Our LOA!!!!

We waited all day Friday for our LOA to arrive by Fed Ex-it never came-I called first thing Sat. morning to see what the problem was-The gentleman on the phone told me "it will be delivered on Monday" (yes, I almost SCREAMED) but instead I asked politely if it was possible to pick it up....Matt rushed over there and picked it up-(at first they couldn't find it)-freaked out again for a second and about 15 minutes later, they found it!! Matt drove to the hospital and we signed it ASAP-he then took it to kinkos-Fed Ex to mail to Charlene-YIPEE, we are now officially waiting on our TA-it arrived at Charlene's house this afternoon-how exciting...I can't wait to hold my baby boy!!!! BTW, YES, MATT IS MY HERO!!!

Christmas pics- or lack of-

We had a great Christmas-I took lots of pictures-to my surprise when I went to download them to my computer-there were only a few........my husband decided to reformat my camera-I LOST ALL OF THEM-except for a few-I could have cried!!!! So here is one of my beautiful daughter in her new dress up princess dress-sticking out her tongue-LOL, where did she learn that???? but what a cute pic of the sisterly love!!! Glad I was able to capture that!!

My baby is Truly a Big Girl now!!!

Aleaya is completely potty trained now! I'm so proud of her!! This was so much easier than I thought it would be.....I feel like I dropped the ball and should have tried a little harder months ago-(maybe when she brought me the turd in her hand, that was a clue) She has been great!!

So for all you BTDT moms, when do you stop the M & M and sticker thing??????? I think I better keep it up for a little while. I bet everyone is glad they wont have to hear about my turd stories anymore!!! Well, you never know there probably will be a few more in my life time...

WE FINALLY HAVE IT!!!!

We received a call this morning that our LOA has arrived!! It should be at our house tomorrow and we will overnight it ASAP........I guess my little winey post brought on some good vibes!!!

I am so excited-it finally seems real!! I can't wait until I hold my baby boy in my arms!! I have wanted to be a Mommy as far back as I can remember. When we had Career day at school in first grade, I stood up proudly and told the class " I wanted to be a Mommy"- I was so proud!! It took me a long time to finally be a Mom, becoming a step-mom first. I can tell you what there is nothing like "being a Mommy" It is the best feeling in the whole wide world!!!

STILL WAITING ON OUR LOA!

I find it hard to believe we are still waiting on our LOA. We don't know if it is "really" in the mail or not. There is no hope that we will travel until after the Chinese New Year. So, poor little "Skeeter" has to wait a little longer before we can go get him-If ONE more person says to me "go eat some Chocolate" I am going to SCREAM! I am not a violent person but there might be a smack down. No amount of Chocolate is going to make me feel better at this point!

I Have our LOA on the brain BAD. I went to the H.R. Dept today at work to get my FMLA paperwork. Well, guess what I asked for?????? I said I was there to pick up my "LOA paperwork" If it was only that easy, life would be grand!

Potty update

We are doing great!! We have only had one accident in 2.5 days!!!! Of course she wears a diaper still for naps and at night! This just might work! I should have tried the 70 pant's months ago. We have gone to the Grocery store, out to lunch, and haven't had any accidents!! I'm so proud of my Big Girl!!!!

Early Christmas with my Brother and Family

We Celebrated an Early Christmas with my brother and his Family. It was so nice to see Baby Emme. My Brother lives in Oregon so we don't get to see them as much as we would like. It was great that Aleaya and cousin Audrey had a chance to play together (their birthdays are only one month apart)

A Dry Day

We put on big girl pants today...on top of those, we put those really ugly training pants-you know the ones you remember your little brother wearing back in the 70's??? Well low and behold it worked.....we have had a completely DRY day and we have gone poo poo in the big girl potty too...........WOOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!! I think we are making GREAT progress...maybe I wont have two kids in diapers soon!!!!!!! That would be great and wonderful on the pocket book!!!!!

Updated picture of Our little Boy!!

I did it!!!!!!!!! It took me forever but I figured out how to fix his picture-Isn't he a cutie???

