Pancakes didn't make the cut

Well we finally found the one food that Briar doesn't like, it's pancakes. Can you believe it?! I thought for sure he would like them since so far he has like everything we have given to him. I gave him a small piece this morning and he got this funny look on his face when he picked it up to put it in his mouth. Once he had it in his mouth he started to cry, big time, really tears and all. Mommy had to go in and fish it out. We tried one more time and same thing, he wasn't having any of it. I'm sure one day he will love them, once we are able to put some syrup on them ;-)

His top front left tooth has just cut through the surface, we can see a small bit of white. Let me tell you the last week has been touch and go with that one. He also has another ear infection, poor little guy! The doctor put him on a different med this time, since the last infection was only a few weeks ago and the doctor wasn't sure if it just never cleared up with the other med or not. Anyway, I wish the doctor would have told us about one of the side effects of this med, it turns his poop a rust/brick red color. Yes, yes....there was some freaking out going on at our house the first time we saw it. I just hope the ear infection clears up and hopefully on a short break from teething before next Sunday, his baptism.

Do you want to know something?

Come closer....

Look no boogers!

He, he, he!

I'm here!

I've heard from several friends and family members about my lack of posting. I'm sorry I haven't posted in forever. Really I am a bit embarrassed about it. It's just that time goes so fast now with a little one. And really I'd prefer to spend quality time with Briar then post on my blog ;-)

However with that said we all know that Briar can't be awake 24/7 so there is down time when I can take a few minutes to provide updates on here. So I am going to try my best to get back in the habit. Really, I will try!

There is so much to update on!

First, the holidays where wonderful!!! It was everything we expected and more. It was not your typical first Christmas either. We invited IB to both Christmas eve and day. The family that she does have here in MN has not been very kind to her since she decided to follow through on the adoption plans with Briar, so we invited her since we did not want her to spend Christmas alone. My family was finally able to meet her on Christmas day, which I think went pretty good.

Briar started eating meats in January and LOVES them! I have also started to make most of his food (meats and veggies). It is so simple and easy! I have a great recipe book, Top 100 Baby Purees , both Dan and I are pretty jealous at how good his food tastes LOL! Here are some pictures of Briar from January.

Dan's birthday was on February 5th. Unfortunately we all were recovering from a cold. Briar was the first to get and then Daddy and Mommy. We did have to take Briar in and turned out he had just the start of Pneumonia, we caught it right at the beginning. Briar and I were able though to make Daddy a birthday cake, which Daddy gobbled up! Here are some pictures.

Then a couple days later we all ended up with the Flu. That was so difficult, both Dan and I were out of commission (this was the both ends Flu, UGH!). Thank goodness it was on a Saturday when it started, I call Ron and Lance over to help watch Briar. Thankfully Briar didn't have it as bad as us, he wasn't vomiting. I think being on the antibiotic for the Pneumonia helped protected him. I was so thankful to Ron and Lance for coming to help us. Unfortunately Ron ended up getting the same Flu the next day :( I felt pretty bad about that.

In the midst of all the sicknesses Briar's first tooth came in! His bottom front. I tried to take some pictures of it, look closely and you will see it! Both of his bottom front are now in and the doctor said he is working on his top front.

Briar had his 9 month check up a couple weeks ago. 9 months!!! Can you believe it? He is getting to be a little boy! He weighed 19 lbs and was 28 inches. So he is tall and skinny for his age group. The doctor said everything looks great!

He hasn't started crawling yet, we are working on that but he will soon enough. He loves standing and would prefer that to sitting or laying down, of course with our help. He has said Dada, Daddy and Hi, but not sure if he realizes what he is actually saying just yet. Every week day I can't wait to go pick him up from daycare. He is the light of my life! I can't get enough of hugging him up!

I think the next few months are going to go by very quickly. First we have Easter and then we have Briar's baptism on April 6th. We are also finishing our basement, just started last week so that will keep us occupied for the next few months. And then before we know it it will be June 1st and Briar's 1st birthday! Wow!

A side note on the basement. I received a nice bonus this year and we thought about putting it towards our next adoption, going in "The Book" this summer but decided we had better start to finish the basement first since we will definitely need the room if we had 2 little ones. I'm alittle sad that we will need to wait a bit longer to pursue adoption again but it will be worth it to have the extra space. When the time is right God will find a way for us to have the money for our next adoption, I have faith!

Isn't this the cutest boy you have ever seen?!?!

We Finalized!

Wow, has it really been over a month since my last post (oops!). It is just so busy with the holidays and a little one in the house. Loving every minute of it though!

