What's going on with...

Owen? He had a check-up with his ENT doctor yesterday after his round of steroids and antibiotics, and the doctor isn't satisfied. So he's going to operate. Owen will have what they called the "tri-surgery" - tonsils out, adenoids out, and tubes in. I'm so worried about him. I hate that he'll be put under while they do the surgery, and I hate that he'll be in pain, and most of all I hate that he's 2 years old and won't know what's coming and I can't explain it to him. I can only hope that he feels better afterwards. His sleep apnea and snoring, his funky teeth, and his lisp should all improve once his adenoids come out. So it will be for the best, really.

Friday his sitter is having a garage sale, and the kids are manning a lemonade stand. It will be so cute. The other two little girls are both three, so they have the harder jobs. One is putting ice in cups, one is pouring lemonade, and Owen's job is to hand out cookies. They've been practicing each day. Owen wears a baggie over his hand and pulls out cookies, and if I've ever seen anything as cute as that, well, I've forgotten about it. He's so excited about his "lemon stand!"

Saturday Owen made his second poop in the potty (the first one was months ago, though). He was very excited and kept telling everyone that he made caterpillars in the potty. Only a 2-year old could possibly draw such a conclusion. But hey, whatever incentive he needs, I say go for it.

Ari? Last week Ari learned to clap. I never knew he couldn't clap until I saw him do it. He loves to clap. He also loves to wave. I had to take him out of the swing at the park on Sunday because he wouldn't hold on, he was too busy waving. He also is crawling now, real live crawling, and no more army drag. I credit much of his crawling to Nanny's cold tile floor, because as soon as his little naked belly hit that floor, he was up on hands and knees! He's doing so well. He's pulling up on everything, and trying to stand (he's not there yet). His top two teeth are bulging, but haven't broken through yet. That's going to change his entire look when he gets those teeth! He is cuter than ever.

Eva? We're two weeks into our eight-week wait for our INS clearance, or form I-71H. This is the magical form that clears us for adoption, and it's the last piece of the puzzle for us. Once it's received, we can get our dossier to be translated and sent over to Kazakhstan. So far we're still on track to travel around the end of August, but we're well aware that even the best-laid plans fall through sometimes. The Kaz program director was in-country for about four weeks, and just got back to the States on Sunday. We're hoping he has some new information or maybe even pictures for us, any sort of update is welcome. So far he's still readjusting to the time zone changes, and we're not pushing it yet, but he better contact us soon!

Keith? He's halfway through his first summer course. It's a lot of information packed into three weeks, but he's making it. Our schedules are crazy right now because we only have one car. The silver car is gone, we believe for good, as it will not start yet we can't find anything wrong with it. So we're driving back and forth downtown to home several times a day to get everyone to work, school, work again, home, baby-sitters, everything. The good news is, he's looking seriously at vans, at finances, and I think we'll have a new (to us) vehicle sooner than later. And only six more months of school for him. I know he loves that.

Robyn? I found out yesterday that our company is being sold. I work for a very large brokerage house, and we've heard these rumors before, and I think it will be great for the company. But I'm concerned about benefits. Our parent company was footing $5K of the adoption bill. I hope we don't lose that benefit! I don't think we'll know anything for sure until July or so. Definitely an interesting change for us around here. As far as my job goes, now that they've got me marketing, I'm supposed to go on like, 18 different trips by the end of the year. No freaking way. This job, it sucketh. It's all career-y, and while that's okay for some, I'm not the career type. I'm the mom type, and all this corporate environment is wearing me down.

This is a nice short week at work, and then a long weekend, due to the Memorial Day holiday. Keith will be home with us Monday. That's good news, because I think all four of us need some time to recharge and spend time together. Not to mention grocery shop, which I haven't done in about four weeks. Not to mention sleep, which I haven't done in about two and a half years.

American Idol finale tonight!!