Trick or Treat!

So Halloween was a hoot! We had a little party at her "school" this afternoon, Mom & Dad came for dinner, and then we trick or treated at a couple of the neighbor's houses. She was most interested in just moving the candy from one container to the next. Actually sat on the curb after the second house just to review the candy she had collected so far.

Attached a bunch of fun pictures. Best pics are strangely the ones with the American flag. Her little daily report from day care will often say they waved the American flag, which I always thought was a strange activity for 12-18 month olds, but whatever. Anyway, they did that at the party today. Apparently, the kids all see it as a highlight of the day. They play patriotic music and all the kids instantly flock to the teacher to get these little flags, and then the teacher picks one student to wave a bigger flag. Well, today Lilly got to wave the big flag, and she was SOOOOOO excited and pleased about it. You can see on her face how proud she was! Anyway...it was really fun to see.

Hope you had a Happy Halloween...love, Carrie & my "Lil' Peacock"

PUMPKIN CARVING!!!

Too much fun! So, we carved a pumpkin tonight. I cut the top off and she had a great time watching me get out the guts. I thought she would like squishing her hands in it - but she really preferred laughing at me while I did it and making the appropriate icky face and noises to match whatever I pulled out. The funniest part? I cut the top of the pumpkin off and tried to explain that it was like a hat for the pumkin. So, she picks it up, looks at, says "hat," and promptly puts it right on MY HEAD! Hilarious. Can't wait for Halloween!

Great Weekend Away

Well, for the first time, I left Lilly for the weekend! I went to Asheville for a wonderful weekend retreat with old friends, and Lilly had an extended slumber party with her grandparents. And, I am thrilled and relieved to report that everyone had a great time. (Of course, her grandparents are exhausted, but happy exhausted I think). I was very greatful for the chance to spend a weekend renewing and resting. Much needed.

Here are some fun pics from last week when Lilly helped me plant the fall pansies. The hat was hilarious - she saw me in a ball cap and thought that hats must be a required accesory for gardening. Love It!

(OK - PS Blogger doesn't seem to want to upload the photos. Will try again later...c)

This and That

Had to share some fun pictures....

Was going to save the Halloween Costume for a later post, but this picture is just too precious. She LOVES her costume. The other morning she dug it out of the closet and insisted on wearing it. So, I put it on over her PJs, Elmo slippers and all. She was clearly quite impressed with the result.

Lilly Versus the Yogurt....

Bath Time Fun

Guatemala news... who knows. They are saying things may be grandfathered in for people w/ adoptions in progress. Nothing certian yet, but it is looking MUCH better. But, then Amarilis called this evening and she made it sound like she wasn't worried about any of it. Who knows......Just keep those kids in your prayers. Especially Nidia...who is coming up on 2 years in PGN and her Mom, Damaris, who wants desperately to bring her home.

First Boat Trip

Dad and I had a great time taking Lilly out for her first boat trip this weekend. She was pretty grouchy at first, but once we got some crackers in her and slowed the boat down to cut down on the wind she was sold on boating. The skies were grey, but the water was pretty warm, so she really enjoyed dragging her toes in the water. Enjoy the pictures!

Can't Thank God Enough She is Home

To put it mildly, the shit is hitting the fan in Guatemala as far as adoptions go. Their legislative body passed the Ortega Law yesterday which will suspend all adoptions - INCLUDING those in progress - as of Jan 1, 2008. There have been a number of raids on hogars (orphanages) in the past few months. It is even hitting main stream press (see CNN link). Anderson Cooper has done a story on it - I thought it wa sto air at 10, but apparently it has already aired, and a lot of adoptive families are furious at the slant he took. I was one of very many adoptive parents who emailed him. Since I haven't seen it yet, I can't say too much about what he did and didn't say. But, I would hope he mentioned the very well timed $28 million donation from UNICEF that Guatemala now receives since they passed this law.

