Merry 1st Christmas

It's early in the morning and I was awoken by something on our rooftop!!! Santa must be here to deliver our presents--and I forgot to leave cookies out (complete rookie mistake) and so hopefully Santa will eat some of our bananas instead. We are celebrating here at home, and Wes will be cooking prime rib complete with all the trimmings. Our holiday music will be playing and we're due to open our presents first thing this morning. We are also in the process of madly doing laundry and packing for our trip to Bakersfield tomorrow morning. We will be with tons of family up there to extend our Christmas Celebrations to include Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Grandparents and Great Grandparents! We thought for sure Seanna might wake up with her "two front teeth" so we will have to wait and see!!

We wish all of you a Very Merry Christmas and hope that Santa brings you everything you've asked for--Wes and I are very blessed to have Seanna in our lives as well as all of you. We could not ask for a better Christmas Present this year and always!

PS Seanna has photos for all of you too, but I have not had a chance to get them mailed so I will probably have Wes drop them off to Lynn (sorry about that...)

Love to all, Wes, Heather, Seanna and Axel

Whew-it's been a long week!

I have to say, this has definitely been one of our most challenging weeks to date as Seanna really isn't feeling very well with her new teeth coming in (hopefully very soon). She is chewing on everything and anything, is having challenges drinking bottles and sleeping and generally, in her own little way, saying she does not feel very well. We did manage to slip in some fun holiday events though when she was feeling up for it! Earlier in th week, we were invited to High Tea with some of our friends and we enjoyed a storyteller (Seanna and I were sitting on the floor listening until she got so excited that she started interupting the storyteller in her very loud voice--I have to say it was hillarious! We went to the back of the room, but she still loved hearing the story and then we sang Christmas Carols and she loved that even more). She also met Santa Claus for the first time today and we met some other friends out and about and enjoyed a very beautiful fall/winter like day before the big rains come into town. She also decided that my folded pile of laudry looked like something that she wanted to dive into yesterday, so I've included the photo of her playing in what had been my folded pile of laundry. She is getting really close to crawling and does more of an army crawl with a dive to move forward and if that doesn't work, she rolls to her desired destination. You can't turn your back on her for a second as she will be off to the races before you know it. Hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season and we wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

So Many Changes!

Wes, Seanna, Axel and I all celebrated Thanksgiving at home this year, for the first time in a very long time! We normally head up to Pismo Beach to spend Thanksgiving with family, but Wes was on call this year and we decided to cook our own dinner at home. After so many years of not cooking the meal, Wes and I were a little rusty, but laughed alot and had a wonderful turn out afterwards. Seanna surprised us all that morning as she found her voice and started hooting and hollering from the moment that we got her out of her crib. She was excited for Thanksgiving too and she made it an extra special one with all of her input!!

The following day, Wes and I celebrated our (10) year anniversary--it's hard to believe that the time went by so quickly! We enjoyed the day together as a family and went to the park and many walks. Seanna enjoyed the baby swing and Axel just loves going to his old parks where we took him as a puppy.

On Sunday, we had a wonderful visit with all of Seanna's Birth family members at a local spot up in Fountain Valley. Everyone was there and we all sat around and enjoyed all of her changes over the last few months. She's already grown 5 1/2 inches and is getting ready to crawl as of the last few days. She is able to push herself up on her knees and is "scooching" forward--she can't believe this new and exciting activity that she has discovered. I believe our lives are about to become alot busier!! :)

Speaking of busier, I have been in full holiday mode trying to get ready for the season that is coming upon us so quickly! We have decorated the house with lots of lights and pointsettas in celebration of Seanna's first Christmas and getting presents wrapped and stockings hung!

Hope everyone is doing well and hugs and kisses to all...

Oh my goodness!

We had Seanna's 4 month doctor appt today (yes she did receive her shots and was very upset, but handled them very well)... The doctor is absolutely amazed by her developmental progress and her growth! She weighed in at 15lbs 14 oz, which is the 75% for her age and is 26.5 inches long, which is off the charts for a child her height! She is super agile and can move so quickly you can barely turn around without her being in a different position. Her legs are extremely strong as well as her arms and her grip. The doctor mentioned that her top teeth seem to possibly be coming in before her bottom teeth, which was news to us as we had been working on helping make the bottom ones feel better.



