A hodge-podge

First, here's Z in her other pair of new glasses:

She's already scratched the lens on one pair -- she took a header on the driveway this morning and landed smack on her face. There wasn't much crying, but she did scratch the glasses and got a big raspberry on her forehead. I guess it's a good thing we didn't spend a whole bunch of $$ on the glasses.

Today I went shopping with Flynn's mom here. If you live anywhere near Denver and haven't been there yet, you should really go. It's the best kids' consignment shop EVER. But I want you to know that I exercised some pretty remarkable restraint today. There were at least half a dozen things I desperately wanted to buy (oh, the dresses! the floral print pants with the sequins! the skirt with the hot pink tulle ruffle around the bottom!), but all I walked away with was something we actually needed -- a pair of shorty pajamas for Z. Hanna Anderssen PJs, in perfect, like-new condition, for $12! You can't beat that with a stick, as my Grammy used to say.

Bonding & attachment blah blah blah

This stuff all sounds like a breeze when you're taking those classes and reading the books, even a little hokey sometimes, but I have to tell you: the real thing is so much harder than I thought it would be. However, Z and I have reached a nice attachment milestone in the past week or so that's really sweet: she's been holding on to me when I hold her. She's always been happy to be carried, and in the last month has come to me with her arms out, wanting to be held. But she hasn't held me back until recently. This is a big step for her!

B has also been doing better. I alluded to his struggles a couple weeks ago, but never really went into it. It's sometimes hard for me to decide if writing about that kind of stuff is valuable enough to my handful of prospective adoptive parent readers to risk violating his privacy, and I've been on the fence about this particular case. I'll just keep it brief. He's had the usual difficulties of a new sibling -- acting out, abusing the younger kid on occasion, jealousy over sharing toys, etc. The hardest part has been bedtime though. He's been a champion sleeper ever since I read and implemented the "No Cry Sleep Solution" when he was about six months old. If you have a baby who doesn't sleep well, buy this book!! It saved our lives, I swear. Anyway, starting about a month ago, he began to seriously freak out at bedtime. Crying that he was afraid of his room, getting out of bed and coming into our room a bazillion times before going to sleep, even screaming hissy fits on a nightly basis for a couple of weeks. We did everything we could think of. We checked every nook & cranny of his room with him before putting him to bed to make sure it was safe. We left his door wide open. We spent extra time snuggling after books -- and I'm talking a LOT of extra time, not just a few minutes. We even let him stay up late and read books in bed a few times. All to no avail. Then all of a sudden, three nights ago, he was done with all that. Now he still gets some extra time at bedtime (nice for him and for us), but goes to sleep quietly without all the drama. Oh boy, I hope I didn't just jinx us by typing that. If we have a bad night, I may have to come back in the morning and delete what I just wrote.

Why no photos of the handsome B?

There haven't been a lot of photos of B in the past few posts because he's been a little camera-shy. I'll try to sneak some tomorrow. He's also been behind the camera again. Behold his latests masterpieces:

Z gets glasses; M gets silly

Here is the first of two pairs of glasses Miss Z got today:

It was really hard to find glasses that fit her & looked good. All the frames made for kids her age looked ridiculous on her. Her face shape is so round -- or maybe it's square? -- anyway, they sort of just sat there in the middle of her face. She looked like a little owl. Most of the frames for bigger kids were too big for her face (these are a tiny bit big, but won't be for very long at the rate she's growing). And anything light-colored really didn't look good on her. They just sort of disappeared into her face. These two pairs (I'm saving the second pair for tomorrow) were really the ONLY two I liked.

Now if we could just figure out a way to keep them on her. Even with the special ear pieces that loop almost all the way around her ear, she rips them off every time I look away, or even if I merely blink. I'm especially worried about keeping them on her at preschool, since that's the place she's really most likely to do something to hurt her eye. If anyone knows any magic tricks for keeping glasses on an 18 month-old, let me know! Duct tape? Staples, maybe?

While B & I were walking around the block last night (which took nearly an hour, partly because I was barefoot, and partly because we kept stopping to talk to neighbors), M and Z seized the digital and took a self-portrait:

I must say, I'm a tiny bit jealous that Z can wear bright orange and lime green so well. She really looks stunning in both. I, on the other hand, would look either orange or lime green in these two outfits.

PS - Thank you Nana!

Send me suggestions: Glasses for Z

So Miss Z needs to get glasses. I think we should go rectangular, oblong shaped frames; M favors rounder and horn-rimmed frames. So please, do us a favor, and tell us your opinion. Find some frames for Z! What shape do you think would look best? Leave me a URL with a photo of your #1 pick in the comments, or send me an email.

Here's a good head-on shot of Z, to remind you of her face shape.

Visit from a friend

Z and I had company today. Drop by her blog to check out the great pictures.

At least she won't be naked

We have some friends who have a son that's less than a year older than B, and a daughter who turned 3 over the summer, so will be 1-2 years older than ours. They've always given us their son's hand-me-downs for B, and this fall they gave us a ton of their daughter's outgrown clothes too. They buy great clothes for their kids, and even passed on some girl stuff that still has the tags on it! This is what they sent over:

The green tub on the bottom is all 0-12 months, so a lot of it is likely to be too small for our little girl. That's too bad, because there is a LOT of really cute stuff in there! The next one is all 12-18 months, and the top one is all 18-24 months and 2T. There's more that's come since I took the picture, mostly 2T and 3T.

And not pictured here is the stuff my mom and I have already bought. It would probably add up to one more tub, mostly 2T and 3T.

Like I said, we may not know when she'll get here, but at least we know she will never have to go naked for lack of cute girly clothes!

And if you look down at the very bottom of the photo, that little black blur is Lulu, the evil kitty. Kitten is the sweet one.

The cuteness is killing me!

I may have a problem. An intervention may be in order. Someone stop me!!! I can't stop buying girl clothes. And my mom's just as bad. AND some friends are giving us boxes and boxes of hand-me-downs tomorrow, and their little girl is always beautifully dressed, so I'm sure it will be wonderful stuff. This little girl is going to be able to wear a different outfit every day, and always be dressed to kill.

I'm not just shopping like a madwoman; I do have a strategy. First of all, it has to be so cute I just can't stand it. I try to convince myself not to buy it: "C'mon. You know they'll still be making stuff this cute when the JellyBelly actually gets here." If that doesn't work, then I'll buy it, but only if it's at last half-off. And I usually buy a 2T (although I've started buying a few 3T things lately, like the darling yellow top below). That way, I am reasonably certain it won't be too small, and the season doesn't matter much since kids generally wear that size for most of a year at least (the Bee is still wearing some 2Ts at age 3.5). So you see, it's not totally crazy.

My latest purchase, off the super-duper sale racks at Nieman Marcus Last Call:

Some of my other favorites:

You can't really tell from the picture, but this one is a little cotton peacoat:

Sigh. Now if only I had my little girl to dress up in all this finery. Soon, but not soon enough.