Birthday Slide Show

Busy Weekend

Jaiden's passport arrived just in time Friday morning for them to get to the airport and make their flight home. I picked them up at 6:30 Sat morning and we have been in a non stop whirlwind ever since.

Jaiden got a little upset tummy on the plane right before landing, so Daddy had a mess to clean up on the plane in the dark - just glad there wasn't anyone sitting next to him. Jaiden had her own seat going and coming home!

In addition to being smelly, she was in a bit of a trance when they rolled out. She had little tremors like she was cold and I think she was in a bit of shock to finally be home. After we got her home and fed, bathed and a little nap she was back to her usual perkiness.

The sun was trying to shine when we got home so Cody was finally able to mow the grass and then we had our followup homestudy visit (2 hours of more questions and paperwork)
then a run to the commissary to pick up a cake since I wasn't sure if Jaiden would be coming home or not so I didn't actually order a cake...we found a really cute one already made! Then we had to get the house clean and straightened...so by the time we finally went to bed we were all pretty exhausted.

Jaiden woke about ever hour through the night but she slept pretty well and woke around 8. It wasn't the greatest night of sleep but she seems to be slipping back into her routine very nicely and not too cranky when she stays up all day.

Sunday
Jaiden's Birthday Party! It was a fun day. Jaiden ate a banana and some scrambled egg and then took a nice nap. Woke had lunch...took another nap and then it was party time! She was a very good girl and never once got cranky. We had the Slater family, the Markowski family and the Sanders family join us for cake and ice cream to celebrate her special day. The house got a bit busy at times but it did seem to faze her one bit. She really enjoyed all the children and all the extra attention.

Getting the toys out of their boxes kept me pretty much "tied down" for the rest of the evening! I've never seen so much wiring!!! There's no fear of those toys ever falling out of their boxes if they suddenly get the wild urge to run...

Jared's quote of the day "I'm so glad I have a baby sister" :) aaaawwww isn't that sweet! He also likes that she comes equipped with some cool new toys - he enjoys playing with them almost as much as she does! I have to constantly remind him whose toy it is when she wants to play too. They are some pretty cool toys once you get them out of the box...

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Thank you all for praying for our family and Praise the Lord that they were answered!

Much Love,
Kim

Sigh of relief...

The passport is in the mail - Seattle sent it out on Wednesday hopefully it will arrive on Thursday (today) so they can fly out tomorrow (Friday) Being in a time zone warp is crazy when you are trying to get very important things done. I am 7 hours difference from Jaiden and Seattle is 2 hours difference from them...I just can't wait till she's back in my arms. I've got lots and lots of kisses and cuddles stored up with her name on em'!

You gotta be kidding me!!!

Last night Scott tells me that he contacted the passport office to check on Jaiden's passport - it was supposed to have been ready on Monday but he was in Grand Forks...well it seems that whoever took the application didn't know the process much and neglected to inform us of one very MAJOR detail - they will not process a passport for her until they get a notarized letter from me! WHAT?!!! You tell us this NOW - just two days before they are supposed to come home!! If Jaiden doesn't have a passport by Friday, Daddy has to come back to Germany without her! We may miss her First Birthday and Christmas!!! This cannot be happening!!!

I faxed them a notarized letter this morning - I hope they can get it together and fix this - I will be one very angry Momma if they won't let my baby come home! Grrrr! I'm about ready to fly over on my broom and get her right now. It was one hellova day yesterday and this news came just before I gave up and went to bed...praying that the day was just a really bad dream that I would wake from and everything would be better.

Today, we are still waiting to see what tommorow brings...and praying for a miracle to come and bring our baby her passport so she can come home. I miss her so much!!!

You complete me

Jaiden has been gone a week now - and it's just miserable here without her! I didn't know I'd miss her so much but the house is too quiet and I am having baby withdrawals...I hope next week goes by quickly! They'll be home on Saturday!!!

