Carley's Walking!

Yesterday evening Carley took her first few independent steps.  Today she walked even more though she still resorted to crawling more often than not. She's exactly the age that Lindsey was when she first started walking, just shy of being 13 months.

What a Weekend!

Carley's birthmother came to visit for the weekend.  It was an amazing and overwhelming weekend.  I'm so glad we had her come for a visit, though we're all exhausted. I think Carley found it difficult at times to be the center of so much attention.  She was indeed a princess for the weekend, but that can be a little too much for a baby to handle.

Carley's First Sentence

Carley said her first sentence today, "Pick me up".  It came out more as one word, picmeup.   But she repeated herself and it was pretty clear and she said it in the right context so I think it counts.

Christmas School Program

As the parents of preschool children, we attended our very first school program tonight, a program of songs mostly Christmas.  I've dreamed of attending my children's school programs.  It was everything I imagined and more.  Lindsey went around introducing everyone to each other and directing the handing out of the programs.  She was the hostess with the mostest.  Sam literally laid on the floor silently for a good deal of the program because he was " 'cared".  He was a kid where in the past if I had seen him as a stranger I would have thought, "What's wrong with that kid?"  At home he sang all the words to the songs perfectly.  Mmm, that's what I get for being judgmental about other people's kids all those years before I actually had kids.  It looks like I'm still paying for that.  Most of all, though, I had fun and was very proud to be the mama of such great kids.

First Snow and Christmas Decorating

Saturday afternoon and evening it snowed enough for us to play out in the snow in our yard for the first time this winter.  That put us in the mood to get going on our Christmas decorating! 

Happy Birthday, Carley!

It's impossible for me to believe that it's been a year since our baby was born.  What happened to the 6 lb 18 inch beautiful tiny creature that we took home from the hospital when she was 2 days old?  She's grown into a beautiful one year old that's now 20 lbs 14 oz and 28 inches.  According to the doctor's chart she's exactly at 50th percentile for weight, height and head circumference.

She's lively, happy, demanding, and impossible for me to resist picking up every chance I get.  (Okay, she's spoiled.)  She's got 6 teeth, can stand, can almost walk unassisted, is a very fast crawler (you can't turn your back on her for a second), can climb stairs, has an infectious laugh, a vocabulary of about 6 words and loves her big sister and brother.  I can't imagine our family without her.

Happy Birthday, Sammy!

Guess who's 4!

So Much to Be Thankful For

The whole family, including Oma, headed to southern Utah for Thanksgiving weekend.  We were hoping to get some sunshine and warmer tempertures and Thanksgiving day turned out perfect.  The sky was a spectacular cloudless azure blue and the temps were in the low 60s - just right for a little bit of hiking and playing in sand dunes to pre-work off our Thanksgiving dinner.  This was the baby's first experience with sand so of course she had to check out how it tasted!

On Friday evening we started our Christmas season  by going to an outdoor Nativity play, enjoyed looking at Christmas lights, warmed up by a roaring bonfire, went on a Santa "train" and saw the big man himself, Santa.  What better way to start the holiday season.  My favorite kid question of the day was Sam asking if  Baby Jesus was going to get a birthday cake.  I am truely thankful for so much - a happy and safe vacation, having plenty and most of all for my beautiful family.

No!

The kids and I were watching the movie Cars when Blain called us to dinner (he's taken, ladies, how lucky am I).  I flipped off the TV and went to pick up the baby.  She looked up at me and very clearly said "No!" in response to the TV being turned off.  Blain even heard it from downstairs.  I'm not sure if I should be annoyed or proud.  A little of both, but mostly proud. 

Carley's not quite one yet, almost but not yet, and she already can say 6 words.  That's probably fairly average but I'm one proud mama.  Luckily "no" was not her first word, that was "dada" followed by "mama".  She can also say "dog", "baby" and "stop".  Interesting that "no" and "stop" are part of this very limited vocabulary.  She must have heard those words more than once.  Oh, she can also sign for "milk" and "stop", clap her hands and wave bye-bye.

After dinner we all gathered in the family room to read, watch TV, blog (me) and sit in front of the fire.  Maybe not an exciting Saturday night, but I love it.

The Ties That Bind

An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet,

regardless of time, place, or circumstance.

