Welcoming the Wee Hoosier

New Year Greetings!

2009-01-05T20:50:00.000-08:00

November 2008

2008-11-22T19:48:00.000-08:00

Kyla's been a very busy girl! She loves to dance, play, and hit her parents. Okay. We are working on that last one. We fend off the frustration by convincing ourselves that it is just her exuberance!

In all her exuberance, she is increasing her vocabulary by the day. I started writing down all of her words so far, including often-used favorites like "goggies" (doggies), "wa" (water), "nana" (banana), and mostly "no". But every day she repeats something we say (time to watch our mouths...) and surprises us. Her list of words used more than once without prompting is up to nearly 40. Already a little chatterbox!

Okay. Now here are some recent visuals.

Fun in the tub!

Our budding acrobat:

Halloween night.
Kyla wore camouflage for a costume the day before, but on halloween itself she just doned some glamorous glasses for part of the time and chased kids down the block the other part. She was amazed that all of these people were coming to her house!

Dan's "costume" freaked out even the older kids. Clearly Kyla was baffled by it as well.

A piano lesson (from a guy who doesn't know how to play.... anyone can teach "banging" haha!) at Grandma's house.

And, yes, she is enjoying feeding herself as much as possible, even if it means pesto all over by the end of the meal. Too bad we forgot the bib this time!

The Return of Kyla G!!!

2008-08-22T20:37:00.001-07:00

Well, it certainly has been a long time since we posted and to all you craving a little dose of images of our blossoming little QT Pi, I believe we can deliver.

One of her better moments was her 1st birthday party, which we threw a little bit late since we were out of town for her actual birthday. However, she had plenty of her friends stop by for a bite of cake, for which she took the first bite.

Here she is hanging with Tinya and Martha.

We all seem to hang out on the floor quite a bit these days. Our knees are very red from crawling around after Kyla, which she loves. She runs around and around the table laughing hysterically and we chase after her.

Eventually she slows down and sort of walks around soliciting opinions for her various theories about the universe. Here she is talking to Grandma Linda who was lured down to the floor. If I remember correctly she was trying to explain what Rachel has been teaching her class about small RNA molecules and their effect on post-expression gene regulation. She has really learned a lot from mommy while she prepares her lectures. Of course her pronunciation is not so good yet so it's hard to understand.

Some new words:

"Dad-O"
"Noonin" (means any toy animal: "What's wrong, why is she crying? I don't know...maybe she wants Noonin.)
"Hiiiiiii"
"Bye bye"
"Extemporaneous"

Ok, maybe not the last one...

We managed to have a fairly low key July 4th this year with our friends Ken and Corinne (who are expecting soon!!). Here we are at the beach, which by some miracle was not crowded on July 4th. She loved the water and got a real rush every time the waves hit us. I lost my glasses (this is the last photo of them) this day. Ha, I lost my wedding ring about 3 weeks later when we went to Colorado for Rockygrass (bluegrass music camping festival)...sorry we lapsed on the CO photos.

It's been quite busy since all this stuff has happened. My work has been quite a roller coaster as there has been a lot of employee turnover in my department, including my great boss who moved on to bigger and better things. Being in a headless shop hasn't been too bad, but getting my boss's replacement will have to happen eventually. It won't be easy...she was excellent and they are big shoes to fill. Good luck Jean!

Now we are thinking a little about the next step, as many of you have inquired about. Our plan is to move on to #2 starting in early 2009. So hold on to your hats and keep checking the blog!

Say bye bye Kyla!

Finally!!

2008-05-30T22:06:00.000-07:00

After several months of standing and holding onto things she has finally let go!

Fun way to beat the heat!

2008-05-19T19:33:00.000-07:00

Kyla is Spot On!

2008-05-11T13:56:00.000-07:00

Every parents nightmare.

Your child wakes up covered in spots! I was at work, minding my own business with the business of mass spectrometry when I received a mysterious email from Rachel, subject "KG is Spotty!"

A quick perusal of the contents revealed that she was covered in red splotches, what we later found out was likely to be hives. Kyla had dual ear infections the previous week and was on Amoxacillin to exterminate the devlish microbes that had invaded her aural cavity. Though not her first experimentation with this legal drug, it was clearly not as favorable to her the second time around. Something about secondary immune response being more intense than primary, etc. etc.

Kyla is still, 3 days later, a Wee Hoosier with deformed little Japanese flags all over her body. They started as little white spots with red perimeters, but graduated to all matter of crater-shaped things. Her whole body looks like Gorbachev's head. And they are evolving, too, so the fun is to try and play a memory game with the current state of her bas-relief hive map. Kyla does not participate in the fun, though. She is not a happy camper. She is hot, but feels cold. She is tired but she can't sleep. She is hungry but can't eat.

She is kind of feeling better as of later today, but still extremely uncomfortable. Though she got her mommy a card for mother's day, the real present of a glorious sun-filled day with a joyous smiling family never really came to fruition.

Happy Mother's Day anyway, mommy!

Riding the bike!

2008-05-06T22:32:00.001-07:00

Fun...

2008-04-25T22:24:00.000-07:00

...in the sun!!

... with peek-a-boo!

Baby's first passover

2008-04-20T16:03:00.002-07:00

Turns out Kyla likes gefilte fish and matzah balls (R: I admit that I eat the gefilte fish too, and with horseradish no less. Anyone who knows my eating habits might be surprised by that!).

Things you never knew existed...

An inflatable matzah ball:

Stuffed plagues:

court day cont.

2008-04-18T10:06:00.001-07:00

Kyla's grandma was interested in what pretty dress (thanks Trish!) Kyla wore to court so here is a closer pic. A week ago I was wondering what we should put on under the dress to keep her warm but since it was nearly 80 degrees here, sleeveless worked just fine.

Last night we celebrated by going to see the Padres play (Dan's work rewarded their hard work with tickets) so Kyla saw her first baseball game. It wasn't the most exciting game... we left at the end of the 9th inning when the score was 0-0. Read in the news today that the game finally ended after 22 innings! whew! I wonder how many die-hard fans stayed to the end. (Kyla's uncle Kirk probably would have stayed!)

Legal family!

2008-04-17T15:37:00.000-07:00

Here we are at the courthouse after our hearing, which lasted all of 5 minutes.

They pretty much commented on how cute Kyla is (we knew that), we all signed a form, and the bailiff took a polaroid picture of us with the judge. Oh yeah, and the judge stamped the back of all of our hands with a cute mouse holding a heart.

It was a short event with large significance.
: )

Here's Kyla preparing for our hearing by picking her nose:

news from Kylanet!

2008-04-07T14:04:00.000-07:00

Wow, has it really been a month since our last post? Well, it's not for lack of Kyla material!

First, our big adoption news is that we have, at long last, scheduled our finalization hearing. It will be April 17th, sometime between 2 and 2:30pm. To put thing in prospective, most people finalize around 6 months after meeting the baby. Kyla will be 10 months by the time we go to court and will likely run up, pull the judge's hair, and throw in a fake scream (she loves to pretend to scream --- much better than loud, piercing real screams, for sure). Okay, the "run up" part is a bit optimistic, but not for long. More about that in a minute.

Our post-placement experience has included several steps of snail-paced paperwork, a correction of Indiana paperwork requested by California discovered, oh, four months later, a couple of typos (including Kyla's birthdate) that needed to be corrected, and finally, a couple of weeks delay because when they are all finally ready, Rachel starts teaching on Thursday afternoons! (mind you, she’s had Thursday afternoons, the only time adoption hearings are held, open for months and months and the first week she starts teaching is when dates are available) The original plan was to dash back to work and be there for the rest of the afternoon but a very kind co-worker offered to cover and suggested that we both take the rest of this very special day off to celebrate!

