On the move

We kept our niece Gracie for a while yesterday and her and Taylor had a huge time. Gracie is about 8 or 9 months younger than Taylor. They laughed ,squealed, ran and chased all day. We had such a good time.

Taylor and Lee

Back in July we were lucky enough to see Taylor's foster brother Lee and his mom Katie. They were driving through and we met them about an hour from the house at a McDonalds. Taylor has been asking to go see Lee all the time now. They are expecting there second as well and are hoping for travel approval any time now. We are so excited for them!!

Fingerprint appointment..

We sent our I800 immigration application on July 15th, although we knew they got it basically it was just sitting there all this time due to them being backed up. So we finally got confirmation this week that they received it (...and hopefully are working on it) and they assigned us a time to get our fingerprints done. So even though it's small steps, they are steps that are necessary, so it makes me feel as though we are making progress, yeah!! We expect the total immigration process to take 90-100 days. That will be the US side of things and then we can move to the China side of things.

Doesn't all this sound fun?????

Cardiac Follow-Up

Happy Birthday Daddy

Taylor came into the kitchen saying he is a robot!!

All went well....sort of. The cardiology appt was looong but good. She said Taylor's heart is beautiful and that he has no restrictions growing up at all. We also don't have to see them for 2-3 years and then it is only to educate Taylor as he grows about his heart and heart surgery. The news I was hoping not to get is that Taylor still has that one tiny stream that didn't close so he will always have to have a antibiotic before any dental cleanings or work. Hoping to get out of that one.



Urology doc says we have to go back in 6 months with the chance of needing one more tiny procedure....yuck!!! So again not exactly what I wanted to hear especially since we thought he would only need one urology surgery, now we've had two and possible a third. Poor little guy!



If I haven't mentioned it before Taylor gets carsick and so riding with him is not always fun because he gets fussy and then throws up. We made all the way to Vanderbilt (1.5 hours) and were in the parking garage and he puked and I wasn't ready. Luckily we did have a clean shirt. We have to always be prepared with this kid.



I know this post sounds kind of negative but after all that I took James out for a birthday lunch (he turned 37 on Tuesday) at Korea House and we had a fabulous lunch. Very fresh, well cooked Korean food...yummy!

Update on baby sis...well not really

There is really nothing new to share but I did realize that I haven't shared what I do know. Initially we had hoped to go between December and March but realistically it will be March or May. My sister and her family are going with us and so we will go on Spring Break or at the end of the school year.

We also know that immigration has had our paperwork for one month and haven't assigned it for anyone to work on it yet. Honestly though that was expected since they are going through a lot of changes. So that's all we know. I really just have to separate myself from the part I can't control and it really doesn't bother me... at this point. When something is within my control then I am a crazy women to try to get it done and am very demanding, just ask our social worker :))

1 year cardiac follow up

Well actually it's been 13.5 months since Taylor's heart surgery and we have a follow up tomorrow with his cardiologist. Also tomorrow one hour before that appt we have Taylor's post op visit for his last urology surgery which was in June. I am excited to see how his echo is. After this visit we shouldn't have to see a cardiologist again for 3-5 years. How cool is that!!

County Fair

Watching the demolition derby
Loving some funnel cake, so much so he kept scooting away from me and James trying to have it all to himself!!

We went last night to the county fair. We had a great time. Last year Taylor was excited but scared of everything and only rode a couple of things and we had to ride with him. This year he wanted to ride everything and was fine to ride by himself!!

I can write my name....sort of

Tuesday will be James 37th birthday and so Taylor and I took a few minutes out this morning to run to Wal-mart and get something to daddy from Taylor. So daddy has two packs of rubber worms for fishing and some chocolates. As you can see on the birthday card Taylor tried to write his name. So we put his gift in a little bag and put it up in the cabinet to hide it til Tuesday. Let's see how long Taylor can keep a secret.

Back in business

Ready for a fun day!

As Ty says....buds!!

Don't forget to get milk...