Problem with our Paperwork

I guess there is an Accounting error with our paperwork in China. We were hoping to receive our LOA last week-IT DIDN'T HAPPEN!!! I guess at this point we wont be traveling until after the CNY-late Feb. This just breaks my heart that Skeeter has to wait another two months because of a clerical error-It just doesn't seem fair-

POO-POO Update

I was cooking dinner the other night and thought Aleaya was in the living room playing-All of a sudden Aleaya yells "Momma, poo-poo" so I start running in order to get her clothes and pull up off so that she can poop. When I made it to the bathroom she was standing there with her pants off pointing at her poo-poo in the potty. I was shocked...........this is a HUGE improvement, my little girl is growing up............now we will work on the pee-pee part!!!

Halloween Picture-2007

I promised Halloween pictures. These didn't turn out very well but she was the cutest little Zebra I have ever seen.

Still waiting on our LOA

We are still waiting on our LOA. I think we are on day 98 or so by now. I was so hoping to get it last week but we didn't. It needs to hurry up and get here or we wont be able to travel before Chinese New Year. Please come this week.............

Cupcakes in Heaven

Scotty's Birthday is Dec 8Th, he would have been 2 yrs old today. If things were different we would most likely be home with him celebrating his 2nd Birthday. Well, this didn't happen and God had other plans for him. I hope you will think of our little Angel today on his special day.
We love you Scotty and I'm hoping that they have Cupcakes for our little boy in Heaven.

Picture wth Santa

Last year Aleaya cried when she saw Santa Claus. This year she was excited to see him. She yelled "Hi Santa" as soon as she saw him. So this year we have pictures. Isn't she cute???

Hua

This is Hua, she suffered from a heart defect and needed surgery. She was having episodes were she would pass out and she had a blue tinge to her skin from lack of oxygen, time seemed to be running out.
The day Scotty passed away LWB received a call from a lady named Trudy asking if there was anything they could do. It was set up so that money could be donated to Hua's surgery in Scotty's name-within a day, there was enough money donated so that Hua could have her surgery. She has since had her surgery and is looking forward to going to school. I was amazed to see that Hua is from the same province as Shae and kept wondering if it was possible to meet her. Well I emailed Amy at LWB and she gave me the email address to Trudy!!!!!!!!!!! Well I am excited to say, we get to meet Trudy, Hua and her family while in Guiyang..........how cool is that??????????????????????? I am very excited!!!!

The POO POO

Aleaya hasn't gone poo poo in her diaper in a week. This is progress. She goes potty on the big girl potty every time.............but guess what????????? She doesn't go pee???? This seems a little backwards but I'm not complaining, no more poopy diapers WOOOO HOOOOOOOOO, we will work on the peeing part!!!

Halloween 2006

Here is a picture of Aleaya last Halloween, she was the cutest little lady bug!!! This year she is going to be a Zebra-I will post pictures later tonight after we get home.

This one is for you Marcy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

container of 2t clothes for later

supplies for China

clothes for China

PJ's-you can never have to many PJ's right??????????? well, atleast in my head!!

more shirts

pants and things

shirts and some jackets

first off, My name is Erika Callahan and I am a shopaholic-;) I am embarrassed to show Skeeters closet-but here it is-made sure I took pictures of his drawers also so that you could get the full on effect!!! Maybe next I will show you Aleaya's closet so that you can really see I have issues :) LOL, also the containers are full of supplies and clothes for China...........couldn't help but show the other container full of 2t things for later...........

NO POO POO this week

So we haven't gone poo -poo in the big girl chair all week............sigh....or even pee-pee for that matter..........bigger sigh..........

Guess What???

Guess who went poo-poo on the big girl chair.?? yep, twice so far!! She was at Omma's house the other day and she put her on the big girl potty and left her alone to read her book, a little later she hears Aleaya yelling "Omma, it's working" so my Mom ran to see what was up and she had gone poo-poo..........it worked...how cute is that?? she also went poo-poo on Sunday in the potty chair-but a half hour later she went poo some more in her pull-ups...oh well, this is a start-guess she wasn't finished yet ;)

tyler's Room

This is Shae's room-We used the same decoration's we had for Aleaya's first bedroom- I know it is pretty boyish for a little girl-but I picked this out long ago and still love it!!! I couldn't bring myself to show the closet. You would die if you saw how many clothes this boy already has. Retail therapy is addicting!!!!

