thing for these children and how do we provide it? Every child needs stability and I am so upset we were blocked from having a relationship with them for over 10 years. I feel that at this point, we won't be able to have a lasting positive impact on their lives. Then I think of Konnor, and he also felt the impact of this on his life. He often was the butt of their jokes and would be ganged up on and belittled. What is right for his well being? I have been sick all day worrying about the the kids....my mom and I didn't even get to say goodbye as their mother was supposed to be here at midnight tonight and unexpectedly showed up around 4 pm before we were off of work and promptly loaded up and left. We didn't even hug them goodbye as we thought we would see them again. I am worried contact will be cut off again and we won't ever see them again. I wonder what could have been if we had only been given a chance to be part of their lives as they were growing up.

There are no winners in this situation.

The Doctor is in the House

2008-06-02T21:27:00.003-04:00

I'm ready for my first patient. Okay Tiki, open up and say "ah".
Deep breath in.
Good job, Tiki. You were a wonderful patient. Please see my secretary, Marmie, for a sticker on your way out.
Whew! I'm beat after a long day at the office!

Regan's New Favorite Show

2008-05-24T21:55:00.003-04:00

From So You Think You Can Dance: This guy is absolutely amazing! Down to his facial expressions he has got it all down!! He fascinates me!

Things Regan Loves

2008-05-11T19:53:00.004-04:00

We had a pretty uneventful Mother's Day. I have to say something cliche in that everyday is Mother's Day for me! We actually spent the day cleaning, we took a nap together, and played together. All in all a good day.

I thought I would do a bullet post today with a list of some of Regan's favorite and not so favorite things!

Not so favorite:

Sitting still

Naps (and sleeping in general)

Turtles

Not getting her own way

Meat

Wearing clothes

Swings

Favorite:

Cantaloupe - the girl can eat her weight in cantaloupe

Pasta of any kind - I think she has some Italian in her

Her Ma, Mama, Papa, Uncle Jay Jay, Nemi, Agex and Angle (my mom, my grandmother, granfather, brother, Konnor, Alex, and Angelique)

Her new obession is with Saurs (dinosaurs) and she loves watching the saurs on our back porch (lizards)

JoJo's Circus, Micka, and Elmo

Being naked....all the time and I usually allow it when we are home because hey, might as well enjoy it now!!

Another new obsession is painted toe nails. LOVES her some painted toe nails and has to show everyone!

Gymnastics

Play doh

Animals of all kinds except she is terrified of turtles

Milk

Carnation instant breakfast vanilla flavored

Donuts

Bikes and skateboards

Doing the laundry

Feeding the fish and ducks in the canal in our backyard

Matchbox cars

Dressing up, she can turn anything into dress up, Konnor's clothes included. Loves my shoes!

Shoes in general, especially boots

Taking showers

Deuce coup cars

Elvis

Dancing

Singing

Playgrounds

Her Twins (baby dolls)

Going for rides in her stroller

Are ya kiddin' me?!?!

2008-05-10T10:17:00.002-04:00

Please boycott Teleflora and the new NBC show "America's Favorite Mom". As part of the contest, they had the unbelievable gall to classify moms who have adopted into the category of "Non-Mom". In the same category with "neighbor". How in the He** do they think being a mom through adoption compares to being a neighbor?!?!?! They have since changed the category to Adoptive Mom, still segregating us into another category rather than just plain "mom".
The real kicker is that this is their "apology". You can read it here.

Somehow it does not make me feel better that the President of Teleflora is an adoptive parent and thought it was okay to list Adoptive Moms as Non-Moms. Is anybody else besides me worrying about the love and affection those "non-children" received while in that family?

I sent two emails to NBC and Teleflora expressing my disgust with the whole thing and urge you do to the same. Here is a copy of my email:

Dear Teleflora:

I sit here watching my daughter and can not believe the rage I feel inside. Rage that was caused by NBC, Teleflora, and its associates and sponsors for allowing a category "Non Moms" to describe mothers who have adopted. I feel sorry for all of you who think it takes biology and DNA to create the love between a mother and her child. My daughter is my daughter and I am her mother no matter that we do not share DNA. I would give my life for her and feel sorry for you that you will never feel that kind of love that is not dependent on shared genes, but rather is based in such deep emotions that they can not fully be described.

To see that you changed your category to "Adoptive Moms" still does not sit well with me. And in your "apology", you continue to classify adoptive moms and compare them to the neighbor. Where is your mindset that you believe a mother who has chosen to parent through adoption compares to a neighbor?!?!

I am a mother. Period. My daughter is my daughter. Period. There needs to be no descriptive word "adoptive" in front of the word mother. My daughter knows that I traveled half way around the world to have the blessing of being her mother. I spent over two years anxiously waiting for her to come home. I stay up night rocking her when she is sick. I'm the first one she sees in the morning and the last one she sees at night. We share the sticky kisses and the hugs that make your heart ache with love. I am a mother and I am incredulous and appalled down to my core that you would demean my relationship with my daughter. Shame on you.

Becky Newton
MOTHER to Regan

Skater Dudette

2008-05-04T16:21:00.003-04:00

My internet has been down for over a week. Can I tell you I"m so sick of everything breaking around here?!?!? Anyway, we are looking for new things for the kids to do over the summer. We visited Eagle Skate Park and Regan and Konnor were amazed at all the kids skateboarding. We then went home and they got their skateboards out. Regan was pretty good! She will do anything to hang with the big kids!

I also spent some time today doing hair bows. I would love to figure out how to do JoJo. Regan's new obsession is JoJo's Circus. She has two pairs of JoJo pajamas (jammins in Regan talk) that she always wants to wear and she only wants to wear JoJo underwear. I have no idea why the obsession as she doesn't watch much tv, maybe 15 minutes a week. She loses all interest in cartoons after just a few minutes, but loves Matlock, Back to the Future, equestrian shows, and You've Got Mail remains her ultimate favorite. I don't have any clue as to why these are her favorites, but they are. Oh, and she'll watch Mickey Mouse Playhouse (Micka in Regan talk) when she thinks they are calling her name (you know when they yell out "Oh, Tooooooootles, she thinks they are calling "oh, Doodle"!!). My new favorites are the National Geographic and the History Channels. I used to only watch TLC and Discovery Health, but have watched them so often, I had to get a new fix!

