Random Thoughts

Hey all!

I know I am posting in bulk tonight, but I finished all of the school work I brought home and until a few hours ago, I had planned to be watching Sunday night football right now. But apparently someone in sports scheduling land has decided that the World Series is more important than Sunday night football and did not schedule a game for tonight. What's up with that?!

Anyway - a lot of people have been asking me how Trevor and Grendel are getting along. They are doing pretty well. They don't seem to be afraid of each other (although maybe Grendel should be), and Grendel does not seem to be as jealous. He is chasing her and she is always able to stay just out of reach. On Friday, Trevor started to fuss a little before I was ready for him to get out of bed so I brought him into our bed and laid him on my chest and Grendel curled up on my legs and it was absolute paradise. Until the alarm went off. I was told I should have called out. Reason for absence? Covered in cuteness!

We're still adjusting on all ends, but it is getting better every day. I can't wait until I am off and get my time to stay home with him!

Terhune Orchards

We took Trevor to Terhune Orchards on a whim today. We were going to take him to a park when we decided to see if Terhune was open so he could see the farm animals. He was a very good baby in his ATS (All Terrain Stroller - although it was a little rough going through the corn maze). He wasn't scared of any of the animals, even the horses. We weren't there for very long, but it was a beautiful day and we had a good time.

Football!!

We took Trevor to his first football game on Friday night. Go Cougars!!

He stayed for the whole time and was an absolute angel. He let the kids and band parents hold. He even let W and K hold him. Now, the kids warn me not to give him to Adam because they are afraid he will throw him. See, since the start of the marching band, he has been telling the band that if they give a good enough performance, the audience will throw babies at them. And recently he has been saying that Trevor is available for throwing... Now, the band gave their best performance of the season, but we did NOT throw any babies. Including the T-Rex. Trevor was aloud to hit a bass drum after the game, and he enjoyed it a bit too much. With the way he likes to bang on things, I am very scared he will become a drummer. I'll have to make sure he hangs out with the trombones and tubas more often...


Trevor meets Guardie (the color guard's mascot).

Trevor and Kawika.

It's the Toys You Don't Buy...

Recent Photos!

Trevor playing in his cool football outfit!

Trevor getting some work done at Mommy's school. (Maybe he can help me grade some papers this weekend...)


Trevor pushing his fire engine. He's almost walking!!!


Trevor and Grendel. He's about to start chasing her. The fear is gone!! Well, at least Trevor's fear is gone.

Trevor and his football. My future wide receiver!!
Grendel wondering what has happened to her life, her house, and her food bowl! Poor kitty. We still love our little princess!

Rock Star Baby!

Trevor has had a busy few days meeting people! Our neighbors, Audrey, Pepper, and Samantha, stopped by the other day to say hi and so did Patty and Charlie.

On Saturday Daddy took him to meet his Aunt Jen, Uncle Jon, and BFF Ryan. (This gave Mom a chance to grade papers and write college recs in peace). Al said that Trevor and Jen hit it off right away and that they couldn't get enough of each other! We think, however, that the four month age gap between Ryan and Trevor is a big one at the moment seeing as Ryan can't crawl and Trevor is almost walking. But it won't be long before they over come that gap and are building the Death Star out of Legos, challenging each other to games of AOE, and hauling a fire place surround +1 through dungeon after dungeon after dungeon together.

On Monday Al took Trevor to the WWP district to meet all of his colleagues and on Tuesday he brought Trevor to see me at work. I know he was a hit at WWP, but he achieved rock star status at Montgomery. Everyone in the English office was very happy to meet him (Al was afraid that some of my colleagues might try to kidnap him). And once the students found out he was in the building they came searching for him in packs. We were mobed every where we went! I would like to appologise to anyone whose class I might have disrupted with my child!

I hope that it's not too cold to bring him to the football game on Friday. The whole band didn't get to meet him and I know that the Band Parents want to see him too.

It is really awesome to get such a reception from everyone! We really feel lucky for all of the support that everyone has given us through out this entire process, but especially now that we are home. You guys rock!

The Craziness!!

Sorry for the lack of updates as of late. We've been trying to get on a schedule and settle in.

