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!

Brief Sick Update

This is a very short update... I am temporarily home from the hospital. Karla was admitted yesterday to Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh due to low blood oxygen and difficulty breathing. It has been a very trying experience for all of us. They admitted her with pneumonia with complications then changed it to asthma then back to pneumonia WITH asthma and then at 12:30 this morning they moved us to an isolation room telling us they think she has tuberculous. They then subjected poor little Karla to a whole battery of probing tests from 1 - 3am. Fortunately so far her TB test has not reacted, but they appear to plan on keeping her in the hospital through Wednedsday (48 hours from the TB test at 1am today). She has responded well to the breathing treatments. She hasn't been on oxygen since she left the ER and her blood oxygen level has remained in the good range since then. She's getting breathing treatments every 4 hours but it still very congested.

Please pray for Karla - that she doesn't have TB (we don't think she does), that her breathing will get fixed soon and that she won't be too distraught and angry over all the tests she's getting subjected to.

Sick Day

Poor Karla was pretty miserable all day today. She slept on and off all morning in the family room. Then this afternoon she slept for 3 hours straight. After she woke up she just wanted to lay on the floor. It was really sad and pathetic looking. Jason and I were debating on whether or not to take her back to the ER. The doctor had told us to come back if she was still lethargic, had a fever, or coughing a lot after 48 hours of antibiotics. At 46 hours after the first dose she perked up a little bit. We were able to play some and then she just wanted to sit in her stroller or on my lap. She went to sleep late but that is probably because she slept so much today. We are really hoping she will wake up tomorrow and feel MUCH better. It is sad seeing her so pathetic.

It is hard for us to know if she is upset because she is sick, if she is sad from all the transitions lately or both. Too bad she can't tell us! She hasn't had a fever today so that is a good sign.

I got to sleep for 2 hours this afternoon while Karla was asleep! It was the best sleep I have had in a month. Karla was asleep in the Pack N Play in the family room so I laid down on the couch. Jason was watching football so I knew he was watching/listening to Karla and I could totally relax! My neck and shoulders felt so much better when I woke up! They have really been hurting - I think from stress and being tense and from holding Karla so much.

We wanted to have Karla's cousins over today but we decided to wait until next weekend since Karla is sick. It was a quiet day with just the 3 of us. I think we all needed it. :)

In the brief time Karla wanted to play today she started making a noise for a horse, pointing to and saying "nose", saying "good", and singing E-I-E-I for Old McDonald Had a Farm.

Pictures

I've uploaded more pictures - pictures at home! The link is on the right of this page. Enjoy!

Picture Comparison

I wanted to post this in Guatemala but never did.
This is Karla in February 2008:

This is Karla in October 2008:

Day 2 at home

Today wasn't the same as yesterday. Karla was pretty fussy all day because she doesn't feel good. I feel so bad for her. I'm hoping tomorrow she will start to perk up.

The highlights of our day were going outside for a short time this afternoon and then some evening visitors. It was so beautiful, warm, and sunny today. We talked to some neighbors and Karla found the three nearest dogs to our house and barked at them. :) She seems to love dogs but when given the chance to pet them she got scared.

This evening my sister Brenda came over...and Karla promptly fell asleep. Just like she did yesterday when Brenda came over! Karla wouldn't nap today because she was coughing a lot so we knew she was tired. She didn't sleep until Brenda came over. Then Grammy, PapPap and Uncle Kevin came over for a little bit too. Karla let Grammy hold her while she slept which I think Grammy quite enjoyed. I enjoyed it too because I got to clean up the kitchen! Brenda folded some laundry for me and seemed to enjoy it because it was all Karla's little clothes. :)

I still want to write about our travel day and things Karla likes about the the house but feel I need to get to bed now. Karla was very "needy" today so Jason and I are feeling quite tired. I have been sleeping on a mattress in her room so I heard her a lot last night whimpering and I'm sure I didn't sleep that well b/c I was listening for her. I had to get up and rock her back to sleep twice after coughing fits. I don't mind it because I know I missed lots of nights with her. Tonight I am going to sleep in my own bed (first time in almost a month!)...Jason and I have the baby monitor turned up as loud as it goes and hear every cough when we aren't in the room so it should be okay. :)

I uploaded a few more pictures to flickr from Nov. 4 and then some from our travel day, Nov. 5. I started uploading them at lunch time and just now got back to the computer. :)

Here is a picture of what we saw when we came into the baggage area at the Pittsburgh airport!

