Tired, so tired....

Work has been absolutely crazy lately, and I've compensated by feeding my children PB&Js every day for lunch last week. I think they even had it Sunday night, too. Last week from Sunday to Friday evening, I had a total of 16 hours of sleep. None on Sunday night because I had a spreadsheet due first thing Monday morning. I got a few hours Monday thru Thursday and then practically none again on Thursday night, redoing the same spreadsheet over and over to test possible rates for a managed care contract negotiation. Friday night I finally got a little more sleep, but still went to bed late because I had to do 3 loads of laundry in order for us to leave early enough Saturday morning to get to the zoo in Columbia. We were meeting some other Guatemalan adoptive families, and I certainly didn't want to miss it! We had a great time, until my girls were starting to crash from not having had their nap by 2:30. So I had to leave the rest of the group, pack up my girls and head to mom's (Omi's) house where we would be spending the night.

Omi's house is not exactly restful, as her house is definitely not baby-proof, plus I have to watch everything my mother gives the girls to eat or drink. I try not to be too strict about what they eat, but mom is a little over-the-top. She doesn't see anything wrong with letting them have sips of her Mountain Dew, fully loaded with caffiene and sugar! Then cookies and candy on top of it, and whatever else they want to eat. She asks us every single hour what we want to eat. Nothing, mom, NOTHiNG .... we just ate 1/2 hour ago... but she really does mean well. She just wants everyone to eat and be happy.

This week is better, but still hectic. Still working on the same project at work, in addition to another project that was due by COB Tuesday afternoon. So again, little to no sleep on Sunday night. I see a pattern here that I really don't care for. But yay!! I have a new employee starting in a couple of weeks and he seems to be extremely bright AND a database guru. I can't wait! Best of all, he's internal and is transferring to my department, so he won't need nearly as much training! Double YAY!

I rambled on about how busy I have been to say this ... I want to apologize to my girls for letting work come first. But when I have things due, they are due, and I have to get them done. I seem to have to complete every task on time AND I have to do it well or I just can't stand it. But then I let things slide at home that I should not let slide. I have not been home before 6:00 in quite a while now. So it's been 7:00 some nights before we have supper, and then I don't want to rush from supper to baths, so we get baths late around 8:00, so now the girls are going to bed a little later. They seem to handle it just fine, so I hope I'm not scarring them for life. I am going to go in to work late on Friday so that I can take them to school, as it is picture day and I want to be the one to make sure their hair is still fixed correctly after we get there (some little GuatAmericans I know like to remove hair accessories in transit to school each day, not to mention shoes and socks). And I'm also going to get off work an hour or so early so I can go pick them up after school to see how the picture session went. And to check Maya's cubby for myself to see how many clothes are gathered there, and to make sure I get her napmat to bring home to wash this weekend. If the weather is nice when we leave, I hope to take them somewhere fun, like the park, or maybe to Converse to see daddy's office since they will (hopefully) still have their nice picture outfits on. I can't wait! My boss did say I could just take the whole day off, but I still do not have a lot of leave saved up and want to wait and use my leave time during the holidays instead.

My guilty conscious led me to Target after the girls were in bed, and I bought a new crock pot to try to feed everyone real meals on weeknights. Then I went to the grocery store and got pork ribs to make bbq pork tomorrow (which E picked as the dish he wanted first), and also got a pot roast and veggies to make Friday. Tomorrow at lunch I hope to have time to stop by the halloween store near the office and check out possible costumes for the kids.

Anyone else love the Gosselins (Jon and Kate plus 8)? I love that show. Mainly because they are real people and not perfect. Mom gripes too much, dad yelled at the kids ... you know ... real life. Right up there with Nanny 911.

Ok, I'm rambling now, so I think it's time to go to bed (another midnight bedtime) to hopefully get a whole 5 1/2 hours of sleep tonight!! woohoo!

United Stations of America

I see so many changes in Maya in just the few shorts weeks she's been enrolled in K3 at First Baptist. As you can guess from the title, she is currently learning the Pledge of Allegiance. To hear her pronounce new words is the cutest thing ever!! The first time I realized what she was trying to say, she was saying something similar to 'allegiance' and then I heard "to the united stations of america." bwahahaha! Cute, cute, cute! She is learning circles and squares this month, along with the colors red and yellow. I must admit she does not seem to be grasping the color concept yet. She'll make up colors completely ... red is green, pink is blue, black is red, etc. But it's so amazing to watch the moment when she finally "gets it", no matter what the subject is. And her favorite phrase right now is "let me show you how I do this." And then, inevitably, "let me do that again."

