Daddy's Girl

Ever since our trip to Disney World it has become apparent that C is a Daddy's Girl.  Very much a Daddy's girl.  And while part of me knows that it's good for her to have a special bond with her father I also can't help but feel a teensy bit jealous.  Especially because I'm the one spending all day with her, making her food from scratch, keeping her safe from everything she tries to get into, but then Brandon comes home and scoops her up and she literally gives me the Stink Eye while sitting in his lap.  As if to say "NOW I get to go play with the nail clippers and open the trash can and push the buttons on the TV and there's nothing you can do about it!"  When I change her diaper or try to put her down for a nap, she doesn't say "no!" like some kids do.  She says "Daddy".  I hope that eventually I'll get over it and that one day C and I can have a special bond like she does with Brandon but this week I'm just feeling a little down about it.

Vent over.

So C's birthday party is coming up this weekend and I gave her a huge dollop of Cool Whip to practice with.  Cause, you know, if she doesn't like playing with food then her smash cake will be pretty anti-climactic.  What resulted was the funniest picture we have taken of C to date.  Or should I say, Colonel Sanders :)

A Disney Baby

It's been 4 days since we've been back from our Disney trip and I'm already itching to plan another. It was SO SO SO much fun!

I should start at the beginning, before we took our trip.

Brandon's leave request for Disney was rejected weeks ago and we were both fuming about that, mostly because there was nothing going on at his work that warranted his presence.  That and he needs to use up 18 days of leave by next September or he loses it (the military caps the amount of leave you can have at 60 days, after that you just lose it.  They don't pay you for the excess leave you have).  Anyway, Brandon had to work overnight on Wednesday and I was going to leave for my sister's at 3 am on Thursday.  So Tuesday evening he packed up my car, kissed me goodbye the next morning and I ran errands all day to prepare for my departure.  At 5:30 on Wednesday evening he called to tell me that the boat's schedule had changed earlier that day and he was allowed to re-submit his leave request.  I waited around on pins and needles for 3 hours until he called back to say YES!  It was approved!

Which was exciting but also meant unloading the car to re-pack the suitcase with some of his clothes, securing boarding arrangements for the dog and getting someone to stop by our house every few days to pick up all the packages that would be arriving at our doorstep.  We ended up leaving at 10 am for what ended up being one of the WORST road trips I've ever taken.  From now on I think I will avoid I-95 at all costs.

Aside from the long road trips and a catastrophe with my PhotoPass+ card the trip was a huge success.  C was such a trooper.  We spent about 8 hours at Animal Kingdom, and the next day a whopping 13 hours at Magic Kingdom and she never had a meltdown.  She met Minnie, Mickey, Pluto, Pooh, Tigger, Lilo, Stitch, Tinkerbell and Periwinkle and loved all the furry ones.  She wasn't too fond of Tink and Periwinkle so we didn't bother to try and meet any of the princesses and instead focused on rides at Magic Kingdom.  C LOVED the light parade and was mesmerized by the fireworks over the castle. 

Tuesday we had a character breakfast at the Polynesian Resort and spent the rest of the day shopping and hanging out with family.  That evening C opened up her very first present which required a lot of help.  Brandon showed her how to tear off a piece of paper but then she would just sit there and tear the large piece of paper into smaller pieces, completely neglecting the present.  In the end her cousin opened up the rest of her presents for her.

This trip was something we really needed to recharge our batteries.  It was so much fun to see C get excited when meeting some of the characters (especially Minnie) and it's apparent that she's very much a Disney baby. We can't wait to take her back in a few years when she'll be old enough to remember it!
 

 

 

One Year Pictures

Yesterday C had her one year/Christmas pictures done with the same photographer who did her newborn photos, Fresh Life Photography.  I was so looking forward to Laurie getting a shot of C's toothy smile (we've got Tooth #3 in, on the bottom with the others).  Her smiles are so big and her cheeks are so chubby that it looks like her eyes are shut.  So.darn.cute!  But C would have none of that.  Just like always, she hated being the center of attention and cried almost the entire time.

Laurie gave me a sneak peek of her pictures yesterday evening and I'm surprised they turned out so well, though you can tell that C is less than thrilled to be sitting on that sled.  Oh well.  No smiles but those pictures definitely captured C's serious personality! 

