Dedication

Life has continued to be SUPER hectic, but hopefully things will calm down soon. On Friday I told Ashley that Nadia wouldn't be there for her to babysit any more. Although I did get the letter from the President on Friday approving my 50% reduced work load from October 1 to May 22, I still didn't tell my students. I was afraid of getting choked up or actually crying in front of them. So I sent them an email over the weekend. I also emailed Angela (the other babysitter). In her reply to me she said she was going to miss Nadia a lot. :-( The babysitters both took really good care of Nadia in my opinion. Paul's mom came up this morning to babysit Nadia as Friday was the last day she was allowed on campus and my leave doesn't begin until Wednesday. Paul left about 11am and I got home about 1:15pm. Wednesday I plan to leave here at 6:40am and get back by 9:30am.

Thankfully we haven't had any additional disasters around the house lately. Paul replaced the outlet for the dryer on Saturday, and the appliance guy came today and for about $70 fixed our dishwasher and the ice machine in our frig. This is the first time I've owned a frig that has an ice machine. Plus we made a LOT of progress with unpacking on Friday and Saturday, and my dad helped hang a lot of pictures and curtains on Saturday. By the time we left for church on Sunday morning the house no longer looked like a disaster area. Of course not all the work is done, but I no longer feel surrounded by chaos. I need to do more unpacking, decorating, and such, but I don't feel the sense of urgency I did before. I also need to do a LOT of work outside as no one had lived here since May. The grass really needs to be mowed, the shrubs need to be trimmed, etc.

My mom and I went shopping at Target on Saturday night after I put Nadia to bed and we bought fun things for the bathrooms. Although the penguin stuff doesn't totally match the colors in the flooring in the 1/2 bath, we got them since they were Paul's favorite. I picked out the monkey theme for Nadia's bathroom upstairs. I think it matches well and is very fun.

Part of the reason for the attempt to get the house fixed up ASAP was that Nadia was being dedicated at church on Sunday. She wore the dress I wore 36 years ago at my dedication. She's the 6th girl to wear it (my sisters and I plus my two nieces). Eleven people came for her special day - my parents, Paul's parents, Paul's brother, Paul's grandmother, my friend (Cheri), and Paul's four nieces and nephews. Nadia was good as gold and just looked up into the Pastor's eyes while he held her and prayed for her. He always does an acronym based on the child's name. I remember that the "n" was for "nice" and the two "a's" were for "attentive" and "attractive, but I don't remember what the other letters were for. I will order a CD of it so I can listen to that part again. I shed a few tears during it all; sometimes I still can't believe that this miracle has finally happened. I am a mother! Since Sunday was "Family Fun Day" lunch was served at church after the service. Seven of those who came for her dedication stayed for the lunch, and then six of them came over to our house after that.

Nadia is doing a great job sleeping. The longest stretch so far was 9 1/2 hours (Thursday night). She is averaging 10 hours total. For example last night she slept from 7:30pm to 2:00am and then 2:30am to 6:30am. Usually she doesn't wake up that early (2:00am), but her arm was stuck between the crib and the wall. I didn't get her a bumper since I had read it's not advised due to SIDS, but she often gets her arm or leg stuck between the slats. Any suggestions? I am tempted to buy a bumper. Would that be unsafe??? She's also doing a great job playing in her gym alone for 30 minutes or more at a time. She loves batting the toys in her gym with her arms and feet and in her bouncer with her arms.

Dr. Manning called on Friday to say the lab had only tested Nadia for an allergy to whey. So we still don't know yet if she's allergic to dairy products yet. She said she'll call us when she gets those results.