The Tooth Fairy and Letterboxing

2008-04-19T22:12:00.007-04:00

Konnor lost his first upper tooth this week. The other one was actually loose, but he was favoring it so much he bit down wrong on a sandwich and this one came out. The picture below is the next day when I pulled his original loose tooth!

I am sad to say that Spring Break is almost over :( Regan is also going to be upset because Konnor is no longer spending every night at our house. For the past week, he has slept at my house so that my mom didn't have to drop him off bright and early every morning on her way to work. Regan loved having him here and tried to convince me that she needed to be with him. For the last evening, she kept trying to sneak into bed with him:

Today, we headed over to Sanibel Island to bike through Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge and enjoy their Earth Day Celebration. As part of the celebration, the were offering free bike rentals. My mom left her bike and used my bike with the pull behind to carry waters and stuff. I had the brilliant idea that I would get a rental bike with a seat so that Regan could sit higher up to see all the nature and wildlife.

Obviously, that was not such a good idea as I fell with the bike about five minutes after getting it. As I was trying to get on! Me being so graceful and coordinated, I didn't realize there were no handbrakes. I tried to get on during an incline and my little petite girl weighed down the back so much we both tipped over. I was trying to engage the hand brakes to help stop us rolling and falling, but obviously that did not work so well as there were no handbrakes to be using! Regan didn't even utter a peep and somehow I managed to bang up my knee even though I landed on my bottom. Leave it to me! Please excuse the lack of make up. I figure that in the 90 degree weather it would melt off anyway, so why bother?We biked over 8 miles and she stayed in the above seat for about 1/2 a mile, the rest of the time she wanted to be in the pull behind. Figures. This area was so beautiful. Here is part of the gang. I'm behind the camera and Doodle was asleep in the pull behind. We tried a new activity today. It is called letter boxing. Letterboxing works like a scavenger hunt. The way it works is that you get together your own kit (Letterbox) that includes a stamp that has meaning to you, a notepad, pen, and a ink pad. You then can then go online at www.letterboxing.org and find hidden letterboxes. They are grouped according to geographic location. You look in your area and print off the clues as to where a letter box is hidden. Once you find a letterbox, you use your stamp to stamp in the notebook that should behidden in the letterbox. You also take the stamp that is in the hidden letterbox and stamp your notebook. You rehide the hidden letterbox so that the next person can find it. Basically, you are collecting stamps in your notebook from all the boxes that you find. You can also look up different areas when you go on vacation. If you want to hide your own letterbox, collect the stamp and notepad in a waterproof box, and you can set up clues on the website www.letterboxing.org. Our family is going to each create their own letterbox to hide! We tried it today while we were biking on Sanibel Island and although we didn't have our own kits made (because I wasn't sure we would actually find any boxes), we did have a blast finding the boxes. We found two out of the three we tried. The first one was hidden back in 2005 and probably is just no longer active. We are going to go back next weekend with our own stamps so we can "leave our mark"!!!! One of the clues was a hidden t-shirt that you take your picture with, rehide it for the next person, and then send a picture to the person who hid the t-shirt.
Finding our first letterbox! The kids were so excited. There was a letter, a t-shirt and some stickers. It was hidden by the Sanibel Lighthouse. So much fun!Here is the letter hidden in the box. Two people had already found the letter and stamped their names. Our picture with the t-shirt. We'll have to go back next weekend to stamp a stamp on the letter.
Alex is rehiding the box. This was our second letterbox we found. It was an old 35 mm film case with a letter and a stamp hidden inside. It was hidden on the boardwalk by the lighthouse. It was in a hole in a tree. Doodle and my brother's girlfriend hanging out and watching all the action. My brother is rehiding the canister. I also recently found out about geocaching. Sounds like a blast! If I ever have a GPS system, that is going to be my next adventure!~

Where Has the Time Gone?

2008-04-16T16:00:00.005-04:00

It has been quite the hectic month. At Easter, my ex sister-in-law dropped off my brother's two oldest children. We haven't seen them in almost 10 years because she kept moving them around and changed their last names. They are now living with my mom and it has been quite the adjustment for everybody involved. It hasn't been an easy month. As a mother, I do not understand how you could drop off your children to virtual strangers and walk away. I just don't get it.

Anyway, we are trying to make it work, but it isn't easy. My nephew is changing schools already because his mother didn't mention until he was already in our neighborhood middle school that he had an IEP. Well, the IEP could not be met at the school he has been attending for the last three weeks so yet again, he is having to change schools. We would have tried to get through the rest of the year where he is, but he was failing 5 out of 7 courses with an average grade in the 40s. He just can't keep up and this was after we spent several hours each night trying to help him with homework. What was she thinking?!?!?

Okay, enough of the negative! We have tried to keep busy and have gone to Lakes Park, Sanibel, and a couple of neighborhood parks. The kids love to bike ride and so we have been taking bike rides and that has been good for everybody involved. It is currently spring break and I am just trying to spring clean my house. It is so in need of it! I have no idea how I manage to accumulate so much JUNK! I am also looking for more work as my outpatient patients have all graduated. Good for them, not so good for my bank account! My last patient's mom and I became pretty good friends as we would chat during her son's weekly sessions. I wish there was a home health company that serviced pediatrics in this town. I love home health because you truly get to know the families (both the good and bad!).

