What A Handsome Guy

What A Handsome Guy

Halloween as Spiderman

Halloween as Spiderman
with my big sister, Spidergirl

Turning 2 in St. Maarten

Turning 2 in St. Maarten
Happy Birthday

Addison on the 1's and 2's - Following in Daddy's Footsteps

Addison on the 1's and 2's - Following in Daddy's Footsteps

Addison's First Sledding Adventure - in his bathtub!

Addison's First Sledding Adventure - in his bathtub!

Where's My Hair, Mom?

Where's My Hair, Mom?

Me and My New Bald Head

Me and My New Bald Head

Two Gorgeous Kiddies

Two Gorgeous Kiddies

Me and My Friend Alex

Me and My Friend Alex

Our First Christmas as a Foursome

Our First Christmas as a Foursome

My New Fav Pic of Mommy and Ella

My New Fav Pic of Mommy and Ella

Addison Is Officially Addison Now

Addison Is Officially Addison Now
We finalized his readoption on Mon, Dec 14, 2009

My First Halloween

My First Halloween

Enjoy a little video of our new little guy

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

A Really Nice Weekend

I'm happy to report that we had a really great weekend as a family. Given where we've been, I was really worried about this long weekend. I was worried about not working and how we'd feel having to occupy ourselves for 3-4 days. Terrance's family was away and there were no baseball or t-ball games or karate, so I was pretty scared. And because most of our friends are still in NY/CT/NJ, our social life in TN is pretty...well, shall we say, "under-developed". :) In the midst of all of this adoption drama, the quiet time that we used to enjoy is not exactly our friend anymore.

So, on Friday I resolved that I was not going to let this continue to drag me down. Knowing that it's out of our hands, I really just have to let it go and work itself out in the time that it needs to be worked out. I decided that I was going to just grab life by the horns and soak every second of togetherness I could out of the time we have left before Ella starts school. She'll be starting a year-round school on July 14th (YIKES!), and I'm determined to not look back and wonder why I wasted May and June stewing about the unknown rather than reveling in our last summer as a pre-real-school family. And this could be our last summer with her as an only child, so I am determined to make the most of it.

So, poor Radames has been busier than ever as we've had the most action-packed weekend ever. On Friday night we went to see Angels and Demons while Ella played Legos with Ganna. On Saturday morning we went to our first party at Chuck E Cheese. Good times. (insert sarcasm.) The party was at 10am on a Saturday morning, which is definitely an asleep time for our family. Radames was desperate for his morning coffee. Instead, we were eating pizza and chicken wings and watching Ella eat bday cake when she should have been eating oatmeal. (PS. The food there sucks!) The place was pretty dead, b/c everyone was away for the weekend, but I can see why that place is a parent's nightmare. When Chuck E (sp?) came out, all the kids started to scream bloody murder, and I could not help but wonder why one guy from another party kept wandering around searching the machines for extra tickets. Jeez. Are you that desperate for a plastic snake or glittery bouncy ball!? Ella and all of her little friends had a wonderful time though. She thought it was the biggest deal ever. She got to ride a fake horse, dance in front of a green screen, play air hockey, squirt water through a clown's mouth, and ride a chair lifting "ride". It was worth every second.

When we left Radames insisted we go to IHOP for breakfast! He refused to eat at CEC, so he'd been starving for like 3 hours. After a stack of pancakes, we came home to take a well-deserved, carb-induced nap. The other kids in the neighborhood were going to "the club" (short for the country club) to go swimming. Jealous and bewildered, Ella sat in the driveway and cried and asked why her mommy and daddy won't take her to "the club"...at which point I knew it was nap time.

After our naps, we went to a funny Battle of the Pigs event at the local state fairgrounds. Ah, the redneck eye-candy. So many people to make fun of, so little time. :) By the time we got there the "pig" (aka the barbeque) part was over, but Ella got to jump on those dirty blow up "houses" and slides for hours, so she couldn't have been any happier (or more covered in sweat). I watched as the lower-class parents either smoked a cigarette next to their kids or shared a Mt. Dew with them while the upper-class parents over-affirmed their children with "great slide", "ooh, good one", "that's great, honey" every time their kid went down the friggin' slide. Radames tried "hot boiled peanuts" for the first time, which we learned was code word for deep-fried, scalding-hot, soggy, soft peanuts in a plastic bag that shoot hot oil into your mouth when you try to "crunch" through the shell into the mushy peanuts. (He stunk like grease for like 6 hours!) We sat and listened to a cover band in an ampitheatre, Ella and Radames danced to the old song, My Girl, and Radames got to chat it up with some fellow little league coaches that he bumped into there. And Ella got a balloon princess made by a clown that I'm pretty sure I saw on an episode of Law and Order SVU. She thought it was the greatest thing ever.

We then went to eat some sushi at our favorite upscale get-away in town. Ella performed her typical there's-no-music-playing-but-i-think-i-see-a-space-i-could-turn-into-a-dancefloor dance for all of the couples on romantic dates and then she hammed it up with her friend the sushi chef. (Yes, our child is the 5-year-old mayor of our town. Or she's a genius who realizes she can use her cuteness to get free imitation crab sticks.) The sushi chef came over and asked Radames and me if we wanted to come over to his house to come swimming with Ella some time. Ella screamed out "yes!" and Radames and I sat and tried to figure out what the guy was saying as he tried to give us directions to his house in his broken english. Only us! We then made our way to a Red Box and decided to rent the movie W. We ended the night rolling our eyes at our former president and thanking the stars for Obama. (Sorry, GOP friends. We still love you.)