Unfortunately we probably won't have any family here to share this with us. Maybe we'll have to post a video so you can all share with us afterwards. We'll, of course, have a party the weekend following and will be missing all of you who are too far away to celebrate in person with us.

The hearing itself is apparently a very fun formality. It takes about 5 minutes and involves statements like "do you take this child...". I'm sure they have a good supply of tissues on hand. :)

As far as the girl herself, the progress report is varied and exciting.

Standing/walking: She has been on the verge of walking for a while now and is quite adept at standing and walking along things. She can stand unassisted for a good 10 seconds, but then gets so giddy from the experience that she collapses in an infectious and quite maniacal giggle.

Crawling: She crawls with the best of them, scooting along the ground at a high rate of speed. Our latest game is chase the crawler, and she will back you into a corner, get a monster smile, then pounce on you with both hands. See yellow overalls pic for a visualization of the pounce event.

Talking: Not in English, except for some serendipitous syllables that happen to be words. But she is talking constantly. Dahdahdah, bahbahbah, trilling her tongue, brrbrrbrrbrrbrr, mehmeh (we think this one is “milk”), mahmahmah. She also has a 3 octave range which manifests itself in a swooping kind of “Ahhhhh”, as in “Oh, I get it now”.

Eating: We have been a little slow moving her in to the next phase of her life that we cherish a little too much, but have really started to mover her into new foods now. She loves yogurt, most fruits, a little rice, biscuits, and red hot chili peppers doused in wasabi. Still reading? Good, then you likely realize that last one was farcical hooey. But she pretty much sticks anything into her mouth. She makes a great face when trying new foods, scrunches her face in disgust “what the heck are you doing to me you scoundrel???” Then after a few seconds she opens her mouth for the next bite.

Sleep time: We recently had the unenviable task of forcibly changing Kyla’s bedtime from 10-11pm to 8pm. Everyone we heard from and all we read suggested to put her in bed and let her cry thru it, self-soothing. Boy, were we excited to do that! And then after that we could stick needles in our eyes! All kidding aside, we made the decision to try it, and she cried. OHhhhhhh did she cry that first night….for nearly, uh, uhm, 6 minutes. But they were a continuous 6 minutes!!! It was like Armageddon!! The next night was equally horrific, it was nearly 2 minutes.

☺

Suffice it to say it worked better than we could have possibly imagined and now she is down when we put her down and there is very little fuss. It really makes doing anything in the evening easier, since when she is up, you really don’t do anything else without a tag team effort.

Also new is what we call Kyla. We are continually coming up with nicknames for her since she is such a character. It’s almost impossible not to. Some of the more used ones are:
-Scoochy McPants (requested to be retired by Mommy due to overuse by Daddy)
-Cheeks McGirk
-Chickadee Choo Choo
-KG
-Mini Miss
-Junior
-The Squirt
-Pippy the Squeak

Finally, an update!

2008-03-04T17:04:00.000-08:00

Hello from the land of Kyla!

We've had a crazy few weeks here, starting with Kyla coming down with her first real winter virus. She had a fever for several days and followed that up with her first ear infection. It was great fun for all of us and of course we slept well too (not!).

Here she is with an attractive runny nose but feeling better:

Luckily the illness wasn't a week later because Kyla's birthmother and her sister came for a visit. She hadn't seen Kyla since last June (at her birth!) other than the pictures we sent so she was meeting a little girl for the first time. It seemed to go well so we hope that she and Kyla maintain some sort of relationship with each other. From everything we've read, that kind of contact can be helpful for an adopted child.

In other adoption news, we might *finally* be able to have our finalization hearing sometime soon. It usually only takes about 6 months but we've had one paperwork delay after another (seemed like there were people sitting on things which was very frustrating). Most of the official papers were signed long ago but this is the paperwork and the agency telling the state of California that we are doing okay as parents, etc. The hearings are mostly ceremonial ("do you take this child..." really!) and happy. After this is complete then we will get a copy of her new birth certificate with our names and the name we've given her and all of that, so it makes it all official!
We'll have a big blog-world toast on the day of our finalization!!

It's possible that Kyla will be able to walk up to the judge on that day because she is spending lots of time in this position:

Needless to say we've been quickly making sure everything is babyproofed as this curious child explores up and down:

Celebrating 8 months with a new important skill!

2008-02-16T09:05:00.001-08:00

It's so much fun to be able to move around and get to stuff! She has been super happy with her new found talent.

Here are some more pics; enjoying the sun, checking out her valentine's card, and playing guitar.

mini-miss in action

2008-02-03T20:34:00.000-08:00

She loves to clap together her new grandpa-made blocks (that is until she hits her finger and cries.... this just happened yesterday!). See a video of it at the bottom of this post.

And here is evidence of something that parents cheer about! Baby can feed herself! Okay, just the bottle part. Now we also spoon feed her other stuff like cereals, fruits and vegis. But at least she can enjoy the lounging with bottle herself. (something that comes back around again later with adulthood ???)

Life at 7 months

2008-01-20T21:34:00.000-08:00

How quickly they grow!

Here is a better pic of the cute teeth that are growing in:

Kyla's baby book has pages for baby's first holidays and I fear we have little to fill in! For halloween she visited her friend Laili where we carved pumpkins and the mini-folk posed amongst them (hopefully I'll get the pics soon!), so that was quite festive.
For Thanksgiving we had dinner with one set of grandparents instead of the usual two (but one is enough to write about!).
For Hanukkah we typically see the Jewish grandparents but they were on an amazing tour of Egypt and Israel so there was no dinner this year.
For Christmas, grandparents from the east coast arrived late in the day so there was a less ceremonial gift exchange (not that Kyla suffered!). And finally, we didn't properly observe Kwanzaa!
However, we dragged Kyla to a New Year's event and here is how she rang in the new year:

Of course, as soon as we went back to our room she woke up and then proceeded to spend nearly an hour playing with the noisemaker! At that point we old folks were just ready to go to bed...

A few weeks ago Kyla almost made it to her first football playoff game. I was skeptical about whether or not it was a good idea to take a baby to the game and then because it was a rainy day here in San Diego the decision was easy! Baby stayed with friends where it was warm and dry while we donned ponchos and cheered on the Chargers. Kirk is not even really a Chargers fan but he riled up his brother-in-law and was perhaps one of the rowdier fans at the stadium...

Even though Kyla didn't make it to the game, she is the only one of us with a jersey:

Note the attempt to crawl...

We never used to be such football fans, but Dan has gotten quite caught up in it now that he is back with what has always been his favorite team, the Chargers. Kirk certainly encourages this behavior. :)

Perhaps our active little girl will end up being much more athletic than her parents and happy about the early influences!!

two front teeth for Christmas

2007-12-24T19:22:00.000-08:00

Overdue for an update, so much to tell!!

First, Kyla had her 6 month check-up on the 13th (a day after her 6 month birthday) and here are the stats:
19.1 lbs
27.5 inches tall

Yes, still in the 90-something percentile for both, so she is growing fast!