I've been pretty busy. I have a lot of grading to do before the marking period ends. Grading papers and writing college recs is hard enough as it is, let alone when you'd rather be playing with constant attention boy!

Allan has been doing the Mr. Mom thing. He's doing a good job, but I think it's wearing him out! He brought Trevor to High School North to meet his colleagues yesterday and he's coming to Montgomery to meet everyone here today.

Anyway - I'll try to post once or twice a week for a while with some pictures and such to feed the Trevor addicts out there. (Maybe more once I take off).

I'll post some pics and video of Trevor later this week!

The Pictures I Promised

Hey! Here are some of the pictures I promised you two days ago! They are in no particular order. Like I said in the last post, it's a game.

Adjustment is taking a little bit of time. Sometimes Trevor is happy as anything and sometimes he is all tears and fuss. But the happy moments are stretching longer, so hopefully he will settle in quickly.

Life is pretty busy. We both went to work yesterday. Al will only be working on Fridays for the next few weeks, but I'm back full time until November 17. My students were all questions and excitement yesterday and they can't wait to meet Trevor, especially the band. I showed my classes a slide show of our trip, which was awesome, because all I want to do is talk about how wonderful it all was and I had an interested (if captive) audience five times yesterday. I also had a football game yesterday. It was pretty far away, and I missed Trevor a lot during my 16 hour day, but hey, I am guaranteed sleep on the bus rides, so that's not all bad. Al is playing with Trevor right now, and I'm supposed to be getting ready to leave for our band competition tonight, which I guess I better do because I need to leave in less than an hour. But I thought I'd take this opportunity to get you those pictures I promised and let you know how things are going.

Finally Home!!

Well, we made it! It's been a busy few days and there is a lot to say. So, I'm just going to type. Then, I'm going to add posts with pictures of what I talk about in this post and you can match up what picture goes with what part of the story. I can't promise that the pictures will be posted in order, so it will be kind of like a game...

Anyway - Trevor was very good through the 30+ hours of travel. He slept for most of the flying time and in San Francisco. We let him crawl around in Atlanta and he pushed his stroller around. Mostly on his knees, but a few times he got up on his feet and walked as he pushed!! (We are thinking about starting a pool and taking dates for when he starts walking. I think it will be before the end of October. Poor Grendel!) The only really tough part of the travel time was on the second flight. He got fussy and we knew he wanted to be held and walked, but the fasten seat belt sign was lit, so we couldn't get up. He was not a happy baby! Allan tried to make him happy by military pressing him in the air till his muscles gave out. At least the other passengers enjoyed giggles rather than his cries for a bit.

Getting off the plane in San Francisco was probably the best part of the trip. As soon as we set foot in the airport, he became an American Citizen. We tried to wait until most of the people got off the plane so we could tape the moment, but I think we annoyed people anyway. But we were excited. Immigration was easy. We just handed the nice man our envelope and he checked to make sure we had all the paperwork and told us we should get his certificate in the mail with in a couple of months!

Trevor also has a way with the ladies. We lost count of how many girlfriends he picked up on the way, but every flight attendant, every woman we sat near, every ticket agent, random people in the airport, fell all over him and his cuteness. I don't know if we have said it before, but we are in trouble in about 12 years!

Aunt Jill and Da were at Newark to meet us. They were both very excited to meet him and Jill did the best impersonation of Niagara Falls I have ever seen! When we got home, the neighbors came out to meet him and we found our house decorated. Aunt Jill is responsible for the stork and Aunt Jen, Uncle Jon, and BFF Ryan came to our house and decorated our living room and Trevor's room with banners and balloons and streamers. It was a great homecoming until...

Trevor saw Grendel. Al and I went in to give her some attention before we brought Trevor in. She was interested in him and came onto the stairs to sniff and check him out and he started shaking and howling. We don't think he had ever seen, let alone been near, an animal. (Maybe if he hadn't slept through the zoo...) Grendel, being Grendel, was pretty chill. She just trotted away. Every time he saw her for the first few hours he clutched at us and shuddered and screamed. It made his whole transition to our house harder than it had to be, because he was scared of her walking into the room. She just walked away every time he started crying, but she also cried quite a bit for attention. Between Trevor being scared of Grendel and Grendel being jealous of Trevor, it made for a stressful couple of hours.