We got the best Christmas present, we were able to finalize the adoption this year. It happened so fast. We received the letter from the court on a Monday to call to schedule and after a couple days of phone tag, on the Thursday, Dan spoke with the clerk and they had a last minute opening the next day! So on December 14th at 1:45pm CST Briar was officially forever ours! Since it happened so fast we weren't able to plan anything special for afterwards. And I also had to get ahold of my parents, they were out of town, to let them know it was scheduled. They were obviously very excited and were able to make it back for the event. Here are some photos

So Many Updates

I'm so behind on my posts, oops! The time just goes by so fast and just when I think I have time to post I remember I have to do something or I'm just so tired and need to go to bed. No, I'm not complaining, in fact loving every minute of my life right now!

This is Briar's 3rd week of daycare and he has adjusted extremely well. No issues, eats and sleeps well there and no fussing when we leave. He is just the happiest baby I've ever seen. We are so lucky. Mommy and Daddy on the other hand had a hard time adjusting to daycare but I think we have finally figured out our morning routine and getting things ready.

We turned in our paperwork to our agency for the finalization. The agency first has to do yet another background check (Goodness! I think this is the 4th one to date) and then they will send the paperwork to the Court. Once the Court receives and does their thing they will inform us we can schedule our hearing. It's a long shot but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it is before the end of the year. I know my parents want to be here for it and they leave a few days after Christmas for their stint down in Florida.

It finally happened, our little guy got a cold. He made it to almost 6 months and it wasn't even from daycare, he got it from Daddy :( Even when he is sick he is still a happy little boy. It started this last Saturday and hasn't been too bad of a cold, he seems to be getting better but of course Mommy also came down with it on Monday. We should all be recovered by Turkey day.

One last update I'd like to give. Dan did a wonderful job for my birthday! He really did pull through this year. Briar and him even baked a cake and decorated it for me (okay Briar just sat in his bouncy chair and directed Daddy on what to do). Briar also picked out a beautiful Circle of Love necklace for me and even signed the card! Here is a link to some of my birthday pictures.

I'm a little pumpkin....

Briar's first Halloween was very exciting! He sported a festive outfit for the day and then wore his costume for alittle over an hour at night. He also had a few visitors so that he didn't have to go out for his Trick or Treating. Grandpa and Grandma came over first and then Ron and Lance stopped by as well. It was a nice little Halloween party at our house! Below are a few of the pictures, if you'd like to see all click here.

Almost back in the swing of things

Has it really been almost 2 weeks since last I posted?! Wow, time is going by fast and now that I'm back to work there isn't enough time for everything. We are frantically trying to get things ready for daycare and getting ready for the cold weather. We are almost there but still need to buy a winter coat for the little guy.

Last week was hard, it was my first full week back to work. I'm getting back into the swing of things but my brain still feels like mush LOL! I have heard rumors though that once you are a Mom you lose some of your smarts, oh no :(

This week is a short week for me at work, I'm taking my birthday (Nov 1st) and the 2nd off. Usually I dread my birthday but not this year it is special, my first one being a Mommy!!!! I had to explain to Dan the other day that he is going to have to help Briar with picking out a gift for me and card until he is old enough to do himself. Good thing I mentioned it cause it sure sounded like Dan had no idea this is how it works. Geesh, men!

We finally got the proofs of the photo session we had in September. The pictures are wonderful and Briar is so adorable! Not sure if I mentioned this but we went through Celebrating Adoption and found our photographer, she is in St. Micheal and did just a wonderful job! Here is a link to our slideshow, this link might only work until Nov 3rd so I will attach a couple of the photos (shhhhh, don't tell anyone).

Back to work

It was my first day back to work today. All I could do was think about Briar and stare at the pictures of him I brought with me. UGH! My boss was so sweet she said I could leave at Noon if I wanted to. I probably should have but didn't. I wanted to give Dan his time with Briar and also I need to get use to being at work. I did leave about 30 minutes early though. When I got home I got a better reception from Roxie then Briar. I don't think he even knew I was gone all day :(

The day I'm truly dreading is Nov 5th when he starts daycare. That will be the hardest morning ever for me!

We survived!

We got back from our trip last night around 8:30pm. It was so good to be home and sleep in our own beds! Briar was a good little traveler, he did better then we all expected him to. It wasn't until the trip back when he had a true meltdown and just needed to take more then a couple minute break from his car seat. We were about 3 hours from home and luckly only a few miles from a rest stop. We walk around outside for quite awhile, until it started to rain and then just hung out in the van for a bit. Those last 3 hours were pretty tough for the little guy, we did stop for dinner and let him stretch out on the booth beside us. As soon as were were about a mile from home he started to have another meltdown. His face lit up once he saw he was back in his house and out of his car seat. He was such a trooper!

