San Diego - Legoland sucks

Travelling with a toddler is always interesting. It's like trying to juggle and spin the plates at the same time. Drop a ball or fail to get that plate going and things crash... loudly. Overall though he was an excellent little traveller. I bow down before the portable DVD player, oh keeper of entertainment and sanity.

My mission here today though is to warn parents of small childern about the dangers of Legoland. Do not go! The wait was 45 minutes to an hour for each ride. There were no quick lines. Everything was an hour including the wait for lunch. I repeat stay away from Legoland. The miniature cities were fantastic but really was it worth the price of admission, probably not. Also after waiting an hour at the last ride of the day the evil woman decided that E wasn't tall enough to ride this ride, this despite the fact that he'd been riding these same height requirement rides all day long.

Sea World San Diego was incredible though. The park was well run and all the exhibits were quick to see and get out. Shows were on time and entertaining too.

Now, to go abroad. I just wish the dollar was worth more than the toilet paper on the airplanes.

sigh

Pictures to come!


Have a great weekend all!

Update

San Diego was marvelous. The weather was perfect... 75 and sunny every single day. It's the kind of place that you get home from and immediately start looking at real estate prices.

Sea World was phenomenal, LegoLand was surpisingly frustrating, more to come...

Here comes the son, do de doo doo

So in a few short days we'll be boarding a plane for our first cross-country trip. I'm excited and nervous for all of us. It's going to great to get out of town and experience some sun with the son.

I've packed the toys, and books, games, and movies. I think we're about as prepared as we can be.

Wish us luck and happy equinox to you!

Ciao, chow

I'm in the classic office space where the cubes face one other individual. I'm fluxing between positions and right now I'm in a sort of holding cel until my new space opens. What's all this about? Well, my office mate never eats. This normally would be a good thing, there's nothing worse than a noisy office eater... however...

I've become horribly self-aware of my own eating. I get to work at an ungodly hour and forgo breakfast until mid-morning. So, I sit here eating my oatmeal and he's over there Terminator-like in his unhealthy non-eating, work-focused attitude.

I have my pre-workout snack and he's still not eating, clacking away at his assignments. After gym, I'll eat lunch at my desk and still, I've observed no eating. I try to hold off but I have to snack around 3ish and nothing still. He's probably eating, I hope, something while I'm working out. It would really make me feel better if he'd just wait until I got back so I wouldn't feel all this food guilt.

How can he be so selfish?

paper pregnant

We just got our last document from the government (the I-600a approval, I 797? I forget.) Anyway, just a few more steps, notarize, authenticate, embassy approval and then dossier to Vietnam. Soon, I'll be paper pregnant!

No one knows what's going to happen exactly. I just want to get the paperwork in so I can relax and stop my mental checklist. First time around we waited literally three days to get a referral so this will be a much different experience.

Aaah, patience, we're about to become good friends again.

Frosty the mud puddle

We're getting up in the 50's again today and 60's later this week. It's all rather surreal. I don't think I've gone this long without some sort of snow before. We've had a few piddling inch or so but it's always been gone in a matter of days. I fear this may be the new pattern for our area.

I want to build a snowman and show E how to make a snow angel. I had to get some keys made yesterday and I saw all the sleds stacked up along the side of the hardware store. I realize it's a luxury when I wake up and think oooh it's cold, it must be in the 20s, considering the arctic blasts some friends are receiving.


Oh no, watch us get a freak storm right before our flight.

I take it back. No snow the rest of the season.

Weekend

Busy week here as I've started my new job. Also, we've finalized our vacation plans! Details to come.

If you have any keeping a toddler happy on an airplane tips I'd love to hear them.

Happy weekend everybody.

Friendly Skies

We got E a fisher-price airplane for Christmas. It's one of those Little People planes with various people going on vacation and a little pilot to fly the big plastic jet. He's really enjoyed it, putting all the people in and sending them to parties. He loves the parties.

He'll say the various phrases the plane cheerily spouts like "Ready for take-off!" and "Welcome aboard!" Well, one day he was walking around spouting something unusual. I asked him, "where did you get that?" He says "from the airplane."

I hunt down the plane and cycle through... listening carefully. Finally, I hear the culprit. "E, it says enjoy your flight, not enjoy your butt."

