more pics lol

we had a family movie night tonight, since it was storming outside again, and the satellite would have been all goofy anyway. shawn ate more kettle corn than anyone else did!

LA swept the Red Sox in 3 games. i am not happy. I need time to recover.

Our Birthday Boy

first day home with daddy, august 4th

12 days old

our first moment together 7/24/07

he was down to about 5lbs9oz. that day

i can't believe he's a year old tomorrow.

how blessed we are to be his mom & Dad

just random pics

mmmmmm summer! and oooohhh quirky bahaviors

mmmmmmmmmmm. yesterday jack & his friend austyn were outside devouring the berries. i brought out 2 cups and told them that when the cups were filled, i would bake something and they could go back to eating them off the bushes! so they did! i just made the best muffins with some of them, saved the rest.
jack and Austyn made plans to get together again today. at 915 am, jackson just said to me "it's after 9! why havent you called Austyn's mom yet? ummmmm huh?
why is that my job?
i didn't make plans with him. you did.
why do you think I have the phone number?
why don't you have the number? you made the plans, afterall.
I don't even know the mom's last name.(she is single, kid has different last name)
the truth is, i think her number is in my cell phone out in my truck(shes a nurse who takes care of my grandma at the clink. i mean crazy house. i mean nursing home lol) but.. come on! you're 12! it's just task avoidance, sheer laziness and a control issue. 30 minutes later, when Austyn hadn't called here yet, he looked through our phone's call menu and found the number (which PROVES CAPABILITY, which his shrink says he doesn't have) is attempting to call the kid right now, but has no clue how to use the phone after 5 years of teaching. now i will have to go through it all again. he still thinks phone numbers have like.. 3 or 4 digits, forgets to turn the phone on, when he gets a busy signal or a machine, he starts dialing the number again without hanging up......we go through it over & over & over & over. siiigghhhhhhhhhhhh
one step forward, 3 steps back!

lessons i've learned lately... By Ali

* grated cheese, indiscriminately left on the kitchen floor and counters, is strangely not the mouse deterent we were really looking for (Chewey took up residence about 2 months ago, and he has ruined all my rubbery baby spoons and pooped in my silverware drawers!)
* when teenage boys join the Army, they call their girlfriends-not their moms.
* when a small animal dies in the street in front of your house, don't let your dog go "check it out"(i will spare you the illicit details)
* don't ever take a shopping cart into a public bathroom. again, no details.
* corn on the cob, carelessly discarded in a backyard fire pit, is not the woodchuck(chucky) or skunk(stinky) deterent we had in mind.
* don't ever allow your dog to wrestle a skunk for an ear of corn. mmhhmmm.
* when 3 kids are jumping on a trampoline, somebody is going to come off crying.
* dog shampoo and dish detergent are NOT the same thing, afterall. think BUBBLES.
* black guy's lips turn grey right before they throw up.
* don't let kids go on a tilt-a-whirl after eating 3 bags (or more) of cotton candy(see above)
* don't challenge kids to a cotton candy eating contest-it just doesn't pay in the end.(see above)
* bikers aren't always nice. but don't tell them so. they say bad words!
* when climbing out of an SUV, be sure the driver has put the vehicle in 'park' first. i learned this second hand.
* when driving someone to the ER, don't tease them for stepping out of a moving vehicle. they stop talking to you for some reason.
* wrapping a wet toddler in a towel and telling them "now, go tear it up!" isn't wise. don't let them comb their own hair either.
* bicycles are more of an outdoor thing. trust me on this.
* when your kid asks you to "tye dye" something, JUST SAY NO.
* telephones and kiddie pools don't mix.
* ipods and kiddie pools don't mix either.
* neither do boxes of kleenex and kiddie pools.
* when one kid tells you another kid "did something" in the pool, she's not talking about drool. it's urgent. move quickly. don't dawdle.
* "mom, i fixed it!" has multiple meanings. investigate thoroughly.
* cops pull you over when items are being flung out of your vehicle through the sun roof.
what have YOU learned lately?????? i tag erin & julie!

