So much to tell.

Yesterday was our final social worker visit.  We are hoping to have our homestudy updated by our current agency/social worker as well, but since they are phasing out the adoption program in our state, we have to wait and see if they will do this for us first (they will still do adoptions in the other states they service).

On Sunday Aidan said he was having a hard time eating because his tooth hurt.  He showed it to us, and he was wiggling it all over the place.  Yesterday it fell out and right now he is sleeping on a dollar bill just waiting to be added to his savings-he got a cute little wallet of his own on our family trip to Maine and loves using it.
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Let's see; what else?  Pretty Baby and her husband had their fourth wedding anniversary within the last week.  Golden Baby's wife had her birthday.  G had his birthday.  And MB had his birthday, turning one.  Enough, already?  Check out the centerpieces that my creative daughter made for the tables at her son's birthday party.
One of the pictures needs explaining.  That's the one of MB and his cousin BB.  BB isn't used to playing with other kids, so when I found them together on the step and saw MB trying to get his head at just the right angle, I knew a bite was coming and stopped them.  BB didn't understand.  As soon as I got MB to stop, he then offered his hand and then his index finger to MB, still not knowing that a bite was what MB wanted.  So he probably left the party wondering why his grandmother had a problem with that, since I stuck around until MB's biting impulse passed.
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Pretty Baby turned 26 this week and G's sister turned 50.  So we had some parties to host/attend.  This first set of pictures is of Pretty Baby, Little Baby, our new daughter in-law, JC, and the four little boys.
This next set is from my sister in-law's surprise party.
And here are some random shots of Aidan.  He has been begging for corn on the cob, and he loves to think of himself as a cowboy.  G and I are old-fashioned about guns.  We think that kids who grow up knowing about them and have used them/seen the damage that they cause are not the kids who pull the trigger on strangers or loved ones, but that the kids who play violent video games are-they become dissociative.  So, yeah, Aidan has a capgun six shooter strapped onto his waist.
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Today is GB's big day.
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Just look at how excited BB is by his parents' vow taking:
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There was no best man-Pretty Baby was the honor attendant for her brother.
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Little Baby actually got dolled up for the occasion:
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My third brother officiated at the ceremony:
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The bride's father was pretty emotional-she is not only his baby girl, but also his first child.
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And then there was the dancing.  We learned that Aidan loves to dance....
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...that there is still no way for me to reach my son's height....(we danced to the only Backstreet Boys song he can tolerate-"Mom, you always were the perfect fan")
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...and that the newlyweds dance together beautifully:
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Notice the unharried look on my face?  That's because my child is the groom and not the bride!  Her mother is probably passed out by now.
 
Big Days 08/30/2009
 
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Yesterday was RB's third birthday party.  Today is my great nephews's second birthday party.  And tomorrow is Aidan's first day of kindergarten. 

The first two are very exciting, but the third one is very scary for my son.  I will be going in to work late so that I can take him to school, and G will be leaving work early to pick him up (he is terrified that we will put him on a bus-a bus took him away from his foster home, remember) and just plain scared of the change.  This week I sent him to his old daycare, which he loved after the first few days, and still he cried the first morning.  His best friend was out on vacation, so that added to his upset, and of course he was not used to getting up and leaving the house early in the morning, either-part of why I sent him.  So this week will definitely be tough.

Birthday Party #1

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RB's best friend (center) and Aidan's beloved daycare teacher, both guests at the party.
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The birthday boy with LB

Kindergarten Open House

Birthday Party #2

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The two year old birthday boy
His Sisters
His Parents-My Nephew and His Wife
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We got the pool filled enough for the kids to cool off.  PB and I went toy store shopping with the three boys-what fun-and Aidan got a baseball bat, plus I picked up birthday gifts for BB and RB.  And today we went to BB's first birthday party.  Then on the way home I stopped in the meadow where my brothers were haying and took these shots of my nephew's kids on the hay and my brother on the tractor.
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LB's hair is almost as blue as the pool lining, though you can't really tell in this picture of she and MB
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Some people think one year olds need motorized cars.  Here is BB with a remote controlled car run by his uncle, behind him.  And then, like most kids, he wanted to play with the packaging more than the toys.
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When it is not raining, the days are perfect.  Like the summers of my youth, the temps are in the 70s and the humidity is relatively low.  I can breathe, we can actually spend time in the south-facing part of the house, and it just couldn't be more beautiful.

Aidan and RB are becoming fast friends.  They both think that they are excavators in the making and love to dig dirt.  They nap together-on the top bunk-and I just love listening to the two of them playing make-believe.