HOME

We are home! I am going to respond to emails and phone calls as soon as I can. Our travel day went well and there was quite a little party at the Pittsburgh airport for Karla last night. She did a great job yesterday! We went to bed late last night because we didn't get home until midnight (I think).

This morning the 3 of us got up, ate breakfast together and explored the house. Karla just wanted to stay in her bedroom!! :) She kept saying "hola" to all of the stuffed animals and dolls. It was really cute and funny. Her grandparents and an aunt and uncle came over for most of the day. She was fine with them and even started saying Pap-Pap. She was happy and roaming around the house. Then, after her nap, she was extremely hot. We took her temperature and it was over 102. She was lethargic and just wanted to be held. We decided to take her to the doctor. Long story short, we don't have a pediatrician yet, our doctor won't see anyone under 18 yrs old so we decided to take her to MedExpress. We went there. They looked her over and told us to go to the ER. At this point I thought I was going to lose it. How could she be so sick and I not know it??? They thought she might have pneumonia and wanted her to get a chest x-ray. I was getting really scared because I did NOT want her to have to stay overnight in the hospital. She's had enough trauma in the past few weeks! Anyway, after a stressful time at the hospital we found out Karla has bad ear infections in both ears and pneumonia in the bottom of her right lung. I can't believe her behavior has been so good and she's been so sick. So now she'll be on antibiotics for 2 weeks along with Motrin and Tylenol as needed.

I had to document her first evening in the US with pictures of course. It was so sad seeing Karla in a little hospital gown and having to be hooked up to a pulse - ox thing. Luckily Uncle Kevin had his camera at the hospital. (And I have to say he is a WONDERFUL uncle-he had to come to MedExpress with clean clothes for Karla b/c she had thrown up all the way to MedExpress (all over new car and car seat) and he cleaned it ALL up while we were in with the doctor! I was quite impressed and very grateful!

This morning felt like the best Christmas morning ever! I will have to write more about the positive tomorrow. I will post pictures from the airports and today sometime tomorrow. Today was busier than expected.

Tomorrow we are staying home - just the 3 of us and we're going to try to just relax and catch up on rest and laundry.

Here are two pictures from this evening. I am so thankful we are at home-not at the hospital or Guatemala! Welcome to parenthood, right???

The Final Day - Mommy's post

I just read Jason's post and I suspect we will be posting here (maybe often) in the next several days so keep checking. :)

I am so glad I have had this time here with Karla. I am also glad Jason has had a week with Karla too. I really think it is going to make going home together much easier. The past 2-3 days have been better. Karla seems happier and doesn't have a fit if she is told "no". She has also cried less overall.

I still can't believe all 3 of us are going HOME together tomorrow (well, actually later today)! It is a day I really have not let myself imagine much at all. It still all seems surreal.

I am happy that we went to Antigua today although it would have been nicer to have more time there. Someday we'll have to go back when Karla will enjoy it more too. It helped me view Guatemala a little differently, more positively. There are some beautiful places. It was fun to go sightseeing but as we were leaving Antigua heading back to Guatemala City (trying to see different buildings and places, pointed out by our tour guide Diana) - I had trouble looking at the buildings, etc. because I thought the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen was my daughter, sleeping in my arms.

Thank you for all of your prayers! They have been answered!

