A Very Full Day!

Yesterday, we had a new security system put into the house. It took pretty much most of the day so Keira was pretty much bouncing off the walls with boredom. She was pretty much kept confined most of the time in the pigpen since there were all sorts of tools flying around and drilling--dangerous stuff for babies to be around. Because we were both bored, we started being silly as you can see from the picture. That was my headband and Keira started putting it on her head, so I helped her a little bit. The guy doing the security system was even laughing at her being silly. After that, she took a nap and I had to take a picture of her because it was such a strange position she was sleeping in! It looked like she was sitting up, then bent over and fell asleep still sitting. Somehow her Hello Kitty baby also was on top of her as well.

After he finished, we headed to Walmart to buy a couple of things and wouldn't you know it. I wasn't gone more than about 10 minutes when Brinks was calling me to inform me that the alarm had gone off. Looks like the motion was set a little too sensitive and caught Jackson's tail wagging.

Today, we had a very full day! We went to the gym in the morning and she got to play at the daycare. After that, she took a nap, then we headed over to Kaiser to get the results read for her TB test (negative of course!). We then headed up to Trabuco Canyon for our Post Adoption Meeting. Betty, the Director was AMAZED with how great Keira was doing and adjusting! She gave me a great tip with her bottle feedings at night. I told her how she would wake up in the middle of the night still wanting another bottle. She said to add a little bit of Olive Oil in her bottle along with the rice cereal. That will give a little more of the good fats that might keep her fuller at night. We'll see if it works, I gave her a little tonight. After we left from there, there was SOOOO much traffic that we sat in it for way too long! Keira was screaming and singing. I think that the screaming was still supposed to be singing but bless her heart, I might have to get her some singing lessons! :) After we got home, we went to Barnes and Noble for Pajamarama! All of the kids come dressed in their pajamas for storytelling, coloring and playing. It was alot of fun and Keira did a great job with behaving herself. She sat quietly on the bench because everyone else was, so she was copying them, but as soon as it was ok for all of the kids to go on the stage, it turned into anarchy! It was every baby for themselves and so much fun! They also have Mom and Tot Storytime on Tuesday and Wednesdays. I think that we'll have to make the journey to that!

The Cutest Pincushion

Today Keira paid a visit to the doctor to be a cute little pincushion. She ended up with a shot on her right arm, a TB test, 2 shots on her left arm as well as having 5 vials of blood drawn. My poor baby! We first went to the Carlsbad office where she got her shots and boy was my poor baby screaming. Who can blame her! We headed to the lab to get her bloodwork done and they were so shorthanded that it would take about an hour or more for them to get her in. I decided to take her over to San Marcos instead. She was so happy and cheery--that is until we went into the back and she saw the tray that the lady brought out with the needles. She recognized the whole scene and started crying again. This one was REALLY bad because they were having some trouble getting blood from her so she had to lay there with a needle in her arm for a LONG time! I felt so horrible hearing her scream. After they finished, she got a Jojo's Circus sticker on her arm which she "OOOHed and AAHed" over. She was back to her happy, smiling self again. The doctor said that she appeared very very healthy. She is 31 1/2 inches in length and weights 19 lbs 11 oz. She's gained about a pound since coming home with us on the 8th so she's doing great! When we got home later after dinner, I gave her a bath and Dan and I worked on removing all of the bandages from the poking. We took her Jojo sticker off and MAN! Her skin is so sensitive that it's as red as a tomato where the sticker was. We have a post-adoption update meeting with our Homestudy agency on Friday. I hope that it clears up before then because it really looks terrible!!! The last thing we need is for anyone to see that and get the wrong impression! YIKES...Here are pictures of her with her Jojo sticker on.

Daddy's Girl....or Mommy's Girl?

Dan made a little comment the other day that cracked me up. He said as he was putting Keira's bib on her "Keira, you seem to only have things that say I love mommy, but nothing that says I love daddy." I heard this and responded that she did... her burping cloth says I love daddy. His response? NICE! She loves daddy when she's throwing up...

