If you're the praying type...

...I know a family that can use them.

Kayleigh Freeman was born June 23 weighing 1 pound. She's been in the NICU since then (177 days, I believe), fighting hard to stay alive. She's endured more than any child should have to, and unfortunately, it seems she's losing her battle. Please offer up your prayers, thoughts, vibes, whatever your "thing" is, to this family that they may find comfort, strength and peace during this difficult time. http://kayleighannefreeman.blogspot.com/

I don't want to this post to become about Adele and our journey, but I will say that it is days like this that I hug Adele a little tighter, give her just one more kiss at night, and thank God that our story had a happy ending.

Count your blessings, folks.

Sure is quiet around here...

No new posts in almost three weeks?? Woo! I rock! Bless you, dear reader, if you are still out there!

Things are going swimmingly here. Adele is adorable as ever, and getting smarter by the minute. Well, maybe she's not any smarter, but she seems to learn something new every minute. Her vocabulary is expanding, and she's signing more too. She can sign "milk" and "eat," and she must get it from daycare, because we've been terrible about teaching them at home. We are working on "please" and "thank you" now.

She is quite the helper, which is so cute! She loves to clean and wipe things up, and this is another thing she gets from daycare (because she certainly doesn't get it from us). The other day, Steve left a damp paper towel on a table in the living room. She proceeded to wipe up the table (nothing was spilled on it) and next thing we know, she'd taken the towel to the trash can and thrown it away. Nice! Fast-forward 15 or 20 minutes to when she spilled a few drops of milk on the coffee table. Off she goes, to the trash can, to retrieve the paper towel from before! Clever little thing. She comes back, wipes up her droplets of spilt milk and off to throw the paper towel away. Awesome! She likes to "sweep" too. Man--this child-labor stuff is great! No one told me about this parenting perk! I'm sure it will be short-lived, so I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

I really wish there was more exciting news to share! She's pretty much a regular old toddler these days, and that doesn't make for blog-worthy reporting. But hey, I'd gladly take that over the alternative.

Oh! I guess the other small news is that she got her first shiner the other day. She was protesting her morning diaper/clothes change, as is the routine these days, and flopped forward right onto the little knobby thing at the corner of her changing table. Ouchie! It was already bright red and swollen by the time we left for daycare, but it actually looked better by the end of the day. Now it's just a little bit red with a bit of a purple undertone. The best part was that happened on the day when I had to take her to the doctor for her flu shot. Luckily our usual nurse was there, so there were no suspicious looks.

One last thing that I remembered: we finally finished our kitchen!! You may remember that earlier this year we put in a new floor, which improved the look immensely. Well, we finally painted (spiced butternut) and got our new dishwasher (yes!) and a light fixture to replace the 90s era track lighting that was over the counter when we moved in. The difference is like night and day. We love it! It makes the dining room and hallway look even dingier now, so I guess that's next on the list...a long time from now.

Okay, now for pics!

Adele and her fresh shiner. You should have seen the other guy!
Our beautiful new kitchen!



I tried to add a video of Adele "sweeping" but it was taking forever to load. I'll have to try that again when I have more time!

Have a good week, everyone!

Happy Friday from Adele

It's cold here now, so we had to break out the winter-weather gear. Love these hats! (Sorry about the photo quality--I took it with Steve's camera phone!)

Okay, I have a question for all you tech-savvy readers. I really need to back up the photos on my computer, but I'm not sure how. I have several questions.

1. What's the best way to backup the photos? CD? External hard drive? Something else? Is there a particular brand or style I should look for in either case?
2. Should I also save a copy on a web-based photo site (Picasa, for instance)?
3. Ideally I'd like to dump some of them off the computer because they eat up so much memory, but I don't know if that's the smartest idea. Should I dump them once I have them backed up? (Ideally twice, which is why I was considering an external backup source (CD or drive) AND the web-based site.) Or should I leave them on my computer, dump all the terrible photos I know I don't want (because they exist--oh, yes, they do), and just buy more memory for my computer and hope THAT speeds it up?
4. Anything else I should know/do/use?