Disney Countdown and Other Updates

In 9 short days C and I will be driving to North Carolina and then to Orlando, FL to visit family and spend a few days at Disney World. To say that I'm excited is a complete understatement. I'm also pretty sad, though,because Brandon's leave request was denied and he is unable to come with us.  When I think about it I get pretty bitter, especially when other co-workers of his were allowed time off.  But such is the military life and we can only remind ourselves that we have one more year until we're done with the Navy and back in the civilian life.

But enough of that.  Let's go back to Disney talk!

My sister and I have been reading every website for tips and tricks for our Disney visit.  We discovered things that we never knew Disney offered that we've added to our growing list of things to do and see.  We've "ridden" rides on Youtube to check out what would be appropriate for my 4-year old nephew and for C and crossed things off our list that looked too boring.  Our plan is to visit Animal Kingdom on Sunday December 8th, then ride the monorail around to all the resorts to check out their holiday decorations.  We definitely want to see the giant gingerbread house at the Grand Floridian but Disney's Yacht and Beach Club Resort also had a huge edible carousel.  I bet C's tongue would love to take a swipe at that!  I'm sure it would taste much better than the socks she's been obsessed with for the past two weeks.

On Monday the whole family (12 people in all) will spend the entire day at Magic Kingdom.  Tuesday we will have a character breakfast at the Polynesian Resort where we'll get to hang out with Lilo, Stitch, Mickey and Pluto.  The rest of the day will be spent shopping at Downtown Disney and later that evening we'll do a Disney-themed Secret Santa.  We always do a Secret Santa every year for Christmas but this trip is replacing our normal get-together at my grandparent's house so of course we have to bring the Secret Santa tradition with us.  

C has finally hit that magical sweet spot where she loves people, especially people dressed up in glittery, shiny things.  I don't know how long it will last.  Tomorrow she could wake up and hate strangers again but I really hope that she maintains her bubbly personality throughout our Disney trip, and that she also doesn't catch a cold between now and then.  I am so so SO excited for this trip!!

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C took her first steps last week and Brandon was actually there to witness it.  I had stripped her down to her diaper earlier that day to practice walking and she put one foot forward before dropping to her knees.  That evening I showed Brandon what she had accomplished and she actually took one full step for him!  Brandon had his phone ready to take video but let's face it, husbands suck at taking pictures and video so the only thing we got was a 3-second video that's pretty poor quality.  A couple days later she took another more sturdy step towards me but her walking is random and only when she feels adventurous.  

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C still only has her two bottom teeth which means she isn't doing too well with crunchy table foods, though she tries her hardest.  We we first introduced baby crackers to her she would suck them until they were soft enough to bite.  Now she tries to bite off a chunk immediately but gets this pained look on her face because the hard cracker hurts her top gum.  So now I've taken to wetting her crackers first with a bit of water before giving it to her.  I'm still making her baby food and have been feeding her less of the pouch store-bought food, ever since I heard about the Plum Organics recall and the video that showed baby food with worms in it.  YUCK!!  But I realize that she'll have to eat some pouch food when we go out of town so I'm sticking with Gerber and I plan to taste test her food before giving it to her (I always did that anyway).

In the past two weeks C has tried dill pickles, plain yogurt and scrambled eggs for the first time and all were a big hit, especially the pickles.  Brandon is mourning the fact that he will now have to share his beloved pickles but I assured him that we'll be limiting C to only one baby dill a week due to the sodium content.  Now that C is eating A LOT more solid foods I'm trying to come up with a wider variety of stuff to give her.  Making her baby food is really time consuming (about 2 hours per batch of food which only makes about 10 servings) so I try to only feed her one container of homemade baby food and then give her fresh fruit or veggies for the rest of her meal.    

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For those who are new readers, you should know that before we were matched with C's birthmom we had given up on adoption.  We told our local agency they could keep showing our profile but they only do about 3 matches a year so we never thought we'd be matched through them.  Our main agency that we worked with wanted a new homestudy done and since that cost about $800 we just decided to give up, mostly because we had already waited a year with no match and I had just lost my job.  We decided to put the adoption thing on hold for a few more years and in the meantime we were going to take a trip with my mom to England.  I had booked a few things, including a stay at a castle hotel, and was just a few days away from booking our flights when we got The Call.  Naturally the plans for England were put on hold.

