Pictures

I have uploaded lots of pictures to flickr from our Christmas celebrations.

Enjoy and Happy New Year!

Spring in December!

Poppy here... it's been quite a long time since I've blogged. Today was a terrific day, almost as much fun as Christmas! Here in the "Berry" the temperature hit 68F! Of course, when the temperatures near the mid-50s Poppy begins thinking about doing things outside. Mommy isn't too keen on chilly-weather activity but I thought it would be good to get Karla out of the house. So out on the deck we went at 10am much to Mommy's chagrin. BUT! I was nice outside. We looked afterwards and it was 63 degrees. So on went jeans, shoes and a light jacket and out into the great wild we went. I was just planning on standing at the end of the deck since previous encounters with grass and the outdoors were very tentative. However we're apparently past all of that. Karla heard the neighbor girls dancing outside to music (a common summertime occurrence) and shot off the deck like a rocket and went running uphill to them all. She went right up to them and said "Hola!" So they were all excited and curious to know who Karla was and then why Karla wouldn't say anything to them they could understand. I explained that Karla spoke both Spanish and English. That got the girls even MORE excited because they wanted to know the Spanish words for all sorts of stuff so they could interact with Karla. Fortunately I knew most of what they asked. Pelota (ball) was a huge hit with them and they kept calling the balls "pelotas" long after Karla had wandered away from them. So Karla pretty much instantly made 7 new friends. They invited her to play "Fairy" (which seems to involved lots of standing around calling each either other boy names) but Karla was much more interested in finding "doggie!!" We met even more of our neighbors today when they brought their dog Sydney outside. It was chasing frisbees in the cul-de-sac and ran up to Karla when she went running over ("DOGGIE!! AQUI!!!"). Karla then immediately huddled against me and didn't want to pet the dog. So the neighbor let me toss the frisbee a few times and Karla just screamed "DOGGIE!! YAY!!!" or "DOGGIE!! AQUI!!" every time. Then Jennifer came out and we walked along Blackmoore down to the other cul-de-sac and encountered 4 more dogs which was just the greatest possible thing ever (according to Karla). Finally Karla looked ready to drop and we came in to find out we'd been outside over an hour and a half. Karla ate a little bit and then went right up to bed. She woke up a little over 2 hours later, called "Poppy! Poppy!" and wanted to go right back outside. We got a little more food in her first, put on new pants and boots (the others were soaked) and headed out for round two. More fun with another neighbor doggie (more shouting!). Then we did a couple of laps around Grandview, played with the neighbor girls again and slid on the slide A LOT. A great time was had by all.

I've uploaded a special set of Flickr images to document our day.

Happy "Day After Christmas" To You!

Karla must have been a good girl this year because she got lots of great, fun gifts! I'll have to upload more pictures when I am not so worn out from all of the excitement!


A picture from earlier this month of the three of us. :)

Best Christmas Present Ever!

Here she is:



Merry Christmas!

Social Security Card

Karla got her social security card today in the mail!! Yeah!!
Making progress towards re-adoption in PA.

We also filled out the necessary forms to receive Karla's file from immigration services. It may contain information about Karla or her birth family that we have never seen before. Either way, it will be great to have for her and for our legal records.

Who needs toys?

Not a post topic you want to see before Christmas. :)

I bought these storage drawers at Target on Sunday for about $18 - and they have entertained Karla for the past day and a half. Oso goes in and out. She gets in and out. Other little things get put on and in. Quite amazing how many different things she can think of to do with it.

The drawers are to keep her Play-Doh, crayons, and other "craft" things in. They may have to be placed higher up if I actually want them to be functional.

I didn't finish my shopping yet...I don't like being this last minute! I was almost done on Sunday when I went out when I received a call from home. Karla was getting upset that I couldn't be found in any of the rooms of the house. So, I rushed right home. I didn't want to take her out in this horribly cold weather today - so tomorrow it is! At least I know what I need/want to get now and can hopefully be in and out.

This weekend Karla had a visit from her great-grandparents. She was calling them by name and had lots of fun playing with them. It was hard to tell who was having the most fun! I think it is pretty awesome that Karla has 4 great-grandparents. I have to say I haven't seen these two down on the floor (even crawling!) like they were Saturday in quite some time. :) Here is a picture of Karla opening a gift from Mammy and Pappy.


Today Karla and I stayed inside where it is nice and warm. We did some cleaning. I finally got out my winter clothes and put them in my closet. (I guess I was hoping we would have Guatemala-like weather this winter but no such luck). Karla was entertained by looking at and trying on all of my shoes.

This evening Aunt Brenda stopped by for a little while. She had fun reading a story to Karla. She may be famous for being able to use several silly voices. Tonight when she was reading "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" Karla tried imitating one of the voices - and did pretty well. It was SO funny. Brenda and I were laughing like crazy and Karla was fake laughing. She has just started fake laughing and fake crying. I don't think she really knew why we were laughing so much but knew she should be laughing too. That made Bren and I laugh even more. I tell ya, Aunt Brenda and Karla seem to have a lot in common sometimes. One thing is for sure they both always make me smile and laugh!

I took fun (beautiful) pictures of Karla yesterday in her fancy dress. I'm saving them for a Christmas Eve post! :)

Words

I forgot to mention the new words Karla is saying:

hungry, please (yeah, been working on that for a while!), excuse me, Sugar (for the cat), Nana Shirley, Judy, Nice to meet you (I almost fell over), pajamas, napkin, pony, camera, and mess.

Karla was doing something cute today when I said "hold on, I have to get the camera". She patiently and calmly stopped what she was doing, walked to the table and pointed to the camera. HA! I didn't even know it was there. Then she went back to what she was doing so I could take a picture and said "camera"! :)

Jason and I just got to watch a movie! The first one I have watched since sometime before I left for Guatemala.

Have a good weekend!

Roller Coaster Week

Fun things Karla did this week:

*met her Mommy's good friend Rachel and her son Aidan. She also met Aidan's (real) rabbit. She was excited to see it but afraid to get too close.
*saw her friend Austin and Lola again
*had a family and a friend from church come over to spend a little time with her (and give her gifts - she got a beautiful handmade stocking, pajamas (one pair came with a tutu - you know there will be pictures of this in the future), 2 pairs of shoes (a big hit!) and some books)
*spent some time with "Nana Shirley". Wednesday afternoon Karla and I went to my special friend, Shirley's house. I have spent a lot of time at Shirley's over the past 3 years - crying, praying, talking, having tea and being fed brownies (my favorite). It was a special day for me to be able to take Karla to Shirley's house. When I got there Shirley asked me if I had brought any toys. Oops. I told her I didn't even think about it. Shirley doesn't have any toys but has lots of pretty and breakable things. I was so excited to go to her house I didn't think about taking toys. Turned out Karla was ready for a tea party and didn't need any toys! It was so neat because as soon as we got to Shirley's house Karla walked right into the kitchen and hung out with Shirley while she was making tea (Karla had only seen Shirley twice at church). It was like she'd been there a hundred times. I wanted to cry but I didn't. :) Karla was fine without toys, drank her OJ while we had tea, ate cookies, and we made several trips to "Nana Shirley's" bedroom to see her cat, Sugar. Karla would talk to Sugar but was afraid to get too close to her.