She's also singing new songs at home almost every day. Lately it's been "He's Got the Whole World", and E and I cracked up tonight when she started the second verse of "He's got you and me, sister, in His hands ... he's got you and me, sister ...." Of course, her favorite time to start a new song is when she is trying to get out of doing whatever I'm telling her to do at the time, usually when trying to get her out of the bathtub. I swear that girl is part fish! Her latest mom-heart-stopping-moment has been showing me how she can hold her breath under water. Yeah, just what mom wants to see.

Maria is also learning so very quickly, I guess part of which has to do with trying to copy every single thing Maya does. Maya loves to tumble, and it's so funny to watch Maria put her head on the floor between her feet and try to figure out how to flip herself over like Maya does. Of course, we just help her out there, and then she gets the biggest grin on her little face. If Maya climbs in my lap, then Maria wants in. When Maya gets down, Maria follows. When Maya goes upstairs to play, I just wait and watch for those little stubby legs to follow slowly up the stairs. Tonight I think Maria was actually trying to hop like Maya does.

Maria had to get tubes put in her ears today. We had to be there at 7:15 a.m., as they take the youngest patient first. She was actually the 2nd youngest, as they had a little boy in there that was only 16 months old. She just got over her 6th ear infection in 6 months, so at her last follow up visit after the antibiotic round, I asked when we would have the tubes discussion. The doctor counted the episodes and replied, "that would be today's visit". So here we are. She came through it well, but of course they had to knock her all the way out to insert them. And when babies like that come awake again, it's scary for them since they don't recognize where they are or who is picking them up. So after a very short while in recovery, they bring in mom and dad. I think this one is going to be a daddy's girl, as there have been a few times recently that I absolutely could not console her, and she only quieted down once E held her. sigh. Oh well, they seem to have more in common anyway, being the ones who like to stay up late and sleep all morning. Maya, once she wakes up very early in the morning, is completely awake and ready to go, much like mom. Maria wakes up slowly, usually coming to life when E finishes making her scrambled eggs and brings them to her. That's my girl! We do hope the tubes make a huge difference in how she feels. She did have trouble going to sleep tonight, so it's not off to a good start yet. Not sure what the problem was, but she finally settled down about 10:00 p.m. Signing off now to go peep at her and make sure she's actually sleeping!

Had to write this one down before I forget it!

Let me tell you how smart that little Miss Maria is! I got home from work yesterday and found that Maya had a fever. Then Maria woke us up at 2:30 this morning with a fever. So it's been an inside day nursing our sick babies. Maya's fever broke and has not returned, so E took her to run some errands just to get her out of the house a little. She's such an outdoors-y child that being sick is harder on her simply because she has to remain inside. So, I started looking through a great book I have entitled Toddler Play (by Gymboree). Those of us who are less than imaginative when it comes to child play need a little help now and then. I came up with a few things Maria and I could do while whiling away the hours indoors today. I came up with the old "hide and seek" with a box of yogurt-covered raisins and 3 bowls. Let me set the scene:

We're sitting in front of the couch playing on the floor. I get two yogurt-covered raisins out of the small box and put them under the middle bowl. I then put the box on the couch behind me. I lifted the first bowl to show her there is nothing underneath it. I lifted the middle bowl and showed her the 2 raisins. I lifted the last bowl to show it had nothing underneath. Then I said, "Maria, where are the raisins?" , tapping on the tops of the 3 bowls as I said it. She went directly to the middle bowl and tried to lift it. It was a little large for her hands so she had a little difficulty getting a good grasp on it to lift it up. So my 17 month old prodigy then stood up, walked around me, picked up the box of raisins on the couch, proceeded to sit down, empty them out and eat them! bwahahahahaha!! It was such a brilliant move that I had to let her have them.

I so wish I had my personal laptop with me so that I could have captured the moment in pictures and downloaded them, but alas, I'm using a work laptop right now and not a personal picture in sight on it.

Mommy and Me

I finally copied all the pictures my friend, Mary, so graciously put on discs for me. They were, ahem, gathering dust in their jacket until tonight. So yes, they really do go all the way back to last Christmas, but I'll just post a few of them since it's late and mommy needs to go to bed.

This was from Easter. We had an Easter egg hunt at Gwen's house. Gwen is Holly's mom, and Maya just had her first spend the night event at Holly's house last weekend. Well, the first one that wasn't at Gran's house, of course. I just love this picture:

Here's the Christmas picture. I cannot believe how much Maya has changed since last December! She still looks like a baby here, but she looks so grown up now!