If Guatemala wants to end its adoptions - or change its own process - then as a sovereign country is absolutely has that right. What is sending my blood pressure soaring is the interference of the US Govt and bodies like UNICEF basically bribing Guatemala to end a system that is practically the same as the US Domestic Adoption system because in Guatemala it is unethical - but here where we rich Americans do the same dang thing it is fine. MAKES ME FURIOUS!!!! The US has had a long, sad, dark and violent history of influencing Guatemala. And today is just another mark in that.

Please pray for all the children whose future is now uncertain. Please pray for the adoptive parents trying desperately to bring their babies home before the cut off. Please pray for the birthmothers who now face a fear that the child they had lovingly placed for adoption now faces an uncertain future in unfunded orphanges. Please pray for the foster families and others connected with adoption as their incomes are now threatened. Specifically, please pray for my friend Damaris who has been waiting to bring Nidia home for more than 2 years. Please also pray for Amarilis as I don't know how this will affect their family.

You know, as I rocked Lilly to sleep tonight I found myself clutching her very tight. I am so grateful to be out of that mess, but my heart breaks for all those caught in it. I am so relieved to not be in it that I feel almost guilty - like some sort of twisted survivors guilt of how did I get so lucky to get her out of there in May of 2007 instead of Jan 08.

As for Miss Lilly...she is of course blissfully oblivious to all of this and continues to charm all those in her presence. She isn't sleeping well this week, but we keep pressing on. Someday she will sleep through the night - and do it consistently. Haven't figured out the celebration we'll have then, but I am sure it will be tremendous. Wonder if she will be in high school by then ;)

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/10/03/guatemala.adoption/index.html

Hittin the Gym

SO this morning we had a little excursion to a little place called "My Gym" with Jackson & his parents. It was having its grand opening, so we went to check out the open house. They both really enjoyed it. The only problem was that you had to sign up for (& pay for) weekly classes - one regular class and one "free play." If there had been a "buy 5 classes" kind of a deal I would have done it in a heartbeat, but I am learning these kind of things aren't made for working moms (especially single ones!). For her age group there was only one time that wasn't in the middle of a work day...very frustrating! Ok..enough venting...she enjoyed herself this morning and that was the point.

The sleeping thing continues on the right track...she hasn't made it through the night yet, but last night she only woke up once!!!

Doing Great...

Her temp is (finally) gone, she is back to her old self, and she is sleeping better than ever!!! The first night with her crib in her own room went well, and last night (2nd night) went AMAZINGLY WELL! She slept from 8:30 to 11:30, woke up then, went back to sleep after crying for less than 2 minutes, and then slept all the way to 5:15 this morning!!! I was so proud of her I could have burst!!!

Enjoy these pics of her and Jackson from their playdate last weekend....c

Another Notch in the "Mommy Belt"

Had another first yesterday...our first trip to the emergency room. Lilly had spent the afternoon home with my mom, and when I got home from work we took her temp and it was 104.3, so we through her in the car and headed back to the hospital. They were able to get her temp down and sent us home with stronger antibiotics to try and knock this ear infection out that seems to have popped back up. While the wait for a room was a long one, the triage nurse did an EXCELLENT job of managing Lil in the waiting room - tylenol, motrin, checking her temp - so by the time we saw the doc her temp was down to about 100 and she was barking orders at everyone. Quite a different picture than the limp, crying, panting infant I had brought in the doors a few hours earlier.

She still doesn't feel well, but her temp at bedtime tonight was down to 100 again. Hopefully by midday tomorrow the antibiotics will have really kicked in and she will feel a lot better.

I had decided to move her crib into her room last night...obviously that didn't happen as planned. But, despite the ear infection, and contrary to the lobbying of my mother, I am going to move her crib into her own room tomorrow night. I have just come to the realization that she will NEVER sleep through the night in my room - in her crib or my bed. And, as much as we both may enjoy snuggling in my bed, we BOTH need to be sleeping through the night. I can bring her in my bed in the morning and snuggle when we are both well-rested. So, I am going to do it. Its a hard enough decision - so if you disagree with it, please don't tell me.

Finally...here are some fun pictures from the past few weeks. She LOVES "Baby" (thank you Bruce & Debbie!) and they are now inseperable. Baby even got checked out at the ED last night too (and then scrubbed down with alcohol by mommy at home before joining Lil in the crib).

