rant & randomness

So, it looks like I am not going to be able to pull of going part-time after all :(
I am having a really hard time finding a solution to my health insurance quandary. Right now, Nora & I are on my plan and Ryan has insurance through his job. We looked into hopping on his plan but it would be $600 a month (faint) So, I applied to a couple of insurance companies on my own.....errrr....very frustrating. The 1st company (Blue Cross) denied me because of my fertility problems. Can you believe that? I am not receiving any treatment for my endometriosis and I don't have any symptoms of endo. (other than infertility) and I certainly will not be receiving any fertility treatments...argh!
The 2nd company said they would cover me but would not cover anything related to my asthma. Well, that doesn't do me any good! So, we are back at square 1...with me working full-time unless I can come up with another scheme......

In better news, we are going to court on Monday afternoon for Nora's re adoption! I am so excited!! But I am feeling an unexpected twinge of sadness now that Nora's name will legally be changed. It's silly I know, because she will always know the name that her mother gave her and we are incorporating it into her full name AND we call her by it more than we call her Nora but I still feel a little guilty. I guess it's just another part of my grieving process...I grieve for her loss of her mother (and her mother's loss of her) and the loss of her country and culture.....and now her name.
Jeez, I am in a mood today! I took my happy court news and made it all depressing!

I promise I will be a bundle of cheer for the IEKC Holiday party!!!!

Although, I do feel better after this rant!

Ho Ho Ho

Boy. Santa sure is expensive!

We trekked out to Woodfield today to meet the Big Man himself....I myself was a little nervous...maybe I was having flashbacks of my childhood, sitting on Santa's lap, screaming my head off. I don't know. Nora did remarkably well, she just stared at him with this "Who the hell are you and why am I sitting on your lap?" look on her face.

2 minutes and $29 later we had this lovely keepsake

Yeah, this photo looks like crap because they don't let you bring your own camera so I had to take a picture of the picture to be able to post it:)

It was fun and it made me excited about Christmas this year....maybe I won't be such a Grinch about the holidays any more....

Melkin Yelidet Beaal!

Sometimes you just have to laugh

As we were leaving the grocery store today we decided to drop some cash into the Salvation Army bucket.
The woman ringing the bell smiled at Nora and said "She's so beautiful...." I said thank you and started to walk away when she said "She's dark. Is she dark?" I paused and said "Yes, she's Black" (I assumed when she said dark she meant black). "She's Ethiopian"

Bell-ringer lady then whispers "Ethiopian....." looong pause "Are you Ethiopian?"

Strange friends

Nora likes the vacuum. I mean, she really likes the vacuum. She'll sit in front of it and babble away.

Today I actually turned it on and she chased it around the room! It was hilarious to see her dragging herself around super fast just to catch up with her "friend".

We really should get out more.

love is in the air

It seems that Nora has a not-so-secret admirer!

Dadadadada

Yesterday afternoon Nora woke up from her nap and started saying "Dada"!!
She hasn't stopped saying it since...no, really....she goes on and on and on and on with her "Dada story" She holds her hand up in the air to express the important parts of her little tale.
Her little voice is so sweet, it melts my heart (even though she is saying dada and not mama)
and her little lips do this funny Brando-esque thing as she talks.


I'll try to get a video of her-she stops talking as soon as she sees the camera!

Reunion!

We had a great time at our little travel reunion on Saturday. The kids all look fabulous-I can't believe how much everyone has grown! Wow! We really did have the best travel group...whatta great group of people :)

The group rented a conference room at a hotel and we set up shop there. The hotel had a pool so the older kids could go swimming-I really wanted to take Nora but we ran out of time.
We pretty much hung around there most of the day so the kids could run wild (plus, it was cold & crappy outside) and in the late afternoon we went out to dinner at a local East African restaurant. It was a great way to spend a Saturday!

Here are some of the dads....

Nora with a friend who happens to be a huge UW AND Packer fan (boo-hiss!) but we love her anyway!