Today I took Keira with me down to work for Sonja's Baby Shower! Sonja is going to be leaving hopefully VERY soon to bring her daughter Raquel home with her from Guatemala. We started our adoptions at about the same time and unfortunately, there was a hold up last month due to some issues with the paperwork. I'm so glad that everything has gotten straightened out and now she is only waiting for her travel date. Keira got to say hello to everyone and be a ham. I think if it were more towards the end of the day, Natalya just might have taken her home with her! :). Keira was giving Laura V. and Natalya kisses and was being a very good girl. She did have a bit of a meltdown on the way home though. It's a good thing that I was prepared this time since the last meltdown and brought a bottle with me. Although we are trying to wean her off her bottle, I think that it is an exception when she is having her random meltdown. She still cried while she had her bottle, but it did calm her down enough to fall asleep. It's so weird. It's like she is SOOOOO tired and doesn't know what to do with herself, so he cries and screams.

I unfortunately didn't get to take pictures at Sonja's shower, but I did take some pictures of Keira tonight after her bath and dressed in her sweats that she is using as pajamas tonight since it's a colder night. Dan was laughing so hard because it's the first time that she is wearing something other than pink! lol She was staring at herself in the mirror and was looking at her rear. Dan said she looked like she was thinking "Does this diaper make my butt look big?" Too funny! So is she a daddy's girl or a mommy's girl tonight? Well...here's a hint. Dan graduated from SDSU ;).

The Sick Little Piglet

Keira has a cold today, so needless to say, she's a LITTLE on the grumpy side. Everytime I look at the poor girl, she has freeflowing snot coming out of her nose. Not only does she have that to deal with, she also has some rashes on her face. I'm going to be taking her into urgent care tonight for if anything something for her rashes and runny nose. Everything on any medication says for under 2 years old to ask your physician, so I'm going to make sure to do that. Aimee sent me the pictures from yesterday at Legoland when we ran into them. I'll post those here. Sabita also came by to visit today to meet Keira and to drop off her gifts. She got her a great toy piano that also has a microphone attached. Keira likes to make her piglet noises in the mic. She's a total ham even when she is sick. Hopefully she will feel better by tomorrow.

Legoland!

Keira had a great time although she couldn't really ride much. The boatride was fun until she heard some growling from the sound effects that scared her. She pretty much cried through the ride from then on. She's still a little young and was scared of the water area, but considering how much she loves the water from her bath, she'll probably be wanting to play in the water in no time. Auntie Lorraine met us there and we also ran into Aimee, Auntie Josie, Sarah Jo and all of Aimee's kids! Keira discovered that she digs pickles. She made that weird sour face each time she took a bite, but kept going back for more. Here are some pics from Legoland!

New Skills

Keira is such a funny baby! She learns something new every day and is such a riot trying to show us all of her new skills. The other day, she saw her daddy practicing his Tai Chi outside and started trying to copy some of this moves. One of them that she liked the best was when he would lift his leg up, so she started trying to copy him all day. She needed a little help with keeping her balance, but she's got a great kick!

When she woke up from her nap yesterday, we showed her the new doll that she received from the Fishers. The first thing that she noticed was that the baby looked an awful lot like her. She started to point at the doll's nose, then pointing at her nose. She also started doing "Beautiful Eyes" on command where she bats her eyelashes...she also likes to do it when she isn't being told to as you can see in our picture.

We're waiting for her to wake up from her nap to take her on her first adventure to Legoland. I'm sure that there isn't much that she will be able to do just yet, but she loves to point things out, so we'll see! I'll post some pictures tonight!

New Shoes!

