Here’s some pictures from the munchkin’s birthday and the morning after.

This one is from first thing in the morning when he was opening the presents that Great-Gran from England sent while Mum had her on the phone.

Paddington Bear is apparently better read upside down.

Here’s the amazing cake that Becka made, it has Sarah from LBT on it, and then Clifford, Elmo and Curious George all having a party.

Blowing out the candles (not that you can really see that portion of things)

The fire pit in action

The next day Mum came over and the munchkin took her outside and patted the bike and told her “Seat! Seat!” so she had to sit down and show him how the bike worked.

It was a good time had by all, as I said before. Munchkin keeps asking me to sit on his bike too, but I can’t bend down that low…it’s been so tiring lately that my limbs are too achy thanks to the fibromyalgia. Stupid illnes.

It’s coming up on Sunday. I was really out of touch with the days and nearly had a heart attack when it finally connected that it was THIS Sunday. Wow.
My Mum had been talking about having a day out at the beach. We’d been debating about finding one of those cheap hotels to stay in, but with her work and hubbie still recuperating that’s not an option right at the minute. It’s going to be a while before he restocks any vacation time.
We might be able to do things while he’s on sick leave, but I’m leery about going too far a field for too long in case something happens while he’s healing.

I’m not sure what we’re going to do for Mother’s Day. Hubbie had been wanting to go and see “Iron Man” but I’m not sure if we’ll be able to do that. Plus his Dad wants to come up and see the place now that we’ve had time to fix things up. I guess this means I actually have to finish my cleaning project which I keep starting and then flaking out on.

I think it’s safe to say the munchkin had a good birthday. He’s flaked out willingly and gone to bed. He wound up not having a nap. He got a lot of nice gifts, and we all ate a lot of good food, and he got to play with our friend’s children. We had a mini-incident, where he pushed my friend’s daughter because he wasn’t getting his way about something and had to be put in time-out but overall everyone got along well.

He was spoiled rotten really. I’ll post some pictures tomorrow of the amazing cake that my friend made. She made him the dragon last year, and this year she did a cake with several characters on it seeing as we couldn’t decide, so it had Sarah from “Land Before Time” on it, Clifford, Curious George and Elmo all sitting around presents and a little birthday cake. It was amazing. She’s apparently made a Smurf house before too. I’d love to see pictures of that one.

The munchkin himself got a nice list of gifts.
From my Mum he got two sets of pajamas, 101 Dalmations pictures for his room, a Thomas the Tank Engine interactive DVD/book, two plushie Cars from CARS.
From our friends he got sidewalk chalk, a ball, a training bicycle, $40, pillows, bed sheets, a toy chainsaw, and some clothes.
From us he got the party, Curious George in a police car, several board books (The Very Hungry Caterpillar, the Very Busy Spider, Cookie Dance) and a t-shirt that says “Reasons why I’m in Trouble: 1. Won’t Share 2. Won’t Give Mum a Break 3. Refuse to Nap 4. Keep Breaking Stuff”
My Gran sent him a cute pants/t-shirt set that says “Cheeky Monkey” on it, and a Paddington Bear book and a teach/turn book which is neat, I haven’t seen anything like it before, it shows you how to tell time and count by turning dials on different pages to match the story.

Last Sunday we had a mini-party at my FILs and they got him a neat phone which you can record messages on so that you can talk to the child through the phone and a dump truck to play in the yard with, and a couple of outfits, a plushie basketball and a bubble wand.

One of our friends showed up early to clear out brush from the back yard so that we had more kindling for the fire pit. It kept a nice fire going for most of the afternoon so we were able to randomly make smores, and toast marshmallows, and then we also made hot dogs and burgers and turkey burgers, and our friends brought meatballs, black bottom pie, tiramisu and the one set brought the birthday cake.

We have tons of leftover food so we should be going for a few days. So, that’s nice. I’m tired after all the prep work over the past few days and definitely don’t want to be cooking or anything like that.

I think I’m going to go have myself a piece of birthday cake given I didn’t get any really today. I had a bit of the black bottom pie and the tiramisu though. It was so funny, the munchkin was so excited when I lit the candles that he didn’t wait until the end of “Happy Birthday” to blow them out. I wound up having to relight the right as the song was getting to the end so that he could blow them out again.

