Tuesday, December 30, 2008

More pix to brighten your day





Ok, I know EVERYONE'S kids are cute - of course they are! But seriously, this kiddo is terminally adorable. He still hams for the camera, making it both difficult to take a good picture (despite what y'all say!! - and thank you for that), and easy to take a good photo. 

We are doing really well these days. Minute and i spent ALL DAY this past Saturday together and just hung outside (those pix are really cute too, and I'll load them tomorrow or the next day). the weather has been so nice here that hanging outside playing in the dog food, or working in the chicken coop, or whatever has been really easy. He gets such a kick out of the out-of-doors, which is GREAT seeing as you may or may not remember his first brush with the outside/grass (he screamed bloody murder)... now, he goes out the dog door any time he feels the need to go outside and he isn't being taken out fast enough. It's great fun, and he sure loves his chickens!!! so if he is banned from escape from the dog door, he'll ask to go outside by asking "bawk, bawk?". 

His vocabulary is getting so much better, and his signing is also pretty good. He's just become a great little guy. 

Anyway, life is good these days.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Random Holiday Photos - AKA "MM cuteness never stops"







Welcome back! I hope Santa brought y'all everything you asked for. He brought me everything and then some (except the mani-pedi...that IS a little more difficult to bring down the chimney, huh?)I thought I'd add a few photos from the 200 I took over the X-mas holiday (no joke, I actually took 200!). We packed up the minivan, loaded the two big dogs, a ton of presents, and one Minute Man, and headed North for a Christmas in the Hills - home on my Family Farm. Minute LOVED it there. Could it have been the 8 to 10 adoring adults? Or just the single adoring Uncle Jude? Or possibly my Dad who almost NEVER left MM's side (unless my Big Mama had him, and then my Dad was trying to lure MM away!!)? Whatever it was, my little dude was in Heaven (well, ALmost Heaven. hee hee, get it?). My family farm is beautiful, and I always love going there and recharging my batteries, even this time of year, which is about the ugliest! Yes it is unreasonably cold, and yes it is muddy (when it's warm enough for the mud to thaw), and yes, the trees are denuded and look dead...but it's Home, and I love it.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the week. I'll load a few of the "adorable Minute pictures" tomorrow or the next day. For now, y'all get to see my fam loving the little man. And one long shot of our front yard...

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Weather in NC = NICE




Having a lot of fun enjoying the weather in NC. Hope y'all are having a wonderful holiday; we are heading for the hills for Christmas.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Some not-so-good pix

SO, everyone always comments on how many good pictures I have of Minute Man. And, in fact, I do have some really wonderful pictures (and took some new ones, actually. They are award winners, if I do say so myself. But those will have to wait to be uploaded. Today's post is not "really really good pictures" after all!), but I do have so really bad ones too. Once MM started to NOTICE the camera, he started doing some really silly things. His favorite is to make really goofy faces and run frantically directly AT me and my camera. So, here is a sampling of one recent "photo session" where I got one good photo and about 14 of what you see below: (BTW - I LOVE LOVE LOVE this first picture!!)









Also, you know, I got some darling pictures of my little dude, but as you may or may not be able to tell in the above photos, he's stark neked. I wanted to post one REALLY really cute picture of him, and it's totally PG rated (but shows a little more than the othe rpicture I did post above), but I hesitate to post even a PG photo of my fellow on a public site... oh well. I guess I'll just show some of y'all when I see you. Probably better to err on the side of "safe" rather than post something that may be misused, abused, or mistaken for something other than what it is... That of course, begs the question, where do you draw the line? I'm already invading Little Dude's privacy but I guess he's less likely to be embarassed by ADORABLE head shots, than a full on nudy one, huh?



Oh, and here's one of the "good" ones; dont ya' think??

Thursday, December 11, 2008

You know you are a mom when...


This post could also be entitled: Don't try this at home.
I'm adding a warning. Potty humor will comense immediately:

So, story?

Ok, the set-up. Mr. Minute Man falls asleep while drinking his first bottle of the night. Generally, he drinks another 2-3 full bottles during the night. Because of this, he produces an AMAZING volume of ... um, liquid, in his diaper. After a few nights of blow-outs, I finally have switched to simply changing his diaper about mid-way through the night. This, for the most part, solved the "leaking" problem. Sooooo, the other night Mom awoke VERY VERY tired at about 3:00 am and rolled over and changed her little angle's diaper swiftly, and with out waking up fully. After which time, Mom fell back to a somewhat restful sleep, as did her little angel... until Mom was awakened with a warm stream of..., um... liquid across my chest. (I mean, across Mom's chest). So, my eyes fly open, it's 6:30, and I'm soaking wet. This registers as immediatly concerning because I'm wet, and it is a WARM wet.... I look over at my precious little dude, and notice that I made a diapering error that I hope NEVER to make again. I either put the diaper on too loose, allowing...cerain dangerour parts of MM's anatomy to flop out, or I simply put the diaper on over-top of said little (sorry, Minh!) part, allowing for the busines part to be outside of the diaper... which, as I found out at 6:30 am, is a BAD BAD thing.

Needless to say, I've been WAY more careful while putting on that diaper at night, and haven't worken up covered in pee since!

It's the little things that gets you through, isn't it?

Friday, December 05, 2008

My little drummer boy




Just some new pix to tide y'all over! I hope to be blogging on real stuff soon!
Thanks to Uncle Jude for teaching the Minute Man how to REALLY get down on his drum!!

