Happy Morning

Soon Sophia and I will be off to a shower hosted by my aunts Sue and Donna. Sophia is very excited about the opportunity to meet lots of her relatives! She's been very smiley this morning.

Grumpiness!

Yesterday was a very grumpy day for Sophia. I never figured out why. Even a ride in the car and a shopping expedition didn't help. She was unhappy all day long unless I was holding her. But of course, often when I was holding her she wanted to get down. At the end of the day when I at my wits end, or maybe a bit beyond, we picked up Paul from work and had a lovely picnic dinner at Riverfront park. That seemed to improve both her mood and mine.

Today we're just hanging around the house and relaxing. Sophia and Paul went to Lowe's this morning and gave me some much-needed time alone. Tomorrow we'll be going up to Portland for a family baby shower and will give Paul some time alone. This morning before I got up Sophia and Paul were playing and he took this very funny picture of her. Doesn't it look almost fake? I think Sophia is going to fit in just fine with this family; she seems to be as silly as the rest of us!

Lift your head high!

The last few days Sophia has been lifting her head very high when lying on her stomach. She can hold it up for about 30 seconds at a time. This evening Paul had her on him for a while and I took a particularly sweet picture I just had to share.

Visit with Grandpa John

Today Sophia and I went to Portland to spent a few hours with Grandpa John and his staff Sonja & Joe and a few other friends around the courthouse. It is Sonja's birthday so we had a lovely pizza lunch. Strangely, we had lunch in the courtroom, as you can see in the picture to the right. But it worked and was good pizza. Sonja's daughter was there today too and she was very cute and had lots of fun playing with Dad's clerk Joe. It's not every kid that thinks a courtroom is a big playground, but Anna certainly did today! I expect that in a few years Sophia will think Joe is fun to play with and will be pretty comfortable in her Grandpa John's courtroom.

When Sophia and I first got there Dad was in trial so we stood in the back of the courtroom for a few minutes and watched him at work. It's always interesting to see him on the bench because he is so different when he is working, so serious and in charge. Then when he's off the bench he is what I think of as his normal goofball self. I expect, however, that those who appear before him in court may not think of him as much of a goofball.

The big dramatics of the day came as Sophia and I tried to make it home. We left downtown Portland at 3 and made it to downtown Salem to get Paul at about 4:20. That drive should have taken 50 minutes. Unfortunately, due to a screaming and crying baby we made three stops on the way down I-5. The first two times she was hungry and I'm not sure what was wrong the third time. The 3rd time she started screaming we were about 3 miles from an exit off the freeway and I was not going to pull over to the side of such a busy interstate so I had to keep going until I could exit. It was very sad to keep driving while she got more and more upset. I never did figure out what was wrong, but after about 10 minutes of me walking around a parking lot and holding her she was calm enough to go back into her carseat and get back to Salem. When we finally got home about 5 she was exhausted and spent a few hours sleeping. I'm pretty wiped too! I think tomorrow we'll just hang out here. Going places is lots of fun, but it can be pretty tiring!

Showered with love

Today Sophia and I went to Portland to Grandma Nancy's house. She is part of an amazing ecumenical Bible study that has been meeting together for 23 years. They hosted a baby shower for Sophia and me today. They bought a pack and play crib and lots of diapers and we had a great deal of fun playing "pass the baby." Sophia was so good too! She was a very happy baby meeting all of these new people. In the evening we set up the crib and Paul had some fun telling Sophia all about it. Doesn't she look like she's paying attention?

In the afternoon Paul and I had our post-placement visit with Christy from our adoption agency. She came down to our house to make sure all is going well with Sophia. It was a lot of fun to see her because she is so nice and funny. She hadn't seen Sophia since birth, and there have been a few changes since then. This is just an important part of the adoption process as the agency has reports they have to file with the Department of Human Services before our adoption can be finalized. All is going well with Sophia so we're moving rapidly towards finalization of our adoption.

Tomorrow Sophia and I are going back to Portland to spend part of the day with Grandpa John at the courthouse. That should be exciting! It's Take Your Kid to work day so we'll be joining him.

Happy Birthday Paul!

Today is Paul's birthday and I think we did a good job celebrating, even though he had to go to work. At lunch Sophia and I went downtown and Paul showed her off to his coworkers. She got to meet lots of very nice people including her first Supreme Court Justice and Judge on the Court of Appeals. Just as with her meeting of Senator Shields, she seemed unimpressed and sleepy. Unfortunately, I forgot the camera so I don't have pictures of Sophia with all these lovely people so you'll just have to believe me.

After that we went out to lunch and to my great surprise Paul had the opportunity to have pizza and he chose something else. It was quite shocking. After an afternoon working for him and running errands for me and Sophia the three of us went out to dinner. This was the first time we have done that, and I forgot the camera again. Sophia was very good and slept until we were almost done eating which Mommy and Daddy really appreciated.

Finally we came home where Paul got to open his presents from me and Sophia. He especially seemed to like his book from Sophia (with help from me) the book "C is for Cornhusker: a Nebraska Alphabet." I think it's a book they can enjoy together. We had a very busy day and are all pretty tired. Sophia has been in bed for half an hour. So I wish you all a good night!

New Phase

Doesn't this look like a sweet, darling baby? She doesn't look at all like one who would have thrown up on her mommy every day for the past 3 days. But in fact, that is what she has done. I don't think she has the flu, I think she is just getting too much food in her tummy and ejecting it. Boy is it not fun for me. What I want to know is, why is it only me this is happening to? Why hasn't she managed to hit Daddy yet?

