Approaching the incredible 2 years old

Our beautiful daughter turns 2 on Sunday. 24 months old. I still can remember the moment she was born (I was in the delivery room with her birthmother) and seeing her take her first breath was such a blessing and joy in our lives. I can tell her this story when she is older and understands it. I tell her when we look at her birth pictures that I was there and Daddy was in the hallway hearing her first cry. I will cherish this and share this with her every moment I can, especially on her Birthday each year. Thank you to her tummy mommy for making her adoption plan for Julia with us and helping her name her with us. We picked Julia's first name and her tummy mommy / birthmother picked her middle name. In adoption, sometimes the birthmother and or birthfamily will name the baby and then the adoptive couple will give the child a name they will call him or her. We were blessed to have her tummy mommy tell us she wanted us to pick her first name and she would pick the middle name so Julia Marie..... we love you.

Approaching the age of two bring so many fun and interesting times in our lives with our daughter. She has recently started this high pitched scream during both fun play time and times when she wants to defy our wishes and instructions. For example, tonight, we were playing in the back yard, it was getting dark and time to come in, I nicely asked Julia to please come inside now and she started immediately with the high pitched scream and running away from me away from the house. Oh the ears. I am sure the neighbors thought I was probably hurting her, but alas, I was not and was only trying to chase her around the back yard to catch her and bring her inside. Against her will, of course! The scream was not a screech, it was a long ear piercing scream. No, I am not the bad mommy and won't give into her screams. I finally caught up with her and she stopped screaming only 1 second before we reached the door and then politely waved goodbye to my neighbor sitting on her back porch. Oh great, the neighbors were really out there. Oh well. She raised two boys years ago so I am sure she knows this routine we have fallen into when Julia does not want to go inside.

We go for her 2 year check up next week. I last measured her at 37" tall, 26.6 lbs about 3 weeks ago. I bet she has grown since. Maybe my measurements were off though. Ha. I am going to have to buy 3T for winter for sure with this girl. Heck, some of her pajamas are already 4T, but they are fit tight style two piece pajamas.

the other night while daddy gave her a bath, she counted up to 15 with daddy. She will partially sign (asl sign language)and sing her ABC's with me. We sing in the car on the way to the sitters each morning and last week she sang all of You Are My Sunshine with me! sweet! She is learning her colors and can tell me what a triangle is. She loves to draw and color in her coloring books too. When she takes a bath, she always asks for her ABC bucket. She got this last year for her birthday and we always put them up on the tile around the tub when she bathes.


oh.. gotta go for now, stay tuned for more on her 24 month birthday update and her tummy mommy update. So here is a picture to enjoy for now....

Friday Feature or should I say Fitful Friday....

Dear daughter,

This week you turned 16 months old. You are such a hoot 95-99% of the time, the other % of the time, this is what I got when you didn't get your way. Ahhhh, the fitful days ahead of us are already starting to shine through.



Post fitful Friday last week (pic above), this is you hamming it up for the camera again. You smile the biggest cheesiest smile when we say Cheese and point the camera your way.



You are in love with shoes, see:


This week, your favorite phrases or words are "Ut-Oh" if you drop something and then you say "Ouch" if you bump into something, like your head that is too tall to walk under the tv trays now.

You are working so hard on breaking in your two bottom molars. As of today you have 10 teeth and soon to be 12 when those molars come in. This past week you and daddy and mommy have all been battling colds, fevers, tummy issues. Chlortrimazole is the answer for your rashed bum. Balmex burns, aveeno is too icky so chlortrimazole is the best cure. You hate grape flavored medication of any sort.

You lost one of your earrings last week so daddy took the other one out since we can't get one in the hole that you lost your pretty pink flower from. We will get them pierced again, when? I don't know. I won't torture you again trying to put then in ourselves. I just don't know when we will do the ear piercing again. If it is up to daddy, sooner than later. We did buy some screw-back earrings to see if there is less of a risk of not having them come apart and fall out, so we will see.

tomorrow is going to be our first trip to the Magic House. I can't wait.

Happy 16 month birthday week my sweetheart.

Soaking up the Joys of Motherhood

Today, I fed Ms. Julia a bowl of Apples and Cinnamon Oatmeal. She loved it so much that she decorated herself in it (I took off her shirt before, but forgot the pants could get so dirty too with oatmeal). I took her immediately to the bathtub after eating so wash off the leftover yummy oatmeal.

