Our trip to Vegas and back to work

Yep, we have a kangaroo now

You can tell by that title that I either (A) didn’t gamble or I (B) didn’t win enough to quit working and live off of my big win.

If you’re a regular reader, you might have guessed that I’m back to work and that’s why you haven’t seen much happening here. You are right. I hope to still write once a week or once every two weeks.

Since last I wrote, we went to Las Vegas to visit my sister, her three kids, and her husband. My nieces are Kendalle (11), Lauren (2), and Abigail (1). My sister, Paulette (33), hee hee, is so much like me. We spent lots of time catching up, watching the kids, cooking, and eating. While it was entertaining watching our darlings play together, one of the best nights was the one where Dave watched all the kids and Paulette and I got to go out to dinner alone. We had grown up food and drinks like sushi, martinis, and sake. We had a hard time deciding whether or not to go to the strip, but ultimately, it felt like too much effort and money, so we opted for a restaurant and casino closer to her house.

Another highlight for me was spending time with Kendalle who is going into 6th grade. This year I am teaching a 6th grade class for the first time and it was great to hear her perspective about what’s important in school. I have to admit, our perspectives differ slightly- she’s so excited about being able to text during lunch recess and I’m trying to figure out how to get a 6th grader to care about writing (maybe texting is the answer to that!).

With the three small kids, it was quite an event to get out of the house, but we did manage to go to some impressive factory outlet stores and I took Kendalle and Ava swimming one day. Despite the laughing, playing, screaming, and occasional fighting, I managed to read one book (The Memory Keeper’s Daughter) and enjoy lots of great food, both of which I considered relaxing. I love my sister and her family, and I’m so happy Ava and I were able to visit this summer.

This week, I went back to work, but Ava’s school doesn’t start until next week. We’ve had Nathan’s stepdad, Nathan’s brother, and my mom watching Ava while we’re at work. Ava’s in heaven with all of these people who spoil her so much. Tomorrow we have the “teddy bear tea party” at her school to meet all the other kids and families who will be attending this year. On Tuesday night I went to the parent meeting where we painted the ceramic cups the kids will be using for the year and talked about new and exciting things at school- the kids will be introduced to meditation this year! I love this school. It’s natural, holistic, and spiritual. Speaking of schools, a friend told me about the Rocky Mountain Chinese School which has recently moved to Boulder. I hope we can get Ava registered for the language and dance classes they offer on the weekends.

I’ve posted a few pictures from our visit with my sister and a couple of Ava in the size 24 month kangaroo costume my mom bought Ava at a yard sale. Apparently Ava wouldn’t leave the yard sale without it and I fear we won’t be able to get her to leave the house without it on, either. It’s pretty cute, I have to admit.

Note to Paulette- yes, I did manually fix the red-eye in every single picture of Lauren and Abigail that I could. I guess there is one disadvantage to having such bright, blue eyes

The fun never ends. . .

Wow, what an unbelievable week we’ve had. It started Sunday with a trip to the Denver Aquarium with my aunt Lisa and cousin Jovianna. Monday, Nate’s dad drove in with his wife, son, son’s girlfriend and their 7 month old baby. On Tuesday, we all went to Elitch’s Amusement Park where Ava rode every single ride in Kiddie Land, including the roller coaster. She even put her hands up as they were going up the hill. The bumper cars were her favorite, though. Wednesday, Grandpa Gordon and Grandma Esther took Ava swimming and then they all went out to dinner (I escaped to a party for women only- no kids, no husbands). On Thursday Nate’s family drove out of town just as Lisa and Clara pulled up from Omaha. I quickly cleaned the basement/guest room, washed a few loads of bedding and towels, and then we headed to Casa Bonita for an evening adventure.

On Friday we went to the Dushanbe Tea House in Boulder and hung out on the Pearl Street Mall. We were thinking about dinner out until the girls (Ava and Clara) had a fairly painful accident while playing that left them both with nasty bruises. Ava’s chin and Clara’s head collided and there was a long period of screaming of crying- nothing a beer couldn’t soothe (for the mommy’s of course). The girls were fine and on Saturday we went for a brief hike in the Eldorado Springs Canyon, swam in the Eldorado Springs pool which is filled with natural spring water, and then we had a “play date” with several of my friends (including Hope our newest friend from China- she just came home last Saturday). It was a short visit with them, but it was very fulfilling. Lisa’s full of mommy wisdom and I love our endless conversations about raising the princesses. Ava and Clara must love each other, too, because they play (and sometimes argue) like sisters. If only they lived closer. . .

