Scott took the day off work and we ran like crazy people. Our agencies, AIA, accredidation was expiring March 1 and we NEEDED our paperwork there by that day. We had been waiting two weeks for one little piece of paper to complete our home study and it was finally done. We pulled the boys our of school and drove down to the Seattle waterfront to meet our Social worker as she drove off the Ferry. I laugh today at the picture I must have made huddled at the stop light peering around for her car so I could catch her as she slowed down to enter the intersection. She handed me the papers and yelled good luck and drove off.
We finally had everything we needed to be registered, so we rushed off to Olympia to get everything apostilled. I was not prepared for the big check I wrote, just the first of many mind you. We rushed home and then Scott spent hours scanning the paperwork and emailing them to our agency. Our agency then emailed them on their Magadan contact so they would be there in time. We had been told that they would accept those, since our originals would be arriving March 2nd with another family. It was a wild and crazy day, that ended with a tip to the Fed-ex place to overnight the paperwork. We were truly blessed that day that everything went as it should, it led us straight to Miss Grace.
Not long after that I saw a picture on a blog of the outside of the Magadan baby house. I remember staring at the picture and thinking our daughter is in there. So I am now going to post the slide show we made after trip one, there are some shots of the both the inside and outside of the baby home in it. For all the wonderful people who are heading to Magadan too, we wish you all the best!
http://www.onetruemedia.com/otm_site/view_shared?p=2c727ec1f90c6f2178ab09&skin_id=0&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=email
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Again, Long time no blog
The computer is now fixed, thanks to my brilliant hubby. Now the story about how we got the virus. I was looking on google for Pink Poodle party ideas and the first site that popped up, I visited. It was of course porn, and things have been wrong ever since. There is now a running joke about pink poodle porn at our house. When I say I'm having a pink poodle birthday party for Grace, Scott shrieks in horror.
Add to the computer virus set back, the fact that my Father in law and his girlfriend are visiting for a week and I've had no time. Grace has been calling the girlfriend Mommy, and she just started calling me that last week. (before that she called me Mom, but I took the Mommy as a whole deeper level of attachment sign, instead of she can now say the whole word, which is what it is.) The girlrfiends name is close enough to Mommy that we suspect that is the problem, but it didn't stop me from crying about it, and it does bug me to no end.
Grace has really been clingy this past week, she wants to be held all the time, no matter what. This is nice and I'm so excited that she wants the affection, but I can't hold her all the time. She is also much more into Daddy now too, she goes to him for affection and tells him she loves him, which in the past was intermittent. She is really just blossoming even more. It's funny this attachment stuff, you think you are all the way there, and then you see them getting closer and you realize it's not all the way there yet. I wonder if bells will ring or something so I'll know when she officially attached?
Grace is now the proud wearer of an eye patch for 4 hours a day. She has exotropia where the eye drifts out. We are trying the patching and seeing if it helps and we'll just see from there. Everything I read on FRUA says surgery is the way, everything on the web says no to surgery. I didn't get in to it with the opthamologist, I figured we'll cross that bridge another day. We are keeping our fingers crossed that this works, we're noticing the drift less. Grace loves the patch and asks for at the right time every day, she's is so darn smart!
Grace is also talking more and more each day. She tends to say the first part of words and leave off the end, one of the boys did this too. She is trying to say more words every day, to the point that I can't keep up writing them down. Do I think it's the speech therapy, not really, we haven't seen her in two weeks. The fact is I don't care what it is bring on the talking.
Grace is also potty trained and almost dry at night. I thought I'd be sad to see my last baby growing up, I'm not, I'm excited about the future. Her big girl bed will be here soon and no more baby, bring on the pre-schooler!
Add to the computer virus set back, the fact that my Father in law and his girlfriend are visiting for a week and I've had no time. Grace has been calling the girlfriend Mommy, and she just started calling me that last week. (before that she called me Mom, but I took the Mommy as a whole deeper level of attachment sign, instead of she can now say the whole word, which is what it is.) The girlrfiends name is close enough to Mommy that we suspect that is the problem, but it didn't stop me from crying about it, and it does bug me to no end.