And this was Maria's birthday in March. That Mary is certainly good with a camera! I hope to post more later....

Saturday Ramblings

My laptop died (again!), and so now I'm stuck sharing the desktop with E until it's fixed. Which means I might be scarce around here for a while. I thought I'd rummage thru the photos on the desktop and see what I could find. I love these ....

I was just thinking this morning that I'd like to capture more of the things my kids are doing and saying now, but once I sit in front of this screen, it all escapes me. My babies are napping now, or at least I THINK Maria finally went to sleep. That little girl sleeps hard, but it's hard to get her down in her crib without her waking up and crying. Maya still wakes up during the night and comes and crawls in bed with us. I know ... I know ... everyone says we need to stop that, but honestly, we do NOT mind it at all. She's only going to be little once, and goodness knows she's growing up so fast, and soon she won't even want to hang out with us at all, much less sleep with us! This morning I was awakened by this scenario: someone laid her cheek on mine and said "are you awake?" I opened my eyes to see the cutest little face ever, and she got the biggest smile on her face when she realized I was awake. Then she proceeds to talk non-stop about anything and everything that comes to her mind. She got a little musical toy piano keyboard and started playing it ...one of those that plays a song whenever you hit a key. Thing is, it has no volume control! (aside to dad: maybe you shouldn't bother changing those batteries next time they die!) So it didn't take long for both of use to wake up for good for the day. When Maya wakes up, she is awake and hits the floor running! Maria, on the other hand, is a grumpy-grump sleepy head for a while.

Maria has suprised us again with the things she has learned! Maya does this butterfly routine where she holds her arms straight out behind her, bends her back a little, and runs forward. She's been doing it for a while ... but Tuesday night we were exclaiming how good of a butterfly she was, and little Miss Maria proceeded to tuck her hands behind her and head off right behind Maya. It was the cutest thing ever, and we were just stunned to see her do it. Then she stopped and turned to us with that ever-cute grin she has, and we just started clapping and woohooing for her, too. And right after that, Maya did her bee imitation where she pokes us with a finger like she's stinging us, and then we're supposed to cry and she consoles us and tells us "it will be okay!" cute, cute, cute. Smarty pants Maria did that, too, right after Maya did! She is simply amazing in how quickly she has learned things. Now, I just wish she would learn to TALK. She still only says "da-da" and "uh-oh". Both of those are very clear, and she did do the little buzzing sound when she did the bee act. But that's it. Seventeen months old, and only 2 words in her vocabulary. Her early interventionist said she really does not qualify for Babynet services anymore, since she met all her goals in just a few short months, but that speech therapy might be the one thing that keeps her in the program. And to be honest, I'm pretty sure the EI wants to keep her in the program simply because she's fallen in love with her ... it's really not hard to do, just ask me or her Gran! Anyway, I think I got a decent video of the butterfly routine on my camera, but I'm going to have to figure out how to download it to the desktop and then upload it here.... my girls are just too cute!

I'd like to thank the academy .....

LOL at Sarah!!! Thank you for the honor, Sarah....

And of course I must thank my stars! Who just happen to be the loves of my life, my reason for being, the shine in my sunshine, and oh, yeah, the reason I'm so exhausted that I'm about to collapse. :-P

So, according to Sarah, here's what happens now:

1st I have to answer a little questionnaire, which is pretty much all about ME! Then, I have to choose 7 bloggers who I feel are BRILLIANT (see list below) and I give them the award. They will post their own answers to the questionnaire on their own blog and they will choose 7 more recipients.

Here is the questionnaire (drum roll please...):

A. Attached or single? Attached

B. Best friend? My ya-yas: Jennifer, Sammie, and Val. Oh, and Mary. And Gwen. And Lea. Goodness... you like me! You really like me! (to quote another award winner...)

C. Cake or pie? Can I have both, please? With ice cream on top?

D. Day of choice? Saturday

E. Essential item? My laptop, of course.

F. Favorite color? Purple

G. Gummy bears or worms? Yuck ...neither! Gimme chocolate!

H. Hometown? Born in Columbia, SC. Now live in upstate SC.

I. Indulgence? Shopping, chocolate, shopping, chocolate, and oh, yeah ... shopping for chocolate!

J. January or July? July .... Maya was born in July! It just doesn't get any better. Except March is just as good, of course. ;-)

K. Kids? 2 girls, and a male cat

L. Life isn’t complete without? My babies, family, friends, and did I mention chocolate?

M. Marriage date? April 17, 1993. yikes. I'm old.

N. Number of brothers & sisters? 2 older brothers

O. Oranges or apples? Oranges

P. Phobias? Bugs and heights

Q. Quotes? An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet. It may stretch or tangle, but never break. ~ Chinese proverb.

