In the clear?????

Knock on wood ... I think that Lucy is on the mend. She hasn't had a fever since 1:00 p.m. Tuesday. Today she was CRANKY with a capital C.R.A.N.K.Y ... I think her throat hurt, which really sucks when you can't breath through your mouth. I finally got a little break from her (who would have thought I'd crave that???) this evening. Grandma watched her for a few hours while I went to a birthday party. She had a crap night sleep last night so I hope tonight goes better. Poor Lucy needs to feel well. Send healthy vibes please.

Some photos

Lucy climbing into her crib. She loves doing this!
Photo documentation of the ER visit ... Lucy is practicing putting her sock on.
Lucy playing in her tent. She loves to crash into the sides, sometimes tipping the whole tent over.

Here is Lucy after climbing into the crib ... so proud of herself!

Sick ... sick... sick...

It's been awhile since I have posted. Lucy has been hella sick. My poor munchkin. She has had this stuffy/runny nose along with sleep apnea for what seems like ever, brought her in to the pediatrician on Thursday. She was dx'd with inflammed adenoids/tonsils and referred to a specialist. She was also put on amoxicillan for sinus infection. On Saturday she came down with a high high fever 104.5. We went to the ER. They said it was a virus. From Saturday until Monday night her temp went between 101-104.7. It didn't go below 101. We went to the pediatrician on Monday. They did some blood work, the blood work confirmed it was a virus. Chest xray was normal. Ears were getting infected, antibiotic was changed. This morning she didn't wake up with a fever. Knock on wood it stays down. My mom is home with her until 12:30 this afternoon when we swap it up and I get my baby back and she goes to work. Lucy is not leaving the house until next monday. The inflammed adenoids creats a sponge for viruses to set up home. I am making myself wait until 9am to call home and check on her. 8 more minutes. I miss the little toaster oven who has been attached to my chest/lap since Saturday.

The referral story

If this story doesn't include a photo ... it's because the referral photos are haunted. Here is the story. It was a beautiful friday in July 2005, I drove my carefully prepared dossier packette to St. Paul so I could deliver it in person. I paged Alexa (one of the Ethiopia team staff at my agency). Alexa came downstairs and looked through the packette, she had one thing I needed to fix but basically accepted the dossier. She muttered something about not knowing if they had any referrals upstairs or not ... I left, smiling ... I was now OFFICIALLY waiting for a referral!!!! My paperwork was done!!! I went back to work, snatched up my two coworkers (one of them is Mel ... who is now waiting for her own referral) and we went to lunch to celebrate. We ordered our food (I had ordered a burger), and were waiting ... when my phone rang. I answered even though I didn't recognize the number. It was my adoption social worker. I assumed that there was another problem with the dossier. She asked me if I was able to talk ... she said she was calling with a referral. I was in SHOCK. It had been about 45 minutes since I turned in the dossier. She told me it was a baby girl, 2 months old. She told me the baby had something wrong with her foot, and since I indicated I was willing to consider limb deformities, that they wanted me to look at this referral. I couldn't eat (of course). I ran back to the office ... I signed into my e-mail waiting for the Ethiopia team to e-mail me the referal info. I refreshed, again and again and again. FINALLY the e-mail came. Our internet was interrupted and I coudn't get the photo to open. It was opening slowly ... one line at a time. I was getting closer to seeing my baby when I was interrupted by a page. I picked up the page and found out that I had a client related crisis that I had to tend to.... I left Mel in charge of the photo download. I drove to my clients. This crisis involved the police. I was NOT a PRESENT MINDED social worker. I just wanted the cops to deal with it ... the mom came back and the cops left ME in charge of the situation. ME!!!! I wanted to turn around and get in my car when the cops left. I did the best social working I could do given the situation. I waited as long as I could and then I went to the office. My photo had been printed. Something was wrong with the sizing/printer, so the photo printed on 9 pieces of paper, one part of the baby on each piece of paper ... we taped her together and got a bigger then life poster of the most beautiful baby I had ever laid eyes on .... She was so beautiful. I stared into those eyes. I couldn't believe it. I needed to take the info to the pediatrician and the orth. specialist but I pretty much knew she was my baby at this point.