And speaking of growing fast, she is now the proud owner of 2 new teeth! Poor thing. At her 6 month check-up she had a couple of immunizations including the flu shot. That night she developed a cough and runny nose (from the flu shot or from one of the sniffly, miserable kids in the waiting room, don't know) and was not happy at all. On that Saturday morning we noticed a small white thing peeking through her gums -- first tooth! (Don't know how much of those symptoms were due to the teeth and how much was due to the flu shot or a cold -- she is finally doing better now) About a week later it's pal appeared, so there are a pair of sharp little chompers in there now.
We attempted to take a picture but the tongue keeps getting in the way. This is the best so far, and it's not the most flattering shot of her! (will try to post a better one later)

The other milestone also has to do with her mouth. We've started on solid foods, an idea she has quickly accepted! We started rice cereal a few weeks ago and just offered sweet potatoes this past week. So far she has been quite receptive and happily opens her mouth to allow the spoon feeding.
It's not the neatest process, as you can see:

Being from a mixed religion family could make for confusion, but meanwhile we'll celebrate all the holidays. Here she is celebrating two December holidays:

We've had Rachel's family here to celebrate one of the two. Here are Kyla and Kirk watching a pre-holiday Seahawks game and decked out appropriately:

Here she is with Grandpa. No, we didn't give her a rubber chicken for Christmas, but somehow she has decided it is hers. She spent a long time carefully studying each of the chicken toes... and then trying to eat it! Not something we are allowing since those little sharp teeth could help her really eat the chicken. (and we should get through a few vegis and fruit before she starts with meat!)

The original plan was to spend Christmas at Kirk's house in Seattle, but we decided not to travel in case we were able to finalize our adoption this month. Unfortunately there were hold-ups at several stages in our paperwork so we aren't going to be able to finalize until January. The finalization is really just a formality (accompanied by much paperwork and social worker meetings) that typically takes place about 6 months after placement, but it means that we apply for the revised birth certificate (to replace her birth name with the name we gave her) and means that we are pretty much done with the adoption process. It'll be nice to be done with all of this. Who needs legal mumbo jumbo when you just want to play with your baby!
We were pretty disappointed in the delay, partly for that reason, but also because a big advantage to finalizing by the end of 2007 would have been that we could have applied for the adoption tax credit. The credit is a generous reimbursement of some of the costs and would have been extremely useful to have now rather than a year from now.
Oh well. What are you going to do. More importantly, we have this beautiful little girl at home with us.

So, we are enjoying hosting for the holidays and San Diego is cooperating with beautiful warm weather.

Hope the holidays are treating you well!
(our holiday greeting cards are late, as usual, but coming!)

tennis anyone???

2007-12-10T11:38:00.000-08:00

We're having trouble locating a small enough racket....

...no surprise this very stylish dress, with matching sandals (not shown because they are still a bit big), was chosen by auntie Nan :)

KG update

2007-12-09T14:46:00.000-08:00

Little mini miss is getting bigger and continually developing her nutty personality. She loves to grab things and unfortunately hair is on the top of the list. Funny story from the other morning: We often bring her into bed in the morning (in attempt to get a few more minutes of sleep!) and on this occasion Kyla was lying calmly on her back and playing with her hands the first time I looked over. The next time I glanced, she had turned her head and was looking at Dan (who was asleep lying on his side facing her). She was like that for several minutes (and I was thinking, "how sweet, she's gazing at her daddy") but then she couldn't stand it any longer and attacked. She grabbed Dan's hair with both hands and attempted to get some part of his head in her mouth and woke him up and startled him! Now, this kind of behavior is not out of character for her but is usually preceded by some kind of obvious excitement to clue us in to watch out for ourselves. :)

The beautiful mass of curly hair that is just about right for barrettes:

Really big smile!

Going for a ride in the laundry basket:

Posing (literally!) in a nice embroidered dress that used to be her grandmothers. Looks like it needs a slip! We took it off quickly anyhow to avoid slobber on the antique, I mean, slightly older dress (sorry mom!!) :)

Snuggling in the blanket with mommy!

Baby's first thanksgiving

2007-11-29T22:08:00.001-08:00

We certainly had something to be thankful for this year! How amazing to become parents (and have your life change drastically...). Last year at this time we were pretty sad about our childless state, but clearly it was worth the wait. :)

Here's the munchkin in her turkey day finery. This was before dinner so you don't see any stuffing on her face yet. Okay, so stuffing is a bit too "solid" for her just yet, but not for long. (we've about to crack open the box of rice cereal and enter the realm of not-so-simple and not-so-neat baby meals)

Those of you in places north will be jealous of the next few photos. These were taken during our burn-off-the-pie hike. Yes, short sleeves and sunglasses!

We got to the trail and realized that we had forgotten a hat for Kyla, so with some creativity sheik baby was assembled! She enjoyed the backpack (okay, well she mostly napped).

No, we didn't feed her nuts -- she made those cheeks herself !!

reclining...

2007-11-18T09:17:00.000-08:00

Now that she can sit up she can more comfortably lounge in chairs. See for yourself!

oops! Still more fun to be in a position to grab your feet!!

This is a rocking chair that grandpa and grandma just passed along that used to belong to Kyla's great grandmother (who she visited in Minnesota in September). The chair is probably 80 years old and the pillow is about a month old (but made by the same great grandma!).

Here she is (dressed in her Seahawks getup for general luck) getting ready to see the San Diego Chargers absolutely cremate the Jacksonville Jaguars. We have been having a discourse on whether Chargers special teams players like kick returner, Darren Sprowles, and cornerback Antonio Cromartie can rescue the waning prowess of the green QB, Philip Rivers. Kyla's position was that a sustained running game with a minimal air attack should be optimal in reducing unwanted turnovers.

We agreed. Good going, Kyla!

sad for Rachel; good for the planet...

2007-11-17T20:16:00.000-08:00

A brief digression from kylanet to share the sad news that I had to bid farewell to a dear old friend today. Many of you have probably met my trusty little red car who joined me on the east coast in 1990 and faithfully transported me all across the country for so many years. She was still going strong at 180K miles but, alas, was not doing so cleanly enough for the state of California. After two failed smog tests and an offer of $ by the state to get her off the road, the decision was made and the paperwork was filed. I knew that I would have to drop her off at a place called a dismantler but felt better thinking that she would become an organ donor, if you will. As I signed the paper today and told the guy he was getting a good car he shared with me a detail I didn't want to hear -- part of the deal with the state is that the cars that are "retired" must be crushed. I was crushed.
I suppose it was just a machine -- and the new machine who replaced her will keep me and my baby girl safer on the roads -- but she was a big part of my life and I miss her.

Here we are shortly after we first met, back in the fall of 1990 (I miss the pretty fall colors of the east coast too!):

The Toppling of KG - An empire, a ruler, and Ovis aries

2007-11-17T19:14:00.001-08:00

Hello Again!

Welcome back to KylaNet, home of the adorable baby girl of the new millennium.

So much to say, but so few keystrokes to utilize. Kyla is sitting up quite well these days and is quite a happy baby. She is a very tough baby, consuming nothing but White Russians (virgin): 6-8 ounces every few hours. But then she conks out by around 8-9 pm and sleeps in till about 6-7am. Then she wakes up in a fabulous mood and we tickle the heck out of her.

This is a nice photo series Rachel took with KG on the couch. Pic3 is our desktop wallpaper right now...very pensive, a foreshadowing if you will. The yellow thing is a little duck toy, but the white toy she is playing with is Sheldon Sheep, a soft fuzzy sheep that opens up into a little fabric book. The covers are made of crinkle paper, which she grabs at. She generally manhandles Sheldon in a raucous series of wrestling maneuvers, but Sheldon is unequivocally and unilaterally compliant. He's a good guy. Note at the end of the photo series KG starts to lose her balance and topples to one side. In searching for this photo on our desktop Rachel informed me that it was entitled "Topple.jpg"

How appropriate.

