A Dream Come True!

A great Fair Trade store

2011-12-01T19:26:00.000-06:00

I love this online store that sells beautiful items from Guatemala. They are having a great giveaway right now also for anyone who leaves a comment on their post.

http://littlemangoimports.blogspot.com/

Guate Mall to support school in Guatemala

2010-04-05T21:17:00.003-05:00

I have many wonderful items for sale in my Guate Mall. All profits will go to support two schools in desperate need in Guatemala. If you are interested in purchasing any of these items, let me know by leaving me a comment and I can give you the prices. I will send you a PayPal invoice and after payment is received, I will mail you your items via USPS.

Please consider giving to this wonderful cause. My friend Vanessa will be travelling down to Guatemala for a month starting the end of May to help these two schools.

Thank you!

My Crafty Girl

2010-01-13T19:00:00.003-06:00

We finally made it back to the library for story time last night. We hadn't been since before Thanksgiving due to the holidays, vacation and snowy weather. Evelyn really did very well with following the rules and sitting and listening. I was really amazed last night in the changes in her ability to do the craft by herself. I have noticed a change in her drawing also in the last month or so when she brings pictures home from school. She used to just scribble but she has moved on and is now "drawing" people and faces. One day she excitedly showed me the picture that she drew and said "its you and me mommy!" There were definite faces and not much for bodies but I could see a big and little person.

Last night at the library she was very independent and didn't want my help in putting together her craft. She made a penguin which had 9 pieces to be glued together. She looked at the example once and then went about putting it together. She was concentrating so hard. I happen to have my camera in my purse so shot this video of my crafty girl.

She is now 3 1/2 years old. One of her best friends just turned 4 which just doesn't seem possible.

Here is a picture of her conentrating so hard.

My Band Hero

2009-12-25T18:59:00.003-06:00

Uncle Allan's family brought their band hero to Grandma & Grandpa's house on Christmas. Evvy really liked the drums. I think it is funny cause she played the drums 2 years ago down at Uncle Allan's house. She is quite the performer. Here are two videos of her serenading us with some medlies of songs playing the drums.

Christmas Recap

2009-12-25T18:59:00.002-06:00

We had a great Christmas this year. My company "gave" us some extra vacation days (without pay or choice) so we headed down to TX a couple of days sooner than planned. This gave us a chance to take more time to get there and back and have a more relaxing trip.

We got to TX on Tuesday afternoon and hung out with Grandma and Grandpa. Then on Wednesday we drove down to Austin and I went Christmas shopping with SIL and mom and Evvy got to spend time with her big girl cousins Abby & Ally. She said she had a good time with them and was not scared like she was last year. She even greeted and talked to Uncle Allan which was a huge deal since she would see him and cry last year.

Christmas Eve we just hung out at Grandma and Grandpa's and got ready for Christmas. Grandma bought a 1000 piece puzzle of tropical fish in the ocean that was really hard and took all week to put together. Mommy lost a lot of sleep over that puzzle but was determined to get it finished.

Christmas Eve Evelyn opened her traditional Christmas Eve present of new jammies and slippers. She loved her Hello Kitty character slippers and snowman soft pajamas. Soon after that Uncle Robert, Aunt Aimee and cousins Ethan & Elise arrived. We then visited and got the kids all wound up and then somehow expected them to go to bed so Santa could come. They actually all did quite well.

Christmas morning of course Miss Evelyn was first awake as she is just about every morning. She was very patient and quiet and went out to the living room and saw the train that Santa brought her (courtesy of Uncle Allan's family) and her stocking. She looked at her stocking while we waited for everyone else to get up. Then it was present fest and confusion. This was the best Christmas so far I think because she is so verbal and excited about EVERYTHING. She could easily pick out which presents were hers because she knows how to spell her name. It was very sweet watching her find her presents. She was really pretty calm and looked at everything as she opened them. Her big present was the train set and then she mostly got books, puzzles and playdough. Those are the things she likes and plays with most. We don't need more toys cluttering up the house! Most of the books she got are in Spanish because she is now taking Spanish class and really enjoys it. It is fun to speak Spanish to her and know she understands (even if she answers in English a lot of the time).

We stayed in TX for 11 days before heading back home where we found that it had snowed A LOT. In fact, 2 weeks later it has snowed more and there is still A LOT of snow on the ground. It is finally starting to warm up so it will probably be gone in a couple of days. That was the most snow we have seen in many years. It did flurry in TX while we were there too. It was unseasonably cold. We only had 2 really nice days where it was mildly warm but it was warmer than home and we were with our family. This was one of the best Christmases I can remember in a long time.

Here is a photo show of some of the pictures from our trip.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Evelyn meets Santa

2009-12-09T09:21:00.002-06:00

Evelyn was so excited this year to meet Santa Clause. She just sat there and patted his hands. I love how her hands are just sitting right on top of his. This was her first year to not be terrified of Santa.

The Carnival!

2009-09-05T19:42:00.002-05:00

Every Labor Day weekend our city puts on a wonderful festival. It is only about 5 mins from our house. In years past, I have gone every day to listen to the music, eat the yummy food, shop and just people watch. They also have a decent little Midway area with rides and rip off games. Last year Evvy rode the Merry Go Round and we convinced them that even though she wasn't 36" tall to ride on the "elephant" ride--she was really quite pitiful and cried and cried so they finally let her ride with an older child.

We started by torturing the children and dragging them to the quilt show. There were a few really pretty quilts that I liked. I did get a couple of Christmas presents bought so I guess Christmas shopping season has begun for me.

We went with our best friends and spent too much money riding the rides. I can't believe how expensive it is. I bought 20 tickets for $20 but luckily most of the kiddie rides are only 2 tickets so she did get to ride a lot of rides.

This year, Evvy is 38" tall so had no problem riding the kiddie rides. The first ride she wanted to ride was the Elephant ride. Then P, E, Evelyn and I all rode on the swinging basket ferris wheel. I haven't been on a ferris wheel in many many years. It was a lot of fun and Evvy loved it. She had no fear at all and really enjoyed the view of the city and being above the trees. She also went on a sweet canoe ride with E and then they also went on an alligator roller coaster that went pretty fast. We then rode the Merry Go round of course and ended riding a flying bumble bee ride that went up in the air. I asked Evvy if she was scared when we looked at the pictures tonight and she just laughed and said no. I think I have a fearless girl who is going to love amusement parks as she gets older.

I was a little disappointed with the food this year. It had nothing to do with the food itself. However, I have had a cold, sinus infection, upper respitory infection for the past 3 weeks and have been on antibiotics for 2 weeks. I still can't taste anything but a yucky taste which is a side effect of the latest antibiotic. It is such a waste to buy chocolate or anything and then not be able to taste it. I bought what looked like a really good steakburger with onions and the whole work and bbq sauce. I couldn't taste a thing. Maybe my sense of taste and smell will return b4 the weekend is over and we can go back and try a fried pickle or twinkie and cotton candy.

Here are some pictures from our day.

Susan

Miss Independent

2009-09-05T18:50:00.003-05:00

Evelyn has become very independent in the past month or so. It is really quite a transformation. All of a sudden, she gets up in the morning and goes in and gets dressed all by herself. She can get up and down off the toilet and wipe her own tushy and flush all by herself. She can turn on the bathroom faucet and wash her hands by herself. If I try to help her with just about anything, she firmly tells me she can do it by herself. I also am enjoying the fact that when she gets up on the weekend I can get her to go into her room and play with puzzles, read books or play with her toys by herself and let mommy doze in bed a little longer (I can't really go back to sleep because I am a little too paranoid that she will get into something and hurt herself like I did when I was her age).

One of my earliest memories is from when I was about 3 years old. I was apparently at this independent stages and was going to get myself a drink of water all by myself. We had a glass water bottle in the fridge to keep cold water. I apparently climbed up on to the lip of the fridge and pulled down the water bottle and then proceeded to drop it and fall in the glass. I ended up cutting a tendon in my left hand and having to have surgery. For many years I couldn't make a tight fist and I still have a visible scar on my hand (I always thought it was a pretty cool scar). Anyway, my memory is sitting in the hospital at a little table and having what must have been the doctor come around to check on me--I just remember a man in a suit coming into see me. I don't remember being scared or anything.

Anyway, the point of telling that memory is that I am afraid that Evvy in all of her indendence might try to do something for herself and accidentally hurting herself.

Here is the picture of Evvy that I snapped this morning after she went in to play with puzzles. She got herself "dressed" in a much too small slip that she found recently and she was clicking around the house in her high heal princess shoes. It was pretty amusing and cute.

Reading her card from her BFF.

Didn't quite get everything "untucked"

Susan

Catching up

2009-09-01T22:57:00.002-05:00

I have been missing blogging lately so I am going to start again. I haven't blogged since February and was looking back over some of the last posts. Evvy has changed so much and is a totally different person. She is such a joy to me and I feel so blessed to call her my daughter.

So what has happened since February?

March we had a lot of fun playing in the snow. Evvy LOVES snow and is looking forward to winter again already.
April: We had a fun visit with Grandma and Grandpa. They came and spent Easter with us. Evvy "rode" in Grandpa's airplane. Still hasn't gotten off the ground but she now has high hopes that maybe next time Grandpa will take her up to "touch the clouds." We had a fun visit to the Deanna Rose Farm where Evvy fed some baby goats with a bottle. She was disappointed that they wouldn't let her ride a pony because she wasn't 3 yet and her mom couldn't lie.
April 18 marked the 2 year anniversary of Evvy coming home from Guatemala. We celebrated by going to one of our favorite Guatemalan restaurants "El Quetzal" and ended with a trip to Evvy's favorite Guatemalan bakery for a BIG SPINKLE Cookie (galleta).
In April we also took a long weekend and drove to Omaha to go to the wonderful zoo and children's museum. Evvy still talks about the fun hotel which had an indoor waterpark with a double size hot tub and a "current pool" The hotel wasn't crowded so we pretty much had it to ourselves. Another highlight of the trip to the zoo was riding the carosel 3 times (a zebra, elephant and horse). Evelyn LOVES Merry Go Rounds. She had a little meltdown after the 3rd time because she wanted to go yet again. Instead we went and saw a beautiful peacock that spread its feathers and let Evelyn get very close to it.
May was pretty warm so we had a couple of trips to the splash park and hung out with our friends.
June 6 Evelyn turned 3 years old. We had a small party with 3 of her little friends. They just played water games and swam in her little pool in the front yard. I can't believe my baby is 3. She got a new scooter, tricycle and some nice new clothes from Grandma.
June 8 Evelyn started "pre-school" at the local elementary school. She had no anxiety at all about going. She has gone joyfully and happily every day. At the same time, she greets me every day with a huge hug and "mommy" when I pick her up. Evelyn is very social and quickly made lots of new friends in her class. After a picnic with her class she came home and told me that "J" is my boyfriend. Just the way she said it was so cute. He is her special friend. However, since then she tells me that all of the male students are her boyfriends so I stopped worrying when I realized she was just classifying them by their gender. J is still her best friend though if you ask her. He is a very cute hispanic boy.
July we celebrated the fourth of July with our friends at an annual picnic that we attend. Evvy really likes the fourth of July and fireworks. We went swimming a few times at our local waterpark but the summer overall was pretty cool. It seemed that the weekends were either rainy, cold or one of us was sick. Evvy did take swimming lessons though and really enjoyed them and learned some skills that will hopefully help her become a good, safe swimmer. She still needs a lifejacket but she can dive under and retrieve rings and sticks from under the water. She can also swim underwater to and from the steps of the pool. She still LOVES the water.
August was a great month for us. I took 1 1/2 weeks off of work and we went on a couple of vacations. First we headed down to the Lake of the Ozarks for our 3rd annual MOGUATE gathering. There were 46 families that attended this year with close to 100 people. We had such a good time seeing friends from previous years and meeting lots of new friends. We were able to participate in some good "giving back to Guatemala" projects while there. We raised money for a group that does a lot of good work in Guatemala by raffling off a Guatemalan quilt and basket of other toys from Guatemala. The other project is called "Project Santa." We were blessed to have a friend and her family from Louisiana come to our gathering. V does a lot of good work in Guatemala and will be going down in a couple of months to distribute supplies that she has gathered to the needy in Guatemala. She has been responsible for giving Christmas to hundreds of children in families in Guatemala over the past several years. Visit Vanessa's blog to see how you can help or see the wonderful work she is doing for Guatemala.
After MOGUATE we came home for a day and then got in the car and drove to Chicago to meet some of our friends that I have known through the adoption process online but had never met in person. We had a great time in Chicago. We spent 3 days in the suburbs going to the park, eating great food, going to the zoo and to a great splash park and just hanging out at the hotel pool. We went to our Chicago friend's condo and had yummy Chicago style pizza one night. The kids had a great time playing with each other and all of Andrew's wonderful toys. On Friday of that week Evvy and I headed downtown. We stayed at the Hilton hotel right downtown for an incredibly inexpensive price thanks to Priceline.com. It was a gorgeous hotel. The location was great. We were able to park the car in the garage and walk every where. Our favorite part of Chicago was Millenium Park and the "giant jelly bean." We went there 3 times in less than 24 hours. We enjoyed some outdoor concerts also and really just had fun walking around and people watching. Evvy had fun chasing "pingins" aka Pidgeons. There was also a wonder water sculpture area that kids could play in the water. It was great because it was a warm day. We also went and got some yummy Garretts popcorn. Have to say it was some of the best cheese and caramel corn that I have ever tasted. We also took a 2 hour bus ride on top of a double decker tour bus so we really saw all the sights of the city. We definitely want to go back again so that we can go to some of the museums and maybe the ferris wheel at Navy Pier. After our long day, we went and had Chinese food (Evvy's favorite) and then went back to the hotel for a nice swim. Evvy totally crashed watching a movie in bed. The next morning we took a walk down to Dunkin Donuts to get some donuts and juice and went back to Millenium Park and the Jelly Bean. It was a totally different experience because there were hardly and people. Then we were off for a long drive back home.

I will try to go back and add some pictures to this post over the next few days since that is really what people really want to see on the blog. I really just wanted to capture "our story" and what we have been doing in the past 6 months. I want to be a bettter blogger so that we have a record of the story of our wonderful life.

Happy Birthday mommy!

2009-02-22T11:01:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was my birthday. I have decided that it isn't about me, but about how much Evvy enjoys my birthday. She was very sweet and sang me happy birthday numerous times and gave me lots of birthday kisses. Then she would say, "we have cake and ice-cream?" The balloon that my friend gave me of course was really for Evvy. The musical card was really for Evvy :) It was really a great day.

I received the most incredible gift from my uncle. He sent me a quilt that was made by his uncle's mother in law when she was a teenager. The quilt is over a hundred years old and is in excellent condition.

Here are a couple of pictures from my big day and some video of Evvy and Erica shaking their groove things. The music was from my birthday card. I don't think I caught the funniest ones on camera but these are pretty good.

Cat Fight!

2009-01-23T21:46:00.005-06:00

Had to share this video of Evvy and Bella (cat). Evvy got the tent from Grandma for Christmas. It is a bed tent but we didn't have her new big girl bed when this video was taken. Bella LOVES the tent. When Evvy is in it (or even when she isn't) Bella will jump on top of the tent. I have to "lock" Bella in the front of the house when Evvy is going to sleep otherwise she will never go to sleep. Evvy is so funny. She loves Bella and wants to play with her and cuddle with her all the time but when it comes to sleeping, she will not allow the cat in her bed or even her room. I wish she would let Bella sleep with her. They are so sweet when they are cuddling up together. Evvy just coos at Bella "oh my sweet baby, you are so sweet"

Anyway, here is their cat fight in the tent.

Old McEvvy went to the farms!

2008-12-29T18:25:00.006-06:00

My parents recently moved and live in a pretty rural area. They get eggs from a neighbor who raises chickens and guineas (sp). They go to another farm and get fresh milk. Evvy has really enjoyed going to see the animals with Grandpa. She has been to the cow farm twice now. I went today and there were a lot of baby cows too. They were a very friendly bunch of cows.

Evvy had her first horse ride also. It was a pretty good size horse that one of her cousins rides.

Here are some pictures & video from Evvy's visits to the various farms.

Bock Bock!

Look at all those chickens

Evvy rides Scout

I'm so BIG mommy.

Having a great time

Can I have a bite?

