A Year Ago Today,

we were waking up after my sister's amazing wedding celebration. We had a leisurely morning spending time with my mum's family (from Scotland, Australia, and Texas whom we don't get to see often!) before some of them had to head home. When we got in the car to head home, it was with a feeling of relief that the craziness of planning everything was over and that we could start focusing on what was next. We were involved in a match for a domestic adoption and the mother was due to be induced the very next day! As we pulled onto our road, we received a phone call from our social worker, the baby had been born and we were back in frenzy mode trying to get everything ready to travel to Connecticut! The rest is history, another story that I think most of you know the end to. It's not the story I'll tell today though (but if you would like to read about it, click here). I've been thinking about this day coming all week. Remembering the emotions we were feeling and just thinking how amazing it is to be where we are just one year later. What didn't occur to me though, until this very moment at 6:40 in the morning is totally blowing my mind to think about. How poetic is it that today is the randomly assigned day that we will appear in the Rockingham Probate Court for Ana's re-adoption in New Hampshire?

Early Intervention

Ana had her evaluation with Early Intervention today. She has really made leaps and bounds in development since we've been home, so we weren't necessarily concerned anymore but decided there was no harm in keeping the evaluation date anyways to know exactly where her development lies. Well, we were happy to find that she is entirely developmentally on target for her age and even a little advanced in some areas. She charmed the pants off the evaluators, and even decided to show off and start crawling for the first time ever, little stinker! She's been getting up on her knees for a couple weeks now, and had started rocking back and forth so we knew it was coming, but never expected her to make the debut for the EI audience! She's not crawling all over yet, she just suddenly realized if she moves her legs it can help her get places. So far she's taken a couple knees forward and a few knees backward and she has been working hard on maneuvering from her bum to crawling position and back again. It's just amazing! She held her hand up and said "Hahhh" to them (we have long thought she has been saying Hi when she does this, but this really solidified our belief!). Anyways, it was a nice appointment, we'll get the full evaluation soon, but they assured us that at this time there is absolutely nothing to worry about, that she is doing everything that she should be. Now please excuse me while I go and baby proof my house!

She said Ma Ma!

So yesterday morning at breakfast, Ana started saying "na na na na". I was excited to hear a new sound but geez, I wished it was "ma ma ma"! Anyways, my mum stopped by after work to say hello and she was playing with Ana on the floor. I walked in the room and she looked up at me and very clearly said "ma ma" and raised her arms to me. It was so cool. I wasn't sure I had heard what I did, but my mum was right there and she heard it too. It totally made my day!

Happy Mothers' Day!

We had a very nice Mother's Day today. It started a little rocky when Greg had to do something for work for a little while but we worked it out. The first thing I received was from Ian; a smile, hug and "Happy Mother's Day mumma" first thing this morning, that was enough to make my day special considering his usual attitude when waking up is far from pleasant! Anyways, shortly after getting up, Ian wanted to give me his "special" present. For some reason in our family, a holiday is not a holiday without silly string; one can for the celebrant and one for Ian so that was my first gift and out we went to the front lawn to pelt each other with colorful silly string (the neighbors must think we're nuts). I think I won the battle, but don't tell Ian I said that. When we came back in, Greg and Ian pulled out a sweet card with a gift certificate to Wal-Mart inside. Ian then announced that he wanted to take me out to dinner and a movie sometime this week but he was going to pay for everything. Greg said, "Yup mummy, Ian's going to pay for it all!" to which Ian replied quietly "but not from my money I'm saving for my Bakugan toy daddy!". Greg then assured him that he could spot him a few dollars to take mummy on a date. I guess we see where I rate huh?! Anyways, we were off around noon to spend time with both of our mothers and over all had a really nice day! Both Nannie and Mimi received the picture below from Ian and Ana, my favorite from the shoot we did yesterday afternoon, they loved it. We were again able to escape the "Mother's Day Water Curse" this year, I think we're in the clear now! The first Mother's Day in this house our water pump died while we were trying to shower for the day (guess how much extra we had to pay for them to come out on Mother's Day Sunday?!), then the next year, our basement flooded, and we spent the entire day ripping up carpet and sucking up water. Needless to say, we awaited the next Mother's Day in fear of what would happen next! Last year we did okay though, and I think it was the turning point, though we did have a little water incident at my mum and dad's today when my brother's dog decided to jump in their still covered pool. You can imagine my brother's excitement when he realized the only way they were getting Bella (an 85 pound lab) out of the pool was to get into that 50 degree water and hoist her out himself. So off he went to change while my brother-in-law sat and comforted Bella so she wouldn't freak out. Steven came out in my dad's swimsuit, my mum's purple and pink water shoes and a really disgruntled look on his face. I hope he's laughing at it now because we all got a good laugh at his expense (love you Stevie!). Anyways, hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day!

