Parenting 101

If you're my facebook friend you've already seen this picture. If you're not, I thought you deserved to see it as well. I also wanted to have it included in my end of the year book.

I've decided that the most effective way to parent four children is:

The Swaddle

It works for children of all ages. I swaddle the children between the hours of 8 and 4:30 so that when Bobby gets home the house can look decent and the laundry is folded. It also gives me time to update this here blog and check my peeps out on facebook. I may not have skills to amount to anything in the corporate world but I AM a Master Swaddler and I wear the badge with pride. Well, if there were a badge I'd wear it with pride.........

Party Time!

Normally we celebrate Cade's birthday while we are on vacation but, since this year's plans were scrapped, Cade was able to have his first spend the night birthday party! He made a list of about 10 kids which I quickly narrowed down to four. Much more manageable! The party started out with our handy must-have-during-parties water slide. This time, however, Bobby thought it would be a great idea to lather the slide in dishwashing liquid. He claimed that without it the slide just wasn't fast enough. The boys loved it and if Bobby wasn't just over the safe weight limit for the slide he'd have been all over it.

There were serious suds in the pool at the bottom. All the more fun!
Once the slide had run it's course Bobby organized a game of kickball. Did I mention that this party was a dream for Bobby? It was basically his "Half Birthday" party since his bday is in December and rarely does he get his friends to spend the night :)
A little thunder started to roll in so we had to come inside for a bit. Cade opened up his presents and we sang a little Happy Birthday ditty.
It was also nearly time for our pizza to come. I got one shot of the kids before they scattered and ran around the house like crazies. One thing I do wonder......why is it that when you get a group of boys together, the conversation inevitably turns to flatulence? Seriously. EVERY time. When talk turned from their own personal flatulence and it's stinky properties to the flatulence of their parents (actually NO ONE in their families was safe) I quickly instituted the "What's Said at the Morgan's, STAYS at the Morgan's" rule. Oh dear mothers of these children....gas passage is a fact of life. Thou shalt not be too embarrassed!
In lieu of cake and ice cream, Cade requested a bonfire with smores. It worked out great since the Great Flood of 2010 left so much wood debris in our yard. Bobby worked up a great roaster. Cade was so kind to let Grant and his bud come over to the house to take part in the bonfire activities. Kindness. It comes out every now and then around here.
I brought down the marshmallows and the boys went at it. They cleared out my grahams and chocolate so fast I had to get a second load! Since it was drizzling rain I brought out my handy dandy pocket camera for the bonfire shots. That thing proves itself useful quite often!



I think the smores were a great hit. Everyone was high on life (or chocolate) once they were finished. They spent the rest of the evening playing in the creek creating "Friend's Falls" out of rocks. They were completely filthy when all was said and done and I DID make them shower before bedtime.
Bobby finished off the evening by shooting off some fireworks with the boys. I'm telling you, it really was hard for me to figure out just exactly whose party this really was. Water slide, kickball, boy talk, creek play, bonfire, fireworks......what more could you ask for?? The boys, minus one, hit the sack around 10:30. Bobby went out to check on the smoldering fire and decided it would be funny to tap on the window and jiggle the door knob since they were all sleeping in the basement. Cade ran upstairs with absolutely NO color in his face and said, "Mommy! Someone's trying to get in downstairs!" "Cade. It's your father." I replied.
He laughed (a little nervously, I might add) and went to tell his buds. Bobby was rolling with laughter. Funny joke for a 16 year old sleepover......not an 8 year old sleepover. Only two of them made it all night in the basement after that fiasco. Scaring never grows old for the Bobster.

It was a great night of fun and laughter for my boy. Eight years have passed too quickly. I hope eight more years from now he still wants to have his buds sleep over at our house. It will be here before I know it!

The Birthday Morn

Today I am officially the mother of an eight year old. It's really hard for me to believe. Especially since I'm only 23 years old. I slacked on the birthday crown. I don't think Cade has ever had the privilege of wearing the crown because we are usually on vacation on his bday and I never have the supplies. This year we were suppose to be in Florida soaking up the sunshine (and some oil) but Little Tee-Tiny joined our family instead. We'll take that.

I slaved over a hot oven and made the Birthday Boy's request for birthday breakfast: coffee cake. Here's a nice blurry picture of that. I have never claimed to be a decent photographer in the wee morning hours. What little skills I possess are not awake at that time.

