Simon Cowell is a Genius...

The only TV show that Keira has been interested in so far has been The Wiggles. She loves all of the songs and dancing and tries to sometimes copy what they are doing. Most people that I have told that have asked "Well, has she seen the Teletubbies yet?" Well....no.....first of all because I find them to be kind of creepy! :) Well, it's not about me, now, is it? I set the Satellite to record the Teletubbies today to see if she would even be interested at all in it. MAN! It got reactions out of her that were pretty amazing. It was almost like they were speaking to her in some little baby language. She REALLY seemed to understand everything that was going on. Now, don't get me wrong...I STILL think it's creepy...even MORE so now. There was some little skit with the Teletubbies playing instead of sleeping like they were supposed to and whenever they would settle down, this creepy voice would start to sing a weird lullaby. Hello!??!? Creepy! But hey, what can you do? Our baby loves it so guess what gets recorded every day now...

Keira and I ran around doing errands all day and it was just warm enough to try to take her to the pool! I got her dressed up in her swimming diapers and her new bathing suit. I got towels and carried her on the long trek through the greenbelt to the swimming pool. As soon as we got there....guess what? The pool is closed for repairs. ARGH! Here she was all dressed up with no place to go! I took her back home and she started dancing around in her bathing suit shaking a box of raisins like a rattle. She TORE those raisins up- about 3 boxes. I started to look for other community pools that she could maybe go to online, but came up empty. I loaded her into the car and started to head out to try the beach and see how that would go...and I got up to the first stoplight before she was out cold. I ended up turning around and taking her home for an early nap. After that, Dan came home. We played for a bit, then he said that the thought that she had something in her diaper. He wanted me to check. I said that her diaper felt kind of full, but she wasn't stinky, so it probably wasn't poo, so he could probably change her! Boy was I wrong. I could hear him from the room going "Oh boy...this is a BAD one!" I went in to help out and lo and behold (not for the weak of stomach mind you) There was a HUGE load chock full of raisins. Yikes. After that, we somehow managed to eat dinner and we headed over to Barnes and Noble for Pajamarama. The pictures I am posting are just silly ones of her trying to wear my sunglasses and my eyeglasses. She's a goofball.

The Busy Girl

Keira has been a very busy girl the past couple of days. Aside from going to the daycare at the gym to play, for the past couple of days, she has gone to both Legoland and the Wild Animal Park! With everything going on in both parks, it's so funny that the main things that she is interested in are the steering wheels for driving the boats. She doesn't want to drive the boats, mind you...she just wants to steer! The only animals that she was interested at the Wild Animal Park were the ducks and a door stopper at a shop. Does that count as an animal? She is walking better and better every day, although it is making me nervous because she has kind of skipped over to trying to run already. I put her down for a minute and she is off and running! She still hasn't gotten total control of her balance, so she usually falls over pretty fast- but that doesn't stop her. She gets right back up and starts running again! I definitely will have my hands full with her running all over the place very very soon!

The Playdate!

Today, Keira got to have a playdate with The Valdez Clan and Kaitlyn! After we came home from the gym and she got her late morning nap, we headed down to visit with Auntie Aimee and the kids. Uncle VJ also came with his daughter Kaitlyn. Aimee's kids are quite a bit older than Keira, so it was not as easy to play. Kaitlyn is a little bit younger (almost 2) and a little closer in age. It was great getting to see them all. I haven't seen Kaitlyn since she was a couple of weeks old and all of the kids have grown quite a bit! We headed home and she got another nap in. Normally, she gets up at about 5pm, but got up a little earlier. I was going to let her stay in the room for a bit in her crib, but guess what? She was calling out for Mama Mama Mama! How could I resist that??? Dan says that I was conned, and honestly, I don't know if she REALLY understand and gets me being "Mama"--but she has called me that a couple of times since that tonight. We'll see....either way...it made me INCREDIBLY happy! After that, Dan came home and we headed to the Playtown at the mall so that she could run around some. We ran into Lanny from work and got to watch his kids run around. They are so funny--and really good kids! I remember seeing his daughter when she was still a little baby and she will be 5 very soon. It's amazing how fast time flies.

Here are a couple of pictures of Keira with Auntie Aimee and with Kaitlyn. Also a couple of pictures of her helping me carry her dirty poopy diaper to the trash outside. The other is of her in the bathtub..she LOVES her baths and finally, the last picture is of her first attempt at eating a bunny Peep!

On an unrelated note, I am watching a show "Thank God You're Here"...and it's really funny! If any of you get a chance to see it, you will know what I mean!

Happy Easter!!!

