Weekend in Cincy

We went to Cincinnati to visit Aunt Hope and Javi and Carol this weekend. We stopped at Hope's house to drop off Jack and then drove to Kings Island where we met Javi. Carol wasn't able to join us, but we got to hang out with her later at the house. The weather was beautiful and HOT! We had to make sure Wyatt stayed hydrated and out of the sun.
Wyatt experienced his very first theme park ride on Saturday. It was a Dora the Explorer train ride. He had to sit by himself on a seat opposite us and he looked like such a big boy sitting there.
We didn't get to ride that many things because the lines were just too long and most of the rides were designed for slightly older kids that can sit totally by themselves during the ride. We did get on the carosel and Javi took pictures as we flew by.
The big boys even got to play a little bit...We spent the night at Javi and Carol's house and then met Aunt Hope for a late lunch today and picked up Jack for the ride back. Thank goodness we have the day off tomorrow to recover from our busy weekend.

8 months old (+2 days)

I did not get a chance to post Wyatt's 8 month pictures, but I did actually take them on the 27th. It is getting increasingly harder to get him to sit still. It took both of us to corral him enough to get a couple of decent shots.

Tomorrow morning we are off to meet Javi and Carol at Kings Island and Aunt Hope is going too! We will spend the night at Javi and Carol's house and then come back on Sunday. I think Wyatt will have fun on some of the kiddie rides and I'm sure we'll have to make a stop at the water park too. I think I'm going to take my camera, if not, one of us will have a camera to take pictures. I should get those posted on Monday.

And we need to get another video of Wyatt crawling. You will be amazed at how fast he moves now. The first video was the first few days of crawling, now he can be across a room in the blink of an eye. His daycare teacher told me today that he's been trying to stand up by himself in the middle of the room. He gets his butt up in the air and barely gets his hands off the ground before he changes his mind. He's pretty fearless... which is very frightening for us!

As promised...finally

We managed to get Wyatt on tape crawling last night. It shouldbe the top video listed on the rioght sid of the page. We were trying to keep him contained the living room area so you can't really tell just how quickly he can move. I put him down on the floor next to me at the computer a little while ago and before I knew it he was across the room, chasing Jack.

Traveling Man

We spent 6 out of 12 hours today in a car. Poor little fella has to be buckled into the car seat he is almost too big for, but at least he slept for about half of the time. We left early this morning for Louisville and picked up Aunt Rachel on the way. We then picked up Mimi and headed for Owensboro. We went to Memaw and Papaw's house to visit and Aunt Julie, Cousin Breanna and her kids Hayden, Bradyn and Kaylie came over to play with Wyatt too. The Blessed Mother Church picnic which is right across the street from Memaw and Papaw's was today so we even got some authentic yummy Owensboro BBQ to bring back home. Memaw cooked a big lunch for us all and then we had to hit The Dipper (local grease hole) on the way out of town. We brought the BBQ back for lunch tomorrow. I don't make it to Owensboro that often anymore so we have to cram in all the essentials when we are there.

Here is a picture of all the kids together.

Here is Wyatt on the porch with Memaw and Papaw...

Wyatt had lots of fun with Bradyn who enthusiastically entertained Wyatt all day long. Wyatt thought he was hilarious and giggled at him and even gave him slobber kisses.

When we got back to Mimi and Pop's house in Louisville, we had a quick dance session with Aunt Rachel with Wyatt's cool shades on.

Forward Motion Confirmed!!!

We have mobility! Wyatt was playing on the living room floor this evening while I was preparing dinner. I would walk back and forth between the stove and the living room to peek in on him and one time I walked by just in time to see him go from sitting, turn around onto hands and knees and proceed to CRAWL toward my flip flops. Michael had just walked in the door and I called him over quickly to witness the event. I did manage to get a short video on Michael's phone but apparently it won't translate to the computer very well. We will get the video camera out tomorrow night and capture this exciting footage. The rest of the night he would sit and play for a few minutes and then lean over and take off crawling like he'd been doing it his whole life. We're in big trouble now!!!