So far, I've been able to get Keira off the bottle for her naps during the day. She's been switched over to a sippy cup with her Pediasure and milk and although she doesn't go down for the count immediately like with her bottle, she does eventually. It is a little bit of a fight since she suddenly gets a second wind when we put her in the crib and wants to jump around and play. After about 8-10 times of me coming into her room and getting her to lay down again, she finally falls asleep. Last night, she actually slept completely through the night with just 1 bottle. Hopefully this won't be the last time and it will become a pattern. She's been doing much better with adjusting. She doesn't scream and tantrum anymore when we finish with brushing her teeth or when she is in the Tumblers Wobbler's class when they are cleaning up and taking the balls away. The other night though, we were all watching the Wiggles and out of the blue, she turned around and smacked me in the face. I thought that it was just an accident, until she did it again. Dan put her in the corner. After that, maybe about an hour later, she did it again. This time I put her in the corner. 2 other times that night and same consequence. She hasn't done it since. It was a really weird thing how it just kind of came out of nowhere. Hopefully we were able to nip it in the bud, but either way, it will be the same consequence if it happens again. Is this a normal thing? Is there actually a slapping stage? Yikes...

I finally found Keira some little Disney Princesses sandals. I think it was the first time that she had sandals on and she didn't know what to make of them. She sat there touching them and touching her feet in them. It was so cute. We also took her to the beach today. She didn't know what to make of the sand, so she avoided walking in it. She did go down the slide, with our help of course and had a good time. When we got home, she was already asleep. Playing is hard work!!! Believe it or not, I got her out of the car, changed her diaper and put her to bed without so much of a peep from her waking up! Either I'm getting better at this, or she was just really really tired! By the time we got home, there was a package waiting for her. She was asleep, so she didn't get to see it, but it was a gift from the Fisher Family! They gave her a doll. She has teddy bears and stuffed animals, but this is her first doll and guess what?!? It is a Chinese baby!!! She is going to love it and I can't wait to show her when she wakes up. Thank you so much to the Fisher Family. I'll make sure to take a picture and send it! I forgot the camera at the beach, so the only picture I have today is of her marveling at her new sandals!

The Meltdown

Wow! Keira was an absolute angel today. I remember driving the car looking at her in the rearview mirror just thinking to myself how lucky I was today that she was being such an absolutely perfect baby! This morning, we did our normal morning routine and everything was great. She had her early afternoon nap and after she got up smiling and happy, mom and I took her shopping for new shoes. Since she is walking alot more, I wanted to make sure that she had some shoes that had alot more support. She was great all during lunch and at the malls, but suddenly something happened. She definitely was starting to get tired and was moving her forearm back and forth in her mouth which is her way of showing that she wants her bottle. Well, when she is tired, she normally just falls asleep in her stroller or in the carseat. She doesn't need her bottle to sleep that way, so I don't usually bring it. I don't know why today was different or what happened but as soon as we drove out of the parking lot of the mall, she started crying hysterically....and just would NOT stop!!! It was a heart wrenching, non-stop, loud, painful sounding never ending scream/cry that went on and on all the way home! It was so bad that sometimes it sounded like she couldn't even breathe! Mom was in the backseat with her and nothing that either of us would do would get her to stop. She definitely wasn't hungry, she just ate a ton at not long before. She wasn't wet, she wasn't thirsty. Was she teething? Mom gave her some Baby Oragel, but no dice. NOTHING would stop her! We even checked to make sure that there wasn't something sticking her somewhere causing actual pain, but nothing! I had a feeling what it was...but I just couldn't BELIEVE that she would be throwing that huge of a tantrum over her bottle...something that she usually doesn't even need to fall asleep outside of her crib! Dan called to see where we were and I asked him to put a bottle together for us since we were almost home. Sure enough, as soon as we got home, I put her in the crib and gave her the bottle---BAM! Meltdown over and done. She was out in about 2 minutes.
Holy COW!!! I hadn't seen a meltdown like that ever. I just can't even imagine what it's going to be like trying to get her off the bottle like we were planning on starting this weekend...eGAD! When she woke up--sweet little angel again-- like nothing happened of course.
I don't know how we're going to do this--Help!!!