When my father passed I found out that I would be getting a significant inheritance.  Maybe not significant to some people but it's a lot of money to me.  With some of that money I want to take my mom to England, on the vacation that we were supposed to take this past year.  She'll be turning 60 in 2016 and by then C will be 3, the perfect age to introduce her to Jemima Puddle Duck and other Beatrix Potter tales and of course, Alice in Wonderland.  In England we can visit Derwentwater and the garden that inspired Lewis Carroll's famous novel.  With my inheritance I plan to foot the bill for my mom's trip so she doesn't have to worry about coming up with the money to pay for it.  I figured that since my dad didn't have much time with C it's only appropriate that I spend my inheritance money letting her make fond memories with my mom.  The only bad part is that I already created our itinerary last fall so there's nothing left to plan or research.  For me that's half the fun of taking a vacation!  But maybe in the next 2 years some things will need to be redone.

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C's birthday party plans are coming along really well!  I made a pennant for her out of the pages of a book I got from Goodwill and I plan to make one or two more decorations for the party.  We don't think that many guests will come so we're hosting it at our house.  If more people RSVP than I planned then we might have to rent a place to have the party.  Our house is pretty tiny!

Aside from sending out invitations we're also sending little cards to create a time capsule for C.  We hope that lots of people fill out the cards for their wishes for C, even if they're unable to attend the party. 

I will probably be busy for the next few days so I want to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving and I hope you're able to spend it with those you love!

Confessions From an Adoptive Mother

It's been a long time since we've heard from C's birthmom, almost 4 months to be exact.  When we were first matched we were told that M just wanted a semi-open adoption, with letters and pictures coming to her via the agency with no personal information exchanged.  We were perfectly okay with an open adoption, even preferring it, but we totally respected her wishes.  After meeting us for the first time, about 5 weeks before C was born, she told her social worker that she liked us so much that she felt comfortable swapping email addresses in order to keep in touch.  We emailed a lot in the beginning but eventually the contact declined to about once a month and now our emails from her are few and far between.

Some people might see this as a good thing, as M slowly transitions out of our lives and gives us the space to parent C.  Not me.  It makes me incredibly sad.  I want our birthmom to be a part of C's growing up, to witness (even if it's just through pictures) how awesome a kid she made.  I want her and her extended family to feel comfortable sending birthday cards or Christmas presents to C, things that we can keep for her to cherish.

But like infertility, adoption isn't all rainbow dust and unicorn farts.

Some birthparents them don't tell their extended family they're choosing adoption or that they're even pregnant at all.  Some find it too painful to keep in touch with the adoptive parents.  Still others make choices during their pregnancy that you yourself would have never made.  Some of them want more contact after the birth than you feel comfortable with.  Only in a few rare cases does an adoption end up being the perfect dream that one expected and hoped it would be.  The rest of us are re-taught a very valuable lesson that life does not always turn out the way we planned.  I say re-taught because many of us were already taught that lesson during struggles with infertility. 

I think that for the past year I've had a somewhat rosy perception of adoption, thinking that I could have it all.  I had hoped that after meeting M we would be able to keep in touch and even have a close relationship with her and her family, almost like gaining a new set of in-laws.  I dreamed about seeing them during the holidays and attending C's birthday parties.  But that's not the case and the past few weeks I've had a hard time letting go of that dream.  I don't know why M has chosen to distance herself, or if she's even doing it on purpose.  She might just be busy with things and forgets to write, or perhaps she doesn't use the email address that we have for her anymore.  Whatever her reason is, I have to respect that.  I will continue to send emails, birthday cards and Christmas presents until her email address comes back undeliverable or our packages come back with no forwarding address.

But one thing that I will never question is how much M loves C.  I knew that when I found out how much thought she put into her adoption plan and how well she took care of C when she was still growing in her belly.  So every night as I'm rocking C to sleep I whisper in her ear "Mommy loves you."  And one day C will understand that I don't just say it for me.

I say it for M too.

First Trip to the ER and Other Random Updates

This past weekend we took C to the ER for the first (and hopefully last!) time.  She had come down with a bug from being at the daycare center all day on Monday.  First it started out as a very green, snotty nose.  Then she developed a low grade fever, hovering between 100 and 101 degrees (we do underarm temps).  Then Thursday she started to get a tiny rash on her cheeks.  No big deal, she had this last winter and it was nothing more than dry skin.  Friday morning I put some Aquaphor lotion on her cheeks to clear it up.

