I don't even know where to start to update you on everything that has been going on with us. Therefore I'll start with Miss Lillian.
She has started crawling the day we left for Europe. Poor daddy didn't get to see it before our trip. However, Lilli has a very strange way of doing it. One leg stays straight while the other one is moving around. But she doesn't seem to be willing to be convinced to do it any other way. It is Lilli's way. She has started saying "Da da!" all day long. I first thought it meant "Daddy", but now everything is Da da. When she wants to go somewhere she is pointing with her finger and says "Da da!" She also is waving like a champ and is blowing kisses (well, actually she is doing everything except the blowing thing). But it is very cute. If I ask her how tall she is, she is raising her arms up in the air and showing me how tall she is. She can also point to "Mommy's nose" and "Mommy's mouth".
She is eating little pieces very nicely by herself. Lilli loves cheese and if there is cheese on her tray, everything else stands back. But she also enjoys pasta and chicken. And most other foods we introduced her to. She has an amazing personality, always in a good mood (except if she is tired) and always looking to get a smile from someone. She is charming everybody.
Even the crew in the airplane during our long 10 hour airplane ride. I guess the stewards would have really liked to take her home. I had a really hard time during the flight. I had gotten sick the day before the flight with a very sore throat and a cold (no, not the swine flu, but rather a really nasty sinusitis) and had to blow my nose all the time. I hadn't slept a lot the two previous nights. Lilli was very active. She wasn't into sleeping so much as there were so many interesting things to see in the airplane. All the people that went to the bathroom were standing right in front of us, waiting and flirting with Lilli who was sitting in her baby bassinet. It was a long fight to get that bassinet, but it helps, especially if you are traveling alone on an international flight (Lufthansa offers them, I don't know about other airlines who do). Strangely instead of blocking the bassinet seats for people with children, they give them away to random travelers which ticks me off every time. This time I waited and waited at the gate until the end of boarding when they finally told the woman in the baby bassinet seat that refused to leave her seat that she would have two seats for herself if she changed. After we boarded I told the man sitting next to me (squeezed in between two more or less noisy and inquisitive babies) that there were free seats in the airplane and he happily left. It was nice to have an additional seat for Lilli as well.
When we finally arrived (have I mentioned that 10 hour flights can be very long when traveling with a baby by yourself?) I was sick and groggy. All I wanted to do was go to bed.
But lovely husband had cooked a wonderful meal in our slow cooker, so we enjoyed the "beer chicken with corn and rice". It was my first mother's day after all. Hubby had bought beautiful flowers and gave me a big box of chocolates and a beautiful silver bracelet. It was - despite the circumstances of my health - a wonderful day. I remember so well the last couple of mother's days where my heart was longing for a child. It was so hard to be at church during those days when they honored the mothers - and to not break out in tears. Most times I didn't succeed. Every year I hoped that it would finally be the last without a baby and this year, miraculously it is. It was the best mother's day of my life so far.
I wonder how Lilli's first mom felt on Sunday. It must have been hard for her for a completely different reason. I recently read that the Saturday before Mother's day is Birthmother's day. Has any one of you adopted moms (sorry, if I haven't caught up with all your blogs) honored your babies birthmother in a special way for that day? Or for mother's day? Or would that just add to their grief?
I will update on my trip another day. Now it's time to catch up with your blogs.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
9 month doctor visit
Because we are traveling next week, we went to Lilli's 9 months doctor visit this morning. The challenge for this visit was to actually talk to someone on the phone to schedule the visit. I tried first on Tuesday afternoon and all the phone lines were busy non-stop. Then I finally got to talk to someone and she just gave me additional numbers and said that I needed to call there to schedule a well-baby visit. So I called those lines. I was on hold for a very long time. After about 10 minutes I hung up. I tried it several times again, but had no success. Then finally yesterday in the morning I was able to talk to someone (in Spanish which made me kind of proud since it is more difficult on the phone than in person) and schedule a visit for today.
Lilli is now 8.97 kilos light which is 73th percentile for weight and she is 78 cm long which is 99th percentile for length. We know that she will be a tall girl.
The doctor was very nice and took a lot of time with her. He has studied in the US and speaks perfect English. He even gave us his cellphone number for us to call in case of an emergency. He answered his cellphone twice during our appointment. He told us that he wants to see her again next month. While I am excited that I will be able to track her weight gain and her growth more closely, I am very surprised that they are monitoring the children so closely here for the first year. It means three more doctor's visits until she turns one.
