Summer dayz

We're inching ever closer to the "Gotcha Day" anniversary of August 8. The boys have been home almost a year, which is really hard to believe. Things are going well with the little CNMs, and it is time for a pictoral update of our summer.

Daddy thinks he's pretty cool swinging the boys around like this, but he is also beginning to have back trouble for the first time in his life. Now that the little guys are over 30 lbs each, maybe we'll minimize the number of "helicopter" rides they get.

Happy July 4th! Our neighborhood sponsors a just-for-kids parade on the 4th, and the guys dutifully participated. They were a little leary of the whole thing, but got to stay in their trusty wagon all decked out in flags and ribbons. Here is the newspaper coverage. Mommy's back made it into the first pic.



Our little Siberians continue to love the water and seem to be oblivious to the heat. We visit neighbors' pools, go to the community pools, and just this past week, the boys got their own little pool in the back yard. Yup, they dig it.

The biggest thing that happened in July was a trip to the doctor. Carson had hernia surgery, and we made the difficult decision to combine that with getting both boys "snipped." Their Mema was kind enough to provide some surgical stuff for the boys to play with to minimize the angst of the big day. We got some great pictures of them playing doctor, and really think it helped make everything go as smooth as possible.



The boys went as far as pretending to perform surgery on their beloved bunny rabbits. Here is Dr. Carson administering the anesthetic. They also were given EKG stickers, so that it would be a little less scary getting them applied for real. Below you see Conner the day after surgery, showing off the spots where the stickers had once been.



We'll spare you the details of the surgery. It was traumatic for a couple days, but the recovery went as well as can be expected. As difficult as it was to make the final decision, we've gotten through the tough part and certainly would make the same decision again. The boys were real troopers and have even explained to us that it is now easier to go to the bathroom. :-)



We've had lots of early summer visitors, and have been enjoying the visits very much. Above, you see Don Juan Conner offering a flower to Caitlin Scanlon. Carson has taken the back seat in this exchange, which is kind of reminiscent of that famous old picture of the boy getting a kiss from one girl and a dirty look from the other! Conner is really becoming a ladies man, while Carson tries to win them over with those eyes.

While our garden is suffering from a bit of neglect, Mummy gets major props for keeping things above the level of embarrassing. Her boy-sized elephant ear plant is just one example of the summer foliage that is still doing ok, and intriguing the boys.

We hope your summer is going really well, and we send our love. The next post will probably come after we have celebrated the one year anniversary of Gotcha Day. A big thank you to everyone who has helped make this year so extraordinary for two sweet little orphans and their very, very lucky new parents.