She is officially ours!

Glory, hallelujah, and praise be to God!  It seems like it has taken forever to get to this point, and the backstory is moot by now, but we finally had our finalization hearing today.  Juliette was officially ours as of about 10:00 am this morning – and as one friend said, we are now hers, too.  Judge Quaintance is so very, very nice – you shouldn’t be nervous if you have to appear before her, she makes the process easy.  It was all over almost as soon as it began, and then were were a few moments for pictures.

Harald and I and the Judge

Harald and I and the Judge

Don’t you love the way Juliette is checking out the judge?


So soon!

After months of waiting for LSS to straighten out the mess they made with Juliette’s birth certificate and then finally filing our petition with the court and then the court saying on Wednesday that there were “issues” with our filing that prevented them giving us a hearing date, I arrived to work this morning and got a phone call from the program manager at LSS telling us they were hand-delivering one more item to the clerk of the court that the clerk’s office wanted and that the clerk had penciled us in on the judge’s calendar for a finalization hearing Thursday morning at 9:30. Oh, lord, I can hardly believe it, but I am so very, very happy at this unexpected turn of events. Keeps your fingers (and whatever else is worth it!) crossed that all goes off without a hitch and that we wake up Friday morning to the certain knowledge that she is ours forever!


Would you sleep here?

My mom is coming on Wednesday for an extended visit and I’m so looking forward to it. What you see below is what I sometimes jokingly referred to as “the spa” – a bedroom in our basement that has never really been used for much. It was outfitted with a real Finnish sauna by the prior owner and the first year we lived here, we used the sauna several times, but no so much since then. So the room slowly involved into a catch-all junk room. But with the former guest room turned into the nursery, we needed a place for mom, who will be here until after the New Year.

It all started last week when we picked up the new mattress we bought the week before. We had to haul away the old sofa that was being stored in the room, along with some other stuff, on Saturday, move out one large cabinet that was in the room but wasn’t needed there anymore, etc., etc., etc. Outfitted with all new linens, a new bedside table and chest from Ikea, the sturdy old wingback from the den, and some carefully chosen artwork & gorgeous Finnish textiles that Harald brought back from there, the room evokes what I imagine is a very Scandinavian vibe (and I have it on good authority, too!). We’ve done a ton of other stuff to spruce up the bathroom, improve safety (read: replace old fire detectors with new fire/smoke/C02 detectors), and generally make it the most inviting space we could manage. And if you don’t mind my saying so, I think we succeeded. Yes, the sauna will come out one day – we will likely haul it up Lutsen and install it there. But for now, I think this is a pretty cozy looking bedroom for any guest.

Her new bed is ready and waiting.

Her new bed is ready and waiting.

 

A cozy sitting nook for reading or just relaxing (or knitting!).

A cozy sitting nook for reading or just relaxing (or knitting!).


Groovin’ new favorite

Once you get hooked on satellite radio, it’s hard to go back to broadcast.  I’ve gotten spoiled.  Last night, on the way to Target, I was listening to Chill on Sirius (channel 35) and found myself loving what I was listening to.  Turns out it’s a group called Streetlife Originals.  They hail from north east England and you can find out more here.  I gotta get that ‘Sidewalk Stories” album, even though it costs a small fortune as an import.  The song below is a good example of their style.  The song I was listening to last night was The Assassin, Act 1 and appears on the album “Costes La Suite” from Stephane Pompougnac and is described as a “Deep House” style of Electronica. Who knew?  In the process of trying to find all this information, I came across the Discogs site, a wealth of information.  As it turns out, this particular CD is part of a compilation of lounge music put out by the Hotel Costes in Paris and you can get them all at Amazon.  It is the second CD in the series you want for the Streetlife Originals song I was listening to last night.


Halloween 2009

Here are some pictures taken Halloween night.  We had H’s folks and sister over for dinner, and they stayed for the trick or treating fun.  We, of course, could not resist the temptation to dress her in her pumpkin outfit again.

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The little pumpkin is ready for Halloween!

Isn't she just the cutest thing?

Isn't she just the cutest thing?

Is it just me, or does she look like she’s totally over the pumpkin outfit already?

She had her four month doctor appointment (complete with scream-inducing shots at the end) on Wednesday afternoon. Juliette is now 14 lbs. 10 oz. and she is 25 1/4″ long.  She is only 1/4″ shy of having grown three inches in length since her two month appointment!  She is at the 80th percentile for length, the 75th percentile for weight and the 55th percentile for head measurement.

Juliette has met all of her developmental markers for 4 months of age, and is as far ahead as six months of development in two or three areas.  She is especially alert and attentive for her age.  The doctor was very pleased with her progress and said that she is obviously thriving.  Considering that she was at the 50th percentile for both height and weight at her 2 month visit, she has really had a big growing spell over the last two months!


Photos from October

You’ve all been so patient awaiting new photos! We’ve been having such fun with her, I keep failing to find time to upload them and update my blog. But today I finally did it. Here are some photos taken recently, most of them from when my dear friend Connie and her husband Steve visited from DC last week.

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The Sweetest Sound

Juliette giggled for me for the first time tonight.  Three times, right after I got feeding her and was making funny faces at her.  I swear, it was the sweetest sound I’ve ever heard and it thrilled my whole being.  It was pure music to my ears.

We put up a dozen jars of spiced pear butter today.  I wish you could smell the house – all the smells of the holidays.  And this afternoon we ran out to AppleJack Orchards and bought apples (Sweet Sixteen and Honeycrisp) and some apple bread and caramel apples for an extra treat.  And I had a great 5K walk for the American Diabetes Association early this morning, so I’ve had a very full and happy day.


Recent Photos of the Lady Juliette

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Our social worker from LSS, Michelle, at our last home visit on Friday.
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Her daddy holding her in his arms while she sleeps.  Ain’t they both just gorgeous.  The two people I love the most in one glorious and humble picture.  Perfection.
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Juliette’s baptism on Sunday.  Besides us and our pastors, also in the picture are Juliette’s godfather, my good friend Andy, and her godmother, Harald’s sister Karin.

Susan Boyle’s Debut CD & Singing Tonight!

You can preorder now at Amazon.  I just found out.  Some of you probably already knew.

http://www.amazon.com/I-Dreamed-Dream-Susan-Boyle/dp/B0026P3G12/ref=pd_ts_m_13?ie=UTF8&s=music

Have you heard her cover of The Stones’ “Wild Horses”?  Go to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb3XAP0c8WU&feature=player_embedded

She’s apparently going to be singing the song on America’s Got Talent TONIGHT, which airs at 8PM EDT, 7PM CDT.

Guess who is going to be planted in front of the big screen TV tonight at 7?