Yummy carrots

Got anymore carrots

So soft

Evvy kisses Ladybug (the cow)

Ladybug kissing Evvy

Time to go home

Christmas pictures

2008-12-25T22:25:00.000-06:00

We had a wonderful Christmas at grandma and grandpa's (papa's) house. Uncle Rob, Aunt Aimee, Ethan and Elise were there also. Uncle Allan and his family also came up for the afternoon and evening. Evvy slept in until 7:15 woo hoo. She was the first one up and first out to see what Santa had brought. Not sure that Evvy believed in Santa. She saw the new baby doll that "Santa" brought and I asked her what it was and she said "mommy got me a new baby doll." Guess I wasn't quite so sneaky putting those toys in the shopping cart. I think she was more excited about the candy canes and m&m's than all the toys. We kept it pretty low key and got lots of learning toys, spanish books and CD's. She also really likes the tea set from Aunt Aimee. She seems to be "discoverying" the new toys a little each day. She did enjoy opening all the presents this year but was also really sweet handing presents to everyone else.

I put together a little slideshow of some of our Christmas pictures to share with everyone. We definitely are enjoying the warmer weather down here in TX.

Susan

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Gingerbread Houses

2008-12-20T20:59:00.002-06:00

We have a tradition that we make gingerbread houses every year. We made them occasionally when I was younger but I think it became a yearly tradition with my brother's family when I visited them one year. My nephews were pretty young back then and they are both in college now. So the tradition has been going on for quite a while now. For the past many years I have also been making the houses with my BFF and her kids. Evvy and I made one last year at my brother's house but Evvy was still pretty small. This year was her first year of really decorating one "by herself." My girl loves candy. You would think that she ate it all the time by the way she talks about it and oohs and ahhs about it or maybe that is a sign that she doesn't get it very often and is excited when she does get it.

Evvy really enjoyed putting the candy on the house and into her tummy. I think she put 2 on the house and then one in her mouth. She had a couple of moments of tears when I wouldn't let her eat the gingerbread man and the candy off the house. We finally decided that we would let the kids eat the men but they really just ate the candy and frosting off of them.

OK. Have to write a sidenote of what my DD is doing right now. She is watching Pooh and the scene where Tigger has climbed the tree and is scared to jump down. So Evvy decided she needed to climb a tree also. Um, the only tree in our house is the Christmas tree. She was seriously contemplating climbing it. She was looking for where she could put her feet and hands.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of our fun day with our dear friends.

Fine motor skills!

Concentrating hard.

This is FUN!

This is hard to turn it for the camera. Don't drop it!

Time Out! I wanna eat it now!

This is the best part!

Don't be scared, I won't bite your head off little man.

Caught red handed

No one's looking, right?

First Snow of the Year

2008-12-09T20:41:00.003-06:00

Today we had our first real snow of the season. I say YUCK. My normal commute home takes 25-30 minutes. Today it took 2 hours. I could hardly get Miss E to the car from the sitter's house. She had to stop and grab handfuls of snow to eat. She LOVES snow. She loved it last year and would always want to eat it. This year is no different. When we got home, she got her boots on and went outside and stomped around in the snow and ate handfuls of it. She got mad at the mittens which impeded the amounts of snow she could pick up and stuff in her mouth. Besides, when she tried to wipe the snow off her face, the mittens really didn't help, they made her get more snow all over her face. So she took the mittens off and continued eating and throwing snow. Then she said she wanted to take her coat off. I told her we had to go in if she took her coat off because it was too cold. So she goes inside willingly and takes her coat off and then wants to go back outside without the coat. Being the love and logic mother that I try to be, I let her go back outside without the coat (just her hat and boots). She is standing there shivering with her hands out. She ate a handful of snow and just stood there trembling. I told her to go inside which she did but then she got mad and started crying because she really wanted to be out in the snow. Such a dillema--hates the coat, loves the snow, hates being cold....

So we compromised. I went and got a bowl and went outside and filled it with snow. She then sat at the table and ate every last flake while I made dinner. It was pretty funny.

So one of us is happy that winter is here. It is NOT me.

Oh and just a disclaimer on the video. This girl is a sponge and repeats EVERYthing. The stupid was not in response to the question of "do you have the best mommy in the world." She was just repeating what I had said about a driver on the way home who pulled out in front of us on an icy road. Gotta watch my mouth :)

This is better! Snow in the warmth of my own home!

My Prima Ballerina!

2008-11-14T20:35:00.002-06:00

Evvy really loves to dress in her "princess ballerina" outfit. She is just so darn cute in it. What cracks me up is the hat she has to wear with the outfit. So doesn't go with the outfit but it is so Evvy. She is definitely her own person. I have a couple of short videos that show just how much of a perpetual motion machine this little girl is. She is non-stop motion and talking. I couldn't love her any more. She amazes me every day.

Do you like my hat?

The hat covers my crazy hair.

I love to be upside down

Mommy needs to teach me to be more ladylike

No more pictures!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Halloween

2008-10-31T22:30:00.004-05:00

We had lots of fun for Halloween this year. After our trips to the pumpkin patch, we went to a Halloween parade where Evvy got her first "taste" of people giving her lots of candy. She was in heaven just eating a small package of nims (m&m's). I like how she says nims :)

Then we had a dress up night at library story time so she got to try on her costume. She loved it. She talked all the rest of the week about having a tail on her bottom :) Then the culmination was trick or treating. She probably would have been happy going to 2 or 3 houses but we went with our friends. She was very cute and would say "trick or treat" and "thank you" at all the houses she went to. After we got home, we had a few trick or treaters come to our house and then we just hung out watching a movie. I let her eat a few candies. I think that the lollypops were her favorite. I have been rationing about 1 piece every day or 2 and only if she eats her dinner.

Here are some pictures of my cute kitty cat.

I'm not scared of monsters! Boo!

Trick or Treat buddies

YUMMY!

Wow, what a stash!

Sugar Coma

Pumpkin Patch Pictures

2008-10-19T19:50:00.002-05:00

Evvy took two trips to the pumpkin patch this year. She went once with her babysitter and friend G. We then went with our GAP (Guatemala Adoptive Parents) group. Evvy loves being outside and running free that is for sure. She keeps me on my toes for sure. I thought she was going to trample the poor corn maze. It was gorgeous weather the day we went together with our GAP group and P & her kids.

Here are some pictures of the two trips.

Corn Maze

Wild Child

So Innocent (NOT!)
Gymnastics in her future?

My pumpkin

I Made a Circle!

2008-10-13T21:07:00.004-05:00

Miss E was enjoying her supper tonight (ham, sweet potatoes and green beans) but she was about done with what she was going to eat so she was getting a little bit silly. She was kind of "stirring her food" around the plate and I was about to ask her to please be neat and not spill her food off the plate when she exclaims "Look mommy, I made a circle!" I look down and sure enough she had spun her food around the outside of the plate and it was indeed it was a circle. How can you get upset at that? Then she proceeds to mix a little more and says, "I made an oval." OK that one was a little bit of a stretch of the imagination. I happened to have the camera on the table so of course I took a picture of her first real circles.

Cheesy Face

I made a circle!

She is really becoming quite the chatterbox. I need to keep track of some of the things she says. She had a 7 word totally grammatically correct sentence the other night when we were out walking (subject, verb, object, indirect object and I think some prepositions thrown in there). I was stunned but for the life of me can't remember what she said now or even by the time we got home.

Some of her funny phrases lately:

Good idea mommy! (after I have suggested we/she do something)

I chilly mommy! (used to be "I cold")

It very dark outside, I go night night now (mommy's loving this one and using it as an opportunity to move bedtime up a little bit).

Where's the luna (moon in spanish)? Today I told her it was raining and cloudy and she responded "the luna is behind the clouds."

My favorite "I lub you mommy!"

She is also into emotions. "I scared" "I sad" "I happy". Tonight when we were doing bedtime, she was trying to stall a bit after I told her no more stories (we are doing longer stories now so fewer overall books). She told me "mommy, I sad" and pouts her lips. I kiss her and she gets all giggly. She did this several times and then I said "mommy's sad" and she gave me bunches of kisses. It was very sweet.

Thankfully, she has started sleeping much better lately which is WONDERFUL for mommy. Not sure if it is the change in her babysitting routine or not. She is having a lot of fun playing with her friend Gabby every day and today they started doing their pre-school lessons. Evvy brought home her picture and put it up on the fridge with her magnets. They are learning about "calves" this week.

Hopefully I will get some more blogging done this week with the rainy weather.

My little pumpkin!

2008-10-12T21:47:00.004-05:00

Don't know where the time has gone. I was shocked that my last post was in August. September flew by. We had an unexpected extended visit from Grandma & Grandpa courtesy of one of those pesky hurricanes that hit their area of TX. Thankfully they had no damage to their house but some of the surrounding towns had a lot of flooding and damage (5' of water in their houses). Evvy loved spending time with both of them (Grandpa went back home for a week to help out with cleanup but then came back and spent 3 days with Evvy. She had a great time going to an apple orchard, riding in a "corn tractor" and riding in Grandpa's airplane (they didn't actually go flying, just taxing across the airport. She was thrilled though. Everytime she sees or hears an airplane overhead, she says "granpa?"

Evvy started going to a different babysitter this week and seems to be really enjoying the change in pace and surroundings. She is with another little girl about 6 months younger than her and another little boy that comes a couple of times a week. On Friday, they went to the pumpkin patch and had a great time. Each child got to pick a pumpkin and they had some that were just the right size for little kids. Evvy has been carrying hers around the house all weekend.

Here are a few pictures from this week. I have a lot more that I need to get off the camera and maybe I will get caught up on blogging :)

Enjoy!
Susan

Where did my baby girl go?

2008-08-23T22:15:00.003-05:00

Every day I keep finding myself asking, "where has my baby gone?" She took another step towards little girlhood last night by starting to sleep in a "big girl" (toddler) bed. Her BFF got a real big girl bed (twin) for her 4th birthday so Evvy became the recipient of her toddler bed. She slept in it for about 1/2 the night last night and then decided to go back into her crib (2am). So I thought that I would just put the little bed in a corner of the room and wait til she was ready to try it again. I stacked her basket of babies and stuffed animals on it and put the mattress back in her crib. Well tonight after story time, she was trying to pull the basket of babies off of the little bed. I asked if she wanted to sleep in the crib or her big girl bed and she chose the big girl bed. So I took the basket off and put the mattress back on it. I then made a big deal about putting her quilt from grandma on it (just the right size for her toddler bed mom) then her other two blankies that she always sleeps with. I then tucked her in and we read one more book and she cuddled in to go to sleep. So far so good.

Last night we went to the mall and had Chinese food (I think this is Evvy's favorite cause she LOVES rice) and to ride the merry go round and just play. We were supposed to have a little friend over to be babysat but she got sick so we changed our plans on the fly. While we were at the mall, I decided to give Build a Bear a try again. I don't think I posted this before but Evvy got a gift card from her BFF for her birthday back in June. So we went back in June to choose an animal. We went through the process of choosing it and getting it stuffed and then Evvy decided she didn't want to bring it home. Their were tears and everything. The staff was very nice and said that it does happen sometimes and that we didn't have to buy it and take it home. So I was a little worried of a repeat of this scenario. We looked at all the animals and she finally decided on the Elephant. She loves elephants and has a little one at home from Christmas last year. I asked her if she wanted to take the elephant home and she said she did. She then proceeded to walk out of the store with her non-stuffed elephant. I told her we had to get him stuffed and she started crying. I finally used a little child psychology on her and told her that elephant was hungry and we needed to fill his tummy full. She thought that was a good idea and so we went to the stuffing station. We listened to several of the different sounds that you can put in your animal and decided the elephant sound was a bit loud. When I pressed the button for the Brahams lullaby, she laid down on the floor and said night night :) I said, "we'll take that one!" She chose which hand to put the song in and then she stepped on the peddle to stuff the elephant. Last time we tried, she wouldn't step on the peddle. She then got a heart, kissed it and put it in the bear. We then went to the "bath station." She gave her bear and air bath (stepped on the peddle and it blows air out of the shower spouts). She then brushed elephant and was very pleased with herself. She didn't want to put the elephant in the box so mommy carried the box and Evvy carried her elephant around the mall. It was really quite sweet and she had the biggest smile. Sorry I didn't have my camera cause it wasn't a planned trip.

We then ate and went to the Merry Go Round. She kept saying "Mary Poppins" cause she loves that movie and the scene where the horses jump off the Merry Go Round. She had a little temper tantrum when our turn was over. I just moved her out of the way of the other people exiting and let her have her tantrum. I stood a few feet away from her and just ignored her. Surprisingly, I think it worked. She got over it and then got up and went to the play area to run and climb on the toys.

I just marvel at how quickly she changes. I can't believe the summer is almost over. I am a little sad about it. We had a great summer of swimming and playing in the sun and playing with our friends. She has changed in front of my eyes this summer. My baby is gone and I now have a little girl. Makes me a little sad.

We had an AWESOME weekend!

2008-08-19T21:30:00.001-05:00

I took a day off of work on Friday so that Evvy and I could head down to the 2nd annual MOGUATE weekend at the lake. There were close to 100 people this year which was about double over last year. We met so many wonderful families and saw so many wonderful children who were all adopted from Guatemala.

At the end of this post, I will embed a photoshow of our weekend. Here are a couple of my favorite pictures. In the restaurant where we ate breakfast, there are tons of stuffed animals including bears. Last year when Evvy was still pretty small (not walking yet) I posed her with a bear. I decided that this will be where I take her picture every year to show how much she has changed.

You will also notice the new profile picture. The organizer of the event is a fantastic photographer also and was gracious enough to take family pictures of everyone that wanted them. Evvy and I both were wearing Guatemalan clothes (just the top for me). The outfit that Evvy is wearing is one that I bought for her in Antigua when I went down to visit her when she was 5 months old. A good friend gave her the headband for her birthday this year. Thank you Cindy for the great picture!

So here is last year:

And here is this year:

Here is the photoshow of our weekend.

My little swimmer

2008-08-19T21:26:00.002-05:00

Evvy LOVES to swim. She had a great time this past weekend swimming in the pool. She also discovered the Hot Tub which she really liked also. She even got daring and went down a big slide on my lap. It was probably scarier for me than her cause I had to make sure she didn't get sucked under the water when we hit.

Here are a couple of videos of Evvy "swimming."

Camping with a 2 year old!

2008-07-30T21:38:00.003-05:00

Not as bad as it might sound. Much better than I expected.

Our parks & rec department put on "an itty bitty campout" for children under 7. We signed up and were joined by 2 other 2 year olds, a 3 year old and a 5 year old. We setup camp about 6:00'ish. Evvy thought the tent and air mattress were neat. She immediately knew that the fire was HOT and steared clear of it.

We roasted hot dogs, marshmellows and made s'mores. The kids did a small craft (scrapbook page to put a picture on) and then were visited by Sally the Turtle who talked about turtles. The little kids weren't so interested in that but the 5 year old had lots of questions and answers. Evvy really enjoyed picking up rocks and throwing them over a little bridge and hearing them clatter on the rocks below. Before bed, we took a short hike to the restrooms. Then it was bedtime. Evvy surprisingly went to sleep pretty easily. It was warm but not unbearable. She rolled all over the air mattress all night long. I didn't sleep very well due to the rolling and also my back was hurting me. I then woke up super early with a need to go potty. It was a bit of a hike to the bathrooms and Evvy woke up while I was putting my shoes on. She wouldn't go back to sleep so I got to carry her up a hill with me.

In the morning we had breakfast and then closed up camp. We were home by about 9:30 (we woke up around 5:30 I think--before the sun was fully up). Evvy and I went back to bed and slept for 2 hours and then got up feeling much better.

Here are a few pictures from our first camping trip. Oh yeah, we also got our pictures in the newspaper. We are famous!

2008-07-30T21:37:00.000-05:00

Take the Quiz here!

Co-Sleeping

2008-07-12T08:00:00.004-05:00

Evvy has been home a little over a year and just turned 2 last month. She is starting to get into baby dolls. She was given a stroller for her baby this week and loves it. She told me today, "baby tired" so I went to her room and showed her the Moses basket that I bougt in Guate 15+ years ago. I took out all of her stuffed animals and extra blankies and told her that her baby could sleep in the baby basket. She carefully put a blanket in the basket and laid the dolly down and put a blanket over the baby and carressed it's face. She then proceeded to climb into the basket with the dolly and pull the blanket over the baby and herself. It was so sweet. I told her to snuggle the baby like mommy snuggles her and she did. Of course, I didn't have my camera so I told her to sleep with her baby while I went to get the camera. I fully expected her to be "done" when I got back but she was just laying there bonding with her dolly.Here are 2 pictures. One of her cuddling up to the baby and one of her "sleeping" with the baby--she is totally faking the sleep here but it looks real.We mostly do not co-sleep but we went through a few months where we did a lot of co-sleeping. She is finally back in her crib and sleeping all night! YEAH!

PS As a side note when we were getting ready for bed tonight, her baby got put to bed again. Bella (the cat, see a couple of posts ago) climbed into the basket with the baby. Evvy got very upset with Bella and told her "no Bella" "out" She then tried to pickup Bella to get her out. Luckily mommy was there to save Bella from Evvy's wrath :) Evvy then had to get her baby resituated.

