Weekly Update

Hello!

I cannot believe it, but it has happened. Sweet baby L turned 11 months old on Sunday. I'm just shocked. It's so hard to believe. I was telling some friends at a birthday party on Saturday that I think about where we were last year at this time. I think about what we were doing and feeling and thinking and then about how our lives have completely changed and it's amazing. This time last year we hadn't even yet met with the reproductive endocrinologist for the final time, although we did know that we'd basically run out of options. We'd filed our paperwork and started the process to adopt already. Our profile scrapbook had been created. It's sort of a bittersweet time when I look back on it. I don't think that I knew exactly how to express the sadness I felt at the loss we had experienced. That part doesn't really end. I talk to people often who think that adoption ends the hurt and loss of infertility. It doesn't! I think that's important for friends and family of infertiles to understand but MORE important for infertiles themselves to understand. Adoption simply makes you a parent. It doesn't take away your fertility loss. The year has eased my pain though. I no longer feel my stomach turn in knots when friends announce their pregnancies (and seriously something is in the water around here, nearly everyone I know is either pregnant or has a newborn). It's amazing what a year can do. Sweet baby L has brought so much joy to our lives. I can't imagine having any other child, any other way.

On the other hand, I think about L's other mama, mama N. I think about what SHE must have been feeling this time last year. I wonder where she was and what she was doing. I wonder how big she got and how pregnancy agreed with her. I'm certain that she was in very deep pain. She knew the loss that was to come. I wonder where she is now and what she's doing. I wonder if her pain has deepened or has it healed a small bit. We share this amazing little person. I feel a bit guilty when I think about the situation that we are in. The same event that brought Brad and I joy beyond comprehension also brought the same amount of pain for her. We left the hospital overjoyed (but scared silly) and she left a part of her there. I feel so much love for her. I feel so much responsibility for the situation to do whatever I can for her. I pray all the time that she's okay. I look at L and I know that mama N is there. I wish that she was here too.

Okay... that was heavy. I'm telling you all these pregnant women in my life get me to thinking... It also gets me to thinking about when we are going to add to our family again. I see these newborns around and I'm working on L's baby book and I'm telling you. It pulls my heartstrings. I'm starting to wish we had another little one around here. Don't worry though... Brad is definitely NOT wishing for another little one quite yet. Someone asked him when (at the same birthday party) and he said, "later." :-)

Onto sweet baby L's week.

Mostly, we just hung out and played.

L found something exciting in her toy basket.



AND... (drumroll, please) after a few weeks of practice sweet baby L is now...

WALKING!





Of course, sweet baby L is getting more adorable all the time!





Can I just say... I LOVE those jeans. We were in Old Navy over the weekend. Daddy needed new shorts and mama needed new shirts, and sweet baby L didn't need anything, but she got some rad new jeans. They're just like miniature big people jeans. They are very very cute.

Today we tried for the bunny photo. I don't know if there is anything I can really use. Tomorrow I'll try to get her on the sofa, but it's starting to be more dangerous than it's really worth. Here's what I got.









(okay, no bunny in that one, but look at those cute jeans)



While I was trying to get baby L interested in the bunny, she was getting interested in the drapes. It started a very adorable game of peek-a-boo.





She is at least touching the bunny in this one.



See you next week!

Weekly Update

...and we're a tad late, but you should sort of plan on that by now. :-)

This was a good week at our house. Thursday night (a week ago already? how is that possible?) we went to the annual children's concert put on by our local community band. Brad and I have both been very active members of the band in the past and it was really sort of sad to go and not play. It was the first time for either of us to actually attend one of the outdoor summer concerts. It was so much fun!

Sweet baby L started the night out eating a cheese quesadilla from chipotle. She LOVES chipotle. Well... she loves cheese and bread, so they've got a winning combination. We give her the bowl so she can have the enjoyment of dumping it out. :-)







There was also ice cream. I think that this may be only the 2nd time that she's actually had ice cream, but she hadn't forgotten it.





The concert was wonderful, of course.



We did spend plenty of time at the concert chasing sweet baby L.



Here's a question...

How big is L?



SO BIG!!! (is that cute or WHAT?!)

She is doing a lot of cute things lately. Her bib has a pocket on it and lately she gets done eating what is on her plate (in this case waffles) and then digs out the food from the pocket. Hee hee... so cute!