Regan continues to amaze me. I love that little girl so much it is unreal! She is really becoming such a little person. Her vocabulary is really coming along and she can hold entire conversations now. It has just "clicked". We played with play-doh yesterday and we are going to keep working on it....she has no idea what to do with it! I feel like I have been depriving my child of one of the basic skills of childhood - play-doh play! She also graduated in her preschool class. I resisted for a long time moving her because she is so desperately attached to her teacher and I hate to move her now, again in the summer for summer camp, and again next school year. Unfortunately, the children in her class were getting younger and younger and Regan was getting bored (according to the director and her teacher). I finally consented when two things happened within a two week period - Regan started sucking her thumb (from a former thumb sucker, I didn't care that she was sucking her thumb as much as I cared that she was mimicking her younger classmates' behaviors). Her behavior was also becoming babylike with more whining, crying, and temper tantrums. The second deciding factor was that she took a real dislike to her new teacher's assistant. I didn't care for her so much myself. She was always negative. Always telling me how she couldn't wait to get home and get away from work. From a parent's stand point, what you are really saying is that you can't wait to get away from my child. Regan also began crying hysterically if she was dropped off in the morning and this assistant was in the class. Her primary teacher doesn't get to work until 9:30 and that is not an option for me to start work at 10! The director got to witness this behavior one morning and had me drop her off in the mornings to a different class, but I wasn't happy with that...she would still have to go be with the assistant during the day. The director would then watch her in the mornings and take her in the afternoons to a different class and said she loved the older class. I said we would try it and I am so glad we did, the first day she went right in, said hi to her new teacher, and joined right into the class. This class is more structured, so hopefully, this will work! Next week will be rough because Doodle never does well with going back to school after a vacation.

Great Week!

2008-03-09T15:59:00.015-04:00

I got into Mommy's eyeliner, don't I look wonderful! I do have to say, I love this picture of her eyes, aren't they gorgeous!!!

Posing at the fair!

Didn't I do a great job decorating!!

The last week has been loads of fun. And I mean it for real!

Last Sunday, we went to the park with friends of mine to allow the kids to play together. It was nice to hang out together and socialize.

On Wednesday, Regan had her gymnastics class and she did so well! She behaved so well, waited her turn nicely and hung out with a woman who is 8 1/2 months pregnant. I don't know why that particular woman was who she wanted to hang out with, but she wanted that lady to hold her the entire time. Luckily, this woman's husband helped their little girl with gymnastics as Regan had her occupied. I kept offering to take Regan because I didn't want to impose, but she politely refused and seemed to enjoy having Regan so taken with her!

Regan's language is also blossoming this week. She now refers to herself as "Doodle" (one of her nicknames) and when asked her name, that is what she wants to be called. Too cute! Her new words include: shower, efent (elephant), horsey, buck up (buckle up), corn (for corn or popcorn), Nessa (her friend Vanessa), gross, big gurls (underwear), watch (for a wrist watch), side (outside), Dondul (the cat, Donald), fun, let's ride, I want ride, I go now, and many more! She "talks" all the time (and loudly! we are working on inside voice), but now I am understanding more words in all her "talk". She understands stuff I never thought she would! I have to keep that in mind when I am talking. She copied her first bad word last week and I am ashamed to say it, but she copied it from me :( Luckily, it appears she is only going to repeat it that one time. Whew!

Oh, and she can count to four! I am so proud!

Yesterday, we headed to the County Fair. My mom had bought my nephew and me armbands so that we could ride the rides. Thank goodness because the ride tickets were a small fortune. Konnor is becoming quite the rider and he was thrilled he had a ride buddy. I will ride just about anything, and I was impressed with all the rides he would ride. As long as it didn't go upside down he was okay with it. I was also pleased because all the carnies let Regan go on rides without tickets. As long as I rode with her they let her on the little rides. She was so excited that she actually got to ride some rides because she used to cry when I would ride with Konnor. She is becoming much more adventurous and rode the flying elephants, the giant slide x5 times, the School Bus that goes way up in the air, and a fun house climbing thing. Konnor did ride The Zipper with me, going against his own upside down rule, and I thought he was going to have a meltdown, but he held it together! That one was scary for me too because if I hadn't held on to him during one spin, he would have hit the roof with his head. We are not going to be riding that one again, too unsafe. I bought him popcorn and we rode the Super Himilaya one more time since he was such a good sport! All in all, we counted them up and we rode at least 30 rides (not 30 different rides, because some we repeated, but we rode 30 times). Two $20 armbands got their money's worth! It was good for Konnor, because he sometimes has a hard time with being the oldest and not getting as much attention. Sometimes it pays off to be the oldest!

The video link for The Zipper is not mine, but one I got off of YouTube.

More great news is that they offered us PTs and the Occupational Therapists the chance to become employees. They have 10 slots open. I went for it....and became an offical employee on Friday! I have an initial paycut for the first few years, but my health insurance is $450 cheaper a month. I also got three sick days starting immediately. In the fall I get 7 more! Just the ability to have 10 sick days a year is amazing! No more contract work for me! Benefits are a beautiful thing.

Today is my mom's birthday and Doodle and I made her Rice Krispie treats. We decorated them with pre-made decorations......unfortunately, only about half of them ended up on The Treats. The rest were shoved into Doodle's mouth. Then I had to deal with post-decoration sugar high!

My New Hobby

2008-03-02T13:31:00.004-05:00

After this post and this post, I decided to start a new hobby. I love doing little girls' hair (if only Regan would sit still for more styles!) and I love all the hair ribbons I see people making. So, I decided to try it myself. These are what I came up with last night :

Not perfect, seeing as how I got the ends uneven on the top bow, but it was fun to do! I had no idea you can curl ribbon by baking it.....I did have a picture of the ribbon baking, but when I saw my oven in the picture, I realized I need to clean it!! All in all, it took me about 30 minutes to do all three. I see some Christmas presents in Regan's future!!

It Just Keeps Getting Better

2008-02-29T22:04:00.007-05:00

A picture from a year ago, hasn't she grown!!

As a sequel to my earlier post , the saga continues.

