Weekend Wrap-up

The rest of our weekend with the family was great fun. Sunday we went to Battle Ground and spent most of the day with the Smiths and spent the night in Portland at Grandpa John's and Grandma's Nancy's. Then the next morning we went back to Battle Ground and hung out there for the rest of the day. May 29th is Amy's birthday and mine, and this was our first opportunity to celebrate it together. That was a lot of fun. In the late afternoon, a photographer came and took family pictures - the first since our wedding 6 years ago. Sophia did pretty well, although she was really sleepy and a bit grumpy that we kept trying to wake her up. This weekend Paul, Barry, Pat and Earl tried to teach Sophia to play Risk, a favorite family game. I'm not sure she quite got it, but if she starts early she'll be beating them all before too long! It was a really special weekend with the entire family and we were lucky to all be together.

Yesterday I had a bookmobile staff meeting at our house most of the day Paul and Sophia very kindly stayed out of our way. They did come out to visit in the beginning and both Bev and Jen held Sophia. Jason, my boss, initially refused. In our experience, most men are not interested in holding her. After explaining his gender stereotype theory of baby holding and much peer pressure, Jason did hold Sophia and I thought it enough of a monumental event that we had to get a picture.

Sophia Grabs Toys; Amy & Pat Arrive

Today was a big day for Sophia in two different ways: for the first time she grabbed a toy with her hands and waved it around and she met her Aunt Amy and Uncle Pat for the first time today. (Below Pat is in the red jacket, and Amy is posing with Sophia trying to mimick Sophia's expression.) She's exhausted from all the excitement.

Today everyone came to our house and hung out all day. Tomorrow we'll go to Battle Ground to Earl & Darla's house. We played games, and there was a lot of conversation. Sophia had lots of playtime, and her favorite thing - she was held a great deal. Amy lives in Washington, D.C. and Pat lives in Phoenix and neither of them had met their first niece yet, so we're pretty excited about their visit. I think the next few days are going to be a lot of fun too.

Mommy Save Me

Well, as you can imagine, Sophia was overjoyed when Bryn came home from work last night. So happy, that she insisted on dancing with her mommy.

And then came this morning. Sophia recognized the tell-tale signs of her mommy leaving for work. She knew that she had to act fast. First, she decided to put on her cutest face to try to bribe Bryn to stay home.

Then, when that clearly wasn't working, Sophia resorted to begging....

It was all quite sad, really. But, alas, mommy had to leave and go to work again today. Sophia knew what that meant...more "play time" at home. As others in my family have astutely observed, "play time" looks like an awful lot of work for a little baby.

Sophia agrees.

Thankfully for Sophia, Bryn is back to work on a reduced schedule this week and next, so Sophie's mommy will be at home tomorrow to take care of her. And, because tomorrow is our second--and last--home visit from the adoption agency, Sophia is getting her list of complaints ready!

Back to Work for Bryn

Well, unfortunately Bryn's leave ran out and she had to return to work today. She will be at work two days each of the next two weeks before returning to her normal 30-hour per week schedule the first full week of June. Sophia is pretty skeptical about not having mommy at home, but hopefully daddy can keep her occupied for the next couple of months.

Today, Sophia is still a little fussy following her two-month doctor's appointment and shots (five of them!). She ran a slight fever last night, but by this morning her temperature was back to normal. In an effort to replicate yesterday's first "roll-over," daddy and Sophia engaged in a little bit of playtime. Sophia, however, did not seem all that interested in rolling over again. "I eat, I poop, I smile, I even roll over," Sophia says, "and these people just want more, more, more. I believe I will engage in a one-day strike today!"

And, when daddy tried to break the strike with some tough negotiating tactics, Sophia decided that physically restraining daddy was the only option. "I told him: 'no more new things; not today,'" Sophia exclaimed. "Since he would not listen, I will hold him down until he cannot take it any more."

Ultimately, daddy relented and allowed Sophia to enjoy an uninterrupted nap, which she is doing now. Later today, depending on the weather, we may take a walk. But, this will probably just be a lazy day around the house to allow Sophia to fully recover from yesterday's immunizations. More to come tomorrow...

Roll Over!

