a day of change

Although I write this in the wee hours of St. Patrick's Day 2010, just few short hours ago we put our daughter to bed in her newly converted toddler bed from her original crib. Actually, truth be told, she fell asleep in our bed (like she does many a night during the week) and then I always put her in her own crib before I head to bed in the wee hours of each day (night owl I am).

I decided today at lunch time it was time to remove the side rail from Julia's crib and convert it into a toddler bed. Yes, I put a safety rail on that open side, don't fret. For the last few weeks we have been planting the idea of redecorating her room with her. Including getting a toddler bed for her. Well, I converted her crib instead. I wanted to tell her she is a big girl now and she can sleep in a big girl bed like mommy does. She loved the idea the last few days so I went with it today.

I know I am running the risk of her not sleeping through the night, but I am hoping and praying she stays asleep like she normally does any given night for 10-12 hours (even near 14 hours last night). Boy, I sure need to get some overnight diapers for her for those 14 hour nights. LOL She rarely wakes (I know, go ahead and say it... I just jinxed myself, right?) during the night. Fingers crossed that this long sleepy nights remain for her for a long many years to come. I really truly believe she gets these sleep filled nights from her birthmother. H admitted to me that both of her older children sleep very well. I sure hope that carries on here for a long time to come.

Change is happening in our lives with Julia so much lately. Milestones too many to keep up with. She become more versatile in her vocabulary each day, she is working on sharing with her new playmate each day. She loves to go for walks and rides in her wagon around the block. Loves the gym a few days a week and loves swimming.

Speaking of swimming, I had bought her a D.ora body swim flotation suit at a sale last summer, it fits now and helps her swim like a fish in the pool at the Ymca.

The I love you Daddio and Mommio are so frequent and unprompted nowaday. Today, I called daddio at work and she didn't get to talk to him. She asked to speak to him so I called him back and she just told him all kinds of things (many we couldn't understand because she was talking so fast). Then at the end of the conversation she said to him "Daddio, I love you". So sweet. When he got home tonight, he said when he hear the "daddio, i love you" it made him so proud of her and almost made him cry. I love it. She did that same thing to me a few weeks back.

During the day she often sings the abc song all the way through, now and she is working on 1-15. Surprisingly, the other day she counted backwards from 8 to 1. WOW. Way to go Julia!

I am working on some preschool functions for her to do during the day. She keeps me busy for sure, but I just don't want her or her playmate to be in the house all day long with this nice weather around us. I have a few outside activities for her to do now outside and I can't wait to introduce them to her.

daddy's litte helper

cam you tell we are in trouble with a climber? She climbed from the floor to the barstool height chairs right onto the dining room table at my sisters the other day (she watches J full time). I am signing her up for a tumbling class at the ymca after the first of the year. She is an acrobat already.

I promise a picture soon of her pierced ears. She already lost an earring in the tub at my sisters (they love play time in the tub there) and so she has just a simple gold stud in there right now, but I'll change them back to the daisy flowers like she had at the beginning. She is not really bothered by them at all now.

Need to get to wrapping some Christmas presents and finish up my shopping next week.

Speaking of next week. Monday the 15th is Dh's last day at his job. His end date of employment from the buyout/merger comes to an end after working for that company after 18 years of service. He did agree and is signing an extension to work for them for another 3-4 months as a contractor though so that helps with the income. He still gets his full severance too! So between the severance and the federal tax refund we will greatly benefit (adoption tax credit applies this year! YEAH). SWEET. Sacking away at least a years worth of house payments with his severance though.

Ok, off to bed.

T, if you are reading this, I promise I'll call you on my lunch tomorrow.

oh my poor baby girl. I love her so no matter how cranky she is!

tonight we confirmed that she has resurfaced one of her bottom two front teeth again. Yes again. This post back in May about her teeth coming in forward makes me wonder now long this has been in progress to pop back up through the gums and not forward like they had been. DH and I actually saw her two bottom teeth coming out forward through her lower gum out towards her lower lip. Straight out. Well, in a few weeks after I posted that, those teeth had regressed into the gums again and must have worked their way to a normal appearance up through the gums like normal kids experience, still painfully so. So tonight confirms that one of those two teeth have popped through the gums growing up towards the upper gum like they should be. So officially right now she has 2 teeth IN her mouth popped through. One upper second spot tooth on her right side and one lower gum first tooth on the left side. SWEET. No wonder the poor girl has been a snot nosed whining sweetheart of a dream daughter! No, I don't complain about this process like most, I am so enjoying the growth spurts she is going through and these bring her much closer to us because she becomes more clingy to us while this happens. Tonight she got a 6 oz bottle, sucked that down dry so DH gave her another 4 oz and she drank 3 of that so the little piggy growing girl had 9 oz before bed! Yeah. Normally she does 4 6oz bottle through the day. But this shows she is growing so much now and needs that little extra in her tummy to get through the night.

As I type this out, she sleeps in her crib behind a shut door to make it very dark in there. She sleeps on her front of her knees/legs with butt hiked way up in the air and her head turned to one side while most of her torso weight bares down on her shoulders with hands wrapped tight smashed between the crib mattress and her chest wall. She insists on holding her blanket. Such a sweetheart when she sleeps. She is a little restless tonight due to the couch she has, but is getting a good fair amount of sleep.

gotta work on finding a replacement blanket for her green one she has. I'll post a picture of it later this weekend.


IT IS YARD SALE TIME... Email me through this blog and I'll tell you what the address is if you are interested. Infant, baby - teen-adult clothes, some furniture, some electronics, some jewelry (my sister is bringing that) and some home made crafts from my mom for baby items and misc things.


