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Today, a good friend of ours and her daughter (also a transracial adoptive family) were walking down the street in their neighborhood, and a random stranger made a racist comment towards their three year old daughter. When I heard about it, my heart sunk, my eyes filled with tears and my guts roiled. It was such a visceral reaction because I saw my own future...and that of my own small child.

There will come a time when my little girl hears something ugly directed at her. There will come a day when I have to sit with her and explain racism. There will come a day when my sweet girl loses that innocence and learns that there are people in the world who hate her for something beyond her control. And I will want to rip and tear at that person until they're a puddle of glop on the floor. I'll want to hurl nasty words at their heads and I'll want to hurt them to their very core.

But I won't do these things. I'll hold my baby by her hand and I'll walk away. I'll keep my mouth shut and I'll keep my rage inside. And when we get home, I'll tell her that you simply can't reason with ugliness and stupidity. I'll tell her that you can't waste your time with people like that, because nothing you do or say will convince them that they're wrong...and how wrong they truly are. You can't force someone to like you. You can't ask someone so rotted inside to look at you and see who you truly are. Someone like that will never know the absolute beauty of my child, inside and out. They will dismiss her, and they'll miss her humor, her sweetness, her intelligence, her sunny nature.

And she'll be better off for missing out on them.

I thought it had been forever since I last posted. Not so. Only a couple of months. Not too bad for a tired mommy of a busy toddler! Yep, toddler. This kid is FAST!!!

Edith is still not talking, but she really wants to. She's still saying "dig dig dig" and "dug dug dug" and "mamamamama" and "dadadadada", and of course, she's still barking, but we have no actual words yet. I'm not worried. She's clearly smart and she's clearly observant, but I think she's too busy running around to learn words. Plus, Einstein didn't learn to talk till he was like four, so whatevs.

We went to the Morton Arboretum the other day with Jeremy's parents (AKA Grannie and Papa) and we had an amazing time. We spent most of our time in the Children's Garden, which is amazing. Edith did a lot of playing in whatever water she could find, and a lot of running. It was so fun to watch her! I bought her three books in the gift shop and Grannie bought her a cool book that was made from recycled materials, and then on our tour of the shrubs, Edith fell FAST asleep!

We ended our trip with a ride around the Arboretum on the Acorn Express tram...it was really fun, and we learned a lot and took some cool pictures.

We have travelled a bit - went to my HS reunion August 8th, then visited family in Kansas City - both were wonderful! And in early September, we're going to Seattle to see Jeremy's cousin get married! We're hoping the plane trip goes well, because we're planning a trip to Cancun in January, and we don't want the plane ride to suck!

We've been talking about baby #2, and we have decided to wait till Edith turns two before we start the process. We have a lot to do - we need to completely gut our guest room to make a big girl room for Edith, and we want to replace the carpeting upstairs and downstairs...the house is one big, unending project. I can't wait to finish, and get the heck out of this house :)

Okay. I've been a little busy...Edith learned to walk just before her first birthday and she hasn't slowed down. We still don't have any actual words, but she speaks really well in her own language. She also dances to ANYTHING...especially bluegrass and 80s punk.

Here she is doing The Bartman:

That's all I have now...I hope to get back here before the summer is over :)

Hey all...here we are again! Nice to see you :)

In no time at all, our beloved daughter will be celebrating her first birthday. Nope, I can't believe it either, and sometimes when I think about it, it brings tears to my eyes. My baby - my tiny little girl - isn't going to be a baby anymore. She's already cruising behind push toys and she laughs whenever you do (because SOMETHING is funny and she is NOT going to be left out). She is fascinated with the dog, daddy, mommy, and her friends, and she is well on her way to being a seasoned traveller.

We're in the throes of planning her first birthday party (if you weren't invited, I swear it was an oversight...please let me know that you want to come and I'll pass along the details) and I have been shopping and planning for about a week now. It's bittersweet. I have always been excited to plan and execute birthday parties for my kids, and here I am at the first one. I had hoped that this year would go by a little slower, but it seems that the happier I am, the faster it goes!

Only a day late!!!

1. Everyone has been sick in this house in the last couple of weeks. I seriously cannot wait till Spring when I can open the windows.

