Happy Halloween!

Okay, we didn't actually go trick or treating... Meron's not really allowed to have candy, so it seemed pointless. We went to Nathan's taekwondo gym and handed out candy there. It was pretty fun.. we had enough candy for 500 kids, and we ran out about 1/2 hour before we were supposed to be done!

Meron had a fabulous time. She especially liked the little girls in princess dresses. She kept saying, "Oooo" when a little girl with a frilly dress came in. It kind of made me feel bad for dressing her like a turtle, because apparently she wanted to be a princess instead. One of my many failings as a mother, I am sure. Sadly, these are the only pictures we have, because my camera batteries died. Oh well, you get the idea. It was pretty cute to watch her crawl!

Fun in the Park...

It was SO NICE today. Merrie and I spent most of our day outside. We were at the park for almost 2 hours eating leaves, crawling around, and swinging. Well, only Meron ate leaves, although she tried to get me to eat some! Here are some pictures from our lovely day... she was awfully tired by bed time.

I have begun to count down the days until I go back to work... in an end of the world kind of way, not in a Happy New Year kind of way. 3 days, and I can no longer be paid to stay home and play with the baby. I am so sad... I don't know what I'll do without her all day. I guess just wonder what she is doing. I'm mostly worried about what she will think when I'm not there when she wakes up. It hasn't happened since we met her. I'm sure, like her getting shots, I'll be more traumatized than she will. At least, I hope so...

Not as bad as I thought....

I don't know why I thought it would be a big deal to do our post placement visits, but it really was kind of fun. We just got to chat about how awesome Meron is for about an hour and a half. Plus, the social worker thought we were probably doing the right thing by letting Merrie sleep with us. That made me happy, because she is sleeping SO WELL now. She isn't fighting going to bed as much, and she isn't staying up for hours if she wakes up during the night for a bottle. Unfortunately, she will only stay in her crib until we get in bed. Then she needs to be smashed up against me, preferably with her forehead on my forehead. I worry that she won't get enough air like that, so I stay awake until she is really asleep and then I turn her over on her other side. I was trying to get her back into her own crib for a while, but she woke up every time. Now I just make sure her head is way above mine so I can have the blankets pulled up around my shoulders and not have them go higher than her belly. It isn't exactly restful, because I'm waking up to check on her all the time. It is, however, making her feel much more secure at night.

Merrie has learned some new words... she has now added hi, quiet, and ouch, and she is trying to say blue. (We tell the dogs to be quiet a lot... and tell her ouch when she pokes us in the eyes.) The social worker was very impressed with her social development and says she is way ahead of where they would expect and even quite above average. I always thought so, but it is nice for the professionals to agree! Here are some random pictures of the baby in question. Can you see how much her hair has grown in two months?

2 Months!

Doesn't it seem like way longer than that? It has been 2 months since we became a family. I don't know what we ever did without her... life must have been awfully boring. As of this week, Merrie can competently hold onto something with one hand, bend down and pick something up, and stand back up again. She also took 2 steps on her own today, although I don't think she knows it. She was walking along the couch and my knee was in the way. She let go of one side of the couch, stepped past my knee, and grabbed the couch again. I was pretty excited!
Here is Merrie helping her dad with the laundry.... at least it makes folding clothes more exciting, if less productive. I mean, it is pretty hard to fold things with one hand.

Ouch!

Poor Baby! We took Meron to the doctor for her 1 year check up and they had to give her 5 shots! 5!!! One in each arm and one leg and two in the other leg. That is way too many shots for one baby to take. Then, after all of that trauma (although I am much more traumatized than Meron seems to be) we had to hold her down in a few different positions so that she could get x-rays of her lower back. For privacy's sake, we'll not discuss why she needed x-rays.... just that she has an unusual divot in an unusual place and they wanted to make sure everything looked okay with her spine. Obviously, her legs work quite well. We aren't worried. But Merrie was very worried about getting held down. It was pretty rough for all three of us.

Poor girl spent most of the day laying on me and giving me hugs and kisses. I think that our co-sleeping experiment has helped at least that much (although she still wakes up at 3 and won't go back to sleep until 5 or 6). She has been seeming a lot more affectionate to both of us. She would hug and kiss her doll and toys, and once even a can of formula with no prompting; when I asked for hugs and kisses she would giggle and look coy. All day today she's been crawling up to give me hugs and kisses and pat my face... it is awfully sweet.

The good news from the doctor... Merrie is now absolutely on track developmentally. She is actually ahead in some areas and WAY ahead of where the doctor expected her to be after a month. She gained 2.5 lbs and they are very pleased with her rate of weight gain. She has gone from <5th percentile in height and weight and 9th percentile to 3rd percentile in height and weight and 25 percentile in head circumference... so she is now officially on the US growth charts. That was pretty exciting!

