cloth diapers for sale!!!! SOLD!!

Thought I would check with you before I take the extra time to list on ebay.  Oliver is only wearing one diaper a day, so it has become clear that we don't need as many diapers as we have. 

I'm going to start by selling off these One Size Fuzzibunz.  They can be adjusted around the waist and leg openings.

Each diaper comes with an insert.  It may not be the insert that came with the diaper, because lets face it, I can't keep that all straight.  Does it even matter as long as it's doing the job? 

-no stains**
-bouncy elastic
-fresh smelling (recently stripped and sunned) 
-free shipping (if you purchase the whole set)
-$50 for all five diapers and inserts
-$10 each + $2 for shipping

the line up

close up

red, red, orange, pale yellow, lime green

**Wait there are two stains, the yellow and orange were
previously owned by a kid named Alex and his name appears
on the white tag.

Leave me a comment or drop me an email (trisha.tylick@gmail.com) if your interested or have a question. 

bugs

Today at our nanny job we discovered hexbugs.  Do you already know about them?  They are totally hilarious in a semi creepy sort of way.  They remind me of crummy big city apartments, the way they scurry about is so reminiscent of small mice or cockroaches.  It's clear I'm not in advertising, that's not much of a sell is it?  Anyway, after playing with them at work it was clear that we neeeeeeded one or two.  At our Target store they are on sale for $4.49 from $5.99....lovely. 

tickling his hand

checking it out

building a bug house 

bug maze, totally hilarious to watch those critters bounce around

bug maze built from legos

After getting him all set with the bugs and the mazes I exited to go get dinner started and straighten things around the house.  I kept peeking in on him.  After about half and hour the place looked like this.....

Mazes destroyed and eight foot tube laid down for the bugs to crawl through, so funny.  

happy 2nd anniversary, happy thanksgiving

The blog turns two today!   Let's review with a few statics.

*52,500 ish of you have stopped by to read. 

*The most popular post was Oliver's introduction.  Great choice!   With cookie information in second place and my complaints about not being in control rounding out the top three. 
*My favorite post is here, about finally believing that we are really doing this adoption thing.  

*Top ten countries that you all are from; US, Canada, Russia, Cyprus, New Zealand, Czech Republic, Israel, Germany, Australia, and The UK, but I guess you already know where you are from.

 I started the blog to keep friends and family up to date with the adoption, document the dates, and hopefully help someone along the way...because I felt helped by the bunches of blogs I read when we were at the beginning of the process.  Now I just write to document random events and activities, share food ideas, and share before an after pictures of house projects.  No house pics today, the place is a Thanksgiving explosion!  

Anyway, besides being our little two year anniversary it's also Oliver's first Thanksgiving.

Turkeys! To become dining room decor

That's a tree on the left.  Jim thought it
was an arm, he is so literal.

I'm making scones.  Oliver is eating the
rest of the pumpkin straight up.

Enjoying dinner with his parents and grandparents

Squash!!!

Hope you had/are having a great Thanksgiving!! 

first trip to the ER

Let's skip to the end, he is fine.

Now let's start back at the beginning.  It's Saturday, on Saturday Oliver and I either stay home and clean or go out for an adventure.  Today we stayed home to clean and it managed to turn into an adventure.  After a couple hours of cleaning and playing downstairs we decided to head up to the office to straighten some paperwork, clean off a bookshelf and see what kind of craft we could find in the closet.  It was a really nice morning today.  Windy and warm a perfect day for airing out the house.

Oliver is playing around with the desktop computer, I push the window open a bit and tie up the string on the blinds so he doesn't choke himself...turns out that blind string is the least of my worries.  I move over to a bookshelf and am taking off a few books to donate.  He walks over to the window, looks outside, then his head bumps the screen and all of the sudden he is gone.  He was there a second ago, he was maybe three feet from me, and now he is out the window.  Out the window.  Out the second floor window. 

I run down the hall, down the stairs, out the door, and through the yard.  He is on his belly crying.  I pick him up and we go inside.  He calms down surprisingly quickly and has a few sips of water.  Then says "don't jump out window."  Yeah, I see that's not the best.

At this point I'm unsure what to do.  He seems okay.  He is walking and chatting with me.  The only thing he says that hurts is his scrapped up chin.  But he fell out a window and that seems like an issue.  Do we do nothing?  Do we drive to the ER?  Do we just drive to the doctor or urgent care?  Do we call 911?  We decide to call Jim.  Then we call the RN hotline on out insurance card.  Then we call 911.  Okay right before we call 911 I put a diaper and pants on him.  He totally fell out the window in a sweatshirt and socks...we are potty training.  You don't even want to know what I'm wearing.  Just think about what you wear when you plan to spend the day inside cleaning. 

Whatever, we call 911 and sit on the bottom of our stairs waiting for them to arrive.  Oliver is quiet and a bit stunned by the whole thing.  Then he hears the firetruck siren and the ambulance and perks up.  "I hear firetruck"  Just wait a few seconds and you'll see it.  The guys come in and ask me a bunch of questions, ask to see the window, and work on strapping Oliver down on the board  to keep him stable, in case of neck or back issues...the main reason that I figured I should call for help and not drive him myself.  Oliver complies and isn't fussy.  His vitals are all fine and we ride off in the ambulance for the Children's Hospital downtown, Jim says he will meet us there.