She loves her baths so this was not a problem getting her to take one in the middle of the day, instead of her every-other-night bath before bedtime routine. She played with her letters and stood up, looked at me with this face only a mother knows (i'm gonna poop face) then DROPPED THE MOTHERLOAD into the tub.

Yes, ladies and gents.... I have been officially christened with the POP in the Bathtub water episode. This is episode #1. I saw this look on her face as she stood up and then heard the plop plop of several gifts into the water. EWWWWWWWW. I grabbed her, yelled for DH to come get her (he was sleeping, LOL) and then I had to proceed in scrubbing the tub and all the toys that were in the tub. Let me say again...Ewwwwwww.... Ahhhh, the joys of motherhood/parenting.

Hey, I am really surprised this event of pooping in the bath tub has not happened before this. I think Julia was bothered that she didn't have a diaper on when she pooped. Ha. She got this so serious look and then looked down and realized it was going into the water instead of her diaper. Too funny. I laughed the whole time this transpired saying to myself and DH... "This is what parenting is all about, POOPING IN THE TUB while taking a bath". Crazy.

Today was not fun for me on the most part due to a nasty day of allergy attacks. I can't wait for my new health insurance to start Jan 1, 2009. I'll have coverage to go see an ENT and get my skin allergy tests done. FINALLY. I have not had insurance for this in over 10 years and never had skin tests done to find out what my allergies are. I can tell you some of them just by experience and how to treat or avoid them, but this testing will allow me the benefit of knowing what kind of treatment will help me from these such debilitating attacks I have ever so often. Attacks include sneezing at least 50 times in a 20 minute period, repeat this ever hour of the waking day. Being woke up out of sleep with huge sneezing fits. Not being able to catch my breath after these such attacks, I swear I have asthma, but never been tested for it. I can't wait for the good insurance to finally start up.

Reason I am getting new insurance is that DH's last day of work with his current employer(Displament / end of employment date was moved up from March 2009 to December 15, 2008) is December 15th so I must add him and Julia to my insurance at my company and Thankfully we have a great 3 tier program to select from. I so hope I can get a decent raise at my review that is to take place soon. (11 years with my company as of Dec 1st. ) Holding my breath on the raise though. Bahhhh

Visit with Dh's side of the family tomorrow with SANTA. We are going to Crestwood mall so I'll report back then to let you know how it all went.

I know there is another milestone for Julia, but I can't think of what it was I wanted to blog about. Ok, need to put a pen and paper by the bed incase I wake up in the middle of the night thinking of it.

Anyone play Bingo around here? Man, I miss going and am bugging to go soon. No, I don't like the smoke filled rooms of the hall they play in , but it is fun to get away for a few hours and relax playing.

p.s. thanks to my loving DH for doing the laundry and the dishes and cooking dinner! You ROCK!

newest words and things you do to make you look 20 years old

Julia, my sweetie, you are growing up way too fast, but I won't complain about that since I waited for these moments for over 9 years.

You love the puzzle you got for your 1st birthday. It has a cow, cat, mouse, dog, bird, sheep and fish in a fish bowl puzzle slots. Tonight we were playing with this trying to get you to put the pieces of the puzzle back together and you took out the Mouse and I said "Oh that the Mouse" and you immediately looked at me and then Daddy and said the word Mouse! Loud and clear. So I pointed to the picture of the mouse as we put the puzzle piece back and asked you what this animal was and you looked up and said Mouse again. WOOOOHOOOO. I can't believe how quickly you are picking up the words and know their meanings now too. We played with this puzzle for about 20 minutes before you were distracted by the next toy. LOL

Newest words: Mouse, ouch, clearly saying Sadie now. Bath (which you start running to the bathroom and open the shower curtain to get to view the bathtub, the girl loves her baths), sit, down, (Ill think of some more later). I need to keep these words on a running list. Seems you develop new words every day or so now. Amazing.

You climbed up onto the computer chair and then proceeded to stand up on it too. I had to coax you down with a nice gentle, "Julia please sit" comment. You did sit, but immediately stood up and did this over and over while pushing the buttons on the keyboard. Do I need to find you your own desk and keyboard now too? It is hard enough to fight over the desktop with Daddy needing to do homework for college and our laptop being on the fritz right now. Yes, Santa is wonderful, but I just don't think he has a laptop for your use or a desktop computer either. Maybe in a few years, ok sweetie?

