Easter

Yesterday we literally took about 200 pictures of the kids for Easter. I took at least 100 just of Kara. In the morning, we got ready and tried a new church that is closer to our house. It was Kara's first church service so I had to get pictures of her with the pastor. She slept through all of the loud music and singing (thanks to Guitar Hero and Rock Band practice at home.) My parents went with us instead of going to our usual church. At 2, everyone in the family met at Aaron's parents house--even my parents. We had a wonderful meal, an Easter egg hunt and family time in the beautiful weather outside. It was so much fun to see all six cousins together. After everyone else left Katelyn and I colored eggs. What a fun Easter.

Spring!

It is spring! Today Kara visited Daddy at work for a faculty lunch. She got SO many comments on how cute she is. I hope it doesn't go to her head. But, wow, she IS cute!!!

Fun at Grandma's

I know I have said it before but I have to say it again. We are so blessed to have all of our family nearby. Aaron and I both had dentist appts. on Tues. at 3:30. I took Kara to Grandma K's house. She got to play with all new toys and THREE of her cousins. She was all smiles when she came home. Aaron's sister took these pics of her.

Date Night

Last Friday night Aaron and I went to the Staples Center for the Pac-10 tournament. We got to see UCLA beat USC (which was awesome) and Stanford beat Washington St. Aunt Nicole offered to watch Kara from 4 on Friday until pretty much all of Sat. too. Aaron and I got home late Friday night. (Nicole spent the weekend at our house.) She got up and took care of Kara on Sat. morning/afternoon as well. We had such a great time at the games. We know how blessed we are to have Nicole-believe me-but we still can't thank her enough. We can go out for an evening without ONE single worry that Kara is being taken care of possibly even better then WE could. Kara absolutely loves Nicole and has such a good time with her. We are counting down the days until our cruise. The 4 of us are going to have such a good time.

Alright Already!

Okay, okay! I will update my blog! Geesh. I have gotten several e-mails telling me to get to it!


Aaron's Open House for his school was last Thursday. Kara was dressed up SO cute because I knew all the parents would want to meet her. Aaron talks about her constantly to his classes and many of the families have sent us gifts. About half way through Open House a horrible smell wafted by...yep...my baby. Kara had her first MAJOR blow-out. I stripped her completely naked in the center core of the building. I used about 30 wipes. She had poop all down her leg and squished in her toes. The tights were covered, the onesie was disgusting. I was trying to get her cleaned up and hold it together while parents were STILL finding us and poking their heads in to see her. It was a mess.
This is Kara's first time touching grass. She was very unhappy being in the sunshine and did not want to watch me plant the daffodils that I had planned on putting in the front yard. Hopefully, as it gets warmer she will enjoy the outside a little more. The only thing Kara has seen on tv is UCLA basketball. She doesn't really watch it but she glances at it once in awhile when we have it on. The other night I propped her up on the couch next to Daddy and put the remote in her hand. She was really concentrating on the score (or gas possibly.)
This was taken yesterday. Ellie just loves to walk all over Kara and be with her. Kara doesn't even flinch most of the time. It is like puppies in a litter. They just keep on sleeping through the movement.

In other news, on Thurs. I fell for the first time with Kara. It is amazing how the body does everything possible to instinctively protect the baby. She barely jostled and didn't even grunt. I am sore all over. My knees, and pretty much the whole left side of my body. Luckily I fell on the carpet. I didn't see the ottoman upstairs in Kara's room and just bailed right over it. About 2 hours later I found a huge, very painful welt on my left forearm that has now turned into a nasty bruise.

I have another post in the works about our first real 'date night' last night. I will save that for later.

Calling all Moms

If you have any experience with babies that have issues with sleep, acid reflux, gas... can you please click on my link on the right to Jamie's blog and give her some advice? Thank you.

Cruising!

I am so excited I could burst! Before Kara was born we planned a cruise for spring break. As I mentioned a few posts ago I was beginning to get quite nervous about getting her passport in time since we still had not received her birth certificate. Her amazing, wonderful, and incredibly selfless birthparents went to their courthouse in Michigan and ordered us a certified birth certificate. We got all of the necessary legal paperwork (a lot) and got it all turned into the passport office here in CA last Saturday. Our postman (postwoman) just delivered her passport to our door. WE ARE ALL SET TO CRUISE!!!

