First visit to American Girl

This mommy has waited a long time to go to American Girl, and we went today. YaYa(David's mom) wanted to get Hayden a special gift and so we decided that YaYa getting her her first bitty baby would be special. Hayden had so much fun, and even though I thought that Bitty Baby was going to be put away for a few months til Hayden was a little older I changed my mind as soon as the nice saleslady took the baby out and gave her to Hayden and she reached down and kissed her baby!!! So we will go ahead and start playing dolls!! Mommy's favorite:) Look how cute she looks!!

Our little crawler

Look at our little crawler!! She still doesn't realize that it makes her mobile....except when she is trying to get to me!! But I am sure that will change very quickly and she will be on the loose.

How cute are these??

These "Silly Soles" arrived today from my dear friend Suzanne who lives in NJ. I am in love with these, and think they are just the cutest things ever and can't wait for Hayden to wear them tomorrow!! What a cute gift!! Thanks Suz and Madeline and Emma....Hayden can't wait to meet you very soon!!!

By the way yesterday marked 1 month that we have had Hayden in our arms. I can't believe it, and each day I feel more and more blessed to be her mommy. We are still have some major sleep issues. I think it is just going to take time, and we will just have to let her work it out on her own schedule and timeline. I do think that she feels tired and cranky more than she should, but I think she is afraid to go to sleep....whether that is because she is worried we won't be there when she wakes up, or she doesn't like being confused about where she is when she wakes up I don't know, I just know if you could hear her cry when she does wake up you would know that she is afraid.....I hate that for her. Hoping that time will heal those fears and that she will eventually sleep peacefully and have happy dreams.

In other news my step-daughter Taylor who works as a raft guide in Colorado was in a biking accident yesterday and fractured her skull and had bleeding. She had to be careflighted from Canon City to Pueblo....yes, that is not what you want to hear on the phone when you are 750 miles away!! She was put into ICU, and they had her pretty drugged for most of yesterday. David and Taylor's mom arrived there late last night right as they were taking her for another catscan that showed the bleeding had stopped as well as the swelling. So that was welcomed news. We are awaiting another update from the neurosurgeon, but the nurses said they were hopeful that she would be moved to a regular room later tonight!! So while the last 24 hours has been stressful I do think that she will be fine, and not have any long lasting effects from this injury. Everyone has asked if she had a helmet on....we are not certain as none of her friends that she was with are with her in Pueblo to tell us exactly what happend and Taylor has been unable to remember much. But she bikes a lot, she obviously rafts a lot and always wears a helmet, and she snowboards a lot and wears a helmet so we are fairly certain that she did have one on....so it could have been so much worse had she not. So I will know something more later tonight, but if you will just keep her in your thoughts!!

Checking in

We are doing well here!! We had a rough couple of days after our shots. It was a very traumatic visit to the doctor for everyone involved. I am pretty sure Mommy cried almost as loud as Hayden, but I am postive that everyone in the office heard Hayden screaming!! Good news is that all of her bloodwork came back perfect, and we have 5 vaccines down, and don't have to go back until her nine month visit where we will have a few more to catch up. The day after though our girl was running a pretty good fever, and some really ugly diapers. She would only agree to sleep if she was sleeping on top of one of us.....so there was not a lot of rest for the weary. David and I enjoyed almost every single hour of my first mother's day. But she has recovered and doing well. She will sit and play at my feet now.....just know that is HUGE!!! She is also starting to feel better about her crib. Oh and we are crawling....told you we didn't have long:)

Anyway, we are here, and feeling insanely blessed with this little girl. She makes me smile all day long. I look at her and my heart just about bust open.

The last picture is Hayden on her new puzzle stool that David's boss and wife sent. We love it, and it is one of our favorite gifts to send to new babies, and it is made in a town just 30 minutes from my hometown in Missouri. I know Miss Hayden will be using that stool soon enough to help get her to places that we might not want her to get too!!!

What can you say???

Already home a week!

I can't believe we have already been home a week. Time has flown by, although there have been some moments that seemed to last forever(between 3-5 a.m.) Not a complaint, but this jet lag thing is really hard. I think it has been harder for David and me than it has been for Hayden. But I think we are all very close to being on central standard time.

