I was reading the paper yesterday when I came across a crazy article. If you guys are local then you know the story that I am talking. An adoptive mother was just on trial for murdering her adopted son. Horrible story. My heart breaks for all of the children. The mother was just sentenced to life in prison last week, I believe.
When I came across this article, I was floored. The story I knew but the players involved, I did not. The article is here:
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/crime_safety/paddock/story/1124238.html
And yes, that is one of our agencies! I did a double take trying to find our social worker's name but no, it wasn't her.
Here's another article dealing specifically about the agency. Apparently, the biological grandparents are suing the agency. What a tragedy.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/crime_safety/paddock/story/1124105.html
Just so, so sad.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
Again?!
On Tuesday, my sister, my mom and nephew stopped by for a visit. Christine, my sister, gives Maya a hug hello and looks at me and says, wow, she's cutting 2 molars huh? HUH?! She's cutting two molars?? Well, sure enough, there they are poking halfway through the gums. We had no idea. Yeah, she was a little needy, emotional and throwing a few more tantrums than usual but she's a 2 year old AND a girl on top of that. That explains everything and nothing all at once :) Who knew?! I just can't believe that this is the second time this has happened to us. Dave's mom told us that Julia's first two teeth were cutting. Are Dave and I clueless or what?
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Back from the beach
The best way to describe our trip would be stressful fun. We left on Friday at about 3pm and hoped that the girls would nap on the way down. But once again, our child who refuses to sleep in case she misses something did not disappoint us. We always cross our fingers and think Julia will sleep in the car, HA! It never fails. She ended up fussing the last hour of the trip. Fun stuff.
There was a bit of excitement on the ride there. There was a small CO2 tanker in front of us on the highway. He was all over the road. He kept going over to the shoulder and then would jerk back on to the road. At one point, the guy almost smacked into a parked car on the shoulder. Scary stuff. We finally were able to pass him and when we did, would you believe that the guy had his head laid back on the seat and was ASLEEP!! He could have killed somebody for crying out loud. We fulfilled our civic duty and called *HP (this is the 911 for Highway Patrol) and reported him. I hope he got off the road without actually hurting anybody. Crazy.
We got to our hotel and got the girls' pack n plays set up. They were giddy, giggling like school girls. You can tell from these pictured how wound up they were:
They didn't sleep very well either night. Julia would end up moaning, groaning and whining for like 40 mins before conking out. Maya would fall asleep easier but would be up tossing and turning throughout the night. It was her first time away from her crib and she did not sleep well.
Saturday we were up at 6:30 am (Thank you, Julia). Took the gang downstairs for breakfast. After breakfast, I put Julia down for her nap and Dave took Maya to the beach. Maya loved the beach! We couldn't keep her out of the water. HAHA, yeah right! She hated it! It scared the crap out of her. She cried and screamed. After some time, Dave was able to get her to play in the sand but far enough away from the water. Storm clouds started rolling in at this point. Talk about torrential rain. It was pouring cats & dogs by 9:30am. Ughh. We decided to take the girls to the Aquarium. It was raining so hard on our drive!
The Aquarium was fun. Maya was a little spooked at first by all of the big fish. She screamed her head off when we saw the alligators. After a bit, she started to enjoy all the fish. There was a huge tank of fish, shark, eels and other sea critters that both girls just loved. They were mesmerized.
The weather cleared up a bit that afternoon and we ventured back out on the beach. Maya was still scared to death. We got Julia to dip her feet in to the ocean. She was scared at first but after a few minutes she loved to hang Superman style and grab at the water coming in. Maya was screaming so we packed up and headed to the pool. Maya once again, was pretty spooked at the pool. She was crying and screaming, "No! No!". Dave & Julia got into the pool and she screamed even harder. At this point, I just grabbed her and brought her in with me. She LOVED it! I held her and she was splashing and kicking. She loved it. We were never able to get Maya in the pool in Bangkok but Julia was a regular water rat at the hotel. She loves the water.
:
This is from Saturday afternoon. You can see her red eyes from crying. Poor girl.
Saturday night, we got the girls dressed up for dinner for my birthday. The girls were good and Maya ate like a champ!
We have two more beach trips planned this summer. I think each trip will get better. Maya should be used to the water and sleeping away from home by the 3rd trip, hopefully.
