7 Quick Takes (9)

--- 1 ---

At 10 months old, Anna is finally getting a tooth!  We can see it, it just needs to finally pop through the gums!

--- 2 ---

Christmas was so much fun this year.  Here are some pictures of Anna and the craziness!  We had seven different Christmas celebrations in just 3 days.  It was busy, but seeing all our families and sharing Christmas with people we love was priceless.  Anna loved every minute of it!

She can find a mirror anywhere.  She just loves watching herself dance!

Anna and her second cousin Jacob.  He's like 3 months older than her, but they're pretty much the same size!

Anna riding in style in her first vehicle!  Nana and Papa got her this super fancy pick-up truck, it even has a tailgate that opens with cup holders...

Fun with paper.  She didn't care what was in the presents, so long as we let her have some paper.  She started grabbing paper and running away at one point.  Here she's opening up the princess tent her Aunt Sara and Uncle Kel got her!

She's such a ham for the camera!

Walking around with her jingle bell!

 

--- 3 --- 

I mentioned that our good friends were coming to stay a few days before Christmas. Here's the three of us moms with our babies.  What a beautiful blessing to have three beautiful, happy and adorable babies this year!

Justine and Theodore, Myself and Anna, Stephanie and Matthias

--- 4 --- 

 We're writing our check for our second Homestudy next week!  I'm excited to get moving!  Thank you end-of-the-year bonus!

--- 5 ---

We hung out at our friends house before Christmas.  They have three girls (4, 3, 18 mo) and Anna just LOVES them!  We're lucky we get to see them so often, because Anna and Anne sure have fun together. 

Anna teaching Anne how to properly lick windows...  So glad my daughter is teaching other kids good habits...

Oh, and now that we've had fun licking the windows, let's lick kiss each other!

--- 6 ---

Every room in our house looks like a toy store exploded...  And while I generally like things neat and tidy and picked up, seeing all these little girl toys strewn about the house makes me so very happy.  I'll keep the mess :-)

 

--- 7 ---

Since I had the week off, I decided to take the week off of cleaning the house too (that and we spent very little time actually at home in the last week)...  I have my work cut out for me on Monday! 

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

10 Months Old

Anna is 10 months old today!  I know I say it every month but why does she have to get so big so fast?

Here are some of the things she's been up to the last month:

Walking:  She mastered the walking thing.  Just a few days after turning  9 months old, she had it down.  Now she very rarely crawls and prefers walking.  She falls about a billion times a day because she just doesn't care what is in her way, she'll walk over it!  It's fun to have her walking, she follows me everywhere and looks like such a big girl!

Talking:  She still talks ALL. THE. TIME!  On our various trips for different Christmas gatherings, she pretty much yaked the whole time.  Like an entire 2.5 hour car trip...  And she's loud!  She says Mama, Dada, more, Gigi (her giraffe), and no, no, no.  Sometimes we think she says "hi" and "all done" but it's hit or miss so we're not sure :-)

Toys: She got a Bitty Baby for Christmas from her grandparents and absolutely loves it.  It's really sweet because she mimics what I do.  She's always picking it up and giving the baby hugs and kisses and sometime she'll pick it up and pat it's back.  It's so sweet! 

She got like a billion toys for Christmas so she's had fun playing with all of those.  She loves the bongo drums her uncles got her because she just loves to dance. 

She also of course still loves giraffe.  She's started calling it Gigi like I mentioned before.  She takes it everywhere and it's looking nasty loved.

Bathtime:  She still loves bathtime, but had a few days there where she hated it.  We think it's because we got her a whale bath toy to play with, it makes noise and shoots water.  She's deathly afraid of it.  And a few days after that, she acted scared of the tub.  But the whale is in hiding and she's back to her normal splashing self.  She also has those foam bath letters that stick to the side of the tub.  She will only play with the green ones.  What's with that?  She will pick up say a red one, look at it, and chuck it to the side and repeat until she finds a green one.  Then she chews on it.  It's kinda strange but very funny at the same time.


Other than that, there's not much new, walking was the big thing this month.  We're hoping she slows down her growing a little bit, at her last appt. she was 90 percentile in height and weight.  Just this week she's fitting into some of her 12M and lots of her 18M clothes.  With a new 18M wardrobe from Christmas she's styling :-)  She's looking (and acting) like a toddler.  Where did my little baby go?  She's just so much fun and so sweet. 

She also went to her first Illini game last night.  That may be a post in itself, but I will say she absolutely loved it.  16,000 people might overwhelm most 10 month olds, but not this child.  She likes an audience!