Feel free to email me directly if you can't fit your reply in comments. My email address is dburen @ gmail.com. (Without spaces, of course.)

Thanks, and Happy Friday!

18 months

Adele turned 18 months old on Friday, Nov 7. I know I say this everytime she hits a major birthday milestone, but GEEZ! How did this happen? EIGHTEEN MONTHS? Criminy.

She had her check-up that day (Nov 7) and the stats are

Height: 31.75 inches

Weight: 20 lbs, 9 ounces

Head: 18-something inches (I don't pay too much attention to this stat anymore.)

Her height is now in the 50th percentile for her ACTUAL AGE. That means she is perfectly average height for normal, full-term 18-month-old!! Holy cow. If we adjust that for her gestational age it's somewhere in the 90th percentile (I think--I don't have the chart with me now). Her weight is still on the low side, coming in around the 5th percentile for her actual age. The doctor looked back at Adele's charts and noticed the highest percentile she hit was 25th right around when she was 5 or 6 months old. The doctor isn't concerned, really, since developmentally she's fine. She doesn't think it's a nutritional deficiency or any sort of metabolic issue, so that's good. It's probably a combination of genetics, catch-up growth, and the fact that she's an on-the-go toddler. She looks healthy, though, so I'm not going to worry about it too much.

She finally sprouted her two top eye teeth, so that makes a grand total of six. Sigh. Poor kid. Someday she'll catch up in the dental department.

Here are the most recent pictures:

Because I am THE cheapest and laziest mom on the planet, Adele's "moose" Halloween costume consisted of her brown pants, inside out brown sweatshirt and "antlers" from Target. Next year I'll do better. I promise. Hey, she still looks cute, right?


Skeeter wanted in on the action.Her "Mummy Loves Me" Halloween shirt. And I posted this pic mostly because of her sweet, sweet face.
A few weeks ago, my friend Joanne and her daughter, Maggie, came over for lunch. Maggie was born 2.5 weeks before Adele. Maybe she can loan Adele some hair.
Adele and Daddy enjoy one of the last nice fall days.
The Foot Book is always a favorite.
We made a trip to Wichita last weekend to help Steve's mom with some work around the house. Here she is with Adele during our Pei Wei lunch. Mmmm!

For the Grandmas

I've been thoroughly scolded by Grandma Van Horn for not having posted anything since late September, and probably more importantly, no PICTURES since Sept. 16. Bad Mommy! Bad! So, with my tail between my legs I humbly beg your forgiveness. I come bearing gifts--LOTS of new photos!

But first, just a quick catch-up on what she's up to these days.

• Walking everywhere--not quite running yet, but I'M not complaining!
• New words: "no," "bye-bye/bye," "hi," "shoe" (although sometimes it's more just shhhhhh), "gimme" (lovely), "more". She also signs "more" and "all done." She has been saying "uh-oh" and "mommy" and "daddy" for a while now. If your remember pictures of her nursery, I put little dot applique thingies all over and some are right by her changing table. We've been using them as distractions during diaper changes and once in a while we hear her say something that sounds like a garbled version of "circle." Probably only recognizable to us, but since she only says it in relation to the dots, we're sure that's what she's talking about. We're trying to teach her "drink" and/or "milk" in both words and sign language. Hope she picks that up soon, as the "gimme" has got to go, and she says "gimme" most often when she wants her cup.
• She's really good at following directions and understanding what we're saying. The other day she was on her way to the living room and I said, "let's change your diaper first," and she turned around and walked straight to her changing table! Just now, Steve told her she needed socks and she found her socks lying on the footstool and picked them up and tried to put them on her feet! She'll also get her shoes if I ask her to find them, or bring a book if I ask, etc.
• Speaking of books...she loooooooooves books. We read probably 10 books a day (sometimes it's the same book 10 times). We're also trying to teach her how to say "book" but no luck so far. You'd think she'd have picked it up by now, as often as she hears us say "do you want to read that book?"
• One slightly disturbing trend is that in the past week or so, if she is scolded or is told "no" she'll start hitting herself in the head and repeating "no, no, no". It's really sad and very upsetting to us. She doesn't cry or anything, but I'm wondering why she's doing it! We certainly don't hit her and I'm 100% confident in her daycare situation, so I really don't know what's going on. It might just be her way of venting her frustration, but still...we have to get that one to stop.
• We finally got her report from CMH after her developmental screen. Her scores/ranges were 8-10 months for language (which is low, I think, but we knew they'd score her low since she didn't talk much at the appt); 11-12 months for motor skills and 14 months for cognitive development. She was around 16 months actual/13 months adjusted at the time, she's right on par for her adjusted age!
  

