The Maas Family

There's a new blog in town

2010-10-14T11:38:00.001-05:00

We're moving the blog to a new and easy to remember address. Come check us out at www.themaases.com. We're hoping to move all the old content over to the new site. And by we're hoping to move all the old content, I mean we're hoping our friend Micha, who was kind enough to help us get the new blog started in order to bypass China's firewall, will move it for us. Until then, I have a link to the old blog on the new site. So put www.themaases.com in your "Favorites" and get ready to follow us to China in less than 2 weeks!

A boy cousin!

2010-10-12T17:34:00.002-05:00

Here he is making his blog debut, Baby BOY Stiles-in-utero!!!

We can't wait to meet you (once you're fully cooked, of course). Congratulations again to Aunt Leslie and Uncle Stanley! We're so excited for y'all! Boys are so so so much fun! And now it's time to go shopping for some baby boy clothes. (Be nice to me, Stanley, or the kid wears a Duke jersey every time I babysit.)

Thank you, Tom Skilling!

2010-10-10T22:28:00.007-05:00

Every summer, our neighbors throw two great block parties. This year's second soiree was pushed back to October, a risky move in Chicago. Fortunately, Tom Skilling, who as Grandma Zieg would have wanted you to know is never wrong, smiled upon us. We had nothing but sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-80s all weekend. Absolutely gorgeous. Plus, for the first time since the weekend of August 14, I was neither out of town nor working this weekend. Hurray!

Saturday got started in typical block party fashion. The kids waited at the edge of the sidewalk chanting things about block parties, bouncers and running in the street. As soon as the street was blocked off and they could run free, they went nuts. I'm wondering if we shouldn't all go in together and just get them traffic cones for Christmas instead of toys because it's quite possibly the happiest they are all year.

There was a bouncer, of course. Check out Jacob (who is pretending to be some version of Chewbacca that can shoot webs like Spiderman) and Fiona (pictured parallel to the bouncing surface) breaking it in.

It was so warm we busted out the kiddie pools and slip 'n' slides.

And no block party would be complete without riding your bike and/or scooter in the street. David is sporting the latest in preschool fashion: swimsuit, snow boots and Thomas the tank engine bike helmet.

Back in the bouncer. Olivia had a lot of fun until David said he wanted to play with her brother Jackson instead. Olivia left the bouncer crying because "I don't have a husband!" She later asked David, "Do you want to have the same kids when we grow up so I can be the mommy and you can be the daddy?"

The lovely Fiona. David and Jackson enjoying their water balloons.

After dark, we made s'mores...

...and watched a movie on a big screen one of neighbors set up. David crashed and burned mid-movie.

Today we went to church and came home to watch the Bears play the impressively bad Panthers. David, still worn out from Saturday's fun, took a football nap with me.

Refreshed, he spent the rest of the afternoon outside. The street was still blocked off, and the kids were all out. I really like the fall colors in the first shot. The second is of Jacob and David looking for trouble.

Camera!

2010-10-05T08:00:00.005-05:00

Nothing too earth shattering to report since my last post. We are running out of things to do to get ready for Max's arrival. The room is ready. The car seats are on their way (hurray for free shipping!). We have passports and visas. The dogsitter has his flights booked. I want to pack, but we're probably going to need our clothes for the next 3 weeks, so that will have to wait.

In the mean time, here are a few pictures with our brand new camera.
Kevin took David, Grandma and GG to the Museum of Science and Industry. Everyone had a great time.

Sunday night David and Kevin went to a Blackhawks preseason game. Check out David mad face in picture #2. I can only imagine he was expressing his upset at the Byfuglien trade over the summer. Also check out his Transformer snow boots and Spiderman gloves. I have a feeling we're going to have to surgically remove the boots next spring. And, no, it isn't snowing. Yet. We've been having highs in the mid-50s, though, and so the death spiral into winter begins. The saddest part about this weather is how good these temperatures are going to feel to us in about 6 months.

Cameraless in Carolina

2010-09-23T22:07:00.005-05:00

We completed our fifth consecutive weekend of not sleeping in our own beds this past weekend with a trip to North Carolina. After getting in a little before 1am, we rolled out of bed and headed to breakfast with a couple of my college friends, Erin and Susan plus Susan's husband Peter and their super cute 2 year old, Jack. We were so happy it worked out that we could see them while we were in town.

Jack and David staring each other down post-breakfast

After breakfast, we swung by the Duke campus for a little brainwashing. We strolled the gardens, saw the chapel, bought a basketball jersey and shorts and enjoyed some Loco Pops (fancy popsicles) on the Bryan Center walkway. If the kid decides to go to U of I, it's not because I'm not trying.

David in his new Duke ensemble in the book store, the boys enjoying popsicles in the newish fancy pants covered swings on the BC walkway (Is that what my tuition was paying for?...and if so, two thumbs up. They're awesome!)

Saturday afternoon, we took a little drive to visit the Heath family. Those of you who have been on board since the beginning will recall that the Heaths travelled to China with us to adopt their son at the same time we were adopting David. It is always so much fun to see them and see how big Rebekah, Emily and Jackson have gotten. David had so much fun playing with all of them and even slept on the bottom bunk in Jackson's room that night. Thanks so much to Marsha and Paul for hosting us and feeding us so well! We had a great time.

David looking for a head injury on Jackson's 4 wheeler. Once he discovered Jackson's cowboy costume, he wore it for about 24 hours straight.

David and Jackson taking a break from their pursuit of broken bones on the trampoline and enjoying some MarioKart.

The new camera is on its way, so hopefully by the next time I post we'll have some non-cell phone pictures for your enjoyment.

The only other news here is that we have confirmed Max's Gotcha Day will be November 1. The countdown can officially begin!

Pictures from last weekend

2010-09-14T23:18:00.003-05:00

David serving everyone their pizza at Papa Del's. Kevin and David at the game.

Best camera phone picture I could get of the pretty crescent moon at dusk. David sound asleep on the ride back to the hotel.

Enjoying some quality time with godfather Steve Sunday evening. David woke up Monday morning, and the first words out of his mouth were "when Steve coming my house again?"

Camera down!

2010-09-14T20:48:00.002-05:00

This past weekend, we drove through the cornfields of Illinois to lovely Champaign for some U of I football. We met up with Allen, Amanda, Adam and Laura. Our first stop was Zorba's for some delicious gyros (which for the purposes of this blog is pronounced "hoo-rahs") followed by shopping for the latest and greatest in Illini gear. David conned us in to an Illinois football jersey. Shocking.

It is at this point that we hit a minor hiccup. For reasons unknown, Kevin put the camera on top of the car as we were getting in to go back to the hotel, and that is the last we ever saw of it. I guess I'm off the hook for losing it in my purse a couple of weeks ago in Galena. The good news is that what we lost is replaceable. I had downloaded David's first day of preschool pictures the night before. And honestly, we have put that camera through it over the last couple of years. It was getting slower and making rattling noises, and I was a little concerned it might chose some really inopportune time (Max's Gotcha Day, perhaps) to stop working completely. So I hope to put a few phone pictures from this past weekend up on the blog, but other than that (and the August and New York trip albums I am currently working on posting under the "David, Mara and Kevin's pictures" tab to the right) you're going to have to tough it out until we get a new camera.

Anyway...back to our weekend. Saturday we had an old folks early dinner at 4:00 at Papa Del's. Delicious delicious pizza. Then we went to the Illinois/SIU football game. They took our $20 for parking and then had us drive a good mile down the road to park. At least. It took us 25-30 minutes to walk from our car. Once we made it to the stadium, every one had a good time. David was really interested in the game, asked a lot of questions and was genuinely disappointed when we left after the third quarter to try to beat traffic and get the kids to bed at a reasonable hour. Of course, it took us the entire fourth quarter of the game to make it to our car, so that was only marginally effective.

Sunday morning we drove home and left David with Alma while Uncle Dave, Kevin and I enjoyed the Bears game. The play was an embarrassment to the National Football League, but the Bears pulled it out and the weather was beautiful. As a bonus, Dave agreed to stay after the game and help Kevin reassemble the crib. (Thank you, Uncle Dave!) So Max now has a functional room--a crib with bedding and a dresser full of clothes. Anything else we do from here on out is icing on the cake. Well, except buying his car seats. Those are not so optional.

First day of school!

2010-09-10T18:07:00.004-05:00

It's been a very eventful week at our house. David started preschool Wednesday. Here are a few pictures from the big day.

We got to go with him the first day, so yesterday was the moment of truth. He alternated between being mad that he couldn't go to school the second he was done with breakfast (he's in afternoon preschool) to telling me he was scared and didn't want to go. His class starts the day on the playground, and as soon as he caught sight of it, he ran full speed away from me. I actually had to hunt him down to tell him good-bye. So now we know, sandbox > separation anxiety. When I picked him up he would not stop talking about his day. Once I got the run down, he called Kevin at work and had a very animated conversation with him about school. He told me today when I picked him up, "I like preschool WERY much!"

As for the other events chez Maas this week, we have flights booked for China. We're flying direct both ways this time (one of the few times I am grateful to be so close to O'Hare), so hopefully we can avoid the travel debacle we had on our return trip last time. (I have just guaranteed an even worse trip home for us.) We leave October 27 and return November 11. We'll be getting there a day early to give David more time to adjust to the time change and allow for a little extra sight seeing in Beijing. I can't wait to see what David thinks of China. Gotcha Day is not set yet but is most likely November 1. It could also be Halloween, which would be kind of fun since David's is Cinco de Mayo. Now we're just waiting for the dog sitter to arrange his flights, and we're set.

It's about #?%!@*& time

2010-09-09T10:24:00.001-05:00

Just got word that our CA is set for 11/9 which puts us leaving for China around 10/27 and Gotcha Day 11/1-ish. We will fly home 11/11. Nahnee, start looking for flights. Your granddogs are going to need a sitter.

I want to be a part of it

2010-09-08T19:25:00.001-05:00

I hope to have some news on the travel front soon. In the mean time, here are more pictures than you ever wanted to see from our Labor Day weekend in New York, New York.

We flew out Thursday night and arrived at the lovely Hotel Beacon to discover that Kevin's sucking up to the manager had paid off, and we had been upgraded to the executive suite. To celebrate David ran naked between the bedroom and living area where he eventually was quite delighted to sleep on the sleeper sofa.

Friday morning we were up early and off to Central Park. After some time walking around the park and playing on an old school playground (sand on the ground, metal slides and things to climb on made out of stone because who doesn't enjoy a filthy child with burns on his thighs and missing teeth?), we took the subway to Brooklyn. We ate some official New York style pizza at Grimaldi's (very good, but I think deep dish definitely wins) and then walked over the Brooklyn Bridge back to Manhattan. We followed this up with David's favorite part of the trip, FAO Schwarz. It was a challenging for him to pick just one toy, but after much debate, Optimus Prime won. And we spent the rest of the weekend listening to, "Autobots, transform and ROLL OUT!" After a break at the hotel, we went to MoMA for some culture.

Me and David at Grimaldi's pizza. The 3 of us (with a comatose David) on the Brooklyn bridge

David running wild in the streets of NYC and sleeping with the cuddly Optimus Prime

Saturday was museum day. We started at the American Museum of Natural History which was fabulous. I would have liked to have some time sans 3 year old to really look at some of the exhibits. We checked out the dinosaurs and the space stuff, but what David liked the most by far were the animal dioramas. He grabbed the camera and took pictures of almost all of them. He was particularly entertained by the vultures, hyenas and jackals posed around a dead zebra (well, they were all dead, but you know what I mean). The room with the life size blue whale was a hit with all 3 of us, and Kevin was enamored with the Screenflex units all over the museum (see the barosaurus/partition picture below), and all over New York for that matter. The family business was represented at multiple museums as well as Liberty Island and Rockafeller Center. They were extensively photographed. Not only do those things partition me from warm weather, now I get to spend time on vacation watching Kevin take their picture.

David was also keen on pointing out the letters on signs. D is for David. M is for Mommy. K is for Daddy (still can't get him to say it's for Kevin). L looks like a gun. T looks like a jackhammer.

After a long day of natural history and a delicious meal at the Shake Shack, we went to the Met. And wow is that one fantastic art museum. David's favorite part? The arms and armor. We had to stop by for a second look on our way out.

Sunday we were up early to take a boat ride to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The statue was nice to see, and the climb up the pedestal was really easy. Next time Kevin will get his way, and we'll go up to the crown. Ellis Island is another place I'd like to visit with grown ups only, or at least people who can read. What Kevin and I were able to look at was really interesting, and I left feeling very fortunate for the cushy life I lead.

We did lunch in Chinatown. Naturally, our Chinese child slept through it. Afterwards we met up with some of our friends from my days as a suffering peds resident at Loyola. It was so great to see Katy, Will and Jack. The boys hit it off and had a lot of fun playing in Central Park and trying to out eat each other at dinner.

David and Jack (the big kindergartener!). Sunset over the Hudson as seen from our hotel room.

Later that night we did what Kevin loves best. We went to the top of something to see views of stuff.

Kevin and David at the bottom of the Rock and up at the top of the Rock

View of the Empire State building (and lots of other tall buildings)

Monday we spent most of our remaining time in Central Park. We rode the carousel, climbed on rocks, visited the zoo and let David run around another playground. That child was about as dirty as he'd ever been by the time he was finished. I have a relatively high tolerance for grossness (thank you, Pete and Snoopy), but I could not bear the filth. We had to change his clothes before we left the park.

Central Park carousel

Climbing on rocks. The first picture was supposed to be of the 3 of us, but David refused.

Central park zoo and enjoying a ride on the subway.

Our grand finale was a trip to Tom's Restaurant, which you may recognize from such shows that Kevin watches nonstop as Seinfeld.

Overall, a really great trip. I think we packed a lot in to 4 days. New York was great, but Kevin's brainwashing is clearly working. New York is huge and fabulous with some of the best museums and restaurants in the world. If you want it, you can find it there. But is also is way dirtier than Chicago (I will never make fun of the people I see spraying down sidewalks again), and at its baseline smells faintly of garbage and often not so faintly of garbage. Great for a visit, but if I have to live in a cold big city with terrible traffic, I'll take Chicago. Are you happy now, Kevin?

And finally, since my sister sort of threw it out there in her comment on my last post, I would like to say congratulations to her and Stanley. There's a cousin on the way, y'all, and we could not be more excited!!!

No news is not good news

2010-09-07T21:08:00.002-05:00

Still waiting for our CA (consulate appointment). I'm not sure what the heck is taking so long, but supposedly the dates for earlier October travel are booked. It's a really really long story that I hesitate to put out there in cyberspace, but if anyone wants to listen to me ramble on about the uninteresting details of adoption paperwork and my current aggravation, feel free to call any time. Long story short, it's looking like late October-early November travel for us. Our agency thinks they will have official dates in the next day or two, but I've heard that somewhere before...

While we wait, I'm going to try to get a post of pictures from our trip to NYC over Labor Day up soon. Stay tuned.

Give me a T! Give me an A!

2010-08-31T15:17:00.001-05:00

We got our travel approval today!!! Earliest possible departure would be October 8. If not, then we have to wait until October 28. We'll keep you posted.