Difficult things this week:

NO, I DIDN'T JUST PUT MARKERS ON MY FACE AFTER I WAS TOLD NOT TO. MOMMY ONLY LEFT THE ROOM FOR ABOUT 5 SECONDS!

*I guess maybe I took Karla too many new places. So far we've been having people come to our house. This week we went to other people's houses. Wednesday evening and all day Thursday were NOT good times. I am guessing it is because Karla fell asleep in the car on our way home from morning "visits" and then didn't want to sleep when we got home. It totally threw off her sleeping schedule which made her extremely cranky and me exhausted - and that is NOT a good combination. I don't know if that is what was going on or not. It's my guess...so of course I'm feeling a little bad about it. Right now Jason (and Grammy and Pap-Pap) are entertaining Karla while I "hide" upstairs. I needed some time to relax (and blog). :) All three of them are singing "Rock-a-bye Baby" to Oso...while Karla listens. It is funny.
*I was also feeling stressed about Christmas. I finally got the cards in the mail today and I'm still not done shopping. I was going to take Karla with me today to finish up but after how yesterday went - we stayed home all day. I'll have to go out this weekend... :( I decided this morning that is what I will do and just go tomorrow knowing it will be busy. So I'm trying not to stress too much.
*During nap time today I was reading on my favorite adoption forum (Guatadopt) and it sounds like many families are having similar transition issues. The kids are older coming home now so there are more "threads" on the topic. I was SOOO relieved when I read some other people's thoughts and struggles - because some are exactly like mine! I'm including some examples below in case any potential or fellow adopters are reading this. :)

*child always wanting physical closeness (I want this too but sometimes my back or arms just hurt too much! I never would have believed I would want or have to put my baby girl down because I was in pain)
*predictable routine that you use every day - to help child feel safe (hard during this time of year and when I am really wanting to see people or go places - since I was in Guat for a while and then mostly at home for a while)
*your child is testing you - they are trying to determine if they can trust & depend on you (I think this would happen even if a child wasn't adopted -but boy were those first 2 weeks in Guatemala rough- lots of testing!!) I don't know if this is true or not but I think she knows when I am tired - and does extra testing! Is she really that smart? :)
*feeling guilty for taking a break (like I am doing right now-but at the moment I am not feeling guilty-I can hear Karla having fun downstairs)


We had fun at home today. I uploaded some pictures to flickr this evening so you'll have to check out what all we got into! Here is a picture of Karla in a pair of high heel shoes she found somewhere in my closet - she barely took them off all day. I wonder if her back is hurting. :) Check out her first pedicure - given by her Mommy.

Learning

Today I learned that watching your mommy get adjusted at the chiropractor is quite scary. Oops. I was just excited to have my chiropractor meet Karla.

Karla learned to say "excuse me" and "dancing".

Karla got a new brush and hair clips at Walmart this afternoon. She had me put EVERY hair clip in her hair!


Karla also saw her friend Austin today.


Karla didn't sleep through the night again last night. Wasn't quite as bad as the night before though. She was very pleasant today and I've noticed that she is more cuddly lately. She also gave me kisses three times today!! I was quite happy. :)

Sunday Pictures

Yesterday Karla helped make pancakes for breakfast.

Today we went to church. Karla stayed in the toddler room for the last part of the service all by herself (without Mommy and Daddy)!

After Karla's nap today we went to the Y to go swimming! Karla loved it. I can't believe I forgot my camera. Maybe next Sunday when we go I will remember.

This evening we caught part of the Steeler's game.



Last night we all only slept about 1/2 the night. Karla was up for hours...and we have no idea why. I won't show a picture of what we looked like when we got up this morning!

Week in Review

I just realized it is Saturday and I still haven't written about LAST Saturday. Here goes...

Last Saturday we took Karla to get her first haircut. I just wanted to get it trimmed because there were several different hair lengths, especially in the back. We are going to try to let her bangs grow out...we'll see how that goes. Anyway, I insisted we take her to a place just for kids so that it would hopefully be a good experience. Well, it wasn't for Karla. The place (Sharkey's cuts for kids) has a Barbie Jeep, airplane, car, etc. for the kids to sit in and a TV at each chair. So hopefully the kids are distracted and having fun during their haircut. When we walked in Karla showed interest in the airplane but once she thought she had to sit in it - it was no longer fun. So we went over to the plain, regular chair so she could sit in my lap. To make a long story (well, what I could make a long story) short, she cried the whole time. Karla's foster family had said that they hadn't cut her hair so we could do whatever we wanted with it. I wasn't sure if that could be true because obviously she had bangs and shorter sections on the one side of her head but the lady said that in the back the reason her hair was different lengths was because some of it still looked like baby hair so it more "wispy" than the rest. She said it was either baby hair or it hadn't been cut in a very long time. So, anyway, she cut a little lock of hair for me to keep. :) Jason was quite appalled by the whole experience. Yes, it was pricey but I said he should think about the money he has saved by not getting Karla's hair cut over the past year or so. Needless to say, we probably won't be going back to Sharkey's. I would recommend it though if you don't mind paying a lot for your kids' hair to be cut. At Sharkey's part of your fee covers a (temporary) tattoo for boys or a "mini-cure" for girls. We (I) bravely decided we would try the mini-cure after the haircut since it was included. Of course Karla perked right up when it was time to have clear nail polish with sparkles put on her nails. I told Jason he better be saving money if she already likes mini-cures. :)


I know...I'm so mean for wanting my daughter to have trimmed, nicely shaped hair...

After the haircut we drove to OH to see my parents. Karla did a great job on the way over and only asked to get out of her car seat when we were just moments from their house. Grandma had gotten out her keyboard and put it on the coffee table for Karla since she knew Karla likes music. It was a big hit! Karla warmed up quickly and was calling my parents Grandma (sounded more like nana) and Grandpa (sounded like Pawpaw)in no time. I have to include these pictures and I 'll hope I don't get in trouble. The top is Jason's head of course and the bottom is Grandpa's legs. Grandma and Karla are under there too!!! Eventually I was talked into going under. I can't believe we all squeezed under there...it was quite hot, uncomfortable and crowded. It is amazing what you will do just because a cute little girl points to you and directs you where to go!