I know you're really here for pics, so I won't make you wait any longer!

From mid-September, KU Band Day, Adele devours a good book ("Pat the Bunny," I believe). This is one of the few photos of Adele where I think she actually looks like me!


October 5, we all went to the pumpkin patch!





No one we know in the photo below, I just thought it was a nice picture of a beautiful Kansas farm!

*Here is where I add my political disclaimer. I'm usually not one to vocalize my political views, although if you really know me, you probably know which way I lean (and after this post, you'll definitely know). If you want to discuss politics or express your views, please email me. If you're looking to debate or argue, you can skip it entirely, as I don't find that to be fruitful at all, and I like to stay on good terms with my friends and family. :) *

Having said THAT... Saturday, Oct 18, Adele and I joined 75,000 of our closest friends and went to see Barack Obama speak at Liberty Memorial in Kansas City. It was an awesome day (although my legs and back were killing me after standing for 4 hours) and we had great weather. Adele was a trooper and charmed everyone around us. She fell asleep just before Obama took the stage, though. Oh well! At least she could nap in the stroller and I could enjoy the speech without having to hold her the whole time. We weren't terribly close to the stage, but not way in the back either. Thank goodness for zoom lenses!

For a while our line butted up to a grassy knoll, so I let Adele wander around and play in the grass.


The view from our spot in line. The entrance is past that building at the top of the photo and around the corner. When we first arrived it was half as long as it is here, but foolishly we decided to go get lunch thinking it wouldn't grow TOO much in an hour. Sigh...
The line continued behind us, around the corner, to the end of the next intersection and halfway up THAT street. CRAZY.
Obama 08 sign
We played several rounds of "Spot the Secret Service"

Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius:
Finally, the main event, Barack Obama! (This is with quite a zoom effect on, and unfortunately things get rather blurry when I'm using the super zoom.)

El fin

Today we had what turned out to be our LAST Tiny-K visit! WOOOOOOOOOO!!! We're so very happy because it means Adele is a-ok. Steve and I already knew that, but it's nice to be released from the program and have it be official. The OT is going to speak with Adele's doctor about whether or not we NEED to have another swallow study done. Staci, the OT, and Steve and I are all on the same page that we don't feel it's necessary. Adele has been on all unthickened liquids for more than a month, and is doing just fine. I hate to expose her to more radiation for something that isn't a "must" and we all agreed that kids tend not to perform as well in these tests since they're anxious about being in a new place, different environment, etc. We'd hate to have her "fail" simply because of the surroundings, when we're fairly certain she's fine. Make sense?

Anyway, it's alllll good news. We're going to transition over to their Ages and Stages program insstead. They'll mail us a sheet every so often that we'll use to mark her development, and if they see any red flags they'll schedule something.

Even though she's still not technically "caught up" to her actual age, there are absolutely no concerns about her catching up eventually. So, no more Tiny-k, no more Children's Mercy, no more thickener. It's all "normal" kid stuff from here on out! YAY!

Sentimental Fool

As fall quickly approaches, and as Adele quickly outgrows all her clothes, it's become apparent we're overdue for a clothing purge. Every day is a struggle to find something that fits her AND is weather appropriate. (When it's 50-something in the morning and 80-something in the afternoon, it's very difficult to know how to dress your kid for the day.) Adele has two drawers and a closet full of clothes, but only 25% of it fits right now. This morning, I got sick of the digging and finally pulled everything that was too small or too summery.

