Seriously, this one-cold-a-month thing is BRUTAL. We are all suffering with a full-blown cold now. And while it may have been exacerbated by our off-schedule/less-sleep weekend of retreat leading for us and staying with family members for Olivia, it was by no means caused by that. Symptoms started showing up on Thursday. Great timing.
I have been needing a nap all day, but instead of napping I am Getting Things Done. Grrr. And I'm sure Olivia's nap is nearing its end and now I won't get to nap. It will surely be a long afternoon.
Does this happen to everyone? Is it just a part of Life With A Toddler to expect the whole household to be sick every four or five weeks? WE STAY HOME! SHE'S NOT IN DAYCARE! We do have playdates about once a week, but even so. This once-a-month illness thing? NOT FUN.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Active
Well, our visit with the social worker is over, and we are officially "active". Yes, she still has to type the homestudy report, but she has reviewed all of our information and intends to recommend us for placement in her report, so that means she will be adding our profile to those she hauls around to show to birthparents.
Like our social worker said, we could get a call from her any time or it could be months and months. All in God's time, I guess. That said, we would appreciate any prayers you would like to offer...for us, for potential birthparents, for scared pregnant women everywhere who are just trying to figure out what's the best decision for themselves and their babies. Pray for patience for us and wisdom and peace for them and health for everyone. Just lots of prayers.
OK-----GO!
Like our social worker said, we could get a call from her any time or it could be months and months. All in God's time, I guess. That said, we would appreciate any prayers you would like to offer...for us, for potential birthparents, for scared pregnant women everywhere who are just trying to figure out what's the best decision for themselves and their babies. Pray for patience for us and wisdom and peace for them and health for everyone. Just lots of prayers.
OK-----GO!
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Checklist
We are making progress, people. My dining room looks like a dining room again instead of a place to pile everything that hasn't been put away. The "baby's room" is as organized as I can expect it to be until I round up all the items for donation and load them in the car. There is a place for the changing table and a place for a crib/pack-n-play, which will sit right next to the rocker. I'm happy with that.
I spent all of yesterday doing our taxes, and I have to say HOORAY for tax preparation software. It is SO MUCH EASIER. Even with our complicated tax situation (SEE: Adoption Tax Credit), I was able to breeze through it (well, as best you can breeze through any task with a toddler pulling on your arm). I was able to e-file (why this hasn't been free/included until this year is beyond me), and thanks to expensive adoption legal fees, the government owes us BIG TIME. The money is already spoken for (SEE: Second Adoption Expenses Forthcoming), but it is nice to have, and it is nice to also know that we won't be paying federal taxes again for a good long while (SEE: Adoption Tax Credit Carryover).
We are heading "to town" today for a billion errands, and the weather is not so stable, so we may or may not get anything done. Let's hope for the best!
I spent all of yesterday doing our taxes, and I have to say HOORAY for tax preparation software. It is SO MUCH EASIER. Even with our complicated tax situation (SEE: Adoption Tax Credit), I was able to breeze through it (well, as best you can breeze through any task with a toddler pulling on your arm). I was able to e-file (why this hasn't been free/included until this year is beyond me), and thanks to expensive adoption legal fees, the government owes us BIG TIME. The money is already spoken for (SEE: Second Adoption Expenses Forthcoming), but it is nice to have, and it is nice to also know that we won't be paying federal taxes again for a good long while (SEE: Adoption Tax Credit Carryover).
We are heading "to town" today for a billion errands, and the weather is not so stable, so we may or may not get anything done. Let's hope for the best!
Monday, February 9, 2009
Extremes
It's getting pretty crazy around here. Between preparing the baby's room before our home visit on Thursday (self-imposed deadline) and making plans for our weekend, I'm pretty fried already. I didn't mention our weekend? We are volunteers with this apostolate, so we will be spending our Valentine's Day weekend leading a retreat for engaged couples. It's an enjoyable weekend for both of us (this is our third time leading such a retreat), but it involves several preparation details that I must attend to before Friday.
Despite all of this craziness, Olivia and I will be spending several of her waking hours outside today. It's sunny and...get this...almost seventy degrees! I know! Who would have thought?
