Baby G

If any of you are in my day to day life you know this story and all the details because I am constantly talking about it!

So a little over a year ago my precious friend Corinne decided to adopt. She has been a part of my family for the last 20 years. She has been a big sister to me, a friend, a confidant. My "brown sister" or "brown sugar"  as I call her. I am "white sugar!"

She is older than me and been a part of my growing up in so many ways. In life's circumstances though I became a mother before her. She has always wanted to be a mom and it just didn't happen the traditional get married-have kids sort of way.

So she emailed me and said I need a letter of recommendation to start my adoption process,  I was thrilled she was letting me have a small piece of the adventure with her. In the throws of motherhood myself I was excited to be part of her village. I knew she would need it and boy was I right.

In November 2011 Corinne received her first Court date in Ethiopia and met her sweet 7month old baby boy. You can fully follow her story at wheels-up.tumblr.com. Well worth your time!

She fell in love with her sweet son and he legally became her boy in Ethiopia. However, in order for her to bring him home she had to wait for the U.S. Embassy to clear him. The story is intense and I know I am not doing it justice so I am just giving you the facts.

They could not give her a guaranteed time but told her expect delays, expect 6 months. She couldn't bear to be away from this sweet thing who needed her and needed to bond with her. So she did the unbelievable. She put her life on hold, picked up and is living with her son in Ethiopia until....this past Monday!! The U.S. Embassy cleared them to come home!!!

                      (Are you kidding me??!!! Look at that face! You kinda just want to eat him up!!!)

I met him yesterday. Precious, sweet 11 month old babbling bundle of joy! I felt like a proud Auntie and so proud of my friend as a new mom!

I couldn't believe how well they are doing! I laughed so hard when as I am driving to her house she texts me saying the baby just went down for a nap at 10:30 he won't be up until 12 noon. Ha! My friend who never knew what she was doing in an hour is on a napping schedule. This over joyed my heart.

When we got there he was sleeping and we just watched him sleep and cried joyful tears that this moment had come and he was her son. He was in the place she had envisioned him to be all along. They had made it home.

My pictures on not super great because I was too caught in the moment to make sure they were good but I'll share because in her words it "was the BEST day so far!"

Sweet Angel Boy

Our son JD is two and half years old. People always say "ohh terrible twos!" Often when I am out in public people look at me with a little pity because my kids are 2 and 3, I guess. They always seems to say "Wow, I bet he is a handful" with their head kinda cocked sideways with a sympathetic nod. Trust me, I know it well! The clerk does the same thing at the grocery store when I hand them my debit card and they read the last name Loveless. To which they always respond "how sad."

Regardless, he IS a handful. But mostly he is a really sweet hearted, loving, adventurous little boy! He loves his sister and tells me at least ten times a day "I wuv yous, mama."  I know, I melt every time. He loves being with people and follows you around no matter what you are doing. He loves working on stuff, whatever the stuff is you are doing. He just wants to be involved.

He has definitely been two on many occasions and reminds me with blaring regularity that he is ONLY TWO!

About 6 months ago it was about 10pm and Jon and I were in our room watching TV when our alarm to our house started going off. We both leaped out of bed and as we were running downstairs I noticed JD's door was open to his bedroom. We found him downstairs opening our sliding glass doors ready to leave, headed for the back yard. Jon picked him up to talk to him and immediately got a overwhelming blast of the smell of Febreeze coming from his breath and clothes. Yes, he drank Febreeze and was headed out to do who knows what in the back yard. We freaked. I jumped on the phone to call poison control, Jon jumped on the Internet meanwhile JD is giddy and buzzed.

Luckily, the only thing in Febreeze is ethanol alcohol and essential oils. Good thing. We gave him a Nutri Grain bar and some milk so he didn't wake up with a hangover. I was giving our child carbs and sugar to soak up the alcohol, Jon immediately went to the garage to get tools and turned  his lock around on his bedroom door. So yes, we locked him in his bedroom at nap and at night until just recently. He actually used to knock on his own door when he would wake up from nap or in the morning so we could let him out.
So although his lock is still turned around, we thought we were past the Houdini moves, so we stopped locking his door. We were wrong.

Jon left out of town just a few weeks ago and wouldn't you know it the minute we drop him off at the airport everyone starts feeling bad, even me. Lovely. Flying solo with sick kids.

After two days of being sick, I finally get everyone to lay down for a much needed nap.  I lay down in my room with Taylor. I didn't actually mean to fully fall asleep, but I did. All of a sudden the door bell rings and I panicked. -Ohh no, how long have I been asleep! You know that feeling you get, that feeling when you jump out of a dead sleep. You are kinda hot and panicky.

I run to answer the door bell and I see a small figure through the glass wearing the red shirt I dressed him in that morning. It is JD, soaked. It was pouring rain and he left the house, played in the rain-apparently, and rang the doorbell to come back in. WHAT!!!!

Hyperventilating, I grab him and have him show me how he got out. Which he willingly showed me how he pushed an ottoman over to the sliding glass door, unlocked it, and slid the door open. He was very proud of himself. He pretty much thought he was awesome.

So before you get all judgey. Yes, we have our cleaning supplies locked up. I accidentally left a bottle of Febreeze on the kitchen counter. I never thought he would be able to reach it or want to drink it.  I am still not exactly sure how he got to it way up on the counter. Since then I have seen him balance a myriad of toys on top of each other and then stand on top of it to get whatever he can't reach. So I am assuming he used this method to get the Febreeze as well.

We do have chain locks on all our door as well. But, he is only two and bound and determined.
If you are a parent, I am sure you have had these moments. Whether you had the guts or not to admit it to anyone, I think things like this have happened to all of us. No matter how great a parent you are things like this will happen to you. Right? Gratefully, nothing was tragic. But, it always makes me stop, slow down, reorganize my priorities, and check my focus. This part I am grateful for! I just wish that was a more natural instinct than having to send me into hyperventilating mommy freak out mode to get to that place.
I am working on it. Lots of love.