Early December Update

I'm up again with Little Nahui. She's actually asleep, but now I'm the one who can't fall asleep... I was laying there just watching her sleep. She looked so cute, although not entirely peaceful, because she's all stuffed up and has to breathe through her mouth. Sometimes she seems a little bit delirious when she wakes up : (

I guess I could do something useful like pay the bills, but instead I'm blogging and on facebook! You'll all be happy to know that the kids will be coming with us for Christmas! It's not permanent though, it's just a relative visit. For the permanent placement, the Arizona State social worker has to send in paperwork for the state ICPC (and she's waiting on something from someone, although she didn't specify what). THEN, she will submit it to the State of Arizona, who will process it, however long that takes, and THEN they will submit it to the State of California. Eventually, it will trickle down to our local ICPC Office and then to the ICWA Social Worker, whom I've already spoken to. She says from there, it will be no more than 60 days until they are placed with us.

My guess is we'll get the kids around the same time that Little Huitzil is born, because I estimated how much time everything will take and because the world is crazy that way. I'm sure there are many wonderful as well as challenging times ahead. The process is taking a long time, which is frustrating, but I'm finally at peace with it and know that in the end it will probably be best that we had more time to mentally prepare for their arrival.

Update for the Week

This past weekend, we visited the kids in Phoenix and went to the Phoenix Zoo. It was fun and everyone had a good time, except for Nuva, who was unable to make it... However, actually seeing the kids and spending time with them was a great relief from the madness and bureaucracy of getting them here. Nikishna asked the boys what they wanted for Christmas, but they couldn't think of anything. They said "Nothing, really. We just take whatever people give us." It made me sad.... They also said some other boy or boys in the home killed their Beta fish by pouring mouthwash in their water. Argh! We have talked to the social workers about checking them out for Christmas and have started the process. The Hopi Guidance Center needs to fax over a copy of our homestudy to the Arizona State Social Worker, which makes me nervous, because Hopi's follow-through hasn't been consistent. In August, they told us they could have the kids with us "within a week" then it turned into "by the end of September" and now we really do not know. We may do a state to state transfer from Arizona to California, which would take about 60 days once Arizona files the paperwork.

Here's some pictures (hopefully the link works):
http://picasaweb.google.com/nikishna/PhoenixZoo

This week was interesting, because we had to move offices (due to the budget cuts) as we will now be on the main campus. It was a little difficult trying to do regular work and pack up everything at the same time, but we should be settled in the next two weeks or so.

Today we went to Disneyland in the evening time. It's all decorated for Christmas - wee! Nahui liked the carousel, of course, as well as the Casey Jr. Circus Train.  She is starting to understand that we are having a baby (she rubs my belly with her little hand and says "baby"). I think it will work out well. She definitely needs sister and she's very loving towards small babies - despite her violent tendencies towards other toddlers, whom she sees as direct competition (although the violent tendencies are kind of fading, I think!)

Total digression:
I am worried about our tangerines... Our tangerine tree is in full bloom, but we forgot to pick them today before it got dark. Last year, we were freaked out by rustling outside our window late at night. We turned on our bedroom light only to discover two little old neighbor ladies stealing our tangerines! I was okay with it at first, since we can't eat all the tangerines ourselves, but when they were finished, I saw that they had 5 bags packed with tangerines!!! Yeesh! I didn't mind them taking some, but I did  mind them creeping around in the middle of the night and stripping the whole tree... The next morning, there were none left on the tree - luckily I'm having a bit of insomnia right now, so I can protect the tangerines this year...

Lastly:
I was all sad, because I discovered an identical blog "Yolie's World" with an "e" at the end, which is actually waaaay better than mine. However, it was destiny - the other Yolie was adopted as a child, but is now about my age and has a nice family. She has some very useful insight into the feelings on the side of the children who get adopted, so I'm learning a great deal from her.

Early Morning Writing

Good morning/evening everyone! No, I am not up late, I'm actually up early, because I went to bed with a huuuuuge headache around 7:30pm, maybe before... It's sad when I fall asleep sooner than Nahui! I keep  having these awful recurring headaches and I'm not sure if it's the pregnancy or stress - although I'm really not THAT stressed lately. Maybe it's a migraine... What's a migraine???

I'm having difficulty writing because 1. Nikishna set this blog up for me kind of out of the blue - even though I did want to blog and 2. I feel that everything going on in my life was preceded my some other event and to talk about it would mean having to back-track and tell some of that history. Ah well, this blog will be a small attempt to do so.

Nikishna and I are still both working at UCI, running the American Indian Resource Program - although my position/pay actually requires me to also work on two other programs: SIAP and Community College. Most of the time I enjoy these other two programs, except when there's a lot of work for all three programs at the same time and then it can get chaotic! Little Nahui is doing excellent - she's starting to speak in sentences and has lots of energy! Well, developmentally, she's doing excellent. Socially, she's not doing so well. She hits and bites, but the toddler book says it's just a phase.... It makes me feel bad, because then I think people don't love my Nahui-pops. Would you believe me if I said she only hits the people she truly loves?!?!?!?!

We're also in the process of potentially taking in our niece and nephews who are in foster care out in Arizona. It's complicated, because we're in California and they are wards of the Hopi Tribe, but currently under the jurisdiction of the State of Arizona. I feel bad because we haven't really been to many local Native events recently, due to the issues with getting the kiddies.... but trust me, we're still involved in the Native community! This weekend we will be visiting them on Sunday. We're hoping to have them here by Christmas, but who knows? The process keeps getting dragged on and on. The boys are in a boy's home and Nikishna says it sucks to be in a Home during the Holidays, so even if they aren't with us by then, we're going to see if we can pick them up and have them stay with us for a few days - although I'm not sure if overnight visits are allowed... we'll see...

Ooh! Next Monday we have our main ultrasound and we'll find out if Little Huitzil is a girl or boy!

Okay, that is all for now...

Creepy, Lonely House

So even though I usually fall asleep at about 9:30, I am now wide awake, because Nikishna is in Portland at the AISES Conference. Our house isn't THAT big, but there's only three of us and when one of us is gone, it feels like a HUGE house for only two people. I was doing okay until Nahui fell asleep and now it's really quiet and creepy... Earlier today, I paid my electric bill and vowed to use less electricity, but that has now gone out the window as most of the lights in the house are on (to ease my mind). I'm horrible! Okay, I'll go turn one off...  I'm back. I feel so magnanimous. Anywho, soon our house will be more populated...

That reminds me - my birthday was earlier this month. I'm pretty close to the big 3-0, but I don't really mind. I actually started feeling old when I became a mom, but I'm over it now and turning 30 doesn't seem like a big deal. I got a new HP Mini for my birthday. Below is a picture of Marcelita and me trying to figure out the camera.

Welcome

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog! I've always liked writing, but sometimes I get paranoid when other people read my writing, so we'll see how this experiment goes... Feel free to sign in and leave comments, but if I really don't like your comment, I will probably erase it, haha, just kidding! No I'm not.

Holiday Party with Little Nahui

Yoli's New Blog!

Welcome to Yolanda Leon Polequaptewa's new blog. Follow along to learn and laugh about the life of Yoli.