I'm ready for this day to be over!

It's 11:20 a.m. and I've already had it with this day! Between work (church) stuff, my husband being tied with up with church band responsibilities, an unhappy baby, and my children pooping at inconvenient times and places I am already completely stressed out, ticked off, and exhausted. And this day is not even close to being over yet. I still have to do lots more work (church) stuff, figure out what my family is eating for lunch and dinner, and go to small group. I don't want to do any of it. I want to go check into a hotel and not have to see or speak to anyone until tomorrow at the earliest. But I can't do that, so instead I'll just share a little of my frustration with those of you reading this. I have decided that I will not do anymore work stuff on Sundays anymore. They simply do not pay me enough. The message today was about His Needs/Her Needs in marriage. I didn't get to hear it because I had to go get my screaming child. So Phillip, I'm afraid you're outta luck, pal.

The rug just got yanked

I wrote in my last post that I still feel like someone's going to yank the rug out from underneath me. Well, that happened today. Things are really still fine. Mikey is not going anywhere. But we will not be adopting in November. There was some serious miscommunication going on. Basically, bio. mom did relinquish her rights, but the official court termination order has not been done yet. We were told that it had been done already. It is not scheduled to be done until the end of October. And as of September 1, there is a 90 waiting period after termination for adoption (That used to be 45 days). So, we're probably looking at February at the earliest. If we had been told this a month ago we would have been totally cool with it. But now, given the inaccurate information we've been given, we're really ticked (to put it nicely).

National Adoption Day...not really National

I met with our attorney on Friday and she seems pretty nice. Things seem to be moving along well. I found out that National Adoption Day is different from one county to the next. Brazoria County's National Adoption Day is on Thursday, November 15 instead of Saturday, the 17th like I thought. Why call it National Adoption Day if it's not the same day throughout the Nation??? So, everyone who will be going with us is either going to have to take off work or school so that stinks. I'm sure we will have a lot less people there since it will be during the week. Oh well, that's just the way it is. It was weird to sit down with the attorney and talk through the adoption stuff. It is beginning to seem more real. It was strange to tell her what Mikey's new name will be. The whole thing is just so official or something. I'm still a little afraid someone is going to come along and pull the rug out from under me. I guess that's understandable.

Some Jackson Faces

I haven't put any pictures of Jackson on here in a little while. Here are some from today. He's quite a character.

Oops!

I had kind of a "bad mommy" moment yesterday evening. I was trying to get some stuff cleaned up around the house and I accidentally on purpose threw away some of Jackson's school work. On purpose because I meant to do it, accidentally because I did not mean for him to see it in the trash can. When he saw it he said something like, "Hey, you should not have thrown my school work away! I worked really hard on that!" I was caught off guard and kind of laughed a little, which I should not have done. Anyway, I told him that it was an accident and I was meaning to throw away some other stuff and I accidentally grabbed that too. I don't really know if he believed me or not. But I dug some of it out of the trash can (it was on top so it wasn't too gross yet.)

He comes home with four or five papers everyday. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with this stuff. I have a drawer already full of his work from pre-school and now kindergarten. I want to keep a few cute things, and distribute some stuff to the grandparents. I guess next time I decide to purge some his work, I'll need to put it in a separate bag and put that in the trash. Poor guy! They make him do all this junk at school so he can take it home and his mommy can throw it in the garbage. Oh well, he'll survive I guess.

Mikey Goes to the Shrink

I had to take Mikey to a psychologist today. Is a psychologist considered a shrink or just a psychiatrist? Anyway, he needed a developmental assessment before he's adopted. I think the whole thing is so silly. I understand why it's necessary, but it's still a waste of time.

Phillip and I had to go last week to meet with her and tell her all about Mikey and his personality, what he likes, what he doesn't, what makes him mad, how he acts when he's angry, how he does socially, etc. We said that he doesn't like carrots. I think she was looking for something deeper. We sat on "the couch."

So, anyway, she thinks Mikey is right on track but she thinks he may have some language delays. Language delays??!! He's 8 months old for crying out loud. What language is he supposed to have? He babbles just fine. She said that he should be saying a few words like momma, dadda, bye-bye, and stuff like that. That's ridiculous. She apparently doesn't know anything about babies. He says momma and dadda, but I think it's just meaningless babble at this point. Jackson didn't start saying actual words until he was about 10 or 11 months old and he was talking very early and developed a large vocabulary very quickly. By the way, all this stuff reminds me that Jackson asked last night if Mikey speaks Spanish. Silly kid.

