Summer Bedtime?

Well, it is Aloha Friday time! In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that people take it easy and look forward to the weekend (sound familiar?). So, we take it easy on Friday blog posts by sticking to just one quick question that surfers-by can answer with just a quick response themselves. This week's question is:

Do you put your kids to bed later during the summer?

Me: I do but not on purpose. We don't actually have a later bedtime set, it is just that we get so busy doing all kinds of fun summer stuff that we completely lose track of the time. So, they go to bed late. Luckily, for me, they do sleep later as well. I love it. I love summer and all the fun things we get to do. I never want to miss one second of summer fun.

Good News and Bad News

Well, on the adoption front we have good news and bad news. First, for those of you who do not follow me on twitter, we have our court date. It is July 17th. This is very good news. We are thrilled about this. Our coordinator called us last Monday to let us know - sorry for the delay in telling you all I was on vacation and then busy and yada yada - and I have been counting down the days until the 17th when we would find out if we passed. It is okay if we don't as we will just be resubmitted with more paperwork. Not passing just means someone along the way did not cross their t or dot their i. But if we don't we could get caught in the court closure. Although, since the court date is a little earlier than I was expecting there is a good possibility that we could have a second one before the closure.

More good news is that yesterday we got new pictures of Little Sister. And she looks so cute in them. I simply cannot wait to have her home and in my arms. Everyone in the family has copies of the pictures of her. We were so excited to get these.

Now onto the bad news. The MOWA (Minisrty of Women's Affairs) has decided that starting today they will be closed for two weeks (14 days). They are the department in Ethiopia that overseas adoptions and in order to pass court you need a letter of acceptance from them. And we do not know yet if they issued the ones for people like us who have court dates before they closed or not. We will know soon, hopefully. But currently it is a mystery. After court approval we will need another letter from them for travel. And we do know that some of the traveling families have been affected by this.

So, please pray for us - pray that we will pass court, that our letter has been issued and that Little Sister will soon be in our arms. The especially good news is how happy and healthy she looks in her pictures (man I cannot wait to share her gorgeous face with all of you). That makes me feel good.

Hats!!!

For more Wordless Wednesday see 5minutesformom, for more Wordful Wednesday see Seven Clown Circus and if you are like me and only mostly wordless head over to Ordinary and Awesome.

Quite The Crowd

Since I have way too many pictures from my vacation I suppose you can expect a whole bunch of random picture posts over the next few days. And I could not think of anything better than this one to start us all off with. This is us with AuntS and UncleP. I love the way we are all just hanging around in this picture. Casual and calm. It is pretty much the perfect picture to show off our relationship with each other.

I have to say that I absolutely love those two. They are both amazing people with so much potential. I simply cannot wait to see how they turn out. I look forward to seeing where they are in ten years (she wants to be a doctor). To knowing their spouses and children. To knowing them as they grow and mature. I feel so lucky to have them for my brother and sister.

The funniest thing though is being out with them and wondering what people think of us. How many people look at us and see Hubby and I as the grandparents, AuntS and UncleP as Big Brother and Big Sister's parents? Seriously we are only off by a few years for that to be possible. We are definitely quite the crowd.

Air Travel

Our flight to Florida was NOT delayed at our airport. We did NOT sit in our airport for many hours waiting to get on the plane. This did NOT cut into the layover that I had very carefully planned for dinner time.

We did NOT arrive in Florida at 5 minutes to midnight. NO WAY!!!!! I would NEVER plan to be getting off a plane at that hour. NOT even if it saved me $200.

After arriving at the Budget desk it did NOT take two hours to get a car. During which time they did NOT give me a hard time about the coupon I had (that was approved when I registered online). They did NOT give us a "better" car that got worse gas mileage because the car we booked was not available.

On Thursday we did NOT get hit with a pretty huge thunderstorm when we were leaving. We did NOT sit on the airplane waiting for the storm to pass, we did NOT get turned around while we were sitting there in an attempt to get out the other direction. At which point we did NOT sit on the runway long enough to need to refuel.

While we were sitting at the gate we did NOT realize that we were going to miss our connection. Upon realizing this we did NOT approach the gate agent about getting a flight on another day. In the end agreeing to stay in Florida until Sunday. NOPE!! Extend our vacation by three days at the last minute? THAT would be insane!!

After getting off the plane we did NOT realize that our suitcase was going home either way! We did NOT realize that we had no clothes except what we were wearing (and our diapers thank goodness)!!

Then on Sunday when we actually came home we did NOT sit on the runway for an hour waiting to take off! NOPE!! That most definitely would NOT happen again.

Big Sister did NOT do very well all in all!!! She did NOT make it through all of that plane time with minimal crying (taking off and landing because she would not eat). Big Brother was NOT very sad that we were leaving our family behind. I am NOT sad at all either! And NONE of us wish that we live closer!!!

