Yawn. I mean ... whee....

This month's rumor roller coaster has turned out to be more of a kiddie ride. No ups, no downs, really not much in the way of rumors at all.

First we heard that this month's batch included the 12th. Then we heard it was through the 12th. Then we heard it included the 12th and was maybe through the 12th. Oh, the suspense. Do you think the cutoff might be, uhm, I don't know, the 12th?

I've thought since December or January that we'd get our referral in June and I still think that. Not much of a roller coaster anymore and, you know what, that's ok with me as long it eventually happens.

There are a number of families with our agency who have 1/11/06 LIDs and we're really hoping that they see their babies' faces this week. Fingers crossed for you guys!!

The best dog ever

I know this probably looks Photoshopped, but it is a real photo! Maddie and I were practicing her down-stays and I decided to try propping a book up in front of her. I'm not sure why we have a Golden Retrievers for Dummies book, but it was good for a photo op.

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I also made a scrapbook layout of the photo with Maddie's evaluation from her Obedience II class on Saturday. She got an "Excellent", by the way, and is approved to move on to just about any class we want to take next. The original plan was to do the Canine Good Citizen class next, but we're having such a good time working together, that I'm thinking of signing up for Obedience III or Rally instead.

P.S. The little girl next door told her mom that Maddie is her best friend. Isn't that cute?! Maddie's gonna be great with Nora.

** Paper and elements from Miss Mint/Peppermint Creative Good Dog kit. **

Operation family dinner - week 1 status report

Our first full week of healthy family dinners has been a huge success. The food has been so good that Rob is concerned that it's going to make him fat (even though there's no reason to think that - everything is super healthy and fresh). Five of our meals came from the Moosewood Simple Suppers book and every one was fantastic.

Here's a rundown of the week:

• Easy Egg Rolls
• Southwestern Black Bean Salad
• Sesame Tofu with Spinach and Soba Noodles
• West Indian Red Beans and Coconut Rice
• Greek Salad (not from the Moosewood book)
• Greek Frittata

One night we were rushed and had Amy's Organics microwave dinners. It was still a fairly healthy meal, so I don't feel too bad about it.

I have another new cookbook, Veganomicon, that we'll be trying this week. We're also making a few more recipes from the Moosewood book.

Now my cookbook cabinet is full. I need to go through my old books and get rid of the ones we never use. Any idea on how to dispose of old cookbooks? Maybe I should check if the Animal Shelter is planning another book sale and see if they'll take them.

Amazing China

First of all, have you seen the new National Geographic?? It's a special issue about China (click on the magazine title above to link to their site). I bought two print copies at Borders this afternoon - one to read and one to save for Nora.

I haven't read the whole magazine yet, but I've read enough to be inspired to do the "About China" page for Nora's lifebook as this week's digi-scrapping homework (topic was recoloring an element - I recolored the filmstrip and the dragon sticker)

Paper - Confucius Says by Heather Roselli for Sweet Shoppe Designs

Photostrip Element - Adapted from Amy Teets Birthday Mini Elements

Dragon Element - Adapted from Maria LaFrance Journeys of the Heart

Fonts - 1001 Free Fonts Chinese Takeaway and Font Garden Astrid

Life without plastic

I found a great site this evening - http://www.lifewithoutplastic.com/

I've been looking for a while for non-plastic dishes for Nora and was happy to have found some more options (the Reed and Barton ones in my previous post seem to no longer be available at the site linked in the post, but you can see them here - click on the word here).

Baby bottles are still a point of confusion. I'd planned on getting the Wee-go bottles, but when I went to the store last weekend they told me they didn't carry them anymore because the nipples leaked. Ugh. I don't want plastic, but I don't want smelly formula dripping all over the place either.

Anyone have any thoughts about ditching the plastic??

Pocket language guide

Last week I ordered the "red card" language guide from OCDF. It arrived in the mail yesterday and is even better than I had hoped! Who knew that so much could fit in such a small space?!

I had been sort of casually working on my own pocket phrase guide, but I think I'm going to abandon that effort in favor of this handy little card (it's a 22 page fold-out). I'll also probably bring the travel language guide that we ordered from our agency, since it isn't very big either.

It's fun to actually be thinking about travel!

Pediatrician - check.

I met with our prospective pediatrician today and couldn't have been happier - I think she's perfect for us! We are on the same page with respect to vaccinations, antibiotics, nutrition and healthcare in general. She gave me a copy of their clinic's baby care binder which contained all kinds of information and said that we'd add to it as Nora grows. This is great - I'm so relieved!!