Not so sunny

Shocking story out of Miami as a mother falls ill and a Florida hospital refuses visitation for her partner and her children:

OLYMPIA — Four months ago, Lacey resident Janice Langbehn, her partner Lisa Pond and their children Katie, David and Danielle, ages 10 to 13, were set for a relaxing cruise from Miami to the Bahamas.

But Pond, Langbehn’s partner for nearly 18 years, was stricken in Miami with a brain aneurysm and died. The family says the way they were treated by hospital staff compounded their shock and grief.

Langbehn, a social worker, said officials at the University of Miami, Jackson Memorial Hospital did not recognize her or their jointly adopted children as part of Pond’s family. They were not allowed to be with her in the emergency room, and Langbehn’s authority to make decisions for Pond was not recognized.

“We never set out to change the world or change how others accept gay families,” Langbehn told the crowd at the Capital City Pride on Sunday. “We just wanted to be allowed to live equally and raise our children by giving them all the same opportunities their peers have.”




Read the full story below: I don't know that I'll be taking any trips to Florida any time soon. Lacey woman shares tale of denial at bedside of her dying partner

rawr

When the package says temporary tattoo... that means 2 or 3 days.

/ walking around with large orange tyrannosaurus rex on my hand

V-day

Had a really lovely Valentine's Day... well actually I feel like the celebration started weeks ago. E has started just randomly telling me "I love you, Daddy." It just melts me. He'll be playing along and just look up and say "I love you, Daddy." out of the blue. Wow. Valentine's was just a Thursday when you have that going on.

Also he's starting to sing songs while he's playing. You wonder how much your kids are paying attention when you play music or sing or whatnot and I'll catch him singing entire verses to songs. I've always been a big music fan, looking out for new stuff so I'm thrilled that he's catching the musical bug.

No news on the paperwork front. I'm waiting, waiting for the I-171 approval. While the wait is going on, I'm fearing that some of my older documents are getting past their prime.

Ay-yay-yay

I'm still waiting for my I-171 approval. Grrr it's frustrating. It's the last, very last piece that I need. Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up.

I can't seem to focus on much else. I know it would still be early but I'm so anxious to get in line for our little one and I know there'll be a good long wait once we get the dossier in. Still, I'll be able to relax a little and focus on a couple other things that we need to take care of.

We're taking E to his first little concert this weekend. It should be interesting. He loves music and it's a kid-oriented show so I think we'll all have a smashing time.


It's really beautiful out and I'm stuck in this hermetically sealed office building. Oy.

More later, I'm off to obsessively read about Vietnam. It's very healthy!

One day in Iraq

I don't really like doing 2 youtubeish posts in a row but this vid is too powerful to let go. I've thought about this question many times:

Swan Dive Serenade

We could do with some levity around here so I want to introduce you to one of the best kept musical secrets. I don't recall how I stumbled across Swan Dive but this song "Circle" really helped pull me out of a difficult funk (long story best told later). It's full of joy and bounce and I keep coming back to this song year after year. It's definitely a throwback to a Bacharach kind of vibe and I dare you to stand still while this is playing. Better yet get up and dance with me. You'll find E and me dancing around the kitchen in our socks, better to get your glide on.

Happy Weekend my friends!

Process

So, like much of the Vietnam adoption community, I've been processing this latest salvo from the state dept. If you are in process you already know what it says but for the rest of you I'll summarize, No one knows what will happen after September when the current agreement between the US and Vietnam will expire. Cases in process will continue under the current rules but future cases are in limbooooooooo.

Well bite me.

We switched from Guatemala because the system was imploding. We had begun with an agency and it was raided. The children were confiscated and placed in various foster homes and and the nightmare begin and continues for the families. (The agency has since been vindicated but that won't be making the international news.)

So, after much research we found our new country and our new agency. My fingerprints are done and I'm waiting for my I-171 and then my dossier will get certified and blah blah and then submitted to the Vietnamese embassy. I'm all in. I have to think that the two countries will work this out. There is desire on both sides to help the children and the corruption doesn't seem nearly as pervasive as in Guatemala.

I think this will work out. Sometimes you have to jump off the diving board and commit..... now it's just waiting for that splash.

Subtle Subtitle.

I came across this Japanese potty training video. I think this is what my blog should be about, sharing Japanese potty training videos with hysterical subtitles. Are those squat toilets common in Japan? Be afraid.