Grace has really been clingy this past week, she wants to be held all the time, no matter what. This is nice and I'm so excited that she wants the affection, but I can't hold her all the time. She is also much more into Daddy now too, she goes to him for affection and tells him she loves him, which in the past was intermittent. She is really just blossoming even more. It's funny this attachment stuff, you think you are all the way there, and then you see them getting closer and you realize it's not all the way there yet. I wonder if bells will ring or something so I'll know when she officially attached?
Grace is now the proud wearer of an eye patch for 4 hours a day. She has exotropia where the eye drifts out. We are trying the patching and seeing if it helps and we'll just see from there. Everything I read on FRUA says surgery is the way, everything on the web says no to surgery. I didn't get in to it with the opthamologist, I figured we'll cross that bridge another day. We are keeping our fingers crossed that this works, we're noticing the drift less. Grace loves the patch and asks for at the right time every day, she's is so darn smart!
Grace is also talking more and more each day. She tends to say the first part of words and leave off the end, one of the boys did this too. She is trying to say more words every day, to the point that I can't keep up writing them down. Do I think it's the speech therapy, not really, we haven't seen her in two weeks. The fact is I don't care what it is bring on the talking.
Grace is also potty trained and almost dry at night. I thought I'd be sad to see my last baby growing up, I'm not, I'm excited about the future. Her big girl bed will be here soon and no more baby, bring on the pre-schooler!
pictures
Just because she's so stinking cute!
Still cute
And Still cute!
J and I went on a "date" to Playhouse Disney live, he is a Mickey freak!! If it comes to your town I highly reccomend it, they do a really great job with show. This is J with his magic wand and box of popcorn, the he is convinced Mickey popped for him.
pictures
Grace in her eye patch. We are trying patching to correct her strabismus. She loves the patch and never fights us when it's on. Her brothers think sh looks like a pirate and have taught her to say Argh! Boys, ugh.
Grace and M decorating the Valentine's Day cake.
Carefully placing each m&m
J, Grace and M after they decorated their cake, we all got to enjoy the fruits of their labor, yummy!
Grace got a back pack for Valentine's Day, she takes J and runs around with it. Good news if anyone is interested it was 6 buck at the Disney store, since it isn't prime back pack season. She wears it ALL the times and carries her baby in it.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Long Time no Blog...
And I have many good reasons for my abscence. First, my husband was gone for two weeks! I have always had the utmost respect for single parents, but my respect for them has multiplied a thousand fold! I have to admit it wasn't too bad, the boys understood and were on their somewhat best behavior. Grace on the other hand... that girl. She is all about testing me and if I ignore her she goes back to being her regular sweet self, but any reaction starts her testing me even more. While being a single parent it got harder to ignore her, and I was tired and not all together myself. I reacted to her a few times and by the time Scott got home we were conflicting all the time! If this is a preview of the teen years, I am dead meat.
When Scott got home there was much rejoicing, and then we both got sick. We were coughing and wheezing and generaly miserable for several days, and then when I was ready to blog my computer became very sick and now has some virus, that my be incurable.
I am on the laptop, which I HATE, and I can't download pictures to it, which is frustrating. My wonderful hubby is trying to fix the real computer, but we are on day 6 with no success, and he knows computers. I really don't want to buy a new com,puter right now, ugh, and double ugh.
Grace news, lets see, I'm getting used to the speech therapist, she still drives me little nuts, but Grace is making a lot of progress. (I'm not sure it's the therapy, but I'm not complaining) She is talking more and trying to say many more words, which is helpful to all of us. She is very proud when she is able to communicate her needs. The therapist did clarify her statement about Grace and her opnion that she has some sensory issues, and I'm more comfortable with how she is handling it. All in all things are great. I'd say more but writing on this laptop kills my wrists. So, please say a prayer that the big computer can be fixed. And finally Melissa tagged me to say seven weird things about myself. My hubby would laugh becuase he thinks there are way more than seven, but that's a different post!
