Now Playing: Reluctant napper
We nap challenged. Jiana basically doesn't want to nap at any consistent time so it's really hard to plan getting any work done. I think she is better with the nanny, but she's off on days I'm in charge. I've given up and now what I do is just plan to run out for any old errant around nap time and then she'll crash in the car. But, I have to leave for something real. If I just get in the car and drive around with the objective of getting her to nap... she knows the difference and refuses to sleep... just to spite me, I think.

On Sundays, we typically walk down to the farmer's market in Montclair village (where we live). Since, we are up in the hills, this trip tends to get somewhat aerobic for me. Since I can rarely make it to the gym anymore, this hour round trip hike actually qualifies as exercise. So we wind our way down to the farmer's market, stopping many times along the way for Jiana to greet many doggy friends. When in doubt, I always ask the breed and yang her from any pup with even a drop of pit bull in the mix. I've noticed that people are a lot more friendly when you are totting a tot. So we down to the village to collect our organic veggies for the week and feast on free samples. Jiana usually crashes on the way back up the hill and I push it to the limit trying to get her home in enough time to actually get some housework, phone calls or newspaper reading in.

Getting her to bed at night is getting a little easier. Our routine is that I lay down with her, wrap her in a pink crocheted blanket and then when the timing is just right, I lift her into her crib.... and then I pray... I pray she will go to sleep right away. I pray that neither Jupiter or Sunkissed will start loudly "meowing" for me and wake her up. So usually within 45 minutes, she falls asleep and I get my time off. She sometimes wakes up mid-night or early morning with nightmares, and I just bring her into bed with me. She usually crashes back out pretty easily and is only woken by a parade a loudly purring and meowing cats demanding immediate attention.

With that I'm signing off for my one hour of solitude.

Another milestone
We crossed another milestone last week. Jiana has now been home with me and team orange for more than half her life. We been family now for 8 months. She is growing and changing way too fast. It seems like every day she is coming up with something new.

So what is she like? Jiana has a very sweet nature. She is a happy, friendly, curious child, and as much of a goofball as I am. She is into everything, including scattering wax paper bags and emptying spices all over the kitchen floor, helping herself to my toiletries, and pummeling her cat brothers with stuffed animals. I try not to stunt her curiousity and just try to let her play with whatever she get's hands on. But, it drives me a nuts when she starts poking at the keys on the laptop and I have to put a stop to that.

Jiana is very determined and in touch with her emotions... and can be quite a drama queen at times when she doesn't get her way. G-D help me when I take something away that I don't want her playing with. And when I she is done eatting and try for that extra bite.... She has a fit-- angrily throwing dinner scrapnel on the floor. She laughs hysterically when I appear the slightest bit frustrated. And then in the most innocent voice, she says "uh oh".

My darling daughter is certain not to need my coaching in assertiveness. She is teaching me a few things.

Lost toothbrush
Nothing is sacred anymore. My toothbrush is no longer MY toothbrush, but rather it's the family toothbrush. I have to admit that I felt a little violated when she attempted to dip it in the toilet. I luckily caught it in time.

As for the cute things Jiana is doing.... she likes it when I stick my finger in her mouth and then she says, "yummy..yum". She likes to pay with musical toys and then starts dancing to the songs. I can also attest to the fact that she understands and is starting to speak Spanish. While in the bath last night, she put her hand under the faucet and said "agua". Pretty clever for a little deuchkarooni.

6 months together
Someone famous once said that your children do not belong to you; but rather they are on loan to you from G-D. I always keep that in mind and treasure each moment I get to spend with her. Well most every moment. I look at Jiana and am in sheer amazement at how beautiful she is-- I am so gratitude to get to be her mom. Being blessed with Jiana as a daughter is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I've never felt more content, and have never spent so much time giggling.