No matter how many times it happens (and it happens often), I am always baffled by the dramatic changes we can get in weather around here. Anytime between October and April, the temperature here can fluctuate dramatically. Two weeks ago, my trees were sagging under the weight of inches of ice and the weather reporters warned of sub-zero wind chills. Our current seven-day forecast predicts temperatures in the high 50s and 60s all week.
I'm not going to question it. I'm just going to take advantage of the pretty weather while I can. After two weeks of cold and ice, we were starting to get a little stir crazy around here.
Despite all of this craziness, Olivia and I will be spending several of her waking hours outside today. It's sunny and...get this...almost seventy degrees! I know! Who would have thought?
No matter how many times it happens (and it happens often), I am always baffled by the dramatic changes we can get in weather around here. Anytime between October and April, the temperature here can fluctuate dramatically. Two weeks ago, my trees were sagging under the weight of inches of ice and the weather reporters warned of sub-zero wind chills. Our current seven-day forecast predicts temperatures in the high 50s and 60s all week.
I'm not going to question it. I'm just going to take advantage of the pretty weather while I can. After two weeks of cold and ice, we were starting to get a little stir crazy around here.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
The Deadline
You may recall that in early January we started a homestudy, which means we spent ten days gathering paperwork and sending away for things like references and fingerprints. The social worker said she'd call to schedule our home visit as soon as the paperwork was complete and the fingerprints were back.
The social worker called yesterday, and we are scheduled for our home visit next week. It will be a short visit since this is a homestudy update and she already has enough documentation on us to write a book about our lives. All she really needs to do is make sure we don't live in a rusty shack and that we have things like fire extinguishers and high shelves to store the cleaning supplies away from small hands. (As if that matters...Olivia is THIS CLOSE to figuring out how to literally climb the walls. I'm kidding, but not by much.)
The home visit will be followed quickly by a completed report, which is followed by "activation", which could theoretically be followed quickly by placement of a wee tiny infant in our home.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not under the illusion that everyone (or anyone for that matter) gets a placement immediately, and it is entirely possible that we could still be waiting many months from now. However, I know that it is POSSIBLE that placement could happen relatively quickly. And I also know that BABY = DISAPPEARANCE OF FREE TIME = NO TIME TO ORGANIZE MY HOUSE = MUST COMPLETE OFFICE-TO-NURSERY CONVERSION NOW.
I guess you could say I'm nesting.
Now that we have an appointment for a home visit, I have made that day my mental "deadline" for organizing THAT ROOM. Wish me luck. It's a big project to undertake.
The social worker called yesterday, and we are scheduled for our home visit next week. It will be a short visit since this is a homestudy update and she already has enough documentation on us to write a book about our lives. All she really needs to do is make sure we don't live in a rusty shack and that we have things like fire extinguishers and high shelves to store the cleaning supplies away from small hands. (As if that matters...Olivia is THIS CLOSE to figuring out how to literally climb the walls. I'm kidding, but not by much.)
The home visit will be followed quickly by a completed report, which is followed by "activation", which could theoretically be followed quickly by placement of a wee tiny infant in our home.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not under the illusion that everyone (or anyone for that matter) gets a placement immediately, and it is entirely possible that we could still be waiting many months from now. However, I know that it is POSSIBLE that placement could happen relatively quickly. And I also know that BABY = DISAPPEARANCE OF FREE TIME = NO TIME TO ORGANIZE MY HOUSE = MUST COMPLETE OFFICE-TO-NURSERY CONVERSION NOW.
I guess you could say I'm nesting.
Now that we have an appointment for a home visit, I have made that day my mental "deadline" for organizing THAT ROOM. Wish me luck. It's a big project to undertake.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Vocabulary
Olivia has never been slow to do anything...she runs everywhere she goes. Language acquisition is no exception. For many months, she has had a few words that she has used regularly, and it has been obvious that she understands more than she can say. She has been quickly expanding her vocabulary and is even stringing a few words together to make sentences. It's really fun to watch her little mind work as she communicates with us.
I've been trying to get a list together of the words she uses regularly, without prompting. I consider these to be the words she "knows". She can repeat just about anything, but if she can pull the word out of her brain without our assistance, then I know that she really KNOWS that word. I've counted about fifty words so far.