The thread may stretch or tangle, but it will never break.

        --- An ancient Chinese belief

 
Today I made arrangements for Carley's birthmother to come out and visit us in December right after Carley turns one.  She wants desperately to see the child she gave birth to and keep connected to her. We witnessed her saying goodbye and saw firsthand how extremely difficult it was for her.  We clearly know how much she loved this child.

A part of me is scared about the prospect of her coming out.  In some ways it's easier for an adopting parent to have a closed adoption where we have no idea who the birthparents are.  It's a mystery you wonder about but there are no fears of losing your child in some way to a birthparent - either in a custodial way or more likely in the emotional sense where the child might say they prefer their REAL mom.  I'm sure we'll still hear that anyway at some point because I can remember saying some pretty mean, petty and hurtful things to my parents when I was going through the tween years.  I guess that just goes with the territory of being a parent whether adoptive or biological.

Since both Lindsey and Sam were adopted from China, we'll probably never have any idea who their biological parents were.  After seeing Carley's birthmother going through the heart tearing emotions of giving up a child, I have a much better understanding of what Lindsey's and Sam's birthmothers probably went through.  I'm just so sorry that they won't have the same knowledge of their backgrounds that Carley will have.

National Adoption Month

November has been designated as "National Adoption Month" in the United States.  I feel unbelievably blessed that we have our 3 children in our lives and we have the privilege to raise them.

The Gift of Life

 I didn't give you the gift of life,

But in my heart I know.

The love I feel is deep and real,

As if it had been so.

For us to have each other

Is like a dream come true!

No, I didn't give you

The gift of life,

Life gave me the gift of you.

--- Unknown 

All 3 of our children we saw for the first time through pictures.

Lindsey, our free spirit

Our happy-go-lucky Sammy

Our cuddly Carley

Nuts!

In a quest to be healthier I bought several bags of different kinds of nuts at Costco - almonds, pecans and walnuts.  Of course they were all plain nuts without added salt, oils or sugar.  Like I said, this was once again another attempt of mine to improve my diet.  I asked Lindsey if she wanted to try one and being my daughter she was more than game.  She popped a pecan in her mouth and instantly made a face and spit it out.  I asked her what kind of nuts she did like and she promptly said, "The kind with M&Ms".  Yeah, that's my girl.  This apple didn't fall far from the tree.

Little Girl Pirate

Lindsey was diagnosed with severe astigmatism right after her fourth birthday.  She flunked the eye screening test at her 4 year checkup at her pediatrician and was promptly referred to an eye doctor, although somehow she had managed to pass a similar eye screening test at her daycare.  I asked the eye doctor how she had managed to fool both her daycare and us as well.  Because even as her parents I have to confess that we hadn't really picked up on her poor eyesight either.  The doctor just said, "Kids are good at compensating". 

The doctor had told us that one of her eyes was worse than the other and she might have to wear a patch over the other eye to strengthen the weak eye.  But if she were good about wearing her glasses that the eye might become stronger without going the eye patch route.  Well, today Blain took her back to the eye doctor and after being good about wearing her glasses most of the time I am happy to say that Lindsey will not have to wear a patch.  Although I was secretly thinking it would be fun to have a little girl pirate running around the house.

I stayed home today "tending" Sam and Carley.  Blain retired last March so he's now officially a SAHD (stay at home dad) on most days with the baby.  It was a fun afternoon for me connecting with Sam who often gets overshadowed by his big sister and his baby sister.  Growing up I only had one sibling, an older brother, so I never really understood the middle child syndrome.  Now that I have 3 kids, I get it.

On a completely unrelated note, I bought headbands for the girls today which I think looks adorable on them, especially the baby.

Beautiful Baby Carley in her new headband

Beautiful Lindsey in her glasses

Sam, the Goofball

Halloween 2009

The mystery of Spiderman is revealed

Baby Girl Flower Power

A very serious Tinkerbell

Enjoying some of the spoils of the night

So it begins...

My first foray into the great world of blogging! Not just as a voyeur of others but putting my own and my family's world out there (or at least a slice of it every so often) for family, friends and the occasional internet explorer.

Of course, right now it's a pretty boring blog. Hopefully it will become much more interesting with pictures of cute kids and details of our exciting lives (well, at least busy anyway).