Disneyland!

Yesterday we took Kara to Disneyland. It was SO different being there as a parent rather than a couple. Struggling with the stroller on the tram was hysterical. People could definitely tell we were first timers. We weren't planning on going on any rides except Small World about 10 times. Small World was closed...bummer. But we had an awesome day. Kara saw Mickey, ducks in the pond, and so many new things. The only time she was unhappy was when we were stuck in traffic on the way there for the last 30 min. of the drive.

Some Quick Pics

Kara is doing great. Just a few pics from yesterday and today.

Birthday Party

Tonight was my nephew's 6th birthday party. All of the family is healthy again and we all got together. Just wanted to put up a few pics.

Friday!

It is Friday! Kara is in a mood for a party! The teething is hopefully passing for now. Every day she seems to be a little happier and a little less in pain. Today (with constant love and entertainment) she hasn't cried a bit. Oh, and a teeny bit of Tylenol at 3. She has been in a great mood and so smiley. Aaron loves her hair right after her bath so today I put some gel in it and let it do its thing. He thought it was great when he got home from work and saw it.

Ellie

Yesterday I put Kara on the couch for a little catnap while I washed bottles. Phew...a few minutes to get something done. Usually Ellie just follows me around or sits by the fireplace if it is going (which it wasn't.) The house was a bit chilly--especially for a Min-Pin who is always cold. While I was in the kitchen I realized that Ellie hadn't walked by in awhile and I couldn't see her anywhere in the dining/family rooms. Hmmm. She found the only warm, still spot in the house.

Teething

I thought I had at least a few more months before we needed to deal with teething. Nope. Poor little Kara has been drooling like crazy for about two weeks and has been chewing on as much of her fist as she can fit into her mouth. The past four or five days she has been sleeping more than usual and having horrible pain in her gums. It is evidently "pre"teething which is deeper below the gumline. Baby Orajel...etc. does no good. Chewing madly on her pacifier helps a little but it is more where the molars will be. It is so sad. She screams out of pain and frustration. Today was about 35 minutes. Then I stripped her down and gave her a warm bath. During the bath she smiled and just looked at me with pure love and happiness. I felt awful for her. When I got her dressed again she started the screaming again for another 35 minutes or so. She finally fell asleep on my chest probably just worn out from the work. We have been doing all we can with the Infant Tylenol but it doesn't seem to help much. The cold teethers don't get back far enough. :( To top it off, my mom can finally drive again and tomorrow should have been a normal work day for me. My mom has a fever tonight. I will be staying home with Kara tomorrow. AND, I just got a migraine and can barely see the screen. More later...

So Many Things...

I have so many things I want to catch up on! Since they are not related I will just number them to get them out of my head and written down.

1. Last Friday night we had about 30 twelve-year-olds at our house for movie night. Yikes. Aaron has a special reading club that meets on Fridays at lunch for the higher level kids that usually don't get anything extra. We all read the same book and discuss it as we go. At the end of the book we try to do some kind of activity that relates to the book. Anyway, my mom and dad came to help with Kara upstairs since I didn't want her around that much insanity. As my parents were leaving my mom tripped over a sprinkler head and fell HARD on the concrete out in front of our house. They immediately took her to First Care. She had skinned/bruised both knees through her jeans, fractured her elbow, really sprained her hand, and skinned/bruised her face. She was really lucky it wasn't worse but she was in a lot of pain. I had to take Monday off because I had no one to watch Kara. My mom couldn't pick her up or anything. She also couldn't drive. On Wed. I took Kara to my mom's house on my way to work. Her neighbor luckily was available to help her out with Kara. I fed Kara right before I left and rushed back by the next feeding. It has been a stressful week to say the least. My poor in-laws have been very sick so we haven't been around them for a few weeks.