Grandma had her Christmas decorations out and Karla really enjoyed the Santa Claus that was almost as big as she is. She was saying "Santa" a lot! She slept ALL night at Grandma and Grandpa's too! I was impressed.

On Sunday evening my parents' small group from their church had a shower for Karla. It was so fun (and emotional) to meet all the people who had prayed for us (for years) even though we hadn't met before. Karla made special friends with one man there and was even letting him hug her and get a hold of her! There were about 30 adults in the house and Karla warmed up really fast. Again, I was impressed. Here's a party picture:


Tonight we went to my work's Christmas party. Again, lots of people and Karla warmed up fast. I had a good time seeing all my "old" friends. :) (K.H. HAHAHA)

One last thing to bore you with. I can't believe I forgot to blog about this. About 2 weeks ago we received Karla's U.S. Certificate of Citizenship. It was exciting for Jason and me. This means that now we can start the process of re-adoption in the state of PA. I know - more process... This time all we have to do is hire an attorney and let him do his thing. We could try to fill out the required paperwork ourselves but after the problems we've had - we're letting a professional do it and not worrying about it too much. I have asked Jason if he feels more relaxed now that Karla is home because I SURE DO. He says that he won't be totally relaxed until we have this readoption totally done. So, I don't think I'm going to change the top of my blog (talking about the process) until the readoption is done.

The first step was to take Karla to the social security office and apply for a social security number. So I took her on Thursday. We should have the number and card within 14 days (Merry Christmas!). Grammy went with us and it is a good thing because I had to give documents and answer questions. Grammy took Karla out in the hall and looked at Christmas decorations and climbed up and down a big set of stairs.

In other news, Karla is no longer bothered by getting messy when eating. Seems to be the opposite now.


Here is one last picture. Karla with most of her Oso's!

Pictures and Comments

I keep saying I'm not going to upload that many pictures to flickr....but...there are so many good ones. I uploaded a lot today so check it out! :)

As time permits I have been writing little things I think of to blog about...

On Thanksgiving Day we went to Grammy and Pap-Pap's. Karla may be a little spoiled. After her Thanksgiving dinner (of mostly corn) she tried some pie. (see the pictures) Actually, she was given the remainder of the pie to do whatever she wanted with (eat the crust off the top). Even Uncle Kevin, a pie lover, didn't object to this - I think he suggested it! Then she was given the cool whip container that was still mostly full. Who else would have been able to get away with all of that!?

In recent days Karla has said the following words: Santa, you're welcome (sounds like wowowo), wave, ear, egg, stretch, enchilada (lada) and bum (for her bottom).

Yesterday, my good friend Jennifer taught Karla to sign "thank you" and identify and say "cheek". Karla attempted to say "Jennifer" but I can't even think of how to write it. :)

Karla still requests the radio on when we get in the car. Actually she says "God" and points to the radio because she wants me to play her favorite song (Let God Arise). I like the song, but I have to admit, hearing it so many times in one week...I could use a break. :) She sings constantly whenever she is in the car. If she runs out of songs she knows she just starts singing words she knows: Mommy, Poppy, Daddy, baby, Oso, Elmo...

Karla is getting used to the grocery store routine (for our frequent trips to get fresh apples, bananas, OJ, and bread - her main foods). She will sit in the cart the whole time. This makes checking out a lot easier. She sits in the cart and tells me when to swipe my credit card by waving her hand at the machine. She also "reminds" me to put the filled grocery bags into our cart.

We've had two good days and nights in a row of sleeping. I hope tonight is another good one.

Karla still has a cough but sounds and looks much better.

Videos

I just uploaded 4 videos to flickr. Check them out! They are of Karla dancing with Heather, dancing with her great-grandpa, and practicing saying "yes" rather than "no".

I'm going to try uploading more pictures tomorrow and blogging more. I've fallen behind. The good news is that Karla took almost a 3 hour nap yesterday, slept all night last night, and slept for 2 1/2 hours today! She still has a cold but hopefully all the sleep will help her get better faster.

This is my 100th post! I never thought I'd have so much to write about. :)

Here is Karla, ready for bed in one of her favorite spots.

Just a cold

Karla just has a cold. The doctor did a strep test since Jason had strep throat last week and it was negative. She has been asleep for an hour and a half - a record for the past 48 hours. Hopefully she'll feel more like herself after a good rest. Karla's lungs sounded "perfect" so now I can relax more. :)

NOPPY!

This is my favorite new word. It is what Karla says when she is playing with Daddy and he tries to get her/tickle her/play with her toy, etc. It is a combination of NO and POPPY. I crack up every time I hear her say it.

Today was a difficult day. It seems like our days are either great/fun or extremely difficult for me. It could be because last night Karla didn't sleep much. She was not feeling well today so she was not herself. I worry (too much) about her when I think she is getting sick - and this time I know she is. She's congested. She has a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning so hopefully that will put my mind at ease.

I am looking forward to blogging about her first haircut, our weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's and her party last night. :)

I'm still here, just tired.

Happy Halloween!

Okay, so it is a little late. Karla found a Halloween costume that was in the clothes our neighbors gave us (I thought I had them put away). She wanted to put the sheep costume on immediately...followed by the boots she just got. Jason fixed my computer yesterday!! Now I can post pictures again. We're going to Grandma and Grandpa's for the weekend so I'll upload more pictures on Monday. Have a good weekend and Happy Halloween in December! Baa!


Oh, before I even could post this...she found another costume. Now we are hopping. We hopped in to wake up Daddy! He didn't even care because she is just so cute!

Mommy better get ready for the day - we are going to get Karla's first hair cut (trim) this morning! I am excited! So many fun things to do!

Home for 4 weeks!!

Today marks 4 weeks that we have been home from Guatemala!! It has been 7 weeks and 2 days that I've had Karla in my arms everyday!

I think we may be hitting our stride finally. For the past two days I have not dreaded naptime and bedtime. I was pondering that when I was rocking Karla tonight. I think it is because - well, I am sure it is because she hasn't cried! I say "Karla it is time to sleep" and she grabs Oso, runs to her "Poppy" and tells him "buenos noches". Then I carry her upstairs and she doesn't fuss, cry or scream! Naptime has been easy too. She's also been SO pleasant and down right fun and hilarious for the past few days.

Last night I read some articles about sleep issues with adopted children and made a plan in my mind of what I was going to try last night when she woke up in the wee hours. Don't you know, she didn't wake up. So of course I woke up (miraculously) 15 minutes prior to when she usually wakes up and listened. I waited and waited. So I guess my plan will have to be tried on a different night.

Today she said two new words: tissue and face.