The lost weekend

2010-08-29T21:26:00.004-05:00

Thursday after work, Kevin and I surprised David with a big boy bike. We didn't tell him what we were doing until we got to the store. He was very excited. After careful consideration, the Buzz Lightyear bike won out over Lightening McQueen. (And, yes, I realize the end of summer timing is bizarre. But he wasn't allowed to ride bikes for a couple weeks after his surgery, so we thought getting one before was a bad idea, and we just finally got around to it. We should have at least 10-12 more days of nice weather before the cold becomes unbearable.)

David's after we got home that night and the following morning

Friday evening we packed up and headed out to Galena for some family fun. We met the rest of Kevin's immediate family there. I ruined everything by forgetting the camera. Except that I didn't forget it. It was in my purse. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this until this morning, so the weekend was not well photographed.

We had a lot of fun. We celebrated Grandpa's birthday. We went "alpine sledding" at Chestnut Mountain resort. In the winter they have skiing there (yes, skiing in the Midwest). In the summer, the put giant slides on one of the ski hills, and you can roll down on a little sled with wheels and then take the ski lift back up. The setting is really beautiful, right on the Mississippi. Afterwards, we had a yummy lunch there with beautiful views.

We also went swimming, and David swam a little independently for the first time. He was in his swim vest and it was only a few feet at a time, but he did it on his own and was quite pleased with himself. Saturday night, the three of us "camped" in Kevin's new tent in the yard. I didn't think we would make it more than a couple of hours, but David slept all the way to 7:30, which is miraculous in a much more comfortable setting. Perhaps we should have him sleep in a tent every night.

View of the Mississippi as seen through my phone (still didn't realize I had the camera at this point)

David so exhausted by the whole experience that even Veggie Tales couldn't keep him awake

Painting

2010-08-24T09:19:00.002-05:00

David and I have been working hard this morning. He is a little disgruntled at how light the blue is. "It not BLUE, it is WHITE!" but did enjoy painting. By the time we do two coats, the trim and maybe a stripe around the room, it will probably be some time next week, but we'll post pictures when it's done.

Tool time

2010-08-22T22:56:00.000-05:00

Video from today's home improvement marathon:

How many LaBordes/Maases does it take to replace one Alma?

2010-08-22T21:36:00.007-05:00

Alma has been on vacation this last week, and Kevin and I are trying to minimize our time off work before leaving for China. So it was tag team David-sitting with Nahnee and Ramma flying in for a long weekend and taking Monday and Tuesday. Grandma was on duty Wednesday, and, having exhausted our grandparent options, I took the day off Thursday. In addition to the usual frolicking with the kids in the neighborhood, David got to go to Navy Pier with Ramma and Nahnee and had a picnic with Grandma and GG.

David with faux-hawk. David and Nahnee on the ferris wheel at Navy Pier. Even Ramma, who hates heights, braved this one.

Picnic lunch with GG

Long long ago (2 years) in a land far far away (China), I celebrated my first Mother's Day. What do you give someone who has been a mother for 6 days? A weekend away from her child. So this weekend, Kevin and I finally took his parents up on their offer and had an overnight date downtown. We did exactly what you would expect the two of us to do. We got a hotel with views of the lake and river, gorged ourselves on dessert and slept until 9:30 for the first time in I don't know how long. For me, probably since the day after Thanksgiving 2008 when I spent the entire night puking up my 10,000 calories of turkey and dressing. This was significantly more pleasant. After we finally dragged ourselves out of bed, we headed out to discover a nail in one of our tires. We headed off to the very romantic Toyota dealership to get the tire patched. There was a wait, so we decided to walk to brunch at Wishbone, an oasis of cheese grits and other southern deliciousness in our old neighborhood. It was about a 2 mile walk. Another 50 or so miles and we might have burned off what we ate. So so good. After retrieving the car, we went to the Art Institute and spent about 3 hours there. We hadn't been able to spend much time in the new modern wing, so we started there. I do not understand how a giant canvas painted charcoal gray and entitled "Gray" constitutes art, but Kevin and I were both fans of "Ghost with Pool of Blood," which was essentially a white sheet draped over something round and fake blood on the floor. While we were getting some culture, David was running Grandma and Grandpa through their paces at Lincoln Park Zoo (see below).

Grandma and Grandpa brought David downtown yesterday evening, and the three of us went to the Bears preseason game. This was David's first Bears game. He'll have to be a little older (and a little more likely to sit through an entire game) before he makes it to the regular season, but when you're 3, it doesn't really matter if the game counts or not. He usually has no idea who wins or loses the games he attends anyway. We had a lot of fun, despite the fact that there is only one booth in all of Soldier Field that sells ice cream. (Yet another down side to Chicago's unfortunate climate. It's too cold for ice cream during football season.) And they were sold out. Horrific. Fortunately, M&Ms turned out to be an acceptable replacement.

Kevin and David outside the stadium and walking through the colonnades.

I think these are self explanatory.

We capped off a fabulous week with lunch with Uncle Dave and his wife. The boys came back to the house to do some work. They resecured a couple of baby gates, moved the futon out of Max's room and upstairs and then dismantled the old computer desk (which was glued together and doesn't fit through the door). They also picked up paint at Home Depot, so I can finally start painting and getting the room ready. David loved "doing projects" with Uncle Dave. Loved it. He was very sad when it was time for Uncle Dave to leave.

Article 5

2010-08-19T13:03:00.003-05:00

Sometime while we were sleeping last night, our Article 5 was picked up from the US consulate in Guangzhou, China. This means we are now finally and officially waiting on travel approval from the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs in Beijing. Our (fairly conservative) agency says to expect it to come in 3-7 weeks. From what I've seen on adoption forums online, 2-3 weeks is pretty typical right now, so we're hoping for that. Once travel approval comes, our agency can set our appointments at the Guangdong province civil affairs office and at the US consulate in Guangzhou, and then, at long last, we will actually be able to tell you when we're going to China to bring Max home. I picked up our passports with our visas to enter China this morning, so we are ready to go. Now perhaps we should paint his room and assemble his crib...

Max's birthday bash

2010-08-09T19:50:00.000-05:00

This morning I got an email from Ann at Red Thread. She helped us send Max his birthday care package and had promised to try to get pictures if possible. Not only did we receive bunches of pictures (the best of which are below), we got a 20 second video as well. They sang to him and let him cut the cake...as much as any kid at age 1 can cut his own birthday cake. The last picture of him with icing on his face looks staged if you ask me but cute none the less. Sorry to keep you waiting all day, Mom, but we wanted David to see these before we sent them out to all of cyberspace.

And here is a little video they took. Of note, he is way ahead of David in terms of self help skills already. Watch as he tries to eat whatever is in his little hand.

More drumming

2010-08-08T22:28:00.000-05:00

Here is David today enjoying himself at Lollapalooza

Jail, yard work and Lollapalooza

2010-08-08T21:49:00.003-05:00

I am posting this first and most unfortunate picture as a thank you to every one who so generously donated to the Muscular Dystrophy Association in order to bail me out of fake jail. Thanks to all of you, I met my goal of $1600 and then some, and in return they made me do this...

In other news, we currently have James Heller of the California family and 3 of his friends staying with us while they attend Lollapalooza. We love James, and honestly it hasn't been much trouble having them here as we literally don't see them. They are asleep when we leave in the mornings and gone until all hours of the night. I do regret not taking before pictures of the basement, though, because the after of four 19 year old boys and all their stuff from a cross country road trip exploding in there is really quite impressive. I can't figure how all of that plus the four of them was in their car. David is completely fascinated with the big boys and is always disappointed when they aren't home when it's time for him to go to bed.

Yesterday GG joined Kevin and David for soccer, lunch and yard work. GG did sustain a closed head injury when David accidentally whacked her with a rake, but she is expected to recover fully.

David got his chance to hang with the big boys today. After church, he and Kevin took the green line downtown and went to Lollapalooza. They spent some time at the Kidsapalooza area, which included kid appropriate bands and a chance to play drums (video to follow). They then attempted to meet up with James & co. David spotted one of James's friends but sadly fell asleep (on Kevin's shoulders with his head resting on Kevin's head...if only we had a picture of that) before the James got there.

A few cute pictures to pacify my mother

2010-08-05T23:04:00.003-05:00

Since the epic basement flood of 2010, I've been working a lot. So to soothe the blog faithful (my parents), here is a quick post with a few cute pictures until I have time for more.

Here is David with Sabrina, Ashley, Fiona, Olivia and Jackson at a mid day bbq at Fiona's house. Not pictured: the ridiculous spread that the nannies whipped up for these kids. It looked really good.

David and Kevin went to a Sox game last weekend. Here is our monkey practicing his base running and hitting.

On the Max front, I confirmed that our paperwork was dropped off at the consulate in Guangzhou today. Theoretically, this means that our Article 5 will be ready in exactly two weeks on August 19. After that we will be waiting for travel approval, the final step in this paperwork ridiculousness. The sooner we get that the better because travel in the month of October is definitely going to be limited due to holidays and special events in Guangzhou. There is a window in mid-September and another in mid-October when our agency will try to send families. Otherwise, we might end up waiting until November. Only time will tell.

When?

2010-07-28T07:48:00.004-05:00

"When are you going to China?" is the million dollar question. The quick and most truthful answer is that we really don't know. We won't know until our travel dates are set, and that's usually about 2-4 weeks before we depart. We are guestimating October, but there are dozens of things that could swing that one way or the other. Today Max's visa application and accompanying paperwork will arrive at our agency in Texas. They will review it, make sure it is complete and send it off to the US Consulate in Guangzhou. Once it arrives in Guangzhou a weekish from now, it will take two weeks for them to issue our Article 5. What the heck an Article 5 is is still a little fuzzy. It's not Max's visa to enter the US, but it is (I think) a document saying our paperwork is fine and unless he shows up with raging tuberculosis or something like that, he'll get a visa when the time comes.

Our agency's representative in China will pick up our Article 5 and send that off to the CCAA in Beijing. We will then officially be waiting for our TA (travel approval). It could take anywhere from 2-6 weeks after Article 5 for our TA to arrive. It is at that point that our agency can set our travel dates. So, best guest, we're looking at anywhere from 5-9 weeks for travel approval and then another 2-4 weeks until we leave.

The other tricky thing is that there are a lot of other things going on in China, specifically Guangzhou where we will be for almost all of our trip, during October and November. There is a national holiday October 1. I'm not sure how long government offices will be closed for that. Then there is a large trade fair in Guangzhou October 15 - November 4 followed by the Pan-Asian Games November 15-27. Those could make flights and hotels ridiculously expensive or, worst case, not available at all. So there is always a chance that those events will screw things up for us. Only time will tell.

No Max updates yet. Supposedly he got his birthday package, but his orphanage director is out of town until the end of the month. We might get updated pictures at that time.

And now please enjoy some pictures of David at Millennium Park and playing baseball at Uncle's Dave's game.

NVC Letter

2010-07-27T07:10:00.002-05:00

We woke up this morning to an email from the National Visa Center saying that our information has been forwarded to the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China. This is our NVC letter in email form. I learned by snooping around some of the international adoption forums online that people have had varying success with getting their letter emailed to them, which can cut a couple of days off the wait to travel approval. I figured it couldn't hurt to give it a try. Even if our snail mail letter came today, this will save us a day because neither Kevin (who will be attending the Smashing Pumpkins concert tonight...10 years after their "last concert ever") nor I (who will be working late) will be home in time to FedEx our next round of paperwork. So the next step is to send off Max's visa application and accompanying paperwork to our agency who will forward it on to the US Consulate. Once they receive it, we expect about a 2 week wait for Article 5, so probably a 3ish week wait total. Got it?

Our basement overfloweth

2010-07-26T10:07:00.005-05:00

For all of you out there complaining about the unbearable time between posts, we spent this weekend cleaning sewage out of our house. Beautiful Oak Park, IL received just under 8 inches of rain in a 24 hour period, the overwhelming majority of that coming overnight Friday night. The sewers and storm drains were full, and there was nowhere for the filthy smelly water to go but into our house and the houses of pretty much all of our neighbors. Fun stuff. Thanks so so much to Grandpa for his middle of the night "Dirty Jobs" audition as we worked to minimize the damage and to Grandma, Grandpa and (all the way from Italy!) Great Aunt Fran for entertaining David Saturday afternoon while Kevin and I cleaned. Overall, we were very fortunate. Since we (Kevin) woke up to the rain and were awake for the flooding, we were able to move everything of value out of the way. Our house has gone from smelling like poop to smelling damp and mildewy to almost back to normal this morning. Carpet cleaners come today, and once they've disinfected and cleaned we'll figure out how much of the carpet (which actually looks great) and padding underneath is salvageable. In the mean time, please enjoy this video of David rocking out to on the way to Uncle Dave's baseball game last night. David's future career: the UPS driver on the next version of "Scrubs." Good luck Tuesday night, Uncle Dave!

I-800

2010-07-19T19:52:00.002-05:00

Our I-800 approval came today. We're one step closer! What do we do next? We sit and wait for our information to get sent from USCIS to the National Visa Center and from the NVC to the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China. At that point, we will receive a letter saying everything has been forwarded to Guangzhou, and we can commence the next round of paperwork for our Article 5. After Article 5 comes travel approval, and after travel approval comes Max!

Happy birthday, baby boy!

2010-07-16T22:58:00.003-05:00

Max turned one today. Since we couldn't be there in person, we sent him a little care package (pictured below is his actual package). In addition to a translated letter and candies for the orphanage staff, he got a little panda, a camera for pictures of him with his nannies and a little birthday cake from a local bakery. We are hoping that the company we used to send his package will be able to get us some updated information and/or pictures (maybe of him with his cake?), but so far no word.

Meanwhile, we rounded up some family and friends and had dinner in Chinatown to celebrate. There were 20 of us in all. Thanks so much to everyone who came out in Friday night traffic (and some even with small children) to be a part of Max's first birthday.

The party guests

We had our own private room, and the kids had so much fun playing: Maya, Eli, David and (in the second picture) Gabe

The soon-to-be family of 4

Ain't too proud to beg

2010-07-06T17:36:00.004-05:00

I am being sent to jail for muscular dystrophy. On August 4, the Orland Park police will show up at my office and take me to fake jail. I am not sure whether they picked my name out of the phone book or if one of my patients threw me under the bus. Either way, my goal is to raise $1600 bail, which is enough money to send two kids to MDA camp and let them just be normal kids for a while. I'm just over a quarter of the way there. If you can find it in your heart and your wallet, every penny gets me closer to my goal. Check out my fundraising site here.

Can't keep a good man down

2010-07-05T20:57:00.005-05:00

David recovered from a surgery that would have hobbled an adult man for several weeks in an afternoon and has been on the go since Friday evening. The first couple of trips to the bathroom were bad times, really bad times, but since then he's been feeling dandy.

We continued our family's annual tradition of gorging ourselves to the point that we really should be ashamed at the Taste of Chicago. This year we made it 6 out of 10 days (not bad with the wedding and surgery thrown in), visited 40 out of 54 booths and tried something like 63 food items (54 unique items). Completely sick but very enjoyable. The key lime pie from JR's bakery was a big winner. We ate 5 pieces. David particularly enjoyed ice cream in any form he could get it and "spicy rice" (jambalaya). And in case you are wondering, no, none of these statistics that no normal family would keep are personal bests (except perhaps the 5 pieces of key lime pie).
David enjoying some corn and watermelon from the Dominick's booth

Ramma's favorite--Rainbow Cone! David's favorite--the pig at the booth with all the sausages!

