Happy Halloween

Evie was a bumblebee for Halloween this year. The costume does have a face on the hood, but she hates the hood so it stayed down 99% of the time.

She wore her costume for the first time on Thursday since the kids were invited to dress up for baby storytime at the library this week. Here's gangster bee: and thoughtful bee:

This evening we were invited to a bonfire and party at a friend's house. Evie had a ball tromping around their huge yard and she was in awe of the bonfire when it got going (it was about 8 feet tall before it was lit).

They also have a sand volleyball pit on their land and it was Evie's first experience with sand. Tasty:

Happy Halloween everyone!

Forever Family Day

Dear Evie,

One year ago today we all sat in a court room (well, you slept) and a judge signed a paper that says you are officially, finally and forever adopted into our family. This didn't change anything about how we felt about you or how you felt about us; it only changed our family's status in the eyes of the legal system and enabled us to put our last name on your birth certificate and get you a Social Security number. But even though the day was just a formality, we want to celebrate Forever Family Day as more than a legal anniversary.

On this day, we want to talk to you about "Forever." It means there is...

...nothing in the world so big...
...nowhere in the universe so far away...
...no amount of time so long...
...nobody on earth so powerful...
...no event so horrible, or so wonderful...
...no change in our lives...
...nothing you could do, not even the worst thing you can think of...
...nothing you can say, really nothing...

...that will ever, ever make us stop loving you. We will love you FOREVER.

Kisses,
Mommy and Daddy

Big Sis Evie is 13 Months Old

Thank you so much for all of the encouragement and congratulations, and prayers. We are blessed to have so many people who love and support us. I do have a few tidbits to write about the new baby, but I'll save those for another post and devote this one to Evie Bea.

First up, the month in pictures and captions (Where did this month go? Seriously, where?):

Blueberries! They match her eyes (notice the bandaid from her blood draw at the 12 month doctor visit):
She is becoming the queen of funny faces, at least whenever I try to take a picture of her. It's either this, a picture of her back, or just a blur of color. Toddlers are difficult to photograph:

A recent trip to the zoo was exciting because of the animals, the train ride, the other kids, and the puddles:

She really, really likes to slide these days. Can't you tell? No, seriously, she loves to slide. I have no idea what was going on here. I think it had to do with the camera:

At the zoo we saw a mama kangaroo with a joey in her pouch! Evie was too young to get it, of course, but I was so excited I had to get a picture:

Cold weather, pshaw. Evie's favorite activity these days is being OUTSIDE tromping around the back yard. You'll see more pictures like this below:

TROMP:

We didn't even get a good picture of playing in the leaves because the camera ran out of batteries. And picking leaf bits out of her longies? Not too fun:

Anyone remember Evie's first Halloween?

Things haven't changed that much:

This is not her costume this year (I'll save that for later) but because it is a toddler sized costume and was huge on her last year, I decided to try it on her again. She still hates it.

What is it with babies being fascinated with blinds and blind cords?

Evie also likes to feed other people these days. I was wearing her in a front carrier at the doctor's office recently and trying to feed her a snack, but she kept taking the food back out of her mouth and jamming it into mine. It made both of us descend into a giggle fit and the whole waiting room thought I was insane. Anyhow, here are Evie and J feeding each other peas:

Don't you love a baby in overalls? (And the red C*rocs are her favorite shoes these days):

She is definitely getting taller, judging by her reaching up onto the kitchen island, kitchen table, bathroom counter, etc. and being able to easily get on and off of her zebra by herself:

Let's add clambering to the tromping in the back yard:

She is fascinated by animals these days, as are most babies, but especially by DOGGIES!

She also has a new habit of lying down in odd places, like the middle of the kitchen floor or in the grass (she laid down, she didn't fall):

The best thing about the back yard? Free range doggies:

Giving presents to the beagle: Another pic of her lying down in random places. Actually, not random; this is where Phoebe likes to hang out during the day (she was crate trained early on and still loves to nap in nooks and crannies):

I want to take Apollo on a walk (see Phoebe's leash in her hands?):

Thanks to Courtney's post about making your own mei tai, I made one a couple of months ago (Courtney, sorry I took so long to take a darn pic of it!) and I've been really, really enjoying being able to carry Evie on my back. Our routine is usually that I wear her like this twice a day, after breakfast and after afternoon snack, and use the freedom to get things done like switching loads of laundry, sorting recycling, getting the car ready for an outing, taking the dogs out, etc. Evie seems to enjoy it as long as I keep moving and don't keep her in for more than 20 minutes or so. But this Mama can get a lot done in 20 minutes! Now I'm kicking myself for not making the version with the hood because it would be great for the new baby. Maybe I can alter it in the next few months.

Evie's "13 Months: The Movie" trailer (her interview, you'll notice, is a bit different this month):

Stats and tidbits from this month:

• Evie went from picky mouse eater to picky ravenous eater and weighs 1.5 pounds more now than she did at her 12 month appointment 3 weeks ago!


• A favorite food these days is cream of wheat, which we encourage because of the iron in it. She also loves fruit, yogurt, cheese, milk, peas, peanut butter, cinnamon, guacamole, hummus, bread and anything with too much sugar in it.


• The talking is coming slowly. She says "Mama" the most but has said the following words at least once: "Dada," "doggies," "tree," "ba-oon," "nose" and "no." She also moos and baas. ETA: today she said "key!"


• The signing is going pretty well. I don't work with her on it as much as some moms do, so my results are about what I'd expect. She knows "more" and "all done" but refuses to do the second because it means a face wiping will follow. I also taught her the signs for light and fan and now that she knows them she is even more obsessed with them than she was before and will frequently, throughout the day, point at lights and fans and make the sign. With J the sign now means "make the fan spin, please, Daddy!" I need to work on the sign for diaper change next, because that will be extremely useful.


