For Time and All Eternity

Dear family & friends: we are going back to Alabama to have Jessica's adoption finalized on July 21, 2010. We will then be able to seal her to us as a family, even after death, in one of God's temple. We are choosing the Orlando temple, and the date is most likely August 7, 2010. All our friends who are temple-recommend holders are invited. Dave will give her a baby blessing in the Jupiter ward the next day; all of our friends are invited to attend.

We will post something here when we get more details.

Baby Milestones

For the people we love who are far away, and want see Jessica's progress, here are some of the little things we notice she's learned lately:

• watching us while we make her bottle
• pull her legs up when we change her diaper, or just for fun
• smiling at people
• cooing a lot more, more vowels and "talking"
• holding her own hands
• holding her hands or arm in her mouth and licking it (she still can't keep a pacifier in)
• kicking hard, and straigtening her legs to "stand" (finally! the doctor called her lack of standing "lazy" 2 appointments in a row)
• licking everything
• reading the warning label on her car seat
• rolling to her left side, or from her side to her back
• starting the night sleeping one way and waking up sleeping another
• sleeping from 7pm to 7am
• she's getting so fat she's losing the crease in the middle of her forearm
• she's grown out of her newborn clothes, dresses, and socks
• I think her hair is longer, but her head is bigger, so it looks the same
• holding a rattle and shaking it a while before dropping it

April Activities

OK, I have some major catching up to do for our lives in April. Here's a sample:

Dave and I took Jessica to the newly opened area of Riverside Park for a walk one Saturday. It was a nice walk, (although I was a paranoid new parent, and was watching for alligators and running through emergency scenarios in my mind.)

I'm standing next to a huge "treehouse" banyan in the park. Two kids were playing in the middle of all the trunks. We are sooooo impatient for Jessica to grow up so we can play with her in places like these!

We saw several wild turkeys walking around a chimney leftover from Florida pioneer days. I guess there are several old cabin sites in the park.

Dave turned 33 in April. He loves being a dad; although he says he wants her to be 2 now, you should hear him play with her in the tub.

Ilana was my Division 7 tennis partner most of the year, and together we were undefeated. Dave and Jessica came to watch us play the PGA team as substitutes on the Division 5 team. We won that game, and secured enough points to guarantee first place for the team. Ilana is from Isreal, and she had a great Hebrew accent and a fun personality, but she liked to win too which was a good match for me.

Below is part of our Lake Park Division 7 team at our home court next to the Intercoastal waterway. I'm in back, third from the left. On my left is our co-captain Dorothy Alva, whom I owe for persuaded me to start playing tennis 2 years ago. Our tireless and wordy coach Itamar always has his teams place, and he's got his arms around our lovable co-captin Gabby.

And there's all the stuff we do to keep Jessica entertained at home. She likes water, but swimming right before bed made her pretty cranky. All she liked doing was licking my shoulder. Her baby fat body floats like a bouy!

Dave bathes Jessica, which I do most every evening, because it entertains her for 15 minutes, it keeps her from getting baby acne on her cheeks, and because we don't have 6 other kids to mind.

Jessica helps me surf and blog and send emails, but for very short times.

Jessica & "friends" hanging out at the end of April, when she was 2 months old. I put her in the same position at the end of May, and she need lots more animals and music to keep her occupied, and pushes so hard with her legs her head was hanging over the front of the rocker.

I contacted the county for a house to paint, and they had a close one for us to do on our church's Southeast U.S. Day of Service, April 25, 2010. (Seven other wards in Palm Beach County had the same idea, and it was a lot less work for me than organizing last's years clothing drive.) Brother Mike Phillips arranged the day's details and other projects the closer we got to the actual day, which just left me with public affairs stuff--after report & article & pictures & flyers.

The pile of plants and trash was about four feet high, six feet wide, and almost the thirty-foot length of the property. Makes my home feel like a sparkling palace.