I know it's a bit early, but Sophia just rolled over! She was on her tummy having playtime with Paul and she rolled from her stomach to her back. She looked very surprised about it too! We'll have to see if she keeps doing this or if this was a one-time event for a while.

2 Months Old

Yesterday Sophia was two months old! I'm not quite sure how that happened. We celebrated by reading her a few very good books about adoption and Paul decided it was time to teach her about chess. She seemed fascinated.

Today we took her to the doctor's office for her two-month checkup and vaccinations. She weighs 12 lbs. 9.5 oz, she is 24 in. long and has a head 39.5 cm. We've been estimating her weight at over 15 pounds so we were a bit surprised, but her weight and length put her in the 90 percentile, so all is good. After the weighing and measuring the doctor checked her out and then she had 5 shots! She did not approve of that at all and the crying was piteous. She calmed down pretty quickly, however, and is now taking a nap with Daddy on the couch. We'll have to see how she does over the course of the day to see if she is sore from the shots.

Catching Up

Today is the first day of Paul's leave. He'll be off for two months and home with Sophia. I'll be working 2 days this week and 2 days next week and then I'll go back to work completely. Paul started the week off with a bang with some good playtime with Sophia under her new jungle-gym.

I am healing well. I still can't do all I'd like to do, but I am getting better each day. We were very lucky that so many kind people came the past few weeks to help us take care of Sophia. Thursday evening Christina and Miriam came and they stayed until Saturday afternoon. Miriam wasn't sure what she thought about her Mama taking care of another baby, but at the same time she was pretty fascinated by Sophia, whom she learned to call "Pia." It was lots of fun to have Christina and Miriam here, but Christina and I were pretty glad that both little girls took a long nap Friday afternoon because taking care of both of them was really wiping us out! Since my major limitation at this point is lifting and holding heavy things, I could actually do more for Miriam than for Sophia, since I could chase Miriam but I couldn't hold Sophia and I'm not sure that satisfied either girl. But we made it work and learned new respect for people who have children close together in age.

We had a fairly quiet weekend after hurricane Miriam and Christina left. Our good friend Brian came over. He's a busy guy so he hadn't met Sophia yet. He was best man at our wedding, and is very special to both of us, so we were glad to introduce him to our daughter.

Tomorrow Sophia goes to the doctor for her 2-month check-up. She'll have 4 immunization shots. I'm really not looking forward to that! Poor baby girl. We'll also see just how much she weighs these days. We think she's over 15 pounds but we'll know exactly tomorrow.

Doing Better

This is about the first day that I've been able to sit upright long enough to post. I am getting better after my surgery, but it sure does take a lot of stomach muscles to sit upright at the computer! For the first several days any time I got to see Sophia it was when someone would bring her into the bedroom to visit, but now I'm spending most of the day out of bed so I get to see her more, even if I don't get to hold her much. Recovering hasn't been much fun, but I'm hoping it will prove to be worth it!

Things around here are going well. My wonderful aunt Sue has been with us since Monday to take care of Sophia since I still can't lift her. I'm enjoying having Sue here because she's a lot of fun. Sophia was skeptical the first day, but really warmed up the second day. Today the three of us got out of the house for a short time. I hadn't left in almost a week! It was very exciting. We only went to Target and Fred Meyer but it was still more than I'd done in a while. I was exhausted afterwards but it was worth it.

Over the weekend Paul put Sophia in her Nebraska Cornhuskers romper. We bought this expecting that she would wear it during football season but she's grown so fast that it fits her now! She's wearing mostly 3 month sizes and some 6 month sizes. I guess that means Paul will have to get here more Cornhusker clothes to show team pride in the fall.

Thank you all for your support! I really appreciate it.

Taking Care of Mom

Bryn had her surgery on Wednesday, and everything seemed to go fine. She is in quite a bit of pain still, and we are working with the doctors on that. But, she is able to get up and move around for short periods of time.

In the meantime, Dad and Sophia have had Grandma Darla here to help out for the past three days. She has been a big help with both Sophia and Bryn! THANKS GRANDMA! Also, on the day of the surgery, Grandma Nancy and Grandpa John were at the hospital with Bryn and came back to the house to help get Bryn settled. As you can see, the whole day really wore Grandpa John out!









Grandma Nancy had a good time with Sophia while she was here. Sophia likes snuggling with her Grandma.