We went to where I used to work so she could meet my coworkers today. I was so excited that we left the house an hour early. (I was also trying to get us out of the house so sick Daddy would have some quiet.) We ended up going to see Aunt Brenda at her office. We hung out there for a while and met some more people that have been praying for us and Karla for a long time now.

I was so excited to go back to where I worked because my friends there REALLY helped me through some difficult days. I was so excited for them to see that Karla was REAL. I know it sounds funny but sometimes I wondered if I was making her up...so I thought maybe they did too. :) Anyway, I hope they know how much I appreciate them!! Karla and I hung out over their lunchtime. I took food for Karla but she still preferred other peoples' lunches to her own. Luckily, someone shared their french fries. I guess even a banana can't compete with french fries. I was invited to the speech therapy department's Christmas party even though I haven't worked there since May. I felt happy that they included me (and Karla and Jason) and I am looking forward to going!

Not being able to post pictures is killing me! :) Hopefully by the weekend I'll be able to.

OFF

The word of the day was "off". Karla said this word for the first time and used it appropriately ALL day. She used it when taking off her clothes, shoes, socks, diaper, lids to things...ALL day. I think she actually said "off" today more than she said the word "no"!! Her other new phrase today was "Are you okay?" She spent a lot of time asking all her stuffed animals this question. It was one way to work on her saying "yes". She can do it! :)

Here are some new words Karla has said since last Thursday: I know, gobble gobble, key, more juice, got you, pull, you, coffee, got it, boo boo, Karina (foster aunt), Boots (from Dora), scoop, soft, pee pee, off, sticky, "nita" (for bonita - "pretty" in Spanish) and Are you okay?. She is saying so many more words and 2 word phrases. I know some of them would only be understood by me, but she's getting better. I'm a speech therapist and even I am impressed...maybe I'm biased. :)

Karla said "coffee" after she got up extra early one morning (can't remember at this point what day it was), went straight to her Daddy's desk, got his keys, and set off the car alarm. I was still half asleep so it took me a minute to figure out what was happening and that our car was the one probably waking people up. As soon as I turned the alarm off I said, "Karla, I need coffee". She shook her head yes and said "coffee", like she agreed with me. :)

My computer still isn't working properly and a new part is coming in the mail (in 3-4 more days!) so I can't view or post my pictures. It is awful. At least I can email and blog now. I should probably be doing laundry or cleaning up the kitchen, but blogging is so much more fun.

Other Karla things:
*she identifies eyes, nose, ears and belly button on her, her toys and us (in English)
*yesterday I licked my finger and then swiped some dried food off the corner of her mouth one time. Today, I saw her do this to her toys a few times. How does she remember this stuff? I seriously keep a notebook on the counter so I can jot things down during the day so I don't forget! How does she remember one thing I did yesterday? It is kind of scary. :)
*Saturday she said several new family members names (or attempted to)
*Each week seems to get better. Karla doesn't say "no" nearly as often and she doesn't have meltdowns/tantrums nearly as much - maybe 1 a day. That is probably okay for a toddler. I feel like things are a bit easier for me too. I have figured out that my attitude plays a big role. :) So if I feel crabby in the morning because someone has kept me up during the night, I've learned to pretend I feel just great! I think we are both happier that way and I see less attention-getting or bad behaviors from her.
*she ate more than I did for breakfast and lunch today! I don't know where she puts it!
*we went to the Y this morning. You can see the pool to the left through a glass wall as soon as you go in. As soon as she saw it she said "Adios Mommy" and ran to the wall. She started trying to take her shoes and coat off. It was pretty funny. I think I am going to sign her up for swim lessons starting in January. We went to the Y to run around the gym. We were only there a few minutes before another mom came with her two little boys. Karla liked watching the boys, running after the ball, "racing", and running, running, running. My goal was to give her some exercise on a cold day - but I think I got more exercise than she did.

*Obviously I feel like Karla has always been my daughter. I forget she is adopted (...except when I remember the 2 years I was without her). At Target and Giant Eagle though I had experiences that reminded me. The first time we went to Target the lady at the check-out asked Karla her name and how old she was. I felt like saying "She has no idea what you are saying to her, she speaks Spanish. She's only been in the country for 2 weeks". But I didn't say that. She just thought Karla was shy. (Of course we're working on these two things now.)
Then today at Giant Eagle we were at the deli counter when the lady asked me if my baby would like a slice of cheese or salami. I felt dumb because I said "I don't know, because I really did not know." She looked at me kind of strangely and then I just said, sure, she'll have some cheese. I ended up eating it. Karla likes shredded cheese but apparently not sliced cheese. I had tried sliced cheese before at home and she didn't eat it here either. Now I know.

*Daddy came home from work early today because he was sick. I haven't even gotten to tell him all about our day. Karla saw him a little bit tonight and seemed to understand he didn't feel good. He was on the couch for a little while and she just stood beside the couch with her hand on his leg watching TV with him. When his bowl of soup was gone she signed "more" for him so that I would get him more soup!! It was SOOO cute.

*Karla said "amen" today after we prayed at dinner time. Later this evening when we were playing with some "little people," they sat down at a table and Karla said "amen".

*We've been listening to a Praise CD when we get in the car. She started singing part of "Let God Arise" on Saturday when we were driving to Ohio. She would sing part of the chorus "God saves". It too was SOO cute! Today she was running around singing just "God". I think we need to work on this so it doesn't sound like she is using the word inappropriately. :)

*She is still not sleeping through the night. I really wish I knew why. It is almost the same time every night/morning that she gets up and does not want me to leave the room.

*If anyone has read this and made it this far, I have a question. What is a good type of laundry detergent for a kid who loves spaghetti and pizza and gets sauce all over their clothes? I use Kirklands from Costco, it is not getting the stains out. I'm beginning to think it is not the best.

Sorry, no cute pictures in this post. I got a good one today of her too with all her Osos (bears).

Computer

I just wanted to let you know that my computer has been acting up and Jason is going to be fixing it up for a few days. I hope not too long. I may go through withdrawal from not being able to blog and upload and look at all my pictures!!!

We had a HAPPY and thankful Thanksgiving. Tonight Karla's 2nd cousins and great aunt and great uncle came over to meet her. I think everyone had a good time! I'll have to post pictures when I can!

Tomorrow we are headed to my parents' house in Ohio. It'll be our first "long" drive (1 1/2 hours) with Karla. She is going to meet ALL of my side of the family. Thirty people are going to finally get to meet her. We are hoping it goes well for Karla and that she has fun. Usually my family has a Thanksgiving celebration on the Saturday after Thanksgiving but this year we are all going out to eat and then having a party at my parents' house to celebrate Karla being home (and my grandma being done with chemo and now being cancer-free)!!