A few weeks ago, my friend at Goddess in Progress blogged about packing up her twins' clothes, and how she didn't feel much of a desire to keep anything. She wrote, "I don’t find myself with any real pull to keep any of it. Maybe it’s because we’re most likely done having kids..." The opposite is true for me. I got misty a few times as I was packing up the last of the onesies today. Part of the sadness/wistfulness is knowing that Adele isn't a baby anymore, the other part is knowing that there likely won't be another baby later that would make it necessary to keep anything. It's hard for me to let go of the one and only baby experience I'll have.

I am sentimental by nature, no doubt, but I'm sure my sadness is magnified by how I still feel like I was cheated out of the Full Pregnancy Experience. Everything ended too soon--it all went too fast. While I know being a one-kid family is the right choice for us, I still can't help but wish I could do it one more time, just to prove I CAN. Just to experience those things I didn't get to the first time (like the third trimester). Just to have, maybe, a normal labor and delivery. Just to know what it's like to be discharged from the hospital WITH your baby. But Steve and I are no spring chickens, and soon I'll be in Advanced Maternal Age territory. AMA means higher risk pregnancies, and I just can't take that chance again. So, one kid it is. At least we hit the jackpot the first time! AND I get to live vicariously through my fellow Preemie Moms who are brave enough to try again, like my friend Jessica (mom to a 25-weeker), who is almost 35 weeks along in her current pregnancy and cruising toward her Oct. 21 c-section date. Or my friend Jen (mom to a 30(?) weeker), who bed-rested her way through most of her second pregnancy, but was rewarded with a gorgeous, healthy, Take-Home Baby, Caleb.

Back to clothes: I did keep most of her first outfits, the tiny preemie onesies that she wore in the NICU, and the outfit she wore home from the hospital. And I kept certain items that were meaningful in some other way (her first Easter dress; the little red hooded sweater she wore in her first professional photo; favorite shirts and receiving blankets). But everything else is boxed up, ready to be passed on to someone else who can actually use it.

Now, I just need to find homes for the baby carseat, baby bathtub, Bumbo tray, Boppy, mobile...

Baby steps

Sorry that I haven't posted much lately! We've been very busy lately, and you can always assume no news is good news. 

Adele is absolutely fabulous in every way. And, get this--she's WALKING. Yipes. She started taking steps around Steve's birthday in late August, and over the course of the next few weeks she's progressed by leaps and bounds. (Ha! Punny!) She can walk across a room without falling once, but it might take her all day. Slow and steady wins the race, I guess! She still chooses to crawl most of the time, but I have noticed that she's attempting to walk first before giving in to the faster, more efficient mode. This weekend we're off to KC to get her some real shoes, just in time for cooler weather. Robeez just won't cut it in the cold, wet Kansas winters, no matter how cute they are.

She had a developmental follow-up at Children's Mercy last week and that went fine. We're still waiting on the final report, so I don't have anything "official" to share. But no major concerns were mentioned to us, so one can assume all is well! The psychologist did say that Adele was "smart but intense" (after witnessing a major meltdown when I wouldn't let Adele keep climbing the PT stairs). Ah yes..."intense"...guess we will need to learn how to keep that attitude of hers focused in the right direction. And I have NO idea who she gets it from...(ahem).

Anyway, the whole point of this post is to share the video montage I made. Enjoy watching Adele progress from unsteady stumbler to sure-footed walker! (Okay, maybe that last part is a stretch, but she's getting close!)

(Filmed Sept. 9-15)

Is it November 5th yet?

I will not give myself an ulcer this election cycle.
I will not give myself an ulcer this election cycle.
I will not give myself an ulcer this election cycle.

Deep breaths in...deep breaths out...