Tomorrow (Sunday) Ava and I leave for Las Vegas to spend a week with my sister. To many people’s disappointment, but not my own, I probably won’t even see the strip in Vegas. I am so excited to spend time with my sister, nieces and brother-in-law that gambling would only be a distraction.

Once Ava and I return, we have a picnic to attend for Nathan’s 20th high school reunion and then on Monday I go back to work. It will be nice to get Ava back on a regular sleep schedule, but I will miss this carefree and spontaneous lifestyle we’ve grown accustomed to. Only 9 more months until we can do it again

Planning Ava’s Birthday

I know I still have two months before Ava’s 4th birthday, but I’m starting to think about what we’re going to do for it. Yesterday we went to a very fun party at a pool and I found myself wishing Ava had a summer birthday. There are simply more options available.

After the party, on the way home, I was asking Ava what she wanted to do for her birthday this year. Naturally she said she wanted to have a swim party. I’ve had this small desire to have a tea party, but only because I think it would be adorable. Anyway, I asked her if she’d rather have a swim party or a tea party and she said swim party (she still hates being splashed and she won’t put her face in the water, but she’s always excited to go swimming). I asked her what else she wanted at her party and she said, “A thing you hit that looks like a pig and it has candy in it.” OK, a pig pinata. Then I asked who she would invite. She said friend one’s name and I asked “who else?” She said friend two’s name and I asked “who else?” She said friend three’s name and when I asked “who else” she said, “That’s all I need.” When I asked her if there was anything else she would like she said, “And remember, I want presents. Special ones.” Last year we asked that guests not bring presents because we felt like our house was overflowing with toys. We’ll see what happens this year.

I’m having a hard time picking a theme/idea for the party. Since hers is in October, we could do a costume party and decorate pumpkins. We could do an indoor swim party. We could have a more grown up party like last year and just let the kids play while the grown ups socialize. We could do crafts, play games, keep it simple, or go somewhere fun for kids. I just can’t decide. All of the options sound fun to me, and I’m sure Ava won’t even remember this birthday, so I shouldn’t worry too much about it. I want her to have fun, but I also love a reason to get all of our friends together.

I have no idea what we’ll end up doing, but I do know that I will find a pig pinata and Ava will get at least a few “special presents.”

Our summer break is coming to an end

I know, I know, I should put up more videos of Ava singing. I’m just not sure I’m ready for her to be famous yet, and you know how young stars are discovered on the Internet all the time.

As I tend to do toward the end if my summer break, I have scheduled so many fun things for Ava and I to do. I know once I go back to work, we can still see friends and family, but we are limited to evenings and weekends. I rather enjoy this stay at home mom thing where I can do things during the day any day I’d like.

In a few days, Nate’s dad, step-mom, brother, newest niece, and his brother’s girlfriend are coming to visit. Ava loves her Papa Gordon, Grandma Esther and baby cousin Mikayla. She’s pretty delighted with her silly Uncle Noah, too.

Lisa and Clara are also coming to visit for two days. We can’t believe how much we’ve missed them since we just saw them in Cape Cod, and we can’t wait to run them ragged along with us.

After that fun-filled week we are off to Las Vegas to visit my sister, her three girls, and her husband. I see lots of coffee and good conversation in my future. . .not sure what Ava will be doing, probably entertaining her cousins and teaching the two little ones how to say, “Why?”

Then I go back to work and we say good-bye to our friends and family until next summer. Just kidding. What I’m really trying to say is we’ve had a blast and I wish we could carry on this way forever. Of course, we’d be broke and completely exhausted. We plan to continue having fun and wearing ourselves out until the very last day of summer vacation. August 11th we’ll worry about sleep schedules, cleaning the house, packing lunches, and making sure the laundry gets done. Oh, did I mention Nathan’s 20th high school reunion family picnic the day we return from Vegas? Fun times ahead!

Movie: You Are My Sunshine

Movie: You Are My Sunshine

Ava will be 4 years old in 3 months! Yikes!

