Busy November!

November has just flown by. National Adoption Day (November 21) was celebrated here in Yakima County on November 12. There were 14 foster-to-adopt children adopted at Juvenile Court in front of Comm. Inouye, who is generally assigned to the hardest part of that process -- watching suffering families work to rehabilitate their parenting skills or, worse, watching parents deliberately ignore the State's mandates for services and go off the grid, leaving their children in limbo. He got to see the wonderful end product to some tough cases. Mostly, we finalize adoptions downtown at the Superior Court, so he doesn't get to see the good part. This was a great chance for him to realize that he does important work. At any rate, that is what I have been doing since the early part of November -- rushing around to get adoption packets together and filed with the court. It was a great success! For a really nice article on one of my clients, see here: http://www.yakima-herald.com/stories/2009/11/11/11-12-09-adoption

Baby girl had her 4 month shots this week. She was actually two days short of 5 months, so we were a bit late! This time the actual process was much better. I did not look her in the eye when the shots were administered, so was able to just scoop her up and comfort her without that look of confusion in her eye as to why I was so cruel. She looked at the nurse that way, but not me! Yes! The post-visit situation has been less easy. Little miss had a bit of a fever and has been a cranky pants for several days. She has been sleeping and napping well though, which will hopefully help her to bounce back soon. I miss those little smiles and giggles.

Her measurements are all fairly average. She is still right around the 50th percentile for height and weight, with a slightly smaller than average head size. Small, but mighty, this baby girl can flip over from back to tummy and is trying to figure out how to roll back over. We're playing a new game that involves her practicing sitting up and standing, and she can't get enough of it. It is the only game that has gotten me a smile in the past few days.

My sweet girl is actually 5 months old today. Here are a few "almost 5 months old" pictures from the past week or so. Note the Oregon Duck onesie from her Duck loving Grandpa!

Waiting, waiting

Baby girl NEVER takes a long morning nap. And by never, I mean...never! We've been working on enjoying a morning nap for weeks now, but she just seems to enjoy snoozing for half an hour, then waking up to enjoy the rest of what the morning has to offer. Today, when I actually have agreed to be somewhere post-naptime, she is taking a glorious, long siesta. Isn't that the way it seems to always go? My workload has actually picked up quite a bit this week, so naptime is a precious commodity for getting a few things done. I soothed, shushed, rocked, snuggled and loved that baby to bits in the hope that she would settle in for some long naps all week long. However, no matter the time of day, little Miss decided she preferred being awake to asleep and that was that. So, here comes the day when I am counting on her little mini-nap and (insert sigh and motherly head shake here), alas, the nap goes on and on. I'm actually pretty tempted to run around the house being careless with my noisemaking. Flush the toilet a few times, move some furniture around, talk on the phone in my not-so-quiet voice...anything that I normally do with care while I hope that she stays asleep for those few extra precious minutes. The time she spends asleep is not only essential for my ability to accomplish little tasks, but it is so, so good for her little growing brain and body. After a good nap, she is just the smilingest, happiest thing. So I guess we will be late to our meeting, but we will be in a good mood!

The week in review.

Not sure about everyone else, but my Gmail account was acting up this week. Its issues seem to have affected my blogger account as well, so this week's posts are a little late. As you can see below, baby girl was a bumble bee for Halloween. We went to a few select neighbors to show her off in her cute little costume. She really hates head wear, so the first time she was dressed in the bee costume there were some little fits of dissatisfaction. By Halloween evening, she was more accepting and seemed to think of it as an all-weather suit as we walked the neighborhood, rather than a torture device. It was fun to think of future Halloweens and future costumes. Our neighborhood is sorely lacking in little ones, according to the old-timers. In the early 60s, our block was a new development teeming with the children of young professionals. Now, 40 years later, those young professionals are the anchors of the block, setting the standard with their intensive gardening and fertilizing schedules, waiting patiently for their gaggle of grandchildren to come in their costumes. They sure enjoy seeing our baby girl out on a walk or dressed in festive holiday wear.

I just snapped a quick photo of my sweet pea on our way out the door this week. We were on our way to Costco to purchase many more things than we actually needed. She finally fits into this cute OshKosh sweatshirt. You can't really see it, but it is the perfect shade of turquoise to set off her pretty blue eyes. (And it color coordinates with her binky, a fashion plus.) Her great grandma gave her this tiger stuffed animal, and she loves it. It goes with us a lot. Can you see why all of the grandmothers in Costco had to stop and coo at her?

In other news, the bassinet has been refilled! No, I'm not pregnant.

Mrs. C has decided that the bassinet was really meant for her all along.

Trick or Treat