Saturday morning when I went to get her out of bed I almost died of shock.  C's cheeks were BRIGHT red and the rash had spread upward to parts of her forehead.  She almost looked as though she had suffered second degree burns!  I posted a picture of her on Facebook and some friends said it was food allergies, others said it could be scarlet fever or fifth disease.  C was pretty cranky all day and was losing her appetite a little.  When it looked as though the rash was starting to spread to her neck we decided to take her to the ER.

C's rash.  On the plus side you can see her teeth! (click to enlarge)

In 45 minutes we were in and out.  That had to be some sort of record as far as emergency room visits go!  The doctor said that it was just a rash in response to whatever viral bug C had.  She said that most babies gets rashes with viral infections but as we get older we tend to "outgrow" the rash part.  It's been 3 days since our visit to the ER and C's rash is almost gone.  I guess it was bound to happen: two overly concerned parents taking their kid to the emergency room over nothing.  Ah well.

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This is my 400th published post (415th in all).  Yay me!

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Brandon is getting out of the military in less than 14 months and plans to finish his engineering degree.  So guess who's going to be the bread winner in this family?  You got it...C.  Just kidding, obviously it will be me.  But since I have no hope of making as much as Brandon is making right now and we have NO clue how much health insurance is going to cost us we have decided to sock away a significant amount of savings to help supplement our income for three years.  Hopefully it won't take Brandon 3 full years to finish his degree but we added a little buffer in case it does or in case it takes a while for him to find a job.  Our magic number for savings is $23,000.   That amounts to about $650 per month for 36 months.  At the beginning of October our savings balance was.....$60.  We're now  up to $2,000 so we've got 14 more months to save the remaining $21,000.  Plus a little extra for our trip to Disney World and new tires for both sets of vehicles.  Think it's impossible?  Not for me.  I can sniff out savings better than a pig looking for truffles and Brandon is thisclose to pitching our craptastic DVR out the window and cancelling our cable TV with Comcast.  It's gonna get done.

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I just realized today that almost all of my articles on the sidebar had expired links from when Associated Content was bought out by Yahoo.  So I've spent the past few hours going through old blog posts and checking all my links to make sure everything is up to date.  It's still a work in progress.  If I've linked anything in the past that is now broken please let me know.  I hate to be *that* blogger that has crappy links all over the place.  That and I like to think that people still read older posts from my blog.

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I'm in the process of writing up an article about saving money on Christmas shopping.  I just have one more thing to buy C (a new car seat) and I will be DONE for her Christmas and birthday shopping!  Though I'm woefully behind on planning for her birthday party which is only 2 months away.  I really need to get started on that.  At least I made a Pinterest board.  That's a start!

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Lastly, please stop by Holly's blog and offer up some prayers and positive vibes.  Her water broke at 17 weeks with one of her twins and she's trying desperately to carry them another 42 days until she hits 24 weeks.  She could definitely use as much support from the ALI community as possible! 

Not One But Two.....

Milestones! Teeth! Blog posts in one week!

Yesterday I saw them, two little white dots on the bottom of C's gums.  I couldn't feel anything but decided I would keep an eye on them.  This morning I felt her gums with my finger and felt it!  A sharp little tooth had broken through!  Though it's no more visible than it was yesterday.  I expect its neighbor will arrive any day now.

And now here's a little video of C's other milestone which she accomplished on Tuesday and is now her favorite thing to do.

9 Months and Other Updates

This past Saturday marked C's 9 month...birthday? Whatever it is you call it. A milestone I guess.  Now that she's mobile and thisclose to walking she seems like a happier baby.  Maybe it's because she can physically get away from strangers she doesn't like or maybe it's just because the world doesn't seem so scary now that she's had time to explore more of it.  She's developed some weird obsessions, the latest one being shoelaces.  Particularly my shoelaces.  Other obsessions include: my coffee mug, my coupon book, the bathroom scale and the opening intro music for the Daily Show with John Stewart and The Colbert Report.  C is still eating pureed foods because she still has NO TEETH, even though we might only be days away from seeing the first one.  Of course I said that months ago and we still have NO TEETH.  Still, we may have had a breakthrough in the self-feeding department.  This past week she held a Baby Mum Mum for the first time and stuck it in her mouth.  So far it's been the only thing she'll stick in her mouth, though today we're going to try frozen yogurt drops and see how that goes.  I don't think I'll buy another box of the Baby Mum Mums now that I discovered they were made in China.  Something about baby food made in China just kinda weirds me out a bit.