I also asked her if there were any books that she'd recommend that I read before Nora comes home and she suggested two: Parenting From the Inside Out by Daniel Siegel and Mary Hartzell and Caring for Your Baby and Young Child, Revised Edition: Birth to Age 5 by American Academy Of Pediatrics

The second book we already have (we got it free from State Farm!), but the first one is new to me. It is apparently about examining how our parenting is shaped by the way we were raised. I think it's about not repeating your parents' mistakes. All I can say is that if I'm half the mother my mom is, Nora will turn out great.

Totally unrelated to my visit with the pediatrician, Nora got a beautiful present today - my friend Z was in San Francisco on business last week and he bought Nora the prettiest outfit in Chinatown. He even got shoes (I think we have Z's wife J to thank for that!). Isn't it so cute?!

New PSE skill - spot of color

This week's Photoshop lesson was making a color photo into b&w and then reintroducing some of the color. I did a little still life of the stuff on top of our office armoire. Isn't this the coolest thing?! I think there are some great possibilities for using this technique with baby photos.

I also learned to make my own patterned paper. I made a dot and a plaid, which I used in a layout with the photo above. Really, though, the photo is the star.

Love my Photoshop class!!

Next-to-last Secret Pal gift

I am truly sad to see the last of our secret pal exchanges coming to a close next month. The good news is that we are getting so close to our referral that it makes sense to wrap up the exchange, but I'm really going to miss our secret pal -- hopefully we'll be able to stay in touch after the swap ends next month. I'm also excited to finally get to find out who has been sending us so many wonderful, thoughtful gifts over all these months!

This month's next-to-last gift was (almost) all about hair -- our SP sent a comb and brush set, teeny tiny baby barrettes (perfect for someone with not much hair) and adorable curly ribbon pony tail holders.

She also sent the cutest board book, All About My Day, that is a "baby's first scrapbook" . It is so cool! It has places for us to slip in photos of Nora doing all the things described in the book - eating dinner, playing with her favorite toy, etc. She is going to love reading about herself!!

I also want to send BIG THANKS to Manette for organizing this swap - you've been an awesome hostess!!

Hoping for anything less than "Horrid"

The Queen is back and I'm liking her projections -- come on bad case!!

As silly as that sounds, four of the past five months have been "Horrid" or "Worse-than-Horrid". As someone said earlier today, "Horrid" is the new normal.

I still think that we'll get our referral in June, but I sure am having a good time thinking about May.

Choosing a pediatrician

Thanks to some suggestions from my friends at The Packing List Challenge and the recommendations from several folks in our local FCC group, I think we have a good prospect for a regular pediatrician for Nora (we still plan to use the IA clinic for her initial post-adoption examination). I talked to someone at the office today - she is going to mail me some materials and physician information because their website is in the process of being updated. Once I review those materials, I am supposed to call her back to schedule a consultation. She said that I could even meet with each of the doctors individually if I want to. I think it's great that they offered that, however I'll probably start with the physician who was so highly recommended by members of the local FCC group.

So, now I'm trying to come up with a list of questions for the initial consult. This is what I've got so far (list was compiled from a variety of sources including adoption.com, Adoptive Families magazine and Dr Sears' Baby Book):

• What are the office hours?
• Does the office have evening and weekend appointments?
• What is the average wait for well-baby appointments?
• Does the office see children urgently on the same day for sick visits?
• Are laboratory facilities on site? If not, where would we be sent for these?
• Is screening for hearing and vision done in the office?
• Where did she go to medical school and more importantly where did she do her Pediatric residency training?
• How long has she been in practice?
• Is she board-certified?
• Are the physicians in the office board certified?
• Does she have any special medical interests?
• What experience does she have dealing with the complex issues of the internationally adopted child?
• How many of the physicians within the group actively see Internationally adopted children?
• How do I reach her for routine questions or urgent problems?
• Does she have specific telephone call-in times?
• Can I reach her by e-mail?
• What if Nora becomes ill?
• If Nora is ill, will she usually be seen in the office?
• When would she be referred to the emergency room?
• If a hospitalization becomes necessary, does the office admit to a local community hospital or do they admit to a hospital that is geared towards the care of children?
• Who would be responsible for Nora's care if she were to be hospitalized?
• Who covers the pediatrician when she is away?
• What type of staff is in the office?
• Are we likely to see different providers at each visit?
• How much time will the pediatrician spend with us at a typical visit?
• What is her recommended check up frequency?
• What are her views on well childcare and early childhood development?
• When does she prescribe antibiotics?
• What is the her view on vaccines and what is her recommended vaccine schedule?
• We would like to use the U of M IAC for Nora's first Post-Adoption Medical exam. How does she feel about this? When would she want to first see Nora? How do we coordinate care with the IAC?
• Would she be willing to write prescriptions such as Elimite and Tobrex for our adoption trip or will we need to go elsewhere for that? Does she have concerns with this?
• How does she feel about raising a child as a vegetarian/pescatarian?
• To whom does she refer children who are developmentally delayed?