Stroller Dancing!

2008-07-11T19:32:00.002-05:00

Last night we had a really fun night with our friends. Our city is having Thursday night music and movies on our town square. The local movie theater has an outside "screen" painted on the side of the building. From 6-8 we listened to some great music (50's type music--Elvis, Stray Cats, etc). W ate our picnic (Subway sandwich) while we jammed to the tunes. Then the kids all played in the dirt for a while before the movie started. The movie was Shrek 3 which I hadn't seen. It was Evvy's first non-DVD movie on the big screen. She loved it and stayed awake the whole time. We didn't get home until almost 11pm. My sweet girl sang herself to sleep on the way home (less than 10 minutes) singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star along with our CD. She was doing the hand motions and everything and then all of a sudden she stopped as her eyes closed with her hands still in the air. Very cute.

Here is a video of my crazy stroller dancer. She LOVES music. A policeman on a bike came up to us after the music and before the movie and said, "who's little girl is that?" I thought, uh oh what is wrong, does he think she is kidnapped or something or that she wasn't being properly supervised (I did let her play in the dirt behind us with her friends). I said, "she's mine." He said, "well she is just the cutest and has the greatest dance moves." He said his little girl that is 2 also so I think he was just comparing their stages because he said that she loves to dance too.

We will probably go to the music again next week but not stay for the movie because it is Princess Bride and probably not as interesting for my 2 year old sweetie.

Susan

Here kitty kitty!.

2008-07-08T21:13:00.004-05:00

OK. Don't fall over. Yes, another post. I must be getting caught up on life. Things have settled down now after getting a new roof, new fridge, car troubles, travels, etc.

Evvy LOVES her kitty Bella. Bella is an almost 4 year old black and white kitten. I think she will always be a kitten at heart. Bella is pretty playful. She "tolerates" Evvy but deep down really adores her too I think. She comes in for story time every night and sits on Evvy's or my lap. Evvy likes to sing rock-a-bye baby and rock Bella on the floor. Evvy likes to show her love for Bella by hugging her. I am really working on her to be a little more gentle. She puts her in a choke hold often. Bella likes to hang out on the back of the couch looking out the picture window. Evvy likes to pull Bella off the back of the couch into her lap and hug her and kiss her. Bella has been pretty tolerant so far. I think she has only nipped at Evvy a couple of times because Evvy has come to me and say Bella bite. But she never cries about it.

Here are a few of pictures of Evvy & Bella loving each other (OK Evvy loving Bella and Bella trying to escape).

Susan

Awesome!

2008-07-07T21:10:00.003-05:00

Evvy's language continues to amaze me. Well she just amazes me in general. Last week after being a very good sport shopping for a new fridge, I rewarded her by taking her for a ride on the carousel at the mall. She had the biggest grin on her face and was just giggling going up and down on the horse. I was standing beside her and asked if she was having fun. She quietly answered "awesome!" Not fun but AWESOME! I did a double take and thought I had imagined it but then the next time we went swimming at the waterpark again she said "AWESOME." She really must like my reaction to it because now she is really experimenting with it. I say, "want to watch a movie?" She says, "Awesome" with a cute giggle.

I can't even begin to write down all of the words and phrases she says now but her vocabulary has exploded and she really gets the context. She is picking up some Spanish too although I have slacked off on the Spanish. I am trying to be better. We were looking at one of her picture books and she said a pretty hard Spanish word "espalda" which means "back" (body part). I was pretty impressed because I hadn't really pushed that one on her much. She knows most of her body parts and most impressively she counts almost to 20 in spanish spontaneously. She counts into the teens in English also. Love Sesame Street and Plaza Sesamo. She is just a big sponge.

Her physical development is pretty amazing also. She climbs, jumps and gallops. I went into her bedroom a couple of weekends again and she was sitting on her changing table petting her kitty cat (with a big grin on her face). She had climbed up the shelves of the table. She is also becoming a pretty good little swimmer. I have started putting her in a life jacket at the water park and we spend the first 30-60 minutes in the "big pool." She is off and swimming before me often. She jumps in from the edge and just takes off paddling and kicking. She flips from front to back and back to front and isn't afraid to get her face in the water. She really likes it when mommy goes under the water. She will push on my head and say "under!" and giggle when I go under and blow a bunch of bubbles. Maybe next year she will be old enough for real swimming lessons because she is way beyond the mommy & me classes. She wants to do the real thing.

Here are a few pictures from tonight at the water park. Unfortunately, there are none of her swimming but she is enjoying her treat after swimming. The girl LOVES ice so I bought her a snow cone. She ate it all and has the red mouth to prove it!

Susan

Mommy's Little Helper

2008-06-26T20:30:00.000-05:00

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Mommy's Little Helper

2008-06-26T18:23:00.004-05:00

I just had to chuckle at my little (big) girl tonight. I was making dinner and she found a way to entertain herself while waiting. She is all about opening drawers in the kitchen now and she will stand on her tippy toes and reach in and get whatever she can (doesn't matter what). Then she will walk around with whatever it is for a while and then go put it back and get something else. It is like a grab bag to her I guess--never know what you might draw out.

Well tonight she pulled her stool to the silverware drawer and opened it up. She often hands me the silverware from the dishwasher and I put it away in the drawer. Well tonight she decided to take all the silverware out of the drawer and stack it on the counter. Then she proceeded to put it all back in one piece at a time. She was so serious about her task. Then she would take it all back out and start over again. This went on for a good 30 minutes. She got to the point where she was just shoveling it into the drawer. If anyone looks at my drawers they will think I am super sloppy!

Here are a few pictures and a video of her working so hard in the kitchen.(I couldn't get the video to upload so I will try again later).

Pictures still to come

2008-06-23T22:31:00.001-05:00

OK. I am too tired to post pictures tonight plus I am trying some new software. But if you are dyingn to see pictures, please feel free to visit our photo albums http://guatemom.shutterfly.com/action/

I will try to get some posted on the blog this week.

Where does the time go?

2008-06-23T21:20:00.002-05:00

Another month (or more) has passed since my last post. We have been on the go. We took a trip to TX to celebrate my parents' 50th anniversary. While we were in TX, my parents took all of us around to where they grew up and told us more of their stories that we hadn't heard before. My parents were married when they were 17 and 18 years old. My mother was still in High School and finished her last year of high school as a married woman (she had to go to another school because she was married). My parents lived on totally opposite sides of town and my dad had to drive quite a ways to pick my mom up for dates. My dad had a paper route. It was a pretty long "car route." That is how he was able to buy gas to take mom on dates. Anyway 50 years later, they have 7 children (5 living) and 13 grandchildren. Four out of five kids are married (I am the only one still single). Starting this fall, they will have 3 grandsons in college. It was nice to get everyone together since we don't do it very often. Evvy was a little overwhelmed by everyone. She got to the point where she would cry (scream) if I left the room unless grandpa was there. She was pretty much glued to me by the end of the week.

Here is a brief (maybe) synopsis of our trip.

Day 1: drove to Ft Worth, TX (left 6am, arrived 3:30ish pm). Watched lots of Baby Einstein and Disney movies. Had dinner at my aunt Helen's house with my parents, sister and 2 of 3 of my aunt's kids (my cousins) along with some of their kids. Was really nice to visit and see people that I hadn't seen in a long time. Seems like the only times we have gotten together in the past was at funerals.

Day 2: breakfast at the hotel; short swim; even shorter nap for Evvy; off to the botanical gardens for family pictures. It was SO HOT and HUMID. I think we got some good shots though. This was our gift to our parents. We are having one of the whole family blown up and printed on canvas so they can have us nice and big to look at when they can't be with us. We then went to the restaurant where we had the dinner party to setup decorations. I think it all turned out very nicely. Evvy had fun dressing up in a party dress and running around with her cousins and grandpa. She really liked the beans and guacomole and tortillas for dinner.

Day 3 we toured mom & dad's old neighborhoods (mostly Mexican now). It was fun to see where they grew up. We then went for hamburgers and ice-cream. Evvy had her first ice-cream from a ice-cream parlour. She thoroughly enjoyed it and ate the whole scoop.

Day 4 we got up and swam with everyone. Then we packed up and headed from Ft Worth to San Antonio. We actually stayed in San Marcos. We swam again and ordered pizza for dinner. Then we all crashed.

Day 5 we went and visited Grandma Flora Mae (dad's step-mom) who is Evvy's great grandma. She is 94 years old and was very happy to have her grandchildren and great-grandchildren visiting her. Everyone but Allan's family was able to visit. Allan's kids were still in school and Anna is teaching so they had to be back at school. We had a nice visit and took some nice pictures. We then headed to San Antonio and went to the Alamo and then walked on the river walk and ate Mexican Food. Evvy tried to take a swim a couple of times. She LOVES water. We then got in the car again and drove to east TX (through Houston rush hour) and then 1 1/2 hours east to my parents' house.

Day 6 we got up and drove 1 1/2 hours to Galveston to go to the beach. Evvy took her first ferry ride and had beautiful wind-blown hair. Evvy LOVED the beach. The minute she was our of the car, she plopped down in the sand and would have been content to sit next to the car and let sand go through her fingers all day I think. I did convince her to move to the actual beach and introduced her to the waves. I wasn't sure what she would think but again, she LOVES the water and LOVED being in the waves. She wanted to do it all on her own though which was a little frightening cause she thought she could keep walking out in the water by herself. I got a good workout lifting her over waves. Finally we just went back to the beach and let the waves break over us. She had a great time digging in the sand and building with her cousins, uncle and grandpa. Needless to say, she slept very well that night.

Day 7 we pretty much just hung out at my mom & dad's house and did laundry. We also had a yummy dinner that night with birthday cake for all of the summer birthdays. The summer birthdays also got presents from Grandma & Grandpa. Evvy got a great v-tech laptop computer so now she leaves my computer alone. She also got a swing that we hung up in the back yard. She was very upset to get a swing though because she wanted to swing in it right then and there. So I let her sit in it and I held her up. That seemed to appease her somewhat. She swings almost every day now that we are home.

Day 8 we packed up and drove over to Louisianna to drop off aunt Aimee and cousins Ethan & Elise. We also went and visited the grave sight for cousin Ella Grace who passed away last year right after she was born. After having lunch with Grandma, Evvy and I started our long trip home. We drove until dinner time and then stopped in Paris, TX for the night. We swam after eating and then cuddled up in a huge king size bed and watched a movie on TV during which Evvy fell asleep.

Day 9 we got up, ate waffels at the hotel and then hit the road again. This was probably the hardest day of all. We both just wanted to be home. Evvy didn't want to be in the car seat anymore and was tired of watching movies I think. We made a couple of extra stops. My favorite stop was at an Amish cheese-shop and bakery. We ate lunch and bought some yummy cookies and cheese to bring home with us.

We were very happy to be home. We had a great time but home is always best I think. It took Evvy a couple of weeks to stop asking for movies in the car.

I am going to try to do a picture show. If that doesn't work, then I will post some pictures later.

There is more to come in my catch up posts!

Susan

Evvy's puppy

2008-05-06T08:00:00.000-05:00

No, we didn't buy a dog. Several months ago I bought Evvy a pull toy dog. Lately, her imagination has started to really bloom. She plays with her toy farm and dollhouse and the people. But the funniest thing lately is that she really has developed a bond with this fisher price plastic puppy dog. She cuddles it, she walks it. The other day while I was cleaning the house, I came out and she had a q-tip. I didn't say anything, just watched to see what she was doing. She lifted the puppy's floppy ear and put the q-tip behind it to clean it. The only time I use q-tips for Evvy is to clean around her earrings with alcohol.

Then yesterday when we were playing outside, she wanted her puppy to come outside with her. She then decided that the puppy would like to slide down her slide. She carried the puppy carefully up the steps of the slide and then let the puppy slide down all by itself. She just giggled so gleefully. She would then slide down and pickup the puppy and they would go up again.

Here are a few pictures of Evvy and her puppy.

She is growing up too fast!

2008-05-05T21:30:00.003-05:00

OK. I have been horrible about posting on the blog. Keeping up with an almost 2 year old just doesn't allow it. We are loving the nice weather that seems to be finally here.

Here are a couple of new things for my big girl...

You have heard of children starting to climb out of bed about Evvy's age but what about climbing INTO bed. It was the funniest thing to watch. Bella (her favorite cat) had jumped into the crib and she wanted to get in with her. She absolutely adores this cat and calls for her all the time. She won't do story time before bed without Bella being in the room to hear the stories. The funny thing is that Bella actually sits on my lap and listens to the stories (probably more about having her head scratched than the actual stories). Anyway, Evvy did not succeed in climbing into the crib.

I have to share this second picture too. Evvy is still working on potty training. I decided tonight to start bribing her with left over jelly beans from Easter and some star stickers we picked out at Wal Mart last night. It worked twice tonight! Usually she tells me an emphatic "NO" when I ask her if she needs to go potty (followed by her slamming down the potty chair lid). Tonight I got her to potty twice for jelly beans and stickers! But the girl does like her privacy. She has taken to wrapping the shower curtain around her when she is on the potty. I finally caught it on camera tonight.

One year ago tonight....

2008-04-18T21:41:00.004-05:00

One year ago tonight (almost to the minute) we were touching down on our final leg of the journey to bring Evvy home. My parents and I left April 14, 2007 for Guatemala to pickup my sweet angel baby. She was brought to the hotel by her loving foster family and our new life began together. We spent 5 days in Guatemala and flew home on April 18, 2007. Evvy was a wonderful traveler and slept almost the whole way. She didn't fuss or cry at all. She was a perfect angel. I was so grateful to have my parents with me on the trip. Evvy LOVES her grandma and grandpa so much and it has to be because they were there to meet her and help her transition to her new home.

This past year has flown by so quickly. The previous year waiting for her to come home went so slowly so I can't believe how quickly this year has passed. My life will never be the same. I have never been so happy (or tired) in my life. I wouldn't trade my life for anything.

One year ago, Evvy was an infant who could barely sit up, couldn't crawl, roll over, pull up. She has come so far. She is no longer a baby. She is now an almost 2 year old toddler. She moved quickly past walking and now runs, jumps, climbs. She is always on the go and I love keeping up with her. We love playing outside together. She is a great little helper. She helps me with the yard work, even helps me vacuum, clean the carpet and has recently become my little helper in the kitchen.

Most of all, Evvy makes me smile, laugh and feel pure joy. Even as she enters the terrible two's it is hard to be mad at her. She is just learning the limits. She is very playful and just full of joy. I wouldn't trade my life for anything. I know I am not a perfect mommy all the time but we do OK and I think becoming a mom after wanting it for so long and being "older and wiser" has helped me appreciate my little girl oh so much more. I think I have a lot more patience than I would have at any earlier stage in my life. She came into my life at the perfect time and I am forever grateful for her.

I think about her birthmother often and hope she is OK. I am forever grateful for her for the sacrifice she made. I can't imagine the pain and sorrow that she might feel. I hope that she has peace in her heart and knows that her daughter is loved and well cared for. I have sent pictures to her through Evvy's foster family and hope that they made it to her. I feel so blessed to have been entrusted to be a mother to this beautiful child. She has a beautiful, strong, smart loving spirit. I only hope she always knows how much I love her.

Here is a picture of my angel on the airplane one year ago tonight (looking oh so serious) and a few pictures taken this past week.

Susan

A long overdue update

2008-03-03T19:15:00.004-06:00

I know I have been a horrible blogger this year. I won't promise to be better about posting but I will post when I have time. Having an almost 2 year old (yikes!) and working full time keeps us on the go a lot.

We just finished a month long session of mommy & baby swim classes. I have a fish on my hands. She LOVES to swim and be in the water. We did get sick in the middle of the classes and missed a day and then had a snow day which was good because we were sick that day too.

We met a new friend through our swimming class and we went to the zoo this weekend with them. The weather was gorgeous after some very cold and yucky weather. The weather only lasted for Saturday and 1/2 of Sunday and now it is back to winter cold with possibility of snow.

Evvy is getting big and learning new words every day. I need to write down all of her words & phrases because her vocabulary is really growing.

All done
All gone
I don't know
Grandpa
Grandma
Mama (the most important of course)
Hi Bella (cat)
Hi Duchess (cat)
No
Elmo
Cookie

Apple

Orange
Milk

Elephant

Cock a doodle doo (more like cocka cocka coo)
Nose
Arm

Signs she knows and uses:
Cat
Dog
Monkey
Fish
Bird
Elephant
Eat
Drink
Baby
more
all done

Those are just the ones I remember off the top of my head.

She knows most animal sounds and responds to questions in both English and Spanish when asked about animal sounds and body parts.

