Travel Advice Needed

I have been a really bad blogger lately- and a really bad a lot of things to be honest- but that will have to wait for a later post.

We're about to embark on our first air travel trip with Nora and I need advice from some seasoned mom-travelers. Here is our scenario (thank the Lord this is all the same time zone):

• Leave our home at 9:00 am
• Flight leaves airport at 11:20 am and arrives destination 2:44 pm
• Layover- 2:44 pm - 5:10 pm
• Arrive destination: 7:40 pm
• Go through customs, get rental car, leave airport: 8:4o pm
• Arrive resort 10:40 pm

This schedule makes me feel like I'm going to need a week on the beach to recuperate from our travel. I know it's totally do-able with some good planning, so, I'm counting on all of you moms to give me some expert advice on traveling with an 11 month old by car, plane and 4WD.

Thanks in advance for any tricks you might have!

The Call

One year ago today I received a call while I was at work to let me know that I was finally going to be a mother. Joel and I had been selected by birthparents to parent their baby girl that was due in September. I remember being filled with excitement and panic all at once and how we got to work right away on figuring out what needed to be done to our newly purchased house to get ready for bambino.

It's crazy to think that a year has passed since that initial introduction to our daughter, Nora. I look at her now and each day she looks less like a baby and more like a little girl. The time is moving so quickly, yet, I'm savoring each moment and each stage. I feel beyond blessed to have received that call and to have Nora as my daughter.

"Die" My Baby Tells Me

So, Nora is officially a chatter box and is trying to put together lots of combinations of words. Her favorite remains "hi". She likes trying out different sounds and syllables. Her new favorite word today is "die". She's trying out the "d" sound with "hi". The result is all day my super cute, sweet baby has been very distinctly saying "die, die, die."

She has a really cute high pitched voice and "die" is all that is being produced by it. I couldn't help cracking up this morning when she was happily playing with her toys saying "die, die, die, die" and then slowly fading into a really creepy whispery "die, die". I'm sure it will evolve into something else tomorrow but it's been pretty surreal running errands with her all day while she's been wishing me dead. Good thing I have a twisted sense of humor.

Big Girl!

There seems to be weeks where all is status quo with Nora and then there are weeks and even days where things change literally by the moment. The biggest, most exciting change (for me) came a couple of weeks ago when she FINALLY began sleeping through the night. I feel like an entirely new person now that I'm getting some sleep. And my baby who has never napped is beginning to take 1-3 one hour naps a day. This is heavenly and she's in such a better mood for it!

This week Nora has changed exponentially. Her army crawl has a lot of gusto and she'll actually grunt and laugh as she's chasing the dog at full speed (poor dog). She's also learned to sit up on her own. She does this through very unusual means. She's really really flexible and actually does the splits and then pushes herself up. It's pretty amazing. She's also beginning to (inconsistently) pull herself up on our couch. All these changes took place in a matter of days. One morning Joel went in her room to get her up and she was just sitting there.

She's so much fun and has so much personality. Her first official word (since I don't think she's using mama and dada in context) is "hi". She says hi to everyone and everything. She's also begun to say "wow" which is really appropriate for this little firecracker. The baby sign language hasn't really kicked in yet even though we've been using it fairly consistently; however, she has begun to clap which is soooo cute! She especially likes impromptu family dance parties in the kitchen. I think she thinks my dancing is hilarious (and it is).

Baby Mug Shot

I think we've finally slogged through all of Nora's post-adoption paper work and our little girl has been officially registered, tracked and noted by the U.S. government. She's got her birth certificate, social security card and we have just applied for her passport. Holy paper work!

I'm so glad we were able to take care of her passport yesterday. Joel and I had to go together to apply in person. We both work at complete opposite ends of the city and the office hours at the post office for passports are 9:30 - 3, not exactly convenient if you both work. Luckily, we both were able to take off early and met at the post office at 2:30. We got in line and were laughing as there were two other families with babies in front of us.

Nora got her photo taken and it was perfect. All humans must instinctively know to give the mug shot/deer in the headlights look for government issued IDs. Nora completely nailed it and has joined the ranks of all of her fellow Americans with the same crazy look in all of their ID photos. (I actually am smiling and look happy in my driver's license and it freaks people out. I get a lot of comments.)

So, Nora is going to receive her passport in three weeks and will then be ready for her first trip to Costa Rica in September.

Colorado Card Revoked

We've had a lot going on with Nora over the last month. First and foremost, we're all finally healthy and had our first weekend with no illness in months. We had a great day on Sunday when we celebrated a friend's birthday with a hike up to Devil's Head along the Rampart Range of Colorado. (Here's a link to the trail for my Colorado folks.) This was our first hike with Nora and she's almost 9 months old! I think I'm going to have my Colorado-native citizenship revoked for waiting an entire 9 months to take Nora hiking. This my friends, is blasphemy in my fair state.

Nora had a great time on the hike. Joel had her in a hiking backpack that had her slightly elevated so that she could see out. She stayed awake for the entire hike and always made sure to look back to see if mommy was still bringing up the rear. It was so fun to be able to have her experience the outdoors and get outside and enjoy some sunshine and fresh air. Hopefully, this is just the first of many hikes this summer. We're hoping to get up to the mountains a lot more- especially to do some mushroom hunting. It feels so good to be out and about and healthy again!

P.S. My friend has all the photos on her camera so I will post when I get them.
P.P.S I had really hoped to post this as a Perfect Moment Monday but alas it's Tuesday- maybe next week!

Sister Time!

As a surprise for my mom, I arranged for my sister to fly out for tea this last weekend. Since I know my mom reads my blog,, I couldn't mention how EXCITED I was for my sister to come out and I especially couldn't mention that we'd then be going on a trip to celebrate her 30th birthday.



My mom was completely surprised to see my sister on Saturday which was great. We then enjoyed a phenomenal tea together. My sister and I then headed to New Mexico the following afternoon. We stayed at Ojo Caliente hot springs and it was fantastic for the first day. We enjoyed a soak, went to Taos, toured some earthships and then headed back to the room for a great dinner of cheese, olives, meats and wine. Sadly, that evening, my sister came down with the stomach flu. She slept most of the next day and we headed back home yesterday. Of all places, it was definitely the best location to be sick since all there was to do was relax anyway. I felt bad for her that she wasn't really able to celebrate her birthday.




We feel that there may be some sort of curse against Stephanie visiting NM. Years ago we had a trip to Ojo planned and Steph came home with mono. I got sick Saturday morning but miraculously rallied but poor Steph really got hit with the flu. Despite all the illness, it was still great to be together and spend time with one of my favorite people.