Apart from that it was similar to a visit in the US. He asked us whether she was crawling. She is pretty close and moving around a lot on her playmat. She can do a 360 and she can creep a little bit if she really needs to reach a toy. She can put herself in a sitting position from laying on the floor. She can walk holding onto my hands or with the walker. She is also starting to pull herself up on us or furniture.
The doctor told us that she is in excellent health. We were glad to hear that. We must be doing something right.
I feel so blessed with this wonderful, healthy baby. I can't believe that we are already celebrating her 9 month birthday next week. I am very excited to travel next week to Europe. My only concern right now is getting to the airport and getting help with the luggage. Traveling by myself with a baby, some suitcases, and a stroller is a challenging and scary thing. I hope that Lilli will be good on the plane. I pray that I will get a baby crib on the plane.
Lilli is now 8.97 kilos light which is 73th percentile for weight and she is 78 cm long which is 99th percentile for length. We know that she will be a tall girl.
The doctor was very nice and took a lot of time with her. He has studied in the US and speaks perfect English. He even gave us his cellphone number for us to call in case of an emergency. He answered his cellphone twice during our appointment. He told us that he wants to see her again next month. While I am excited that I will be able to track her weight gain and her growth more closely, I am very surprised that they are monitoring the children so closely here for the first year. It means three more doctor's visits until she turns one.
Apart from that it was similar to a visit in the US. He asked us whether she was crawling. She is pretty close and moving around a lot on her playmat. She can do a 360 and she can creep a little bit if she really needs to reach a toy. She can put herself in a sitting position from laying on the floor. She can walk holding onto my hands or with the walker. She is also starting to pull herself up on us or furniture.
The doctor told us that she is in excellent health. We were glad to hear that. We must be doing something right.
I feel so blessed with this wonderful, healthy baby. I can't believe that we are already celebrating her 9 month birthday next week. I am very excited to travel next week to Europe. My only concern right now is getting to the airport and getting help with the luggage. Traveling by myself with a baby, some suitcases, and a stroller is a challenging and scary thing. I hope that Lilli will be good on the plane. I pray that I will get a baby crib on the plane.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Happy Easter and bad news
My sweet Easter bunny.
We received a letter from the agency today. Anxiously we opened the envelope to find a letter from Lilli's first Mom. She wrote that she wanted to give us some space in the next months because our next update isn't due until Lilli's first birthday. But she wrote that she had a problem and has lost her apartment with everything in it - her clothes and all the pictures of Lilli. My heart hurts for her. I can't even comprehend what she must be going through.
Fortunately we had sent copies of our pictures to the agency and they will send her the copies. I am relieved that Lilli doesn't have to go through losing a home. She might have moved a little to often for her age, but at least she has a home.
Also we will write her and send some updated pictures of our little angel. She signed "Milk" today for the first time. Every day I am so grateful to be her Mom.
Bad news from my Dad. They found another tumor in his lung area. Just last month they said his X-ray looked better than ever. He needs chemotherapy again. I bet having us there for a couple of weeks will help him go through this. Last week we had our one year anniversary of his diagnosis. We are just glad that he is still alive and doing relatively well.
Please keep him and Lilli's birthmom in your prayers.
We received a letter from the agency today. Anxiously we opened the envelope to find a letter from Lilli's first Mom. She wrote that she wanted to give us some space in the next months because our next update isn't due until Lilli's first birthday. But she wrote that she had a problem and has lost her apartment with everything in it - her clothes and all the pictures of Lilli. My heart hurts for her. I can't even comprehend what she must be going through.
Fortunately we had sent copies of our pictures to the agency and they will send her the copies. I am relieved that Lilli doesn't have to go through losing a home. She might have moved a little to often for her age, but at least she has a home.
Also we will write her and send some updated pictures of our little angel. She signed "Milk" today for the first time. Every day I am so grateful to be her Mom.
Bad news from my Dad. They found another tumor in his lung area. Just last month they said his X-ray looked better than ever. He needs chemotherapy again. I bet having us there for a couple of weeks will help him go through this. Last week we had our one year anniversary of his diagnosis. We are just glad that he is still alive and doing relatively well.
Please keep him and Lilli's birthmom in your prayers.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
What a party!
Yesterday Lilli and I went with some friends to a Easter party. The playgroups here are not really institutionalized. They are much more informal meetings with a mailing list. Because there are not many places to go with young children, people just host the playgroups in their houses. There is one playgroup that is international and this is the one we visited.
After driving around for more than an hour (have I mentioned that Caracas traffic is horrible?) and trying to find the location, we finally made it. We took the elevator to the penthouse and walked up the stairs to the terrace. What an experience! There were about 30 Moms with about 40 children. Most of the Moms had brought their nannies with them so that they could chat in calm while their nannies where watching and taking care of the kids.
