Swimming Lessons

Alysson just finished her week of swimming lessons. I guess it was worth it because at the beginning of the week she was crying to go home and clinging to her teacher, and at the end of the week she would at least use the kick board and let the teacher take her under water. She won't go under by herself though.

We did have one MAJOR tantrum from her. Yesterday, the teacher pretty much spent the whole time convincing Alysson to put her face in the water. Alysson never did it, and it was time for the next class to start. Her teacher even kept her an extra 5 minutes, but it still didn't happen. So Alysson wanted to go into the kiddie pool for a few minutes and try some more by herself. I gave her 2 minutes because we had 20 minutes to get home and change before some people came over. After the 2 minutes, she still hadn't put her face in, but I told her it was time to go anyway. Then she lost it.

I guess she was probably disappointed in herself because she couldn't do it and wanted to keep trying. Who knows. She started screaming and splashing. She raised her hand to hit something, but nothing was there so she walked to the rock wall and hit that. She stayed in the middle of the kiddie pool so I couldn't reach her. While not that deep, it was deep enough that my clothes would get wet. I was so embarrassed. All the other moms from the next class were watching, the other kids wouldn't pay attention to the teacher because they were watching. I didn't know what to do.

Finally, I handed Carson to this really helpful lady in our stake and got in the water with my shoes and skirt. It was awesome. The first day I don't wear a bathing suit and I actually get in the water. She kicked and screamed all the way to the car. The nice lady carried Carson and all our stuff for me. She even buckled Carson in so I could wrestle with Alysson. I don't think I've ever been so mad at her. She went straight to bed with her wet hair and bathing suit and took a nap. I don't think she has napped for over a year now. On the bright side, Carson slept too, so I read and finished my book for book club.

Anyway, here are some pictures from swimming.

Sometimes you just have to fork out the dough

So, we are super poor right now because Scott still doesn't get his first pay check for a month. We are constantly looking for ways to save a buck. Yoshi was due for a haircut. He was looking pretty shaggy, plus it's 110 degrees, so I feel bad for him being so hot. His haircuts cost $45, which I thought was ridiculous, because really, how hard could it be? As it turns out, pretty hard. See for yourself.

This one is my favorite because it shows the places the clippers got caught on all his fur.

So now I have to face the humiliation of taking him to PetCo and explaining what happened. And, they aren't even going to be able to make it look that much better because it's so bad. Crazy dog, he's like having another kid. Plus I'm sure I'm going to have to buy Scott some new clippers because he'll never use the same ones Yoshi used.

Could you pass the cockroaches please?

So you all know what a huge bug fan I am. One time, I actually asked my neighbor to come to my house to kill a spider because Scott wasn't home. In my defense, it was HUGE. Anyway, cockroaches are taking over the city, or at least my house. Every day I wake up and go on a dead cockroach hunt to clean up all the ones that died over night, usually 2 or 3. So, I saw one this morning, after I had already put away my dustpan. See, I can't pick them up in a paper towel because I can't stand the thought of feeling them. And, if you accidentally squish it, they bleed green. I know this because I stepped on one. So, instead, I sweep them up and flush them to Hell, or Heaven, if I'm talking to Alysson.

Anyway, I made a mental note to pick up the one I forgot before we left the house, and then quickly forgot the mental note. I gated Carson into the family room and went to help Alysson brush her teeth. I was coming back around the corner and saw that Carson had escaped, that crazy kid. He was in the kitchen with his fist in his mouth. It took all of 1/10th of a second for me to realize that HE WAS EATING THE COCKROACH. I'm pretty sure I've never run so fast. I grabbed him and stuck his entire body in the sink and started the water. He was screaming, but I didn't care. I'm sure the water was freezing, but oh well. I washed that stupid cockroach down the drain to Hell and washed Carson's hands, and I even rinsed his mouth out. I'm so proud because I touched the cockroach with my hands, I cleaned Carson all up, and then myself, and all with out raising my voice or using one bad word. I was shaking the entire time, and chanting in my head, "Don't lose it, you have a 3-year-old watching and she repeats everything." I will NEVER leave a dead cockroach out again. I can't believe that's even a sentence I have to use.

