March Stuff We've Been Up To

(I know it's May. This post is my attempt to catch up.)

Jessica charms us everyday, but March 31 almost made me cry I was so pleased. We were sitting at the dinner table, all eating hot buttery carrots out of the same bowl. I told Jessica: "These are carrots. Bunny Foo Foo eats carrots" and in the next second I thought 'I'm wasting my breath--she won't remember that connection.' 

And all of the sudden she hummed 6 perfect notes in a high voice: "huh, hu-huh, hu-huuuh, huuuh" and Dave and I both looked at each other shocked and said "Did she just sing 'Little Bunny Foo Foo'?" It was the first time I heard her sing, without help, a recognizable song, and the happy glow of that memory is going to last me a long time.

She is also learning to climb into the tub and up the furniture,

learned to crawl out the cat door (which she only accomplished once, not being a skinny minnie):

opens the cabinet to her toys, takes the lids off markers just to put them back on, pinches her nose, puts anything on her wrists like bracelets, including my sandals, and puts things on her head. She made Dave laugh really hard one day when she put a kitchen towel over her head, and started crawling blind, smack into our wooden chest.

And about the time she turned one she started eating all her meals with a fork:

 I saw the last launch of the space shuttle Discovery from my front porch, being only a 3-hour drive south of Cape Canaveral. The picture only shows the smoke trail, but I could also see the bright fire of the rockets.

I have about a dozen piano students, and this spring is busy with concerts and progress tests. I'm bribing them with music CDs for extra practice, but made them buy CDs from me if they didn't practice enough. I teach Tuesday and Wednesday nights, thanks to Dave who is glad to have a mac and cheese night.

I also entered a local tennis tournament and enjoyed seeing this second place finish in the next newsletter:

Palm Tennis Singles Winter 2011 Winners

North Palm Beach County Ladies Night 3.5

Champion: Mary Donovan * Lake Park Tennis Center

Finalist: Elizabeth Robertson * Carlin Park

Dave has been woodworking on our porch making storage cubes for our DVDs. He likes his new clerking job, and spent hours with the other clerks cleaning out enough old records to make a good bonfire.

We watched some BYU basketball, impressed by Jimmer Fredette. Smokey has needed a lot of medical attention, but I think he's better now. Dave chose Arsenic and Old Lace to watch thinking I would like the love story, but I have to warn you: I think it's better for Halloween, FYI. I rearranged all the pictures in our front room, and hung our newly framed, first family picture on the wall. I just listened to a fabulous book on tape: The Help, and started another funny book about adoption and family: No Biking in the House Without a Helmet.


That's mostly all. April 20-30, we're flying to Utah for the BYU graduation of Dave's siblings, Easter, and I'm going to attend BYU Women's Conference.

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.)

Mom to the Rescue

I thought that only women who bore children needed their moms to help out after a new baby arrived. Boy was I wrong!

Dave and I managed pretty well at the hotel in Birmingham, but we had nothing to prevent us from holding her and napping all day. But when we got home, I wanted to get a recital out of the way, Dave was going back to work, and our house was in disarray with all the new stuff. But my mom went right to work helping me set up the nursery, make party fliers, cooking meals, cleaning the kitchen, and of course, holding her first granddaughter. Jessica loved Grandma E, who is a natural with babies, (having had 5 of her own.)

Grandma helped get Jessica ready for church on her first Sunday home in Jupiter. Don't ask me how Mom got her to smile for the camera, but she sure looks sweet enough to eat. Dave will have the baby during church, since I play piano for the Primary kids after the family sacrament meeting (but we'll see how long that lasts before she starts getting "borrowed".)

My mom and I got to talk about babies, family, the whole adoption saga, and everything under the sun. Monday we went shopping at Babies'R'Us and Target and got a baby swing, supplies, bibs, washcloths, and some irresistable dresses.
Tuesday Mom watched the baby while I got some much needed exercise. (Of course, we kept her out of the sun except for the pictures.) It just so happens that Jess and I both have pink skirts; I think we would make a great doubles tennis team.

Thanks for coming to help us Mom!