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!