I'll post later this weekend with how the yard sale goes. Please pray for NO RAIN saturday from 7-12.

sorry 2 b late w/my wordless wednesday

dealing w/ a cold infested little girl who has somewhere between 3-5 teeth trying 2 pop through right now. the poor girl hates me because I tricked her into taking her grape flavored dimeatap cold and cough dose tonight. LOL

Here is a picture for Wordless Wednesday that I just love. We were at our friends house this past weekend and she wanted to keep playing with this coupe car, but she kept sliding down through the seat to the floor. LOL I have to find her one of these coupe cars.



I just love this picture. This proves she will be walking very soon and one day will be very athletic or a gymnast. I can't stop her from climbing on her toys.

dealing with tempers.....

ok, I need to really get out the books for coping with a childs temper. Is it normal for a 9 month old to have a temper so strong? Even my sister (her full time babysitter) said she is really strong headed when it comes to showing her temper. She tends to hit back at me if I tell her no. Such as.... tonight she was sitting in the kitchen sink and playing with the water. I told her to not play with the handle so that she does not turn it to HOT water. I know, she does not really understand that yet, but I know she knows the word NO. I said Julia, no, don't touch the handle. She immediately pushed my hand aside each time and then slapped me with her hand. Intentional slap too! How do I curtail this slapping? I know she will go through stages of different levels of her temper, but how do I get the message of no through to her without her hitting back? She slapped my niece (who my sister also babysits full time) the other day while they were both in the kiddie pool. Julia wanted the water hose to herself and apparently slapped my niece with her open hand when my niece tried to reach for the hose too. Bahahahaha

I have to laugh at this, but her temper is so strong. Any suggestions?

score! Thank you craigslist for the sellers of toys!

This is my score for the week for Julia. Fisher Price laugh and learn Home. I found it on craigslist this past week for 30.00. SWEET DEAL. All parts there except for 1 of the plastic balls. The seller told me she will look for it at home again.

My daughter LOVES it. I cleaned it up and then she played with it for over a 1/2 hour last night before bedtime. I'll have to try and get a picture of her enjoying this bargain of a great learning toy!

latest of Julia milestones... She is saying "hawwwoowwww" when she puts her phone up to her ear now. (score from the resale shop for 66 cents with working batteries!)

Reading to our daughter, talking about her lifebook

No, I am not a scrapbooker, but I can tell a good story. This story starts at an early age for Julia about her birthmother and her birthmothers blessing she has given in having selected us to become her adoptive parents for the rest of her life. Her MOM and DAD. I am again picking up the book 20 things adoptive kids wish their adoptive parents knew and it has really stirred the thoughts in my mind of when DH and I will really start feeling comfortable to give that explanation of how she grew in her tummy mommy's belly and how we were all at the hosptial the day she was born, including her birthgrandmother and her birth siblings came later to see her along with both birthfamil.y friends and our family and friends. Such a loved and welcomed little girl. I hope she knows that we will never stop showering her with love from all sides of her immediate family and extended birth family.

We plan on telling Julia her birth story and letting her decide when it is appropriate for share what she feels comfortable with sharing. This is HER lifebook story and I'll alreays remember it, but I will let her know she can keep it to herself or if she wills to, she can share it with any one person or many as she chooses to do so. THere are certain things that are not made public even with such an open adoption agreement. It is out of respect that we don't share those things and honestly Julia is entitled to be the first to know those things. At this point in life it might be 2 or 4 years before she understands the simplest explanation of who she came from and how much they all love her so and how much we love her no matter what.

Those of you that adopted, how has it fallen in line for age of when you started really explaining things to your child about their birthmother/father and family? Just curious to see how it varies in ages.

Baby, it was Well worth the trip to Imperial Missouri

Today, my mom and I set up vendor booth (easy up tent awning and several tables) at the Creative Learning Center parking lot at Seckman Rd and Old Lemay Ferry in Imperial MO. This was a baby swap meet that was listed on craigslist a few weeks back. My mom called and ordered one space, but After a few days of gathering up my items that Julia has grown out of, I asked my mom to get two spaces and we would share the space. Glad we did because we had a ton of items to sell. My mom makes homemade baby items like blanket, bibs, pillows, the baby bottle holders I use to sell (she is still selling on ebay). I got rid of about 140.00 worth of items and clothes. SWEET. I'll be sure to do this sale again next week. The lady that runs the center said they plan on making this an annual sale and we would be first on her list and get prime pick of the spots in the lot. We were 2 sellers of only 5 total so I think we will do well with this type of sale next year again.

Sure, setting up a yard sale is hard work, especially if you have to take your items some place else besides just outside your home, but I do feel this is a great opportunity to join a swap meet / baby sale that might grow as big as the mehlville baby mania sale that is held twice a hear, spring & fall. I still have lots of items to sell so my mom, sister and I plan on getting a booth at the mehlville sale in October.

Julia, your bank account is growing fast if I can keep up these sales of items you are growing out of.

I know, we could have kept it all for when we do adopt again one day, but in my small house I don't have storage like I would love to have and no garage so I can't keep it here. With being a bargain shopper that I am, I know I'll be able to replenish my supply of items we will need for baby #2 when that comes time in a few years.

As I sit here typing this out, I am also peeking over at my daughter that is getting flustered because she can't get the drum stick on the little tikes zylaphone to work right. She just can't grasp the concept that the drum stick needs to hit the keys instead of her inserting it in her mouth. LOL

This past week I picked up a picture of DH, Julia and I. I showed it to Julia and pointed to Dada for her. She looked at the picture and said "Dada" without me provoking her. hehe.