Apparently other groups had failed to do this house. It was 2 story stucco (really hard to paint), and that was after one group had already weedwacked a good portion. The house was covered in mold, surrounded by overgrown foliage, rusty yard furniture, a hive of bees, piles of broken glass, a snake, and a dead animal carcass. Below Joanna Aiken, the SWA coordinator, and the homeowner pose with Brother Phillips & I. The 80-yr old lady with a funny wig and "furniture store owner", an alcoholic son, and several mysterious renters gave this project a real special flavor. But they were grateful, and the busy corner looks better, so I feel it was worth it.

Dave found a shady spot to paint. The other adoptive family in our ward watched Jessica the whole morning, so I could take pictures and paint and sort junk.

(Brother Phillips drove by the house last week, and there is a for sale sign in the yard. I think we were hoping the painting would help the homeowner live there, but apparently it will help her move out. Oh well.)

Mother's Day

A little backyard photo shoot before Mother's Day.

Thinking of 5 mothers that week: my maternal grandmother, who gave me my drive to organize and taught me how to sew quilts. She made a beautiful Precious Moments Noah's Ark quilt with rainbow borders and perfect corners.


My mother-in-law, who is the antithesis of nasty stereotypes for spouse's mothers. She also sewed a darling beach baby quilt for Jessica.



My own mother, whose self-sacrifice I was priveledged to watch as I grew up. She crocheted lace edges on a blanket and several brightly colored burp cloths.

And this year, I finally got to think of myself! On previous 9 Mother's Days, my feelings went from hopeful to impatient to painful to ignoring them (except to call my mothers.) When Dave said a few weeks earlier, "Hey, this is going to be your first real Mother's Day" I jumped up and down. I was so happy to be a mom I forgot to wish others a Happy Mother's Day! (I haven't sewn her anything! But I feed and play with her every day, so I'm counting that.)



And of course I thought of the wonderful mother of this little girl, who courageous went through a lot of emotions and puking and hastle to bring this wonderful creature into the world. Wherever she is and whatever she is doing, I love that mother.

And to all the other women in Jessica's life (most of whom have sewed something or clothed Jessica) I love you too! What a rich female heritage this little girl has to grow into.

Baby's First Game

Jessica taught me her first game: she loves it when I played with her lips. Like Dave's mom told us: they learn from their head down.

Sleeping Like a Baby

Dave and I both wanted to get Jessica on a regular sleeping schedule. We had watched friends and relatives who did and did not have their kids on regular rest, and we decided it was important to us. With others' advice (especially Dave's mother,) we used the book Twelve Hours Sleep by Twelve Weeks Old, something I discovered at the library when I was babysitting another little girl. Gratefully she has an easy disposition and isn't collicky.

At first she needed feeding every 3 hours, except in the evenings when she was fussy & scarfed more. At one month old, Jessica dropped her 5 am feeding. During her second month, she starting sleeping through from 7pm to 2am, her only night feeding, and sleeping again until 7am. Dave took that middle-of-the-night feeding on the weekends, and I took it during the week.

But at 8 weeks old, I was sick of it. I announced to Dave one morning, "We're waking Jessica up at 10pm from now on, feeding her, and hoping she shifts her 8 hours to the same as us." She did, and except for a few ounces at 10pm, (which we are slowly weaning her from), and a few random awakenings, she now sleeps 12 hours at night. The evening is ours after 7pm. Yay for us!

It's taken some juggling and debating to get to this point. We had to find the balance between "gentle" formula, which gives her gas, and soy formula, which gives her diaper rash. And in the evening she demands extra food and extra attention to keep her awake until bedtime: we take turns entertaining her starting around 4pm. Then Dave takes her for a walk at 6, and I bath her at 6:30; then bottle & bed. (We're enjoying it now, but I'm sure she'll get sick or start teething and it will all go out the window.)

Smokey likes to snuggle to whenever I feed Jessica on the couch.

She's so adorable when she falls asleep after food during her burping!

Dave loves to hold and feed his daughter after a long day at work. He took a lot of morning feedings so I could sleep in, too; he's such a sweetheart.

We do the 10 pm feeding with her still half asleep.

She reminds us of a limp cheetah hanging in a tree.

Her favorite starfish position.

Sometimes she arches her back so much she's halfway sleeping on her side.

And sometimes, after all that work, she puts us to sleep!

Baby Faces

(My favorites are the E.T. neck & the one-eyed pirate smirk.)