The Final Day

Starting with the most important, yet chronologically latest event, Karla is now officially the holder of a US IR3 visa and will be a permanent resident of the US sometime around 7pm on Wednesday, November 5th (right after we exit the immigration office). Like all other aspects of dealing with our case and paperwork, getting this was chaotic and down to the wire. We were late getting back from Antigua and I was concerned. We'd met someone last week who said that she was 10 minutes late getting to the embassy for her visa pick-up appointment and had problems getting in - said they were closed and to come back the next day initially. So I was very keen on getting there on time. We were supposed to meet Pablo at the hotel and quickly head over to the embassy by 3:30 (which includes heavy traffic on Avenida La Reforma, parking in one of the odd quirky parking lots in Guatemala City, walking to the embassy and getting through security). At 3:20 I was still standing outside of the hotel waiting for Pablo with Jennifer, Karla and Diana (who apparently were all waiting for me to explode). Finally we tried to call Pablo several times and he answered and talked to Diana. He said he was "10 or so" minutes away. So Diana and I rushed to her SUV and sped off for the Embassy, telling Pablo we'd just meet him there. We just sort of left Jennifer and Karla standing in the driveway to the hotel! We entered the embassy at 3:35 and they'd already called most of the people up to "Window 7" (said in hushed tones). We no sooner sat down, than "Karla Mac-mick-mac-corm-ick" came over the loudspeaker. She said another name at the same time which made me think we were one of two people who hadn't shown up yet. I practically ran over some Guatemalans waiting for tourist visas to get to the window. This was yet again another anti-climatic experience. I stuffed the receipt and my passport under the window, they got a cursory glance, and a huge sealed DHS CIS envelope, Karla's passport with a visa page and my passport got returned. I think this lady actually said "congratulations" but I was already reading over the detail page on the front of the documents and was heading back to Diana. Right after I stepped away from "Window 7" (again, hushed reverent tones) the lady read off two dozen Guatemalan names to pick up tourist visas and there was a mad dash for line. So I'm glad I'm not the person who still hadn't shown up yet. Diana helped me compare the CIS case number and the Guatemalan passport information to make sure it was all correct (it was!!) and we headed out the door - still Pablo-less. I talked to two of the families we met here this week and they were also reviewing their papers. The facilitator of one of the families we waited in line with stopped all of us and asked us to look at a line on the visa summary sheet to see if "mother" was the adoptive parent or the biological parent. Ours were all adoptive parent (which they should be because we're legally her parent already as far as Guatemala and the US is concerned) but this lady's was the biological mother. So her paperwork was still screwed up somehow!! Glad that wasn't us. Outside the embassy, Pablo was waiting for us. He looked at our paperwork as well, and said it was correct. He apologized for being late but said that there were workers at his house and he couldn't just leave them there. It was a polite but brief conversation because Pablo was parked along the street just outside the embassy. He shook our hands and said to call him if we needed anything else and then he was off. Diana had a good laugh about that. We got back to the hotel by 4:10 and I congratulated Karla on her US Citizenship. She said "Eeeeeee poppy!" and went back to playing with bubbles on the floor. Diana told me I wasn't excited enough and I explained that my excitement would start after we stepped out of the immigration office in Atlanta.

The earlier, longer portion of our day was spent in Antigua Guatemala (not to be confused with the island of Antigua). We went to an overlook that seemed to have some sort of religious significance but I never encountered any sign (English or Spanish) that explained what the place was and I forgot to ask Diana when we left. We then went to a large market in downtown Antigua and did some shopping for ourselves and for some souvineers for people. Karla "purchased" a cute little bird toy (too hard to explain what and how) that I'm going to put away for her when she's older. Jennifer and I bought some Guatemalan things for the house. Then we had lunch at the Hotel Porta on the terrace at a very nice restaurant. I had a very good Mayan/Guatemalan traditional dish that I can't even begin to pronounce. It was beef in a bowl with a thick soup-like sauce that you added rice and some sort of doughy ball to. It was quite good. Karla ate a bunch of my rice and Jennifer's rice though, in lieu of her own meal of chicken strips and "papa fritas" (french fries). She's probably tired of that meal but we're still trying to figure out what she'll reliably eat. After lunch we went to the Plaza Mayor which is the central area in Antigua. It was pretty but there wasn't a whole lot to do as we'd already done our shopping and lots of street vendors harassed us constantly. We did buy two items there that we liked, but had to stave off tons more, including one girl (probably 10 years old) who called us stupid for not buying from her. After that, we were ready to leave quickly. The only exciting thing about the Plaza Mayor was the very old fountains (circa 1730s) and the catheral (Catedral Metropolita). The cathedral was closed and a fountain is just a fountain even if it is very nice. The interestingly highlight was that Karla was splashing in one of the small outlier fountains and decided that Oso wanted to play in the fountain too so she tossed him in. We scared her because we both said "NO OSO!" at the exact same time. So now Karla has what I've been calling "Soggy Oso" or "Oso Soggo" (I call the big bear "Oso Grande"). It's funny because she'll ask for Oso or go to find Oso and then go "ewww" and drop him because he's, well, soggy. He's dried out enough now that we put him in the crib with Karla. Jennifer and I decided that this was actually probably a good thing because he's likely cleaner now than he has been in a long time. Oso Soggo is getting a VERY thorough washing when we're home. After that, we went to Santo Domingo which was a monastary for amost 500 years and is now a hotel, restaurant and muesum complex. It was a pretty place but we didn't pay to go into any of the museums so we just walked around and looked at some stuff.

