Summer (almost) fun and BIG NEWS!

Long overdue for a post, I know. It has been a busy couple of weeks but also a lot of fun. I actually had 3 days off over Memorial Day and Mari and I just chilled. We had great weather and were able to try out our little swimming pool, just all around fun.

I've mentioned before about a "light bulb switching on." I guess you could call them developmental growth spurts. This past week has been great. First Mari got her top two teeth a couple weeks ago, just out of the blue and this week another one popped through on the bottom left (absolutely no signs of teething, just pop! Sorry to all those parents with bad teethers, Mari again impresses me with how easy-going she is). She is a little lopsided with 3 on the bottom and 2 on the top, oh so cute in a jack-o-lantern way! She never stops chattering (that's NOT new) but has added a whole host of new sounds...it almost seems like she is stringing different sounds together. She has finally taken an interest in books and will actually pull them off the shelf and try to open them (yea!!). And yesterday, she stood up all by herself!! Now she is really trying to do a lot of solo standing; three days ago she wanted nothing to do with it!

So the BIG NEWS! I got a new job. I have been struggling with my current one because of the schedule, compounded by the physical exhaustion of 12 hours on my feet constantly moving, and then throw in the ever-constant threat of some very dangerous communicable diseases that I deal with and could potentially bring home to Mari (had a little scare over the weekend, all's well though). It was just too much at this point in our lives. I love emergency nursing and will greatly miss my job but it was time to move on. I landed an awesome job (and I say landed because the timing was perfect and everything fell into place easily) at a local plant as an occupational health nurse. It will be Monday through Friday, daylight only (no nights, no holidays, no weekends!!!). The hours are somewhat flexible, the benefits comparable, the salary much better. They will pay for more education and will also help me get my certification as an occupational health nurse which could include a large raise (it will take me a little while to get there, though). So it looks great. I turned in my notice at work earlier this week and, as of today, I have 5 shifts left. I have worked at this hospital for 11 years and it will be sad to leave behind a lot of my coworkers but just being able to pick my daughter up from daycare every day and have the energy to play with her and nurture her will be worth it. And just knowing that I will have Thanksgiving AND Christmas off to spend with my family is a luxury I haven't had in a long time. So, as of next Friday, I will be jobless for 2 weeks until I start my new one. Two weeks of bonding time. Oh yeah, and to catch up on all the cleaning, paperwork, prep for new job, tie up loose ends, etc. that I have not been able to do for several months!

Well, on to pix!! Everyone's favorite part.

Hey, it's a book!

First day in the pool!

Second day in the pool...finally leaving the hat on!

Here is what playing in the pool does to me....zzzzzzz!
Playing in the pool. Took a little while to warm up to the idea. Be patient while watching, there are some great giggles near the end.

Growing the 'Fro and Playdates

Time for more updates (with lots of pix!!!). Mari's hair is growing super fast and I think I might actually be getting the hang of taking care of it (maybe?). Today the 'fro was very fluffy and soft and the hairband managed to stay in place for hours because it had so much to hold in place. We've had a great weekend together just playing around. Cousin Madi came over yesterday for a play date and the two girls are SO cute together (can't wait to add in #3--just a couple more months!).

New Mari-isms:

• plays with cars by driving them around the room (don't know where she learned that!)
• can high-five
• plays peek-a-boo with her hands now (instead of her blankie)--usually she misses her eyes and smacks both hands on her forehead
• tries to blow kisses, loves to grab your hand and help you blow kisses
• when you ask Mari how big she is, she will hold both hands up in the air (unfortunately she doesn't hold them very far apart so it looks like she is not-so-big)
• getting very mobile while holding on to stuff (will be walking soon...augh!)
• vocabulary: da (dog), mama, kit-kat (kitty cat), bye-bye, iiii (hi), na-na (nite-nite, I think), uh-oh, vveerr (vroom when she plays with cars)
• climbing...this girl can climb all over everything and has no depth preception yet so she launches off things as well (any predictions on # of stitches by age 2?)

On to pictures!

Mari got stuck in this plastic toy bin.

Hey, who's that?
Dainty Drummer!

Sharing balls!

NOT sharing. These next few pix are of the battle of Madi's pacifier.







Worn out after all that playing (she stayed in this position for 3 hours until I woke her up)

My need for organization has worked it's way into Mari's hair stuff. This is a fishing tackle box...works well!

This smells better than cat food!

Yum!

Check out my 'Fro!!

Afro-Puffs

A highchair, half of a banana diced up, several cookies, Moose A. Moose on Noggin + spray leave-in black-vanilla conditioner, one comb, and 8 pink rubber bands = AFRO PUFFS!! Mari's first real "do." She was awesome...only a little whining and crying but that was from me trying to keep the bands from snapping.

"Hey, I wore this outfit to my Embassy apppointment in Ethiopia! It still fits four months later."
"Yum...overall straps!"

