In Celebration of National Adoption Awareness Month

In celebration of National Adoption Awareness Month my hope is to share multiple posts throughout this coming week to honor families everywhere whose lives have been touched by the miracle & gift of adoption. This is ambitious for a gal like me who generally only finds the time to post once every week ( or so ) but for so many reasons, not the least of which are our two incredible blessings (Lauren & Tyler), I pledge to try. For the duration of these contributions I am disabling my comments section, but will welcome comments at the conclusion of my week's ramblings. :) Please know that I both adore & cherish your thoughts & comments(I always have!!), but for this week (or most of it ) I am choosing to disable that function to allow anyone wishing to visit to read at their own pace ~ in their own way.

Last year at this time I commemorated this month, with Lauren's help, by sharing our favorite culturally diverse toys & books. Again this year, Lauren will be my right hand gal in the form of a ghost author and much of what I plan to journal is done with her express permission. Always my contributions will be modified to protect her privacy ( or Tyler's ) ~ for truly it is the children who deserve to be celebrated during this poignant month!

Below is a video I wish to share.......it both inspires me and breaks my heart just a bit (more) each time I view it........... I thank you all and can't imagine a more ideal month to celebrate these children than one that heralds Thanksgiving.........we all have so much to be thankful for!

Deconstructing The Road Trip and a Green Gator

*100th Post*



Home, home again & I want to thank you all for the wonderful (coping), creative ideas for keeping Little Man content in the car......and in all the cases for the moral support and positive "vibage" sent our way. :)



I had meant to go a slightly different direction for my *100th post* (100th?? Wha? Wha?*gasp*), but after reading the ideas and noting that many of you also were seeking sage pearls to manage babies/toddlers in the car, I decided to give y'all the skinny on our most recent road trip AND recap Lauren's First-Ever soccer season as a member of the Green Gators...........grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr/SNAP! Happily both sagas have a happy ending & naturally I've included some glimpses! :)



BIZNESS first........ Our previous road trips with Tyler had always included both Scott and I with Scott as driver and me often as co-pilot, relegated to the middle row for better 'grability' and access to said munchkin. Previously our 4 hour trip had broken down into the following 4 segments, each about 1 hour in length: First hour: Lauren reads/sketches & doodles & or listens to a book on c.d. , while simultaneously gobbling every morsel of preplanned snacks, crumbs & all ~ Tyler (hour 1) watchful, pointing and babbling at passing scenery and vehicles, passing interest in books Mama is reading aloud to him. Second hour: Lauren, hungry again, now requesting her music (much to Daddy's dismay), playing D.S games ~ Tyler (hour 2) napping.......angelic.....(code: Mama reading a book or catching up with hubster) SCREECH......Tyler wakes up completely refreshed and ready to rumba at EXACTLY the halfway point of hour 2................so begins the fun. :) Hour 3 (following a nice break and potty stop) Lauren, happily engaged in a DVD ~ Tyler, frustrated by car seat restraints, pulling off shoes and socks, batting away offered snacks, CRYING for 2 minute intervals at a time. Hour 4: Lauren's movie ends......back to books and endless refrains of "are we there yet?" Also possibly rummaging through my bag to play with mirror and various sundries. ~ Tyler, mildly amused by my frantic efforts to sing, engage in patty cake/itsy bitsy spider, etc. but mostly READY to be outta the car...........ditto Mama and Daddy! Oh, BTW, add one tiny furry girl, cowering in the back, coming out only to bark at passing semis. Ack!



Now fast forward 5 months and YES, it has gotten easier! Yay! This time Dadddy had to stay home, so Lauren took the seat next to Tyler and maybe its the age, maybe its the familiarity with said travels, maybe it was the secret weapon otherwise known as "Lauren".........but it was a much improved journey and with more road trips to come as the holidays approach, just label this Mama as R.E.L.I.E.F............in fact, consider it my new middle name! ;)



So what did we do? Snacks baby, snacks......LOL I'm not super comfortable giving Tyler snacks when I'm not right there, so we had to pick special (i.e. small and yummy) ones that Lauren could dispense as needed. M&M's ( hey, it was a first and kept the tears at bay!) VERY teeny tiny pieces of cut up purple grapes ( a HUGE treat for Tyler) & Ritz crackers (one for each hand!) Why Ritz? I have no idea, but he LOVES LOVES 'em and that's good enough for me!