1. I cannot stand my food touching, I would like to have those plates with the seperate compartments for every meal. My kids are like this too, and I'm trying to break them of it so they don't end up ike me.
2. I hate raw tomatoes, will not eat them, but I love marinara sauce, go figure.
3. I have had the same best friend since I was 2, and I'm sure we'll still be when we're in the nursing home.
4. I am a Pepsi addict, I love the combination of sugar caffein and bubbles, and I must always have some in the house. I get nervous if the supply gets low and run to stock up. I've recently almost cut it completely out of my diet, but I still have 5 twelve packs in the pantry.
5. I am the biggest new cleaning product freak there is, I try it all. I swear I tried Mr. Clean erasers the day they came out and have been singing their praises ever since.
6. I am slightly obsessed with my kids clothes, they must match or I can't take it. When the little ones dress themselves I make them change if the shirt and pants don't go, I know it's bad, but I cannot stand mis-matched clothes.
7. I hate board games. I mean I will do most anything to get out of playing them. We have been invited to game nights, but always pass, because I hate to play games. That said, I have played two games of Sorry and two of Candyland today, I will do anything for my kids.
When Scott got home there was much rejoicing, and then we both got sick. We were coughing and wheezing and generaly miserable for several days, and then when I was ready to blog my computer became very sick and now has some virus, that my be incurable.
I am on the laptop, which I HATE, and I can't download pictures to it, which is frustrating. My wonderful hubby is trying to fix the real computer, but we are on day 6 with no success, and he knows computers. I really don't want to buy a new com,puter right now, ugh, and double ugh.
Grace news, lets see, I'm getting used to the speech therapist, she still drives me little nuts, but Grace is making a lot of progress. (I'm not sure it's the therapy, but I'm not complaining) She is talking more and trying to say many more words, which is helpful to all of us. She is very proud when she is able to communicate her needs. The therapist did clarify her statement about Grace and her opnion that she has some sensory issues, and I'm more comfortable with how she is handling it. All in all things are great. I'd say more but writing on this laptop kills my wrists. So, please say a prayer that the big computer can be fixed. And finally Melissa tagged me to say seven weird things about myself. My hubby would laugh becuase he thinks there are way more than seven, but that's a different post!
1. I cannot stand my food touching, I would like to have those plates with the seperate compartments for every meal. My kids are like this too, and I'm trying to break them of it so they don't end up ike me.
2. I hate raw tomatoes, will not eat them, but I love marinara sauce, go figure.
3. I have had the same best friend since I was 2, and I'm sure we'll still be when we're in the nursing home.
4. I am a Pepsi addict, I love the combination of sugar caffein and bubbles, and I must always have some in the house. I get nervous if the supply gets low and run to stock up. I've recently almost cut it completely out of my diet, but I still have 5 twelve packs in the pantry.
5. I am the biggest new cleaning product freak there is, I try it all. I swear I tried Mr. Clean erasers the day they came out and have been singing their praises ever since.
6. I am slightly obsessed with my kids clothes, they must match or I can't take it. When the little ones dress themselves I make them change if the shirt and pants don't go, I know it's bad, but I cannot stand mis-matched clothes.
7. I hate board games. I mean I will do most anything to get out of playing them. We have been invited to game nights, but always pass, because I hate to play games. That said, I have played two games of Sorry and two of Candyland today, I will do anything for my kids.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Testing 1, 2, 3....
That is my life right now. I feel like Grace is testing me more than usual. She is hitting her stride in the terrible twos and she may well get an award for her efforts. I know that consistency is the key, but it ain't easy, and she invents new ways to test me all the time. She spends enough time in time out that she puts herself there, crying loudly with big crocodile tears pouring down her face. While she is in time ou she looks at me with one eye to see what I am doing, and if I am not watching she has been known so sneak out. the little bugger.