Sunday we read the Times and decided we'd take a Sunday drive to Roan Mountain after our friend who was supposed to take us on a boat ride told us that rain was in store. We packed up our day-trip bags and headed for what turned out to be yet one more stop on our white trash weekend train ride. :) We wound up a mountain for like an hour, not knowing what we were looking for...only to discover...a mountain. Yep, there you go, my friends. What a surprise. A mountain. Complete with a playground, a campground, some hiking trails, a gift shop and a public pool. A state park for all the delapodated trailors we saw as we drove up the mountain. Not sure what we were expecting, but that's about it. We had a Subway sandwich and chips picnic with ourselves and commenced to paying our $4 entry fee to the pool. Ella had the time of her life, and I enjoyed watching her and Radames play fight in the water. The surroundings were actually really beautiful. It was a place where the clouds literally touch the tops of the mountains and it's hard to see where the mountains end and the sky begins. I needed the symbolism.

We then drove back to town and went to see the Hannah Montana movie together. Okay, confession: I totally loved. Ella and I danced in our aisle together. (There were only three other people in the theatre, so who cares.) We had a great time. And double confession: Radames was totally laughing the whole time and diggin' it, too. Don't let him tell you otherwise.

Radames was up until like 3am on Sun night getting his "set" ready for a dj-ing gig he had at the local elementary school on Monday morning at 8am! Yes indeed, I'm married to the DJ of the Woodland Elementary 2009 Field Day. Step off, ladies. He was running on fumes as he lugged his vinyl records to his dj booth (aka a tent on the playground). He must have played the cha cha slide like 50 times for the kids who kept requesting completely inappropriate songs like Boom Boom Pow Pow that their 22-year-old moms and dads evidently listen to with them at night. He watched as the teachers shook their groove things to 80's classics like 8-6-7-5-3-0-9. I was busy being an anthropologist and scopin' out ella's upcoming schoolmates...and making nice with the principal...who knows me only as "the dj's wife." That cracks me up. I think they all think that we live off of Radames' dj-ing money (mind you he's never charged anyone a penny. he just does it because he loves music).

Ella also had her preschool "placement test" on Monday while we were at the school. I think she passed with flying colors, but what do I know. I wasn't sure if I should laugh or cry when the reading teacher/test administrator was asking her to name body parts that she pointed to, draw a square and show her how to hold a pencil. (Don't you learn these things when you're like 3?) Let go, Wynne!

We ended the night with a trip back up a different mountain to go to bbq at the lake. Some local friends who have a lake house invited us out for Mem Day. Radames got to drink a few beers, make man chat (in other words tell exaggerated stories), watch crunchy college kids smoke weed and pitch bean bags into a hole in a wooden box while I got to play nice with the overly-tanned cougars that were on the holiday prowl. It was really fun to get away though. We finished up the night with a trip to Fun Expedition - the local indoor family amusement park. Ella met up with her friend Myles there and we got to ride bumper cards and play a $1 version of Let's Make a Deal enough times to win enough points to "buy" Ella some Floam. Good times!

The real end to the night was the three of us celebrating Radames' birthday in the basement. Yep, Rico is the big 3-9 now! I can't even believe that! There's no way he could be 39! He got an awesome Diaper Dude bag from his sister, along with some really cute stuff for him and Addison (like a t-shirt for him that says Big Guy and an identical one for Addison that says Little Guy). His mom bought him socks and underwear like all good mothers should. :) Ella and I got him a Mets onesie and bib for Addison, some t-shirts and the Big City Sliders grill. You know, that thing from the infomercial that lets you make 5 mini-burgers at a time! He'll never use it, but he swears he'll be able to replicate a White Castle with it. :) It was a wonderful birthday. In classic Radames spirit he just kept saying, "I don't want anything. All I want is right here. Nothing else matters." And he really means it. He is such an amazing human being. Thank you, ma Rodriguez, for pushing him out 39 years ago! The world is such a better place because he's here.

Today was Ella's graduation from pre-school. It was held in Pigeon Forge, also known as the Hillbilly Riviera. The Vegas of the South. We went to Wonder Works museum, which was a really cool hands-on "museum" and then we went to Mr. Gatti's, which is another Chuck E Cheese / Fun Expedition place. Ella had an amazing time with all of her friends, and we won so many tickets (with Ganna!) that Ella was able to get a mock Dr. Suess hat, a pink recorder, two plastic rings, a pink cowboy hat with a tiara on it and butterfly sticker! Now that, my friends, is the high life. :) She was ecstatic, though. We got to hang out for hours together and just have a good ol' time. And then we rented a seedy hotel room so we could use their pool! Yep, we got the $40 hotel room that came complete with relaxing pool with a cool water slide and mushroom waterfall... and a room to shower off the chlorine. We spent all afternoon there watching some toothless people make-out (no joking!) and catching ella as she went down the slide like 5,000 times! We went to a nice dinner and drove back home. It was a great day. Maybe we weren't supposed to be in Ethiopia this week for a reason. :)
Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain.
Lilypie Waiting to adopt Ticker
Lilypie Waiting to adopt Ticker