Weekend in Wichita

We took a quick trip to Wichita this weekend to see the family down there and had a blast. But before I talk about THAT, I need to mention that Grandparents Pontow were here Friday and Saturday and REALLY helped us out by babysitting for several hours on Saturday so I could attend a church meeting (while Steve worked) and so Steve and I could go see Batman on Imax. Steve and I rarely get to do anything together without the baby (not that we mind), and we really appreciated that G-ma and Papa were willing to watch Adele for a few hours! Thank you! (By the way, the movie is AWESOME. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it, and seeing it on Imax is worth the extra bucks!)

Anyway, Sunday we headed to Wichita to see family there and take a much-needed mini-break. Most of Steve's family lives there (his Dad and Raylene live in OKC), which includes his mom and Ted, his triplet siblings and all their kids. It's quite a group when everyone gets together! Unfortunately, Theresa's girls were sick, so they couldn't come over. But Jason and Angie (the other two of the triplets) and their significant others and kids all made it over. YAY!

We spent a few hours in Grandma and Grandpa VanHorn's pool and enjoyed a delicious supper complete with an early birthday cake for Steve! Monday was Steve's birthday and we went to the Sedgewick County Zoo and spent half the day there. I'd never been and the last time Steve was there was at least 25 years ago. It was a really nice zoo! Great exhibits, very clean and well-kept and CHEAP (thanks especially too some 1/2 price admission tix we got from the VanHorns). And since it was a Monday morning, it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. Adele seemed to enjoy the animals, although she did konk out about halfway through the morning. After the zoo we hit Pei Wei for birthday lunch with Steve's mom and were on the road back home.

Since we weren't able to take a real vacation this year, we've been relying on occasional long weekends to break up the summer. We camped earlier in the season and now we're wrapping up the summer with the zoo trip. Fun! I even remembered to take some photos during the weekend.

Oh! The other fun thing that happened was that Adele came THISCLOSE to walking! She's standing up on her own more and more now and occasionally she'll take a step (although sometimes she does more of a pivot move). I'm sure it's only a matter of weeks before she figures it all out. Eek! So, there's a short video of some small steps after the photos. Enjoy! Also, I put an album online in case you want to see more of the weekend. Click here for those.

(That's cousin McKenzi in the background...)

I can't believe I missed it!

I can't believe I forgot to acknowledge the one-year anniversary of Adele's release from the NICU! August 11 (Monday) is the anniversary date, and we spent it at home because Adele had a fever and couldn't to to daycare. I'm kind of sad that I let the big day slip by unnoticed. But maybe that's a GOOD sign--we've obviously moved past those days and are too busy with fun stuff to think about the NICU.

It seems like only yesterday, and yet it seems like YEARS ago. How is that possible? Either way, I'm glad it's only a memory now.

Anyway, because it's appropriate...

Then:

The last night in the NICU crib!

Getting ready to go!

Riding home...getting closer!

Home sweet home, crib sweet crib.
So tiny--I forgot how she used to sleep short-wise in the crib!

Now:

I thought this outfit was super-cute!

What she looks like in her crib these days...

For cuteness' sake.

Standing like a big girl. We're in trouble, aren't we?

15-month stats

Adele had her 15-month well-baby check up yesterday and the stats are as follows:

Weight: 19 pounds, 8 ounces (5-10 percentile)
Length: 30 inches (25-50 percentile)
Head circ: 17.25 inches (25-50 percentile)
Weight to length: 10-25 percentile

She's still pretty small for a 15-month-old, but she's stayed on the curves she's always been on, and that's really what the docs are looking at. If she stays put, it looks as though she'll end up being tall and thin. The tall doesn't surprise me one bit! Of course, I always like to look at the chart using her adjusted age, so in that regard...

Weight: 10-25 percentile
Length: 75-90 percentile (not surprising)
Head: 50-70 percentile

The bottom line is that she's growing appropriately and is healthy! That's all anyone cares about. :)

The best news from the appointment is that we can now treat Adele like a "normal" baby! No one has used the phrase "caught up" yet, but most preemies don't technically catch up to their actual age until around 2. Dr. Murphy gave us the OK to stop Early Intervention (aside from the monthly feeding therapy appointment), and once Adele has finished up the frozen breastmilk, we're done with bottles and on to cups and cow's milk full-time! Also, once we finish up this last batch of Prevacid, we're dropping that from the regimen. Her language is fine, her gross and fine motor skills are fine, her growth is fine... Have I mentioned that she's fine? ;) The only special thing we have to continue is thickening her liquids. We reguarly give her unthickened cow's milk in a sippy cup, and she manages that perfectly, but she will still sputter on unthickened water. It's a minor annoyance, though, and one I can live with considering how few other precauctions we have to take.