We spent yesterday afternoon at Grandma and Grandpa's house. David had fun playing with bubbles and running every adult in sight ragged playing Davidball, which is essentially soccer with no restriction on using your hands and with both teams able to score at either goal. There was also a disappointing number of plays that involved David giving me the ball and then telling every one else to chase me. He wanted to stay for the fireworks and then demanded to go home as soon as they started.

Earlier in the weekend, David had asked to go on a boat ride. Since Kevin and I were both off of work today, we obliged. He had requested that Uncle Dave and GG come with but was denied on both accounts. Uncle Dave's honeymoon excuse went over ok, but he was still asking for GG when we left the house this morning. The unfortunate thing about the boat tour is how clearly visible Navy Pier is when you're out on the lake. The unfortunate thing about having a really fantastic nanny who takes him to do all kinds of fun things is that he knows Navy Pier better than Kevin and I do. So after we got off the boat, we headed there for lunch, mini golf, a carousel ride, the ferris wheel and Italian ice before finally heading back home. David crashed and burned around 7:00 tonight, and quite frankly, I'm surprised Kevin and I are still awake.

On the boat and on the ferris wheel

Post op

2010-07-02T15:35:00.002-05:00

The surgery David had back in January 2009 sprung a leak a couple of months ago. Again, I will leave the details between David and his urologist, but he had a second surgery today to plug the hole. It took about 2 hours. He is home watching movies and downing chicken nuggets now. Aside from some pain when he pees (which will probably last a couple of days) and being a little shaky (which will probably last another couple of minutes), he is pretty much back to his normal self.

Pictures pictures and more wedding pictures!

2010-06-29T21:30:00.004-05:00

I've posted an album of more pictures, you can see here. Also, if anyone out there has a picture that shows my actual face, please send it my way. I've probably looked at about 300 pictures from the wedding so far and have yet to see the whites of my eyes. Just curious how I looked.

As you can tell, the wedding really was lovely. I think everyone had a blast. I know the 3 of us did. The bride was radiant, and Dave looked happier and more handsome than I've seen him in my 14 years of being his pseudo-sister. (Dave, don't get used me being nice. Just because you got yourself a hot wife doesn't mean I'm going to stop making fun of you.) Hopefully they are currently having an amazing time on their honeymoon in Guadalupe.

In the world of David (and let's face it, that's what the people want when they read this blog), some highlights of the wedding were:

David's tuxedo shoes were way too tight. They dug in to his fat little feet and left marks, so he ran around barefoot and eventually decided he wanted his gym shoes for the ceremony.
We used jelly beans as bribes to get David into his tux and to participate in various wedding related activities that aren't particularly fun when you're 3. The problem: he sucks on the things instead of chewing them and still had one in his mouth from long before the ceremony when it was go time. Naturally, it fell out his mouth mid-sermon.
David announced just before the vows that he had to go potty, so he and I missed perhaps the most important part of the ceremony. Fortunately, we made it back for the ring swap; and we were quiet enough that I don't think the bride even realized we were disrupting her wedding.
David loved the band and clearly had a crush on their lead singer. He stood and stared at her for half the night. He must have made an impression on the band, too, because by the end of the night, they'd given him drumsticks, candy and the award for "Best Air Guitar."
The kid stayed through the entire reception. We left at midnight, and he didn't fall asleep until the ride home. We kept asking him if he wanted Ramma and Nahnee to take him home, and he refused. He was up at 6:30 Saturday morning, and let me tell you that he is significantly less fun on 6.5 hours sleep.
He was also well known to the staff at Hotel Baker. Everywhere we went, people we didn't know were calling him by name. The bartender loved him, and so David ended up drinking more juice than I've let him have in the last 6 months. Literally. At the end of the night, we went upstairs so that Kevin could change out of his tux, and as we got off the elevator some woman who works there said, "Hi, David!"

Congratulations!

2010-06-26T01:20:00.004-05:00

Uncle Dave tied the knot tonight. Or, as Dave would want me to say, technically last night. And while clearly Dave's bride with her intelligence, beauty, ability to speak 3 languages and interesting stories from her worldly travels is out of Uncle Dave's league on paper, we'll have you know that she got herself quite a catch because they don't make them any better than Uncle Dave. And I think we all know that I don't say nice things very often, but I mean that one sincerely. Lots of love and best wishes as they begin their life together!

Here is a picture as a teaser. There will be lots more to come, but it might take a little time. I have plans...

The best man with the best ringbearer

Introducing...

2010-06-24T09:02:00.003-05:00

We finally received our LSC!!! I came home from work yesterday to a message on our machine from our adoption agency. They didn't say why they were calling, just to call them back. Of course, at this point, it was after 5:00 and the office was closed. We pretty much knew it was either really good news (our LSC) or really bad (a problem with our dossier that would delay our approval). I tried calling and emailing our agency contact with no luck. To spice things up, we lost power in a huge thunderstorm around 6:00pm, and my cell phone died a couple of hours later. So when I plugged my phone in to my car charger this morning, I was thrilled to see an email that said our LSC was in. Hopefully it will get to us by the end of the week, and we can get our I-800 out to USCIS.

And now, without further ado, here is Mei Xiang Hua, soon to be known as Max LaBorde Maas...

And here is a picture of David seeing his baby brother's picture for the first time back in April.

Father's Day weekend

2010-06-22T08:13:00.001-05:00

Here are some pictures from our weekend. We had a great time. Nahnee was in beautiful East Chicago on business and got to stay with us Thursday - Saturday. He partook in farmer's market donuts and an hour of watching 3 year olds "play soccer" in the heat.

After soccer, we sent Nahnee off to the airport, picked up Grandma and drove to Galena to meet up with Grandpa. Highlights included swimming and, first thing Father's Day, fishing with Kevin and Grandpa. David caught his first fish, actually several fish, and loved it; but no one had a better time than Grandpa. If you don't believe me, check in here in a couple of days for his inevitable comment, which will include a generous use of caps lock.

Soccer: check out the Jordan-esque tongue in the first one.

Swimming with his favorite new goggles and Kevin. Blocks with Grandma.

Driving the boat and fishing with Grandpa (note the goggles)

David's first fish. Helping Kevin bring in the big one. Pleased to be holding his catch.

David checking out his stash outside the popcorn store and playing crochet with Grandpa.

Amen

2010-06-16T22:04:00.002-05:00

Tonight as I was putting David to bed, I told him his story. We do this a lot. We want talking about his adoption to be something he always remembers, no big deal. We talk about China, his birth mommy, the nannies at the orphanage and his foster mom. We always end his story by telling him how those people took such good care of him until Mommy and Daddy could come to China to bring him home forever. Tonight after I finished, he got the biggest smile on his face and said, "Amen."

You take it on faith, you take it to the heart

2010-06-13T21:14:00.007-05:00

We're still waiting for our LSC. Our agency says it takes 30-100 days, and we are on day 47. Not that I'm counting. This step is a particularly big deal because 1) it means that China approves us to adopt Max, B) it means that China could actually read all our paperwork (the doctor's form always makes me nervous because, seriously, the man cannot write legibly) and that there won't be a long delay while we send new information and 3) the next steps are somewhat more predictable. Once we receive our LSC, our agency thinks we'll travel in 3-4 months. We have our fingers crossed we'll be able to bring Max home this fall, but we need to have our LSC in hand in the next month or so for that to happen.

In the mean time, we're doing a pretty good job of not obsessing over things that are completely out of our control and an excellent job of keeping ourselves busy. This weekend we moved my bookshelves from Max's future room up to our bedroom. Next time we have a weekend in town without a wedding (T-minus 12 days, Uncle Dave!), we'll get the computer desk and futon out of there. I'd love to be able to start painting soon. Just have to figure out how to talk David out of painting the room orange.

Enough of my rambling, here is what you came here for. Pictures...

First, in the world of sports, David and Kevin went to their first Sox game of the season. Note the chocolate ice cream on David's forehead in the second picture as a direct result of the actions taken in the first. And, most importantly, go Blackhawks! Kevin and Uncle Dave paid an unholy amount of money for standing room tickets to game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals. If you watched, you know it was an awesome game. I'm glad they got a chance to go, especially to such a great game. I'm glad the Blackhawks won it all (suck on that, Philly). And most of all, I'm glad the series didn't go to a seventh game because you don't want to know how much that ticket was going to cost us.

We recently learned, after 4 stupid blood draws, that David is not immune to things he was vaccinated against in China. We had redone most of his immunizations here, but not everything. It is a long story why it has taken us 2 years to get to this point, but anyway, he got to enjoy a round of shots at my office and 24 hours of smoking hot fever and grumpiness this past week. In exchange, Alma took him to the children's museum just down the street, and he had a blast.

David is now the proud owner of a Thomas the Tank Engine bike helmet. He wears it every waking minute. Also pictured is Fiona, whose 5th birthday party today featured Cold Blooded Creatures. Much to our disappointment, David was more interested in all the toys in Fiona's basement than the 10 foot alligator in her back yard.

Testing...testing...

2010-06-05T10:25:00.001-05:00

So I recently learned that since our last trip to China, the Chinese government has seen fit to block blogger. So while we're there adopting Max, we won't be able to access our blog. We can, however, e-mail posts that will be published. Just giving it a try now.

To make this worth your while, I will tell you that David has been pretending to call Max on the phone recently completely unprompted. It's so cute. When we ask how Max is doing, he always says, "Not good." Hope he's wrong on that one.

Also this morning, Kevin asked me to come down to the basement to admire the cleaning he did last night. David piped in, "And then I make mess again!" Oh brother.

Nothing comes close to the golden coast

2010-06-02T22:51:00.001-05:00

We partied Heller-style for Memorial Day weekend. And by partied Heller-style, I obviously mean we enjoyed some of southern California's beautiful and historic sites while being very well fed. For those sad few of you who are unaware, GG has an identical twin in the LA area. That's right. GG has an identical twin. It is everything you imagine it to be and more when they get together. We got some video. Stay tuned.

We left Thursday evening with GG in tow and so began an endless list of things GG "just can't get over" including her boarding pass and how big the airplane (a 737) we flew on was. Our flight was not nearly full, and David enjoyed being able to wander from our seats to the empty ones by GG.

We stayed with the Rick Hellers who were wonderful hosts. Even Ginger the dog tolerated David and his antics. On Friday they showed us around San Juan Capistrano. We went to a petting zoo where we were mauled by goats. Turns out taking the veggies they were selling for kids to feed the animals in to the goat pen was not my best idea. David also went on a pony ride and was proud to announce afterwards, "I did it by myself. I didn't cry." Very, very brave. We dined at Ruby's where the burgers and shakes were excellent and the entertainment (GG trying to figure out 3D glasses) was even better.

After lunch we visited the San Juan Capistrano mission, which is more than 200 years old and the third most visited tourist destination in Orange County. It was beautiful. For dinner we ate at Richard Nixon's favorite Mexican restaurant. His ethics were questionable, but his taste in food delicious. Also the stink eye GG gave Rick and Cathy when they beat her to the check was priceless.

At the Mission

The next day, the lovely Christina was our tour guide. We went to the beach and then sailing with James. David loved loved loved the sand as always, and he had a really good time on the sailboat until he fell asleep. We even got to see some sea lions who were resting on a buoy in the Pacific.

Saturday night the whole clan came over for a bbq. We celebrated Aunt Lori and Uncle John's 62nd wedding anniversary.

David with the twins (can you tell who is who?) and with Uncle John

Sunday we got together with one of the families that travelled to China with us when we adopted David. Daniel is just 3 months older than David and from the same orphanage. It was such a treat to see them!

David, Catie and Daniel with me, Kevin and Mary Anne. Me and the kids enjoying some watermelon.

That evening we went back to the beach, this time Laguna Beach. David and Kevin found a big hole and worked very hard to make it even bigger. David also took some time out of his vacation to help James with his music theory homework.

Monday was more beach, a quick visit with Aunt Lori and Uncle John and then off to the airport. In the car, David told us, "I REALLY like this trip." Many thanks to the Rick Hellers and all the California family. We all REALLY liked our trip.

We're still working on getting David back on CDT. After arriving home at 2a.m. yesterday, he barely made it out of bed in time for gymnastics. Here he is showing off his mad balance beam skills.

Veda and Neena

2010-05-23T21:20:00.004-05:00

We had a delightful weekend. Friday David and I had our last Mandarin class together. He graduates to kids only classes this summer. It will probably be a great transition to preschool for him, but I am a little sad I won't get to go to class again until Max comes home. It's back to Rosetta Stone for me.

Saturday we went to the zoo with the lovely Veda and Neena and their parents. We saw the new Great Bear Wilderness plus other zoo highlights including a misting station, the carousel and a playground (because why pay attention to the exotic animals when you can go down the twisty slide?). David had so much fun that he slept four hours after we got home.
David and Veda (with Neena in the third picture)

Today we finally painted the steps that the boys repaired a month ago. David enjoyed helping and didn't even seem to mind that we painted them blue instead of orange as he had requested. Let the record show, Uncle Stanley, those steps are not Carolina blue. It is definitely darker than that...though I've already been harassed by one neighbor so far, and he's not the UNC alum. Maybe we should have gone orange.

We got to hang out with our friend Nickie this afternoon, and David skipped his nap. The second picture below is him at 5:30 sound asleep at the dinner table. He is still asleep, and we have our fingers crossed he makes it until at least 5:30 tomorrow morning. If he wakes up at 2:00, we are in for a long night.

And here are your pictures

2010-05-15T21:28:00.007-05:00

Here is the post with pictures as promised. As usual, I was slaving away at work while the boys went out to play. Kevin, David, Uncle Dave and Grandpa went to White Sox Family Field Day this morning. They got to go out onto the field and play catch, though apparently David really just wanted to throw the ball and chase after it himself more than play with anyone else.

After Family Field Day, the group minus Uncle Dave took the red line to the north side for the Cubs game. Here are David and Grandpa enjoying the Friendly Confines.

Clear as mud

2010-05-13T22:13:00.001-05:00

First, for those of you disappointed with all these boring words, I promise the next post will contain cute pictures of David. And now I will bore you with more adoption abbreviations. If you want to know why we don't know when we'll be leaving for China, here you go...

LSC -- We are currently waiting for our LSC (letter seeking confirmation, aka LOA or letter of approval). This letter is a huge step. It indicates that after reviewing our dossier, the CCAA approves us to adopt Max. The review process could take 2-3 months.

I-800 -- Here is where things are a little more involved than last time, and at this point I'm a bit fuzzy on the details. Once we receive our LSC, we have to file our I-800 (not to be confused with the I-800A from the paperchase) with USCIS. The I-800 is our petition to adopt Max specifically (where the I-800A was a request to adopt a child from China in general). Supposedly, it takes about 2-3 weeks for I-800 approval which is then cabled to the NVC (National Visa Center).