2. Kara is laughing. It is the most beautiful sound. I accidentally caught a laugh on video. My mom always brings her toy poodle, Daisy, over when she comes. My mom holds Kara on her lap facing away from her when the dogs are playing. She has been doing this ever since Kara first came home. All she knew was that she would move her head and follow the movement. I was watching Kara's expression on Tues. and she was smiling every time Ellie attacked Daisy. I grabbed the video camera so I could show my mom what Kara was doing. And then Kara laughed. It was hysterical. She just thinks it is funny when Ellie growls at Daisy and then attacks her. Since then she has laughed at sounds we make and when we talk with her and play games with her. It still isn't predictable or consistent but I am sure it will be happening more and more frequently.

3. Kara's passport. I am starting to get pretty stressed about getting Kara's passport before our cruise in April. We have everything we need except her original birth certificate. Michigan only allows the birthmother to get copies of the birth certificate. Our lawyer applied for a court order in December and finally received it this last week. It has been sent to Michigan but who knows how long it will take the county records office to get us the copies. When we booked the cruise we thought we would have more than enough time.

4. I am so thankful to have gotten to know Kara's birthparents. Kara definitely has her birthfather's eyes but when she raises her eyebrows she looks so much like her birthmother. As she grows and develops more personality it will be so neat to see all four of us melding into one beautiful little girl. This is such an amazing journey and I am grateful every day for them and for Kara.

5. We finally got our Babybjorn delivered. Kara loves to be carried around and to be involved in whatever we are doing. We have a sling but it hurt my back so much (since she is 12 pounds now) that I couldn't wear it for long. I hope this new one works out better. She loves to dance with me and Aaron even allowed her to play Guitar Hero 3 with him for a little bit.

6. I can't remember what else I wanted to write so there may be another installment soon. :)

Happy Valentine's Day

This has been quite a week! I am working on a blog post right now but I don't have time to write it all out. Just thought I would post a quick pic of our little Valentine.

The Cutest Thing

Proud

I am so proud of myself! Everyone said that I would never have time to scrapbook again once Kara came. Well, I finished all of 2007 in my regular scrapbook and have completely caught up her baby book!!! I just love the way it is turning out. I am actually going to start 2008 this weekend! Thanks to Nicole coming over and taking turns playing with Kara I am feeling really good about my progress. Aaron has also been really supportive and helpful with keeping me focused and working on it. (Our whole kitchen table has been covered for weeks with scrapbooking stuff and I think he is ready to have a clean place to eat again.)

Kara is doing really well with the shots last Thurs. She has such a sweet, calm nature. We so look forward to weekends when we can just spend the whole day with her.

The Worst Day

Today was the worst day yet of parenthood. We had to take Kara to the doctor for her 2-month vaccinations. It was awful. She is 22 1/2 in. long (50th percentile) and 11 lbs. 12 oz. (75th percentile). She is growing, beautiful, healthy and we got the 'All Clear' from our pediatrician for the last adoption paperwork. Then it was time for the shots. We debated, I stayed up many nights worrying, we went back and forth...we ended up having her have all of her shots. I guarantee that these four shots today were worse for ME than the hundreds of infertility shots over the last seven years. Aunt Nicole came over so I could make dinner while she comforted Kara.

Sick

Aaron is sick. He started getting a cold on Sunday and is now officially sick. I am taking tomorrow 'off' from my Bible study to stay home with Kara to sleep, eat and hope that we don't get it. The second I don't get enough sleep I get sick. Kara is supposed to have all of her 2 month shots on Thurs. and I am dreading it. Today I did a HUGE market trip. I haven't REALLY been shopping since we got home from Michigan. So many friends and family have been taking care of us (and the fast food restaurants nearby) that I have been able to get out of it. I got over $200 worth of tasty dinners and lunches to make.

Kara is doing great still--thank goodness. This is her new best friend. She smiles at it every time she sees it. Of course, I had to give Raggedy Ann a voice and then Kara really gets her arms, legs, and smiles going. It is hysterical. She even coos back to it.

Cousins

We were supposed to take pictures of the six grandkids today but it didn't work out. I got a few really cute ones of Kara and her cousin, Taylor. Taylor is 3 months older than Kara and I am sure they will have so much fun growing up together.