She is sleeping through the night still in her crib and absolutely loves her room! We also had our final music class this week (it will start back up in January) and the teacher brought out all of the props for the kids to use during class. During one song, she pulled out all of the kitchen pots, pans, colanders etc and I put Seanna inside the colander and tapped the bottom so she could feel the beat of the music throughout her body. The teacher was so excited that she asked one of the ladies to take photos for her of Seanna because she looked so cute!

Enjoy!

"Big Girl Bed"

Ladies and Gentleman (Drum roll here...) Seanna has officially moved into her own room and sleeps all night in her own crib! She wakes up so incredibly proud of herself for sleeping in the "Big Girl Bed" it makes us chuckle every morning. She also figured out how to roll from Point A to Point B last week after she started flipping over from one side to the other, I put her down on the family room floor and started cooking dinner, looked over and she was half way across the floor.

We're sooo happy that last week is over as both Wes and I caught severe bouts of the flu and thank goodness that Seanna did not get sick. We were scared to death that she would catch it, but she must have one strong little immune system! We were both out of commission for several days, but Seanna was a trooper and put up with our lack of energy like a rock star! We're all back to our old selves again and Wes is back to work and super busy this week for it only being a Tuesday. Hope that weekend comes soon!

Love to all...

Happy 1st Halloween!

Seanna has to be one of the cutest ladybugs that I have ever seen! We went to music class on Tuesday in her costume and everyone in the class went crazy over how cute she looked. There were wonderful costumes throughout the class--Sleeping Beauty, Another Ladybug, A "Cars" Kid, etc. Class was a little hectic since the kids were so excited to see all of the costumes, but it was so much fun watching the them run around in their costumes. As you can see from this photo, Seanna has taken to munching on her hands and fingers--and is in the process of teething. This week was a little challenging of a week because she didn't feel very well starting Tuesday during our class. She is still eating very well (as a matter of fact she is very fond of veggies and fruits these days and ate an entire jar of sweet potatoes tonight--the only veggies she refuses to eat are peas!) and seems to be doing a little better as of this afternoon. She has gone back to sleeping through the night, but taking very short naps during the day.

Another "Seannaism" that has been going on the last two weeks, is that we have nicknamed her activity center the "pooping" chair. She will be quite as a mouse and then all of the sudden this horrible smell will come from her direction! :) And once again we know that the pooping chair has worked it's magic on her... She is also starting to use her hands alot now and loves her little floor activity center. The lights and music she uses both her hands and feet to keep the action happening and then she also likes the little Angel that hangs down. She is doing really well on all of her developmental milestones and has officially reached above the 15lb mark. She doesn't seem to be putting on any more weight the last few weeks, but is getting taller and taller by the day. She is already growing out of some 6+ month clothes that we bought for her.

We wish all of you Happy and Safe Halloween!

October Outings!

Wes returned home on Wednesday evening, after being gone five days (three days hunting and two were spent in all day work meetings in Minnesota). I have to say, I was one tired mom at the end of those five days. Thursday morning we had our meeting with the State Social Worker in Monterey Park. We expected to be stuck in some trafffic so we left at 8:30am for our 10:15am meeting (Monterey is apprx 1 hour away from our home). We arrived in the parking lot at exactly 10:20am and sprinted up to our appt--thanks to Wes' alternate route, we were able to actually make it there only a few minutes late vs about 45 minutes more. The meeting went very well and the next step is Seanna's 5 month doctor visit paperwork that will be turned into the state.

Friday morning, Wes planned an outing to Laguna Beach for his two favorites ladies! Seanna got to experience Laguna on one of the most beautiful fall days that we have ever seen... The weather was perfect and very few tourists were in town. We strolled along the beach and ate lunch down at one of our favorite cafes --Sundried Tomato. It was a perfect Friday outing!! On Sunday we all decided that it was time to go to a pumpkin patch and pick out our favorite pumpkin! We had alot of fun watching the kids run around and get excited about Halloween and the fall season that is upon us... We took some photos and really enjoyed the day.

Lots to tell!