The saving grace for us for this trip was our balcony. Dave and I were able to hang out on the balcony after we put the girls down. Good stuff! The trip overall was nice. Relaxing not quite but it was still fun. We made memories! One thing that we are happy about is that the girls were so good in the restaurants. We ate out 6 times this weekend and things went really well. I think it's a mix between Dave & I getting more skilled and the girls getting used to eating out. Either way, it's been really nice.
There was a bit of excitement on the ride there. There was a small CO2 tanker in front of us on the highway. He was all over the road. He kept going over to the shoulder and then would jerk back on to the road. At one point, the guy almost smacked into a parked car on the shoulder. Scary stuff. We finally were able to pass him and when we did, would you believe that the guy had his head laid back on the seat and was ASLEEP!! He could have killed somebody for crying out loud. We fulfilled our civic duty and called *HP (this is the 911 for Highway Patrol) and reported him. I hope he got off the road without actually hurting anybody. Crazy.
We got to our hotel and got the girls' pack n plays set up. They were giddy, giggling like school girls. You can tell from these pictured how wound up they were:
They didn't sleep very well either night. Julia would end up moaning, groaning and whining for like 40 mins before conking out. Maya would fall asleep easier but would be up tossing and turning throughout the night. It was her first time away from her crib and she did not sleep well.
Saturday we were up at 6:30 am (Thank you, Julia). Took the gang downstairs for breakfast. After breakfast, I put Julia down for her nap and Dave took Maya to the beach. Maya loved the beach! We couldn't keep her out of the water. HAHA, yeah right! She hated it! It scared the crap out of her. She cried and screamed. After some time, Dave was able to get her to play in the sand but far enough away from the water. Storm clouds started rolling in at this point. Talk about torrential rain. It was pouring cats & dogs by 9:30am. Ughh. We decided to take the girls to the Aquarium. It was raining so hard on our drive!
The Aquarium was fun. Maya was a little spooked at first by all of the big fish. She screamed her head off when we saw the alligators. After a bit, she started to enjoy all the fish. There was a huge tank of fish, shark, eels and other sea critters that both girls just loved. They were mesmerized.
The weather cleared up a bit that afternoon and we ventured back out on the beach. Maya was still scared to death. We got Julia to dip her feet in to the ocean. She was scared at first but after a few minutes she loved to hang Superman style and grab at the water coming in. Maya was screaming so we packed up and headed to the pool. Maya once again, was pretty spooked at the pool. She was crying and screaming, "No! No!". Dave & Julia got into the pool and she screamed even harder. At this point, I just grabbed her and brought her in with me. She LOVED it! I held her and she was splashing and kicking. She loved it. We were never able to get Maya in the pool in Bangkok but Julia was a regular water rat at the hotel. She loves the water.
:
This is from Saturday afternoon. You can see her red eyes from crying. Poor girl.
Saturday night, we got the girls dressed up for dinner for my birthday. The girls were good and Maya ate like a champ!
We have two more beach trips planned this summer. I think each trip will get better. Maya should be used to the water and sleeping away from home by the 3rd trip, hopefully.
The saving grace for us for this trip was our balcony. Dave and I were able to hang out on the balcony after we put the girls down. Good stuff! The trip overall was nice. Relaxing not quite but it was still fun. We made memories! One thing that we are happy about is that the girls were so good in the restaurants. We ate out 6 times this weekend and things went really well. I think it's a mix between Dave & I getting more skilled and the girls getting used to eating out. Either way, it's been really nice.
Friday, June 13, 2008
4 days
4 days. That's what it took for Maya to get back to normal after our little break on Saturday. My mom said that Maya handled it well, no tears just smiles when she woke up from her nap and we weren't here. Dave and I were only gone for about 2.5 hours. We were too worried as to how Maya was going to react to us being gone when she got up from her nap. We did a little shopping, grabbed some lunch and headed home. Everything seemed fine when we got home. Maya did seem to cling to Dave a little more than usual but nothing too crazy. That night when we went to put her down for bed, she cried. She cried for a few more minutes. I must have gone in 3 or 4 times before she finally fell asleep at about 9pm (we put the girls down by 7pm). She woke up crying at about 1am and then was up for the day at 6am. This girl usually sleeps like a rock from 7pm-8am so this was out of the ordinary for her. Even for her nap the next day, she cried and only slept for about 45 minutes. This trend continued until Thursday.
Poor girl. We knew it probably wasn't the best idea but man did we (I) need a break. I know what happened too. Poor Maya was afraid to go to sleep because she didn't want us to go away. Next time we leave her it will be when she's awake. It will probably be a few weeks, if not more. I don't think she's ready right now.
