6 Month US Anniversary and 18 Month Check-Ups

Sunday was Alivia's six month anniversary of US citizenship. We arrived in New York on July 15 this past summer. Hurray, Livi!!!!

To celebrate we ordered her US passport this week. That was a lovely way to spend two hours... I couldn't believe how slow they were at the passport office. We got it done, though, and should have her passport within 6 to 8 weeks. Since we had a Florida certificate of foreign birth it made it easy to apply. We just had to show that along with her certificate of citizenship.

Yesterday was Alivia's 18 month checkup and I was thrilled with the doctor's report. Alivia has gained both pounds and inches and is now up to 16.5 pounds and 28 inches in length. She's still below the 5% line, but she's closing in on it at last. The really great news was about her head circumference, though. It came in at 17.25 inches and put her on the 5% line for low birth weight girls! Hurray! The doctor also had really good things to say about her development, placing her at 15 months. When I first got her at the age of 12 months she was only at 7 months developmentally, so she's closing the gap there, as well.

The fun part of the day yesterday was the shots and the bloodwork. Alivia actually did well with her shots--she only cried for a few seconds. It's not the needles that bother her--it's the stingy stuff in them. Apparently the stuff she got yesterday wasn't too bad. Then, when we went to the lab, the staff there were making comments about how they don't like doing babies because they always cry so much. They obviously didn't believe me when I told them she wouldn't cry, but I explained that as long as they got it on the first stick and didn't dig around in her arm she'd be fine. I think they were amazed afterwards to find out I was right. They did a good stick on the first try, got the blood they needed and Alivia sat there quietly and just watched them do their thing. She's such a trooper!

We seem, finally, to have gotten everything straightened out for Alivia's physical therapy, speech therapy and early intervention services. It's been a real pain trying to work out the insurance coverage and get everything in place. The next thing is to get her in to a pediatric orthopedic doctor to evaluate her hips and see if we need to do anything corrective there. Otherwise everything seems to be moving right along!

We are planning an outing to St. Augustine this weekend and I'll try to get some new pics to put up. Till then, everybody stay cool!

~ Jeana

Two More Teeth!

Yep, Alivia has cut two more teeth, bringing her grand total to 14! It's funny the things I can get excited about now--new teeth, regular bowel movements and every new word or facial expression each bring their own little bit of joy to my day!

Today Alivia and I took down the Christmas tree, put her new table and chairs together, and did a little shopping. It was a nice Saturday--at least until she awoke from her afternoon nap. All of the sudden Alivia went into major cling and cry mode. I don't know what the deal was, but she just wouldn't be comforted and wouldn't let me put her down even for a second--my dinner just had to wait. Fortunately she seemed to get over it after about an hour, but she had me worried for a bit. I couldn't find anything that was causing her distress and she still isn't able to communicate at that level. Things like this make me wonder if maybe she's having bad dreams or something. It only seems to happen on those rare occasions where she wakes up crying. Most times she wakes in a terrific mood. I'll be glad when she's able to tell me what's wrong. On a positive note, once I coaxed her into a better mood she stayed that way the rest of the evening.

One more bit of positivity--one of my dear internet buddies leaves for Tver on Monday to meet her referral! I can't wait to hear how things go!

~ Jeana

Happy New Year!

Father Frost was very good to us today! In addition to the toddler-sized table and chairs, the jack-in-the-box, the Russian Dora the Explorer doll, and the blocks I got for Alivia, we also received a beautiful photo album from our dear friends Diane and Susie. These photos are some of the photos that were included in the album.

They also used one of the photos to create a Christmas ornament for us and gave Alivia several little toys to help with her development. I have to say, though, that the photo album was the most wonderful surprise for me. I couldn't believe all the wonderful photos they got of Alivia that evening! There must be at least 70 photos in the album!

Apparently the night I went with my parents to see the Blue Man Group, Susie and Diane decided to turn a night of babysitting into a photo shoot. As you can see from the photos, they all had a great time! I'm so blessed to have friends who enjoy babysitting Alivia as much as Diane and Susie do! And I can't believe they got Alivia to wear the Santa hat for so long! She usually hates hats!

Later today Alivia and I are going over to Gran's house for New Year's dinner. I can't wait to share the photo album with Gran and Papa. They'll love it as much as I do and will no doubt want copies of several of the photos! I picked out these five photos from the album because they each show just how beautiful, curious, intense and happy Alivia is every day. I hope you all enjoy these as much as I do!
Alivia and I want to wish all of our dear friends a happy, healthy, wealthy and wonderful New Year!
~ Jeana