Adoption

From the time Kylin was born, I knew that when I found the person I wanted to spend my life with and got married, I wanted that person to adopt her.

It is not that I want to take anything away from Jamie. He has been and continues to be an amazing father--his world revolves around Kylin, and they really adore each other. Rich and I both respect him fully and completely as her dad, and we would never do anything to harm that relationship. I also would not ever prevent Kylin from having a relationship with her biological father when she wants to initiate that--I have a scrapbook of all the information and pictures I have about him, and would probably be able to locate him fairly easily.

I have looked forward to this adoption only for legal reasons. I want to know that if anything should happen to me, Kylin will not be separated from the family who has loved and cared for her, and that she will grow up with her brothers. I married Rich for many reasons, one of which is that I trust him to make the decisions I would want made. So, making him the legal 2nd parent of my daughter was a natural thing to do.

With relief, and much happiness, our step-parent adoption was made final on July 3rd!!!



We celebrated with a party in Kylin's honor

Poppy and Kaden
Brian, Breana, and our second cousin, Jason, who was visiting from Fort Lewis
Mom and Jason
Breana, Shawna, who was visiting from Connecticut by way of Central America, and Mom
Shawna, having a yummy Kiran-snack
"Uh Bubby" and Kaden
Long Island Maker
Poppy carving the barbecued turkey
Kiran in his standard attire
Kiran and Saamanta
Rich, Kylin, and Breana
Great-Grandma and Kylin
Kaden and "Maanta"

33 Years!!

Happy Anniversary, UrbanHippie Parents!!

Better Living

Last night we met my cousin, Shaylyn, at the expo center for Portland's Better Living Show. It was full of great booths, presenters, and lots of fun stuff for the kids. My own are completely melting down right now, but I wanted to share 2 resources in honor of more sustainable living:

http://www.superuse.org/

http://www.scrapaction.org/

Have a great GREEN night!! :)

Weekly Winners

Breana & Hefeweizen

Sexy Chicken Eater

Blown-Away

Party-On

The Reading Seat

the smile that melts my heart

Bowling Porn

"What am I doing here with these freaks???"

TEETH!!

Bred365 #13: Breana & Alisa, saying good-bye

ElfYourself!!

I know you all have seen this... but ours is exceptionally cute. :)

Elf's weird chipmunk voices = Mommy & Kylin

A Day At The Beach

A Perfect Day at Pebble Beach

Sea Anenome

Teeny Tiny Starfish

Kaden loved the beach

Daddy and son

Theresa and Sheila

plus AJ

Kaden's first starfish encounter

Gigantic Starfish

mmmmm... tasty

Tidepooling

Jade, Austin, Elmer, Ally, Eric

Austin and his crab

The crab is in love with Austin

Ms. Jade

Carmel just after sunset (we missed sunset, because we stopped at Rite-Aid to get stocking hats for the boys...and it ended up not even being cold or windy)

We found these awesome trees on the beach

The Kirk Hall family: Theresa, Austin, AJ, Ally, and Kirk

Family Time

Super Kiran

Screaming with pet rocks

High-Stakes Poker--Megan, Kristina, Kirk, & Rob

Sheila, Rich, Megan, Kristina

The Boys: AJ, Elmer, Austin, Eric, Kendall, Cameron

Rich, Kiran, Sheila, Megan

You gotta know when to hold em.... (cheezy, I know...but who can resist??)

Beautiful Aunt T-sa & Kiran

Grandma Sheila, Aunt Theresa, Kiran

Kaden & Kiran

Crystal, Emmanuel & Kiran

On the golf course: Kaden & Jered racing

Kiran and Emmanuel

What's up??

2nd cousins: Kiran and Reese

awwwww.... Rob and Reese

Megan, Theresa, and Crystal

A napkin buys Mommy 5 minutes

Phase 10

Kirk

This house has amazing windows

Theresa and Kaden

Fire is a sexual thing with small children

Uncle Larry & Kiran (check out the link...Uncle Larry and Aunt Sharon are soooooo cute!!)

