Meet Baby L!

We have been blessed to adopt this cute little angel. She is such a sweetie! We are so in love with her!

We found out about her around the beginning of May. We felt good about her so we submitted our application for her birth family to look at. A couple of weeks went by and then we got a call that we had been selected! We were absolutely thrilled!

When we saw her situation her due date was July 5th, the day after Wizard of Oz was finished. I thought that even if she came a couple of weeks early it wouldn't be a big deal because we'd be in tech week, finished with the choreography. Well, after we were chosen for her we found out she could come any day!

Allan and I rushed about for the next two weeks trying to get all of our commitments wrapped up. Me with the play choreography, and Allan with Scout camp and work.

We wanted to tell as few people as possible so that if the adoption fell through we wouldn't have to tell very many people. So we just told most people that we had a family emergency and had to get things wrapped up. Everyone was so good, worked so hard, and made so many sacrifices to make it possible for us to leave when we needed to! We live in a great community!

Two days after I finished the choreography we got the call that Baby L was coming. We packed everything up and were ready to head out the door first thing in the morning when we got another call that it was a false alarm, ha! The next day we got a call saying that Baby L was born earlier that morning!

She was born June 7th, 5lbs 8 oz, 18 1/2 inches long! A day after Allan's birthday! Happy Birthday Daddy!

Baby L was born in CA, so we headed out to get her. Little A was quite the champ on our long car ride! She really did great! She was so excited that we were going to get a baby sister!

She was also very excited that she got to sleep in this big bed all by herself!

We got to the hospital the night after L was born. We went straight to the hospital to meet her and then headed to Allan's cousins home for dinner. Allan's cousin is attending the university that the hospital is affiliated with. We are so grateful for them! The Ronald McDonald house was under construction so we couldn't stay there, and all of the hotels with in an hour were full because there were several tournaments and other things going on in the area. His cousins let us stay in their home, in student housing, even though they'd just had a baby of their own!

Little A loved playing with their kids. We spent a lot of time on the swings on the playground right outside their door. They watched Little A for us a couple of times so we could get some of the paperwork done, and they made us dinner several times.

They even took care of Father's day for me, ha! It was such a huge blessing to be with them in so many ways!

Baby L was about a month early, but doing really well. She had an intestinal blockage that was found in utero, so they had to feed her intravenously until after her surgery. She had her surgery when she was 3 days old. It went really well. They had to bypass her stomach for a while and feed her through a feeding tube. She's a fighter though, and she worked really hard to be ready to eat from a bottle. She practiced sucking by using a pacifier and with a little help learned to poop on her own.

Taking out the pump.

L also has a small heart defect that we are hopeful will heal on it's own, enlarged ventricles in her brain (which seem to be resolving on their own), a problem with her blood called TMD (it looks similar to leukemia, it usually resolves on it's own but 1% of cases do become leukemia), and Down Syndrome.

Since her surgery she has continued to get stronger and heal very quickly. She spent 2 1/2 weeks in the NICU and then was transferred to PICN for a week.

Transferring to the PICN

During that time she healed from her surgery, learned to suck and swallow from a bottle, and the doctors were able to take out her feeding tube! She also had three blood transfusions and received platelets to help her blood out a bit.

Allan and I split up our time between the girls, taking turns sitting in the NICU and PICN with Baby L, and playing with Little A. We made sure to always eat our meals together. Little A found a lot of fun things to do at the hospital. Riding in the little cars,

Rocking in the rocking chair,

Stickers, stories, and coloring in the library,

Smelling (and picking) the flowers in the garden,

Painting at the preschool,

but her favorite thing to do was run around the circle outside the NICU. The hospital waiting areas and hallways were set up in a large circle, the middle was windows to the garden. She loved to run around and around that, giggling the whole time.

One day a nice receptionist gave Little A a balloon to play with. She loved it so much she literally squeezed the life out of it! HA! That didn't bother her though, she continued to play with that deflated balloon until I threw it away right before we left!

Little A also loved going to the cafeteria to eat. It was a highlight of the day for her. She was very quickly known as the vegetable girl because she almost always chose the salad bar over pizza or chicken nuggets! The cafeteria people were floored! In this picture She had chosen the salad bar and a fruit and yogurt parfait. She ate all of the fruit out of the parfait and then proceeded to dip her vegetables in the yogurt! Lol! She's too funny when she eats!

We also went out for ice cream one night to celebrate having a sister! The place we went to did create your own ice cream sandwiches. It was super fun and super yummy! Little A was ecstatic about her cookies. 

