Feliz Cumpleaños, Princesa!

Today is our precious little girl's first birthday! We had a great day together - I was able to switch my work week around so that I could spend the day with her, and Daniel was able to join us in the afternoon. We went to Red Robin for dinner and had lots of fun. Gabby got TWO balloons, the waiters sang "Happy Birthday" to her, and she got to have an ice cream sundae for dessert! She was all smiles and giggles on the way home. We hope she knows how much we love her and how much joy she brings to us every single day!

When I last posted, Gabby was sick with the stomach flu. She couldn't hold anything down, even Pedialyte or water, for two days. By the third day, she was dehydrated and clearly felt horrible. We took her to our pediatrician, who sent us over to the hospital so they could give her IV fluids and rule out more serious problems. By that time, she'd lost a pound in under a week (she had been weighed at her well-baby exam the previous Friday). She continued to throw up for two more days, and finally on the sixth day held down diluted formula and rice cereal. It was an AWFUL week. When she finally felt better, she was ravenous (and just a wee bit clingy and cranky) and we could not feed her fast enough. In addition to putting away more solid food than Daniel and I put together, she drank two extra bottles every day for a week. I think she might have set a world record. She is now over a pound heavier than before she got sick, so she's back in the saddle!

Below are some pictures of the big day - enjoy!

Tidbits

Sorry it's been so long! The last few weeks have been good but hectic. Daniel has been travelling quite a bit for work, so I've been getting a taste of what being a single parent is like - good, but a tad more difficult! Last week was tax time (I work in financial services), we had a new staff member in our office, Daniel was out of town, and Gabby and I had the yucky cold that's going around. It was not an easy week but we survived it. We're still getting over the cold, and now Gabby has a stomach flu that is also apparently going around. She was sleeping when I started this post but now she is awake and throwing up on dad. Poor baby. My parents always said "I wish it were me instead" when I was sick as a kid - now I understand that sentiment completely.

Okay, I'm back, and Gabby is sleeping again. Besides the gunk going around our household, we are all doing really well. She had a well-baby exam last week (her late 9-month/early 12-month appointment). Everything looked great and she appears to be developing right on track. She has grown one inch and gained over three pounds since we first met her! She is in the 75th percentile for height and the 10th percentile for weight - long and lean like mommy!

I can't believe how time has flown. I realized the other day that our first post-placement report is due in Colombia in a little over a month. We scheduled the home visit for next Thursday. Our social worker will come to the house, see how we interact with Gabby, ask us all kinds of questions, and write a report that we will send to our agency in Florida to review, approve, translate, apostille, and send to Colombia. It is due in Colombia on June 1st.

Many of you know that I have been fortunate enough to be able to cut my work down to part-time. I work Monday through Wednesday and have Thursday and Friday to be with Gabby. It is working perfectly because I don't think I could stay home full-time, nor could I be away from Gabby all week. Even better, Daniel is essentially self-employed and has quite a bit of flexibility with his schedule, so he is often able to be home with her one or two days while I'm at work. When we both work, my mom, my sister, or Daniel's mom have her. We are really, really blessed to get to leave her with family when we can't be with her.

Did I mention that I only work part time?!? I love it! We have been doing all sorts of fun things on our days off together - walking the dogs, going to reading group at the library, swimming, getting together with friends for play dates, taking naps... we can't wait for summer and trips to the zoo, park, etc.

We hope everyone is doing well!

Love,
Leslie, Daniel, and Gabby

P.S. These pictures were taken on a field trip to daddy's "office."

Gabby y Oscar

Gato!

I just thought I'd post an update to let everyone know we are alive and well! Gabby continues to amaze us and fill our lives with joy. She is growing like a little weed, eating us out of house and home, and motoring around the house like she's been crawling all her life. She is also, for the most part (fingers crossed), sleeping very well.

So, the word of the week is GATO!

Many of you probably know that "gato" is "cat" in spanish. Gabby is apparently obsessed with cats, as she has begun pointing at everything and exclaiming "gato!" She does occasionally say other things, such as "dedo" (finger), "dog," "good," "caballo" (horse), and a few things we can't quite make out, but her standby is definitely "gato."

We have a very cool cat named Oscar, who could only be more mellow if he were dead. He is absolutely unflappable. One day shortly before we left for Colombia, I came upon one of our dogs dragging Oscar around the living room by his head. I shouted "No!" in horror, to which the dog responded by letting go, looking very startled by my outburst. However, Oscar simply looked at me and blinked, rolled over on his back, and swatted the dog playfully.

So, as you can imagine, Oscar is good with kids and has become Gabby's favorite playmate. She crawls around behind him, and upon catching him, usually performs a full-body tackle. Sometimes she pulls out chunks of his hair or painfully (at least it looks painful to us) yanks on his ears. When he is really "annoyed," he'll move about three inches out of her reach and flick his tail.

