My Favorite Place on Earth

Hi All,

No, it's not Hawaii...or Disney! My favorite place on Earth is a teeny pale blue room at the end of our hallway. It's Kelsey's room of course.

I spend a great deal of time in there. Sometimes we have fun, like when we roll a ball around or fold laundry and organize her stuff (okay, I admit that I am a freak...I love to organize my daughter's clothes and stuff! )

Sometimes its not so fun...like when we're trying to get her to sleep in her own room! I bought the Dora sheets and blanket, and she likes playing in the bed...dear GOD why won't she sleep there!

It took me a while until that room came together. Some people create their baby's nursery immediately after deciding to adopt, but I couldn't bear the thought of walking past a room completely ready for a child who may not be there for a while...so we waited... We did paint the room that calm blue...I was going for a beachy/cottage theme. We found it in the daisy pattern and decided to make the room cottage daisy. Kelsey's room is very tranquil and serene, except when all the stuffed puppies and books have exploded on the floor...but it's wonderful to have that room come to life with Kelsey there.

Anyway, I thought you'd like a tour....

Five Years Ago Today....

My Daddy passed away after a long and painful illness.

I put our adoption on hold because I knew I could not do all the paperwork, work a full time job and be there for my parents (I went down to my parents house every weekend for the last months/weeks of his life)...

He told me not to wait any longer because he didn't want this illness to delay me being a Mother, so I filled out the first forms and got the first packet back on 9/23/02.

He died at 11am the next morning, in the hospital and I was the one who discovered that he passed. I STILL have a tough time realzing that I'll never hear his voice again.

Kelsey's second name is Frances, in honor of her grandfather, Frank. (my DH is a 2nd, so his father who passed away 7 years ago was already honored and we named Kelsey with the starting letter K for both Kurt and Kurt Sr.)

Not to get all freaky on you, internets (I love when Boo Mama says that!) but I've been to a psychic, as has my sister and my Mom to see if anyone could contact my Dad. I firmly believe that I've had a conversation with him....and when my Sis and Mom saw a different psychic in Dec, the first words from beyond was "how is my namesake?"

I've always had a hard time on Sept 24th since. However tonight I was leading an adoption support group and didn't realize it until in the middle of the meeting.

Another strange fact...my Sister's anniversary is 9/23 and my nephew's birthday (her son) is 9/25....as is my Father's Mom, who I guess wanted to see him on her birthday.

Now you may think...how odd, this was 5 years ago and you've been home with Kelsey less than 2 years...what happened?

One week from Friday is another anniversary of why it took so long to get her...and it's not a good thing.

Daddy, I miss you very much and know you would have been a wonderful grandfather to our Angel Face...she would have ADORED you!
Love always,
Joanna Banana

Oh No, You Didn't!!!!!!

I'm keeping up with the Jones and posting by bullets :)

• Praise and hail DORA the EXPLORER! Kelsey is sleeping in her new toddler/crib complete with Dora sheets and blankets. It wasn't easy and we had to keep her DVD humming with Dora shows...but she finally fell asleep in her bed late tonight....okay, she slept in her room until 4am with Kurt, then woke him up and took him by the hand and said "let's go!"


• We had a lot o fun this past week....


• Saw my Mom on Wed and went out for lunch and shopping. Then we took Kelsey to a fun park.


• We are planning a picnic for our adoption support group. We had a great meeting


• Susan, Lily, Kelsey and I went to a local park and had a picnic lunch. Unfortunately the bees liked our sodas and Kelsey freaked out at them. She had a great time swinging on the swings and playing on the slide


• Decided on the spur of the moment to turn our coffee table into a train table, thanks to a vinyl tablecloth. Kelsey has been loving it!


• I added to my birthday present....(a separate post in the making)


• I fell in love with and bought Kelsey some Crocs....Listen you either love them or hate them (like Uggs) and I firmly fall into the love category. So does little Miss Kins, as she's been insisting on wearing them since Thursday. Here she is happily modeling them (the biggest smile is when I promised her chocolate if she took a nice smile-y photo!)


• Had an interesting appointment with a HeadHunter. They're putting me up for a VP position! Don't think I have a shot in hell, but hey, it's nice to be considered :)


• As much fun as staying home as been....I am very anxious to get this job train out of the station and life back to semi normal. Is that too much to ask?


• I've been on a shoe buying spree for Kelsey lately. I also bought these adorable blue sneakers with the silver sparkly trim/crystals. They are adorable and it is very hard to find a little girl's sneaker in anything but pink or white.


• Everything has a reason, right? I finally found the reason why God gave me a moderate singing talent...and tons of passion for the artform. It was to be able to sing to Kelsey, who absolutely loves singing. Her favorite song is "Tomorrow" (Annie) and she requests it often! She sings along as much as she can. Her 2nd favorite song right now is the theme for 2 1/2 men (men men men...) and sings that LOUD and PROUD!

We're a bit under the weather, both us girls have colds. Thank goodness for Daddy and DH who is being patient and supportive!

Six Years Ago Today.....

The world as we knew it changed forever....

Our leaders' failure was evident for all to see....

People I feel close to came close to losing their lives

Many many people DID lose their lives...for nothing...

I can't find it in my soul to visit ground zero.

This is a day of rememberance and respect.

God Bless America and its people

Where Did My Baby Go?

These past few weeks has seen the Hoppe household change from being a baby-centric household to a toddler-centric household.

Specifically, we've taken her crib apart and made it a toddler bed with a rail. Also, I've removed the changing pad from her dresser and it's become a regular piece of furniture (no, we're not done with diapers, but we usually change her on our bed now...she's too tall for the changing pad.)

Tonight we've officially pushed away the highchair and moved in her booster-seat. She's been eating most of her meals at the table on a regular chair...but she's fallen off a few times and there are only so many times that she can hit her noggin before she does some real damage.

We're walking up and down stairs much more efficiently now, and Kelsey loves to hold hands while making her way up and down.

While I am so excited for these changes...I miss that sweet baby that graced our home less than 18 months ago. She was so tiny then! Now she's a toddler with all the joys and challenges that toddler-hood brings.

It's usually at this time, that the Mommy sighs to the Daddy that she wants baby #2 and procreation begins. Not in this Hoppe household!

Miss Kelsey was a major stubborn Miss Cranky-Pants after her nap today. The funny thing is that she is so smart and is starting to manipulate us where she thinks she can. She says things that are meant to get a strong reaction from us...

When Kelsey is mad or being stubborn, she crosses her arms across her body, gives us this "look" and makes a growl-ly baby voice. She got some bad mosquito bites this week and developed her usual bad reaction to them. I told her many times as I was spreading benedryl and calamine lotion over them...no more bug bites.... She's repeating it back to me saying "no bugs bite the baby!" in her growl-ly stubborn voice...it's cute in an obnoxious way :) But she says stuff like "Daddy go away" or "no want Mommy!"

To Boil it Down...

Miss the baby
Love the toddler, even though stubborn stuff comes out (especially after a nap!)
Growl-ly voice funny but manipulating us!

Send good thoughts that the job market opens us this week for me!
JoAnn