FOR RHONDA!!

Brady is wearing a cute elephant shirt that "Aunt Rhonda" sent him a while back!! I think he looks adorable in it!! Rhonda sent it because Brady loves to make animal sounds and knows a TON of them so when she saw this shirt she "had to get it" for him!! THANKS Rhonda, we love you!!

CHINESE CULTURE FESTIVAL

On Sunday Alan, Brady and I went downtown to DC to check out the Chinese Culture Festival. We had a good time, but the event will not make it to the calendar of "must do" for next year. We were a bit surprised that such a lackluster event has been going on for 10 years, but we had a nice family outing and that's what's important! We did have a really good dim sum lunch at a place that we otherwise wouldn't have tried, so that was a plus!! We also scored some cute Chinese bags at "China prices" that will make for good gift bags. All in all we had a great time spending some much needed time as a family together since Alan had been out of the country for 10 days!

We opted for taking the Metro into "the city", which turned out to be a good option!

The enterance to DC's Chinatown

One of the performances we saw, which Brady liked...he clapped and yelled for them when they were finished!

We stumbled across these dragon heads going in the elevator to the Chinese Community Center. I don't think Brady liked them too much, though.

The dragon dance...it was a HUGE dragon!!

JUMPWORKS!!

Last Friday Kristi, Margi and I took all the kids (minus Ty because he's in Kindergarten now) to Jumpworks for some bouncing fun! As usual all the kids had fun and I got a workout too because Brady needs help with lots of the stuff. That's okay though because Blake is having his birthday party there this weekend so Alan will be on "bounce duty" for that so that I can socialize!! The cool thing about this bounce place is that they have about 5 different bounce houses set up and each one was different....a princess castle with slide, a panda bounce house, a pirate ship with slide, a medieval type castle complete with dragon that is a giant slide so high there was no way I could hold Brady and get both of us up the steps, so Alan gets that job this weekend, and one more that I can't remember at the moment. They also have an area that has some bouncy toys for the little kids, which is nice. I have a feeling we'll be going back to this place during the cold winter months!!

Brady had fun playing with these giant bouncy ball things with handles.

Brady and Kyle in the panda bounce house. They liked it when I was inside bouncing them around!

Brady loved this bouncy horses...I'd love to know where I can get one for him!!

At the bottom of the princess castle slide...I think that smile says it all!!

Another shot of Brady and Kyle in the panda bounce house.

INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN'S FESTIVAL!

A few weekends ago we went to the International Children's Festival at Wolftrap and it so much fun...we can't wait to go back next year!! Brady was a bit on the young side this year, so it'll be that much better from here on out. This year the countries represented were China, Finland, Ghana and Jordan and each country had a make and take craft/project for the kids to do. There was also a technology exhibit with lots of cool things in there, most of which Brady was too young for. The one thing he could do and we thought he would do, was make a music video!! Of course when the music came on he just stood there...go figure! Every other time music comes on the kid starts dancing away, but when he gets the chance to make a video he freezes!!! There were also performances to see and the one we checked out was really cool...it was a band whose instruments were made from found objects! The music they were able to make was totally awesome!! This is one event that we be on the calendar each and every year!!



Daddy and Brady making the event poster.

The finished project

Here I am working on the Chinese project

Alan is finishing the Chinese project here

Brady getting a balloon "tattoo"!

NEW BOOKS!!

The last time we went to Barnes and Noble to play with the trains we bought some new Halloween books for Brady and he got this bag free!!! Brady loves to carry bags around, so it was perfect...he even carried one of his books out of the store in his new bag. I figure it will also be perfect for a trick or treat bag!!

hmmm, I know my book is in here somewhere!!

HERE IT IS!!!

I need a rest!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHAEL!!