These days, she is into everything. She has figured out how to open drawers now and is really into emptying the contents. My biggest challenge is keeping her away from the toothpaste. It's quite a battle. She tasted it once and now she is hooked. I keep trying to explain to her that fluoride is bad for babies teeth, but she is not buying it.

Home 3 months
It seems like we've been home a lot longer than 3 months... life has been so full and so much fun lately.

Jiana is such an amazing baby. She is totally low maintenance and so easy going. I often get asked if I'm getting any sleep, and I'm always thrilled to report that I go to bed and get up at the exact same time as I did before I had a baby. She is really no worse than having a cat. Jiana is right on par with Sunkissed and Jupiter, who both have the annoying habit of waking me up around 6am to be fed or let out. Jiana will sometimes cry out at night when having a nightmare, but she is easily soothed and falls back to sleep in my bed. And she is generally a more quieter sleeper than the orange members of our household who both purr way too loudly.

I am constantly being stopped on the street and complimented for my very darling baby. And here I was all concerned that I wasn't going to get a cute one. Jiana is a really happy and social baby. She's very good around new friends and family. She really enjoys all the attention she attracts. She is great to party with. She only gets a little cranky with me when we are alone and I try to ignore her in order to get dressed, make food, use the computer or straighten the house. In fact, the only fault I can find in her is that she really doesn't like to play by herself.

Jiana takes her first steps
Mood:  happy
My baby girl is walking... I'm told by veteran moms that the real trouble beings now. Jiana took her first steps last Saturday at a gathering in memory of my friend Lisa Klett and has been doing just great standing on her own. She seems to get a really kick out of taking her first couple of steps and then falling into me. Such tremendous joy on her face.

Now that she's a bit faster on her knees and can leverage a stand, she is really going head on with Team Orange. Yesterday, she reached over to Jupiter and yanked on his whiskers, which he really didn't seem to appreciate. The boyz generally tolerate her advances, but everyone has their limits. Although, Jupiter seems to like her crib and has taken to sleeping in it, when she's not there. Sunkissed prefers the bed on the other side of the room.

Today I finally got around to hostessing Jiana's first birthday party. We had 14 adults and 4 little ones. It was an all day open house and as can be expected I bought way too much food. We had a lot of fun.

Having been home for just over 3 months and having yet to receive an inappropriate comment from a stranger, I was beginning to think that everyone naturally thought Jiana was homegrown.

So there we were in the supermarket last week, just minding our own business singing, dancing and generally making fools of ourselves in the checkout line, and when I least expect it I am approached by a 10-something toe-haired blond. This little girl just walks up to me and says, "how come her hair is black and yours is light." I stop, calmly look at her, smile and say, "I don't know... it just worked out that way." She looks at me, thinks a second and retorts back. "You look 19!" I say, "WOW... that's great! I'm actually 41." "Do you really think I look too young to be a mom." And then, she shakes her head yes and walks back to play with her sister. The cashier and everyone else in earshot was just cracking up.

So much for dealing with the dreaded question, and how a little busy buddy made my night.

Next Tuesday, I will be leaving for LA for Jiana's conversion to Judaism. It should be interesting... I'm a bit nervous about the trip down. Decided to risk it as flying down and transporting a car seat seemed to be a huge hassel. Tomorrow will be my first official mother's day... I think Jiana plans to let me sleep in late and then treat me to lunch and a massage. Hey, a girl has got a right to dream.

Cheers to Jiana.
Genice

Jiana's almost one
Mood:  celebratory

It's been a while since I last posted as it's been a whirl wind since we got home. The first couple months were an adjustment for me, but now we are in a pretty good groove. I'm even up to showering every day now.

Jiana is absolutely amazing and gets cuter and cuter by the day. I don't even think it's possible and then the next day I wake up and she's even more adorable than the day before. Jiana is very close to walking now, and cruises around the house holding herself up on furniture and able bodies. She's also very vocal and has a diverse baby talk vocabulary. Her most decernable words are "mama", "baby', "cat??", "that" and "uh oh". "uh ho" is by far the cutest as she purses her lips on the "oh" part.

