Storytime, nope make that thrift store finds

Jamie loves the routine at the library storytime, but is sometimes a little anxious for what is to come. She is shouting 'Owl, owl owl...' during the Jumping with Bobo session. You can see the librarian dutifully trying to ignore her as he continues with the routine. Watch closely as the boy on her right accidently strikes Jamie in his exuberance during the session. Later he lays on the floor and does a little mock temper tantrum- fists pounding, and legs flailing -like he had all this pent up energy he didn't know what to do with or something. Ok I give up. I have tried to upload this video 5-6 times. First it was going into hibernation and knocking me off, then it just wouldnt do it despite changing my settings. Take my word for it the video is cute. Any bloggers out there who can give me some advice I would really appreciate it. I have yet to be able to do this on blogger. The videos posted have been done by Mike. Maybe I should try another computer? Meanwhile check out Jamie and her new pink boots, her princess shirt and saxophone we got from the thrift store this week - $3.50 for the boots and .50 for princess shirt and the horn. She loves all three.

RIP Corky October 1997-Feb 21, 2008

Corky in his glory

Poncho and Kimba (who passed away in October)

My mom called me at work sobbing this morning. She had just found her beloved boy cat Corky dead under the couch. She is disabled and isn't able to get down on her knees so I am not sure how she got to him. It was horrible... I felt so bad for her. And with her now living on the other side of the state I couldn't come and help her like I did the last time one of her pets passed away. I had to make suggestions and just commisserate with her over the phone. This will be so hard for her. Corky was her constant companion and she loved on him so much. She does have another kitty-Kiwi but Corky was her favorite.

In 1997 she had just lost 2 cats in quick succession and I knew she needed another kitty. I went to my local pet store to get cat food and saw this litter of kittys - 2 all black females, and two males - one tabby and white and a black tuxedo(black and white). The tabby and white looked alot like my moms previous favorite boy Grantlee so I stopped and inquired. It was mothers day weekend, so I found out the lady would be bringing the adoptable kitties back to the store the next day on Sunday, so I brought my mom out there and sure enough she fell hard for him, and I fell for the little tuxedo. So Mom got Corky and I got Poncho. They were 9 months old and were not little kittens, they were pretty much grown they were really adolecents. But that way you could see what their personality would be. I love my Poncho, and she loved her Corky. I thought Poncho would be the first to go of the two as he has a kidney stone and I have been irrigating him with solution 2-3 times per week for the last year and a half and has gotten very thin and languid since Christmas. My poor mom. I feel her pain and know that Poncho's day will be coming all too soon.

Pet Expo

Today we joined our friends at the Pet Expo - Aunt Patty & Unka John and Uncle Craig, Aunt Cinda and Ander and James. Jamie enjoyed herself, Mike couldn't come as he is still diligently working on his tasks. We saw some cute dogs and cats that need homes. We just can't adopt another pet right now as our kitty Poncho is not doing real well. He has a kidney stone, following in his sister Katie's footsteps. I have to administer fluids subcutaneously (under his skin) three times a week to help him to feel better and he is quite thin. I am preparing myself for his eventual demise. :-(

We didn't get the chance to count anymore birds for the weekend, but following the link below gets to some pretty cool bird watching pages that show how to identify the different types of birds. Out peanut butter pine cone that we made at Tree Hill last month has been picked clean so we bought a couple feeders for the kitchen window last week. The birds are turning their noses up at the new offerings however.

Great backyard bird count

When going to our local nature center yesterday we found out this weekend is the great backyard bird count and we are participating. It is much easier than I thought it would be. I have already submitted 3 lists of different birding periods. Funny thing is I saw more birds during our walk from the library to the van than when we were at the nature center. (Only one cardinal spotted at the nature center, and 3 house sparrows outside the library) If you have 15 minutes and you want to jot down what types of birds you spotted head over to this site and log them in. Help in this national project to see where the birds are.

http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/

Wuv you mommy

The other night we were putting Jamie down for the night, and I asked her to tell Daddy she loved him. 'wuv you daddy' she said! So I asked her to say it to me and she did...'Wuv you mommy' So exciting and on Valentines day too! Today we went to see the goats at our local nature center, and then to the downtown library for Toddler art and story/song time. We are pretty predictible my girl and me. Daddy has been hard at work every night and weekend working on tasks he needs to be fully certified as a teacher, so Jamie and I are on our own for the most part on the weekends. Daddy does join us for meals (usually) but he doesn't accompany us on our jaunts too much anymore. He has to be done with these tasks the end of March. We can't wait to get our Daddy and Hubby back.