She is full of energy and spunk. She is going to keep me active and young. She is sleeping better these days but not perfect. She is down to one longer nap in the afternoon. This is nice especially on the weekends because it means that mommy gets an occassional nap with my snuggle baby next to me.

Here are a few pictures. Even though I am not blogging as often I am adding pictures to our photo albums . Oh and another thing. When I chose a new layout I lost all of my links so I will try to work on getting them back on the side-bar.

If I have any readers left, thanks for stopping by!

Susan

Checking out the chairs at the zoo deck.

Pitching a fit, I don't want to get back in the stroller!
New friends on the hippo!
This goose bit my girl trying to get her apple.
Asleep mid-bite.

Rockstar Evvy!

2008-01-13T10:20:00.000-06:00

One of my nephews got a "rock star" video game that included a set of drums. They already had the 2 guitars and then there was also a microphone so that someone could sing along (sort of like Karoke). Four people could play the game together to form a rock band. It was a lot of fun for everyone.

Evvy decided that she wanted to give it a try also. I got a snipit on video and you can see her in action. I think this girl has music in her future. She liked the piano, drums and loves to sing and dance.

Our First Christmas Together

2007-12-25T08:48:00.000-06:00

Fast forward one year. Evvy has been home for 8 months and is totally a part of our family. I can't imagine my life without her. She has brought so much joy and happiness to my life. We have so many more Christmases to look forward to together as a family. My life has been so blessed this past year.

Evvy was the first one up on Christmas morning. I don't think it had anything to do with being excited about opening up presents and seeing what Santa brought her. It is just that she is always up at 6:30 (if not earlier) so no sleeping in on Christmas. We went downstairs and put on a quiet video (Baby Einstein) and she was quite content. We waited about an hour and then my niece came downstairs and Grandma and Grandpa woke up. Then my niece woke up my brother and SIL. I am sure they were thinking that all of their kids are older and they should get to sleep in. The joys of having house guests for Christmas.

Evvy was actually pretty laid back. She just sat on the couch and had presents brought to her. She opened them. She didn't really know what do do because some of them required assembly and batteries first. She got the cutest little pink "cat pack" backpack that she really liked. She would walk around with it on.. Very cute. I think we/I did a good job of not going overboard. Of course I gave her two of her big presents several weeks ahead since I knew we couldn't bring them with us. She had also had a little present opening when we had our Christmas with P and her family. It was a very nice day and I just basked in the joy of having my daughter with me and tried to not think of the sadness of last year.

Here are some pictures from this year's Christmas joy.

Susan

Last Christmas--Evvy's first Christmas

2007-12-25T08:28:00.000-06:00

This Christmas was such a contrast to last Christmas. Last year I had visited Evvy in November and was waiting anxiously for news that she could come home. I had not made any plans to go anywhere for Christmas because I was expecting the call to go back and get my girl.

Last Christmas I was missing my angel baby and wanting her so badly. I remember hitting the send/receive button on my email hundreds of times hoping for pictures of Evvy. Thankfully she was with a wonderful foster family that was good about sending me pictures but the pictures didn't arrive until after Christmas.

I spent Christmas Day with my good friend P and her family. It was fun watching her kids open presents. Her daughter was just over 2 and got a kitchen for Christmas with all the stuff that goes with it. It was a magical Christmas for her. I could only imagine the magical Christmases to come with Evvy. I knew they would come.

I don't know much about Evvy's first Christmas except that she was with a very loving family that adored her and took such good care of her. I know that they took her to see all of the different Nativities that were displayed at the different Churces in Guatemala City. I also know that she liked the fireworks that they shoot off Christmas (and many other times) in Guatemala. I was told she wasn't afraid at all.

Here are a couple of pictures of Evvy from last Christmas.

Evvy with her foster father.

Visiting Nativities at various churches.

My happy girl.

Christmas Eve

2007-12-24T12:00:00.000-06:00

On Christmas Eve day, we went to the horse farm where Evvy's cousin Abby has a horse. Evvy was in heaven. She had no fear of the horses and even fed the horse a couple of carrots. As you can see in the pictures, Evvy decided that if the horse liked the carrots that she would like them too. Don't worry, we watched her carefully to avoid choking hazards. She was in heaven hanging out with her Grandpa. If you can't tell, she totally adores him. Abby and Ally were both really good on the horse. This is a new horse for Abby and he is gigantic compared to her old horse. She rides in shows and had to have a bigger horse so that she would be in proportion with the horse. She is tall and very lean.

Christmas Eve night we all hung out and worked a puzzle and then read the Christmas story and had hot cocoa. The kids all went to bed and then Santa came and filled the stockings and left some more presents.

What a beautiful day.

Susan

Want some carrot Grandpa? The horse liked it.

My turn.

This is so cool.

Evvy and cousin Ally

Dad, Evvy & Jack

Abby riding Jack
Ally riding Jack
Sweet moment
Ally on Jack.
Evvy LOVES dirt!

Finally arrived in TX

2007-12-23T12:00:00.000-06:00

We got back to the airport about 8:00 am and headed down to the baggage claim area. Thankfully our luggage was all there. The wonderful agents actually helped me carry it back down to the ticket counter. I pushed the stroller and dragged the big suitcase behind me and the agent carried the carseat and other suitcase. I couldn't have done it without her help. We boarded our flight on time. Gotta love the pre-board with small children option. Evvy was good and just sat and read her books while we waited to take off. We ended up being delayed about 45 minutes cause the water tank was leaking so they had to drain and refill it. Then there was a passenger count discrepency and then they had to de-ice the plain. Evvy started getting fussy but it was mostly cause she was tired. She finally snuggled in and went to sleep before we took off. She slept until we started our descent into Austin. She didn't fuss at all.

My brother was there to pick us up. We grabbed some lunch and then headed up to meet the rest of the family. My brother introduced Evvy to the big dogs so that they knew the new kid and knew their place in the pecking order. They were really good with Evvy. My brother has a German Shepherd and Golden Retriever. The German Shepherd was so gentle with her and she really loved the dogs. Don't get any ideas Evvy, mommy still says no to dogs.

My brother had spent the previous day baking like crazy to make gingerbread for gingerbread houses for all of the kids and a couple of neighbors. They made one for Evvy too. So we spent time decorating gingerbread houses. Evvy liked licking her fingers after smearing the frosting around the roof. I let her do 1/2 the roof and then she was done. Silly me forgot to take a finished picture with the designer.

The rest of the afternoon/evening we just hung out. Evvy went across the street to the park with grandpa and her 2 cousins.

Here are a few pictures from today.

Susan

Who is this guy? Poor uncle Allan. Most kids love him.

Piano lessons with grandpa.

Yum. Gingerbread scraps.

Hmm. This is fun and sticky.
Isn't this pretty mommy?

Leaving on a Jetplane......NOT!

2007-12-22T22:00:00.000-06:00

(This is long but if you wade through it there are pictures at the end.)

Today, Evvy and I got up and had a somewhat relaxing morning as I finished up the last minute packing. I weighed the suitcases to make sure they weren't overweight and we were 3# under on the big one with all the Christmas presents. The forecast when we went to bed last night was for a big snow storm with high winds. I hoped that the weathermen would continue to be wrong. I packed everything in the car and we headed over to Peggy's house. She had graciously agreed to drive us to the airport so I wouldn't have to leave the car there and so she could drop us off at curbside with all of our stuff. I had no idea how much stuff was REQUIRED for travelling/flying with a young child especially at Christmas time.

Christmas presents for all (I left behind the big ones that I had already given to Evvy early cause there was no way they would fit in the suitcases especially once they were assembled.

2 sets of clothes/day for Evvy. Not too bad cause they are small clothes.

2 blankets--one to carry on the plane and the other one required for sleeping.

Books & toys to entertain her on the plane and at the airport.

Diapers for a week.

Mommy's stuff (I pack relatively light) preparing for a wide range of weathers. Even though we are going to Texas it still can be unpredictable and cool/cold.

Winter coats, hats and mittens. After all, we were leaving and returning to the cold midwest.

Stroller--against my mother's wishes I chose to bring the big one that reclines and has a basket and SOOOO glad I did (you will understand better later in the post).

Carseat. Have to have to transport baby to and from the airport and around town once we arrive at our destination.

Diaper bag with said toys & books, diapers, wipes, blankie, change of clothes, snacks, sippy cup, plane tickets, ids, birth certificate (just in case for baby), plastic bag for liquids.

So all in all we had 2 suitcases (48# and 23#), 1 diaper bag, 1 stroller, 1 carseat, 1 baby, 1 mommy.

Amazingly I didn't forget anything essential and even had a few diapers left at the end of the trip.

Anyway, we get to Peggy's. Install her carseat, cram the suitcases and stroller, Evvy, Peggy's 3 kids, Peggy and myself into her mini van. It was a tight squeeze. We then dropped my car off at the shop to be tuned up while we were gone.

As we drove to the airport, it was raining. As we got further north (it is about 30 minutes north of where we live), it started sleeting. By the time we got to the airport, the roads were very snowy and slushy. I wasn't worried. Planes fly in the snow all the time, right.

We pulled up to the curb right in front of the skycap station. Unloaded my little eskimo who started shivering cause it was cold, snowy and windy. Unloaded said luggage and carseat, handed the guy a generous tip and headed inside.

The monitors said we were still ontime. We went and had some lunch, had a diaper change in the wonderful family bathroom. Really it was great. It was a room with a big person toilet, lots of space for all our stuff and a nice changing counter, sink, hand sanitizer. We should have just stayed in there while we waited. Then we had to go through security. That was fun (NOT). Had to remove diaper bag, baby, blanket, coats, baby from stroller. Put them all in the lovely grey bins. Heft the stroller up on the conveyer belt to go through the x-ray machine. Heft the baby who is screaming cause her blankie was being x-ray'd and not in her hands. But alas we made no beeping sounds and were allowed into the gate area to hopefully board our flight soon.

Got through security put everything back into the stroller and found a place to sit. Did I say sit. No, you don't sit at an airport with an 18 month old, you find a place to let her run, climb and push her stroller. Luckily there were big windows with short ledges that made a perfect seat for a little one. So there we were watching the snow. Watching no airplanes coming or going. It really started getting bad so that you couldn't hardly see out the window past the gateways. I thought, so we will just be late. I called my brother and said don't go to the airport unless you check with the airline first cause it looks like we might be 30-45 minutes late.

Our flight was supposed to leave at 2pm and arrive at 4pm. At 3pm we were still here. I called my brother who didn't answer so I finally got my mom on her phone and told her to tell my brother not to go to the airport yet. She said, well, they are already on their way. They called the airline and it said your flight was ontime. How is that for efficiency. We hadn't even left yet an hour after we were supposed to leave and we were going to arrive ontime. I guess they were optimistic and maybe they had a supersonic jet on standby.

My brother called about 4pm and asked for a status update. He and my dad were hanging out at Cabellas thinking they could just blow some time until we arrived. I told him that they didn't know when we were leaving and that it was a 2 hour flight so they might want to head home. They live 45-60 minutes from the airport.

Well finally a little after 6pm, the gate agent came on the microphone to make an announcement. We all thought for sure we were going to start boarding because 2 other flights had started boarding and were getting ready to leave. However, she came on and told us that they were cancelling our flight due to the weather. Still makes no sense to me since other planes were now leaving. The only thing that I can think of is the crew were out of hours or they just decided that the flight wasn't full enough and that they would take advantage and cut some costs and put us on the flights the following day so they would have full flights the next day.

Oh, I forgot to mention that during our 6 hour wait, they had us change gates which involved going through the wonderful security routine again since at this airport they have security for each set of gates. Luckily after the gate change, Evvy decided she had had enough fun and she fell asleep for 1 1/2 hours in the stroller. Had I brought the umbrella stroller, she wouldn't have been able to sleep so long and been comfortable plus I would have been lugging a lot more stuff cause the umbrella has no storage basket.

So they tell us to line up and they would rebook us for a flight the following day. We luckily were standing right by the podium and got on the 9am flight the next morning. Other people were not so fortunate and had to wait for the 2pm flight. They then told us to go collect our luggage and that we would have to recheck it tomorrow. I am thinking, you have got to be kidding. See above for all the luggage we had and now I am by myself with no help. We waited for awhile and the luggage didn't come up. I called one friend who lives relatively close to the airport but they weren't home. I couldn't have Peggy come back and get us. The roads were pretty bad plus we had to be back up to the airport by 8am the next morning. So while waiting for the luggage, I started calling the hotels. I learned about "distressed passenger rates" and was able to stay at a nice hotel for $59/night. Got lucky with that rate cause when we were checking in she started quoting 80-125/night depending on who called. Again, luggage didn't come and didn't come so I asked the luggage office what happened if we didn't collect our luggage. She rolled her eyes and said that all unclaimed luggage had to be stored in their luggage office which she emphasized was not very large and they already had a large backlog of luggage. I am thinking, oh well, your problem, not mine. I deserted the 2 suitcases and carseat and hopped onboard the hotel shutle with a diaper bag, baby and stroller.

I am so glad that I packed extra diapers and extra close for Evvy. At least she got to wear fresh clothes the next day and to sleep in.

We had a King size sleep number bed and Evvy slept great; me not so great with the bed hog.

Well this turned into a super long post but it was a super long day. Here are a few pictures from our adventuresome day at the airport and hotel 30 minutes from home.
Susan

It doesn't look too bad, right?

Let me entertain you all!

I am so cute. Everyone said so.

Snuggling my baby doll.

What a wild day. I need to find my sleep number.

Let me pour you a drink mommy.

What a day.

Some random Christmas Pictures

2007-12-16T20:46:00.000-06:00

I haven't had time to blog much lately. However, I have taken some pictures of Evvy enjoying Christmastime. She has been great around the tree. She and the cats hang out under and behind the tree. She loves playing peek a boo through the branches with Bella the black cat. I put some presents under the tree the other night and she has pretty much ignored them except to use them to stand or sit on. I can't believe it is just one more week til Christmas. We get on a plane next Saturday to go to my brother's house for a week. Can't wait. It has been cold and yucky here. Last weekend we had an ice storm and this weekend we got snow. Evvy does like the snow. She likes to touch it. She is amazed at how it melts on her hands. She loves her little mittens. She will walk around the house with them on clapping her hands. I also bought her some snow boots this weekend. They are too big but she can walk in them. They should last a couple of years I am guessing. I will post pictures in her snow garb later this week if I get a chance.

Here are some pictures. If you are on our Christmas card list, you should be getting a card with our 2 best pictures from our photo session at our friends' house last week during the ice storm.

Susan

Checking out the nativities.

Hello Mr Snowman
My new favorite spot.
Bella and Evvy playing peek-a-boo under tree.
Yay! We are done taking pictures (not our tree)

Christmas Cookies & Friends

2007-12-10T22:45:00.000-06:00

Last weekend we had our good friends Elaina, Sam & Luke over to "decorate" Christmas cookies. All of us mommy's supported each other while we waited for our beautiful children to come home from Guatemala.

The kids were much more interested in eating the frosting than putting it on the cookies. It just happened that they all chose a different color of frosting. Probably a good thing with some of the double dipping that was going on in Luke's bowl!

Susan

Evvy eyeing Sam's cookie
Sam digging into the frosting
Luke going for the frosting by the spoonfuls!
Elaina a little lady taking just a dollop.
Yummy, the cookies are good without frosting too!
Give this girl mouth to mouth, her lips are blue!
Sweet brothers
Good friends sharing cookies.
The cuatro amigos.
Yum, sprinkles make them even better.

Pictures

2007-12-07T20:19:00.000-06:00

OK. I know the real reason you come to the blog is to see pictures of Evvy. So here are a few pictures from Thanksgiving. There are a lot more pictures in our photo album.

Evvy, Grandpa & baby Elise

Ethan & Evvy (touchdown!)

Mmmmmmmmm

Shopping Day after Thanksgiving

Sweet Baby Elise

Sweet Evvy & Elise

Elise on quilt made by aunt Susan

Yikes it's been a while

2007-12-07T18:37:00.000-06:00

I can't believe it has been a month since I have posted. Well, really I can believe it. Evvy had the croup for a good week and then it was Thanksgiving and now we are in the swing of getting ready for Christmas.

Croup-- not fun. Horrible cough that sounded like a barking seal. She had a fever. The doctor put her on steroids which made her hyper and she couldn't sleep.

Thanksgiving--lots of fun; lots of driving and oh what a cute baby niece. We drove to my baby brother's house in Alabama. It was a 12 hour drive and Evvy was an angel of a traveller. She ws so happy to see Grandma & Grandpa. She warmed up to everyone pretty quickly. She had a great time playing with her cousin Ethan who celebrated his 7th birthday while we were there. Evvy also adored her new baby girl cousin Elise. She is such a little peanut. She turned 7 weeks old while we were there. Evvy would just come up to her and kiss her head or pat her head. She would pull the side of the cradle down to see if the baby was in there.

