Moving....

No...much to my dismay, we are not physically moving.  Our blog site is moving.  We have transferred all of our old blog posts over to the new site.  The most recent post on the new site will explain why we moved.  (HA! So if you are curious, you are going to have to go there to find out!)

Check us out at http://stapeshouse.blogspot.com/

As of right now, many of you receive an email with each blog post.  If you would like to continue to receive the emails, please let me know and I will add you to that new list.

Thanks again for following our family adventure!!

So apparently I am supposed to be able to blog from my phone....did it work??

What not to say...

I know that people mean well and are genuinely interested in what is going on with us.  But recently I have had a handful of people (some family, some friends and some others) ask me a similiar question and it is starting to piss me off!

"Have you heard from the mom?"

"Do you have contact with his mom?"

"Why did his mom give him up?"

What don't people understand?  I am Gus' mom!  Just because I did not carry him in my belly or gave birth to him...I am his mom just the same.  Even his birth certificate says so!  I had my own pregnancy.  It started in November of 2007 when we started the process, "our pregnancy".  Gus was born in June of 2009.  So instead of a 9 month pregnancy...we had a 19 month pregnancy.  Our labor and delivery lasted 8 months while we waited for finalization.  Just because I did not become a mom in the traditional way, does not make me any less of Gus' mom.

I try so hard just to calmly answer people when they ask and when I answer I make sure to use the term birthmom.  I know that people aren't very familiar with adoption and the pc terminology.  I try to be patient....but I am quickly losing my patience.  Perhaps some day, I will not be as sensitive about it...but that day is not today.

Not flesh of my flesh, Nor bone of my bone,

But still miraculously my own.

Never forget for a single minute,

You didn't grow under my heart - but in it

--- Fleur Conkling Heylinger

Sleep and Poop

Another fun surprise for us...Gus has been sleeping right through the thunderstorm that we have been having tonight. Joel and I were wondering how he would do with thunder and lightening and if we would have a fussy baby on our hands. Luckily, all went well for his first big thunderstorm.

We have been having a lot of sleep issues with the Gus-man and things have been getting much better this week so we were hoping the storm wouldn't set us back. We think we have a couple of things pinpointed.


#1- Gus is cutting some teeth. Clearly not happy about it either. I keep trying to tell him that if he just toughs it out he will be much happier because he will be able to eat so many new foods with new teeth. He currently has 4 teeth. The two on the bottom have been here for quite awhile but within the past few weeks he started to grow a "fang" on top. Just in the past few days we have been able to see the other "fang". So I may have a little vampire on my hands but aren't vampires popular right now?

#2- Lack of bedtime routine. We have made a strong effort to have a more solid bed time routine. In addition, we used to lay down with him until he feel asleep but now he goes right into bed. Each night, the blood curdling screams have shortened. Tonight it was only about 7 or 8 minutes. It was about 20 minutes this past weekend so hopefully by next week our little guy will start to get the hang of it.
#3- Naps. We knew that our son was getting a couple of naps a day but we weren't sure as to when they made the most sense and not only that but at what point do we put him to sleep?  It is hard to make a point to put him down for a nap.  We read a book that my sister-in-law, Sarah gave us a long time ago.  We read parts of it before Gus was born...but we really should have read the whole thing.  We also did some reading online.  We discovered that our little guy does need the 3 naps he takes each day...and he stays up at night just a little bit later.  We think that this could work quite well.  Over spring break he has been taking a morning nap, a nap after lunch, one late afternoon and then going to bed around 8ish.  His naps aren't really that long and that is why it is okay to have 3 naps.  (Little does this kid know...he is living the life!!)

In addition to our sleep issues, we have been trying to figure out his pooping issues.  With help from his doctor, we learned about apple-prune juice and we have adjusted his food.  Things are MUCH better now.  (And yes, I know that someday my son will be mortified that I share so much with you!)

This has been a week of adjustments for our little guy but so far all three of us are surviving our spring break week!

What a fun surprise!

Tonight as I was relaxing on my squishy, purple couch enjoying a DIY show on HGTV and skimming Facebook, I stumbled upon a fun little article.  I follow a site called http://www.detroitmommies.com/.  They had an article about traveling with an infant.  I was intrigued since we will soon be traveling with an infant to Florida.  I did pick up a few tips...but that is not what made my day.  At the bottom of the article was a small bio about the author.  She just happens to also be a first time mom to a son that was born last summer.  But to top it all off...she is an ADOPTIVE mom!!  So immediately I went to check out her blog that she writes about her adoption journey.  She and I have so many similiarities.  I wish she was my neighbor!  We would have so much to talk about!  It was so refreshing to find someone else out there who is so excited to share their adoption journey as we are.  In the past hour, I have read her entire blog...so great! Check it out if you want...she writes so much better than I do.  http://www.openheartsopenminds.blogspot.com/.  She also has two children books coming out.  One just came out to purchase in December.  It is called Wally One Sock about a boy who always seems to be missing a sock.  What other little boy do we know that always seems to be missing a sock or two?

All in all, a delightful surprise to my evening.

Happy Easter!

