Happy New Year!

I can't believe that 2009 is coming to an end. What a busy year it has been. As I reflect back on the year, I am again reminded how truly blessed we are. 2009 will be a year I will never forget and I am looking forward to 2010.

While there won't be any referrals or new children added to our family this next year, we are looking forward to celebrating many firsts with Kiya. Here are just a few things we are looking forward to in the new year.

1--Kiya walking. Okay I am really ready for her to walk, she is almost ready and our poor dogs and house have some catching up to do. I am excited and terrified by her walking on her own.

2--The toddler room. Kiya starts her transition to her new room at daycare on Monday. Everyone is excited for this. I can't wait to see what she learns and how she grows.

3--Her first trip to the zoo. We got a wagon for Christmas and can't wait to take Kiya to the zoo. We have a free zoo close by and last summer it would have been too much and she was so young. Not this next year though :) I LOVE zoos.

4--The purchase of a potty seat. I can't believe I actually wrote that but you see by the end of 2010, Kiya will be 2. Time to at least have the seat in the house even if we don't touch it for awhile. At daycare they will start taking her to the bathroom as well to wash hands and just sit on the potty to get used to the idea.

5--San Antonio. I HATE winter and Kiya needs to see her Auntie Sarah. We are off to San Antonio for a few days in February and it better be nice there.

6--Babyproofing. Admittedly we are a little behind in this area but since Kiya hasn't started walking yet and her scooting/rolling is fairly contained we weren't worried. Well, the times they are a changing. She is starting to cruise on furniture and go from one stationary object to another. Outlets are covered of course but baby gates, cabinet locks, etc are in our very near future.

7--Swim lessons. We can't wait to sign Kiya up. She LOVES water so far anyway. At the very least it will hopefully be some good mommy/daughter time.

8--Turning the car seat forward. It may not seem like a big deal but it is just yet another sign of how big Kiya is getting. She is technically old enough and heavy enough for us to turn her seat around now. We are holding out for as long as we can. It she keeps growing inches with each doctor's visit we won't make it much longer as she is already kicking the back of the seat. Plus, I think she is going to love sitting forward and looking at something besides the back of the seat.

9--The little things. Kiya is such a joy and just so sweet. I am looking forward to the sweet little things that will occur. The hugs, the snuggles, the kisses. We have those now and I look forward to many more in the coming the year.

10--1 year closer. Hopefully, fingers crossed, we will be one year closer to Kiya's little brother. International adoption is a scary world and I am nervous but remaining hopeful for the moment that our dreams of her little brother will come true and that 2010 will bring us that much closer.

Happy New Year everyone. I know for some of you 2009 was a FABULOUS year and for others it wasn't. If it was fabulous may 2010 be even more so. If it was not so great may 2010 be your year. The year that rocks your world. May all of you who read this find peace, love and happiness in the upcoming year.

13 Things I love about my daughter

Why 13...well Kiya is 13 months old today ;) In no particular order:

1. Just how sweet she is. How she will reach out and rub her head on you and snuggle.

2. How much she LOVES bath time.

3. The sweet way she feeds Badger from the high chair--we are discouraging this with both of them but I must admit it is kind of cute.

4. How she reaches out to hug Sebastian

5. When she says Mama

6. When she says ''dawdie" for doggie and points at the dogs

7. Just how much she loves pancakes

8. Her serious side

9. How much she loves to dance and to any type of music and when there isn't any how she makes her own

10. The cute way she rolls around and scoots on the floor

11. How excited she gets when she sees Mommy and Daddy after being away from us

12. Her independent side; how she does things her way and how she wants to and not how a book says she is supposed to. Take her new ride on toy. It is supposed to be a walker first and then a sit and ride toy. Well she is preferring to sit and ride versus walk. She can actually propel herself forward and backward.

13. Just how much she LOVES "The Belly Button Book". I mean really loves it. She points at the hippos in it and smiles and giggles when we read it, just about every day :)

I am one lucky Mommy that's for sure.

This time last year

We are rapidly approaching a very special and memorable day for our family so I went back and looked at what I was blogging about last year at this time.

I was a nut case. Certifiable indeed. I had a first class ticket to Crazytown ;). I had totally lost it and become completely consumed by my number on the unofficial list which at this date last year was 8 but number 4 for an infant. I had my cell phone practically glued to me and I cried at the drop of a hat. Yup, totally nuts.

I look back at that and wonder how in the world I will explain it to Kiya. I am not sure I will be able to. My perspective has changed so much since then and yet the anticipation of the phone ringing was all very real. It was this weird paradox of happy and sad. Happy as I was about to realize my dreams and see the face of my child for the first time and sad as I knew someone I hadn't met yet was making the hardest decision of their of life.

There were so many unknowns at this point last year. We were preparing kind of for a child but it still didn't seem real. Christmas time last year I finally let myself splurge a little and buy some baby clothes and a couple toys. Nothing overly special just something more for me to feel like I was about to have a baby.

I was in this surreal place and had recently come to peace with the wait. It took me a long time to come to peace. 9 months plus if I recall correctly. It was tough. Tougher than I thought it would be and at times I didn't handle it well. Simply put I was selfish and didn't always think about what was going on on the other side of the world.

This time last year Kiya was in the care center in Addis Ababa and we didn't even know it, yet. Weird to think about. Weird to now know she even had medical tests done on what we call Christmas. My baby girl was being loved on and waiting to meet her new family. We didn't know who she was but we did know we were ready for her. We were waiting for her to be ready for us. We had a little more waiting to do before she would be known to us.

At this time last year I had no idea that in 9 days my whole world was going to be turned upside down. Instead I stayed glued to my cell phone and prayed and waited and cried and waited and cried so more.

