Special Day

Well, most days are special around here - but today our little girl (okay, my sweet baby) was baptized!!!


Lots of family and friends celebrated the day with us. Jason and I are exhausted but happy. We have had a busy week. I hope I have time to blog about it tomorrow! I'm going to have to bug other people for pictures taken at the church because I didn't get any when we were up front. :) Karla looked beautiful in her white dress (of course)!

Many prayers of thanks were said today! Thank you Lord for Karla and may she grow up to know and love you!

Williams College

Our dear friend Sara is a professor at Williams College and she has bought Karla and I some nice t-shirts to remind us of her. (I think you should have gotten one for Oso too, though) :) We wore our shirts together today!


Karla is ready to take notes (in economics, most likely) with a notebook her Daddy gave her just the other day. Amazing how flipping through little sheets of paper can be so much fun!


On an unrelated note - no, Jason and I NEVER fight over time with Karla. :)

Not Monday!!

I think that is how Karla felt this morning. I usually pick out what she wears but today she was quite adamant about what she wanted to wear - clothes that didn't match at all. Here is a picture of her with a pastel sweater, gray/red/black pants, purple socks, followed by pink shoes, and then a t-shirt on her head as a "hat". We were able to get out of the house to the Y without the "hat" and luckily she had a coat on until we got in the Y and put on her bathing suit.

The first night of our new "sleep" plan happened last night. Karla was not too happy with me last night OR this morning. She wanted Daddy before she wanted Mommy today. She woke up once in the night for over an hour. Nap time today was also harder. We're going to give it 3 nights and see if there is any improvement. If not....re-evaluate. Basically we are trying to put her in her crib while she is "drowsy but not asleep" so that she will be able to put herself to sleep without us rocking her. The doctor seemed to think this would allow her to put herself back to sleep in the middle of the night without having to wake us up multiple times.

Mommy is feeling pretty stressed out right now and I am sure it is mainly due to lack of quality sleep.

Karla had another swimming lesson this morning that went well. She was more interested in watching the other kids today than focusing on what she was supposed to be doing. She did try kicking on her own today though.

In the afternoon Heather came over for a playdate. The girls had lots of fun and I had to get a picture of them in Karla's favorite spot - at the bottom of the stairs enjoying clementines.

Jason and Heather's dad work together so the 6 of us had dinner together at one of my favorite restaurants! It was really the first time Karla has been out to eat in the U.S. other than a trip to McDonald's and a family event where we had a whole room to roam around in. She did a great job in her highchair. I have to say I really enjoyed getting to go out to eat again! :)

The doctor is in!

I got Karla a medical kit this week (so hopefully, maybe future doctor visits won't be so traumatic). She loves it! She played with it most of the day yesterday.

She also surprisingly spent some time in a laundry hamper. I kept asking her if she wanted out and she would say no. She had her doctor kit and Oso - didn't need anything else.


Karla had quite the hairdo when she finally got out of the hamper.


We only had those 3 nights of solid sleep. The problem almost seems to be getting worse. Last night, starting at 11:30 she was getting up every hour until I finally put her in bed with us. And then she was up before 7. Jason and I are going to have to discuss some type of plan because this can't continue - which I'm not looking forward to because it will probably involve more tears (for Karla) and more difficulty before things get better. I'm tired.

And of course now she is looking so cute and dancing around to her own happy beat that I have no choice but to go play with her! Just wish I had more energy!

Healthy Update

Karla had her second "adoption visit" today with the doctor and social worker. Karla has gained 12 oz. and grown 1/2 an inch since we were there 2 months ago! She doesn't have any developmental delays or health problems, praise the Lord! We are so thankful. We decided to say goodbye to this doctor because it takes a good 40 minutes to get to her office when there isn't any traffic or bad weather. Since there aren't any concerns related to adoption we're going to pick a doctor near our house. I got teary eyed when the doctor hugged me good-bye but I didn't cry! I felt emotional because she has been with us since the day we found out that Karla had been born. She has checked Karla's medical reports every month that we received one and always had something encouraging to say in her email responses to us. She was helpful when Karla was in the hospital when we first got home (and she still hadn't even met Karla in person!). She was one of the few people we met in our adoption journey that was nice the entire time and truly cares about children (and their parents). Thank you Dr. Springer! The social worker was also wonderful. She made me feel better today - just reassuring us (okay, me) that we are doing things right for Karla. She also gave us her phone number so we could call her if we ever have any adoption related questions.

On to pictures. Karla had fun on Sunday at Rich and Carey's house for a Steeler's party playing with Lola and her cousin. They dressed up like princesses. I don't know who had more fun - me or Karla. Here is Karla as Tinkerbell, Belle, and Jasmine.




Karla is doing a wonderful job with her language and with her signing. She even makes her stuffed animals sign. The other day her cup had to sign "more" because it was empty. I can't keep up with the words she says anymore - it is too hard. There are too many words and she is imitating a lot.

Karla is also big into pretending a lot (the doctor said this is "ahead of the game" for her age). :)

Last Thursday Karla stayed in the toddler room at church with 3 other kids for 2 hours while I got to go to my bible study! Her first time away from Mommy or Daddy for an extended period of time. She was only 2 rooms away from me so I didn't have to worry about her. And apparently, she never asked for me. :)

Sunday she stayed in the toddler room again by herself. I am so proud of her! (Several of the kids that she is with in the toddler room are there on Thursday morning and in her new playgroup too so she will get to know them!)

Now we just have to get Mommy to relax (not worry) about care-giving things so much!

Karla has slept all night for the past 3 nights...I'm hesitant to write that because we are afraid it will be a fluke. Jason and I were SO worn out by the end of last week wondering how we were going to keep going with so much interrupted sleep. Maybe Karla knew we needed a few nights of solid sleep. :)

Swimming Lessons

Today was Karla's first day of swimming lessons! Her friend Austin, his cousin, and another one of Austin's friends are in our class. So it was a fun, friendly group. I think there were 8 kids with their moms. Karla LOVED being in the water. She had no trouble jumping off the side of the pool or putting her face in the water. She showed Daddy tonight how she learned to "scoop" the water (moving her arms like she was swimming the freestyle stroke). So we've been "scooping" this evening. We just need to work on kicking.

Aunt Brenda, the "professional" swimmer, came to watch Karla's first swimming lesson. She was also there to be the photographer. Well, after she had taken a few pictures she was told pictures weren't allowed during lessons. :( So she stopped.

Karla enjoyed periodically making sure Tia Brenda was watching her and then waving. After Karla's class there is a class for older people, I'll say retired people. On the way out of the pool Karla was sure to show them all her toes and said "toes" to them. She is really into her toes right now.

I have uploaded a bunch of pictures to flickr again so check them out.

Steelers Fans and Cinderella

Mommy and Daddy with their princess. :)