After trying to get the water pressure tank on the house, I couldn't get it done. I called my brother the next day and he helped me put it on. I happily go into the house to turn my water on and.....no water. I am totally bummed and over the whole thing by now. After three trips to Home Depot, we have replaced the switchy thing and still nothing. My brother calls about 5 different plumbers and nobody can seem to come out to help even though they are on 24 hour call. I guess the rule is, they are open 24 hours but don't expect any help until the next day about mid day.

I had gotten a phone call from Regan's daycare that she is running a high temperature and so she is not allowed to come back to school on Thursday. Great.

On Thursday morning, I have a sick child and my brother comes over in the morning to help me deal with plumbers. After spending an entire day messing with them, they determine it is my pump that isn't working. The pump that is located about 100 feet underground. Not something I feel that I can even begin to do on my own. Lucky for me, they will fix it for the amount of $1295.oo. Oh, and they were very pleased to tell me that they accept credit cards. Isn't that generous of them?!?! What do I do at that point? I have got to have running water in the house. After they make the diagnosis and shock me into a stroke with the price tag, they have my water running about two hours later. I am obviously in the wrong business, that amounts to $647.50 an hour. It must be nice. Not sure how I'm going to dig myself out of the debt hole I have crawled into in the past year.

I go inside to enjoy water taps that actually have water coming out of them and I get a phone call from my mortgage company. They had the great news that I didn't pay my mortgage last month. I nicely explain to them that I did pay my mortgage last month, I do it online through my bank. We get disconnected in the middle of the conversation and I use that time to go check online to prove to them they were wrong. I still can not believe what a moronic thing I did. I paid two bills online last month through my bank. A credit card bill and my mortgage. I did the most genius thing of accidently switching the amounts so that my mortgage company got paid $200 and my credit card company got my mortgage payment. Ughhhh! Now I owe two months worth of payment on my mortgage. Not quite sure how I am going to come up with the cash for that one. They also reiterated some news that I had gotten in a lovely letter a couple of weeks ago. That lovely letter told me that with rising taxes, my escrow account is low and if I don't want my mortgage payment to go up $500 a month, I can pay them upfront $1900.00 and then my mortgage payment is only going up by $100 a month.

I think I need to start playing the lottery.

Today, I am home again with my sick little one because she can't quite kick the horrible cough and high temperature that everyone seems to be getting. Did I ever mention I am a contract employee and if I don't work, I don't get paid?!?!? Well, Regan and I are enjoying watching America's Next Top Model and eating popcorn when the chair slips out from underneath her and she nosedives into the coffee table. Even now, when I think of the sound it made it still makes me sick to my stomach. Her nose gushes blood for a minute or two and slows down to an ooze that allows me time to call the doctor. They take a message and tell me the nurse will call me back. About 15 minutes later, Regan and I are in the bathroom and I am trying to clean her up when the phone rings. I had left the phone in the living room so I run out to answer the phone when that person hangs up. I am walking back to the bathroom when I hear more screaming. I run to find that Regan had slammed her fingers in the door.

It gets even better! After I get her loved up on so that she calms down, the phone rings again and it is our favorite nurse, Betsy. After getting a history and finding out what happened, she and I decide I'll watch her for a couple of hours and if she shows signs of decreased awareness, etc, I'll bring her in that afternoon. As I am talking on the phone with Betsy, Regan is rocking the cat in her little rocking chair. The cat decides she has had enough of that and she jumps out of the chair. This takes Regan by surprise and she lets go of the chair only to have the back of it go slamming into her face.

Oh, what a couple of weeks! I really could do without all the drama!!

Help!! I'm Sinking!

2008-02-25T20:42:00.006-05:00

Do you ever have that horrible feeling that you are sinking under a pile of things that needs to get done, that your house and appliances are playing tricks on you and laughing behind your back, and you just keep going under and under and under?!?!?

I have really felt that way for the past two weeks. About two months ago I gave in and got a second job working at an outpatient therapy clinic. The kids have been cute, the parents sane, and it has been better than when I was practically paying the newspaper to get the pleasure of spending hours in the sweltering heat bagging and throwing papers. In the past two weeks, I had to get Donald the cat spayed. Then my refrigerator decided to defrost and flood my kitchen floor. Then my internet went down for several days. My car who just celebrated it's 6th birthday with 167,000 miles has decided that it is going to get tempermental and only start when it wants to. Nothing like a little rush of excitement wondering if you are going to be stranded somewhere until your car decides that it will indeed turn over. I have spent two weekends at continuing ed courses that have been less than stimulating and have eaten up my weekends. My refrigerator decided to start working again and then promptly stopped working a second time right after I had bought some groceries to put inside of it. The final straw was last night when in the middle of a load of laundry my water suddenly stopped. I thought it was my washer and after pulling it apart, disconnecting the hoses to clean the little filters, then trying to clean out the hose I went into the kitchen to wash my hands. Dork that I am, I never thought it was a well problem until I realized that NONE of the water in my house was flowing. At this point it is about 1 in the morning and I wander outside with a flashlight to find that my water pressure system had imploded on itself. Not a good sign. I have never realized how much I use water until it is gone! At about 2 AM, I jimmy rig the pressure pump so that at least I have a trickle of water coming into the house. I guess it could be worse and I could have been in the shower with a soapy head of hair when it decided to stop! Oh, and on top of it all.....Regan has decided that this past week has been the time to pull out of her bag of tricks the most amazing temper tantrums with full blown body contorsions, foot stomping, hand slapping and the most annoying (like fingernails on a chalkboard) squealing and shrieking. I jinxed myself years ago when I would see kids misbehaving and saying that when I had kids, they would never misbehave like that! Why is it that they always wait until we are in public and it is even better when it is in a nice quiet place like the library?!?! Needless to say, we have taken many a trip to the car to discuss her behavior. This is a phase, right?!?!? Please, pretty please, tell me this phase will pass......and pass quickly!! Tonight, I got to go shopping........at Home Depot to spend $130 on a pressure pump. Nobody can tell me I don't know how to have a good time! I am not going to attempt to install it in the dark with a two year old alone in the house so wish me luck that I have a successful shower. If you see me tomorrow and my hair looks a little soapy, you'll know I didn't have the patience to sit for hours under the drip of my shower trying to rinse my hair!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!!

