Something new every day

So, I've been at home with Netsanet for a few weeks now, and I have to say I am enjoying it! It's much easier than it was the first couple of weeks I was home with her when we returned from Ethiopia. I was kind of scared of starting maternity leave - those first few weeks home with her were exhausting and frustrating. But, she has grown a lot and is more relaxed now and doesn't require quite the intense one-on-one attention as before. For instance, I can leave her to play on the floor in the living room while I grab a cup of coffee from the kitchen and she won't scream - definite progress from the first couple of weeks where we couldn't even sit down with her without her screaming, much less put her down! It's still a lot of work and sometimes frustrating, but overall we're having a good time :)

She's decided she's almost done with that bottle (her gesture says 'get that stupid thing away from my face'), and now wants baby food most of her meals - still takes the bottle first thing in the morning and last thing before bed, and sometimes once before a nap. So far she seems to prefer squash, sweet potatoes, chicken, and turkey type meals. She still doesn't like fruit, but she'll munch a little of the fruit from her soy yoghurt (which she loves!). It surprises me how much food can go into that little stomach!

Naps have been difficult lately, which is tough. I'm not sure if it's her teething, a growth spurt, or what, but she'll cry off and on for up to an hour before actually sleeping. It's really hard to sit there and not go in to her room, but if I go in, she gets all energetic and won't sleep at all. So, basically I sit there for up to an hour with my teeth gritted in front of the baby monitor, feeling guilty (like right now). It also makes it tough to schedule anything, since her actual sleeping time can vary by 2 hours in any given day. Yesterday, for example - her aunt Lisa and cousin Elizabeth came for a visit, and she hadn't fallen asleep at all by the time they arrived so she had no afternoon nap. Made for a crabby fussy afternoon and evening.... She still had fun, though. They played in the wading pool in the backyard, munched grass, and crawled around au naturel (the wet diapers became more of a hindrance than a help, so we ditched them).

On Fridays, we go walking with our neighbor and her almost 2-year old daughter. She will be Net's daycare when I have to go back to work, so it's nice for them to get to know each other. We've been walking down to the lake, along the lakeshore, and taking the bus back up the hill, so it's a good exercise and the babies get to see a lot of stuff. Net and the other baby really enjoy each other's company, so it's nice to see them together :) However, given that it's now 11:15 and she hasn't yet fallen asleep but we're scheduled to walk at 12:30, it looks like we're heading for another crabby sleepless social event.

The rest of the week, we end up having people come to visit or going for an outing. I try to take her out at least once a day for a walk, both for my own exercise and for her to see something other than the inside of the house.

Every day, Net comes up with some new gesture, sound, or action - it's amazing to see how much she changes from day to day. Speaking is a lot of bababa, dadada, kakaka, and vowel sounds. She's doing an army crawl now and doesn't roll as much. A friend from work gave us her son's old walker, and she's zooming around the dining room and kitchen and exploring everything at her new height. She also loves the jumper toy that a neighbor loaned us - this baby is active! When we're out, she still loves babies and kids (excited shouting every time she sees a kid or baby), and has discovered that she really loves dogs (smiles and squeaking). She's a little more reserved with adults and will stare at them, but not smile as easily as before, and she doesn't want to be held by anyone until she gets to know them... and even then is a little uncomfortable. This is a good sign that she's bonding well to us, but I know it's hard for people sometimes when they want to hold such a cute baby.

A couple of weeks ago we went to the WACAP annual kids' picnic and she met a lot of new people. Being the only one there from Ethiopia, she was quite the star! She was pretty pooped after a couple of hours and fell asleep in the car on the way back. In August, we'll have another WACAP event, where the other two families and us will come in for an afternoon and others in the Ethiopia program can ask us questions. It will be great to see the other kids and parents that we traveled with in March/April. Since we all went through it together as the first ones from WACAP, it feels like we have a special bond :)

We have started the process to refinalize the adoption in the United States. Typical of most things with the federal government in this country, actions in other countries aren't considered totally valid here. So, even though we legally completed adopting Netsanet in the Ethiopian courts and federal requirements, we have to redo it here in order to get her social security number and citizenship. It should only take a couple of months if WACAP is speedy about getting the required documents to the attorney once they have requested them. Fingers crossed!

In a few weeks, we will have Net's one year birthday party. I can't believe that she's almost a year already! There are going to be a lot of people here, so here's hoping for good weather so we can hang out in the backyard!