One day I was reflecting on what a nice 2-hour nap Gabby was taking when I heard some chattering coming from her room. I opened the door to find Gabby and Oscar playing in her crib. I don't know if she took a 1 hour and 50 minute nap and played with Oscar for 10 minutes or if she took a 10 minute nap and played with Oscar for 1 hour and 50 minutes. I suspect it won't be long before Gabby is outfitting Oscar in dresses and matching bonnets and pushing him around in a stroller.

I will post pictures soon of Oscar and Gabby at play. Every day I think "I should get a picture of that!" and then remember that the camera battery is dead. Why don't we simply charge it, you ask? Because we have a 10-month old! Some days I feel lucky if I simply make it out of the house with matching shoes on!

For now, I will post a picture of our first Christmas as a family of three. Since Gabby couldn't be with us on Christmas, my family decided to leave the Christmas tree up and leave Gabby's presents wrapped until we got home. So, we celebrated Christmas in March!

Two weeks home!

We have been home now for two weeks and things are going pretty well. Gabby has been making the rounds meeting friends and family and is quite the little social butterfly - I'm pretty sure that everyone that has met her has agreed that she is, in fact, the cutest baby ever!

The biggest news I have to share is that Gabby is officially crawling! She has been somewhat mobile as long as she's been with us, but until the last few days she was doing the caterpillar crawl (on her tummy). She still does that, but now she also crawls on her hands and knees. She's not very fast just yet, but we suspect we won't be able to say that for long!

We have been working very hard to get Gabby on a schedule and thought we had succeeded until the last couple of days. Apparently, Gabby decided that her bedtime is not 7:00 as we had thought, but rather 9:00. In hindsight, we are pretty sure she told us this, but we are quite dumb and all we understood was "Dat bwoh doh blah doo goh."

I promised before that I would post pictures of Gabby's AWESOME bedroom - thanks Jen, Kevin, and Dad!

A few of our favorites...

Home at last!

Hi all!

We finally made it home on Thursday night!

Our week in Bogota was busy but good. We went to the embassy Monday morning and applied for Gabriela's visa. We were told to pick it up Tuesday afternoon at 3:30. We were on the other side of Bogota on Tuesday afternoon having lunch with an aunt and uncle and left at 2:30 so we'd have "plenty of time." We should have known better! First, we got stuck in a traffic jam that didn't move for almost 30 minutes, which we found out on the evening news was caused by a bus that was hanging half-suspended over a canal. Then, just as we turned off to take a detour, we were informed by a passerby that we had a flat tire. Miraculously, we were literally feet from the entrance to a car repair shop, and they happened to have an empty bay, and they had us in and out of there in 15 minutes. While we were having the tire changed I called the embassy and was told that we had until 4:00 and then the gates would be closed. At a couple of minutes to 4:00 we were just a few blocks out so I called again and was told to hurry up and they would let me in. I literally had to sprint up to the embassy gate - it was just like the scene in the movie "The Saint." Except nobody was chasing me. And I wasn't screaming "I'm an American!" But otherwise, it was just like that scene! Anyway, when I got to the gate the guard initially refused to let me in because it was 4:02. I had to explain in broken spanish that I had just talked to Marcela and she said I could come in! He finally let me in and I left with Gabriela's visa in hand.

The trip home was long but Gabriela was a trooper. On the first leg of the trip (Bogota to Miami) she hammed it up for most of the trip and then slept for about an hour. We had grand plans to feed her, change her diaper, re-stock the diaper bag, eat lunch, and relax a bit during our layover of three hours. Instead, we spent most of it in a Homeland Security "inspection room." Daniel always raises flags when we travel, but this was absurd. When we asked them when we'd be able to leave we were told "not until we get the call back from Washington." No kidding! When they finally "released" him, we had less than an hour to make our connection and we still had to get our bags, go through customs, re-check our bags, go through security, and get to our gate. We were running through the airport with four large suitcases, four carry-ons, and one 9-month-old child. Gabby was literally tucked under my arm at one point as we RAN through the terminal to our gate. We made it just in time. When we explained to the gentleman seated in our row what had happened, and that Gabby hadn't eaten or had her diaper changed for several hours, he wisely chose to relocate to an empty seat in another row. Surprisingly, though, she settled right down, ate a bottle, and slept on me for almost the entire 4 hour flight.

Ah, home sweet home! We arrived home to balloons, a big "Welcome Home Rojas Family" sign, a stocked fridge, a frame of some of our favorite pictures of Gabby, and, best of all, my sister and her husband had hand-painted the walls of Gabby's room to match her bedding. I will post pictures of that soon - it looks awesome! Thanks to everyone!

And now, a few photos!

Love,
Leslie, Daniel, and Gabriela