Life's a Beach - even in October

So we went to the beach as a family for the first time last weekend. Zeth got his inagural wet & sandy feet and seemed to really enjoy himself. Zana had fun making mini sand cakes.

Then it was more napping for baby and swimming for Zana with daddy. It was beautiful tropical October Saturday.

Two of the most sun-shiney kids you'll ever meet.

The Birth Announcement

My dear sister made a very sweet musical montage of Zeth's adoption weekend for us. Even though it's a bit after the fact now for me to post this, it is about the best birth announcement I could imagine.

I have to admit as we were lounging by the hotel pool knowing that our birth mother was in her second day of hard labor a few miles away, I did have pangs of guilt that I couldn't be there to help share her pain somehow. But other than that and the bittersweet first moments when we received our precious son, the weekend was pretty amazing. The beauty of the island, the amazing sunrise on Zeth's birthday and the tender first few days with him were all masterfully captured in my sisters first attempt at a musical picture collage. Can't thank her enough for being such a wonderful sister and auntie. Enjoy**.

**I noticed a buffering problem when previewing this video on the blog. Hopefully it plays smoothly for you. There is a slightly different version on youtube that I could send you a link to if you're interested in leaving a comment.

Sweet Dreams

It's time for some new pictures of the kiddos.

At 4-weeks, Zeth had his first day at the beach. It was kind of a washed out day but that didn't dampen Zana's spirit any. That's her running up and down the shoreline. Zeth just wanted to eat and sleep. That's my idea of a perfect day at the beach.

Zana started gymnastics classes in Sept and is having a great time learning how to put her Tigger-like impulses to a more structured use. She's already performed at two school carnivals. But her being in the youngest group for the school, her performance lasted something like 15 seconds and consisted of 3 handstands and a cartwheel. It's a start.

We've been so fortunate that Zana has not had any jealous moments (yet?) over her new sibling. Actually it's been quite the contrary. I don't recall ever seeing a kid as loving towards, proud of and doting over than Zana has been with Zeth. She is as crazy for this adorable kid as we are as parents. I think all the years of praying as a family for Heavenly Father to send us a baby really helped her feel a sense of ownership and stewardship over this incredible little blessing.

I caught Zeth having a good dream one morning. I just love how his face lights up when he smiles.

His eyes are focusing now and he smiles at us more regularly as he realizes what he's looking at. At this point, his smiles are our reward for all the sleepy feedings we're waking up for each night.

I just love the inquisitive face of a new life. The furrowed eyebrows are a frequent expression. Zana regularly asks me what he's thinking so I'm constantly making up something. It's a fun game she loves to play. I wonder what he's thinking here.

Halloween Junkie

I am a self-professed Halloween junkie. It has long been just about my favorite holiday. I am so completely not at all into Goth or 'dark' lifestyles so it's one of my little unusual quirks that I enjoy celebrating the day of the dead holiday so much. I am, however, into creativity and costuming. I guess I have my mom to credit for this - she always helped us make our own costumes as kids and encouraged the creative process. It is for this reason I enjoy the thrill of coming up with great homemade Halloween costumes year after year. That said, this year I think my priorities have been shifted temporarily with the new baby, so I may for the first time in my life recycle one of my own old costumes.

Luckily last year I stumbled on a stellar idea and won over Zana's preschool class by walking into her classroom as Disney's "Kim Possible" complete with a naked mole-rat named Rufus. Despite the many imperfections, it was a big hit. So if I can get my wasteline to cooperate long enough to skinny into last year's snug sweater, I may just do a repeat.

Suprisingly, Zana decided weeks ago she wants to be the same purple princess she was last year in 2006. Since I spent a good chunk of time and effort souping up her costume last year, I'm thrilled that she wants to get another year's use out of it. I think we lost some of her lavish jewelry so we'll have to add some new pieces to the picture for fun and originality.

