Pilates, Pocahontas, and the Park

This evening we had some friends over for dinner. They have a 2 and a 4 year old girl and a baby boy. Karla loves playing with the girls. The above pictures are Ava and Karla chillin' in the lounge chair. Karla seems to like to be led around by Sophia, the 4 year old. Here are the three cuties...


This week has been pretty good considering all the dreary weather (except this sunny weekend). Monday Jason was off work for Memorial Day. We worked all morning and early afternoon on potty training. Karla is MUCH more likely to sit on the potty for Jason than for me. We had some successes and some accidents. I guess the potty-training is going to be a longer process than I thought. But that is okay. I thought we were going to be working on it all week but it fizzled out after Jason went back to work on Tuesday.

Monday afternoon we got to have a picnic with some friends from church at the park. It was nice because I feel like we haven't gotten to talk to them much since little K's been home.

Wednesday morning I got to do some running around - errands and at the Y - while Grammy stayed with Karla.

Thursday after bible study we went to Pizza Hut with Nana Shirley and a few other people. It was neat because Karla is finally warming up to Shirley. She let her hold her once and then held her hand from the car to our table in the restaurant. It meant a lot to me and I think Shirley liked it too! I wished I had my camera.

This week marked a year since I worked...not that I am really keeping track. Just remembered it was at the end of May and my dad sent me flowers. :) I can't believe it has been that long!

Jason has had a stack of adoption papers for me to go through and determine if it is okay to get rid of them. I finally did it the other day. Most of the papers were duplicates of papers we had to send in our initial dossier to Guatemala and then lots of notes I took during phone conversations with various people from our agency and in Guatemala. After a few months of adoption, I realized EVERYTHING I said, and especially what others told me, needed to be documented. I didn't want to part with the papers but then I asked myself why I thought I needed them. I decided I didn't need them because the only thing they do is get me irritated and bring that "pain" back. I don't need that anymore and none of that matters!! I'm letting Jason shred it all though. :) Not sure why I just wrote all that...

One of our neighbors brought a bunch of nice hand-me-down summer clothes over for Karla. All her size! We have a lot of nice neighbors! Several let us use their swing sets too - which I am very grateful for...we're getting ready to get our own soon though.

Karla and I did pilates every other day this week. I have a 20 minute video that we did. The first day she laid on the floor with her legs up in the air - right next to me. The second day she did a little and then played with her toys in the same room. The third day she played with her toys and every once in a while would say "good job, Mommy" or "sit up tall, Mommy". I guess the lady in the video says that frequently. All 3 days Karla did the "ball" exercise with me. Then Saturday morning I noticed she was doing something with Oso...I asked her what she was doing and she said "Oso, ball". It was pretty funny! Oso does pilates too! Oh, and at the end of our pilates session I always get an extra 30 lb "ball" of resistance that I put up in the air with my legs to make an "airplane"...so we always end laughing.

By the way, Oso is no longer Oso. He is always "Baby Oso". Not sure why or exactly when this happened.

Karla goes through phases of books that she lets us read/likes to read. This week she discovered a book on her shelf called Pocohontas. She calls it "Cocahonas" - pretty close! We've read it MANY times a day! It has gone places in the car with us. Yesterday when we were at some friends house who had little cowboy and Indian figures - Karla named them - Kokoum, John Smith, Namonotuck, Ratcliffe - all characters in the book. Someone heard me talking about how Karla is into this book right now and then brought the Disney movie to church this morning for us to borrow!! I have to preview it though to see if it will be okay for her to watch. I haven't seen it in a long time.

I took Karla to get bloodwork done on Friday for her her 6 month check-up. It is recommended to check (again) that all her immunizations were done in Guatemala, etc. I was supposed to take her in May...and I waited until the last possible day because I wasn't looking forward to it. Last time she had bloodwork I made Jason go with us, go in late to work, and hold Karla during the blood draw. This time I was determined to do it by myself with Karla. She did GREAT! Why was I even worried? She whimpered when they first put the needle in but then she was fine. I was proud of us both...and the nurses commented again about what a good little patient she is. :)

Yesterday I took Karla to the park in the morning. I took a snack and after we played a while, we sat on a bench to eat. Karla was holding my hand, leaning on my legs and chewing. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the temperature wasn't too hot or cold. I just had to think, does it get any better than this? :) Then she looked up at me and said "love you, Mommy".

Happy Memorial Day!

Fun! Fun! Fun!



