Procrastination

Every night I say I'll update the blog tomorrow. I guess we know where that has gotten me! It has been several days since my last post. We made it home from Georgia in one piece. Lilli did OK on the way home. She got really mad when we hit the KY state line. Thank goodness she worked herself up and wore herself out. She slept for the last hour and half of the trip. The only draw back to that was it was 5:45 P.M. We got home around 7:00 P.M. She didn't stay up too late. I think she was asleep by 10:30 and didn't move a muscle until 8:00 the next morning. All in all I'm glad we made the trip. We are planning a New Orleans trip for sometime in November and I know she will do fine! It just takes a little bit of entertaining and knowing when we have HAVE to stop.

Nothing else much is going on. She has a molar that is all the way in and about four other teeth poking their angry heads through her gums. I can't believe what a good mood she is in despite all of that! She has been a bit clingy, but can you blame her?

The weather here is starting to cool off and I have to concentrate on finding fall clothes for the peewee. She is definitely wearing 18 mos on top, but she has no behind so she is still wearing 12 mos on the bottom. It makes buying coordinated outfits a bit challenging. Thank goodness for Target and their fleece separates!

On the sleep front, I am reading a book that is giving me lots of good info on how to get Lilli in her own bed. I am no longer rocking her to sleep, but I still must be beside her for her to get to sleep. I am thinking of sitting in the rocker in the room while she falls asleep and gradually moving out of the room. Then I think I will try the crib again. Stopping the rocking has made a huge difference in my stress level at bed time. I feel like we are making progress!

I'm off to have lunch with my sil. I'll post more pics soon!

Hello from GA!!!!!!!!!!!

We made it to Georgia in one piece and Lilli did awesome! She cried for 5 minutes tops through the entire trip. It did take us quite a while to get here because we stopped to let Lilli play. My parents were a great help and ran around with her at a rest area and in a McDonald's playland. She slept for 2 hours which was a relief because I was afraid she would sleep the entire trip and never fall asleep the first night. Everything went extremely well!

Lilli is having a ball playing with her cousins. My nephew, Alex, is 7 years old; my niece, Emily, is 4 years old; and my other nephew, David, is 2 years old. Alex and Emily are CRAZY about Lilli. David isn't as thrilled with Lilli because she is stealing some of his thunder. He used to be the youngest and got all of the baby attention. Now he's got some competition!

Yesterday we went to a playgroup so the kids could play. They all had a good time. Lilli was a hit and the older little girls were all over her.

Today we are going to do some shopping. I'm hoping to find some shoes for the peewee. Her feet are so tiny!

At 8:30 P.M.

Lilli was fast asleep! Yippee-skippee. We are working our way down. Next, she is going to sleep in her own bed. She decided at 1:30 in the morning that it was time to play and began using me as her personal jungle-gym. I don't need any more convincing that she needs to be in her bed. She woke me up several times last night and mommy isn't too happy when she is awakened prematurely.

The latest conundrum is discipline. Lilli is constantly getting into things she shouldn't and doing things she shouldn't. I feel like the word I say to her most is NO. A close second is STOP. Today I swatted her hand because she wouldn't stop scratching the leather furniture. She scratches the furniture and just looks at me. What do I do? I'm afraid that if I scold her too much that I will erase the bonding that we have already established.

Being an adoptive parent is tough. There are so many uncharted territories that "regular" parents just can't relate to. I also think that I am my own worst enemy sometimes. I think I did just enough research on parenting adopted children to be aware, but not enough research to know what to do. Am I making sense? I guess tonight I am just frustrated.

OK, then, I'm off to pack for our road trip.

Vegetable soup anyone?

This is what happens when mommy or daddy (usually daddy--ha) leaves the bathroom door open. Lilli is fascinated with the toilet and loves to play in it. Of course we don't let her! These are items from her play grocery store. Yesterday I caught her giving the play food to Boomer and of course Boomer loves to chew on anything! She and Boomer have become fast buddies. Boomer likes her because she gives him food; she likes Boomer because he will let her do anything to him. Labs are great family dogs!