It doesn't take long for kids to recognize their parents passions and traditions. All last week Zana literally begged me to decorate the house for Halloween. So Tues night after my aerobics class she greeted me at the door with that familiar request and I figured I was already dirty so it was a perfect time to dig out the boxes from storage. She was so excited about hanging spiders and witches and took charge of the ghost and jack-o-lantern display table. It's so nice to see her sharing my love of this morbid season. Now if only my dear husband would play along and dress for the occasion. Some day... maybe some day.

For years I've said I'm going to put together a scrap book of just Halloween and other special costume events I've been involved in (including performances & parties). And for years I've had the album sitting in a closet with a few loose photos sitting inside. So I'm going to post some of the more recent years photos here instead just as a start to my ultimate goal of actually taking the time to scrapbook something once again some day.

2006 was the debut of K.Possible. It was fun to play the part of an earth-saving heroine.

2005 was the year of Hanka and Blanka from the world's strongest woman series (just made that up... I wonder if that actually exists).

Using all sorts of socks and towels for mass, purple makeup for contour shading and a pair of inverted panty hose to hold it all together, my weightlifting buddy and I achieved all new heights without the use of any steroids.

2004 was a good year to be a mermaid. My two aqua jogging buddies and I were dubbed the mermaids one day in the fall by a co-worker as we were slipping out for our lunchtime dip in the pool, and history was made.

Of course it makes sense that the daughter of a mermaid would also be a mermaid so Zana was naturally part of the act.

2003 was Zana's first Halloween and I had an inspiration over a bowl of Honeycomb cereal one morning for a great team costume concept.

Unfortunately the honeycomb cereal shrinks when the moisture from the Elmer's glue soaks in. So I filled in the holes with more cereal using a glue gun instead. Curry powder mixed in the Elmer's glue dries to a beautiful shade of honey which was drizzled all over the hive hat.

In 2002 I borrowed inspiration from the Karate Kid I movie and made a great shower costume. In 2003 my friend borrowed the costume. After spending so much time constructing it, I was glad to see it get some more use. The curtain rod and shower head were made of rebar and lots of tape suspended by two vertical rebar rods anchored to a weightlifting belt which fed through the back of my terri coverup. The shower cap and slippers were covered with styrofoam balls - wish I had taken a picture of the whole ensemble. The entire costume had irridescent plastic 'water' glued all over it and dripping from the bottom of the curtain. I had a water gun and bubbles for special effects - props are so crutial and make the whole day so much more fun. Not at all comfortable but probably my favorite costume yet.

2000 or 2001 was the year of Venus in a 1960's time warp. I've got to find a digital image of that year one of these days. Beyond that, it's all a blur right now. But that's probably more than you ever needed to know about my Halloween fettish anyway.

One Marvelous Month

As an adoptive mother, this has been one of the greatest months of my life. We became the parents of a darling baby boy and are thrilled to have a new member in the family. I've been home with little "Zeth" for the past 4 weeks and it's been so much fun getting to know him. I've started a blog or two in the past but never got hooked on the concept. In light of the new arrival, I am going to make a real effort to use this as my primary mode of keeping anyone interrested in my loop and save your email space by adding pictures here. Blogs...what a convenient invention. My lofty ambition is to make this interresting and a fun time investment for all but I know I have much work to do on my creative writing skills. I don't feel it wise to overly expose my darling family so some names and locations may have been changed to protect the innocent.

So Zeth was born on 9-9-07, via an amazing "birth mother" whom I can't express enough love for, and came home with us from the hospital on 9-10-07. Since he was born on a neighboring island, he had his first airplane ride just one day old. Our daughter "Zana" has been such an amazing and excited big sister from the start. She absolutely adores him and loves being a big sister. We couldn't be more thrilled at how she's adjusting and how he is fitting in our family.

Zeth is one month old today. I like recognizing unnecessary milestones 'like such as' calendar months passing. He is such a strong little man it's suprising. He can aready pull himself up with his strong little arms and vice-grip hands and push his body up with his legs. He's got such a strong neck - although he still has trouble controling it sometimes. Hello Headbuts!

The whole family is asleep so I'm going to take a cue from them and hit the hay.