The End of "Utna" makes my Monday

"Utna"-a word that Van started using many months ago...no good explanation as to why. "Utna" meant "open" so you can imagine that we heard it alot. "Utna" juice, mommy. "Utna" door daddy. "Utna" treat PLEASE!. Well it's officially retired. As easy as "utna" came to his lips, it's now become "open" just like that. Scott and I both stopped in our tracks when we heard it yesterday. It's exciting,yes, like so many of the other new words he's acquiring at lightning speed. But it's also makes me wish I could stop time. He's growing up so fast already. He's talking and talking and talking, he's telling stories, he's asking questions and it's all so wonderful. But there's no doubt, this mommy is hardly ready to close the chapter of "utna".

Summer Camp=FUN!

Summer camp=swimming every day, arts and crafts, singing and scooters....what fun what fun!
Swimming skills took off after 4 weeks of practically one on one instruction every day. We've certainly got a swimmer on our hands and one that is currently obsessed with the movie "Nemo" (stay tuned for his trip to the aquarium)
Parents were invited to the last day of camp to watch the fun!

Way Back When-esday

I love the fact that I can now, at least sorta play along on the way back photos...1 year and 3 months does count right?
Here's our cutie pie in the early days of life in the USA...

Van rides an airplane to meet some very special people

His first airplane trip since coming home from China...and boy was he excited! We took a quick trip to Atlanta to meet with our adoption agency, One World for their annual family picnic. And we also got to visit with and stay with extended family for the weekend. We were so excited to have everyone, especially Julia, our adoption coordinator meet Van. Julia worked with us day and night through the long wait and the giant piles of paperwork. She played such a big role in bringing Van home to us. We were also thrilled that Van got some quality play time with Shawn who is turning 5 soon and was really our inspiration to look at the special needs list from China. Shawn is also cleft and he's already been through many tough surgeries but he's a trooper and just a doll. Needless to say, the boys were pals from the start. And then there was the awesome hospitality of our southern family! Van got to meet his boy cousins and they broke out all the cool toys and entertained him every waking moment. It was an all about Van weekend (there aren't many that aren't around here) but this one was super special!

Butterflies are free!

Fairy Godmother, Beth sent Van a "Grow your own Butterfly" kit with all his summer goodies. We are finally getting around to posting our story...
Step one-send away for our live caterpillars. Step two-caterpillars arrive...yippee! Step three-wait and watch as the caterpillars become chrysalis. Step four-move them to their ultra cool net home and wait for butterflies to emerge. Step five-remember that kitty cats are attracted to any and all flying creatures. This is where Van actually gets really interested...and unfortunately so do two very active nosy kitty cats. We tried moving the butterfly house to many locations up high to avoid kitty play but everywhere they went the kitties did follow. Needless to say, the poor butterflies did not have an easy start to life. Somehow we managed to have 5 live butterflies for a short...granted very short time. Final Step-set your butterflies free to a kitty free outdoors. Not sure how many actually "flew" away but Van sure did enjoy the freeing day. He dressed accordingly in his Diego-esque camo outfit and played nature boy.

Make My Monday: Rainy Days and Mondays

Granted it was last Monday but it still counts...what's a boy to do if a storm creeps up when he's relaxing inside in undies...

Video on Vimeo test post

Let us know if this works! Sorry about the length.
If only there was someone in the family who knew about video editing.

VAN_BOOM_BOOM from Scott M on Vimeo.

A Sailor's Life for Me

Our water boy loves all things wet-swimming, boating, tubing..sure why not. He was so excited about going out on a boat...he talked about it for a week. He's still telling everyone how he got all wet in the yellow boat and said "Whee" in the big white boat. We are so grateful to wonderful friends who shared their boating day with us and our twin pals from twinfatuation.com.

Cousin Time

Van got lots of cousin play time these past few weeks. We celebrated the joyous occasion of a bridal shower with lots of family and friends and the cousins got some time to play. They had so much fun, we arranged another cousin day at Kings Dominion this week. Hot summer day with great rides, great attitudes and a lazy river ending...too bad you can't get a camera on that ride. We love our cousins!! Oh yeah, we love Dora too!