Work At Work Dad-O

One of the best parenting compliments I ever received was being mistaken for a Stay at Home Dad.
SAHD’s (crummy acronym, no?) certainly rock, but I am not one. My wife is a Work at Home Mom, but I am a very traditional Work at Work Dad.
What it all boils down to is that I’ve got a not-quite 10-month-old little girl at home and I need to cram as much daddy-daughter time into the day as possible. Babe-O and I have a few standing dates that I pretty much refuse to miss:
Lunch date. Lunch is kind of like a NASCAR pit stop for me. Jump in the car, zoom home, shovel food into baby, zoom back to work. I can usually make the round trip in an hour, unless there’s a caution flag (projectile vomit, explosive diaper, or Mom-O really needs a break).
Dinner date. Dinner is a family tradition. Babe-O’s high chair goes right next to my recliner and we share a TV tray in front of whatever crap sitcom happens to be on, just like the pilgrims did (more takeout, less smallpox). The TV is obviously a bad habit, but generally speaking, I watch her and she watches me, except when distracted by pretty much any commercial with hip-hop in it. Baby loves Biggie, what can I say?
Bath date. When Babe-O was tiny, she did basically three things: slept, nursed, pooped, ignored her dad. So from the get-go bath time was my thing. If nothing else, I got to see her then. To this day, I think I’ve only missed one or two baths with her. It’s usually a good time. She sits in her bath seat, I talk about whatever comes to mind, and we play with squirty toys. The goal is to wash the baby each night, but we call it a success as long as I don’t drop my phone in the water and she doesn’t drink the conditioner.
Late date. All three of us sleep through the night pretty consistently these days, but if Babe-O does end up awake for some reason, I go and get her. Usually we just pace back and forth for a while and she goes right back to sleep. This used to take HOURS, but that’s because she wanted to nurse and I was a consistent disappointment in that department. Now she seems to understand that she can’t get blood from a stone and just goes back to sleep. Not only do I get to hang with my girl in her especially loveable sleepy state, but I get to sport that classic bleary-eyed-dad look at the office, which often leads to free coffee from coworkers.
I guess the moral of the story is that it’s better to stay up all night working (current time 1:33 a.m.) than pass up an opportunity to hang with the baby. The parenting magazines and SuperNanny seem to agree that kids grow up fast and it’d be easy to miss out on a lot during those ages that are measured in months instead of years.
Sincerely,
Milkin’ it for all it’s worth in PA
Josh (@Dad_O) is a professional communicator/blogger/dad . Check him out at www.daddydoesmyhair.blogspot.com.

Ecostore USA Review and Giveaway

So, the people at Ecostore USA contacted me and asked if I would do a review of their products and store. I was really excited to get their email because lately I am becoming more and more skeptical about the chemicals I use around my kids and in my house. I really like the idea of using natural products.

I don't know when it started for me but I am feeling more grossed out by chemicals and about trash and non-biodegradable products. I guess it started with cloth diapering. That lead to a desire to be super aware of how much garbage we have and to try to recycle more (it is amazing how many things we throw away that we could recycle without even realizing it). This lead to a whole new way to look at items that are going to muck up our waters or sit in a dump for all eternity. Now, don't get me wrong I am not super duper "natural" - my kids had McDonald's for lunch today. But I am starting to have an appreciation for all things natural!

Now Ecostore USA is a company with a 20 year history in New Zealand who is starting to make themselves known in the American market. They make "plant based, non-toxic Household Cleaning, Baby and Personal Care Products." Plant based!! How cool is that. You can find their products online at the Ecostore USA website or in any if the 186 MEIJER grocery stores (MAJOR bummer that none of them are near me). If there is not one near you either, do not fear - there is free shipping on orders of $25 or more!!!

So, what did I try out? I tried the Dishwash Liquid and the Baby Shampoo. And they both fared very well! The dishwash liquid took some getting used to. It does not suds up like typical dishwash liquid and therefor takes some reminding that I do not need more and more and more. The baby shampoo worked great and smelled great!! It is the first time I have ever used anything but Johnson and Johnsons' on either of the kids. And I am so glad that I did because I love it. And the best part about the whole thing is that the packaging is all recycled and recyclable products. No environmental waste from start to finish. Yippee!!!!!

Now the people over at Ecostore USA have graciously offered two of their products to one of you as well. The first thing you must do (as in if you don't no other entries will count) is head on over to their website and look around. Then come back here and tell me one of the products you think you would choose if you won!

Extra Entries:
1. Follow me or subscribe to my feed - leave us a comment letting me know you did (or already do).

2. Follow me on Twitter and tweet this giveaway - leave me the permalink of your tweet (you can get this by clicking on the time of your tweet). And keep your eyes open because sometimes I offer twitter only entries. :)

3. Subscribe to my YouTube feed - leave a comment letting me know you did (or already do).

4. Add my button to your blog - leave your blog address so I know where it is.

5. Blog about this giveaway - leave the address of where it is.

6. Comment on any other post on my blog - (I'll give you two for commenting on this one - Big Brother really wants to know people are reading his post) then come back to this post and tell me you did (any post new or old and you can do it with as many posts as you like).

7. And lastly favorite me on Technorati for two extra entries - just remember to leave a comment letting me know you did.

I will leave this up for two weeks. It will end at 11:59pm on 7/18. Please, please, please make sure your email is attached to your comment. If I do not have your email address I cannot contact you if you win. Thanks so much and good luck.