Halloween Eve

So, Lionel's family sent a box of surprises for Amara today! It was full of clothes, hair pieces and a marvy stuffed pumpkin. Oh, and candy corn. You can't forget that! It's a tradition. She loved all the stuff, as you can see. Thanks family!!!

We captured a few photos of the unveiling. Cuteness!

We also FINALLY got around to carving our pumpkins tonight. Nothing like the last minute. So, there is a photo and video here of the carving festivities. Amara had a ball though did scream several times when I wouldn't let her hold the carving knife for too long (don't worry, we use the kid kind.)
Yes, that's her new thing...another toddler attribute. SCREAMING. And, let me tell you, the girl has some lungs and it's a high pitch. Shoot me now. Whenever she gets frustrated or doesn't get her way, bammmmm, SCREAM!! Oy vay, I know this is normal for her age in development but, crimey, we may lose our hearing. The dogs leave the room. Need I say more? Ah, little miss sunshine :) Wouldn't know it from these photos, would you?

Happy Halloween! More photos tomorrow!

A little hike in the Redwoods

We decided to take Amara for a little hike in the Redwoods today. ..with the dogs too, of course. Today is Ben's birthday (the blond lab). My other baby...soo sweet. Anyway, here are a couple of photos and a video. The end of the video is, well, hysterical to me. (Did anyone see Austin Powers?) Happy Fall!







If you can't see the video above, try this one (Blogger is being bad and I can't find a workaround yet):

Thursday update

Thought I'd upload a few phots just because...almost all are at the recent trip to the Aquarium with Auntie. And, the jellyfish room is my favorite of the exhibits. Too bad the photo doesn't capture the beauty of the presentation and the jellies...but Auntie and Amara sure are cute!

All is well, Halloween is coming. Wait until you see our little sunshine's costume. So frickin' cute. But, you'll have to wait. Don't want to ruin the surprise.

Happy Fall! It's really in the air, isn't it?

Pumpkins for my pumpkin

We spent the morning at the pumpkin farm up on the coast. sooo beautiful. We couldn't have asked for better weather. Amara had fun pulling the wagon, picking out pumpkins and climbing the hay bales. I can't believe she's been home 9 months and that this is our first Halloween together. It seems like she's been with me all along. A great day.

And would you look at mr handsome in the white coat. God I love my other baby. Charlie was taking the photo :)

Hair Inspiration

I got inspired to work on Amara's hair further. Okay, not really inspired. It was derived from guilt. I subscribe to this cool adoption hair chat group...yes, there is one. For folks like me that have adopted dark-skinned children either domestically, internationally, with hair that we know nothing about. It's been really helpful. So, I was looking at photos yesterday feeling totally lame for not having done more than puffs. I posted my dilemna and got a few replies telling me not to feel bad. Easy for them to say. You should see what they do with their BABIES' hair, not to mention toddlers. So very cool. Anyway, they congratulated me for doing puffs and told me to try the next step, locs.

So, with a little help from Peets coffee, Annie's Bunny Love and Baby Einstein, I had a 30 min session this morning with, hold your breath, not one fuss. Check out the results. Amara now has some locs. Way cool if I do say so! And, my guilt has subsided for now.

We're off to get pumpkins today. I'm happy to say her hair will look good for the photos. More later....

We reversed

Okay, we went back to the crib. My gut tells me a couple of things. One, she may have been too young. What does that mean? It means she doesn't have the impulse control to be able to remain in her bed no matter how many times I walked her back. I think it was all too much for her. Two, we had not switched to having her put herself to sleep yet. We were holding her until she fell asleep before putting her down. I think we should have moved beyond that, to self soothing and falling aslepp herself, before moving her to a toddler bed. Third, she was in a crib at the orphanage longer than she's been here. I think it's comforting and safe to her. That may be my biggest feeling. It was just too soon. So, we put the crib back together and put her back in there two nights ago.

So far so good. I am a glutten for punishment so I decided that we'd go straight to working on putting her in her crib before she's asleep. The first night was brutal. I can't even tell you how that was. It was truly heart wrenching! Putting her down at night was easy. Then, 3am she woke up. I went to soothe her, held her for a little bit then put her in her crib. She then melted, mama (hands outstretched, crying), oh man it was horrible. I sat next to the crib but didn't pick her up. I felt like the worst person ever. She finally went to sleep. I think it took about 20 mins but it felt like forever. The next night going down was again very hard. She looked at me like she felt betrayed. But, she still seems to love me :)

Since then, I've kept with it and it seems okay. She actually slept all night last night. Yay!!I still hold her at night which is one of my favorite times. But it's different now. I relish it. It's not just a means to get her down. It's connection more than ever. I hold her because I want to have that time, and it can be as long as I want. There is no ends to the mean. And, I guess she's getting used to it to as I didn't get any objections tonight. It was very quiet.

So, we'll try the toddler bed again in maybe 6 months. She's not even two yet so I'm okay with that.

Thanks for everyone's input. It was all really helpful. Such great mamas out there.

Nighty-night!

Calling all parents of toddlers....

Help! Our bedtime saga continues. But, I have new energy and power to tackle my little one's nighttime problems. (Okay, she probably doesn't think getting up twice each night is a problem, but I do.) So, onto that.

I've decided that moving her to a toddler bed may or may not be the cause. It seems to be a theme amongst a few other parents that that change is tough on some kids/parents habits, regardless of age. Maybe she was too young. I don't know. So, I debated moving her back to the crib but then thought she may definitely climb out now that she's had a taste of freedom. And, are we putting off the inevitable? Thoughts?

One site I read talked about trying to be consistent on your approach. If you hold her to sleep, do that all the time. If you lay her down awake, do that all the time. Makes sense. The child wants the consistency and will fight you if they don't get it. Another thought was making it all pleasant...meaning if you're pissed and feeling tired and forceful, your toddler will pick up on that and fight. Who wants to go to sleep with that karma? Gee, duh, and our energy has definitely not been happy pants. So, I'm sure my power struggles haven't helped. I liked those ideas.

And, yes, I'm already doing the rituals which they all stressed, too. Bath, full tummy, dry/clean diaper, teeth, books, dim lights, soft music, etc. Any other ideas wonder mamas? I know I'm not alone on this one, right Becky? :)

So, I am ready to tackle a new approach. But, I want a good one before I launch. So, comment away ladies and dads!

THANKS!

Our first rain

We had our first real rain of the Fall season today. It cleaned away all of the debris and dust and brought a new fresh feeling to the day. When we returned from Ethiopia at the beginning of this year, it was raining a lot. But Amara was too little to remember. Today, she got to experience it for herself and learn the word "rain" which she couldn't stop saying. Very cute. I captured a couple of videos from the morning.

By the way, she's now 66%tile for weight and 44%tile for height. Can you believe it? She was in the 10-15% for both when she came back from Ethiopia. What a difference 9 months makes. She eats like a champ, by the way, no worries there. See you!