I think my Mom and Dad should be Sainted for having endured 26 hours in the car with a 4 month old and new parents! They definitely have earned up enough bonus points to spoil their Grandson rotten for a couple years to come without Mom & Dad telling them no, LOL!!!

My Grandma's 90th birthday celebration was so much fun! I'm so glad we were able to make it down there, I know it meant the world to her. Briar fell in love with her right away (well after he had his diaper changed, we arrived with a poopy diaper and he wasn't to happy). He usually doesn't like to just hang out on your lap but he loved it with Great Grandma (see pics below). He was a big hit with everyone and there seemed to always be a line up for holding him. He did great with being around approx 50 people, I have a feeling he's going to be quite the little "ham" and attention getter. I can't wait!

Oye Vay!

It's almost 11:30PM and I think I'm done packing for our trip. I had to pack for both Briar, myself and get things ready for Roxie to go to Jill's and Ron's this weekend. OH MY! That is alot of work, UGH! And I'm sure I have forgotten something. By the time I am finally able to go to bed and get into a deep sleep Mr Briar will probably decide he needs to fuss. Well at least there are 4 adults to help drive tomorrow so hopefully I can nap. However I'm not a very good car napper. It's a curse of us people that always feel the need to be in control. Well I best sign off and get to bed cause 5am will be here before I know it. I so wish we had the money to fly but at $500 per person I just couldn't justify it.

Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house we go!

One week left

I can't believe I only have one week left of staying at home with Briar. I go back on October 17th. Wow, did that time go by fast!!!! I've been a bit depressed the last two weeks in anticipation of going back to work but it will be good to be around adults again. I can't wait for Dan to have his 3 weeks with Briar, I just hope Briar isn't too attached to me and will be good for Daddy.

We did start him on rice cereal last week. Its' going pretty good so far. We are only giving it to him once a day so he can get use to it and will increase to twice a day in a few weeks. Here is a link to pictures of his first taste. Too cute!

We are taking our first official trip with Briar this weekend. And it is a big one, yikes! We are driving down to Oklahoma for my Grandma's 90th birthday. It's about 13 hour drive, oh boy. We will be going with my Mom and Dad in their minivan which should be a bit more comfortable. Briar does good in the car, usually falls asleep so hopefully he will do okay. We are stopping in Wichita on Friday night to stay with my Uncle and Aunt, that's only about 9 hours, then head down to OK on Saturday morning. However coming home on Monday it will be straight through. Wish us luck!!!

We decided not to take Roxie with us, that would just be way too much. So Ron and Jill have offered to doggie sit, thank goodness! I can't stand the idea of boarding her. Of course she needs to look her best for her weekend retreat so we got her hair cut the other day (usually I trim her at home) at Petsmart and when she came home she had bows in her hair. She didn't look too happy about it, she really isn't a girlie girl. Check it out:

4 months

I can't believe our little guy is 4 months old today! And that I only have 2 more weeks left of my leave :( I'm already starting to stress about going back to work. I'm going to miss him soooooo much! I don't know how I will get through it.

We had our 4 month check up and shots today. Briar is growing like a weed, check out his status from 2 months ago compare to now and the progress he has made for the percentile groups:

2 month ago
Height - 21 inches, 5 %
Weight - 10lbs 6 oz, 10-25 %
Head size - 38.4 cm, 25 %

4 months (today)
Height - 24 inches, 50-75%
Weight - 14 lbs, 25-50%
Head size - 41.5 cm, 25-50%

What really surprised me was his height, jumping from the 5th percentile to the 50th-75th percentile in only two months. This makes me think he is going to be a tall one! Only time will tell. We also got the green like to start with Rice Cereal if we wanted, I'm not sure yet.

He didn't do so well this time with the shots. He cried so hard and many, many tears came streaming down his face. We had to wait in the room for a bit before we could leave. All day he has been out of sort, cranky and only taking a few minute naps here and there. I feel so bad for him, just wish I could take his pain away. We gave him his bath earlier then normal and fed him and put him to bed before 8pm. I'm sure he will wake up mid way through the night, oh well.

Briar's first party

Briar attended his first party on Sunday which he was the guest of honor! We had a "welcome to the family" celebration, we opted for this in lieu of a traditional baby shower, which was alot of fun! Dan and I were amazed at the turn out and were so touched by the support and love we felt from everyone. We are so lucky to have such wonderful people in our lives and now a part of Briar's life as well. During the party I took a step back and just took everything in, what a truly happy time in our lives. I felt so filled with life and so blessed that we can now share in "family" event with friends, participate in play dates and just talk about parenting techniques with all of our friends that have children. We've waited so long for this, I just don't ever want it to end!