Monday, December 01, 2008

Giving Thanks







Had a wonderful holiday. My folks and brother came down; sadly my sister-in-law wasn't able to make it. We had a great time. The Minute Man was over-come with loving adults, and soaked up as much lovin' and spoil-age as he could stand. It was wonderful. (more later)

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Always a little behind




As usual, I'm running a little behind on everything. BUT, things are going well. We've FINALLY gotten MM sleeping better at night which means I sleep better at night (we co-sleep, so when he doesn't sleep well, Mama doesn;t sleep well!).

Thought I'd mix the pictures up a bit (so you didn't think I only showed Mr. M at his very cutest... although he is ALWAYS at his cutest, so, there you are!). Here are a few quick pix of Mr. M hanging out outside the other day. the weather has been unseasonably cool, but we try to get some Vitamin D when we can. The backyard is a great place to hang these days, and Minute Man loves to move buckets of rocks and sticks around, empty them out, re-fill them, etc. He digs the out of doors! And now, we can have the chickens AND the dogs outside all at the same time, so the whole "family" can have a nice day hanging out in the yard.

On a totally unrelated note, sadly, our adoption agency just folded. We got in and out just in time, and I don't know what the rest of the families who are in the process of adopting are going to do. Vietnam isn't opening any time again soon. Guatemala is closed, as are many other "big" countries. As y'all likely know, China isn't "closed" per say, but many agencies aren't accepting any more applicants... I am in constant fear that our China agency will close; in fact, when we chose our China agency, I wanted a big agency for many other reasons, but had no CLUE things would get so bad, and as it turned out, many many agencies have had to shut their doors. It never actually occurred to me that might happen. It also never occurred to me that it would take so f-ing long.... But, I am reminded that it happened for us the way it did. We have the most wonderful child on the face of the planet (don't we all?), and if Baby Magic comes to us, she comes. If not, then I will still consider myself the luckiest Mom alive. (Well, except for my mom, 'cause she got pretty lucky. LOL)

Saturday, November 22, 2008

What an F-ing day - oh, and a picture from Halloween


Man, today was rough. The transmission in UP's car went out first thing this morning. Needless to say, that was a lousy start to the day, AND as the day progressed he' since gotten sick...and of course, depressed. Mr. M was also feeling grumpy today, and made it clearly known that he was to be held at all times, including bathroom-time for Mommers. DH was out most of the day at some hippie gathering, and when he finally got home he asked me how I was.... and frankly, I have no clue. I look like hell ('cause I dressed rapidly this morning in the closest warm clothes I had so that I could pick UP up from where his car died and I haven't changed or brushed my hair all day), I think I feel like hell too. I've not been sleeping well (although Minute HAS been sleeping better, thank goodness!), and have been utterly overwhelmed by work. Plus, to make make matters worse, I actually flipped out on my boss Friday after work, and he hasn't spoken to me since.

On the up side, I have company coming (the fam) this week and am very excited about that. My house is a disaster, but I don't even care. I have lots of coffee and plenty of room. The rest will fall into place.

So, on a completely unrelated note, I kept forgetting to post MM's picture from Halloween. So, there it is. Absolutly ADORABLE, isn't it?!! He's such a cutie!!

Friday, November 21, 2008

Cold, cold, cold, cold!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




Woke up to a dusting of snow on my car. YUCK! Too cold to play outside, but Mr. Minh is still enjoying his day.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

My current life...

is insane. I have checked my personal email like, oh, 2 times in the last month (no joke!). I have emails from October I haven't even opened b/c I don't have time to respond. My work life is crazy busy, and I'm not sleeping. the good news? My Minute Man is wonderful. He is a true joy to see everyday. I am FINALLY feeling like I am getting a "feel" for this parenting thing, and it's not that I did anything really. It's more that MM is PERFECT. He really is (don't believe me? Ask his Grandparents!). He is funny, and cute, and ADORABLE, and it is a real joy to be lucky enough to be his Mom. But, while I'm finally "getting" that down, and keeping up with work, my "social" life is nil. Now, I don't need to go out drinking every night, or even every week; but as any mother out there knows, it sure does help to have an "outlet" to bounce ideas off of, commiserate with, relax over coffee/tea with, swap diaper stories with, etc. I really miss that "down" time with my girlfriends.

The "loss" - for lack of a better term - of one in particular has really been bothering me. She is someone I care very much about, and considered one of my closest friends. She became a mother to a newborn last spring, and it was tough to keep up with her (for obvious reasons!!), and now, we are both mom's, I work full-time, and she's plenty busy with other personal aspects of her own life. But it bothers me that we haven't been able to connect. I have another girlfriend, who is a mother to two adorable kiddos, and she is another of my favorite people. Unlike the first friend I mentioned (whom I haven't heard from in months), this friend keeps TRYING to get up with me, and I keep missing the emails, or the coffee dates! (Don't give up on my, Miss B!).


I guess that trying to balance 2 important aspects of ones life is hard enough. Now, I want to add a third back into it! The timing is tricky of course; with the holidays coming on, I'm afraid that the time for girlfriends is getting less and less, but I am thinking about taking some time off work for some "girlfriend" days. Mr. Minh is great company too, so hell, I might even bring him along to a few. Any takers?? I'd love to catch up with ANYONE I haven't seen in the last month (ok, that's EVERY ONE OF Y'ALL!). Coffee anyone???

Saturday, November 15, 2008

GP visit





My folks visited last weekend. Good times, but too short. Fortunately they are coming back for thanksgiving. Minute LOVES his GPs.

Some pictures from the visit....Oh, and one picture with story-time with Minute's Uncle Phil.

Fooled you. More pix right this Minute:




more pix to feed the need....