R. Reasons to smile? Maya and Maria! (and chocolate)

S. Season of choice? Fall

T. Tag seven peeps! (see below)

U. Unknown fact about me? I have a rather high tolerance for pain. I prefer (if possible) to get teeth cavities filled without novacaine, as I can't STAND the numb feeling. And when I had my hysterectomy, I asked the doc to leave one ovary in. He warned me it too would have to come out eventually, but I enjoyed the 6 weeks off of work with pay so much that the pain and discomfort of the surgery was negligible. But alas, he could not do it, so it all came out at one time.

V. Vegetable? Macaroni and Cheese! It counts, right? Does too!! It's listed right THERE in the vegetable section of Lizard's Thicket's menu!!!

W. Worst habits? Chewing my fingers and cuticles.

X. X-ray or ultrasound? X-ray

Y. Your favorite food? Give me a break. Like I can pick just one. Maybe chocolate?

Z. Zodiac sign? Sagittarius ... married to a Capricorn.

Here are 7 other BRILLIANT bloggers Ok, you caught me. It's only 6. Wait! I'll nominate ME again! Lucky # 7 ....

http://www.myquietthoughts.blogspot.com/

http://http//theshrumfamilyadventures.blogspot.com/

http://skyliesmiles.blogspot.com/

http://mac3mom.blogspot.com/

http://nyblomfamily.blogspot.com/

http://anotherdaypassesby.blogspot.com/

More random pics...

We spend a lot of time sitting around taking pictures of our girls. They're just so darned cute we can't help ourselves!!

This was the collapse of the fire engine tent ....

Random pics

So here's a normal scenario in our house. (ok, the cupcakes are not a "normal" snack, but it was the day I sent cupcakes to Maya's class for her birthday celebration with her classmates, so we had a special cupcake that evening, too, so Maria could be included ... but the general theme of the snack is true to form.)

Maya smells her food and takes a bite.

Then Maria takes a bite of hers.


Final scene: Maria polishes off her snack and Maya is nowhere to be seen, having taken a bite or two, and now can't sit still long enough to even finish eating her beloved chocolate.

And actually, there is a scene missing here ... the one where Maria then gets up, walks around to the other side of the table, and polishes off Maya's food, too! And the epilogue, where Maya comes back 15 minutes later wanting her cupcake.

Completely NORMAL scene in our house. I love it.

Maya is THREE!!

Maya's birthday party was yesterday, ON her 3rd birthday. I don't have extremely high housecleaning standards by any means, but for some reason, I felt compelled to have the entire house cleaned for a bunch of 3 year olds. And it was a pool party, for goodness sakes! They were outside most of the time anyway! But it was all worth it. House was clean, and kids had a good time. And I made this awesome Cinderella cake for my baby girl. I felt bad last year because Maya had 3 parties, and I ordered the same Nemo cake from the grocery store for all 3 parties.... what a cop-out when I know how to decorate cakes. So I was determined to make it this year, even though I just accepted a promotion at work, and even though we had a meeting Friday that I couldn't miss, so I had to work a full day the day before the party. All in all, I was very pleased with the turnout, and Maya had a grand time!!!

Yes, there is a little 'glass' slipper on the bottom step, but it's hard to see:


This was early in the morning, when we let her open our gift (a kid-friendly digital camera ... she LOVES to take pics with my digital camera), and she was pretty grumpy in the morning. But I managed to get a smile out of her anyway...

This was after swimming, when all the kids were good and hungry and ready for ice cream and cake:
Back to the morning hours, when she opened her camera. She was mesmerized:
A good friend of mine came to the party and I assigned to her the role of official party photographer, as I learned the last 2 years that I just don't have time to take pictures! So I'll post more whenever I receive her copy of pictures.

And to all of my blogger friends, I apologize most sincerely for not reading and posting comments on your blogs lately .... I truly have not had an hour to myself for several weeks now. I don't think I went to bed before midnight in the last 2 weeks, and I honestly fell asleep just now waiting for my pics to load! This is one tired mama, and I'm heading to bed as soon as I finish here. But it was worth every single second of effort. I made my baby smile with her cake, and she had a very good time at her party. I don't care a fig if she knows how much effort I put into her party or not, but I do care that she enjoys her birthday parties and remembers the excitement and joy she had that day. I have a December birthday, and so I can count on one hand the number of birthday parties I actually remember. Far more often, I had birthday gifts wrapped up in Christmas wrapping paper. So when I found out my first baby was to have a summer birthday, I jumped for joy, and knew we would have a blast each and every summer!