Another day

We went to the zoo today. I love our zoo. It is a great place to go for the afternoon/morning. I love that we live so close to it and I love that Lilli likes animals. She had a ball in the petting zoo and squealed with delight when we came upon the hippos. I love that she has absolutely no fear when it comes to animals. I take that back; she is reserved, but still curious and will at least check things out from afar. I'm glad she doesn't scream and recoil in fear. (ASIDE--Have you noticed that I write mostly in compound sentence?) Anyway, we only spent about two hours at the zoo today. We met another family with a Chinese baby and had a lovely conversation with them. Their little girl was 21 months old and Lilli and I had "hair envy". We are SO ready for pigtails and ribbons!

Lilli fell asleep in the car on the way home from the zoo. I carried her upstairs and had the bright idea to put her in her crib. HUGE MISTAKE! She immediately opened her eyes when I laid her down and started screaming. I did get her to go back to sleep for a split second but when I tried to put her down in our bed, it was the same scenario. I am ready for the bedtime woes to end! I can't wait for the new book to come in. Hopefully it will give us some tips and point us in the right direction. I can't take much more of this! The afternoon ended up with me putting her in her crib to scream for 10 minutes just so I could catch a breath of sanity. Then I tried rocking her for another 45 minutes only to put her down in disgust. She was NOT going back to sleep. Of course, I cried in frustration as I usually do. I feel like such a failure when I can't get her to sleep. I guess that is normal.

Well, I'm off to try to put the big girl to bed.

A few more pics

More falling asleep while eating. This picture was taken the same day. The second photo is of Lilli and the cat sleeping together. Jake likes to sleep on my pillow at night and he and Lilli had intertwined leg and arm and were cuddled up sleeping. It was too cute. Todd wasn't very happy but I think it's sweet.

What do I do with myself?

I have the rest of the night to myself! I don't know what to do!!! Yes, I do, I'll post pictures to my blog! BTW--Robin, when you are in town next we will take the kids over the park. Bella will love it! X and Lilli are still a bit small, but they have a jungle-gym that is just their size.

Here are some new pics of the Lilliputian . . .

Pic #1 Our daily yogurt fest.

Pic # 2 Lilli in her traditional Chinese outfit. We were trying to decide which dress she was going to wear for pictures.

Pic #3 Lilli falling asleep at the restaurant.

Somethin' to blog about

There hasn't been much to blog about lately. I know my fans have been disappointed. As I'm typing this I am drinking strawberry milk. I have discovered Nestle Quik and intend to use it liberally. Lilli really enjoys it and I can't remember the last time milk tasted so darn good! I've always been a milk drinker, but this takes the white stuff to a new level. I'm ecstatic that Lilli will finally drink milk.

We are starting our bedtime crusade. I am slowly bringing bedtime back to an acceptable hour. I would like for Lilli to go to bed at 8:00 P.M. at the latest. Currently, she is going down at 8:45 which is down 15 minutes from 9:00. I am creeping back in 15 minute increments every couple of nights. I'm surprised at how easily she went down tonight. I have also been giving her warm milk to help her get to sleep.

We have been doing more research on the crib sleeping. One of the ladies at the playgroup suggested a book to me and I ordered it last night. It is called Sleeping Through the Night and apparently gives you a schedule on how to put your kids to sleep at night. I'm excited about this book and about getting Lilli out of our bed. In other respects, it is a little sad. She is always in such a good mood when she wakes up. She wakes me up by singing, jumping on me, etc. Sounds annoying but she is a little ray of sunshine when she is doing something silly. I will miss these times that we have shared. I know it is for the best and she will be a much more secure little girl when she can self-soothe and sleep on her own. I really think she is ready for it.

I really miss going to bed and reading for an hour.