Securing our borders

You can't walk into the USCIS office, you have to make an appointment. I set mine up for 10:30 and arrive 20 minutes early. I'm not familiar with the area nor was I sure where to find parking. I've brought my book (The Golden Compass, quite good actually) and my journal that I got myself for X-mas. Some 90 minutes go by before I get to approach the window to hand in my I-600a to the Helpful Customs Agent (HCA).

I hand in my application and say "The instructions say copies are ok. Can I give you a copy of my homestudy?"
"Your agency is supposed to send that in."
"But I have it right here, can't I just give it to you?"
"Usually they send it in."
"Well I can ask them to mail it to you if that's what you want."
"Let me check." / HCA leaves by a door in the back behind all the bank-teller like windows.....
"We can take it. Do you have an original?"
/ha ha I think! "Sure I brought an original too. Also here's my birth certificate."
"We can take a copy of that." / why is that copy ok? I have no idea.

We stare at each other.

"Anything else?" She has that why are you still here look.
"Don't I need to be fingerprinted?"
"Yeah, we need to set that up."

We stare.

"Can I do that here?"
"Yeah, we can set up that here if you want."
"Okay that would be great. It would save me another trip down here." I smile and pretend I'm walking along the boardwalk on Rehoboth Beach.

We stare at each other some more. I wonder how thick the glass is and if I hit it would it crack? It's a good thing the glass is there.

"Do I set it up here?"
"Yeah we'll do that for you."
"OK, that's great."
"You can pay for both the application and the fingerprinting together."
"Swell."

...

"You can have a seat."
"OK!" I chuckle a little trying for a ha ha, I'm such a goof.

I'm thinking I have no number, no receipt, I'm not sure what I'm waiting for. I scan the faces behind the windows. No one is looking for me. There's no activity....

Finally my name is called by HCA. "Here's your receipt take that with you to get your fingerprints."

...

"Is that here?"
"It's across the street."
"Does the building have a name?"
"It's in the Bank of America building."
"Do I walk in and talk to a guard?"
"Just walk in and it's on your left."
"Do I need an appointment?"
"Hold on, let me check." She steps back to confer with HCA2. "They take walk-ins on Monday."
"Great. Thanks so much for your help."

Making my exit, I see thankfully the building is indeed across the street and oh thank god there it is right when you walk in.... only... It's closed. Not a soul is inside. There is no contact number on the door either. I see a security guard in an office directly across.

"Um is that the fingerprinting office?"
"Yeah that's it. It's closed."
"Will it reopen after lunch maybe?"
"No it's closed every Monday."






/ head exploding

update

Hello all!

I'll be submitting my I-600a next week! Hopefully the approval will come 4 weeksish after that. The important thing is that paper is moving. I hate those still times when I'm waiting for someone else to finish something. I have one more document outstanding but at least I have other things that I can work on over the interim.

E's been fighting this cold all week so he's been waking up intermittenly coughing. He's fine during the day but the drainage really affects him. So, Daddy has not been getting a lot of sleep either. It's really wearing on me today. I'd put my head down on my desk right now if I thought I could get away with it.


Project Runway was terrible this week wasn't it? Still we have Rami. mrwor.

Just got word that the final draft of the homestudy was on its way to me.

/ hoping that all of my corrections were captured

/ eeeee

I dream of Vietnam. How much of it will prove to be real and how much is fantasy I don't know, but images come to me. I picture heat and palms and traffic. There are children selling, selling, selling and people honking and rushing with all kinds of goods stacked Suessian high on motorbikes. Papers swirl around me waiting for governmental stamps and ribbons of approval. I'm stopped by the deep, dark eyes of kids. Their's is a timeless, knowing gaze. Is he there? Is she this one?

I hate the waiting. I want to go the office and slam my homestudy on the desk and say "Here, take five freakin minutes and review this document."

I try to breathe in and think of Vietnam... Guatemala invades and morphs the countries into a rainforest mix. There's E waiting for me and there's a brother or sister, I can't see. It's all too distant and there's so many papers to go, so many offices to visit, so many miles to travel.

Right now, there's dinner, and bathtime, and play. The night will come, morning will rise and I'll make another call. Put on your happy voice and nudge things along, sooo sloooooowly

as a breeze hits the palm tree

and the insects sing

for you my little one

waiting so far away.