Unky Monkey (Michael), Sheila, & AJ playging chinese checkers

Kaden

cousin Jered

Sheila & Kiran playing 500

brotha's

reminds me of Sixteen Candles

7 Adults, 5 Kids, and a dog

With a house full of spunk, such as we have here, there is never a dull moment.

Alyssa & Kiran

Super Baby!

Rock-Star Shirts, made by Danielle

Aunt T-sa & Kaden

What happened to the toilet seat cover??

Ready to shred

Do I ride goofy or regular??

I am the Kadenator!

We are on our way to Monterey today. I'm hoping I'll have internet access. If I don't, I promise to catch up when we get back.

VANcation: In Cool

We spent a few days in Cool with Jim and Sheila. While Rich worked in Rocklin, Sheila and I took the kids to the lake near her house. Kylin swam, and Kaden checked out the surroundings. Too hot for playing on the playground, every step he would take on the sand was accompanied by whispers of "ha," "ha," too hot for walking comfortably, bare foot. While at the lake, I left Kiran's diaper off for a little while, and took him to the bushes to pee a couple of times... This moment will live in my memory as the point at which EC just clicked for us. Since that day, I have been more motivated to stay connected and tuned in to what he is telling me in regards to pottying and he has really understood the meaning of my cues--he now goes when I cue him, if he needs to. When beginning this EC journey, I believed that this time would come, and I knew it could happen even at a very young age. But it is magical , almost, to actually witness it happening, and it is very gratifying. It is kind of sad, but it is amazing for me to actually see it work. Having grown up in a culture that believes babies cannot control those muscles, that they do not communicate the need to go potty, and that the only way to deal with the messy business of elimination is to train a child to ignore their urge to tell us that they need to potty, teach them to rely on diapers until they are 2 or 3 or 4 years old and they can be bribed into compliance, I am surprised to see that in yet another way, our children can be trusted to communicate and interact with us in ways that are essential to their survival and comfort. How simple, and logical, and yet...amazing.

Kaden on the fire truck

Grandma Sheila and Kiran

Grandma Sheila, Kiran, and Kaden

Kylin making a "fish trap"

Aunt Theresa and Kiran...first meeting

Kylin and Ally, swingin'

AJ and Austin

Theresa and Sheila

Uncle Kirk and Kiran

Austin and Kiran

Where Kaden can usually be found--on one of his cousin's laps

Or, with Uncle Kirk

Or, Aunt T-sa


Or, taking a bath

Loreen's

We spent Friday at Loreen's house, with family--hanging out, getting to see all the work she's done on her house and her property, eating up our first meeting with baby Shayne, and stuffing ourselves with a WONDERFUL dinner cooked by our WONDERFUL husbands. It was my first experience ever sitting in the living room with all the women while the men cooked in the kitchen.... HEAVENLY!
Kaden was not feeling good all day :-(, developed a low fever, and had a really really hard time falling asleep for any kind of a nap. We think he might finally be getting a tooth...

Wayne, Rich, Shayne, Angela, and Kaden

The Knitting Nancy's

Uncle Kirk & exhausted Kaden

Rich with the cousins

Little Shayne and the Baby-Lover

Shayne & Aunt Breana (isn't he sooooooo cute?!?)


Knitting

Ally & cousin Shayne

Kirk, Theresa, and her sister (can you tell??), Mary

(Kylin just said, "that looks like Kirk, Theresa, and her twin. Cause, they both look the same. I don't know which one is Ally's mom...")

The Men in the Kitchen (is that like The Kids in the Hall???)

Grandma Loreen & sleepy Kaden

Cousins

The kids really loved on Kaden the whole time we were in California...it was so sweet to see them care for and play with him.

Austin, Kaden, Alyssa, & A.J.

The Boys

California

4 am's not too early to SMILE

Experienced Traveler

Asleep by 9 am

COUSIN-TIME!!!

Peek-a-Boo with Ally, AJ & Austin


Patty-Cake with Daddy & Grandma Sheila