Happy 1st Fathers Day Jordan!

Blues

I read about these special edition Huggie's diapers printed with a denim pattern a few weeks ago on another blog I frequent. The video on their website is quite comical and I thought they were pretty cute, so I picked up a package for Rylin. Thanks to the typical Texas summer we're having, he spends most days around the house in diaper only. I snapped a few pictures today of our now on-the-move baby modeling his new favorite blue jeans.

Full Family Weekend

So this past Friday Jordan and I got a chance to sit on the opposite side of where we were one year ago. Our agency asked us to come and speak to a group of prospective adoptive parents at the seminar that we attended last July. You may remember me blogging about it here and here. We were pretty excited because we LOVE to tell our story and share how adoption has shaped our family. Rylin sat pretty well, and we had a good time talking to the couples that attended.

Shortly after the seminar, we headed to my parents house and the Casey family reunion (my Mom's Mom) on Saturday. We enjoyed getting to see some of our relatives that we don't often spend time with and my Mom and I even entered the homemade ice cream contest. Though our fancy "Fat Bottom Crunch" only won 3rd place, it was an adventure to make(understatement of the year) and a clear winner in our minds! We left for Greenville Saturday night and to the Woodall reunion (Jordan's Dad's Mom) on Sunday. Everyone enjoyed meeting Rylin and we ate some more good southern food!

Part of letting go of our dream of biological children forced us to think about the loss of a genetic link in our family. This is a hang up for so many people considering adoption, and something we definitely wrestled with. I have to admit that going to these reunions made me wonder if Rylin would ever care about these people in the same way I hold an interest. I don't even know most of them. I haven't kept a close relationship with many. Yet somehow, their existence in my family tree still makes me feel a connection.

A birth family answers questions of history (physical traits, personalities, and geographic local), just as an adopted family adds to it (childhood experiences and values). Both are important in understanding the past, but neigther solely determine who one will become. I think a lot about the family Rylin will grow up surrounded with because of open adoption; his birth family and his adopted family. I now can imagine that each will be special in their own way but both play a significant role in understanding his heritage. I also know that he has twice the number of family reunions in his future!

Trouble

This is what I found yesterday after nap time...

Looks as if the mattress will be moving down today! (he's on his knees in the picture) Some other new found activities he's been practicing this week...crawling, crawling to sitting, shaking his head, and my personal favorite...spitting(with spit or food-whatever is applicable).

Silly Faces

Like I said before, this kid is full of funny faces. Here are a few more of my recent favorites.

The laundry room...one of his favorite places (daddy's teaching him well!)

Water Baby

Summer has arrived in Texas and thus my whining for a pool has commenced. Since the giant maple in our backyard is dashing my chances for a below ground oasis, I guess we're just stuck with (as my friend Rebecca would say) the giant turtle. Or in our case, the plastic blue thing from Target. A couple years back, when we learned our fat bulldog liked the water but couldn't quite get his short legs moving fast enough to swim, we bought him his own kiddie pool.

Much to his delight and ours, we have enjoyed it more than we ever thought. Jordan and I even got desperate enough to lay in it once! However, in the spirit of Duke moving down the family priority totem pole, it seems it will now become someone else's. We ceremoniously broke it out of the garage attic and cleaned it up on Saturday. I managed to stuff myself in a swimsuit (don't worry, no pics of that) and dressed Rylin too, while Jordan snapped some pictures of another great first. I had to laugh at my child's natural "base tan" next to the blinding nature of my own brilliant white legs! (so jealous) The water was cool, but Rylin definitely enjoyed it. We practiced for his upcoming swim lessons...

Duke was not sure what to think...

7 Months Old

Our little guy is 7 months old today! He is growing so fast and the last month we've had some big milestones. Rylin finally started to enjoy eating solid foods. I've been making most of them. He will pretty much eat anything I feed him, but definitely prefers blueberries, yams, pork, and apples. He's also now tried cauliflower, potatoes, plums, peaches, green beans, peas, squash, carrots, avocados, bananas, chicken, turkey, and some gross congealed concoction that O Organics calls beef. Yuck. A couple of weeks ago we moved to a larger car seat since he was pushing the weight limit on the infant carrier. He loves it. He has a better view of the outside world and it is definitely a little more cushy.

He now enjoys riding in the grocery store cart too.

He has started to perfect the scoot and army crawl and we know that crawling is literally days away. It blows my mind how fast he can already get around. Yesterday I went to pull a piece of paper out of his mouth (an everyday occurrence) and felt a sharp little tooth poking out of his bottom gum. That would explain the crankiness and extra sleeping we've had lately. His little personality has really come out. He has a big cheesy grin that he loves to give when he is really excited, and he can squeal at the top of his lungs loud enough to make Duke leave the room.

He LOVES his walker and is quite skilled at getting around the house since almost every room has wood floors. He has learned to make the motor boat sound with his lips and is currently yelling "dadadadada", though I told Jordan that it doesn't quite count as his first word! He loves to roll around on the floor in his room and this is how I found him the other day. Laying in the pile of stuffed animals!

For once we went to a Dr.'s appointment and it wasn't for him! This was he and Duke waiting in the vets office this morning. Not exactly Norman Rockwell, but still pretty cute!