More pictures

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!

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

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

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....

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!

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!

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

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!

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!

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