So the main reason my parents came up in early September was for my brother's 40th birthday. We had a surprise for him, which wasn't too much of a surprise, but we all had a good time anyway. Then the 6 of us went out to dinner at McCormick and Schmicks later in the week. It had been a long time since I had been there, but I highly reccommend it to people with kids especially if you get one of their "private booths" (they are called something specific but the name escapes me at the moment). It was great because it was just the 6 of us in this booth and we could even close the curtain to help keep Brady in towards the end of the meal when he was getting restless!!(I suppose people without kids close the curtain for privacy!!)

Brady goofing around!
Brady with Grandma and Grandpa, which he is calling "Ba" at the moment..it's pretty cute!!

Grandma, Brady and Uncle Michael

Brady and Daddy goofing around!

LOUDON COUNTY ANIMAL PARK

While my parents were here in early September we went to the Loudon County Animal Park. It was not much different than the Reston Animal Park, but we had a good time anyway. Brady really seems to like animals and surprisingly he's not too afraid of the animals in the petting zoo areas.

Brady and the pot bellied pigs in the petting zoo!

Brady petting a goat!

Brady, my mom and I went on the tractor ride and saw zebras and got to feed the ducks and fish.

Brady had fun playing on the playground too!

We had fun watching this monkey and the rest of his monkey friends!

GYMBOREE

Last month we went to Gymboree with our friends Margi, Ty and Blake for a music class and sometimes we made it to the art class. I'm pretty sure that Brady had a really good time, especially when he got to play on the equipment! While I enjoyed it and thought the experience was good for Brady, I felt that is was a bit on the pricey side so we didn't sign up again this month. Instead, we're going to try the neighborhood playgroup which is only $5 for an hour and a half...I'll be sure to post once we've gone and I've formed an opinion!!

Brady climbing on the ladder.

More climbing

This slide was probably Brady's favorite!

I KNOW

I know it's been awhile since I posted so I thought I'd get you up to speed. We had our second conference call with Gladney last Thursday and it went okay. The good news, which is the important news, is that they did reach an agreement with the Taiwan partner agency and they will be taking over our old agency's files. So, we are "officially" working with Gladney Center for Adoption out of Fort Worth, Texas. Other than that they didn't have much to tell us. What I got from the call is that they are much more overwhelmed than they anticipated being. I think they have a fairly big mess to clean up from our old agency, which is pretty sad because I have to say that our experience with them throughout the entire process of adopting Brady was really pretty smooth and everything went off without a hitch. Anyway, that being said, I'm glad we have a new agency to work with and I'm glad we don't have to start all over, because that would just suck. In the meantime we're waiting to be assigned a new case worker and I guess that is going to take longer than Gladney first estimated because they want to go through each individual file and with us being an "S" name, we're at the bottom of the pile. We have also heard that the Taiwan partner agency (TWCA) will be giving Gladney referrals at a slower pace (slower than what, I'm not sure), so that isn't particularly good news. I'm guessing that if they keep "the list" in the same order that our old agency had we'd be somewhere in the neighborhood of 10th to 15th, but I'm TOTALLY speculating. It does seem like more people have requested girls and since we've said we're open to either gender that helps us a bit. No matter what happens this is going to be a MUCH longer process than it was with Brady, that's for sure!! I'll be sure to continue to let you all know what's going on as I find out more/new information.

In other adoption related news, we have an appointment tomorrow afternoon with our Social Worker so at least we're getting that accomplished. It's funny, because the first time around I was totally freaking out that the house had to be spotless, but that's not a big deal to me this time around. I mean, the house is clean and picked up, but I'm definitely not freaking out about it this time. I'm more concerned that Alan and I haven't filled out ONE piece of paperwork yet!!! I'll give you one guess what we're doing tonight after Brady goes to sleep!!! I realized last week that I totally "dropped the eight ball" with getting our one free re-fingerprinting appt since you have to apply BEFORE your old one expires...oops!!! Although now that I think about it, we might not have been eligible since we completed Brady's adoption. OH WELL!!! I'll be filing the necessary paperwork for that appointment next week.

I'll upload some new pictures of Brady in the next day or two!!!