We also played kids music, 2 kid books on c.d. for all to hear, watched snippets of Baby Einstein/ a movie pick of Lauren's choice, enjoyed Big Sis reading many of Tyler's favorite board books, took a longer than usual break half way through AND sang lots of silly songs.



The frustration factor was way down for us all and even though Tyler still only napped for exactly 23 1/2 minutes (yes, I timed it!) everyone was much happier! Many of these ideas were also shared by some of you in my last post and I encourage everyone to take a peek at the comments, as there were some GREAT ideas! For both car trips and plane travel!



I also dug out one old time, long forgotten idea from our days of travel with Baby Lauren ( who was much more easygoing in the car!)...............an almost empty water bottle, with the cap screwed on VERY tight.........in baby's hands its an instrument, a crinkle toy, a scientific experiment AND you can add small pebbles, beads, etc. later in the ride to keep it fresh! HE LOVED IT!



Now if I can just figure out how to help Tyler sleep better when we travel AND if anyone knows of a set of magic elves for hire who unpack luggage and help organize AFTER the journey, please forward their contact information to me! :)



Finally, Lauren participated in her first season on a soccer team and we all had fun at her Saturday a.m. games and weekly practices. I think the pictures/captions can tell the story for me & already she is anticipating her Spring soccer season with the same team/coach. Go Green Gators!
How lucky that they had virtually the same soccer uniform for Lauren's look-a-like! Can you tell which one is the real doll? :)

Our Very Own Green Gator standing ready for the game to begin. I call this her "game face"!

While the color green was SO NOT her first choice for uniform "flavors" our Fancy Nancy always managed to add a splash of her own style! :) Don't you love her pink/black cleats! So fun!

The team's biggest(& smallest) fan & we even found a soccer tee in green to support the team! Of course his eyes weren't always ON the game field! LOL

Close-up of the action and often she would kick the ball, dash by us on the sideline, wave & smile....LOL....don't think the coach approved, but we sure thought it was cute!

Sometimes the games got long for Little Man................and chilly near the end of the season. We found ways to amuse him and keep him off the field which is where we really wanted to be!

Joyful celebration after the game! We always included a brief stop at the playground & always celebrated win, lose or draw! :)

P.S. We had a wonderful wonderful time at my folks: our destination for this road trip! Its always worth the effort to get there! Always! Thanks for everything Mom & Dad!

Road Trip

Going to be taking advantage of the school break and am heading out on a short road trip.....yippee! As always when I travel, I will have limited or no internet access, so I hope to see plenty o' good news to help celebrate when I check in with y'all next week! Wishing you all loads of smiles, laughter and good times in the meantime. Now if only the baby will cooperate in the car past the 2 hour mark....... LOL *grin*

Any tried and true techniques to keep the littlest one content in the car seat beyond the nap, music, toys & snacks?(which keeps him busy for O, bout 1 1/2 hours...lol) Please do share if something comes to mind. Consider me a collector of ideas, tips and sage Mama wisdom! Plus I just like what you all have to say!! :)

Trick or Treat!

Trick or Treat, smell my feet....give me something good to eat! :)

That little refrain was on our oldest "punkins' mind all day yesterday, despite a very busy start to our Halloween day. It was a grand day and we were so happy to see no rain! Our temps were cool, but the wind virtually disappeared just after dinnertime and left us with a clear, bright "spook-tacular" eve. And a full moon to boot.......

Lauren's costume (glitter vampire) vision turned out to be such fun and we girls had a blast with her make-up and accessories. There were lots of layers underneath, but we managed to keep the heavy coat off and the cape on! She also was beyond thoughtful of her baby brother, making certain that he too received treats all along the way and waiting patiently for him to catch up when she dashed ahead.

