Sunday, November 30, 2008

Going domestic

I am probably the least domestic person you will ever meet. I hate to cook, clean, do laundry and I certainly do NOT sew or craft things. However, I love Christmas and I think that Christmas traditions are very important. When I was growing up, my brothers and sister and I all had a handmade stocking that my mom had done. They are each a different material and have our names on them. We still use them. When Alicia and I had our first Christmas, I bought stockings and decided I would try to sew our names on. I did and it wasn't too bad. Now that we have Parker, I really wanted to make her a stocking like my mom had made for me. The concept of actually making something from nothing scared the crap out of me. Sewing machines are completely beyond my realm of understanding. I think I may have made a pillow once in the 6th grade - not sure. Anyway, for the sake of my child's Christmas memories, I decided to embark on this journey. I bought the fabric, (with help from Alicia because I was intimidated by the fabric counter) traced our stockings and cut out two stocking shapes. This part wasn't so bad. I sewed her name on the front. So far so good - but now came the actual sewing. OI! My mother was in town for Thanksgiving and my sister-in-law has a sewing machine. It couldn't be that hard, right? My mom and I have a hard time working on things like this together. She has a tendency to tell me I am doing things all wrong and I am stubborn and don't want to do them anyone else's way. Additionally, she is not great at explaining things. So, when she used the term "presser foot" in the first 30 seconds of our conversation, I knew I was in trouble. Luckily my sister was there to translate for her and I made it through doing it by myself with only a few machine issues. Anyway, it's not perfect, but it's done and I think it turned out okay.
Next post: Adventures in cutting your own Christmas Tree with a 2 month old......stay tuned

Friday, November 14, 2008

P's new trick

Preface: I do NOT think my daughter is a pet. I will not attempt to leave her home for the weekend by herself. I will not make her poop in a box. I will not throw her off the counter and yell, "Get down, you stupid baby!" Don't be thinking I'm a bad mom. It's the only comparison I could think of that made sense!

I love my daughter - more than I can even say. However, for the first month or so of her life I sort of felt like she was a pet - fun, cuddly, lovable, needing fed and taken care of. It didn't really feel like she was an actual person who had thoughts. Lately, that has changed. It feels like she wants to talk to us. She has been babbling and cooing for quite a while now, but recently she has started trying to mimic the sounds we make. This is a very fun game. Sometimes she gets them and sometimes she just makes funny faces trying to figure out how to make the sound. I can practically see her thinking. Either way - it's hilarious!

So, here is a poorly lit video from last night. I didn't have time to get good lighting - the cuteness was in progress - so please excuse the dark and grainy quality.


Thursday, November 13, 2008

It's official!

YEA!!!!!!!  Parker officially has two mommies.  Our adoption hearing went really well.  We got there ridiculously early because we are like that and the City-County Building downtown is a little crazy and we wanted to make sure that we could find parking and navigate Parker and all her junk to the proper place.  

We arrive on the proper floor which is, thankfully, much less chaotic than the ground floor and wait in the lobby of our hearing room.  Some crazy lady from a nearby office comes out and coos over our baby and then comments on how much she looks like Alicia.  I LOVED it! :)

Our lawyer arrived and prepped us for the questions that she would ask.  None were hard - just things like name, address, relationship to me (or my relationship to Parker), how long we have been together, did we plan for the child together, with whom does Parker live now, etc.

We were first on the docket with another couple who was adopting their 3rd child.  The hearing room was really small and the judge, thankfully, was really nice.  We were worried because the judge who was so well known for just moving these kinds of cases through died YESTERDAY.  Seriously?  Yesterday?  Anyway, the new judge was fine and plenty nice.  We answered our questions - he didn't have any and then he signed the paperwork right there.

We waited while our lawyer got the paperwork stamped and we left.  It was pretty awesome.  Oh- and we will get a new birth certificate with Alicia's name on it!  We are pumped about that.  We didn't think that could happen in Indiana.  AWESOME!  So, all in all, a really great day.

Cuteness

As promised, here are some pictures from Halloween (yes, Halloween was 2 weeks ago) and just some cuteness at home.







Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Sad and Happy

Today, I am both sad and happy.  This morning, my sister texted me saying that my brother's dog had gotten away from my sister-in-law (chasing after a deer) and had then gotten hit by a car.  By the time they got Eddie to the animal clinic, it was too late.  I feel really horrible about this.  Both my brother and sister-in-law loved Eddie so much.  He was such a good dog.  I'm not a dog person, and I liked the dog.  I just keep creating scenes of what happened in my head and it makes me want to cry.  I'm not really sure why this is bothering me so much, but I feel much sadder than I thought I would.  I guess the thought of Eddie in pain or the thought of Kimber (my sister-in-law) having to pick him up off the side of the road and drive him to the clinic just tears my heart out.  yeah.....

On to the happy - we have our adoption hearing tomorrow! Woo-hoo!  I didn't expect it to happen this soon since our home study people were ridiculously slow and didn't get the report turned in until last week.  I'm nervous, but so excited that Alicia will "officially" be Parker's Mom.  It's a big day and I'm super excited.  I have clothes laid out and everything! :)  So, that's that.  I will let you know how it goes.  Woot!

(Sorry, no pics.  I'm on Alicia's computer and all the new ones are on the other one. I'll get some up soon.)

Thursday, November 6, 2008

A little behind


There have been so many things in the last week or so that I have wanted to write about, but time just kept getting away from me. (Geez, I really sound like my mother....) Anyway, here is a condensed version of the randomness I wanted to write about (in no particular order)
1. Facebook - I recently caved to societal pressure and became part of this crazy internet community. I have mixed feelings about facebook (and other things like it). On the one hand, I think it is just contributing to our society's inability to actually communicate with other humans. Instead of calling or writing our friends, we "stalk" them on the internet to interpret how their lives are going through cryptic status updates and pictures. At least with blogs, the writer takes some time to put something real out there - something more than "Suellen is not sure how she feels about facebook." Additionally, I think it adds to the ridiculous amount of time that we waste on the computer. I am just as guilty as anyone else, but I feel like there are generally better things I could be doing with my life. On the other hand, it is interesting (at least at first) to find old friends that you haven't talked to in years and "stalk" them. Most of the people I am "friends" with haven't communicated with me or vice versa. We just look at each other's pages and think "Oh, she's gotten fat." or "Wow, that doesn't even look like him." So, I guess the jury is still out for me on this. Don't get me wrong - I waste tons of time on it (particularly at 2am when I am pumping), but I'm not sure I really want to.
2. Eyelashes - I'm not really sure when Parker got eyelashes, but lately I've been noticing them. It's weird. Where were they before? Were they just jammed in her eyes? Geez. That had to hurt.
3. My stupid job - When I decided that I would go back to work, the plan as presented to me by the powers that be was that I would do some bizarre, semi made up job from January until May and then have my own elementary band VH-1 program in the fall. I was told that I would not be returning to my old job. They hired a new person who was supposed to be taking the program in a completely different direction (per the superintendent who knows nothing about music or my kids) and he is. Then, last week I receive a phone call saying that they are going to put me back in my old job and move this other guy somewhere else. He wants to do this because of all the elementary school closings for next year. He wants to retain me in the district and high school band directors are like football coaches. They aren't going to get the axe - but elementary music teachers are sure to go. I think that it's nice of him to protect my job, but I do NOT want to return. Additionally, he said that we should make the program into a small ensemble program with no marching band based on the current scheduling. I am all for this, but the kids just spent all fall doing marching intensive things with this other guy because the "new direction" was toward a drum and bugle corp (which was ridiculous, but that's not the point). So, what am I going to do? Just go in there and pretend first semester didn't happen? Plus, there have been so many changes at my school that I basically ignored in the fall - because I thought I wouldn't be returning and because I was in so much pain and focused on the baby for the 2 weeks that I was there. I would be completely lost just showing up on January 5th. Nothing is official yet because I did express these concerns, but I have no idea where else they are going to put me that is "secure" for next year. I feel betrayed and almost lied to. I wouldn't have gone back to work if I knew it meant returning to the same job. Maybe in some ways it's good because if we are to get the things we want (new house, baby #2) we need my salary and if I'd known about this I wouldn't have gone back. Sigh.
Abrupt ending - Parker just woke up. More later....maybe