The past couple of days, we've been able to take a couple of walks, and Sophia has discovered the joys of taking baths. She didn't like them much the first couple of weeks, but we decided to try her in it again, and she seems to now enjoy them.




Sophia also decided to show off her Willamette Bearcat pride today....
.....But we quickly realized that this was getting too small for her and so we had to pick out a different outfit. She sure is a growing girl! She'll be sitting on her own before we know it!

















See what I mean!

Well, that is about all there is to report for now. I'll try to get in another update when I have time. I'm sure when Bryn sees what a poor job of updating I do, that will get her out of bed to do some of her own! Thanks for all your get well wishes.

Grandma Darla Arrives

Today Sophia and I finished up a bunch of errands and projects around the house. I expect that the next few weeks after my surgery I will not be too productive. I am to be at the hospital tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. This is a bit early for a person like me who values sleeping in so much! Paul's mother Darla came today and she will stay with us through Friday to help out. It should be great fun to have her here. This will probably be my last post for a while. Hopefully Paul will take up posting duties to keep you all updated.

Bryn & Paul Go Out Alone

Don't worry, we didn't leave Sophia home all by herself! She got to stay home with Aunt Jess and they had a grand time. They had dinner, played and took a walk. Bryn and Paul went to Northern Lights, a local second run movie theater where they serve food during the show. We saw the Bruce Willis movie 16 Blocks which was actually pretty good. We thought that with my surgery coming this week the next few weeks are going to be pretty stressful so we'd take some time to be together before all that began. It was great to get out just the two of us!

Sophia's first weekend away from home part 2

(Blogger wouldn't let me post all these pictures in one post, so please scroll down to part 1 first.)
We had a busy Sunday planned in Portland too, so Paul, Sophia and I spent the night at my parent's house. That went fairly well, although Sophia definitely knew she was not at her own house. It was very difficult to get her to bed and she woke up a lot more than usual. Sunday we went out to breakfast to celebrate my mother's birthday a little early. Then we took Sophia to meet two of her great-grandmothers for the first time. Both of my grandmothers live in the same nursing home, which you just can't beat for convenience. They were just delighted to meet Sophia. For my mother's mother, Sophia is her first great-grandchild and today was probably the happiest I've seen her in years. Paul thought this was the first time he had ever seen her happy. My grandmother Wittmayer is pictured with me and my father and my grandmother Slayton is pictured with me and my mother. I think we spent almost as much time taking pictures as letting them enjoy the baby.

The firsts didn't end there because unfortunately, then Sophia had to attend her first memorial service. My great Aunt Grace died a few weeks ago so Sophia attended with us. I did not have any particularly somber baby clothes to put her in (they just don't seem to make funeral-appropriate baby clothes) so I dressed her in her customary pink. That worked out well because Grace wore pink every day and all of her immediate family was wearing pink in her honor.

Sophia was so good all day. She did not fuss at all during the memorial or at any other point when we needed her to be good. She even behaved herself all the way home! Boy did she let us have it when we got home, but I can't blame her. She was just wonderful all day and she'd earned some grumpy time. Luckily she went to bed very easily tonight and seems to be sleeping well so far. I think she was just glad to be home. It's nice to visit, but it's also nice to be home again.

Sophia's first weekend away from home part 1

It was a huge weekend for the family and full of all sorts of firsts for Sophia! Saturday we went to Portland where there was a lovely shower hosted by Christina who is one of our very dearest friends. She held this shower at my parent's house since she lives in Hood River and I live in Salem, Portland is in the middle. I would post a picture of Christina, but we seem to have this problem where we never take pictures of each other. There was a picture posted of her and I holding our daughters in the Easter post, however. But I digress. The shower was attended by a number of my and my mother's best and oldest friends. In fact, 2 of my 3 longest-time friends attended, Brenda and Sheri. I have known both of them literally since they were born. If Sheri's older sister Lynette had been able to attend, all of my oldest friends would have been there! But having Sheri and Brenda there was pretty special. In addition, my mother's oldest friend Vicki attended, as well as many of my parent's best friends. These are people I know as well as my own friends which is probably a product of being an only child: I spent as much time with my parent's friends as with my own. People were unbelievably generous, and like previous showers we played pass the baby.