Have a good weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

This year we have a lot to be thankful for! So many answered prayers and a new family member!
Here is Karla getting the turkey baster ready for the big day... (We're not really cooking the turkey but I was feeling festive while washing dishes)

We are thankful for lots of loving family!

Karla was better today than yesterday. I still don't think she has been herself and her eyes looked so tired all day. I have a nagging feeling that she is going to be sick again. I may just be an over-worried mom though - I hope so anyway. Our other theory is that she is getting some teeth. Karla did wake up at 3 am again. It is weird how it is the same time each night. I'm not sure what that means. Last night it only took a half an hour to get her back to sleep.

Words Karla said today (good thing I keep a piece of paper handy!): me, jingle (for Jingle Bells), excuse me (Elmo may have helped her say this), red, yeah football (Daddy has been drilling her on this), and stool (she sits on a stool while she brushes her teeth and when I dry her hair).

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Survived

Survived - that is how I feel about today. It all started at 3 or 4 this morning. Not sure what time. Karla woke up again and didn't want to go back to sleep. I finally took her in the guest room and we slept on and off in the twin bed there because I wanted Jason to be able to rest for work. She was up by 7:30 again. The morning went pretty well. We went to Babies R Us and she had fun playing with Grammy and the toys while I looked around. It was nice to be there and KNOW what size Karla wears and what she actually needs. I picked up some necessities. Then we had to check out. Karla screamed the whole time and of course I had coupons and gift cards to try use which took additional time.

After lunch we both took a nap. Then Karla was cranky for the rest of the afternoon and evening! She was saying "no" even more than usual, fussing - then when she started hitting she got in big trouble. She didn't like it. I guess when Daddy got home he could tell I was at the end of my rope. She started misbehaving again and Daddy initiated her first time-out. He did it upstairs so I was able to sit downstairs in quiet and pull myself together - oh, and eat dinner finally. Jason and I discussed disciplining tonight and what her limits are going to be. She did perk up after her time-out. She came downstairs and hugged me. Jason thinks she understood that she was bad but I don't know. Maybe, maybe not.

I felt kind of sad today because in my mind for all this time (past 2 years) Karla has been a baby. I mean, I knew she was getting older, but I still thought of her as a baby. She is NOT a baby, she is a toddler. I'm trying to make that adjustment in my mind and in how I treat her. Then when I get frustrated or sad that I have NO idea what she wants or is trying to tell me I think - is this the transition to our home or is this her age?? Then I think about the adoption world and how messed up it is and how some of this difficulty could have been avoided. I know I shouldn't go down that path and I know things wouldn't be perfect but maybe they would not be so hard for her. The doctor said it well when we were there last week - Karla had 2 years of a routine with her foster family and it is going to take a while to adjust to a new one. I guess I should be good at waiting...but I don't want to. :)

Anyway -
Karla has had a glass of milk at dinner for the past two days! Yeah! I flavored it with strawberry Nesquik and we let her drink it out of an open cup - something I don't think she has ever done before. She gets lots of praise when she drinks her milk. Tonight she was asking for it as soon as she saw it. I've found other ways to "sneak" calcium in at the other meals so hopefully she's getting plenty of calcium now!

I uploaded pictures to flickr today - 146 to be exact. I guess I have taken lots of pictures in the past few days. Everything is a first for me so I guess that is why. :)

Words Karla said today: Andre (foster cousin), J (her foster sister), Jayne (her middle name), "achoo" (Elmo taught her to fake sneeze), clean up, potato, roll (during pat-a-cake), good night. Several new words for one day! I am keeping a pen and paper handy so I can write them down when she says them.

Yesterday Daddy showed Karla a new trick and today Karla tried it with a box instead of a laundry basket.


Yesterday Karla had a play date with Austin. They really got along well and they both posed for pictures! Austin gave Karla kisses but she wasn't ready to give him kisses yet. However, she kept saying "Austin, where are you?" for quite a while after he left. Austin's mom called me tonight around 8pm and said that Austin wouldn't go to bed tonight because she had shown him pictures from their play date yesterday and he kept saying "more kiss Karla" instead of going to sleep! I was glad she called to tell me that....it was right after the time-out. :)

The past few days

Friday morning Karla had her first play date. Her friend Lola came over. Lola and her mom brought Karla some nice birthday gifts, they danced, chased each other around the house, and enjoyed some orange juice together.

For some reason Friday afternoon was difficult. I don't know if Mommy was just really tired and Karla could tell or what. We were both happy when Daddy got home! Then Friday night we got Karla to bed about 45 minutes earlier than usual...and then she was up at 3am. It was not pretty. I'm not sure when she fell back to sleep (finally) - it may have been about 7am. So we got to sleep from 7am until 9:40 when she woke up again. It took me most of Saturday to wake up.

Then in the afternoon Karla had another "play date" with Heather. Heather brought her parents too. :) The girls had fun playing with dolls, chasing each other around the house, and dancing. They also played with Play Dough and pretended to be asleep on the floor.

Today Karla went to church again. She was a little less shy. This week Daddy took her to the toddler room and he said she played with the other kids and adults and didn't really "need" him too much. We're thinking we'll go with her for another week or two and then let her stay by herself. :( It is good for her though!

This afternoon we went to Grammy and Pap Pap's to celebrate Karla's birthday and Uncle Ryan's birthday. Karla called Uncle Ryan "Tio" ("uncle" in Spanish). When I would tell her to call him Ryan she would roar and make her hand look like a paw. She thought I was saying lion. I'm not sure how we are going to work on this. :) She enjoyed saying "Tio" and having a new person to follow her around where ever she wanted to go.

This time when she saw the cake she immediately stuck her fingers in it and began licking before anyone else sat down or realized what she was doing!! She even said "eyeball" again (for the holes she made in the cake). Her cousins taught her well. She had LOTS of icing. No cake though. Maybe that is why it took a long time to get her to bed tonight.


We have good days and bad. Most are good though. I can't complain!!!
Check out this cute girl in her adorable outfit from Lola and Carey! The outfit is from Disney World!

I'll upload more pictures to flickr sometime tomorrow.

New words Karla has said this weekend: It's okay, Heather, yes/yah (we are really working on this since her favorite word is "no"), Mickey (for Mickey Mouse - sounds a lot like icky though), and fish.

Adoption Facts

Since adoption is near and dear to my heart I read some interesting facts today and decided to share them. According to "Pittsburgh Professional Magazine" November 2008

*1 in 4 adoptions in the US is international
*PA ranks third among the states in numbers of children adopted from other countries
*girls represent 64% of adopted children

Thanks to Craig for sharing this magazine with us. His son goes to the same pediatrician as we do and our doctor was featured in this article. Another interesting thing that she said was that 20% of the children she sees have no problems at all. That struck me because we are in that 20% and I am so thankful! Aside from Karla's little hospital stay (that I still have bad dreams about) she is healthy and developmentally on target. I'm not counting the fact that she is speaking English and Spanish. She's picking up more English everyday. In another article in this magazine that exclusively discusses language in internationally adopted children, it says that delayed language development is expected 100% of the time in these children (this was said by a speech-language pathologist at Washington Hospital in McMurray, PA). I'm not sure I completely agree with that because it all depends on the environment the child has been in.