I called the mutual friend of your tummy mommy and left a message asking to have your birthmother H call us back. I did this on Wednesday. I hope they call tomorrow. I so want to hear from H and hope to invite her over for a holiday dinner here for just her immediate family and DH, you and I.

J, you turned 14 months old on the 27th. My gosh girl, you are growing so much. At home I weighed you and you were 23 lbs. I had a hard time getting you into your size 18 month gap pants the other day. I have a feeling you will be in 24month / 2T outfits sooner than I expected. Ugh, I didn't do shopping for that size for a winter season. I did get you some 24 months items for Spring/Summer. Dang. Gotta hit the shops soon for you then. Grow baby Grow. Thrive and Thrive some more. I love you.

p.s. FYI.......I use the term Tummy Mommy in agreement with J's birthmother. This is one of the things she said was comfortable hearing her being called when J gets old enough. I don't use it to be disrespected to J's birthmother.

milestones for 13.5 months old

My sweet daughter,

Today I saw you blowing on your mashed potatoes to cool them down because you thought they were too hot after I put them on your tray.

You figured out how to push Chicken Elmo's toes so he could sing "Elmo wants to be a chicken, elmo wants to be a duck, bawk bawk bawk bawk...." and then you dance your pants off with Elmo.

Tonight, you insisted on grabbing your grown out of clothes out of the box I am putting together for the yard sale Saturday. You are not helping mommy here sweetie, really. Bahhhh

Since you started walking at 10 months old, you are now RUNNING across the room. LOL you little butt is so cute when it goes that fast.

Your words so far: light, dog, hannah(sounds like haha with no n's), daddy, mommy, ball, fish, juice, bye-bye, hello, down, up, baba (bottle), duck, hot, bounce, button (belly button), bird, moon, moooo for cow, meow for kitty, ruff for dog, (I know there are more, but I just can't think of them). milk. You can repeat sounds for some animals after I saw them like the elephant, horse, lion and duck.

You can use the sign language motions of: Eat, all done, juice, milk, down and up.
You know where your toes, nose, ears, mouth and your belly button are if we ask. You know how to kick your feet on demand (thanks to swimming lessons). You climbed up on the couch for the first time this month. You leaned over in the tub the other night to blow bubbles in the water.

You love to climb through the legs of the dining room table chairs. You get such a kick out of daddy saying "I'm gonna get you" as you run towards mommy in the other room. So much joy that you scream at the top of your lungs. LOL

You can dance when we ask you to. Stand Up and down when we ask. LOVE to have daddy bounce you on the bed and couch. Loves to be tickled. You actually grab our hands and pull us to you to tickle you again and again. You know what close and open mean, on and off mean, you can pull the ceiling fan chain and light chain off and on over and over.

You have 6 teeth, 4 on top and 2 on the bottom.

Your hair, FINALLY, is coming in. Now don't pull it out like I caught you trying to do tonight.

You understand what the words "gentle touch" mean when it comes to petting the dog or touching mommy's hair.

You love to try and do things that you are not suppose to and take that moment during that task to look at us to see if we will say "Please Stop doing that". You especially use that side look like "I know I am not suppose to do this, but I'll test mommy and daddy to see if they stop me" while peeking around that item you are hiding behind.

You love to rock out to the music in the car as we are driving somewhere.

I love you and thank you for making each day such a joy to wake up to.

do you remember kilroy? you know, kilroy was here

kilroy


well, does this look like his competition?




she hams it up for the camera and always scrunches her face up funny when she knows I am going to snap a shot of her.


this is her newest trick... climbing....






yes, she is a climber now too. 5 teeth, more and more hair, sassy and she talks back now in her own jibber jabber talk. She points her finger at everything and waits for us to say what it is, but lately she said the word "light" when pointing to the fan/light fixture and she said "bird" when pointing to a bird flying in the sky.

I will blog soon about some issues I am having with feelings about adoption, stay tuned. I have to sort through what I need to say on here and not hurt those that read here. sorry if that does not make sense right now. hang tight, I'll blog about things as soon as I can put the words together for you to understand. I always tend to think of what I need to say, but can't always put it into words on paper (read: blog it!). It will be related to the emotional roller coaster associated with adoption. up and down emotions and how to deal with them.

