My son took his first steps, well that I saw, today.  My husband said he took three steps on Sunday I think it was but I noticed him taking several unaided steps (one or two here and there) all day!  He will definitely be walking before the end of October.  I'm so proud of him!

I wonder what his first words will be...my daughter's first words were "dada" but we are trying to get our son to say "ba ba" which is dad in Chinese.  He did say "Eye Ya" (excuse the spelling I'm being phonetic but doubtfully correct) which means "Oh No!" in Chinese but he was just babbling.  It was very funny and Ma got a big kick out of it.

Today I hung the Chinese paintings in my son's room and am almost finished unpacking/completing his room.  I still need to put a trash can in there and I think there was one other thing which I can't remember, find his bumper pads, and take out a box of books I've decided to stick someplace else.  My husband was visited by his grandfather the weekend we moved into the house and told that we MUST finish our sons room first so this feels like a HUGE accomplishment.

I want to focus on my daughter's room next.  Even though she hasn't slept in my home for over 2 years now and is not even allowed to visit at this point and time I don't want to not have a room for her.  I'm ever the optomist and hoping I'll get to start having the visitation I've been denied all these years and I want everything ready for her.  I especially want it ready before we even go to court so that I can show the judge that not only have I always had a room for my daughter at the old house I have one for her here as well.  How could I not?

When I packed up her old room for the move it was like packing up the things of a dead child.  It was strange, heartbreaking, and VERY hard.  I had to force myself to go into that room and sort through her things.  I hope to GOD I never have to do that again.

One thing that's been on my mind a lot the last few days is my cats.  About 5 years ago I was living in an old house in a poor neighborhood.  It was the first place I moved into after my divorce and it was about all I could afford.  I had cats when I lived there and I went through a lot of trying times during which my cats were my saving grace.  Then my parents decided they wanted to buy a townhouse and have me rent it from them.  I relented against my better judgement and one of the agreements was that I had to be able to have my cats.

Well last month my parents decided to send me an eviction notice.  My husband had been out of work for 2 years until May of this year so we had struggled to get back on our feet and get the money together to move.  The eviction notice came out of nowhere as we were under the understanding my parents would give us until November.  My guess is they were trying to put us in a situation where we'd either be living in a homeless shelter or have to move back to Chicago with my inlaws, either way jepordizing my ability to get my daughter back.

We had to find a new place in a hurry and we were helped by other family who actually cared but we weren't able to find a place that would allow us to bring the cats.  I miss them horribly.