Here is an attempt at getting a bunch of babies to sit still

Happy Adoption Day!

November marks National Adoption Month and today is National Adoption Day!

To celebrate, we are heading up to Madison for a reunion with our travel group..well, most of our travel group.

I am so excited to see how all of the kids have grown & changed in the last 3 months:)

Post-placement #2

We had our 2nd post-placement visit this evening and I guess it went pretty well.
We drove into Evanston-which is good because my house is a disgusting disaster and I didn't want to deal with it. Our visit lasted less than an hour and Nora was in a good mood til the end (when she got hungry!) :) Our next and last visit is in February!




I hope our SW didn't think it was weird that I use this thermos to keep the water for her formula warm.....


*It's the only thermos I have & she doesn't like cold milk!!

The Wounded Soldier

Nora started to do a sort of "army crawl" this weekend. She only does it sometimes and usually only on hardwood floor.

Ryan has dubbed it the "wounded soldier" because she drags herself forward with 1 arm, as if the other arm is injured and her legs aren't working well.

Let's hope this week is better

I've had a rough couple 'o weeks :(


I didn't realize that Ryan's new job would require so much travel and I'm just not dealing with it very well. He was gone all last week and the week before that and it totally sucked. It wouldn't be all that bad if I didn't have to scramble to find someone to watch Nora until I get off work at 2am (since they give him very little notice) AND the serious lack of sleep on the days I do work is killing me.
We are working to get me part-time but it can't happen fast enough. I am shooting for the 1st of the year....if we can get our health insurance situation figured out (that's a whole 'nother story!)

At least I am on "vacation" this week :)

She did it!

Sort of......

I set Nora down this morning for some tummy time. Now when I set her down, she bends her legs and likes to be set down in the "crawling position". Well, today she immediately rolled to one side and SAT UP!!! I know, she was already kinda there when I set her down but she's never done THAT before :)

Here she is right after she (sort of) sat up!

My little baby is growing up.....

BFF

All dressed up with no place to go

Sleeplessness & Nora's 1st protest

I have been totally exhausted lately!
Ryan was out of town all last week, came home for the weekend (which I worked so I didn't even see him) and then left again on Monday for N. Dakota. Needless to say, with my crazy work hours and Nora not adjusting to the time change and not having Ryan or I to put her to bed on a few nights, I could probably count on my fingers the hours of sleep I have had :(
But yesterday, I had a burst of energy and decided that we should head downtown to a rally at Federal Plaza for the Jena 6/A.N.S.W.E.R.....yeah, bad idea. First off, I had some wacky idea that we should drive....in rush hour. By the time we got there, it was 6:00 (the rally was from 5-7) and very cold. There were like 15 people and it only lasted another 15 minutes or so...total bummer. I don't know what upsets me more, that I drove forever or that there were only a handful of people there?
It was a really disappointing turnout.

Of course, this brought tears to my eyes....

I've gone video crazy!

Injera & Ice cream

Nora and I met Auntie Caroline at the Ethiopian Diamond today for lunch and had the absolute best experience. This was Nora's 1st time there and the minute we walked in the door she was showered with so much love and attention!
This was our first experience with the Ethiopian community since coming home with her and it was nothing but positive. Of course, a couple of the women made me cry (which isn't hard to do) they hugged me and thanked me.....and I thanked them...I was a mess.


Our waiter was hilarious and he kept whisking Nora away and taking her from table to table to greet people.


We had such a great lunch and Nora really enjoyed her 1st taste of injera :)


In other news, Nora also enjoyed her 1st taste of vanilla ice cream yesterday......


I will have to thank Diana for the stinky diaper this morning;)

Tubby time

Nora has finally moved on to bigger and better bath tubs...the infant tub wasn't cutting it anymore since she now likes to sit up and actually play during bath time:)

I found this crazy inflatable duck-tub at Target. It took me, the asthmatic, like a year and a whole lotta dizziness to inflate it but she absolutely loves it!

Plus, it quacks which drives the dogs crazy;)