Five months old today!

2007-11-12T22:59:00.000-08:00

Checking out the goats with Corinne!

How quickly five months have passed! And Kyla is just itching to be mobile... we have been encouraging her standing up and even getting her legs moving in a walking motion, but we'll probably regret it when we are running after a little thing who can somehow run faster than us even though her legs are about 1/8th the size!!

The baby shining???

2007-11-06T21:56:00.001-08:00

She likes seafood!!

Today we tried out a new fun thing -- the jumper that hangs in the doorway. She needed no instruction as you can see on the video!

I think the girl likes to dance!!

more pictures

2007-11-02T11:27:00.000-07:00

What a pretty pink dress Auntie Tina picked out!!
(Dan hasn't seen this yet -- haha!)

Big eyes!

funny girl in action!!

2007-10-26T15:24:00.000-07:00

Rolling, rolling, rolling on the blanket

2007-10-24T18:20:00.000-07:00

Welcome Kyla fans, to the site of neverending cutitude:

Kyla is definitely progressing by leaps and bounds. Today I came home from work a little early, primarily because little gnomes from the firey depths of the Earth's core have decided to make a surprise landing in random dry brush fields in San Diego. Luckily people water their lawns a lot near us and we are well away from the mayhem, but work has been spotty this week. So I returned home to play with KG and shortly after I did we started tummy time.

Then it got good.

Kyla was getting pumped up, kind of getting frustrated but kind of making progress getting her knees partially under her waist and then, wham! She toppled over onto her back. She was kind of crying, but we were both so excited we whooped and cheered and kissed her all over. She was a little confused, probably thinking "Here I was suffering on my face and you guys just watched...and now you are happy about it??" What the heck is the matter with you?"

I am sure we will rue the day we urged her to be more mobile sooner, but it was fun for the moment.

Kyla also had her 4 month doctors appointment last week. She is growing quite well.
-26.5 inches
-16.5 pounds

Oh, and with a little help she can stand up!

another woo hoo!

2007-10-19T18:34:00.000-07:00

Learning to sit up... kind of... and, of course, toes are really fun!

Four months old today!!!

2007-10-12T20:53:00.000-07:00

Someone is quickly becoming the not-so-wee hoosier!

Do I still need this thing? Binkys are for babies!

So, we are happily progressing towards the finalization of our adoption. One more wave of paperwork arrived in the mail the other day -- luckily the forms are getting briefer. Once we get these turned in and have our final home visit (mid-November) we should hear from the court when our court date will be. It might have to be after Kyla turns 6 months, but I'm not sure about that. Regardless, we have been assured that it will be in 2007, so when family comes for the holidays we should be celebrating the official conversion of Savannah May into Kyla Gabrielle. (right now her birth certificate has her first given name...we figure that if she someday becomes a yoga instructor or a massage therapist she'll change her name back to Savannah...)
So, I looked at Kyla and told her: "we're going to keep you!!" and she smiled. Perhaps it's because I said "keep" in a super high pitched voice. Or maybe it's because she wants us to keep her. :)

woo hoo!!

2007-10-11T17:27:00.001-07:00

forget the padres....

2007-10-04T06:38:00.000-07:00

Go Mariners!!!

what sleep??

2007-09-27T19:58:00.001-07:00

It seems Kyla forgot about how she is able to sleep through the night....
good thing she's cute! :)

home again home again jiggidy jig

2007-09-24T15:09:00.000-07:00

hi again!
our return home was timed just right so that we were able to hang out with the Wamplers for a few days. That's Riley in Dave's arms and the future little miss Cameron in Yvette's belly:

And now I'll leave you with simply a dose of Kyla cuteness:

happy girl!

babies in jeans??

Face to face with the okapi (doesn't this happen in every house??)

Looking happy, even though tummy time is not her favorite...

Wee traveler

2007-09-24T13:53:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to Kylanet!
Can you tell we've been a bit swamped this summer? Now just as Rachel's schedule lightens up a bit Dan starts a new job! The nice thing about a new job is that there isn't a big backlog of things to do (usually...) but the tough part is learning the job and hoping that your new boss doesn't decide he/she made a mistake!! :)
I'm sure Dan will do a great job, so no worries here...

Anyway, back to the cute subject at hand.
In her three months of life, Kyla has now been to 6 states! (we crossed briefly into ND) And on this tour she met a bunch of Rachel folk including great aunts and uncles (wow, Brian, you are a *great* uncle!!), a great-grandma, and a slew of cousins.
We started our trip in Colorado where Dan's friend Dave got married. It was a gorgeous wedding held at the Rockygrass site in Lyons.

Congrats Dave and Veronica!!

Unfortunately we didn't take enough pictures with our own camera so don't have photo documentation, but Kyla hung out with a few Dan friends including her old pal Ethan who she of course remembered from her first week of life.

While in Colorado, she stayed overnight with Uncle Mark and Aunt Julie and met cousins Kristin, and Jeff and Maki (including Julianne and Sato, who are Kyla's second cousins!). Too bad we didn't have our camera at Jeff's as Julianne was a being a very cute and gracious host!

Here is Kyla with Uncle Mark: (more pics with Julie and Kristin to come after they send them to us...)

Before I forget, a notable part of this trip was that Dan flew to Colorado ahead of Kyla and I since he was in the wedding party and wanted to participate in the bachelor party madness. (I had to stay home and give a final exam!) I was a bit nervous about juggling this small child and her things on my own, but it went reasonably well. My generous neighbor Angela drove us to the airport and helped me get checked in. However the challenge ended up being security... I had the fantasy that perhaps they would let me take my bottles of nursery water with me, but no, it could have been "terrorist water" (it has fluoride in it, you know) so I had to dump it out in the trash can. That doesn't sound so bad except that the trash can was about 20 feet away and I had Kyla in the stroller on the other side of me and my bags had already been sent through the x-ray machine. Needless to say, I was feeling a bit spread out and wondered which item I would lose! Luckily it was not busy that day and the security folks were fairly helpful. They suggested I mix up one of the bottles which would then allow me to take it through. (one enfamil powder has been added the water immediately becomes much less of a threat...) They also helped me fold up the stroller and get it on the conveyor belt. Apparently the only thing you can walk through with is the baby herself. Good thing she doesn't wear shoes yet...

While I'm thinking of it, another interesting security experience was during our trip from Colorado to Minnesota (which occured not exactly on schedule, but I won't go into the reasons... :0) when they made us go through the puff of air thing. Yes, I had to stand inside the "box" holding Kyla! The puffs of air make me jump, but she must have been just sleepy enough (and had me holding her tight) that she didn't really mind. But really... do babies have to go through that?? Maybe we could have been allowed to hand her around or something.

Okay, anyway, back to the more interesting part... pictures!

As I just mentioned, we went from Colorado to Minnesota and drove up to Grand Forks to visit grandma.
Here is Kyla with her great grandma:

Napping with cousin Michelle:

Snuggling with cousin Kay:

She also got hugs from Yvonne and Jim and met her great, great aunt Madge (Kay's mom!).

While in northern MN, we took a side trip to Bemidji where it is a requirement to take pictures with Paul Bunyon and Babe the Blue Ox (apparently they were thinking of taking these figures down but there was too much protest, so they stay! who wouldn't love a large blue ox...)

No, Dan is not actually trying to feed Kyla to Babe....

Can you find Kyla in this next photo??