We had also had out first meeting with Grace's speech therapist. The jury is still out on how I feel about her. She thinks Grace has some sensory issues and I agree, I have known that all along. While I think they are mild, you have to really look and know what you are looking for to see them, she called her a 4-5 out of a scale of 1-10. That is a rant for another time, but I am confused as to where she thinks all these sensory issues are. We're going to talk about it in more depth next week. No, I'm not hiding my head in the sand I have a Master's in Education and I took quite a few classes that dealt with sensory issues. I'm aware there is an issue, but as I see it, it's minor. Oh well by using this gal she fills out Grace's paperwork to get her speech through th school district once she's three, so there is a plus.
It's time to get the Princess up from nap, she is fully potty trained and stays dry at nap, we even ordered her big girl bed so she can get out if she needs to go to the bathroom. Soon there will be no baby stuff in the house, it will be weird after nine years.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Home 6 Months Today!!!
Grace today
Grace 6 months ago
Grace today
I cannot believe that Grace has been in our family for 6 months. At first there were days that were like what did we do?!?! Mostly though it was just that crazy excitement and everything was new, and different and thrilling. Now, we've morphed into regular life, things are how they are and we' re happy and content. It's scary to think how quickly she went from being new to just being one of the gang, I thought it would take longer for here to just feel like one of us. I have to confess the girl part is still special to me and I love choosing her clothes, I mean Valentines day clothes, pink and hearts I'm in Heaven and then comes Easter, I'm already drooling over dresses.
Here is a little snapshot of where Grace is at 6 months home:
Sleeping
Sleeping has never been a problem with Grace, she woke up a couple of times the first week home, then she slept 11 hours at night and took a 2+ hour afternoon nap, and she still does both of those things.
Eating:
Grace started out eating until you took food away, she would cram her mouth full until you worried she'd choke. And this was a chubby well fed kid. She also had a fit if anyone ate and she wasn't eating. Now, she is a bird. She eats very little, she'd rather get down and play. She has also turned toddler picky which we aren't concerned about. She eats just like her brothers did at this age so we know she is fine.
Potty:
When we got Grace she was sitting on the pot at the Baby house, but not potty trained. We left her in diapers and waited to potty train until she showed us she was ready. At Christmas she was saying poopy and pointing to her pants and then going, so we took the plunge. Grace is fully potty trained, we can leave the house with her in panties and she also stays dry through nap. She isn't going poopy there yet, but she's getting close. She is still in a diaper at night, but I think she'll be out of that soon too. All of this potty stuff has us moving her to a big girl bed in a month or tow, she needs to be able to get out if she has to go potty.
Social:
Grace loves other kids (she lives in a herd) so she does great with them and loves to be around them. She doesn't share worth a hoot, typical for a two year old, but she'd probably more extreme than your average two year old. We're working on sharing and she's getting a tiny bit better, it will come with time.
Attachment:
This is the biggy, as an adoptive parent, I was worried about. They have you so concerned about that you look for signs everywhere. I'm sure we didn't need to pay quite so much attention, but it's good to notice, plus I've seen amazing growth here when I pay attention. If you had asked me three weeks ago about Grace's attachment I would have said very secure, she i really attached and we don't worry about it all. I started to notice little things that she is doing lately that show me her attachment to us deepening even further, it really is an evolving thing. Grace now comes and wants to be held, just to b held. She's always been willing to be held if you just pick her up or are carrying her somewhere, but now she just likes you to hold her. She has always been happy to sin in our laps for quite a long period of time and she looks in our eyes for eye contact a lot. Now she really snuggles into you. she is also coming to us for kisses all the time, before she would kiss when asked or if she was sitting on you and you kissed her head she'd come kiss your mouth. Now she walks up to you all day and makes the kissing sound and says ki, very sweet. So I say she's really attached to us, but it's always evolving and she'll grow even more attached as time goes on.
