American Idols in Philly

Dear June,

Your parents were goobers and went to the American Idol concert last night. Daddy said he was being ironical, but Mommy saw him cheering for his favorites without once looking at his watch. Aunt Mel and Uncle Sean had unabashed fun too, sipping oversized sodas and photographing wildly as Ace pounded his chest during “Father Figure”, Paris shook her moneymaker and Taylor actually did some justice to “Do I Make You Proud”, despite his signature stroke victim moves and extra shiny jacket.

As for Mommy, she found herself loving Mandisa all over again and nurturing an under-developed crush on Chris Daughtry, who was so obviously robbed in this competition. For a good fifteen minutes, the show resembled a rock concert while he took the stage, and the crowd went positively nuts, but eventually reverted back to the laser-lit choreographed talent show (brought to you by PopTarts!) and ended with an undeniably cheesy finale, replete with a full-company rendition of “We are the Champions/Living in America”.

We told ourselves, June, that one day you’ll be nine years old and want to go to concerts like this and won’t yet have developed your cynical side (at least we hope not). We told ourselves that this was good practice for when we take you to a big prefab pop concert and that now we know we can sit through it… but the plain truth is that we really enjoyed ourselves (despite having just seen a two-hour commercial for American Idol Season Six) and we’re not embarrassed to admit it.

We’re sorry honey. Mommy and Daddy are goobers.

Look Who's 40!

Mike turns 40 today! We celebrated yesterday with lots of family, friends, food, games and a Marilyn Monroe telegram. It was good fun and the fickle weather even held out.

It really would be great if we can celebrate his next birthday with a referral and photo of June. But for now, we'll spend the day eating leftover cake, laying around in the air conditioning and watching some of the movies he got as gifts.

Happy Birthday Mike!!! I loves ya.

Luck Be a Ladybug Tonight

I try not to buy too much into superstitions. Really I don't. But tonight I didn't bother to help myself: I saw this beautiful ladybug making her way round my porch while I was hosing down the flowerbed, and immediately became obsessed with interested in her every move. One moment, I was going about my normal watering routine, trying not to get water all over my socks (but doing it anyway), and the next I was frantically yelling up to the third floor to Mike to bring the camera pronto.

And in the moments that followed, the silent paparazzi that was me followed the ladybug from to porch step to geranium leaf to iron ladybug statue we keep on the porch. (OK, I’ll shamefully admit I coaxed her onto my finger and literally posed her. Is that terrible? Will I be an evil stage mom one day??)

Some of my overly eager optimism probably came from reading the first positive rumor on the adoption wait in a really long time. Could CCAA possibly get through all of July ’05 this month? If so it could finally mean the tides are turning and we could have June home next summer after all.

Ladybug, make it so!

First Hike: Bushkill Falls

Over the holiday weekend, we took our first hike through Bushkill Falls in the Poconos. A good new-to-hiking experience as it was basically just an uphill walk through stairways built around the falls, plus some trudging up a few steep hills. No equipment, extra pairs of socks or trail mix required!

We've gotten a reply from a hiking club in the area who will let us be guests on a "real" hike. They maintain a tiny section of the Appalachian and will start up official hikes again in the fall. In the meantime, April has been shuffling around my workout program to include tougher treadmill sessions. So far, I am injury free. (And still making it to the gym at 5:15am, no minor miracle.)

More pics of the beautiful falls:









On the adoption front, I am back to reading more and more books. Currently on the nightstand: Raising Adopted Children by Lois Melina (pretty good) and From China With Love by Emily Buchanan (very good). Oh, and in response to RQ's request, if you have a LID prior to May 4 2006, click here and vote in the July poll! The more data she can collect and analyze, the better!