And again, I repeat myself month after month, but we feel so blessed to have her as our daughter.  She is so full of craziness and is just has such a fun personality.  While she definitely has an attitude at times, most of the time she is happy, crazy, and full of sweetness!

Merry Christmas

At some point I'll get around to posting some pictures but for now, I'll just say that every room in our house now looks like a toy store exploded.

I guess that's what you get when you have the first grandbaby on both sides, 8 aunts and uncles, four sets of great grandparents, and a billion people who love you and want to shower you with gifts on your first Christmas :-)!

We feel so blessed to be able to have spent so much time with our wonderful families and friends this Christmas.  We're so thankful for Anna this Christmas. 

We're thankful that my whole family got to go to Mass together at my the parish we grew up in and we FILLED a pew.  It's been a quite a few years since schedules allowed us to all share a pew together!  It was most definitely the highlight of our Christmas.  With Anna asleep in her new carrier, and family surrounding us, it was so peaceful to sit in a quiet pew staring at the baby in the manger listening to the choir since joyful Christmas songs.  It brought tears to my eyes to have my own baby snuggled up on my chest and understanding the joy Mary must have felt.

Sentiment

This evening we decided to rearrange our two spare bedrooms.  It's actually kind of been a week-long process of going through stuff.  We wanted to clear out Anna's future bedroom to make room for a pretty little girl when the time is right.  Basically we had kept a lot of our things in there that we didn't really know what to do with.  So with going through things came some discussions about what to keep and what not to.

My hubby and I are very alike in so many ways.  I could list them, but it would take a while.  We're also very different in many ways.  It keeps our marriage interesting and well-balanced.

One of those differences comes in sentiment.  I am 100% NOT sentimental.  Objects just really have no emotional attachment for me.  Maybe it's because I have a very sharp, clear memory and I don't feel like I need a thing to remind me?  I do love pictures (if you couldn't tell by the thousands I post of Anna) and those are sentimental to me.  Basically, I have no problem getting rid of just about anything.  I am whatever the opposite of a pack rat is.  I get rid of EVERYTHING!

Basically my selection process is: If I don't remember where it came from upon first glace, or if I didn't know that teddy bear from long ago was in drawer I just found it in, I obviously didn't miss it and clearly don't need it.  So out with it!

Jeremy is very different.  While I wouldn't classify his as a pack rat by any means, he is definitely more emotionally attached to objects that bring memories.  He's likely to pick up that same teddy bear that I would thrown away and describe a memory that goes with it.  I would be likely to describe the memory with no recollection that a teddy bear was involved.  See the difference? 

So through the years we've learned to respect each other's sentiment while still making sure the things we kept actually had sentimental value and the things we got rid of were definitely ready to get cut.  This week was one of those times.  We had fun sharing memories and we had fun laughing at the ridiculousness of some of the things we kept. 

It used to be a source of tension when we went through things.  However, together, we've both come a long way at meeting in the middle.  And after an evening of going through things, it dawned on me how much we've grown together.  We've definitely met in the middle!

Updates

We had Anna make her own Advent wreath.  She obviously doesn't understand Advent yet, but she had fun making it! 

 

We have an children's Advent Activity book and one day the activity was to make an angel ornament.

Our good friends came home for Christmas.  We hadn't met their son Matthias yet, he was born in September (on my birthday!) after they moved to Pennsylvania.  So here are the birthday buddies :-)

 Anna got her first drum lesson from her Uncle Joey :-).  She was watching intently!

 

Anna loves presents.  But she doesn't know they're supposed to be opened yet.  So instead she enjoys pushing them around... 

 And since she's walking now, carrying them around...

Oh what fun it is to crawl under the tree...

And here's a picture of Anna with her first pigtails.  Her curls are now long enough to get into pony tails.  I still have quite a bit of practicing to do to make them look nice, but looking at her face, you can tell she thought they looked pretty cute! 

And in just two days, our friends Jon and Justine and their son Theodore (our godson), as well as our friends David and Stephanie and their son Matthias are staying with us for our 3rd annual New Year's party.  I know, it's not New Year's yet, but we had to do it when everyone was in town.  But since Advent is the Church's New Year, it works, right? 

Anyway, last year at our New Year's party, the three of us women spent a lot of time talking about infertility and the struggles, as we were all in similar boats.  Little did we know at the time, but God had three very special babies for us.  Stephanie found out she was pregnant very soon after that.  And Justine a month later.  And we got Anna a month later!  So by March, all three of us had babies either in the womb or in our arms.  What a wonderful blessing to be able to celebrate the end of a fantastic year and the birth of our Lord with such great friends and their beautiful babies! 