Jamie is a music lover - especially the French Horn!

She was enthralled

After we were ousted


Jamie is so excited on Sunday morning at nine am when CBS Sunday morning show starts. Those french horns just really get her going. (See sidebar for video).
So when one of our symphony members who plays the French Horn put on a free concert at our library auditorium one Sunday afternoon, we woke Jamie up from her nap and took her there. She was mesmerized for the first 20 minutes and then she got a bit restless. Although she didn't yell or cry she said "mommy" a few times, so we whisked her out of there. We sat her at a chair outside the auditorium to get her picture by the sign, and this older usher woman come cluck cluck clucking out and said we had "already disturbed the performance" enough... Hmmm, guess Jamie wasn't welcome to come back. I told the old hen that if you don't encourage the young to listen, then the symphony won't have any fans in 30 years or so and that we would be back again. She responded that they do have childrens concerts...Hmmm guess she really doesn't want us back there. Too bad. I work during the day and that is when they have the children's performances. And besides I want Jamie to be exposed to all different types of culture and music. Today we went before Toddler Art and listened to an Appalachain story teller/poet. Jamie lasted about 20 minutes at that too. Guess that is about her attention span right now. And that is ok.

Jamie is 2!

We had such a good time for Jamie's birthday party this past weekend. Neither Grandma could come as they were just here for Christmas but others who love her were here. I took the day off before the party and had most everything done which made for a stress free day for all. She loved her phone and she also got 2 different MP3 players - one where we can download songs onto it for her. We have already loaded Laurie Berkner, her current musical fave.

We're going live today at 5:00 pm!

Join us today as we celebrate Jamie's 2nd birthday. You see in the photos how much she has changed over one year! The left was taken when she was 11 months old. The right was taken for her Christmas 2007 picture.

We will be broadcasting live today through UStream.tv. In the right sidebar you will be able to watch the festivities as we fete our daughter and celebrate a momentus milestone for her and us!

Come on by and join us. I'll try and set up a chat room so you can comment on the party! If time permits there will be commentary and play by play as the babies play. We are looking forward to hearing from you as you celebrate along with us.

DInner out with Aunt Patty & Unka John

We went out the night of one of the big games our team was about to play and it was fun to dress Jamie in her cheerleader togs that Aunt Patty and Unka John got her for Christmas. We don't eat out very often as we are trying to get out from under huge debt and also because eating out with a toddler doesn't always go smoothly. Aunt Patty & Unka John always love to see us (Jamie) so it was great to join them. Here's hoping we have no other major home systems or appliances go out on us for a year or so, so that we can swim up from underneath this debt. My friend who teaches political science at a college in Michigan says getting out of debt is the new American Dream. We don't travel or wear expensive clothes and go out to eat except maybe once a month. We do own two houses (one we rent out) that seem to demand constant expenditures...Heat & Ac goes out, need to replace the oven, the refrigerator, the dishwasher, the plumbing (for both houses!) and soon it will be 2 roofs. I am thankful we didn't take out a home equity home to accomplish any of the constant holes these two money pits put us into. Just put it on credit cards and keep moving to a new card with lower interest. I have managed to keep the debt on cards with very low interest rates so far (3.99, and zero % currently), and hope we can pay it all off before it catches up with us.

So is getting out of debt the New American Dream? What is your American Dream?