Meeting with Lawyer

Today we met with the lawyer that will be handling the adoption. She was very nice and seems to really know exactly what she is doing. A basic summary of what is to come (to the best of my memory while holding a squirmy 7 month old) is as follows:

She took down all our basic info and now she will contact the social worker and wait for the social worker to send her the termination papers. Once she receives those papers then it will take her a week to put together her petition to the state. The state reviews the case and tells the social worker when it is ok to submit her report. Once the state approves the social worker's report, then the judge can assign a guardian ad lightum to report on Wyatt's best interests and then a court date is set. She thinks that Jessamine County has one day each month set aside for adoption finalizations and it will just depend on when the list is checked off, then they'll slide us on the next scheduled day for adoptions. She guesses that this part could take 3-4 months and will hopefully/most likely be finished by the end of the year. The hold up is usually when the state is reviewing the case and processing the social worker's report. So now we sit tight and wait for the next step...more hurry up and wait!

Bon Voyage Uncle Matt!

We were in Louisville today to wish my brother Matt a safe and fun trip to The Netherlands. He is going to study at The Hague for 4 1/2 months! He'll be back just in time for Christmas (and Wyatt's birthday). I know he is going to have so much fun and I cannot wait to see all the pictures and read about his adventures. We got together in Louisville to have a family portrait taken since we haven't done that in quite a few years. Here are a couple of the best ones.


And Wyatt had so much fun playing with Cousin Nina today. She even got a few slobber kisses!

We have termination!!!

I emailed the social worker this morning to find out if there was any news from the court hearing yesterday. She called me a few minutes later and apologized for not calling yesterday but she had good news. The judge went ahead and terminated the parental rights so now we can proceed with finalization. We already had an appointment set up with our lawyer for next Monday evening so she can go ahead and prepare the first set of papers for us to sign. From what I understand there is a lot of paper pushing and shuffling for a little while, but I really have no idea how long this could take.
The important part is having the TPR because this was the point of no return. The finalization is more of the cermonial part and changing over the legal documents so we can obtain his social security card, birth certificate and all that other good stuff. Even though he's been OURS since we first laid eyes on him, it feels good to know that we are on our way to having the paperwork to prove it! Thanks for all your prayers and finger crossing...it worked!

Chuck E Cheese

Wyatt's first trip to Chuck E Cheese was this afternoon for Katie's 4th birthday. He even got his own batch of tokens which daddy spent wisely no doubt. We put him on a few of the kiddie rides but we didn't even have to put a token in for him to ride, he was thrilled just to play with the steering wheel.

We had lots of fun helping Katie celebrate her birthday!

Minor Adoption News...

I got an email from the social worker today telling me that there is a hearing on Wyatt's case next Tuesday! It isn't anything we get to go to, but mainly a planning session to determine what comes next. Originally the social worker was going to wait until after the hearing to tell us what happened since she figured it was just another hoop for them to jump through. But then the agency's attorney mentioned that he thought there was a remote possibility that they may get the termination of parental right (TPR) on Tuesday. He suggested getting the medical form, which would have to be filled out before finalization, in order to show the judge that Wyatt is getting good medical care and is in a good home. One of the benefits of a small town pediatrician is that the doc and staff know Wyatt so they were more than willing to fill out this form for us on short notice. I called this morning to ask how long it would take to have a form filled out and returned and they said to give them 24 hours. Then when I called back to ask if I could fax the forms the lady in the office said "Oh, I didn't know this was for Wyatt! We'll get the doctor to fill it out and fax it right back to you." So we have the form signed and emailed to the social worker so hopefully this is the road to finalization. The TPR is a long shot for Tuesday, but a possibility nonetheless. Keep your fingers crossed!

Another weekend in Louisville

Wyatt is getting closer and closer to crawling every day. We took the bassinet part out of his pack and play tonight because he is pulling himself forward onto the edge and could easily flip himself out. So now he gets to play in the low to the floor setting which he doesn't seem to mind at all. It has mesh sides so he can still see what is going on outside around him. He doesn't like to sit still at all right now. He is constantly rolling over or scooting himself across the floor.

We drove up to Louisville on Saturday morning and spent the afternoon with Aunt Rachel and Uncle Matt at Mimi and Pop's house. Later that evening we headed over to the Ratterman's house for Rick's 60th Birthday party. They had a great turn out and lots of yummy food, everyone was dressed in their Hawaiian gear for the Luau theme. Ella looked so pretty in her pink dress, Wyatt couldn't help but flirt with her.

Wyatt: "Hey Ella, How you doin'?"

Ella: "Do you see what I have to deal with here?" Wyatt: "Maybe she'll be impressed when she sees how I can get my toes in my mouth."