Now if you think jet lag is bad, it is nothing compared to a jet lagged baby! He slept in the pack and play for about four hours and then woke up. Al got up with him and put on some Baby Einstein. He said that by the end of the video, he had Trevor sleeping next to him and G-Cat laying on his legs. He didn't put Trevor back int he pack and play when he came back to bed and I woke up to find Trevor sleeping on Allan's stomach and Grendel sleeping on mine. This morning, she was laying next to him and he put his head on her for a brief moment. So I think they'll get used to each other and be friends before too long.

Today we unpacked and ran some errands. Trevor was not too sure about car seats, shopping carts (howled getting into and out of both), Babies R Us, Sam's Club or Shop Rite.

To make a long story short, it's been a rough 24 hours. Between all the new experiences, the cat, the fact that we don't actually live in a four and a half star hotel, and that he hasn't seen Grandmom and Grandpop today (I think he really misses them), we've all had a hard time. But hopefully we'll all get used to this "new normal" before long.

We'd like to thank every one for the emails and messages over the past couple of weeks. Your love and support are very much appreciated. We are all very lucky to have such great family and friends!

XO
JL, Allan, Trevor, and Grendel

Ps- stay tuned for pictures!
Pps- please excuse any typos/bad usage and mechanics. It's been a long couple of days! I'm not thinking too gudly...

Jersey or Bust!

Hey all! We only have a few hours left in Taiwan! In less than 24 hours Trevor will be an American citizen!!! Yipee!

Al and I made a quick run to a Sogo, which is a HUGE department store. Kinda like a Neiman Marcus. Only nicer. WAY nicer. The elevator had 11 floors and 3 basement floors, although I don't know if all of them have merchandise on them. We got there when the store opened and the doors were open, but roped off. At 11am , the officers quickly took down the ropes and let every one in. There were workers lining the way in bowing at the customers as they entered. It was like getting the royal treatment! In the third basement was a supermarket. Very cool. The bottom two basement floors also had a lot of restaurants on them and I wish we had found the Sogo sooner so we could have eaten there. It seems to happen a lot, you find really cool stuff right before you have to get on the plane. Oh well, I'm sure we will be back some day!

We met another couple who adoped through our agency, Heather and Jeremy, and their little girl, Ellie. They are from Ohio. They were super nice and it was good to talk to someone who has gone through the same process. Ellie was six months old and very cute and very tiny. She slept through most of lunch and Trevor squirmed, but we went to Mr. Lai's, so he watched Trevor for a little bit so we got a chance to eat. Their blog is http://jeremy-n-heather.blogspot.com/ if you want to check them out.

Anyway - here are some pictures from today. I want everyone to notice T-Rex's shirt which says "property of mom forever"!

We can't wait to get home to see you guys and introduce you to Trevor! And we can't wait to see Grendel either. We haven't written a lot about her, but we miss that bucket of fuzz and hope that she will like her new baby brother!



































































Ps- For those of you who follow my fantasy team, I won this week, despite Plax's touchdown. However Tony Romo broke his pinkie and will be out for the next four weeks. (Whimp, real men play football with broken pinkies, quarterback or not!) Maybe Jake Delhome will have four big weeks. Anyway - it was a good fantasy season while it lasted!

Last Full Day

Well, today wasn't too big. We finished up some shopping in the morning and then we went to the Taipei Botanical Gardens. Trevor was pretty good through it all, but he doesn't like to sit still for too long, which is going to be really fun during our 30 hour trip home! When he starts to get squirmy he arches his back and it feels like he is trying to jump backwards out of your arms. Maybe he'll be an Olympic diver. He has the backwards dive movement down.

Al and I tried to go to a restaurant in the hotel tonight and we found out the reason why parents don't go to restaurants with their little ones often. Especially nicer ones... Trevor was grabbing at everything. I gave him some noodles, which he really liked and looked cute eating. We didn't take any pictures, however, because we felt like we were causing enough of a scene as it was. Grandmom and Grandpop came in and rescued us towards the end so we could finish in peace. Which was most appreciated.

We leave tomorrow night! And while, in some ways, we are sad to leave, we are very excited to be get home and start the new normal!

