Introducing Elijah Pagume Grandey

It's official: I'm a mom of two! Just got the call from our agency a few minutes ago. No word on travel dates yet, but for the moment I'm content just to stare at pictures of my beautiful son. I have a son!

Ooohh-weee, what's up with that?

If you've watched SNL at all lately, you'll be hearing the title of this post in your head...truly a hilarious skit, but I would pay cash money to get this out of my head! What doesn't help? Kevin has been singing it so much that Lila now has it memorized. Although, I guess I should be happy that she's not singing the "Humpty Dance" lyrics. Where is that Mother-of-the-Year award anyway?

Despite the heartbreaking loss of my Buckeyes, we've had a lovely weekend. Mimi rolled into town on Friday to help me get Elijah's room in order. To say that Lila was excited to see her Mimi is a massive understatement. There were several times where I feared she may just stroke out from the excitement.

Elijah's room is now a lovely shade of green - a lovely compliment to his bedding. Sadly, I have to send back the quilt for a new one. The lion only has one eye! The stitching is plain old missing and it's just weird. But let's be honest, the quilt is truly the least useful part of a baby bedding set anyway. So, our decorating plans can move forward! Here is what I have in mind:

Kind of a crappy pic, but you get the idea. They are lovely wall decals from Wee Gallery (totally stolen from my friend Alta's nursery! It's not my fault you have such good taste!).

I've also become obsessed with finding some wall art and am completely overwhelmed (in a good way) with Etsy. Here are some of my faves:

Cute, right? The shop is called Art and Philanthropy...check them out here.

Also, I love the idea of spelling Elijah's name with letter wall cards, but didn't like the thought of buying the whole alphabet only to have an incomplete set for playing. Neurotic, I know. But fear not! Check out these adorble 5x7 wall cards you can purchase individually:

I think that Elijah's name would look adorable matted & framed. Also from Etsy, the shop is called JennSki's shop. Check this cute stuff out here.

Lordy, I'm overwhelmed with all of this cuteness! Not to mention that I'm in gardening & landscaping heaven...if only my budget would allow me to do all that I so desperately want to do. For this season, I'll have to settle for planting a gorgeous weeping cherry tree in our front garden bed, and boxwood shrubs to replace the horrible, prickly, icky Barberry that lines our front walkway. The tree will be delivered next weekend. Can't wait!

Off to watch some more basketball. Go West Virginia!

And party every day...

Is there some kind of nationwide children's nap strike going on? No? Just the kids in my house? Great.

So much for having time to shower today. Am so very frustrated it was either blog or throw something. And it is SO VERY UNCOOL to throw babies these days.

Update: Ahhh, both kiddos slumbering peacefully. I was finally able to shave my sasquatch self. Aren't you all glad to know that?

On a truly vain note, I LOVE the Kiehls Midnight Recovery Concentrate. Lordy, that stuff works! Not terribly expensive (especially when compared to other night cream/anti-aging/anti-wrinkle products). Makes my face feel bright and soft in the morning. So, when I'm schlepping around in sweats and formula-stained t-shirts, at least my face looks FABULOUS.

We have a court date!!!

It actually happened! The one day that I was not obsessively checking my e-mails, of course. I was also totally ignoring Kevin's phone calls because I was having a perfectly lovely afternoon at the zoo with friends & their adorable tots. Thank goodness I checked for txt messages.

March 31st! Send all positive thoughts & prayers our way!

March is definitely going out with a bang in our neck of the woods. We are set to close on our house on March 30th. Yikes!

Now, off to get Elijah's room cleared of the mountains of crap that currently reside there. I bought his bedding last night. So sorry to all of you who voted for the hippo bedding, it was FREAKIN UNAVAILABLE!!!! I was not happy, let me tell ya. So here is what I ended up getting:

I had actually chosen this bedding a long time ago, but kind of forgot about it...and then was smitten with the Target stuff. Thankfully, I had some rewards cards that I had not used and free shipping to boot! I love the polka-dots, chocolate brown, and you can't see from these pictures, but the turtle has a lovely rainbow striped shell. If anyone spies a rug they think might work, let me know!

Happiness is...

Listening to my hubby read "T-Rex Cottontail" to Lila over the baby monitor. He really tears it up...different voices for each character, such animation! Love it. Also love having the night off so I can shower and enjoy a very cold Harps.

A few days ago I bought Lila her very first nightgown. So cute - green & white stripes with a bunny on it. Lila LOVES her nightgown. Although she gets a wee bit confused and frequently refers to it as her "countdown." Hee.

Happy St Patrick's Day

Ok, this may sound judgemental, but when did St. Patrick's Day become like Halloween: an excuse for women to dress like prostitutes?

I ran the St. Patrick's Day 5K this morning. Great fun, the first race of the season...the weather was horrific, but I was so very happy to run the race in under 27 minutes (26:45, to be exact).

The race was hosted by a local Dublin bar. Now, I know that I should have prepared myself for the crowds that would flock to a race hosted by a bar, but still! I was amazed by the number of seemingly grown women who were barely dressed, all in the name of St. Patrick's Day. And let's take a guess at how many of them were actually Irish?

Happy St. Patrick's Day, from a woman who managed to celebrate without wearing shorts that required a trip to the local waxing salon.

Staring at the blank page before me...