Somewhat off-topic, I have to apologize for the lack of photos lately. I haven't been taking many (too busy chasing after a certain busy baby!), and the ones I HAVE taken haven't turned out too well. I will do my best to rectify that, though! And in the meantime, you can enjoy this short video of Adele and Daddy playing Adele's new favorite game, "Talk into the Can." This game is right up there with her other favorite games, "Bang on the Can" and "Throw All My Toys into the Can and Then Pull Them All Back Out Again." I swear, that $3 can of hot chocolate was the best money we ever spent.

One year adjusted!

Today Adele is one-year-old adjusted (15 months actual, as of yesterday!). She had her Early Intervention assessment today and scored right on for her adjusted age (which is all anyone cares about). She's right on track as far as doing what "normal" 12-month-olds should do! She says a few words, points, knows who Mommy and Daddy are, plays appropriately with toys, cruises well (and has even stood alone for a few seconds a couple of times), is great at feeding herself, etc. She's absolutely perfect those areas. In fact, there wasn't anything they told us we should be concerned about, which is great. We'll see how she does at the "official" screening in September (at Children's Mercy), but honestly, I'm totally not worried. She has a doc appt in town next week, and I'm hoping that with this assessment in hand, we can stop Early Intervention altogether. We might end up doing a program called Ages and Stages, which is a little less intensive and requires meetings only once every three months. I really look forward to not having these twice-monthly appointments!

We'll finish off what we're hoping is her last can of formula today, as we expect to transition her milk fully after next week's doc appt. In the meantime, we're giving her the non-expired breastmilk and that is going really well. She's been eating it exclusively at daycare for about two weeks, and I gave her an 8oz bottle today (I'm home with her since daycare is closed) and she ate it like a champ! Of course, we also plan to drop the bottle soon, but we might have to keep one or two a day until the breastmilk is gone. Still not sure how one goes about weaning off the bottle--if it's gradual or cold-turkey--but I don't have many concerns about it being too difficult. She's never been that attached to her bottles (and there were plenty of times when she could take or leave them!) so I hope we can just let them go and never look back! It's weird to think about suddenly NOT making bottles 3-4 times a day, and we'll have to figure out new ways to get our snuggle times in. I also worry about her getting enough regular milk in during the day, but I'm sure that will come with time. I am NOT worried about her getting enough calories, however, as the girl will eat ANYTHING. Any fruit, veggie, bean, grain, pasta, cheese, meat (well, all she's had is chicken, but she liked it) is a hit with her. Thank goodness for that!

So, I guess you could say things are going really well! I'll know more after next week's appointment, but again, I'm so not worried about anything that I'm sure it will all go fine!

In unrelated news, I am SO excited for the Olympics to start tonight! I have the DVR set to record the opening ceremonies in case we're busy with dinner or bedtime when everything starts. I need to get on NBC's website and check out the schedule so I don't miss anything major.

I guess that's about it from here!

Spilt Milk

Remember this?



Unfortunately, most of that milk is STILL in that freezer, and I've made the heartbreaking decision that it's time to dump it. Some of it is more than a year old, and 12 months is the longest the experts recommend keeping frozen milk. Sad times for sure. Here's what I'll be dumping once it all thaws.


I did a very rough calculation and figured there's about 400 oz, which equals about 66 six-ounce bottles or 15 days' worth. Ugh, ugh, ugh. And if wasting breastmilk isn't heartbreaking enough, I noticed the time on one of the bottles was 5:30 am--all that time and energy down the drain, too! The good thing is that considering I have about that much still in the freezer that hasn't expired, I'm on a mission to use it before it spoils!