Poor girl. We knew it probably wasn't the best idea but man did we (I) need a break. I know what happened too. Poor Maya was afraid to go to sleep because she didn't want us to go away. Next time we leave her it will be when she's awake. It will probably be a few weeks, if not more. I don't think she's ready right now.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Taking a break
Today is going to be the first time that we are going to leave Maya. Dave and I are going to do a bit of shopping and grab some sushi for lunch. My Mom is going to come over to watch Maya and Julia while we head out. I hope Maya handles it well. The girls go down for naps at 1pm. My Mom is going to be at our house at about 12:30pm or so. This way Maya will get to spend some time with her before nap time. We figure we'll skip out when they nap. It's probably not the best way but it's the easiest way. Wish us luck!
Friday, June 6, 2008
Catching up
The girls have been keeping me busy! They are both all over the place. Maya more than Julia, of course. That's another story. Julia is still not crawling. She can go backwards on her back and roll all over the place. It's hard not to become a neurotic parent when it comes to development issues. I will have to admit, both Dave and I have been working with her. It's sad, I know and I'm sure once she starts crawling I'm really going to regret it. But, what can you do? I will learn my lesson the hard way.
Julia update: I was completely wrong about her teeth. I said it was the top two teeth next to the front ones. Well, it's not just those. It's all 4 of them and possibly the two next to the bottom front too. She has been a mess these past few weeks. 2 of them have already cut through and a third is in the final stages. Her right front tooth is coming in last. That definitely explains her horrible sleeping habits and her fussiness lately. Poor girl. She has become very friendly with Baby Motrin. We like Baby Motrin.
Maya update: Maya is really coming along well. She's down to about one or two timeouts a day and a handful of tantrums. It's funny, well, not really funny haha but funny, because I see the tantrums brewing. She gets this look in her eye. Dave and I joke around and say, here come the horns! We're such sweet parents aren't we? heehee. She still sleeps like a champ. I get so amazed because she goes down for her nap & to sleep at night without a fight. I think a routine has been so great for her. She's the type of kid that needs one for sure.
We're gearing up for a weekend at the beach in two weeks. I wanted to go the beach for my birthday so we decided to take the whole family. This will be the first time that Maya will be sleeping away from home not to mention the first time she will see the ocean. I anticipate her freaking out at first sight. I'm hoping after a few hours that we're able to get her feet wet!
I finally got my new camera. I'm very excited about it. It takes really great close-up shots. Perfect for the little chickadees. I just got it today so I'm still trying to learn how to use it. Here are a couple of shots that I took this morning.
You can almost make out Julia's nubs in this one.
Oh I almost forgot. Maya has a new favorite word, elbow. I think it's my favorite too. She says it funny. She says, ell-BO. I swear she has an accent. It's really cute.
Julia update: I was completely wrong about her teeth. I said it was the top two teeth next to the front ones. Well, it's not just those. It's all 4 of them and possibly the two next to the bottom front too. She has been a mess these past few weeks. 2 of them have already cut through and a third is in the final stages. Her right front tooth is coming in last. That definitely explains her horrible sleeping habits and her fussiness lately. Poor girl. She has become very friendly with Baby Motrin. We like Baby Motrin.
Maya update: Maya is really coming along well. She's down to about one or two timeouts a day and a handful of tantrums. It's funny, well, not really funny haha but funny, because I see the tantrums brewing. She gets this look in her eye. Dave and I joke around and say, here come the horns! We're such sweet parents aren't we? heehee. She still sleeps like a champ. I get so amazed because she goes down for her nap & to sleep at night without a fight. I think a routine has been so great for her. She's the type of kid that needs one for sure.
We're gearing up for a weekend at the beach in two weeks. I wanted to go the beach for my birthday so we decided to take the whole family. This will be the first time that Maya will be sleeping away from home not to mention the first time she will see the ocean. I anticipate her freaking out at first sight. I'm hoping after a few hours that we're able to get her feet wet!
I finally got my new camera. I'm very excited about it. It takes really great close-up shots. Perfect for the little chickadees. I just got it today so I'm still trying to learn how to use it. Here are a couple of shots that I took this morning.
You can almost make out Julia's nubs in this one.
Oh I almost forgot. Maya has a new favorite word, elbow. I think it's my favorite too. She says it funny. She says, ell-BO. I swear she has an accent. It's really cute.
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