I want to send a special thank you out to my Mom(Sue), Jill, Kerri and Ron for hosting this event for us. They did such a fabulous job with everything! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Also a big THANK YOU to all our family and friends who attended and/or sent their well wishes!

Firsts

This last week has been filled with firsts! So I thought I would share these:

• We sent out our first ever baby announcement! I thought this day would never come, it was so great to put these in the mail. (Those in Canada, they have been mailed but we all know how slow postal mail can be.)


• Briar has slept through the night! Offically the first time was on September 6th but this past week he has done it 3 times!!!! On Saturday, Tuesday and Wednesday. He goes down at 10pm and wakes up at 5am. Mommy is so happy :)


• IB came for a visit on Sunday. Our first visit were we were officially the parents of Briar and not her. It was a great visit and he was very awake and talkative with her. It was wonderful to see him interact with her, they definitely have a special connection.


• We went for our first visit to Mommy's work on Monday and was very well behaved. Everyone just loved him and thought he was just the cutest thing ;-)


• Briar had his first almost successful thumb sucking on Monday (see picture below) and then last night he actually was successful for about 1 minute. I was not able to capture that Kodak moment :(


• Mommy and Briar spent our first night alone without Daddy in the house :( Dan is gone on a business trip to CA, he will be back on Friday afternoon. It went pretty good, however I think Briar could tell something was different since he woke up at 2am for a feeding and was up for the day at 6am. I guess he thought Mommy was lonely and needed his company ;-)


• And last but not least, Briar did his first blowing of a Raspberry last night! He has been pretty good about getting the spit built up for a couple of weeks but last night was the first time he actually did the full blown (ha ha ha) Raspberry.

So there you have it, my little guy is starting to grow up. What a wonderful year this is going to be for us!

(I just had to add a few other pictures besides the thumb sucking)

A weeks gone by

Has it already been a week since I was pacing the floor and jumping every time the phone rang?! Wow, this week has gone by so fast! Now that I don't have the fear of Briar leaving us I can enjoy every single minute with him without wondering if it is my last. All week I've been hugging and kissing him every chance I get (he probably feels smothered, LOL!). I can't get enough of looking into his eyes and face, he is just so beautiful and what a blessing!

He is starting to coo a lot more, he loves carrying on a conversation with me and thinks it is just so much fun. I just wish I knew what he was saying! He loves to smile and has giggled once for me, it was so cute! He is now down to only one feeding in the middle of the night. YAY!!!! And is finally on a set schedule which is just wonderful.

Grandma and Grandpa are going to baby sit again on Saturday night so we can have a date night. My mom offered the other day and I said I would have to check with Dan. When I asked Dan he said "Why are you asking me? When ever they offer to baby sit we should always say Yes!" It was one of those rare moments where Dan made sense and I wasn't thinking straight, he was pretty happy with himself for that one! Now we just need to find something to do on Saturday night.

100% ours

It's been almost 24 hours that Briar has been 100% ours! It still hasn't sunk in fully. I think it will once Raechel calls on Monday to Congratulate us.

We went out for a celebratory breakfast, unfortunately Briar probably didn't know since he was asleep. However Mommy and Daddy sure did enjoy it! Especially Daddy, he is a big breakfast fan. I can see it now, Briar and Daddy ganging up on Mommy to go to breakfast when all she wants to do is get an extra hour of sleep.

Today the words Mommy and Daddy certainly took on a whole new feeling for Dan and me, now when we say them to Briar it is 100% true! Can you see me smiling from ear to ear?????

What time is it?!?!

Not Morris Day and The Time! However, now I have their song in my head ......aawwwhhh the days of Prince and the Purple Rain ;-)

It is 9:00pm CST and we have not heard anything! This is great news since the other day Raechel said that no news is good news. That she would not call us tonight unless IB revoked. It has now been 4 hours since the deadline and I would think we would have heard something by now if she had.

Dan and I think it is pretty safe to say that Briar is forever our Son! We have already started our family celebration :)

Thank you! To every single person who took the time to say a prayer for us, no matter how short or long, God has heard us all and granted Dan and me this wonderful blessing.

I wasn't expected, I was selected!

please stop ringing

UGH! Would the phone please stop ringing today! I've had at least 5 phone calls so far today, which is out of the norm around here. The nerve of people to call today, especially a certain best friend (not to mention names, oh but I have too! Ron) who wasn't thinking. I don't know if I can handle having my stomach up in my throat anymore today.