glimmers of hope(LONG BORING POST)

is that how you spell glimmer? anyway...
jackson has had a very good couple of weeks. some "weird" behavior, but decent nonetheless. first i will tell you the weird:
remember the neighbor i posted about below? well.. jackson was playing at their house last week. jackson told the dad he had to be home before 1pm(because i needed to go get kendyl at school). when the guy asked jackson why he had to go home(why do you need to know???) jackson responded, ...omg.... get this:
"because you give me bad food and when brandon has other friends here you dont pay any attention to me"
LOLOLOL BBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
ok.. back the truck up, little camper. first of all, the only thing i have EVER said is "you are not going to spend 15 hours a day at their house eating all their food" it isnt bad food, its just.. their food. ok? alright.
needless to say, the guy was at my door that night, while my husband and i were at the movies, telling my babysitter everything that went down. the babysitter is.. well, a wonderful girl. but strange and thrives on drama(strangely, another adoptee, abused in her infancy. shocking)so when i came home, the sitter made it out like the guy was LIVID and wanted me to call him so i did. at that point he was relaxed and just wanted me to know what was said. it turns out that brandon had had another friend over one afternoon and they were all in the pool. suddenly, jackson claimed he didnt want to be in the pool. "i dont feel like swimming!" (yah, sure LOL) so the dad offered a basketball video game indoors. the dad and the other 2 boys continued to frolick in the pool. jackson went in and played the game for a few minutes, got bored, came outside and jumped in the pool and all was well. well.... it sounds like jackson was jealous that the other friend was there, so tried to control the situation by refusing to swim, in hopes that brandon or his dad would send the other friend away. when that did not happen, and the fun continued without him outside, jackson came to his senses and jumped into the pool to share in the fun, instead of being rude or going home. SUCCESS!!!!! PROGRESS!!!! the bad part??? in his effort to somewhat open up to brandons dad days later, (a good thing!)instead of saying "i was jealous when Danny was here, i wanted him to go home because you were playing with him and not me." he said what he said and got a rise outta the guy(which he likely wanted anyway). so we talked to jackson about appropriate language and all that and reminded him that brandon has other friends, just like he does, and that has to be ok. also, jackson had told me a couple of times that he drinks soda and eats junkfood over there, but i refused to react, (im not stupid!)which irritated Jackson to no end and i could tell LOL, so he may have decided to try to get a reaction from Brandons Dad instead LOL OOPS! the whole thing cracked me up and even though it was a total train wreck, i feel good about it in some strange way. yah, i'm a crazy RAD mom. the little victories.
other glimmers? well, one thing that jackson has always had trouble with is SARCASM and kidding around. hes CLUELESS. hes a very black & white kinda guy. very literal. fickle. some of that is language barrier stuff, some isnt, but he just cant handle sarcasm and doesnt catch on, even if someones body languge tells it all.
last night, the Tv was acting goofy(satellite i think) and yogi says,
"aww jackson broke the Tv again, mom"
being goofy and sarcastic.
jackson didnt miss a beat. he says ,
"well, i guess we'll have to go buy a new TV!"
THAT IS MORE HUGE THAN YOU COULD EVER IMAGINE!
jack made a funny! jack was WITTY. he drew an inference. made a connection. it was HUGE and i laughed my ass off.
i think the kid might just make it.

A day At The Beach! (and weird coincidences)

It was the plan we had all week. Get up on Sunday morning and surprise the 3 youngest(and kristin, if she wanted to go) with a trip to Hampton Beach. kendyl almost burst into tears of joy when i broke the news to her at 8am. She LOVES the beach. we were ready by 9 and off we went. Shawn slept most of the way there, which made the ride very quiet. other than Yogi's pathetically slow driving and kristin's unorthodox musical choices, the ride was fine. we arrived at 10 and the parking spaces close to the beach were taken. we parked down the road and walked to the beach with way more stuff than any family should need. we had so much fun! i looked so huge in my fat suit, i was afraid some guy would harpoon me, so i watched my back. I love the ocean, so i was in heaven. kendyl & i collected rocks, played in the waves.. it was great. we ate peanut butter and jelly for lunch and kristin tanned the whole time, never left the blanket. how sad is that? shawn loved it too, after initial fears of the noise and icey cold water. he played until he dropped, literally. he drifted off on daddy's shoulder at about 2 and slept for an hour or so. jackson and i went swimming while daddy built sand castles with he babies, he & i both love the cold water, but jackson has core temperature issues and needs help warming up when he gets out. ive never seen anyone shiver like jackson! while he warmed up the coincidence thing occured. all of a sudden, i looked up and jacksons BEST friend jack, and his family, were walking right towards us! a beach with what??? 10 thousand people on it and they walk right by us? what are the odds of that? that just blew my mind. the 2 boys had a ball playing football, baseball, went swimming again...i think jackson had a really good day. even though we never made it up to the boardwalk to look at stuff and eat bad food, it was still a blast. a good time was had by all, and we headed back to the car at 330. the baby was awake but content all the way home too! we were thrilled! ken crashed out as soon as we hit the highway LOL the best part? nobody burned! my shoulders are a bit pink and yogi burned the tops of his feet, but nothing awful. we all wore 45! and we re-applied! that sun was STRONG. we can't wait to go back!