NaBloPoMo?

November is National something or other but the gist is you are supposed to post to your blog every day in the month of November. I know it will be a challenge as my time is limited but I am going to give it a try. Expect extreme cuteness, serious subjects I have been putting off and hopefully lots of updates to our timeline for our Little Man.

On that note, lets just say our paper chase is heating up. Home study is just about done. Application part 2 is being mailed to CHSFS on Monday. Difficult discussion must be had this weekend over the dreaded medical form. I hate answering those questions. Dossier paperwork collection starts next week. OMG--this is really happening. I have a ton to do but hope to push through it all very quickly.

All the while I need to get my butt down to the Social Security office to get Kiya a number and fit in a 2 1/2 hour hair appointment.

The good news is I like to be busy. It keeps me away from the TV and the tempting junk food.

Stay tuned for Kiya in her Halloween costume :) I will leave you with this cuteness for now.

It may have taken her 11 months to finally roll all the way over (she would get most of the way there and stop to suck her finger) but she sure is cute :) She has rolled from her back to her stomach since about 8 months old but just wasn't rolling the other way. Boy has she figured it out now. We really feel this is a huge moment for her and the non rolling was holding her back a little but not anymore. And yes those are her cute little feet sticking out of the rails, mesh bumper is going up today. (I am usually anti crib bumper but am okay with the mesh ones. I had to take a training class for our adoption on SIDS and since then have been anti crib bumper. )

I have said this before but I hate it when people compare babies. So it took her longer to roll over, so what. She is doing great and has come so far. She chose to focus on verbal and fine motor skills first. She will walk, crawl, run when she is ready. I am in no way worried about her and I love to see her figure things out. Her new favorite sound other than dada is Zee zee. Too cute. We are also pretty sure she says the word hi. I have heard it as have both sets of grandparents. :)

11 months old :)

I can hardly believe it but my little Peanut is 11 months old today. WOW. How did this happen??? She has gone from a tiny little 5 1/2 month old infant with little muscle tone to a strong, little girl who loves to laugh, clap, stand, talk and walk. She is almost a toddler.

A toddler??? AHHHHHHHH. Baby proofing 101 will be taking place in my house very soon. I really think she will skip crawling for now as she just loves to stand and walk holding onto our hands. She is getting faster and more confident every day.

We have taught her how to make the touchdown sign and the clap when we are watching football. She LOVES to show off and does this often. We say Kiya, touchdown and hands go above the head and then she claps with a HUGE smile. So sweet. I know kids aren't supposed to watch TV but we live in Wisconsin and you might not survive if you don't route for the UW Badgers and the Packers.

She just amazes me every day. We are pretty sure we are going to have a spirited little girl. She already is showing signs of this. The other day I gave her her sippy cup in the high chair and she grabbed it and immediately threw it on the floor and proceeded to smile at me. So cute yet.... We have also noticed that she is very interested in feeding the dogs from the high chair. She hands crackers, fruit, pasta and anything else she can pick up off the side of the high chair, mostly to Badger. It has become quite the problem as most of the food on the tray is finding its way on the floor. We are thinking the dogs are going to have to go outside during dinner time.

We have tried to say "Kiya that is your food" or "Let's not feed the dogs" as if we say "No" to her (which we have done a very few times) she looks at us and then builds up to this whimpering cry. It is kind of pathetic but it breaks my heart too. I know there is nothing wrong with her but hate to see her cry. We are limiting the use of the word "No" so that it won't be one of the first words she says back to us. Not sure if that will work but trying to be more creative in our redirection.

So as we gear up to our little one being not so little and 1, we continue to enjoy every day with our sweet little girl. She is the light of our lives and we are so blessed to be her parents.

Pumpkin Patch

Here are more pictures--guess I am on a roll here. We finally were in town and had a nice weekend so off to the Pumpkin Patch we went.

We finally picked out our pumpkin :)

For a sick kid, she sure was pretty happy. I am excited to carve the pumpkin and get Kiya into her butterfly costume and take so more pictures :)

Vacation pictures

Some pictures from our vacation. Kiya hanging with her new friend Will. So cute. She even got a kiss from him :)

Taking a tour around Santa Clara University.

Trying and LOVING fish. I couldn't believe it. She ate halibut and butterfish while on vacation. We did learn that she HATES sourdough bread though.

Hanging out with Daddy and playing on the bed.

Playing with her best friend the mirror. And yes she is licking it.

Finally some pictures

So here are a few recent pictures. Kiya trying goldfish crackers for the first time.

Standing--her favorite activity.

Being completely adorable and standing :)

Her last Brewer's game of the year

Such a happy baby at baseball games. I even got to watch the whole game in my seat this time :)

Nut house

I feel like since we have been back from vacation that I have in fact been living in a nut house. Things are just a little crazy right now. I know I promised pictures but I just haven't had the time. I have had maybe 4 hours of time to myself and that was eaten up by trips to the grocery store, returning phone calls and catching up on emails, making dinner, doing laundry, etc.

