this stomach bug / head cold crud better stay away

After being sick Wednesday and Thursday with a bad intestinal thing, my sister (our daughters sitter) and our daughter were both feeling bad on Friday. So I was home again with her. She was feeling much better Saturday, but today she has either bad hayfever or she has a head cold coming on. Ugh. I so hate these seasonal things going around. I am praying she is feeling better in the morning. I can't take off work and hubby does not get paid if he has to stay home with her. Yikes. We don't have very many backup options so we will see in the morning what happens. I hope you are all feeling well.

Here are a few pictures from our play time in the Tower Grove Park water park area. We went to the Farmers Market and then played in the water for nearly 2 hours. Well, it was mostly water time, otherwise she was insisting on swinging too!

FUN!

20 months? What? tomorrow brings your 20 months birthday

WOW, time flies.

Wordless Wednesday a little early.

ahhh, the savings.

Coupons are a challenge I have come to like. I want to cover my taxes and then some for each time I go to the store. Today, I did that.

I went to target today with a list of items a mile long (well, the swimming suites for Julia and I weren't really on the original list, but I could not pass them up). After all said and done, I saved 47.03 with in-store promotional sales and coupons. My taxes were 16.99. My actual coupons total savings were 19.29. Now that is what I call a bargain.

Quotes of the week

This is what dear daughter said last night when we were all out front playing in the grass and running after each other to tickle each other.... after tickling daddy, he laughed and then she said "That's So FUNNY!". Bahahaha, my 19 month old said that as clear as day. WOW.. Them are some big words to be putting together. I love it. She has been saying 3 and 4 words together for the last few weeks.

This week she has another canine tooth coming in so she was very fussy tonight and threw a book at me, hitting me. This called for a time out and I had to hold my laughter mixed with of the moment anger when she kept laughing at me when I would put her into time out. WOW. this is a defiant girl and I think she takes after her 3 yr old cousin on part of it, transitioning at the babysitters because part of the adult attention is now focus on the new 3.5 month old boy in care. LOL Oh that change was expected. And her new adjusted bed time with a different wake up routine since she was born. WOW. So much going on so the acting out is not of much surprise in some ways, but the hitting and spitting has got to stop.

I can't wait for a long weekend to spend with her. Then camping a few weeks later and we can get in the river. YEAH! Oh and our pool is about to open so I am going to start her swim lessons in my back yard since I have not taken her back to the ymca again.

blessing of family

Today, a weekend after Mother's Day (and being evacuated / flooded out of our camping weekend), we took our mother's to the Cardinals Ball game. We had a great time doing a group tour, seeing batting practice on field and having some great field box tickets. Julia did great too. My mom and I walked her around to the family pavilion and let Julia play for a while. We are so blessed to have both sides of our families in town so it was a great pleasure to take both mom's (grandma and meemaw) to the park today.

Here are a few pics to share:

a hard weekend for those struggling with Infertility and miscarriages

Mother's Day weekend is a hard time of year for those that struggle with infertility and miscarriages. I hope your loved ones can give you a hug. I have been there and let me tell you it was some of the hardest times to get through, especially at church. I hope your church recognizes the mothers out there that have lost a baby in pregnancy and beyond and those that are struggling to achieve that ultimate dream of becoming a mother due to infertility.

I sat in church one year thinking that I would never become a mother. I would never be able to bring a child into this world to love and raise in my shadow. I feared it. I cried over it and I cried when the pastor asked all the mothers to stand up and be recognized. That next year I wrote a letter to the pastor asking him to please recognize those of us that had lost a pregnancy and or child in or after birth as we are moms to those babies and those struggling to become moms. He did it. Thank you pastor!

I have been there and I understand. If you have questions on how to deal with this, please feel free to ask.

Many understanding hugs and prayers to the angels in heaven we have lost. Mommy loves you.

I am so thankful Adoption has brought the love of Motherhood into my life and thank you to Julia's birthmother for making that possible. I did send her a Birthmother's day card combined with a Mother's day card because she is a beautiful mother to julia's birthsiblings!

Happy Mother's day to all friends infertile, those that have miscarried and those that are mothers after all the struggles. Hugs to all.

19 month update and random thoughts and milestones

yes, this post will be all over the place.

Monday, last week, Julia turned 19 months old. I keep thinking to myself that it truly can't be that long since I saw her coming into this world. Yes, I saw her take her first breath and believe me, when I go back and think about it, what a blessing it was to be there. I thank her birthmother every day in my thoughts for these wonderful moments I can relive.

19 months brings us to a very energetic, yet very inquisitive time in our lives. I do mean all of our lives. She keeps us on our toes with trying to outwit, outlast and outplay us all, including her baby-sitter (her aunt). LOL Yes, she is a survivor and plays the game very well. This past few weeks she has been working on breaking in her eye-canine teeth. She has been very cranky through it all and drooling again like she was when she was 4-10 months old. WOW... reliving slobber drool soaked clothes on her and I is fun. NOT. LOL She won't wear a bib like she did back then so she stands a good chance of having a soak shirt or two each day.

Time out is working so well that when she gets into trouble, I only have to ask her to go to time out and she does. She puts herself in time out. WOW... we are really working on explaining reasons for avoiding time out in the future and understanding the consequences of it once she finishes her one minute in time out. Tonight, after she went into time out for having hit her for no reason at all, I walked her over to hannah and asked her to apologize to hannah and she did. Ahhhh, it is working.

The vocabulary is blossoming so fast I can't keep up. She repeats everything, thus DH and I are really really trying hard to avoid the curse words. LOL. She also has picked up some lovely spanish from Dora and Boots. Fun. Her favorite word to say in spanish is "open". In Spanish it is ABRA, but Julia puts a little twist on it. LOL Sounds more like abuela (which means grandma). LOL, but we can tell she means open.

I have not posted much on the adoption side of our lives because, honestly, it has been a raw spot for me. I think DH is dealing with it better than I am. We are so greatful for Julia in our lives and blessed, don't get me wrong. Living with having lost contact with her birthmother has been my rough spot with talking about things here. I can't password protect my posts so I just don't post. See, a few weeks back, we got a call from Julia's birthsister and let me tell you it really stirred some emotions in me that I never really expected. Knowing she reached out to Julia and us is so touching (she is so young too, but understands that she has a birthsister in Julia), yet it really makes me ache with possibly what her birthmother is dealing with these days emotionally in the aftermath of placing her daughter for adoption. We have a semi-open adoption now, no contact with Julia's birthmother , but now her birthsister has, out of the blue, called and talked to us and asked how Julia is. We of course asked her how she and her brother are (julia's birthbrother) and she said all is well and even asked if she can send us a picture of herself. YES!!! I'll even send a stamped envelope for her to send it to us. I really hope we can see them one day again in person. Meantime, I am putting together the 1 year letter that was already written, another letter and many pictures again since then. I will get a photo book to put them in and send them off for Mothers Day and Birth Mothers Day this coming weekend. We told Julia's birthsister to call us any day, night she wants!!

Happy Birthdmothers Day to all of the birthmothers out there.