As you all know, adoption and speech-language pathology are two of my big interests - so I decided to give you some info on both.

I want people to be aware of adoption and know that right now it is extremely difficult to adopt internationally and it makes me sad - for orphans and for parents in the U.S. that would happily adopt them. I think that there are only a few countries to adopt from right now and some of them (like China) take YEARS. It's not right for the babies/toddlers/children! Anyway, I'll stop writing about it and share some Karla with you. :)

Yesterday and today Karla said the following words (the speech therapist in me is coming out):
yummy
okie-dokie
love you - She has said this before to both her grandmas and her daddy, but never to me. She said it today - after some practice - I admit it. :)
banana
owl
dos (she will say this after you say "one" or "uno" and then she calls every number after dos - "dos"
bano (for bath)


What did we do today? Well, we folded towels:


And put the clean, folded towels in the laundry basket....wait, there are books in the laundry basket!! How'd that happen??

Karla describes her day

Since Daddy has to go back to work, I will do some work around the house for him...

Mommy and I made some messes today. We made pudding (doctor said I need lots of calcium) and drew some pictures with markers - even though I didn't like getting markers on my hands at first. I warmed up to it!



I made Mommy think I would eat some of the pudding (with calcium in it) by taking many licks as we made the pudding but I didn't eat any once it firmed up. She can't fool me. :)

Oh, Mommy forgot to mention yesterday that when we saw the doctor, the doctor said she had been looking forward to finally meeting our family. The doctor has been looking at my medical reports for 2 years and then telling Mommy and Daddy how I'm doing. The doctor said our family has the runner-up award. We are the second longest adoption from Guatemala she has ever had at her office. The first place award was a family that took 27 months. We took 24 months. Mommy said it wasn't an "award" that she wanted.

Story of the Cake....and other events

Like I said in a previous post, my brother and sister-in-law brought a birthday cake over on Saturday. We have had opportunities to eat cake with Karla before and she has never touched it or shown interest in it. After everyone sang "Happy Birthday", Karla just kind of looked at the cake. Her cousins were waiting for her to dive in. So they asked if they could start "tasting" the cake. So they all poked their fingers in the icing to get a taste. Now that I know Karla, I knew she probably didn't want to get her fingers messy touching the cake. So I poked my finger in the cake and got some icing - Karla ate it right off of my finger!! She then ate many bites off my fingers and off of a fork that Jason was holding. It was funny! She likes cake - just not when it gets on her. Also, when the girls were poking their fingers in the cake they were each making "eyeballs" (2 holes next to each other) in the cake. After my 2 year old niece made eyeballs and said "eyeball", Karla finally got brave enough and poked her finger in the cake and SAID "eyeball". We all started laughing! I was excited to see Karla likes cake.

Today we went to Jason's office and Karla met his coworkers. She was walking around and being friendly! One guy had a ball in his office that he brought out for Karla so she played with him and "knocked him over" with the ball several times. Good thing he had the ball because Karla initially wanted the globe to kick and throw.

We also went to the doctor. It was a good experience, the doctor and social worker were very nice. I have heard them both speak before about adoption but it was nice to have individual time with them. We were with each of them for about an hour! Karla only fussed at the beginning when she had to get weighed and measured and then at the end when she had to get a shot. Otherwise she was an angel. :) We talked about some bonding and transition issues and got some new ideas. We discussed a few minor medical questions that we had. Her ears looked "perfect" and her lungs sounded fine!! Yeah!! So we reduced her inhaler use to two times today and then we'll just do one dose tomorrow morning. Then we'll see how she does. We go back for a follow-up appointment in 2 months but we've decided that, even though the office is not convenient, we are going to use this doctor as our pediatrician for a while. They have hours 7 days a week and someone on-call 24/7. Based on how our 2 weeks at home has gone, I think this is important. :)

Karla is doing remarkably well for only being home 2 weeks and part of that time was spent in a hospital. The doctor said we are doing well with the transition. That is what I wanted to hear! Karla is between the 50th-75th percentile for height and at the 25th percentile for weight (according to U.S. charts). So that is good! She has lost a pound or so since the beginning of October but, we attributing that to being sick and all the changes that have occurred. The way she has been eating the past 3 days...she'll gain it back in no time.

Warning: the following contains emotions. :)
The farthest I have been from Karla since Oct. 14 was when I went to Wendy's across the street from the hospital the last day Karla was hospitalized. Karla slept the whole time and Jason was with her. I still had to be persuaded to eat at Wendy's with my mom rather than take it back to the hospital room. So, based on some things we discussed this morning with the doctor and social worker, we decided that I would go to the chiropractor and Target this afternoon - ALONE! I of course planned to text Jason after my chiropractic appointment and make sure I didn't need to come home. When I sent the text he said they were fine and to go ahead to Target. Well, I was near crying when I left the house for some reason, I guess I felt bad about leaving Karla and I knew I would miss her. At the same time, I haven't driven anywhere or been alone in quite sometime. So, I didn't cry when I left because I didn't want her to see me or get worried. I quickly put on my coat and said good-bye to her and Jason. After my two stops I started to drive home, I started crying!! It was happy tears though. I felt such relief. I realized that the heavy cloud that had been hanging over me for almost 3 years is gone. I realized I was going home and Jason was going to be happy when I got home because he was playing with his little girl. I realized I had just gone to Target and not felt a stab of pain every time I saw a baby. I just thought "oh, I gotta hurry so I can get home to Karla". We have been so stressed for so long - I almost forgot what "normal" feels like. I wasn't dreading going to our house, full of reminders of what wasn't there. I was excited! I started thinking about all of my answered prayers...and it was a bit overwhelming.

When I got home Karla gave me a big hug and kiss but she had been just fine without me here. Jason said she mentioned my name a few times and he just told her I would be back in a little while.

I started telling Jason about my drive home and started crying again. Karla walked up to me (I was on the floor), hugged me and patted my back. It was so sweet. So I quickly dried my eyes and started playing again!! :)

Tomorrow Jason returns to work. Karla and I will miss him tomorrow! I can't believe his 3 weeks went by so fast!

I've caught up with pictures on flickr if you are interested.

