Great Wedding Video

This is one very cool couple....love their wedding party entrance!

(can't embed the image, so you'll have to click on the link....but it's worth watching)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0

Shades of "Cool"

Max found his sister's sunglasses and tried them on. What a cool dude! :-)

Singin' in the Rain

We've had some rain the past couple of days...and since it was just raining one day with no thunder or lightning, I let the kids play outside. They had an absolute blast stomping in the water and playing with the umbrellas.

One Month with Max - long

An eating machine...making sure he gets every last bite of food off the plate!

July 16th - one month with Mr. Max. How time flies once we have our children home with us!

Max didn't have a great one month anniversary though. :-( On Monday and Tuesday, I had to discipline this boy quite a lot due to hitting and biting. He knew the minute he did something wrong and would immediately start running from me....so we weren't liking each other so much by Tuesday afternoon. :-) (Don't worry, he has a strong hold on my heart!)

On Wednesday, we saw the pediatrician again and started the dreaded shots. The doctor also wanted to go ahead and draw blood for the tests required by our agency. I made daddy help hold Max for the shots since he was already mad at me from the discipline. As soon as Max saw the nurse enter the room with the needles, he immediately began shaking his head and saying "no!"...he knew what was coming. :-( They had to do 3 sticks for the blood draw and ended up getting samples from his foot (ouch!). Poor baby!

Because Max struggled so much during all of this, his legs were REALLY sore where they gave him shots. He ran a low-grade fever Wednesday night and just sat in my lap, screaming every time I had to move, change his diaper, put on his pj's, etc. I guessed that bedtime was going to be a disaster...and it proved to be just that. He slept for about 2 hours and woke up screaming again. After getting him calm, Max then proceeded to throw up...twice. I cleaned him up and by around 3 in the morning, the two of us snoozed a little while sitting in the living room. Max could never get comfortable enough to lay in the bed, so he slept on my chest (just what we both needed after all the discipline issues earlier in the week). At 5 in the morning, I was so exhausted and decided to try sleeping in the bed again. Thankfully, I was able to get another hour of good sleep, and Max got about 2 hours....enough to get us through another day!

On Thursday, Max had more fever so he clung to me like a baby koala (so sweet). His legs still hurt, and he didn't want to walk. By Thursday evening, he was feeling much better though...and was completely back to normal by Friday morning.

Other items of note: While we were at China Camp, we saw our ped who informed us that Max's tests for parasites came back positive for giardia...yippee! (NOT!) We started the meds on Monday and it must taste horrible -- Max says NO and covers his mouth when he sees me get it out of the fridge. I've tried secretly putting the meds in other drinks, but he must be able to taste it, so that hasn't worked. Thankfully, we're almost done with the meds...then we get to do another round of poopie samples....woohoo! (again...NOT)

Speech: Max's speech is progressing well. Sometimes when he gets frustrated, it sounds like he is speaking Russian though. When he was sick this week, I first patted his back and said, "I know it hurts". Max picked up on that and constantly moaned, "I know" every time his leg hurt....we heard "I know" over and over and over! Another new phrase from Max is "Here you go!" He says this each time we hand something to him.

Words he clearly says: look, Jazzy (the dog), Puckles (for Freckles the dog), Allyee, Claire, Emmayee, momma, daddy, baba, ball, what's that, all gone, where'd it go, diaper, I poopoo, muck (for milk), I know, here you go, more, hello, bye-bye, wei (Chinese way of answering phone), beep-beep, I wuv ooh, up, all . There may be more, but this is what I can think of right now.

Sisters trying to teach him how to go backwards down the stairs.

Church Camp

E & A left for church camp on Monday....came home on Friday afternoon. It was a long week without them here, and we missed them a lot. For the most part, they had a good time at camp (sadly, they just had to deal with some drama from the adults). If only we could all learn to be more open-minded and accepting like kids.....

BFF's (Sisters)

These two can be enemies one minute, and then the best of friends the next. When one is away from home, she is so missed by the other. Last week, they decided to dress alike, and then went out to play. Thank goodness for a zoom lens that allows me to have a peek into their world. :-)

China Camp

Getting the campers ready for a group pic - not a great shot, but I wanted to post one that showed how many campers there were,but didn't show the campers faces

Last week, our girls attended China Camp in Tulsa, OK (hosted by Dillon International). This was our 11th year to attend camp -- we started when Emily was just 2 years old. As usual, a fun time was had by all! This was a year of changes for our camp time though...a new facility with more room, a new child for us (which means we didn't help with anything during camp), staying in a hotel instead of with our friends (they moved), and Emily was a CAP (counselor apprentice) instead of a camper! Wah! Can't believe she's old enough for that!!

Allyson was in the dragon group this year; Claire was in the Ox group. The girls participated in classes of Chinese language, cooking, kung-fu, art, etc., and came home with some really cute projects. Emily led a group of 2nd graders to all of their classes, and said she really enjoyed her time with them.

Claire with friend/fellow camper, Lilli -----------Allyson making a Chinese "book"

After camp each day, the hotel pool was THE place to be. There was a great indoor pool play area for little ones, and Max fell in love with the frog slide.

Allyson celebrated her 11th birthday while we were in Tulsa. Since we had to postpone her birthday party due to camp, we took her out to dinner at a restaurant of her choosing for a small birthday celebration with another China family. Allyson chose Casa Bonita because she loves their simple cheese enchiladas (& their arcade).

Since we stayed in a hotel this year, Emily's travel group wasn't able to spend the special time together that we've enjoyed in the past. Thanks to the K family though, we had one special evening at their home. They aren't part of our travel group, but they opened their home to our group and served us a nice dinner, allowed the kids to play in the pool and hot tub, and gave the adults our social time. Thanks Rebecca and family!

Max enjoyed the swings at the K family home

Late Saturday afternoon, we headed home. The girls watched a movie, and Max went back and forth between napping and crying (ALL the way home! ugh!).

This was the view from my rear view mirror on the way home. At one point, there were two sets of feet, but one pair went down just before I took the shot. Not a bad shot from a driver who just held the camera up, hoping for a good picture eh?

Busy Week

No time or energy to blog lately....we've been a tad busy with our new little guy. It takes some adjusting to having a toddler in the house again. :-)

Randy's office held a shower for us last Wednesday (photos to follow once I receive them from his office). His assistant arranged the whole shower while we were in China. She even filled out a new wish list (of her choosing) for us at WM! lol The theme was red/white/blue (like Max's room). Randy's co-workers were so kind to us...we received many nice toys and clothes for Max. We also received a much needed car seat for our 2nd car.

One of the ladies gave Max some of the punch which was made with sprite and orange sherbet. When I saw him drinking it, I quickly changed exchanged it with a sippy cup of water. Not sure why, but it just didn't seem like something he should be drinking.

We left the shower and went straight to piano practice. Just seconds prior to arriving at the piano teacher's home, Max began throwing up....ALL of the orange sherbet punch! What a way to break in a new car seat! I quickly parked the car, sent the girls inside, grabbed a slimy Max and sat him on the driveway, and began cleaning the car and car seat. What a mess! I used every diaper wipe I had, and even an extra couple of diapers to clean up the car seat (not to mention everything that leaked out onto the van seat. Max was FURIOUS because I had to strip him down to his diaper....he screamed all the way home (and even while I worked at home to continue cleaning the car). Once I had him clean and clothed again, he was in a better mood and we went back to pick up the sisters.

I was so worried that the car and his seat would remain smelly, but thanks to Febreeze, there are no lingering odors. :-)

These are fun times!!

No pics of the shower yet, but here are a few from this past week.