This Easter was a nice quiet one. We first went to church this morning and Keira did great! It was so packed that there were no seats, only space to stand in the lobby area. Keira was in her stroller for a bit, then wanted to walk around. An old lady knocked her over a couple of times in the doorway which was kind of annoying. I would like to give her the benefit of the doubt in thinking that she just didn't see her. She was very well behaved and happy. One lady next to her told us that she was so in love with Keira and that she wanted to take her home. She just may have if we didn't leave soon after that!!!
Auntie Lorraine and Uncle Mike came over after that with lunch and to visit with Keira. They got to spend noisy time with her before she was down for the count...which is where she is right now...sleeping quietly! She is still getting those weird rashes that show up and go away after about 30 minutes and show up somewhere else on her body. I need to make an appointment for a doctor to take a look at it. I wonder if she may be allergic to something. She doesn't seem to be itchy from it or complain about them. They just look like they would be horribly itchy. They are very red with some bumps. They go away and next thing you know, they are in a different area of her body....and so on and so on.

I got some great ideas and advice on an activity and book to read. Dawn gave me a recommendation on strollerstrides, which is a new healthy activity to take Keira on. I have checked on the website and will get more info. It sounds like fun! (Thanks Dawn :) ) My friend Sarah also was letting me know about a Love and Logic book for very young children. She said that it has helped with tantrums etc with her little one that is only a month or so older than Keira.

With it being Easter, I've had a chance to really reflect on the things that I am so grateful for. I have such wonderful friends and family. I am so blessed to have such a thoughtful, loving husband and a beautiful, sweet daughter. In family, I mean not only my immediate family (mom, Gi, Max, my cousin Mike, Lorraine and Mike) but my fantastic in-laws (Dad, Margaret, Mom, Kat and Matt, Brenda and Mike, Laura, Eric, Hannah, Noah, Todd Christine, Fallon and Aria) as well. Gigi, Max and Mom travelled cross country to bring Keira all of her furniture and get things started in her room- with Mom also staying to help in the first transitioning period with love and advice. Lorraine has given so much in being so involved in all of Keira's activities and being a big part of Keira's daily life. Gigi has done so much in sending all of the gifts and giving sound motherly advice and you just wait until you get here Max...you are going to have your hands full helping me take care of Keira! Dad and Margaret were so supportive when I was up in Boston as well as with the encouraging emails and Elmo! Mom sent some beautiful cards and I can't thank all of the Curry sisters enough for all of the gifts and fantastic sisterly and motherly advice- especially Brenda. Thank you for all of the information on China and gifts that you have sent Keira- including the CD of lullabies that you recorded. I am also thankful for the Fisher Family. They have been extended family to my family for years since Gigi and Chris first met and eventually wed. Rose and Bill sent over some things to help with the trip to China (The Baby Bjorn was something I couldn't have made it without!), Becky sent a beautiful card and outfit for Keira. Mr. and Mrs. Fisher sent Keira a doll in her likeness as well as a book which brought tears to my eyes the other day when I finally got a chance to read it. It was a beautiful book about adoption. Everyone has been so great and supportive with everything that we've been going through with our family and just being wonderful family to Keira. Everyone has sent such thoughtful gifts and well wishes for her. I can't thank everyone enough. I am also truly blessed to have such great friends as well. I am so sorry that I haven't had the chance to send out Thank You cards yet to everyone. It's been so busy and everything is so new (I know it's no excuse!)---I really want everyone to know how much I really truly appreciate the love and support that you have given and can't thank everyone enough.
I hope that all of you have a wonderful Blessed Easter! I love and cherish all of you and feel so fortunate to have all of you in Dan, Keira and My lives. Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!

Easter Baby Chaos

Since I am now a SAHM (Stay At Home Mom) for the next year or so, I am constantly looking for fun Mom and Baby events that Keira and I can do together. One of the things that I've been looking for was an Easter Egg Hunt that she could participate in. Most are for kids that are a little older and the last thing that I wanted her to have to do was fight against kids that could not only walk better and faster than her, but ones that can RUN as well! I found a fantastic Egg Hunt in Encinitas to go to that had a timeslot for children 2 and under. We went to pick up Auntie Lorraine and headed over to the park for the hunt! We brought the very cute Hello Kitty Easter Basket that Auntie Gigi and Max sent for Keira and away we went. It was such a wonderful thing that Encinitas did! There were jumpers, a little arts and crafts booth, balloon animals and a starting line for all of the toddlers and their parents to wait at while the Easter Bunny cut the line and started the baby chaos! There were droves of little ones and their parents running across the fields to find the little plastic eggs. I tried to put Keira down to look for the eggs, but the crowds scared her enough to where she only wanted to be carried, so I ended up doing most of the egg hunting for her! It was still fun and I'm posting some pictures that Auntie Lorraine took. After that, we rested for a bit and then headed over to the park in Escondido. Mike Lagman is an old friend of Lorraine's and the family. He and his wife are starting a Photography business and wanted to know if they could take our family pictures and pictures of Keira for building up their portfolio and to use for their website (www.michaellagman.com) . We brought her there and she was a little grumpy after her nap, so HOPEFULLY they were able to still get some nice photos of her for their portfolio! She wasn't as smily and happy as she usually is. They will send us some of her photos and I will post them! The other pictures are just her being goofy in the car.