Sweet Sunday Snacks / lunch, weekend update

This was Julia's Sunday lunch.

She loves it when I cut her grilled cheese into the shape of a butterfly(basically she hates the crust). We got this cookie cutter at her friends' first Birthday party back a few months ago. I started doing the shape cut out a few weeks back and we have not looked back since then. See how a simple cookie cutter can spruce up lunch and excite the little one? Aside of her grilled butterfly cheese sandwich is cut up grapes and cut up watermelon. She LURRVVSSSS her watermelon too.


I took off work Friday so that Julia and I could visit Shaw's Garden, or you might know it as Mo Botanical Gardens (sorry, but I have to say that I grew up 3 blocks away from MO BOT Gardens and we did not call it that, we called it Shaw's Garden). It was an overcast day, a little cool, but a great day. I Had not been there for about 10 years so I am glad I went. K and her twins V & A met us there. We had a great time viewing all the Niki sculptures and playing on/in them (the ones you are allowed to play on). Then we headed to the Children's play area. What a great place. I know I will go back in the warmer months so that Julia can play in the water fountains. K and the girls had to leave so J and I walked down around the Japanese Garden and fed some bread to the carp / coy fish.



I must say that the Japanese Garden is now the proud owner of a (green color) Soothie binky complements of Julia. Bahahahaha.. no, it was not fun at the time because Julia was having a fit because she did not have her binky to help her fall asleep, but it is funny to think that we are most likely not the first mom and daughter / child to lose a binky to the beautiful lush greenery that lines the path to the beautiful japanese garden bridge and zen garden.


here is a picture with J and her two friends V & A


Julia turns 1 in a few weeks time and I just cherish each moment with her. I love it when she says momma or dadda when looking for us. She points to the birds in the sky. She points to nearly everything and we say what it is and sometimes she tries to say that word. She has such a great memory. Such curiosity. Such love. I am so thankful for her in our lives and her birthmother's decision to bring her into this world and asking us to become Julia's parents. We thank her each day by saying hello to her picture on the wall near her changing table. We say hello to her birth siblings who also have pictures on her wall along with her birthgrandmother. I miss them. I hope we hear form them soon.

Happy 11 month Birthday Julia

New words:

Ball (clearly now)
HOT! (I say this when cooling her food off and when she gets near the
stove)
Hello (been working on this one pretty hard)
ruff ruff (she does this now when she sees a dog passing by or hears one
barking off in the distance)
Dada (she says this now after working on it for a long time. DH is pretty
proud she says it when she is looking for him now)
Another word we think she is saying is "Purdy",, who is my sisters dog. If
not Purdy then she is saying "Pretty". We are trying to figure that one
out. When she sees me wearing earrings or a necklace and points to it , I
always say "Pretty", so maybe that is what she is saying.
She loves to point at everything. I then say what I think she is pointing
at and ask her to repeat the word.

Her favorite toy right now is the see & say. I have one with the Lion King
characters on it and also another one that has a duck, dog, cat, cow,
etc... on it and when I say "Julia, point to the duck", she will point to
it. This is so much fun to see how much she is absorbing and learning now.


Boooboooo's this week. YOUCH.

Sunday she was outside with Dh and I while I was vac'in the car out of dog
hair from a camping trip we went on. Julia and DH were playing roll the
ball back and forth (on the concrete) and she took a face dive forward
trying to pick up the ball. She has a nice scrape on her forehead now. I
then suggested DH take her over into the grass. hehe

She is growing a black eye. Later on Sunday evening, while DH and I were
sitting watching the closing ceremonies of the Olympics, she tried to step
past Dh's foot and didn't do so well. She did a face plant on the wood
floor with her nose taking the brunt of the fall. She now has a shadow of a
black eye creeping from the nose where it meets the eye socket. Youch. The
worst part of it for us was trying to get her to take a breath after she
fell. I hate trying to watch her cry so hard and not take a breath for what
feels like a whole minute and her looking at you like "Help me momma".

This week she started walking over to me (walking has been going on for
nearly 3 weeks now) and she grabs my leg and HUGS it. So sweet.
If she is playing in the living room, we walk near her and tell her we are
going to her her "I'm going to get you", she turns around and nearly runs
over to the couch trying to get away from us and is laughing so hard with
excitement that it cracks us all up.

