Finally, a Chance to Take a Breath

Wow, these last couple of weeks have been pretty brutal on the intensity and hectic scales. It seems like so much has happened since I posted about going to California for my birthday weekend!

First of all, our trip was great, but way too short. It was hectic getting ourselves together and even getting out there, and upon our return we hit the ground running. B's dad drove back with us and stayed at our house until Sunday. B's grandparents are moving back to Baltimore, so his dad was helping them pack up and then driving them back. We will miss them and how much they always loved on Andrew. Of course, they will still love him from Baltimore, but it was nice to be able to see them enjoy him.

Yesterday was my last day of school, and my fellow teachers will know just what kinds of craziness and pressure and stress I've been dealing with over the past couple of weeks.

I have lots of material to blog about in the coming days and weeks (open adoption and how it's working for us, our next steps, summer happenings, things I'm excited about, etc). So, for now, I'll leave you will some pictures from the past couple of weeks.

Andrew is such a busy little guy! He loves to just play and entertain himself and just do his own thing. Don't get me wrong, he loves to be played with, but he is equally content with just hanging out on his own.
During this time my baby turned 10 months old! Just look how big he is now compared to his bear!
Andrew is busy exploring all the time. He really liked crawling through the coffee table while visiting Nonnie and Papa in California.

Andrew's cousins still fuss over him like crazy and just can't get enough of him. Ashley wants to be holding him all of the time. I just love how he is able to be close with his cousins. This just adds so much to our life.

Getting ready to go somewhere is so much more fun with Andrew playing underfoot in the bathroom. I love finding little handprints on my mirror.

Well, that's it for now. I'm looking forward to the slower pace of summer, and with that will come more blogging. Promise!

The Lion and the Beagle

One of our niece, Ashley's, favorite things to do when she visits is to haul out all of the dress-up costumes. On her last visit, which, keep in mind, was a couple of weeks ago when it was 110 degrees outside, she just had to play with the fuzzy, very hot looking costumes. The lion costume, courtesy of Melanie, was chosen as the outfit of the day. Yes, the kid pretty much went straight from swim suit to lion costume. However, it was just perfect attire for my Dad's birthday party. Her favorite thing to play with? Well, Molly of course! And we do believe that the feeling is mutual.

Nesting

This weekend we finally managed to get another room of the house painted. We have an upstairs bedroom that we plan to use for a real live baby one day. Since we moved in there has always been at least a twin bed in the room. Why? Because when we moved into this 5 bedroom home we had just 2 beds, so my parents gave us an extra twin bed and dresser that they no longer needed. At one point we even had a crib in the room. No, we didn't jump the gun and buy one! My friend gave me hers when she was done with it. We set it up and bought a really cute crib bedding set from Pottery Barn Kids that coordinated well with the Hawaiian themed comforter and curtains already in the room. We thought that until we needed the room for a RLB (real live baby) that Ashley (and other vertically challenged guests) could make use of it whenever they were here visiting. Well, play in the room she does! She knows where all of the toys and dress-up clothes are, but she has always refused to sleep in the room. Oh, and she also dubbed it the "Fishy Room" because of the giant, stuffed Nemo fish that hangs out on the bed. (And why do we have a giant, stuffed Nemo fish? Well, that's another story that goes back to the night we got engaged so it will have to wait.)

Exactly a year ago, after finding out about my miscarriage, the crib was unceremoniously unassembled and put out to pasture. I quickly filled in the space with all of my scrapbooking stuff. And now, a year later, it was time for this room to look a little more put together and not quite so transient. It was almost sad how the room looked like it was waiting for something. Well, I guess technically it is waiting for something . . . but anyway, it needed paint, and personality, as well as a purpose, in a very gender-neutral sort of way. Because while I do believe from the bottom of my heart that our child will one day reside in this room, it does feel an awful lot like a dream. That said, this room will never take on the appearance of a baby room until after there is actually a RLB residing legally in the house. And look, now I'm getting sidetracked by something that really is a post for another day

OK, I'm really trying to stay focused here but I'm sort of all over the place. For that, I apologize. Anywho . . . yesterday we emptied the room, except for the bed, painted it, and put it all back together again. Humpty-Dumpty's men weren't as busy as we were yesterday. And to be honest, there were a few moments of panic yesterday once the full depth of the color became apparent. I mean, at one point it really looked like someone (oh, that would be ME) had painted the room with a pack of yellow hightlighters. I actually feared that the brightness of the room would induce seizures in whoever was sentenced to spend time in the room. However, after getting it all put together it really does look great. And lively. And full of personality. And able to be transformed into the room of a RLB in about 30 minutes flat.