Words cannot express how blessed we feel to have Anna this Christmas.  We cannot wait to celebrate with an abundance of family and friends!  And we especially remember Anna's birthmom and keep her close in our prayers and thank God for her each day.  I'm sure this time of year will be challenging for her and I cannot express enough how much love we have for her.

Hide-n-seek Nativity

Now you see it...

now you don't! 

 "Ta-da!"

It's no wonder when we can't find something the first place we look is under the couch! :-)

 

And here's a close-up of Anna's first shiner.  She nailed the corner of the piano bench, conveniently the night before our case worker came over...

On Santa

I've come to realize that a major part of raising children is deciding what will and will not be a part of our home. Making decisions about traditions and what they will and will not look like is hard, this time of year especially.  Although we had thought through many things before we were parents, a lot was discussed on a "We'll think about that when we get there" basis.

Well now we're there and the topic of Santa needed to be discussed. Would we include Santa in our Chritmas festivities? 


***And let me just say now, many families I know do traditions of all kinds very differently. I am NOT saying one way is better, but merely what will work best for OUR family. I refuse to judge others, especially parents, on parenting decisions of any kind.  I do not want to be judged for my decisions and therefore do not judge others on theirs.  We all, as parents, are trying to do what is best for OUR families, and that looks different in every family.***


We have been asked countless times already, "So has Anna had her picture taken with Santa yet?"  I guess I didn't realize just how big of a deal it was until this year.

So here's what we decided. We will treat Santa like the fictional character that he is. Similar to say, Cinderella or the Smurfs. We do, and will, read stories about him, acknowleging the works of fiction, as we would Harry Potter or any other fictional character.

We will also talk about where the idea for Santa came from.  From the holy bishop, St. Nicholas. We will celebrate his feast day on December 6 with small gifts in our shoes and giving a gift to charity as a family, as St. Nicholas would have done. 

You see, I don't really have a problem with Santa, especially since his roots are in a holy man who spent his life giving to the poor. I do, however, have a problem with the publicity he is given. He becomes a celebrity at Christmas time. Taking all of the focus off of Christ's birth, and instead putting the focus on a jolly elf who sneaks down the chimney at night to bestow upon children mass amounts of gifts. 

I want Christmas morning to have the same "magic" that children often express about Santa, but instead of the "magic" of Santa, feeling the "magic" or sheer joy in the birth of our Lord. I want Christmas morning to be about Christ.  Not anything else. WE will get our children gifts for Christmas because that is a way of celebrating the wonderfulness of Jesus' birthday. We will bake and set out a cookie or treat to be eaten on Christmas morning by US to celebrate. We will read the Christmas narrative before opening gifts.  Santa does not need to be a part of that.

That is how I want Christmas to look in our home. 

I want the anticipation of Christmas morning to be about a birthday. The most important birthday. Because the reality is that we have not been decorating the house... and reading our Jesse tree verses... and lighting our Advent candles... and singing O Come O Come Emmanuel... and attending Christmas parties... and wrapping gifts... for a fictional character.  But rather for a very real, and very important baby who saved the world from sin, suffered on a cross for us, and rose from the dead. 

Journey to Adoption #2

I've mentioned a few times about our beginning of the journey to Adoption #2.  I mentioned meeting with our case worker.

Well, we met with our case worker and are just so excited to begin.  At teh first of the year, we'll begin our second homestudy.  We'll go back through all of our paperwork, editting where needed.  Luckily, we did the paperwork the first time not that long ago, so not much will need editting.  We will them redo/revise our profile.  We will also do another video. 

Our caseworker said that we could be back into circulation very early next year.  That makes me SO HAPPY!

The first time around, it took about 3 months for our Homestudy to be approved (this is after we had done everything WE needed to do), our licensing to go through, and our profile to go into circulation.  Thinking timeline for #2, I was hoping it would be shorter.

Our caseworker confirmed that.  Our license is still valid, check.  Our Homestudy was approved the first time and because we're quite involved and attend all of the functions Catholic Charities puts on, the director of CC knows us well.  This means that getting our second Homestudy approved is no big deal, they already know us and don't need to start fresh, check.  The birthmom counselors already know us (because our profile was shown to a lot of birthmoms the first time) so going into circulation is so much faster the second time around, check.

