Our day started like this:

And ended like this (notice the bandaged fingers and teary eyes for both of us). Yep, we have definitely looked better.

• 5:00 P.M. the night before: Review hospital instructions for the test Little T needs for his hypertonia.
• 9:30 P.M. the night before: give Little T oatmeal because he can’t eat after 10:00 P.M.
• 2:30 A.M: wake up and give Little T one last bottle of water, because he can’t drink anything after 3:00 A.M.
• 4:30 A.M: Alarm goes off.
• 4:45 A.M: Alarm goes off again.
• 5:00 A.M: Alarm goes off again
• 5:15 A.M: Big T and I wake up in a panic because we were late, and carried our tuckered out Little T to the car and head to the hospital. In our pajamas.
• 7:00: Little T gets his anesthesia. Momma J gets a little teary as she holds his hand and watches him fall asleep.
• 8:30: Little T is fine. We wait by him with relief as he wakes up from the anesthesia.
• 9:15: We head home to take care of Little T. The worst is over…or so we thought. dun dun dun
• 12:00: (fast forward to a groggy Little T waking up at home) Momma J decides to clean the house and grabs the vacuum.
• 12:05: Momma J is cleaning under the couch with the vacuum hose and her back turned to Little T, and feels the vacuum fall over behind her.
• 12:05 1/2: Momma J turns around to see Little T screaming, and realizes the reason the vacuum fell was because a curious Little T had pushed it over and ripped the skin off the entire side of two fingers from (we’re guessing), the rotating brushes under the vacuum.
• 12:06: Momma J and Big T rush back to the doctor.
• 1:00: The doctor says that too much of his skin has come off, and that we need to have it treated at the burn clinic. We learn that we need to visit the burn clinic every day until it heals.
• 1:15: The only burn clinic we can get to is an hour from our house. Little T hates long car rides, poor baby.
• 1:16: Momma J cries in front of the doctor and feels guilty. Big T convinces her that she does not have to go and buy Little T a big tub of soy ice cream or a puppy dog or something.
• 1:45: We go and get a frozen tofurky vegan pizza for dinner from Mother’s Market, because it’s one of those days.
• 2:30: We realize that Little T has taken off his bandage and we head back to the doctor.
• 8:00-3:00 A.M: Little T cries and can only be comforted when he is being rocked by mommy. What a night, poor little guy. We’re all exhausted.
• 3:00 A.Mish: Momma J calls the nurse hotline and they tell her there’s nothing else we can do to make him comfortable. Ugh.
• 4:00 AM: Litte T finally goes to sleep.

I feel awful. Even though the nurses, the doctors, my grandma, and the guy who handed me my beet juice at Mother’s Market, said stuff like this happens all the time and that it’s all a part of parenthood. 😦

I also felt bad because I pride myself in being calm during emergency situations. Things came up when I worked at Disneyland all the time, and I was great at calmly giving instructions and helping the emergency crew. This is not the way things went down when Little T hurt himself. Imagine me turning to comfort him, thinking he was scared because of the vacuum, then screaming when I see his finger and rushing around the house, hyperventilating while I search for emergency supplies, calling the doctor, while repeating, “oh my god, oh my god, oh my god”. Totally different when it’s your own child.

This first one was taken at Trader Sam’s, the newly revamped bar in Downtown Disney. Sure, the drinks were expensive and there was absolutely no vegan food to eat, but we wanted to check it out with our friends anyway because we heard it was a fun place. I asked the bartender if he had any vegan food. He said he’d get me something and came back with a plate of drink toppers, hardy har har. It had olives, strawberries, pineapples, and lemons. You’ve got to hand it to him for trying.

Our friend-I’ll call him the Great Randini-his chair mysteriously began to shrink. They also had thunder storms and entertainment inside. It was a blast, but I was glad to get back to my snugglebug at the end of the night.

My friends wanted to know why they weren’t ever in my blog. So, here they are:

I also went to a bridal shower for a friend who is getting married soon(!!!). I can’t wait to see their wedding.

Little T likes to wave at the cats. Poor thing, he doesn’t realize they are running from him in fear, he thinks they just like to make him practice waving goodbye. Here he is, waving at Daphne while she looks down at him from the top of the cabinet.

Speaking of the cats, we had to make a trip to Ikea because we’re going to be putting up cat shelves in the house. We want the cats to feel comfortable hanging out in the living room, but certain babies and doggies are always too excited to see them and make them run off.