Maya has already grown so fast, and I keep staring at her little face trying to memorize how she looks at 3 years old. I know time is going to fly faster and faster, and I just want to enjoy her as she is. She is at such a sweet age, all cuddles and hugs and wanting her mommy one minute, and then fiercely independent with her "I can do it!" attitude the next. Throw in her jealous-of-her-sister moments, and her remaining 'terrible-twos' tantrums, and she is just a mix of sweet and sour, and altogether 100% precious. I can't wait to see where this next year takes her.

Good Grief! Tired, but happy ...

How in the world does time creep by so slowly when you're 10 waiting for Christmas to come, yet fly by so fast when you're (um, let's say 40-something) and trying to get ready for a 3-year old birthday party?!?!

I was seriously shocked when I saw that my last post was June 9. I know the laptop has been in the shop for about 3 weeks now, but geez, that's almost a month and a half! So much to post about, and so little time to do it....
Maria's day in Family Court was June 9, and I finally have the pictures downloaded from my camera. The judges were great and came all the way down from the bench for the picture I requested. So the final 't' is crossed and the final 'i' is dotted! Isn't my little American beautiful?!

Next update: Maria is officially WALKING! She's been taking a step here and there for several weeks, and just like Maya did, she finally let go and just took off across the room and there was no going back! She can even stop and almost fall, but catch her balance and get upright again and keep on going. Such a smartie! I tried to upload the video, but can't seem to get it to work. The video is cute, because you get to see the jealous sister Maya when Maria gets the attention and applause so deserving of those who begin to walk. hehehe. Plus you get to see our real-life Tuesday evening mess in the living room after the girls have been playing in there for a couple of hours.

And finally (for today anyway): Maya appears to be potty-trained!! BIG WOOHOO!! We were getting nervous, since her preschool will not allow the 2K kids to move on to 3K in late August unless they are completely, and I mean COMPLETELY potty-trained! But she seems to have gotten it now, and has been in big girl panties since Tuesday. We still have some issues with, um, poops. There's just no nice way to say that, is there? But now that I've seen her accident free on the pee-pee side for almost a whole week now, I'm confident we can beat the poop problem in the next month. YAY!

That's it for now. It's 1:00 and I have to get up in another 4 hours for another exciting week at work. More on the birthday plans later .......

SHE CAN STAND ON HER OWN!

GUESS WHO IS STANDING BY HERSELF? Maria is such a cutie ... she has learned how to stand by herself, and she'll get up and throw her hands up, as if saying "look at me!!" She just gets the biggest grin on her face and loves it when we clap for her. Any day now we expect her to actually take a step and keep going, just like Maya did. Right now she just stands there and then lets herself back down to the floor to crawl wherever she wants to go. So, so cute!

Maria has come so very far in just a few short months. When we picked her up February 13, she could not even turn herself over in her crib at 11 months old. She could not get to a sitting position by herself, and she made no attempt to reach for her own food. She hated tummy time and didn't seem to be able to hold her head back for very long. You can kind of tell in the pictures we had made with her and Maya that she is not comfortable on Maya's back, and her head is sort of at a strange angle. But before we left Guatemala, she was reaching for her Gerber puffs and was starting to figure out the pincher grasp. When we visited the doctor for her first post-placement well check, he referred us to Babynet for their early intervention services. He thought, as we did, that her slow gross motor development was because of her environment and not a medical issue. But we certainly wanted to do all we could for her, so we signed her up. Now, in a very short 4 months later, she has already met all of the goals we set with her EI, and she does not qualify for physical therapy at all ... I took her last week for an appointment that we had set with the PT when we first met with the EI, and while I knew she wouldn't qualify, I did want to get her checked out just in case I was missing anything. The PT was very helpful and had some great advice on how to help her develop even further, and some milestones to try to hit as she ages. Maria is simply amazing, and such a smart, smart girl. I could just squish those little cheek of hers!

Mommy decided she didn't have enough pictures of herself with her adorable girls. I tried on Mother's Day to get one, but it just didn't work out so good. So this one starts off my campaign to get lots of pics! I am one that definitely does NOT like to have my photo taken, but I know the girls won't care how I look and will appreciate the pictures one day. At least, I HOPE they do! I just love them so much and want them to see that in our pictures. Of course, this one is already outdated, as I have had my hair cut since then, and it now just reaches my shoulder. But there will be more!