Here's the scoop:

Kiya is sick. She has an upper respiratory infection. We were worried it was pneumonia but thank goodness it is not. Nothing we can do but ride it out. So I have a sick and crabby baby for the next week or so according to the doctor. Meantime, we pray for no secondary infections or fevers.

Sebastian, our 9 year old pug, hurt his back and/or neck. He has done this before but is walking very slowly and isn't being his usually feisty self. A little aspirin and a lot of rest and hopefully he will be back to normal.

Badger, our 6 year old pug, has a hacking cough. He was up on and off through out the night. Poor baby. He sounds so awful. I have a call into the vet and am waiting for them to call me back.

I haven't unpacked the luggage though I have done 2 loads of laundry but none of it has been folded. I did manage to make dinner the last 2 nights though one was frozen chicken noodle soup that I made last week and one was a meal in a box. Not my finest culinary moments but we survived.

I myself haven't been feeling super fabulous and have been getting through the days thanks to 10 calorie Vitamin Water. I am hoping all of my little ones feel better soon, that I don't get sick and that things in this nut house slow down a little bit. I see light at the end of the tunnel. We just need to get through the next couple weeks.

Vacation summary

So since we had limited Internet access for parts of our vacation this will be a summary of everything else to try and catch up.

Actual travel: Kiya is a pretty good traveler as long as we are moving. Sitting on tarmacs waiting to take off is not fun for an almost 11 month old. Once she got settled she slept the majority of each flight we took. It was great. We got lots of comments about how good she was.

Actual vacation: Lots of fun. We went for Dave's college reunion and it was nice to catch up with some old friends. I got to visit with some old co-workers and see my 'second' family. I have 3 families really. My family, my in laws and then my BFF's family and I have always been close too. I have known and been a part of Stacy's family for 19 years (wow--that makes me feel old). We were BUSY. Each day has lots of stuff crammed into it. Too much really, we could have used one more day.

Accommodations: We stayed at our favorite hotel for 2 nights and then house sat for a friend and watched her 2 dogs. That was an adventure. Her dogs have similar personalities to mine. Herbie was sweet and loveable(just like Sebastian) and Jack was NUTS (just like Badger). It was fun though. They kept us on our toes but we enjoyed it.

Kiya: She is FABULOUS. She was so good. She tried a lot of new foods including halibut, beets, sourdough bread, butterfish, zucchini, buttered noodles with Parmesan cheese, and did great with all of it except the sourdough bread. She HATED that. We have a funny video of her trying sourdough when we were are the Fish Market. too funny. I will have to figure out how to upload video as it is pretty funny.

The highs: Seeing friends and having a night out with the hubby. Kiya hung out with a friend of mine and did great. It was the first time a non family member had to put Kiya down for the night. I was not excited about that part but Kiya did great. She woke up when we picked her up and I was still able to give her a small bottle and cuddle before we put her back down for the night.

The lows: We gate checked our stroller in San Jose but it didn't show up in Minneapolis. They checked it all the way through to Madison. We packed the Ergo in the checked luggage since we had the stroller. We let me tell you, hiking it through the MSP airport with a lot of carry on bags, 2 hungry/grumpy parents and an over tired baby was not a good time. We were lucky to get to our gate to find one of the nicest people ever. She offered to entertain Kiya while Dave and I grabbed some food. No worries she was never out of our site and I am shocked I let a complete stranger hold my child but Kiya seemed okay and she could see us the entire time.

We had a great time and the weather was near perfect. Was good to be back in my old stomping grounds again but alas it is so nice to be home.

Will post pics later today if I get a chance.

Vacation Day 1--Kiya flies to California

Well we made it here to sunny California and let me tell you. We have the BEST baby EVER! She did so well.

I was dreading the thought of having to wake her up in the morning as our flight left at 6:30. Low and behold she was awake at 5 all by herself. I got her dressed and she ate a bowl of cereal and off we went.

If you have never gone through airport security with an infant--be prepared. We declared that we had more than 3 oz of liquid because of the baby food we brought for the flight. Yeah each container was wiped down and tested for explosives as were all of my belongings and I had to be patted down as well.

Anyway, we thought we were going to be in trouble as Kiya was getting fussy while we waited to take off but once we started moving she was fine and fell asleep on the short flight to Minneapolis. We got her a bottle in the airport and we figuring she was going to be awake most of the second flight. Well, again she got fussy while waiting for take off but once we were in the air she settled fairly quickly and all 3 of us slept for at least 2 hours. She was so good except that she somehow picked up how to chirp like a dolphin so yeah that was getting a little annoying but she thought it was so funny.