I picked up Lilli's first professional photos tonight. It was pouring down rain and I quickly discovered that she likes to stomp around in puddles. She giggled and cackled all the way back to the car. She thinks the umbrella is a toy that turns the water on and off. I swear, she is so cute!

We had a bit of a mishap with one of the dogs today. I LOVE my dogs and anyone who knows me knows that if I had to choose between my dogs and my husband, Todd loses. Anyway, we were carrying in the groceries and our bulldog, Sherman, comes outside. I guess in all of the commotion of the two of us carrying in groceries and trying to keep Lilli inside, we forgot about Sherman. It was probably half an hour before we realized that he was not inside. I went to feed the dogs and Sherman didn't come to his bowl. I looked around for him and couldn't find him. I shouted for Todd to see if he could find Sherman. That is when Todd realized that we had left him outside. I was devastated! I couldn't believe I had forgotten him outside. I rushed outside and luckily he was waiting by the door. I don't know what I would have done had he wandered off. Close call. Of course, the rest of the night we have been treating Sherman like royalty.

I'm going to finish my strawberry milk.

Our first playgroup

Lilli is amazing. Just when I think she couldn't get any cuter, she does something that steals my heart. Today we went to our first Panda Playgroup. This is a playgroup for an organization we belong to called Families with Children from China, or FCC. It was held at Waterfront Park which is an awesome place to take kids. If you live locally and haven't been to the park you really should go. It is very nice and has LOTS of playground equipment for all ages. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and Lilli got to play with other Chinese kids. After playing for several hours we went to lunch at the new Tumbleweed on the river. Lilli was so exhausted that she fell asleep while eating. I'll post those pictures soon!

Nothing much else to report. I am taking Lilli to Georgia to visit my brother on Thursday. I'm curious about how she will travel. I haven't had her in a car for longer than 30-40 minutes. This will be between 7-8 hours. I'm sure it will take us that long because we will have to stop and let her play around. We'll see how it goes.

We survived!

The overnighter went fine. Lilli was extremely happy to see me but she was mad at me for the rest of the day. We are cool now. Today I took her to childcare at Jazzercise. She did fine there too. I'm glad I took that time for myself. We have had such a great day today.

Her latest thing is throwing things in the trash can (thanks mom). We have a stainless steel trash can with a swivel top which she has discovered. Ive gotten on her several times about throwing things in it, but she still delights in watching her toys go in. It is cute to watch and I hate getting upset with her but she is going to end up throwing something good away!

First slumber party

Right now the Lilliputian is staying the night with my mother. I don't know how I feel about this. Yes I do: I'm conflicted. Of course I want her to have a great relationship with my parents and Todd's mom, but I am not sure she is ready for overnighters. My mom and dad assured me (after the 5th or 6th phone call) that everything was going fine and that they would not let her be unhappy. Apparently she is doing so well that she went to sleep in their crib. This bothers me, too, because I wonder what I am doing wrong. Why won't she sleep in her crib here? This is silly, but my biggest fear is that I am going to pick her up in a few hours and she won't want to come to me. My mom is great mom and she has a way with kids. I'm sure she is doing everything better. Lilli will probably look at me and start crying! She will probably be thinking, please don't send me back to the rookie house! Ack! I don't know if I'm going to be able to handle this! Todd assures me that I am being silly, but I just have this feeling that the overnight trip might set her back in bonding. Maybe it's just me?! On the flip side, it was great to have a few hours to myself. I gave myself a home pedicure and had some wine. I've got a stack of magazines 12 inches high and was going to read the night away (party animal). My sil, Angela, called and asked me to the movies. I decided to go and had a ball. Angela is a helluva story teller and can have me laughing like nobody else. She told the funniest stories on the way to the theater. We saw Little Miss Sunshine. It was really funny and heartwarming (Robin, Eric--it was no Boys on the Side but I still wouldn't recommend it to you guys!) Now it's early morning and I'm ready for my daughter to come home; it just doesn't feel right here without her.

NO MORE SUGAR!!!!