2008-02-07T21:12:00.000-05:00

Happy Chinese New Year!! We celebrated Chinese New Year by going to the library and listening to a Chinese New Year story and making an origami rat (the Year of the Rat) and a dragon craft. We met another woman who had a little girl from the Hunan Province. It is such a small world because several months ago we had run into each other in a Wendy's bathroom!

Last weekend, we had another "free" trip to Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios. It was a good time.....Konnor got to ride all of his favorite rides and I even got to ride The Hulk. Unfortunately, we tried the babyswap option for the first time and it broke Regan's heart not to ride the rollercoaster.......but then, she hates the Caro Suessal and so I told her the rollercoaster was probably not going to be better. She wasn't buying it...

What a Difference a Year Makes

2008-01-26T23:55:00.000-05:00

I've hesitated even writing about this, because I wasn't sure even what to say, and yet feel that I have to acknowledge what was happening last year.......a year ago today was the worst day of my life.

A year ago today, my baby girl went in for surgery and the surgeon came out and told me he didn't know if my little girl would make it through the night. Since that night, I have never been the same. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about how my life could be so different right now. I know that sounds dramatic and maudlin, but it really is how I feel. I can not imagine how a parent with a child who has a terminal illness must feel. There is always a little piece of you that is afraid. Afraid that something horrible could happen to take your baby away from you. All this week I have been in a kind of funk because this is the year anniversary of all the ER and doctor visits, being admitted into the hospital, all the testing and finally, having Regan go through her first surgery and hearing such horrible news. It has been weighing heavily on my mind.

A year ago today, I was sitting in an ICU room with my baby and praying that she would make it through the night. I remember bawling and crying and trying to make sense of it all and just not comprehending how this could be happening. What helped me get through the night was a nurse, Debbie, who sat with me for 45 minutes and just talked to me. I can picture her to this day, sitting at the end of Regan's bed and listening to me try to talk through my tears and spending that time on her busy shift talking to me. My mom slept in a chair beside Regan's bed and we felt such fear and pain like we've never felt before. I prayed to God to help us get through the night and make it okay. God sent the most wonderful surgeon to us, the most wonderful set of nurses, the best pastor to help us through and I have the best, most supportive family in the world.

I was totally freaked out on Monday night when the strangest thing happened. I was in handbell practice at church and during practice Regan sits behind me in her stroller with a backpack of toys and things to keep her occupied. She started yelling and screaming and hands me a wadded up piece of paper. I open up the paper and my stomach did a flip when I read what it was. It was the copy of the hospital admittance form that I had sign to authorizing her to be admitted to the ER. This was the first ER visit that started the whole emotional ride. What freaked me out was that Monday night was exactly the one year anniversay of that visit. January 21st. Regan uses that backpack every single week and has never pulled out that paper. Why, on the year anniversary did she find that paper? I don't even remember putting that paper in the backpack, but I must have had it with me that night as we sat in the ER and I probably just shoved it in one of the pockets with all the confusion of the night. My mom told me to take it as a good sign, but it totally freaked me out inside.

Going through Regan's health scare and knowing how blessed I am that she is here with me changed me and now everytime I look at Regan I see such a miracle. I am just so blessed to have her here with me. I was sitting beside her today and she just looked up at me and her eyes were so beautiful. I am sure that for the next 21 days I will reflect on how much better this year is than the last. 21 days that last year were spent in a hospital, this year I am home with my baby and she is happy and healthy. She jumped up for the first time tonight. She has been trying to jump for several weeks now and always does that exaggerated lunge upward with a corresponding foot stomp. Today, her feet actually cleared the ground. Something so little, but it meant to much to me. Last year, I remember wondering if I would ever see her smile again and then this year, she is bopping up and down and growing, and learning new skills, and is so happy. I love her so much it hurts. Her new little thing is to call me "Beppy" and sometimes it is a clear "Becky". I'm sure it is because she hears Konnor call me Becky. She will scream "Beppy, Beppy, Becky....." over and over again and just laugh hysterically. She knows it is not quite right and she thinks she is so clever. And then tonight, I was shopping with my mom and Konnor and I got held up talking to a neighbor. She got inpatient that I wasn't with them and so she started screaming "Mommy, Mommy, Mooooommmmyyyy". When I acknowledged her she waved and laughed and had the most wonderful smile on her face. Hearing her call me mommy is a wonderful feeling, to be a mommy is wonderful. Being Regan's mommy is the best, most miraculous, amazing thing in the world.

Waiting for surgery, not aware of what is about to happen.

She looks so little.

What a difference a year makes, now she is happy, healthy, and a pip! This picture was taken today.

Regan often cracks herself up. She finds humor in the littlest things, it really is a gift! She found this pacifier today and knew she was being so funny walking around with it. She has never used a pacifier in her life and yet I had this one from the hospital when I was trying anything and everything to try to get her to comfort herself and sleep. It never was in her mouth for more than about 5 seconds. I had kept it for her to use with her baby dolls. I haven't seen it in months, but she drug it out of somewhere, today of all days. Can't you tell she knows she is being funny?!?!?

The Year of the Rat

2008-01-22T16:55:00.000-05:00

This coming Chinese New Year, which starts on February 7th, begins the Year of the Rat.

Reluctantly, I have begun celebrating the Year of the Rat......literally.