"Hey, what's this thing sticking out of the side of my head?"
First time in the real tub...much more freedom than the inflatable one!
"What an exhausting day!"

Baby Chiropractor needed!

Mari apparently wasn't quite ready for naptime today and decided to play with her crib aquarium for a little while. However, when sleep hits...it hits hard!

New Post (catchy title, huh?)

Long overdue for a post. Lots of great stuff happening here in Mari-Land. Grab a snack and get comfortable, this may be a long post!

This story starts last year when we had a couple really bad storms...I lost a few shingles here and there, no big deal. Then, very shortly after coming home from Ethiopia, we had a REALLY bad wind storm. I can't quite remember when it was...sometime during that foggy period after first getting home...I just remember running around the yard, picking up shingles, freezing cold, more shingles flying off the roof and hoping I didn't get killed by one while Mari was napping in her crib. The end-result was large patches of missing shingles, lots of tar paper showing, also lots of wood showing. The weeks after were filled with roofers knocking on my door or leaving cards in my mailbox offering "great deals." But between new motherhood, going back to work, and being ill for most of March...I just never got it done.

Fast forward to one week ago Sunday. My doorbell rings in the evening, I peek out and see a very tall man standing on my doorstep and I thought, "oh dear, another roofer looking for work or another preacher telling me the world is ending." (Sorry Essen!). But since there was also a woman(Kathy) standing on the porch and a baby stroller, I decided to open the door. In the stroller was Lydia (who celebrated her 2nd birthday 3 days before Mari's 1st) was adopted last summer from China. They live just a few doors down from me and had heard from another neighbor that I was adopting and were checking to see if we were home yet (they kind of picked up on all the baby-related trash at the road!). We had a great time catching up on each other's stories and they hooked me up with some local resources so I'll be able to meet other adoptive families around here. They also have 3 other kids, the oldest girl will probably be babysitting for me soon (yea!) and the twin 10-year-olds had a great time playing with Ollie-dog, so I have some pet-sitters close by! What a great doorbell ring! But it gets even better. Essen is the pastor of a local church (I was right about a preacher being on my doorstep!) and their deacon's group has a ministry where they help out folks in the community and, thanks to a post-Katrina missions trip, they just happen to be very good at roofing (see, I was right about a roofer on my doorstep too!). On Tuesday, one of the deacons stopped by with Essen and they checked out the roof. On Thursday, a bunch of men came over and climbed on my roof and in just a couple hours, my roof was whole again; watertight, seamless, even matching (they did a great job matching the shingles).

So a BIG THANK YOU to the guys at Tabernacle Pres in Waynesboro. Mari and I greatly appreciate all your hard work to help us stay dry!

Here are the guys up on the roof. Someone is hiding behind a ridge I think...there were 7 of them.

Mari watching the action from below.
Our new friend, Lydia!

Here are some more random pix. Enjoy!

Happy 5th Birthday Oliver!!

Here is our new daily routine. Mari spent a couple hours at the doctor's office on Sunday (yes, they have Sunday hours!). I took her because her face swelled up like a Cabbage Patch Kid but she ended up having both ears badly infected again, she was wheezing more, and she was just plain tired. She was barely awake all day Sunday. So she got an injection of antibiotics and we are now on a 6-week-course of antibiotics (Bactrim), if that doesn't work then we will explore the "plumbing" option (tubes!). She is back on steroids (Orapred) and we added in an allergy medicine (Claritin) to try to combat the ever-present sniffles. She is now on a twice-daily nebulizer (Pulmicort) that is a preventative med, in addition to her albuterol nebs that she still gets when she is coughing and wheezing. In the mornings, she needs both and, since they can't be mixed, that is almost 30 minutes of just breathing treatments (yes, that means I get up at 4:45 for work instead of 5:15). All this is on top of her 6-week course of the oral ringworm med.

Top to bottom. Griseofulvin for ringworm, Bactrim for ears, Claritin for allergies, Orapred for reactive airway, and to the right is the Pulmicort and the albuterol. Aren't you glad you got your medical lesson in for the day?! Luckily, Mari is very good at taking meds. Mari's new sleeping position. Face down, butt up!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE those feet!
Mari's first day in shorts. What a cute little butt! BTW, the onesie is 9 months, the shorts are 18 months. She is so short that she is still in 9-12 month clothes but her little belly and rear-end are well-rounded enough that we have to watch waist sizes!

My New Car!!!

I finally decided to buy a new car. I needed something smaller with better gas mileage. My new car is eco-friendly, has a great turning radius with one-hand steering, built-in child seat, front-end storage, and is very compact. Plus...it's a convertible!!!!!!!!

Heeheehee! Happy Thursday! I'll have lots of new stuff to report later this weekend but I thought I'd give you some pix to tide you over!!