NVC letter -- After the NVC receives our I-800 approval, they will send us a letter a few days or weeks later saying so. We then send a copy of this letter and a visa application to our adoption agency who forwards it on to Guangzhou.

Article 5 -- We then wait to receive our article 5, which indicates Max will be granted a visa to enter the US. Again, this usually takes about 2 weeks

TA (travel approval) -- When we have our article 5, our agency sends it to Beijing where they will FINALLY issue our travel approval about 2-4 weeks later.

Once we receive TA, finally finally finally, our adoption agency can set our appointment at the US consulate and Guangzhou which determines our travel dates which are usually within a month of our travel approval date, but once again who knows? If this makes any sense to any of you, please feel free to explain it to me.

Surprise?

2010-05-12T10:11:00.001-05:00

Kevin and I knew it wouldn't come as much of a surprise to anyone that we were adopting again, so we decided to see how far in the process we could get before we shared our news. After spending the last ten months sneaking around, we are thrilled to tell you that David's little brother Max is waiting for us in southern China. We aren't allowed to post any photos or identifying information until we have received our official approval from China to adopt him, so stay tuned for that. For now I can tell you that he is almost 10 months old and adorable.
Many thanks to the Derdozos, the Mazhars, godfather Steve, Mike and Donna who helped with the necessary paperwork and kept it quiet.
So, even though I know this will likely only interest my mother, here is the run down of what we've been doing behind your backs:

The Paper Chase. This is the part of the adoption process designed for those of us with OCD. It takes months to gather all the necessary paperwork for 1) the homestudy 2) the I-800A application that is required for the US government to approve us for international adoption and 3) the dossier which is our huge stack of paperwork that goes to Beijing for the Chinese officials to review. Not only do we have to gather proof that we were born and are married, US citizens, healthy, not criminals according to the FBI and every state we've ever lived in, employed, have life insurance, health insurance, retirement savings, a house, cars, etc., etc., etc., but most of these documents have to be notarized then certified by the Secretary of State in the appropriate state then authenticated by corresponding Chinese consulate. Good good times. Highlights of our paperchase included but were not limited to:

July 1, 2009 -- Our official start date. We ordered up some birth and marriage certificates and called our social worker to get the ball rolling.
July 14 -- True to form, Snoopy adds an extra level of difficulty to the paper chase by eating the aforementioned birth and marriage certificates.
July 30 -- Our first (of four) visit with Jacque, our social worker for David's adoption. We got off to a fantastic start. In the dogs' great excitement to see Jacque, Pete escaped but fortunately was coralled by a neighbor. David screamed the entire visit, and we found out Jacque was leaving our agency. So far so good.
September 10 -- The last of our homestudy paperwork (or so we thought) arrives at our agency. Stephanie (the new Jacque) emails to let us know she has no idea what to do next. Fantastic.
The next couple of months are filled with confusion and a seemingly endless string of paperwork and forms that Stephanie discovers she needs that no one mentioned before.
November 25 -- Finally, after a lot of me banging my head against a wall and 3 rounds of editing, we have a completed homestudy, approved by our adoption agency and off to DCFS for their approval.
December 22 -- We receive official approval from DCFS which means we can finally send our I-800A application in to USCIS (US Citizen and Immigration Services).
January 27, 2010 -- Our third and final (we hope) set of fingerprints. These are for our USCIS approval.
February 1 -- We celebrate David's 3rd birthday and the arrival of our I-797C, our official response to our I-800A. It is our approval to adopt a child from China from USCIS and the last piece of paper we need to send our dossier to Beijing.

DTC (dossier to China) -- March 5, 2010. The official end of our paperchase. After one last round of notarizing, certifying and authenticating documents (and making about a million photocopies of all of them), our dossier finally left for Beijing.
LID (log in date) -- March 12. The day our dossier is officially registered by the CCAA. We didn't actually find out our LID until March 25. From then on we were eligible for a referral any time a new waiting child list was issued (about once a month).
Referral -- April 24. One Saturday, while Kevin and Dave were taking a break from various home improvement projects to watch the Blackhawks thrilling overtime win in game 5 of their series with the Nashville Predators, we got the call from our adoption agency. We accepted the referral on the spot. That night we told David that he has a little brother. We showed him Max's picture, and he said, "We get that one?" and kissed the computer screen.
LOI (Letter of Intent) -- April 27. Our letter officially requesting permission to adopt Max was submitted to China.
PA (Preliminary Approval) -- May 6. This step is pretty much meaningless. It indicates that they have our paperwork and will process it, but the real approval will come in 2-3 months with any luck.
There are several more steps between now and Gotcha Day, even more than last time due to the Hague, an international adoption treaty designed to protect children from abduction, child trafficking and other badness. I will bore you with these steps in a future post for anyone who wants to play along at home. They all involve initials that make little to no sense and waiting on government officials here or in China to do something. We hope to travel in 6-8 months, but it could be a little less or a lot more depending on how quickly or slowly everything is processed. Whatever the time table, we can't wait to follow that red thread again!

Disney album is done

2010-05-09T14:34:00.000-05:00

Here it is...

Disney May 2010

Gotcha Week at Disney World

2010-05-08T21:27:00.018-05:00

We celebrated David's Gotcha Day all week long at Disney World. There are way too many pictures for a post, so I'll put a few highlights here and work on a Picasa album with the rest. Keep an eye out for Pandy the panda who came to the parks with us every day.

We arrived last Saturday late afternoon. We stayed at the All Star Sports resort. It was an excellent choice. David loved the over the top sports decor and was particularly fond of the statues of Huey, Duey and Louie playing baseball.

Saturday evening, we met up with a family who lives in the area and is in the process of adopting a little boy through China's waiting child program. They have three kids, and David had so much fun running around like a nut with their girls. Good luck to Katie, Josh and their family as they prepare to bring their di di home!

Enjoying dinner with Gracie. Annie and David took turns letting Donald eat their heads.

Sunday the three of us went to the Magic Kingdom in the morning. David loved Small World (which we ended up riding eight times over the course of our trip) and the trolley tracks down Main Street (which we spent a painfully long time walking on). Nahnee and 'Ramma arrived in the afternoon, and we all went to Epcot where we enjoyed some a really good Mexican dinner.

David "driving" the Small World boat, following the trolley tracks and cruising on a boat at Epcot with Nahnee

Monday we went to the Animal Kingdom first thing. The safari ride there is one of my favorite things, and the one we went on that morning was amazing. We saw so many animals, including a mama and baby white rhino running full speed right past our truck and three cheetahs who were very interested in what the rhinos were up to. We went back to the Magic Kingdom that afternoon. On this trip, David fell in love with the Swiss Family Robinson tree house.

On Safari with 'Ramma, completely enamored with the tree house water collection system, the 3 of us at the Magic Kingdom

Tuesday was Hollywood Studios. The Toy Store ride there was probably the consensus favorite of the entire group. You go from screen to screen playing virtual carnival games (ring toss, throwing darts at balloons, etc.). That night David used his powers of persuasion to get some merchandise from the Lego store at Downtown Disney, and we made our obligatory pilgrimage to Chick-fil-A.

Toy Story ride and Sci-Fi drive in lunch at Hollywood studios

Wednesday was May 5--Gotcha Day! We celebrated two years as a family of three. At the Animal Kingdom, we started off checking out the Asian jungle trek and then went to the glorified playground that is Dinoland USA. We went back to Epcot in the evening, watched the Chinese acrobats and had a really delicious dinner at the Nine Dragons restaurant there. We also went to the movie at the China pavilion and let David pick out a Gotcha Day gift. The winner was a little panda. I'm not sure if Pandy is jealous or what because he spent the rest of the night involved in paw to paw combat with the new little panda bear. David capped off the evening by drenching himself in some fountains and asking if he could come back to Epcot wearing his bathing suit.

The 3 of us in the China pavilion at Epcot. Billions of dollars in entertainment surrounding him, and the water was the most fun.

So Thursday we went back to the Magic Kindgom in the morning and then to Epcot with David is his swimwear in the afternoon. The three of us made a loop of the world showcase for dinner sampling such deliciousness as nachos, brats and gelato. Sadly, Canada no longer serves beaver tails.

David was very pleased to acquire a sword from the toy store in Germany. Back at the fountains in his bathing suit, completely oblivious to the large fireworks display.

Friday was our last day at the parks. We wanted to get David back on the Toy Story ride, so we started at Hollywood Studios. We made a mad dash for the ride, which is relatively new and insanely popular. Kevin grabbed fast passes before we hopped in the regular line. We went on the ride, went back to a Disney Playhouse show that he had really enjoyed earlier in the week and then back on the ride with our fast passes. We hopped a boat to the Boardwalk area where Kevin and I stayed for our honeymoon, had lunch, raced through Epcot to get to the monorail (exclusively for the purpose of riding the monorail), took the monorail to the Magic Kindgom and then bussed it back to the hotel for nap time which was followed immediately by one more trip to the Magic Kingdom where we rode rides until they kicked us out. We were literally the last people to go on the Winnie-the-Pooh ride last night.

Sucking on a lemon at lunch, Tomorrowland Speedway and waiting for the carousel with Kevin

This morning before we left we took one last dip in the pool and bid Huey, Duey and Louie adieu.

It was a super fun vacation. Thanks to Nahnee and 'Ramma for coming with and providing a 4:1 adult to child ratio that was still barely enough. I've left a million little stories and several dozen really cute pictures out. I'll try to include as much as I can in the album, so stay tuned if you're interested...

Home Improvement

2010-04-28T22:13:00.005-05:00

Last Saturday, Uncle Dave was kind enough to come over to assist with some home improvement projects. And by assist, I obviously mean do the overwhelming majority of the work in exchange for a burrito. The main task at hand was to replace some of the sagging boards in our front steps. David loves tools and was very happy to spend the morning helping Kevin and Uncle Dave.

Completely unrelated to this is the fact that David thinks the word "forgot" is acutally "I-forgot." He says things like "Why did Daddy I-forgot this?" or "I I-forgot where I was going." So cute.

Nonrestorative weekend

2010-04-18T22:24:00.003-05:00

It's never a good sign when you're looking forward to Monday. I started my day off on Friday with a mandatory 7:30am meeting. I came home in time to take David to his 3 year old check up. Nothing so relaxing as wrestling your screaming child to the exam table for a blood draw and shot. Later that afternoon, he did a face plant onto the sidewalk and got some nice road rash by his eye. Then when I attempted to go to dinner with my friends, he called me sniffling and crying because he wanted me to come home and put him to bed. Nothing too tragic, but still we all could have had a better Friday.

Yesterday I worked a very busy day at the office while Kevin and David went to Oz park, hung out with Steve and went to the Cubs game. David was so exhausted by his day that he took a 4 hour nap. He was such a pill when he woke up that it took half an hour to convince him to put on his shoes so that we could go to Oberweis for ice cream for dinner. He kept covering his face with his blanket and telling us to go away like a teenager.

David at the park (middle picture is with Dorothy and Toto for Grandpa), stuffing his face at Steve's place

Today I helped Kevin's mom and aunts throw a shower for Dave's fiancee, so Kevin and David were on their own again. Before we went our separate ways, David was extremely helpful in making some guacamole for the shower. He mashed those avacados like no avacados have been mashed before. Then he and Kevin went to the Museum of Science and Industry. I am told that their new exhibit on storms is fantastic.

Lots o' pictures

2010-04-14T20:49:00.000-05:00

I'm hoping the numerous pictures in this post will make up for the unbearable 11 days since the last one.

We had a lovely Easter. The Easter Bunny hid a dozen plastic eggs and David's Easter basket. We went to the wiggle worship service at our church where David served (and spilled) the wine. We got home in time for a very cute egg hunt on our block. Our neighbors set it up, and there were chocolate filled eggs everywhere. There must have been 20 in our yard alone. The kids had a blast and were very cute hunting eggs in their Easter finest.

David hunting eggs in our basement. He is pleased at having found the last egg in his drum in the second picture and has a mouth full of chocolate.

David (with Olivia in the middle picture) hunting eggs. Fiona enjoying the fruits of her labor.

David also got to hang out with Steve last week. They went to a Bulls game together. Every time we talk about going to a sporting event, David asks if Steve is going, so we were happy to be able to tell him yes this time.

On Wednesday morning, David got a very special surprise from Nicor. A large backhoe digging up our front yard to put in new gas lines. Our yard is an absolute mess, but in David's mind it was all worth it for the 30 minutes of hard core digging he got to witness firsthand.

We spent this past weekend in Galena with Adam and Laura. So far this spring has been unusually spring-like in the Midwest, and we had beautiful weather for our trip. David played golf in the yard and helped Kevin fill the bird feeders. He went on a couple of short hikes and took a shine to several large sticks along the way. It turns out they are great for poking things. David played crochet and foosball, dismembered Jackie boy and helped clean up the hot tub room with some super thorough mopping.

David has an unconventional approach to golf--note putting with the driver and the unusual swing in the middle picture.

Hiking

Playing crochet, spreading dirty water around the once clean floor, defeating Adam in foosball.

Go Duke!

2010-04-03T17:32:00.006-05:00

I have been informed that I am not updating the blog frequently enough, so here you go...

We have finally entered the world of 5 years ago and have a laptop and wireless internet. I also have an ipod and smart phone now, so like I said. 5 years ago.

We had a lovely evening in Chinatown last night. Yummy food and then some shopping. David found several things he wanted, including a walking stick, but refused the beautiful outfit we tried to sell him on.

Today we dyed eggs (only one was subsequently eaten by Pete). Kevin and David also participated in a Maas family tradition. Dumping the egg dye in the toilet one color at a time and marveling at all the lovely shades. Fantastic.

For the rest of the evening it's obviously all about the Final Four around here. GO DUKE!!! Oh, and happy Easter, everyone!

We are experiencing technical difficulties

2010-03-24T19:49:00.007-05:00

Our computer is old, cranky and riddled with 8 years of viruses, spyware and other garbage. So this past weekend we finally went out and bought a pretty new Apple laptop. Now we just have to figure out how to hook it up to the internet. Should be straight forward, but so far no luck. Not that we've tried very hard. Hopefully sometime in the next week or two we'll either hire the Geek Squad to do it, fly my brother in to do it or really give it the old college try and figure it out ourselves. (Those are listed in order from most to least likely to happen.) In the mean time, my motivation to do anything with this computer is minimal because it takes forever. For. Ever.

Since my last post, David has done the following:

Gone to the Field Museum and a Blackhawks game

Blown out my birthday candle and helped Kevin install new smoke/CO detectors

Attended a Bulls game and conned us into a Benny the Bull head

Won a prestigious gymnastics medal (for showing up to class) and gone to free cone day at Ben & Jerry's

There's no good segue into this, so I'll just add that he insists on calling oatmeal "meatloaf." It make me laugh every time.

Last but not least, David refuses to be videoed doing a cartwheel, but here's some good stuff from gymnastics.

David's birthday: month 4 of 6

2010-03-11T20:19:00.007-06:00

Here are a few pictures from the last week or so. David and Alma went to the zoo. Alma painted his face like a kitty, and he spent the next 48 hours refusing to have his face washed.
Last weekend I went to visit Aimee in Atlanta, leaving Kevin and David to fend for themselves. They had a great time. The third picture below is from their trip to the Museum of Science and Industry. Kevin was very pleased that David broke out of his farm equipment/model train rut and checked out the submarine and a few other exhibits.