Am I missing anything?? Are any of these questions unnecessary?

TIA for any advice!

Twenty seven months

'nuf said

What's for dinner

Dinner is one of the things that I think we could do better as a family. Right now Rob and I sort of wing it. We usually eat together at the table, but we don't always eat the same thing. It's not always a quality, balanced meal. Sometimes we bring computers or magazines or newspapers to the table with us. NPR is often on the radio.

This needs to change BN (before Nora). First and foremost, I think we need to have a healthy, planned ahead meal for the family. Individual servings of yogurt, fruit and dry cereal is not an acceptable dinner anymore. I'm going to try to do some meal planning next week - shop over the weekend with a plan for dinner each night. I think we'll eat better this way and I have a new cookbook - Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers - that I'm looking forward to trying.

I also signed up for a share of a local CSA farm. I think we'll get our first box in early June. I signed up for a family share, so that should mean lots of fresh veggies this summer!

Fingerprints

Our CIS (Citizenship and Immigration Services) fingerprints were due to expire on June 27 and since we won't have Nora home by then, we needed to request an appointment to get them retaken. It's an interesting process. You write a letter requesting an "invitation", then a couple of weeks later you get a letter with your appointment date/time and, unless you have a really good reason to reschedule, that's when you go. Our appointment was Friday morning.

This is something I really don't like to do, because it seems like the immigration office is always full of really crabby people. Friday, though, it wasn't so crowded - the guard was friendly, the other people waiting were friendly, the woman taking Rob's prints was friendly, only the lady doing my prints was having a bad day. I've never heard such sighing. Not a big deal to me, since it was only a few minutes of my day, but how sad for her that the day had already gone so wrong by 10am.
Yes, it's true, I'm running out of material for my digi-scrapping class.

Calendar update -- one more week!

One more week until we're matched with Nora! By week, of course, I mean a week's worth of LIDs. Knowing that the 12th is a big day, I'm thinking that next month will go through the 12th and then we'll get ours in June. You'd think I'd have learned by now that I shouldn't make any predictions about this, but I can't help myself.

Back to bottles ... and an apology for the crabbiness!

So, my mom read the last couple of posts and made the following comment on the phone today, "You're right, you were crabby, but I didn't want to say anything." Gosh, I admitted that at work, but thought I had done a better job hiding it on my free time. Guess not. I'm very sorry to everyone who may have fallen victim to my crabbiness. Especially Rob and my Mom. If I should ever turn crabby again, just tell me to snap out of it!

As of now I have chosen to use my personal energy for good rather than crabbiness. Among the many things on my to-do list:

1. Finish pre-work on referral announcements
2. Work on intermediate digi-scrapping class
3. Learn to use new camcorder
4. Work on baby toiletry/medication packing list challenge
5. Decide on diapers and bottles for Nora.
6. Teach Maddie about her rug

... and, next Friday, NEW FINGERPRINTS! Party on, Wayne.

Update: Oops, and again I forget that I'm supposed to be making a crib quilt for Nora. Thanks, K, for pointing that out!

Getting past the crabbiness

... or trying to anyway.

There's still no final word on the cut off date. Someone posted on the RQ forum that her agency said it was the 10th, but so far she's the only one to have said that and as far as I know no one has received their referral yet. So, we really don't know for sure, but it seems like the cut off is probably 1/9/06. I think that this puts our best case back to June.

Two months for me to worry about what might go wrong. I really need to stay busy. So, I signed myself up for another digital scrapbooking class and I bought a camcorder. I figure I can learn to use it now and get some practice in before the call. If anyone is interested, I decided on the Canon Vixia HF10 (flash memory - sweet!). I have one from the new shipment on reserve at the camera store and am planning on picking it up on Friday.

This is new territory - we've never had a camcorder. Rob's prediction is that I will tap out the capability of our home computer in the first week. We'll see - we just added a terabyte of network storage for photos, etc. Hopefully we can get by with that and the 2.5 year old laptop for a while. If not the Mac - PC war will resume between me and Rob (I'm on the PC side and won the last round, but he makes some good arguments).