9 months today

Here are a few recent pictures of the girls:









My little peanut turned 9 months today. Julia went in for her Dr's appointment and my little peanut weighs a whopping 21 pounds. Haha. Little piggers! I stuck Maya on the scale while I was there and she's almost 24 pounds. It's kind of funny that my 9 month old and my 2 year old almost weigh the same. BUT, they are both healthy so I am not complaining.

Julia had a great checkup. Everything seems to be at status quo. She is starting to sprout some new teeth this week. She has two on top that are starting to break through. The funny thing is they're not the front teeth, they are the ones beside them. We may have a little Vampire on our hands!

28 out of 30

For the last 28 out of 30 days, Maya has had the same exact breakfast. I feel a little guilty about it but she gets excited about it every morning. It's like clockwork. When I go get her out of bed, first thing she does is point to her closet and say, "shoes". Well, it's more like, "brooos" because she can't say "sh". Then she looks up at the butterflies hanging from her ceiling, points and says, "butterflies". Once again, more like, "bah flaa". Then when I start to change her diaper, breakfast comes in. She starts to say, "eat". I say, "yes, eat breakfast". She says,"nana". I say, "yes, banana". Maya then says, "cereal" or something along those lines. I repeat her. Sometimes, if she's in the mood she will try to say "bottle" and then do the sign for milk.

So yes, for 28 out of the last 30 days, the girl has eaten cereal (cheerios) with slices of banana for breakfast. The only reason she didn't have it those two days is because we were out of something. She had oatmeal instead, which she gets equally excited about. I'm just waiting for her to outright refuse her breakfast one morning but it has yet to happen. She actually gets excited when she watches me get her breakfast together. You would think it was Christmas morning or something. Ooooh, cereal...again! Woohoo!

Post-Placement Meeting Part I

Thailand requires 3 post-placement meetings with a social worker before they will approve finalization of the adoption. Technically, for now, we are only Maya's guardians. But once the 3 post-placement reports are completed (takes at least 6 months), our agency will provide us with the approval we need to finalize the adoption in our state.

We had our first post-placement meeting with our social worker yesterday. And like clockwork, our social worker did not disappoint us. She updated us on the latest family news. Let me see if I can recall it all:

Both daughters are now engaged. One is getting married in July and has invited 400 people to the wedding. The husband was in a fraternity and has kept in touch with everybody he has ever known.The bridesmaid dresses are ordered but there were some issues. The other daughter is bigger than the rest of the girls and there were some issues finding dresses in her size. The two girls got into a big fight at a bridesmaid shop and she had to step in. The shoes were a bit of an issue too as she wears a size 11. The other daughter is getting married the week before Christmas. That wedding should be smaller. Blah, blah, blah...

She's too funny. She did ask lots of questions about Maya's adjustment and wanted to see her bedroom. Our meeting would not be complete without a crazy comment or two. Our social worker asked about her language development and whether she was speaking before we got her. To be exact, she asked, "Was she speaking Chinese or something when y'all got her?" We told her yes, she was speaking Chinese but not a word of Thai. We didn't say that but we really wanted to.

Fun times.

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms, mom's to be pregnant and paperwork pregnant) and all of the moms who have lost their angels.

Thinking of you all today!

Digital Camera

I am in the market for a new digital camera. I would like a point and shoot that has some manual controls. Right now, I am looking at the Canon a 720is and the Fuji s700. If anyone has either one of these cameras I'd love to hear what you think of them. I've got a budget of under $200 so my options on a "prosumer" camera are somewhat limited. I'm also checking out the Canon 570is, Nikon s210, Fuji 40fd and the Canon SD1000. Any recommendations?

Are they twins?

If I had a dollar for every time I heard that, I would be rich. It's crazy. I don't think they look alike at all let alone being the same age. It never fails, every time I am out with the girls someone stops me. Even more so if I have them in the side by side double stroller. It's pretty funny. One day I am going to say yep, they're twins and this one over here is the older one...by 16 months. Let's see how they react to that one.

We can stand

There's no crawling or walking yet but Julia loves to stand (with some help). It's pretty funny because sometimes when we go to sit her down, she locks her knees and won't bend her legs. She becomes stiff! As long as there is something to support her, like a hand or a table to lean on, she can stand pretty well.

Julia is not crawling yet but she is perfecting the roll. She's pretty quick and can get to almost anything unless it's right in front of her. She hasn't yet figured out how to go forward.

Party, party, party

Little Maya finished up Birthday week with one last party. We had family and friends over to help celebrate. Maya and her parents had a great time! Here are some pictures from the party.