I wish I could write an entry about what I was doing a year ago, but the day passed pretty much like any other - I didn't know this was my LID date for another couple of weeks. I know that I was starting to realize that wait was going to be a bit longer than planned. Every month after that one brought another year of projected wait.

A year later, and so much has changed. My life is full of diapers, shopping (my God, how much shopping I HAVE to do now!), cleaning (my house has never been so clean!) and wondering when Lala is going start crawling. I feel so blessed and excited for each new day. Happy New Year to me!

Easter Weekend

Time does fly by very quickly... I can't believe it's Easter already. Lala has currently has three Easter dresses. My mother purchased two and she came home in one from her visit with her biological family. Since I'm not informed as to what happens during those visits, I really don't know who put her in it, but since her clothes are changed every time, I just have to roll with it. This Sunday, she'll be wearing one of the other two, depending on the weather. (yah. It snowed last night)

Then again, time does move slowly. I think more and more about Lala's biological family. I wonder if they're progressing; if anything is happening at all; what her siblings are doing; and mostly, what is going to happen come June. I get sorta an update once a month when the SW comes to visit, but client privacy rules pretty much leave me having to read between the lines - which I'm not very good at.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying everything I can. It still seems a bit unreal that after all that waiting, hoping, wishing, praying, etc. I am responsible for a baby! I get to think about Easter Egg Hunts (still too young!), Easter dresses and scrapbooking. I don't even really like scrapbooking and I'm just so incredibly grateful that I get to do it! Weird.

When you're slidin' into first...

yah, it's been one of those weeks.

Monday started the diarrhea, sorta. Tuesday I got a call from the daycare letting me know that they were on diaper change number 8 and most likely, Lala would not be going on her bi-weekly visit. (Lala visits her biological family twice a week) Apparently, the transporters do not like exploding babies in their car.

I stayed home on Wednesday, because taking a baby who has 8 diaper changes in less than 4 hours to daycare is just plain cruel. And really pisses off the other parents. I not only got the exploding baby experience, but also the playing with poop experience. Boy! You really cannot turn your back on baby with diarrhea for a second! Lala was also getting hives, but only for 15-20 minutes at a time. She looked like a cat had mauled her legs! Really weird, but I changed her formula to a soy based and it hasn't shown up again. I'm not totally convinced it was the formula that gave her the hives. Today is the first time she's gotten any solid foods except rice cereal, so I'm still watching for them to come back.

Thursday we had a staff meeting about everyone missing so many days of work... and I gave a small prayer of thanks that I don't work in Corporate American. Complain all you want people. I've still got over a month of sick days banked. (Years of coming work like the walking dead because I knew there were no more good subs). Oh yeah, I have jury duty next week too!

Friday ended the week on a positive note. Lala had her second development evaluation. She had failed in a couple of aspects previously. This time, however, she passed with flying colors. In fact, the evaluator cut it short, saying she'd gained so much in 6 weeks that she wasn't really behind any more. This time Lala looked over when the evaluator shook a rattle, stood on her legs (she can almost bear all of her own weight - no easy feat given her size), grabbed at toys, rolled around and seemed "very attached" to me to the point of reaching for me to pick her up from the evaluators lap. We'll have another appointment in three months to make sure she's still moving along.

I also got a new-to-me jogging stroller on Friday. A friend had one sitting in the garage collecting cob-webs, so now Lala and I are ready for some serious walking. We may even go out the trails nearby, if the weather holds.

Saturday, we're still playing it cool with feeding. Although things are looking less stinky, I'm still holding my breath on whether we're still on poop patrol.

11 Months

I can't believe I missed my 11 month anniversary! Not one thought about it during the day - I didn't even think about until March 2nd when I saw the Rumor Queen posts about new referrals (which btw, if true, means no referrals for my agency. The 3rd time in a year.)

My fingerprints expire next month and my I-171H will expire in June. I suppose I should contact my agency to find out what I need to do, but I'm really not so motivated to do so. I think it's because I'm worried that they'll tell me I need to have my home-study re-done by a completely new social worker. I'm pretty sure the "new" office is too far away for them to send their own... I really do not want to spend another $2000 for a document that may or may not ever lead to an adoption. So, I'm basically just sitting back and waiting to see how it all plays out. Secretly, I'm hoping that my documents will be reviewed before the I-171H expires and then I won't have to renew at all... because a "free" renewal is not all that free.

In the meantime, Lala is becoming more of a little person every day! She's learned to sit up fairly well, even in the bathtub. This weekend, she seems to have crossed the line between passive observer to actively touch everything - I dunno how to explain it, she just suddenly seems to be more interested in things around her. She's got a new favorite toy that she picked out herself (it was the only one she did more than just stare at)... she remembers it from previous play times, so maybe some object permanance is going on. She's still more interested in eating books that reading them.

She graduated to Stage 2 foods (which basically means, she eats more in a sitting) - we were getting mixtures of foods and fruits. I'm still trying to figure out all this "when to introduce..." advice. Everyone says something different... however Lala isn't at the stage where she recognizes that "if I put something in my mouth, I can eat it, rather than just play with it" and she's not at the stage of really chewing either, so we're sticking to mush.