It doesn’t seem possible, yet, when I look at old pictures I can barely remember her as a toddler. Ava is now a kid- a little kid- but still a kid. She’s always asking “why”, she wants to know what things are made out of, she understands bargaining (well sometimes bribing), and she gets more and more beautiful and charming each day. I find that I am falling in love with her over and over again. Oh sure, we have a few discipline issues and a lot of sleep issues (AGAIN!), but the more she shows us her personality, the more irresistible she becomes. One of the cutest things lately is every time I smile at her when she’s doing something cute or funny, she’ll say, “What?” Then I tell her how cute/sweet/smart/funny she is and she replies flatly, “Oh,” as if she didn’t know.

We have/had a couple of important dates this summer. June 26th (2 years ago) was the day we got Ava’s information and pictures. I remember calling Nathan at work to tell him that the pictures had been emailed and if he couldn’t meet me right then and there, I’d have to look at them before he did. He told me to come downtown where we went to a coffee shop and saw our daughter’s face for the fist time. Her full red lips and huge brown eyes took my breath away.

That night we went out to eat where we got married (the day after we got her pictures was our anniversary), and then we stayed in a cabin in the mountains. I remember Nathan working on his laptop for awhile and sarcastically thinking, “What a romantic anniversary,” until he showed me how he had put Ava’s referral picture on the background of his computer.

June 27th of this year was our 10th wedding anniversary. I’m not sure if I should feel old or blessed that we are still so happy to be married to each other

August 22nd is “Ava Day”, the day we met Ava. She wasn’t officially our daughter until the 23rd (hmmm, another day to celebrate?). We bought Ava several gifts in China so we could give her one every year on Ava Day. Last year our niece Emma picked the gift and I would love to continue that tradition. Ava has almost been with us for two years, almost as long as she was living in China (she was 23 months when we met her).

She’s been asking about China more often these days and also talking a lot about her family. She gets so happy when we do things as a family. In fact, when I asked her what she wanted to do this Sunday, she said, “I want to go on a bike ride with our whole family.” Sometimes when I tell her about things we are going to do, she’ll ask, “With our whole family?” meaning Nathan, Ava, and myself. Today she found some pictures I had photocopied to send to China as part of our dossier. She asked me if we could hang them on her wall in her room to “protect her from scary sounds” at night (yeah, that’s part of her recent sleep issue). It feels so good to be trusted by her!

And in a few years, we hope to have more special days to celebrate when Ava’s little brother comes home. Rarely a day goes by that she doesn’t talk about having a little brother. She tells me how she will share her toys, and hold him, and show him how to eat with chopsticks (to name just a few of her plans for him). I still tell her that she will be five when he comes home, but she insists that she will be four and he will be two. That would be fine with us We have friends leaving for China tomorrow- YAY, Julie and David! - for their second daughter. I hope Ava doesn’t change her mind about wanting a brother when Hope comes home.

We’re almost done with the homestudy paperwork (huge step #1) and then we have to complete the dossier paperwork that will go on to Taiwan (huge step #2). I’m just waiting for a few more documents in the mail and we all have to get physicals with a doctor’s signature saying we are healthy enough to take another child into our home. The dossier is more official requiring almost everything to be notarized and certified and then authenticated (in Chicago). I’m sooo glad I have the summer off to work on things like this!

So, back to Ava being 4 in 3 months. . . I’m mostly okay with it (because I have no choice). I already dread the day she leaves home for college- of course, she has a late birthday, so she’ll be almost 19 when that happens. I imagine Ava will be even more quirky as a 4 year old than she is as a 3 year old and I have to admit, I look forward to that. (I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned how Ava insists that her name is Phoebe and my name is Ethan. Phoebe and Ethan are a brother and sister who go to Ava’s school. For months she’s been calling me Ethan and she even told her gymnastics teacher that her name was Phoebe. She also insists on having “one shoe off and one shoe on”, but if that’s not possible, she’ll put one strap forward on her Crocs and one strap back.) For the next three months, though, I plan to enjoy every last bit of Ava being three years old.

That’s all our pictures from Cape Cod

I put a few more pictures on Flickr from our trip to Cape Cod. This last batch was from Rick and Lisa’s camera.

Now that we’re home Ava’s taking a gymnastics class, we try to see friends almost everyday since it’s harder to do when I’m working, we go swimming, and we try to get the house clean.