We get to the San Jose airport and we figured she had to still be tired/hungry so we made her another bottle and she drank all of it while waiting for luggage. Then Kiya and I got to hang out in baggage claim while Dave got our rental car or should I say minivan. If you travel and rent cars don't use Avis--terrible customer service and our rental car is DIRTY inside.

Kiya ate her first In N Out french fries while we enjoyed our burgers :) Then we had to head to the grocery store for the first time for things we forgot. Side note: we made 2 more trips to CVS for other stuff we forgot. I thought mommy brain went away once you had a baby--guess not.

Kiya slept in the car for a little while which is good and bad. She woke up in her carseat as we were heading up to our hotel room. The crib wasn't in our room yet so we plopped her on the bed and wow super happy baby appeared it was so cute and she was having fun. We tried to see if she would take an actual nap so Mommy could too but that didn't happen. We went for a walk and had dinner.

One of the things I miss most about living in CA is the fresh seafood. So of course we had fish for dinner. yummy!!! halibut!!! Wish I could have shared it with you Mom as I know you love it too but since you weren't here I shared it with Kiya. And guess what she LOVED it. By this time she was getting a little cranky but it was only 5:30ish CA time so we were trying to keep her awake a little longer. The fish worked. She kept wanting more. And she ate goldfish crackers for the first time too. I had to feed her though as she kept throwing food on the floor and looking for the dogs. Thank goodness we sat outside.

So back to hotel we went for bath, bottle, book and bed. By 7:30pm CA time, Kiya was sound asleep in the crib and down for the night. She woke a little earlier than usually as it is 8am in CA and I am blogging and she is taking nap but it is just fine. She has been so good and happy and of course as cute as ever. Fingers crossed our return flights will be just as successful.

AND A HUGE CONGRATS TO MY BLOGGING BUDDY THERESA!!! THEY PASSED COURT IN ETHIOPIA AND ARE THE PROUD PARENTS TO AN ADORABLE ALMOST 2 YEAR OLD LITTLE GIRL.

5 Months ago....

5 glorious months ago we were in Ethiopia and meeting Kiya. I can't even believe it. 5 months. It seems like just yesterday in a way.

We have now known Kiya as long as she knew Ethiopia. This brings me great joy and sadness as well. We are so blessed to be Kiya's parents, yet we realize all that she left behind.

We are so grateful to the nannies, doctors and nurses who took such fabulous care of her while we were half way around the world. We think about her dear birth mother Zinash often and hope and pray that she is doing well.

We promise to expose Kiya to her birth culture, her story, her country, her birth mother. We are committed to raising Kiya to be proud of where she came from and confident in herself.

Kiya we love you more than we can ever say and we are so honored to have you in our lives. You bring sunshine to even the cloudiest of days. Your sweet face, your goofy grin, your contagious laugh, your 2am singing in your crib, in essence we love everything about you.

Where to begin....

Tomorrow--stay tuned for a we met Kiya 5 months ago and she has now known us as long as she had known Ethiopia.

But today I need to VENT. I am angry, hurt, frustrated, mystified, saddened, freaking out and more.

Yesterday I was SHOCKED to find out that CHSFS, our agency, has decided to unexpectedly close their forum. I am at a loss. I 'met' and met some amazing people through this forum. It was my life line while we were waiting for Kiya. I honestly am not sure I could have survived the process without the amazing support I found there.

For all of you blog readers, I started this blog because of the people I met on the forum. I found their blogs inspiring and informative and wanted to connect with more adoptive families. You all are amazing. I feel honored to be in your company. I truly thank you all for your words of wisdom, virtual hugs and support. You are an amazing group of people that I am proud to call my friends.

We are in the process of trying to pick up the pieces and find a way to continue. We are emailing everyone we know to get them moved over to a new place. We are writing anyone and everyone in our agency pleading with them to change this. There is a WEALTH of info on that forum from adoption ethics, hair care, travel tips, packing lists, medical questions, tax questions, parenting tips, the unofficial list that I so faithfully counted down when we were waiting for Kiya.

As we are gearing up for adoption #2, we have a lot of thinking to do. I was looking forward to the forum and members of it is as we started our wait again. I am having a hard time imagining how adoption number 2 will be without that support system. It was one of the more appealing qualities of CHSFS. We have some soul searching to do. I check that forum daily and have posted more questions than I care to say.

I will deeply miss the community, the love, the honesty, the support, the hugs, the joy, the tears, the sense of family. The worst part is we as members of this forum are not getting ANY answers as to why they are doing this...it just doesn't make sense to close this off.

I would have been lost without all of you. I found everyone one of my blogging buddies either directly or indirectly through that forum.

Wordless Wednesday

Let the paperchase begin :)

It's official. We have started the paperchase for our Little Man. Our social worker came over today to update our homestudy. One of these times, just maybe I could get through the homestudy update without tears...Guess we will find out at the next update.