We just finished packing to go home a little while ago. We've managed to get everything into 5 suitacases, 3 bags and a laptop case. Hopefully everyone who's meeting us at the airport is going to be in the mood to carry heavy luggage. :)

This will be our next last blog entry (Jennifer just informed me she's going to make another short one) and our last Flickr picture postings from Guatemala. We'll probably either blog here or start a new blog to discuss Karla in the US so keep checking back here in the next few weeks!!

Enjoy my volcano pictures.

When we talk again, Karla will be on US soil and a full-fledged citizen of the republic!

Pics

The pictures from Chuck-E-Cheese have been appended to the Nov. 3 Flickr set.

Chuck E Cheese

Our zoo trip didn't work out. Turns out the zoo, along with children's museums are closed on Mondays. Oops. We met the foster family and ended up going to Chuck E Cheese. We had seen it on our way to the zoo and I think it was a good place to meet because we could talk and the kids could run around in a "confined" area.

We ended up having a cake for Karla's birthday. I didn't think of it until we were at ChuckECheese. The foster family had asked me if I was still here on Karla's birthday if we could have a party together. Chuck E Cheese didn't have a cake so Diana and Heidy's nephew ran out and got one! Karla was so tired by the end - when we had the cake - that she didn't really care about it. I think it meant something to Heidy and to me. And the cake was good! I brought the left back to eat tomorrow. :)

It was great to spend time with the foster family and learn more about them and Karla. It was extremely emotional for Karla's foster mother, Heidy, and her foster grandmother. It was also difficult for Jason and I. Whew. I don't think we'll blog much about it. Even thought it was extremely difficult for us, we are glad we did it. Karla said goodbye to her foster family and they got to say goodbye to her. We were worried how Karla might react when we got in Diana's car to leave. Luckily she fell right to sleep in my arms, slept for a little bit and then woke up at the hotel to her happy, normal self.

Diana and her husband, Hugo took us out to a really nice dinner and Karla was such a good girl. Especially for all that we have done today.

I think we gained some insight into some of Karla's behaviors. It turns out she was allowed to sleep whenever she wanted. So if that meant no nap or staying up late - she was allowed. Also, we found out that Karla is really attached to the foster grandmother. They said they think the reason why is because when Heidy would tell Karla "no", the foster grandmother would give in. So now we understand things better. Now it makes more sense that bedtime is so stressful and it made us realize how important it is going to be to stick to our "no's".

I uploaded some pictures from our Chuck E Cheese afternoon. Ugh...I just realized I ate 4 meals today! Is that okay if I got up at 5:30? :)

Tomorrow we are off to Antigua for our first official "sight-seeing" in Guatemala. We will be back by 3 to get Karla's visa. Then I think we'll take it easy until we fly out on Wednesday.

It's Official - Daddy's Post

Two interesting things from the embassy:

1 - Not long after we got there, Pablo leaned over to me and said "You want to know something awkward?" He then proceeded to point out the attorney that started our adoption with Karla (we'll just call him "A") was there completing an adoption with another family. I asked how he was still doing adoptions because he was bankrupt. Pablo said that he's seen A recently at the PGN and at the embassy but wasn't sure who he was working with because last he'd heard no agency would work with him. Jennifer and I kinda "hrrmped" at that and then forgot about it. Hilariously though, about an hour later Karla encountered A while trying to run through all the people in line. She stopped right in front of him and he very kindly said "Hola!". Karla then said "Oh" and then scrunched up her face at him making her "yucky" face and said "ya ya ya" and then walked quickly away. It was SOOOOO hard not to die laughing.