UPDATE-we named our little boy Tyler not Shae

Aleaya's Room

We finally finished the kid's rooms!! I can't believe Aleaya has a toddler bed. (I have been putting this off FOREVER) She is using this for naps now and still sleeping in the crib overnight in Skeeter's room. We still need some more decorations but Aleaya finally has a girly girl room.

Pumpkin Patch

We went to the pumpkin patch yesterday. Aleaya had a blast. We bought 4 pumpkins, 2 little ones and 2 big ones to carve. Unfortunately, someone stole three of them out of our yard last night. We only have one little one left that Aleaya had been carrying around the house.
I find it hard to believe some one stole our pumpkins.........JERKS!!!!!!

Finally a LID-

We finally have a LID...............I am so disappointed and frustrated. Our DTC date was 8/6/07 and our LID is 9/3/07 Almost a month............sigh...So I had a good cry and then started thinking about the bright side of things....okay, the PROS- so we wont be in China for Christmas so I will get to spend Christmas with my favorite girl...(I couldn't seem to talk Matt into letting Aleaya go to China with us) , My sister will be home for Christmas this year and I get to spend time with her, I will get to meet lots of great people IRL that I have met on the CHI adoption board and their wonderful children.....more time for my foot to feel better and more PTO(paid time off) to accumulate..................the cons I WANT MY SON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

baking a cake

Aleaya and I baked our first cake together. She was so excited, of course, she was even more excited when she was able to lick the beaters. Don't worry everyone, we didn't use eggs so she isn't going to get salmonella. :) This was a Weight Watchers Pineapple cake recipe that you use a can of Fresca instead of eggs and oil. This may sound weird but it is YUMMY.

Our Scotty-It's been 6 months

It has been 6 month's since our Scotty passed away. 6 months since that horrible phone call telling us he was gone. He passed away April 4Th, 2007. He was a SN little boy we were in the process of adopting from China. He passed away at the Orphanage from Pneumonia before we were able to bring him home. I know that he is in heaven now, I feel at peace with that, although it is sometimes hard for me to fathom the reason he was taken from us before we had a chance to hold him. It took Matt months and months to say "yes" to a second adoption. He had his heart set on another girl, I had my heart set on Scotty the moment I saw his beautiful face!!! I showed Matt the picture of Scotty and he was smitten too. May our little angel know how much he is still loved, he will always be in our hearts!!!

Aleaya and her night time singing

Aleaya loves to listen to songs at bedtime. She was listening to the song "Jesus loves the little children" at bedtime last night. I heard her break out in song after closing the door to go to bed- it was the cutest thing-her verse was a little different though. she said "Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. red and yellow,black and white,orange and green and purple too" could it get any cuter than that? I love her so much she makes my heart full!!

Care Package for Skeeter

Here are the things I am sending in a care package for Skeeter. This will be the second one Ive sent. It is really hard not even knowing if it arrived or not. Oh well, it is the thought that counts and I just pray this arrives and that it is delivered to Skeeter. I sent two outfits,a toy, a blanket, some candy for the nannies and not pictured here is some candy for the children.

spaz

I have no idea what happened to the word few in my last post about the Puyallup fair. I am such a spaz when it comes to this blogging thing!!! I'm surprised I am even able to post pictures!!

DO THE PUYALLUP!!!!

We went to the Puyallup Fair last week and Aleaya rode the rides for the first time.(last year she wasn't old enough) Of course my camera ran out of batteries after a few pictures!! so this is all I have. She looks a little scared in the firetruck picture but it is deceiving she had a blast.

Moon Cakes and Cuteness!!!