My sisters and I are still working on my dad's estate which will probably take a while.  We have multiple properties to sell and he didn't exactly take good care of them.  As in, there were no doors to the bathrooms or bedrooms in his house and he had a mild case of hoarding.  But at least that didn't reflect in the legal side of his life because he kept all his paperwork and documents carefully organized.  Thank God!  In a few weeks I plan to go back and visit to help clean up his estate and I know it's going to be a very depressing trip for me.  Because my dad always lived far away it's been easy for me to convince myself that he's not really dead.  However it's hard to avoid that fact when I'm sitting in his house going through his things.

I've toyed around with the idea of shuttering Fearlessly Infertile.  Not because I don't think anyone reads this space but because I don't really have that much to talk about.  At least not things that would count as informative or inspiring or even interesting.  I do love writing and I though about just maintaining my travel blog instead, or starting a Fearlessly Frugal blog.  I'm still debating what to do about this space.

And now for the pictures.  I wanted to wait until I shared these pictures with our birthmom first.  For some reason I just don't feel comfortable posting pictures of C until I've posted them to her share site first.  The Adoption Day pictures were taken by my friend Suzanne from Ginger Snaps Pictures.  I simply love how they turned out and that she was able to Photoshop all the snot off C's face from her terrible cold.   

Happy Adoption Day!

C legally became a member of our family on September 25th! I would have posted about it sooner but she and I both woke up with a cold on the morning of her finalization and we have family members visiting from out of town so things have been a little hectic.  My friend Suzanne attended the finalization and took some family photos which I will post in a couple weeks.  But for now I will flood you with some recent pictures of Ce, now that we're allowed to share them publicly.

Happy Adoption Day Stinkydoodle!

Dreams About My Dad

It's been a long two weeks since my dad passed and not a day goes by that I don't think about him.  Some days I'm sad, other days I'm angry that his life choices caused him to die too young, still other days I have a hard time comprehending that he's really gone.  Lately I've been consumed with worry that I too will meet an untimely death, with no will set up, just like my father did.  I find myself scurrying around to document all sorts of things that need to be taken care of, should I die tomorrow and Brandon be left to take care of things on his own.

A few days after my dad passed away I went back to Paula for another tarot reading.  It was very enlightening and much of what she said came true, but that's a story for another day.  She did mention that my dad would visit me in my dreams and all that week I had the most vivid dreams about him.  Not when he was sick but when he was younger and healthier.  Still, I always awoke and could never remember what the dream was about.  This lead me to wanting to sleep all the time, just so I could see my dad again in my dreams.

Then one day I had a dream about him that I actually remembered.  He had died and my sisters and I were in his house going through his things, trying to sort through all the paperwork that he had left behind (because as I said before, there was no will).  Then my dad comes walking through the door!  He hugged us so tightly and explained that he hadn't really died.  The nurses at the hospital had to stop his heart to perform some procedure and when his heart didn't start again they pronounced him dead.  But he wasn't really dead!  He hugged us so much and told us how sorry he was that we had to go through all this pain.  It was the happiest moment ever, finding out that my dad wasn't dead after all.

And then I woke up.

It took me all of 5 seconds to realize that the elation I felt was just a mirage, that my dad really wasn't back from the dead.  And the sadness I felt after realizing that was so overwhelming, it took days to recover from that dream.

But after the clouds parted I started to think that maybe it wasn't just a dream.  That my dad really was visiting me in my dreams like Paula told me he would and that he was trying to let me know how sorry he was that this was causing us so much pain.

I haven't had another dream about my dad since then.  Maybe it's because he feels like he finally got his message through, I guess I'll never know.  But I will never forget that dream as long as I live, and the joy I felt when my dad hugged me that one last time. 

5 Weeks

It only took 5 weeks from my father's diagnosis to the time he passed away on Monday evening.  5 short weeks.  I am so very glad that we had the opportunity to see him two weeks ago but at the same time I'm incredibly sad that C will never get to grow up with her Pappy.

Fuck cancer.

Fearlessly Frugal Goes Shopping!

