Michelle Smiles

Teaching my children to question authority, except mine.

The brunch set

April23

We had 2 brunch dates today – yes we double booked.  Miss Sabrina wanted to make sure she was dressed appropriately for the brunch set so she got out her Polo dress (a gift from Aunt Jo-Jo):

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At brunch #2, she was quite pleased to find the newest Baby Einstein activity center available for her perusal.  She gave it 2 thumbs up.

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I don’t usually post photos without permission but this one is dark enough I figure you can’t really tell who is who that clearly.  Just to give you an idea…this was a portion of the attendees for brunch #2 (thanks for Seegal for insisting on the photo despite my grumbling):

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On my way home, 2 young men (maybe 20 years old) passed me on the sidewalk.  The first one looked at his buddy and said “MILF” as I walked by.  I know my feminist ideals should have stopped me in my tracks to inform the young men that objectifying women in that manner is inappropriate and that I would not tolerate it.  Instead, my hot, sweaty, tired, baby-wearing self smiled a little.  Yes, I’m pathetic.

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Random thoughts on Antigua

April22

* There is a commerical on TV showing scorpians crawling all over this woman’s house and her killing them with a spray. I’m having a hard enough time with spiders, mosquitoes and flies – do I really need to worry about this too?

* The mosquitoes and flies are making me a little nutty. I hear the mosquitoes buzzing around my head at night and I am covered in bites. So is poor Sabrina – she has half a dozen on her face.

* I wanted to order pizza tonight but waited until Sabrina was in bed. Who knew the pizza place would be closed at 10pm on Saturday night? The music and firewords are still going so surely I’m not the only one wanting pizza.

* I’m slowly loosening up in my fear of all things food and water here. I’ve only been hit with very very slight intestinal discomfort so I guess my vigilance has paid off up to this point.

* It is so bizarre that any random person on the street feels completely comfortable telling me I am an awful mom because my baby is too hot, too cold, should be wearing a hat, should be wearing shoes, etc. If someone in the states chastized me about one of those issues, I would likely flip them off and walk away (I’m classy like that). But here? I apologize and try to rectify the situation (or pretend I don’t understand).

* Miss Sabrina is working hard on her sitting up skills. Today she sat up for almost a minute by herself – then she realized what she was doing and fell over. Here are some photos of her attempting to sit up today.

dsc01846.JPG Whoa, mom – are you sure you should let go?

dsc01853.JPG Oh yeah, I got this sitting thing down cold.

dsc01865.JPG Hmmm…one of us is starting to lean…

dsc01839.JPG Cool down…that was quite a work out!

dsc01860.JPG Self-portrait for daddy

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Ch-ch-ch-changes

April21

When I go home, I’m not going to live there any more.  Steve accepted a job yesterday afternoon and he will be finding us an apartment in the next couple of weeks.  I will then return home and have to spend some additional time apart from him while I get our house ready to put on the market.  At least that will give friends and family a little bit of time to meet Sabrina before I join him in our new city.  We are moving south – milder winters and good barbeque but still no freaking closer to the ocean (is that so much to ask?!?)  I will share more after we’ve let our friends and family know.

It’s a lot to take in but Steve and I rarely do things small or one at a time.  We bought a house, got married, both started new jobs and got a puppy within less than 60 days.  Then things were quiet for awhile.  Now I’ve moved to Guatemala, we are bringing home our baby soon(ish), I’ve quit my job, Steve is starting a new job and moving us to a new city.  Hopefully that means things will be quiet for awhile other than selling our house and buying a new one next year.

Yesterday was a lovely day.  Seegal and Abby came to visit after their embassy appointment.  They are going home on Tuesday.  Abby was darling in her embassy dress.

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Abby and Sabrina played next to each other rather than with each other dsc01829.JPG

Seegal and I shopped a little (neither of us spent a penny) and stopped in the park to watch a strange but cute little parade

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Then we joined a group that gets together each Friday for dinner.  It was once again nice to hang out with other fostering moms.  Sabrina flirted with a boy and they ended up holding hands.

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I told her no dating until she is 30 or I am dead…whichever comes first.

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Week 2, Day 1

April20

Wow, that was some unflattering video of “his girls”. The only reason I’m not deleting that post is because he is so darn cute.

Sabrina and I are beginning our second week here in Antigua. Life has gotten easier with the addition of water. I also gained warm water in my shower – so yesterday was a banner day for us! Sabrina is a joy in the morning but by 2 or 3 pm turns into velcro baby. I can’t put her down until bedtime and she refuses to go to bed until around 10pm. So that makes for long evenings – and slings don’t count. That’s for lazy mommies. I must be holding her. (For family/friends not involved in adoption – it is recommended that adoptive parents respond immediately to any cries so that the baby learns to trust you and knows you will meet her needs so no I’m not spoiling her – I’m working on our bond/attachment.) She gets very fussy and I get very tired. But we are still adjusting to each other so hopefully after she gets more comfortable she will be able to entertain herself better for short periods in the evening. All in all our initial adjustment period has been easier than I could have hoped.