I'll have to back track a little bit: My pet rat, Martha, passed away in November. I was sad, but had decided that I didn't need any more animals in the house. I have been outnumbered and it is alot to keep up with. My brother had different ideas. I have always said, don't get someone else a pet for a gift because they are the ones that have to take care of it for life. Well, my brother obviously doesn't go by that little rule and he was just pleased as punch when he gave me a rat for Christmas. Martha was a great pet and never bit and was just really nice. She also was missing half of her tail. Jason found this new rat had a missing tail and thought I would be thrilled to have her as a pet. Not so thrilled, am I. I was even less thrilled when I woke up last Friday morning a little over a week ago and found the above situtation. I am now the dubious owner of one pet rat and her eight, yes eight!!!! babies. She was pregnant! I could absolutely not believe it. What in the world am I going to do with nine rats?!?!? Then, as a topper, the new rat can't count and when she moves the nest about three times a day she keeps forgetting to put one of the babies in the nest. So, then I'm worried it is going to die and although I don't need the babies, I can't sit back and watch it die from cold and hunger. I do a little research and realize that the mothers don't generally reject the babies if you touch them and so now I have to do a head count a couple of times a day to make sure all of them are in the nest. If anyone would like a pet rat (as a pet, not to feed to a snake or something) please feel free to contact me! I know of a couple of little girls out there who might love to have a new pet!!!

The only thing I can say is that they are kind of growing on me and it is amazing to watch them grow. They literally change overnight. The first night they had no ears and then the next morning they had ears coming out! I am starting to enjoy them and I hold them everyday to get them used to humans and they are the funniest little things! Remind me that I am saying this as I am cleaning up after nine rats in the coming years. I also told my brother that my gift back to him was that I promised my nephew he could have one (or more) rats as a pet....so there!

Also on Friday morning, I get a phone call from Trafalgar Elementary that Konnor had fallen during track club and is pretty banged up. I go to school and this is what I find:

Yep, after a trip to the doctor, it was determined he had a broken nose. He was sniffing alot and so they were worried he might be dripping CSF fluid from his brain. He did learn the very important lesson, "Do not stop in the middle of the track when there are a hundred running kids behind you". I then had to spend my weekend at a miserable conference and when I go home Regan and I both managed to get really, really sick for most of the week with first some flu like stuff and then a stomach cootie. On Saturday, she slept off and on until 3 pm, which actually helped me because I was having a difficult time being upright! Then as the topper, Marmaduke got some kind of stomach bug and let me just tell you, having a sick Great Dane is not a pretty sight!

What else is the Year of the Rat going to bring?!?! I guess I'm lucky it wasn't the Year of the Dog or I might have ten Great Danes running around the house!

Birthday Girl!!!!

2008-01-16T20:13:00.000-05:00

As hard as it is for me to believe....my little girl is two years old today! It seems like just yesterday she was my 11 month old little baby. I'll have to post later about what a week it has been! Today, the poor birthday girl didn't have a great beginning to her big day. We had her two year old check-up and she has been sick with a respiratory thing for a few days. So, she's been hopped up on Albuterol and we've both been sick as dogs. Well, at the doctor's today, she tested positive for strep. She was pretty miserable by this morning so I"m glad we went. She also got a HepA shot for her birthday. That Dr. MacKoul really needs to work on the gift giving, she doesn't quite give the gifts that little girls love! Anyway, after a little Amoxicillin, my little girl had a much better evening! We ate Chinese and sung to her until her hears were ringing!

My Fashion Plate Part Deux

2008-01-09T23:20:00.000-05:00

Regan's boot obsession continues. I got her dressed for gymnastics and told her to get her shoes on. ....this is what she pulled out of the drawer. She then got them on and zipped up all by herself, so what could I say? And yes, Regan obviously does not go out and buy these shoes on her own.....I just never thought they'd see the light of day while being paired with a leotard!Did I ever mention Regan can and will eat her weight in cantaloupe?!?!?
Huh?!?! The party animal after the party is over~
She props these pillows up all by herself to settle in to watch tv.

The End of Winter Break

2008-01-07T22:01:00.000-05:00

My little poser with her "if I smile will you put the camera away?" smile.

Feeding the ducks with Ms. Amanda
Worn out
Konnor got his haircut and is starting to develop very definite opinions about how it should look. He wanted it to "stick straight up and be pokey". Wish us luck, if he is this into hair at 6 how is it going to be when he is 16?!?!

Sadly, winter break came to an end. It was soooooo hard to go back to work today. I could so easily be a stay at home mom, but considering my income is the only income, I don't guess that will happen any time soon! We had the best time. Our last hoorah was going to the Naples Zoo with a teacher friend of mine and her daughter and her friend and her friend's two children. It was a lot of fun and we had a great time. I can't post most of my pictures because it shows their faces (I didn't ask permission) but, trust me, they are cute kids!!!

Unfortunately, Regan is having a hard time adjusting to going back to 'cool' and 'Vivi' (Ms. Vivian). She was glad to go back, but is obviously feeling very clingy to me tonight. It took me 1.5 hours to get her to bed and it was a down right screaming hissy fit for that entire time. She just kept climbing out of bed and I would repeatedly put her back in. She is getting very creative with her diversionary tactics and I am ashamed to admit it but I fell for one of the oldest tricks in the book: About 30 minutes into our screamfest, she started grabbing her bottom and yelling "potty, mommy, pwee, potty, mommy, pwee". (Pwee traslates to please in Yunnie talk). So, gullible me, ran her to the bathroom just to have her enjoy some time on the seat and knowing she just fooled her mommy. I am very proud to say that the next time she tried that particular tactic, I held my ground and did not fall for her tricks;) Our schedule was absolutely out the window this vacation and more times than not I was laying down with her to get her to nap at my mom's house or just going to bed with her because we were so late getting to bed. Well........she is not too happy with having to go to bed without me laying beside her. Now it is time for me to go to bed and the opposite of Regan, I actually start my kicking and screaming when it it time to get out of bed!

Christmas, the Miami Zoo, and Lost Cameras

2008-01-04T10:33:00.000-05:00

We celebrated Christmas this year on the 31st. Regan and Konnor really lucked out because I had that many more days to shop! And shop clearances I did! Regan did really well and really got into wrapping and then opening gifts. She got lots of doll things for her babies, a scooter from Santa, a bike, and a deuce coup. I didn't take a lot of pictures, I was just enjoying the moment. My aunt, uncle, and cousin left on the 1st, my grandparents left on the 2nd.

