Introducing my nephew Jason

Weighing in at 7 lbs., 3 oz. and 21" long, Jason Salvatore was born at 12:30 p.m., August 30, 2006. He is just beautiful and so far, very quiet. I'm sure that will change soon enough. Underneath the cap, he has really dark hair. So sweet.

With big brother Alex.

Jason with his dad, Mark.
Proud grandparents, Janet and Sal (a.k.a. Mema & Papa).
Jason with Alex and very excited sister, Bianca. She is already totally in love with him and will be a wonderful big sister.

One step forward, two steps back

The next batch of referrals have started to arrive at some agencies. For the first time since I've been following the rumors (which is for over a year now), there were no rumors as to when this batch would be sent and what days they would go through. Still not completely sure on the latter but it's looking like July 14 through July 22-24. Not too good. Last month's referrals covered 15 days. This month's will only cover 9-11 days. If the CCAA could just complete the very simple task of updating their website in a timely manner, there would be no need to still be guessing on the closing date but...

I didn't think it was possible but the CCAA has just worsened what I considered to be my worst case scenerio- Dec referral with Feb travel. Now I'm thinking the worst case looks more like Feb referral with April travel.

On the upside, with the last batch of referrals arriving so late last month (July 31), in addition to the fact that the CCAA continued it's office move and gave their entire staff (half at a time) a full week off work, this referral group, such as it is, came in about two weeks earlier than what I was expecting.

Ava Bear from Stephe

Stephe sent Ava the most adorable surprise gift. A little bear with her name embroidered on the chest. Thank you Stephe for being so thoughtful!

Alex's Birthday

My nephew Alex turned 18 yesterday. It's hard to believe. I can remember so clearly the day he was born. We spent the entire day waiting for him then he finally came by c-section nearly 15 hours later. He was well worth the wait.

He was beautiful then and he is just as beautiful now! Happy Birthday sweetheart!

Secret Pal Gifts

My wonderful secret pal has sent more great gifts. Next month is the final gift exchange and I can't wait to find out who has been sending these great gifts.
The little blankie and stuffed baby lamb are so soft. I'm sure Ava will love them.
Little did my secret pal know but I've been buying other Little People Farm parts so the wishing well was the perfect addition.

Thank you Secret Pal!

Nothing new

The rumor boards have been pretty quiet this week. With the last referrals coming out on July 27, it's really too soon to be hearing anything reliable. This last batch covered LIDs June 29 through July13, 2005 - 15 days worth of LIDs. This is two more days than the previous month, which was four more than May, which was two more than April, which was two more than in March. Albeit slowly, the process does seem to be picking up speed.

Since this last batch came out a little later in the month than usual, I'm hoping that this month's referrals will come out closer to the 21st or 22nd of the month. If the referrals don't come out until Sept 1st or 2nd, then there will be essentially no August referrals this year.