All done

Karla just finished her evening snack, looked up at me, signed and said "all done" when her bowl was empty!!! I was so excited I almost started crying. I decided this morning to pick 6 signs to work on to help with communication frustrations. All done was one of them! I showed her 2-3 times at breakfast and then once at lunch. She hasn't seen it since lunch but did it tonight! What a smart girl!! I am so proud.

Jason is currently upstairs putting Karla to bed. We kind of decided that he is going to start doing some things even if Karla doesn't like it and gets upset. He was holding her when I was telling her good night. She screamed angrily but then she quieted down quickly. That is how Karla was with me when it was just the two of us in Guatemala so maybe in a few days she will be fine with it. I think if we just work through it and give it time (yuck-who likes waiting?) it'll be okay. I just feel bad for Jason because I know how hard it was for me! No one likes to have their upset and crying.

I'm listening carefully to the baby monitor. :)

Busy, Busy

We have done several fun things in the past few days. Saturday Karla's cousins, aunt, and uncle came over and brought birthday cake and presents. Grandma and Grandpa came over too. It was exciting to finally have Karla meet these special family members. Her cousins (ages 9, 6, 2) were happy to see her and we were all sitting around staring at her. I think everyone wanted to get their hands on her but knew they had to wait until she warmed up. She was very shy at first but by the time they left she was running around the house and screaming happily with the rest of them! It was so fun to see! I'll have to talk about the cake in another post...gotta get Karla to bed soon.

Sunday we went to church together as a family for the first time! We weren't sure if it was the best idea since it was cold out but Mommy and Daddy were so excited for her to meet her church family. She did really well there too. She was quiet and clung to me and first. She sat through the songs at the beginning of the service (well, stood with me) and then I went with her to the 2-3 year old Sunday School Class. She sat and listened and attempted some singing. By the end of sunday school she was playing without being in my lap and was starting to interact with some other kids.

Today we went to Pap-Pap's school over his lunch time. He is a teacher and he has told his coworkers about Karla and shown them pictures for the past 2 years. So, before Jason goes back to work we wanted to go to the school to introduce Karla in person. She went into the teacher's lounge and wanted to sit in one of the teacher chairs. So I put her in one and then two of the teachers shared their lunch with her. (I did feed her before we left) It was pretty funny and cute. She is saying Pap-Pap and likes when he gives her attention!!

Tomorrow we are going to Jason's office to see his coworkers. Then we have Karla's doctor's appointment. It will be a busy morning!

We've had lots of fun but there are certainly some difficult things too. Overall I think Karla is transitioning VERY well. However, she only wants me to do the caregiving and comforting. She is getting better about this but it is not as fast as we would like. Jason was hoping she'd be more "attached" to him before he had to go back to work - Wednesday. It is hard for me because I get so tired - especially my arms. My one shoulder is really hurting and I am hoping I can go to the chiropractor tomorrow afternoon. They've helped me with my shoulder before. It is hard for Jason because he wants to help me but she gets upset when he does something that I usually do. We are going to talk with the doctor about this tomorrow (she specializes in adopted children) and see what she says. It is so hard to tell what is "transitioning" and what is just being a 2-year old.

We had a scare today at our house. This morning our house smelled like gas. Long story short, Jason sent Karla and I to Grammy and Pap-Pap's house while he stayed home to figure out what was going on. It was something with our furnace and it is now fixed - and it wasn't a big, expensive problem. Whew. I was worried we wouldn't be able to sleep at home tonight. We've had enough "new" beds.

I will post more pictures in the next day or so. We've taken tons! :)

Here is a picture to hold you over. It is Karla with my brother. It made me so happy to see them together..hope he doesn't mind I post the picture. Love you Eric!

One Month

I forgot to mention - I have now been with Karla for one month!! I still feel like I am dreaming. It is so nice not to have a headache and stomachache nearly everyday from the stress of wondering what was going to happen. I almost forgot I had those symptoms and they'd been happening for at least a month prior to going to Guatemala. She is HOME!
She's the best!

Catching Up

Good morning from Karla and Oso!

Today was our second day at home this week! We took our first family outing this morning. We went to Walmart! Jason's parents had bought us some food that got us through this past week but we really needed to go shopping. I don't think we've really gotten groceries since before I left for Guatemala... So we went to Walmart and stocked up. Karla sat in the cart most of the time but then I got to hold her the rest of the time. She was pretty quiet and looking around the whole time. One funny thing that happened was that when I was putting some milk in our cart, Jason and Karla were talking/playing, and some lady said "Boy, I wish I was having that much fun here". We just smiled but I wanted to say, "this is the first time we've gone anywhere around here with our baby!!" I didn't feel like explaining it though so I kept quiet. :)

Karla is doing a little better everyday. Her inhaler seems to help her a lot. We are going to her new pediatrician, who called us at home yesterday to check on her, this coming Tuesday. She will have Karla's records from the hospital and she is the doctor we have been sending Karla's monthly medical reports to since Karla was 7 days old. I am interested to see if we will have to continue the inhaler during the winter. Karla does a great job with her inhaler. Now when I say it is time, she just sits in my lap and smiles or laughs while I give her the puffs. The past two nights I had to get up in the night to give her treatments. Tonight I won't have to since we are reducing how often we give it to her.

Karla has eaten more today than she has since we were in Guatemala. I think that is a definite sign of improvement.

Karla is saying new words everyday. I wanted to keep track of her words and cute or funny things she does each day but it is impossible! She imitates a lot of words we say and seems to understand more of what we say all the time. Today she said "yellow" and "pizza" for the first time. She makes sounds for a lion, cow, horse, and sheep. Jason taught her to stick out her tongue and today he started singing a song - we can't think of the name of it - to her and she started singing it too! It was pretty funny. She also sings part of Old MacDonald (e-i-e-i).

Tomorrow Karla is going to get to meet her cousins for the first time!! I think the adults are as excited (or more so) than the kids.

I am surprised at how worn out Jason and I can feel after playing with Karla all day! Jason has had a bad cold for the past 3 days so I'm sure that doesn't help. He's feeling better tonight. I also didn't realize how hard it would be to get anything done during the day. :) I had to get up early this morning to clean the floors. One of my least favorite jobs.

We watched part of The Little Mermaid tonight and Karla was talking back to the TV loudly saying "uh-oh", "wee", and "singing" along with a song or two.

Karla doesn't like anything wet or sticky to be on her hands, especially when she is eating. We have gone through a lot of napkins. :) She also is particular about certain things. If there is any scrap of paper or food on the floor she immediately picks it up and walks to the trash can saying "yucky" and throws it away. She'll help me keep the floors clean! Tonight Jason couldn't figure out what Karla was wanting when she walked into the kitchen. He finally figured out that she wanted him to get the same bowl she used last night filled with Goldfish crackers. Then he had to sit in the same place on the floor where he was sitting last night. His legs had to be crossed - not straight - and then she sat down in her spot. I have uploaded a picture of the two of them.

