Dane Date

Brandon left this past Sunday for two weeks in Pasadena, California as part of his Masters program, taking Mac the Mac with him. Before he left, I wrote out a couple of blog posts with pictures and scheduled them to post while he was gone and I was Photoshop-less. Fortunately, I am borrowing a back-up laptop so that I'm not completely computer-less!

It's always a bit of a challenge when Brandon is gone, this summer more than usual. He will have been gone 4 out of 6 weeks this summer, and I am always searching for ways to be more of the "fun mom" while he's gone, and less of The Enforcer, since Fun Daddy is not here to balance that out. Does anyone else's house work that way?

I had an appointment to get to this afternoon, and had decided to hire a babysitter for half a day and use the time to get a bunch of errands done and take a 27 pound box of books to the post office, which is on the list of things that I Would Rather Poke My Eyeballs Out Instead Of Doing With My Three Kids. Is there a magic time to go to the post office when there is no line? Because I haven't found it.

Where was I...this morning we woke up and I decided that what I really needed was a date with my Dane. I haven't been on a date with him in a while, so we left Aidan and Harper with our sweet babysitter (and Aidan played AND WON about 4 board games with big brother gone), and we headed out. At Dane's request, we lunched at Schlotzsky's and then headed to Half Price Books in search of another book from his new favorite series. He has started reading books in the Geronimo Stilton series, (there's about 45 books) and Half Price Books didn't have a single. one. So we hustled down the street to the Barnes and Noble and picked up a couple before we raced to my appointment. We also made it to Kid 2 Kid to sell a few clothes, and Dane picked out hair accessories for both of his little sisters: hairclips with ostrich feathers, fake flowers, and a big rhinestone in the center ("look, it has a diamond, mom!") for Harper and Emerson. They may look like Vegas showgirls wearing them, but it's the thought that counts. We had a great afternoon, and I loved spending some one-on-one time with my biggest.

We are expecting to hear from our adoption agency any day now about our travel approval. Families usually get it about 3-4 weeks after their Article 5 letter is sent to the CCAA, and ours was sent on July 9. I'm actually hoping we get the approval next week, because once we do, I will be a panicked mess trying to arrange travel details, flights, childcare, etc., and frankly, next week is less busy.

Checking the mail at our house continues to be a little bit like Christmas. I got the CUTEST goodies for Emerson yesterday from my Aunt Betsy, and I can't wait to post pictures when Brandon gets back. Speaking of Emerson, what do 3-year old little girls play with? I realized recently that she may not be interested in footballs and Legos and dinosaurs. Do they play dress up when they're three? Anyone know where I can find a baby doll that looks more Chinese and less white-girl?