Boo at the Zoo

Isabella tried out her "Charlotte" costume for the first time last night at Boo at the Akron Zoo event.

Charlotte, you ask? Well, when asked what she wanted to be for Halloween, Isabella smiled and said Charlotte's Web, after her favorite movie. "You mean Charlotte the spider?" Yep!
So after searching the Internet, I found an adorable spider costume at Pottery Barn Kids. And it fits perfectly.

We originally planned to go to the zoo event today, but when I received an email from a fellow adoptive mom who was organizing a Guate-adoption night, I said we'll go then! Eleven families with Guatemalan beauties graced the sidewalks at the zoo last night and their costumes were adorable! And it was great to meet face-to-face so many of the moms and dads we read about and talk to in the blogosphere.

Along with us, Grandma and Papa G and Aunt Julie and Uncle Chris joined the bunch. What a great time!

Szalay's Harvest Festival

Sunday, Kevin, Isabella and I went some friends - Tessa, Michele, Maya and friends-at Szalay's in the valley for a fantastic Corn Maze. The maze is in the shape of Frankenstein and really appears as Frankenstein in ariel shots. It's huge and was a lot of fun to go through, for both Isabella and the kids and us adults.

After the Corn Maze, we enjoyed shopping for fresh produce in the open air market and taste-tasting the roasted sweet corn, warm apple cider and veggies. Isabella and Kevin ate ice cream and pet every dog at the event.

What a great birthday!

Even though I crept one year closer to the dreaded 30, I had a great birthday! Isabella was well behaved during the day while I worked.

We met my Mom and Dad G and Julie and Chris at Damon's - one of my favorite restaurants - for an early dinner. Kevin had the staff sing Happy Birthday and I turned bright red!

We then headed back to my Mom's house for presents and ICE CREAM CAKE (YEAH)! I am spoiled and was again with great gifts - clothes and books and candles and scented oils, lotion and a wonderful memory pillow. And, of course, Isabella had fun opening all the gifts.

Wow! What a great day!

The Punkin Patch

After Paige's birthday party, we headed the Ruefner's Harvest Festival for an old-fashioned hayride and pumpkin picking. Now since it was nearly 90 degrees out we didn't enjoy ourselves that much but Isabella had fun petting the animals, going through the hay maze and visiting her first "punkin patch". She even got to bring home her very own punkin.

Now since it was so warm, Kevin sat in the the nice air-conditioned car while I took Isabella on the 30-minute hayride and pumpkin picking adventure. One man (who had two sons with him) felt so bad that I had no one to help or to take pictures that he volunteered to snap a few shots and he emailed them to us.

Isabella had fun running through the pumpkin patch and after nearly 5 minutes picked one of the smallest pumpkins to bring home with her. I encouraged her to pick a much bigger one since the price was $10 per pumpkin regardless of size, but she was determined to hold her own pumpkin like the other kids. As we were walking up the stairs to get back on the hayride, she dropped the pumpkin and it went SPLAT under the tractor. I grabbed her up and we chose a medium sized pumpkin instead. She insisted that she bring more home, but at $10 a pop I quickly said no. Instead, the next day we went to Acme and purchased five more pumpkins at the bargain price of $2.99 each!

Get well papa!

The day papa had his shoulder surgery Isabella made him a very special picture. While he liked the pic, he loved the photos for her making the gift. Thank goodness for washable, non-toxic markers.

Paige's B-day party

Isabella's friend, Paige, marked her 2nd birthday with a Dora bash with friends and family on Saturday. We would've have missed all the playing and pizza and chicken and cake. Paige even gave out fun birthday gift packs to her guests. Go to go and Happy Birthday, Paige!

Find the Child in you

Isabella's Aunt Melissa found this website that compared how much your child resembles the father and mother. I thought it be funny to test the site to see just how accurate it was. I put Isabella in with both my and Kevin's photo. Check out the result.

Bella's Goofy

Isabella likes playing alongside me while I work. Today she was so good and even smiled for a few shots between my typing. She's quite the little ham.

Sign it now!

Most of you don't follow Guatemalan adoption law. To be honest, I wouldn't either except I have a vested interest, obviously.

Please take a moment to read the following blog post which I had help creating from a fellow adoptive Guate mom's blog (Thanks Mindy)...

Recently, our U.S. Department of State issued a dire warning about Guatemalan adoptions. This warning is nothing new, but it makes an official warning.

But this warning means there is a very real chance that cases that are still pending (still in process) come January 1st, 2008, will not be allowed to be completed.

Those who follow Guate adoption law knew this was coming, but we didn't realize that Guatemala may not allow in-process cases to continue. We have been under the impression from both the Guatemalan Officials as well as the US Dept. of State that in-process cases would be "grandfathered" and allowed to finish up...but now it looking like that very well may NOT be the case.

If this does happen, and adoptions are halted come Jan. 1st, there will be thousands of children left in Guatemala. And I do mean thousands. If you would like to step up then PLEASE contact your local congressman, senators, and US Dept. of State to pressure Guatemala into a grandfather clause.

Just think back two year's ago this time. We were waiting for Isabella. Her homecoming would not have made the cut since she came home in late March. Tears fill my eyes just thinking this and I pray for those mothers and fathers who are facing this reality now.