I'll post more pictures later, but right now a certain little GuatAmerican needs some kisses! Today is our family court day for Maria!! She officially becomes Maria Bishop Lawson today, and I can send her paperwork off to get her revised birth certificate with her new name on it! Woohoo!! It's strange how this system works ... if you visited your child before the pickup trip, you came home with one type of visa for her and would automatically receive a certificate of citizenship in the mail. We didn't visit first, so we came home with a different type of visa, and while I believe she IS an American citizen now, we have nothing to prove that, and nothing to prove her new name. So we have to go through this convoluted process of family court, DHEC birth certificates, getting a passport for her, and THEN going back to the Social Security office to have her card reissued with her new name on it ... we need the birth certificate for proof of identity with the new name and the passport for proof of identification. Crazy, huh? But we do what we must do for our babies!

When Love Takes You In - Steven Curtis Chapman

I can't even type the words about what happened to Steven Curtis Chapman's precious daughter. I'm sure you can find 1,000 stories on-line about it. His youngest daughter, and her name was Maria. Imagine how that hits home for me. I simply cannot imagine his pain. I'M having such pain over it, and I didn't even know them personally. In my readings today, I found this song that he wrote, and it expresses his views on adoption beautifully.

When Loves Takes You In

I know you’ve heard the stories
But they all sound too good to be true
You’ve heard about a place called home
But there doesn’t seem to be one for you
So one more night you cry yourself to sleep
And drift off to a distant dream

Where love takes you in and everything changes
A miracle starts with the beat of a heart
When love takes you home and says you belong here
The loneliness ends and a new life begins
When love takes you in

And somewhere while you’re sleeping
Someone else is dreaming too
Counting down the days until
They hold you close and say I love you
And like the rain that falls into the sea
In a moment what has been is lost in what will be

When love takes you in everything changes
A miracle starts with the beat of a heart
And this love will never let you go
There is nothing that could evercause this love to lose its hold

When love takes you in everything changes
A miracle starts with the beat of a heart
When love takes you home and says you belong here
The loneliness ends and a new life begins
When love takes you in it takes you in for good
When love takes you in


Please pray for peace for the Chapmans.

Guess who's crawling?!

One day short of 14 months old, little Miss Maria decided to crawl today! woohoo!! She's pulling up and trying her best to walk, and I just knew she would be like Maya and walk before she crawled, but nope. She crawled!! Gran was here to see it, while daddy has taken Maya to the doctor. It appears that Maya has some sort of rash with a fancy name, but it's a rash. It'll be itching her soon, poor baby, and it could last 6 - 9 weeks! eeek! Daddy should be home soon, so I must go prepare something for my big baby girl's supper. But I just had to share the good news. Maria crawled!! Yay!!!

GOTCHA!

May 1st was 'Gotcha Day'! Two years ago we flew into Guatemala City on April 30, full of excitement, anticipation, a little fear, and a LOT of love for our baby girl. We had to wait until the next day to get her, but she was worth the wait! She was absolutely perfect, and she still is. I know some people do not like the phrase "Gotcha Day", but I like it! It's the day we got Maya, and the day Maya got us! I can't believe it's been 2 years, but I also can't believe she wasn't always part of our family. It's like we were just existing until she came, and now we are fully alive.

We celebrated a day early, since mama loves a good sale! The local bounce house now has a family time on Wednesday nights from 4 - 7, so I took that day off and took my girls around 4:30. Daddy met us there, as did Gran. We had a blast!




Maria, however, is not quite as fond of the big slide, so I'll save her the posting of the crying picture, and just post the one of what she DID enjoy there:


After Pump It Up, we went to Baskin Robbins 31-cent scoop night (in honor of our local firefighters) and we all enjoyed ice cream before supper! Maya, as usual, loved the treat but did not eat much as she just didn't have time to slow down and actually eat something. Maria did a little more damage to her 2 scoops. But let's just say mama polished off a whole bunch of ice cream that night! We all enjoyed it very much.

We love you, baby girl!

Maria loves her food!

I have never seen a child love food this much! I guess since my only real comparison is Maya, that would explain my shock at how much food Maria can put away. Maya just does NOT have time to sit still long enough to eat a whole meal. After a few bites, she will annouce "I'm done." I'm almost to the point of letting her eat anything at any time just to get some food in her!

Maria, on the other hand, thoroughly enjoys eating. She also eats very slowly. I'm guessing so far that she will be left-handed (notice which hand she uses to feed herself), and she will veryyyy slooooooowly piiiiiiick upppppp a pieeeeeeeece of fooooooood. Thennnnnn sloooooooowly mooooooove it towarrrrrrrrrds her mouuuuuuuuuth. Then cheeewwwwwwww, chewwwwww, chewwwww. You get the idea. One night we had to just cut her off after an hour and a half. We had to go to bed, man!