They had a huge buffet with fingerfood. Meatballs with a noodle as a stick, chicken nuggets, hummus, other sauces, breadsticks,... There was a hot dog stand. They even had a jumping castle. The terrace was full of children playing with the different cars and toys that were available to drive around. There was a table with playdough and some other mass to make some crafts. There was a huge Easter bunny at the wall where children had to put eggs on with a blindfold. They even had an Easter egg hunt. I was incredibly impressed. I wouldn't be surprised if that would have been a birthday party or something... But that was just a random Wednesday afternoon before Easter.
Today we had a coffee with some friends on the terrace of a nice coffee place. First a kid approached and wanted money. We just send him away. When a guy approached us from the street, he showed us a letter and told my friend he was collecting money for a dead police officer. I couldn't read the letter that he had in hand. I usually would have just told him "No" and wouldn't have cared about it any more.
But my friend actually grabbed some money out of her wallet and gave it to him. I was surprised and asked her why she had given him money. She was nearly trembling and said she gave him money because he had a gun in his pocket. I hadn't even noticed that. She was concerned that if she wouldn't give him anything, he would just pull out the gun and ask for her whole purse. It seems to be better not to sit on terraces that can be approached from the street.
After driving around for more than an hour (have I mentioned that Caracas traffic is horrible?) and trying to find the location, we finally made it. We took the elevator to the penthouse and walked up the stairs to the terrace. What an experience! There were about 30 Moms with about 40 children. Most of the Moms had brought their nannies with them so that they could chat in calm while their nannies where watching and taking care of the kids.
They had a huge buffet with fingerfood. Meatballs with a noodle as a stick, chicken nuggets, hummus, other sauces, breadsticks,... There was a hot dog stand. They even had a jumping castle. The terrace was full of children playing with the different cars and toys that were available to drive around. There was a table with playdough and some other mass to make some crafts. There was a huge Easter bunny at the wall where children had to put eggs on with a blindfold. They even had an Easter egg hunt. I was incredibly impressed. I wouldn't be surprised if that would have been a birthday party or something... But that was just a random Wednesday afternoon before Easter.
Today we had a coffee with some friends on the terrace of a nice coffee place. First a kid approached and wanted money. We just send him away. When a guy approached us from the street, he showed us a letter and told my friend he was collecting money for a dead police officer. I couldn't read the letter that he had in hand. I usually would have just told him "No" and wouldn't have cared about it any more.
But my friend actually grabbed some money out of her wallet and gave it to him. I was surprised and asked her why she had given him money. She was nearly trembling and said she gave him money because he had a gun in his pocket. I hadn't even noticed that. She was concerned that if she wouldn't give him anything, he would just pull out the gun and ask for her whole purse. It seems to be better not to sit on terraces that can be approached from the street.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
First sign!
I am so happy for my blog friend Bri. She and her husband just adopted a baby girl. I can't wait to see pictures and get her update on the whole story. I am especially happy, because she really had a hard time recently. Her baby sister is pregnant from a one night stand with twins and her SIL has just given birth to twins. How fantastic that her little girl will be able to grow up with all the children in Bri's life.
Lilli made her first sign yesterday. It is unbelievable how fast she picked it up, especially because I haven't really been that consistent with it. When I was changing her diaper and I made the "change diaper" sign with my hands, Lilli made the sign as well. It looked more like the "all done" sign to me, but I guess she is still practising. But I was very impressed that she actually answered with a sign.
I also have good news from the port. After our stuff was packed out in October and shipped in January and has been cruising around the Carribean for a while, it finally made it to the port last week. Now it will be only a matter of weeks until we get it, maybe even before Easter. We haven't seen it for 6 months and I don't even remember what we have. I realized how little you actually need in the past couple of months. But I tell you moving with a baby and without all the baby things (swings, exersaucers, etc.) isn't easy. Fortunately it seems like it is all coming together now.
I also received a new job. Will work part time as a Special Project Coordinator. They basically call me when they need me. The only thing I have to take care of is childcare. I wonder how difficult it is going to be. We want to ask our maid whether she wants to move in with us. That would be perfect because then we would also have a babysitter...
Tomorrow I will book my flight to Europe for Lilli and me. Dh unfortunately will have to work while we are there. I am very excited to see my family.
Lilli made her first sign yesterday. It is unbelievable how fast she picked it up, especially because I haven't really been that consistent with it. When I was changing her diaper and I made the "change diaper" sign with my hands, Lilli made the sign as well. It looked more like the "all done" sign to me, but I guess she is still practising. But I was very impressed that she actually answered with a sign.