Here are some pictures and video of our sickie today... she's feeling better already, as you can tell. She and daddy were kicking back and watching a little Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock.

We Surrender...

We Surrender. Merrie wins. These are our new sleeping arrangements. Actually, I am kind of excited. She isn't a restless sleeper, just a cuddly sleeper. We don't mind sharing, but we have a little bed. I'm always so scared that she will get squished or caught up in the bedding that when she comes to bed with us, I don't really sleep.

Merrie was pretty excited. I am pretty sure she knew what was going to happen when I put her in her crib and it was attached to our bed. She crawled around and squealed for a while, giggling. Then she started crawling back and forth between our bed and hers. And check out how good she had gotten at pulling herself up! She's breaking my heart... although my dad says that it makes me a bad person that I'm getting sad because my baby is developing at a breakneck pace. I think he's kidding....

We'll do this for a while, and see how it goes. Wish us luck... we are hoping for a night of blissful slumber!

By the way, check out our awesome bedspread that we got from Ethiopia! We have one for the guest room that is actually prettier. It is white with blue embroidery. These and the table clothes we bought for my mom and grandma are my favorite souvenirs. I think they are really, really cool.

Lovin' the Sunshine... While it lasts...

Merrie is loving being outside lately. She crawls to the door and yells at me when she decides she needs some outside time! Miss M is continuing her breakneck developmental pace. She can do 'itsy bitsy spider' now, and it is beyond cute. She especially loves the part when you sing "out comes the sun." She rocks that part. She can also pull herself up onto the furniture now. We looked at a list of developmental milestones she should be reaching at 12 months, and she can do all of them and then some! Considering how far behind she was, I am astounded.

A Very Merrie Bath Time

Videos from Aunt Elz

We found a way to get Meron to eat protein...

We have been having a hard time finding things with protein that Merrie likes. It has gotten even harder now, because yesterday she decided that she is a big girl and wants to feed herself.... but she doesn't have any teeth. This kind of limits foods that she can pick up and eat on her own but doesn't have to chew. Tonight for supper I ground up some chicken with some Shiro powder that we got in Ethiopia and she LOVED it! She kept giggling while she was eating!

Back on line... here is what you missed!

In the last week, Merrie turned 1, became and expert crawler, was a wood sprite, and decided she LOVES her baby. She also got to eat her very own birthday cake (don't worry... no sugar... just pumpkin/ apple spice cake with whip cream flavored with apple juice) and was just generally super cute. It was lots and lots of fun. She even got two parties... one at home with mom and dad and one with grandma and grandpa at their house. I think their party was better... they had decorations and everything!

Going private...

In one week I'll be making the blog password protected. Somebody posted a pretty nasty and rude comment, and I don't want whoever that was reading about our family. If you want to keep reading our blog, send me an e-mail at kmschutz@hotmail.com You will just have to sign in to read.
Sorry for the inconvenience, folks!

Merrie's War Face Doesn't Scare Us...

Merrie all ready for hunting wearing Uncle Luke's hat... fuzzy polka dot jammies and all.

And Merrie exploring a tipi while we were Meandering with Grandma. Quite a day!

Lastly, great article about Obama.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20081003/cm_csm/ymartin;_ylt=AksBcFQfu3LHquDkOJVSiQs__8QF

Incidentally, I swear Merrie said Obama twice, and she regularly says 'Gobama.' I know you are all as sure as I am that she is purposely cheering on Obama.

We're off to bed... if we sleep now we can get 5 hours before our cute little wake up call @ 2am!

Not seeing much of this....

photo credit goes to Elz

Okay, big girl crib sleeping is not going so well. Meron goes to bed right on time and sleeps for a few hours, then is up and down the rest of the night. We are all pretty darn tired. I'm not sure why... she isn't upset when she wakes up. She just wants us up there. Last night she said mama, dada clear as a bell until I got to her, then smiled when she saw me and wanted to play "where's Merrie." I tried to tell her that little girls need to be sleeping at midnight, but she didn't believe me. It is nice to see her smiling, but a whole lot harder to get her to go back to sleep than when she is crying!

She hasn't really slept that well since we stopped letting her sleep in our bed with us. Do we need to take one side of the crib off and attach it to our bed?

I know a lot of people would say to let her cry for a while and then she'll be fine, but in all of our pre adoption education they told us that you can't do that with newly adopted kids, because it breaks their trust in your willingness and ability to take care of their needs. That doesn't sound good. Plus, I couldn't do it anyway. Especially not when she is crying for mama.

Any suggestions?