R.I.P. Mr. Bear :-(

Last Saturday was a VERY VERY sad day for all us!!! We went to Ikea to get Brady's new "big boy" dresser and whatever else they had that we "had to have"!! LOL The trip started off just fine and we were finding some things that we thought would help make our lives a little more organized. We took a short break to have some lunch, then got Brady back into the shopping cart, made bathroom stops for all of us and went back on our way. Not long after that, Brady asked me for Mr. Bear and I remember handing it to him. Awhile later, when we were in the "self serve" aisles gathering our things and Brady says, "where's my bear" and I start looking in the shopping cart and in the diaper bag and in everything and anything I could, and to my horror I could not find Mr. Bear. So, Alan stayed with the flat bed of our stuff and Brady and I went and retraced our steps (if you've never been in an Ikea, they are HUGE!!!!) and I'm looking down on the floor and up on shelves and everywhere with no luck. We make our way back to Alan and then he retraces our steps but again comes up empty handed. So we go ahead and go to the registers and pay and decide that we'll take everything to the car and then walk through one last time. By this time it's after 1pm easily and the place is mobbed, so looking around for a 6-8 inch bear is not exactly easy. Again the 3 of us come up with nothing. Interestingly enough, as I'm talking to Brady and asking him if he remembers where we were when he dropped him he tells me this story.......(I kinda pieced everything he said together to come up with this, but it makes sense so I'm thinking this is what happened).....he says Mr. Bear fell through the hole by his leg and that someone was swinging Mr. Bear or waving him back and forth. So, what I'm thinking is that Mr. Bear fell out of the cart and some other kid picked him up and was playing with him or taunting him and Brady thought it was funny so he never said anything (which surprises me, but who knows). Then we moved on and he forgot about him. Now of course, this is all speculation, but it's possible. My other thought is that if another kid did pick him up, Mr. Bear could be ANYWHERE...there are so many cubbies, cabinets, containers and bins in Ikea that it could be virtually impossible to get him back.

Sunday morning I woke up hearing this through the monitor, "mommy, where's my bear?" OMG, it about broke my heart!!! We went back on Sunday to return a few things so we stopped in the lost and found but they didn't have him!! I started asking Brady if he'd like to pick out a new Mr. Bear and he said "yes" so we went to Babies R Us and he picked out another Mr. Bear, who's being called either New Mr. Bear or Mr. Bear and oddly enough he seems to like him better than the other back up we had, but perhaps that's because we called him Bob. ( I should also add that I recently found out these bears have been discontinued!!! Luckily the blue ones are much easier to come by than the pink ones. I know this because I've been looking for a pink ever since we got Emily's referral because I thought it would be cute for Brady and Emily to have the "same" bear. I lucked out again because one of my fellow blogettes from my Yahoo group was able to find a pink one for us!!! Thanks Amy!!!!)

All in all, I think Alan and I are FAR more upset by this whole thing than Brady is, so that's the silver lining. I'm still hoping that somehow Mr. Bear will turn up, but I am by no means holding my breath.

A few pictures of Mr. Bear:

Mr. Bear is on the left, Bob is on the right. You can tell by looking at him just how much Brady was attached to him!!! Brady was always rubbing his nose!!! I should note this is the last picture taken of Mr. Bear! :-(

Ironically Mr. Bear made it into our latest portrait session. Originally I didn't want him in the pictures but Brady was having a difficult time, so Mr. Bear came to the rescue!!! (these pictures were to remain "secret" until I sent them to the grand parents, but I thought this was a good reason to unveil one!!)

Mr. Bear ready for a flight to Tampa!

Okay, so this picture truly makes my heart break!!! Mr. Bear really was a "best friend" to Brady!!

Giving Mr. Bear some love

Mr Bear and Brady in Taiwan!!! :-)

Their first Christmas together!!! :-)

EMILY'S AUGUST UPDATES!!!

Here are Emily's August update pictures and video!! I was VERY excited to see that she's wearing a dress we sent in the video!! We also got new measurements and while she's growing she seems quite little to me (in comparison to Brady, who is by no means big!!!). She is 11 lbs and 21.65 inches long. I really LOVE this pictures as she seems to be showing much more personality that she had in her referral pics or the pictures we got last month and I LOVE that the TWCA workers were able to get a little smile out of her in the video!!!

In other news, we are getting Emily's room ready for her. I managed to get one coat of paint on the walls Monday during Brady's nap time so we just need to cut in and do the trim (Alan's job!) and then I'd like to get one more coat on before we're truly done! I'll be sure to post pictures once it's all finished and set up. For now, take a look at our cutie patootie!!!!

L*WRY P*RK Z@@

When we were home in Florida we met up with 2 other families (Kathy's and Shana's) that I have met through my Yah@@ Gr*up. We  all adopted kids through the same agency and through the same program and we have "known" each other for a good 2 years at this point, so it was so cool to finally meet up with them. (We met Shana earlier in the year at Disn*y). We truly feel like we know each other and it's weird/cool how easy it is right from the get go. I LOVE LOVE my group!!! It the best source of support while going through the roller coaster that adoption is!! Thanks ladies and I HOPE we'll be seeing each other again soon!!! ( I feel like I should mention that Kathy has been vacationing with her family the same week each year for more than 25 years at a time share on Tre@sure Isl@nd, which is only about 20 minutes from my parents house...SMALL WORLD!!!!)

On Tuesday we met Kathy and her son Drew, as well as some of her other family members and friends at L*wry P@rk Z@@. While it was ridiculously hot, we had a nice time!!! The pictures below are uploaded in reverse order...sorry to confuse you!!! LOL

A farewell shot of the kids. (Brady, Skyla, Drew and Emily). As a side note, I TOTALLY think Brady had a crush on Emily b/c he followed her EVERYWHERE!!!! It's was really cute!!!