I am hopeful that once we are settled in on the time change we can really make some progress on a routine and schedule. We are already getting that down pretty well at night as we eat, take a bath, have a bottle, read a book, and then off to dreamland. Since we started that routine in the last few days Hayden has been sleeping almost 12 hours!! So once I am not so tired, I will be able to use a little of that time for stuff that needs to get done, and for David and I to be able to spend some time together. Plus, I need to spend some time with the dogs, I know they are feeling very neglected, and I hate that, but there is only so much time in the day right now.

We went to the pediatrician this week. Hayden weighs 16.4 lbs and is 27 inches long. That means she is in the 22% for weight and 65% in height....whaaat?? no one in our family has ever been in the 65% for height, Hayden might be the tallest person in our family and she is only 8 months old:) Our doctor was impressed with how healthy she is, we are only a few shots behind, and she thinks that is just because Taiwan does it on a different schedule. We decided that we would do them next week, as I didn't want the first trip to the doctor to be scary. So next Friday I hope someone is free to go to the doctor with me and hold my hand while Hayden gets shots and blood drawn. Dr. O'brien Su also was impressed with her development, Hayden does everything on the 6 month chart and quite a few on the nine month chart. So she is good there, her gross/fine motor seemed to be in check as well. So we are good in the health department.

We are dealing with staying in and staying away while this Swine Flu thing works itself out. I was not feeling all that worried until 2 different school districts in our area closed down their districts for more than a week. Then I became much more worried. The pediatrician reminded me that thousands die every year from influenza, and I should mostly focus on washing our hands, washing our hands, and washing our hands while we sing the birthday song. We will of course be doing that, but we are really staying in, and restricting her exposure as well as ours to just what we have to right now. I think it is better to error on the side of caution. Swine Flu please go away!!!

Taylor will leave for Colorado today, she will start back to rafting in less than a week. Hayden is going to be so sad for her sister to leave. She loves TayTay, and Taylor can bring a smile out of her almost immediately. She has taught her how to do raspberries, and high five. Taylor is great with her, and I think she is even more smitten with Hayden then she ever planned on. We will try and do web cam while she is rafting so she will be able to see Hayden, as I don't think that coming to Colorado is in the cards this summer.

This experience thus far has been the best of my life. My heart is just full....that is all I can say. This is 1000 times better than I ever dreamt it would be. Hayden is 1000 times more than I ever dreamt her to be. I look at her and can't believe she is ours!! Words will never be able to express my gratitude for this baby. She has changed our lives in so many ways, and all of them good:) The 3 years of the adoption process were pretty painful at times, and I never believed it when people would say that the wait would melt away and we would get the baby that was meant for our family. Well I just have to tell you how true that is, and it makes me tear up when I think what if we had not switched programs? what if we would have switched 2 weeks later or earlier?? Hayden is the perfect child for our family, and we are so blessed by the fact that she was just meant to be for us!!!

***I am giving us about 8-10 more days before she is crawling!!! I need to start Hayden proofing everything pronto!!

Catch up

Things are going well here. Well most of the time. We are all still waking up at weird times, and feeling the urge to close our eyes when we normally would be wide awake, but overall we are making some strides in the sleep area.

Hayden has for the most part made friends with all of her puppies, it was a little touch and go there the first 48, but she doesn't even seemed bothered by Finely's barking anymore. The dogs love that she sits in the highchair with food, and they fight over who gets first dibs when we get her out to look for the lost nibblets.

She nows loves her baths in the duck, she will sit in her carseat without crying, she has had her first lunch out, she is obsessed with her brother and sister and not to mention her Ya-Ya(David's mom) who has been a giagantic help. She is still working on Daddy leaving in the morning, but is overjoyed when he walks back in at the end of the day.

I am still working on figuring out how to get everything done....either one handed, or when she is asleep. Since I have been trying to sleep when she does, the one handed thing has been the most used method, but not the most efficient. This morning I have gotten a ton done, as this has been the very first morning we have sort of had a bit of a schedule. I really look forward to getting into a routine, and I think we all will feel better....especially Hayden.

We have gotten so many beautiful gifts. David's sister-in-law in Seattle made Hayden a beautiful afgan, and the cutest knitted bibs(we need a million of these, as she is a drooling fool)

Beautiful flowers arrived from the Douglass family yesterday, a box just arrived from Aunt Louise. Monogrammed diapers, the cutest pinkest Giggle moon outfit, an awesome signing book. The list goes on and on. We appreciate everyone's generousity and kindness more than we will ever be able to tell you.

Here are a few pictures from the trip home and after getting settled a bit. Enjoy, and again thanks for everything!!!