Here they are on their hot rods with Mangus, our youngest dog:

Aidan also has a great love of cooking.  It really doesn't matter what; he loves to measure, pour, stir, everything.  He even loves to wash dishes.  Here he is actually cooking with a wok that my sister gave us years ago.

Family Style

This weekend was G's family reunion.  Here are some shots of Aidan playing ball, BB trying to get in on the game, BB and GB enjoying the sun, and Aidan hanging out with his father.

Hangin' out with Dad

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All tuckered out from that batting practice.

My Little Dirt Diggers

The trip to the elementary school playground was so that Aidan could get used to his new school and play on the equipment, but the boys spent most of their time in the dirt.

Today we went to my mother's gravel pit.  Aidan was awed by the place.  I'll have to tell him that both of his grandmothers own gravel pits!
 
 

The weekend actually began on Friday.  First we went to the doctor's office where Aidan got not one, not two, but three shots.  Reaction and fever didn't set in until later that night, so he was able to play with the kids at daycare where we went for his last pizza day--they have them once a month--and showed up just in time for some sprinkler fun.

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We also stopped in at my sister's bakery, where she and my niece were busily preparing for Saturday's sales.
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Then later in the evening we met PB, RB, and MB at the park in town.
On Friday night and Saturday, Aidan was pretty sick from his shots-feverish and tired-so we laid low, but on Saturday afternoon we went to visit my mother and were just in time for a pretty powerful and short-lived thunderstorm.  We sat with her out on the porch and listened to the thunder, lightning, and windchimes.  Aidan loved it.  He has asked at least a dozen times since when we could hang windchimes on our porch (I think I got some from a brother for Christmas, but the porch wasn't built until last year and the ceiling still isn't finished, so I haven't hung them yet).
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Mom turned 81 on Sunday.  She stopped hiking the mountain for her birthday two summers ago, which is how Aidan and I got her to ourselves on Saturday afternoon (a very rare and special treat), but on Sunday all of the hikers were gathered at the house and at the bog to play, so we joined them for a while.
Then in the evening we joined GB and JC for a cookout using the new grill she got at last weekend's bridal shower.  BB is walking now, and he is curious about everything!
When we got home, to yet more rain, Aidan and I sat on the porch and talked about windchimes, and "camping" out on the porch sometime when it is raining.  The fact that he had a sleeping bag was news to him, so of course he had to see it right away, and he then spread it out on the t.v. room floor to watch Iron Man.
 
Bridal Shower 06/21/2009
 

Our first son, GB, is getting married in September, so yesterday was JC's bridal shower.  Unlike the average bride-to-be, all she wanted was appliances for the house.  She got everything from a waffle iron to a washing machine.

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Here she is wearing her "hat" of gift ribbons.
Here are the boys, enjoying the big lawn.
 
Party Time 05/25/2009
 

It is so wonderful, here in northern New England, when it is finally warm enough to 1) Not wear boots, 2) Not wear coats, and 3) Gather outside!  Last weekend my nephew's wife graduated from college and here are some pics from her party:

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Here is my great niece, who is the same age as Aidan, showing off her barnyard.
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And here she is looking like a character out of Tom Sawyer, or a little English miss with her rubber boots.  She says that she is an adventurer like Diego!
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Here is my youngest niece giving my other great niece a push on the swingset
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And Aidan joined in.
 
 

When I was young, growing up with ten siblings, we did a lot of things for ourselves-we had chores, raised animals, tended gardens, and sewed.  I like sewing, but for years didn't have a working machine.  Then this past Christmas GB and PB bought a new one for me, and so far I have only used it to make things for LB.  This past week I worked every night on her prom dress and spent all day Saturday on the skirt.  She is a complicated child, so of course the dress had to be complicated as well.  I detest hemming second only to patching, so I thought I was being smart when I bought lace hem edging, only to realize later that the skirt had three tiers to it.  Since the top two tiers were not sewn down the sides, and since the satin frayed just about every time I touched or ironed it, that meant three regular hems plus four side "hems".  Fun, fun fun.  Anyway, here are the results:

Here she is with one of her friends-hopefully you can see some of the skirt detail.

And here is the choker that I made to go with the corset.

Then she needed a bag for small stuff

We followed that day with Mother's Day.  GB had a migraine, so I went to his house to get my card after church, did my grocery shopping, visited Mom, helped Aidan fly his new kite-both in the afternoon and again in the evening-and visited with PB and her boys.  MB had the good grace to get his first tooth on Saturday-his gift to his mother and something that has been long awaited!

 
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