Last weekend was the double whammy of Hilary's birthday and Mother's Day. I wasn't going to make time to write a new post with all that action going on. We bought her a casting kit so we can make a plaster cast of Marianas foot or hand as a keepsake. Pictures are nice but it would be cool to have a handful of that chunkiness preserved in 3-D. We had a visit today from Dina, the amiable social worker we worked with to do our home study for the adoption. 

She had to do the 3 month follow up to make sure Mariana wasn't living in squalor with festering wounds since being brought to Brooklyn. She found the child as happy as ever, making her parents proud by playing comfortably and eating all her food without a fuss. Afterwards we went to my office where she was received like rock star. We holed up in my workshop and my colleagues filed in to kiss her feet. Actually that's what my boss did. Who wouldn't?! They're irresistible. 

Then we went to lunch as a family. It brought back memories of the Halifax Hotel, us sitting together and eating lunch - albeit with tastier burgers this time. We don't do that now. We're lucky if 2 of us at a time are together for a meal. I hope some day we figure out all that. 

Below is a picture of Morgan and Mariana at Hilary's b-day gathering. Mariana is sporting the awesome outfit that Talia made especially for her. She rocks any outfit but this is just over the top.

adjustments

Did I mention that I was busy? Having a kid leaves precious little time for personal hobbies, not to mention doing all the little things around the house like cleaning, sleeping etc. We can't just lounge around all day on the weekend anymore. This is not news to anyone with kids, or to us for that matter, just sort of the way it is right now. I have not yet learned how to manage my time to fit in stuff like exercise, writing, or house projects, not to mention thank you cards. Hilary has been working on them but as of yet we have not sent any yet. 

My work is driving me nuts. Just having to work at all kind of sucks, especially after 6 weeks off. Adjusting to this new schedule of seeing Mariana only 2 hrs a day and on the weekends has been much more difficult 

than I anticipated.

 Staying an hour late was no big deal before, the norm even. Now it means I don't see her at all before her bedtime. It's torturous to be there any longer than necessary and we have not even been all that busy yet. 

Just look at how damn cute Mariana is and you'll realize how she can make the stress melt away. She is such a good baby. We are incredibly lucky. We find ourselves saying this a lot and wondering how we would handle having a baby that was very fussy. Would it matter? Would you love them just the same and just deal with it? yeah, of course...

This video is from Hilary's afternoon in the park with our friends Rachel, Malchus and their twin daughters. I think Hilary is adjusting very well to her new (and temporary?) role as stay at home Mom. It helps that the weather has been so nice and that she has been able to hook up with friends a lot. 

The picture at he top shows Mariana enjoying her first taste of chocolate sorbet. Hilary drew a Van Dyke moustache on her face in chocolate. Nice Mom, nice.              

Latest accomplishments for Mariana: peekaboo, crawling (backwards a few steps today) saying Dada (ok, maybe a stretch but I heard what I heard ok?!) eating more and more solids - this week: avocados, bananas with yogurt, cheerios, and sweet potatoes. She also seems to know the word kiki for cat.