....

Swimming lessons.

My SIL and niece are going to take a swimming lesson session with us. The
local YMCA (South City) has a new session for Saturday mornings starting in
early September. I know we will miss a few sessions with camping and her
birthday party, but I can't wait to get her started. She knows how to kick
when we are holding her in the pool, but we need to get her use to dipping
under the water and floating on her back. I can't wait to get in to the
pool with her and start the lessons. I have been swimming since I was 6
months old (my mom has a picture of me in the pool when I was that old)
with water wings until I was 2 and then I was on my own after that. We have
always had a swimming pool in my backyard so it was important to my parents
that I learn to swim at the earliest age possible. I want to do the same
with Julia. She won't let me put the wings on her arms yet so I need to
really work with her this winter in the big ymca pool. I want her to enjoy
the water, unlike some of my relatives and neighbors that won't set foot in
water outside of a shower!

First Birthday party prep
I have some of the party decorations for Julia's first Birthday party ready
to go. I bought an elmo pinata (pull string). Now I just need to buy some
of the snacks / fun toys to go in the pinata for the young kids to have.
Any ideas?
DH made the invitation on the computer at home and it is so cute. I'll try
and get a picture of it later.

first it went 1..2... plop... then this week 2..3...4... plop

can you guess what that represents? 1...2... plop then this week 2...3...4.. plop and giggle and clapping for herself.

That would be my little beautiful daughter taking her first stride steps. She got up to 1...2...3...4....5.....6....plop today while grandma was watching her all day. I love it.

I'll try my hardest to get some video of that to post soon. Heck, by time I unload all the pictures of her trying to walk and recharge the battery, I'll have missed her first FULL walk hands free across the living room. As least this past weekend we really worked with her on the floor to try and build up that leg strength to take more than 2 steps and it has paid off.

She now barks with the dogs
She now runs away from daddy when he says he is going to come tickle her. she runs towards me (holding onto the couch) as fast as she can and giggles up a storm.

I LOVE THIS.

busy weekend ahead.. (maybe some yard sale shopping in the wee early AM while J sleeps in with Daddy). BIL's teamster picnic, that should be fun if it does not rain. BBQ and Swim pool.

Saturday night is dinner out with our friends who miss seeing us, (no really they admit they miss seeing J more so... hehe).

Sunday is a bbq at another local mom after IF family and more friends .. Hope to have several kiddos there for J to play with.

I wish I could take J out to Festival of the Little Hills in St. Charles MO... I was so looking forward to that this weekend but we could not pass up these other plans today. I should have begged DH to go with me tonight (Friday night) instead. oh well!

some of the rewards of becoming a parent. Milestones

A few weeks ago we finally have J's birth certificate (thanks to DH for his hard work). We finalized in April so it took a while longer than expected.

He got the birth certificate, after we paid our final bill to the adoption lawyer, and he immediately went to the SSA office and applied for J's new social security card.

We got her ss card in the mail this past week so we went to the bank on Saturday and opened J's first bank savings account. YEAH. Fun. I took the cash out of her piggy bank and we used that to open her account.

We bought J her first tooth brush and tooth paste. I took about 10 minutes tonight to show her how I brush my teeth and she immediately took her brush and rubbed it on her TWO NEW teeth on the bottom gum. LOL (yes, she did get two teeth a few months back on the bottom that were coming out all wonky wrong, but they went back in and are now back out through the gum like normal. YEAH).

I saw J take a full step yesterday. We went to a party at our friends house and were playing in a washers tournament. While Daddy was pitching his washers I turned around to watch J. She took one foot and put it in front of the other while standing and then lifted her other foot and moved it out another step. Previously she was only taking 1 foot forward and then plopping down to the ground. This time she did both feet and just stood there. FUN.

I must watch her in the cart at the store now. Tonight we went to the local retail store to pick up some sundries. I had pushed the cart (with J strapped in) to the right side of the isle while I was looking at some dental floss. I turned back around to find her grabbing for some hand lotion on the shelf right next to her. I forgot she could reach out so far. I know one day she will be that kid reaching for the candy in the check out lane, right? I'll be saying "No, J, you can't have that kit-kat bar!" (then I will hear her throw a fit, right?)