We took a nice walk around Bemidji lake enjoying the cool weather (after leaving the San Diego heat wave behind):

Before leaving the state we spent a day in Minneapolis with Uncle Brian (oops, excuse me, great-uncle Brian) and Aunt Laurel, Ben and Sam. I could tell that it had been way too long since I've visited these cousins since Ben is probably three or four feet taller than the last time I saw him! Guess it just goes to show that people should come visit us in San Diego more often...

Turns out some grad school friends live right down the road from Brian so we were fortunate enough to visit with Amy, Steve, Shellie and Mike. Amy and Steve's adorable daughters were off somewhere playing princess. Shellie and Mike's little girl Claire joined us for the picture and, of course, their newest munchkin has yet to emerge from mommy's tummy (although at the time of this visit Shellie was two weeks from her due date and that was a week and a half ago... any news Shellie??).

The Minnesota weather was good because Kyla got a chance to wear some of her warm weather clothes just in time before she outgrows them! (it's all about fashion, even at three months...)

The thoughtful girl, featured in a "halo" thanks to iPhoto:

And I should add that she deserves that halo because this weekend she slept through the night for the first time! woo hoo! We woke up and "did you get up and feed her?" "no, did you?" and then immediately went in to see if she was okay...
Perhaps this is another growth spurt because now she has napped long enough for me to write this very long post!!
When awake she is quite busy so she makes up for it. :)

Kyla has been busy...

2007-09-21T17:02:00.000-07:00

learning to read!! (ha ha)

(more updates soon...)

The Larsens landed and flew

2007-08-26T22:14:00.000-07:00

Greetings again from Kylanet, home of the cute.

As Rachel has indicated and as the pictures clearly illustrate...we have had company!

First, east coast Grandpa (of 3 total - Kyla's going to be showered with gifts for a very long time) was in town for about 2 weeks helping around the house and watching KG during the day. This was wonderful, Rachel and I took trips to Baja, drinking Pina Coladas and sunbathing in the warm Baja waters while Lynn stayed in San Diego and changed Kyla's diapers. Well, not exactly, but it was very very very helpful to have him around. Lynn really tried to set Kyla on a mealtime regime...keeping her on a strict timed schedule. He accomplished this by utilizing a high-tech piece of equipment manufactured in rural China called a "Pacifier". Oh, KG would have to accept the Paci until it was time because Grandpa wasn't budgin'! Prior to this Rachel and I would jump at Kyla's first cry and make a mad dash for the formula can, scrambling to get it all mixed (with no lumps and with care) stat, to pre-empt the slightest discomfort Kyla might experience. I guess when you've been thru it and they turned out all right, you don't worry so much.

After all, it's just crying.

Anyway, as Grandpa's tenure here came to a close he was partially relieved from duty by the rest of the Larsen Clan. Grandma Jeanne and Uncle Kirk arrived in time to celebrate Rachel's birthday, along with my folks who came down for the weekend. Kirk, ever the doting uncle, brought several nice things for KG: not pictured is the near life size stuffed Okapi (African ungulate with brilliant striping) that Uncle Kirk obtained from the SD Zoo. I tried to enforce my "no stuffed animals as gifts" rule since we are accumulating enough to preempt NASA's next mission to Mars through the construction of a stuffed animal scaffold, but this was an amazing piece...and hoofed mammals make the best gifts, I must admit.

My mom, our wonderfully generous friend Corinne (who loaned her house!), and my sister in law Cristine organized a sort of shower for Kyla...more like a "meet the baby" bbq. It was quite a hoot. Warm weather was the topic of the day as we all baked in Corinne's backyard whilst dining on great food from Bucca di Beppo (just finished the last of the Egg Parm a week later) and drinking Sangria and cold beers. It was wonderful for those who know KG to see her again and for those who didn't get to meet her before. She slept through a lot of it, but managed to show off her two hazel beauties for a few lucky guests.

BUT, after the party, Grandpa had to leave and Uncle Kirk was off the next morning. We still have Grandma here while Rachel is teaching for the remainder of the month. Then we are off to CO for a wedding...Kyla gets to meet all of my music friends, and then we go to Minnesota to meet some more clan Larsen: Great Grandma Avis in Grand Forks, Great Uncle and Aunt Brian and Laurel, and of course her second cousin Michelle!! (It appears I forgot to mention Michelle when I first posted this...whoops) This is actually my first time to MN also and it will be interesting. I too will meet some family that I have not.

I must say, though, that Kyla is quite the seasoned traveller...by the end of this trip she will have been in five states.

And she's not even three months old.

Current stats:
24 inches
12 pounds
Outgrowing everything.

PS. Funny aside:
We attend post-placement adoption support group meetings associated with our Indiana-based agency. The meetings are in CA. Anyway, the first thing you do at the meeting is fill out a little questionnaire asking general questions about the appearance and health of the baby and other parenting issues...this happens as all the couples are making their introductions (everyone tells their adoption story first off). Well, Rach was filling it out and I was holding KG and listening to another couple's story...I glanced down and Rachel had responded to one of the questions and had gone on with the rest.

The question? Describe the general appearance of the child.

Her answer: "Cute!!"

I made her change it, but she had every intention of leaving it because, well, it's totally accurate and probably the single most identifying feature about her. Pictures don't lie.

Finally --- an update!!

2007-08-23T14:00:00.000-07:00

Hello Kyla fans!
Life has been a bit crazy, but here I am to share some photos. I'll encourage Dan to write one of his creative updates to post as well.
As you can see, Larsens have been in town! ...did you ever think you'd see Kirk holding a baby! :)

Finally meeting Grandma L:

Do rainforests really look like this????

There are fuzzy animals rotating around above her --- she thinks it's pretty amazing!

One word to describe this scene: awwwwwwww!

Who is this fuzzy uncle???

Grandpa and the beach -- what could be better!

Two months old today!!

2007-08-12T20:31:00.000-07:00

Hi!
Hard to believe that Kyla is already 2 months old! And she is changing so fast. Just in the past week that my dad has been here he has noticed that she is better at holding her head up.
See for yourself!

(yes, it's been hot here so it's clothing optional for babies!! -- clothing required for grandpas -- haha!)

She is definitely enjoying the extra attention -- often she will vocalize in some way and then when one of us goes to her she smiles and tips her head. The girl likes attention!

Here she is in her cute flap hat:

Here is a casual moment on the changing table:

This is playtime on the floor. She can't pick up the rattle herself but likes to shake it when she has it!

What in the world?? Yes, grandpa brought my old doll cradle (can you believe that I've had this for nearly -- gack -- 40 years??) and Kyla is too big for it already! She'll have to use it for dolls too. :)

Adventures

2007-08-05T00:23:00.001-07:00

Last weekend was Kyla's first trip to the beach. She fit right into the laid back scene of sand and umbrellas!

Early last week she had her first trip to the zoo. With grandma (from LA) in town to visit and babysit, we had to make a stop by "zoo at night". Not sure Kyla got too much out of it, but we had fun! (sorry, no pics!)

And speaking of family, the Larsen wave has started with grandpa here to help me try to make it through teaching a five-week lecture class of 150 students!
Here he is with a sleepy Kyla. (notice her folding her hands across her -- probably full -- belly)

pictures!!

2007-07-28T20:00:00.000-07:00

Here is a sequence that could be called "mommy's eye view":

Kyla's head is about the same size as Sheldon Sheep's head!

Tummy time is very frustrating, but she's doing a good job holding her head up:

A quick visit and hello to Nan!
(If you know Nan, ask her about the pink tissue paper, like that next to her in this picture....)

pretty eyes!