Adoption issues

We were so lucky to have adopted Jamie from the foster care system. When we got her she was 4.5 mos old and she was in her second home and had been in the system since birth. The first home she was in was trying to adopt a baby and they preferred a boy. A baby boy came available (His birth parents were getting their rights terminated - he was already in foster care) and in our county the judge always wants the child to be in a preadoptive home when the parents rights are terminated. The family that had Jamie originally had too many under three, so they 'traded' Jamie for the baby boy they wanted to adopt. So at 3 mos of age Jamie was moved to this other home who didn't want to adopt any others. At that point in the process it looked like the birth mom was working on her case plan. We found out about Jamie at that point because I went to the foster/adoptive parents meetings and met a mentor. A lady who was currently fostering one sibling group of four and another child she was hoping to adopt. This wonderful lady knew about Jamie's situation because of the original foster mom being concerned about Jamie's current home. (The concern came in part because the baby boy that had been there had some issues - the back of his head was flat, and his clothes all smelled of smoke etc.) So we found out about Jamie in April, but our license didn't become official until the end of May. 2 days after our license became official Jamie's current foster mom called the agency and said she wanted to stop fostering - that she wanted the two babies she had removed from the home. Since the agency knew we were interested we were the lucky family they called and picked her up that night!

When we picked her up it was apparent that she was scared...poor baby, can you imagine? Some strangers come to get you and you are carried out to the driveway with all of your possessions in a garbage bag. Everything smelled of smoke and of the 6-7 items of clothing only one fit ok but it was long sleeved and too warm for Florida in late May. The back of her head was completely flat and when she woke up in her crib she didnt cry. She would just lay there and wait on someone discovering she was awake. I had been told that I may just want to let her nap in her swing - that "she just loved it", although no swing was sent with her. Also she didn't come with any 'lovey' or soft toys. She had some blocks and beads and a little mirror. That was it...not even some diapers!

Anyway over the next few months Jamie did begin to cry when she woke up in her crib, but her head remains flat. In the first few months she often avoided eye contact but this doesn't seem to be an issue anymore - I guess she has learned to trust. Poor baby... She does still do some 'mommy shopping' - which is when we are in a group of folks Mike and I are often invisible to her. She is more concerned with getting the attention of other adults.

As Jamie just turned two, it is hard to tell what long term issues we might encounter from her adoption experience. Many experts believe even newborns have abandonment issues and can experience attachment disorder issues. I wish we had been the parents that picked her up from the hospital but things worked out the way they were supposed to, of that I am truly convinced.

We finalized her adoption in August of 2007. Here is Jamie on the first weekend in our home- May of 2006.

I blog for comments!

I was told yesterday I needed to 'step it up' with the blogging, that she was (Aunt Patty) was coming daily to check and there wasn't any fresh content. Well I do the same thing, I come to the blog to see who has visited and what they commented on. Not very many comments. Hmmm, maybe I need to be more interesting? or post more often? Or both!? But as I stated above "I blog for comments!' If you come here, please take a minute and say hey!

Here are some of the recent pictures from Christmas.



Here is the photo I was allowed to take with my camera (she was a bit scared of Santa):



Here is the photo they took with their props and funny faces:



Now Jamie wants to see the Santa! photo anytime I am on the laptop. Guess we need to scan, print and laminate her her own copy of it. I am not sure which one to do it with as she seems to like the one where she is crying.

Here is a family shot with Mikes mom and brother Bruce:



Now for the Christmas Card adventure. Here is the first card we had made before I got the picture I really liked of Jamie in the Black Bodiced dress:



Well they also didn't crop the family shot as I had so I wasn't pleased at all, it was also a bit dark. So I had it redone, not only did they not crop the shots they way I wanted....well look and see.



So, I had to go back to Walmart again and they redid it, but the first time I went I took the pictures on a jump drive which they couldnt use...so the fourth time is the charm!

A sample clip of our day at Tree Hill

Christmas Day with Jamie!

Fun with Nature

We went to our neighborhood nature santuary today for a fun morning making Peanut butter pine cones and walking and seeing nature.



Feeding the goats

Walking the trails

Making Peanut butter Pine Cones

The real Miss Owl

Well we have finally gotten a Card-worthy pic

This was among the last of our third attempt of getting a Christmas card worthy pose of Jamie for our annual card. Too bad that I had already had another card made, but just like last year I didn't order enough so I had another batch made with this photo today. After I think all have gotten their cards (they were just sent out on Sunday!) - I know, they are late as usual!), I will post both cards here.

What follows is the previous attempts on Sunday morning. The girl does not like to pose for pictures!