This morning was a perfect example. Maria tends to sleep a little later than Miss 5:00 a.m., so we try to get Maya eating early to get something in her before daycare. This morning I made Maya a piece of cheese toast. She ate a few bites, I think (unless I find the remainder in a chair somewhere ....). We even let her eat in the living room if she'll just EAT.

So Maria finally got up, sat in her chair and ate some banana and a whole fruit cereal bar. After 1/2 an hour or so, she's still wiping up crumbs and eating them, but we get her out of her chair anyway. I put her on the floor in the living room to do her hair and BONSAI! She spies Maya's leftover cheese toast and automatically scoots herself towards it. Grabs it in her hand and eats it. Go, Maria, go! She's so cute I just can't stand it!!

Get some snakes?

Maya is a hoot! E's parents were coming over for dinner tonight, and E was telling Maya about it. He told Maya he was going to grill some steaks and was going to take her with him to the meat market to pick them out. She started telling Gran that they were going to "get some snakes" instead of 'grill some steaks.' Yeah, um, not in MY house .... I'm a 'no reptile' mommy.

She is talking so clearly now. I tend to forget she's only 2 1/2. She can tell some amazing stories. It's really funny when she runs out of storyline because she'll just start saying anything. Usually she has to throw in a "jake was spitting" line, about the little boy in her daycare class. He may have spit one time in class long, long ago, but in Maya's world, he spits every single day and has to go to time out because "he won't listen." Hm. Wonder where she has heard the "(s)he won't listen" line before ... at HOME, maybe?!?!

Maria update

Maria is learning so very fast! She's simply amazing ... sometimes I completely forget she is 13 months old, as she is still small and a little delayed in some gross motor skills. But she is picking things up so quickly that it reminds me she is not going to be a little baby much longer. Today she learned to give mama some sugar. And for those of you reading who are not from the south, that is NOT sugar for my iced tea! I got a big old smoochy kiss from my baby today, and it just melted my heart to see that little grin after she did it.

I also handed her my cell phone, and that little stinker put it right up to her ear! Any time I asked her if she was calling Gran, she would try to get it to her ear ... it was sooooo cute!

She has sat up by herself at least 2 times that we know of, but I haven't seen it myself yet. We have an Early Interventionist work with her once a week, and even she is amazed at how quickly Maria is progressing. Even though Maria isn't crawling or walking yet, she IS pulling on anyone's hands she can get to and will pull herself up and "walk" holding on to your hands. That is currently her favorite thing to do, and it's breaking mommy and daddy's backs! But she is so very adorable, and we just love her to pieces. She gets the cutest grin ever on her face whenever she does something that we clap for, or that we praise her for. She'll head for the stairs whenever Maya goes to her room to play, and she loves to follow Maya wherever she goes. Even though she's not crawing, she can scoot on her little bottom anywhere she wants to go, and she's pretty quick, too!! I almost had a heart attack when I walked upstairs to wash my hands, and when I came back down she was sitting at the top of the other set of stairs!! whew ... just in time! (Yes, I learned to close the gate between the two stairs before going upstairs again!)

Back to Maria's birthday party...

I forgot to post pictures of Maria's birthday party!!

My favorite Maya quotes

My favorites right now (she's 2 1/2 ... will be 3 in July):

- "Jake is spitting. He's in time out. He won't listen."

- "Marlowe is crazy."

- "Mama ... mama ..... mama .... you wanna get up?" (usually said very close to my face around 5:00 a.m.)

- "She's cute" (referring to Maria, of course)

- "She's crying" (referring to Maria)

- "She's sleeping" (referring to Maria, usually very loudly, standing right next to Maria's room and/or crib, which means she's not sleeping any more, Sweetheart)

- "Thank you so much, mommy!"

- "Monkey Joe isn't there."

- "Doe, a deer, a female deer ....Ray, a drop of ...."

- "She's from Guatemala"

- "Probably" (pronounced more like "proberly")

She's just so stinking cute!

Our week

Aren't they gorgeous?! (and yes, I bought the cd of the pictures and have the copyright release ....)