We are home now for the next 2 weeks. We will then be flying down to Austin to spend a week with my older brother and his family and our parents for Christmas. We will also visit Evvy's great-grandma who can't wait to meet her. She has been so supportive of me becoming a mother. She calls and tells me how happy she is for us. I also want to take Evvy to San Antonio to the zoo and river walk.

We put up our tree last weekend and Evvy keeps crawling under it and sitting behind it in the corner. Often both her and one of the cats are sitting behind or under the tree. I had such a good shot of her tonight but of course by the time I went to get the camera, she was on the move.

We are going to have her portrait taken tomorrow morning. Hopefully we will get some good shots. We are then going to P's to make gingerbread houses.

The weather is supposed to be yucky this weekend. We had our first snow yesterday and Evvy really liked touching it. She likes her hat and mittens (we need to get some boots to keep her feet dry. I will have to get some pictures this weekend. It was dark out when we were out playing/shovelling last night.

I will post some pictures in a bit. Evvy is cranky and needs to go night night. She hasn't been sleeping well since she got sick 3 weeks ago. Which means that I haven't had good sleep in about 3 weeks.

I will try to be better at posting.

Susan

One Year Ago Today

2007-11-04T19:45:00.000-06:00

One year ago today, I met my beautiful, precious daughter for the first time in person. She was so small and helpless. I can't believe it has been a year. That seems like an eternity ago and yet just like yesterday. I got such a small taste of what it was going to be like to be a mother those 4 days that we had together. It is so much better than I ever could have imagined. I never knew that such a tiny person could have brought so much joy and peace into my life. I can't imagine my life without her as a part of it.

Here are a few pictures from last year and then a few that we took this morning at the park. The weather is a little chillier this year than last year.

Susan

The first moment I held Evvy.

First bottle.

In hotel lobby.

What a precious face.

Snuggled in her quilt from mami (this is now her favorite quilt)

It sure is cold out here mom.

Bye, bye mami.
OK, I'll come back.
This is so much fun!
These leaves are crunchy.

A few more Halloween Pics

2007-11-04T18:28:00.000-06:00

Here are a few more pictures from Halloween night trick-or-treating with our friends. Evvy discovered candy. She wasn't too interested in holding her pumpkin bucket at first and then people started putting stuff in it. She kept trying to put the wrapped candy in her mouth. Decided it didn't taste so good. She must have smelled the chocolate through the wrapper though because on the way back to our friend's house I looked down and there was what I thought a candy bar on her lap. Well, it was just an empty wrapper. The candy bar (Butterfinger) was tightly gripped in her hand with a good portion on her face and on her costume. There was no taking it away from her at that point so I just let her finish it. She also had some peanut butter M&Ms which she really liked. That was it for the candy for her til next year.

Here are the pictures.
Susan

Pumpkin Carving

2007-10-30T20:41:00.000-05:00

OK. Two posts in one night. Trying to keep them sort of short and keep the pictures separated. Tonight "we" carved the pumpkin that Evvy got at the pumpkin patch a couple of weeks ago.

It has been many years since I have carved a pumpkin. It was kind of fun. I will say there is something to be said about little pumpkins. They are easy to clean out but a little hard to carve. Evvy wasn't quite sure what to make of pumpkin cleaning. I kept taking out seeds and she would put them back in. Pretty cute. I am always telling her to keep her food on the plate, etc so I guess she figured that Mommy needed some help keeping the pumpkin seeds in the pumpkin. She also kept trying to eat the seeds and didn't really like the goo on her hands. She did eat a little bit of pumpkin but I figured it was good fiber, right?

I am not a great pumpkin carver but her is our first pumpkin together.

Susan

Um, mom, what did you do to my pumpkin?

Am I supposed to eat this? Yuck!
Hmm, maybe this will taste better.
No, yucky too. I will put it back inside.
Maybe the big part will taste better? Hmm. Nope.

Yucky sticky seeds.

Get them off my fingers please.

Oooh. Cool mommy. You did a great job!

What did you say Mr Pumpkin head?

Help, he is trying to eat my hand!

Musing on Making Memories

2007-10-30T20:20:00.000-05:00

Not much going on in our busy life. I broke down and bought Miss Evvy a Halloween costume. It is pretty cute. She is going to be a lady bug. I was thinking about it today....why buy a 17 month old a costume and dress her up. She won't understand it. But then I thought, "cute pictures and memories for mommy and for her when she is grown up." Hopefully, it will make her feel happy looking back at the pictures of her childhood and making her memories. I know I loved (ok still love) looking at pictures from my childhood. I don't necessarily have the actual "memories" of the events but it helps me create my past in my mind. Does that make sense?

Anyway, my ladybug is very cute. Her personality is really coming out. Tonight, she kept running out of the bedroom when we were reading stories. Then when she would come back, I would be hiding and jump out and she would be startled and start laughing. OK, so not the ideal winding down activity but she went to bed happy. She is starting to blow kisses. When I tell her to say "night, night" to the cats, she blows them kisses.

Saturday we went to a Halloween parade around the town square. They had trick-or-treating with all the local merchants. I was going to do that but the lines were all the way around the square and it didn't look that fun. So we went to the bakery and Evvy got a cookie and mommy got a donut and then we staked out spots for the parade. Peggy and her kids met us there. The parade was fun. Miss Evvy was getting tired towards the end as it was naptime so we took the costume off but not a problem as she had a Halloween t-shirt on. She was pretty cute.

Here are some pictures from of my cutie pie. I am sure there will be more tomorrow after trick-or-treating. We will probably just go over to Peggy's and go to a few houses as my girl doesn't really know about candy yet. I'm sure I will probably give her a piece or two (or not).

Here she is.

Susan

My First Craft at the Library

2007-10-23T20:54:00.000-05:00

For the past 3 weeks I have been taking Evvy to story/craft time at the library. I know that she is a bit young for it but I want to start exposing her so that she can learn the right behavior. She LOVES the library. We pulled into the parking lot and she knew where she was and started getting excited and "talking." It was like, "come on mom, let's get in there cause they have lots of books and a nice room for me to play." I love the story time lady "Ms Sharon." She has been doing story time for many years. I used to go with P and her kids when they were younger. Last week we barely got through the short movie they show "it is a book movie" kind of like those old timey filmstrips we used to have when I was a kid. She watched it sort of tonight and then walked around "visiting" other children during the story. For the most part she was well behaved. No tantrums like last week. Then she even stayed and did the craft. OK, so mom did the craft for her. But, she let me trace her hands for the bat and she "helped" me cut it out (she tore the scraps up into tiney pieces). She helped me stick the nose on. Then she carried it around really proud and got mad when I took it away in the car (it had some choking hazards on it that I couldn't monitor with her in the back seat).

Anyway, when we got home I did snap a couple of pictures. She was pretty tired and really didn't want to cooperate. She is adicted to Plaza Sesamo (spanish sesame street) and went right for the remote control and gave me the sweetest smile so what else could I do. She hadn't been home all day and it was 8:00pm. So I sat her on the couch with her craft and you can totally tell she is trying to see around me to watch TV. Oh well. I count it as "spanish" lessons for both her and me and we do watch it together and we don't watch it every day (I TIVO it).

Then we read one book and she was so ready for bed. Mommy is ready for bed too.

Here are a couple of pictures of Evvy and her library bat.

Susan

I really want to pull the nose back off.

Ah, Plaza Sesamo!

OK Mom, move it. Trying to watch Sesamo!

Six Month's Ago Today....

2007-10-18T17:58:00.000-05:00

I can hardly believe that I am posting this. Where has the time gone. Six months ago today, Evvy landed in the United States.

One year ago this week, I was supposed to meet my sweet daughter for the first time but the trip was cancelled due to some political issues surrounding adoptions. It was a heartbreaking week for me.

I am so blessed to have this beautiful child in my life. She is truly the joy of my life. She has given me a purpose to live and be a better person and the best mom I can to her.
Here are a few pictures from our past year's journey.

9 days old

Oct 2006 (4 1/2 months old)
April 2007 (pickup trip with Grandma & Grandpa)
On the Plane going home (April 18, 2007)
Home 6 months (October 18, 2007)

Lions and Tigers and Bears...Oh My

2007-10-14T18:26:00.001-05:00

Well I don't think we saw any bears but lions and tigers yes. We spent about 4 hours at the zoo today with our friends Julie, Sam, Lucas and Judi & Elaina. What a group of cute kids they are. The weather was perfect as was the company. The kids were definitely done in by the time we got on the tram to come back from Africa to the entrance area. Evvy was out in the car by the time we left the exit and slept until almost 6:00. Hopefully she will still sleep tonight.

Here are some pictures from our day.

Susan

Welcome Elise Katherine!

2007-10-14T08:22:00.000-05:00

Friday morning my baby brother welcomed the newest member of his family into the world. Elise Katherine weighed in at 6# 8oz andwas 18 1/2" long. She is a precious little peanut. She looks so tiny but she weighed 1 1/2# more than Evvy when she was born.

Isn't she just beautiful?

Whatever should I wear?

2007-10-12T22:41:00.000-05:00

Tonight we were playing in Evvy's room and she got the bottom drawer of her dresser open. I was talking on the phone (bad mommy) and she pulled everything out of the drawer. She had such a good time. She was really trying to put the clothes on too. She kept stretching out the arm hole on a shirt and trying to put her head through it. She just giggled and then started rolling around in her pile of clothes. She was deliriously tired as she didn't get to bed til almost 9:00 which is an hour past bedtime. We just had a very busy evening running errands. Hopefully tomorrow will be more relaxing and maybe she will sleep in cause I kept her up late??? (a mom can wish).

My Pumpkin at the Pumpkin Patch

2007-10-06T20:03:00.001-05:00

Today Peggy and I took the kids to the pumpkin patch. There was a children's singer there giving a concert also. We saw Mr Stinky Feet. He was pretty entertaining and the kids seemed to like him. Evvy just loves music and was dancing around. It was a really fun day. The farm had all sorts of fun stuff for the kids: hayride, moon walk, horse swings (Evvy's favorite), rocking barrel horses, corn maize, train rides and pupkins. Lot of fun. We stayed for about 3 hours and I think I got a little sunburned on the face. It was so hot. Not the ideal fall weather that one would hope for going to the pumpkin farm but I think fun was had by all.

Here are some pictures. I will put the rest on our picture website.

Enjoy!
Susan

Giddy-up Horsie!
I'm lost in the Corn Maze!

Hay Ride

Me & My friends at the Pumpkin Patch.

Too Big!

Just Right! Let's go!

Look Who's Walking!

2007-10-05T23:27:00.000-05:00

Evelyn has finally decided that she is brave enough to take off on her own. She has been taking 1-3 steps at a time for a couple of weeks now but yesterday she really started taking off. She doesn't have to be prompted and stood up and asked to walk. In fact last night she was practically running! No stopping her now. She is so proud of herself and just giggles when she falls over.

Hopefully Blogger will upload the short video of her walking. We have a busy weekend ahead of us but I will try to post some more pictures/video of the sweetest baby in the world.

Susan

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See?

2007-09-23T19:04:00.000-05:00

I see Evvy looking at me....

When we were at Tan-Tar-A we ate at a restaurant that had stuffed animals. Evvy really liked the Bear. Brown Bear is one of Evvy's favorite bedtime stories.

I love the last one where it looks like the bear is kissing her hand or she is feeding the bear.

Susan

New Friends

2007-09-23T13:29:00.000-05:00

This summer we met some wonderful friends who also have children from Guatemala.

B and her family from the other side of the state came over and Evvy got to meet Max.

Then the weekend before Labor Day, we met a group of families who all have children from Guatemala at a small resort at the Lake of the Ozarks. It was a wonderful weekend and we met some very nice people and Evvy had fun playing and swimming with other kids.

Back to Blogging

2007-09-23T13:24:00.000-05:00

OK. I know I haven't posted in a very long time. Just busy and blogging has fallen to the bottem of the list. Evvy is wonderful. She is still not walking but getting braver. She has taken steps just not her preferred method of getting around yet. Although she will walk around the house behind me holding onto my pants with her read right up under my rear end. Kind of funny.

I guess to catch you up I will just add a few short posts about what we have done this summer.

Have fun looking at how much Miss Evvy is growing up.

Susan

More pictures

2007-08-19T20:52:00.000-05:00

Here are some more pictures taken today. Evvy is actually sitting on the potty. She went 3 times today on the potty chair. I love the dress she is wearing. It was given to her by some friends.

Enjoy!

Susan

I'm a Big Girl Now!

2007-08-19T12:36:00.000-05:00

Just had to post this. My girl is growing up. No she isn't walking yet. But the other day at the baby sitter, she went potty (1 & 2) on the big potty. I thought it was just a fluke. Peggy had given me Erica's potty chair this past week so I decided to go ahead and put it out.

Today after her nap, Miss Evvy was dry so I sat her on the potty chair out in the living room. She didn't fight it, just sat there a few minutes. She did her grunting face and low and behold she pooped and peed in the potty. She wasn't all too happy about having the diaper put back on either. I am not going to force the issue but I am going to keep trying before and after naps and meals.

We had a VERY busy week this week and Evvy has not been to ed on time since Monday. Last night we got to meet our friends from St Louis for the first time. I had met B on the adoption.com Guatemala forum during our adoption journeys. She brought her little boy Max home about 7 months ago. Her older sons had a competition her in Kansas City this weekend. So Evvy and Max met for the first time. Two very busy 1+ year olds. They weren't really interested in playing with each other too much but they sat next to each other at dinner and shared food back and forth. It was kind of cute. When they were restrained in high chairs was the only time we could get their picture taken together.

Anyway, here are a few pictures from the past week.

Susan

Busy Summer

2007-08-12T13:32:00.000-05:00

I have been informed by a good friend that I have been a bad blogger this summer. This is very true and I apologize to those looking for updates (pictures) of my sweet girl.

We have had a busy summer. Grandma and Grandpa came back to visit for 9 days while Evvy's regular babysitter was out of town. She loved having Grandma and Grandpa here so she could stay at home and maintain her normal napping schedule. I loved having Grandma and Grandpa here because my yard and gutters have never looked better and I have new curtains in the kitchen and we had a yummy dinner every night thanks to Grandma.

Evvy now weighs 21.4# and is still 29" tall. She pulls up and cruises all over the place. She loves to pull up on the back of my legs and walk with me around the house. She is up to 8 teeth. She has had a double ear infection, rash all over her body and a yucky sore throat virus but otherwise healthy and happy.

Evvy has been my little fish this year. She LOVES the waterpark. She will fall off of the edge of the pool into my arms and go under and come back up. She does this over and over again. She moves her arms and legs like she is swimming. I guess I am too afraid to let go of her and see if she will float back up but I half think she would. She just loves being in the water.

Funny thing about water though. I bought her a little kiddy sprinkler for her birthday and finally set it up yesterday when it was so hot and I didn't really want to go to the waterpark. She HATED the sprinkler. She just screamed and cried until I picked her up. Maybe it was the grass. She finally tolerated it a little if I would hold her and she could just put her hand in the stream of water (of course mommy was the one that got the wettest!).

Here are some pictures of Evvy enjoying her summer.

Susan

Flying Lessons with Grandpa

2007-07-18T21:08:00.000-05:00

Grandma and Grandpa flew in for a quick visit this week. They arrived Sunday evening and left this morning (Wednesday). Dad bought a small airplane back in June and is enjoying flying around visiting family. Mom & Dad were at a family reunion in St Louis so they flew on over since they were in the neighborhood. It only took them a little over an hour (1 hour 9 minutes to be exact) to fly across the whole state. Much better than driving. They flew into a small regional airport that is only about 15 minutes from our house. Very convenient. We went and picked them up Sunday evening when they landed. Evvy got to sit in the "pilot's seat." Grandpa hopes she is bitten with the flying bug! She remembers grandma and grandpa very well. She about jumped out of my arms into Grandpa's arms at the airport. It was very sweet. She enjoyed snuggling up with Grandma too. Grandma had the magic touch putting Evvy to sleep. She slept until 8:30 the first morning they were here and took 2 naps. When Grandpa was in charge the next morning she didn't nap. He didn't want her to be lonely and couldn't just leave her in the room (sigh).

We had a nice visit and were able to go swimming Monday night. Evvy showed Grandpa & Grandma how much she LOVES to swim. She would go under water and pop back up (with help of course) and just laugh and want to go again.

Here are a few pictures that we took at the airport with Grandma and Grandpa. They will be back in 2 weeks to babysit while Evvy's regular babysitter goes on vacation.

Susan

One Year ago....