In August we’ll be going to my sister’s in Las Vegas for a week and then we go back to school. How is summer slipping by so fast?

Oh yeah, I work on adoption paperwork almost everyday. A lot of it involves calling places and requesting notarized and certified copies of important documents. We’re still hoping to have all the paperwork collected by the end of summer so we can send that off to Taiwan.

Compared to last summer, this one is so much fun. Last summer Ava was two and a half, she could barely communicate, and she had these emotional breakdowns almost everyday. I remember sitting on the floor and crying with her sometimes because I just couldn’t figure out what would make her happy. She’s very easy to please this summer and gets very excited when we do fun things. I wish summer could last forever!

Oh right, the laundry

Thanks for reminding me, Lisa, that perhaps I should have unpacked and washed some clothes before getting preoccupied with pictures and writing about our trip.

Hmmm, it’s 10:30pm and we have very few clean clothes, no milk, and the suitcases are still in the middle of the hallway. BUT, there are even more pictures and a few videos on Flickr now

The next chance I get (after taking care of household responsibilities) I will post some of the pictures Rick and Lisa took.

Cape Cod Wrap Up

We’re home from Cape Cod, but we’re wishing we were still there. The place is amazing- much more quiet and peaceful than I was imagining. (I still have this impression that everywhere in the east is loud and chaotic- guess I should travel more).

We had a house in Orleans, which is about in the middle of the Cape as far as I can tell. The house was simple and clean with modern features and nice soothing paint colors. We were about ½ mile from Skaket beach- a beach on the bay side (as opposed to the ocean side) that had very warm, mellow waters. Ava finally got in a baby floaty with a seat in it and let us pull her around. Meanwhile, Clara was practically swimming on her own with only the arm floaties. Clara’s a very athletic, active, and affectionate child. She was mostly the leader in their play and had lots of ideas for games she and Ava could play. One of these games involved the girls digging for pretend bones in the sand and then running to the water and washing them off. They did this forever. Another funny game was to pull their matching nightgowns over their heads to make helmets and then they would jump on the bed and fall down over and over.

This was truly a relaxing vacation. Most days we got up and took our time eating breakfast and drinking coffee. Around 11 or 12 we would head to the beach for a few hours. Then we would start thinking about dinner and make plans to eat out or cook at the house. Rick was in charge of the cooking most nights, so we had some very tasty meals. On Tuesday, my friend Megan who lives in New Hampshire drove down to spend a day and a night with us. Somehow we tricked/persuaded the dads to stay with the girls while the women went out to lunch and coffee. We fully intended to give them some time to themselves, but the opportunity didn’t really present itself for the dads (sorry about that guys).

Just like sisters, Ava and Clara got into some arguments that often ended in a timeout for one or both of them. I hate to say it, but Ava’s a little sneaky and I swear she was purposely trying to get Clara in trouble a few times. Overall, they were the best of friends and we (the parents) didn’t know what was more scary- when they fought or when they whispered their scheming plans to one another.

The highlights of this vacation were watching the girls play, relaxing on the beach, and long talks with good friends. We will fondly remember this trip and hope to have many more vacations with Clara, Lisa and Rick.

(I had a ton of fun taking pictures of our dear ones. I’m uploading them as quickly as I can.)

Cape Cod I

We made it! Saturday morning I woke up at 3:30am and got Ava up at 4:00am for our 7:00am flight. Ava was great on the bus and planes, but didn’t sleep more than one hour the entire day. I think she was too excited to fall asleep.

We flew into Rhode Island and drove to the Cape. We arrived about 5:30pm and, as Lisa said, Ava and Clara picked up right where they left off. Clara is a leader and Ava loves to follow. After about 20 minutes, they started fighting over toys, but then we couldn’t get them to sleep last night they were having so much fun together. It’s a hoot to hear their conversations. Last time we were together, they couldn’t really talk to each other.

I can hear them in the bedroom right now as they are supposed to be going to sleep. They keep saying, “Now you do it,” and then they giggle uncontrollably. I imagine I’ll be getting Ava in a few minutes to sleep in here so they can get some rest.

The beach here is beautiful and the ocean water is actually warm. The parents are having a great time trading stories and watching the girls’ shenanigans.

And now I must go as Ava and Clara are not going to sleep in the same room. More soon