Saturday, October 31, 2009

Birthdays and Halloween


Happy Halloween! I totally meant to post an update earlier this week, but somehow, time just gets away from me! Lola and us went to see Gam-ma and Gam-pa last weekend for Gam-pa's 80th birthday.  It was such a nice trip and Lola got to meet some more family...Her Great Aunt Chris, Great Uncle Ed, and Cousin Taire (I know there are some 1st's and removeds in there with that one, but let's just say Cousin Taire to keep it simple!) We have figured out there is nothing like  a new baby to entice family you haven't seen in a while to make it out to see you! It's been a while since we've seen the Diaz's, and it was a delightful visit! Taire didn't get to stay for very long, but so glad that she came too! I just love getting to spend time with family! So does Lola!
We got our letter in the mail with our court time. Since we already had our court DATE, all we were waiting on was the time. We were glad to as there were a few glitches on OUR part in meeting the deadline. Typically, we sign in blue ink. I like blue ink, it's a much friendlier color than black, and it's easier to tell which is original and which is the copy. On our way back from Las Cruces, I was checking my e-mail and had an e-mail from the lawyer telling us we had sent her the copy of the paperwork, rather than the originals. Of course I freaked out as we were in the car and couldn't really check right then, but we were pretty sure that we sent originals. Of course this was AFTER the first set of paperwork got lost in the mail. She had called to ask us where it was, and we had mailed it more than a week earlier, so she had to fax it to us and we had to mail it back in. Talk about STRESSFUL! The other OOPS we did was not reading our homestudy paperwork closely to see that we had until the 27th to get our final post-placement paperwork in in order to file on the 28th. I read that date on the 24th. We made it, but phew! Not sure why I wasn't on top of all that, but glad I caught it before leaving town last weekend. Sometimes my blonde roots show! Anyway, we are scheduled to finalize on November21 at 1:00 p.m. Every time I think about that, it brings tears to my eyes. Still doesn't seem real!
We did not go all out for Halloween, just an orange "My First Halloween" onesie, black pants, and her pumpkin hat. Our neighbors typically have a pot luck in the cul-de-sac before they take their kids out trick-or-treating. One year, they just stayed and everyone passed out candy. The trick or treaters tend to skip our house as our lights are motion activated, so there is no way to keep them on. Handing out candy with the neighbors worked well for us. But we came back in when they headed out, which was fine as Lola is having a melt down. We think this is a growth spurt, she is sleeping a lot and started waking up a few nights ago in the middle of the night to be fed. Tonight we are going to try to get more rice cereal in her before she goes down. It lasts longer in her tummy, however, she gets mad at the bottle because it is so much more work for her to get the cereal out of the bottle. HOPEFULLY it will work.
Our friends, Russ and Rebecca, dressed Lola's BFF, Kate as Elvis...hoping they don't mind, but I HAVE to pass on one of her pictures. It is just to precious not to post!  We have decided that we need to buy stock in Duracell! Every toy we own is run by batteries. I even tried to protest that fact and was going to buy a wind up mobile. I have apparently been living in the 50s as they do not make wind up mobiles any more. What a conspiracy! We have bought rechargeables, so tonight, Rodney rounded up all they batteries and they are on the charger. Still, that's a lot of batteries. Well, I think it's time to bid farewell to October--looking forward to having family closer to our time zone tomorrow, Gam-ma and Gam-pa will be the SAME time, and Nana and Papa Jay will only be an hour later. We welcome November! Lola will OFFICIALLY become a Sherrard and we get to see family at Thanksgiving...we truely have something to be thankful for!
Taire told me that her son, Josh, feels like Lola "dethroned" him...so Lola sent Josh a note:


AFTERTHOUGHT: Please forgive any spelling errors on tonight's post...apparently Blogger did away with spell check and I'm not the best speller!




Tuesday, October 20, 2009

BFFs and Finalization!

 Wow! I have been very negligent in posting lately! I'm very sorry about that! I know you Lola fans are missing your Lola news and pics. She is dong wonderfully! right now, her BFF Kate is visiting from Colorado! We had a fun photo shoot yesterday and today. I missed out on the one yesterday, but the girls were in good spirits...today, not so much! But boy are they cute in their little overalls and matching hats! Kate's mom and dad, Russ and Rebecca, came to Phoenix for a visit and to see the U2 concert. Right now, they are at the U2 concert.
On Sunday, A friend of ours had a shower for Russ and Rebecca. It was great to see a lot of people from our small group and church that we hadn't seen in a while. Lola met some new friends and snuggled up to some.
 Here she is with our friend Jayme, this is pretty much where she stayed the entire time.
Since my last post, we hit the 3 month mark, so I have to post the Chu-Chu 3 month pic as well as Nada's Lamb pic. She is getting so big! Rebecca and I were laughing because as we discuss what the girls are doing right now, we frequently use the phrase "when Lola/Kate was little"...as if they aren't still little pea pods! What we REALLY mean is "when Lola/Kate was SO itty bitty nothing fit, and she was SO itty bitty that she really didn't do much but sleep/eat/poop!" They are doing so much more now! holding heads up, laughing, cooing. I really didn't know that babies actually said two different things: Wah and goo. They do. And Lola does both. Frequently. I love it!
At three months here is what has changed. We are now eating 6 oz a feeding (for the most part.) That was up from 4oz almost over night. Speaking of overnight...she is now sleeping through the night. I started to feel guilty about the fact that I had the overnight shift--which meant I didn't have to get up in the morning with her when we started skipping the overnight feeding. We have now gone to switching mornings so only one of us has to get up every other day. We have begun to drool. A lot. A LOT. The kid is a fountain. The words "prodigious drooler" have new meaning for me. She is the Beethoven of droolers. I used to be able to get away with washing her clothes every other wear, but no longer. She pretty much gives them a bath herself. No, she isn't teething, which is one thing she isn't doing crazy early! From all the research I've done (because this freaked me out a little) the excess drool is preparing her for more substantial food. Phew!

She already looks funny standing up almost on her own! This is her favorite position! She likes to have her feet in your lap while she stands and looks around. The book says that this should happen at 7 months. We've been doing it since just before 2, but not to this degree. Since she can't stand on her own, it makes life interesting when you are doing anything else!
This week, we have slept somewhere OTHER than the bouncy seat! I was so happy that she made it through the night in the bassinet! Of course we still won't go to (and stay) asleep without being swaddled, but that's OK, we just wrap it up, and the eyes close! We have a little Pavlovian thing going on with that swaddle! Having those 8-9 hours a night is wonderful!
Next weekend is Gam-pa's 80th birthday, so we are going to head down there to see him and Gam-ma! Lola is very excited about this, especially since we don't need the bouncy to sleep anymore.
The biggest news we have and the news we are so unbelievably excited about is that we have a court date!! Lola will officially be ours on November 21, National Adoption Day. I did some research on that, and in 2008, Maricopa County finalized more adoptions than any place else in the country. Apparently, it's a big media event and is televised. We can hardly wait and are looking for what to call that each year when we celebrate it. For sure, we will have something big to give thanks for that Thursday!