I feel so extremely blessed to be called mummy by these two little people. How fitting is it that today, May 11th marks exactly two months since Ana was placed in our arms forever. What a cool coincidence, don't you think?!

Just thinking...

Today is Mother's Day in Guatemala. I've spent a good deal of time thinking about Ana's birth mother today, wondering how she is. I wish I could tell her Ana is okay, that she is so loved and cherished by every member of our family, but obviously I can't. I'll just have to say a little prayer that she is able to find peace in her heart today.

Ana is 10 months old!

Before I start, thank you all for your kind words regarding my Aunt. Its been a very rough week, we're moving along and taking it day by day, your thoughts mean so much, thank you!

Now hold on to your hats while I take you on the Ana update whirlwind ride! Can you believe she's 10 months old? I certainly can't! We've been home for 6 weeks now, it just blows my mind! It's been a while since I posted last so I thought I would just give you on update on what Miss Monkey has been up to. Pictures soon I promise! I'll have an update on Little Mr. Monkey soon as well...

Growth:

Ana had her (a little late) 9 month check up on April 22nd. The doctor seemed very pleased with how she is coming along. She is now in the 20th percentile for height and weight and for the first time ever she is on the charts for her head circumference at the 10th percentile! The doctor had said at our first visit the day after we came home that bringing her diet to that appropriate for a 9 month old, and the stimulation she receives now would likely bring her head circumference up, and she was right!

Personality:

We have watched Ana's personality bloom over the past month and a half. The very serious little girl with the tough shell to crack has blossomed into a very happy baby! She still shows a little restraint when meeting new people, but she pretty quickly warms up now and will let most anyone hold her for a little bit.

She is still a drama queen when it comes to her food. She can be happily babbling away, and the moment she sees me stirring something in her bowl, or mixing a bottle she starts to cry and whine! I'll have to get it on video to share with you all, it's pretty darn funny!

She's developing a little attitude as well (Lord help us!). She's decided that anything that comes from a spoon is over rated for sustenance and she can do quite well on her own thankyouverymuch! I've informed her that there is only one picky child eater allowed in this family and that the position has already been filled! We'll see how well that works for me.

We spent a lot of time outdoors last week when the weather was so nice. She loves to sit or lie in the grass but has a tendency to try and eat it along with the leaves lying around. Once I've fished a couple foreign objects out of her mouth and she knows I'm on to her, she bows her head real low and tries to trick me by taking double fist fulls and while I'm emptying one hand she shoves the other in her mouth, seriously...I think I'm in trouble with this one.

Development:

She has popped through the two bottom front teeth, and I think I can see one of her canine teeth on the top starting to push through. She has had rough nights a few nights in a row now waking up several times. She's had a bit of a cold, runny nose, and the teething thing going on so I'm hoping that she'll go back to sleeping through soon!

She will still sit for decent periods and play by herself which is a dream, and I'm enjoying it now before she figures out the crawling thing and unleashes total chaos on the house!

She still has her "ra ra ra" sound but has added "va", "la", "ba", and most recently "da" (go figure!), "ta" and a sort of "sha" sound. We have yet to hear "ma ma" but rest assured that we work on it every day!

She bears her full weight on her legs now. She can hold on to our fingers or a piece of furniture and stand for quite some time. She thinks she's pretty cool when she does it too, she gets this funny grin and says "huh, huh, huh!" while alternating looking down at her feet and at us. It's almost like she's saying, "Hey, look what I can do, aren't I the coolest?!"

When on her belly she can pivot, push herself backwards and just the week before last she started getting herself on her knees (of course she has no idea what to do after she's on her knees, but it's a step in the right direction!).

She now reaches her arms out when she wants to be picked up, and she reaches and leans towards mummy and daddy when she wants to come back to us which is the best thing in the world! Over the past two weeks we have definitely seen her develop a preference for both Greg and I in situations when there are other people around which is a really good sign that she knows she can trust us and knows that our relationship is special. Perhaps the most exciting thing to me is the bond I can see developing between she and I. I definitely feel like she derives comfort from me and it makes my heart melt when she's really tired and she'll burrow her head into my chest and smile at me with her sleepy eyes before drifting off to sleep. For a while she wouldn't let you hold her in a cradle position unless she was having a bottle, but now once in a while she'll happily lay there and snuggle for a bit (if she's not too busy with something else of course!). This is all very new, I was pretty sure we just had a non snuggler on our hands, but she has gradually become more snuggly as the days pass, and I'm loving every minute of it!

Anyways, that's all for now I guess. Oh, the only other thing is that she is really an official citizen of the United States of America now as we received her Certificate of Citizenship a couple weeks ago. I'm going to be taking her 10 month pictures soon and hopefully big brother will cooperate for a few as well so be looking out for those. I'll have some pictures soon to post promise, I have to download my camera and don't have the energy to do it tonight.