Post #99 will be celebrated with stories of my kids...as will post #100, post #101, post #102...

It's my first week of summer vacation, but the kids have kept me hopping. Both kids have had an incredibly eventful week around here! On Tuesday, we finally had Melkamu's readoption hearing and he is now legally our son in the U.S.! You know how they say that the shoemaker's kids go barefoot? It was kind of that way with the lawyer's kid...but I digress. The judge was wonderfully friendly and included Patrick in the swearing-in and questioning. Kamu didn't seem to be so impressed, but he probably didn't quite realize how bittersweet* it was for him to be formally readopted in the U.S.

This is us with the judge who signed our certified adoption decree.

We all celebrated at IHOP afterwards, because nothing says American like an enormous syrup-covered breakfast ;-)

Yesterday was Patrick's pre-K graduation! Sorry for the picture quality, but we were in the very back row of the auditorium. I thought that pre-K graduations were ridiculous, but I still cried. My baby is growing up! He's registered for kindergarten and is excited beyond belief to start going.

Some pictures from the last week or so:

Patrick's class had swim lessons every week and I got to go to the last one. This is the boy who has progressed from barely agreeing to attend the lesson (not get changed, not get in the water)...

to this

and this

and this.

His teachers have worked really hard with him to get him comfortable in the water, and Jason has been working with him a lot on the weekends (we joined the county pool system). He's come such a long way and we're really proud of him!

OK, it's not ALL about the kids. Jason doesn't get nearly enough coverage on this blog :-)

I have the cutest and funniest kids. They make me laugh nonstop.

Kamu loves to do whatever Patrick does. He wasn't quite up to getting his feet up on the railing, but he wanted to try!

Kamu has gone from not caring about books when he came home to LOVING books.

It's possible he likes them a little too much...

But then again, his big brother was doing the same thing at 2 1/2!

We have an exciting summer planned, with a trip to Disney World in about 10 days and a trip for Jason and I somewhere (location will be determined later) for our 10th anniversary next month. Patrick will be going to camp for a couple of weeks, Kamu will be back in playgroup, and we'll have lots of fun!