I made it back last Sunday in time for the family February/March birthday party. We're coming to the home stretch of David's 6 months of birthday which began with early Christmas gifts and October and extends through Gotcha Day in a few weeks. David loved all his presents. Highlights included the firetruck card that he gave to himself (and a second copy to Uncle Dave--Kevin was lucky to leave the store with only two of them David loved it so much), his new Blackhawks shirt and Chutes and Ladders which he played with great aunt Barb.

Tomorrow David and I are looking forward to Mandarin class followed immediately by some ACC basketball. He is currently sleeping in his Duke shirt for luck.

I should be exercising, cleaning, sleeping or really anything other than this

2010-03-02T22:05:00.002-06:00

In lieu of being productive or doing the smart thing and going to bed, I have chosen to post pictures from this past weekend. We did what all idiot midwesterners do when the temperature cracks 30 and went to the zoo. We saw some of the indoor exhibits that we don't usually visit during our 3 week summer. We also spent an eternity in the play zoo where David insited on sweeping the toddler toy area for about 20 minutes. He also misted the plants in the greenhouse and pretended to be the zoo director.

Sunday we attended our friend Eli's 2nd birthday party. David had much fun playing with his friends, especially Evie (pictured below coloring with Maya and Nick).

In other David news, he can do a cartwheel. I'm not even kidding. Legs straight up in the air over his head cartwheel. His landings could use considerable work, but it's still pretty sweet. I'll try to get some video this week. He was so proud of himself that he even showed Coach Mandy today at gymnastics class. She seemed genuinely impressed, or at least that's what I thought in my extremely biased opinion. Surely this can only mean he's headed to the Olympics in 2028.

Sports, cars and sportscars

2010-02-22T08:23:00.001-06:00

Here are some highlights from the last week. Surprisingly, they involved sports and things with wheels.
Steve treated Kevin and David to a Bulls game Tuesday night.

Thursday night we hung out at GG's and ate Chinese food. The ladies worked on wedding shower plans for Dave's fiancee while David showed GG his best dance moves.

Saturday Uncle Dave took Kevin and David to the auto show. David loved it. He pretended to drive several different makes and models including a Corvette and won a Jonathan Toews bobblehead by making a hockey goal.

David does not stop talking these days. He surprised me the other day by using the word "similar" correctly in a sentence. He is constantly asking questions. I must hear "why?" and "what's that" and "what does that mean?" a hundred times a day. Three is such a fun age, even if it does come with an enormous attitude.

Because I know my parents are getting antsy

2010-02-15T21:59:00.003-06:00

Not much new or exciting to report. Here are a few pictures to keep 'Ramma and Nahnee happy.
David loves to shovel snow. I'm sure that will change in a few years when we actually want him to shovel snow. Alma took David to see Bob the Builder at Navy Pier. He loved it.

Another task David will no longer enjoy once he's old enough to be of service. (As a side note, it takes a long time to clean 3 filthy bathrooms. It takes twice that amount of time with the assistance of a 3 year old.) Eating dinner tonight in his hockey helmet.

David's birthday weekend

2010-02-05T14:54:00.005-06:00

Here are some pictures from David's birthday weekend festivities. My parents flew in to partake in the madness. We had a party at Monkey Island (a kiddie bounce place) on Sunday. I think it was a success--not too crowded, lots of things to do/climb/jump on, pizza and chocolate cake.

Kevin and I took the day off on David's birthday Monday. We went to the Museum of Science and Industry and the Hot Doug's for lunch. After David's nap, he opened presents and then had a meltdown.

I am very proud of my baseball glove cake and baseball cupcakes

David at Monkey Island

Enjoying his new hockey helmet and driving a combine at MSI with 'Ramma

Giving me the stink eye and stuffing his face at Hot Doug's

Playing with his new hoop. At the Bulls game Tuesday night with Uncle Dave.

A special thanks to guest photographer Grandpa who contributed to this post.

Happy 3rd birthday, David!!!

2010-02-01T06:00:00.000-06:00

Happy birthday to our monkey!!! Here are some of my favorite pictures from David's third year. Every time I put one of these together, I out sappy myself with my song selection.

Everything's bigger in Texas

2010-01-21T22:28:00.002-06:00

Including the cupcakes. We visited Aunt Leslie and Uncle Stanley (with a special guest appearance by Uncle Adams) in Houston last weekend. We had fun and ate well. Much like hobbits, we had breakfast (giant cupcakes) and second breakfast (Chick-fil-A biscuits) Saturday morning. David took care of his cookies 'n' cream cupcake in no time.

We got to visit with Saira, one of my friends from my Loyola days and her family, too. David and her son Raafe bonded while burying Uncle Stanley alive. The other picture below is David using one of Aunt Leslie's chemistry nerd toys as an astronaut helmet.

David has started a gymnastics class once a week, which he loves. Unless I'm on call, it's early enough for me to take him, which is a treat. His favorite activity in our most recent class was the parallel bars. The kids were supposed to push themselves up and support their weight with their arms. Most of them pushed up a 2 or 3 inches and held it for a couple of seconds. David took it to the next level, flexed his hips to make his body into an "L" and then pushed himself up until his legs were parallel with the bars. At least 3 other moms commented to me on how strong he is. This from the boy who couldn't crawl when we brought him home at 15 months.

B^3

2010-01-08T22:18:00.004-06:00

Huge day today chez Maas. Huge. This morning at 8am, David's big boy bed was delivered. The picture above is David at bedtime tonight. He had lobbied for a bunk bed ("I want BIG ladder!"), and Kevin and I are big enough suckers to go for the idea, but his room just isn't big enough. David agreed to settle for a bed with drawers. He has filled two of the drawers with hats and underwear and plans to designate another drawer for his cars tomorrow. He told me today "My bed have BIG drawers. I love it!" So I think he's over the ladder thing.

David's new bed, breaking his bed in, George dressed in David's Northwestern shirt and jeans (picture taken by David)

Today we also went to Mandarin class, played unreasonable amounts of hockey with the new hockey stick and puck the wise men brought David for Epiphany and had a delicious dinner at Szchuan Beijing. As usual, David out ate every adult in the restaurant.

It's a long way down

2010-01-04T22:29:00.004-06:00

Greetings and happy 2010! We divided our time the first day of the new year between the Museum of Science and Industry, where highlights included giant farm machinery and tiny trains, and the Srokas house, where highlights included mountains of food.

MSI

Playing with Zach, Nathan and his new Thomas set from Steve at the Sroka's house

On the 2nd we decided to check out the new glass bottom overlooks at the Sears Tower observation deck. Very cool and more than a little disconcerting to be able to look straight down 1500 feet. Chances of getting my mother anywhere near there: 0%. After that we went to the Illinois-Gonzaga basketball game at the United Center with Adam, the always lovely Laura and Uncle Dave. David was pretty tired and crashed during overtime. He was out cold and slept through us wrestling him into his coat, the frigid jog to the car, the drive home plus another 2 hours after we got there.
Pictures from atop the Sears. David at ready to cheer for his Illini.

Because Kevin does not believe in staying home for more than 5 minutes at a time, yesterday we did a little shopping in the morning and went to the Blackhawks game in the evening. David loves hockey. LOVES hockey. For the last few weeks, the kid has refused to wear anything other than a Blackhawks jersey. We had to buy him a second jersey because we were doing laundry every day. It is nothing short of a miracle that we convinced him to wear orange to the Illini game. He really pays attention to the hockey game. We got a constant run down on when players were coming on and off the ice (which is about every 45 seconds in hockey, so that was awesome) and commentary on face offs. During the third and final period David took a shine to Dustin Byfuglien, so he just kept asking "Where is Bufflin?" over and over and over. He is currently undefeated in his 4 games so far this season. We'll try for 5-0 in a month.

The 6 months of Christmas

2009-12-28T22:57:00.009-06:00

David's six months of Christmas, which extends from the early Christmas presents he receives at Thanksgiving through Gotcha Day in May, is in full swing. Last Monday we had an early Christmas with Grandma, Grandpa, GG, Uncle Dave and his fiancee. The run away hit of the night was David's (first of three this Christmas) tool set. He insisted on opening it first and spent the rest of the evening wearing his ear protectors and sawing Grandma's furniture.
Ear protectors are necessary not just for working with power tools but for helping Grandma open presents as well.

David has also been taking full advantage of the winter weather. Tuesday Alma took him sledding with Sabrina and took some pictures in the spirit of the Christmas Story snowsuit.

We left Wednesday evening for Columbia and made it to Nahnee and 'Ramma's house without much difficulty despite sleet and freezing rain in Chicago. We went to church Christmas Eve, and, much to Kevin's dismay, followed that up with the annual LaBorde viewing of Christmas Eve on Sesame Street. If you don't know how Santa makes it down all those skinny little chimneys with his big brag of presents, you really must see it.
We had a very low key Christmas day. I stayed in my pajamas all day, and David had a great time opening all his gifts. Unlike last year, when it took over a week to finish going through his pile, he tore through all of his presents and everyone else's in no time and then demanded "more Santa!"
David with items from tool sets #2 and 3

Another picture in his stylish new safety vest and his Gamecocks basketball jersey.

Christmas Day was low key because my parents invite every single person they know to their house the day after for a Boxing Day get together. It is a lot of fun, and you can't beat grits, wings and a Chick-fil-A party platter. Yum. We got to visit with lots of family and friends, and David got to play with some of his SC buddies, including the lovely Haley and Kendall. We also went over to Haley and Kendall's house later that evening and watched David and the girls ignore their newly opened Christmas gifts in favor of running back and forth across the living room as fast as they could for the better part of half an hour.

Torturing Bette. Playing with Haley (who was a fan of David's safety goggles)

Having fun at H & K's house

We made it home just before 1:00am last night/this morning. It will probably take a few days to get back into our routine and detox David from the nonstop attention he received over the weekend. So far he seems to be recovering quite nicely. He had a good time going to Sabrina's gymnastics competition this morning and spent the afternoon playing with all his loot.

Based on this picture, I think my decision to sign him up for gymnastics was a good one. The yellow hat has a working light which will no doubt drive poor Pete to the brink of insanity.

Catching up

2009-12-20T22:59:00.005-06:00

Like everyone else in the world, we've been busy with holiday this and end of the year that, so I am delinquent in my posts. Here is a brief recap of the last couple of weeks.

Alma's daughter and David's hero, Sabrina, is on winter break for 3 weeks. David thinks he hit the mother lode. He has been having all kinds of fun with Sabrina, including a trip to see The Princess and the Frog. Never in a million years would I have thought to take my maniac child to sit through a movie, but he apparently was very good and enjoyed himself and the movie thoroughly. This is likely due in no small part to the fact that he got to sit with Sabrina and that Alma bought him a hot dog and his own popcorn at the theater.

We made the drive out to Dekalb Friday night for Adam's Christmas party. As usually happens with Adam's parties, the weather was questionable. Wintery mix + long boring drive + Friday rush hour = good times. Fortunately, David managed to keep it together for most of the ride. Once we were there, he parked himself by Adam's candy train with his new friend Logan and could not have had a better time. As a bonus, Adam and Laura gave David a marble set that lets him force Kevin and I to build various downhill courses for his marbles with all kinds of ramps and spinny things. They chose this gift not only because they thought David would love it (he does) but because he spent most of our last trip to Galena throwing some marbles around the house and screaming "NARMLES!" to everyone's amusement, especially his own.

Sabrina and David at the movies. David and Logan with the candy train. Narmles!

Saturday we went downtown to the Christkindl market at met up with our friend Nickie. We'd never been before and really enjoyed it. They sell all sorts of German things that your grandmother would love at outrageous prices, and the food was fantastic. Adams, if you come up next Christmas, you must go.

Today Kevin and David went to the Blackhawks game with Grandpa. We gave Grandpa an early Christmas gift of a Blackhawks jersey, or as the cool kids say, a sweater.
Kevin and David shovelling snow. David with his cheezborger cheezborger cheezborger before the game tonight. 3 generations, 1 sweater

I'm sure there is more to tell like what a great job David has done with potty training and how he hit my boss (and, quite frankly, if you'd been there, I think you'd have a hard time blaming him...sorry, Lyna) at our office Christmas party. Unfortunately, it is past my bed time and I have 3 days of you-have-to-give-me-antibiotics-because-he-CAN'T-be-sick-for-Christmas visits ahead of me at work.

Happy anniversary, Nahnee and 'Ramma!

2009-12-20T08:03:00.001-06:00

David (and the rest of us) would like to wish Nahnee and 'Ramma a very happy 40th wedding anniversary today. We'll see you soon!

Back to school

2009-12-06T22:35:00.003-06:00

When Kevin visited Saguaro National Park last month while away on business, I was accused of neglecting the pretty cactus pictures he took because they did not include me or David. He went down to UofI with his brother, Allen and Adam this weekend to gorge himself on the food of his youth and take in a football and basketball game; and I will not make the same mistake twice. Here are the boys at Memorial Stadium, Assembly Hall (insert Aunt Judy's obligatory orange-is-so-tacky comment here) and in front of the creepy Alma Mater statue.

After Kevin got home this afternoon, we attempted to decorate the tree and get pictures for our Christmas card in the process. David was not particularly interested in either. Pete, however, was gunning for his second consecutive Christmas card appearance.

Holiday lights

2009-11-29T22:47:00.003-06:00

We hit Michigan Ave. last night to check out the holiday lights. It was beautiful, and the weather was nicer than it will be for at least the next six months. Here are a few pictures.

The tree at the Hancock. 4th Presbyterian Church

Water Tower

Inside the Hancock building

Potty training, Turkey Day and GG's flesh wound

2009-11-27T21:50:00.006-06:00

A little over a week ago, David looked down at his diaper and said "Me wear underwear." Alright then. Since then, he's been making much potty training progress, including going accident free all day when the poor kid had to spend the day at work with me on Wednesday because we were Alma-less. In addition to not peeing or pooping all over my office, David was ridiculously well behaved the entire day despite going without a nap. Many thanks to my co-workers, my medical student and to our receptionists' niece Abby who were such a help keeping him busy and me sane. Here are some pictures of David entertaining nurse Josy and med student Amanda.

We spent Thanksgiving morning at our second home, Brookfield Zoo. It was pretty chilly, but we took in some of the indoor exhibits like the primates, the fish and the play zoo. After naptime, we headed to GG's and ate until we couldn't eat any more. David had fun playing pool with Kevin, Kevin's great uncle Frank, Uncle Dave and Grandpa. He also received his first Christmas present which will probably top all other Christmas presents--Lincoln logs complete with a little train set from great aunt Vic and John. He loves them.

This morning while I was busy saving the world from the common cold, Kevin and David built a village out of Lincoln logs and then headed off to Grandma and Grandpa's house. David helped Granpa put up Christmas decorations and helped Grandma, GG and great aunt Barb with their annual Christmas cookie baking. The boy knows his way around a rolling pin.

I joined them after work and got to decorate cookies. Plus I got to suture the hole GG stabbed in her hand while cutting up snacks. Until those stitches come out in a week or so, Lil needs to keep that hand dry. That means no washing dishes. What do you think the Vegas odds on that happening are?