She thought the ice cream was okay too. Then she saw a family that brought their dog with them and she went crazy over that dog, ha! She wouldn't pet it but she ran over to it giggling and squealing in excitement. The dog wasn't sure what to think about her, but it was a very sweet dog.

Funny story about little A. Allan was lying next to her one night helping her to fall asleep when she started pushing him off of the bed. He sat up and she promptly put her stuffed kitty in his spot! He asked where he was supposed to sleep and she pointed to the floor, ha! He laughed pretty hard and obliged her! 

Little A went on an elevator for the first time. When we got off she collapsed to the floor in tears! After that every time we went by the elevator she would cry and yell "No"! I think it may have thrown her equilibrium off. She's got pretty sensitive ears. She loved the stairs though.

We also spent one day at the Ronald McDonald house. I'm really grateful that we couldn't stay there because I'm not sure what we would have done with out the park at Allan's cousins house. The Ronald McDonald house didn't have any swings, and Little A was terrified of their slides. They had a couple playhouses, but one was too big for her, and that was about it. They have a toddler play room but it was only open at night when she was sleeping. The family room that had toys in it was right next to another family room where people were sleeping so I had to try to keep her quiet, which didn't work well at all. She did enjoy the sticker the receptionist gave her, and trying the helmet on to a bike that was lying around. 

We were playing house in one of the playhouses, and she told me she needed to go potty. I asked if she needed to go real potty or pretend potty. She said pretend and then went to the corner where we were pretending the bathroom was and started to pull her pants down! I stopped her and explained that if we're going pretend potty we don't pull our pants down. She said okay and then peed her pants! We have some work to do learning the difference between reality and pretend! Also, she peed on the astro-turf instead of the dirt! Ug! And I'd forgotten to pack extra clothes that day so all I had was a pull up!

So, the Ronald McDonald house was a fail for us. I do have to say though that it was really a beautiful place, and if it had not been under construction (they had built a new building and were remodeling the old one along with other activities for the kids) it probably would have been a great place for us.

Little A did really well, but it was a tough time for her too. She ended up in bed with us every night, and she had a major (and I mean MAJOR) potty training regression. She is terrified of automatic toilets, and all of the toilets were automatic. At first she did really good about going pee in the potty as long as we were at our cousins house, but eventually she just stopped altogether. We had a few really nasty poop incidents as well.

Our 4th week in I ended up taking little A home so she could have some normalcy. While we were home we went to see the Wizard of OZ, which turned out really great! More on that later.

Baby L had chronic jaundice. It wasn't really bad, but just lasted and lasted, so she had to be under the lights for a few days. It looked like she was in a space capsule, ha! She hated it. Especially the glasses.

An Occupational Therapist came to give Baby L her first bottle. She had a pretty good suck but struggled to swallow without choking. They decided to continue to use the feeding tube for a while and let her keep sucking on a pacifier. When she got to have the bottle again she really went after it! It took her a while to gain the muscle strength to eat a whole feeding but she got there. We were able to leave the hospital without the feeding tube, which was a huge blessing!!!

We did receive training on how to insert the feeding tube, and we fed her through the tube for all of her feedings, which was really easy. Quite honestly it was easier than bottle feeding and took less time too. But, we're relieved that she could learn to bottle feed!

In the NICU all of the babies would just lie there, quietly for the most part. Baby L was the one wiggling out of her blankets kicking her legs and looking around. She was always very interested in what was going on. She loved to be read to, sung to, snuggled, and have rattles shook for her. She rarely cried.

We had really great nurses and doctors. There was one stressful incident involving IV's, forgotten transfusions, and they wanted to put a PIC line in her head, but otherwise it really was a great experience and couldn't have gone smoother. Baby L was really well taken care of.

We got to visit with her birth family a few times before we left. It was always a joy to have them come and visit Baby L in the hospital. They are such kind people. The name they gave Baby L means peaceful, and it really fits her and them perfectly.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

We celebrated our 8th anniversary this year with dinner out. We were really busy so we only had a few hours, but we made the most of it. We really enjoyed the time alone and little A loved playing with her babysitter O. O is fantastic! We love her. We use O and another babysitter N frequently and little A has a ball with both of them. We are so grateful to have such good girls available to babysit!

We spent Memorial day with Nana and Pops.

Little A really loved putting flowers on all of the graves and picking the dandelions and clovers in the cemeteries. She looked pretty cute too!

We took little A to a small zoo in a town nearby. She enjoyed seeing all of the animals, but mostly just loved running around. We saw and petted a Tortoise,

  saw some bears,

Can't remember what was in this one, a fox maybe,

 a beautiful bald eagle, my favorite,

elk, deer, antelope, mountain lion, turkey, and several other animals. And of course we piggy backed out!