PLEASE help us take action for the children in Guatemala. Here is the link of an online petition that I am BEGGING you to take a moment to sign. We need these in process cases to continue. Please, even if you don't know a single person who has adopted from Guatemala but us, take the time to sign this. It will only take a second. Please do it for the other families who want to bring their children HOME. http://www.petitiononline.com/foafoa1/petition.html

Our new groove

Well today was the first day of working from home with Isabella. And let me just say that it worked out a lot better than I had hoped.

She was so good and even took a two hour nap, which is unheard of lately. She likes pulling a chair up beside me at the desk and pretending that she's typing alongside me.

Kevin converted our extra bedroom into an office/playroom so it's perfect for us to work and play all day. She's even big enough to play in the living room if she's wants to (and I can keep an eye on her from the office but she doesn't know that. She thinks she's a "big gurl".)

Fruitees, all gone!

Isabella is addicted to fruit chews. She's likes all flavors and shapes.

I guess it's better that she eat 100% juice fruit chews than ask for candy all day. The only problem with the fruitees is that she shovels them in, and I mean shovel.

She empties an entire pack into her little hand and shoves all the fruit chews in my mouth at once. We've always called her chipmunk because she hordes food in her cheeks so watching her eat the fruitees is really funny. She's got all the fruit chews in her mouth and she chews as much as possible until the saliva runs out onto her chin.

I've been trying to get her to only put a few at a time in her mouth, and I check to see if she's swallowed all the fruitees before she's allowed to put more in. Open wide!

Soon!!!!!!!!

Watch for updates really soon! After finishing up training today, I packed Isabella up and we headed home - finally. Grandma and Papa G took good care of us but I'm sure they are ready to see us go - at least for a little while.

Next week, it's back to pictures everyday and I hope to get them posted as we go. Isabella's grown so much in just five weeks; you'll be amazed!

Fun Friday

Yeah! Another week of training is over and I officially only have one week to go. By this time next week, I will be done with training and I can work from home on my terms on my own time.

So I got off work early today, came home and swooped up Isabella for a quick Akron Zoo trip. She has been dying to see the lion and Akron added a tiger to its exhibit. I figured I could combine the zoo trip and exercise so I power walked the course in 40 minutes. We still hit all the important exhibits and spent some extra time talking with the lion that was chilling in the shade.

Then we stopped by our house to play with Molly and Kalli. The dogs jumped and licked Isabella so much! And she gave them treats.

It was a great mom and Bella afternoon.

Happy Birthday to my baby sister!

Julie turns 26 today so that means in exactly three weeks I will be one year away from 30! Yikes! But anyways...wishing my baby sis, Julie, happy 26th!

First football game

Isabella enjoyed her first outdoor football game with Grandma and Papa Kramer last night at Kent Roosevelt High School in Kent.

She was picked up around 6 pm and whisked off to a special pre-game dinner at Burger King. She accompanied Grandma and Papa to the game, but wasn't too interested in the game on the field. She was "busy," they said when they dropped her back off a little after 9 pm. She made it to half-time or should I say Grandma and Papa made it to half-time.

Isabella is a very antsy little two year old so I'm not surprised that she didn't sit still for the game. But she sure had fun - she told mom and dad about dancing to the music and eating chicken nuggets and purple candy. She skipped and jumped around the house full of excitement about her first football game.

Thanks Grandma and Papa! We hope you aren't too tired out!

Swiper get you

Okay so I lied. I do have time today to write a little entry.

Last night was rough. Isabella was up quite a few times crying. A few that she cried herself back to sleep and a few that required intervention. Eventually at 7 am she told my mom that she was scared. Apparently she had a bad dream. Now she keeps saying that "Swiper get you". For those of you out of the Dora scene, Swiper is a fox who takes things away from Dora and Boots. When you see Swiper you yell, Swiper no swiping.

Hopefully she gets a long nap today so I might wish Swiper swipes you. Just kidding of course!

A Blogger Break

Hi Readers,
You are probably asking "Where are the pictures?" It's been a crazy few weeks and the next few promise more unpredictable days. So I've decided to take a two week break from Blogger.

Between work, my back issues (and doctor's appointments), Isabella's crazy schedule, living with my parents and everything else that goes along with life, I need to concentrate on other things right now.

In the meantime, visit my mom's blog http://www.granddaughtersarethebest.blogspot.com/ or my sister's blog http://www.julieandchrismadera.blogspot.com/ to catch up on our lives.

Check back at the end of the month for our reappearance!

Happy Labor Day!

Wishing everyone a great Labor Day and long weekend. While Isabella and Kevin are off enjoying a family cook-out, swimming and playing, I'm stuck working. Oh well, though!

First Fireworks Show

Isabella enjoyed her first fireworks show last night at Stow's Summer Sunset Blast at Silver Springs Park. She was enthralled with the colors and said "Ohh" and "Awhhhh". She was surrounded by friends and family: Aunt Julie, Grandma Mary, Grandma Sue and Papa Al, Miss Tracy, Mommy and Daddy, and friends Morgan and Paige.

The festival had all kinds of kids activities and food and games. Mommy slacked on the "No sugar after 4pm"rule so she was able to enjoy sugars, snow cones and her first taste on cotton candy. She didn't want to give that up but after a few big bites, Mommy had to put it away. She ate popcorn with Grandma Sue and Papa Al, her new favorite food since her "picnics" in Florida.

Stow did a really nice job with this event, the first of its kind. Hopefully they continue to host it and it grows each year! We all had a fun time!

Sorry for the lack of pics. The darkness made it hard to get any good shots. The few I caught on my cellphone, I can't figure out how to email them to my yahoo account.