I also have good news from the port. After our stuff was packed out in October and shipped in January and has been cruising around the Carribean for a while, it finally made it to the port last week. Now it will be only a matter of weeks until we get it, maybe even before Easter. We haven't seen it for 6 months and I don't even remember what we have. I realized how little you actually need in the past couple of months. But I tell you moving with a baby and without all the baby things (swings, exersaucers, etc.) isn't easy. Fortunately it seems like it is all coming together now.
I also received a new job. Will work part time as a Special Project Coordinator. They basically call me when they need me. The only thing I have to take care of is childcare. I wonder how difficult it is going to be. We want to ask our maid whether she wants to move in with us. That would be perfect because then we would also have a babysitter...
Tomorrow I will book my flight to Europe for Lilli and me. Dh unfortunately will have to work while we are there. I am very excited to see my family.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
8 months old!!
Today is Lilli's 8 month birthday! It is hard to believe that our little sweetheart is already 8 months old.
Her personality is amazing. She is a lot of fun to hang out with and to play with. But she also has started little temper tantrums if she doesn't get what she wants. Usually it involves her trying to bite me. If my arm is not available she uses her own arm...
Her single tooth has some company now. The other tooth right next to it is coming as well. It doesn't seem to bother her.
Last Friday we received a walker from some colleagues of dh. It took Lilli about 5 seconds to figure out how she can walk in it. She is very mobile with it and I have to keep running behind her to make sure that she doesn't open the drawers or fall down the stairs. It would be time to babyproof the apartment.
Unfortunately we still don't have our stuff. It was shipped in Mid January. The trip from Miami to here only takes about 4 days. But the port here is not able to unload more than one ship at a time. Therefore our stuff has been cruising around the Carribean and was probably send to Aruba for a while to hang out. It might come back here this week, but who knows? It will then probably take another month until we finally get it. But then we will be able to babyproof everything.
Her personality is amazing. She is a lot of fun to hang out with and to play with. But she also has started little temper tantrums if she doesn't get what she wants. Usually it involves her trying to bite me. If my arm is not available she uses her own arm...
Her single tooth has some company now. The other tooth right next to it is coming as well. It doesn't seem to bother her.
Last Friday we received a walker from some colleagues of dh. It took Lilli about 5 seconds to figure out how she can walk in it. She is very mobile with it and I have to keep running behind her to make sure that she doesn't open the drawers or fall down the stairs. It would be time to babyproof the apartment.
Unfortunately we still don't have our stuff. It was shipped in Mid January. The trip from Miami to here only takes about 4 days. But the port here is not able to unload more than one ship at a time. Therefore our stuff has been cruising around the Carribean and was probably send to Aruba for a while to hang out. It might come back here this week, but who knows? It will then probably take another month until we finally get it. But then we will be able to babyproof everything.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
MA-MA and Baby Sign Language
This morning Lilli said Ma-Ma for the very first time. I had been practising with her for quite a while, repeating "MA-MA" over and over, but she was always only smiling at me when I repeated myself over and over again. It was so nice to hear her say it for the first time today.
Lilli has also learned to get from a sitting position into a laying position. She loves to eat the corner pieces of her playmat (I don't like that, who knows what is in it). She can't sit up by herself yet, but I guess it will be just a question of weeks. When we hold down her legs she is able to go from a lying to a sitting position (love those abs).
I also started baby sign language with her. I hope it will help her as she is growing up trilingual (we think). Dh speaks English, I speak German and we hope she will pick up some Spanish on the way (from our maid or daycare or people on the street). The book we have says it is easier for them to learn different languages when the same signs are used in both languages. I have started signing "Milk", "Sleep", "More", "All done", and "Diaper change". I wonder whether you guys are signing, too, or will be signing in the future, so please feel free to share any comments or experiences you have made with signing.
Lilli has also learned to get from a sitting position into a laying position. She loves to eat the corner pieces of her playmat (I don't like that, who knows what is in it). She can't sit up by herself yet, but I guess it will be just a question of weeks. When we hold down her legs she is able to go from a lying to a sitting position (love those abs).
I also started baby sign language with her. I hope it will help her as she is growing up trilingual (we think). Dh speaks English, I speak German and we hope she will pick up some Spanish on the way (from our maid or daycare or people on the street). The book we have says it is easier for them to learn different languages when the same signs are used in both languages. I have started signing "Milk", "Sleep", "More", "All done", and "Diaper change". I wonder whether you guys are signing, too, or will be signing in the future, so please feel free to share any comments or experiences you have made with signing.
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