We also had a little picnic at the park near the zoo, with my new picnic basket of course!

We had a really fun play date with our friends, A and A, and their kids. At one point little A wanted to play with the doll house but all the other kids were downstairs in another room. Since the doll house is small I decided to bring it down stairs for her. Just as I was going down the stairs one of the other girls, C, decided to come up the stairs (she's about 15 months old). I slipped and slid down the stairs, dropped the house, and it slammed into C's face knocking her backwards down the stairs! Thankfully she had only crawled up two steps. It was NOT good. C had a bloody lip and a little black eye. :(  I jammed my arm onto the point on the stair railing and had a good bruise for a while. I finally remembered to take a picture of it when it was on it's way out. It was a really good one. I felt so, SO bad for dropping the house on C, poor baby.

I'm working on the Wizard of Oz still and in it Glinda says something like "Don't make me drop a house on you!" 

We went to the nearby city and did some shopping. Allan bought little A her own camping chair. She picked it out all by herself and was so proud of it!

 We had a family dinner and took some fun photos. Cousins watching a show with Uncle K.

 Piggy backs with Mama

Running in the grass

trying out Pop's new hammock.

These two girls are becoming best of friends! It's so fun to see them getting so close!

Happy Mother's Day!

For Mother's Day this year Allan got me a beautiful picnic basket! Yay! We love to have picnics, I am so excited to use it! Hopefully it will warm up here again soon.

Little A got me a pancake turner and colored a beautiful picture for me! When Grandma asked her what she got me for Mother's Day she said "A yum, yum, yummy!" and rubbed her belly.

One of her favorite things to eat is pancakes with butter. She especially likes to put the butter on herself.

 I've been very busy with the "Wizard of Oz" lately: rehearsals, production meetings, and trying to get the last few dances choreographed. It's been a lot of fun, and also just a lot. We'll be excited to have some good family time when it's over. It's looking really good though! I'm really proud of everyone, I've given them some tricky stuff and they're making it look great!

Little A has learned how to wink! It is the cutest thing ever!

She's also learned some new dance moves. My favorite is when she stands arms and legs wide and shakes her whole body, ha! It's adorable! She also started flexing her muscles. We aren't sure where she learned this. One day I was getting her some milk and told her it would help her be healthy and strong and she suddenly flexed her muscles and growled at me lol!!! Love my cute, funny girl! She's always full of adorable surprises!

She's really started saying more and is saying phrased now too. It's so fun to hear her little voice more! She's up to about 100 words that she says regularly, with more that she says occasionally. Her words are also getting a lot clearer.

Allan is continuing to heal from his surgery. He's doing really well! He had a rough patch the last couple of weeks, but we've been blessed with some really good physical therapists who have really helped him! Little A loves to do his excersises with him!

I've been helping E with her solo after dance class. Little A has spent some time with cousin P, Nana, and Pops. They've had a great time having tea parties together. P will say, "Would you like some tea, please?" and Little A will say, "Yes, thank you!" over and over again, lol! We're so grateful we live close to our family!

They other day little A and I had a picnic at the park after story time. She sat in the swing almost the whole time, eating her lunch, ha!

Little A loves to wrestle! She's getting better at getting her daddy!

We were finally able to get the easel that grandpa made little A home. She LOVES it! We have played with it every day. She really likes all of the colorful chalk.

We've been able to go on some fun walks, and do some puddle splashing! Loving the spring weather!

One evening Little A was setting the table and I asked little A to put the Parmesan cheese on the table. I heard her say "mmm, yummy, yummy" over and over. When I looked she was putting Parmesan on everyone's plates, lol! She is a very good helper!

We went and got some flowers for our flower bed. Little A did a great job helping us dig holes for the flowers.

We came home from spending a day with cousin P and left with a whole bunch of hand-me-downs. Little A loved tying them all on.

We have a long box on our stairs that we use as a tunnel for little A's cars. We had a different one before that we also used as a slide. This box is sturdier though and doesn't flatten out, so little A came up with a different way to use it as a slide, ha! She wasn't very excited about it afterward though.

Family Time

Little A has struggled a bit with anxiety lately. I've been trying to find something to help her for a while. She used to use her pacifier, but they all broke and since she's three we aren't buying any new ones. She really likes the fringe on the afghan she sleeps with, and my hair. The tickling feeling seems to calm her down. So, I made her and I matching bracelets.

Little A's has fringe on it, and we both have one of my Grandma's old buttons from her button box. Little A has loved us having matching bracelets. She reminds me to put mine on every morning! It seems to be helping her. I've noticed that she'll get anxious, then feel the fringe on her bracelet, and then get all excited about the bracelet and run up to show whoever we're with.

