Toothbrush Problems

From the look of Cullen tonight it appears that he got in a fight with his toothbrush.

Clearly the toothbrush won.

Geremu's Version of the ABC's

Here is a glimpse at your future American Idol...

Geremu actually knows his ABC's much better than this but he entertains himself more while singing it this way.

On a completely different topic my sister Colleen is just hangin' out with her good friend Paris on spring break this week. I'm sure I'll hear more about her spring break when she returns this Sunday.

Prego Meg-o Delivers...

Weighing in at 8lbs 7oz and 20" long is Meredith Clare Z.

(can I get an awwww...)

Look at that head of hair.

She was born yesterday, March 16th

and here are the proud first time parents.

Look, Megan even had enough time yesterday morning to straighten her hair or perhaps Kyle did that after the delivery? Congrats to Baby Z's family!

Naughty Leprechaun

We had a visitor last night in our house in the form of a naughty Leprechaun. He made a mess of the house and dropped gold coins all over. Geremu was the first to discover some of the coins and chased the trail down the stairs this morning as Cullen was just waking up to find a few in his bed. They had a great time collecting the coins. They must not have found them all this morning because they were still finding more coins this afternoon, they think the Leprechaun is still in the house.

They have hatched a plan to catch the Leprechaun, here is the start of the trap they built tonight before going to bed. It's on the left of Cullen in the picture.

It was another gorgeous day outside. Cullen kept busy by shoveling the remaining show and dispersing it where there is not longer snow.

This is one of those rare moments where the boys were sitting so close. So I asked the boys to say "cheese" here is the result; Geremu looks away and Cullen does this move where he thinks he is the one looking through the camera taking the picture.

Cullen had a few meltdowns today while we were outside, he really doesn't like the fact that when the sidewalk gets wet from snow (that he put on it) his chalk drawings get erased. Apparently this was my fault and I needed to fix it... Anyways to make a long story short, I couldn't take it anymore so he ended up in a timeout. Geremu is in the background enjoying the fact that it is not him in a timeout.

So Geremu just hasn't been himself lately, he has been playing on his own and has settled down quite a bit. So me being the diligent parent I am think somethings wrong with him and take him to the doctor. I know what you are thinking, this is more like my sister Katie and not like me. Turns out nothings wrong with him. He just needs to be outside all day long to be content! Today when I was cooking I got this feeling something was wrong when I realized it was the first time I was cooking without Geremu hanging on my leg, in fact he was no where to be seen. I found him out on the porch playing on his own.

A Walk in the Woods

The weather this weekend was beautiful so we took advantage of it by going to a local Environmental Center and taking a walk through the woods. We meet our friends Michelle and her daughter B there as well. The boys ended up wet and dirty but they had a great time. Here are a few pictures from our day.

Here is also a short video of my future Cowboy, this is one of his favorite things to do, he laughs the entire time.

Welcome Home Dad

We've been busy partying the mother down this week. We had to hide the evidence that we had $3.14 worth of fun while Nick was away more then once. Thank goodness the garbage people came yesterday to dispose of all the McDonald's cups before Nick saw just how many shamrock shakes we had. Since they only have them for a limited time I thought we had better take advantage.

Today was a beautiful day, temps in the 40's so we spent most of the day outside although we did have to make a few trips inside to warm up cold hands. Cullen asked me more then once for hot chocolate but I had to tell him no. I'd hate to spoil his appetite for his evening shamrock shake.

Cullen kept himself busy by making Nick some "welcome home gifts" in the form of snow plants.

Referralversary

One year ago today I saw this face for the first time...

and then looked at it every hour (sometimes even more) for the next 3 months.

It was about 9:30 in the morning when I was in the wood shop teaching a class. The other tech ed teacher came into the room and told me I had a phone call. I told him to take a message to which he responded, "I think you might want to take this one. I'll watch your class." I'm sure I gave him a funny look because he then added, "the phone says, Children's Home".

I walked into the Tech Center and picked up the phone still wearing my safety glasses. I really thought that it was our agency calling to let me know that we needed to fill something else out. The previous week we had opened our age from 0-15 months to 0-21 months. When I picked up the phone the voice on the other end said, "Hi AnnMarie this is Lindsay, do you have a minute." To which I responded, "yes". I sort of thought it was weird that she asked if Nick was around too but I still wasn't prepared for what she was going to tell me next. When she said she had a referral for us for a 18 month old boy I was shocked to say the least.

I think I asked Lindsay 10 times what his name was, like I wasn't listening the first 9 times. I vividly remember thinking I was having an out of body experience. I couldn't listen to her or concentrate on what she was saying because I couldn't find a pencil or paper and that's all I could focus on. Who does that when they are learning about their new son? I told her that I should call her back because "I'm so unprepared for this phone call." Looking back I wasn't sure what I was thinking when I said this. What was I going to do after I hung up with her? Probably take my safety glasses off then call her back. She told me that she would e-mail me all the information and after I looked it over if I had any questions I should call her back.

After calling Nick at his school and listening to him scream like a girl I got a hold of my mother at school. When she picked up the phone and I said, "It's a boy" she said she already knew. What??? How do you already know when we only found out 5-minutes ago??? Upon telling her more she said, she thought I was talking about Katie. My sister had only found out like the previous week that she was going to be having a boy. I called my Dad and told my sisters but then held off on telling anyone else until 2 days later after the referral was reviewed by an International Adoption Clinic Doctor.