Weekend in Hotlanta

2009-11-16T23:11:00.008-06:00

We spent this weekend in Atlanta visiting Aimee, Allen and our goddaughter Amanda. It has been well documented that David loves older women, so this trip was right up his alley. Despite the fact that he called her Haley as often as he called her Amanda, they had a really fun time together. They were always hugging and holding hands. Very cute.
Kevin took Friday off of work, so we were able to arrive in the afternoon. David gave Allen and Aimee a real taste of what it is to be a boy. And by that I mean he ran around their house frantically turning every thing he touched into either a weapon or some sort of sport. There was also a lot of random shouting involved.
Saturday we went to the Georgia Aquarium, which was fantastic. Kids and grown ups were all very impressed.
Kevin and David checking out the oceans exhibit which included a couple of enormous whale sharks and a very cool tunnel where you were surrounded by fish, sharks and manta rays.

David and Amanda checking out the river exhibit and outside the aquarium (note David is carrying Amanda's purse).

Afterwards we went to the Varsity for some delicious greasy food.
David and Amanda looked very stylish in their paper hats. David hijacked my banana pudding ice cream.

Sunday before we flew out, we went to the Atlanta zoo. Highlights included an enclosed area full of parakeets that the kids could feed (we managed to get out of there without getting pooped on), the pandas and a train ride with Amanda.

Many thanks to Allen, Aimee and Amanda for being such great hosts and letting us drag them around all weekend. The three of us had a great time and can't wait to come back.

A few pictures from last week

2009-11-09T21:23:00.004-06:00

Not much new to report. David went to a Bulls game with Kevin and Grandpa last week, and we enjoyed some unseasonably warm and sunny (for the first time in what has to be a year) weather this weekend with a little stroll by the river and down Michigan Avenue.

World's cutest penguin

2009-10-31T21:27:00.004-05:00

I am way tired this weekend thanks to H1N1 and the near riot conditions the media-induced panic has created at my office, so this will be short. Hopefully the cute pictures of David in his costume (which I had to wrestle him into today kicking and screaming) will make up for the lack of hilarity and sarcasm.

I know next year David will insist on picking his own costume, and I expect it to be something not so cute and boyish like Batman. So this year, we went for the cutest thing we could find--baby penguin.

On a mission for candy. The usual suspects: Fiona, Lia, Ashley, Jackson, David and Olivia.

David did most of his trick-or-treating with the lovely Fiona and Lia.

This is how GG greeted her trick-or-treaters. (Yes, that's Lil under there.)

Haley's visit

2009-10-25T18:35:00.001-05:00

We had the great pleasure of spending the weekend with my friend Jennifer and her daughter Haley. They came up from SC to visit us. The kids had a terrific time. David loves Haley. He insisted on holding her hand at every opportunity and spent the entire 3 day visit mimicking just about everything she did and said.
They arrived Thursday night. There was a slight drizzle in Chicago, which as all travellers know meant a 2 hour delay flying into O'Hare. David had his heart set on picking up Haley at the airport, so we all piled into the car, David in his pj's. To enhance the look further, he had had his face painted like a cat earlier in the day with Alma. It had smudged and smeared and at the time looked more like he was just really dirty than a cat, but he refused to wash his face at bath time. So Kevin and I took our dirty-faced cat boy to O'Hare to pick up Jennifer and Haley who finally arrived around 9:00.
Friday morning, we gave Haley her choice of museums. She opted for dinosaurs, so we hit the Field Museum. Despite the fact that he had been there several times before, David decided that he was scared of the dinosaurs and threw a huge tantrum before we went in. Once we actually made it to the dinosaurs, he thought they were cool and had a great time racing from one exhibit to the next. After learning about prehistoric life, banging on drums from around the world and pretending to cook fake corn, the kids were ready for Navy Pier where Jennifer and Haley braved the cool wet weather to ride the ferris wheel. After a late afternoon nap, we capped off the day with a trip to Oberweis.
Sharing goldfish at the Field Museum and enjoying stale chocolate covered marshmallows at Navy Pier.

Saturday we went to Shedd Aquarium first thing. Haley enjoyed seeing all the sea creatures, and David spent most of this time either at the play submarine in the new children's area or chanting "Submarine! Submarine now!" We caught the new dolphin show, which was a little more show and a little less dolphin than I had hoped but still fun to see. After a delicious lunch in Greek town and a nap, we went to Brookfield Zoo. Due to the lateness of the hour and the cool weather, there were several animals off exhibit, but this didn't seem to bother David or Haley at all. They spent a lot more time running and playing in the leaves than anything else. After the kids went to bed last night, Jennifer and I went to the 11:00 (that's p.m., people) show at Second City, e.t.c. It was a lot of fun, and, on a related note, I took a 3 hour nap this afternoon.
Haley was brave enough to touch this giant star fish after realizing it wasn't an octopus. David on the sub.

David and Haley at the zoo

Before Jennifer and Haley flew out today, we went downtown and up almost 100 floors to the John Hancock observatory. The adults enjoyed the view while the kids pretended to be window washers and mashed random buttons on various displays. Afterwards we went across the street to the American Girl Doll store where I learned yet another reason boys are easier and less expensive than girls. We ended the visit with a delicious brunch and a traffic jam on the Kennedy that made us late getting them to O'Hare. So to summarize: cold wet weather, flight delays, traffic, amazing museums and delicious food. They got the full Chicago experience.

The kids on top of the Hancock. Proof that Jennifer and I saw each other this weekend.

David and Haley being very silly at brunch. Haley feeding David peanut butter cup cheesecake. She said, "This is REALLY good breakfast."

A week of firsts

2009-10-18T19:28:00.001-05:00

David has had a big week. On Monday we went to his first hockey game, which he absolutely loved. He insisted that he needed a jersey like Kevin's and refused to take it off until the following morning when he managed to get poop on it. Even then, quite frankly, he did not give it up willingly.
The next night Kevin and David went to a Bulls preseason game. This was not David's first Bulls game, but it was the first time he wore the Jordan jersey I bought for Kevin as a wedding present without crying and screaming.
Matching father and son hockey sweaters. David ready for bed still in his jersey and taking in the Bulls game.

On Wednesday night we hung out chez Derdozo. This is nothing new, but the picture below does mark baby Finn's first (of many) appearances on our blog. David and Evie had a great time. They spent most of dinner time running in circles and tackling each other. Please note, after poop removal, David is back in his Blackhawks jersey.

Thursday afternoon we flew out to SC, and Friday morning we took our first family trip to a national park. Congaree National Park is just 25 minutes from my parents' house. We took a beautiful walk around the 2.5 mile boardwalk. David, who insists on walking whenever we are in a hurry at the airport, refused to let his feet hit the ground the entire time we were there. We learned that the forest there has the tallest canopy (130 ft.) of any deciduous forest in the world. Who knew? (I mean, besides my dad.)
Various shots of me lugging David around, though Kevin did most of the carrying, including David shooting the camera man with 'Ramma's mini-flashlight.

The boardwalk and surrounding loveliness. Cyprus knees.

Saturday, Kevin and David got to experience their first state fair. We rode rides, ate large quantities of fried foods and checked out the animals. We are very much looking forward to our next trip to the fair when David should be taller than 36 inches, which will open up a whole new world of rides.

That's right. Deep fried Pepsi. Of course, Kevin had to get some. The second picture is David taking a bite. Next time we're sticking with elephant ears.

Saturday afternoon we went to a get together with a bunch of my friends from growing up, graciously hosted by Alexa. We used to be the kids. Now we have the kids. It was a really good time and so much fun to see everyone there. Many thanks to Alexa for letting us take over her house.

David refused a nap after the fair, fell asleep in the car on the way to Alexa's and was completely out for the first hour we were there despite children climbing on and around him and making lots of noise. The girls and our children. David and his buddy Braeden.

David has really taken to telling people that he loves them recently. Sometimes he grabs my head, says "I love you mommy!" and then kisses me over and over. It's very sweet, but he does the same thing with his new stuffed monkey he got from Nahnee and 'Ramma. He was having pretty extensive conversations with the monkey on our flight home, asking him if he wanted to come home with us, asking if his belly hurt and rubbing it for him. Right now George the monkey and David are ready to watch the Bears with Kevin downstairs.

Morton Arboretum and other fun stuff

2009-10-11T21:20:00.004-05:00

I had to work last weekend, including Friday, which is usually my day off. My loss was Kevin's gain. He took the day off, and he and David had a very good time. They went to Mandarin class and learned about xing zhuang (shapes). After that the plan was to head to Daley Plaza for the Olympics announcement. That was a bust for obvious reasons (darn you, Rio!), so they went to Millennium Park instead. Turns out that godfather Steve's office is right down the street, and since on a busy day Steve sees about five patients, they stopped by for a visit.

On Saturday while I was working hard for the money, David and Kevin picked up GG and headed for Shedd Aquarium. Their newish children's area was a big hit with David. He also enjoyed the whales, dolphins and especially the turtles. Afterwards, he had a photo shoot outside the aquarium where there is a fantastic view of the Chicago skyline.

David thoroughly enjoyed himself this past week. Sabrina has been on fall break, so she came with Alma several days. One morning he asked me if Sabrina was coming, and upon learning that she was, he told me, "Go to work now!" So nice to be loved.
This weekend we mostly stayed at home. It turns out you can get a crazy amount done if you are neither working nor out of town for the weekend. Weird. While Kevin cleaned out our utility room, David took full advantage of the dogs crates (which are now disassembled and stored in the garage where they will probably stay until we move 30 years from now). He insisted that he get to climb in. He pretended to be a puppy and drink from the bowl. The he asked for his blanket and pillow and pretended to sleep. Finally, he asked for his stuffed puppy, who also ate and drank from the dog bowl.
Here's a picture we won't be sending to David's former orphanage with our next update.

This morning we went to Wiggle Worship. I'm not sure if I've mentioned wiggle worship before, but it's a service at our church for families with young children. It is a full service. There are songs and prayers. Kevin and I enjoy the Wiggle Worship Prayers of the People equivalent. When we get to the part about someone who is sick or has died, there is usually a battle royale between the older kids to name the most dead pets. Hilarious. The priest reads a version of one of the readings (usually the gospel unless it is "too yucky" that week) in language the kids can understand. Then there is a children's sermon to explain what the heck Jesus was talking about and, finally, Communion. The children take turns each week doling out the bread and wine. David got to do the bread last week. In the true spirit of our Lord and Savior, he saved the largest piece for himself.
After today's service, we drove out to Morton Arboretum and met up with Uncle Dave and his fiancee. They have a huge children's garden, and this time of year they also have a caramel apple bar where you can pick your own apple toppings. David went with M&Ms and sprinkles. I had a Snickers apple. It was a good time. We closed out the weekend with a family nap and a brinner of eggs, hashbrowns and bacon.
The Davids Maas checking out various spheres in the children's garden.

More of David at Morton Arboretum. Note the winter coat. It's freezing here.

Nahnee Surprise

2009-09-30T22:23:00.004-05:00

Last weekend we had our fall block party. The block party combined all of David's favorite things: lots of kids to play with, toys strewn about the street, an abundance of food and a bouncer right in front of our house for two consecutive days. It really doesn't get much better than that.

David (and Fiona) eating all the neighbors' food and enjoying the bouncer.

Sunday morning, the kids couldn't stand waiting for the grown-ups to lift the very very heavy bouncer and put it back in the street, so they attempted to move it themselves.

David got a very special surprise last night. A visit from Nahnee, who found out Monday that he would have to fly up here yesterday for work. He stayed the night with us and managed to squeeze in a considerable amount of choo choo time as well as a trip to Oberweis.

Nahnee and David working on his train

South side David

2009-09-23T21:04:00.008-05:00

David continues to grow, learn and amuse. He has lots to say but some interesting sentence structure. Recently he has taken to exclaiming "My oh gosh!" He has also clearly memorized parts of his favorite books and now declares "Day or night, never stop working!" in a sing-songy voice when we open his truck book. (The first sentence is "Day or night, trucks never stop working.) I'm catching more and more snippets of Mandarin now, and when he's not bouncing off the walls, he is a good little student.
We are giving potty training a go, though I wouldn't be surprised if it's another 6 months or so before we actually declare victory. He is a boy, after all. He made it all the way through today in underwear for Alma and proudly told me that he got candy (one M&M) for going pee on the potty, and after she left promptly peed and pooped in his underwear for me and Kevin.
His latest adventures include a trip downtown to Millennium Park and the Art Institute where he and Alma ran into our friend Dalia and her son Gabe. Both boys were apparently very excited to see each other. We're going to see Gabe again after Mandarin class on Friday.
Checking out the choo choos and the Crown Fountain at Millennium Park

Wednesday night we went to the Cubs game. In addition to our usual ride on the green line, we got to take the red line which goes underground. This has pretty much ruined the green line experience for David as he's asked about going underground every time we've taken the train since.

Kevin and David at various spots in and around Wrigley. Please note that David insisted on wearing his White Sox shirt to the Cubs game. He is very south side.

We made a repeat trip to Millennium Park on Saturday. David frolicked in water that I could barely stick my toes in for fear of frostbite.

A few shots from David's Cloudgate ("the bean") photo shoot

That night we went to fireworks night at Sox Park. Such a fun park to take kids. David had the usual--a few innings of baseball until the junk food ran out, Fundamentals where he practiced his base running and fielding, more food, then back to our seats for fireworks. This time he made it about 15 seconds in to the fireworks display and decided he was done.

Recruiting visit

2009-09-13T20:44:00.001-05:00

Last April, we went to NC to visit friends and my alma mater. In the interest of equal time, we took a trip down to Champaign this weekend to show David the University of Illinois and take in a football game.
We arrived Saturday afternoon and headed to Kevin's old apartment. Very scenic. We walked around a little while and purchased new Illinois shirts for everyone. David also conned us into a mini-football which hasn't left his hand since. We walked to the game. David enjoyed the marching bands and was into the game until he ran out of nachos. He and I spent the second quarter running around the stadium, and we left relatively early in the third quarter due to toddler exhaustion. Fortunately, the game was well in hand at that point, so even Kevin didn't protest.

David and Kevin at apartment 16. The 3 of us outside Memorial Stadium.

David and Kevin at the game

Today we continued on our quest to make ourselves feel old by checking out the dorm where Kevin lived his freshman year. Fifteen years ago. We walked around campus some more and saw the quad and the Morrow plots which are America's oldest experimental corn field or something like that. The library is built underground so as not to cast a shadow on the corn. I'm not making this up.

We capped off the visit with the purchase of several more orange shirts and a delicious lunch at Zorba's where the gyros aren't particularly authentic, but they are gooooood.
Kevin's freshman and sophomore dorm.

Shots from around campus including the Alma Mater (scary) and the quad

A corn field (doesn't every college campus have one?) and a gyro

Last but not least, video of David practicing his I-L-L at the game.