Well, I'm finally able to sit down for a few minutes and catch everyone up on what's been going on... Seanna for the last few weeks had returned back to waking up a few times in the evening to feed and Wes and I were slowly becoming exhausted!! We finally spoke to the doctor and decided that it was time for cereal to be introduced... She doesn't actually like it all that much, but she eats about 4-5 spoonfuls per feeding (once in the morning and once in evening). And she has been sleeping through the night since the first day. THANK GOODNESS!

We also had our first music class this week and she absolutely loved it. The teacher is from Russia and it's a very small group of kids and mothers, and the instructor plays in the guitar and brings musical instructments and different interactive toys. It was so cute how the kids reacted to Seanna and she stared at the instructor the entire class! She was incredibly vocal afterwards, which is something that is helped along by the music class... We have another one this week and also heading to San Diego this weekend for a work function.

We took a few photos of Seanna in her swing and thought you might enjoy them! (Especially the Grandmas!)

Love to all...

Shots Oh Noooo!

Yep, Seanna received the dreaded shots yesterday during her 2 month check up and she weathered them well, but boy-oh-boy is she grumpy today (as would anyone else)!! She now is in the 95% for height and weight at 24" tall and 13lbs 6oz! The doctor made sure to tell me that she is going to be a "tall girl"... I'm sure she will be feeling better tomorrow so hopefully we can go for some walks and stuff around the local lake.

Have a great weekend!

Travelling girl!

Seanna had her first flight this week on a Delta flight and did absolutely wonderfully! The fear on the other passengers faces when we sat down was priceless (Wes and I were always THOSE type of travellers too so we recognize the looks easliy)! She LOVED watching the flight attendants work during their beverage services and wanted to see what everyone else was doing on her flight--she didn't sleep the entire trip (both ways) and was too busy to really eat on the way out. She met all of my family members and attended two different parties that were thrown (one for my father's side of the family and one for my mother's side). The second party was interuppted on Sunday with high winds from Hurricane Ike coming through the city which knocked out power during the party and for several days around the area. We thank goodness had access to generators and did some high end camping in my sister's and mother's homes with candles and flashlights. Everyone loved seeing her and she was such a SUPERSTAR the entire trip. She had nothing but smiles for everyone!

Tomorrow is her two month check up with the doctor so we will let you know what she says!

Sleeping Through the Night and Other Big Developments this Week!

Seanna had a big developemental week this week!! After her exiciting hotel visit, she had not slept through the night again until this week--she has now slept four nights in a row through the night and I believe we are over the hurdle of the evening feedings. We head up to bed around 7:30pm each evening (otherwise she gets overstimulated and will stay up past 11pm) and then we play for just about 30 minutes. She normally will drift off to sleep somewhere between 8 to 9 pm and then sleeps until 6 or 7am the following morning with a giant smile on her face! She also started taking 5 ozs per feeding this week and is not spitting up nearly as much as she had been. She also is trying so hard to crawl!! She gets so frustrated that she can't go anywhere, but her little legs are so strong and she is using her hands to pull herself on the mat or carpet or anything else that she can grab onto for leverage. She also is using her hands to swing at her little dangling angel that hangs from her playmat. She wasn't able to do that last week... all in all, she had a pretty big week. On top of it all, we stopped off at the doctor's office to see how much she weighs now and she is 12 lbs and 6 oz! She is doing absolutely awesome on her development milestones for only two months old and is also fitting into 3-6 month clothes now. We have placed an area on the blog to keep track of her developmental progress in case you are interested in seeing her progress.

Road Trip to San Diego!

So last Friday night, we packed up the Tahoe to head to San Diego for Wes' work meeting... It took me almost two days to figure out what Little Ms Sunshine was going to need at the hotel in order to be comfortable, but we finally got packed up and headed down that way. We had (10) empty bottles, dish soap and bottle brushes, all kinds of toiletries for her, many, many pampers and wipes, three bottles of her formula etc. I think her suitcase was bigger than both of ours!! Since this was going to be our first family overnight trip in 7 weeks, so we weren't sure how any of us would do! Of course, Seanna ended up sleeping through the night for the first time ever (and hasn't done it again since), loved the elevators, the hustle and bustle in the lobby and she had alot of fun walking around the downtown area. She is a SUPER traveller and we were so proud of her...

It has been a really hectic week around our house as Wes was sooo busy at work this week so we are very hopeful for a quite weekend. Hope you have a great one too!

Seanna loves the water!