When we were at Ikea, we found a doll for Little T. He loves it and snuggles it all the time. The only problem is that it looks a little too much like Little T. We keep seeing the doll around the house, facedown on the floor, and freak out because we think it’s Little T. 0_o

Big T also found a couple of dolls, but I told him we couldn’t afford it and he’d have to use one of the carrots from the fridge to snuggle with instead.

Hope you all had a good week,

~J

Last weekend, we packed up the picnic gear and drove over to Sherman Oaks for the AdoptHelp Picnic. Those of you who were with us from the beginning, know that we started out with a different agency and were going to do an international adoption. Things took an unexpected turn when our social worker contacted us about a domestic adoption they were having trouble placing because the infant was mixed race (sad, but true). We took the leap and switched to a domestic adoption through AdoptHelp, the agency that was trying to place the infant. That adoption failed, but AdoptHelp was amazing and soon connected us with Little T. We will forever be grateful to them for bringing Little T into our lives.

When we got the letter that they were hosting a picnic for their adoptive families, we were thrilled to put faces to the people we’d cried on the phone with during our adoption journey. I didn’t expect to cry again when I saw them again in person, but I totally did. I promised them that I don’t usually go around crying all the time.

Here’s a picture of us with Mark, the lawyer who gave up his entire day to talk on the phone with us during one of the hardest days of our lives, our failed adoption. He also talked on the phone with us during one of the best days of our lives, so I guess it evened out. 😉

I’m not sure we would have gotten through that day without Mark and Olga, the social worker who was helping us with our case. Our failed adoption situation was very unusual/awful and hard to stomach. Mark reassured us that it wasn’t the end of the road for us and that we would be parents. A month and a half later, he was right.

At the picnic they had an In and Out Truck. Anywhere with free In and Out food is a great place to be. They also had an ice cream truck.

We felt like we were in Florida for our adoption again, because the weather was humid and every once in a while it would rain.

This bounce house was way better than the other bounce house:

They had music for all the kids. This was Little T’s favorite part.

We had a really nice time meeting other adoptive parents and swapping stories. Big T and I were surprised at how easy it was to talk with everyone. I think it’s because we were all bound by a common experience. I was surprised to see we weren’t the only trans-racial family, there were a couple of others. It was nice to meet other families that were like ours.

Here’s a few more pictures from the day:

A lot of fun things have been going on in our neck of the woods:

Last month our blog made it into the top 25 Southern California Blogs over at Circle of Moms. This was all because of your support and your clicks, so thank you! This blog is a huge creative outlet for me and I’m so grateful for all of your support.

Next month, our family’s adoption story is going to be in Kiwi Magazine. Pretty cool, right? It’s an awesome magazine that not only uses one of my favorite fruits as the title, but also focuses on healthy living for families. w00t!

Yesterday, I was interviewed by a freelance writer for VegNews Magazine. VegNews is THE magazine for vegetarian living, so it was pretty exciting. They’re thinking of doing an article on how vegan diets have changed people’s lives. I was honored they asked to talk with me, and glad to share my story with the hope that it may help someone else out there who is going through the same thing. I’m not sure if I’ll make it into the article (I’ll keep you all updated), but it was exciting to even be considered.

Big T and I have been doing some serious talking over here, and we’ve decided that teaching jobs are impossible to find right now. The other day I was asked to photograph a wedding, and this got the wheels turning and we decided to get back into wedding photography again. I’m feeling inspired and really excited about this! I loved being able to photograph weddings and am looking forward to doing it again. So, if you know anyone looking for a CHEAP but hard working and dedicated photographer for their wedding, please send them my way!

And in more serious news, Little T is going to be getting some testing done in two weeks. It’s a precaution to make sure he didn’t have any seizures in the womb that may be causing his hypertonia. I’ve been reassured by every professional that we’ve talked to that they doubt they will find anything, but Big T and I are still nervous. I can hardly hold it together on the phone when they call and give me instructions about sedating Little T for the test, making sure he doesn’t eat beforehand, and all of that serious stuff. Keep us in your thoughts and cross your fingers for us please because it’s going to be a hard day.

Once again, thanks for supporting our little blog! Writing on here puts a big smile on my face, and I’m hoping it puts a smile on yours every once in a while, too. If you want to continue to support our space, please give the link below a click. It only takes a second and it helps to keep our blog on the blog-radar.

I hope you all have a beautiful day. 🙂

~Momma J