I think he had a fun time though. There was one hilarious point where a friend of ours was spinning the laser pointer around the living room floor and the kids were all going nuts chasing it. The grown ups had some fun tag-teaming each other in “Super Smash Brothers” which we got for the Wii last week. That was my game treat seeing as hubbie has “Grand Theft Auto IV” on pre-order.

Today is the munchkin’s second birthday, it’s still a long strange trip. This time two years ago I’d just been given the wonderful epidural and professed my love for the anesthetist. We’d been in hospital overnight. I was on a pitocin drip and my water had broken just before 7 a.m. I was told to nap for a couple of hours and then we tried standard delivery but the child with the huge head he got stuck, and so he wound up being delivered by C-Section at 4:28 p.m. on 4/26/06. He was 9lbs 6oz and 20 3/4 inches long.

Right now I’m not sure exactly how tall he is, somewhere approaching 3 feet, and he weighs about 35lbs. He’s currently trying to rescue a chameleon from the cat, and playing in the newly fenced off yard, while Gran and I clean up and prep to cook and a friend of ours is helping keep an eye on him and clear up the yard around the fire pit and get more fire wood chopped ready for marshmallow cooking later on.

Here’s a few pictures showing how he’s changed over the past two years.

The first picture of him ever taken. He was about fifteen minutes old at this time, and still angry as you can see. Mum took this one as he was being taken to the “waiting area” for his other grandparents to see him.

This one was taken a few days before his first birthday.

And this one is him this morning. More interested in other things than the camera.

My little baby is definitely looking more like a little boy.

I do!

OMG–to get there, though. We were just getting to 441 and I realized I didn’t have my wallet which has my green card in and we had to turn around and get back, meaning we were going to be at least 20 minutes late to the ceremony, they said we had to be there for 1:30 p.m. that time came and went and we were at the intersection of Turkey Lake and Sand Lake, no way we were getting the Orange County Convention Center on time and I’m thinking OMG–we’re not going to get in. Then I’m thinking, well, Mum and I may be able to get sworn in together then. So, hey, not so bad. I make peace with that, but I know I have to show up anyway so they know I didn’t just bail.

We get there and a lady ushers us upstairs, “Oh, honey, you’re going to make it! It’s all fine!” and I find out we’re not late. The ceremony itself doesn’t start for another twenty minutes. They just want you there early so that they can get the THOUSAND people and their guests seated before hand. HUGE relief. I’m almost crying I’m so happy.

So, I get sat next to a guy from the Dominican Republic, and a woman from Zibabwe is on the other side. She’s been waiting to sit because she’s got a broken foot and has to be on the end of the row. Ten minutes and they start. We get a little video about being a citizen, a woman from the post office gives us tips on getting passports, they present the colors and a guy does this beautiful Accapella rendition of the anthem which had most of our section in tears myself included and introduces the guest speaker who is a USCIS worker whose family emigrated from Cuba, and she gives a really stirring but thankfully short speech (as I can hear my son shouting, “MUMMY! WANT MUMMY!” from the balcony area where Mum, hub and him are sat) about what it means to make the citizenship journey and how important it is for the future generations of your family that you take the step and become a citizen.
Then they had everyone stand up by country, there were 94 countries represented. I was one of the last to stand up because my country of origin was the UK and then we did the Oath and a future citizen from the Army led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. We watched a video speech from George W. Bush and a video of people at other Oath ceremonies to the tune of “Proud to be an American” and we all stood up at “and I gladly stand up!” and waved our flags and sang and cried, then they gave us our certificates and that was it.

Wow. My Mum took us out for Pho and then I left my cell phone at the restaurant and we had to go back for that. I’m in top form today. Yeesh!

But, hey, it’s cool. We get to do it again in a few months because Mum gets to have her ceremony, but at least we know the ins and outs now.

When we got home there was a white peacock in our yard! That was really cool. I like to think it’s a good omen.

I got tons of compliments on my hair LOL. I couldn’t spray paint stars in my hair but I found those really cool star earrings which set things off.
I can’t believe it’s really done. I’m a citizen. I just have to put my DL# on my paperwork and send it in and I’m registered to vote, and I have a passport form too, but that’s gotta wait ’cause the passports about $100.