Speech:
Grace has been diagnosed with a speech delay, so she'll be starting therapy tomorrow! We are thrilled that she qualified and that she'll get the extra boost she needs so she can communicate with us better.
All in all, this has been a fairy tale, not without it's ups and downs, I mean she is a stubborn drama queen who'd like to run the show. She has added so much to our family and there isn't a person in it who isn't thrilled sh joined us. Happy 6 month homeiversary Baby Girl, we love you to the moon and back!
Grace 6 months ago
Grace today
I cannot believe that Grace has been in our family for 6 months. At first there were days that were like what did we do?!?! Mostly though it was just that crazy excitement and everything was new, and different and thrilling. Now, we've morphed into regular life, things are how they are and we' re happy and content. It's scary to think how quickly she went from being new to just being one of the gang, I thought it would take longer for here to just feel like one of us. I have to confess the girl part is still special to me and I love choosing her clothes, I mean Valentines day clothes, pink and hearts I'm in Heaven and then comes Easter, I'm already drooling over dresses.
Here is a little snapshot of where Grace is at 6 months home:
Sleeping
Sleeping has never been a problem with Grace, she woke up a couple of times the first week home, then she slept 11 hours at night and took a 2+ hour afternoon nap, and she still does both of those things.
Eating:
Grace started out eating until you took food away, she would cram her mouth full until you worried she'd choke. And this was a chubby well fed kid. She also had a fit if anyone ate and she wasn't eating. Now, she is a bird. She eats very little, she'd rather get down and play. She has also turned toddler picky which we aren't concerned about. She eats just like her brothers did at this age so we know she is fine.
Potty:
When we got Grace she was sitting on the pot at the Baby house, but not potty trained. We left her in diapers and waited to potty train until she showed us she was ready. At Christmas she was saying poopy and pointing to her pants and then going, so we took the plunge. Grace is fully potty trained, we can leave the house with her in panties and she also stays dry through nap. She isn't going poopy there yet, but she's getting close. She is still in a diaper at night, but I think she'll be out of that soon too. All of this potty stuff has us moving her to a big girl bed in a month or tow, she needs to be able to get out if she has to go potty.
Social:
Grace loves other kids (she lives in a herd) so she does great with them and loves to be around them. She doesn't share worth a hoot, typical for a two year old, but she'd probably more extreme than your average two year old. We're working on sharing and she's getting a tiny bit better, it will come with time.
Attachment:
This is the biggy, as an adoptive parent, I was worried about. They have you so concerned about that you look for signs everywhere. I'm sure we didn't need to pay quite so much attention, but it's good to notice, plus I've seen amazing growth here when I pay attention. If you had asked me three weeks ago about Grace's attachment I would have said very secure, she i really attached and we don't worry about it all. I started to notice little things that she is doing lately that show me her attachment to us deepening even further, it really is an evolving thing. Grace now comes and wants to be held, just to b held. She's always been willing to be held if you just pick her up or are carrying her somewhere, but now she just likes you to hold her. She has always been happy to sin in our laps for quite a long period of time and she looks in our eyes for eye contact a lot. Now she really snuggles into you. she is also coming to us for kisses all the time, before she would kiss when asked or if she was sitting on you and you kissed her head she'd come kiss your mouth. Now she walks up to you all day and makes the kissing sound and says ki, very sweet. So I say she's really attached to us, but it's always evolving and she'll grow even more attached as time goes on.
Speech:
Grace has been diagnosed with a speech delay, so she'll be starting therapy tomorrow! We are thrilled that she qualified and that she'll get the extra boost she needs so she can communicate with us better.
All in all, this has been a fairy tale, not without it's ups and downs, I mean she is a stubborn drama queen who'd like to run the show. She has added so much to our family and there isn't a person in it who isn't thrilled sh joined us. Happy 6 month homeiversary Baby Girl, we love you to the moon and back!
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