Only a few more hours to get through. I can do this, I know I can. It must be like labor but without the physical pain, waiting anxiously for good news.

P.S. You know I forgive you Ronnie! ;-)

Events over the last few days

A couple things have happened over the last few days. We did hear from IB the other evening that she was able to get a hold of her Mom. She said the conversation went pretty good, once she was able to talk with her. The first call the Mom did not answer so IB tried the next day. She said that her Mom was mad that she did not tell her about her pregnancy but that she will support IB in whatever she decides to do (parent or adoption). The fact that this is an open adoption really helped her to not be closed to this option; that she can meet and be a part of Briar's life. I could tell when I was talking with IB how relieved she felt but also got the sense that now she might be considering parenting.

IB also asked if she could take Briar for a visit with the Aunt. We of course could not say no since we are in the legal risk period; not that we would have anyway but we are just concerned that the Aunt will continue to pressure her to parent and try to make her feel guilty about her decision. When she dropped him off we asked how it went she said "good", however we were not sure if that had meant he was good or that the Aunt wasn't giving her a hard time. Briar started to fuss so we didn't talk long.

Then last night we received a call from Raechel....FINALLY!!!!! She was able to connect with IB yesterday to discuss how things were going and how she felt. Raechel said that she sounded like a different person and very happy. I had to know, so I straight out asked Raechel if IB was thinking about parenting or going through with her adoption plan. She said that IB was planning on going through with the adoption. WAIT....don't get too excited just yet. As we know from past history (previous failed match) we should not always put 100% faith in what social workers say, since people can change their minds.

I am feeling pretty good though, I would have to say I'm about 80% confident that this adoption will happen(this is pretty good coming from the girl who's glass is always half empty, LOL!). IB has until 5pm on Friday to revoke, so if we don't hear from the agency on Friday evening (I would give them until 6pm to call us, if she revokes) Briar is ours forever!!!!

Please keep sending those prayers our way until Friday evening. THANKS!!!!!

New twist

Our meeting with IB yesterday went great! The discussions were very heart felt, open and honest. At times I teared up and so did IB. She stayed for almost 4 hours and Briar was awake for the majority which I know IB just loved. We did give her a white gold pendant, it is a shape of a heart and key. We wanted her to have something to reminder her of Briar and the importance she has in his life; that he is the key to her heart. She did give us both hugs when she left, which was a good sign.

However we did find out that now there is an added twist to her decision process. I think I had mentioned this before, IB kept her pregnancy a secret and moved away from her immediate family (several states away). She does have an Aunt who lives here in MN and she was able to hide it from her as well. However some how the Aunt found out (IB thinks it was her roommate snooping) and is not supportive at all of IB's adoption plan. The Aunt decided to intervene and called IBs Mom. So now IB has the added stress of having to face her Mom about Briar and her decision.

We did ask if this will change her mind, she sounded somewhat firm in her decision to move forward with the adoption. However we all know what family pressure can be like and she could succumb to their request to parent him.

If the family wasn't involved I would say that I was 99% confident she will go through with the adoption after yesterday's visit. But they are involved so it's a 50/50 shot.

Still holding breath

Briar is still with us :)

We did get some more information yesterday from Raechel, IBs social worker (she is back from vacation thank goodness). Raechel spoke with the other social worker that IB met with on Wednesday. Apparently IB has concerns about our openness relationship and how it will look in the future. Currently it has been pretty formal however she would like it to be more open and us sharing more information on how things are going with Briar. We totally agree! However every time she has come to visit she has brought a friend which is very hard to open up when there is a third person there.

She also wants to hear more from me, how I'm doing with bonding with Briar. I guess I've been holding back in fear that I would hurt her or make her feel bad if I shared too much on how things were going for me and him. Time to start opening up!

She knows in her heart it would be hard for her to parent Briar since all she really has to offer him is love. She is struggling with the question of "is that enough" and what really will be her future role if we parent him.

She did call last night and she is coming over on Sunday for a visit to discuss these things. We found out also that Raechel did not connect with her yesterday and when we told IB that we talked with Raechel yesterday she sounded surprised/disappointed (that she didn't get to talk with her but we did). We are pretty pissed that Raechel did not make it priority to connect with IB especially since she sounded pretty depressed. Raechel has been IBs sole support and I would think no matter how busy she is that it is her job to check in with her even if she had to do it after hours.

Anyway, this is somewhat encouraging but we are still holding our breath and need to see how Sunday goes.