Aug 29 - monthly update

Rocco started second grade.  He's in Mrs. Massey's class.  Thankfully Will Cox, Rocco's best friends, is in his class this year. Riley Baker, his former girlfriend, is in there, too.   Unfortunately Hunter, Hayes, and Gunnar were placed in the other second grade class.  So far things have gone well at CSE.

Rocco is a very good big brother.  One day Maverick had been crying and I could not get him asleep.  Rocco sang him his very own made up lullaby.  "Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep little baby...because we love you, and we care about you, and we know you haven't slept all day." And you know what? He went to sleep!

 Seventeen months old and still growing like a weed.  It was back to work for me full time this year.  I was sad, but oh so thankful that I had last year only working part time so that I could be more of a stay at home mom.  I'll forever cherish that time I had home with my babies.  This year I'm at Southeast Elementary teaching math and science to sixth graders.  It's about a twenty minute drive from the house.  I've been working late hours trying to stay up with the pace of being in a new school, new grade, and new subject.

Our boys love to get a bubble bath.  Here they are in our big whirl pool.  (If you look extra hard you can see Rocco's blue orthodontic glue on his back teeth.  Just that little bit of glue has corrected his under bite caused by grinding teeth.  Thankfully braces will come later rather than sooner.)

 I can think of nothing sweeter than my nana interacting with little Maverick. She was feeding him breakfast one morning.  Look at that little bird mouth open for some Cheerios.  Something is extra special about great-grandparents!

 This little man loves a sucker!  He'd almost eat the stick when he's through with the candy.

 I love picture shots from behind.  He was busy playing with his little Disney train that his nana and granddaddy gave him in this picture.

July 29th - Monthly Update

Intelligent, handsome, sweet...the total package.  That's my Rocco.  I just love his new look in his glasses.  Sometimes he'll drop his head, pull his glasses down, and give me that look.  Here it is below.  He makes me laugh all the time!

 He is still very much into Teen Beach Movie.  He's even watched the short segments on Disney that teach you how to do the dance moves.  He doesn't miss a beat!

This summer we've had friends down from Texas ( the Carlson's), went to Charleston and the beach at Isle of Palms, worked in my vegetable garden, and enjoyed sleeping in (then again Maverick tends to get us up early). Nevertheless we've enjoyed being out of school.  We love picking blackberries.  Maverick would eat them all up if we let him though, and we would have none left to cook if we don't watch him!

And just look at our sweet little man.  The other day in the dark I was holding him. We kept rubbing noses like Eskimos do when they kiss.  He would just giggle and do it again.

Maverick just loves bubbles.  Rocco usually pops them first, but he is just fascinated when I blow them.

We really have to watch him now.  He's into everything.  He can now climb up on the kitchen chair and then onto the table.  I can no longer put my vase of flowers up there for fear he'll break it.  I'm also afraid he's going to climb up there and fall.  That's why the kitchen chairs are no longer resting near the table but near the living room.  The stairs are still barricaded, too.  The high chair is usually blocking the pantry door or else he would get into the candy stash.  "Bite bite, mmm!" he'd say. Oh the way your house gets turned around when there's an active little one!

If there's a hat lying around, Maverick will put it on.  Half the time it's on backwards, but he's as cute as ever.  He knows he is something big and special.  That smile on his face says it all.

Summer Update

 The second week in July, Kim Lan and her three kids came to Georgia.  They spent almost a week with us.  Joe, the oldest, is so tall and handsome now.  He will start high school this fall.  Sam is still as sweet and lovable as ever, and Maile has grown into a beautiful young girl.  We first met the Carlson's on our adoption journey to Vietnam.  Don and Kim Lan adopted Maile the same day that we adopted Rocco...and from the same orphanage.  We try to keep in touch with them so that the kids can always have that connection.

Through the week we did several things.  We went to a couple of water fountains to stay cool in the summer heat, had a picnic, picked fresh veggies from my garden, shopped, rode around on our land picking blackberries, made a fresh cobbler, and the guys even went out for a boat ride on the river.

 Drew, my nephew, has enjoyed getting to know the Carlson boys.  He always comes over to hang out when they're in town.  We've been taking this picture where all the kids are lying in a circle for a while.  This year Maverick was here to join in.

Rocco recently got a four wheeler.  One of Jason's friends had a son who had outgrown it, so he gave this cool ride and helmet to Rocco.

Before school started in August, I was able to make it on a four hour ride to South Carolina to see one of my best friends, Jennifer.  We spent the night at her house and then we headed to Charleston for a couple of days.  She took her youngest son, Liam, too.  We enjoyed the Isle of Palms beach, saw some history, walked downtown historic Charleston, and saw a beautiful historic Magnolia Plantation.  (Several alligators were just feet from us on the tram ride!  The old rice fields are now swamps.  There were bamboo forests, beautiful, old live oaks with Spanish moss, and all sorts of flowers.)

Rocco was as brave as I've ever seen him at the beach.  With a life vest, he rode in a lot of waves.  

 Here we are at Magnolia Plantation.  We call this a Maverick sandwich.

 Downtown Charleston...

On July 19th, a new Disney Channel original movie came out.  Teen Beach Movie would turn out to be Rocco's latest craze!

The movie came on tv, and we recorded it on our DVR.  Rocco watched it over and over until he could sing along with the songs.  He's learned the dialogue so well that he goes around the house acting like the biker, Butchy, wearing his sunglasses and saying, "Surfers, thought I smelled something fishy."  He can even do the dance moves to some of the songs like Cruisin' for a Bruisin'.  Lala is the main biker girl.  I think she is Rocco's first celebrity crush because he's told me several times, "Mom, I just can't stop thinking about Lala." Here she is...