Sleep Struggles

Well, after enduring almost 4 months of sleepless nights I just reached the end of my rope this week. I realized that I am just enabling bad sleep habits and that I need to do something about it...but what? Everyone has 12 different opinions. Cry it out, don't cry it out, rock her to sleep, don't rock her to sleep, put her in your bed, don't let her in your bed, etc etc etc. Everyone has very reasonable and valid reasonings for their beliefs...but it still doesn't let me know what I should do.

So...I decided I would at least take some baby steps towards the solution. I really don't think she is ready to sleep all night in her own bed - and definietly not in her own room. She is incredibly well adjusted, but it has still only been 4 months (well, not even that long actually), and I just don't want to force periods of isolation on her when she is clearly not ready for them.

So last night I decided I would rock her to sleep, put her in bed, but if/when she woke up before I went to bed (usually happens at least twice a night) I wouldn't sit there in the room with her until she fell asleep again, which is what I have been doing. I would go in, make sure she was ok, rub her back for a second and tell her I'd be back in 5 minutes. So...I did. And, it was a miserable experience, but it seemed to work eventually. After about 3 times of me going back in she fell asleep. When she woke up again in 45 minutes, I only had to go in once before she fell asleep. And, amazingly, she didn't wake up when I went to bed. In the middle of the night she woke up & I put her in bed with me. Seemed to be a good first step, even if living through it makes you feel like the absolute worst parent in the whole wide world. We'll see how the weekend goes...think sleepy thoughts for me!

More Boots!!

Happy Labor Day! We had a great long weekend...spent the night at my parents' house Saturday night...our first time spending the night anywhere else since we got home. Seems like it shouldn't be a big deal, but when you have a terrible sleeper like I do you have to work hard at this kind of thing! My strategic plan (or "evil plan" depending on your point of view) to have Lilly spend one night a month at their house without me. Hmm...we shall see. She did pretty good there...woke up 5 times as opposed to her usual 3-4, so not that much worse.

Today we went to a local playground called "Fort Fun." She has been picking at her bug bites on her legs, so I put her in long pants today. Then she insisted on the boots...and since they made it even harder for her to get at her bug bites I was all for it. She was hilarious...got some funny looks from the other moms at the playground, but she had a great time.

Good Old Fashioned Rainy Day

Today was a wonderfully rainy day. This afternoon we took advantage of it - baked chocolate chip cookies and then headed out to splash in the puddles. It really was fun.

She is doing well...still has the cold she has been fighting for a month now, and Friday she seemed worse and we headed to the doctor's office, and now she has an ear infection too. So, back on antibiotics so hopefully she will be feeling much better soon.

Her new favorite word..."TURTLE" We live near water so there are turtles at the local park where we feed the ducks, etc. But, mom and I both have come to the conclusion that she just really likes to say the word!

I Heard It On The Grapevine

I struggle to believe that as of tomorrow she will be 15 months old - and we will have been together for 3 months! Sometimes it feels like forever and I have to remind myself its only been 3 months...and then other times I still feel like I am just trying to figure out what I don't even know I don't know!

Here are some pics from one of our trips to Buckroe Beach last week. Buckroe is a "beach" that is on the Chesapeake Bay, but pretty much faces directly out to the ocean, but the waves aren't big as they are broken by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge tunnel, etc etc. So...close to my house (30 min w/ traffic, 15 min w/out) and no huge waves. The first time we went you would have thought I had invented sliced bread she was so impressed with me!

Thought it would be fun to tell you all the words Miss Lilly is saying these days. Like her mother did at her age, she talks non stop. Here is a spattering...

Didgy (my cat), Mama, nana (banana, banana bread and basically any other kind of bread), joos (juice that is actually water), shoos (shoes), shis (cheese), up, da (down), ba (ball and strangely it seems to mean truck as well...still a work in progress), ta doo (thank you), ta dah (look at me), off, Nena (my mom), dees (this), "NO, NO, NO" (self explanatory and always said in threes).

updated pics

Day Care Diaries

SO her eye was better on Monday, but the doctor's appt was so slow Monday morning to give us teh ok for day care, that it was already lunch time by the time we were done, and I just couldn't bring myslef to leave her at a new place and expect her to take a nap. So, we stopped by to visit her new "school" and then she spent the afternoon with my mom.

