Bonding & Sore Backs

The last couple days have been quite magical. After a couple days of adjusting to the new environment, Shaela is starting to understand that we are here to stay. Once she was feeling more secure with her new surroundings, she started to warm up to me. At first it was just allowing me to hold her without crying for Mommy. Then is was playing with her and Debbie, holding her up and flying her to Debbie so she would giggle and laugh. She would smile then reach for Debbie, I would fly her over, then she would pause, then reach for me! (Pure Gold!) This was repeated until both parents arms were too fatigued to continue. Since then she has been smiling at me more, and happy to see me if I have been away for a while.

Shaela was use to having a walker in the orphanage and has not fully learned how to crawl. We are working with this and she is making strides daily. In the mean time, she want to walk and has taken to asking for our hands to assist her in this endeavor. At her height, there is no ergonomically correct way to help her without stressing out our backs.

Here she is exploring a 2 inch step at our house under construction. Step up, Step down, Step up, Step down.


She is even letting me carry her in our Ergo baby carrier. She is much more fun to carry around than the 25 lb sack of rice that I was hiking with to get me ready to carry her.


Here Deb is reading to Shaela to get her ready for bed. She love to read, but doesn't like to go to bed. She has so much to do and see that she can't stand going to bed, and has to go go go until she almost collapses. This also, is getting better. Today she even pushed the bottle away and reached for the crib so she could take an early nap, with out a single cry.

Please ooh and aah over the crib in the background. It is a very nice crib that Nona got for Shaela's room. Last night I was struggling to put it together. It was all quite easy until the last couple steps when I was suppose to screw in the bolts that hold the matress supports in place. The bolts stick out 3/4 inch and the tool to screw them in was 3/4 inch but the space to do all this was a little less than an inch. The instructions begin with "!Warning! Failure to follow these instructions could result in serious Injury or Death." It continues to warn that all screws and bolts should be tightened securely and checked frequently to assure they are secure. I was fumbling, dropping the tools, and my fingers were cramping. After about 1/2 hour of struggling it dawned on me that I could get other tools. I wasn't stuck with the tools in the box, with a mini vise grip the job was quickly completed.

All in all, things are great. We are starting to get into a rhythm of having a baby around. Speaking of rhythm, Shaela is facinated with drums. Enough for now. I am tired and need some sleep.

Love & Blessings, Justin & family.