Knock on Wood

I know I'm jinxing things by posting this, but last night marks three nights in a row that Adele has slept through the night. To my knowledge, that has never happened before! For the longest time, we were waking once or twice for a feeding. Then she just woke up on her own to eat. After we determined she was gaining fine and didn't need that nighttime bottle, she still would wake up, but we could get her back down with a snuggle in the rocking chair. However, for the past few months S and I got lazy and started bringing her to bed with us at the first sign of crying. Path of least resistance, I suppose. And that was fine for a while, until it became obvious that she preferred to sleep sideways and Steve and I were slowly forced to the very edges of our respective sides of the bed.

So, we'd decided we needed to take control of the situation. Neither of us are fans of "cry it out," and the times we did try it--out of desperation or frustration--were met with complete and utter failure. Adele pukes when she gets worked up, it seems. What we did do, however, is modify our evening/bedtime routine just enough to make it clear that it's time for sleeping--in one's own bed! She still may fuss a bit when you lay her down (we still rock her to sleep/drowsy, and that's not going to change anytime soon), but a few pats on the bottom and sneaking out usually does the trick. She may even fuss a bit once you leave, but I can tell when she's fussing in her sleep (or on her way to sleep) and when she's crying wide-awake. In the case of the latter, we go in and start over and that's usually enough. And overnight, the biggest change we've made is that we're no longer turning the volume up on the monitor speaker in our room. It's sort of cheating, I realize, but I know that if she's REALLY upset we'll hear her anyway (our house isn't that big and she's a loud girl), but we're also not waking up at the first peep she makes. So far, she's not made enough of a fuss to rouse us, and this morning she was still sound asleep at 6:00! (Yes, I know 6:00 seems awfully early, but I'll take an early morning after a night of solid sleep over a late morning after a night interrupted sleeep any day!)

One side effect I had not anticipated, though, was the fact that I'm more tired now than I was when she was waking up in the night. I don't quite get that. I think I'm still EXPECTING her to wake up at any moment, so I don't really get into that deep sleep that I used to. Hopefully, if this is a permanent trend, I'll relax enough to get a restful night's sleep.

And if I haven't yet ensured our failure by posting this, surely our upcoming weekend of travel will do the trick! Ah, but it will be worth it: We travel to beautiful Iowa, my home state, to celebrate my parents' 40th wedding anniversary! Surely a disruption is a small price to pay for such a lovely, happy occasion.

Ow.

Well, it was bound to happen eventually, I suppose: Adele suffered her first daycare bang-up on Friday. She was crawling after some of the bigger kids, who were running around, and there was a collision that resulted in Adele banging her chin on the floor and biting her tongue. She's got a nice scrape on the underside of her chin and a slice on the front of her tongue. Those two little baby teeth she has are razor-sharp! By the time I picked her up, she was doing okay--they'd given her some Tylenol--but the tongue looked terrible, and I could tell she wasn't her usual happy self. Now, a few days later, she's just fine and the gash is much improved. It looks more like a canker sore now. Thank goodness the tongue heals so quickly! The chin scrape looks worse than it did on Friday, as it's scabbed over a bit, but it doesn't seem to bother her at all.

Oddly, there was a bit of fun news that came out of her mouth injury. G-Ma (she and Papa were here visiting for the weekend) and I spent a lot of time peeking into Adele's mouth so we could gauge how well the injury was healing, and all that peeking resulted in spying the next tooth that's about to sprout! It's a top tooth--her top right, to be exact--and you can just barely see the tip starting to poke through. I'm happy to see it because A) it's been a long time (late March) since her last tooth came in and I was starting to wonder when she'd get more and B) it explains why she's been SO FUSSY all week. I suspected teeth, but without visual proof it was mostly just me HOPING that was the cause of her fussiness.