Screamin' good times

So Carson has taken up screaming. I have no idea why, if he isn't getting some sort of attention he needs, or if it's because he's teething, or if he just thinks it sounds awesome. Anyway, by the end of the day, I have had ENOUGH. So we are eating dinner, and he is screaming and Alysson decides she should scream too. I ignore it for a few minutes and then finally blurt out, "The next person who screams is outa here." Alysson screamed, and so she went to her room. Then Carson screamed, and Scott pointed out that I needed to be fair, and I couldn't really send him to time out so I went and got Alysson and said I was sorry. Then Scott decides we should play the quiet game. After explaining the rules to Alysson, she said she wasn't going to play that game but wanted to play the loud game so she could scream as loud as she wanted all over the house. What a crazy girl.

Finally Moved In

Okay, I know it's been a long time since I've posted, but I'm just getting to the point where I can relax at night and not worry about unpacking a box. Anyway, we love it here. Our house is wonderful and here's the best part: it has a fenced in backyard. Alysson loves to go outside and play and I feel safe enough to stay in the kitchen and keep an eye on her. The one complaint we all have is the heat. It's brutal. I've been gone for 11 years and have gotten used to SLC summers. It was 104 yesterday. And the bugs. Cockroaches and HUGE spiders. It's killing me. I HATE SPIDERS.

So developments in the past few weeks. Carson sits now. And he crawls, or actually scoots on his tummy, but he is moving. He gets into all of Alysson's stuff now, so that has been a problem for her. She gets really upset. He has started babbling too. And he got one tooth. Alysson started playing soccer at the YMCA down the street. That is a fun place. It has pools, sports for little kids, a gym for me, and free daycare for the kids when I'm working out.

And the most exciting news is Scott's graduation. That was such a fun day. Because our baby sitter canceled at the last minute, we ended up having to take the kids to the actual graduation, but they did so good. Neither had to be taken out the entire time. We had a party that night at Scott's parents house and tons of our friends and family came to celebrate. So excited it's over!!
Anyway, here are few pictures.

Family Vacation

To reward ourselves for finishing four long years of medical school, we went on a family vacation to visit our good friends the Morgans in Virginia. While we were there, we went to an indoor water park. It was soooo much fun. I totally recommend visiting if you are ever in the area. It's called Great Wolf Lodge, and there are about 10 in the country. You can google it to find out all the locations. So much fun! It is all indoor and has a hotel so you can stay the night there. We got there around 1pm, swam all afternoon, spent the night, and woke up and spent the whole next day there. It was so nice not to worry about the sun all day and have a place to change clothes and shower. Alysson loved it and still talks about it every day. The whole place is totally designed for a family with young children. There were only 2 rides that Alysson couldn't do. Even Carson seemed to enjoy it. He is such a water baby. I hope we get to go back someday. I finally figured out how to make a slide show, so here are some photos from the trip.

It's Official

Yesterday was a big day for our family. We went to court to have Carson's adoption finalized. In Utah, you have to wait six months before the court will finalize anything. During that time, the adoptive family is required to have two in-home visits with the social worker to asses how everything is going. And the agency has to do everything it can to find a birth parent if they haven't signed anything yet. In our case, the birth father never signed. Then we all go to court with our lawyer and the social worker. The lawyer asked the social worker a bunch a questions about the home studies and what had been done to locate the birth father. Then the lawyer asked us a bunch of questions and the judge read all the paper work. Then the judge signed the official adoption decree, which we took to the clerks office to get a birth certificate re-issued for him. This process signs away the birth father's parental rights as well. It was very exciting! For some reason I was really stressed, but it was so easy. Here are some pictures with the judge and our social worker.