We went to Mammy and Pappy's house today (my grandparents and Karla's GREAT-grandparents). Every year they have had a Memorial Day picnic...except last year because Mammy was going through chemo. BUT this year was great! Mammy is better and Karla is home! Fun was had by all! Karla experienced her first slip-and-slide and spent the whole afternoon with her cousins and family. She had no fear and loved the water. If it is nice tomorrow we are thinking of taking her to the local pool to swim.

I'm uploading new pictures to flickr now. It is going to take a while though...lots of pictures. :)

This Week

A week ago today we finally received Karla's Pennsylvania Birth Certificate in the mail! We were pretty excited to get it! We've been waiting on it since our court appointment in March.

Last Sunday we went over to some friends' house for dinner and some playing. It is amazing how it was so cool that night and then it was so hot by Wednesday! Karla had fun using Isadora's jump rope (she was pretty good I must say). She's seen her cousins jumping rope before but never done it herself. She also learned to play duck-duck-goose. Isadora's dad took lots of pictures with his new camera. I was happy he did because he got some good ones! I want to post a lot but I'll have to upload the others to flickr sometime this weekend. :)




I haven't worked much on the potty training. She gets mad if we suggest sitting on the potty. However, she did sit and went pee-pee Monday night for Daddy! She's more likely/willing to try for him than me...

I discovered Karla is able to draw circles. Apparently Jason had seen this before but I hadn't. :)

We're still searching for a basic swing set. We just want something with 3-4 swings and a slide. Seems like you have to get that plus a clubhouse/treehouse thing with a rock wall, and all the accessories, etc. While that is all fun and fine, it isn't what we want. Several neighbors have big swing sets and we live close to at least 3 parks so we don't need it. Plus we have limited flat and dry yard space. PLUS swing set prices are (in my opinion) ridiculous! Have they always been that expensive? The other thing that is bothering me is that we are going to have to put one together probably or make our own...not really what I want Jason to have to do in the evenings or on weekends. Oh well. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm open to them! :)

Last weekend we FINALLY put sand in a sand box we have had on our deck for 2 years. Karla loves it and can spend long amounts of time there.


Here is a picture I took at our playgroup Tuesday. We were hosting this week. All the moms were cleaning up and all of a sudden someone said, "Where are the kids?"
This is what we found:

They all quickly had found and went up the stairs. It is funny how that is where all little kids end up at our house. So of course I had to take a picture. It makes me so happy to see all these kids together! We were missing another little girl, two little boys, and two baby girls.

I feel like I'm enjoying all the "small" things in life this week: jump rope, pretending, friends, duck-duck-goose, sand, a full night's sleep, running outside, drawing circles and "squares", tracing anything you can think of with sidewalk chalk, multiple hours of sleep in a row at night (did I already say that??) and reading board books and nursery tales. Doesn't get much better than that!

Sleeping Beauty

Today at naptime and bedtime, I/we tucked Karla in and then she ASKED us to close her door and went right to sleep!!!!!!!! Whoa!! Exciting stuff!

Karla and I were outside pretty much all day today. It was hot and sunny, not a cloud in the sky! yeah for summer-like weather! Only bad thing...I didn't do anything in the house today, including make dinner (thanks, Jason). Guess I'll have to learn how to stay inside for a little while when it is so nice out!

In case you wondered, Oso is still wearing his voting sticker...Karla wore hers to bed last night on her pajamas but didn't feel she needed to wear it today.

Time to Vote

Jason took Karla to vote with him tonight so I could relax for a little bit. By the smiles on their faces and the stickers on both of them AND Oso, I knew they had a fun time!

Sleep

So, I'm going to tell you about Karla's sleep "progress". It has GREATLY improved. As you know from following my blog that Karla hadn't slept through the night in 5+ months since she'd been home (except maybe a rare fluke). And it was taking a toll on everyone in the house! At all the "classes" we had to go to prior to adopting they told us that EVERY time your new child cries - even at night - you need to respond to help form the attachment bond. So, we did. We did it throughout the day and night. Then it seemed like nights were getting worse and worse and then naps got miserable as well - I felt like I was going to go crazy. I would fall asleep in Karla's bed, in the rocking chair, on the floor...anywhere that I was able to sit/lay still on during Karla's crying in the night. We were all short on patience and dreaded night time. I was starting to feel desperate for sleep. Then Jason and I were getting pretty sure that Karla was understanding everything we were saying to her and that she was doing a great job of manipulating us at night! (There was a lot of thought and talk behind that belief) I do think that a lot of her night waking had to do with behavior but I also think her breathing/asthma and adjusting to a new home/country/family contributed too! It is kind of amazing how the timing of everything worked out...or could it be all the prayers?? :) Remember my prayer request? I just looked back at my blog and it was the beginning of April when things were bad.

