Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday July 31-August 2

Have not been keeping up with the posting on a regular basis - either too tired, or wanting to spend some time chilling with David after Indigo goes to bed. However, we're wanting to remember this stuff that is happening now so I'll try not to go so many days without an update. It's hard to believe that we have had our precious daughter now for one month and have been home in the USA for 3 weeks today. She makes us so happy and we are so in love with her! On Tuesday Indigo and I had a nice day with relatively little activity which we needed - we have to watch how much stimulation she gets. Often, she seems so well adjusted and settled with us, and outgoing, that we forget that we are still brand new to her and her whole life has changed completely. I think that some of the nights that we struggle and she wakes up crying a lot are probably an outlet of the stress - but it's hard to really know. She could have had a bad dream, belly ache, teething pain - it's very hard to know and I am sure that is a stress that all parent's experience. Anyway, we hung out on Tuesday and then after her afternoon nap we walked to the beach together (well, she was in the stroller) and we went in the lake which was lovely and she loved playing in the sand. We got back home around 6 and waited for Daddy to come home from work. When he got home we decided to go to Moby Dick's, our favorite kabob place. Indigo very much enjoyed going there. She really enjoys the chicken from there and ate some rice and some of the naan type bread and a little hummos. We had a fairly good night - she woke up crying but fell back to sleep and did not wake up again until morning.

In the morning on Wednesday she was very interested in feeding herself using her utensils and did quite a good job with her eggs at breakfast. She and I spent the day hanging out at the house playing. She was cracking me up which then would make her crack up which would make me laugh harder. I think it was Wednesday that we talked to Grandma Lee on the phone and she could hear Indigo "talking" and then laughing and being silly which made her laugh which was great. We can't wait until she comes to visit from California over Labor Day! We received this beautiful chair for Indigo from our friend Kris - it's so lovely and a perfect little miniature sofa - as you can see, Sparkle quite fancies the chair for herself. Indigo took a later afternoon nap and when she woke up we went to the pet store to get dog treats, dog food etc. She loved the pet store. Sitting in the shopping cart she could really see the ferrets playing and she loved watching the parakeets. It will be a good place to go just to hang out so she can see those animals. We did a couple more errands going to some other stores including the grocery store. When we got home, Daddy was home from work and we fed her supper, played for a while and then bed.

On Thursday we played in the morning and then had an impromptu lunch with our friend Ellen and her daughter Sarah. We had been on the phone while Indigo was napping and then decided to meet at the Canton place for lunch with the girls. We put the girls in matching outfits - they looked very cute.

I love this series which I affectionately call "the thievery" you can see Indigo with her fortune cookie, Sarah going in for the grab, Indigo looking indignant and Sarah looking quite gleeful about her accomplishment! Don't worry about Indigo - she does her fair share of "stealing" from Sarah's plate. The girls are very cute together and constantly check each other out to see what the other is doing, eating, might have that they want etc. - it's hilarious to watch. The girls enjoyed lunch and then we went to the mall to check out some of the summer clearance sales. Indigo was very lively - I think she might be one of those kids that requires a leash - she wanted to run in the stores and would just giggle like crazy when I would pick her up. I was without a stroller - a mistake not to be made again but sure was good for my biceps! She was very tired when we left and fell asleep as soon as we hit the highway. I was very proud of myself because I managed to make the transition of getting her out of the carseat asleep and into the crib with her staying asleep - not an easy feat while negotiating the stairs up to the front door, unlocking the front door - being enthusiastically greeted by two large dogs, negotiating the baby gate at the top of the stairs and into the crib - whew! While she slept I talked briefly to my mom - she was very exciting because she has so mainy Painted Buntings coming to her bird feeder that someone had come to spend the whole day at their house to count and band them! At the time I spoke with her the lady was capturing the 14th different painted bunting! The lady was working with the birds until at least 8 p.m. and then had dinner with Mom & Dad so I never got to hear the rest of the details but look forward to it. We are having a severe drought in Virginia and so David is having to spend a lot of time watering when he gets home from work each evening - yesterday was also his month end at work so it was a rough day. It will be nice when Indigo gets to spend more time with him again over the weekend.

We had a really tough time getting Indigo down to bed - not sure why - again perhaps too much stimulation in the day with the shops - hard to tell. Anyway, it took ages and was very stressful. She would not take her bottle and was not settling as she usually does. Later, after a lot of back rubbing, she did take the bottle from me and then she finally fell asleep but she woke up again just after 11 and I was up all through the night as she woke up multiple times - it's upsetting to have her be distressed and unhappy. She slept through the night on Wednesday so then you find yourself thinking, well what did I do yesterday that made things go well, and then I think that's crazy because life changes and we can't live each day exactly as we did the day before so I guess we'll expect good nights and bad nights. She obviously has a much better day when she has a good sleep. It's been a short while, she is little and has been through a lot. I am having trouble sleeping, either worrying about her well being, or anticipating her waking up and wanting to do all the best things for her and have her know how much we love her etc. The ramblings of a tired parent... that's the most wonderful word to say.