Labor Day weekend

2009-09-09T23:06:00.001-05:00

David had a full schedule this Labor Day. On Friday, he made his triumphant return to Mandarin class after the two week break between summer and fall sessions. He was fired up to say the least and spent a good portion of the class shouting into the teacher's toy microphone and running around like a fool.
Saturday Kevin and David left me behind to tend to colds, diaper rashes and other nonemergencies while they went to Galena. They stopped at the Oak Park farmers market on the way and met up with our friends, Ann and Andy, and their daughters, Veda and Neena. Then they hit the road and surprised Grandma, Grandpa, GG, Uncle Dave and the rest of the group at the Galena house. David thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with the family and gorging himself at the corn roast. They came home Sunday afternoon, and we enjoyed some family time at the park and Oberweis.
David and Veda at the farmers market. David purchasing a sunflower.

Taking quick nap before eating his body weight in corn.

Boat ride with Grandpa and story time with Grandma

We had a low key Labor Day. We did manage to invite ourselves over to Steve's place for some bbq. It was a very exciting trip for David, who got to see his beagle buddy Linus, a new puppy Creme and all 3 of Steve and Allan's Rock Band guitars. Plus we hit the local frozen custard shop. It doesn't get much better.

For Nahnee

2009-09-03T19:44:00.001-05:00

David Maas Adams Maas

2009-08-30T21:27:00.004-05:00

When Uncle Dave was little, he thought he had two names. David Maas Michael Maas. We've been trying to get David to say his full name recently, so we thought it was too cute when he started saying that he is David Maas Adams Maas. I attempted to capture this on video and, of course, failed. He says it correctly for the first time in weeks. (I caught the tail end of him singing the "du zi" song from Mandarin class. Du zi means "tummy," so we sing "du zi du zi du zi" over and over before snack time.)

Weekend in Galena

2009-08-30T19:36:00.006-05:00

Kevin took the day off of work on Friday, and after running some errands in the morning, we headed out to Galena to spend the weekend with Adam and Laura. We arrived mid-afternoon, and David practice his golf game and helped Kevin fill the bird feeders.

The real fun began Saturday when we went to town and visited our favorite popcorn place. It was buy 3 get 1 free, so between 4 adults and 1 child, we left with 12 bags of popcorn. Below you can see David enjoying the stuffed potato flavor and posing by a Corvette for Kevin's enjoyment.

Later in the evening we went to the marina. There we captured these rare photographs: Adam not flipping off the camera and a picture without David.

Before we headed for home today, we went back to town for more junk food including (but not limited to) enormous caramel apples, ice cream and very fancy chocolates. Don't let the last picture fool you, he slept for an hour of the drive home and yelled at Kevin to turn around and go back to "Geena house" for two.

In other David news, we're working on making bed time lower maintenance. David had a very easy transition from his various caregivers in China to us, but he has always been very particular about his bed time routine and wants me to sit with him until he is asleep. No substitutions allowed, and help us all if he wakes up while I'm trying to sneak out of his room. So we're working on him falling asleep with his door open and me across the hall in the computer room. We've promised a big boy bed with trucks and trains on the sheets if he can do it. So far, no tears, but as I type this I'm being summoned into his room for about the sixth time tonight. Last time, he just wanted to tell me "big boy bed." We'll see how this goes...

Planes, trains and fireworks night

2009-08-23T22:06:00.001-05:00

We attempted the air and water show last Sunday. David woke up at 5:45 that morning, so he only made it about an hour into the show before he was tired, grumpy and ready to go home. He did enjoy the planes, boats and skydivers that he saw; and he also seemed to really enjoy the lake. That's probably because Kevin was holding him, so he didn't actually come in contact with the water which was crazy cold. In August. Eleven years, and I still can't believe I live in this climate.
Kevin, David and a bunch of fools in Lake Michigan. (David insists on wearing his hats backwards.)

Poor Alma got stuck in the Seattle airport for 36 hours due to storms in Chicago and United's incompetence, so we were nanny-less on Monday. Kevin stayed home with David in the morning, and then took him in to the 'flex until I could get there. David was very very happy to see her back on Tuesday and is completely enamoured with the toy school bus and t-shirt she brought him.

Thursday Alma had jury duty, so Grandma Maas spent the day with David. They hung out at GG's house, ate a lot (that is probably implied given that they were with Lil) and played hockey.

Friday we had a play date with my friend Dalia and her son Gabe. That evening we did family haircuts (David still requires a straight jacket for haircuts) and dinner with Grandma and Grandpa.

As usual, David stayed busy over the weekend. After taking a dive off the kitchen counter in the morning (he's fine...Kevin still hasn't recovered), he rebounded for a trip to the Field Museum.
David watching the trains on his way to the museum, playing the drums in the children's museum and enjoying a snack by the lake.

Last night we went to the White Sox game and had a great time. Not only did the Sox win, but David selected a new hat and shirt for himself. He also really enjoyed their FUNdamentals area where kids can practice throwing, hitting, fielding and running. His favorite by far was racing a cutout of Scott Podsednik to first base. We waited in a very long line and thought for sure he would refuse to run when he realized he had to do it by himself, but as soon as I told him he was next, he was off like a shot. He didn't actually wait for the kid in front of him to finish or for cardboard Pods to be ready to race, but he had a huge smile on his face the entire 90 feet. We wrapped it up with fireworks after the game and a nice trip home on the green line during which David entertained his fellow passengers with grins and sideways glances.

The 3 of us at the game (please note our autumn-like attire). David two fisting ballpark food.

David practicing his swing in kids area and sound asleep (finally!) on the way home from the green line.

Today we went to church and ran some errands in the morning. After David's nap we went (where else?) to the zoo. Today's highlights were a gorilla eating its own poop and a couple of camels wrestling. We stopped at Oberweis on the way home and finished off the weekend with David's first bath since Wednesday. (I wish I was kidding.)
David checking out the zebras and showing off his mad climbing skills. Watching the camels with Kevin.

Nahnee is nanny

2009-08-16T07:03:00.001-05:00

While Alma was on vacation last week, my parents (referred to here as Nahnee and Ramma until David changes their names again) flew in to play substitute nanny. They survived but likely will need 12-14 hours of sleep a night for the next several days to recover.
Last Sunday we spent the morning in Millennium Park where David refused to go in the water, checked out the bean and two fisted Original Rainbow Cone ice cream.

During the week, the first thing out of David's mouth every morning was "Wake up Nahnee. Play choo choo!" And that's exactly what he did. Ramma and Nahnee took David to eat lunch with GG and to the zoo. Every one had a very nice time, and other than mild exhaustion, there were no injuries to report.
David showing Nahnee where to go on the zoo map and reading a LaBorde family favorite with Ramma.

My parents brought with them a nice stretch of unusually summer-like weather that we have all enjoyed. David has been hitting the sprinkler hard this weekend and insisting that every one else, bathing suit or no bathing suit, run through the water with him.

Today it's off to the air and water show. Pictures to follow.

What have I been doing with my time?

2009-08-05T22:35:00.004-05:00

I'm not sure why I haven't had time to post in the last week and a half. David had a bad cough, which is now much much better. Between the hacking and the bad vacation sleep habits, we've only just begun to sleep through the night again. It's nice to finally be back in our groove. (That sounds slightly less lame than routine which is exactly what I mean.)
Last weekend while I worked, Kevin and GG took David to Navy Pier. Later that evening, David hit the town with Alma, Sabrina, Alma's cousin and her kids while Kevin and I had a date night with Adam and Laura. We went to see Rod Blagojevich: Superstar, a Second City show at Navy Pier. It was a lot of fun. We definitely need to get out more as grown ups. Both of us had to stop ourselves from pointing out choo choos to Adam and Laura as we drove downtown. On Sunday, we did Lincoln Park zoo and brunch with Godfather Steve.
Last night Kevin spent the night at Nate and Charmaine's house on Evie duty while they welcomed baby Griffin Everett "Finn" to the world. Everyone is doing great, and we are super excited to meet the newest Derdozo!
Here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure. (No baby Fin yet, but we'll be barging over there with our camera soon enough.)
At Navy Pier

At Lincoln Park zoo with Steve, and throwing down some brunch at Stanley's.

Nothing could be finer

2009-07-26T08:54:00.004-05:00

We are back from the beach, and it was fantastic. We spent a week in Litchfield, SC, about 20 miles south of Myrtle Beach. We went with both sets of grandparents, GG, Aunt Leslie and Uncle Stanley, Uncle Dave and his fiancee, Great Aunt Vic, John and their friend Cheryl. There was also a special guest appearance by Uncle Adams. So basically at any given time, there was David plus about 14 adults who think everything he does is the best, funniest, most brilliant thing they've ever seen. We currently have him under very careful supervision as he detoxes from all that attention.
We started our vacation with a weigh in. Dave's fiancee challenged Kevin and Uncle Dave to a fat off. Whoever lost the least weight would have to buy Illinois football and basketball tickets for his thinner brother. David was nervous at the weigh in, but Kevin's 12 pounds was enough to seal the victory.
David knew beating Uncle Dave in the fat off would be tough.

We flew in to Myrtle Beach Saturday evening. After what may be the longest wait for bags and a rental car in the history of our travels, we finally made it to the beach house. We took David out to see the ocean. He splashed in the ocean some but wasn't so sure about it. (It took him until Wednesday to really get in to the water.) He fell in love with sand and his wagon full of shovels immediately.

David's first time on the beach. Sunset over the marsh.

Sunday was all beach all the time. Here is David in Nahnee's old navy hat and playing catch with GG and Uncle Dave.

Action shot. Flying a kite with Grandpa.

Monday Kevin and I celebrated our 7th anniversary (and Grandma and Grandpa's 34th) with a delicious breakfast prepared by Dave and his fiancee, a round of mini golf, a little beach time with David and a nice dinner at Oliver's Lodge while the 12 other adults in the house babysat. We returned home a little after 10:00 to find that David had refused bath and bed and was happily playing with the choo choo set from Nahnee's house.

David refused the plastic kiddie club and even the shortest regular club and spent most of his golf time using Kevin's. Kevin, David and GG. Me and Kevin all cleaned up for dinner.

Tuesday was more beach and a little pool time. David spent more time examining the fresh water trickling in to the pool than he did actually swimming. The Maas contingent went dancing Tuesday night, so the LaBorde side (pictured in front of the inlet) made a return trip to Oliver's Lodge.

Wednesday the Maases took a day trip to Charleston. We enjoyed a harbor cruise, where we got beautiful views of the city as well as a pod of dolphins. We also had some good food at A.W. Shucks and checked out the Market. David was a trooper and managed to stay awake and pleasant way past nap time, but he eventually crashed and burned and was sound asleep before we got to our final stop--Kilwin's for some ice cream. We came back to more good food at the house, a dinner that included Uncle Stanley's famous stuffed shrimp.

Kevin and David on the boat. Playing with Grandma at the restaurant. Unconscious at 3pm.

Thursday we tried to spend as much time on the beach as possible. We had a group dinner that night followed by my family's beach tradition, a game of Trivial Pursuit. (We're nerds.) Unfortunately, our strongest player, Nahnee, had to leave that afternoon to go back to work. The LaBordes were allowed to phone-a-friend him, and though there was some grumbling from the other side when we won, I maintain it was completely legit.

Friday was more beach time, another round of mini golf and a game of Apples to Apples during which GG kept us all very entertained.
Sunrise. David playing his ball from the rough. Going for a walk with GG.

David sent Nahnee an email to keep him up to speed on what we were up to and kicked back in the jacuzzi tub that night. Uncle Dave with GG.

Kevin, David and I hit the beach at sunrise yesterday morning. Kevin and David played catch and checked out crab holes. Then we had to pack it up until next time.

On our way to the airport, we stopped at the Island Shops where David picked out a new South Carolina hat. He was a hit at both airports with his hat and suitcase.

We are back at home. Unfortunately our efforts to get David back on some sort of sleep schedule are being thwarted by a crabby boy with a fever that started about half an hour after bedtime last night. Hopefully he'll be fully recovered soon so that we can all get some sleep and recover from our vacation.

For Megan

2009-07-19T06:11:00.000-05:00

Bonus pictures from the Taste

2009-07-14T21:46:00.002-05:00

These were emailed to us by the lovely and talented Laura who continues to date Adam though she is way out of his league. I thought they were too cute not to post. Thanks, Laura!

Completely unrelated to these pictures, I need to get some video of David talking before I miss my window. His negatives are the cutest. In general, he makes an affirmative statement and follows it with an emphatic "no" and a head shake instead of saying don't or not. For example, he doesn't say, "Don't do that." He says, "Do that, no!" and shakes his head. He also continues to call Snoopy "Beezus" which I can't get enough of.

Cheezborger cheezborger cheezborger

2009-07-12T23:23:00.000-05:00

This weekend I had my usual Friday off for the first time in 3 weeks. David and I celebrated with a little parent and tot Mandarin. This week we learned words for various sea creatures, so we are all set for a trip to the hai (ocean). I continue to be totally impressed by how much I'm retaining (I can only imagine what is sticking in David's younger, more plastic brain) and by how much fun David has. Language Stars, everyone. Sign your kids up!
Saturday we hit Sox park for a season ticket holders' do. We got to eat free food (that was the first thing on David's agenda), walk around the warning track and check out the visitors' dugout and club house. There was more to see and do, but there's only so much even our sports enthusiast two year old would tolerate. David had a lot of fun playing catch with Kevin in the visitors' bullpen as well as various other spots. He also climbed in and out of almost every locker in the club house.
David's White Sox highlights: stuffing his face, the visitor's bullpen, jumping in and out of lockers

I enjoyed the numerous soaps, lotions and gels available to the players. I can only imagine what kinds of lightly scented moisturizers they have for the manly men in the home club house. Also of note: boat loads of junk food.

After a nice long nap that afternoon, we hit GG's block party. There was a fire truck and a never ending supply of food. Bet you never could have guessed that.

David and Grandpa salvaging spilled bubbles. David devouring his ice cream cone.

Today we took David on his first Chicago boat tour. It was not just any boat tour--it was a canine cruise. Mercury Cruise lines periodically opens their 90 minute river and lake tour to well behaved dogs and their humans. Pete and Snoopy do not qualify as well behaved, but David liked being on the boat with the other puppies. I think he really had fun being out on the water, too. After our boat ride, we hit the original Billy Goat's Tavern for some cheezborger cheezborger cheezborgers and (no fries) chips.

Last but not least, we trucked out to St. Charles this afternoon to hang with Kate, Josh, baby Zach and Nate, Charmaine and Evie. David and Evie were really cute together, and I think both the grown ups and kids had a really nice time.

After a weekend like that, if David doesn't sleep in tomorrow morning, I give up.

Early intervention

2009-07-08T11:58:00.002-05:00

Yesterday David put on a show for the developmental and speech therapists from Illinois' early intervention program who came out to do a follow up evaluation. We are pleased to report that, at the age of 29 months, his expressive language is at the 30 month level and his receptive language scored at the 33 month level, making him normal and age appropriate. I guess we can stop obsessing over his speech. For now.

David's Taste tally

2009-07-05T21:22:00.009-05:00

Since my last post, we have been rabbit free and David has been to the Taste of Chicago 3 more times to bring his grand total to 6 trips this year. He sampled from 51 servings of 48 different items from 33 booths. (Did you think we weren't keeping track?) If he doesn't have type 2 diabetes, it's not because we're not trying. My mom will be happy to hear that he loves Rainbow Cone and actually pointed to the booth on Saturday and said, "Have it this!" And have it he did. I think a trip to the south side for some ice cream is in order with the SC GPs come to town in August.

