I’ve been busy with Etsy lately, and I’ve found so many possible gifts and personal buys that I decided to highlight some of the best adoption-related finds.  All feedback ratings are as of the writing of this post–you should always check before you make a purchase!

Custom Fingerprint Pendant
by Diffraction

This is a pretty cool idea–you ink up chidlet’s finger, make a few prints on a piece of paper and send it to diffraction, who will create a pendant from it. We have a few things with J’s handprints on them, and even now they bring back good memories of the days we had just arrived home from Texas. 100% positive feedback. $25  

OOAK Original Acrylic 9X12 inch Painting of your child or family
by aworldinvented

I love art like this:  an adoptive mama-to-be paints portraits of your family from a photo.  In the description of the items, she does mention that the paintings are stylized and won’t be realistic portraiture, but I think that’s pretty clear!  100% positive feedback. $120.

Born in my heart hand stamped sterling necklace
by klacustomcreations

Hand-stamped jewelry is one of my favorites, and this one says “Born in my heart” on it, so you can’t go wrong!  100% positive feedback. $41.90.

Adoption Hope Bracelet
by SignItYours

This shop is less than a month old and is raising money for a second adoption.  From the description: “Red coral is said to help control your thoughts. Turquoise protects and blesses the person wearing the stones. Moonstone is calming and bring positive energy during travel.” New shop, no feedback. $8.

Meet Grow Love - An Adoption Necklace
by birthdesigns

Again, stamped jewelry.  See, I really do love it :)  This necklace is stamped with, “Meet, Grow, Love.” That’s a great way to think about adoption, isn’t it?  100% positive feedback. $58.

Expect Miracles Bracelet
by secondsister

Leather bracelet, pink cording, and stamped metal tag combine to create this the Expect Miracles bracelet.  The artist, another adoptive mama, says she created the bracelet for others waiting for their own children to hold on to their hope because miracles DO happen.  Sweet and true, don’t you think?  100% positive feedback. $40.

I’m kind of liking the idea behind daycare.

J goes there for the day and gets his tantrums out of the way while I work, completely ignorant of the fact that he’s going hoarse out there somewhere.

J comes home, tired of tantruming, and becomes the jolliest toddler I’ve ever seen.  He speedwalks after the dog, giggling when the dog tried to get away from the ear-pulling maniac that’s pursing him.  He lopes up and down the hall with his new vacuum cleaner, screaming with glee.  He trots up to me with his arms out, looking for quick hugs and giving sweet little kisses.

He chants the dog’s name, repeats Ma, ma, ma, ma, ma over and over and says “Uh-oh, Spaghettios” when appropriate.

He blows kisses and stays up later just to blow more kisses.

Being J’s mom is the best job I’ve ever held.

Note #2 on the post below.  This is the look of wonder I get to see every day, and it’s precious.  Not in that cute, smarmy way…not that precious.  

It’s precious in the way that if you could hold it in your hand, you’d cup it between both hands, bend your head low over it and gaze at it awhile, appreciating it and keeping it safe.

J’s getting hard to get shots of…he’s so mobile.  Instead of sitting in one place or slowly stepping carefully as he makes his way from chair to chair, he’s speedwalking, afraid of nothing, not even the dog’s wild ways.  Now, during those few times he wants to be cuddled before he goes to bed, we cradle him in our arms like a baby, watching his eyes go heavy and knowing that these moments are getting fewer and farther between.   

Click on the photo for the full view.

Have I ever mentioned that J could truly eat us out of house and home? I didn’t realize it until my current daycare provider confirmed what my mother had mentioned a month ago–J eats more than any kid either of them have seen.

He gets a lot of different things–yogurt, oatmeal, applesauce, fruits, veggies, and meat at meal times, but every hour or so I’ve resorted to feeding him Cheerios or crackers to keep him from loudly complaining about his needs while clinging to the seat of his highchair, looking for stray Cheerios.

And normally, I’d be worried about it since I’ve struggled with my weight since I was 5 or so. J? I’m not so sure there’s a problem, at least not yet. He hardly can put on weight–and he’s so little.

So, I keep stockpiling Cheerios, wondering what we’re going to do when he actually hits a growth spurt and needs more food. I’m thinking maybe we should start raising chickens and doubling the size of the garden.

Can you buy Cheerio trees?

T and I have decided there will be a moratorium on positive talk about the new daycare until after the first of the year since that only seems to lead to us looking like idiots when the latest provider turns out to be a peanut-butter wielding freak or some variation thereof. I can, however, talk about it in general terms and if needed, whine about it.  Let’s hope we won’t be whining much to you. Especially this evening or tomorrow, since today is the big first day.