Brady LOVED playing in the water area at the end of the day and I have to say I was a bit surprised. Good thing I was prepared with water shoes and a change of clothes!!

this one CRACKS me up!!!!

Could he be any happier??? He came over to me shortly after this and wanted his shirt off!!

Kathy and Drew on the carousel

Drew and Brady running around in Africa!!

Brady and mommy on the carousel

elephants
giraffes

African penguin

this kangaroo was so cute, he was standing there scratching his chest!!

rhinoceros

skunks that were PEE EWWW STINKY!!!

my favorites, the manatees!!!

these white tigers were so playful!!!! I could have stayed there forever watching them, but Brady was ready to move on!! This is what I presume to be the mama, looking after her baby and the daddy

it was such a joy to watch them play!!!

these are quite possible the ugliest things I have ever seen.....bearded pigs!!!!

( you may have noticed that I recently started spelling words funny by putting @ or * in place of certain letters. I have just learned that if you do that, then my blog won't come up on someone's internet search of a specific place, so it's just a little precaution I've started)

BRADY LOVES POP POP!!

Brady really loves hanging out with my dad and my dad really loves to hang out with Brady. They spend quite a bit of time together when we go home!! Here are some of the things they did on our most recent trip home!

Sharing a snack of cashews!

posing for a quick picture

my dad is reading one of the Eric C*rle books and I think this might be Brady's imitation of a giraffe bending his neck!!

you might think this is a game of peek a boo, but it's not....Brady was/is in a phase of hiding his face whenever he sees my camera!! LOL

building with blocks

I'm pretty sure this is my dad's favorite thing to do with Brady!!! :-)

COURT PROCESS!!

I copied this from my entry in 2007 and added a few bits of information that I now understand better:

The court hearing that was just on August 12th was for the judge to obtain more information so he could make his decision. The fact that we have heard nothing is actually good news. That basically means that the judge didn't want or need any more information!!! (edit: it's only been 24 hours so let's hope my phone continues to be silent!!)

The civil ruling (which is next)..once we receive this, that means the judge signed the statement about his decision to finalize the adoption and this statement gets forwarded to all parties involved. We will NOT get notified of this step before it happens, only once it has taken place. (edit: I looked in my Yahoo group database and the average time between court hearing to civil ruling is all over the place!!! It ranges from 17 days (YAY ROBIN!!!) to 14 weeks and counting. There are 3 families at the 14 week mark and MAN, my heart goes out to them!!!! I know the waiting sucks and there's nothing I can do, I just feel awful for them. With any luck they will all hear VERY soon!!!)

The Final ruling can come any time after 10 days have passed from receiving the civil ruling. The final ruling is then forwarded to all parties involved and at that time we are invited to travel to Taiwan to pick up Emily!

This time around it seems the time from final ruling to travel is QUICK!!!!! One family received their final ruling on a Monday and left that Friday to be in Taiwan to pick up their daughter Monday....C-A-R-A-A-Z-Y!!!! There have been at least 2 other very quick travels that I know of so this has me a little freaked out right now. We still have TONS to do, like: paint Emily's room; paint the existing twin beds we have black and move those into Brady's room; transition Brady to sleeping in those; move Brady's current furniture into Emily's room; buy new furniture for Brady (I do know what we're getting, we just have to go buy it); decorate Emily's room; wash all of Emily's clothes and a laundry list of other things I'd like to get done around the house NOW, before we have 2 kiddo's running around!!! LOL Not to mention that I would REALLY REALLY like to have Brady potty trained before Emily comes home!!! Not sure that one is going to get checked off the to-do list!!!

I hope to get Emily's August update pictures next week, so check back!!!

Swimming with Pop Pop and Daddy

Brady and I went to Florida for a week at the end of July. Unfortunately, Alan couldn't make the whole trip but he was able to join us for the first weekend!! We had SO much fun swimming this time, Brady just couldn't get enough AND he got VERY brave and wanted to jump in from the side the whole time we were out there!!! This was completely his idea and I have no idea where he got the idea from, but he LOVED it!!!

We made him line his toes up to the edge of the pool and then counted to 3 before he could jump!!

Look at that expression on his face!!!

SPLASH!!!! It was right at this point that he'd yell, "again"!!! It was SO cute!!!

I managed to capture the whole thing on video below!! Now the funny part of this is that Alan really can't see without his glasses on and well, he's not wearing contacts here either!!! LOL

Gift Swap!!

I'm very late in getting these pictures up, but better late than never!!! We got this great package from Joanna in July. The theme was "playtime" and Joanna did a great job picking out some great toys for both Emily and Brady!!! This gift swap has been so much fun and I think it's really sweet that everyone is also including Brady!!!! THANKS JOANNA!!!

Brady getting ready to open his present!!!

working hard....

SO happy with his Lightning McQueen Color Wonders!!!! I don't know how Joanna knew that we just discovered these...it was a PERFECT idea for Brady!!!

All of the gifts...a doll, the book, "Five Little Ladybugs", and two soft crinkly toys for Emily!!! Thank you SO much Joanna, we really appreciate it!!!!

GOOFING AROUND WITH DADDY AND AT TARGET!

Just a few pictures of Brady and Alan goofing around one day.  The boys like being silly together, that's for sure!!

The following few pictures were from a trip to Target. Brady and I go to Target A LOT!!! Sometimes we go because we actually need something, but other times we just go to get out of the house!!! This particular evening, we all went so it must have been for something, I just don't remember what that was now!!! LOL Anyway, I thought Brady looked cute in these men's hats!!

I REALLY love this first one!

The "cheese" pose! ( I hope this phase doesn't last long!!!)

I guess this would be his gangster (old time style) look!!

Of course, we also have the disappearing pose!!!