For Christmas some of our family gifted us some family activities. We needed to go to a class on trans-racial adoption in the nearby city, so we decided to use one of those activities last weekend.

The adoption class was great! We loved the presenters and really learned a lot about the issues in trans-racial adoption, and about racism in general.

To start our weekend off we headed to a farm. Before we went to see the animals we had a picnic lunch. Allan had let Little A pick out some chips for lunch. She was so excited to eat them she could hardly contain herself and wasn't interested in eating anything else. She picked Cheetos. After the picnic we headed over to the farm. Little A loved seeing all of the animals.

The pigs were gone that day, which was a bummer for her and Allan because they like the pigs the best. We saw a lot of sheep, goats, and llamas.

We all really liked the sheep that had the big curly horns.

We saw a lot of different chickens, turkeys, and other birds. There were a lot of horses, cows, and a miniture donkey that scared Little A with its loud braying!

We watched the ducks and geese for a while and then saw a bunch of different bunnies. There were some play houses to play in and a discovery area where the kids can "plant" seeds (everything is a toy), harvest it, bring it to the market, etc. There was also an area that taught about worms. It had tunnels that you could crawl through; Little A thought that was the greatest! We went on a wagon ride, which little A loved.

Then we waited for an hour to ride the ponies. Little A almost died of boredom (it was also past her nap time), but she made it and got to ride a pony! I'm so glad that we waited because she absolutely LOVED it!

She wanted more Cheetos when we got back to the car. She fell asleep eating them, lol!

That evening we went out for Thai for my birthday, and then to get some ice cream. The Thai restaurant we went to was SO good! We went to Dairy Queen for ice cream. I asked little A if she wanted a cone or a blizzard, she said blizzard! I was so proud! I got her a strawberry cheesecake blizzard because she loves strawberries so much, but she ended up eating Allan's Turtle Pecan Cluster and then feeding her blizzard to him.

I really need to remember that she's a chocolate girl when it comes to ice cream. I got S'mores Oreo. Yum!

The next day we headed over to visit SG and her husband, A, and D and J and their daughter L. There is a great park close to where they live that they wanted to take us to. It was so much fun! Little A thought this swing was the best and spent most of the time in it.

She braved some slides and tried the monkey bars as well. Afterward we headed over to SG and A's apartment for dinner. We had a good time catching up with everyone. SG and A have a beautiful apartment! It was so much fun to spend some time with all of them! We're hoping we can do it again soon!

The following week we had cousin R over for the day. K3 and R stayed the night and then R stayed with us while K3 went to work. Little A and R had a blast together! A had a hard time sharing at first, but once I figured out that she just wanted me to acknowledge that something was hers she'd share it really well. I also managed to get them both to nap at the same time, which was an awesome miracle! I pulled the walker out for R; she absolutely loved it. However, little A was extremely jealous that she didn't get to ride in it. Eventually Little A found her car and she rode that around, then she was happy again because they both had something to ride.

We also had our friends little girl over (C). These two had so much fun together! It took about 30 minutes to help Little A understand how to play/share with C, and after that they were great! They headed off to play by themselves several times! Their favorite thing was taking turns pushing each other on the car.

We celebrated my birthday. Allan got me a small portable speaker, a cord to plug my phone into the car, and a new mini SD card for the phone so I can put all of my music on it. He also got me the laundry basket I wanted. (Now I can tuck it away at the side of the washer instead of it being in the middle of the floor! Yay for organization!) Little A picked out some bright red oven mitts for me! She was so excited to give them to me! :)

We had Cookie Grasshopper Pie and Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Mint and Chocolate are pretty much the best thing ever in my opinion. I couldn't find mint chocolate chip ice cream or I would have gotten that too, ha!

I had my first Wizard of Oz rehearsal. We started choreography for Munchkinland. It's looking really cute! It helps that the kids are so adorable! I hope their excitement for it lasts!

While I was gone Little A had a nap on Allan. He really enjoyed that snuggle!

We filmed an adoption video this weekend and sent it in to get edited. Hopefully it will turn out cute! We had a lot of fun with it. We got to have a lot of family play while doing it - picnic, play at the park, watch the ducks at the pond, dig in the garden, family dance, hide-and-go-seek, and playing in the toy room. Little A had a blast, she sure didn't want to leave the park though, she could have stayed there all day!

This morning Allan was doing some stretches for his hip (he is still recovering from his surgery). Little A joined in! She also did this during Stake Conference today, ha!