2007-07-25T11:41:00.001-07:00

Kyla's eyes are starting to turn color and they look really cool right now as they are still blue around the edges and the brown/green color is coming in from the center. They will probably end up brown (which is fine with me because one of the things that attracted me to Dan was his kind, brown eyes...:) but there are quite a few green eyes in C's family so green (like me!) might also be an option. From what I hear it will be a few months until we see the final color!

We like to gaze into those big eyes regardless of color. Kyla is being so much more responsive now. She smiles like crazy and makes cooing noises. We should probably keep our blinds closed so that our neighbors don't think we are crazy as we babble and waggle our tongues at her! The other day I was telling her the vowel sounds in French and she was cooing back at me. (the French pronounciation is so much more fun than English)
We also tried throwing in a little Hebrew and, at least that one day (things change on a moments notice...), Kyla really liked the sound of "l'chaim". Maybe it was the throaty sound. Luckily she is not critical of pronouciation and was accepting of my attempts as well as Dan's!

I'll leave you with a cute baby hoodie outfit:

Rock or Love or both...

2007-07-21T13:47:00.001-07:00

If you looked closely at the picture of Kyla in the "I'm with the band" onesie (thanks Jen!) you'll see a hand gesture that Dan happily interpreted as "rock on!".

Turns out (as pointed out by C when we sent her the same picture!) this is sign language for "I love you"!!

Lucky us. :)

Of course, she makes lots of other hand gestures that probably mean things like: "what in the world am I wearing" or "why hasn't he been impeached yet" or "excuse me miss, I'll be needing another bottle/diaper/nap/pacifier/parent".

5 Weeks 1 Day 15 hours and 47 minutes

2007-07-19T19:07:00.000-07:00

All three of us must apologize for the paucity of text in our recent postings. Pictures are peachy and only two of us can type with any speed or accuracy. That’s why I am dictating.

This is a long post so I will tell you now that there are 3 parts so you can skip to the parts you like.

1. Adoption related stuff

2. Parenting stuff – the trials and tribulations of a fresh parent

3. Pictures – gift outfits and general cuteness galore

1. Adoption related stuff

Birthfather rights termination-

First off let me say that as far as the adoption is going legally, we are basically in the clear. Last week we were able to terminate the birthfather’s rights by filing for the adoption in Indiana after a 30 day period had elapsed. That 30 days is the time a bf has to show up and claim custody of the child. However, laws in IN are geared very much in favor of the adoptive parents; in IN all there is a bf registry that has information on new babies and who they were born to. The bf must know this exists (very unlikely), know where to find it (not likely give point 1 is unlikely) and be willing to parent. Regardless, even if he did come forward and had all these other things mastered, the fact that he hadn’t been around at all during C’s pregnancy wouldn’t win him any points with a judge ruling on a custody issue with us. Luckily, we got it all cleared. We emailed C and told her this and got a wonderful response that was also a little interesting. She was very very excited for us and seemingly a little relieved. I don’t know if she expected the bf to do something rash like try and parent, but based on his past behavior of being 100% uninvolved that would be a big surprise to us.

2. Parenting.

It’s true, KG is getting older and bigger and is a different baby every single day. Whatever it is we think we know one week becomes obsolete and we are dumb all over again, but we are dumb in a wise way, kind of like Forrest Gump.

It has been quite a trip indeed. Unlike your typical pregnancy situation, adoptive parents don’t have the luxury of planning out their lives 8 months ahead of time. We had a couple of months, but Rachel was already slotted to teach several courses, the first one for the duration of July. So we have had to juggle KG...luckily she only weights 8 lbs 14 ozs and is very durable. She is actually quite rubbery, but I digress. Rachel teaches M-Thurs from about 11-5 depending on the particular lab day, so on those days I try to get in early and return in time for Rach to get ready. Then I stay home with KG. On days when Rach is off I am in the lab, but of course thinking about lab work and about the molecular mechanisms that contribute to engulfment in a sporulating microorganism just don’t seem as important. Smiling babies are a hell of a lot more fun than fluorescence microscopy.

However, this pattern of juggling KG will all mellow out in August when Rachel’s folks will be here for most of the month, though not all at one time. This will help immensely...thank god for parents! My mom has already put in some time watching the munchkin. And then we can’t overlook the wonderful contributions of Corinne! (of course, we’ll repay the favor when she has her own baby at home!!) But on days when I am not home, I really prioritize my workload. I be sure to get all my emailing done first thing!

So in the meantime when we are not working we relax at home with our smiling infant child who coos constantly. Oh wait, that was our neighbor’s child...sorry got confused. Kyla waits for Rachel to return and then initiates her “I love you mommy but I am going to cry inconsolably for a good while before I fall asleep in someone’s arms and only in someone’s arms. Then I will cry again if I am transferred to a crib except for rare instances when I will sleep peacefully for long long spells unattended, deceitfully lulling my parents into a ‘hey, maybe this is a turning point in her routine’ mode of thought. After that I cry a lot and writhe, often times flexing my entire body like a tetanus victim.”

We wouldn’t trade any of it.

Actually, she is not that unhappy and is now showing a huge amount of developmental progress. If I learned something as big as she does everyday Donald Trump would be shining my shoes with a toothbrush and I would own the planet Mars. She has begun to:

1. Smile in response to people (I have co-workers who are still at odds with this skill).

2. Focus on objects within 2 feet and remain focused on them.

3. Coo/make noise when happy.

4. Give some warning when not happy, a few squeaks and light cries.

It’s pretty miraculous seeing it happen so fast. It’s weird because at this rate she’ll actually be able to like WALK AROUND and stuff at least before she is 5. I know I’m in surfing in wonderland again, but dare to dream.

3. The pics!

We have decided to include a few more pics in some key outfits that were given as gifts. One was a very predictable gift from Tina K. – guess which one??
Enjoy!

One month old today!!

2007-07-12T21:00:00.000-07:00

Hi!
Can you believe that Kyla is one month old?? Time goes by so quickly, and it's only going to speed up from here.

Kyla met another grandpa and grandma last weekend (Dan's dad and stepmom):
...do you think they look happy to meet their first granddaughter?? :)

And since we can never get enough cute pictures of the munchkin, here are a few more:

growing baby

2007-07-05T21:31:00.000-07:00

Kyla had a check-up today and we learned that she has gained one whole pound since her birth day. Now she weighs 8 lbs 14 oz.

If you are interested in scale, it's about the same size as a mandolin:

Happy 4th of July!!

2007-07-04T13:11:00.001-07:00

We had a fun picnic with our friends today. Here's a great shot of the kids. Kyla is a little small to play yet, but she'll be big enough soon!

learning how to smile!

2007-07-01T20:33:00.001-07:00

happy baby!

and now I'm tired...

Lots of new things!

2007-06-29T22:04:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!!

Well, here I am at home in San Diego and I'm seeing all kinds of new things and new people. I've met new friends every day so far and am looking forward to meeting my Uncle Matt and Auntie Cristine tomorrow.

I've been going for walks almost every day. Well, I just go to sleep in my stroller and get pushed around actually. One of our walks included stopping at a place called an ice cream shop. Mama said that when I get bigger I'm going to love ice cream just like she does. She says that when she was my age she had already tasted ice cream and really liked it even then. :)

My arms and legs are pretty amazing. The last couple of days I've had fun lying on the floor and practicing moving these things around.

I also have a couple of toys that I'm not too interested in yet but I entertain mom and dad by swatting at this one (they are so easily amused!):

Sometimes I sit in this amazing massage chair. It has crazy patterns on it that I find very interesting. I'm wondering if it is an ancient language -- I am actually an expert in languages even though mom and dad don't recognize it yet. Sometimes they call me "squeaky". They just don't understand.