Here are some examples of an almost-15-month-old trying to communicate.
Daaeee go? (Where did Daddy Go?)
Daaee phone? (Is Daddy on the phone?)
Fishies, pease? (Goldfish Crackers, please?)
Cackers (Crackers)
COO-Key (Cookie...one of her favorite words)
Ca-Corn (Popcorn)
Muh (Milk)
Pay (Pray)
Jesus
Bye, Bye
Nigh-Nigh (Night-Night -- Used when she wants to go to nap or to bed)
Foo (Food)
For (Fork)
Side (Outside)
That is just a short list of her more frequently-used words. And as I look at them, it becomes obvious that she's obsessed with two things...Daddy and Food. She talks about one or the other about 80% of the time.
I've been trying to get a list together of the words she uses regularly, without prompting. I consider these to be the words she "knows". She can repeat just about anything, but if she can pull the word out of her brain without our assistance, then I know that she really KNOWS that word. I've counted about fifty words so far.
Here are some examples of an almost-15-month-old trying to communicate.
Daaeee go? (Where did Daddy Go?)
Daaee phone? (Is Daddy on the phone?)
Fishies, pease? (Goldfish Crackers, please?)
Cackers (Crackers)
COO-Key (Cookie...one of her favorite words)
Ca-Corn (Popcorn)
Muh (Milk)
Pay (Pray)
Jesus
Bye, Bye
Nigh-Nigh (Night-Night -- Used when she wants to go to nap or to bed)
Foo (Food)
For (Fork)
Side (Outside)
That is just a short list of her more frequently-used words. And as I look at them, it becomes obvious that she's obsessed with two things...Daddy and Food. She talks about one or the other about 80% of the time.
Monday, February 2, 2009
In which I have nothing to say
I feel like I have been rather absent from this site for a week or so. Yeah, I've posted, but my posts have consisted mostly of pictures of a cute toddler in the snow. Why? BECAUSE THERE IS NOTHING GOING ON AROUND HERE. That's what a week of snow and ice will do to you.
We did venture out on Friday for a brief shopping trip that ended up taking most of the day. This was due to A) the utter lack of ice clearing in store parking lots, which made for slow maneuvering, and B) the bajillions of people out shopping or eating in restaurants, which also slowed us down considerably. It turns out that a good portion of our Former City (where we do most of our shopping) is still without power because of all the ice and the trees that fell on power lines all over the city. So EVERYONE was out eating or shopping because it was too cold to sit at home in their powerless houses and they couldn't cook anything anyway.
We are so, so lucky that we never lost power.
All this ice and snow did keep us home and stuck in the house for most of last week, so we are itching to get out and do SOMETHING. We have errands to run tomorrow, and I'm hoping that it cures us both of cabin fever. Olivia has been pretty fussy. We just need a break from seeing nothing but each other.
The highlight of our weekend was that the three of us ventured out and finally chose a TV to replace our broken one (It's been broken for a month). We had to get out the screwdriver box to attach the base to the TV, and Olivia thought she'd help by carrying the screwdriver box around.
Our little worker.
We did venture out on Friday for a brief shopping trip that ended up taking most of the day. This was due to A) the utter lack of ice clearing in store parking lots, which made for slow maneuvering, and B) the bajillions of people out shopping or eating in restaurants, which also slowed us down considerably. It turns out that a good portion of our Former City (where we do most of our shopping) is still without power because of all the ice and the trees that fell on power lines all over the city. So EVERYONE was out eating or shopping because it was too cold to sit at home in their powerless houses and they couldn't cook anything anyway.
We are so, so lucky that we never lost power.
All this ice and snow did keep us home and stuck in the house for most of last week, so we are itching to get out and do SOMETHING. We have errands to run tomorrow, and I'm hoping that it cures us both of cabin fever. Olivia has been pretty fussy. We just need a break from seeing nothing but each other.
The highlight of our weekend was that the three of us ventured out and finally chose a TV to replace our broken one (It's been broken for a month). We had to get out the screwdriver box to attach the base to the TV, and Olivia thought she'd help by carrying the screwdriver box around.
Our little worker.
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