Our brush with celebrity

On my brother-in-law's blog (tylerinla.blogspot.com) he keeps a running list of celebrities he brushes shoulders with while living in LA. Typically this is not an issue for us but while touring the Warner Brother's lot while on vacation, I did happen to see two stars who I am very familiar with. One is John Stamos of Full House and more recent, ER fame. I and my mother-in-law are huge ER fans so this was a BIG DEAL! He was extremely nice and immediately came over to shake Kerwin's hand and to talk with him. He asked if we wanted to take a picture and he didn't really have to twist our arm too much before we agreed. Then after that excitement who should drive by but Kelsey Grammer of Cheers and Frasier. He was shooting a WWII movie on the lot and i was definitely not given permission to take pictures of him. There are very particular about what you can and cannot take photos of at the Warner Brothers lot. They actually lock you camera up while you are riding the little cart so you can't take pictures of anything unauthorized. That's why Mike's dad had to go sprinting back to the cart to retrieve the cameras so we could get the picture with Stamos. Anyway, the WB tour was great, I recommend it. Our guide was Tanya from Australia. She was cute and fun. Oh, and I we also toured this museum on site that has a whole floor dedicated to Harry Potter. It had lots of props from the movies. I'm a fan of the books so that was fun for me.

Pictures from WB...

This is were the monkey "Marcel" on Friends shoots his movie with Jean Claude VanDamme

This is the barber shop from Adam Sandler's upcoming movie. The premise sounds ridiculous like all of his movie's I guess. I'm actally a bit of a fan.

Us and John.

Us on the Friends couch.

This is Luke's diner from Gilmore Girls, another one of my all time favorites. FYI - When this picture was taken, Kelsey Grammer had just driven by dressed as Patton. Ha!

More pictures from Cali

Santa Monica Pier

Playing "Chicken" with the waves

Kerwin being Kerwin

Driving the cars at Disney...very serious business

The obligatory Mickey picture

More Disney...

Success at Last!

I tried for a long time to get vacation pictures and video up but it just wasn't working with our computer. So I got frustrated and just stopped trying altogether. But Mike assured me that things were working better now. And it appears he is right. This is a video of Kerwin on the kiddie roller coaster at Disney. I think it speaks for itself. The rest of the day was a blast as well. Uncle Tyler got to come with us and everyone had a great time. Kerwin was so well behaved. I was reminded of this as I watched a 10 year old through the biggest tantrum I have ever seen in the middle of the park. The child just laid down on the sidewalk and cried and screamed and kicked. Anyway, Kerwin walked around the entire park all day long and didn't get tired till it was just about time to go. We also got to go to the front of the line because Kerwin was on his walker. All the Disney folks were so nice. I give them major props. It was almost magical. I have to admit I got a little sentimental as I stood there in the dark, holding my son, in Disneyland, with Tinkerbell and fireworks flying over out heads, Cinderella' castle in front of us, piped Disney music in my ears, and the narrator talking about how are dreams come true. I don't know about dreams, but our God is Truth! I am still amazed on a near daily basis how He has brought our family together. He is good all the time!

First Day of Vacation

I've been trying to update the blog for days here but our internet connection has been spotty. It seems to be working really well right now so I'll try to post quickly. In the morning, Mike and I went to a taping of the Price is Right. We waited a long time outside in the cold (yes it was cold and I was way under prepared for it). We got there around 8:30 for a 1:15 taping. It was fun and possibly worth the wait just to be there and say we did it. We didn't get picked to be on the show. We decided you had to be either crazy, old, or in the military to have a really chance of getting on the show. Plus being in a really large group and being one of the above really helps your chances. There is a lot more I could write about the experience but it would go on forever. If there's anything particular anyone wants to know just let me know. Mike's parents and Kerwin went out for breakfast,to a museum and then down to the Graman's Chinese Theater. Then they came and picked us up. We went out for a late lunch/early supper, made a quick stop off at our hotel and then went out to see a Dodgers game. Kerwin had a blast at the game. He got a new pair of sunglasses and a baseball. We split a Dodger Dog and talked a lot about the game. I think Kerwin is starting to get a feel for the rules of baseball. We headed back to the hotel exhausted and fell into bed.


