Swim, Swim, Swim

We've been swimming several days this week in both Karla's little wading pool and in big pools. Wednesday evening Karla went to the Y to swim with her Daddy. They were both so excited about it when they got home and they both were telling me all about it! Karla is definitely getting better in the water! She LOVES it! Today the 3 of us went to the Y. Karla wears a floatie on her back and then we don't have to hold her. I know both of us want to hold her but she wants no part of our help. :) She was kicking her legs, scooping with her arms and putting her face down in the water. She was able to go whatever direction she wanted. Oh, Jason bought her some goggles (pink ones by the way) so that her eyes wouldn't get as bothered by the chlorine. She looked so funny in big hot pink goggles! She thought they were great though.

Karla is talking so much and is now able to tell us little stories or about things she has done. I like when she is able to tell me what she has done in the toddler room at church when I pick her up from there on Thursday and Sunday mornings. This past week she learned about Noah and his ark and was able to tell us a little bit about it.

Her favorite thing to say right now is "try". I guess she says this instead of "me/I do it". She wants to "try" everything - by herself - no help - no matter how long it takes her. This is good and bad. :)

She also likes to say phrases that start with "no" - "no touch it, no do that, no like that".

Another popular phrase is "go home to Mommy". She says this when a bird flies away, a rabbit hops away, a deer runs across the road, a neighbor kid runs inside their house, or when she flushes her business down the toilet, etc.

The cutest thing she has been saying this week is "yesss". She has usually said yeah or yep. All of a sudden this week she started saying "yes" with a long, very articulate "s" on the end. Jason and I both think it is really cute!

She hasn't stuttered in several weeks. I'm glad that is over...

Karla likes to play pretend right now. We really haven't played with many toys this week since we are always pretending.

Another favorite activity is to make anything/everything have a Mommy, Daddy, and Baby. We do this with fingers, pieces of cheese (or other food), bottles of soap in the bathtub, rocks by the driveway, etc. This makes me feel good because I think it means she feels pretty good (attached, loved by) her family!

Karla is doing a great job with night sleeping. We are now able to put her in bed and leave the room and DON'T have to be in view. I never would have thought that would ever be possible. She does call out sometimes for me to come fix a blanket or something but I tell her "I'll come in one time, that is it, and then you have to go to sleep." It has worked well most nights. The only little issue we have now is that she frequently wakes up insanely early. This is bad because mommy and daddy aren't ready to get up and neither is Karla (even though she thinks she is). So, Karla screams/cries for a while and mommy and daddy get quite grouchy because it isn't a fun way to start the day. We're working on it though. Last weekend Jason put up room darkening shades and that did seem to help most days this week. It is still much better than getting up who-knows-how-many times in the night!!

This week Oso got thrown in the washing machine. He was getting pretty gross. I have surface washed him many times but we decided we had to try something more aggressive. :) I think that it was the first time I have really prayed for an inanimate object! I put him in a pillowcase and then said a prayer for his safety before dropping him in the washer. Then, when it was time to get him out of the dryer, I prayed that when we took him out he would still be in one piece and nothing major would be wrong. I find it humorous now but at the time I was very sincere and serious. :) Oso was FINE! And now he is clean and stink-free too!

Karla has shown a little more interest in the potty this week. We had two great experiences. One day when we came in from her wading pool, I had just put a dry diaper on her and she said she needed to go to the potty. We ran to the bathroom, I set her down, and SHE DID IT!!!! She has done that for Jason before but not for me! So, I started singing and dancing like a crazy person, and don't ya know the doorbell rang... (our bathroom is very near the front door) The guy probably thought I was crazy but that is okay. It was the first time Karla initiated "potty time". Then today at the Y, after we got out of the pool I could tell she was probably thinking about going so I asked her if she needed to go potty. She said "yes" and walked into the nearest stall...and peed! That was the first time she went on a potty other than one here at home! So I guess progress is happening, just slowly.

Summer!

Summer is here!!



I finally got out Karla's little pool today! She LOVED it. She kept asking if "Daddy in - Karla?" She wanted to know if Daddy would get in the pool with her...Mommy just sat next to the pool. I told her we'd have to ask him when he got home. He said he might....I can't wait to see that!!! :)

Buy a Frosty

Did you know Dave Thomas was adopted and had an adoption foundation? :)

Wendy's will be donating $0.50 to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption for every Frosty you buy on June 20 and 21. Get to Wendy's!!

Here is the website for more information: http://www.davethomasfoundation.org/

You can also send Dad a free Frosty Card for Father's Day and Wendy's will donate 25 cents to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.

Thoughts from the week

Last week we had our first official family trip to get ice cream. We went to one of Jason and my favorite places - King Cone Castle. Karla had a great time! I had fun just watching her!

Hmmm...what flavor should we get?


I'm not wasting a bite of this!


Last week was a bit stressful. Karla hurt her arm one evening and then the next morning wasn't using her arm at all and was clinging to Jason when he went to leave for work so we were both very worried. Luckily, a little Tylenol and some Pap-Pap time healed her arm right up! (yep, I had to call Pap-Pap on his first day off for the summer so he could calm me down) And yes, Karla's parents were both overly worried about her and took longer to recover than she did.