Look at our two little builders (notice that Taylor now has on different clothes)

Taylor and I had a fun day with Michele and Ty. Ty is 3 months younger than Taylor and they have a big time together. We went to the mall and then to the Earlyworks Children's Museum. In one part of the toddler section there is a water play area. It just looked like a trough of water with toys in it and I could see it coming but couldn't get to Taylor in time as he was reaching and reached toooooo far and went head first and all the way in. Luckily I did bring clothes just no extra shoes. A few minutes later he had a tumble and got a goose egg. But even with those two events we had a great great time. We left home at 8:15 this morning and didn't get home til 4:15pm and at 4:20pm Taylor was sound asleep on the couch and slept til 6pm. Then he was grumpy and whiny for another hour. He is wiped out...in a good way.

He's Playing Us

Man, Taylor has been playing his momma and daddy. So Taylor has been a very picky eater with his staples being rice and chicken. And let me clarify that one. Only canned chicken can go in the rice and chicken. I have tried to put baked chicken, grilled chicken, rotisserie chicken, all chopped up very finely and he can taste the difference and tells me right away "yutty" and won't eat it. His other staples for dinner are rice and seaweed and pb&j. Now last year he was also eating corn on the cob, fish sticks, pizza, fried squash, and boiled eggs. And that was about it. Well this year we have slowly declined to the first three, rice/chicken, rice/seaweed, and pb&j. So you can imagine how frustrating that can be. You want your child to have good things to eat and they refuse everything. So since I never see his daycare provider, cause you know daddy takes and picks up and he is a guy so how much info do you think they exchange?? Exactly. So I email Ms. Cathy and this is the response I get back....

"He loves hot dogs, chicken, ham, turkey , hamburger any way and every fruit we have. He also loves corn and macaroni and cheese. He is not too big on any vegetable except green beans. We had watermelon one day this past week and he loved it but he didn't know what to think about the seeds."

I am like, who's kid is this???? My kid won't eat mac and cheese at home or any meat anywhere. Now he only goes to daycare 2-3 days per week, but my goodness. So we are starting to cut back on snacking and make him a plate like ours and I am trying to put one dish that I know he likes on his plate and we are making a little progress. I just can't believe it!! We've been played!! :))))

Just experimenting

I saw a link on someone else's blog to free backgrounds and if you've checked the blog in the last few days you've seen a couple of different backgrounds. We'll try this one for awhile. If your looking for a easy way to update your blogs look check out 'the cutest blog on the block', their link is in the upper left hand corner of our blog.

Poopy talk...

After having a #2 the other day Taylor gets off the potty and looks down at his 'results'. There were 2 and one was larger than the other so Taylor tells James "the big one is you daddy and that one is Taylor", looking proudly as he points to himself. Yes it is the little things that warm a daddy's heart.


OK nothing to do with poop....
Also, the other day I was getting down a box out of Taylor's closet. It is a storage container that you can see in to and it stores all his special things from China. So down in the corner he could see his pink tennis shoes he was wearing on "gotcha day". He said, "hey ma, those my bowling shoes?". OK I thought it was funny, if you will remember those shoes were hot pink and yellow.

#100

I can't believe it is my 100th post. Well it's been a week since I dropped my camera in the pool and I think it's official, it's a goner!! You know after losing our camera in China and now ruining the next one, that's about $500 in 3 years on camera's. I think I am going to go with a cheapo on the next one. I was really wanting to step up to the Rebel, that everyone loves, but I don't know if I can do it. I am not having the best luck!!

So yesterday was Taylor's actual birthday and we made him a cake to take to daycare. We just did the creme cheese icing (yummy!) and then we crushed up some oreos and on top we placed a couple of small dump trucks and a digger and some construction signs and then made it like they were loading 'dirt' and had little mounds of 'dirt'. Taylor loved it and he was able to help and he just stared at it and stared at it. I had to use my 35mm camera with film...yuck!! So who knows when I will get them developed.

Today we have 2 birthday parties and a dinner with family. Tomorrow we get to go and meet Katie and Lee as they are driving through to Mississippi. Lee was Taylor's foster brother and they are also waiting on a baby sister. Since we are seeing each other in person we will finally get to show off our future daughters to each other. I am so excited! Also, I had ordered baby sis' bedding from e-bay and it came in today. It's even prettier than I expected. And now we get to paint part of her room pink.

Planning for a girl is so much fun for a momma!!