Tyler was dressed just perfectly for the weather as a sweet penguin and was enthralled with every aspect of Halloween. He relished toddling around our town's square for our early trick or treating and later LOVED trying to keep up with Lauren as we visited our friends and neighbors on the block. We had wondered if he might be fearful, but that (thankfully) just didn't happen; and certainly he received plenty of attention from all sorts of ghouls, ghosts and goblins, both big & small! Boo!

Then today as we "fell back" and enjoyed the gift of the extra hour, we busied ourselves with costume #2 for Miss Lauren as she had a Halloween party to attend at a friend's home. She chose an angel costume, as she was anxious to match her AG doll. Of course she a grand time!

Below are MANY pictures (yes, once again! LOL ) & I'm going to keep my comments brief, as I am SO anxious to pop on over to YOUR blogs to sneak peeks at your sweet 'punkins'. I hope you all had a thrilling Halloween and weekend!

My 3 pumpkins.........

Oh gosh, but the teeth & make-up sure make her look older..........I really almost had to sit down afterwards! She, of course, LOVED it all and kept us smiling all night long!

Our traditional photo of Lauren & Lexi......our furry devil! ;)

Our Baby Penguin............

Our Baby Penguin giggling.....he loved his own webbed feet!

Ready to go trick or treating........

Penguins on parade....... yes, he really did waddle in that suit! LOL

I love the movement of her cape and her expression.....she had a blast entertaining us with her "moves". :)

Just Angelic................

She turned to walk towards the woods and just as I snapped this, a shaft of light pierced through the trees........to me she's always a source of bright light and joy.

The Tale of a Pumpkin

& a pint sized lion on the loose! :)

Oh gosh, more & more pictures to share! I keep promising myself that I'll pen one of the more 'substantive' posts that have been rambling around my brain of late, but with all the Fall splendor and family fun its hard to resist sharing these glimpses of our recent days! And the days just seem to melt away........

As promised we did venture out again to our local pumpkin farm(still in search of that ideal pumpkin!) and while it was cloudy we did enjoy the milder temperatures. This little farm is so rustic and was virtually empty the afternoon we visited. Both of our kiddos fell in LOVE with THE very biggest pumpkins they offer.....*gulp*........ but then I'm getting ahead of myself!

I think the photos will tell the story best of all, but wanted to add that an awfully sweet lion prowled about today and attended his first Halloween party ever with our buddies at story time. We have 2 costumes for baby this year as both Mimi's bought one last year while we waited for Tyler to come home. Thankfully we have plenty of events to try them out and Tyler truly worked the costume while he dashed about growling "grrrrrrrrrrrr" and flashing his feline claws! (Flashed some wickedly cute dimples too! )

We WILL be back soon with Halloween moments and I just cannot wait to see all of your ghosts, goblins and cuties too!

The cutest King of the Jungle EVER!!

Yippee......snagged 'em both (together) AND they are both looking........makes a grown Mama swoon!

Tyler loved Daddy's hat.......Daddy's school celebrated Spirit Week for Drug Awareness and it was hat day!

Our family found a sweet pumpkin among this bunch......but that didn't stop our two goblins from dreaming MUCH bigger orange.....

What's a fella to do with no way to escape?? :) Grin broadly of course!

Our Little Miss selected this pumpkin as her first choice........a mere $50 plus prize! At least it doubles as a small sofa. :0

Yup......Tyler found one too.....a whopping $75 dollar pumpkin to love on. Huh? When oh when did pumpkins become so pricey? Fortunately our champagne wishes kiddos happily settled on a much smaller gem! :)~

Look Ma, no hands..............

And we met a few nefarious characters milling about........amazingly even creatures of the night brush and floss their pearly whites! ;)

And when at last it was time to head for home, our littlest 'punkin' needed a ride from a hat wearing Daddy. This pic actually squeezes my heart just a bit.......and I love how tiny our little man looks in Daddy's protective arms!