Oliver is fine with the whole thing.  He lets the nurses and doctor listen to his heart, stick stuff on him, take blood pressure, and press on his belly.  The wailing doesn't start until they put him in a neck brace so he can have an X-ray done.  Oh the crying!  "Take off peas, take off peas, take off now peas"  After about an hour he was cleared on any neck issues, given some juice and food and told to hang out for another couple hours in case he was going to have any other reactions.  His exit paper work stated his diagnosis as "contusion to the chin."  Who falls out a second story window and ends up with a scrape on the chin?  God must have caught him.

guest bathroom, mini makeover

Tackling bathrooms one at a time.  Nothing drastic, just better.  Last time was the downstairs bathroom, which you can check out here.  Since we have company coming for Thanksgiving I decided the guest bathroom/Oliver's bathroom should be next.

Here is when we first moved in

Here it is last week

Started by ripping out everything I didn't like

Use lots of spackle to make things smooth
I installed the light first, because it was sooo dark

Sand, touch up paint, sand, touch up paint....

Maybe I should have washed the mirror before
the photo opp 

The other side where the towels live

smoke detectors

I've mentioned it before, I really hate that green light on smoke detectors.  Whatever, I think the green light means aliens are watching or coming or something creepy.  In the past two places we have lived I've covered them with duct tape, only in my bedroom.   

Tonight we put Oliver to bed like normal.  Lights out at 8:00.  8:15 Oliver leaves his room to come downstairs and have a chat with me.  I swiftly return him, as Jim is already fast asleep.  Well this continues on for a bit.  He gets up, opens the door, I return him.  9:00, the crying starts and the get up get put back pattern continues.  9:30, I pick him up and sit in the rocking chair.  I ask him what's wrong, is there something creepy.  Points to the smoke detector, this isn't the first time he has expressed concern with that alien machine.  I tell him it's just a nice light for him to look at during the night, but he isn't buying it.  I tell him that if he doesn't like it he can look the other way, no not buying that either...well it worked last time.  Anyway, we go find some duct tape, cover the alien light, get tucked back in bed, see that the light is gone, whimper a little, and go to sleep.  I knew I couldn't be the only one. 

the drop off

We didn't see many kids when we went to Oliver's orphanage.  The boy of the family we traveled with the first time, the boy of the family we met up with the second time, a toddler girl who was visiting after being adopted by a family in town, a group of kids walking outside (july), and maybe we passed a kid in the hall.  Other then that the rest of the babes were off somewhere else being quiet.  It was uneventful.  It was emotional because you know they are all there, but they are hidden away.  We knew that there were 150 kids and 6 caretakers, but we didn't really see any of that.  

Then I read a post today that pointed me over here.  Then after reading that, it points you over here.  Read them both, in that order, I was instructed and I did, twice.   Oh. My. Stars.  Those poor babies.  Oliver was younger, but I'm sure he must have been somewhat confused as well. 

If you have biological kids, or adopted kids, or you can picture a kid in your mind stop and think about that being your baby.  Then say a prayer that what they had to go through was worth it.  Pray that a family somewhere finds them, adopts them, and loves them all the millions of them. 

Way back in April I asked your opinion about a bush/tree in our front yard.  Can't remember?  Check it out here.  Most folks commented that the tree should go, and it did.

Then this summer we had the house painted, but I failed to take any pictures until the other day.  Then I go back and compare the photos, so much better.  I also like that this year's weather lead our front tree to turn yellow rather than crunchy brown. 

View from the inside 

 

 

aging porch jack-o-lantern

So far we have cut down the giant bush/tree, trimmed back the other bushes, had the outside painted, planted some mums, a hibiscus, some other flowers, and about 75 spring blooming bulbs.  Meaning that if the flowers bloom you will have to endure at least one more front yard blog update.  

they were made for families, adoption awareness month

It seems as though it came from no where.  Never thought about adopting a kid.  Don't know if we have fertility issues.  Just know that once that little seed was planted, once we thought about adopting a kid I was all in.  Right away.  Ready to go.  Where is he/she?  Simply because...

They were made for families, not orphanages

 They are built to explore, turns out goats don't eat rocks

He deserves to have people that think
he is the bestest
the smartest
the most handsome
rather then being just another one

They all do.  All the millions of orphaned children deserve a loving family.  All the babes here in our foster care system, all the babies in Africa, all Oliver's friends back in Kemerovo, all the girls and a few boys in China, and wherever the millions of others live, they all need a family.

My mind focuses on those orphans.  I want to see adoption become common and normal until this crisis is a non crisis.  However, there wouldn't actually be as many orphans if there was a focus on the social injustices that lead to orphans.  Read all about that over here, awesome post!  

"A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families." - Psalm 68:5-6


I'm on my soapbox because it's November, adoption awareness month.  This Sunday is orphan Sunday.  A time for churches and others to turn their focus to adoption.  A time to pray for these children, a time to do something tangible for these kids, and a time to consider adoption, or foster care, or big brother's big sister's, or help support someone you know who is adopting. 

I love talking adoption, November or not, and if I can, in anyway, help please email me trisha.tylick@gmail.com


If you already adopted, are in the process, or something like that I encourage you to write your adoption awareness post.  Brag a little extra about your adopted child(ren). 

super belly button

Oliver has an umbilical hernia, it's like a super outie belly button.  The orphanage said "gym class will help it"  The doctor said "ab work should help it"  So Oliver goes to the gym to do his ab work.  He has until age five to strengthen his ab muscles enough so the pull his button back in, or at least more in.  If it starts hurting or isn't in enough around age five he will have to have a simple surgery to fix it. 

Super belly button (July 2010) 

Less super? (October 2011)