2. In Chicagoland, Spring happens when the temp is over 50 degrees. I love that time...people are out with shorts on :)

3. Jeremy and I have been looking at the things we need to do to our house to get it marketable. We want to move before we adopt again, and we need to do some fixing up to our house to be able to sell. The house across the street sold in less than 2 months, so we have hope for ours since theirs wasn't updated at all.

4. I have already found my dream house...it's beautiful, not too far from where we are now, and in our price range (and not even at the top!). I would move tomorrow if we could swing it.

5. We have a lot of vacations coming up this year...the first of which is next week already! We are going to the Kansas City area to see my brother and his wife and our chosen cousins and their families.

6. Edith is firmly ensconsed in her "big girl" carseat...still facing backwards, but this one goes up to 40 lbs and is quite nice. We like Graco as a brand and we love the GracoPedic foam because it is cushy and we believe will last through Edith and Kid #2.

7. Jeremy and I talked about names for Kid #2, and decided on a girl name and a boy name, but I am not making the mistake I made with Edith's name and we are keeping our choices to ourselves. No one with any tact or class says they hate the name you chose after it is attached to the kid.

8. Again, we have chosen classic names that aren't currently being overused. I love that people haven't heard Edith's name in a long time, and I love that she will most likely be the only Edith in her class, and probably her school...unless she has a teacher with the same name.

9. I have been enjoying my newest job of babysitting my friend's daughter...she is a delight! She and Edith are fascinated with each other and they are enjoying having someone to "converse" with. What a hoot.

10. Lucy went to the groomer last Saturday and she still has the bows in her hair...she usually has them out by the time we get home, but this time she managed to keep them in. She's awfully cute with bows in her hair :)

Tuesday Ten (really late/really early)

1. Edith is getting more and more mobile every day. She is crawling, standing and cruising like a pro, and I can see that walking is in our future soon. Probably before she turns 0ne in a couple months. Can you believe that in less than two months, we will have a one year old? No more baby!

2. We're going to be in Kansas at the end of February seeing family and friends...mostly in the KC area, but we're going to go to Manhattan for a day or two just for fun!

3. Edith is still in her helmet...she has made incredible progress so far, her head is filling out where it needs to, and staying the same where it needs to. The difference between her head now and her head when we started is amazing!

4. Jeremy and I are de-cluttering and getting rid of stuff right and left. I have reorganized all of the kitchen cabinets and gotten rid of old stuff that we don't use...we actually have space for stuff! My ultimate goal is to be able to use the kitchen island for an island instead of storage.

5. Edith and Jeremy and I were all dancing to my iPod this morning...she LOVES music! She is definitely Mommy and Daddy's girl.

6. OH! Something interesting and fun...from now on, I will be watching my friend Ann's daughter Rachel on Wednesdays and Fridays! We are so excited! The girls are about 5 months apart, so they can't really play together yet, but they are fascinated with each other! They spend a lot of time talking to each other.

7. A friend of ours is giving us a double stroller so I'm not confined to the house with the girls...and Wednesday is my mom's group so Edith and Rachel will be able to socialize with other kiddos :) And then Friday, Auntie Mish comes over to play so we'll be able to use the single strollers if we go out.

8. I am excited about having a little extra cash in my pockets...it'll be nice to be able to save up for some stuff I want :)

9. We are like Old Mother Hubbard over here...we really need to shop, our fridge is bare! We do have bones for the dog though...we always have treats on hand.

10. I am excited about all of our vacations this year...Kansas, North Carolina and Seattle. It'll be so much fun to show Edith off to our friends who haven't met her yet :)

9.

Tuesday Ten...right on schedule!

1. We went to Eagle Watch 2009 last Sunday, and it was amazing. I am so glad that we took Edith, even though it was FREEZING! I think she had a good time.

2. I am looking forward to my Mom's Group tomorrow...we haven't met since Christmas! It's been a crazy month.

3. Edith is trying new foods all the time. It is so cool to see her face when she tries something new, it's like "Hmmm...do I like this?" Usually she does. This morning she ate diced peaches and she didn't even have the face. She liked them right off the bat :)

4. The two newest teeth still haven't poked through. We're WAITING!! I helped them the other night, so we should be seeing them soon. I have noticed that the top teeth take longer to come through than the bottoms.