Here are some pictures from Tuesday. The first is of Kerwin's injury. He fell here in the hotel room and took a big chunk out of the inside of his cheek. So our first vacation picture is of his boo boo. The rest are from the baseball game. Enjoy!

SPRING BREAK!!! - UPDATED

Well we have been on vacation for the last three days and it has been lots of fun. Friday, I picked up Kerwin from school, went home and packed/cleaned, went out to dinner with my family and then headed up to Northern Kentucky for the weekend. Mike's brother was moving out of his apartment and into his newly purchased home. The move went really smoothly and his new place a great. Saturday evening we had dinner at my cousin's house just over the border in Ohio. We had a great time hanging out with her and her husband and their two kids. Kerwin especially loved playing on their swing set and in the play room. Kerwin and my cousin's little boy had a blast playing with a toy that shot Nerf darts really far. Of course they were playing inside so they first tried to catch them and then tried to shoot them at a target. Yesterday we went to church in the morning with Mike's grandma and then out for lunch. During the children's sermon, I walked up with Kerwin and interpreted for him. The pastor was talking about when Jesus appeared to the disciples after His resurrection and Thomas doubted. So translated into English it went something like this.

Pastor: "...Now the disciples were all in the upper except for one. Thomas was not with the other disciples."

Me interpreting: "All Jesus' friends were upstairs waiting but someone was missing. T-H-O-M-A-S, Thomas. Where was Thomas?"

Kerwin answering: "Maybe downstairs."

I love it. He is really starting to get more complex stories and he often tries to answer questions with book reading or in Sunday School. He is also telling longer stories. He is making sentences now that are sometimes 6 and 7 signs long.

We are getting ready to leave in a few hours for California. We are going to be doing some sight-seeing, visiting with Uncle Tyler, and going to Disneyland. I'll blog more and post some pictures while we're there. Unfortunately, I won't be able to gloat too much about the weather in LA. It's only supposed to get up to 65 all next week. So much for all those shorts I packed. I think I leave most of them here at my in-laws. Until next time...

The Final Frontier...Sort of!

This Friday we go to court to finalize Kerwin's Kentucky adoption. This will be when we officially change his name and he will receive a KY birth certificate with our name as the parents! That's it for the adoption paperwork, well almost. After that we just need to get him a social security number and change his name on all sort of things like insurance and school papers. Will it really ever end?

Brag Time

Okay, I'm new at the parenting thing so I don't really know all the rules about bragging about your kids so I'll just plead ignorance if I'm breaking them. But, I just have to say for those of you who may be new to the blog, this is a kid who weighed 9 pounds at 2 years old, lived in a special needs orphanage from 2-6 years old and only knew about a dozen words in sign language when we got to him in June. Here's a video of him reading and here are some highlights from his report card that we just got today. It might get a little long for some of you, but for those from the mission who have known Kerwin since early on I think you will be so happy for him. We are such proud parents!


Work Habits
Kerwin is delightful! He is so curious and interested in many things. He likes to run small errands - taking things to the office or to other teachers.

Pre-Reading
Kerwin confuses a few lower case letters of the alphabet - mainly b and d. He is making steady progress in reading and sight vocabulary. He understands the stories we read in class and often makes comments on things that happen in the stories.

Language
Kerwin is making such rapid progress in this area for having been signing for such a short time. He asks and answers questions and is able to tell about things he sees and experiences.

Handwriting
Kerwin's handwriting is improving. He has been working hard on making his letter correctly and leaving a space between words.

Writing
Kerwin often draws pictures of things he sees. He drew pictures to illustrate some of the vocabulary related to our earth unit. He is beginning to label pictures - mainly mom and dad and asks for spelling for some pictures.

Math
Kerwin is working on counting and constructing sets of 1-10. He is also working on writing numerals 1-10. He confuses 7 and 8 when counting.

Science and Social Studies Development
Kerwin enjoyed the winter activities and experiments with snow and ice. He understands the concepts of liquids and solids, temperatures and is able to name some landforms and types of water found on earth.