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.

Updates

I know I am terrible at keeping up to date with this blog. I promise I have big plans every day, and then I'm just so tired at the end of the day that I forget. So here are a few of the things I've been meaning to add.

First, ALYSSON IS FINALLY POTTY TRAINED! Three cheers to saving $40 a month on her diapers. I have never met a more stubborn child. She has known how to use a potty for over a year now, but she has chosen not to use it until about a little over week ago. We have not had one accident in 6 days!!! Now I just need to get her to get up and go by herself and not come get me every time to go with her.

So, I was reading in my Parenting magazine, and there were quotes from readers about what their kids had taught them. One woman said her kids had taught her that things aren't as obvious as we may think they are. This is so apparent to me right now because Alysson is so full of questions it tries my patience. She asks me who, what, where, when, why and how of everything. But every once in a while she'll ask something so thoughtful, it makes me pause. The other day, we were driving home from Provo as the sun was setting. As the sun finally set all the way and it became full-blown night she asked, "What color is the dark?" I had no answer and turned the question over to Scott who made up something that seemed to satisfy her, but I had to marvel at how her little mind works.

And finally, speaking of how her mind works, Alysson is now a story teller. I'm so excited because I'm just sure she is going to be some famous and brilliant novelist. Here is her latest story:

"Yoshi was a bad dog and had to go outside. It was windy and he blew away. Carson turned into a super-baby and flew to save Yoshi."

New Helmet and New Food

After a month of visits, fittings, and conversations with the insurance, Carson finally has his helmet. For those of you who don't know about this, it's for his flat head. This happens to more babies these days because babies are supposed to sleep on their backs because of SIDS. Alysson got a flat head, but her head fixed itself once she started rolling around. Carson, on the other hand, has been sleeping on his stomach since he was 2-months-old because he slept better that way (I'm not really a bad mom, just a tired one). But he's 6-months-old now, and it's not any better, so the doctor recommended a helmet. He doesn't even seem bothered by it, except when I first put it on after a bath or something, and I think that is just because I don't do a very good job yet. Just looking at it makes me cringe. He sweats so bad it drips down his neck, but the doctor said his body will adjust in about a week, and he won't sweat so much. He has to wear it for 23 hours a day until it's fixed, which is an average of 3 months.

In other Carson news, I started him on solid food again. As some of you may know, he didn't seem to adjust that well to the addition of rice cereal and a few fruits so we went back to just bottles. He would scream inconsolably for hours. I can handle a crying baby as long as I can get the baby to stop by doing something. But nothing worked for him. I guess his tummy was just so upset. I even took him to the doctor to see if he had an ear infection. It literally only took 24 hours with just bottles before he was back to my peaceful, patient little boy. So today was his first day back, and he seems to be fine for now.


Carson eating with his new helmet and Alysson with her cute Pippy braids

Pictures

I finally uploaded the most recent photos on our camera, so I thought I would put up a few.


Alysson painting Easter Eggs


Alysson outside on a rare sunny day playing Croquet


Scott and Alysson swimming at our awesome indoor pool


Alysson and Carson playing together


Carson loves his exer-saucer


Alysson practicing before dance class


Poor Carson falls asleep anywhere

Mirror, Mirror On the Wall

Alysson kept going into the bathroom and looking in the mirror. I finally asked her what she was doing, and she said, "I'm just looking at how pretty I am." No shame or embarrassment. Just said it like a fact, like "I'm just putting my shoes on." I can't stop laughing.

Church Basketball vs. City Basketball

So, despite how hilarious it is to everyone I know, I played on my ward's basketball team. We won the stake tournament and came in second place in the regional tournament. We thought we were hot stuff and decided we should play on a city team. I actually touched the ball and made a few baskets in church ball, so I signed up. Plus, I need the exercise and one night a week I don't have to put the kids to bed. But city ball is NOTHING like church ball. The teams actually know what they are doing and seem to have plays. We lost BAD tonight, by 20 points! I think I touched the ball twice and shot once, but I missed it. I basically ran around for 40 minutes laughing at the $31 I paid for this wonderful experience. But despite the beating, I had a blast and probably burned off a few hundred calories. I think I'll go eat some girl scout cookies as a reward to myself.