Yesterday, my mom, Konnor, Yunnie and I went to the Miami zoo. That was one of the things I really wanted to do over vacation. On the way, I pulled a stupid Floridian trick and decided as we got onto Alligator Alley that I had to use the restroom. I know better than to do that! It made the ride seem a little bit longer;)

I was a little disappointed in the zoo itself. We hadn't been in several years, but it wasn't as nice as I remember. One of the scariest moments came towards the end of the day when we thought we had lost my mom's brand new camcorder. The bag also had her car keys inside! We had been sitting and watching the elephants and we got up and walked away. About ten minutes later, we realized we didn't have the camera. Sheer panic. Not only did we think we had lost a brand new camcorder, but with the car keys inside, it was our only way home! Thank God, we went back to the bench and by some miracle the bag was still sitting there. Whew!

What I did love was that we got to see some really interesting animal behavior that I have never seen before and I love visiting zoos (except the Guangzhou Zoo in China, that was just kind of depressing). I think the animals were feeling frisky because it was cold, cold, cold (for Florida) ! We woke up to ice in the grass and it was tremendously windy. We all got wind burned. The camels ran around chasing each other and biting each other's tales. The Bengal tigers ran around playing. The Siamangs spent a long time howling, and calling each other. The gibbons spent time screaming at the top of their lungs. And the gorillas were crawling all over each other. One of my highlights was being able to feed the giraffes. I love giraffes. Regan loved the petting zoo and probably could have stayed there all day sitting by her pig. I grew up in the country and we had every animal ever imagined: steers, pigs, chickens, geese, turkeys, pheasant, goats, and even a skunk. I wish I could give her those same experiences I had, but I think Cape Coral code enforcement might not like that!

My Fashion Plate

2008-01-01T23:10:00.000-05:00

Regan cracks me up! She is such a clothes horse and has very definite opinions about her clothes, especially pajamas and shoes. Anyway, I told her to get dressed and get her shoes on and this is what she came up with!!!! I had no expectations that she would actually get herself dressed, but she trotted over to her shoe drawer, got her boots on, grab one of my purses, her tiara in a bag, a package of peanute butter crackers, and a candy cane and she was ready to go!!!!

Starting her day.

Okay, I'm ready to hit the road!!!

Oops, wait a minute, I've got somewhere else to go!

Not exactly "play wear", but she is working it!

Just Pictures

2007-12-30T10:24:00.001-05:00

My grandparents are down visiting, but I just wanted to post some cute pictures!

Merry Christmas!!!

2007-12-25T13:21:00.000-05:00

Last year on Christmas
Last Christmas day, we traveled to Maoming to visit Regan's orphanage. This was part of the countryside in Maoming.
The orphanage lobby, notice the Christmas tree!
More scenery , it was beautiful country side, just what you would expect in China.
When we got back to the hotel room we were greeted by a Chinese Santa who was giving out little gifts. We then went to our room to eat peanut butter and crackers. It has been a long, emotional day.

We are not celebrating Christmas until next week because that is when the family can all get together. However, we have enjoyed our time off!

We rode more trains!

We went on Sunday to ride the Jingle Bell Express. It was a blast! It is a train ride that lasted 1 1/2 hours driving from downtown Ft. Myers to North Ft. Myers. We have ridden this train 4 times before and every time we have such fun. This year was especially nice to have Yunnie with us. I had forgotten how much the train sways back and forth! Regan had that apprehensive look on her face when the train pulled into the station, but once she got on she loved it! They had it all decorated for Christmas and during the ride you play games, sing, dance, and listen to a reading of The Polar Express. The game the kids had the most fun playing was Train volleyball. The entire car was hyped up and I got beaned in the head a couple of times with the ball! Regan also liked when we traveled over the Caloosahatchee River and all the boaters waved at us. We also saw Santa fishing from a kayak!

After the Jingle Bell Express, we went to Lakes Park to ride the miniature train. The train is a miniature little train where everyone sits on these little seats and it takes you through Lakes Park which they have decorated for Christmas. I was surprised by Regan's reaction to the train. She doesn't like very many rides, and so I was surprised when she saw the train and immediately wanted to ride. Once we were on, she was bouncing up and down and just loved every minute. I don't have pictures of the scenery because I was too busy holding onto Regan, but we'll have to go again and I'll get pictures of the little train.

What a difference from one year to another:

Last Christmas, we woke up at 5AM to board a bus at 6AM to start the 4 hour drive to the city of Maoming to visit Regan's orphanage, the Maonan Social Welfare Institute. It was an emotional day filled with sights I will never forget. Please remember all the children living in orphanages who have not found their forever families.

The Longest Train Ride in History

2007-12-22T22:47:00.000-05:00

Tonight we winged it and did some really fun stuff. We stayed out way past the kids' bedtime, but hey, we are officially on Winter Break!!!

We started by having dinner at one of the Chinese restaurants. Konnor always wants to go, but he goes to his mommy's on Friday nights (the night we used to go) and so we switched it to every other Saturday or so...we treat ourselves to dinner out. Konnor always chooses Chinese, although I don't know why because he always gets pizza! We had a new waitress and she stayed around for a long time wanting to know about Regan. Then she kept telling me how lucky Regan was. I kept insisting I was the lucky one, but she was just as persistent that it was Regan who was lucky. She then said that I could have adopted her (we are about the same age!) and I said I would have!!!

After dinner, we went to the Calusa Nature center to see the planetarium show. We first stopped off to see Santa and this time I made my mom hold Regan so that I could get some pictures. Regan knew the score the second time around and wasn't having anything to do with the big, jolly guy in the red suit. Santa was a hoot! He was the funniest Santa I have ever seen. He was doing all sorts of things to make kids laugh. He was great!