The Pork roast turned out great and the moon cakes are pretty but not very tasty!! As you can tell Aleaya couldn't wait to have a moon cake. She changed her mind after tasting one :) so she had a moon pie instead!!! At first we couldn't see the moon through the clouds but finally after everyone went home, alas the moon!!!! Aleaya, Sami,Justin (Sami's new boyfriend) & I took a little walk to get a better view. I said a little prayer for Skeeter and of course couldn't help but think of our Scotty while looking at the beautiful moon!!

Autumn moon festival

The Autumn Moon Festival is tonight. My Family is coming over for the Celebration. We are celebrating with Chinese Pot Roast and moon cakes.http://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipe/44179/

A new name for Skeeter???

okay, so maybe everyone remembers Matt and I couldn't agree on a name for Skeeter. He wanted Nicholas-(ummm, we have a dog named Nicky) I wanted Shae Sheng Le-we agreed on Tyler Sheng Le-so since we came up with the name Tyler-I still keep calling him Skeeter-can't seem to get used to the name Tyler-although I like it a lot. Well guess who came to me and said he likes Shae better now-of course Matt did-he told me Sami likes Shae better-okay then, is it to late to go back to Shae?????????? I don't think so!!! :)

TURD

so the potty training thing is not going so well. I was handed a turd. She wears pull ups and had on a pair of shorts the other day. Obviously she went poo and the pull-up couldn't hold all the doo, so it fell out of the side of her pull-up. She ran into the play room with her outstretched(and I do mean outstretched LOL) hand with a turd in it yelling "Momma, poo-poo"...........GREAT, she had the most horrifying look on her face..........it was so funny I didn't know whether to laugh or cry..............so I laughed until I cried!!!! Luckily it was a hard turd and not a huge mess!!!! Wish I had a camera.........................................I went into Respiratory Therapy instead of Nursing because of the turd factor-I don't have to deal with the T factor being an RT-so those of you who know me well, have a GOOD laugh with this one!!!! I sure hope we are done with this before Skeeter gets here!!!!

ABC song-big girl potty

Aleaya can finally sing the ABC song. She has known the whole alphabet for months but wasn't able to sing the song. It is the cutest thing. She will sing it straight through and then say "Mommy, now its your turn". She is growing up sooooo fast.

We are having a rough time with the potty thing. I've tried stickers, M&M's, potty books...nothing seems to work. I guess when she is ready it will happen. She wears pull-ups most of the time now except at night and naps. She still pees and poos in them even though I ask her a million times a day if she needs to go potty. Suggestion's are welcome :)

Sami started school

Sami moved in and she started school yesterday. She is going to a brand new high school. I'm sure it is hard to start a new school in your JR year of High school. We are so proud of her she is taking it really well and seems to be pretty excited about it. She said "there are lots of cute boys" YIKES, let the teenage ride begin. :)

MY FOOT

for those of you who know me well this won't shock you. YES, I am sooooo clumsy, have been all my life. I was always the kid walking around with crusty knees (yuck) I wasn't really into watching were I was going, fell down a whole lot not much has changed HAHA!!! Well for about the last month and a half I have had some pain in my foot. I waited until about 2 weeks ago to go to the Dr. (yeah, I work in a hospital :) she instantly put me in one of those boots-Yes, all the way up to my knee-UGHHH, we did an x-ray and there are no broken bones but she thinks I might have a tear in my tendon!!!! I FINALLY go to get my MRI on Thursday to see what is truly wrong with it.......I tell you what, 2 12-hour shifts and then two 8 will kill you WITHOUT a boot on-I think I might die.....my foot hurts...............OUCH,OUCH,OUCH!!!!!!

Matt has been jokingly calling it my "sympathy boot" until this weekend, when he saw me take it off and said " Geez honey your foot is really swollen" Um, DUH!!!!!!!!! Hopefully we can get this taken care of before going to China!!!!! My boot is open-toed....LOL!

Our Family

Here is a picture of our Family. We are just waiting for Skeeter and then we will take another one. :)

Aleaya and Cousin Audrey painting

Dont even ask why my baby is wearing white :) not the smartest move on Momma's part.

Here is Grandma holding baby Emmerson. What a cutie pie.