The process is much easier, less time intensive, and much easier this time around.  That makes me SO HAPPY! 

In addition, there are A LOT of birthmoms right now.  In fact, our caseworker almost called us to ask us come up with a profile quick last week to show a birthmom because we fit her qualifications perfectly, despite not yet being homestudy approved.  They found a few other families though, and although bm hasn't picked anyone yet, she's pretty sure they will.  But that's great, our caseworker already wants our profile out there.

Due to our openness, we fit a lot of birthmoms' criteria.  We also have a child of a minority race already in our home, making us more appealing to birthmoms of a minority race because we're already "walking that walk" as our case worker put it.  The bms can then feel confident that we'll welcome any child with open arms, and boy would they be right :-). 

All of this makes me hopeful for a quick wait time.  But at the same time, I'm realistic.  I know it could be a long time, it could be years.  And in reality, I'm okay with that.  I'm in a different place than I was alast year, waiting the first time.  We have Anna.  And I'm confident that God has a plan and that His plan is best.  I KNOW that I will survive through a fallthrough.  I KNOW that God will bless us with another child if that is His plan.  And I KNOW that through it all, I can stare at my beautiful baby girl and confirm God's love for me.  This time around, I have hope, something I didn't always have last time.  I have peace.  I have joy.  And I have willingly given up control.

The thought of adding another child to our family makes me giddy with excitement.  I LOVE being a mom and I can't wait to see the plans God has for us. 


On a less happy note, please say an extra prayer for the birthmom we were matched with first (our fallthrough).  Our caseworker gives us updates on her once in a while and we received some sad news about her situation.  Please pray for her and her children.  I truly believe God put her in our lives for a reason and right now that reason is to offer prayers.

Castles... In Scotland

We had Jeremy's work Christmas party tonight.  Things like this really aren't my scene.  I despise small talk.  I don't "mingle" well...  I'm awkward and don't like to start conversations with people I don't know.  Did I mention that I'm awkward?

Tonight, however, turned out rather nice.  Funny, in fact.

Our table was very chatty, the perfect outlet for me to respond politely to questions but not have to initiate conversation.

When discussing their son's upcoming wedding (in Scotland, yes, the country), one of Jeremy's co-workers said, "It should be fun, we rented a castle for the week."

I could hardly stifle my giggles.  Who has enough money to rent a castle?  Let alone for a week?  Not a hotel room, a condo, a house even, but a castle?  In Scotland?

7 Quick Takes (8)

 

--- 1 ---

Anna's trying to be like her mommy and overachieve... Yup, she hit 90th percentile for both height and weight!  At 21 lbs and 29 in., she's getting all A's!  We had her 9 month well check yesterday and her doctor was surprised when she saw Anna walking around the room.  And equally impressed when she asked if Anna has tried a sippy cup yet and I informed her that she in fact loves her sippy cup and has totally given up her bottle for a cup (Anna made it very clear this week that she does NOT want that silly bottle, but definitely wants her formula out of a cup)! 

Okay, maybe that sounds braggy, but I'm just a mama proud of her baby girl :-) And so very happy to have a baby girl to be proud of!

--- 2 ---

And to continue my proud mama moments, this morning Anna figured out how to stand up without the use of furniture or anything, just in the middle of the floor.  She's been trying for a while and finally figured it out this morning!
 

--- 3 ---

We meet with our caseworker this afternoon to start the process for Adoption #2!  I'm really excited!

--- 4 ---

Anna is like deathly afriad of people sneezing!  What is with that?  If we sneeze, she screams...  I don't know how to avoid it, it's kind of a weird fear to have! 

--- 5 ---

I feel so blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful Catholic moms.  Who, feast days/solemnities like yesterday, always get together to celebrate.  We went to McD's yesterday and let the kiddos play.  Anna and Luke love keeping up with the big kids, they're fun to watch!  I love being surrounded by friends who have the same beliefs and values that we do!

--- 6 ---

My youngest sister turns 20 this weekend.  That makes me feel incredibly old.  I don't so much notice that I'm getting older, I feel the same on my birthdays as I did before, not older.  But when my younger siblings turn "old" ages?  That's a totally different story!  Happy Birthday Baby Sis aka Aunt Julie!

--- 7 ---

Well, #7 was going to be a few cute videos, but they don't want to load again, so I'll just say Happy Friday and I hope everyone has fantastic weekends!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Snow!

Actually, this post has nothing to do with snow, but I just noticed it's snowing outside!  Yay for the first snow, I hope we get enough to cover the ground!  Somehow I doubt it, it's not coming down very hard :-). 