My weight loss has slowed considerably in the past 3 weeks (as in none at all. But at least I'm maintaining) but I still have a little non-scale victory to share.  When I started this weight loss journey I was in a size 18 and getting ready to fit into a size 20.  20!!!!!!   I had never ever been that large before and did not want to have to start buying clothes in the next size up.  Since then I've lost 9 pounds and my current clothes are starting to finally feel loose again.  This past week C and I were shopping at Goodwill and I picked up a pair of Sonoma capri jeans, size 16, and they fit!!  They're a little tight but I can still wear them all day and feel comfortable.  I'm super excited about that.

But I still have 12 pounds to go so I don't plan on buying any more clothes until I lose some more weight.  Then I saw this deal that thredUP has.  For every boy, girl or junior clothes purchase you make through September 13th you will get 10% back to use on a purchase for women's clothes!!  Woo hoo!  The deal comes back as a coupon on October 1st so that gives me plenty of time to lose more weight.  For those of you who aren't familiar with thredUP check out my post here.  You can also use this referral link to get $10 off your first purchase.  I do need to start buying C some shoes because she's learned how to stand and is semi-cruising so walking is right around the corner.  I measured her little feet and it appears that she wears a size 3 now so I'm hoping that if I buy her a size 4 then she will be able to wear them this fall/winter.

Tomorrow I need to sit down and figure out a serious plan for losing the rest of my weight.  I need to calculate how many weeks I have left for the Healthywage challenge and adjust my calorie intake to ensure that I lose all the weight by then.  I also need to start exercising more which means just exercising at all!  It's not going to be easy but it will definitely be worth it.  Wish me luck!

The Things We Do As Kids

Childhood is so full of fun, especially from the eyes of a parent. Your kid says the darndest things and you wish you had a book to write them all down in. Well there is such a book.  My Quotable Kid is something I plan on getting for C (or is it really for myself?) when she gets a little older.  But until that day comes I thought I'd share some hilarious things I've said, done and thought as a kid.


When I was very little I would throw temper tantrums by crawling under things.  End tables, kitchen tables, beds, you name it.  Any amount of coaxing would just cause me to stay under there even longer.  My kindergarten teacher called my mom one day to ask her why I was hiding under her desk.  My mom just said "Let her be, she'll come out eventually."  My grandmother recalls the day that I tried to throw a tantrum by crawling under the end table only to discover that I no longer fit.  I completely flipped out.

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My mom and dad split up when I was very young.  I remember when I was about 4 or 5 we flew on a plane to go see him.  This must have been my first plane ride.  I remember my mom explaining to me that we were going to see Daddy and with that information I came to the conclusion that my dad lived in the clouds.

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I remember being convinced that my mom had magical powers because she knew the words to every song on the radio and could magically switch the radio station in the car (I was too short sitting in the back to see her turning the knobs on the radio)

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When I was in grade school I always came home crying because the other kids on the school bus were so much bigger than I was and they would pick on me.  My step-dad got fed up one day and told me that I should pick up a stick and throw it at the next person who makes fun of me.  So I leave and go outside to play.  10 minutes later my sister runs in with a bloody mouth.

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I was about 13 years old and waiting in my mom's car in the driveway to go shopping.  My mom was inside putting around so I decided to snoop through her glove compartment.  I came across a tiny spray bottle that looked interesting.  I decided to test it out.

It was mace.  


What were some hilarious things that you remember doing or saying as a child?

Vacation Recap and Other Updates **UPDATED**

I'm back!!! It was a very busy trip to Pennsylvania and now I'm nursing a cold and sore throat that my sister passed on to me but things are going well.  First I'll start with the vacation recap.

We arrived in PA on Sunday the 4th in the evening and just relaxed in hotel for the night.  My sister and I split the cost of a hotel room and I must say that sharing one room with a teething infant and 4 year old boy is not ideal.  The next day we headed over to my grandmother's house to meet my half-sister and niece (whom I've only met once before) and my dad.  While my dad seemed to be in good spirits, albeit a little tired all the time, he looked ragged.  My 6'2" father was only 155 pounds and bone thin.  Literally, I could feel the back of his ribcage when I hugged him.  It was pretty hard to see.  But we didn't talk much about the cancer and instead chose to focus on spending time together.  He received one round of chemo and is now getting radiation every weekday.  **UPDATE** I spoke with my sister and she said that our dad was told by doctors that he has stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer, which has metastasized to the adrenal glands. He will start chemo back today, along with the radiation treatment he has been receiving over the past 2 weeks.  Unfortunately she has also researched this and found that the average life span of someone with this type of lung cancer is only 8 months.  A 5-year survival rate is less that 10%.