Miss Independant

Yesterday Keira turned the big 1-5. That is 15 months! Of course, I checked the "What to Expect- The Toddler Years" book to make sure that she is on track with where she should be at her age and she's pretty much on track except that she doesn't have any words mastered consistently yet. Considering that up until a month ago, all she heard was a completely different language, I would say that she's doing great! She's trying to walk on her own so much more now and doesn't look around for a guiding hand as much anymore. Now if I could just get her to a point where she doesn't want to grab everything out of your hands and scream when she can't have it! I guess that will come in time, right? Hopefully? :D I feel so bad having to say No so much more now, I'm worried that she'll start to think that NO is her name! We did make a compromise though with her brushing her teeth. I brush them first to make sure that it's actually done, then I hand the toothbrush over to her and let her brush her own teeth. She LOVES it!

I took her to the gym with me for the first time yesterday and she did GREAT! I put her down at the Kid's Club area and she waddled over to a little boy coloring at a table. She started to say really loudly "Ah! Ah!" to him, he turned around to me and the lady that worked there saying " Uh.....I think she wants to color". It was too cute! When I got back in to get her, she saw me and motioned for me to come over and pick her up. She went there again today and made fast friends with a little girl that was trying to pick her up when she fell.

She was watching a Baby Einstein DVD yesterday and started to try to count in German (the dvd had different languages counting and saying Nursery Rhymes). It was SOOO funny, I could hear mom laughing hysterically from the room when she heard it. Keira was so proud of herself.

Here are pictures of her playing and standing on her own, brushing her teeth and smushing her face up against the Pigpen being the crazy little character that she is!

A Golden Piglet Once Again...

Keira's appetite has diminished some since we got back and I think that Dan figured out why. She's been saving her appetite for her bottles of rice cereal and formula that she loves so much that she gets when she is going to bed. I mean, you should SEE this girl! She lets out a HUGE scream of extreme happiness when she sees her bottle. Well, we're trying a few different things today...
After reading a book on toddlers, I realized that there are a few things that I'm going to have to work on with her to get her out of the habit of. The first is her waking up a few times through the night for a bottle (I knew the "success" on her sleeping completely through the night wouldn't last!) Apparently aside from it being bad for her teeth, it isn't going to be much help with getting her to learn to get herself back to sleep. We decided that this venture was best saved for the weekend when Dan doesn't have to wake up so early in the morning because I'm SURE there will be some crying to start with. I did try it a little during her nap today following Supernanny advice. She slept for about 10 minutes in the car then when I got her inside, she decided that she was wide awake and wanted to play. I put her in her crib and gave her an afternoon bottle of Pediasure and milk which normally puts her to sleep, but she wanted to scream and play after that. After the first incident, I went into her room and told her that it was time for bed and got her to lay down again. After I left the room, she of course was back up screaming. I went back this time saying a quicker "time to sleep". That of course was not enough. After that, I went back in and it took 5 times this time of saying nothing and laying her back down in the crib. After the 5th time, I guess she finally figured out that I was going to keep on doing it and she layed in bed quietly for a bit until she finally went to sleep. Although I was really happy that it actually worked this time, I don't know how easily it will work each time. We'll see...

After she got up from her nap, Lola fed her and she actually ate quite a bit. Dan and I then took her for a stroll at the Harbor then went to a restaurant where she totally polished off some Mac and Cheese as well as a carrot stick. Man, the Golden Piglet is back in full force. Hopefully she'll be able to sleep through the night now since she SHOULD be full after all that!

As a quick side note, I cut her bangs today. She was getting a wonky eye from her hair getting in her eyes all the time, so I decided to bite the bullet. She looks so cute, although, there is only so perfectly straight you can cut a baby's hair that loves to squirm around and be into everything!