Here are a few pictures to sum up our week so far!

Anna thoroughly enjoyed dinner last night!  After cooking a chicken, I decided to make bbq chicken sandwiches for dinner.  She ate half of a sandwich all by herself with sweet potatoes!  And she LOVED it!  There's nothing this kid won't eat!

We baked Christmas cookies for our RCIA party tonight!  Anna enjoyed the cookie cutters.

We ended up with very few stocking cookies because once she got a hold of the cookie cutter, we weren't getting it back without a fight and a lot of slobber :-)

And to top off her bbq chicken dinner... A cookie and some sprinkles!  Who knew a container of sprinkles would provide so much entertainment?

Other than that, we celebrated St. Nicholas' Feast Day today with a St. Nick video and we even ate snack downstairs during the movie.  We're also enjoying lots of dancing to some Christmas music.  Anna's really into dancing lately, it's so adorable and I have a cute video, but blogger won't let me upload it for some reason.  So anyway, picture the most adorable 9 month old ever bouncing up and down on her knees and waving her arms in the air.  Throw a clap or two in there and some head shakes and you have insane cuteness!

And this week she's really taken off walking very well.  She doesn't go too far yet, but she definitely walks!  Her only problem is that she wants to go way faster than her little uncoordinated legs will let her.  Thank goodness she's tough, she falls a billion times a day, gets back up, and keeps going!  She'll have it down pat here in a few days I'm sure!

7 Quick Takes (7)

 

--- 1 ---

December's calendar is quickly filling up!  I'm so excited to see some friends who are coming into town!  We have lots of dates set for Christmas gatherings and such.  I always love spending so much time with friends and family in December. 

--- 2 ---

Anna loves the Christmas tree.  The lights, the ornaments, the presents under it, everything!  Her favorite thing is to get the big present (hers, and she actually already plays with the toy, we wrapped up the empty box) and she pushes it around like a walker.  It's pretty cute!
 

--- 3 ---

I broke my favorite Mary plate yesterday.  It was a gift and it was beautiful.  We had it sitting on Anna's bookshelf in her room.  It was a constant reminder of how I was supposed to be as a mother.  And I broke it... sad...

--- 4 ---

Speaking of breaking things, I have quite the track record.  I broke two pieces to a nativity set that we have.  Luckily I was able to hot glue them back together.  We then noticed that we had a nativity in every room except for Anna's.  And then Jeremy reminded me that we DID have on in there at one point.  And that I had broken it... It was on the same shelf as the Mary plate.  Maybe that shelf isn't a good place for breakables!

--- 5 ---

I finally found some stuff that makes Anna's curls soft and defined instead of frizzy and knotty!  I wish I would have bought it a long time ago, but I wanted to do my research first before I spent what seemed like a lot of money on hair stuff.  Now that I've used the products, I can't believe I waited so long!  Here's what I got and love!  I just can't believe how soft and moisturized her hair looks and feels now!  And I was able to comb it all the way out with no tears!  Worth it, right there!

(This is just my opinion on this product, I was not asked to write a "review", I simply wanted to share my good news :-)

--- 6 ---

Anna thinks she's a big kid.  When we got family pictures taken last week, there was a lego table in the waiting area.  It was surrounded by 2,3,and 4 year olds.  When I put her down, she waltzed right up there made a place for herself and took another kid's legos (the kid didn't care thankfully).  We couldn't stop laughing at the way she fit in with the "big" kids.  And Wed. we went to McD's with some friends and she acted like she owned the place.  She tried climbing into the tubes and standing on the slide and running after the other kids.  She doesn't care if she gets knocked over or pushed or anything.  She just wants to be big! 

--- 7 ---

I won a Liebster Award from G @ Renewing Moments!  Thanks G!

The Liebster Award spotlights up and coming bloggers who generally have less than 200 followers.

I have awarded my Liebster Blog Awards to 5 bloggers who I am constantly inspired by in their adoption journeys: (and I don't know who has already gotten it, so sorry if I repeat!)

1. Pray, Hope, Don't Worry
2. Grace in my Heart
3. Patiently Waiting
4. All You Who Hope
5. Magnify the Lord With Me
Upon receipt of the Liebster Blog Award, there are a few very simple rules:
1. Copy and paste the award on your blog
2. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you
3. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog or emailing them.
4. Hope that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

A new agency

I wrote this post back in July when Illinois passed it's Civi.l Un.ion Act (CUA as I'll call it here).  Well, recent events have made what I feared in that post a reality.



