Drew loves a parade....

Drew went to his first parade today - Farmington's Memorial Day parade...he had a blast!! We sat in a good spot under a shady tree and the nice woman next to us gave Drew an American flag to wave. Drew loved waving at all the cars and the people - he waved at everyone and even yelled excitedly at a few people - he was so funny. He waved his American flag triumphantly, and ran for the candy that the Girl Scouts threw...it was a very good time and watching him brought tears to my eyes...

We had a very good Memorial Day weekend - Uncle Phil came to visit and meet Drew for the first time, we had the parade today and we also gardened today. Drew had fun helping me plant flowers and play in the dirt.

Drew LOVES to be outside and gets really mad when we make him come in. Except for his nap, he was outside all day today.

Watching him run around the backyard just make me sooo happy...when we bought the house we talked about how great it would be to have a little kid running around the backyard and now that dream has finally come true...

It's offically summer now and we will be very busy I'm sure...only three weeks until the older boys come to stay with us...Drew will be so excited when his big brothers are here all the time. He looks at their pictures all the time and kisses them...

Well - back to work and daycare tomorrow...thank goodness it's a 4-day week!

Drew's first haircut!!

Drew had his first big-boy haircut today and he was so good! I figured he'd freak out and cry, but there was none of that. He very calmly sat on my lap and let Bernadette cut his hair...he even giggled when she used the clippers on him - he was so cute. She said he was so good he could come back anytime! I posted a picture on the side of the blog to show how cute he looks!!

Tomorrow is Drew's 23-month birthday - I can't believe he's going to be 2 soon - crazy!

Today Drew and I went to the playground at the school a couple of blocks from our house and we played on the slides and in the sandbox. Drew and I made lots of sandcastles and then Drew decided it would be great to take a huge handful of sand and shove it in his mouth!! He then looked at me and said, "MMMMM..." - I couldn't help it - I had to laugh!! Then I pulled as much sand as I could out of his mouth and we went back on the slides...

Tomorrow Uncle Phil is coming to meet Drew so we're excited to see him...Monday we plan to take Drew to his first parade..we watched the Indianapolis 500 parade on TV tonight and Drew waved to all the people waving in the parade, so I'm sure he will love it more in person.

So - that's about all from here...

Happy Birthday Carolyn!!!

Mazel Tov to Judy P. and her family on Rachel's wedding next weekend!!

Have a good Memorial Day weekend everyone....

Drew's latest obsession....

Drew has recently started to play more with the few toy cars he has, so this weekend his Daddy bought him a carrying-case shapped like an 18-wheeler filled with about 15 matchbox cars!

The cars go everywhere - under beds, down the stairs, in the car to daycare...all around the house. And they are usually accompanied by Drew saying, "Brrrr, brrr..." like a car noise (not the brr it's cold noise!)

He's so funny with these cars. On Sunday night he would not go to sleep unless I let him take a car into bed with him - he was clutching it tightly when I put him down and still clutching it when I went in his room Monday morning.

Everytime he hears a car noise he gets excited - he went crazy at Aunt Lysee and Uncle Shawn's apartment last weekend with all the honking and beeping in the City...

The kid just loves cars!!

It makes me wonder if it's instinctive in some ways for little boys, or he likes them because we subconciously give him cars because he is a little boy? HMMMMMM....makes you think, doesn't it??

A great Mother's Day!!!

I had a great day today!!! :)

My day started very early - apparently Drew just couldn't wait. He was up at 6:30 a.m. and he and Daddy went to Dunkin Donuts to get my favorite donuts for breakfast - yum!! Then I got great cards from Patrick, Chris and Ben and also a movie gift certificate...

Then Patrick pulled out a big box with a card from Drew on it. So I opened the big box, and inside was another box...and inside that waa another box...and so on and so on...until finally there was a card that said Drew's gift to me was under his pillow. So we all went upstairs and under Drew's pillow was a little jewelry box...inside were a beautiful pair of diamond stud earrings!!!! Drew did amazing for our first Mother's Day together...