A Brand New Girl

Everytime Keira has a meltdown period, I, being a new parent am always afraid that she will never recover from it. The next day, she woke up the happy, smiling goofy girl that she normally is. I got some great advice from my sister in law Christine that she might be teething or having a delayed reaction from the shots. She has her teething rings which I have been giving her more lately to see if it helps when she gets grumpy. My friend Glenn also said with meltdowns, advice he was given was to give the necessities and then if she is still grumpy, try to introduce other things to narrow down what might be the problem. This all helps arm me more for the next meltdown she has since I'm SURE that there will be another one! :)

Her sleeping has been all over the place. The other night, I must have gone into her room about 12 times with her waking up sometimes 4 times within an hour. I was so dead tired that I could barely see straight. It's also really hard to sleep when she is napping because there is just SO much that has to get done. I've been going to the Adoption.com board to get advice on her sleeping through the night with the prevalent suggestion being to let her cry it out. I have been kind of against it, but after neither of us getting any sleep the past couple of days, I was ready to give it a try last night, but something weird happened! She slept at 08:30pm and woke up at 05:30am. Not sure WHAT happened, but hopefully it is the start of a trend.

I got a call from the Dr's office. Her tests came out great, except that it was showing slight inflammation of the liver from the Hep B. We already knew that, but what the Dr. said was that it was very slight. That could mean that it is residual from her getting Hep B and that it is almost gone, or it could mean that she has chronic Hep B. Either way, I will be taking her to a specialist--although I don't think that I want them to do a biopsy of her liver. The numbers are so slight for her inflammation, I think that I would rather wait until her 18 month check up to see if the numbers have stayed the same, increased or decreased. If it has stayed the same or increased, then I will discuss the biopsy with the doctor. Otherwise, I don't want her having surgery unless I'm sure that it may be a problem.

Over the past few days, Dan and I took Keira to Legoland and over to the play area at the mall. During her Tumblers Wobblers class, she usually is scared to death to crawl through the small tunnel they have, but lo and behold....at the play area, when I wasn't looking, she was crawling through the tunnel they have there! Not only once, but over and over again laughing each time she made it out the other end. I was able to get a few pictures that I will post. She wasn't too crazy about the sand in the dinosaur digging pit at Legoland and she wasn't too crazy about it at the beach. I think that the feel is too weird for her on her feet! The last picture is of her trying to sit on a bench that was pretty high up. She couldn't quite figure out how to lift herself up on it, so she was kind of bending backwards over it. She cracks me up. The other picture is of Dan feeding Keira with chopsticks at PF Changs. Dan hasn't been up to Chinese food for a while, but made an exception for PF Changs---I know, I know, it's not authentic Chinese, but hey! We've HAD authentic Chinese Food and the Americanized Chinese Food is still VERY good :)

The Meltdown Part II

Boy did Keira have a rough day yesterday. The night before, she was up crying almost every half hour from 1am on. I kept checking on what could possibly be wrong. She was warm, but didn't have a temperature. She wasn't hungry, wasn't thirsty and after changing her diaper, she was still crying. After about 4:30am, I finally brought her into our room. She still cried some, but at least slept for a couple of hours. I noticed that her breathing seemed a little labored, like she had a stuffed nose. I gave her a little infant Triaminic and she seemed to be in a much better mood after that. After her early afternoon nap, she was crying uncontrollably and I just couldn't figure out for the life of me what was wrong. Was it gas? She stopped crying for a minute and I had to put her in the car to pick Dan up from Huntington Beach. She was just fine on the ride up and back, and once I got her back home again, she took a nap for about 30 minutes (she slept in the car as well). We played with her for a bit and after that Dan took her outside for a stroll in the stroller. About 15 minutes later he came running in with her and wrapped her up in a blanket. She started crying hysterically. I mean CRYING... Dan said he was so worried about her because on their walk, she suddenly started shivering. She was wearing fairly warm clothes, but he said she was totally shaking. I took her temperature and she didn't have a fever. I checked my temperature too just to make sure the baby thermometer wasn't broken. Everything that worked earlier just wasn't working. I gave her a bottle and she finally started to settle down some. I put her to bed a little early since she was so tired and when she woke up...she was screaming and crying again. After trying various things, I took her into my bed and laid with her patting her back in case it was gas. She settled down some and let me put her back in her bed. She got up a couple times more, but went down right away without crying too hard. It's so hard trying to figure out what is wrong!!! I hope that she is feeling better today and if she is still crying alot, I might take her to the doctor, although I'm not sure that they will really do anything for her since she doesn't have a fever or anything....argh! We're thinking it's possibly a cold, gas, wanting her bottle or some kind of combination of everything in one. Any ideas from any of you parents out there???