The day the music died...

I had to stop the song. You'll be glad to know that I would have had no photos to go with the "I'm a joker, I'm a smoker, I'm a midnight toker" section of the song and I just felt it was best to stop while I was ahead. Lucy is growing up so fast. There are times I look at her and take a sharp breath, and wonder where my baby went. Other times she just looks at me with this stare, indicating that she is oh so done with the compliancy of babyhood. More nights then not she doesn't fall asleep in my arms ... we still have a long snuggle but I can tell that she can't get relaxed and when I ask her if she's ready to go to her bed she nods yes in the sweetest way. I want to swaddle her up and keep her young. I just finished reading "I'm Chocolate, You're Vanilla" and the book was great at offering real world advice on helping your child (and yourself) deal with race and racism. The most important thing (at this time) I took from the book is to cherish these few years where they are innocent and pure. It goes so fast.

Some people call me AURRRRReece...

Some call me the Gangster of Love...

Some people call me a space cowboy ....

Big men, bad sweaters, big cry

Lucy's new big phobia: Big men in bad sweaters jumping. Sounds real random right? That's Lucy. I think that she might have crushed the spirit of the jumping man. Here we were, testing out a new church ... and this nice man (bad sweater) tries to engage Lucy and get her to smile. He tried peek-a-boo, nothing ... he tried talking to her, nothing ... he then tried the next best thing, JUMPING up and down. This jumping scared Lucy like nothing has scared her ... all of those blood draws were nothing compared to the cries and tears the jumping man drew from Lucy this morning. Thankfully she flew right into my arms and I got a hug a mile long. The sweater man was comforted by others who witnessed the interaction. To offset the super fear Lucy did decide to spend most of the service with a random man at the other end of our pew. Hmmmm. See, she keeps me on my toes.

Never ending cold....

I honestly never imagined that I would be one of those worriers as a mom. Choking, car accidents, head injuries, poisoning ... you name it, I have been afraid it's lurking around the corning waiting to grab my kid. This doesn't keep us from going out and having fun. On the outside I actually appear fairly laid back (most of the time) about this stuff. Take germs ... now I have been very concerned and upset about Lucy's never ending cold. I am worried that she is going to start thinking of the kleenex as a security blanket. Most people see a runny nose. I see a potential life changing problem. She's had the cold since before Christmas. Should I be worried abou this??? I have a list of worries to present the doctor on Thursday at our "why does she stay sick for so long" appointment. Sometimes I fear that she'll progressively get further and further behind on the language development scale. For awhile it seemed that she was on top of the game, but she hasn't stayed up to speed. She understands language. It floors me sometimes that she understands what I am saying.

Here is my short list of worries: her being sick forever, not drinking enough liquids (does she have a swallowing issue?), falling all the time (is it just her foot), not using many words, hitting, biting, pinching, not wanting me to get her out of bed in the morning (does she prefer being alone in her bed to being in my arms?), at least one near choke at each meal, even with soft food, or food that has been choke proofed.

here is a shout-out to my readers: does anyone know anyone who could make custom slippers/mocassins (slip proof) for my kid? Our searches have been fruitless. She has one foot that is smaller then a newborns foot ... she needs a slipper that is tiny for that foot and holds on around the ankle ... the other foot is average and needs the same style slipper but bigger of course.

Still warming up to blogger

I feel like an official member of blogging society with this real blog account (sorry AOL). Lucy had a mood swing evening. She was either incredibly sad or incredibly silly. She talked all evening. Mel was over visiting and she took a couple photos of Lucy sleeping with her Curious George monkey, very cute as she hugs him. That's all for tonight.

Just starting

Hi. I am just starting blogger. I have been using aol journals since starting the process of adopting Lucy (back in Febuary 2005). I will try to update regularly.