To my husband,

We’ve been married three years now, although we’ve been together for just over five. Our first date was 1 February 2003, the day that Columbia exploded. We’ve weathered many things together in such a small space of time.

I’m grateful every day that we found each other despite both having decided we would never date again. Our warped senses of humor compliment each other very well, and while we could never afford to buy each other Technomarine watches I know that we’ll get through and get by because our love and our family is more important to us than material things.

You’ve made many sacrifices for us, worked so hard to provide for us even despite being sick pretty much constantly this past year because of your stupid tonsils, but you do these things because you’re a good man and a strong man and because you love us, me and our son. Seeing you with him is always something which melts my heart. My big strong man playing so cutely with a our little boy. I can tell he’s the light of your world just as he is mine, even if you don’t always say so.

I love you more and more each and every day. You are and always will be my hero.

Your wife <3

I had my citizenship interview yesterday as I mentioned in my blog and I passed!

In some respects I knew that it should be okay and really given I’ve been here double the length of time that you’re legally allowed before going for your interview. I could have gone for my interview in 2000-2001 around the time I graduated from college if I’d been able to afford it or felt like it, but I was a bit…disenfranchised at the time.

Anyway, my appointment was at 10:30 a.m. My Mum came with me to look after the munchkin. Initially she was going to watch the munchkin at home, but then we decided that she would come with so I had company on the long and hairy drive into the heart of Orlando where the USCIS offices are. I’m really glad she did for several reasons, not least of which is the fact that the GPS system we were using to navigate down there kept disconnecting from the cigarette lighter in my car any time we went over a slight dip in the road or an area that was rough and bumpy, or any time you just breathed wrong near it, and so it had to be rebooted, something I wouldn’t have been able to do if I’d been by myself.

Ordinarily on a trip I do print out directions from a place like Map Blast or Google Maps given it lets you plot the map a bit and rearrange points so you don’t go on the freeway if you don’t want to and what not, but I was so busy the night before freaking out because I couldn’t remember if Mel Martinez was Republican or Democrat, or being afraid that I had forgotten some of the required verification paperwork I forgot to print back-up directions.

Anyway, despite all that fun with the GPS we got to the USCIS office on Tradeport Drive near the airport and then had to drive around the lot several times to find a parking space, but still we arrived by 10:15 and I was able to check in. Given the office was pretty busy Mum decided she would take my son to a little cafe that was in the same strip. Even though my letter said the interview would take about two hours she figured that I would be out sooner than that so she wouldn’t bother taking him to try and find a mall or a play area near by they would just play on the grass if he got bored and fussy. I left her my car keys anyway because you’re not allowed to take any electronic devices in the building and I had an electronic lock for my husband’s car on there and didn’t want to risk it. I remembered from previous instances that I wasn’t allowed to take a cell phone in with me even if it was turned off, and had left that in the glove box of my car.

So, I went in, set off the metal detector because of my boots and jeans, something I hadn’t thought about, and sat down. I was getting some funny looks from other applicants in the waiting room, because of my pink, purple and blue hair, but none of the security guards or attendants in the area seemed to mind.

I sat down with my notebook full of information and set to work going over the 96 prep questions that I’d been given, filling in that Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner, that there are nine Supreme court justices, and the Chief Justice is John G Roberts Jr. That Bill Nelson (Democrat) and Mel Martinez (Republican) are our senators, that Congress is made up of 100 senators and 435 representatives who are elected for six and two years respectively, and so on. There were a few questions that I had a bit of trouble with, but they were review questions and I figured they would be fresh in my mind if I happened to be asked them, like that Patrick Henry said, “Give me liberty or give me death” and that Washington was the first Commander in Chief of the US Army and Navy.

At 11:20 I was finally called. The staff did keep coming through and checking on us and cheering us on, which is another example of how the USCIS has improved in attitude and also connectedness. There were many times before in the early portion of our immigration experience that we would be in waiting rooms for four hours or more with no idea what was going on and the staff just sat behind their desks and screens looking glummer than the people at the driver’s license office, but they kept coming through and apologizing that they were running behind but they only had seven officers on staff today and were still trying to get through 120 people who were there for interviews. A few of the officers came in and read off the names of the people they’d been assigned to let them know that they were there but they were running an hour or more behind and so not to stress out if someone who came in after them was getting called sooner it was just because of the way we had been assigned to people.