But I'm getting lots of hugs and kisses and I love all my new friends!
Thanks for checking in on me!

love, Kyla

naked babies are the cutest!

2007-06-25T18:11:00.000-07:00

We are lucky enough to have a friend and fellow adoptive parent who is also a professional photographer.
Here is a link to a page with the results of her beautiful work:
http://tcphotography.typepad.com/photos/kyla/

Of course it's easy to get great pictures of such a beautiful baby!!
:)

things change...

2007-06-23T18:28:00.000-07:00

Here is a conversation I didn't imagine for myself:

Dan: Ah, she had a good poo this time.
Me: Let me see.

(although, note the context: she has been a bit constipated lately so we dread the firmer than usual "events" that usually cause pain and frustration for the little one)

You'll be glad to see there is no accompanying picture. :)

home again, home again, jiggidy jig

2007-06-21T15:14:00.000-07:00

Greetings from San Diego!

Well, we are happy to be home after quite a journey. The trip yesterday went quite smoothly without any serious complications. We stopped by to visit C yesterday morning so that she could see Kyla one more time and so we could give her our leftover food (got a very nice email from her today thanking us for that closure). Then we strapped Kyla in for her longest car ride ever (1.5 hours!) during which she slept the whole time. Our friends Brad and Kathy were kind enough to loan us a Pack'nPlay and then Brad even offered to meet us by the airport to pick it up! Unbelievably cool. We found out later that Kyla slipped him a C-note for the effort.

Here's Brad taking video of Kyla while we dined at the fine Chicago establishment "Applebees" (sorry Kirk, don't worry -- she slept the whole time and didn't notice that we chose to dine in a soul-crushing corporate conglomerate; not to mention that they don't serve Enfamil there ... and, by the way, that is not her coke on the table):
The flight itself was actually quite smooth. The 3 and 4 year olds in the seat behind us we in training for the international soccer leagues and were practicing the field kick on the back of our seats, but luckily Kyla slept through it. Who doesn't reprimand their kids for doing that after the person in front looks back in disgust 84 times? Their mom even apologized after glance #52 by me, but still no reprimands were heard. We were secretly wishing Kyla would have some small issue so that her best scream made its way into their undisciplined ears, but alas she was an 'unfortunately' unproblematic for the duration of the flight...even the landing was nothing for this one.

Here she is casting spells on the surrounding passengers:

Now we are getting into the rhythm of sleep deprivation and tag-team diaper changes. We are like the pit crew at the Indy 500. Rach has acquired sponsorship from Marlboro and has a nice logo on her PJs. However, even the most tested pit crew can be phased by a 3-car pileup. Substitute the noun of your choice for "car". :)

Grandma from LA met us at the airport and her first comment was "she's so cute!".... well, of course. It was nice to have her here overnight to help with the late night baby meltdown! Kyla is generally very content except for a period of time in the middle of the night!

Here's Kyla with grandma:

Lastly, Kyla had her first doctors check-up today and she has gained 2 ounces in only 9 days. That's 1.6% of of her birth weight. Chow down, baby! She is quite healthy and we were able to get very little advice from her doctor...and that's fine with us. Here she is on the examination table, simply pondering the mysteries of what actually does happen once you arrive at the event horizon. No answers yet, but she did arrive at one clean rear.

KG signing off...

Cleared to fly!

2007-06-18T15:24:00.000-07:00

We just got word that our ICPC (interstate compact for the placement of children) which had to be approved by both CA and IN before we could leave the state was approved. That means we'll change our flight to Wednesday and get the heck out of Bend!

Kyla wants to go shopping for her swimsuit and shades so she is ready for San Diego!

Kyla B

2007-06-18T14:40:00.000-07:00

The hospital pictures of Kyla are posted on the web now:
http://www.growingfamily.com/webnursery/hospitals/template/hospitalpage.asp

I like the picture of her feet! The rest are alright but ours are better...
:)

For example:

what a weekend! and where did all the sleep go??

2007-06-17T21:09:00.000-07:00

We are overdue to post because lots of little things are happening here! As you read below, we brought Kyla "home" from the hospital on Friday morning. (It was interesting to see how many adopted people we ran into at the hospital -- the nurse who gave Kyla her first bath was adopted and so was the woman who took the hospital pictures.)

Grandpa arrived on Friday evening and was happy to meet his first grandchild!

Dan and I had our first sleep deprived night... just the beginning of what many of you were warning us about!
Then Saturday Kyla had a few more visitors:

Hi Tina!

Hi Ethan!

C and her two boys came by too, which was fun! It was probably a little too sad for her to see Kyla (understandably so) but we were happy to be able to meet the boys. She has a nine year old and a 4 year old. They are very nice and quite rambunctious. (I'm not posting pictures of them so as to protect their privacy...)

After yet another night seriously lacking in that precious sleeping thing, we geared ourselves up for our first attempt at giving Kyla a sponge bath. It might not have had to be a sponge bath since her umbilical cord stump feel off this morning! We were very surprised since our book (the very helpful "what to expect" book that we are ever so grateful to Aaryn and Sam for passing along and encouraging us to bring with!! We have already referred to it many times.) says 1-4 weeks before this should happen. We take no credit for this quick healing event since we have no idea what we are doing here! There had been a little bit of bleeding which we were kind of worried about but since it hasn't looked infected it should be okay. I suspect that it feel off quickly because we have a squirmy baby!
Here she is, not so happy after the bath thing, showing off her healing belly button:

She was happier about the sling carrier that grandpa bought for her:

That's all for now!

By the way, Kyla is still trying to decide where her Big Ten loyalties lie, or if it is Big Ten at all! So far her only college garment is from Georgetown U! :)

nyah nyah daddy!

2007-06-15T12:21:00.001-07:00

Kyla bids farewell to Memorial Hosptial

2007-06-15T08:47:00.000-07:00

And we're off!

All three of us came "home" today. We arrived at the hospital a little early and soon the nurse, photographer, and social worker arrived. We signed some paperwork and tried to get Kyla to pose for pics for the hospital website, which kind of worked. Kyla was semi-cooperative with the photographer, perhaps she is ready for professional modeling already...a pre-formed diva in the womb!

It's really amazing to sign those forms, walk out of the hospital, strap Kyla into the carseat (which she seemed good with ), and drive away. We got home and all the parenting just kicked in. It was actually nice to have two full days as "visitors" in the hospital because we were able to take care of Kyla under expert supervision; we could check if everything we were doing was ok. As a result, we don't feel quite so overwhelmed just bringing her home straight away. Plus, she seems to be quite a happy baby for the moment, fussing only when something is genuinely amiss.

Or during photo shoots...but I think that's just her way of toying with the help.

We've been back about an hour and Rach is playing with her right now.

I am certain there will be more pics later today!

more pictures!!!

2007-06-14T19:53:00.001-07:00

2007-06-14T13:07:00.000-07:00

Hi!
First of all, let me say that we *love* all the comments and emails you've been sending! It is so fun to share this amazing experience with everyone in pretty much real time.

I'm not sure if all of the pictures are showing up -- sometimes when I open the page some of them are missing. Any advise from the blog experts?

I'll post a few more pictures that we've made smaller so hopefully they will upload properly.

We are having a great second day with Kyla. She is even cuter today! :) The nurses put cute ribbons in her hair, maybe to remind themselves that she is a little girl!