2 - Jennifer got to vote from the embassy today, which was pretty cool. We had filed for absentee ballots in PA but they hadn't arrived before Jennifer left for Guatemala City. I mailed mine just before I left. Today while we were waiting to be called into the closet we discovered someone next to us was filling out the "Federal Absentee Write-In Ballot". She told us that if you ask at the window, they'll give you one, you fill it out and give it back in a provided sealed envelope. The ballot is then sent back to the US in the diplomatic bag free of charge. So that was an interesting experience.

It is OFFICIAL

Karla is legally our daughter in the US! Jason will go pick up her visa tomorrow and then we are DONE!

We had to get up early this morning, 5:30 am. We didn't think Karla would mind being woken up - but she wasn't too happy. After we got down to breakfast she was fine.

Pablo picked us up at 6:30 and we were off to the Embassy. Two other families that are staying at this hotel who we met yesterday were in line with us at the Embassy. It was very crowded, Pablo said it was unusually full. Karla did well but was getting antsy to "vamos". The whole experience was very anti-climatic. Most of the time we were just standing or sitting and waiting. We had two short interviews. For the first one we sat in a closet sized room and were asked a few basic questions. Karla was saying "hola" and waving to the lady behind the glass but the lady didn't look at us once! Not even Karla. So much for caring about the children. Anyway, the second "interview" was much more friendly and the man actually congratulated us. We were back to the hotel by a little before 10 am. I felt very excited but (surprise) - there were no tears. I think that will happen when we arrive on US soil.

One hurdle is done today. The next is meeting with the foster family. We have a few hours though. Here is Karla not 5 minutes once we were back in the room, with a bite of muffin in her mouth that we had to get out! :)

Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead)

Karla is sleeping after another heart-wrenching screaming-in-anger fest. *sigh*

While pictures are uploading, I will talk about Dia de los Muertos. Well, that was yesterday. But I'm finally making time to write about it today. Yesterday was a national holiday here in Guatemala. It's mentioned in the US, but it's really big in Mexico and close Latin American countries. The hotel was practically empty. There was a big birthday party in the atrium but that was all. The agenda screens around the hotel that are normally packed full of events listed just that one thing all day. The business center and most of the stores were closed and the hotel staff seems to be on skeleton crew (ha!!). If we'd had a guide (Diana was busy doing family things for the holiday) I would have liked to go around Guatemala City and checked things out. Supposedly Guatemala is famous for flying brightly-colored kites on Dia de los Muertos and that would have been really cool to see. I also would have liked to have encountered a dish of fiambre to try. It's possible the restaurant served it, but we don't usually eat dinner here in the hotel -- last night was Pizza Hut. The few workers that are our "friends" all seemed to lament having to work on the holiday. When I went out to EconoSuper most of the stores were closed and there was very little traffic on the usually busy Avenida la Reforma. When I needed to go buy minutes for our moble phone, the Tigo "store" (i.e. small corrugated tin hut) I'd been going to was closed. I ended up at the mall (also very empty) and bought on there. They had a triple-minutes event going on for the holiday. So that was my only experience with the holiday. I was disappointed I didn't encounter any candy skulls but that might be a Mexican thing.

Maybe we'll celebrate Dia de los Muertos with Karla by flying kites.

Wikipedia entry on Dia de los Muertos

Prayer Request

Hi Everyone,
I am just asking that you will pray specifically for comfort for Karla in the next few days (and especially nights). We will have a busy day tomorrow and traveling on Wednesday. She is fine most of the time but when she isn't...it is hard for all of us. Last night was so sad for Jason and I when there was nothing to do to comfort her. I just cried along with her. It evokes a lot of feelings for me about this whole process as you can imagine and I hate that she has to go through this. But she is tough and we'll be with her every step of the way, as will all of you. :) We are anxious to get home and let the real transition begin!
Thank you. We will try to post tomorrow after our EMBASSY APPOINTMENT and before the zoo trip! The BIG day!
Love, Jennifer

Good Nap

That was so much better. I think we're all happier now. Room service is on the way to the rescue.