Jupiter and Sunkissed are still amazingly tolerant. Although, I think she may be getting to the end of her "honeymoon" period. Jupiter has found her crib to be especially cozy. Jiana really gets a kick out of her brothers and they are constantly bringing her to a giggle.

Little by little, we are getting out for various road trips and social activities. It's been really fun. last Saturday, I took her to the beach for the first time.

As for the practical side, Jiana is still eatting and sleeping very well. Like her mom, she loves food and is not a picky eater. She also sleeps well, both in her crib and occassionally with me.

As for me. I'm back to work. I've been doing a combination of contingency search, executive search and contract recruiting. It's been working out ok. Although, I'm sort of ready for another career change and am flirting with a few different ideas. So, what else is new. My other challenge is that I find I can manage to get to the gym with baby, or juggle taking care of baby and working. I haven't yet figured out how to combine baby, working and making it to the gym. So this is my next hurdle.

What's next... Wednesday is Jiana's first birthday and we are planning on going to the zoo for her first time. This should be a lot of fun.

Well gotta run now and catch some zzzzs.

Cheers to the cutest (and I'm not bias) baby in the world.

Love Jiana's mom

Now that we are home 6 1/2 weeks
Welcome to our blog (internet slang for web log). If you haven't ever visited one, it's in reverse chronological order. Our blog was started a few weeks prior to my traveling to Kazakhstan to meet and bring home my daughter Jiana. I posted several entries from Kazakhstan and there are also guest posts from my friends Delilah and Nanci who both spent time with me there.

Pictures of Jiana and our adventures in Kazakhstan can be viewed on the following websites:

https://genicejacobs.tripod.com/babypics/

http://www.delilahlah.us (Delilah's site)

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/ntucker123/my_photos (Nanci's site)

We have now been home for around 6 1/2 weeks and we are just beginning to settle into a schedule. I've taken time off from working to bond with Jiana and we are having so much fun getting to know each other. I love being a mom. All and all, Jiana has proved to be a really easy going baby. She eats well, sleeps a good 10 hour stretch and is generally pretty cheery. she is smart, curious, outgoing, assertive and funny as can be. And I happen to think she is the most gorgeous child on earth.

The going to bed thing was bit a dicey for a couple of weeks as I tried to transition Jiana from sleeping with mom to sleeping in her own room, and just getting her to bed period. My darling daughter is a fireball of energy and like her mom doesn't want to miss any of the fun. Last week, I went over to my travel partners (the Amani's) house and saw that they had babyswings to put their babes to bed. I high tailed it to Babies R Us and bought one. It's been a great success in getting Jiana to bed at a respectable hour.

Jiana is making great strides on all developmental fronts.... but slobbering is her specialty. She is very talkative and seems to have has a lot to say. But, mostly blaa, blaa, blaa, gaa and kit ca. She is quite fond of her kitty cat brothers, and spends a good deal of her day pursuing them.

Jiana has a pretty varied diet at this point, including formula, organic baby food, as well as tofu, pasta, bananas, avocados, and cherrios. My little gastronome is also showing increasing interest in everything I seek to put in mouth. So more and more, I'm having to learn how share. Fortunately, I think I can still justify not feeding her Indian food.

She seems to have become very attached to me... in fact she never wants me to stray more than a few inches at any given time. Her favorite pastimes include dancing, mouthing all manner of things, fondling cat food, sticking her hands in my mouth and yanking on my curls (ouch).

Just this week, she seems to have officially entered the getting into everything stage. She has proven her ability to clear off the coffee table and climb halfway up the stairs (yes, I am aware that this is an extreme falling hazard and I have gates installed)... now I really have my work cut out for me.

Since arriving in the US, Jiana has gained US citizenship, obtained health insurance and a social security card and is soon to open a college savings fund. Now all she needs is a job.