• As far as non-ASL nonverbal communication, she started waving "hi" and "bye bye" awhile back but seems bored with it now and rarely does it anymore?! I taught her to shake her head no and nod yes and she is getting the hang of that. My favorite non-verbal communication is her snuggly hugs.
• Evie's receptive vocabulary is pretty large, and sometimes surprisingly so. I won't try to list the words here, but simply say that she seems to understand the words for most of the important people, places and events in her life (e.g. Pearl, outside, eat lunch).
  
• What we are learning right now is the parts of the body. She can easily identify my nose, hair, eyes and tongue and is working on ears, mouth, teeth and identifying the same on her own face. When she has it down I'll start trying the bigger body parts, but Evie likes to focus her learning and right now is all about face parts.


• Evie is already showing signs of the terrible twos: tantrums and independence. Her latest thing is wanting to choose which shoes she wears. Surprise, surprise, she usually chooses the most sparkly and impractical pair, or her C*rocs.
  
• Evie has some new favorite books these days, including Sandra Boynton books, books with photographs of babies (including a few with photographs of her) and song books, like "The Wheels on the Bus." She loves that if she pulls out a book based on a song and gets my attention, I'll sing the song to her.
  
• She is still not sleeping through the night, but wakes up once or twice for a drink of whole milk and goes right back to sleep. We have been coping just fine with her schedule and haven't been motivated to try night weaning, but a new baby on the horizon is making us talk about this more. Night weaning might be in the near future for Evie Bea. We'll probably do it by watering down her milk gradually and then putting a sippy of water in her crib at night.
• We are down to one nap a day now, which is generally immediately after lunch and lasts an hour to 2.5 hours, depending on when she woke up, how late lunch is and how active she was in the morning. I dreaded the transition to one nap, but now that it's here it's not bothering me as much as I thought it would. It's nice to be able to get out and about during the morning and not schedule playdates around an early first nap.


• Evie is still clingy and attention-seeking when we are home, but independent and social when we are out. My little extrovert. :) She does great in the church nursery now, and we don't keep her in the service for the worship music anymore because she'd rather race up and down the aisles than be held and enjoy the music.


• I've heard in a few different places that the first 2 years of a child's life are the most important in terms of shaping who they will be for the rest of their life. During these first 2 years they are forming their personalities and attitudes toward the world and toward other people. I have felt for the past 13 months an immense amount of pressure to give Evie everything and anything she needs to develop into the best version of herself. I am feeling a little panicky that I only have 11 more months until this formative period is over! Deep breathing...


• Evie is going to be a fabulous big sister. She's affectionate, social, energetic and enthusiastic. The new baby will be in awe of her. We had a playdate this morning with another mom and her 3-month-old and Evie was gentle with and interested in the baby. She even willingly shared a couple of her toys, which amazed me to no end because it is uncharacteristic of this age.

Happy 13 months, Evie Bea!

Two Under Two

Completely out of the blue, we are expecting to adopt again! Baby #2 (sex as yet unknown) is due in late April and we are SO EXCITED. And cautious, because there are 2 whole trimesters between now and then. Trimesters full of flutterings and kicks and bonding between mom and baby. So we are cautiously optimistic, moving forward with plans but still trying to hold back our emotions a little. We did the same with Evie and had no trouble bonding with her in the hospital, so I'm sure it will be the same this time.

We are thrilled, but writing this post makes me feel guilty because some of you reading this are still waiting to adopt your first, and J and I are being blessed by a second adoption. I can justify this logically. This is happening to us because x + y = z --- x is our adoption of Evie, y is our relationship with the expectant mom of the second baby and z is parenting 2 kids under age 2. But I can't justify this emotionally and spiritually. When there are so many women out there longing for their first baby, and here I am perfectly content with Evie. Why do I get to be doubly happy? Why did God put us through the desert of infertility for years and then pour out a second helping of grace when we weren't out searching for it? I have no answers to these questions. I'm here feeling overwhelmingly blessed, and guilty.

Just as with Evie's adoption, most of the details are going to stay private, but I will say that we haven't been running around doing a homestudy and profile and jumping into a pool of waiting families without writing about it here. We had talked in the past about adopting again quickly, but our most recent plan was to wait until Evie was 3. But the expectant mom (we'll call her A here) chose us independently because she has known us for years, knows about our infertility and adoption of Evie, and is relieved that she can make an adoption plan with people who are familiar to her, people she trusts to keep in contact with her, people she knows will love and cherish her baby. We are honored that she thinks us capable of parenting 2 under 2, and we have faith that if God orchestrates this adoption, He will also give us the wisdom to do it well!

Anybody else watching "Glee" on Wednesdays? Of course you are. So, I'm thinking that "Drizzle" would be a great nickname for the baby until we know the sex and can assign an appropriate Greek nickname for the blog. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you need to start watching the show. I would butcher the joke by explaining it here.

More details:

• we'll be traveling to sunny Florida for the birth and adoption
• we'll do our homestudy update in January
• the expectant father and his family are supportive of the adoption--YAY!

Time to start asking myself some important questions:

1. Buy a second crib for Drizzle or try to put Evie in a toddler bed? (Her crib is not convertible.)

2. Buy a double stroller even though Evie pretty much hates strollers and only tolerates them if they are moving forward quickly at all times or have really interesting people walking by them in a steady stream?

3. Leave Evie in her room with the mural she loves, or move her and put Drizzle in the nursery to enjoy the mural?

I'm glad I have 6 months to figure these things out.

Wordless Wednesday--First Masterpiece