FAMILY

My Grandma is here visiting from Pennsylvania. We drove to Vancouver to visit my little brother's family, his new addition to the family is Emmerson Rae Haney. She is the cutest little thing you have ever seen. She looks a lot like my little bro when he was a baby. We had a good time and the girls had fun playing together. They only had a few disagreement's :) you know, that SHARING thing is tough when you are only 2.

Sami's moving in

We found out this weekend Sami is moving in!!! I'm going to have a 16 yr old in the house...YIKES, no, really we are excited and feel this is the best thing for her. We joked about never seeing her again after buying her a car for her birthday in July(ofcourse, THIS was Matt's idea NOT mine, way too scary for me) Aleaya can drive when she is 40 LOL!! but now we will be seeing her everyday....Aleaya loves her sister so much and will be soooo happy to have her here!!!

DTC

Our Dossier is finally done. CHI sent it to China on Aug. 6th. It arrived there on the 9th. FINALLY all the paperwork is
done...........now maybe my brain activity can return again. no more mush brain.
now come on LOA!!!!! We hope to travel in Nov. or Dec.

PA

OOPS, forgot to tell everyone. We finally received our PA on July 17Th. We are now able to send Skeeter a care package. I will be doing that sometime next week.

FINALLY DONE

I haven't posted in a long time. I have been busy with our paperwork for China. We are finally done and will hopefully be DTC by next Friday. We are very excited about this.

I also cleaned out Aleaya's room and we are getting ready to paint it again. And here is the BIG NEWS-we bought a toddler bed. I'm not looking forward to this but I guess our baby is growing up. We will be working on Skeeter's room next.

Fairy Princess party

Aleaya went to a birthday party today!! She had a blast and dressed up like a fairy princess!! sorry about the quality of the picture. I dont know what is wrong with my camera.

We have a name

It took lots and lots of badgering but we finally have a name. Skeeters official name will be Tyler Sheng-Le Callahan. I'm sure we will still call him Skeeter-and I know for sure Aleaya will be calling him Skeeter. Every time she sees his picture she yells out "skeeter". It's so cute!! I'm not sure if she really understands who he is yet, but she will soon! Especially when he comes home and starts invading "her" space. I cant wait!!!

Skeeter-Sheng Le

Skeeter-Sheng Le

Yes, its a boy!!! He still looks pretty in pink!!

Speaking of names

While thinking about a name for this blog, I just kept thinking of sugar and spice and snips and snails and puppy dog tails!! I then came up with the name "snips and snails and little pig tails" but since someone already has a blog named "snips,snails and pigtails" I change the name to Slugs & Snails & little pig tails!! I figured it was fitting since we live in Washington State!!! I remember my little brother being fascinated with slugs when he was a little boy!! He thought it was fun to follow the slug trail!! UGHH!! I'm sure Skeeter will be fascinated with them too. So hence the name :)

Names

Sheng Le's nickname is Skeeter, that is the name that CHI gave him. I think Skeeter is a cute nickname but we don't think we want to call him Skeeter forever. Matt and I can't seem to agree on a name. He wants Nicholas-keep in mind our dog's name is Nicky. I want his name to be Shae or Shayne or maybe Tyler........... Shayne means a "gift from God" and with the passing of Scotty, it seems fitting!!! We know Scotty is surely smiling down on his little brother right now!! Hopefully we can agree on something before we leave for China :)

My little Artist

This is Aleaya at the Children's Museum in Olympia. She had so much fun, she cried when we left. Not just crying, a throw yourself on the ground type of crying. Isn't two fun?? I think we will be making lots of trips down to Olympia to get our paperwork authenticated to send to China. Hopefully a tantrum won't happen each time we leave the museum. You know we can't go to Olympia without going to the museum.

Kong Sheng Le

This is our little boy!! We are adopting from China again. His DOB is May 16,2006. He is from Guizhou Province and is living in Foster care. We sent in our LOI for him at the beginning of May and are now waiting to receive our PA. We can't wait for him to come home.

My First Post

I can't believe I'm doing this. A blog of all things-I love reading other peoples but not sure about keeping anyone entertained with mine-We will see!!! As my adoption friends will tell you, Im not so handy with the computer!!!