We live in one of the diocese that was fighting for Catholic Charities (CC) .  They were fighting to have the Religious Freedom Act trump the CUA with regards to faith based organizations abiding by their own moral values.  The state, however, felt that the CUA was more important and CC had to either abide by their ruling that same sex or cohabitating couples could be a part of their foster care and/or adoption programs or close their doors.  They would no longer be allowed to refer these couples to other agencies.

So with much prayer and a great deal of reluctance, the bishop of our diocese had no choice but to have CC stop its adoption and foster care programs.  However, the bishop and executive team at CC have worked very hard to create a plan that will not disrupt any of the children being served or any of the families in the foster care and/or adoption process. 

Basically the executive team formed a new organization.  This new organization has been formed.  The executive team from CC is now running this new organization.  It is in no way funded or connected to the Catholic Church, so it can function within state guidelines and continue to provide care. 

The staff from CC is being rehired at this new orgaization.  Records from CC are all being moved.  The children in the foster care programs will not even feel the switch.  Families may have a little paperwork but they're making that as minimal as possible.  Fee structures are changing a little, but it's all for the better.
  
I'm glad they had a plan.  It puts me at ease knowing that the case workers who have operated under a moral code for so long are going to be the same ones we continue to work with. 

Yes, they will have to start accepting civil unions in addition to marriages and single people.  And our case worker addressed us specifically to see our thoughts on this.  We took it to prayer and really had to think about our options.

The reality is that we live in a state that is failing financially and morally.  It was recent news that our state is #49 when ranked as far as finances are concerned.  Only California is worse than our current financial situation.  It's also a reality that unfortunately Illinois is paving the way for many of these civil liberty laws that are extremely contrary to our Catholic faith.

With those realities in mind, we know that God is calling us to adopt again.  And to possibly foster down the road.  He's made that very clear through prayer.  So although this new agency (CYFS) will have to abide by our state's laws, we will stay with them.  There is nowhere else to go, and we're not moving to a different state.  I know that the caseworkers are struggling more than we are.  CC in our diocese operated with the guidance of the Catholic Church for over 100 years.  At least those principles (especially the Right to Life attitude) are still instilled in our caseworkers.  I'm confident that they will continue to respect life at all costs and do what is best for the children.

It just saddens me that a religious organization had their freedom of religion taken away.  It's sad that a country built on religious freedom is now taking those very freedoms away.  It takes away some of my hope in the coming generations.  It makes it more challenging to raise holy children who look to the Church for guidance. 



That was much longer than I intended it to be, but for family and friends, it's important to know as this will all be hitting the news in the near future.  We will be beginning the process to adopt again here shortly and we will begin with the new agency (CYFS).  Please pray for all of those affected by this situation and for our upcoming adoption journey #2.

9 Months Old

Anna is 9 months old today!  Time just flies!  She is doing all kinds of fun stuff!

Walking: 
She started taking steps in the last week or so.  She started by just letting go of things and taking a step or two.  But she decided that wasn't good enough and has been walking 7+ steps and going a few feet before falling!  Usually it's a toy in the way, or excitement that causes her to fall.  I have no doubt that she will be full fledged walking here very soon!  She also learned to climb the stairs and is quite fast and very good at it.  We have the stairs gated, but when we're taking her upstairs, we let her do it herself and follow behind to make sure she doesn't fall.

Eating: 
She pretty much eatswhaever we eat now.  She loves cheese and all fruits.  She is picky about veggies, but we've decided it's not the taste she's picky about, but more like what form they come in.  For instance, if sweet potatoes are mashed, she refuses them.  But if they're cut fry style or cut into cubes, she'll gobble them up.  Same goes for all veggies for the most part.  She just wants to be independent!  She also won't eat anything off of a baby spoon, we have to use a real spoon...  She definitely lets her opinion be known!

Bottles/cups: 
We'd cut her down to just 4 5oz bottles a month ago, and we're starting to wean her off the bottle now.  She really doesn't care how it gets in her mouth, she just enjoys her few moments of formula.  So I've replaced two of her bottles with sippy cups of formula.  She's doing great with that!  She also loves her sippy cups!  She probably drinks about 20 oz of water a day from her cups.  I don't know if it's cause she talks so much or what, but she's always thirsty!  And thankfully, water is her drink of choice! 