Gus in the Grass

Gus played for the first time in the grass while at Gramma's for Easter.  He wasn't bothered at all by the weird feeling of the grass, which surprised me.

He even found an old leaf to eat.  Bleack!!

Gus goes to the Farm

For years I have seen friends and relatives have their kids pictures taken with live bunnies.  I was hoping to do that with Gus this year.  Unfortunately, the places that offered the bunnies around us were filling up fast and quite honestly...didn't fit into our busy schedule.  Kinda bummed me out.  I even asked my parents to search for live bunnies to borrow so that we could take a picture at their house with them.  No luck.  While at my parents house for Easter weekend, it was suggested that see if there were any baby "chicks" available to take pictures with.  After calling my Uncle Tom, we were off to the Otto Turkey Farm to see the two week old baby turkeys!

Gus and 2500+ baby turkeys!

I think the feelings about each other were mutual.  Neither the turkeys or Gus knew what to think of each other.

Gus was not sure at all about the big turkeys...they were taller than him!

Gus was intrigued my the feather Gramma found until he tried to put it in his mouth and Daddy took it away.

Curious Gus

Gus is into EVERYTHING!!  We are constantly chasing him...and I love it!  I will admit that we were a little behind on the baby proofing but I think that we are getting there...which is good since he is a speedy little monkey.  We are looking forward to Spring Break to really do a better job of baby proofing.  I'm thinking it would be easier just to keep him in a bubble...that way he will be safe.  Since that doesn't seem like a great option, we will just have to be right next to him all the time when he is free roaming or resort to using the pack n play.  He is fun to watch while he is playing in his pack n play.  I love when he stands up and you can see from just his nose up above the edge.  Or when he crouches down to peer at us through the mesh below.  Too cute!  I love watching how curious he is and how he can't stop looking at his surroundings.  Even when we are carrying him, he wrenches his body around so that he can see where we are headed as opposed to where we have been.  I love my son's optimistic view on the world!!

What a day!

Well, I have only been home with my little munchkin for about two and a half hours.  Since then I have been chewed on and drooled on.  The little angel dumped his bottle on me which happened to be leaking.  He spit out baby food (carrots) at me and it got into my hair.  His stinky diaper seeped out of it's barrier onto my lap and to top it all off, I got peed on when I changed him.  What else can happen in the next few hours?!?  I'm exhausted....whew....

Gus' mom

This weekend was a lot of fun!  On Friday night, Joel and I had the opportunity to talk about our adoption experience and our little Gus-Gus.  Bethany Christian Services, the agency we went through for our adoption, asked us to represent their Domestic Infant Adoption program.  And we couldn't be more proud that they picked us!!  We spoke in front of a group of about 200 people.  We were originally told there would be about 300 people.  I'm glad that they didn't all show up.  :) We brought Gus with us and even had some babysitters come meet us there to keep him occupied during the time that we were speaking.  Many people came up to talk to us and to meet Gus afterwards.  I never would have imagined that we would have done something like this but we had a great time!  (We also found out that we are now able to apply for our second adoption any time.  Joel has had to hold me back and remind me that we aren't ready yet.  But someday soon we will be.)  On Tuesday, Joel and I will be speaking again to another group.  This time we will be speaking to a group of social work students.  Should be another good time.

To top everything off this weekend, Gus caught me off guard when he said, "mommommommommommommommommomma".  The most amazing thing that I could ever hear!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Sledding!!

Finally got to play in the sled that Gramma and Papa got me for Christmas!

FINALLY!!!

Our adoption is FINALLY finalized!!!  We have waited 8 months for this and it finally arrived!  Can't believe that we made it!

Moving around

Gus has learned to pull himself up and we fear that walking is not far off.  He really likes to pull himself up on his music table and create a bunch of noise!!

8 months!!

This 8 month old would like to chew on the paper that his daddy is holding up.

No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed!!

Well, we had the first of I'm sure many scary events in Gus' life.  We made our first trip to the emergency room for him.  Gus and I were upstairs in my room and unfortunately he got away from me too quickly and took a nose dive off the bed onto his head!!  I spoke with the pediatrician and she said that we should keep and eye on him and gave us signs to look for.  One of those signs was vomit.  About 15 minutes after I hung up with the doctor, Gus started to throw up.  So off to the ER we went.  The monitored him and checked him out.  They even gave him a popscicle...his first.  They sent us on our way and told us to wake him up every two hours throughout the night to check on him.  We'll just put it this way...he is one angry little man when you wake him up.

Gus' chunky little ankle sporting his hospital bracelet.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Our little Cupid!!

Ready for the Race

We took a couple of kids to an indoor track meet on Saturday.  This was Gus' first track meet and he was dressed instyle with his track jacket and running shoes on.

Oh crap....

....literally.  It finally happened...my son pooped on the carpet in the middle of having his diaper changed. 

I am sure this is one of the many gross things that I will encounter as a mom.  I should probably invest in a carpet cleaner.

On the upside, we went back to the doctor today and Gus got the clean bill of health.  No more bronchiolitis!  I am thrilled about that and thrilled that he doesn't need anymore antibiotics.  The antibiotics did not sit well with our little man.  :(  Yahoo!  No more sickness!