2007-07-06T21:46:00.000-05:00

One year ago today I first saw pictures of my beautiful daughter. It seems just like yesterday. I refer to that day I first saw her picture as the day that she was born into my heart. So much has happened in the past year. I first totally fell in love with the pictures I received of my daughter and hearing all about her from her wonderful foster family. Then I met her in November and truly fell in love with her and felt like I was really her mother. Then the agony of going through the court system just made me love and want her home with me all the more. Then the magical day that she was placed in my arms forever. The last year I have changed in so many ways. I don't focus so much on what I need but what does Evelyn need. I have always dreamed of being a mother and it still seems surreal sometimes that I am indeed Evvy's mother. But every night as we read get our pajamas on, read our night time stories and rock and have a bottle as she totally cuddles into my chest, it feels so right. She is my daughter and I will do all in my power to protect her for the rest of her life. She truly completes me and brings so much happiness and joy into my life.

These pictures are the first pictures I saw of Evelyn. The first one is taken when she was placed with her foster family on June 15, 2006. The second one was taken 1 year ago today at her doctor's appointment and the last one is a picture taken 2 days ago on July 4th.

Love you baby girl!

Happy Independence Day!

2007-07-06T21:17:00.000-05:00

Happy 4th of July! Evvy enjoyed her first Independence Day as she grows more and more independent. We got up nice and early as early and met Peggy and her kids at Cracker Barrel for breakfast. It was really nice to just sit and chat and relax with our kids. The kids were really well behaved. Evvy LOVES Cracker Barrel but I think she just really enjoys food. She eats just about anything but she does have her moods just like adults I think. One day she will eat something and the next day refuses to eat it. It is almost like she is saying, "I had that yesterday, give me something new."

Anyway, after naptime (she slept almost 2 hours!) we got up and had lunch and went to the waterpark. I need to remember to bring the camera to the waterpark. She has such joy there. She was more tentative the first few times we went but now she just crawls all over the place in the water and splashes and has a great time. She enjoys just floating around the lazy river in a tube also.

After we had been at the pool for 2 hours, it got really cloudy and apparently there was lightning because they told everyone to get out of the pool. We went ahead and went home and I am so glad that we did. It started pouring rain within 30 minutes. Great napping weather but alas, she didn't really want to nap for long. We hung out at the house and had dinner (ribs & potato salad which she didn't mind having 2 days in a row :) Finally, the rain stopped and it cleared off in time for the fireworks. We went to the local display and sat right near where they were shooting them off. Since they didn't start until 9:30, Evvy was super tired and she fell asleep about 9:15. I layed her in the stroller and she snoozed the rest of the time. She didn't even flinch or jump with all the loud bangs. It was soooo noisy and she slept through it all. I got her home and didn't even change her into jammies. She slept all night and was tired when I got her up for the sitter in the morning.

Here are a few pictures of Miss Evelyn in her 4th of July outfit (from Grandma) & hairbow. First time I got a bow to stay in all day. I had to put in some gel to stiffen it up though.

Susan

I need a Kleenex please!

2007-07-01T20:32:00.000-05:00

So this is about how much Kleenex we have gone through the past couple of days. Actually, it might have been a little more than this because we worked through all the crumpled ones pictured here and got down to the few remaining in the box.

I was working on the computer one morning and Evvy, who is much more mobile now, had pulled a box of Kleenex off of the table and was sitting very happily plucking them one at a time out of the box. Luckily she hadn't started shredding them yet because we definitely needed those Kleenexes this week. We have both had very runny noses. But today my girl really was cranky and kept grabbing at her ears. I debated for a bit but finally decided to take her to the doctor's office. I LOVE my doctor's office. They actually have an urgent care clinic open on the weekends. By the time that I decided that she might be sicker than just the runny nose, it was 4:30. The urgent care closes at 5:00. I threw her in the car and luckily remembered how to get there. We were in and out super quick. It takes about 15 minutes to get there and so we arrived at 4:45 and we were out by 5:00. The nurse practioner that saw her, looked in both ears (after cleaning the wax out) and declared that she has a double ear infection. Luckily it looks like we caught it early before it got oozy. Having never experienced the oozing ear infection, I am grateful to not have to at this point. She has a RX for amoxicillan which should clear up the infection.

What did I learn from this experience? Trust your instincts. My girl is so happy most of the time and she wasn't just sitting her screaming non-stop BUT she was waking up screaming from her nap (she usually wakes up happy), would scream when I put her down and just was overall cranky. I could have just chalked this up to the fact that she has a gunky nose and is teething (cut through 2 this week and I think she is working on at least 2 more and maybe some molars too). But at one point, she just grabbed both of her ears at the same time. She has always grabbed at her ears when she is tired or nervous but this was different. Even as I was driving to the doctor, I doubted myself. But then I thought, if she isn't sick that is even better but better to be safe than sorry. It is so hard when they can't talk and tell you what is wrong.

Hopefully she will feel better soon. Luckily, she is still pretty good natured still even being sick, just much more clingy and needy.

Susan

Exploring the great outdoors

2007-06-26T21:14:00.000-05:00

Summer is hear and it has been quite warm. There have however been a few nice evenings where it wasn't unbearable. Evvy loves being outside even if it is just to sit on my lap or on the sidewalk. Now that she is more mobile, I think she enjoys it even more. Last evening, I put her big quilt from Grandma out on the grass to let her sit on it. She sat on it for a few seconds and then she was off to explore the grass, flowers, pots, dirt, etc. I got my camera and just took a bunch of pictures trying to figure out all of the features of the camera. It has a lot of fun color swapping/enhancement features that I really just need to read about in the manual. Anyway, here are a few that I like of my girl playing in the grass and mommy's flower garden.

Susan

Watch out Duchess!

2007-06-25T21:38:00.000-05:00

I've been a bad blogger lately. Work and baby have kept me very busy and we are pretty tired at night.

But here are a few pictures of Evvy chasing the Duchess (our old cat). She has gotten pretty fast with crawling and enjoy her mobiltiy. She is really enjoying more independence since she can go where she wants now. We are working on boundaries (don't eat the cat food or get in the cat box). I've only had to dig cat food out of her mouth twice so far. She is just so darn fast!

One week down!

2007-06-15T17:41:00.000-05:00

Well Evvy and I survived our first week of mommy working and baby going to the sitter. After the first day of being sad and crying she has been fine. She really enjoys the sitter's girls (8, 6, 4) and then her best friend Erica goes on Wednesday mornings.

She greets me each evening with the biggest smile and laugh that it warms my heart. She starts flapping her arms and legs for me to pick her up. Heartwarming but also heartbreaking that I can't be with her all day. The only issue so far is that she isn't napping very well. We think it is because their is so much going on in the house and next week J is going to try to put her to sleep upstairs away from the commotion of the other kids.

Work for me was VERY busy as I figured out all the outstanding issues with the new system integration so that I could test fixes and communicate semi-intelligently about the issues with IT and Business people. Luckily many of the issues seem to be resolved/fixed with only a few more major issues left.

At the end of each day, Evvy and Mommy are very tired. There were several days that she was asleep by 7:00. I have been to bed much earlier also. I have to get up about 45 minutes earlier to make sure I have everything ready for both of us for the day. Luckily Evvy has slept very well and through the night except for one night when she fell asleep after having only taken 1/2 her bottle. I think she was just hungry come 3:00am. She went back to sleep and I had to wake her up to go to the sitters.

Here are a few of the portraits that we had done last week. We go pickup the actual prints on Monday. I was pleased with some of the good shots that were captured.

Susan

First Day Back at Work....First Day at Sitter

2007-06-11T20:48:00.000-05:00

Well, I was up bright and early this morning to make sure I was ready before Evvy got up and that everything was in the car and ready to go. I had plenty of time and we ended up being early. Evvy woke up right before I went into her room. I was glad that I didn't have to wake her up.

When we got to the sitter's house, she went happily to Miss J and snuggled right into her while I explained her scheduled, gave her my contact info and showed her the food I brought. She didn't cry or reach for me when I left. It made me a little sad but happy that she didn't feel distressed.

I had a VERY busy day at work. I think they are very glad that I am back. We had a HUGE implementation of new computer system last week and it didn't go too smoothly. Things seemed a little better today but there are still a lot of issues to be worked through. My backup person that handled things (and very well she did) while I was gone came up and bowed down to me and said, "Thank Goodness you are back." I got that a lot today. I guess it made me feel good but I missed my baby all day and thought about her all day. Since I was so busy, the day went pretty quickly.

When I went to pickup Evvy, Miss J said that she had a pretty tough day. She only drank 1 1/2 bottles and not a full bottle at one sitting like she normally does before a nap. She didn't eat much breakfast or lunch. She napped in the car a little while they ran a couple of errands in the morning and then cried and cried in the afternoon when it was time for nap. She didn't want to be held or put down. It broke my heart when she told me (I am crying just thinking about it now). My poor baby thought that I had abandoned her. She just went through separation 2 short months ago and she had to go through it again today. When I came, Miss J said that she had been sitting on the floor playing and just saying "mamamamama." When she brought her to the door when I knocked, my sweet baby's face lit up and she reached out and was so happy to see me. She just kept patting my on the chest and face. I could feel the relief she felt.

I don't know how she will do tomorrow when I drop her off since she knows what is coming. I hope she does OK. I hope that after a couple of days of her seeing that I come back every night, she feels secure and settles down into a routine.

We came home and I just let her sit with me on the floor. She was so happy to play with her toys. I will have to bring a few more to leave at Miss J's tomorrow. Then we ate dinner together tonight. She ate very well and drank about 6 oz of milk out of her sippy cup. Then we went for a walk. She babbled a lot and kept looking back to make sure I was still there. When we came home, we sat and read some books and then went to take a bath. She was soooo tired, she didn't even want to stay in the tub. She cried to get out. She didn't want to read our night time books (I read them but skipped the pages that she flipped past). She really just wanted her bottle and to go to sleep. The poor little thing was just exhausted. She drank her whole bottle and was fast asleep. She hadn't moved when I went in to check on her a little bit ago (blanket still on her).

She is really starting to understand one to one correlations with names and things. She got two balloons for her birthday. In the book we read before bedtime (Goodnight Moon/Buenos Noche Luna) it says "buenos noche globo rojo" (good night red balloon). When I read that the other night, she looked up at her balloon and clapped. She is really grasping words. I like to think that I am helping her language skills by speaking to her in Spanish which builds on the language skills that she has already built during this first year of her life in Guatemala.

Anyway, long day, I am so tired (emotionally and physically).

Thank you to all my friends and families who called and sent me well wishes and checked up on me tonight after our first day back to work/at the sitter.

We will get through this as we learn our new routine together.

Susan

Going back to work tomorrow

2007-06-10T13:51:00.000-05:00

Today is my last full day before I go back to work tomorrow. I'm a little sad and reality hasn't hit yet. I am just enjoying sitting her watching my baby girl play and read. She has changed so much in the past 2 months.

Yesterday we went and had her carseat switched to front facing and one of the volunteers offered to hold her while I filled out the paperwork. The volunteer was one who helped install the carseat rear facing before Miss Evelyn came home so she remembered me and the adoption story. She was very sweet. When she went to the lady, Evelyn looked around to make sure I was still there and saw me but she started crying and reached out for me. Can I tell you I have never been so happy to see her cry! It is a definite sign of attachment. Not that I was really worried but it does sho that she will not just go to anyone.

Hopefully she will do well at the sitters tomorrow. I am a little worried but I am sure she will be fine. She has been to Jeanie's house and met the girls and been to the park with them twice. I think it will probably be harder for me. I wish I didn't have to go back to work but obviously it is a necessity if I want to be able to feed and provide for my sweet girl.

Send me lots of good vibes tomorrow! I know moms do this everyday but it is my first time and I haven't been a mom very long.

Susan

Happy Birthday Evvy!

2007-06-07T08:48:00.001-05:00

Evelyn May officially turned 1 yesterday. We had a grand day together. We went and got a birthday baloon, went to the toy store where mommy bought her some new toys and the nice lady gave her another balloon. Then last night she had her best friend Erica come over with her mommy, daddy and two brothers Cameron and Parker to have pizza and cupcakes and open presents. She was really cute. Didn't know what to think of opening presents but sure did like what was inside. I didn't really get her too much as she is only 1 and really just got a lot of new stuff when she came home. I did get her a few developmental toys (plastic beads that go together, shape sorting blocks and a Little People mini van with a mommy and baby and then a sprinkler to play with outside. She also got some new books from her friends and a great xylaphone. She had a great time playing with Erica and the boys.

I must say she was very underwhelmed with the cupcakes I made for this party. We had already celebrated her birthday with our family at the reunion last week and I had made a tres leches layer cake. She went to town on that cake and really dug her hands and face in and actually ate (or should I say destroyed) the cake. When I put the cupcake on her tray, she tried to chuck it over the side several times. It landed upside down on the tray. She finally stuck her hands in the frosting and ate some of it. She did manage to get frosting all over her face and the tray. I think she really just wanted to play with the new toys and had had enough of eating.
Evvy had a week of a lot of firsts also. Since Saturday she has really started crawling which means she can go after mommy and the cats. She also went to the waterpark for the first (& 2nd) time. She really likes floating in a tube on the lazy river with mommy. On her birthday she woke up and sat up in her crib. It made her mad because her legs were stuck out of the slats and she couldn't get them out. Not a happy way to wake up. Then at naptime she got so mad that she pulled herself up and when I went in to check on her there she was standing up in her crib. She thinks it is pretty cool but doesn't know how to get back down yet. Needless to say, the crib mattress is now lowered all the way down so that she doesn't take a tumble out of the crib.

Here are some pictures from both of her parties. I have created an album of all the birthday pictures. Put the slide show on fast as there are a lot of them and I just can't choose so I put them all out there!

Susan

Evvy is on the move!

2007-06-05T07:27:00.000-05:00

I forgot to mention that last Saturday after returning from the family reunion, Miss Evvy decided that it was time to really start crawling. She is now up on hands and knees and moving all over the place. I had to move some things out of the entertainment center since she now can get into it whenever she wants. It is now truly HER entertainment center filled with her toys!

Susan

Busy social calendar

2007-06-05T07:17:00.000-05:00

Since we have been back from the reunion, we have been very busy. We kicked back on Saturday so mommy could do laundry and clean up the house after Nancy and her boys left. On Sunday, we were invited to a picnic with some of my former and current work friends. There were 4 other little kids there for Evvy to play with (2 10 month olds & 2 almost 2 year olds).

On Monday, the weather finally got pretty and warm enough so that we could go to the waterpark for the first time this season. The kiddie pool area was FREEZING! Evvy didn't enjoy that part too much. She was content sitting on the edge with Mommy, Peggy and another friend we met at the park. Erica & Emma really enjoyed running and splasing in the water, Evvy did like the lazy river a lot. We got a double tube. The side that Evvy sat on has an enclosed bottom so I splashed some water in there and she just laid back and chilled. She only took a 30 minute nap at the park so she was crashed by 7:30 that night and slept until almost 6:30 this morning! Now if mommy could just figure out how to sleep when baby sleeps! I stayed up way too late editing the pictures so I could get them out on our picture web site.

The rest of the week is busy also. If the weather is nice we are going to the waterpark again today and hopefully baby Sam (also from Guatemala) and his mommy Julie will join us there. Wednesday is Evvy's official birthday. I am going to make cupcakes and have Peggy's family over to sing happy birthday since we already did a big celebration at the reunion last week. I need to get Evvy's 1-year pictures made this week. Then Saturday we were invited to another BBQ to celebrate a friend's daughter's 2nd b-day and Sunday we have a picnic with families from our adoption agency. Then Monday, I have to go back to work :(

No new pictures today. I will try to remember to take the camera to the waterpark next time so you can see the girl chillin on the lazy river.

More later this week!
Susan

Home from the Family Reunion

2007-06-04T11:09:00.000-05:00

We got home Friday night from a weeklong visit with our family.

Last week started with my sister Nancy and her husband and FIVE boys (Sam, Jake, Ben, Alex & Isaac) stopping at our house the Saturday before Memorial Day. They live in Western Nebraska (about 8-9 hours away) and used our house as a waystation on their way to the family reunion. Evvy didn't quite know what to make of all those noisy boys but she enjoyed all the extra love & attention from her cousins.

Monday morning we left along with Nancy's family to drive to Mountain View, Arkansas to meet up with the rest of the family. We left at 8am and were there by 2:30. Evvy was a great traveller. She sat in her carseat and either slept or read a book for the 6 1/2 hour car ride to Arkansas. I am very blessed to have a child that is so contented. We stayed at a nice little compound that had 4 very nice (not rustic at all) cabins including a nice cook/dining hall. We stayed in a cabin with Uncle Robert, Aunt Aimee & cousin Ethan from Alabama. Evvy did remarkably well sleeping in the pack & play porta crib. I wasn't sure how she would do sleeping out in the open with everyone around her but she did great. We brought her sleeping CD and it really was pretty quiet. The cabin was a good place to get away to when we got too tired or overwhelmed.