Anyway, we can check this off the list of things we have to do to adopt this kiddo. I am meeting with the attorney on Friday afternoon so that should be fun. Meeting with shrinks and attorneys is new ground for me. Hopefully, once this adoption thing is over I won't be seeing anymore shrinks or attorneys for a very long time.

The Whole Kindergarten Thing

Jackson is beginning to have kind of a hard time with going to kindergarten. I think when the day gets started, he's probably fine. But he's been crying a little before school and trying really hard not to cry while he's there. This morning he said that every day of kindergarten is longer than the one before it. I think if it were just until noon, he would be absolutely fine. It's just too long for him. I kind of wish now that I'd looked more seriously into the local Christian school. They have half day kindergarten. But it's very expensive and there's just no way we could afford that right now. And their teachers aren't certified anyway, not that that means anything, I guess. This morning Jackson was trying so hard to be brave and keep himself from crying. And it took everything in me not to cry right along with him. This whole kindergarten thing is just really hard on all of us. The mommy in me wants to just say, "You know what? Forget it. This kindergarten thing is for the birds. You can just stay home with me and Mikey and run around in your underwear and play all day." But that's not realistic. We've thought about homeschooling, but I think I would kind of stink at it and Jack really needs to be around other kids. I'm really hoping he gets used to his new life. He just seems to be getting more upset about the whole thing rather than accustom to it.

Adoption Day Stuff

As most of you know, we're shooting for November 17th to adopt Mikey. That is National Adoption Day. I'll be meeting with our attorney soon to start on filing the appropriate paperwork.

I spoke with a Brazoria County judge and Chair"woman" of Brazoria County National Adoption Day. She goes to our church....how convenient is that?? Anyway, I had a chance to speak with her for a few minutes today at church. She told me there is no limit to the number of people we can have there with us. She said the most they've had is about 30 people for one family...I totally think we can top that! She said they do anywhere from 15-30 (ish) adoptions on that day every year. And she said that it moves pretty quickly and there's a reception going on the whole time so once you're done, you can go hang out at the party.

So, if you're interested in adopting Mikey with us, mark your calendars for November 17. You don't have to get a shirt. That's optional. I'll have more details as the date gets closer. I don't anticipate any hold ups that would keep us from adopting him on that day. But until I have a chance to speak with our attorney, I don't want to make too many plans....or get too many shirts.

Mikey t-shirt, modified

I worked on the Mikey t-shirt a little more and I think this is what we're going to go with. I can get this shirt in kid sizes so that will be cool. Also, I can get this same sort of thing printed on a onesie for Mikey to wear also. Now I just need to find out how many people can be with us that day.

mikey! t-shirt

I thought it might be fun if I had matching t-shirts made for the people who will be at Mikey's adoption. But I don't know if anyone would actually want to wear it or not. I'm usually not a fan of matching shirts, but for this occasion, it could be cool. What do you think? Would you wear a Mikey shirt? Is it worth $12?? Is this a totally lame and cheesy idea?

Cleaning Jackson's Room

I'm kind of in the middle of sorting through Jackson's junk in his room and trying to get it organized. For the most part, we make him clean his own room. But every now and then I grab a garbage bag and go in there when he's not home and get rid of stuff. Stuff like junky toys from various fast food restaurants that he never plays with and just broken stuff. Anyway, here are just a few non-toy items I found in his toys box in addition to his 6 guns, 5 swords, 11 Zoo Pal paper plates...
- 2 rocks
- 3 pencils
- an empty yogurt container (clean, I hope)
- an Oriental trading magazine
- a toothbrush
- 2 cds

If he were home he would have a reasonable good excuse for keeping everything I'm getting rid of. That's why I do it when he's not here. I just need to make sure I empty the kitchen trash before he gets home or he'll try to start retrieving stuff.

Introducing....My photography web site

Hey, I'm proud to announce the beginning of J.Hintze Photography. I finally decided that if I'm going to be taking so many pictures, I should probably try to make a little money doing it. I hope to acquire more experience, equipment, and clients as time goes by. I'm hoping this can be a fun and somewhat profitable little part time endeavor.

Horace

Phillip and I were in the "Coasters" and the Jazz Band out at Brazosport College when we were younger. That's where we kind of met....again. Anyway, there was this really cool middle aged guy in those groups with us named Horace. He kind of watched out for us little kids. Anyway, Phillip and I both really like this guy. There was one time when we were dating that we decided to play the basketball game, H.O.R.S.E., but instead we decided to play H.O.R.A.C.E. We were just talking about that the other day and thinking that it was pretty funny. I'm pretty sure Phillip kicked my butt at H.O.R.A.C.E.