I could swear I heard her say "Hannah" tonight. Hannah is our blond lab mix dog. It was more like "HanHan" coming from J, but she had also pointed her finger right at Hannah so that made me believe she is trying to say her name.

these milestones, my friends, are what we have all been waiting for since the day we were ttc!

great weekend for friends & family time, oh and yard sale finds

Saturday morning Julia and I set out to meet our friends and their children (all from the local infertility support group) for a play date at Des Peres Park. Just before that we hit a few yard sales on the way and these are the great bargains we found....
Fisher Price Bounce and Spin Zebra


and the Little Tikes Alligator Piano.



both for a total bargain price of 10.00 (yes, that is 5 bucks each. ) not a single thing wrong with them and Julia loves them both so far. Might drive DH crazy with the panio, but he is the one that changed the batteries in the gator piano and got it working so I'll lay the blame on him. ha. \


we got to the park and had a blast playing with her friends.
we then went to our friends house that we played with their two daughters and enjoyed some holding time for the twins of our other friends. I wish I had more hands (daddy's ) help with Julia or else I'd have gotten more of the twins (H & J are just a few months old now and I really wanted to hold them). I got some clothes for Julia and they are so cute. I think we found the next "pictures" outfit. Sweet clothes! Thanks to J and B!


Today we got up very early and headed to the most fabulous place (well, actually I was disappointed on the trash on the grounds) of the St. Louis Zoo! We got there around 8:30 and J enjoyed the first visit we made, The St. Louis Children's Zoo area. She so wanted to get in the water fun fountains, but we opted not to do that since it was not "hot" yet and it was our first visit of the day. So we then saw the polar bears, rode the carousel and went to Build a bear! On the way back from Daddy making her the very first Build a Bear Zoo Friend Leopard, we went on a train ride around the whole zoo. How fun and how fun it was to have brought back some great memories of riding the train when I was a wee little one! That train ride has not changed one bit, FUN! We even got mooned by a grizzly bear (man in costume) when leaving one station! hehe

Have any of you ever been able to make it through the WHOLE zoo in one day? If so, how many hours did it take you?



From there we went to our nieces 8th birthday party for our families and had a great time. Julia is just loving playing with her cousins now.

Milestones: while standing in the middle of the room, she took one step forward with her left foot today and then fell to the ground. It is just a matter of days before she gets the courage and full balance to take that step. Watch out, I've been told our world will never be the same with a walking infant in the house! hahahahaha.. I know, I laugh now, but I am enjoying every moment of this girls everyso growing life.

gotta go make a grocery list for tomorrow night. Even more fun.

Wordless Wednesday (video so there are some words, hehe)

I see teeth in them there gums...

yes, Julia has two teeth popping through on her lower gum. My question is.... is it ok to have them popping forward toward her bottom lip instead of growing up through the top line of her bottom gum line? Does that make sense? Well, if you pull her lip down, the two front teeth are growing out forward towards me instead of growing up through her gum line towards her upper jaw. Can you envision this? I'll try and take a picture tomorrow night to show you. DH thought it was strange too to have them coming out forward instead of straight up. Hummmmm. I'll ask her doc's office the next time I see them. Nothing we can do, I assume. Just let them grow in and then we will see if they cause problems when her permanent teeth start to grow in. Fun.

I'll be honest and say she is not too fussy. Ok, there, I've gone and done it and jinxed myself. I bet she will be a total fuss bucket from here on out. Ha. Oh and she has blisters on her top gum where her two front teeth will hopefully come in. I guess this is why she has been tugging at her ears lately.

I am using the hylands teething tablets and they seem to help sooth her. She got fussy right before bed tonight so they seemed to help calm her down and stop the ear tugging.

I LOVE THESE milestones!

another milestone is that she is starting to crawl. She gets up on all 4 limbs and does a hand over hand once and then lands on her belly and pulls herself along to try and reach for a toy. So she is getting in a crawl or two before she plops down. Ok, Honest, I will baby proof the outlets and cords tomorrow night. I need to tie up the computer cords and wires. I need to move the floor fan to another location so she can't get to the cord and buttons. I need to move the cd rack downstairs so she can't pull it over. She has started pulling up on the furniture and in her crib so the rail has been raised all the way up as her mattress has already been lowered.