Evvy LOVED being around her grandpa. This was her 3rd time being with Grandpa. He & Grandmas came with me to pick her up in Guatemala and then visited a few weeks ago. Whenever Grandpa would walk in the room, Evvy's little arms and legs would start pumping like crazy. If for some reason, Grandpa didn't acknowledge her by coming over, she would throw a fit. If Grandpa left the room, she would cry. I think there is a good bond between these two. I think we might be seeing more of Grandpa too because he just bought a small airplane so that he and Grandma can go and visit all their Grandchildren more often.

Evvy also liked meeting her Uncle John & Aunt Vickie & cousin Adam from Memphis. Aunt Vickie had Evvy decked out with some cute new outfits that she had sent to welcome Evvy home. Cousin Adam was funny too. He is VERY tall and has lots of curly hair so she thought he was pretty funny. Evvy sure seems to like men. I wonder if this is a sign of what I have to look forward to in her teenage years.

She got to see Uncle Allan and cousins Abby & Ally again from Texas (they visited over Mother's Day weekend) but also go to meet the brothers Avram & Andrew. Avram just graduated from High School and Andrew will be a senior this next year. She thought they were all pretty neat and funny. The boys were very sweet with her making silly faces and entertaining her.

Evvy got to go swimming in a swimming pool for the first time. She really enjoyed it a lot I think even though it was a bit chilly. We also went to a lake twice which she enjoyed. She got to sit in sand (didn't like this so much at first) and build a pile of sand with grandpa. She took a long nap under a tree which allowed mommy to lay in the sun for a bit and try to take the white off of her legs (not much progress made there yet).

We also ate LOTS of yummy food! Evvy really liked eating watermelon, especially if Grandpa was feeding it to her. She also really liked the homemade ice-cream and the ice sticks (popsicles in plastic tubes).

We celebrated Evvy's 1st birthday with the family. I brought her birthday crown and made a tres leches cake for her. It was really pretty simple but she had a good time. I will post the birthday cake pictures on her actual birthday (just 1 more days!).

I will post a few of the vacation pictures on the blog and put the rest of them on our photoalbum website (see link at left) if you want to see them all.

As I have said many times, I am so grateful for my wonderful daughter. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect little girl. She is so laid back and easy going. She really likes to be with a lot of people but can also be content just hanging out at home with mommy. I was a little worried that she would miss being around the big family once we got home but she seems to be OK ruling the house with the cats & mom. It feels like she has always been a part of our family.

This will be a busy week. It is my last week before I go back to work (sadness) so I plan to spend lots of time with my girl at the pool (weather permitting).

Susan & Evvy

Evvy exploring a plant in a rocky alcove.

This water is just way too cold!

Look who's ready for vacation

2007-05-26T20:55:00.000-05:00

Well, Miss Evvy has been home for 6 weeks and is ready to take a trip to meet the rest of her family. Every 3 years our family has an official family reunion where my parents, all of the siblings & their spouces, nieces and nephews get together for a week of fun. We are all spread out so much that it is hard to get everyone together at the same time. So we will be gathering from Alabama, Tennessee, Texas, Missouri and Nebraska and meeting in Arkansas. It was a neutral place to go and we found a really pretty place 3 years ago that we decided we would use that as our place to have reunions. This year is a big turning point in the lives of many people in our family. I have 2 nephews graduating from High School (Avram tonight and Adam tomorrow night). Evelyn joined the family and Rob & Aimee are expecting a baby girl in October. Next year Andrew will graduate from high school and Abby will start high school. I can't believe how our family is growing up.

Last weekend when Grandma & Grandpa were visiting, Evvy wanted to model some of her new vacation wear and I took a couple of pictures. The one with her funny face is probably my favorite. That is her signature face. She does her lips like that all the time. I call them her kissy lips and kiss her everytime she does it. I have discovered that if I blow in her face, I am almost always assured to get her kissy face.

We are hoping that both Evvy and I will be over our colds by Monday so that we can enjoy the pool, lake and our family.

BFF (part 2)

2007-05-26T12:16:00.000-05:00

OK. I looked to see if I had any pictures of Peggy and I from junior high/high school on the computer and don't have them scanned. Peggy said it was ok if I didn't post them :)

When I started out to write the original post, I just wanted to share pictures of my dear girl and her friend Erica. But then I got a bit nostalgic thinking about where our girls' friendship really started. It was back when their mom's were just young girls and now a 1/4 of a century later our girls are on their way to becoming best friends. I hope that they can develop the same long-lasting friendship that their mom's have.

The other night when Evvy and I were at Peggy's house for our weekly quilt night, I asked Erica, "who is your best friend?" She answered appropriately, "baby Evvy!" and then leaned over and gave her a big kiss. Erica is really learning a lot about sharing and watching out for her little friend. I think there has been a little jealousy because Evvy gets so much attention. We just keep pointing out all the things that Erica can do that baby Evvy can't do (like eat a chocolate brownie!).

Anyway, here are some pictures of the next generation of BFF.

Best Friends Forever (BFF) part 1

2007-05-21T15:16:00.000-05:00

Peggy and I first met in 7th grade but I thought she was a braniac nerd. Well then in 8th grade we both were braniac nerds :) and became best of friends. That was back in 1979 if I am doing the math right. That is many many years. I moved after high school because my dad took a job in Washington DC. Peggy and I remained friends and I was even able to go back that year for a visit over the Christmas holidays. We both went to separate universities/colleges but still kept in touch. During my college years I went to Guatemala to serve a mission for the LDS Church. I didn't hear from Peggy much but I have a fond memory of receiving a manilla envelope stuffed with a years worth of letters and pictures that Peggy had written. She wrote the letters just never got around to mailing them. I remember that day being so happy that my good friend hadn't forgotten about me. I returned from Guatemala and went back to finish up college. I remember receiving a wedding invitation from Peggy at the end of the school year. I still kick myself that I didn't go to her wedding. I was young and without resources though and my family lived in Alabama at the time I think and we were getting ready to go on a trip back to Guatemala and in the process of moving to Buffalo, NY. Anyway, we kept in sporadic contact over the years.

After I finished my graduate studies, I was driving from Utah to Buffalo New York moving myself. I was driving through Kansas City where Peggy had moved to after getting married. I had her work phone# and decided I would really regret it if I didn't call her. So I stopped and called and she gave me directions on how to get to her work (Yellow Freight general offices). I was dressed in sweats and probably looked pretty travel weary but we went out and had a lunch together and had a great time catching up. I remember thinking, wow, she works at a really nice office building and a good company. I remember looking through the atrium like area and there was an actual tractor trailer parked in their building (it is an antique of one of the original Yellow Freight trucks). I remember driving the rest of the way to Buffalo and seeing tons of Yellow Freight trucks on the road.

Fast forward a few years. I got tired of the cold and snow of Buffalo and my parents had retired to Texas so I didn't have familiy there anymore. My brother and his family had also moved to Austin, TX. So I decided I was ready for a change in scenery and packed up and moved to Austin. Well after being there a few months, Yellow Freight opened up an Inside Sales Center in Austin and I took a job working there having remembered that Peggy worked for them and it was a good company to work for. I was so excited to tell Peggy that we now worked for the same company. Now remember, this was a long time ago before the days of the internet and email. But our company had intramail so that we could email people within the company. This is how Peggy and I reconnected after all the years. The year I took the job with Yellow was our 10 year high school reunion. Peggy invited me to join her and her husband and baby son and go to the reunion together. So I flew from Austin to Kansas City and Peggy picked me up at the airport and I stayed at her house (the same one she now lives in). We drove to Des Moines and stayed with her mom & dad and went to the reunion together. I have such fond memories. This was the first time I met her oldest son Cameron. He was just a little guy back then. Fast forward another year or so. I was still working for Yellow Freight and was sent to Kansas City for 2 weeks for some training. I was able to see my good friend again as we were both working in the same building for 2 weeks. I also went up to her house and we went shopping at the mall one evening.

Fast forward another couple of years. Peggy got laid off from Yellow Freight :( I then got transferred to Kansas City to work at the General Offices. Had she not been laid off we would have been working in the same building again. However, we reconnected and really picked up where we left off I guess. We both discovered that we had a love of quilting although we were both amateurs back then. I had started taking some classes before I left to make a quilt (just finished it this year--well at least the piecing--and I have now lived here 10 years). We started to get together regularly to quilt together. Four years after moving to Kansas City, I bought a house in the same suburb as Peggy. We now live 10 minutes apart and see or talk to each other almost every day. Her kids are like my own niece and nephews. Her youngest is a sweet, precocious almost 3 year old named Erica. I am so blessed to have such a good friend in Peggy and her family. They are a part of my family and a wonderful support to me. I hope that I am as much as a support and friend to her as she has been to me over these past 24 years (oh that hurts to write). I don't feel that old :)

Stay tuned for part 2 of BFF.
Susan (I will have to see if I can find a picture on my other computer to post a then and now picture.)

Build-a-Bear for Orphans

2007-05-21T12:59:00.000-05:00

(Lots of new pictures on my picture link.)

Saturday, Build-a-Bear stores all over the country hosted an event to let customers build bears for free that Build-a-Bear is donating to adoption agencies who will be distributing them to orphanages around the world. My agency is getting about 400 of the bears and will be donating them to various orphanages in Russia. I went Saturday morning with my mom and Evelyn and we stuffed two bears to donate. Evvy really liked the bears and was a little sad to put them in the donation box. Felt good to do something for such a good cause.

Here are some pictures we took.

Evvy holding a bear before it was stuffed

Grandma stuffing a bear

Evvy stuffing a bear

Mommy & Evvy with stuffed bears

Evvy liked the tags!

Hot Tamales!

2007-05-20T22:19:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I had a welcome home party for baby Evvy. I had decided long ago that I wanted to serve "Guatemalan" food for her party. As the time grew closer I started to feel somewhat overwhelmed in thinking about making the food and getting everything ready. But alas, I work very well under pressure with a deadline and I have WONDERFUL supportive friends.

The first thing to be done was to make the tamales. Guatemalan tamales are different than Mexican tamales. They are larger and have more "masa" which is the cornmeal dough. My dear friend Peggy came over and we made a day of making tamales. I couldn't have done it without her help and moral support.

Steps to make the tamales:
1) Made sauce (boiled tomatoes; heated various peppers, cinnamon and spices to release their aroma; ground up spices; add to tomatoes; add chicken to sauce to absorb flavors)

2) Made masa by adding water, butter and sugar to masa harina flour and cooking for about 30 minutes while stirring. This step took a LOT of muscle from both of us as the masa gets very thick and we didn't want to burn it.
3) Assemble the tamales
4) Take a square of aluminum foil

Add a blob of masa to the middle

Form a rectangle of the masa approximately 1" thick

I froze the tamales until the day of the party and then I let them thaw and put them in a deep pot with about 6" of water. You then cover the pot and let them steam for 1 1/2-2 hours. You can leave them in the pot to keep them hot and put them on a platter for people to serve themselves. To eat, cut the rolled ends of the foil off and unfold the middle to make a small serving plate. We discovered that we probably should have added more sauce to the tamale but no problem, we had TONS of extra sauce so I put a dish next to the tamales so people could spoon more over them.

Everyone said they were yummy. I personally thought they weren't quite right but I guess I was the only one that had tasted the real thing in Guatemala.

Here are some pictures of the process and finished product.

Susan

Mother's Day weekend pictures

2007-05-13T20:25:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures from this weekend when Uncle Allan, Aunt Anna and cousins Abby and Ally came to visit baby Evvy. Yes, it was difficult to keep the names straight even for me. I kept calling Evvy, Ally and Abby and the same with the girls. We had a great time. Evvy really liked having her cousins visit. The cats were glad to have them leave ;( There are more pictures from the last week on the link in the sidebar.

Baby Evvy meets her TX uncle, aunt and 2 cousins (boys couldn't come).

(above: Abby, me, Uncle Allan, Evvy & Ally)

Aunt Anna, Abby, Uncle Allan, Evvy, Ally

Happy Mother's Day

2007-05-13T17:24:00.000-05:00

What a dream come true. Mother's Day used to be a pretty depressing day for me thinking that I had always wanted to be a mother but probably never would be.

This year my sweet angel gave me two (well really more) wonderful mother's day presents. First, she slept all night and second she took a 2 hour afternoon nap which meant that I got about 1 1/2 hour afternoon nap. HEAVEN!

I never could have imagined the joy that a daughter could bring into my life. It is all about the simple things. She is sitting on the floor being super vocal (mamamamamama and other sweet sounds). I am watching Pride & Prejudice and she will stop and watch it at some points so I know we are true soul mates. She really likes Mr Darcy :)

I had a totally wonderful weekend. Yesterday afternoon my brother Allan and his wife and two girls (the two boys were home working) drove up from Austin to visit. It was a terribly long drive and they weren't here even 24 hours but it was a wonderful visit and so glad that they were willing to sacrifice to come meet Evelyn. She was a perfect angel and very smiley and giggly and I mention again, slept all night! We went out with our mutual friends Lee and Michelle last night and just had a nice time visiting and eating good food and listening to good music. Evvy LOVES music. I knew this but when the guy was singing (and we weren't even in the main room where he was at) she would move her body and clap and just get so excited. Makes me wonder if she was a Party Girl in Guatemala :) She just really enjoys being out around people doing things.

Evvy is cutting her two top teeth. One has cut through and the other is really close.
tS
Evvy wants to type: f/...
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?',mhnmk nj hj vbnm,k

OK. baby wants mommy to come play. I will post pictures later.

Susan

Pictures of my two babies

2007-05-09T21:47:00.000-05:00

Here are a few pictures taken over the past week. You can see how happy Evvy is. She really wants to be friends with Bella (black cat) but Bella isn't so sure yet. Bella has been checking out the crib, changing table and rocking chair though. In fact today, I had a drawer in the dresser open and Bella climbed in and snuggled down in some blankets. Evvy saw her and went over to check her out. Bella felt a little cornered so she just laid there and pretended she was invisible. Evvy sure does love her cats. She is going to win them over yet.

Modeling my cute outfit from Aunt Nancy. Isn't it cute?
I really want to crawl....
I love the balloon ribbons from my welcome home!
Is this crib up to cat standards.
I hope I don't get my head stuck!

If Bella is going to be in my crib, then I am going to play with her fun toys!

Trying to catch up...a few pictures

2007-05-09T21:33:00.000-05:00

OK. I know I have been TERRIBLE at blogging since coming home. No excuses except that it is just so much more fun to play with my girl and truthfully the first 3 weeks I was totally exhausted by the evening when she went down to bed.

I will try to go back and fill in some of the blanks but here is a synoposis of the past 3 weeks since we came home.

Evvy has been on and off again a good sleeper. She generally goes to bed by 7:30 and has been getting up at 6:30. Then she generally takes a nap at 10:00 and 2:00. Of course these are on a good day and night. There have been many nights that she has woken up at least once at varying times. I have learned after a few rough nights that I just need to give her a bottle (4-6 oz) and she will go back to sleep pretty easily. I got lucky last night and she slept until 5:30, took 4 oz of formula and then went back to sleep until 8:30! That has never happened before. But then she decided that she didn't need a morning nap. However, she took a 2 1/2 hour afternoon nap. But then she had trouble going to sleep tonight. I will give her a little credit though. I think she is teething. Hopefully she will sleep well tonight. Mommy is sure happier when she gets a good nights sleep.

I had about a week where I was sick...heartburn, vomiting and yucky poops. I went to the doctor last Monday and she gave me a RX for the nausea and something to sprinkle on my food to help balance my intestinal bacteria. Then they had me collect some "samples" to bring in for analysis to see if I perhaps picked up something in Guatemala. My intestinal system has not been quite right since I went down in November to visit. I got a call this past Monday saying that I have yeast in my stool samples. They put me on another RX (diflucan or something like that) that I will take for a week. It is supposed to clear up fungus I think. They also referred me to a gastroenterologist. I haven't made an appointment yet but will do it. I am just glad that the bad heartburn and nausea are gone. That was the week that my angel wasn't sleeping like an angel which made it tough on both of us. Thankfully I am feeling soooo much better this week and we are enjoying playing together again.

