The most beautiful diaper bag ever

Rob picked up on my none-too-subtle hints and got me this amazing diaper bag for Christmas.

It's the Skooch Groovy, Baby in Chocolate (sort of looks black in this photo, but trust me, it's a lovely chocolate brown) and it came with a matching changing pad. Of course I can't speak to it's functionality yet, but I can say that it is a great looking bag and seems to be very well made. I can't wait to try it out!

We also got some wonderful gifts for Nora from Rob's sister K and her family who had our name in this year's family exchange. They got her a red (yay!) Chicco backpack carrier, which Rob has already put away on the top shelf of Nora's closet where I can't reach it. They also got her some sporty Christmas jammies for next year, Counting Kisses board book and Tails board book (the Tails book is from Nora's cousin J who is 2). Thanks, J, for wanting Nora to have a copy of your favorite book. Nora is very lucky to have you to show her the ropes!

New year (almost), new look!

I don't know why template editing doesn't come easier to me than it does, but for some reason blog design is a challenge. Rob and I talked about the kinds of things we like and decided that Nora's blog should have a fresh, outdoorsy look. What you see now is the best I've come up with so far. It is probably also how I'm going to leave it for a while ... but please let me know what you think. There's a poll in the sidebar to the left or, if you'd rather, you can leave a comment on this post.

I've also made similar updates to Nora's Library blog (link to left under "Site Navigation).

Christmas goodies!

Today we got a great Christmas present from our Jan DTC Secret Pal. She sent a Biscuit Christmas board book (it's a texture book that will be perfect for Nora next year), a Christmas card record book, a tree-trimming music cd (haven't listened to it, but I'll put it on the car tomorrow for sure), a really cute resin picture frame and a My First Christmas photo album which I absolutely love. It brought tears to my eyes.

Thank you very much - we love everything. Merry Christmas!
I'd also like to take a moment to wish my wonderful hubby a very HAPPY 16th ANNIVERSARY. I love you!

Flaky background pattern

I've noticed that the background pattern on this blog hasn't been showing up reliably. I'm not sure why that is because I'm referencing the pattern from a file on the server where our personal website is hosted ... it should always be available.

Anyway, in case you can't see it, I've pasted a screen shot above. This will also be a nice memento of the old template. I thought it was cute when I first made it, but it hasn't evolved at all over the past two years and is definitely in need of a new look.

I'll be working on this over winter break and hope to have something ready to share by New Years!

What do you think?

I've been enviously eyeing everyone's cool blogs and thinking that mine looks a little blah. Tell me what you think. Please vote below.

Update 12/18: I took the poll down. I get the message. There will be a new look for 2008! Thanks for your input!

And by the way...

Today is our 23 month LID-iversary and what do I think of when I think of #23?? Michael Jordan!! What can I say? You can take the girl out of Chicago, but... well, you know.



Hopefully I'll not need to use any photos of MJ in his other number.*

*Michael Jordan wore No. 45 for 17 regular-season and five playoff games in 1995. (He also wore No. 12 once, when his jersey was stolen in a trip to Orlando in 1990.) After that, I guess #23 was un-retired and then re-retired.

Christmas tradition

Yesterday Rob and I went to the Lorie Line Holiday Extravaganza at the Orpheum (an absolutely gorgeous, historic theater) - we go every year and consider it our anniversary present to each other. In recent years, Lorie has been bringing kids up from the audience for a special activity. This year they sang the 12-Days of Christmas - it was amazing and the costumes for the kids were unbelievable (10 lords a leaping were frogs in crowns, 9 ladies dancing were kitties in tutus). I've posted the photo below, hopefully you can click on it to see more detail. If that doesn't work, try this link to Lorie's website (click on the word link).

Also on the Christmas front, I took a quiz that I saw on Rhonda and Mike's blog to find out which holiday character I am. Yeah, why bother you ask, when I already know the answer. Yup. We're the Griswolds.

The holiday season brings out your competitive side. You want to give the best presents, have the best-looking house on the block, and cook up the most delicious holiday feast. You strive to be number one at everything you do, which makes you prone to holiday freak-outs when things don't go as expected. As long as you stay calm, you're great to have around during the holidays – mostly because you're trying so hard to make sure everyone else has the BEST possible time.

... and if you live in our neighborhood, I'm am profoundly sorry for our woeful exterior illumination. We'll do better next year - 'cuz next year will be our first Christmas with Nora and of course I'll want it to be perfect.

Weird dream

I don't often remember my dreams, but when I do they are always doozies. Last night I dreamed that we were at a dinner party and the match coordinator from our agency called me over and very quietly asked, "We're wondering if you'd be willing to accept a referral of triplets?" She said that the CCAA had two sets of triplets available for adoption but no one ever mentions triplets in their dossier and they didn't know what to do. Apparently they asked our agency to check if they had any families who would accept triplets and for some reason the match coordinator just happened to be at our dinner party 930 miles from their office and decided to ask us. Of course I said yes, didn't even check with Rob. Triplets. Wow, that would be quite the surprise.