The brothers were up at the break of dawn to share in the goodness that is coffee cake.
Little Sister had to wait until later in the afternoon to get her picture made with the birthday boy. One day too soon she'll come running down those stairs to make sure she gets her share of the coffee cake!
The one thing Cade asked for this year was a Razor scooter. I guess now that he's eight the 3 wheeled spiderman one he has is embarrassing. It was probably embarrassing last year and the year before but he's such a trooper he didn't care.
I got him the deluxe version that makes sparks and has light up wheels. It's pretty cool if I do say so myself. I may or may not have taken it for a spin and ended up flat on my back in the neighbor's yard with grass clippings all over my face AND back. I guess that's what happens when you loose control and try to bail but end up cartwheeling through the air.
It's always good to give solid examples of why you push for safety rules. Such as the "always wear your helmet" rule. Just doing my job, folks. Just doin' my job. It would've been such a better example if I would've actually had on a helmet. Oh well. I never said I was a perfect parenting example. Just an example.

Happy Birthday, Cade! I hope you fair better than your mother with your new scooter!

Another School Year Down

Today marked the end of another school year. It seems like time passes so quickly these days and with all the excitement thus far in 2010 the days of this year have been no exception. I loaded up Little Buddy, Babycakes and my handy little pocket camera and headed to the school to support the boys on their last day. Cade had a mini "play". They call it Reader's Theater. Unfortunately it fell right at 10am which is when Elaina eats and she was letting me know it.

Rhett was just happy to be there. He loves going to the school and pretending he's as big as his brothers for a while. He wanted a picture with Cade in his classroom cubby.
Cade's year was quite productive headed by his great teacher Mrs. W. He came out advanced in reading as well as math this year.....spelling? Not so much. You can't win 'em all.
Grant had the first real love of his life this year.......Mrs. Cole. He refused to leave early on this day and insisted he go ahead and ride the bus to school for the half-day. He didn't want to miss a minute with her. And on a sad but sweet note, on the last day I found him in his room crying his eyes out because he "didn't WANT to leave Mrs. Cole. No one was ever going to be as nice as her". She has set the bar high.
I quick snapped a picture of his best classroom bud. This picture is definitely true to form with these two!
In an effort of celebration we headed to Moe's with some of our besties for some lunch. Nothing says "yea it's the end of school!!" like a burrito. Well, whatever. We don't have endless choices here in the Hill.

All the clowns gathered for a group shot.
Cade snapped a picture of me signing the one thing I will not have this summer.......peace :)
After lunch we headed to Gigi's for some sweetness. The size of these cupcakes never ceases to amaze me. There just seems to be something wrong with eating a dessert that is quite possibly the size of your head. But, man, it sure is good!

Somebody was super excited about eating and entire tub of icing neatly placed upon an adult size piece of cake:
Being that the cakes were LITERALLY the size of Little Tee-Tiny's head, I made the executive decision not to let her have one. And, well, she's only 3 weeks old. That and the fact that all that sugar would definitely keep her up all night. Wait.......she's already up all night.
Another school year down in the books. Now it's time for summer fun and figuring out how to lug a newborn to all of our summer festivities and still have her on a decent schedule. Impossible you say? Only time will tell!

Home, Sweet Home!!

I can't even express how happy I was to pull onto our street yesterday! I almost cried. I know I've almost cried a ton of times in the past 10 days but give me a break people! I've been under some serious stress! We had a little balloon welcome sign on the front porch. I have to give my bud some props for lugging that flower pot from my flower bed onto the porch. She didn't realize it was solid iron! I had another compadre lingering in the background of our homecoming, determined not to miss the day that she, too, has prayed for for three years!

I was mobbed getting out of the car. Well, I should clarify, the backdoor that would open to reveal the tiniest new Morgan was mobbed. I stood by the wayside saying, "What about me???? Didn't anyone miss ME???" With quick kisses and a few, "Well, yesssss's" I was once again pushed out of the way so that they could catch a glimpse. I weaved my way through them and pried Little Tee-Tiny from her carseat. The boys ran to the couch and somehow Grant ended up being the first holder.
This kid was grinning from ear to ear. He's the one that stood in her closet about a month ago and sighed, adding "We have waited for this for SO long......". Makes my heart melt!

Cade could hardly stand to put her down. He had to hold her before he went to bed. He sat in her little rocking chair in her room looking at her and said, "Man......I could do this ALL night." So sweet.....and if he were just a little older and slightly more responsible I would totally take him up on that!

Rhett started passing out kisses to her little head immediately.

This picture cracks me up. I can just hear him doing a nervous little laugh telling himself, "I cannot BELIEVE she's letting me hold this baby. She must have totally forgotten how dangerous I am!"
You notice his holding method: The securing-the-child-with-a-full-palm-over-the-forehead maneuver. We are still working on proper holding technique.
One thing he doesn't need lessons on is the kissing. This baby has definitely had NO shortage of love since we walked in the door.
Welcome home, Elaina! You can kiss the quiet time you had at the condo goodbye! Your real life starts today!