Then Wednesday Karla had a fever. It hit her pretty suddenly and then I noticed she was having difficulty breathing. I got nervous because it was the first time that has happened when I was here by myself. Usually Jason has been home. Anyway, after some albuterol in her nebulizer her breathing was okay. We did lots of laying around and cuddling that day...so it wasn't all bad. :)

Thursday Karla and I stayed home again for her to continue to recuperate. By Friday I was ready to get out of the house. The weather didn't look too great outside so I decided we were going to go to Fun Fore All where there is an indoor play area for kids. We had a great time! It took a while for Karla to warm up and get adventurous but she did! This picture is on a bridge that is 4 stories above ground. I felt a little shaky being up so high (I refused to jump on the bridge with her) but she thought it was great.


I have been meaning to post the following picture from our trip - I think it has been 2 weeks already - to Chik Fil A with Mammy and Pappy.


Saturday we went to visit my family for the day to celebrate Grandpa's birthday. We've been there several times since Karla has been home but this was the easiest and smoothest trip! Usually it takes a few days to get her back to normal with sleeping once she gets off her usual routine. This time she took a nap at Grandma and Grandpa's! We've tried before but she just cried...well, screamed...and that made me feel so mean. Anyway, she went right to bed last night, slept all night last night, and we had no problems today either. Whew!

She had a great time playing with her cousins, singing "Happy Birthday" and eating cake!

I was just going to sit down and write a few things...and now I can think of even more to write. Enough for tonight though!

I uploaded more pictures to flickr the other day so be sure to check them out!

Rant about Guat Adoptions

I just learned about a campaign called "The Guatemala 900" last week. There are 900 Guatemalan children waiting to come home to the U.S. I haven't been keeping up on the situation in Guatemala much because it really does continue to anger and upset me to know there are children STILL waiting to be able to come home. I haven't fully recovered from our wait yet. Even though Karla is home I still feel for these 900 families!

I received an email from Joint Council of International Children's Services (JCICS) with the following information:

(This campaign is not officially affiliated with JCICS but is supported by JCICS.)
On June 17th, the Guatemala 900 Campaign will become a voice for the 900 children whose adoptions have yet to be completed despite 18 months of investigations, court hearings and interviews. The campaign will advocate with the U.S. and Guatemalan governments to ensure a quick and final resolution of all cases and an end to the victimization of Guatemalan children.

The launch of the campaign will include a rally, speeches, a march from the White House to the Capitol and a candlelight vigil at the Guatemalan Embassy.

The Guatemala 900 Campaign has a goal in parallel to the ongoing Joint Council Guatemala 5000 Initiative

We were part of the Guatemala 5000 initiative because, when Guatemala closed adoptions on January 1, 2008 (Yes, I said 2008), we were one of the 5000 families waiting for their child to come home.

So, now the number is down to 900...but WHY? After being closed for adoptions for 18 months, I think it would be interesting to know what the Guatemala government is doing down there. Why can't they get these cases completed and why do they continue to make more "busy" work for these families?

You may say that on Jan 1, 2008 there were 5000 families and now there are only 900 waiting - but there NEVER should have been 5000 way back at the beginning of 2008. The system is corrupt.

So, in the U.S. parents are sad and stressed (and probably continuing to have to pay more and more money) waiting for their child and in Guatemala the children are getting older which will only make the transition home more difficult.

Something to think about...

Lets pray that next Wednesday, June 17th, this campaign gets someone's attention!

Scrapbook Page

I started this page a few days ago and I finished it just a few minutes ago! I love how it turned out. I actually had the camera and Karla was feeling cooperative...making lots of faces for me. :) I always have trouble fitting multiple pictures on scrapbook pages and still having them look nice. I love my little Epson PictureMate printer!

I know you can't read the caption above each picture...I'll just have to show you the pages sometime!

Highlights from our week

Here are some highlights from our week:

Monday we got to have lunch with Mammy and Pappy at Chik Fil A! Karla had a great time and even got Pappy to play in the Playplace with her.

Tuesday morning we had breakfast with Shirley for her birthday. We got to go out to eat twice in two days!

Wednesday Karla spent the morning with Grammy while I caught up on doctor's appointments. Here is Karla pretending to be a baby with Grammy.

In the afternoon we watched about half of Pocahontas. It was raining, dreary, and Daddy was working late. I say we watched half of it because I fast-forwarded through a lot of parts. Karla didn't even want to see scenes without John Smith or Pocahontas so that was good....skipped over the fight scenes. We had the VHS tape...I almost forgot how to use the VCR and hook it up to our TV! :) Here is Karla acting really excited with her Pocahontas tape and picture that she colored.


Thursday we went to the allergist for Karla's 6 week check-up. Karla was actually excited to see the doctor (and tell him about her latest boo-boo) and was very well-behaved in his office. He told us that he gave a seminar recently to physicians in the area and that he ran into Karla's pediatrician. He said they talked about Karla when they spoke to one another. I guess she is a memorable little patient. :) We love Karla's allergist! He is so nice, takes us seriously, and spends time talking to us.

Jason took Thursday morning off so we stopped at FedEx to get Karla's picture taken for her certificate of citizenship and passport. We're not planning any trips out of the country anytime soon but want her to have a passport. Then we went to Moe's for lunch! Yeah! Karla likes their tacos (and I like their burritos). All the employees are nice as I'm sure you know if you've been to the Moe's near us...and at least 2 of them are adopted so Karla usually gets special attention there....and she doesn't mind one bit.

Karla and I did some finger painting (and feet-painting) on the deck one evening. She had a great time making a big mess!


Today we went to Lola and Carey's house! We hadn't seen them in a while so we were both excited to see them and catch up. We were hoping to be able to get in their pool but...the weather was too cold.

Better rest up for tomorrow's adventures!