Her newest attempt at a word is Dawg.... She sees the doggies come into the room and she screams DAWG (more of a silent g, but it is what I think is the word DOG. So that makes mama, dada, baba and dog.

Oh, tonight at dinner she started shaking her head NO at me when I tried to give her a spoonful of turkey and rice dinner from the jar. DH saw that NO head shake and started laughing. I said "Ut Oh, we are in trouble now". There is no stopping her.

Julia got to experience her first trip to the deep country of Missouri. My Aunt and Uncle bought something like 400 acres of land down in Iron County MO. Not too far from the Tom Sauk resevoir that broke a few years back. We played in the new house the built and out on the drive and then I went fishing and caught the biggest croppy out of their little pond. We had such a great time. Daddy and Julia watched us as several of us in the family (nephews and my brother) were all fishing cathing perch, croppy and even a small mouth bass out of the pond. My uncle was surprised there were so many fish in that there pond. Fun.

I let the bunnies go in the woods at my uncles place. I'll post pictures of how big they got. Only two survived, but at least I was able to save two instead of none. The bunnies will love it in the woods.

I had no fun Sunday night, Monday and today. I was home sick with bad tummy issues. I called the doc today to see if there was anything I could do besides immodium and they said nope unless I had a fever, which I did not. Ick. Not the fun way to lose 5 lbs. This PCOS ridden body of my won't let me lose 5 lbs normally so I am taking all I can get. Just not the fun way to lose them there lbs. ha


Ok, off to bed. I promise, more pictures tomorrow.

I know there are milestones I am forgetting for Ms. Julia so I'll post them later when I remember them. Bah

Sleep well. I sure am going to with the window fans in action tonight. A great night to sleep under the warm blankets while the fans are blowing cool air around. ahhhhh, sweet spring weather. (I know in a few weeks time I'll be complaining about having to turn on the air conditioner so I'll bask in the cool chill of the night from the window fans for now).

what it all means... Joy, emotions, tears and love part 2

Today is one day closer to the finalization hearing at the courts on Wednesday to complete J's adoption(just over 6 months after birth). I am nervous, scared, excited and feeling overwhelmed, expecially for J's birthmother. I know she knows the finalization is this week so I wonder how she is dealing with her emotions of this all. I want to go hug her right now. Whisper in hear ear "Thank you for a miracle and blessing, We all love you so much for making your adoption for J with us". I know she knows we love her, but I just don't want her to feel alone this week. I want her to know we are always here for her.

We invited both of our mom's to the court room for the hearing and pictures after with the judge. I am sad that the judge that we had for J's birthmother terminations rights will not be doing our case. He was so kind and said he can't wait to see us at 6 months to do the finalization. I know we will still enjoy having the judge we do get. I do plan on having the camera charged up and ready to go for J's memory book. I want to celebrate, yet I will be so emotional. I just know it. I actually came in the house from work yesterday and saw that DH was red eyed. He was nearly in tears while holding J. I asked him what was wrong and he said he was just getting very emotional about her finalization coming up. It really touched my heart. I know men don't always express how they are feeling, but he has been so wonderful in letting me in on how he feels about J in our lives and her adoption process. I'll keep you posted for Wednesday's hearing.

Julia, your growing so fast. even from my post on Friday, you have started doing the following. You are now doing what I call a scoot crawl. You manage to cruise the floor every possible way, sideways, rolling, pushing yourself forward and backwards. You get pissy when you back yourself up against the chair or couch side or table legs. You won't let us leave the room without throwing a hissy fit. You tried vanilla yogurt for the first time today. Your eating is crappy right now. I wonder if you are ready to pop a tooth. I keep feeling for them, but you refuse to let either daddy or I get in there to check. We had to lower your crib mattress. You managed to start to pull yourself up on the rail and eat the railing. Body 1/2 up to the rail height so tonight daddy lowered your mattress all the way down and we just lowered the rail one position down so you are not soo far down. Before you know it, you will be standing up so this works. You like to drag the palm of your hand across the wood floor and make funny noises. You love to jabber while looking at me from the floor you are cruising. SLOW DOWN GIRL, you are growing way too fast.

it is still melting my heart hearing her say mama when I leave the room or when she is tired. sigh.. I LOVE IT. Her arms go up in the air when we approach her to pick her up.