Evvy had her first doctor's appointment last Wednesday. She was pretty good. Definitely didn't like having her ears looked at. She peed on the doctor when she took the diaper off to examen her. Then came the traumatic part. They took 3 tubes of blood from her arm. She doesn't have very good veins but they finally found one to work with and she only had to get poked once thankfully. The lab tech was really good. Evvy screamed the whole times. It seemed like an eternity. She bounced back pretty well though when I gave her some fruit puffs. The girl loves those fruit puffs. They cure all! Now I am just anxiously awaiting the results of the lab tests. They run a whole battery of tests on all internationally adopted children to check for everything since we have no medical/family history. They also check the immunity levels from the vaccines that she received in Guatemala to see if any of them need to be readministered.

I will try to post more regularly with at least pictures because I know that is really what everyone wants to see anyway.

Susan

Pickup Trip Day 1 (Saturday)

2007-04-24T16:33:00.000-05:00

Day 1 started very early. I think we were all up by about 3am (alarms were set for 3:30). We left for the airport just before 4am for our 6am flight to Houston. It was raining quite a bit and the forcast was for snow. By the time we got closer to the airport, it was like driving through a white tunnel as it was indeed snowing on April 14. Crazy weather. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time and got the bags checked and through security with plenty of time to spare. Once we boarded the plane, they needed to de-ice it since it was cold and snowy. The flight was delayed about 40 minutes leaving. Luckily we had over an hour to connect in Houston. We arrived at the gate in Houston as they were boarding the flight to Guatemala City.

The flight to Guatemala City was pretty uneventful. The flight had 2 or 3 different medical missions going to Guatemala to do medical volunteer work. This meant that the flight was very full and there was a lot of baggage. Needless to say, not all of our baggage made it to Guatemala. Mom and Dad's suitcase of clothes didn't make it but their shoes and toiletries did. Mine and Evvy's suitcase made it but the suitcase of gifts didn't make it. I was somewhat sick thinking that the suitcase of gifts was lost as I had the quilt I made for Julieta in it and the thought of losing that was truly a horrible feeling.

As we were boarding the plane in Houston, a lady behind us in the jetway asked if we were going to pickup a baby. It was a family that had responded to a post on the adoption forum saying they would be staying at the Clarion and had an Embassy appointment on Monday also. It is amazing the people that I have met through the internet and adoption forum especially. This family also happened to be using the same agency as me. Fortunately for them, they had a great experience with the agency and this was their second adoption through them. They have a 3-4 year old daughter (Mia) and were picking up their 10-11 month old son (Rio). They are a very nice family. The wife's mother was travelling with them. We ran into them throughout our stay. Oh yeah, they also live in Missouri. Such a small world.

We caught the shuttle to the hotel and got checked in by about 12:30 or so I guess. We went up and got settled in the room and chilled out a bit. I didn't have specifics about when the foster family would be coming. I was told to expect around 3pm. This gave me a chance to lay down a bit and relax (yeah right). I felt that mom and dad couldn't change clothes but they took it in stride. We walked around the neigborhood for a few minutes and bought some water and diapers. I also picked up some roses from a street vendor to give to Julieta since her gifts didn't arrive and I wanted to give her something. When we got back to the hotel, I decided to go ahead and change clothes (I was sweating like crazy) and lay down for a few minutes. I had no sooner laid down than the phone rang (1:10 pm). It was "Stephen" and Johnny (the facilitator and adoption agency rep). They said they were downstairs with the paperwork that we need to go over and that the foster family should be there within about 30 minutes.

It was really hard for me to bite my tongue and not call Stephen a liar. He had lied right to my face in November saying we were in PGN when he very well knew we weren't. At that point the Social Worker interview had not even been done. But I decided to just let it go, get the paperwork and bring my daughter home. It would have done no good to cause a scene at this point. We went over all of the paperwork for the Embassy appointment on Monday. They gave me a her passport and the visa pictures. I LOVE the pictures. The family dressed her in the pretty pink dress that I had sent down for her. I knew that there was a reason I bought that cute dress. The pictures are really sweet. She looks very serious. They also gave me a copy of Evvy's adoption file in Spanish and English. Then I was also given a sealed envelope containing her final medical report from the Embassy doctor which had to be presented at the visa appointment. We then sat and made idle chit chat for a few minutes and then in walked Julieta, her mother, Jeaneth (daughter), Gustavo (son), Julieta's niece and little girl and of course my beautiful Evelyn. It is all such a blur in my mind.

We sat on a couch there in the lobby with Julieta and Evvy sitting next to me. The rest of the family sat in chairs around us. Dad took some pictures and mom was taking video. I really wanted to take Evvy in my arms and hold her immediately but Julieta held onto her for almost an hour to let her get used to me. Mom had gotten a little beanie baby for Evvy and that was wonderful. She LOVES rattles and this has a rattle in it. They had her dressed all in pink: a pink pair of cords that I had sent down, a pink checked onsie and pink sandles that I had taken down on the visit trip. The sandals were from a 3-6 month outfit but they are still fitting her. She has tiny feet. Guess that means she might be short.

My dad actually held Evvy before me. He was so anxious to held the smiley girl, that he just went and took her out of Julieta's lap. I don't really remember what we talked about. I just remember the whole family saying how much they loved her and would miss her. They said that whenever they took her out of the house, everyone commented on how cute and sweet she is. They kept telling me what a loving baby she is. We also talked about what she was eating (what doesn 't this girl eat!). They demonstrated how even though she only has two teeth, the girl thoroughly chews her food. They broke off a piece of french fry that they had bought for the cousin's daughter and put it in Evvy's mouth and she chomped it right up. I feel so blessed that we were able to have email contact because I felt like I already knew my daughter and her habits and what she ate and what she could do and what she liked. I also felt like I knew the family. I know that so many (most) families are rushed to try to learn as much as they can about their child and the family they have lived with for the first months/years of their lives.

Jeaneth gave me a disc of all of the pictures (and video clips) they had taken of Evvy since she came to live with them. As I went back and looked at them, they are treasures. I have pictures of my beautiful daughter from the time that she was 9 days old. The video clips are short but show how she changed over the 10 months she lived with this wonderful family. They also brought a cute little wall hanging for Evelyn of a little girl swinging. It has her name painted on it. I am going to hang it on her bedroom door.

I finally took Evvy from Julieta after Julieta had given her most of a bottle. She was starting to get a little fussy as it was close to naptime. Evvy looked at me very seriously and just studied me. She is a very inquisitive, curious little girl. She didn't cry or try to go back to Julieta which made me feel some relief. We visited some more and took a bunch of pictures. I wanted to make sure that I had pictures of Evvy with the members of this wonderful family.

I explained that since the suitcase with the gifts didn't arrive, we would like them to come back for dinner Sunday evening. They agreed to come back. I knew it would be hard for them to say goodbye again but it would also let them feel confident that she was doing OK and was happy (I was hoping this was the case at this point).

After saying our goodbyes, we went up to the room. Evvy was very perplexed. She looked around and didn't see Julieta and the rest of the foster family. She cried for a few minutes. Then I gave her the rest of her bottle and she went to sleep. She fussed when I put her down so I just laid her down on my chest and she went sound asleep and I put her in the crib. She took about an hour nap.

When she got up, we walked down the street to TacoTento to have dinner. She definitely liked being outside walking around. She was an angel at the restaurant. She sat on my lap and flipped the pages of the menu. The girl likes books and will read anything! She ate some baby food and then also sampled pieces of chicken from our taco platter. When we went back in the hotel room she looked around again and got sad that Julieta wasn't there. She cried a little but then settled down with a bottle and went to sleep for the night.

What a long day! Up at 3am and to sleep at 9pm for me. But what a great end to the day putting my sweet girl to bed.

New Pictures from coming home trip

2007-04-24T09:02:00.000-05:00

Bella is a little jealous of all the attention Evvy is getting.

I have a new album of pictures from the trip to bring Evelyn home. Click on the link to the left and you will see the new album. I am also working on uploading an album of pictures from a disc that the foster family took over the last 10 months that Evvy lived with them. Some of them are one's they sent to me during the process but there are a lot of new ones.I apologize for not updating the blog but I am finding myself a little busier lately :) Lots of time spent playing on the floor with my sweet girl, taking stroller walks and reading books and of course the occasional nap.Evelyn is adjusting very well and is very happy. She is eating well and sleeping pretty well. She is sleeping better than mom I think. She has been waking up a little earlier the past couple of mornings which makes for a bit of a tired mommy.I will try to get the blog updated soon.

Susan and Evvy

We are family!

2007-04-15T12:30:00.000-05:00

Hola from Guatemala!Mom, Dad, and I had a very early start yesterday morning. We were up shortly after3am and left for the airport right before 4am. It was raining and then it startedsnowing as we got closer to the airport. Our flight was delayed 40 minutes out of Kansas City because they had to de ice the airplane. We arrived at our gate in Houston right as they started boarding so it all turned out fine. It was a bitof a madhouse in Guatemala getting luggage recovered. There were 2 or 3 medicalmissions coming down and they had LOTS of stuff. Subsequently two of our bags didn´tarrive. I warned mom to pack a change of clothes in my carryon but she didn´t sothey had extra shoes and some of their personal items in the bag that arrived. My big suitcase with my clothes and all of the baby stuff arrived but my suitcaseof gifts did not arrive. I was a little worried but they assured us they would arrive on the flight last night and sure enough they did and they brought them tothe hotel about 9:30 this morning. I think dad is feeling a little more human nowthat he has had a shave.OK. Now to the part you really want to hear about. The lawyer called from the lobbyabout 2¨10 right after I had changed clothes and said he was there with the paperworkto go over and that the family would be coming soon. The foster family arrived about 2:45. Evvy is so beautiful. She has grown so much but she is still a baby.She is absolutely wonderful. We sat in the lobby for almost 2 hours visiting. I gave the foster mom plenty of time to say her goodbyes. It was very hard for her and her daughter and son. Mom and dad took some video and pictures. Finallywe said goodbyes and there were a few tears shed. Evvy came to me just fine anddidn´t cry. She cried when we got up to the room and looked around and didn´t seethe foster mom. She was pretty sleepy so I rocked her and she went to sleep. Ilaid down on the bed with her on my chest for a while til she was sound asleep andthen laid her in the crib. She had a little confusion waking up. We went out walkingand to dinner and she was wonderful. She came home and was a little fussy but settled right in.Today she has been perfect. She is happy and smiley and eating well. She is nappingright now which is why I came down to the computer quickly.I am attaching a few pictures and will post more on my blog when I can.

Susan

Leaving on a Jet plane!

2007-04-13T21:32:00.000-05:00

The alarm is set to go off in exactly 6 hours. We have to be up at 3:30 and out the door by 4:00 to be checking in at the airport by 5:00 and take off at 6:00. What an insane day tomorrow will be. I know I will be dead tired but at 3:00 tomorrow afternoon, I will forget all about it when I have my baby girl in my arms FOREVER! It hasn't really hit me yet. I have had a few moments of panic but not too bad.

Mom and dad got here on Wednesday night and we spent today really not doing too much. Mom and I ran a few errands and visited with my good friend Peggy. Really all in all pretty relaxing. I am soooo tired and should be sleeping but I am afraid to sleep for fear of not hearing the alram. I will lay down here and leave the TV or DVD on so I have noise to keep me partially awake. I think I packed everything but the kitchen sink. I really thought I had been pretty conservative until I put the suitcase on the scale and it said 65#. The limit is 50# so I ended up having to take a small one too. I pretty much just put gifts for the foster family and other gifts I am taking for other families in the small suitcase and then all of Evvy and my stuff in the other one. Then I have a small carryon bag with the cameras and paperwork.

I will try to post a few pictures from Guatemala so you can see my sweet baby girl.

Can't wait for you all to meet my sweet girl! Pray for her that she will be comforted and have a relatively easy transition from her foster family to me.

Susan

Minutes keep ticking down!

2007-04-10T23:08:00.000-05:00

One day closer to Guatemala and Baby Evvy. Mom and dad are supposed to arrive tomorrow and I am sure things will go faster once they are here. I think this week has gone by the slowest of the last year.

I had a nice treat tonight when my friends Mike & Julie came over with their two girls Katelynn and Hannah. They brought Hannah home from Guatemala back in November when I was visiting Evvy. It was so wonderful to see how well Hannah has transitioned and settled into this wonderful loving family. Her big sister just adores her and she adores her sister. Katelynn really makes Hannah laugh and smile. I am taking a photo book and DVD down to Hannah's former foster family. I was able to meet the foster family and translate for Julie & Mike when the foster mother and family brought Hannah to the hotel. It will be neat to see her again and be able to tell them how happy Hannah is in her new family.

I received an email from some friends in the Chicago area that used the same agencies as me to let me know that they are finally home with their two beautiful daughters from Guatemala. They are 11 months old and had a rough few days but seem to be settling in well. Welcome home to Danee & Jim's girls!

I finally received an email from J last night. Their internet is not working again so she emailed me from an internet cafe (probably after school). Evvy is doing well. She started moving around in her walker the last couple of weeks. She has also started mimicking words like mama and "nena/e" (little girl and boy). I hope they are showing her my picture when they tell her to say mama. It is going to be so hard for the foster family and I expect Evvy will probably have some anxiety and transition too. Her whole world is being changed. I just hope and pray that she feels how much I love her and makes the transition without too much stress. We are going to go to dinner with the foster family either Saturday or Sunday which will be nice so that we can visit a little more in a less stressful situation. I am hoping to do the dinner on Saturday so that Evvy doesn't have to go through the separation further into our trip. I am glad that mom and dad will be there to help support me in this great event.

I will write some more about my feelings about these wonderful foster families another time. They are truly wonderful people.

Susan

This week!

2007-04-09T19:15:00.000-05:00

My best friend Peggy emailed me this morning and said, y0u know you are leaving this week! Not in two weeks, not next week, but THIS WEEK!!

I can hardly believe the day is almost here. I have three more days of work before I take my 2 months leave. I feel pretty confident about leaving my work in capable hands but still have plenty to get done this week.

Packing....Evvy's things are all in a suitcase but I think I will have to upgrade to the larger suitcase when I add all of my stuff to it. I am planning on packing pretty lightly but will probably still have too much. Of course I want to have enough space to bring some souveneirs back also although I don't plan on getting too much more as I have tons of stuff from previous trips. I would like to get a few more traditional outfits for Miss Evvy.

I am looking forward to spending time in Guatemala with my parents and for them to get to know their newest granddaughter.

I just hope that all goes smoothly on our trip and that the lawyer comes to the hotel with the paperwork and that the Embassy appointment goes smoothly. We are hoping to go to the zoo and maybe meet some of my forum friends while there but mostly just planning on kicking back and enjoying my sweet baby girl.

More to come....

Susan

One week to go!

2007-04-06T18:30:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I can finally say, 1 week to go! I only have 4 more days of work and then I am off to bring my precious little girl home forever. I teared up a little today when I was telling someone that I would have her in my arms one week from tomorrow and never had to give her back.

Last weekend I cleaned the carpets and got new tires on the car. This past Tuesday I got rearended so I have been dealing with insurance companies which is not very fun. Luckily there is very little damage to the back bumper (at least visibly). I will have an insurance adjuster look at it next week and decide if I need a new bumper or not. I want to make sure I get the alignment checked since I just had that done last Saturday. The biggest pain (litterally) is my neck and shoulders are pretty sore and I have a constant headache. I went to the chiropractor and got x-rays and have had 2 adjustments so far. I will probably need to go a few more times to get back to feeling like new. Just want to feel 100% or close by next weekend.

Last night Peggy and I laid out all of Evvy's clothes and other stuff to take with me. Tonight I put it in a suitcase. I was hoping to take my smaller suitcase but I think I am going to end up needing my bigger one to take my stuff too. I also have a quilt I am taking to the foster family which takes up 1/2 of the smaller case.

Tonight and tomorrow I am doing laundry and probably some last minute errands. I can't believe how ready I am. I only have a few small things left on my list which all relate to the trip and things I am taking or need to get ready to take.

Mom and dad should be at my sister's house by now (in Nebraska) and they will be at my house by Wednesday or Thursday. We will then have Friday to rest and get ready and then we are off bright and early to the airport next Saturday morning.

I made a countdown chain for Peggy's kids the other night. Erica is getting pretty impatient for baby Evvy to come home. We have been saying "she is coming home soon" for so long that she told Peggy this week, "baby Evvy is coming home." Peggy said, "yes, baby Evvy is coming home soon." Erica replied, "NO NOT SOON!" Peggy said, "yes soon" Erica was very upset and Peggy asked her if she wants baby Evvy to come today and Erica said, "YES today." Hopefully having the visual of the chain getting shorter she will understand when Evvy will be home. She is so excited to play with Evvy and watch Baby Einstein DVDs with her. She is really excited to go swimming at the waterpark with Evvy. Of course, I am too! They are going to be great pals. Erica just bounces with excitement when she talks about her little friend coming home. It is really touching.

OK, off to eat dinner and then do some more laundry.

Happy Easter!
Susan