Cinnamon rolls, Santa, and our family of 3

As I write this, we are having a lazy day as a family of 3. Weather did not permit us to see my parents today but hopefully soon. We started with cinnamon rolls and a visit from Santa and just enjoying our little family. I am listening to my gift from Santa right now--the Glee soundtracks :) See pictures below for Kiya enjoying her gift from Santa.

Spaghetti sauce is on the stove and cookies may even be baked from scratch today as we start our own family traditions. Wow--it has been a long time coming and while I am bummed the weather has prevented us from travelling, I take one look at this little girl and it all becomes okay.

We went to church on Christmas Eve. Wow, first time at the children's Mass and I think we had to have been over capacity by a hundreds of people. We were told it would be packed but I never imagined it would be that busy. Kiya did great minus the one rather loud, tired scream. Good thing we were sitting near a bunch of little ones her age and everyone understood. I was proud of myself for making it through Mass without crying. I got really close once or twice but I held off. I just couldn't believe this was all really happening. We were at Christmas Mass with our daughter.

After church we headed to the in-laws for dinner and presents. Kiya loves Egg noodles :) And here she is opening her very first Christmas present. We figured she loves the dogs so let's get her a stuffed pug. It was great night spent with family.
Christmas morning we woke up and Kiya got to open her gift from Santa.


She really liked the wrapping paper :)

And better yet, she LOVES her new toy.


So as we have a relaxing day ahead, we just think back to just how amazing this year has been. Last year we were anxiously wondering if our phone would ever ring to bring us the news of our long awaited child. Now here we are a year later living our dreams. And while I could do without the icky weather, I am here with my family and that is all I could ever ask for. Kiya is the greatest gift. Sure I am enjoying my new CD's but nothing will ever top having Kiya as a daughter and maybe if we are lucky 2012 will be just as magical as 2009 has been for us.

Merry Christmas to my family, friends (both online and in person). May you be blessed to be spending your holiday in the company of the ones that you love. I know I am.

Kiya went to see Santa :)

I know I have been MIA for awhile... I was sick, Kiya was sick, Dave was sick, Badger was sick...not fun times but we all seem to be on the mend.

Since everyone was feeling better we took Kiya to see Santa at the mall. I fully anticipated that it would go horribly wrong. With her stranger anxiety and separation anxiety I just thought we would have tears and screams. Well, once again my daughter amazes me. Isn't she just adorable?? :)

No tears, no screams, a little thumb sucking and then this sweet face. :) What a big girl.

In other news, Kiya is cutting at least 2 more teeth. She is getting her top middle teeth which will bring her grand total of teeth to 4. We suspect she is also working on her 1 year old molars given the drool, the chewing, the refusal to eat, etc.

Well back to wrapping Christmas gifts and mailing Christmas cards, I will try and post again soon but if not Merry Christmas!

Wordless Wednesday

7 months home and a doctor visit

We have been home 7 months today with our princess. Wow. So what did we do to celebrate....I took Kiya to her 12 month check up :)

The numbers:

Weight: just under 21 lbs (42nd percentile)
Height: 29 1/4 inches (48th percentile)
Head circumference: 44.5 cm (29th percentile)

So as a reference, Kiya was in the less than 3rd percentile in weight and head circumference and between the 5th and 10th percentile for height.

Development:

Food: The nurse was shocked when I told her Kiya took herself off of bottles and is solely on sippy cups of whole milk. She said we were lucky. I just think we have a big girl who knows what she wants :) She did say Kiya should be drinking 16oz of milk a day. We are a tad shy of this but she said yogurt counts so we should be fine. She encouraged us to let Kiya try and feed herself finger foods. I told her Kiya has been doing that for awhile. We have good and bad days. Some days Kiya wants to feed herself and other days she doesn't. Introducing the spoon is next...beware pugs, floors, blinds and anything else near her while eating.

Sleep: The nurse asked us how Kiya is sleeping at night and for naps. I told her that unless she is sick or teething, Kiya will sleep 11-12 hours through the night. As for naps, we are in transition to one nap so some days she will take 2 shorter naps totaling near 3 hours or one long nap of 2-2 1/2 hours. She then asked us if Kiya falls asleep by herself or if we rock her to sleep. She has always fallen asleep by herself. At this point the nurse was looking at me like I was nuts. She said it was too good to be true.

Speech: Kiya was quite vocal while we were there. In July, Birth to 3 said that she was delayed about 36% in her speech. Well, the doctor now thinks that Kiya is ahead of the curve. She says mama, dada, daw (dog), hi, na (no) along with a whole bunch of other sounds like nana, lala, baba, ssss, zzz, ga. She also will point at what she wants and grunt a little to let us know she wants it. Usually it is her sippy cup she wants and can't reach other times it is Mama's dinner :)

Motor skills: The doctor said they usually expect most 1 year olds to pull them self up to a stand and Kiya only does this with our fingers. She doesn't really cruise on furniture but she did yesterday take one sideways step while holding on to the coffee table. She has been trying to walk a lot more so it is only a matter of time. The doctor also said that since at 5 months she couldn't really stand up on our laps and had little muscle tone that it may take her a little longer for her to fully walk on her own. She asked about crawling, rolling, etc. So we told her about Kiya's butt scooting, rolling antics and she said that is all great. She asked if she is continuing to show increased strength and desire to move and do things and I said yes. She said that is all that matters.

Overall, the doctor felt Kiya was growing and developing well. While there Kiya got her MMR, chicken pox, pneumonia booster, and H1N1 shot. She is also having a TB skin test done.

In other news, Kiya will transition to her new room at daycare the last week of December. Why not sooner....well a spot opened up in the room we wanted so we took it. It meant delaying the transition to her big girl room but we get the teacher we know and love. And more importantly it is the teacher that Kiya grew to love and trust.