In other news, we've begun the transition from bottle to cup and from formula to milk. I'm hoping that at her 15-month-actual/1-year-adjusted check-up next month we'll get the OK to drop formula and just stick with milk. We're still mixing her formula to 24 calories, but I hope we won't have to fortify her milk. We'll just have to see how much she weighs, I guess! She's eating well enough, I think, and she certainly feels heavy enough! I do admit to being nervous about trying to get a minimum of 16 oz milk in her via cup only. Yikes. Not sure how that will work, but I guess we'll get there eventually! Any tips from other moms out there?

Whoooosh

That is the sound of Summer 2008 whizzing past me. How did it get to be JULY already?? Sheesh.

It's been a fun summer, though. Last year I didn't get outside except to walk from home to car to work to car to home to car to hospital. Rinse. Repeat. Eight hundred times. I tanned with Adele under the bilirubin lights. ;) This summer is a VAST improvement, let me tell you. And in looking for the appropriate "this time last year" photo, I see that LAST July 1 we were celebrating coming off all oxygen! Oh, God bless the small victories. I still can't believe how small she looks there (compared to my giant man-hand), and I remember thinking at the time how BIG she was. Memories...

Last weekend I met a couple Mom-friends and their kids at the Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead in OP, KS. It is SUCH a cool place, and the best part is it's FREE. You can pay for extras, such as pony rides, hay-rack rides, milk to feed the baby goats (awww), but the main "park" is free admission. Sweet! It's sort of a glorified petting zoo meets nature park meets living history center (sans dorky reenactors).

Plenty of places to roam and it never got too crowded or jumbled with people (and it seemed like there were plenty of people there). Nice playgrounds spread out over the grounds, and plenty of things to keep school-age kids entertained. All our kids were too young for much hands-on activity, aside from petting the gigantic dairy cow, but it's still a fun way to spend a few hours. And I know as Adele gets older she'll really enjoy the exhibits. If you're a gardener/plant fan, the grounds are beautifully kept and there are different gardening areas to enjoy (kitchen garden with herbs and vegetables, all kinds of flowers and plants, a butterfly garden and wooded nature trail and bird-watching area). Another thing I noticed, and appreciated, because apparently I am an old lady now, was the wealth of seating areas. Benches and low rock walls were abundant, and there were nice wooden bench swings and things to rest on. It was a totally enjoyable day! AND I was happy to get out and spend some time with some other moms and kids. Good times! (P.S. Check out the photo captions at the end of the blog.)

After a few hours there, there was only one thing left to do: GO SHOE SHOPPING! Right? Right. I'm attending my dear friend Michelle's wedding in August, and I NEEDED new shoes. (New dress requires new shoes, people!) DSW was having a sale, and since there was a store just up the road... Joanne joined me and gave me great advice, and I managed to find the perfect pair! All-in-all a successful Saturday, I must say.

This weekend promises to be fantasic as well, and thankfully it's a short work-week too! Anyway, my dear friend Lindi and her family (which includes 3-year-old Carina and soon-to-be-1-year-old Izzy) will be in town!!!! The last time they were in the state was back in December. We were going to get the babies together, but illness conspired against us and we were forced to cancel. Lindi and I were pregnant at the same time, so we've been looking forward to getting "our girls" together for the past year. Looks like we'll FINALLY get to do so!

We're going to meet in Kansas City, at her cousin's house, which will allow me to finally meet them (the cousin and his wife and their kids). Brian and Jen and I started emailing shortly after Adele was born. You see, their oldest, Lucas, was a preemie too (he's 4 now!), and they lent their prayers and support when we were going through those tough times. I'm really looking forward to meeting them, and meeting their full-term, take home baby, Caleb! No one appreciates a full term baby more than a preemie parent, that's for sure!

I hope your summers are being enjoyed to the fullest!

Photos: 1. Maggie, Adele and Sam (don't mind the Moms behind the curtain!) 2. Joanne (ex-coworker) and Maggie 3. The kitchen/practical gardens. It was hard to resist eating some of those fresh goodies!! 4. Adele and Sam (Adele looks pretty bored here!) 5. An iconic piece of prairie landscape: The Windmill. This one was framed by a beautiful summer sky!