I must say, though, that it’s interesting how my defeat in the world of daycare has been reflected in my photography.  For the last week, every time I’ve tried a colorful shot, it’s failed.  Dark shots?  They’ve been OK.  Of course, that could be because it’s been raining for a week or because I’ve been trying to take flashless photos indoors of the Frankenstein walk J has–they all fail, of course, since he moves way too fast.  I think it’s time I buy my own Speedlite 420EX–it’s a shoe-mounted flash that can be tilted and turned to bounce light off ceilings and walls so that I can avoid the frozen, pasty-faced flash look.  I think I need new tires, though.  Tires come first since we’ll be traveling through half the countryside to get to daycare and along roads that are less than pleasant.  Oh, well.  Practicality.  It kills all the fun in my life ;)

Yeah. Daycare. Again.

No photo today, but you’ll understand why as you read on…

A quick update that takes us from my last post about quitting daycare to now: last Friday, I handed my sitter a letter explaining that we were withdrawing J and giving her an end date. I left it somewhat open in hopes of quitting sooner so that we could start with our new daycare sooner, if only because I was sure that we’d need back up again within two weeks. She allowed us to withdraw a week early without penalty, meaning that this week Friday would be J’s last day.

I was cool with that because, really, I thought he was safe and happy there.

Did you note the past tense of the verb “think”? Yeah, I did think he was safe. I was wrong.

Today was T’s day to pick up little man while I had a quick haircut after school. As I was pulling out of the school parking lot, my cell rang. I answered it since it was the sitter, and thank God I did.

She didn’t want to worry me, but she said that when J woke up from his nap, he didn’t seem right. He was red and had a stuffy nose. I took a detour and arrived at her house before we were even off the phone, and when I walked in, I was shocked at the looks of my little boy sitting on his babysitter’s lap.

J’s face was puffy and red. His eyes were almost swollen shut. His scalp was red. Even worse, he wasn’t crying, just staring at me. Shocked, I said, “This isn’t right.”

DA (Dumbass): “Yeah, I don’t think so, either…”

Me: “He’s having an allergic reaction!”

She then innocently told me that, gee, hmm…what did he have for lunch? Hmm…just a “couple bites” of peanut butter sandwich.

PEANUT BUTTER?!?

DA:  “Hasn’t he ever had peanut butter before?”

Don’t you think you might want to discuss feeding peanut butter to my child before you do it? Especially since I said he’d never had it when we started daycare there? It’s not like he’s a three or four year old. He’s not even 14 months old!

Even worse is that she put him down for a nap right after lunch, so he had his reaction when he was in bed, alone. He could have DIED. And no, don’t tell me I’m being irrational. You’ll never convince me otherwise.

We swept out of the house in under a minute and drove immediately to the emergency room. By that time, he was de-puffing but a doctor saw him, and, of course, they’re not sure that it was the peanut butter that turned him into a balloon, but I’m certainly not supposed to expose it to him anytime soon. We now have two Epi-pens and another appointment with his Doc. I’m hoping I don’t have to use the Epi-pens, but I feel better having them.

So, we called daycare and told her he’s not coming back. T’s going to handle tomorrow and Grandma is going to do Friday. I’m so happy we have something else lined up for the rest of the school year.

Please, really, I could use some good luck vibes with this new daycare coming up. I don’t know what will happen if the new daycare isn’t a lot better.

ARGH!

I can remember being a child of maybe five or so on a rainy afternoon. As the oldest, I had a lot of those afternoons on my hands and frequently did stupid things, like crawl under the bed, climb around the outside of the railing on the landing of the stairs sans harnesses or mountain climbing gear and play with various body parts.

On one of those afternoons, I discovered that I could bend my thumb all the way back to my wrist and cross one eye independently of the other.

I also realized that my toe had at one point made it into my mouth much easier than it was that boring afternoon.

J’s starting to lose some of those baby things, like the flexi-legs that allow him to suck on his own toes and the ability to crawl across a wood floor painlessly.

I wonder if J will look at this picture when he’s 18 and wonder how the hell he managed to get his entire body into that little cupboard.

Nah, I imagine his biggest concern will be why it was that his mother shaved his head and dressed him in footed sleepers with little blue puppies on them.

Thankfully, I’ll have plenty of time to think up excuses. For now, he’s happy with playing with pot lids and hiding in cabinets.