So at 11:20 I was called by a gentlemen to go and interview. He apologized for being almost an hour late for my appointment but figured since I was clearly an English-speaking immigrant that we could motor through things fairly quickly and sat me down. I told him I had my folder of paperwork and he said he would call for certain things as he went through my case and had me verify my information and occasionally asked me the civics questions like what the name of the president is and how many branches of government we have.

He was impressed to see that I had graduated college, and congratulated me on my son and new house, and said that I was a model citizen. We had a bit of a joke that my hair color is listed as “red” and the only real change was that I had forgotten to include that I’d received a traffic citation for having an expired tag, which they had uncovered, of course, but he realized I had just genuinely forgotten it and given I’m married to a police officer and it was just a $72 citation and not something like a hit and run or a D.U.I it won’t affect anything to do with my application.

I could be getting sworn in and taking my oath as soon as April and would therefore be able to vote in the upcoming elections!

I’m so excited!

On Friday we took the munchkin to the Central Florida Zoological Park, which is also known as “The Sanford Zoo” among locals. We were a little worried as to how the munchkin would react to all the animals, or if he would even have the patience to stay “good” during the trip as that morning we’d had a lot of problems with him acting out as he’s really getting into the terrible twos stage, even though he won’t be two until April.

We got to the zoo around noon, and stayed about three hours. We’d been intending to leave at a certain time because we were going over to a friend’s house to play “Shadowrun” but they called while we were in the petting zoo portion of the park to say they were busy buying pet supplies and then had a family get together so they wouldn’t be gaming Friday night after all.

The park was great fun. We had a nice family outing, and the munchkin even fed sheep, zebu and goats at the petting zoo. We had no really major meltdowns while we were there, just a couple of screeching matches because he was on the leash and was trying to go somewhere he shouldn’t and didn’t want to turn around and come the way he was supposed to.

He loved pointing out all the animals and giggling even if they weren’t there because he was seeing the other children who were there on a school trip pointing and laughing at the animals. We figured he would be calling everything “doggie” because that’s his favorite animals word, but the only animals that were “doggie” were the elephants, and he actually was calling the leopards and other felines “kitty” which was neat to hear.

I think his favorite portion of the exhibit was the insect zoo because there was a little girl in there who was around his age and they were both jumping up and down going, “Cool!!” at the beetles and scorpions. There are some pictures of the zoo trip on the shutterfly account I’m trying out. So, check them out if you like. I’ve also been posting some pictures of the trip on the eryssa.net picture a day blog so check those out too

I think our things which have been left at the old apartment are multiplying while we’re not there. I swear it looked as though there wasn’t that much stuff. My husband even told me there wasn’t that much stuff…yet despite being there a few hours yesterday we only got the munchkin’s room and the main bathroom emptied. We got most of the spare bedroom cleaned out too but my husband’s weight lifting equipment had to stay because it was too heavy for my Mum and I to wrangle.

Last night I went and got some more things. I’m planning on doing a champagne breakfast this morning for hubbie and I but I had forgotten until last night when I was over at a friend’s house doing holiday get together with them that as of yet none of the cooking utensils had made it to our new house, so I had to swing by and get them and figured I may as well load up the car with other things while I was there.

We now have a tree up and a bit more holiday decorations. I wrapped some tinsel (garland) around the stair rail and hung up a couple of ornaments which are too heavy for the “chibi-tree” on the curtain rods in the front of the house. We look a bit more festive and it feels nice to have these things up, like this is really going to be our home.

Today I have to make a trip to Home Depot. I figure I will see if I can’t grab some more things from the old place while I’m in that neck of the woods. We should have the phone being connected and we’re going over to my FILs to do Christmas things there given my SIL has to fly back to NY tomorrow morning because she has work on the 26th.

Okay, my last post before we disconnect everything!

I’m going to be gone for Yule, Solstice, which is tomorrow, and I doubt I’ll be back on the blog until after the more traditional secular holiday which my husband, his family and my Mum celebrate, Christmas on the 25th. So, I hope that everyone has a safe and happy holiday!