So what is next? I am going to begin gathering dossier documents. CHSFS won't review our application until the first week of November so the plan is to have everything mailed into them prior to that so when we hit the magic date all paperwork is in. If I can pull it off on my end and all things fall into place on the receiving end, we hope to be officially waiting again by the end of November for our Little Man aged 0-18 months.

WOW! Could we maybe bring home a toddler? Yes we could or it could be an infant we are open. The only thing we know for sure is that our Little Man will be younger than Kiya. We are super excited and ready to just get the paperwork in and focus on our little girl. Little Man will be always in our hearts and we will wait for him with more patience (hopefully) as we are more prepared for all that the wait means.

Current quoted wait times are 12-18 months for a referral with 3-5 months post referral for travel. We are expecting to wait much closer to the 18 month plus mark for a referral and are hopeful the post referral wait stays about the same. So we are planning for at least a 2 year process but more likely 2 1/2 years to maybe even 3 years. Kiya will likely be over 3 years old when our Little Man joins the family.

As we have learned things change all the time in international adoption, we are just hopeful for a smooth process without a lot of unnecessary delays. We will wait and pray as long as we need to for our son. It will all happen when it is supposed to. We just pray that Ethiopian adoptions stay stable and ethical and that we will be blessed with a little boy who shares the cultural background of our daughter.

Nothing short of FABULOUS

A few posts ago I talked about being over scheduled and how I needed to make a change. Well this Saturday I did just that. I opted out of my hubby's co-workers wedding reception (don't worry we gave them plenty of notice).

Other than the few hours I was at work Saturday morning it was hands down one of the best days I have spent with Kiya.

I have always felt like she has been attaching well and bonding well with both of us but I think our relationship as Mommy and daughter went to a whole new level on Saturday. We really truly enjoyed each other. It wasn't just Mommy meeting her basic needs with a little fun thrown in on the side. We really were interacting and having fun.

I have never laughed more and neither has she. We snuggled, we read books, we splashed in the tub. She ate her first all big girl snack of bananas, mini pancakes and cheerios. Most of it she even fed herself. The bananas were a little mushy and hard for her to pick up but she sure tried and succeeded a few times.

We had no fussing, no crying and we even had successful tummy time. She used to LOVE tummy time but since she started sitting up she is not such a fan and tends to throw a fit but not on Saturday. We played with her soccer ball, pet the dogs and even practiced walking.

We have started something new so after bath time, hair care and bottle, Kiya and I cozy up in the glider in her room and read a book before bed. It is nothing short of fabulous. Just me and her and a good book. One of our favorites is Todd Parr's "We Belong Together". We also like Karen Katz's "Over the Moon" but I am still having a hard time getting through that one without crying.

To say Kiya is nothing short of fabulous is an understatement. She has added such joy to our lives. We are amazed and grateful for her everyday and can't wait to see what she says and does next.

Feeling Frustrated

I think the title sums up how both Kiya and I are feeling. I am frustrated because I want to help her and she is frustrated because she wants to be on the go.

I know that given the opportunities and the time Kiya will be on the go. Whether she chooses to crawl or skip that and go straight to walking is yet to be seen. She for awhile would scoot on her butt and still does a little but doesn't get very far. The problem is she so badly wants to get places and reach things. She is so frustrated. I can see it on her face and I can hear it as she screams at me. She drops a toy and it falls out of reach and she looks at me and screams in pure frustration. She will try to reach for it and try again and then just gives up. You can almost hear the sigh as she stops trying.

She does roll over but not often. She LOVES to stand which for a baby who couldn't bare hardly any weight on her legs 5 months ago is great. She will take a few steps when we hold her fingers and took a sideways step while holding on to the coffee table. She doesn't pull herself up on anything yet but if you get her started she will do the rest.

She is not outside of any norm for her gross motor skills. She is still right in that target range. We do think there are a few things holding her back including the possibility that she was premature and her low birth weight. Things will not know for sure but are highly likely. The IAC we used when we got out referral is guessing she was a few weeks early and probably weighed less than 3 or 4 lbs at birth since she was barely 6lbs at 6 weeks.

Her fine motor skills are actually pretty advanced for her age. She has mastered the pincher grasp, helps to dress and undress herself, can drink from a sippy cup unassisted, can feed herself, she transfer toys from hand to hand, puts things on her head, she waves bye bye and claps. Her verbal skills are also progressing nicely and I can't wait for her to say mama but she is stuck on dada which I admit is pretty adorable.

I just wish I could wave the magic mommy wand to help her. I know she needs to do this by herself and I need to be a strong parent and not give in. I have to learn to be okay with her frustration (and mine) and hope that frustration translates itself into movement. When we talked with our doctor she is not concerned. She said the fact that the desire is there is great and that growth and development are progressing is great.

So the game plan is to give her the opportunities to figure things out and keep encouraging her.