David stuffing his face with some delicious corn. He insisted on being the one to hand over the tickets at every booth.

Enjoying more tempura and some Eli's cheesecake with Great Grandma Lil

We spent this weekend in Galena with Great Grandma Lil, whom we are trying to get David to call GG because Great Grandma Lil is way too long, and Grandma and Grandpa Maas. Saturday was rainy and cool, but David amused himself playing "hockey" with his plastic golf clubs and foosball. We also made a brief trip into town where we hit the highlights: the awesome popcorn store, Poopsie's, and Chef Ivo's where Chef Ivo himself was so enamoured by David and his orange crocs that he gave him a very large M&M cookie. Today we had much better weather, so we went out on Grandma and Grandpa's boat before we hit the road for home.

David playing foosball and relaxing on Grandpa's wet hammock

The sunglasses lasted just long enough to take this picture

And last, but certainly not least, David pulled Jackie boy's hands off on more than one occasion this weekend. He was so so very proud of himself. This is for those of you who know Jackie. Enjoy.

Summer in the city

2009-07-01T22:21:00.004-05:00

Until today, we've been enjoying some nice summer weather. We've spent quality outdoor time with friends and neighbors. (See pictures from Gus's 3rd birthday and our trip to the zoo with the lovely Veda and Neena below.)

David has been enjoying his swimming lessons with Alma and sports class with Kevin. Last night was baseball night, and Kevin said he got impatient with the throwing and the catching and starting chanting "Hit! Hit ball!" half way through the class. He hit the ball well off the tee, and they even let him use an aluminum bat.

Today was another story as we enjoyed a high of 65 (the coolest start to July in 79 years according to the-weatherman-who-is-never-wrong Tom Skilling). I never imagined when I signed David up for swimming lessons that it would be too cold to go in the pool in July. I really should know better after living here for 11 years, but denial is a powerful force. And for those of you who are wondering (Mom and Dad), I have been very civil to Kevin today despite these unfortunate weather circumstances.

We've been enjoying perhaps Kevin's very favorite summer event this week--the Taste of Chicago. For 10 days, the streets in and around Grant Park are closed and filled with booths representing 50-something local restaurants. We go early and we go often. This year David is old enough to understand what the Taste is all about, and he LOVES it. The kid is a pig. He will eat anything and everything we put in front of him. We still have trips planned tomorrow and Friday, so the final tally is not in, but these pictures are of him eating alligator sausage on a stick, ribs, a popcorn popsicle and a Maxwell Street burger (which is topped with onion and two different forms of pork). He has also sampled tempura, vegetarian bbq, cornbread, spinach pizza, chocolate banana eggrolls and probably a couple dozen other things; and he leaves downtown saying "Eat!" No doubt he is Kevin's son.

Bunny update

2009-06-30T08:13:00.002-05:00

There are apparently more baby rabbits to be had in our yard. This morning I noticed Snoopy lurking around the dining room table with two little ears sticking out of her mouth. Miraculously, she dropped the rabbit, and I managed to get both dogs outside. I returned to find this little guy pressed as tightly as he could into the corner of our dining room under a chair. David and I swept him into this bucket which we placed in the bushes out front.

Kill da wabbit

2009-06-29T21:57:00.003-05:00

I had planned to put up a post of David's first three (of six) trips to the Taste of Chicago and some other stuff tonight. We got home late from Uncle Dave's game, and then the dogs killed two baby rabbits in our back yard. So tonight's activities are more carcass clean up focused than we had originally planned. I suppose we should be happy they didn't bring them in the house. I will leave you with this cute picture of David assisting with dinner earlier this month and try to post more in the next day or two.

Block party weekend

2009-06-22T12:36:00.002-05:00

Well, I have now accidentally broken the news of Dave's engagement to Aunt Fran, Rich's sister who lives in Rome (nothing like telling a nun about her nephew's engagement via a blog post entitled "Holy crap!"), and to one of Dave's fiancee's co-workers when I called to sign up David for another round of Mandarin classes this fall. Let the record show, I asked permission before posting anything, so I don't think my big mouth is the issue. This time. Also, hi Fran! Thanks for checking in on us. Can't wait to see you next time you visit or (even better) next time we're in Italy.
And now on to the uninteresting minutia of our lives. It was block party weekend. We could not ask for better neighbors. They are such a fun group of people with really great kids, and lots of them. This weekend, we barricaded off the street for Saturday and Sunday. Fiona told anyone who would listen that she could cross the street without having to ask permission. We rented a bouncer, which David loved. I was impressed with how careful the big kids were when the little ones were in there jumping. They would even pick David up and let him dunk the ball in the oversized inflatable basket. There were kiddie pools and junk food galore, and miraculously there was also sunshine and warm weather for what felt like the first time all year.
Sunday a fire engine came in the morning. David refused to hold the hose and put out the fake fire but did enjoy getting in the truck and wearing his new plastic fire hat. Grandma and Grandpa Maas came over to celebrate Father's Day and so did Uncle Dave. A good time was had by all, except perhaps Dave who suffered through an endless barrage of (my) wedding and engagement questions.
Saturday: in the bouncer, chillin with Olivia and Jackson and with the ladies in the pool

The neighbors were impressed with David's swing (here beating on the pinata) and his ability to ride a two wheeled scooter. Also pictured, David and Olivia playing hockey-football.

Sunday: checking out the fire engine

Playing catch with Grandpa. Demanding that Pete lick his face. With Grandpa and Daddy.

Holy crap! Uncle Dave is engaged!!!

2009-06-19T19:56:00.003-05:00

We are thrilled and, quite frankly, mystified. Uncle Dave asked his girlfriend to marry him last night, and she said yes!!! Congratulations, Uncle Dave! Plus this special message from David to his soon-to-be aunt:

[Video removed]

Stuff David is doing

2009-06-14T22:03:00.004-05:00

David is going through a NO NO ME DO phase right now. He must do everything. Everything. Except for the parts that involve a hot stove, he makes his own scrabbled egg in the morning. He takes the eggs out of the fridge, picks one, cracks it, adds milk, salt and pepper and scrabbles it with a fork...all the while telling me "No, Mommy! Me. ME." If we are grocery shopping, he must take the food off the shelf and put it in the basket himself. If we try to get something ourselves, he demands it, puts it back in its place, then takes it off the shelf again himself. The same applies to opening doors (including unlocking them with the key), opening the shower door when I'm done showering and about a million other activities of daily living.
He is talking like crazy. We now get a play by play of every thing that is and is not going on around us. If he sees someone with a hat, he tells us. He then points to every other person around and tells us if they are or are not wearing a hat. Every airplane he sees is going to Nahnee's house to play choo choo, and any time we bring him inside he demands that he not be forced to nap against his will. "No nap no nap no nap no nap!"
He is obsessed with driving. It is impossible to go anywhere now without him insisting that he sit in the front seat and "dwive." He genuinely does not understand why the car won't go when he's at the wheel.
He is Kevin's son through and through. He loves sports. All sports. Sometimes we'll go down in to the basement, and he'll say "tv on...baseball." And if I turn on Sportscenter for him, he'll jump up and down and shout at the highlights. He even yelled "Go Blackhawks!" when he saw Stanley Cup highlights the other day. Never mind that it was the Penguins and the Redwings, he knew it was hockey and that he's supposed to cheer for the Blackhawks. He started his parent and tot sports class with Kevin Tuesday night. It was football week. David will now put his arm up in the air like a place kicker and run up and kick the football. He'll also hold it with one finger for Kevin. While I worked yesterday, Kevin and David went to the toy store and got a street hockey set that David loves. He is currently sleeping with one of the hockey sticks. They took it to Lil's house and had a great time. David kept insisting that Great Grandma Lil play with him.
We started our Mandarin class at Language Stars Friday morning. David was a little apprehensive for the first few minutes. He looked at me several times like I must be a crazy fool to bring him to a place where he can't understand a thing, but by the second activity he was actually repeating words and phrases after the teacher and seemed to enjoy himself. I was pretty impressed to see how much some of the other kids in his class who had been in the program for a while knew. One of the moms there told me that David was doing great for his first class. I wasn't quite sure what to make of that since her son spent about 80% of the time having a complete meltdown. At any rate, I can now count to 10 in Mandarin, and I know the words for ball, star and water. If I can pick up that much in one hour, I can only imagine how much David's little brain that is still wired to learn language will absorb. Pretty neat.
Friday night we went downtown to Blues Fest. We listened to the music for a relatively short time. David was mostly interested in the food (he devoured some shrimp and vegetable tempura) and getting back on the choo choo to go home. We capped of the night with ice cream at Oberweis.
This morning we went to Lincoln Park zoo with our friend Nickie. There was no construction equipment, so David was forced to look at the animals. He really like the monkeys and the farm. He also really liked eating. This afternoon we went to Fiona's birthday party at My Gym, which is essentially a room filled with balls and toys and climbing stuff where kids can run around like maniacs. David loved it.
Playing hockey with great grandma. Blues Fest with Kevin. Millennium Park with me.

At the zoo with Nickie. David at My Gym (with Fiona in the middle picture).

Action shot. Fiona in a sugar coma.

The Art 'tute and other adventures

2009-06-07T18:04:00.006-05:00

We kicked off the week by celebrating Grandma Maas's birthday with a delicious Italian dinner at Antico Posto. They are known for their gnocchi, and David is known for eating gnocchi, so it was a perfect fit. David helped Grandma blow out her candle and got his own candle on his ice cream.
Tuesday night Kevin and David met up with the Mazhars, whom you may remember from such posts as our San Diego trip, and the Shuklas at Portillo's. The kids had a great time playing together, and I am told the restaurant is still standing.
David very relaxed at nap time (courtesy of Alma). David with Sulaiman and Veda.

Thursday David enjoyed the first of two birthday parties for Fiona. This one was the usual crowd at Fiona's house for Chinese food and cupcakes. Next weekends, we'll attend party #2 at My Gym. As always, the kids had a lot of fun, and David ate a ridiculous amount of food.

Friday evening we took the el downtown and walked around Millennium Park. We also attempted to check out the Art Institute (which David calls the "Art 'tute"). Kevin and I hadn't seen the new modern wing. Unfortunately, David had and is apparently bored with it already because all he wanted to do was climb the stairs and then go back outside to the park. So back to the park we went and got some ice cream before taking the train back home.

Yesterday we went to the farmers market in the morning. The donut line was out of control, so David gorged himself on some really fantastic strawberries instead.
Today we drove out to Roselle to watch Uncle Dave's baseball game. Uncle Dave did not disappoint. He was hit by a pitch (his signature move) in his first two at bats, and Roselle won 15-1. Afterwards we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house for some cookies and play time.
It was drizzling when we first got to the game, and David insisted on carrying the umbrella. No eyes were lost in the making of this photograph.

Playing catch with Dad. Refusing to play catch with Uncle Dave.

On the phone with Grandpa. Action shot (note exaggerated left arm swing).

No cavities

2009-05-31T21:47:00.000-05:00

Friday I kicked off my "day off" by rolling out of bed and leaving the house at 5:25am to round at the hospital before David's dentist appointment. Nothing more enjoyable on your day off than working followed by the dentist. We were a little apprehensive about the dentist because their office (recommended to us by David's plastic surgeon) doesn't allow parents to go back with the kids for their appointments. We weren't sure how this would go, but he did great. He cried at first when they took him back, but a few minutes later they came to get me so that I could peek in on him, and he was calm and cooperating with his cleaning. His teeth got a clean bill of health: no cavities and, much to our surprise, the tooth at his cleft is finally coming in. After surviving the dentist and ridiculous traffic there and back (I can thank the stimulus package and "shovel ready" roadwork projects for that--who knew bolstering the economy would mean I would never get to drive more than 8 mph for the entire summer?), we took the el downtown and took Millennium Park by storm.

Yesterday I worked in the morning while David and Kevin went to the farmer's market. He was not as enthusiastic about his donut as he was last year, but I'm sure with practice he'll return to his old form. We went downtown in the afternoon to check out the newly renovated oceanarium at the Shedd Aquarium. David spent 90 seconds watching the animals, 5 minutes enjoying the hand wash stations at the interactive exhibit and the rest of his timing runing up and down and up and down the 1284 stairs at the oceanarium. Afterwards, we had dinner by Buckingham fountain before taking the choo choo back home.

David helping with dinner and enjoying Buckingham fountain

Today we made it to the early church service. David managed to keep it together through most of the sermon and then began chanting "outside outside outside!" which is where he and I spent most of the remainder of the service. We came home and packed a picnic lunch and headed for Starved Rock state park in lovely Utica, IL (population 1000). It is about an hour and a half drive. The park is on the Illinois River. We enjoyed our lunch and did some hiking. The climb up Starved Rock is very short and paved. It was amusing to hear all the people huffing and puffing about how hard it was to walk up. Then on our way down we passed a woman on crutches and an elderly couple pulling an oxygen tank behind them, neither of whom seemed to be having any trouble with the climb. Before we left, we enjoyed some soft serve ice cream at the visitor's center, which David was not very amenable to sharing. He was sound asleep about 5 minutes into the drive home. Overall, a very nice weekend.

Pictures from atop Starved Rock

Pictures from our hike in French Canyon. David eating most of my ice cream.

The opposite of good sleep hygeine

2009-05-27T20:52:00.003-05:00

When I recommend to parents that they have a good bed time routine and wind things down during the half an hour to hour leading up to bed time, I mean the opposite of this, which is what David did over and over and over right before we put him to bed tonight.

Congratulations, Sarah and Kevin!

2009-05-26T21:44:00.002-05:00

Before we skipped town for a long weekend, David beat me and Kevin to the new modern wing of the Art Institute. Alma took him downtown on the el. He thoroughly enjoyed both the train ride and the new family center in the modern wing. It apparently has fun furniture to climb on and lots of art projects for kids of all ages.

Thursday night we flew to South Carolina to stay with my parents, who are now known as Nahnee and 'Mama...until David starts calling them something else next week. We had a really nice weekend that included multiple trips to Chick-fil-A, the zoo, David feeding Bette and Ezra an endless supply of milkbones and a wedding. We also got to see lots of family and friends.

Next time David is getting his own milkshake. At the zoo with Haley Starnes.

David gorging himself on strawberry jelly and "driving" (his new obsession) Nahnee's truck. We will be buying Nahnee washer fluid for Father's Day.

My sister's high school friend Sarah got married on Sunday. It was a beautiful wedding, and the food was delicious. You can't beat a wedding reception with a grits bar. We were happy we could make it down for the big event and wish Sarah and Kevin all the best, even if they are Maryland fans.

The family minus Adams. David made a friend at the reception who enjoys run-run-running as much as he does.

Looking handsome in his Chinese duds. With Aunt Leslie.

We flew home last night, and the pups came home this evening. David was happy to see them again and said, "Beebee home yay! Beezus home yay!" (Beebee is Petie...not sure how Beezus = Snoopy, but that's his name for her) as he was telling them goodnight.

David stuffing his face at the Charlotte airport