I am having a harder and harder time imagining how this adoption process is going to unfold. We received the official statement from our agency that Ethiopia is changing to a 2-visit process. Our house was not a happy house last night. Poor Lila. I managed to hold the tears in, but my wee one seemed to sense that something was not right with her mommy. She was super-clingy all evening, demanding to be held almost constantly, frequently asking me if I was alright. Oh, my sweet girl. How did she know? Do I wear my emotions on my sleeve that much? Apparently.

Actually, the tears didn't come until this morning when I was reading another friend's blog post about all of these changes. I think it took some time and space for me to really process all that has happened in less than 24 hours. While I am still confident and sure that this will all happen eventually, I simply cannot imagine getting on a plane without my son. I'm sitting here now trying to picture it and my mind is blank, refusing to even entertain such a horrible scenario. But it will happen. How does one prepare? I don't know.

Financial issues aside (and that's one BIG aside), I need to start realizing that I will be flying home for over 20 hours without my child. And there is a very good possibility that we won't be able to afford 2 more tickets for the embassy date, so chances are I won't be able to be there to bring Eli home. Probably the hardest for me to accept. I have already had many a daydream of Eli in a sling, sleeping on my chest during our long flight home. Time to make some adjustments.

I'll end on a Lila anecdote: yesterday I went to get her from her nap. I use the word "nap" lightly, as there was very little sleeping involved. Anyway, as I walked up to her bed she said, "Mommy, I have some new friends!" She then proceeded to hand me a ball of something white & fluffy. At first I thought she had pulled some stuffing out of one of her stuffed animals (there are dozens in her bed). When I asked what it was from, she replied, "My diaper!" Ewwwwww. She had pulled the filler from her (blessedly) dry diaper. Ick. But funny, no?

I heard it through the grapevine...

Well, the adoption internets are a-buzzing, I tell you. Confirmed by some agencies and not by others, rumor has it that Ethiopia will be quickly switching to a two-visit country. Meaning, one or both parents have to fly over to be present for the court date, and then fly back for the embassy date (at which point you bring your child home). I say "rumor has it" because my agency has not confirmed or denied at this point. I was told yesterday that our agency's lawyer in Ethiopia called and said, "Nothing is in writing yet." Whatever that means.

I'm trying to stay calm and just roll with this new tidbit of information. Let's just say I'm adding it to the every-expanding list of THINGS OVER WHICH I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO CONTROL. Lordy that list just grows and grows.

But I can't help bemoan the fact that if we are affected by this change we will have just missed the opportunity to make only one visit. Meaning, had we gotten our referral just a few weeks earlier, then we would have gotten a court date a few weeks earlier...no two visits. But, it is what it is. I can certainly say that the timing is horrific...we are in the process of buying a house for goodness sake. There just isn't $2000-4000 laying around for extra plane tickets to Ethiopia. It will happen, though. Of this I'm sure. No matter what, it will happen, credit card debt be dammed.

We'll end with something cute. Today Lila was reciting her own version of the "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" book. And it went something like this:

"Trachodon, trachodon, what do you see? I see a triceratops looking at me."

"Triceratops, triceratops, what do you see? I see Sid the Science Kid looking at me."

"Sid, Sid, what do you see? I see Tsingtaosaurus looking at me."

And so forth. Made me smile, and that cannot be overrated these days.

Root, root, root for the Cubbies!

Once you slack off on the blogging it's oh-so hard to get back into the swing of things! With so much going on, how do I condense it into a post? I know there is some way to write and then hold onto posts, but I know myself...it ain't gonna happen.

First with the big news: we are buying our house! I am so happy that this has finally come to pass, and a whole year or so earlier than we had thought possible (thank you, first-time home buyers tax credit!). I love my house, love my neighborhood, love Westerville, love the community center...after doing some house hunting I am thrilled that we can stay put. Now I am filled and overcome with all sorts of ideas for decorating and rennovating. I wish I could kidnap some of my crafty friends and force them to work their magic on my house (watch out Alta & Paige, I'm coming for you). First up, though, the not so glamorous task of replacing the HVAC system.

Kevin and I spent our first weekend away from Lila...all in all it went fairly well. I missed her like crazy, but it was so wonderful to be able to reconnect with old friends. And just as I was starting to get really nostalgic about living in Chicago, we hit a MAJOR traffic jam on I-90/94 on the way to the airport. Seriously, there are not many places where you will find a massive traffic jam on a Sunday afternoon.

Still no word on a court date. I just read that another family had their date postponed from today until the 23rd. Arrggh. Doesn't bode well, but it is what it is. Yet another thing over which I have absolutely no control. In the meantime, I'm excited to decorate Elijah's room with my mom in a few weeks.

We'll end with pictures:

She now loves chatting on the phone. I don't know if you can see it, but there is a MASSIVE mess behind her. Oy.

Love these series of photos. Thank goodness for digital cameras, because I would say 97% of the time I take the most horrific pictures...but last week I grabbed the camera and just snapped away while Lila and I were playing. I'm not even that bothered by the fact that I CLEARLY did not wash my hair that day. Ah, well.

And we end with my niece. Isn't she adorable?? She has now started belly laughing, it's the most wonderful sound. Of course, these chuckles are almost always because of Lila. The other day Kendall laughed and laughed while Lila shook a container of Easy-Mac. Lila works with what's available like all the great performers.