I think sugar has an adverse affect on Lilli. Yesterday was my dad's birthday and of course we had cake (cupcakes to be exact.) I had a suspicion before that sugar was an enemy. Two other difficult nights she had eaten ice cream and another night she had frosted animal crackers. Well, even though I scraped off the majority of the icing from her cupcake, last night was EXTREMELY TRYING!!!!!! So, I've come to the conclusion that Lilli cannot have sugar after supper time. We rocked her for over an hour and half and she would NOT close her eyes. She had more fight in her than usual and I think it was the sugar talking. The evening ended up with me in tears, Lilli screaming, and Todd extremely frustrated. He was finally able to get her to nod off thank goodness! Lord knows I wasn't having any luck and I was D-O-N-E trying!

I used the aspirator (booger sucker) for the first time yesterday. I didn't know you were supposed to squeeze the air out of it before placing it in your child's nose. Let's just say that I probably knocked all of the dust out of Lilli's brain. She looked at me with a quizzical look and burst into tears. I felt so bad.

Blueberry Buckle

I LOVE BLUEBERRY BUCKLE! This is the best baby food I have ever eaten! If you haven't tried it, you simply must. It is fantastic. Lilli doesn't like it so I buy it for myself. It is a great dessert and you really feel like you are eating blueberry pie (minus the crust which I don't like anyway).

Nothing new to report except that I think Lilli has said her first official word. I was hoping it would be mama or dada or something along those lines. Nope, our angel said, "Moomer." She said it with a stern voice and pointed to our chocolate lab. His name is Boomer. She did it several times. I guess I gotta watch how I say things to the dogs. Her next word will probably be "Merman," for our bulldog Sherman.

Time for a nap!

We're drinking milk

Warm milk is a hit! I have given it to her the last two nights and she has really taken to it. I'm sure I tried this earlier in the game, but for some reason the time was right. And, the last two nights have been easy putting her down. Now she is a crank-butt when she gets up in the morning--the little stinker!

This has never happened

Today something happened that shocked me. Lilli ate lunch as usual except she ate extremely fast. She basically inhaled her lunch. I went to the kitchen sink to get a drink and when I turned back around, she had drifted off to sleep. I was afraid that the sugar-free Kool-Aid had caused her to go into a deep slumber. I got her out of the highchair and carried her upstairs. She roused for a moment and then drifted off to a deep sleep where she slept for 3 1/2 hours! I couldn't believe it. Like I've said before, everyday is new experience.

More later.

Bedtime is still a nightmare

The past two nights have been absolutely horrible. Lilli gets tired and then fights, fights, fights going to sleep. We have been putting her to bed around 9:00 and it seemed to be working out. Tonight I'm at my wits end. I had to leave her screaming or I was going to blow a gasket. This is completely miserable. It has been taking over an hour to get her to bed the last couple of nights. I can't believe this is normal!? I don't want to give her Benadryl, but at this point I'm willing to try drugs. The biggest problem is that only I can put her to bed. Todd still isn't able to do much with her. I am longing for the time when I can say, "Bed time!" and when I lay her down in her crib for the night she goes off to sleep. Does this happen? I'm just so completely frustrated right now. I'm so glad the blog allows me an opportunity to vent some of my aggravation. She has been so cute today and enjoyable. I'm trying to focus on that but I am tired as well and would like to retire for the evening. Do I sound like a big baby? If it takes longer than 10-15 minutes I can feel myself getting frustrated. Then I get this sick feeling in my stomach and I become more agitated by the second. Oh boy!

On another topic, we had her doctor's appt on Friday. Lilli weighed 20 lbs and 7 1/2 ounces. We were pretty excited. She gained 1 1/2 lbs. She got two shots and they took some blood. This time they only pricked her finger and she was fascinated by this whole process. She watched intently as the nurse squeezed drop after drop of blood out of her finger.

Alrighty, I think my blood pressure has leveled off a bit. I'm going to jump back into the war zone aka the bedroom!