Chrissy, the last picture is for you! May the Giants win tonight (as long as it isn't Plax who wins it for them!) The travesty of my situation is that we have a HUGE flat screen, HD TV staring at me in our hotel room and it doesn't get football!! Sigh.

This Post is for Jill

If we lived in Taipei, this is where we would meet every week. 5 stories and there is a Tiffany's, but no Macy's.








































The Ice Coffee I got at the really cool Thai restaurant. I'm not showing you this to torture you, but I liked the presentation. No one else appreciated it. This is when I usually turn to you.




















You look like the fourth picture. He He. (I actually think about you every time I see this sign on the elevators in the subway.)
















And, although there is no Macy's, there is still Martha Stewart. I wonder if she is 150 years old here too...

Another Busy Day

OK, it is really weird to be setting up my fantasy football line up on Sunday NIGHT. (For those of you who are interested, I won last week's game, but I think I'm going to get clobbered this week.) This is the second Sunday in a row I'm going with out football. It's been two whole weeks since I've seen a game and it will probably be one more before I catch my next game. I am definitely going through withdraw, but Trevor is worth it. I can't wait until he's home and I can start teaching him the joys of football. Football...

Anyway - today was another long and busy day! We went to the Jade Market in the morning. There were actually three markets there. A handy craft market, a flower market (you never saw so many orchids in one place at a time!) and the jade market. Then, this afternoon, we hopped the subway and went to Taipei 101. It was pretty neat. The elevators are the fastest in the world. It took less than a minute to go up 80-some floors. There were really great views of the city and the mountains. We ate dinner at a really cool Thai/Chinese fusion type place called the Chrystal Spoon. Trevor was very good through out the whole adventure, even in the crowded elevators. (Better than Mom with the elevators...I hate elevators)

Trevor awake at the jade market.
















Taipei 101




















We thought for a moment we were in Philadelphia!
















Trevor at the top of Taipei 101




















Cool Thai restaurant with really good food.
















Trevor sleeping in cool Thai restaurant with really good food. (Which means that we got to eat together and in peace!)

Cute Video of Trevor

Trevor's Sleeping Habits

Hey Everyone!! Sorry we didn't post last night. Yesterday wasn't particularly busy, it was just kind of long and we don't have a whole lot of new pictures, but I'll post what we got starting with...

This is what Trevor looks like when he sleeps through the night:
















Which he has done for the last two nights!! YES!!! Now, he doesn't go down until after 11, but hey, it's several hours of uninterrupted sleep, which is AWESOME. I don't know how we are going to change that, Trevor seems to sleep when he wants to, but we are going to have to change it some how. Maybe when we start getting him up at 5am to go to day care...

Anyway - yesterday our guide from the agency took us shopping in this neat little place that sold traditional Taiwanese items. We haven't been buying a lot of stuff here because most of what we see on the street and in markets, we can get in Chinatown and while carting things through NYC and home on the NJT is a pain, it is a lot easier than carting it half way around the world. We tried to get some stuff for Trevor to give to him as he gets older. We'd like to get him 18 gifts to give him up to his 18th birthday. But we'll see if we get that many. Trevor was, of course awake and squirmy through this trip because we were around a lot of breakable tea sets and statuettes and vases.

After that we came back and hung out at the hotel for a little while and then mom and dad took him on another subway ride to the largest night market in Taipei. It was really cool, but way too crowded. Allan and I both thought the same thing when we got there, "Wow! This is like the Jersey Shore on steroids!" There was a place with boardwalk type games and a large place to buy food and a section that had little souvenirs. I wish it wasn't so crowded because we would have explored more and maybe tried to get something to eat, but it was really hard to get the stroller through or to stop with out getting run over. we ended up getting some shaved ice on the recommendation of some of my students and it was really good. Kinda like Rita's but different. Seeing as this was the busiest place we have been to so far and there was nothing to break, Trevor slept through it.

Today our guide is taking us to the jade market, which Janet and I are really excited about. Then this afternoon we are going to try to go see Taipei 101. Hopefully he'll sleep through the jade market and stay awake for Taipei 101, but knowing him it will be the other way around.

I'll try to post again tonight so Trevor's adoring fans don't have to wait so long, but it will depend on when T-Rex goes to sleep!