We then went to the mall to get Konnor ice cream. We feel like we have kind of not really pumped up Christmas this year and he is such a good cousin to Regan, I told him I would treat him to ice cream. It didn't hurt that I got a scoop of my all time favorite: chocolate peanut butter! By this time it is obscenely past the kids' bedtime, but the mall was about to close and there was no one on the train and I wanted to let Regan ride the train. It is her first Christmas in the US of A and you have to ride the mall train!

It was the longest train ride in history, I am sure. I'm going to have to check with Guinness, but I'm pretty sure it must be up there in the top ten! There was no one on and so I thought it was perfect timing, because I wasn't sure Regan would like it and this way, I could have the train stopped if I had to and not disrupt a bunch of kids riding. She wasn't sure about the ride, but held onto Konnor tightly and they went around 4 times and some kids were lined up to get on. I was pleased they had gotten such a long ride! I thought Regan and Konnor were done and so I stood at the gate to help unload Regan. Nope.....not done! The train conductor just leaves them on and loads up the other kids. They then went around about 25 more times, I'm not kidding! The conductor was counting the till and writing in his books, and basically doing the entire night's worth of accounting. He kept checking his watch and when the mall closed, he promptly stopped the train, got the kids off and closed up shop. I guess he just didn't want to load up another set of kids. All total, the ride last more than 20 minutes, going around and around and around and around and around some more. My mom and I were in hysterics it was so funny. There it is: the conductor absolutely not caring how long the kids are hostage, the kids go from sitting nicely to absolutely bouncing off the walls in the train. There were limbs hanging out and kids laying on the floor, and faces pressed up to the glass. Too, too funny! It absolutely topped off the night!

Gotcha Day Anniversary!!

2007-12-19T19:05:00.001-05:00

The happiness I feel in this photo is unbelievable!

Still grinning like an idiot.

Little did I know, but I needed to appreciate this moment very, very, very much because for the next 11 months, Regan going to sleep and sleeping peacefully would not happen very often!

My first glimpse of her "aren't I clever smirk"!

I had to take the required picture in her "gotcha" clothes! She still fits (wish I could say the same for the clothes I wore that day!!!)

Here it is again! Her little smile!!

Warning: Sappy, dramatic posting from an emotional mommy ;)

Holiday Fun!

2007-12-18T21:50:00.000-05:00

This week we were busy again.....

We took Regan and Konnor to sit on Santa's lap at the Calusa Nature Center. We are probably going to go back so that we can get more pictures. We have a year long membership, so we might as well! We also didn't have time to see the Planetarium show and that is a must! Regan started crying as soon as I put her in Santa's lap. They did get very clever though and they had me hold her and then Santa walked up behind us-Regan didn't even know he was there which was the whole point! It was a smart move, but since we did this little maneuver after she lap sat, she wasn't too happy regardless of what was going on!

Konnor has been so worried about Regan. He keeps saying that he wants to go back and talk to Santa about Regan's behavior because he is worried she might be on his "naughty list" and he wants to tell Santa she can't help it since she is so little. Too cute!

Regan loved the nature walk and all of the lights. It really was beautiful and she is really getting into the spirit of Christmas. She is absolutely fascinated with snowmen and squeals and yells for the "nomen". Unfortunately, the inflatable kind is all she is going to see here in SW Florida! She thinks our local Publix is he best place ever and gets so excited to walk in and see the produce section all decorated.

Sunday night, we headed down to Four Freedoms Park to watch the Holiday Boat-a-long. The kids both loved all the boats that paraded around Bimini Bay all decorated for Christmas. After the boat parade, we watched the Movie in the Park. The feature film was the original How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

All in all, it was a great weekend!

Great Wall and Hutong Anniversary

2007-12-15T20:41:00.000-05:00

~*~The Funny Farm~*~

Regan's Movie to her Australian Penpal

Testing a video

Something New- Friend Makin Monday

Looking Back - State Fair 2011

Swim Bop, Easter, and Jogging

Gardens and Monster Trucks

Could Ya Grow Already?!?!

IEP

Guess Where We Are Going This Weekend?!?!?

Handmade Christmas

New Year's Eve

Four Years Ago Today

Some Postcards

Our New Hobby

I Love My Kids, but Man They Tire Me Out Some Days!!

I Stink At Updating

Flight and Quarantine Scare

We've Arrived

Rocking Worlds

I Have The Best Friends in the World!

Just Slightly Stressed

All About "Brudder"

Ta Da!

Regan's Announcement

Crafting and Maya's Party

I Love Summer and Bump Its

Can You Explain

Pneumonia, Cub Scout Camp, Adigators, VBS, and my new love - Noodle Man!

Mermie Hair

Experimenting with Video

Another Week

Regan's First Day of School

Life Has Been Crazy!!!

Manatees and Hairdos!

It's February Already--Are Ya Kiddin' Me?!?!?

My Baby is Three!!!!!

I Realize My Blessings

Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend

Christmas and New Year's Resolutions

December Happenings

The Best Day in My Life

Two Years Ago

Tiki

Happy Turkey Day and the Turkey Trot!

Halloween Festivities

My Little Yoda

Getting Ahead of Myself

Activities

Beautiful Kids

Special Happy Birthday

Man, I Love This Kid!

Remembering 9/11

Co Sleeping?

Happy 7th Birthday Konnor and Being a Coupon Geek

Isn't She Beautiful?

Things Just a Keep on Breakin'

Tonight's Entertainment

2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony - Beijing***Updated*** See Below

Bullets

Library Stuff

Red Letters Campaign

Just Going for a Stroll

Crafts and Adoption Picnic

Trying to Catch Up

Our Summer So Far

I've Been Tagged!

Heartbreaking

The Doctor is in the House

Regan's New Favorite Show

Things Regan Loves

Are ya kiddin' me?!?!

Skater Dudette

The Tooth Fairy and Letterboxing

Where Has the Time Gone?

Great Week!

My New Hobby

It Just Keeps Getting Better

Help!! I'm Sinking!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!!

~~The Funny Farm~~

2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony - BeijingUpdated See Below