I haven't worn earrings in so long, I was afraid they woudn't go in, but they did and they look great and I have no intention of taking them off!!

Then we drove to NYC for brunch at Aunt Lysee and Uncle Shawn's apartment with Grama. Aunt Lysee ran in a 4-mile race earlier this morning and still cooked a great brunch for all of us - we had a good time hanging out with everyone and Drew loved exploring the apartment and getting his fingerprints all over everything and touching everything and playing with everything!!

Drew slept the whole way home and we've just been hanging out tonight. We also discovered tonight that Drew knows how to climb up on his crib and also step on his zebra spinner to look out his window - not good!! If he keeps this up, it won't be much longer until we have to move Drew into a toddler bed - I say by July, Patrick says by Labor Day...we'll see...

So - Happy Mother's Day to Grama, Bubbie, Grandmother, Great-Grandmother, my Aunts Susie, Marilyn, Lois and Angie, Drew's aunts Laurie and Lizzie (his only aunts who are moms - I'm not forgetting his other aunts: Hi Lysee, Sheri and Steph!), all my cousins who are moms and my wonderful friends who are moms...I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day!!!

"Non-Mom" mom?????? - UPDATE at bottom...

So...in honor of Mother's Day there's a contest for the best mom in America - you may have seen it on the Today Show and other places. They have various categories of moms - single moms, working moms, military moms and non-mom moms...turns out - that adoptive mothers are considered "non-mom" moms - are you kidding me???????????

Just because we didn't physically give birth to our children we aren't real mothers?? Why is that?? I guarantee you that the months and months of time I spent on paperwork and homestudies and notorizations and medical forms, etc...were a hell of a lot harder and lot less enjoyable than the usual way of having a child.

It's so frustrating to see that no matter what, there will always be people - and apparently large media organizations - that will never consider me "real." Never mind that I am the only mother Drew has ever known and that his alleged "real" mother has never spent a day in his life with him...

It makes me angry and sad, especially as this is far from the last time that I will deal with this...and it makes me even more sad that Drew will have to deal with this his whole life too.

Maybe someday people will change their definition of "real."

Until then...Happy Mother's Day to all my fellow "Non-Mom" moms...


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Well - you can see the comment that was left on my blog by Teleflora - apparently a ton of adoptive moms flooded them with e-mails...it's amazng what a group of mad motehrs can do, huh??? I still don't understand why adoptive mom is a seperate category, but I guess it's better than "non-mom" right???

Thank you to Teleflora for recognizing how insensitive they were being and correcting the problem...

Happy Mother's Day!

Drew...the daycare bully????

So - apparently our son is the bully of daycare! He's been in a hitting phase lately and Patrick and I stop him when he does it to us, but he's been hitting a little boy in daycare too! They tell him to stop, and he does, but still...the funny part of this (I know, hitting is not funny, but...) this kid is a full head taller than Drew! I asked Miss Diane if Lucas hit Drew back, thinking that if he did, maybe Drew would stop. She said Lucas is afraid of Drew!!! Now I don't think I'm being biased when I say Drew is not a menacing looking child...he can throw a temper tantrum with the best of them, but he's generally a pretty sweet kid...

I hope this hitting phase is over soon!!!

Drew came home sick from daycare today - he had a cold and fever. They were trying to tell us if a kid's muscus is green it's a state law they can't be in daycare...I find it hard to believe there is such a statute though...anyway - it probably didn't help they had him outside playing all morning in 40 degree weather and his pants got all wet - ugh!!!

He'll be staying home tomorrow too and hopefully will get better this weekend - just in time to go back to daycare and catch another cold. Ah - the joys of working parenthood!!!

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On a sad note, my coworker JoAnn passed away unexpectedly this week - she was only 44. JoAnn was a great coworker, an excellent journalist and listened to me endlessly talk about our adoption plans and traveling to Kazakhstan and Drew...she will be greatly missed.