I got another comment today from someone at work about how "they look so much alike!" Um, yeah ... if you mean they both have dark hair and dark eyes, then yes, they 'look alike.' Other than that, I just don't see it. Completely different looks, if you ask me. I think Maria has more of an Indian look to her ... wider face, nose, slightly slanted eyes, and adorable, just completely adorable. Maya looks more hispanic to me, perfectly almond-shaped eyes, lighter skin, gorgeous lips, and simply all-around beautiful. Both completely stunning, but nothing like each other. :-)

I've got to tell you, there is NOTHING more stressful to a mother than to have her little one(s) sick or hurt. I'll admit Maya has been relatively easy so far ... occasional cold or fever, but nothing serious to date. Maria, however, almost caused my heart to stop beating. As a side note, and to continue my saga of maria, that first day we got her, she was so very hot and sweaty with the intensive crying that we couldn't figure out whether or not she had a fever. I did have enough sense to take the ear thermometer with us to Guatemala, but of course when I tried to use it, it wouldn't come on. ugh. So thank goodness for the baby lounge at the Marriott! We wandered in there with our crying baby and found other parents who had an ear thermometer we could use. Thankfully, she did not have a fever. But we were on the verge of calling the concierge and having a doctor come to check her, even though we knew we were going to the doctor the next day. After taking her temp, we were confident enough to hold out until the next day, when we walked a few blocks away to get her photos taken for her visa and to visit the pediatrician (embassy-approved, of course), who diagnosed severe eczema and a milk allergy. We switched her formula to Isomil and got a prescription filled for a low-steroid creme and a special soap for her eczema. The Guatemalan doctor was great! Very kind and patient and helpful. So anyway, my point is, Maria was the complete opposite of Maya from the very beginning .... not in a bad way, just different.

So fast forward to last Friday. I still have Thursday and Friday off most weeks for my FMLA adoption leave, but this week I had Monday and Tuesday off because I have end-of-month reports due this Friday. So Friday we went to C to see Omi (my mom ... she's German ... a REAL international family ... LOL!) for her birthday. My aunt went with us, which turned out to be quite a blessing. After lunch, I took the girls to the zoo while Aunt E stayed at home with mom. My friend Val met us at the zoo, and we both commented on how Maria seemed hot, but as mentioned above, she's normally a hot, sweaty kid. So I didn't really think that much of it, other than to say I would stop by the drug store on our way out of town and pick up some infant motrin if she was still warm by then. Well, on the way home, just a couple of miles from mom's house, I saw Maria's little hand start shaking in the rear view mirror and got really nervous. So I hurried as much as I could and when I went to get Maria out of her carseat, her eyes rolled back in her head!! Talk about panicking!!! I rushed her into the house and told my mom she was very sick and very hot and I didn't know what to do for her. She and my aunt suggested a tepid bath, so I ran to turn on the water. Mom and Aunt E managed to get Maya out of the car into the house, and bless her little heart, she just didn't understand that Maria was sick. She saw the running water and got excited and started stripping right then. So I just let her get in, too. Aunt E, in the meantime, rushed to the nearest drug store and got an ear thermometer and some baby motrin for me, and when I took her temp, it was over 104! eek!!! So I immediately gave her the motrin and kept checking her temp. It seemed to go down for a while, and then it jumped back up, so I called my brother to ask where I should take her to get checked out. We headed to Doctor's Care, and Aunt E went with me (after she and mom managed to corral Maya and get her dressed again!) and she sat in the car with Maya (I figured strapped in the carseat was the safest place for her, as she is a little too much for mom and Aunt E to manage on their own. Long story short (oops, too late), her fever went down some, we got home, and I took her to her regular doctor the next day, who disagreed with the ear infection diagnosis, so they spent HOURS trying to figure out her high-grade fever. It was 104.4 that morning at the doc's office. After 2 1/2 hours, plus another 1 1/2 hours getting a chest x-ray that showed nothing wrong, poor little baby Maria had been poked and prodded and had blood drawn and shots with antibiotics and they still didn't know what was causing it, so the doc told me to bring her back Monday. Thankfully we could keep the fever under control by alternating baby motrin and baby tylenol, so we did that all weekend. I was soooo thankful I had Monday and Tuesday off, because there is no way I would have gone to work while my baby was sick.

So back to the doctor on Monday, and this time we got to see her regular doctor. As I was undressing her, we found she had a strange red rash on her torso, front and back. The doc took one look at it and said, "oh, it's roseola." Evidently they spend a lot of time doing tests on high-grade fevers, only to have a rash appear in about 3 days (after the fever has subsided) and they can finally diagnose roseola. whew ... heave a big sigh of relief simply because we know what it was and now we know it's just a virus. But I will never, ever forget that feeling of helplessness when I saw those little tiny eyes roll back in my baby's head. Thank you, God, for making my baby better!