Little Miss America

Jaiden flew out today to become an American citizen! She is on her way to Minnesota with her Daddy heading right into what has become the first big snow storm of the year and shutting down airports from Dallas to Chicago. They are scheduled to arrive in Chicago on time (although their flight out this morning was delayed due to the plane being delayed coming from Chicago) but their flight to MN has been cancelled so looks like they will be spending the night. Jaiden's first night as an American will be spent in a snow lock. Good thing we packed her snow suit! Looks like she's gonna need it.

kisses

OK ya'll - before you start thinkin Jaiden really don't like us I'd better update. Friday night was a ladies night and the girls were on fire - Jaiden was burning up with fever and so we were up together most of the night keeping the flames at bay with motrin and a cool cloth. She is cutting her top toothies and they are giving her heck but she never did cry she just fussed a bit. She didn't even want her binkie because her throat was too sore to suck on it...so we just cuddled and rocked the night away.

We had a lazy weekend just being good and lazy. Never getting out of our jammas and veggin in front of the tv all weekend.

Sunday night Jaiden made this sound with her tongue - a kiss sound I had to go run and get the camera to get it but I will have to somehow magnify her and cut me trying to get her to repeat it over and over. It's the cutest sound and I don't know how she does it - kinda clucks with her tongue and upper lip but it sounds like a pucker kiss. It's soooo cute! So it's not quite my first kiss but it will do. It seems that she is growing attached after all and she definitely likes having me around even when I make her mad sometimes. Sometimes she just gets a little overwhelmed with it all and I need to let her take it all in at her pace. She has been adjusting so well to us and it melts my heart every day when her face lights up in an ear to ear smile and she gives a happy squeal when I walk through the door.

Three steps forward...Four steps back

Somedays I wonder if Jaiden wants to go back to her old life. Yesterday was one of those days. She wouldn't look at me and I could tell she didn't feel good but when I tried to hold her and comfort her she just pushed me away and the more I held her the madder she got. Somedays I wonder if she will ever really accept me as her mother. I know it is not something to be taken for granted - when it happens she will love me unconditionally but right now I don't think she can stand the sight of me. She loves to be held but she doesn't want to look at me - maybe she is not ready to accept me yet, not really sure. It doesn't help that I leave her every day and go to work but we can't afford for me to stay home. I try to snuggle with her and play games with her to interact and stimulate eye to eye contact and she is for the most part adjusting very well - it's just moments like yesterday that make me wonder just how tightly she is clinging to her old self...and when will she let go and really love us as much as we love her.

Cute as a bug

Smile in this getup - You're kidding me right?

Much better without the hat but still can't move in this thing - get me outta here!


We finally got around to getting photos of Jaiden in her caterpillar costume - she was none too amused!

2 months ago today Jaiden was placed into our arms. She has grown so much in such a short time and we can't believe it's only been 2 months - it seems like she has always been a part of our lives. I don't know how we ever got along without her.

We are gearing up for winter - Friday went to Trier and got winter caps, gloves and leggings. Still not really ready for the cold to come but at least we have the gear.

Check out family updates at this link

Update

I posted a long update last week but blogger wasn't working so it didn't post so I'm not sure what I wrote about anymore.

Highlights of the week:
Jaiden has 2 teeth (1.5 actually)
Jaiden is starting to crawl!
Jaiden can feed herself (HUGE accomplishment)
Stands longer and longer and is starting to "cruise"
Can say MommmMommmmMommmmm - almost a "Mommy" :)

Sleep? Well she does sleep all night but usually wakes several times needing to be covered or her binky put back into her mouth. Must teach her to reach over and grab it herself ;)

She's eating well - LOVES Daddy's chili!

And just yesterday as I was leaving Ms Suzy's she showed signs of sadness and apprehension - so I think she is starting to miss me! This is a huge move since she hasn't seemed to care who took care of her and was happy with everyone...not that this is bad but just made me wonder if she was bonding with us or not. She gives me the biggest smiles each day when I come to pick her up and gets all excited and bouncy so I think maybe she likes me :)

The Halloween that wasn't

*The cute costume that arrived two days too late...
I know, I know - this is where the cute first photo of halloween is supposed to be with the kids all dressed up in their cute costumes but welllll....it just didn't happen that way this year.

