Bad Blogger Bad! This is going to be the longest post ever....

Okay, I know I have been completely horrible about blogging. I really don't know what happened. I guess I got lazy or busy or both. I started finding projects I wanted to complete around the house, like getting the 1600+ pictures from Viet Nam edited, in order and into albums! So I am going to try to recap the last almost 2 months. =) When I left of Norah still had those stupid tubes in her nose and was not a happy girl. She was starting to commando crawl around the floor but was constantly fussy and not sleeping well.


So then on 4/25 we went to the plastic surgeon to get the tubes out. Mind you, all they did was snip the tiny blue stitch holding them in and they basically just fell out of her nose. I so could have done that!! She was soooo happy to have them out. She took a deep breath immediately. I cleaned her nose really well and for the first time in 3 weeks she took a 2 hour nap when we got home.
The next night we went to friends Liz & Mikey's house for a BBQ. Norah met doggies, Truman & Cedar, and got tons of kisses. Truman kept trying to drink her drool, even from inside her mouth. She wasn't really sure what to make of it at first but she didn't want the dogs to go away.

A happy girl with Liz!
Come back doggies!!

Then on 5/2 we had another doctor's appt. where Norah got 4 more shots. That of course was no fun but at least her ear infections had not returned. The nurse told us that she weighed 16 lbs. 2 oz. which was only a 2 oz. gain since her last appt. 1 month prior. This was a little hard for me to believe considering she was eating a ton but since she had surgery and all I let it go.

Then on 5/5, Norah's 9 month b-day, we went to the park with Stacie & Micah! It was great to talk to another adoptive mom. At that point I was still feeling really run down. Norah and I were both having allergy issues and I wasn't sleeping well. But we had a blast at the park, Micah was a riot.

Micah and Norah swing together. This was definitely the way to go. Works much better than worrying the baby is going to flip out the whole time!

I even got a few smiles out of Norah this time around.


Stacie holding Norah, Micah was not thrilled with this.


Adorable boy!!!

The following week my parents arrived for a 2 week long visit. Norah had not met my dad yet and fell in love immediately. Every time he would walk into the room she would grin from ear to ear and get very excited. Here she is below with her Papa Ne Ne at Thai Kitchen.
We spent some time at another BBQ with Uncle Gil, Aunt Lauren and new cousin Ziggy.

And my parents were constantly disappearing with Norah. They would take her on VERY long walks to who knows where and come back with her half asleep. Below my mom is about to head out on one of the aforementioned walks.
Why is it that everyone thinks the baby is going to freeze to death all of the time. If it is warm enough for us to be in t-shirts and shorts why does she need 12 layers and a blanket?

Norah loves Landon Pigg's, Falling In Love at a Coffee shop video. She stops everything she is doing and stares at the TV the second it comes on which is usually daily since we have it saved on our TIVO. She also started pulling up to a sitting position on things at this point as her crawling began to improve. Then on the 18th she was sitting on the floor and holding my fingers and she just stood up. And she did it again and again and was sooo proud of herself. She wanted to show everyone and would smile every time she did it. The following day she finally began to just sit in the middle of the floor. She had been perfectly capable of sitting on her own since mid-March but would refuse to do it, unless on a rare occasion would forget she was doing it but now she was commando crawling all over to a sitting position and back down again.
On the 19th we had our second consult with the hand surgeon at Shriner's. At our first appt. surgery was supposed to be around the first week of June but now the doctor wanted to change everything around. The new plan is to do 2 separate surgeries 6 weeks apart. The first one is to be mid-July and it will separate all of her fingers on her left hand. He was just too concerned she would eat her bandages off if she could not use either hand for eating for playing for 2 weeks. I honestly would rather have just gotten it all over with as this posed a big problem for us since we will now have to take 2 weeks off for each operation and pull her out of day care each time (and yet still pay for it... argh!) I had also released the spot at her day care that we had been on the wait list for since late January so it was back to the day care hunt all over again.

Then on the 26th we had a final dinner with my parents at Jasmine Thai before they headed back to Florida. (We like Thai food, can you tell?) I just wish we had some Vietnamese restaurants close to us but I think the closest one is about 35 minutes away.
Norah looks at the sushi!
I am not sure what I am doing in this picture. I was holding Norah's hand and she moved at the last minute.
The next morning my parent's tried to pack Norah but they had to leave her behind because the suitcase was overweight.


The next night we went to cousin Aidens' pre-school graduation. I cannot believe how big he has gotten. He was almost Norah's age when we first met him and the time has flown by.

Norah was a little confused by the whole thing.
So with an early unplanned return to work we tried to make the most out of the week we had left. We played in the bath with Mr. Crab....
And Mr. Blowfishy...
Played in the Exersaucer....

Played with all our toys....
And with daddy and his guitar...
In her room with blocks....
And in the laundry basket...
And with more new friends. Here is Norah with Max Power who stopped by with mommy Jess and daddy Tim on the way to KC on 6-5, Norah's 10 month b-day. They asked about her crawling and we said she was only commando crawling and then lo and behold she flat out crawled across the floor on her hands and knees.... go figure!!

Max kissing Norah...
Norah trying to kiss Max back... or eat his face off. One or the other.
Then on 6/6, this past Friday, we had to go to a 4 hour team consult with her plastic surgeon's post opp. team. We were basically put in a little room with a couple of chairs and toys (thank god for toys) and the doctors came in every now and then to talk to us... most often when she just fell asleep. It was NOT fun trying to hold her screaming squirming body through her normal nap time. She was seen by an audiologist, geneticist, psychologist, plastic surgeon, RN, pediatric dentist and speech therapist. She is advanced on her language skills despite the fact she still has some fluid in her left ear. No infections though and her hearing was good. Her plastic surgeon would like to operate again when she is 4 to fix her right nostril a bit more. He said the cartilage is just too soft right now. Yippie, more surgery. And she weighed in on their scale at 18 lbs, 10 oz which I why I think the doctor's scale was off in May ... she did not gain 2.5 lbs in 1 month. I just don't believe it. BUT .. they did weigh her fully clothed with a wet diaper that weighed 3 oz (yes, I weighed it when they left the room) so I think she is closer to 18 lbs.
A happy girl 15 minutes before we got to leave.

And finally, (whew, I am tired...) last night we went to another BBQ at Liz & Mikey's house. She was such a good girl through dinner. Then she ate her first meat. Well, kinda meat. Pureed chicken & sweet potatoes. She LIKED it. She also had Cherios for the first time yesterday and inhaled those. With all the new foods we have been starting her on she does not want her bottles much anymore. She will drink the first one of the day and shove the rest away. I don't know wether to fight her on this or let it be.

She was even wearing her G & R dress... 4 months later and still too big and it is a 3-6 month dress. =)
And then the moment came... she saw the dogs... crawled to them....
Got her hands licked on a whole bunch and started to pull up.... and up....

And she did it!!! And we saw it!!!
And she was oh so proud of herself.
And then she shrieked to let everyone know in case they missed it!!
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkk!!!!

And tomorrow... the dreaded day.... I am returning to work and Norah starts daycare. We found a really really nice development center that I am very happy with. They promote organics, do baby yoga, teach sign language and keep binders of each baby's art and photos. She will be crib nighbors with the nephew of my co-worker. So everything will be good or at least that is what I keep telling myself. I really just want to say forget the deposit and screw work, I can't do this but I have to suck it up and at least give it a try. I am trying to be brave but everyday it is something new and I just don't want to miss it. I love my girl!!!