10 Days

So, we made it out of the hospital but there were still 10 days to wait. Ten days for Babymama to change her mind (ugghhh...),  at least ten days to get legal permission to cross back into our home state with Elaina. Lucky for us, a very generous couple let us stay in their condo in the state we were in. That made the time pass much more comfortably than if we had had to stay in the Holiday Inn. I don't even want to think about that. I don't even take my shoes off in the Holiday Inn.....feet touching that carpet.....ick. Weird but true.

We tried to stay busy but really there is not a whole lot you can do with a newborn that you don't want to expose to germy hands and just.....germs.

Little Tee-Tiny made her first trip to the Aquarium. She loved every minute of it. Her favorite thing was the Baluga Whales and her hand looked so tiny petting the stingray at the petting pool. She screamed her head off when we had to leave. Okay. Not really. She was cocooned in her covered stroller and her eyeballs never saw anything but the insides of her eyelids. And for the record, I don't do the "fish petting"......do you know how many nasty hands have rubbed the backs of those stingrays? Eww.
We were also able to have dinner with friends that lived in the area. Yummy kabobs of chicken (only a couple charred pieces :) ) and fresh pineapples and strawberries. It was great to be able to get out and see something other than the walls of our lush condo!
Tee-Tiny became a regular at a restaurant called "Shout". She was happy to watch me eat Mahi Mahi and I was happy to get a great dinner. If I had a dollar for everyone that wanted to peek at that baby and then tell me how great I looked for having a baby that small I would've been able to bribe my way out of the state a little earlier with a serious cash offering.

Luckily, this morning at about 10am I got the call I had been waiting for: "You're ready to go!! The paperwork is complete!" My mom and Bobby were very happy as well, because they knew that one more day away from my other kiddos and my nice, warm bed were going to result in some serious tears from me! I was ready to get on with it!! Bobby had already left on Wednesday so mom and I scurried to pack up the car and get the heck out of dodge. The Interstate Compact paperwork is finished and as of today we only have 3 more whole days left in the semi-scary waiting period.......the potential period for mind changing. Right now though I'm focusing on one thing.........GETTING HOME!! Wahooo!!!

Signatures a flyin'!

Today, Thursday, finally brought about some promising news. Our babymama was taken off all medication at 9am and the paper signing was set for 2 o'clock in the afternoon. It really didn't change our routine much. We were still staring at t.v., staring at each other, and then, of course, staring at the baby....and well, a little more staring at the clock than usual. At least now we had a time frame to be counting down. 

I decided to put my time to good use and give babycakes a little washin'. I was ready to get her out of her hospital issued garb and into something much sweeter. I added a bow to her little hospital cap (which, unlike the sleeper, I found to be quite cute).

She was really giving Bobby the once-over. "Ohhhhh......so you're going to be my daddy??"
Two o'clock came and went. As well as 3 o'clock.....and the 4 o'clock. By then I was really nervous that something wasn't going quite right. Bobby gave the hospital social worker a call just to check. Thank goodness every thing was going just as planned with the exception of a late to arrive notary. Thanks for the myocardial infarction people.......

Shortly after our conversation with the hospital SW, our social worker, Carla showed up with a pile paper and a mouthful of legal jargon.  I will admit that when she read the first line of "On May 6th, 2010, we accept the female child born the 4th day of May, 2010, as OUR CHILD.........blah, blah.........and give her the new adopted name of Elaina Marie..." I nearly spilled some tears. I had a huge knot in the ol' throat but managed to maintain my composure. I didn't want my signature to be all gobbledegook on those 800 pages. After all the signing we had a brief meeting with Babymama. It was a very bittersweet time but I was thankful for the chance to hug her neck one last time and let her know there is someone on this earth that loves her and will think of her every time they look at the big brown eyes of their Hondurican princess.

Here is sweet Carla (with closed eyes) on my right and the late, but friendly, notary on the left.
With an out loud, "Thank You Jesus!!" we were ready to snap that sweet thing into the car. Elaina is ours. Two years, 9 months, 1 week, and 4 days later. What a wait.....but oh, what a blessing!
When we started our adoption, I planned out a timeline in my mind (and maybe on paper a few times). I gave myself the timeline that the agency quoted me (which by the way would've had us already home with a child for over a year), then I made for myself what I called "the very generous timeline" so that if things started to not happen as quickly as I thought I could say, "well, we're still in the generous timeline.....". The ending point for my very generous timeline? Spring 2010. I had said to Bobby numerous times, "I think we'll bring her home in the spring of 2010." Little did I know that God had planted that seed in my mind and then just when I thought my timeline was going to be blown, He made it happen. HE MADE IT HAPPEN!!!

I'm beside myself with excitement. Now, we've got 10 days to count down. I think my tenuous stomach will let me branch out and eat some salad tonight. I just got a newborn baby girl, people! A BABY GIRL!!!! Woot, Woot!!!