I blame Rob's work party for keeping me up too late and making me talk about the adoption all evening.

Warm and snuggly

I just love Christmas. This is far and away my favorite time of year. I love everything about it ... and I am so touched that people have remembered Nora this year.

First our friend K gave Nora this adorable hat. K's mom works at an awesome company called Wintergreen which makes great outdoor apparel in one of our very favorite places in the world (the MN Northwoods) - this is one of their baby hats.

It is sherpa fleece on the outside and lined with smooth fleece on the inside - sooo warm and snuggly. And so amazingly cute. I can hardly wait to see Nora's chubby little cheeks peeking out of there!

Nora also received a Christmas gift from Rob's Aunt Jan and Uncle Dave. They have been so sweet to think of her each year at Christmastime. In Christmas of 2005 they sent me a beautiful necklace with the Chinese character "ai" (love) and last year they sent Nora One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish and a stuffed blue fish.

This year they sent a set of puppet books - very fun! I'm sure that Nora will love them. They even have a little case that she can carry them around in.

Thank you so much for remembering our baby. We are touched by your thoughtfulness.

Wow - more eating of words (the toxic toy issue)

Everything I ever said about our congressman not paying enough attention to his constituents - I take it back. Not only did I receive this email last week, this morning I received the following mass email from him:

Dear Friends,

No parent should have to worry that the toys they put under the tree for their kids are unsafe. Like many parents, I am very concerned about the 25 million toys recalled this year. With the United States importing 80% of its toys from China, I believe we need to take greater measures to protect our families from unsafe products.

Several pieces of legislation moving through the House right now will address these issues – strengthening the Consumer Product Safety Commission, banning products with lead beyond very minute levels, and third party testing and tracking for children’s products.

As Congress takes up these bills, I want to hear what your thoughts are. Please take a moment to answer the short survey below and tell me how I can better represent you in Washington.

Sincerely,
[Congressman's Signature]

Of course I took the survey. Here are the responses as of this morning:

There was also a place to leave comments, which of course I did - some comments about product testing and a thank you for his attention.

I'm so used to being ignored by our representatives in Washington that I almost don't even know how to react to this. He has heard feedback and wants to do something about it? He wants to understand what the people of his district think? This is how it's supposed to work! Stunning.

"Green" gift wrap

Last weekend I mentioned this year's greener Christmas and my hope that we will be able to waste less on gift wrap. I know that I don't have time to make enough reusable gift bags to do all our gifts (plus I have a lot of stockpiled gift wrap to use up), but I did make a few for small gifts. I'm not an experienced sewer and am not really used to making things without a pattern, but I was able to eventually figure out how to make a simple drawstring gift bag. I think they're pretty cute and I was happy to be able to use some scrap fabric from my stash and add a little less to the landfill.

Here's a shot of two of the bags - one flat and one cinched up.

Rob's Yoga Journal magazine even has an article about gift wrap this month. They mention a website called Wrapsacks that sells reusable gift bags and lets you track them online - how cool is that?! They are also beautiful and very reasonably priced at $4-$10 each.

Other environmentally-friendly wrappings mentioned in the article are:

• Furoshiki (a Japanese method of fabric wrapping)
• Paper bags decorated with stencils or crayons
• Out of date maps or old sheet music
• Reused/repurposed vintage containers such as cigar, shoe or hat boxes
• Natural materials such as raffia, string or fabric instead of synthetic ribbon
• Natural gift box fillers such as leaves, straw, pine or shredded paper scented with essential oils

Happy wrapping!! If you have other creative ideas, please share!

Timing and the slowdown

The RQ has a great graphic showing wait times from LID to referral over the past couple of years. Rob and I first started researching China adoption in June 2005, began our paper chase in late July 2005 and our dossier was logged in on January 16, 2006 (this is our "LID" or log in date). So, our expectations at the beginning were for a 6-8 month wait. I told everyone October 2006, though, thinking that was a conservative estimate. Ha, shows what I know.

Here's the table from the RQ's site:

This is good proof I think of what has happened to the timing of the China program. Next month, the wait will pass the two year mark and it's still getting longer. Everyone hopes for a speed-up, but considering the number of waiting families I don't see how that could possibly happen. Most agencies are telling clients that the wait will continue to lengthen, which to me seems like the responsible message for them to convey.

