The death of the consumer reporter...

This post is for all my friends that have known me over the years as a sort of consumer reporter if you will...

If you were having a baby after me, there is not much you needed to do as I researched EVERYTHING! Strollers, monitors, doctors, hospitals, breastpumps, bottles- I only got the best for me and my wee one. My friends would call me all the time and ask what I knew about something and I would share my knowledge. I really was especially particular about car seats. I did the most research on them and once I selected one, I took it to the fire station to have it securely fastened into my car by a firefighter.

I enjoyed learning about every thing and enjoyed sharing what I learned. One time, I kid you not, I got an email from someone I did not even know. It said this... "I was told to ask you what car seat to buy. Let me know what you think..." So I emailed back several questions and once this gal answered, I sent my response- of course letting her know that some car seats can be good but not good for your vehicle so it is always important to have a fitting by the local fire department to ensure that the seat is appropriate for the vehicle...

So now that my newer friends have background let me tell you what happened when Selina, child number three came home...

Me- We have to go to Babies R Us and get a new carseat. Selina is light for her age so I need chair with a five point harness that is more like a booster seat.

TR- Okay

So off we go to Babies R Us..

TR- What one are we looking at? (Expecting me to whip out my notes on car seats like I used to do)

Me- The one with the best cup holder.

TR- WHAT???

Me- The one with the best cup holder. I am sure they are all great these days. The problem is that with car seats with a five point, they often have "strap on" cup holders. We don't want any of that crap. Selina needs a built in cup holder. It's hot, she's thirsty. Were picking the one with the most comfy seat and definitely the one with the best cup holder.

TR- We are selecting the car seat based on the cup holder??

Me- Damn right we are...

I seriously rock... Look at that cup holder- I have 13 cup holders in my 7 passenger van (14 now with Selina's) and hers is the best- by far!



Look at that smile- she loves her cup holder!



Off to the baby monitors....

Me- We need a baby monitor too.

TR- Which ones are we looking at?

Me- I have no idea.

TR- WHAT? You have no idea about any of these? What are we supposed to do?

Me- I don't know, do what most Americans do and just pick one. Look for a brand we like or one that looks like it can be thrown across the room and still keep working. Are any of them waterproof?

TR- (annoyed) I can't believe we are just going to pick one.

Me- Yep. Let's get one that is a little smaller. I want to be able to pull it back out when the kids are teens and hide it in their rooms to listen in on their conversations.

TR- You aren't going to do that?

Me- We'll see, I am definitely keeping my options open. On that note, grab one with a thicker cord so it won't get sucked up in the vacuum and break like the last one did.

TR- You're unbelievable.

So there you have it. The third child did me in. Love the car seat! The monitor- not so much. Too much interference. In the chaos of my life at the time, I lost the receipt right away so I am stuck with it. Oh well.

I am a resourceful woman though and have come up with a plan. I am going to seek out a younger version of me to become friends with so I can call her from Babies R Us or whatever store I am at next time and get her advice.

So calling newer, fresher moms out there... if you are the consumer reporter that I used to be... send me your number!! :-)

Albert...

His name is Albert. While in Ghana, I came across this fabulous center that helps those with missing limbs. You can read about it here. The following day, I met Albert. Ever since, I have been trying to get him help. I have made some progress. I am not yet ready to share, but please keep him in your prayers...

Selina has a brother too!...

I just noticed that my last few posts only showed Selina and Cater. In case you were wondering where Kman is and how it is going with him and Selina...


The kids are all doing very well, don't get me wrong, we have our moments but it has been so sweet the way the kids have become so attached to Selina.

With Selina and Kman, their big bond is "balls". Kman loves to throw, catch, kick, roll balls (often in the house without the accuracy of a pro). Selina loves balls too and so they can often be seen playing ball when it is just the two of them home.

We do many things together as a family but it is also important to us to separate the kids so that they each get some time alone with one of us or with just one of their sibs. Cater was especially needy of extra attention when I got home as she really had a hard time with me being gone for a month so to do this has really helped make the transition easier. Sometimes it was as simple as running errand or other times it was more exciting things like baseball games!

A few weeks ago, I took Kman and Selina to a Dbacks game. It was a really good time. Kman was so concerned about Selina and if she was happy, eating enough, enjoying the game, etc. We had nice seats and so in the 500 pictures of the players that he took, he caught this one of Selina...



After the game, the kids were allowed to run the bases. You had to be at least three years old so Kman did it alone the first time. I noticed some kids smaller than Selina going so I asked Kman if he wanted to take his sister around. He was so excited! We went back over and off they went!!!