Wishing everyone a safe, dry, mild and "spooktacular" Halloween!!!

Our Lil' Pumpkins

Our lil' pumpkins and plenty of 'em! Or rather, plenty of photos of them both from our wonderful day at the pumpkin farm earlier today!

Y'all already know that I have been grumbling about this nasty weather business but today was bright, sunny ( where have you been sunshine??) a bit breezy, yes, but mild enough to visit our favorite farm & visit we did!! This was our first visit as a family of four and no matter how many "firsts" we celebrate, it truly never gets old. At this time last year we were still tumbling head over heals with Baby Pei-En and had only had his referral for just 2 months. I remember well last year as we visited the pumpkin farm, thinking that it would be our last time just the 3 of us and imagining how next years' visit might be different. LOL Well, it certainly was different and keeping up with two eager and excited lil' pumpkins sure kept us hopping and it sure kept us smiling too!

We have been visiting this particular farm for years and I think only missed one year when Lauren was just one. Over the years we have visited others, but always this one calls us back. We love that it has retained some of our same favorite activities and while it has gotten a bit more commercial since our first visit years ago *sigh* you can still see the owner's family dog running through the crowds and count on plump orange pumpkins a'plenty! And the pie......oh, the homemade pie.....

Lauren loved the pony ride best and was an absolute peach with Tyler. She was the first to make certain that he saw all the attractions that she loves best and held his hand when he was uncertain about the corn maze. Tyler......well, yep, he loved it ALL, but the petting zoo probably enchanted him the very most. I have NO pictures of the kids with the animals cuz Little Man has no fear and trying to keep little fingers safe is a full time job! :) I only truly got nervous around the turkeys and peacocks.......they were a tough group of feathers and several of them sported some unsettling gleams in their birdie eyes. :)~ Tyler made us all laugh as he tried to match up the animals with their "sounds". He got the cow, pig and sheep just right, but I'm pretty sure the goats, bunnies and ducks were a bit put off with his eager, loud and joyful, "cocka...dooooo, doooooooooo, deee" aimed in their direction! :)

And while none of our pics were just perfect ( not easy with two ya know! ) we had a nearly perfect day! Once again WAY too many for one post, but I know 2 eager Mimis who would be sorely disappointed if I don't share as many as possible!! :) Finally, I LOVED seeing all the pumpkin farm outings on so many of your blogs and simply can't get over how many darling lil' pumpkins there are out there in bloggyland!

Our two pumpkins (actually together in the SAME pic!!) enjoying the corn crib!

Lauren helped Tyler run through the corn husk tunnels ~ I love the pure joy on their faces!

Not sure he liked the prickly straw, but had to show the post hat hair!! LOL Defies gravity!

This is for my bloggy friends who like to see(me) Mama once in a blue moon too! And for my Mom, who I know will be looking! I so wanted a family of 4 pic. but Scott wouldn't pose! :(

Lauren taking a ride on beautiful Spirit!

She loved that pony soooo much......our little horse whisperer.

I just hate that Lauren's face was covered, but had to share this........I love those Big Sis protective hands holding on to Tyler and I love his obvious joy at being hugged by Big Sis even more!

We have pictures of toddler Lauren on these tractors too! One lil' pumpkin almost too big to ride and one lil' pumpkin just getting started! That makes me nostalgic for so many reasons!

And this one......we tried so hard for that classic "pumpkin shot" but he was just way too busy to sit still for too long! Who can blame him? You can see that he's already planning his escape and merely tolerating one more picture! LOL He also called the pumpkins "balz" all day long! :)

Ironically we left with NO extra pumpkins today. Lauren simply didn't spot "THE ONE".....

Luckily our weather is supposed to be gorgeous for the next few days and we have one final trip planned to a local farm ~ so hopefully I'll have a few more shots to share soon and who knows? Maybe we'll get that family shot and elusive "pumpkin shot" yet! :)