Talking: 
Well, she does it, ALL. THE. TIME!  She's saying a lot of consonants now and continues to say Mama and Dada.  She now says "Mo" when she wants more and she also signs it now too.  She's started fake laughing recently and will throw herself back and pretend to laugh until it becomes so funny she actually starts laughing.  It's pretty cute and quite hilarious.

Clapping:
She's started clapping in the last few weeks.  She tried really hard to do it before, but couldn't get the coordination down.  She's very good at it now and regularlly claps for herself.

Kisses:
She does a smacking noise now when she wants a kiss.  And she blows kisses, just not from her mouth yet.  She puts her hand to my mouth, makes the noise herself and takes her hand away.  I don't know if she thinks its funnier that way, but she won't do it to her own mouth!

Sleeping:
She's still a fantastic sleeper, going down about 7:30 at night and getting up between 6:30-7.  She had a week there where she thought it was fun to get up at like 5:30, but that seems to have stopped thank goodness!  Luckily when she wakes up, she almost always just plays in her bed happily.  She talks and plays with her giraffe until we come get her.  I'm so thankful for my great sleeper :-)!

Ta-Da!:
Okay, I saved my favorite for last.  She now sticks her hands in the air and says "Du-Da!"  And she expects us to say it as well.  It must be something I do a lot...  So now we can ask her to say "Ta-da!" and she'll perform for us.  She likes to do it after she walks or stands or does something funny.  It's adorable!

Here's her mandatory 9 Month picture! 

The rest of these are one we had taken.  Our Christmas gift to our parents was organizing a time to get our whole family picture taken.  So we took some with Jeremy's family one day and mine another.  And the cool thing is that they take all kinds of groupings, including ones of just Anna!  And we were given the CD and the rights to post the pictures online (just not to print them anywhere except where we got them taken).

Jeremy's family: (back) Nana and Papa, (front) Uncle Joey, Uncle Jason, Daddy, Anna, and Mom

My family: (back) Aunt Julie, Daddy, Mom, Aunt Lisa (front) Grandpa, Grandma, Anna, Aunt Sara and Uncle Kel

And this one is my favorite.  It just totally captures Anna!

Late Night Freak-Out

As I'm innocently checking my email (and yes, it's way too late to be checking email, but I was wasting time waiting for the cloth diaper laundry to be ready to rotate), the hubby is taking out the trash.  And then ever-so-kindly rotates laundry for me before I can get there. 

And then, Jeremy, in shorts only (and its cold outside), says "I'll be in the garage...". 

I pause, scratch my head, and obviously said, "Why?"

"Oh, you know, because there's a mouse..." 

Pause and cue the freak-out!

So he tells me that when he took out the trash, he noticed a mouse behind the trash can, in the garage.

 I then, obviously, realized that if there's a mouse in the garage, there are probably 15 more in the house...  and I ended with something along the lines of waking up the baby and packing my stuff and staying at my parents while Jeremy mumbled, "I knew I shouldn't have told you." 

He said I was overreacting and that it was just one little mouse, who was seeking warmth in the cold and he was going to shoo it outside (in his shorts, mind you). 

And then I said something to the effect of if I find mouse droppings tomorrow, I'm not coming home for a week...

And he slipped out the door while I watched intently to make sure the sneaky mouse didn't run in as soon as the door cracked.

So there's my mouse story for tonight.  Oh, and the end?  I don't know yet, he's still out there shooing...  And I'm still inside, freaking out!

I don't do mice.  Period.

Videos

Well, since I don't have a whole lot of time to write a post with lots of family in town :-) I'll just post some recent videos instead!

The first one is of Anna helping daddy load the dishwasher.  The second she hears it open, she bolts for it and will not leave until it's closed.   Sometimes if we turn away for a second, we'll catch her stnding IN the dishwasher... Don't worry, no dishes or children were harmed in the making  this video :-). 

 

This one is of her walking with her walker.  It also catches her standing by herself (a very regular occurence around here lately) and clapping for herself, something she just started doing!

She's started taking a few steps there and there by herself.  This one catches a few quick ones before a wipeout!  We joke that her alignment is a little to the left... And she doesn't care what's in front of her, she's a bulldozer!

7 Quick Takes (6)

Thanksgiving is a beautiful time of year and one of my favorite holidays. I have so much to be thankful for and I don't want to ever take it for granted!  So here are my Quick Takes:

Thankful Style

 

--- 1 ---

My wonderful husband who unloaded the dishwasher and folded the laundry this morning before I ever got out of bed just so I could spend more time snuggling with my baby girl.  And who is always thoughtful and always selfless.  I couldn't ask for a better husband.  I am so blessed to be married to such a wonderful, strong, hardworking, sensitive, sweet, kind, loving, caring, serving man.  And seeing him as a daddy has melted my heart and makes me love him even more (if that's possible :-)!

