Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to Jason, Karla's AWESOME Daddy! Happy Father's Day to my Dad, my Dad-in-law, both of my grandpas and all dads out there!

Karla ended the day by pretending to be Daddy. She told us she was Daddy with dancing shoes on. Here "he" is pointing his toes.


Then she was pretending to be a nun singing "How do you solve a problem like Maria?"

5 days, 4 nights

That is how long I was away from Karla (and Jason) last week! Our first big separation! I got to go to California to see my sister Brenda, Russ, and my new niece Kiera! I posted a link earlier this week to pictures but you may have had trouble getting to them. Here is a link to pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/familym

I was pretty nervous about leaving Karla for the few days before I actually left. The morning I flew out we went to the airport so early that Karla and I weren't really awake enough to be sad about saying good-bye. Karla did a great job staying with her Daddy. I am still very proud of her! They went to the zoo, a museum, putt-putt golfing with another Dad and little friend, Costco (their favorite store I think), among other things. They were busy all the time! I told Jason to blog about all their fun...I'm still waiting. :)

I had a great time! Kiera is such a good little baby. She only cries when she is hungry. I got to spend lots of time holding her and loving on her. I also got to talk a lot to my sister!! :) We haven't had so much uninterrupted time together in way too long!! We did a little sight-seeing in the afternoons and Kiera usually slept right through our little afternoon "adventures." I got to be with her and walk while holding her during her first "walk" on the beach!!! I was excited about it...she just kept on sleeping. I took pics so I can tell her about it someday and show her pics. I also got to babysit her for the first time. (I'm not counting the time my parents watched her while Brenda and Russ ran to the store for a few minutes). :) Brenda and Russ went out to dinner! I got to babysit but did have to end up calling them after just about an hour because Kiera was hungry. Luckily they were just finishing up. Kiera was eating a lot while I was there. The day after I left she went to the doctor and she had grown almost 2 lbs since her birth about 5 weeks ago. Go Kiera! Almost 8 lbs now. :) Oh, I also got to celebrate her 1 month "birthday" with her!

I was excited to get home to see Karla and Jason. When I was walking through the Pittsburgh airport to get my suitcase I could remember so clearly the last time I was there - when we were flying home from Guatemala WITH Karla. I got tears in my eyes going down the escalator where our family and friends were waiting at the bottom to meet Karla for the first time. I have to say I was a tiny bit disappointed that nobody was there waiting for me with signs, balloons, matching t-shirts and cameras! :) Jason did pick me up outside though. It was really late at night so Karla was at home asleep and Pap-pap was waiting for us to get home.

Thanks Bren for a great few days!!

Making Dinner

Tonight Karla helped me make dinner. Looks pretty proud doesn't she (and so very cute)?

She washed the peppers and got out her pumpkin cutter from Halloween (I didn't even realize she knew where this was) so that she could help me cut the veggies.


I grabbed something out of the dining room and heard a loud bite/crunching sound and then I heard Karla say "Look Mommy. It is just like a Popsicle." It was so funny I had to run for the camera. She was just loving standing there and eating the pepper. I kept working on dinner and she put quite a dent in the green pepper. After telling me she didn't think she liked red peppers she began taking several bites out of it too.

Notice the missing bites.

I had to jump in a picture too.

Notice the "high heel shoes" and Oso....neither of those two things is ever far away.

That was the most fun I've had making dinner in a while! :)

Meeting Kiera

Click on flickr pictures on the right of this page to see pictures from my trip to meet my newest niece.

Living Treasures

This past Monday Karla and I went to Living Treasures with some friends who have also adopted from Guatemala. There were 3 moms and 4 adorable children. I had debated about going since Karla continued to not feel her best but decided a fun trip out might be a good idea for both of us. Karla had fun. She wanted to ride in her stroller at first even though the other kids were walking around to see and feed all of the animals. She got out about half way through and joined in so that was good.

We ended up going back to the doctor on Tuesday (it had only been 6 days since we'd last seen him) and Karla had another sinus infection. So antibiotics started again....less than a month after the last round. I'm trying not to be too stressed about her health but it is hard! I don't like seeing her not want to run, keep up with the other kids, and scoot around the neighborhood on her scooter.

Anyway, we stayed for quite a while at Living Treasures. We got to feed and pet the animals. We celebrated two of the kids birthdays during lunch. The other 2 girls were turning 3. All the kids got cupcakes so they LOVED that. Then we went on a wagon ride through an area where the animals "run free." For some reason this was Karla's favorite part! She really perked up and talked more to everyone.

The kids loved the "horse" swings. We spent quite a bit of time pushing them. It was perfect because there were 4 kids and 4 swings.

Clean Up

Cleaning or even just having things picked up can be a difficult task. For some reason I thought if you are home all the time it should be easier to keep the house clean. This doesn't seem to be the case here! It almost seems harder.