Our house is finally almost back to normal (meaning we had so many visitors it was like Hotel Harding around here :) We are all doing very well and finally had the opportunity to take Seanna for her first swim over this past weekend. We have enclosed photos (this swimsuit was one of her shower gifts) for you to enjoy.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Busy, Busy Bee

Well, our first round of visitors have come and gone and fell head over heels in LOVE with Seanna Grace! She is such a little charmer... Our second round of visitors arrive this week and we also had a baby shower last week too. Seanna received lots of beautiful presents and handled the all attention with lots of charm and grace...

Finally, to top off her big week, she had her 1 month doctor appt today and now weighs 10lbs 13oz and is in the 90% percentile for her height and weight. She has grown 1 and 1/4 inches in one month!! She already has grown out of some of her newborn clothes and is getting close to moving up in pamper sizes too. The doctor just laughed today and said "GOOD FOR HER!" She is SUPER healthy and we plan on keeping it that way!

Hugs to all...

Big Week--First Earthquake and First Wave of Visitors

Seanna experienced her first earthquake yesterday. A 5.4 size to be exact! We were up in the master bedroom and the house did a few quick rolls and she didn't even blink an eye so she is already a pro at handling them... We also have our first waive of family members coming in tomorrow evening. They are so looking forward to meeting Seanna. She is still doing really well on her formula and seems to be growing daily. We were able to take a photo in the outifit that came from the doctor's office this weekend.

No More Newborn Diapers!

Sometime last week, I was feeding Seanna and thought to myself--Wow, she seems like she is getting heavier... Later that evening, Wes was feeding her and said--Wow, I think she is getting heavier!! Of course, I had a good chuckle about this one and stopped off at the doctor's office the next day to see exactly how much weight she had gained--she now is 9lbs and 8oz!! Almost 10 lbs!! She has grown out of her newborn diapers already and we have moved to the next stage of Pampers. Speaking of Pampers, I will NEVER purchase another brand as they have saved us from so many near disasters, we are loyal brand shopper from now on...

Seanna is also becoming very aware of her environment and just today was able to pick her head up 90 degrees for about 10 seconds. It is almost amazing to see how strong she is already with her leg muscles and her upper body strength. She is going to be one strong little girl!!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! We are going to work on getting some rest... :)

Back to work...

It's Thursday and we are finally all settling into a routine now that Wes has gone back to work. We had such a special bonding time that first week and had a tons of fun figuring each other out and of course we were exhausted too. Seanna is doing fantastically and we can not believe how strong she is as she is already trying to lift her head up when she is on her tummy. She loves her tummy time and loves looking at herself in the mirror (any mirror). Her appetite is still wonderful and is starting to take regular naps and has an eating schedule down now. Here are a few more photos from this past week (the one in her car seat we propped her head up with a blanket, just for the photo so we could get the effect of how comfortable she actually was :) and the other was during some tummy time with daddy on the left). Enjoy!

Big First Week!

Seanna arrived at 4:24 on Friday, July 4th, 2008. She weighed in at 8lbs 7.5 oz and 21 inches long... She has had a very busy first week of life as she went home with her adoptive parents on Sunday, July 6th. She had her first doctors visit on Tuesday, July 8th and is resting comfortably in her bassinet now. The doctor's visit went wonderfully and she is a super trooper for handling the visit so well. Wes and I have already been pooped and peed on twice and Seanna is drinking up to 4oz of formula per feeding now! She eats about every 3-4 hours and is trying to still get her daytime and night time hours on schedule. All and all she is one happy and healthy baby and we are so blessed to have her with us.

A Special Bond of Love

A Special Bond of Love
by Karen Ledbetter

A poem of thanks to a birth mother.

Once strangers, not knowing of each other,
God brought us together
To share a special bond of love
With a sweet little girl named Seanna.
You may never understand the pain
Or know the tears I cried.
Our heart's desire was for a child
To nurture, love, and guide.
We may never understand the pain
Or know the tears you cried.
You said good-bye to this precious child,
Entrusting us to nurture, love, and guide.
We see your face in her pretty smile,
And love in her sparkling eyes.
She's the answer to countless prayers,
A blessing to many lives.
No longer strangers,
We share a special bond of love
With a very precious gift From our God above.


© Copyright Karen Ledbetter