Karla was giving out kisses to both of us today! We both loved it.

Karla got a new Elmo toy from Carey when she was in the hospital. She has been saying "Elmo" a lot!!

She is so cute and we can't wait for her to meet more of our friends and family!

I uploaded some more pictures to flickr from the past few days.

Home and Happy

Home again on a Wednesday night! Hopefully this time we'll be here longer. :)

Karla was discharged from the hospital this evening! Her diagnosis was (RAD) reactive airway disease - which is basically asthma. I guess in toddlers they have to have more than one episode to call it asthma. We will hope that is not the case. Now we know the warning signs and will be watching carefully for them. They are still saying she may or may not have had pneumonia. Her ear infections are almost gone. Guess what..she didn't have TB?

Everyone kept telling me she'd perk up all of a sudden. I didn't believe it...until I saw it! She was a totally different kid this evening than she was this morning. Praise the Lord!

Karla was sent home with 3 medications and an inhaler. Our first inhaler use at home went surprisingly very well!

I have to go settle down my two kiddos now...Mommy wants to go to bed!

Speaking of, this is from Karla: zsz`wsw`qwswz

Small Victories

This morning has been disappointing but there's been a few small victories. First the good news - Karla was taking off her IV this morning! She ate a little dinner last night and had a "big" breakfast this morning of toast and water. The doctor said that was good and they want to see if she'll eat lunch if they take her off the IV. The bad news is that she didn't have a good night with her oxygen saturation levels and she can't go home until she sleeps through the night at 92% or above while not being on the tubes. This is somewhat disappointing because it's a regression for her breathing from the night before BUT it's clear she's breathing a lot easier now. You can't see her ribs or her stomach lurch when she's trying to breath indicating that she's not wheezing for air anymore. So it may be that now that her body is comfortable not wheezing, she's still a little short on oxygen.

I got to attend the "rounds" discussion on her this morning. More good news is that they're "pretty certain" she doesn't have TB (duh!) or whooping cough but they're still waiting on both of those tests. Karla's TB test is "done" at 1am tomorrow and if it's negative this silliness about TB can end. They also said that she definitely had pneumonia on Thursday's chest x-ray and there was a little on her Sunday x-ray but it was mostly clearing up. The doctor said that they think she actually has/had a viral pneumonia instead of bacterial pneumonia since the antibiotics didn't make her perk up after a few days. They are still giving her the antibiotics for her ears. They also said she definitely has "RAD" (reactive airway disease) and that's the bulk of her problems right now. If they can get her airways working correctly, she'll go home.

The saddest part of all of this is that she's very angry when she's awake. The slightest move towards her by anyone makes her scream in anger because she thinks they're going to do something to her. Hopefully when we go home, she'll be back in surroundings she feels more comfortable with and won't be like she is now.

Aunt Brenda is coming to visit this afternoon.

O2

I slept until about 4:30 this morning. I had vaguely been aware of respiratory coming in to give Karla breathing treatments and the nurses taking her vitals overnight. She didn’t cry at all so I was able to stay in bed. At 4:30 the nurse was hovering over Karla for a while so I asked what was going on. She said she has been “desat – ing” all night, meaning her oxygen level kept dipping down below where it should be and then she would bring it back up within seconds. They had turned the alarm down a little bit so I guess that is why I didn’t hear it. Then, that is ALL I heard from 4:30 to 6. I pushed the help button at 5:30 because I was getting anxious. The nurse said respiratory was coming. At 6 the respiratory therapist came in and put her on oxygen. I was sad that was going to happen because, as the nurse said, it is a step backwards, but now that she has the little nasal canula of oxygen in her nose I feel relieved because I know she is getting the air she needs. It was time for her breathing treatment at 6 am too so she got that and has drifted back to sleep with oxygen levels near 100%. I am going to try to stop hovering now but I know I’m not going back to sleep for a while.

Please pray for her lungs and for the doctors to know what is happening inside of her little body! I’m feeling frustrated because I don’t know why this had to happen now and I don’t want anything to be wrong with her!

I called Jason at 4:45 am and asked him if I should “freak out”. He said no so I am staying calm. I told him to come before rush hour this morning so he can speak to the doctors as well. Who knows, he may be here any minute. 

Happy 2nd Birthday Karla!

Today is Karla's birthday! It didn't really seem like it since we were quarantined in a hospital room but I told her Happy Birthday many times and sang to her quite a few times. This is certainly not how I imagined her birthday - but I'm learning things are rarely how you imagine them. :) I am happy though because we are together and that is all that matters. I told Jason that I felt bad because we didn't have any presents or cake to give to her today. He said "she doesn't like cake, plus she hasn't eaten much the past few days and we are giving her the gift of health care". I thought that was funny and true. I'm sure it is what every 2 year old wants - poked and prodded ceaselessly. :)

Jason brought my computer to the hospital this evening. I feel like I'm back in a hotel room - caring for Karla, trying to sleep and blogging.

I just spoke to the doctor a little while ago. She seems to think that we could be able to go home on Wednesday. We can't go sooner because we won't have results of the TB test and because Karla just isn't well enough yet.

I have to keep reminding myself she is improving. It doesn't always seem like it because she is sleeping most of the time or crying because someone wants to touch her or listen to her breathing. Her breathing is still not as easy as it should be and she still hasn't eaten very much. It is so different than the little girl I could hardly keep up with just last week! Her oxygen levels have been normal since last night without having to wear the oxygen mask anymore. Whew...it was difficult keeping a mask on her! My arms are still recovering. She is continuing to receive breathing treatments every 4 hours. An additional antibiotic and a steroid were added to her regimen today. I don't think that the doctor's are seriously suspecting TB anymore because her arm has not reacted at all where they performed the test. Also, they said they wouldn't give her steroids if she had TB because it would make it worse.

I was trying to get a clear answer on what was going on tonight and what the "plan" is. The doctor said we may not get a clear answer. The main thing is - her chest x-rays haven't been normal and after being on antibiotics for 4 days and breathing treatments for 2 days she hasn't improved as much as we'd expect. The doctor said we may or may not get a "clear" diagnosis. We just want her to get better. They are confident she will but for some reason it is taking her a while.

The good thing about being "quarantined" is that we have our own private room. I can hear kids in the rooms next door...so I am very thankful we have our own room! Otherwise I might not get any rest. :) The bad thing is we can't have visitors! It is strongly "discouraged" anyway, just in case. I have been so excited to talk to people and for people to meet Karla...and we're isolated here. Oh well. Thank goodness we are in the U.S. and I speak the same language as the doctors and the 3 of us are together!