First of all, we were waiting for Dad to come home and hoping he had been able to go to the post office (Jaiden's costume hasn't arrived yet) Jared tried his batman costume on about 5 times and at 5 oclock still no sign of Dad...by then it had gotten dark as a cauldron and the temps dropped into the low 40s and it was starting to rain. Jaiden already had a cold so I decided not to get her out in the weather and Dad could watch her while I ran Jared around to trick or treat on base. Well Dad rolled in around 6 and he looked and sounded horrible! I drugged him up and sent him straight to bed - Cody and I went on base a while later (he wanted to go to the haunted house) but the line was like 45 min long so we decided against that too.

so we're just a bunch of fuddy duddy's this year. Jared is mad - keeps asking when it's going to be halloween (yeah he keeps rubbing it in) and I do feel really bad but life goes on. There's always next year.

So while I can barely run a household, I'm really impressed with Pres Bush being able to find time in between running the country to hand out candy to kids at Robins AFB. That is so cool! I could use some of his time management skills :)

I've seen better days

(that is the song that is running through my head this morning)as I prepare to get up and take the plunge into another week. It was a weekend spent going back and forth to the hospital, Cody should be coming home today around noon we hope. He is bored to tears but it is still better for him to be there than at home should anything go wrong again. Seeing a puddle of your childs blood is something no mother should ever have to endure...that's the gore - it was much worse but I will spare you the details unless you are into that kind of thing. If so, imagine the grossest and scariest thing you've ever seen and multiply that times 10. We had some "real" halloween decor that was not intentional by our door.

Anyway I will try to post a new photo of Jaiden - she is still nuki nose but is feeling better and eating now so she must be getting over the cold a little bit.
Having two kids sick on a weekend really bites...thought I'd throw in some holiday terminology ;) lol

We are hoping that Jaiden's costume arrives today - if not it is a surprise to us all as to what she will be this year.

a photo for you

Ok bloggy buddies I will try to post a photo here as I download more photos onto Dropshots and see which loads the fastest :) Here goes....

Wooo Hoo!!! It only took a few seconds! Blogger is back in business!

This photo is taken just a few minutes ago and shows Jaiden not feeling so good. She has a bit of a runny nose and is just feeling icky. Don't you just want to give her a kiss and make it all better?

I wrapped her in my favorite jacket and she's lying in the moonchair looking up at me as I blog since she doesn't want to be held right now.

Jaiden's special day

We had a Homecoming Celebration yesterday with just a few close friends to introduce our daughter and thank everyone for being a part of our adoption experience. It went very well but I now know why parents shouldn't do their own baby showers.

We had about 27 all together with 16 adults and 11 kids - starting from 2 on to around 8 pm. Jaiden LOVED all the attention and couldn't get enough of being held. She was in her groove all smiles and laughter the whole evening.

This morning getting ready for school she had a major meltdown when I had to put her in the exersaucer and help Jared get ready for school. After an entire day of being Miss Center of the Universe she was none too happy to go back to her everyday routine toys - ooooh no! She wanted to be held - soon as I picked her up the tears stopped and her smile returned. She's rotten to the core! Pampered Princess thru and thru. I love to hold her but there is no getting anything done when I do because it takes two hands to hold all that floppsiness and energy. She is quite a workout! I've got to find a way to get her better aclimated to playing with her toys and let mommy not be the jungle gym for a while. It's exhausting but in a good way :) I've been dreaming of this for too many years to complain! I'm just glad that the only quirk in this sweet sweet child is that she was loved a bit too much. I think we can live with that :)

First visit to the pool

We took Jaiden for her first visit to the pool last night (Jared and I) and the way she just floated along clutching her floatie makes me think that "hey, she's done this before!" I expected her to want to cling to me and get a bit freaked out by moving water *we were in a circular pool with current but she just laid her head back in the water or leaned forward into the floatie and drifted along as cool as a cucumber. There is a waterfall that you float by and she got big eyes when the water splashed all over her face but she showed no signs of apprehension...the girl is a natural born aquifer! (I don't know what an aquifer is but it sounded right)

Now we are preparing for her Homecoming Celebration being held this afternoon. So much to do yet and I have no idea why I decided to do this...I hope Jaiden is not overwhelmed.