The Long Night

Last night was a very long night. Around 11:30 Karla woke up just screaming hear head off. We went from silence to banshee in 0.25 seconds. We think she was having a night terror - something that's not uncommon in adopted children. She was screaming, tears streaming down her face, clinging to Jennifer's neck but then kicking her like she wanted to get away. It took about 15 minutes for her to calm down and we had a juice box, a milk box and watched some Thomas the Tank Engine on TV and she fell asleep finally after about 45 minutes. Unfortunately I disturbed her again when I tried to put the rest of the milk box away in the refrigerator and it started all over again. She wanted to "vamos" so Jennifer took her for a walk in the hall but then she just started being very bad. She would go out into the hall and then start screaming. Jennifer would take her back into the room and she'd calm down, want to "vamos" again" and then start screaming as soon as she was in the hall. She was just so tired and was fighting sleep because recently we've been walking her in her stroller to put her to sleep that she was just stubbornly misbehaving. She'd point to her crib and we'd put her in and she'd lay quiet for about 5 minutes and then she's start wailing again. Jennifer laid her back in bed with me and took a little breather and Karla cuddled with me for awhile quietly (watching TV) and then started screaming again. So we put her back into her crib and was going to let her scream it out - because we were out of ideas. And then she dropped right to sleep! But I don't think it was a restful night for anyone. Jennifer and I were on edge all night and we'd both wake up and look at her as soon as she moved or rolled - which seems like a lot last night. So we're all pretty exhausted.

Fortunately Karla seems to be bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and happy as a clam this morning - for the most part. We had the morning "boo" routine and lots of cuddling with mommy, daddy and oso in bed. Then she was ready to "vamos" to breakfast - she was probably hungry after all the screaming. So we had some "lechita" and then went to breakfast. There was a clown there and made Karla a balloon flower. We also found the church that we went to the first time we were here meeting in a different room. They seemed to have more people and had a children's program. Karla stood in the doorway and danced for a little while, but we didn't way to stay long because we were afraid Karla would disrupt the service. She ran around the atrium a lot with her balloon and then we went up to the playroom. She played here for a very long time. There was another family from Philadelpha there and they have their embassy appointment on Monday with us. So we talked with them for awhile and Karla played a little with Jose and Jennifer took a shower. Karla and I played a lot by ourselves and she even sat in my lap and watched TV for awhile. I had to change a very potent diaper right before Jennifer came back but fortunately she got to witness the tail end of it so she couldn't claim it was benign.

We're playing on the floor of the room right now, dreading and forestalling the nap time that is upon us. We don't want her to get too far off her schedule though because we'll have to wake her up tomorrow morning at 6am for our embassy appointment.

Just a little while ago she grabbed Jennifer's glasses and spit on her, which is the first time she's done that in a few days. We'd hoped we were past that. Interestingly though as soon as she did it, she came for poppy trying to not get in trouble.

We're going to try the nap now. *sigh*

Nap is in progress. Only 10 minutes of screeching... I guess that's progress. Mommy and daddy are now going to nap as well.

More pictures

Jason and I are finally able to relax a little bit now that everything is pretty much done with our adoption case and we are having fun. :) Karla's in bed and we just ordered a pizza for dinner. I'll admit, I didn't eat 3 meals a day when Jason wasn't here. I did feed Karla regularly though! Apparently not enough fruit though. :) I always thought I would eat dinner after she went to bed...but I usually slept instead.

Anyway, I just uploaded some pictures and a video. The video is funny! We are going to have to be more careful of what we do. Karla observes and imitates us a lot! In the family room when we're not feeling as energized as she is, we sit on the couch or chair. Most of the time the lion has to be continually playing music. So, instead of using our hand to push his nose to make the music, somehow we started using our feet and then someone else wanted to use their feet...

More on Boxes of Milk

I haven't run away from stinky diapers, I just think that Jennifer's been waiting 2 years for this and I don't want to deprive her of this experience.

Horizon "organic" milk sound fine although I would argue that all milk is organic since it comes from a living source as opposed to a not-living source. Now milk that came from, for example, a rock would be non-organic.

