MilFamMilwaukee: October Numbers and Fall Photos

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

October Numbers and Fall Photos

#47 girls (last month 48)
#36 boys (no change)
#17 siblings (last month 15)

Sigh, these have been some slow referral months. There's not much news, not much to say about it, just waiting. I guess that's about it for this month's adoption update. [NOTE: Since I initially wrote this, there has been news of at least 5 referrals!]

So, besides chronicling the steps to our next child, this blog is also serves as the most reliable journal I keep. After a good reminder from other blogging moms, I finally printed all the blog posts from 2011 into a book. I have one now for 2009, 2010, and 2011. Seeing 2011 in print and recognizing how inadequately I journaled the events of that year, I am feeling some motivation to finish out 2012 a little bit better. 2012 is going to be a very skinny book if I don't do something about it soon.

So, a few fall highlights of Milfammilwaukee.

First field trip. Bear's been talking about moving to the Giraffe room at school with much anticipation for a few months now. Being a Giraffe is big deal in his words because 1) Giraffes don't wear diapers, and 2) Giraffes ride on a school bus to take field trips! This September, Bear and his friends took their very first field trip to the pumpkin patch. I don't know what was more thrilling, getting on the school bus, riding on the school bus, bouncing on the school bus, yelling on the school bus, or the pumpkin patch. It was also my first time being a parent chaperon. Whoa. My senses were exhausted after the 2 hour excursion with 100 swirling kids. I don't know how teachers do it! But the kids (and the parents) had a lot of fun. They learned about migrating animals, fed goats and llamas, ran through the corn maze, took a hayride, and last and perhaps least, picked their pumpkins from the patch. Bear's highlights were 1) riding a school bus, (hope I'm conveying how huge this was) 2) petting a snake, and 3) a raucous hay throw with friends and teachers. I think the pumpkin was just a nice take home bonus.

Visit from The Uncles. My sister is one of the most beautiful, lovely, fashionable, feminine women I know. Which makes it especially cute to me that Bear calls her Uncle. "Uncle B" to be precise. We were lucky to have a quick visit from Uncle B and Uncle Kevin in October. It allowed for another (muddy) trip to the pumpkin patch and corn maze, and the Great Pumpkin Carve of 2012. We also got to celebrate Uncle B's birthday. I LOVE how thoroughly loved Bear is by the Uncles.

New job. Dodd has had a lot of work life the past 3 years, not as much family life. He's been trying hard to get to a place that will allow more balance. He started in a new position this October that I think may finally get him there. We've seen more of him in the past few weeks than we've seen in a while. It's good to see Dada having fun again.

Halloween. Bear has a one track mind these days. Race cars. [Thanks to a birthday gift from grandma and grandpa, I have had the pleasure of watching Cars 2 more times than I can count in the past 3 months.] So when I asked him what he wanted to be for Halloween, it was not surprising that he said "a race car!" I thought it would be fun to make the costume together but he did not like anything I came up with because it wasn't McQueen. However, he changed his mind when he saw the fire fighter jacket hanging next to the McQueen costume at Goodwill. So dressed as a fire fighter, he trick or treated his way through my workplace again this year. The kids came away with obscene amounts of candy. I am pleasantly surprised that he lost interest in the candy just a couple days later. Unfortunately I only got 1 photo of him in costume.

Election. We talked about the election a lot. Bear even hung with me through a couple of the debates. He loved hearing NPR talk about Mitt Romney and President Obama on our morning drives to school/work. [Side note, when Bear was a baby, I felt guilty for listening to NPR in the car, feeling like I should be talking to my baby. But it was and still is, my only source for news as any reading and TV has gone by the wayside. However, when he broke out singing the NPR theme song with a big smile on his face as a toddler, I realized it was a positive thing. Now, if I turn it off while we drive, he asks me to turn the news back on.] It's important to us to teach Bear to respect leaders regardless of their views. We speak respectfully of both candidates. After hearing Obama in a debate, he said "Mama, he's a gooood talker!" After hearing Paul Ryan in the VP debate, he said "I like Paul Ryan, he's a good guy." He asked at least once a day when we were going to vote. When election day finally came, I asked him if he knew who we were going to vote for? He replied, "President O-Bomney!" I guess we are raising a moderate.