--- 2 ---

My dear sweet Anna.  She is just such a joy in our lives, she's everything to us!  I can't imagine our lives without her.  She is so fun and full of energy.  I love the way she crawls up to me, grabs my face, and plants a big wet kiss on my mouth.  And the way she crawls up to daddy just to give him a hug.  And the way she manages to give a beautiful smile, just when you need it.  And the way she plays with my hair when she's falling asleep.  And the way she giggles when I play peek-a-boo with her and lights up when I walk in the room.  I could go on and on and on...  I am so blessed to be her mama.

--- 3 ---

Anna's birthmom who gave us everything.  I can't help but feel sad for her when I think about how joyful we are to have our daughter this year for the holidays and how much I know it will hurt for her.  My prayers are always with her and I can't express my gratitude for the selfless gift she gave to sweet Anna.  And I'm overall thankful for the gift of adoption.  Both as an option for birthmoms who want to make the best choice for their babies and for couples like us who choose to grow our families in this way.

--- 4 ---

Our extended families.  We're so blessed to live in the same town as both of our parents and all of our sibilings (other than the two away at college, but this is till homebase for them).  They're so supportive, loving, and caring.  We love spending time with both families and we're so glad Anna gets to spend so much time with her grandparents, aunts and uncles.

--- 5 ---

The gift of marriage and the wonderful example of our families in this holy sacrament.  I'm thankful for my grandparents (almost) 60 years of marriage.  Jeremy's grandparents who had been married for 60+ years when his grandma died.  My other grandparents who had been married for 50+ years when my grandpa died.  My parents 27 years of marriage.  Jeremy's parents 28 years of marriage.  Our 3 years of marriage.  We are so blessed to come from such wonderful examples and to be able to raise Anna in that environment.

--- 6 ---

Awesome friends.  I feel so blessed to be surrounded by so many fantastic friends.  Especially for the Catholic moms that we hang out with a few times every week.  They're wonderful people and since most of them have 3+ children, it's great to be able to learn from them.  I can always get advice and ideas from them as well as share joys and frustrations.  I'm thankful they're so accepting and that all of their kids are so wonderful.  I'm glad Anna will grow up with these kids and have so many wonderful, holy friends as well.

--- 7 ---

My home sweet home.  I'm thankful I have somewhere to live and that God has blessed us with my dream home.  I'm thankful for cozy neighborhood we live in and teh neighbors that surround us.  We are so grateful that we had the opportunity to afford this home and have room to adopt lots more children :-)!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Distinguished Title

Jeremy had a chili lunch today at work.  They always request that he bring brownies (not just for special lunches, but he often gets requests a few times a week).  I always offer to make something different, I love to bake and have many yummy recipes... and they always insist on brownies.

So when I picked Jeremy up from work today, he handed me the sign that sat in front of my brownies for lunch (even though at that point there were only 5 left, they'd all been eaten BEFORE lunch...).

It says "BEST BROWNIES EVER! (rated by a brownie addict.)"

I guess I know why they always request brownies... if it isn't broke, don't fix it!

I'm so glad I have such a distinguished title around his workplace... I'm glad that my hard work and effort (brownies from a box with powdered sugar on top) was so greatly appreeciated!  (And there is some skill involved, a special pan, different temp and different cooking time than the box calls for, they're perfect every time!)

Our weekend in pictures

Anna thorougly enjoyed the hotel pool!  She just loves the water!

She most enjoyed the stairs because she could stand by herself.

We went on a picnic at Starved Rock.  Anna was fascinated by the giant leaves!

And the cardboard box...

Time with daddy!

Time with mommy!

Family picture

Playing in the hotel room when a certain someone decided to wake up way too early :-)

Anna and her caseworker

Our family and the foster family that took care of her before we got her!  This was at the National Adoption Month Potluck. 

Anna and Katie had a blast playing together.  Since Anna didn't have a name when they got her, they just give the babies a name until they go to their adoptive families.  Katie and her friends combined all of their names to create Anna's name.  It was "Angelicity" while she was with them and they called her Angie for short.

Anna and her buddy Jim, she was one of his favorite babies that they've had, and they've now had 25.  Anna was number 21.  They had Anna longer than they usually have the babies, and she was such a good baby that they became very attached.  He was so delighted to see her and spend time with us!