During the week that we were in Pennsylvania we met our great aunt and uncle for breakfast at IHOP where C suddenly decided she was interested in what everyone was eating so we had to placate her with a banana in her mesh feeder.  We also went to the Pittsburgh Steelers training camp and got a few autographs.  Being the Fearlessly Frugal woman I am I had received a free Terrible Towel months ago so I brought that with me and my sisters got 3 autographs on it for me.  I stayed a far distance behind, taking pictures and trying to get C to nap (failed) so eventually I just left and took my dad back home because he was feeling tired.  My sister had purchased Blake a Steelers helmet to get his autographs on which turned out to be a bad idea because he started asking when he could get the autographs off so he could play with it.  Shoulda bought him two, sis!

#7 is quarterback Ben Roethlisberger

The day we were supposed to go to Idlewild Park turned out to be rainy so instead we met our cousin in a nearby town to play Monster Mini Golf.  It's an indoor putt-putt place under black lights with a scary monster theme.  My sister was concerned that Blake would be scared but he was just fine.  C, on the other hand, decided she was hungry mid-game so I had to rush through so I could feed her.

The next day was bright and sunny so we went to Idlewild Park.  It was just as I remembered, as though everything had been frozen in time since I last left!  We started out in Storybook Forest where we met characters from all the traditional stories and nursery rhymes.  C had her portrait drawn at the end and we had a second copy made for our birthmom.

After that we headed over to Mister Roger's Neighborhood trolley ride.  I'm not kidding when I say that nothing changed about this ride!  It was great being able to go through the ride exactly as I remembered it but I do wish they had replaced some of the puppets with better looking ones.  Some of them are downright scary.

King Friday says "Come along, come along, to the Castle Hug-and-Song!"

Shy Daniel Tiger

Then we headed over to the rides.  C was dead asleep when we got to the carousel but because her Pappy was feeling tired and ready to go home we woke her up so she could ride her first ride with him.  She loved it!  Then our group split up, with one half going to the waterpark and the other half going to the kiddie rides.  I went with the kiddie-ride group, though C was too young to ride any of them.  We ended up staying till the park closed that night.  10 hours at an amusement park and C did very well!  Now I'm not so worried about how she will do at Disney World in December.

On the last day of our trip we headed to JCPenney to have a group family photo taken.  Miss Fearlessly Frugal used her military discount to get 7 sitting fees for free and 17 portrait sheets for only $73!  Woo hoo!

Now for the random updates, mostly about C:

• I've been a bit more relaxed about what she eats now.  After the trip to PA and having to feed her things I would never have fed her before (like ice cream and a yeast roll) I've learned that she won't choke on every little thing.  She's begun to reject plain cereal so I mix it with the pouch baby food in the morning and in the evenings she gets homemade baby food.  This week we're trying butternut squash and butternut squash with pears.  I'm also starting to add spices to her food (this week it's ginger).  Next week, because I bought white potatoes on sale, we're going to try mashed potatoes and then mashed potatoes with garlic powder.
• C can now pull herself up to a standing position, but only using items that are short like stairs and boxes.  She did it for the first time yesterday, though she falls over within seconds so someone always has to be there to catch her.  Unfortunately that's ALL she wants to do now!  No more playing with toys, now those toys are just a tool to help her stand.  Needless to say she has been taking quite a few tumbles in the past week.  Also, every time she cries in her crib now it's because she pulled herself into a kneeling position and is too afraid to let go of the edge of the crib so she just sits there and cries...and gnaws on the crib.  She's so quiet about it that we don't even know she's awake so this is how we usually find out.
• Brandon's new job has been working him to the bone and it's really taking a toll on our family.  He works 12 hour days and has to work on the weekends twice a month.  It makes me sad that he only gets to see C for about an hour in the evenings before she goes to bed.  I'd like to go back to work in a couple months but with his schedule it might be too difficult.  We are literally counting down the days until he gets out of the military (482!). 
• I was warned by the agency about not posting public pictures of C online so I took them all down until we complete finalization.  Still waiting on a date for that but we're hoping that it will be sometime in September, maybe even at the end of the month when my grandparents will be visiting.