Leia Conquers Walking and Fescue

Leia has been walking around much more recently. She toddles throughout the house showing more balance and determination each time.

I am home now on a permanent basis. I still go into work on retainer once a week to help tie up loose ends. I love being home with Leia. There is a lot of one on one interaction between us and I think it has helped her develop so much during the last few months. Above are some videos and pictures.

Leia in West Virginia

We have been in WV for the last few days. Leia has been visiting all of her family here and a few farm yard friends. Pictures above.

Summer Fun

Just some pictures from 4th of July and of the family goofing off around the house.

Fun with Leia.

Over the last few weeks we have seen Leia grow and become more comfortable with her new family. She seems very attached to Nina and I and I cannot help but feel so attached to her. Every day she shows me something new about herself. Gratefully she loves our attention.

My favorite time with her during the day is play time and nap time. When we play we are together on the carpet chasing each other around the house. We play sort of a hide and go seek tag game. She will crawl a way from me for a few feet and then look back with a devilish smile. I will stare at her for a few seconds still as rock. Then quickly I bounce up and crawl after her. This sends Leia into a fit of laughter as I chase her around the table on all fours. Other times I will hide behind an object like her crib and just peer at her with my eyes before disappearing behind the corner. She will quickly giggle and begin to follow me. Sometimes she will see through my plan and do a U-turn to cut me off at the pass. What fun!!!

Nap time is great because we just sit in the rocking chair while she lies on my stomach. I will sing to her the Intsy Wintsy spider song and an old Scottish ballad. As she drifts off to sleep I will hum the tune and then slowly stop. Either I will fall asleep with her or I will plop her into the crib.

Lately we have been going to the pool. She is a real water baby. I cannot wait until she learns how to swim and we can do some snorkeling.

Below are some videos from today's event.

Jesse

One small step for Leia.......

Leia is doing very well. We came back from Richmond yesterday after seeing the doctor who is also a specialist in international adoption. She gave us an evaluation on her health and a second specialist evaluated Leia in relation to none-adopted babies. Physically she is doing fairly well. She is slightly underweight so the doctor recommended we put more food into her belly. And we thought we were stuffing her already. Remember when Garfield would eat so much lasagna his feet could not touch the ground. Leia almost seems to have the same type of belly. She could out compete your typical NFL watching couch potato in belly size.


Milestones wise she is close behind what would be considered normal. Our doctor commented that she seems very well attached to both of us. I guess all of that time rolling around with her on the floor paid off. She is a very physical baby and shows a lot of spunk. I hope she wants to do Ju-Jitsu like her dad because she will be a terror on the mat. She still says Da-Da a lot. Da-Da is me one minute or the remote control the next followed by a cucumber sitting on my plate. Eventually she will learn that I am much more cuddly then a vegetable.


Tomorrow Nina and I plan on taking a big trip out to the farmers market to buy some vegetables and fruit. It is hard to by organic food around here so hopefully the farmers market will have a better selection.


We hope to unveil Leia to the general public on Fourth of July. We think she is ready to see more of her family and in slightly larger numbers. Until then. Below is a video of Leia's first attempts at walking. We hope she leaping over horse jumps by the end of June. We will keep our fingers crossed.

A Typical Day In The Bellavance Family - Nina's Post

Today was CLASSIC. i go to town for my Dr apt in the am, meet Jesse and baby in Fred town afterwards for a stroller ride around town. baby is feeling insecure and wants to be held NOT pushed in a stroller. We feed her, hang out have iced tea from Hyperion and then go to head home. She's never ridden in my car, in my car's car seat. So she started crying the moment we started off. I drove about 20 feet before being pulled over by a cop!!! Only place in busy city street to pull aside was in spot right next to some guys pressure washing the front of a building. UGH, so baby red faced tears streaming, sweat beads all over her head, pressure washer on my left and cop behind me. Turns out my plates expired in February. OOPS. Cop writes ticket, baby still melting down. I call Jesse on my cell since he's only a block away (he was at a store where I had dropped my wallet retrieving said item for me.....motherhood WILL Kill your braincells and you will do stupid things like give baby your wallet to distract her while you pay for a purchase and when she drops the wallet you will forget to pick it up because she will cry at the very instant your brain says "pick up wallet" and that message gets overwritten with "must calm baby down" so you forget to pick up the wallet) Some time in all of this ticket writing mess I am sitting in the back seat of the car with the baby trying to calm her down. I realize that since the windows were down and the pressure wash spray was coming in the car that it might be a good idea to crank the AC an roll up the windows. So I fumble with the door to get out. In the process my iPhone slips from my lap, and gets crushed in the car door. It decided to die on me. Oh well, who cares right? I mean what else could go wrong? Right so shortly after the iPhones death Jesse shows up, rescues Leia from the car seat of DOOM and she calms down the instant shes in his arms. Cop finishes writing me the ticket (80 some bucks cha ching expensive day in Fred Town...that will teach us country folk to stay out of the big city!)) Jesse takes Leia home (she likes his car seat) I drive to city hall 2 blocks away and park and pay my registration fee. Cop is behind me says that he will call the judge and tell him to waive the fee IF I show up for my court date. Visions of Leia in the car seat earlier surface in my tired brain and I say "Thanks but I think I'll pay my fine by mail" So here I am unencumbered by baby all of a sudden. I drive to Morton's to pick up the weed-wacker Jesse had dropped off before we went to China. But lol and behold Jesse and Leia are already there. As I pull up Jesse is walking out of the store with the weedwacker in one hand, baby tucked under the other arm. I love this man really I do, but there is NO ROOM for a weed wacker and a Baby in his tiny Subaru Forester. So I convince him that it is best for ME to take the weedwacker home. (I think he was going to place it in the front seat and out the sunroof. But the image made me think that Leia could possibly get bonked in the head during any phase of this weed wacker transportation mission). So once again my spouse and baby head off for home and I go to the ATT store and find out what they can do for my phone. Which turns out to be NADA In some miraculous twist of fate the things TURNS ON and actually works. Wow. So my phone works for now,it's weird, before when I smashed it in the car it was a bit confused about what it's purpose in life was, but now it seems to act like an iPhone again so I am relieved that I won't be spending the big bucks to get a new one.WHEW, what a day!

Nina B

12 Hours of Sleep = Nice

For the last few days Leia has been sleeping a fairly consistent 12 hours a night. Her schedule is to go to bed at 7:30 PM and wake up at around 7:00 AM. Six days ago it was chaotic as she was in China time and adjusting to Eastern Standard Time.

We sort of have her on a schedule now. Up at 7:00 AM, feed, play on the floor for a few hours, nap, feed, play for a few hours or take a stroll at the park, feed, play, and then sleep. It has been fun so far. Every day we see something new come out of her.

Today she showed some courage by playing in a big empty cardboard box with me. We laughed inside together. Later we went to Nina's barn where she flipped out when the very nice yellow lab came close to her. It takes time of course.

She is really the guiding star in my life now and I love seeing the small changes and steps forward she makes.

Jesse