Yesterday was the first day I did nothing since arriving. We ventured out to get coffee and a piece of cheesecake in the afternoon but otherwise stuck around the house. I wasn’t feeling great and just didn’t feel like going anywhere so I stayed home and marvelled at all of the wonderful water in my kitchen. Today we have friends stopping by, a little shopping to do, it’s triple minutes day for my cell phone so I need to purchase minutes, and then the weekly get together at a local cafe. I know you all stopped by for photos so I’ll share a few.

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This one we’ll break out to show her prom date.

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And don’t let the plethora of walker photos fool you – she will only entertain herself in it for about 15 minutes. Long enough for mommy to fix a bottle, get herself something to drink, snap a photo for her adoring public, and say hi to daddy on IM.

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I’ve expanded her play area to cover most of the living room floor. And don’t let this photo fool you either – she isn’t sleeping, she’s taking a deep breath to pitch a fit because mommy walked away to get her a bottle. She goes from sweetie to pissed in 1.3 seconds. She’s a little firecracker! But she is cute even when she is complaining!

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The Bell and the Chickenbus

April20

Steve here again. I took a few short videos while I was down in Guatemala with my two girls, just to catch some of the sights and sounds. Nothing too exciting, but it at least catches glimpes of my girls and so it makes me happy to watch them.

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Second most beautiful sight in Antigua

April19

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A large quantity of agua pura in my kitchen! WOOHOO! Cheri – you rock sister-friend! 2 big bottles of water = less than $15

future refills of bottles = less than 2 dollars

not having to lug jugs of water through the streets with a baby strapped to you = priceless

Of course this is the most beautiful sight in Antigua – my sleeping girl! (She puts herself on her stomach – I put her on her back.)

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Greetings from Pittsburgh

April19

Hi everyone, the techno-geek husband to the rescue again. Michelle sent me a movie of Sabrina and doesn’t feel like messing around with uploading and posting the video (granted it can be frustrating sometimes). So without further ado..

Getting the lay of the land

April18

I got myself a wonderful cup of coffee and sat for a little bit in central park today. Everyone seems to congregate there. It’s a great place to people watch.

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You can’t really tell in this photo but the water comes from the breasts of the women.

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Cheri is so gracious. She took me around to a variety of grocery stores today so that I could find the specialty stores as well as get a feel for the big grocery store. (B – you offered to help me negotiate the grocery store but I lost your number some how. Thanks for the offer and sorry I never called!) So after 4 stores and 2 hours, I have a base for water jugs (Cheri also helped me get set up with water delivery), some other household items I was looking for and a few groceries.

On the Sabrina front, we’ve had a long evening.  She really doesn’t want to be put down for more than 15 seconds.  The sling only works if we are walking – in the house I must hold her tonight.  I still think her teeth are bothering her – she keeps sucking on everything.  She isn’t eating as much as she was.  She won’t sleep but is tired.  So I am trying to do everything one handed tonight.  She is getting better every day at sitting up on her own.  She can do it on my lap facing toward me but if I put her on the floor she thinks about it and falls over.

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I’m working on it mommy – my posing is getting better too.

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How much personality does this girl have?  Just look at the face!

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And another self-portrait for daddy.  I don’t think she likes to share the limelight because she doesn’t tend to smile for our self portraits.

Self Portrait #2

April17

For Daddy:

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Today was one of those days that it took us 6 hours to get out of the house. It was 2:30 before we were ready to venture out. The only things I accomplished prior to 2:30 were dishes and showering. Go figure.

We visited Seegal, Abby, Vicki and Alena at their gorgeous house and then joined some other families for dinner. It was a nice day/evening but we are both tired. Well I shouldn’t speak for Miss Sabrina. She is going strong in her walker with a bib that has gotten turned around like a cape (appropriately enough it is her baby bee bib for those in the know).

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I hear ya

April16

Okay, okay…sorry for slacking on the photos.  I just feel like they all look the same and only the outfits change.  That and the fact that Miss Sabrina has been pretty much velcro baby so I don’t get to put her down too often and the self portraits can be a little scary.  So here is another fix of cuteness for you all.

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Sabrina likes her books.

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Hey Mom, don’t bug me while I am reading.

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Hey, where did these come from?

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Look Mom, I can roll over without a problem…just need to master the sitting up thing.

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She used to cringe and stop smiling when I brought out the camera.  Strangely, she has turned into a ham.  She smiles huge when she sees it and giggles after the flash.  Then she looks expectantly at the camera and at me waiting for me to snap another photo.  She is too funny.

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