Paul's (early) Birthday

Paul's birthday is April 25 but the family gathered today to celebrate. We went out for pizza of course since that is Paul's favorite food. There was a nice family walk, lots of playtime with Sophia, and presents. We've had a very nice day, but Paul and I are quite tired now.

New Skills

Yesterday, Paul tried to teach Sophia how to play the Piano. Granted it was a Fisher Price piano designed for babies her age but it's still a bit beyond her.

Today Sophia has been working very hard on getting her hand in her mouth. She's close, but not quite there yet. After she succeeds, we will start her on learning that it has no nutritional value.

Sophia meets her first Legislator

So far (and granted it's only not even 3 pm) Sophia and I have had a very good day. We had a lovely lunch with my friend Liz. Sophia seems quite taken with Liz as you can see by the picture.

Since the Oregon Legislature is in session today I went by to see my friend Becca Shields and my friend and former boss Frank Shields. Unfortunately, Becca had not come to town with Frank, but I did have the opportunity to introduce Sophia to her first State Senator. She slept through the entire experience. I don't think she was as impressed as she should have been by the importance of this elected office.

After all that excitement we went on a short walk with Paul and now we're home. She is still asleep in her carseat with her head in that funny angle she loves so much. I don't know how she can sleep like that, I just know that if we move her she gets grumpy and wakes up. So I've learned not to bug her. Soon the bookmobile will be in our neighborhood so the day's excitement isn't over yet!

Sophia is 4 weeks old!

Sophia celebrated being 4 weeks old with a very grumpy day. Even our daily outing didn't seem to work. There was lots of wailing and gnashing of teeth (well, metaphorically). She frequently made what I have come to think of as her angry sound. It sounds a bit like an asthma cough, or a bark, it's not quite crying, but will turn into crying if you don't rectify whatever has made her angry at the moment. The worst of it was when she was in her bouncy seat and not crying at all and my boss called and the second I answered the phone she started screaming. Poor Jason. Luckily we were able to communicate later via email.

At one point today her thumb made it into her mouth and that did make her very happy. I don't quite know how that happened. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of it. I'll try next time. Luckily for us, Paul got home a bit early - taking pity on us - and she is much happier now that he is here.

Despite all the dramatics, I got a few very good pictures of her today. As she is 4 weeks old today she is keeping her eyes open for longer and longer, so we're getting better pictures.

Sophia's Room

It came to mind today that we have never posted pictures of Sophia's room. For those of you who live nearby and have seen it, this is probably not the most interesting of posts, but those of you far away, you might like to see it.

Sophia's crib and changing table came from my cousins Lisa and Shahram. The rocking chair is one that Paul's parents bought to use when he was an infant. The quilt on it was a combined effort by Darla and Earl's mother Lael. The dresser my grandmother purchased at a garage sale sometime in the 60's and it's been passed around in the family ever since. We gave it the white paint and multi-colored knobs upgrade in preparation for Sophia. We didn't paint the room because we aren't really that type of people but rather tried to dress it up with colorful prints.

Today for our outing we ran some errands and then visited my coworkers on the bookmobile. Then I decided I wanted a few magazines to read (since I don't seem to be making it through any books, to my shame) so I stopped by the West Salem branch library.

My friends over there were very sweet fawning over Sophia. Unfortunately, towards the end of the visit Sophia decided to start screaming, proving at least to some people that she really does cry sometimes! We made a hasty exit and she was much happier in the car. Soon Paul will be home and Aunt Jess is staying with us tonight so it should be a very exciting evening.

Family Time

It's always nice when Paul gets home from work. It means a break for me, and Sophia seems to enjoy playing with him. Tonight we watched Jeopardy together on the bed and I took this very non-flattering family photo.

After the two of them took a walk on their own, Paul and Sophia sat down to have a serious discussion. You can't tell in the photo, but Paul is teaching her the multiplication tables. It seems a bit early to me, but look how attentive she is!

In other news, the surgeon and I agreed today that my pain is almost certainly a hernia and we scheduled surgery for May 10. That doesn't sound like the most wonderful way to end my family leave time with Sophia, but it's better than living with pain.

More Easter Pictures

My father sent me some of his pictures from Easter, and he had better pictures than I did, so I thought I'd post a few of them.

This morning Sophia was a bit grumpy, but after we ran our daily errand she's having a nice nap. Later I've got an appointment with the surgeon to decide if I'm to actually have surgery for the supposed hernia or not. Lucky me!

Happy Easter

We had a very happy Easter with our family and friends. We drove up to Battle Ground, Washington to Paul's parent's house for the afternoon. Grandma Nancy & Grandpa John joined us there. Also attending were Darla's brother Phil & his wife Anne and family friends Joanne, Christina, Peter & Miriam. Miriam is the small child pointing at Sophia.

With all the family excitement, Sophia didn't take a nap the entire afternoon, so slept well all the way home and is sleeping well now that we're home. Hopefully she will sleep well tonight. The last few nights she's been waking up about every two hours which has us pretty tired. If nothing else, a big family party is good for tiring out a baby!

Lunch with Daddy & a Visit to the Library

Today Sophia and I had a very nice lunch with Paul which included a short walk. It is always good to have a chance to see Paul during the day even if it does disrupt his work.

After lunch for Bryn we went home so Sophia could have lunch. We could have had lunch out and about, but I had forgotten to bring any with us. Then we went to the Salem Public Library to visit my friends and co-workers. Sophia seemed to be quite the hit. She was held by many people, a number of whom seemed quite distressed that she slept through the the entire experience. (The sleeping, of course, was my goal in having her out.) This was her first introduction to all of my good friends around the library, so it was a lot of fun to take her there.