So now, take a peek at the room and have a little look around . . .

Well, what do you think?

Baseball, Binkies, and Blessings

This weekend was a lot of fun. Eric, Kari and Ashley stayed with us and Kari's parents were in town as well. We had everyone to our house for dinner on Friday night. Kari so wonderfully prepared lasagna, salad, garlic bread and lemon bars for all of us. Yum! We also got to enjoy Ashley's antics. She insisted on wearing her bathing suit and splashing on the first step of the pool. The water isn't even 70 degrees! After that she refused to wear any clothes until finding a purple princess dress in the "dress up" drawer in the "fishy" room. And of course she completed the ensemble with the accessory of choice, her binky. Then she raced around the kitchen on her bike. I think we all wound up more tired than her.

On Saturday all of the guys headed out to Surprise Stadium to see a Spring Training game between the Royals and the Cubs. I know that my dad really enjoyed getting to a live game and being out in the nice weather. As Brian will attest, no hotdog is better than the first dog of the season! In fact, my dad enjoyed it so much that Brian and I are taking him to another game on Thursday. This time we are going to see the Brewers and the Angels.

However, the high point of the weekend, of the past six months actually, happened after everyone left town on Sunday. My dad was able to move his right thumb! He can only move it a little bit, and he isn't ready for thumb wrestling, but this is huge! We now have so much more hope that he will get back more movement in that thumb, as well as other fingers.

So, all in all, a great weekend.

Through the Eyes of a Child

I thought I would share with you the most exciting thing happening at the Mayer house, according to Ashley. Ready? "Puppy dog poo poo!" Ashley was so excited to watch through the patio door as Molly took care of business outside. So excited, that she told everyone about it for days and got excited EACH time it happened. Eric and Kari also had the pleasure of hearing their little princess exclaim "puppy Doggie" nonstop starting at about 4:30am. I must say the adoration was mutual. Molly loved having her own special person. As you can see, Ashley and Molly exchanged many kisses and played constantly.


Auntie Brian was another great source of entertainment for Ashley. Yes, I said "auntie", it wasn't a typo. Ashley is a little shaky on the whole auntie/uncle thing and Brian takes the brunt of it. On Saturday they went over to the newest fire station in Goodyear to look at the big red trucks and the police motorcycles. There were clowns (which scared Ashley), hotdogs, popcorn and ice cream. Ashley scored the cool hat seen here, a coloring book and a stuffed doggie. Oh the fun.
Ashley had a great time in the pool swimming with the dolphin. She was also fortunate to enjoy the last swimming weekend of the season. The pool water temperature is finally too cold and we are done swimming for the season.
On Friday we went to the home of cousins Christy and Jim. Ashley got to be cuddled by GranJan and got to play with cousins Griffin and Scott and had so much fun with all of their toys, especially the trampoline and Jeep in the backyard. However, the most fascinating part of the day was checking out our newest cousin Meredith. Ashley was quite thrilled to be able to show off little Meredith's cute toes. All of the adults had a great time visiting as well. It was nice to see everyone and reconnect, though we did miss my Dad at the gathering.

As for my Dad, he continues to work hard at Barrow's. He is really focusing on eating well so that he can get the feeding tube removed. However, he is tiring of the limited dining selections and of the unreliability of the whole thing. So, we are trying to bring him some meals from home. Brian is going to bring him a meatloaf dinner tonight and they will watch the baseball game together. Please continue to pray for total healing and recovery for my Dad. It really means so much to him (and us) to feel all of the love and support from our family and friends. He has received a few postcards and notes and they really help to boost his spirits.

The Princess

Ashley is our niece, Eric and Kari's little girl. She is a princess. Can't you tell? Ashley has absolutely everybody wrapped around her little finger, and believe me, that's just a-ok with everyone! She loves Barney (much to my brother's delight . . . NOT) and books and being on the go. Kari tells me that she is getting to be a regular motormouth (wonder where she gets that from? Hehehehe) and her vocabulary is growning by leaps and bounds. Brian and I last saw her when we were in California in July and are looking forward to seeing her again in October when everyone comes out to visit. I know that Poppa Bob can't wait to see her! Click on Ashley's World on the sidebar and you can visit her blog. Eric does a really great job of picking fun pictures and great stories to go along with them.