But with good reason. For those of you not in the Portland area, we’re having a bit of a snow issue here and we’ve barely been out of the house for a week. Last Sunday we got about a 7 inches of snow and that finally melted on Friday. Unfortunately, we got another foot yesterday and that isn’t going anywhere for a while. Check out the pics on Flickr to get the details. It’s hard to tell from the pics but let’s just say the snow drift on our back deck is 30″ high. We’re going to try and get the picture uploads caught up since we suddenly have SCADS of time on our hands. That is assuming we keep power tonight. Freezing snow and high winds in the forecast so we’re hunkered down and hoping we don’t have to eat PB&J for dinner!

Happy Holidays!

Hard to believe it but Miss Mia is already 3 months old. She makes us laugh each day for new reasons but if we’re honest, mostly it’s her hair. She is “talking” constantly and cackles at our goofy faces. We’ve had a few sleepless nights but mostly she crashes out for 6 or more hours a night and for that, we are thankful!

Mia finally learned the subtle art of turning over. It seemed to happen in a couple of days and she’s still working out the details. Sometimes she just gets stuck on her side and decides that’s close enough. We have to pay close attention at all times so Dixie doesn’t take the opportunity to give her a full face kiss. Well, that or steal Mia’s pacifier… We’ve lost a few pacifiers over the last month thanks to Dixie (see photos for proof.)

Yesterday, we took Mia to Sears for the obligatory photo shoot because we wanted to get pictures of her hair in full height. Of course, her hair didn’t cooperate so the pics make her look like she’s been on the ski slope for a few hours. One of the pics we’ve named “Sven, the ski instructor” for just this reason. Mia was extremely patient with the crazy lady who kept trying to get her to smile – which she flatly refused to do. Between the giant flashes of light in her face and Jillian holding her upright by the back of her sweater, Mia was pretty much over the whole process after an hour – as were we.

All in all, it’s been a beautiful month. We spent a weekend in Bend after visiting Nika and her family in Eugene for a couple of hours. The drive to Bend was, shall we say, noisy. I don’t know which was worse when trying to navigate the winding mountain pass roads – Mia crying or Jillian singing to her. The best I can say about that drive was that Jill finally learned all of the lyrics to “Itsy bitsy spider.” The weekend was wonderful and we got to get away for a few hours while Jill’s parents watched Mia.  I have to say, Oregon is underrated in the list of “Places to See Beautiful Fall Colors.”

That’s all for now. We really are trying to keep the pics updated but hear (often!) that we need to get them posted faster. So, we’ll do our best to keep you updated as time permits.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, YO!

This weekend we made the big leap to getting Mia to sleep in her crib. We thought “OK. She’s 2 months and doing great holding her head steady and lifting it up” so she’s ready to move to the “big girl” bed. Besides, we have this lovely nursery all ready for Mia and the only one hanging out in there is Pico the cat.

• We got everything ready and set up the baby monitor supreme with video and night vision and anti-boogyman shield.
• We purchased the obligatory crib mobile with laser light show (Pink Floyd option not available, sadly) and I managed to get that sucker put together. Side note: it took me 20 minutes to figure out how to get the stuff out of the packaging and 15 minutes to put it together. A whole roll of packing tape for one box?
• We have oodles of hip songs turned into lullaby versions by people with no sense of humor – except the AC/DC rendition CD. Another side note: They have this series for a lot of artists including Nine Inch Nails… Really? “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” as a lullaby is one thing but “Head Like a Hole?” Even I have limits.

We were prepared. We were expecting a fight and wanted to make sure we had plenty of ammunition. And then the first nap came around on Saturday…
She was out like a light and slept for 3 hours. No trauma. No crying. No nothing. We put her down in the crib and she did a couple of Maggie Simpson impersonations and she was zonked. Very anti-climactic.

We did learn a couple of things we will pass on:

1. Crib mobiles – especially one that projects a light show – is like baby cocaine. Turn it on and watch her eyes pop open and stare for hours. Note to self: Turn off mobile.
2. If you have a cat that is addicted to chewing power cords, speaker wires or anything that even holds the possibility of jolting said cat with bursts of pure electrical charge, buy extra cord covers. Nothing wakes you up faster than having to splice the power cord to the baby monitor back together at 10 PM. Pico is fine if you ignore the glow coming from her ears and the patch of missing fur. She’s a moving night light but otherwise the same.

Click on the “more photos” link to see a few shots from our Family Baby Shower in August!

But we haven’t had much spare time, as you can imagine. The quick update is our new nanny started last week and she’s wonderful! She reads to Mia and they dance and generally have a good time. Miss Mia has discovered her laugh and she laughs quite a bit. She seems to find it hilarious when I stick my tongue out at her. Go figure. She’s starting to really reach for things – mostly Jill’s hair – and her own hair has NOT stopped growing. At this rate, she’ll have a full mullet by the time she’s 6 months…


We went to the Open Adoption and Family Services picnic this weekend where we were supposed to meet Tonika and her family but things didn’t work out. Jill and I stayed for an hour and got to see our original counselor – Gillian. She didn’t even know we had Mia since she left before we were selected. The picture below is from the picnic and I think does a lovely job of showing off the jaunty smile, double chin and voluminous hair. Let’s just say that the first thing out of every persons’ mouth when they see her is:


“OH MY GOD! LOOK AT ALL THAT HAIR!” Enough said.