We get to take her "home" tomorrow morning. Our social worker has to come back and be the one to officially take her out of the hospital. Guess we should relish our last full night of sleep tonight! Doesn't seem important at the moment (even though we know it will!). We went to sleep thinking about Kyla and woke up thinking about her...

First day with Kyla

2007-06-13T19:45:00.000-07:00

We spent all day with our wonderful, beautiful, content little girl.
Here are more photos!

All the legal stuff!

2007-06-13T13:49:00.000-07:00

It's official!! The papers have been signed and we are really and truly the parents of this beautiful little girl.
C even came by on her way out of the hospital to say goodbye and see Kyla again. It's often really hard for birthmothers to see the baby again so we are thrilled that she was interested and it seems like we'll stay in touch with her even after we go home, which is wonderful.

We are totally amazed that this adoption has gone so smoothly. There is very little that could go wrong at this point. Now we just have to raise a happy little girl! :)

Stats!

2007-06-13T05:42:00.001-07:00

Ah yes, omitted from the last post!

Kyla weighed 7 lbs 14 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long
She passed all of her newborn assessments with flying colors and has all of her fingers and toes! In fact, she has really long fingers and toes which she spends a lot of time stretching and flexing. I'm *sure* you'll see more photos of that very soon.

Kyla Gabrielle is in the house

2007-06-13T00:34:00.000-07:00

Well, after a long day of waiting for C to get on with it, she finally did at exactly 11:45 pm and 21.5 seconds on 6/12/07. I know because I took a picture of the clock while we were waiting in the room next door to the delivery room...then moments later...baby crying.

We got constant updates from several nurses and from the doctor and about 20 minutes or so afterwards we were invited by C to come in and meet everyone. As we entered the room, C was holding Kyla in her arms and greeted us with "Hi, mom and dad."

Now, that's cool.

We took some photos with all of us and Rach and I fed her her first meal - a smoothie milkshake. Yum yum. C looked like she had finished vacuuming maybe, but not like she had just delivered a baby. She looked really good and plans to go home early tomorrow. It was kind of a short/strange goodbye as we were kind of ushered out to follow the nurse as she took Kyla for her full bath and checkup. We kind of followed her out the door and wanted to give C a hug, but she was kind of be-tubed and bedded down, and wired up and it felt a little weird so we didn't. It hadn't fully dawned on us until we were exiting the room that this was goodbye (for now only we hope). We actually had a little gift for her, but weren't able to give it to her, there are legal boundaries for gifts to birthmothers and legally nothing has happened yet, so I guess we'll just mail it to her.

C actually put together a wonderful photo album of herself, her pregnancy with Kyla, and her other children. It really is a great thing that Kyla will be able to look at later in life so she knows everything about her birthmother. She was actually quite motherly at that point, giving us the album and saying "This is for your daughter, to give when she can understand it." It was all very zen and appropriate, much like wisdom given by an old chinese man atop a mountain we had just climbed.

We spent about 30 minutes hanging out in the delivery room and taking turns holding Kyla and watching the nurses check her out before we went to watch her bathing and checkup. She passed the hearing test "faster than usual". That's right, this kid has perfect pitch.

We then hung out in a private room with her about 30 more minutes, just the family :) and got better acquainted. Actually, Kyla slept thru the acquainting part quite soundly, but we were awake! We had to give her back for the night, though, she lives in the hospital for 48 hours before she comes home, but we will spend all day tomorrow with her.

still waiting...

2007-06-12T17:08:00.000-07:00

yes, we are still waiting!!
It has been a long day already...

waiting....

2007-06-12T11:54:00.000-07:00

Labor is underway...
and we are waiting!!
We felt only slightly guilty as we sat and ate panini sandwiches for lunch.
:)

Hope to have more news later tonight.

Houston, we have drop-off!

2007-06-11T14:00:00.000-07:00

Doctors appointment this morning ... she is ready and will be induced tomorrow morning at 5am! Such good news because we were realizing that we were going to go stir crazy hanging out in the midwest with not much of a schedule, just waiting.
New plan is to have dinner with friends tonight and then drive back up to South Bend. We'll go to the hospital in the mornind and see how she is doing. Hard to tell how long the labor will last. C thinks it won't take that long, but perhaps that is just her being hopeful!
Looks like the birthday will be 12th or 13th!!

more soon...

First day in Indiana!

2007-06-09T19:55:00.000-07:00

We arrived in the midwest today! Flight was early, car rental line was short... a nice start to travel.
Met C. for dinner tonight and we sat and talked for 4 hours! It was really nice to talk face to face for the first time in a month and a half. And she is even prettier in person than in her pictures! Not to mention that she said the birthfather (who is out of the picture and probably back in Mexico) looks kind of like Antonio Banderas! This little girl is going to be gorgeous... it will be obvious she was not produced by us -- haha!

C. said that she has had stronger contractions today... it's getting closer to time! Our plan is to stay overnight here tonight (we're at a hotel in South Bend) and then drive to Illinois to stay with friends there until we get the call saying that it's time to be back. I think we'll take our time tomorrow and not rush out of here... just in case!

A bit of background

2007-06-08T23:07:00.000-07:00

We signed up with our adoption group in early April and were thrilled to have been chosen by a birthmother a mere 13 days later! Probably a good thing that she was not due for another 2 months (others we know have had only a few days notice) so we had time to digest the news and buy a few baby things. Our birthmother is a lovely woman from Indiana who we've spoken with at least weekly since our match. We've shared lots of things about ourselves and our beliefs and somehow she still likes us!!

Open adoption is a relatively new concept that only really started in the 70's and has clearly been a very healthy thing for all of the parents and certainly the child. We think it's great that we've had this opportunity to get to know our birthmother (I'll abbreviate her name to "C"). Even if we don't end up staying close in touch with her, our child will know quite a bit about this person who some refer to as a "tummy mommy". C. has also put together a memory book and letter for the child that has pictures of herself and her other two children who will be half brothers to this child. That'll be a really nice thing for all of us to have.

So here we are, leaving for Indiana in 8 hours! The plan is to meet C. tomorrow night for dinner (our first in-person meeting) and then stay overnight. We might see her again on Sunday if she is up for it and then we'll head for Illinois to visit with friends until it's "time", at which point we race back to Indiana and wait for the little creature to make her appearance.

We're excited and nervous and pretty much bouncing off the walls!! It's a crazy process! This morning we had a long conference call with our social worker in Indiana and C. and went over the whole process of what will happen in the hospital. We won't be in the delivery room, which is, of course, totally her choice, but we'll be in the hospital and will be able to see the baby very shortly after her birth.

Did I mention that the baby is a girl?? We have a few names picked out but have to meet her first to see which fits best. Her first name, given by C, is going to be Savannah May. It's a pretty name but we have some other choices for her too. We'll be able to keep a copy of the first birth certificate so that she'll always know her first name. That way, when she is a rebellious teenager like her birthmother, she can change her name back just to spite us!!

Well, hopefully we have everything we need packed in our bags. I hear they have stores in Indiana ... so if something was left out we might be able to find a replacement!

Stay tuned for more from the midwest! By this time tomorrow night we'll be whistling the Notre Dame fight song!!

Welcome!

2007-06-04T23:53:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our first posting on our first blog site!
We were inspired to blog to share with you our journey to start a family through adoption. In less than one week we will physically start our journey by traveling to Indiana to meet our lovely birthmother and to await the birth of the little lady who will become our daughter.
The baby's due date is June 17th, but we all know that she wasn't listening when this date was announced! She'll arrive on her own time and we'll be there to greet her.

Thank you for reading and coming along with us as we meet and get to know the Wee Hoosier!