I got teary eyed at the end as I snapped this last picture of Selina and her new brother at a baseball game on the field. She has come so far the last few months and is doing so well, I can't wait to see what her future holds!!

Casino Night Baby- 3 Day Walk

Calling Arizona Friends and Family,

It is once again time for the 3 Day Walk here in Arizona supporting breast cancer research and programs through the Susan G Komen Foundation. I did this walk for the past two years. The walk entails walking 60 miles over three days. We walked 20 or so miles each day and slept in a big camp the two nights in between. Doing this walk and supporting this cause has been a wonderful experience for me and I feel blessed to have been able to do it two years in a row.

Last year, a coworker, Michele who had breast cancer, did this walk also. Even though she was affected by breast cancer, as long as she could get out there and walk, she wanted to do so for her children so they have a better chance of avoiding this horrible cancer. Michele died five weeks after the walk. I blogged about it last year here.

So for this year, I am not walking because of our adoption and having a new toddler at home but I am still supporting my team. Last year we did an awesome casino night fundraiser and brought in over $17,000 for breast cancer research.

I will be participating in Casino Night again this year on October 4. This event is HUGE and is so much fun! I would love to have any of my friends and family that would love to support this cause and have a phenomenal night out to contact me for more details- anyone is welcome.

If you can't come but would like to donate, here is the link to my 3 Day Team. Please donate to Marcy Fredette Roman or Kimberly Mularski or any of the women who still have not met their goal. If you have ever considered doing the 3 Day Walk, DO IT! It is s fabulous experience. You can always contact me and I can fill you in on it and answer questions..

Thanks-
Jennine

A few goofy pics from last year:

Debbie our good friend that just moved back to New Jersey- LOVE YOU and MISS YOU DEBBIE


Kim, tearing it up on stage because after walking 20 miles, we have a dance at camp in the evening


The girls and I last year at the last mile mark! We did it again!!

H2O Fun...

The other day as Kman had soccer practice, I took the girls to the park. At first they had fun playing on the playground equipment...


...until they noticed the water shooting from the ground.
It was probably not best to do it since it was early evening and I had no dry clothes for them ...but hey, you only are a kid once and I know I would have loved doing it...



Selina was having so much fun that I couldn't help but take tons of pics...




















Hey, when it rains, it pours- read below as I did TWO posts today! :-)

A new room and den

Prior to bringing Selina home, I redid our den and the girls bedrooms. I finished most of it a few days before I left for Africa so I never posted the finished product...

I love decorating and feel I am especially gifted at getting nice things at good prices. It helps because I love nice things but cannot afford them but have found that if I am patient, all good things are at least 75% off at some point! LOL

THE DEN:
Right before getting our referral for Selina, I started going a little crazy with the wait and had to do something so that it felt more real to me that we were adopting. I posted about it here at the time.

So in preparation at the time for what I thought might be two older siblings because we were open to two children up to age eight, we redid the den. As TR was painting the den, we got the referral call for Selina. We had to laugh as we thought that a two year old probably won't get the full benefit of the remodeled den.

This gives you a feel for the den before- this is just a pic I took of the desk for when I sold it on Craigslist.


We wanted a new desk that had a lot of storage and space to put the kids games and such. I really lucked out as I called my favorite wood furniture company to get a quote on buiding a custom desk. When it was way out of my budget, I asked if they had any desks they were trying to get rid of that might work for us. Sure enough, this was a desk that an employee used for three years and then it sat in pieces for another five years or so. It had water damage on the top. So they offered us this desk at about one seventh the cost of a custom desk and that included them fixing the top of it. It was the deal of the century, I still get excited thinking about it. This desk also has room for two kids to sit if they are doing something together on the computer.


So we ended up painting the room, putting down laminate wood floors and getting a new desk. An example of my bargaining skills are with the wood floor. I fell in love with a floor that was more than I wanted to spend. I did some research and got it for $2 less a square foot, then when getting quotes on installation, I found someone with a good reputation that was dollars less a square foot to install than the flooring stores charge.

I wanted to do a cornice board over the window to add some texture and color and fell in love with this tapestry.


Here you can see the fabric a little better although the light is making it look a little weird. Can you see my multicultural people on there? I think this fabric is so fun!


We still are not done with the den but we have the kids table and an easel out and the kids play kitchen is in the closet. I still need to finish arranging things in the desk, (it has only been five months!), putting decorations and art on the walls and paint the closet door with chalkbard paint so they can use it as a chalkboard and I will be done! I never can quite finish a project before moving on to the next...