In any case, here's the Guatemalan example.

For the record

I told Jason that milk could be bought in "juice box" form...but he didn't think so in the U.S.

Also, we can continue to pump her with fruit, BUT he has to start helping with "stinky" diapers and not running away saying "she smells".

:) :) :)

Boxes of Milk

So one of the things we've struggled with is that the only things she'll drink besides the sporadic "aqua" in the sippy cup are these (probably horrible for you) juice boxes called Sipi. Every morning after the "boo" from the crib and romping around on the bed with oso, she asks for "gee-ta" which we had no idea what that meant and then "drinkie" which means juice box. I think she asks for "drinkie" because she knows we know what she means. Not giving "drinkie" is cause for an immediate meltdown as I soon found out when I didn't think she needed a juice box at 8am. We asked one of the waiters who speaks pretty good English at breakfast finally what "gee-ta" meant because we thought maybe it had something to do with milk - i.e. her formula. He said that she's probably saying "lechita" which is "leche" with the diminuitive "ita" (i.e. Karlita) on the end. I guess here they call these small single-serving boxes of milk for kids "lechita". So today at Econo-Super I was on a quest for lechite and sure enough, right next to the juice boxes is a whole section of "leche" with a ton of various flavors (plain, vanilla, chocolate, strawberry) and in various forms of fat (or skim) milk and even lactose-free milk boxes. I chose "Dos Pino Leche Semidescremada" mostly because one side's information is in English. So Karla now has "gee-ta" of 2% milk that is creepily un-refrigerated until you open it. I guess Americans deal with milk quite differently than everyone else. I remember in German class a discussion about unrefrigerated boxed milk from Deiter Indinger and we all thought he must not have understood what we were talking about. I guess we were all wrong.

I tasted it and sure enough, it's milk.

Karla has drank about half of one so far when she asked for "drinkie" and seems happy with it. The only downside is that the slightest squeeze sprays milk everywhere.

Guess we'll have to find something like this in the US to get us started. Milk in a cup is immediately rejected.

Cute Karla Things

Jason is at EconoSuper getting some more diapers and another phone card. Jason is having some difficulty changing our flights for the way home. Of course he finally got to someone who might be able to help and we ran out of phone minutes. We had to pick a random date to come home and now he is trying to change the flights to Wednesday. It should work but we are trying to make it so it doesn't cost us an arm and a leg. Jason spent an hour on the phone (at least) already trying to work this out.

Karla is quietly entertaining herself so I decided to write some cute things about her.
*she randomly will start crawling on the flooring and barking pretending to be a dog. It is cute in the room but it was difficult to tell her "no" when we were at a restaurant the other night.
*she loves to dance
*likes to play peek-a-boo, either standing behind me or standing behind the chair in our room. She makes her bears play peek-a-boo. There is one waiter that always will "scare" Karla by saying boo. Now she shrieks with joy just seeing this waiter. She says "boo" first thing in the morning when we look at her in the crib. :)
*TODAY she said "cheese" for the first time when I was taking her picture.
*she loves both of her bears (osos). They get their hair combed, they get fed, they get lots of kisses, and Jason and I have to kiss them on their boca (mouth).
*one night, probably over a week ago, one of the nights she slept with me - she woke me up telling me her Oso had stinky feet. It was hard not to start cracking up even though I had been woken up in the night for this news.
*she makes noise and will talk sometimes when she is sleeping. She will say "oso" and hug him a lot in her sleep
*she loves balls (pelota)
*she loves grapes - I had been rationing these but now that Jason is here he tries to pump her with as much fruit as he can. I am not too happy about that today because we've had major diaper changes and clothes changes... I don't know if it is all the fruit or maybe her tummy isn't feeling good and that is why she was so fussy yesterday. I will monitor the situation. :)
*I am purposely "taking my time" doing things now. I will take a long shower (yeah!) so that Karla is getting used to being alone with Daddy. I let them head down to the pool several minutes before I went down. She seems to be doing fine with him now. He got to give her a bath last night and she finally kissed him today. I think she's adjusted to him quite quickly. :)

Gotta go...someone wants me to play.