Jaiden is 10 Months!!!

This is a belated post - Jaiden hit 10 months yesterday!!! We are going through so many milestones together and it is just such a joy to watch as she grows. Here are some of her progresses since we've been home:

- First tooth has emerged!

- Second tooth is coming through!

- Her happy, smiling personality is coming back now that she doesn't have as much pain from the teeth

- She gets stronger every day and can almost pull herself up by herself and cannot crawl but scoots backwards if placed on her belly

- still working on the grasping technique of cheerios but she is getting there - if she grabs a whole handful and tries to stuff them in,usually one will stick to her lips and she can get it in.

- She doesn't like to be confined so the car seat is very challenging - she scoots her body down over the belt clip so I have to scoot her back up, dig around for the clip (which never stays in place) and then get all the hooks in place while she wiggles and squirms her way out of the harness and screams at me for being so mean as to make her sit bound to a seat that doesn't move.

- Her sleep has gotten more and more disruptive, not sure if it's because of the break in schedule from her in childcare or whether it's just the teeth waking her in the night but we often find her flipped completely around and sometimes even on her belly in her crib at night. We usually get up several times a night just to relocate the binky and cover her back up.

First Days in Daycare...

Well, everyone is wondering why I haven't been writing I'm sure ;) it's been a week now since I've returned to work and things are going fairly well.... We are having some adjustment issues with the new "rules" plus Jaiden is teething and they hurt her terribly so she is not such a happy girl this week.

The new "rules" of being in care under the Family Childcare Center (FCC)

- cannot have cereal mixed in bottle this is a HUGE issue because if you remember from our meager beginnings it took a while to find a bottle and mix that Jaiden would accept and finally we found she likes room temperature milk shakes (nice THICK pudding consistency milk)so needless to say she is not taking to the puny runny stuff too well.

- cannot be in separate room to sleep...and no crib ANOTHER huge issue because she cannot sleep without a dark and quiet room so she is totally exhausted when I pick her up at 5 - meaning she wants to sleep and we don't get much time to interact with her unless we want to stay up into the wee hours of the night...so this is not going so well.

She's been eating good and Ms Susy is nice so maybe in another day or so we will adjust into some sort of a routine...until then we are not digging this new situation very much.

One month ago...was Adoption Day!!!

Exactly one month ago today Jaiden was placed into our arms and adopted into our family forever. Cody made a special video today (unknowing that it was a special anniversary) here it is. Hope you enjoy! Please post comments for Cody (he did a great job didn't he?) You may have to hit the play button (arrow) twice to get the video to play. Let me know if it's not working.

Hair Help!

(Before Photo) Help! I just can't stand it anymore - my hair that is. It is a thick wad of brownish red funky horse tail hanging around my face and I don't know what to do with it! I am going in for a haircut tommorrow (Friday the 13th) and I need some suggestions. When I made the appt and the lady made the comment "oh it's on Friday the 13th I accidentally popped out with "oh I hope I don't look too scary when I leave here" luckily the guy that is cutting my hair has a great sense of humor (and is a great stylist)...he laughed! I really would like to try something different. My hair right now is LONG and permed - it is naturally straight, thick and blah! I hate it to be straight so I would like a curly layered look that is low maintenance.



(After Photo) I lost 10 lbs!!! It felt like I was floating :)

1st day in daycare

Today Daddy returned to work and Jaiden went to play at Ms Suzy's for a while. Dad is still not feeling 100% like himself yet but he's doing much better after the 4 day Migraine.

Ms Suzy is really nice and we think she will take good care of our ladybug. Daddy works nights so she is only in care for 3 hours a day usually. Today it was 5 hrs and she was a bit overstimulated by all the children but she did really well.