Here are some pictures of her. First one is her and Lola after a really TOUGH day of shopping- there is only so much time in the day to do more and more shopping- a rough life. Next is her playing with her dog after her bath. The others are of her in her "pigpen" trying to con Lola into playing more with the duck that Terri gave her. You can KIND OF see her haircut although I'm not exactly sure what on EARTH was on the TV!

Success...for now anyway...

Today marks 2 days in a row that Keira completely slept through the night. YAY! I'm trying to get her into more of a pattern to understand what works best for her. What finally did it was letting her eat dinner a little later (she LOVES mom's fish and rice concoction), sleeping at 8:45-09:00pm and when I give her a bottle, it has her formula PACKED with rice cereal. It makes it really thick and fills her up so that she isn't hungry through the night waking up for another bottle.

Yesterday, Mom, Keira and I took a trip down to San Diego. We went to my workplace to visit some friends there then headed to the Miramar base to buy stuff for Keira since it's usually MUCH cheaper there. We were a little worried that she would be crabby since she only got about 10 minutes of sleep in the car, but she was still her usual charming self. I, like a dork forgot to bring my camera, so luckily my friend Terri took pictures with her camera phone. Keira was fascinated by Laura's squishy stress ball that flashes colors. We were laughing because she even figured out on her own to squeeze it to get the colors to pop out. She was also crazy about Ube! She kept smiling and flirting with him. It was very fun. It's funny how in a few of Terri's pictures, we have the same facial expressions, and we actually kind of look alike! Terri also reminded me that I have to change the caption on the blog from saying "Soon to be Dad and Mom" to "New Dad and Mom"....I think I will! :)

Tumbles and Wiggles

Last night, Keira went to sleep at about 8 and ended up waking up for her bottle at about 2:30am...and 3:30....and 4:30.... I really do feel lucky in that she really is easy to put back to bed. She just wants her bottle again and she's out. It's just the waking up part. We're still learning about each other, but one thing that I have FINALLY gotten with her pattern is that when she takes her early afternoon nap...that is when she'll have a great, huge poop! She gets the overnight diapers for that nap.

At about 5:30, I heard the noises starting in the baby monitor, so I was just getting ready to get up to get her when I realized something...she was talking to herself. She was also singing to herself. I couldn't understand a single thing that she was saying or singing, but hey...she sounded content, so I let her amuse herself. It was a relief.

When she was finally ready to get up, I got her up, changed her diaper and brought her into the livingroom. She so far has been pretty uninterested in the TV. She might peak here and there at cartoons on TV and so far, the thing that she has been interested in for over 10 seconds has been Max's old 'Little People' DVDs (VERY cute by the way...). Well, this morning, she was actually ENTHRALLED by what was on TV. Guess what it was? THE WIGGLES! I tell you, I sure don't get it, but there is something magical that happens when children see The Wiggles. Max used to watch it over and over again. We would ask him what he wanted to see when he was almost 2 years old. His response was always "Guls!!!" That was his way of saying Wiggles, but he couldn't say it clearly just yet. No wonder those guys are millionaires. They have figured out some way to keep small children enthralled even when they have no interest in TV otherwise.

Mom and I brought Keira to a tumbling class today at JW Tumbles in Vista. It was so cute. She had a great time playing with the other children and LOVED the tub of balls. Now you KNOW she had a tantrum when I was trying to pull her out of it when playtime was over. The have something over there also called Kids Night Out where they will basically babysit until 10 at night so that you can have a Date Night with your spouse. Dan and I were thinking about doing that when we think that she's ready...although to be honest, there are already many people that want to babysit her that we would probably let them! :)

Pictures are of Dan and Keira playing with her teething toy as well as Keira at the gym having fun!

I also want to say thank you so much to everyone for your encouraging comments and emails. At the Adoption.com boards, everyone was also so encouraging and supportive...I do feel much better. It's good to know that I'm not alone with my feelings of being overwhelmed at times. I appreciate all of the love and support and hopefully as time goes on--it will either get easier, or I'll get used to it! :)