700th post

Well it's been almost 2 years since I started this blog (12/22/06). I thought it would be about our experiences adopting 2 children from Ukraine plus one newborn in the US, but so far it's turned out to be about our little Nadia from a FET.
Thanksgiving was really special last year since I was pregnant and also got to see my sister, Yvonne, and her family whom I hadn't seen in awhile. This one was also very special since it was Nadia’s first Thanksgiving! We enjoyed spending time in person with both of our families the last two days plus some time with my sisters’ families via webcam. We sang Happy Birthday to Joe over the webcams as it was his birthday yesterday, enjoyed hearing Susie (age 4) and Jenna (age 6) read books, and got to see our 3 day old nephew, Nathan, for the first time as well. Speaking of books, my mom was impressed with how long Nadia will sit on someone’s lap and look at a book while the music that accompanies the book is being played on the CD player. I often go through two books at a time with her, and each book has 10 songs (most with multiple verses). She studies each page of the book intently and is content to stay on one page for an extended period of time.

My parents and brother were at our house from 1:30pm on Wednesday to 1:50pm on Thursday. I cooked a turkey dinner for them on Wed (including stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, rolls, pies, and ice cream). They ate leftovers from that meal on Thursday before they left so they still got to eat turkey on Thanksgiving. :-) I usually love to make yeast bread for holidays, but with a baby I went the easy route and just bought rolls and pies that were ready to go in the oven. My mom made the gravy as that’s not my specialty. Paul’s sil (Millie) cooked a great meal yesterday that we enjoyed with Paul’s family. Of course both families enjoyed seeing Nadia. :-) On Thursday I got to play games with my dad. I beat him in Boggle twice (twice we played to 200 points), and I would have beat him in Racko if we had stuck with the plan to play to 200, but when I saw the official rules say to play to 500 I suggested we play to 250, and he was the first to pass the 250 mark so he beat me in Racko. I am looking forward to playing Boggle with more people at Christmas. It’s my favorite game!

Today I am hoping to get Nadia back on schedule. I didn’t want my parents or brother to be kept awake while she cried it out on Wed pm so that meant I fed her almost every 2 hours and also let her get up for the day at 5am although lately I hadn’t been letting her get up before 7am. This then through her nap schedule off although thankfully she slept as we drove to and from Paul’s brother’s house (70 minutes each way). I had gotten her down to 8 ounces a day of formula (she had been up to 12 a day), but last night after I changed a poopy diaper at 4am she just refused to nurse so Paul gave her a bottle instead. I constantly go back and forth between wanting to wean her off of formula since I’ll be home with her for a month in between the semesters and bottles won’t be necessary, and then other times I just get so stressed about it I just feel like telling myself it doesn’t matter how much formula she gets each day and not to worry about it.

I did 2 loads of laundry and a little shopping online this morning, and next on my list is to do some grading. Between Paul’s family and my family, I have 22 people to buy Christmas presents for this year. I am about half-way done thanks to some shopping I did many months ago. I am one of those people who NEVER goes shopping on Black Friday. The bargains appeal to me, but the crowds do not, and now with getting up throughout the night to feed Nadia, the idea of shopping before dawn is completely unappealing. Well I hope everyone had a very nice Thanksgiving, and for those of you who participate in Black Friday, I hope you had fun shopping! :-)