A Trip to the Zoo

Today Alivia made her first trip to the zoo! Gran and Papa joined us for a lovely afternoon. It was cool and breezy, but warm enough in the sun. Since the weather here has been so unusually cold lately a lot of the animals were inside, but we did get to see quite a few of them--including a couple male gorillas who were rather unhappy with each other. I also was able to get a couple cute photos of Alivia including this one with Papa. You can sure tell he's one proud grandpa!

The zoo also has a carousel. Alivia's a bit young for that yet, I think, but she did enjoy posing on this carousel horse that's at the entrance to the ride. She really liked sliding her hands up and down the pole, too... I'm wondering if I should start worrying... Anyway, we bought annual memberships to the zoo so that we can take Alivia back there often. It's a nice way to spend an afternoon--especially on a weekday when it's not too crowded.

This was our last long weekend until Spring Break next month. I'm looking forward to having that whole week off to spend with Alivia!

~ Jeana

Happy Valentine's Day!

Alivia and I had a wonderful day today! Gran and Papa were out of town so I got to take the day off and take Alivia to her PT appointment. She hated every minute of it--wailed the whole time--but she was able to stand without support for a few seconds and even managed a few steps by herself! It was wonderful to see! We also got a call this afternoon that her speech therapy has been approved by the insurance company, so she'll be starting that next week, too! Finally! I'm hoping they can help us overcome some of her eating issues.

Later this afternoon Alivia and I went shopping for a growth chart for her wall and found a really cute one at Babies-R-Us. We also decided to get some professional photos done while we were there. I'm going to post a few of them here--they turned out really cute! We hung up the chart once we got home and of course we had to see how she measures up... Alivia is up to 29 inches now! She's a growing girl! Which brings up another issue--her changing table is only 30 inches long so we're going to have to find another place for that little chore!

In other news... Alivia is becoming more of a mommy's girl every day. She's starting to get to where she doesn't care for other people to hold her--which is fine by me! She's also becoming very curious and into everything--and she thinks "tooting" (passing gas) is the most funny thing in the world to do!

~ Jeana

February Already!

It's hard to believe it's February already! Alivia and I have both been sick with colds (again...) these past couple weeks. We did get to go to St. Augustine, though, and here's one of the photos we took there. They came out rather grainy... I hate disposable cameras.

Today has been a fun day. We met up with a couple other CHI families this morning for an informational meeting for some other families who are considering adoption. Everyone was wonderful and we had a great time! After the meeting all three families had lunch together at Cracker Barrel--there were 12 of us altogether representing 5 countries! It was truly an international experience! Alivia had a wonderful time playing with a couple of the other children.

My internet buddy Christy is on her way to Tver today to meet the little girl who has been referred to her. I can't wait to hear how things are going. I'm hoping she will email or post to her blog tomorrow.

What else is new... Alivia has a new physical therapist and she's absolutely wonderful! I think we're going to see some quick results now! She's also been evaluated for speech therapy and they have recommended she see someone twice a week for that, as well. They think they can help with her eating issues along with getting her talking more. They'll also be teaching her baby sign--very kewl! We have finally been able to get her scheduled to see a pediatric orthopedic surgeon, too, although not until the end of March.

I've made the decision to go after baby number two--another girl--from Russia. I won't be filing the application for several months to a year yet, but I'm definitely going to go ahead with it. It's just a matter of organizing the finances now.

Otherwise things are just moving along in our new normal... if we could just stop getting these nasty colds everything would be great!

~ Jeana