THE GIRL'S ROOM:

With the addition of Selina, Cater and her were to share a room. It has been important for me to have the kids room ready before they come home. I did this with Kman and Cater and so I also wanted to make sure that when Selina came home, she had a pretty room and a comfortable bed.

This was Cater's room before...


The girls have their own bathroom in their bedroom. I kept the bathroom the same but we (or should I say TR- thank you honey) painted it a fun yellow (the second picture)




Their room is a nice size for a room here in Arizona (for some reason secondary bedrooms tend to be smaller that other parts of the country) but it has only about a wall and a half of space for furniture because of the closet, bathroom door and a large window looking out front. I only had one wall for both girls bed and wanted a lot of storage yet needed both beds on one wall. I had this unit done (by the same nice man that sold me the desk) and it worked out perfectly as it has nice big drawers below the beds for their clothes- saving me from having to get a dresser.


I had it all set to take Cater's comforter and have it cut in half and finished off so the girls would each have half of it at the end of their beds. Unfortunately when I took it in to get dry cleaned per the instructions, it was destroyed as apparantly the colors were not ever locked. You can see below, whe difference between the pillow that was not washed and the comforter. The solid patches in the comforter that look off white were supposed to be a bright coral. The company that sold me the bedding had no sympathy for me and did not stand behind their bedding at all (bad, very bad Davenport Home Furnishings) and so I ended having to get different bedding because I had bedding that I could never wash. (thank you mom and dad for doing that as a gift for the girls!:-))


I also wanted to repaint this room. TR wasn't excited about that but when the new bedding did not have purple, we ended up deciding to do green as it is Cater's favorite color and I think it is more calming. My neighbor was getting crown molding done in her home and since the crown molding guy was across the street I had him stop by for a quick quote. Since he was already in the hood, he gave me a smoking deal to just do the girl's room and bathroom. I thought it would look good with their white shutters and bed unit. We painted the walls green and then the ceiling the same green but two shades lighter.


So there you have it! I finished their rooms with a few days to spare before leaving to meet Selina and bring her home. I can tell you that after the 14 month process and a month in Ghana, how wonderful it was to see our new daughter sleeping in her own bed. I pictured her at home and sleeping peacefully in her bed for weeks and it was so much better than I ever imagined!...

Father/Daughter Dance- One Year Later...

TR and Cater before the dance last year...


TR and both his girls this year...



Each year the club that we belong to has a father/daughter dance. It is such a wonderful event and such a special evening for fathers and their daughters.

Last year as I sent TR and Cater away, we were in the adoption process and were completing our homestudy. We had requested a boy and girl between birth and eight years old so we really had no idea who our daughter would be. I remember thinking a lot that night about the daughter we would have the following year. I wondered what age she would be, what her personality would be like, how bonded she would be to us and how our daughters would get along as I especially worried about Cater losing her status as the youngest and the only daughter in the family.

So here we are! The dance was a few weeks ago. It was the first time that TR, Cater and Selina were going out for a special evening. I was so excited for them all. I spent six hours doing Selina's hair the night before as I am still learning and it is really hard to do when she is sleeping (although still easier than when she is awake!). Selina wore a dress that is one of my favorites of hers and is a gift from another adoption mom that has become a good friend (thanks BFF!)



As a special treat, I took the girls to get their toes done and to have their big toes decorated with a flower and jewel. The girls loved it. Selina kept looking down at her feet smiling the rest of the afternoon!



I had fun taking pictures of their first father/daughter dance as a threesome...








They headed to dinner at the club with another dad and his daughters and then they all headed to to the dance. TR said that the girls had a blast and that Selina really enjoyed herself and did not seem nervous at all. The girls had a great time dancing with daddy and each other...







And trying to do a flip on the dance floor...


Last year, I did not know what our future had in store- now I do. We are so blessed to have two wonderful daughters. To watch them together and how much they love each other after 12 weeks has been beautiful. Cater has blossomed into a caring and considerate big sister and it is obvious by the way Selina follows Cater and copies her that she is happy to have her.

What has been even more wonderful is to see TR with both of his girls. Cater has had him wrapped around her finger for years. She just LOVES her daddy and he loves her. Now it is a fabulous sight to see Cater and Selina run as fast as they can yelling "daddy, daddy, daddy" and leaping into his arms when he comes in the door. Any yup, Selina also has him pretty much as putty in her hands! There is nothing better than to see a father with his daughters.

Thank you God for daddy's girls... and for making the addition of Selina turn out better than we ever could have imagined...