Tuesday morning was our first real day...and she did so great. I took her into her classroom and she never looked back. I couldn't even get her to wave goodbye as I left (and trust me I tried). So, I left and cried the whole way to wor (including in the McDonalds drive through where I tried to order a coke to pull it together). I called several times (much to the amusement of her teachers) and she was doing so great. She took the longest nap of her life and had a blast. But, about 20 min before I got there to pick her up she was just done and landed in an all out crying melt down. But, she calmed down when I got there and did great. Next day when we pulled into the parking lot she started clapping...which was a huge relief (but still doesn't ease the whole working-mother guilt complex).

So, all in all she is doing great. She is very worn out by the end of the day, but I guess I expected that. She has managed to already pick up her first day care cold (ugh) but all in all is great.

One quick funny story from yesterday...my sister is in town as we were going to go to dinner last night to celebrate my dad's b day. We were driving up to Williamsburg yesterday morning to see her and go to the farmer's market. Lilly was really fussing in the car and whining to no end. I handed her my cell phone to distract her, which worked a little bit, but the whining continued. So, I finally said to her "Darling I have no idea what you want, and I don't know how to fix it. You have the phone, why don't you just call Nena (my mom) and tell her all about it." Well dang it if she didn't do just that!!! She must have hit send on my phone, which will redial the last number called (my mom's house). I think she hung up immediately and then my phone rang. It was mom calling back to see why I called. I laughed and said "well - it was Lilly who called!" SO I handed Lil the phone back and they chatted til we got there!

Then last night I left her at night fir the 1st time. My Aunt Christine was sweet enough to come stay with her so I could go to dinner w/ my sister & parents to celebrate dad's dinner. I was so nervous as it was going to be the first time anyone else had put her to bed since I got her. The night went really well until she had to fall asleep...which she just refused to do. As I pulled in the driveway I saw my aunt and Lilly standing in the doorway waiting for me. I was sorry Christine had to struggle...but it did make me feel a little happy that she feels bonded enough to me now that she couldn't sleep without me!

win some lose some

I have tried to pack a lot of fun into my last days off from work. I go back full time on Monday, which means Lilly starts day care on Monday!

Thursday we went to the Norfolk Botanical Garden and both really enjoyed their new children's garden called "WOW - WOrld of Wonders." She had the BEST time. She would have played there all day if not for that pesky need to eat and sleep. It is full of fountains, which you can see she really enjoyed.

That afternoon we went to the grocery and, as always, she kept crawling into the paper bag. I am always saying she is a party in a paper bag, so I thought it would be a fun little activity to make it into an outfit - we could color it, etc. But, as you can see from that picture- that little activity was not exactly a success. But, it was so funny I had to take a picture anyway. Oh the terrible ways we torture our kids!

ANother fun thing we did that I unfortunately didn't have the camera for was painting. I read about how to make finger paint out of vanilla pudding and food coloring, so I thought we'd give it a shot. It was so funny. I stripped her down to her diaper, and set it all up on the porch on a table cloth. The idea was to "paint" on paper plates, but she apparently thought it felt so good she just painted hersolf - especially inbetween her toes and filling up her belly button. She had such a good time and was totally slicked up. So...when she tried to get up she kept sliding bak down like a dog on roller skates. I was laughing so hard I was snorting and crying. At the end I just picked her right up and put her directly in the tub pampers and all! It was a hoot.

We were supposed to spend a few hours at day care today to help ease the transition next week, but she woke up with a stye on her eye. So - she lookes like she has a shiner and pink eye, and the doc told me I had to wait til it stops oozing. Lovely. SO, now we are wrestling through twice daily antibiotic eye drops. Everyone keep your fingers crossed that they work in time for her to start Monday. And please pray she enjoys day care!!!