5. We have a lot of vacationing planned this year...all in the US. I can't wait to get started in February. Kansas, here we come!

6. I can't believe I am going to be 34 in a few weeks. I'm not really freaked about it, just surprised that it is already here.

7. I ate a ton of graham crackers today. I love them. I'm so glad we have an excuse to buy them in bulk LOL

8. We're having Qdoba for dinner...I am so excited. I don't have Mexican food as much as I would like because Jeremy isn't as much of a fan as I am. Qdoba isn't real Mexican food, but it's close and it's good :)

9. I had a ton of coffee today and still managed to take a nice long nap. Caffeine doesn't affect me as much as I need it to!\

10. I really need to tidy my house. It is so cluttery.

Did you see all the Tuesday Tens I did? Yeah it was none. So here's one just a little late.

1. Edith is teething. Again. That makes a grand total of 6 teeth that are already in, and two more that are about to rear their heads any day now.

2. Edith has learned to crawl, pull herself up on things and feed herself all since hitting her 9th month. I am so proud of her! She is really exciting, I never know what she's going to do next!

3. We had a wonderful time at our agency...and we have been asked to come back again! I am so excited, I would do it anytime :)

4. My birthday is less than a month away. I am going to be 34. When did that happen?

5. We're planning to go to Kansas in late February...I am making plans to see some old friends whom I've recently connected with on Facebook. I love Facebook!

6. I feel like I have forgotten a lot of what it was like before Edith came home. I have glimpses sometimes of what life was like, and although I was happy, I am so much happier now. I feel like we are a whole family now, and I sometimes think if Edith is the only kid we ever have, I could be completely happy with that.

7. That said, we're thinking about going on profile again when Edith is a year and a half. :)

8. I made Edith cry earlier because I told her no. She has never done that before. It was kind of cool, even though I kind of felt badly for making her cry. But she's learning!

9. Then I remembered how she laughed at me when I whacked my finger with a hammer earlier in the day and I didn't feel as badly. That little stinker. I wonder if my fingernail is going to fall off.

10. I have been super lazy about dinner for the past few days...I made pizza on Monday, spaghetti last night and Jeremy made sandwiches tonight. I'm a sucky housewife :)

I have decided to take a page from a friend who has a blog...I am going to do a Tuesday 10. I feel like I have neglected my blog lately, and I want to at least post weekly. So there you go. Feel free to visit on Tuesdays and yell at me if I haven't posted. But do remember that we get up late, so maybe wait till Wednesday to yell.

So much to talk about. First, Happy New Year to everyone! I am so excited that a new year is here...so much to be thankful for and so much to look forward to! Edith is just over 9 months old! Where is my baby? She has two front teeth on top and her two on the bottom, and yesterday I noticed that the two next to the bottom teeth have cut and are on their way! As everyone says, she will be eating steak in no time! For the time being, she is content with graham crackers, scrambled eggs, pancakes and the regular purees. She has gotten to be a pro at chewing (gumming) solid food, and she is very excited about eating.

She has also learned to crawl (finally!) after about a month of rocking back and forth on her hands and knees, and then scooting backwards, and some awesome yoga moves...Friday was the official day, and she decided to crawl for Daddy when I was out to dinner. Hmmph. We now have a gate at the top of our stairs and we have netting around our bannister so she won't fall to her death. That wouldn't be the least bit cool.

Saturday, we hung out with her birthdad, his cousin, his brother and his fiancee! She was very sweet and had picked out clothes for Edith as a gift (which we always appreciate!) and a cute stuffed pig. We played "Pass the Baby" and had lunch...they were all impressed with Edith's awesome new eating skillz, and that she can sit in a high chair like a big girl.

AND! Next Saturday (Jan 10), we will be speaking in front of an Adoption 101 class at our agency! I am so excited to talk about my awesome little family :) We will talk for 15 minutes about transracial adoption, being a conspicuous family, how our friends and family have accepted Edith and how we are handling open adoption and then we get to answer questions. I never in a million years, thought we would be the family talking to the prospective adoptive parents. It just never occurred to me that we would be in the position to be inspiring to other potential adopters. It feels so good to know that we could be positive role models to someone thinking about transracial adoption. Edith is certainly going to charm everyone in the room :) But you already knew that!