Well that's about all for now. We'd love to have some more visitors. So please call us at 510-530-6687 if you want to come over.

Love Genice

Being a mom versus thinking about being a mom
Now that I've unpacked, recovered from jet lag and have caught up on my sleep, I reflect on all that has happened over the past 6 weeks, and how reality has shaken out as opposed to how I imagined life as a mom would be.

Many have asked me how it feels to be a mom. In short: It is all good.

Being back in familiar surroundings, my life doesn't really feel all THAT different. Sure I walk around the house wiping up spit and picking up toys all over the place, do 10xs as much laundry, take 3xs as long to have breakfast and I shower a lot less often than I used to. But, for the most part, having Jiana around has been pretty easy to adjust to.

Jiana is a wonderful little trooper and has been a great travel companion, bunk mate and teacher. While a bit manic at times, she is quite resilient and generally cooperative. She likes for me to hold her a lot and has a conniption fit if I attempt to put her down for more than 10 seconds... but she's very cheery, bright, a good eater, a sound sleeper and doesn't make a big deal regarding the status of her diaper. Most of the time, she is positively delightful... can be very silly at times and really entertains me, Sunkissed, Jupiter and herself. We spend a lot of time looking into each others eyes and just giggling hysterically.

I feel very good about my decision to adopt from Kazakhstan as opposed to Russia. I believe my daughter received very good care in the Baby House, and as a result seems to be very well adjusted. Of course, I worried myself crazy about alcoholism in Kazakhstan and the possibility of prenatal exposures. But, it turns out that virtually all of the children adopted internationally from Kazakhstan are free of these issues. And while I read a bit about these risks in Kazakhstan, I didn't seem much evidence of alcohol or drug abuse on the streets... it was nonexistent as compared to what is evident on the streets of San Francisco. I only saw one incidence of alcohol abuse the whole time I was there. There was one guy who obviously had a hangover, but it was New Year's Day so he had a reasonable excuse.

I was also concerned about safety and the possibility of getting mugged while carrying large amounts of cash in Almaty. But, Almaty turned out to be a very comfortable, clean and safe city. I certainly felt much safer in Kazakhstan than I do in many neighborhoods in Oakland. OK, so that doesn't say much. Let's just say that I felt as safe in Almaty as I would in one of the best neighborhoods in San Francisco.

I spent a great deal of time strategizing as to what I was going to feed the baby, how I would put her to sleep and how we would bond. And in the end, those ideals were not be as perfectly executed as I had envisioned. But, Jiana appears to be very resilient, and it turns out that she doesn't melt if I let her cry for 15 seconds or if she I inadvertently feed her something out of sequence.

As for my trip to Kazakhstan, there were a few disappointments in that I didn't get to see as much of the countryside as I would have liked. Didn't get to see must of traditional Kaz culture, camp out in a Yurt, eat out in enough restaurants... didn't make it over to the Chabad House to meet Rabbi Liftshitz, and couldn't get in touch with the staff of the Feminist League in Almaty even though there offices were just a few blocks from where I was staying. But, I guess that all goes with the territory of being a mom. I just getting used to that.

At this time, I also wanted to thank everyone who has been so supportive of me during this whole adoption adventure. This includes my family, dear friends-- so many veteran mom's have offered such good advice, but also strangers on the street, new friends I've met through online adoption groups, such as Single Kaz Moms, Almaty Adoption and California Family Kazakhstan Adoption. I'm so grateful to all those people who took time to consul me and write me back to address my assorted concerns. I've been completely blown away by the love and openness of my loved ones... and the generosity and candor of strangers. I couldn't have made it this far without everyone's support and encouragement. And once more I wanted to thank everyone for the fabulous baby gifts and hand-me-downs. They are all so special to us.

Jiana's mom
Who is delighted to have been blessed with such an amazing daughter

photos of our adventures
I've posted some photos at:

https://genicejacobs.tripod.com/babypics/

stayed tuned... more photos to be posted in the coming week.