(don't worry, she'll eat what's on her chair too)

This weekend we painted the house. I wasn't sure at first about the kitchen wall color but I LOVE it. I have to give Brad all the credit. Who knew the colorblind guy was so good at picking out wall colors?



Sweet baby L had some fun playing in a box. She really enjoyed it, and cheesed it up for the camera (you'll see!).















AND...

we're mastering the cup (finally).



See you next week!

Weekly Update

Happy Monday everyone!

What a week we had around here! It seems like we just really kept busy having fun and doing things around the new neighborhood and the house. Sadly, none of that fun involved putting much away, which is the sort of fun we really need to be having, but that's alright.

I think that we hit some kind of milestone this week. I think that I need a new merit badge for my mommy scout sash (are they called sashes?). I put sweet baby L down in her pack n' play last Tuesday. She'd been sleeping in there since we'd moved because her crib had broken and we hadn't put the new one together yet. We were still in our pj's, so she went down in a pj top and a diaper. I heard her starting to stir and went into her room and saw this:



That is not dirt on her hands people (or her binky, or her clothes, or EVERYWHERE!). I don't know how she managed to get her diaper off. She had sort of done this before. She opened the tabs on a diaper about a week earlier when she went down for a nap, but I thought that it must have been the way that I put it on (in fact, the week earlier I think it was Brad who put the diaper on, so it was easy to push the blame on the dad diaper), but this day... she really managed to get it off. SO... I carted her off to the bathroom trying to hold her as far away from me as possible, even though she was patting my arm and giggling (she was so proud, when I walked in she just beamed at me as if to say, finally, you're here, look what I DID!) and hosed her off. I ended up with a nice clean sweet smelling baby.



and we got out the gdiapers again. I had used these almost exclusively during the day before the move. I have some cloth inserts that I made from baby blankets and old towels plus I have the flushable gdiaper inserts that we use sometimes. The best thing about these diapers is that the do up in the back, and so far... they are sweet baby L proof.



(You can see her pj shorts right next to her in that photo. I was just too lazy to put them back on after her last diaper change. You can rest assured that there will be no more wearing disposable diapers without pants on!)

I can look back on it now and laugh, right?!

We got our new camera this week, and are loving it. It really gave us an opportunity to take tons of photos too, which I hadn't done for awhile. I took over 700 on Friday. My harddrive won't last long at that rate, so I'll have to scale back, but it was tons of fun.

Sweet baby L loves sitting in the middle of her toys from her overturned toybox and seeing what she can find.



Until, of course, she notices me taking photos and then she has to check me out.



On her way she got distracted and started chasing the cat.



But eventually got back to playing.



One of the best things about our new neighborhood (and I am loving lots of things about it), is the little park not far from our house. They have baby swings and sweet baby L is LOVING that. We walked to the park Friday afternoon and spent some time swinging.













My child is some kind of dare-devil. She LOVES swinging high.

We got home and took a very short nap Friday afternoon. While sweet baby L was down sleeping, I took a minute to blow up her swimming pool. We'd been meaning to do it since July 4th, but hadn't found the time. I ended up not doing a great job, but I don't think sweet baby L noticed.

She wasn't sure about it at first.



But she soon decided that she was okay with this.











It was such a nice evening that Brad and I had a great time sitting out there too. Can I just add something? When did I get all this gray hair? and... see those tiny little crows feet creeping up on my eyes? What is happening to my body? Hee hee.

Back to sweet baby L. She making a tough choice... starfish or lobster?





...and the starfish won.

Sweet baby L also learned to splash.





Daddy was ready with the towel.



Having a cuddle and checking out daddy's buttons.



I don't know if this is a future career or not, but sweet baby L is really interested in teeth lately.



It took her a while to go down, but boy howdy did she sleep!

Sunday morning I made some biscuits to go with the jam that I'd made on Friday night. I set out a bowl and spoon to help keep sweet baby L busy while I was cooking and she and her daddy had a great time playing!







(not sure she likes it on her head)



I just love her expressions. Her little face says all sorts of things.







That's it for this week! We'll see you next week!

OH! I also just want to say for all my buddies with wee ones. We got these Dr. Praeger's Spinach Pancakes from the frozen aisle at the grocery store after having them recommended several times to us. They are really really good! I would eat them for supper if I could and sweet baby L just LOVES them.

See you next week!