I had just cleaned up the family room and had run the vacuum. I no sooner vacuumed the dining room, turned around and this had happened in the family room...where moments before it was nice and picked up.


I had just about finished cleaning the first floor of the house when I hear the sound of numerous things falling down the steps. It was the bag of coins Karla was going to carry upstairs to put in her piggy back. She said it "accidentally" opened and then all the coins fell out.

Okay, Karla is getting the coins cleaned up, I go to put a few dishes in the dishwasher, return to the steps to find that, (yea!) Karla listened and cleaned up the coins but now there are several other items on the steps that had been put away just moments before.

Some days it doesn't feel worth it to try to have a neat house!

Karla in 5th Grade

***Yesterday Karla and I went to visit Pap-Pap at his school. We went once last school year and hadn't made it there yet this school year. I think I've mentioned how Karla talks about "her kids" all the time. I think she says this because both Grammy and Pap-Pap are teachers and talk about "their school" and "their kids." Well, Karla was excited to get to go see Pap-Pap's kids. She was pretty shy when we got there. Lots of teachers and kids to meet! She had fun though. While there she got to have a Popsicle with the class, received stickers or candy from the teachers she got to meet, and got to go outside for recess with Pap-Pap's 5th grade class. When she went out for recess ALL the girls in the class stood around Karla and asked her what she wanted to do. Karla said swing so ALL the girls ran to the swings to "save" a swing for Karla. It was pretty funny! She warmed up while she was swinging and started talking a little bit to the girls (who were mostly crowded around her swing). Then when it was time to line up I told her we should get in the girls line (even though I know Pap-Pap would have happily carried her). Boy, did she think she was something standing and walking in the girls line!! It was hilarious to watch. I could tell she thought she was BIG but the other kids towered over her. :)

When we got to the car I asked her what she thought. She said, "The kids were big." I honestly think she thought "the kids" would be smaller than her and that she was going to get to teach them a thing or two. She had a great time though...and ate candy on the way right before lunch. :)

***When we are in the car Karla always wants me to "turn right" or "turn left" because she wants me to find "her school." So far I have refused to just turn randomly all over the place. Then the other day we were on a street that we aren't often on and we passed a very large brick home with lots of windows and she cried, "Mommy, there is my school!!" Honestly, I am very relieved we "found" it and she doesn't keep asking me to drive around randomly. Hopefully she'll never want to go in "her school."

***Another fun "adventure" yesterday was going to the gas station. Amazing, huh? We had just gone in Giant Eagle and I was loading groceries in the trunk while she sat in the cart. I said I needed to get gas in the car. She asked me if gas went in the trunk. I thought she was being funny and then I realized she really didn't know where gas went in the car. So when we got to the gas station I let her get out of the car and stand right beside me and "help." I never thought of letting her watch that job...it is just easier to leave her in her car seat and talk to her through the window! But having her be so curious and asking questions while I was doing such a mundane job made it fun! I let her pull the receipt out and she held onto it for quite a while afterward!

***Jason has had to travel a little bit and I told her he was going to be staying in a hotel overnight. She asked if he was sick. It took a minute for me to realize she thought I meant hospital. I had to explain what a hotel is. That is sad....she knows what a hospital is but not a hotel!! I don't think we've been to a hotel other than the one in Guatemala with her....uh, I think it is time for a vacation!!!


***Karla has not been "back to normal" like I thought she had been. She's having a lot of asthma troubles. I knew something was not right yesterday (and had been suspecting she was still struggling before that). I worried a lot about her yesterday and last night. Luckily the doctor (her allergist/pulmonologist) got us in at 9am this morning. He said it was a good thing I brought her in. She was STILL wheezing (its been on and off for a few weeks now). He measured her oxygen levels (which helped put me at ease) and they were okay and then they gave her a nebulizer breathing treatment there so he could listen to her again afterward. She improved...even her behavior changed. Instead of sitting on my lap or sitting quietly on the floor with the toys she was dancing around the room....sure some of that could have been the steriods but it was a relief to see her moving around more. This week she hasn't wanted to do much or run, play, scoot around outside and that is NOT normal. He gave us a plan for the next 10 days and then we've got to go back in 2 weeks to see how she's doing again. Basically, MORE breathing treatments again and possibly (but hopefully not) an oral steroid. I TRY really hard not to worry about Karla and her asthma because I know Jason and I plus the doctors are monitoring it and we know how to treat it but it is hard! I find that when she is having lots of asthma symptoms I am much more tired!! I think it wears me out just thinking about it all!! :)

Here is Karla doing one of her more "quiet" activities today, painting. I talked her into taking a break from playing Barbie's and Ariel/Ursula...I thought I was going to go crazy if we played anymore of those games!