Well, HI! Fancy meeting you here! I know you never expected to hear from me again, but rest assured, I will not desert you :)

Edith is getting her top two teeth! They are just tiny white slivers right now and they aren't growing in as quickly as the bottom two did, but they're there. And SO CUTE!!!! I think she is definitely going to have the Wanat Gap like her aunts - but she is a Wanat woman, so what else would she have :)

We're working hard on Christmas stuff - almost all of the gifts have been purchased and wrapped, and we have quite a mound in the living room. Which means that Edith has fun stuff to look at while she plays on the living room floor. She's not crawling yet, so I can still leave things in reach, but she is rocking on all fours still, so any day now.

We're looking forward to meeting with Edith's birthdad after Christmas. He is going to be SO shocked at how big she is! The last time he saw her, she was 5 months old and not doing most of the cool stuff she's doing now. She is "talking" a lot - and she is eating like a pro. She is out of her first helmet, and in a transition period before her second one...and her head looks great! She loves Lucy - she watches Lucy constantly! She wants to touch and grab Lucy's tail, ears and fur, and Lucy is incredibly patient. Just moving out of the way of the grabby kid, but never making any aggressive noises or gestures. We are constantly working on "gentle hands" and "be loving" so Edith knows that hurting your puppy is not acceptable. They are already good friends, and I can see them growing up together and being besties :) Edith is talking and laughing to Lucy right now!!

We went to the Helmet Dr. today...and her current helmet is only going to last her about another month because after that, there won't be enough foam inside to shave down for adjustments. The problem is that although her head has changed a GREAT deal, it isn't as symmetrical as I (and the Dr.) would like. Her ears are still off and there is still a flat spot on the back of her head. So today, the Dr. asked if I had thought about a second helmet, and I told her that I would be open to a second one because I can't see everything shaping up in the next month. I don't want to settle for "good enough"...as long as we're doing this, I want to have the best possible outcome and I don't want to stop before we're done.

So they took measurements and photos to send to the insurance company, and we found out that Edith is still under the line and should be covered...which is awesome! After we were done there, we went to see Jeremy at work to talk about the new developments...I told him that we should be covered, but what if we weren't? He said that if she needs a second helmet, we would be doing a second helmet whether we were covered or not, and that I shouldn't worry about it. I feel so much better now,

I just want her to be happy with herself when she's older! I know we all pick some arbitrary part of our bodies that we hate or wish were different...I don't want Edith to have something real to hate.

Now, Edith has two teeth...the second one came in about 2 days after the first. She looks so cute - although I am a little sad to lose that gummy little smile! I would post a picture, but she is asleep and I'm not going to wake her up to flash the camera in her face...perhaps later :)

Teething has been an EXTREMELY easy experience (knock wood) because I took some advice from my Mom-In-Law that has made all the difference. She said that when her kids were cutting teeth, she would take a tongue depressor (she was a nurse) and rub their gums with it until she felt the tooth rubbing on the tongue depressor. Granted, you have to wait until the tooth is near the surface, but that has seemed to be the worst time for Edith, so it's easy to figure out the best time (because she is a grumpus). It has really made this experience better for us...and for Edith! Try it! I was lucky enough to get a box of tongue depressors from Michelle, who works at a dental office...she had ordered a bunch for a project and had tons left over, so she gave me a hundred or so. Gladly, I won't have to use them all because Edith doesn't have that many teeth.

Anyway, look for pictures of the shiny, white teeth tomorrow...I'll have to take a picture for posterity then.

ELECTION DAY TOOTH!!!!!

Houston, we FINALLY have a tooth, and as you can tell, I am super excited! Edith was really fussy yesterday and it wasn't for the normal reasons (hungry or tired) and I could see that little tooth right below the surface so I figured that was the culprit. This morning when she was eating breakfast, I saw actual tooth! YAY!!

Well, she was just the cutest penguin ever! We went visiting (my two most favorite temp jobs ever) and Edith was a hit!