Anyway, if the 6 days/month holds, that will put us in June. The RQ has a new LID poll up now that will tell us more about the numbers of dossiers ahead of us. If there are fewer dossiers per day than there were in Nov and early Dec 2005, then maybe we'll get our referral a little sooner - May? Maybe. I hate to get my hopes up because so far every time I think it can't get worse, it does.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to everyone receiving their referral this week! The pictures of all your beautiful babies have lifted me out of my funk. Thanks for that!!

CCAA Update

Despite some rumors of a 12/15 cutoff, the CCAA has confirmed that this month's matches are through 12/14. So, a six day batch - matching the RQ's "horrid" case scenario.

Sadly, extending this timeline puts us in June (or even July depending on how much time is lost with the Spring holiday). The Beijing Olympics start on August 8. This is NOT good.

I would love to find the silver lining here, but I'm just not seeing it tonight. I told Rob I was going to finish this post and then cry. He asked me why. Ah, blissful ignorance. Wish I could do it.

I do want to congratulate the families receiving their referrals this month - and especially the CCAI 12/9 and 12/14 families! I'm happy for you, really. Unfortunately, it is completely overshadowed by the sadness that I feel for us.

Outdoor adventures with baby

If you've read this blog for a while, you know that Rob and I enjoy outdoorsy activities like hiking, camping and kayaking and would really like to share these things with Nora. This year's camping trips were mostly about figuring out how to make it all work with a little one.

I've also spent some time talking to my friend K who's a backpacker about how she manages with her 9 month-old daughter and she swears by the Sherpani Rumba frame carrier. $229.95 - gulp. It's one of those things that I'm always looking to find on sale. Well, today ... jackpot!

I received an email from REI advertising an extra 20% off one item at REI-Outlet. I clicked on it, not expecting much, and was very happily surprised to find a closeout 2007 Rumba (black color only, which is ok with me) marked down to $149.93. With the additional 20% off it wound up costing $119.93. I saved $110! I'm so excited!

I haven't told Rob yet, so I think it might be part of his Christmas gift ... or maybe an anniversary gift (our anniversary is also this month). If you talk to Rob, please don't mention to him. Thankfully he doesn't read this blog, so he won't find out here!

P.S. This is for hiking/camping only. The plan is still to use the Ergo as our day-to-day carrier.

More on the toxic toys - eating my words

Wow. You may remember that I wrote to both senators and our congressman (all three of whom I voted for - yes, I feel that I need to point that out every time) and was disappointed that I only received a form-letter-ish response from one senator. Well, today I received an email from our congressman that might be an actual personal response. I'm impressed. Here it is:

Dear Jennifer:

Thank you for contacting me about product safety. I appreciate hearing from you.

As the father of two boys, I am very concerned about the recent recalls of children's toys, pet food, and other goods from China . In 2007, the United States imported $288 billion worth of goods from China . While the vast majority of these goods are safe, the recent recalls highlight the need for improved product safety standards.

Several pieces of legislation moving through the House right now will address these issues - strengthening the Consumer Product Safety Commission, banning products with lead beyond very minute levels, and third party testing and tracking for children's products. As Congress takes up these bills, I will continue to push for stronger measures to protect consumers from unsafe products.

Again, thank you for contacting me. Please do not hesitate to be in touch with additional comments or concerns. I also encourage you to visit my website, [url for his website], where you can find updated information, sign up to receive my e-newsletter, and send me e-mail.

I'm liking him again now. I know; I'm easy.

A green Christmas?

Rob's family has decided to have a "green" theme for this year's family Christmas celebration. Most of our gifts are bought (some of them greener than others, but none too terribly un-green) and today I turned my attention to gift wrap. I've been thinking about reusable gift wrap, but honestly don't think that I have enough time left to make fabric bags. Hopefully I'll get that done next year. For now, I'm easing my way in with recycled wrapping paper, which was none to easy to find. If we lived in the UK there would have been a lot of options, but here in the US not so many. I also managed to find some natural trim and the coolest gift tags ever. I wonder if Al Gore wraps his Christmas gifts...

I also have to admit that I bought a Christmas gift for Nora, even though she won't be with us yet this year. Rob doesn't know about it (yet), so I'm thinking of maybe wrapping it and having him open it on her behalf. I want to also get some sort of baby's first Christmas ornament since I figure that Nora has probably already been born (how many times have I said that and been wrong - this time, though, I think it's really true). Next year, we'll think of something extra-special to celebrate our first Christmas as a family.

Ornament Swap - Thank you Michelle!

Thank you, Michelle, for the beautiful cloisonne Christmas ornament and candle snuffer! We didn't have any cloissnne and I actually didn't even know until I read the card with the snuffer that cloisonne was a Chinese art. Both the ornament and the snuffer are really pretty - the snuffer you can see looks perfect on our sideboard. Hmm, probably I should get some candles!

Thanks again -- and Merry Christmas to you and your family!!