Still in Oregon...

Morning nap, 13 days old.

Felix and I are still here, awaiting news on paperwork that won't come till at least Tuesday due to the holiday. Uggghhh....

Every night I'm learning what works and what doesn't in getting him to sleep after each feeding. He'll sleep in his monkey chair at the beginning of every night and early in the morning, but not after the feedings in between. Hates the bassinet, but likes being propped at an angle on my chest or a pillow. Hates the generic "comparable to..." bottle nipples. And he continues to sleep hardest at about 8:30am after I've gotten up for the day. When we get home, it'll be much quieter and full of different smells and sounds (and easier to sleep in), but I'm really hoping we don't have to start from scratch with the routines we've started.

On Friday I took Felix and the girls to La Grande for the day. We stopped at an antique shop and bought a Scrabble deck with tiles that spell FELIXDR, and Mara thinks he'll rearrange it and become a doctor. Then we drove downtown, parked, got out and started wandering. The girls tried on formal dresses at a secondhand store (the owner wasn't amused) and we laughed pretty hard at a store boasting "KNIFE SHARPENING" with displays full of teddy bears. We also visited the oldest JC Penney I've ever seen and a coffee shop with a guy so chatty, I thought my latte would be cold by the time he handed it over.

I continue to be surprised by the comments strangers make when we're out and about. Some are so shocking/inappropriate I won't post them here. Most comment on how tiny he is and how great I look, though, and exclaim that there's NO WAY their babies were that tiny. (They were.) Absolutely no one has assumed we're an adoptive family, and that's nice. It wasn't a requirement that my child look like me, but it's a nice little bonus that could mean he feels a lot less singled out as he grows up.

My parents are on their way for another visit today, and if the weather holds we might head up to Anthony Lakes for lunch. I'm really not used to 60, windy and rainy for Memorial Day weekend, but that's Oregon for you.

P.S. Quite a few people have asked if the paperwork holdup is due to the birth mom not signing, but it's nothing like that. We're awaiting clearance on ICPC, which is a program that triple-checks paperwork between states in order to prevent the trafficking of children across state lines.