My friend Beth took these pictures - and I must say, she took the only two that exist because as you can see from my short sleeves, it was nice and warm on Halloween...so Edith didn't wear her lovely warm costume for very long.

Edith is 7 months old today...and she is just amazing...the smiliest, happiest baby I have ever met. We are so lucky to have her in our lives!!

Edith's helmet is AWESOME!!! You can already see a marked change in the shape of her head...how can I tell, you ask? Because they made a MOLD of her HEAD and it's on a giant POPSICLE STICK!!! We get to keep the Edith-sicle when it's all said and done, and I plan to store her helmet on it for safe-keeping. She really doesn't seem to mind the helmet when it's on, she gets a little antsy when I take it off to clean it and put it back on. She wears it for 23 hours a day straight, with an hour off for airing out. The helmet smells like a combination of Fritos and dirty sweat socks, and consequently, so does her head most of the time. What're ya gonna do?

Other than that, she is getting so big and so amazing. We went to the pediatrician on October 9th and Edith got weighed and measured...she is in the 10th percentile for weight and the 50-75th percentile for height. Long and skinny, just like Mommy. Yep. Just like Mommy. Shut up.

We're missing Daddy this week...he's in Germany again for his annual conference and I'm a single mom again. It's SO much easier when Jeremy is here, he is such a good Daddy and husband...he gets up with her and plays with her, and he's always happy to give me a break. It makes life so much easier! He called tonight and I put the phone up to her ear and she got the biggest grin and started dancing. She LOVES her daddy :)

I'll post some pictures soon...I've got to download them from my camera and the camcorder...and my cell phone...so many devices and pictures, so little time!

Some of you may know that Edith has a moderate case of plagiocephaly, and will be wearing a Doc Band, which is like a helmet, but without the top part. I got this information from the Cranial Technologies website to explain a little more of what the condition is, and how we're going to be treating it.

Plagiocephaly (pla'je-o-sef'ah-le) is not uncommon, and often results from external forces applied to the soft infant skull. It might sound complicated, but plagiocephaly literally means "oblique head" (from Greek: plagio = oblique, and cephale = head) It's called a parallelogram deformity because, if you look down on the infant's head (bird's-eye-view), this is the shape you will see.


From this angle it looks as if half of the head has been pushed forward, often accompanied by misalignment of the ears, facial asymmetry and bulging forehead.

The DOC Band®, a 6-oz device, consists of an outer plastic shell with a foam lining. Mild pressures are applied to capture the growth of an infant's head, holding growth in the prominent areas and encouraging it in the flat regions. Adjustments are made to the band weekly or bi-weekly. Length of treatment depends on the age of the infant and severity of the condition. Because no two heads are identical, each patient's treatment is customized.

Edith will be wearing the DOC Band® for about 5 - 7 weeks, maybe a little longer, depending on how soft or hard her head is and how quickly the band works. Since we caught this so early, she shouldn't have to wear it very long...some kids have to have a second band because they are older and it doesn't work as quickly! From all of the other moms I've talked to, kids get used to the band really quickly and it doesn't seem to bother them at all. One really good thing is that one of Edith's Cradle cousins who just came home from Guatemala has the band, so they'll have that in common as well as their agency :)

We are really excited about the DOC Band® and getting Edith's head fixed...even though she is perfect in our eyes, we don't want her to be the "kid with the weird head" when she goes to school. We're certain to get stared at for a while, but I plan to tell her that it's because she is so cute :)

Edith has been talking up a storm lately, and a couple of times there have been real words that have come out of the gibberish. The first one was Hon daa...which is of course BRILLIANT because Mommy and Daddy both drive Hondas, so of course she would know that...

Her second "word" was Oba Maaa! Yay! Our little liberal activist is starting early! I would have liked to get either "word" on video, but I'll settle on the warm feelings I got knowing our daughter is so smart!

I'm going to add a video...hopefully this works because I'm a newbie at this.

Edith Plays With Daddy

Edith is 5 months old as of yesterday, but it was busy yesterday, so I didn't download the picture till now.

It was really hard to get a smile because she is busy saying da da da or ma ma ma or na na na or ba ba ba...or she is spitting. She is a little woman of many talents!