I was willing to try anything. So, we tried the Supernanny "Sleep separation technique" (http://www.supernanny.com/Advice/-/Your-toddler/-/Toddler-care/The-sleep-separation-technique.aspx). I haven't watched the TV show since before Guatemala. i remember occasionally watching it and thinking some of the parents on the show were nuts...but then...well, now maybe I'm one of them. I know what sleep deprivation can do to you now... I now LOVE Supernanny's website. It had a little video that we watched with Karla and then we started the technique. Basically you put your child in bed (after their familiar bedtime routine, of course), kiss them goodnight, then sit on the floor so they can only see your profile. You don't talk to them at all. So the first few nights are rough (mainly just the first one for us) because your child is crying and you are basically sitting there ignoring them. Then you move farther and farther from their bed each night. We are currently able to sit outside of her bedroom, down the hall, right outside of our bedroom door...so we are pretty far away now!! We did the progression slowly because she was sick for a while. Nap time is a breeze! Bedtime is SO much better!! At first Karla fussed during the bedtime routine because she knew what was coming but now she will mostly just talk to Oso for a few minutes and then go to sleep. She even sleeps through the night now!!!

Last night was the 4th night in a row and prior to her getting sick we had 5 nights in a row, beating her best record of 4 nights in a row (which was really unusual) and I can't even remember when it was...maybe January. She sleeps longer at night too! Her naps may be slightly shorter but that is okay!!

I'm able to keep the house cleaner and keep up with laundry. I didn't sleep very often when she slept for naps before and I wish I had because I guess I wasn't actually being that productive. Now that I am running on a good night's sleep I am amazed at how much more I can do in a day and how much more energy I have for playing.


Another good thing is that Jason was home for 4-5 days around Easter. Karla really warmed up to him a lot more during that time. (I had been concerned about this at the beginning of April as well). She is better about letting him help in the middle of night - if necessary - and about letting him do some more of the "caregiving" things without crying or fussing. She also gives him tons more hugs and kisses and I know Jason loves that!

Karla is really into pretending to be "Jennifer". She thinks it is funny to be me. Not sure what that means... :)

Karla hasn't done her business on the potty again. The closest we got was an accident on the floor next to the potty this morning.I guess this will be harder than I thought. Good thing I'm not in a hurry. :)

Yesterday we had to play "sleep" a lot. I was "Karla" and had to sleep in the bed and Karla was "Mommy" sitting in the hallway. I took the picture from her bed. I usually sit where the laundry hamper is in the picture. She was even "reading" my book that I have been keeping in the hallway.

Happy Mother's Day

This is the happiest Mother's Day I've had in...well, probably 5 years! :)

Karla just pee-peed on the potty for the first time minutes ago. I am shaking a little bit because I wanted to be all happy and excited for her (and I was) but inside I am sad at the same time. All these milestones are good and I am thankful for them...never really expected them to be a little sad too!!! Jason is up giving her a bath so I have time to recover..and blog.

Pee-pee is not the reason I had a good mother's day though. :) I am SOO thankful to have Karla!

We went to church, out to lunch, took a nap (yeah!)and then played outside. The day went fast!

I had told Jason earlier this evening that I might start focusing on potty training tomorrow because we don't have much planned this week. I have felt for a few weeks that if I just put some effort into it - Karla could do it. I have been procrastinating for a variety of reasons. Guess I better do it for sure now!

I know there are a few mothers that read my blog that do not yet have their baby in their arms either due to adoption or fertility issues. I don't think I'll ever forget what it is like to go through a Mother's Day when my baby wasn't with me. I want you to know that I think about you and pray for you all the time! People used to tell me that all the waiting would be worth. I can finally agree! "Stand firm in the faith...be strong" 1 Corinthians 16:13, "...run the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus..." Hebrews 12:1-2.

On a different note - Karla looked so cute in her outfit this morning. I had seen it before it was warm outside and actually was able to make myself wait to buy it when it went on sale! They still had her size too. :) Hopefully she'll cooperate for a better shot next time she wears it.


A special "Happy Mother's Day" to my Mom, Mom-in-law, grandmas, and aunts!!!