Monday, January 21, 2008

2-Year-Old Pictures



This photo shoot was slightly more successful than when we got family photos 6 months ago. That said, you may notice that Alina insisted on taking her shoes off half-way through the session and that she is always looking to the right (this is where I happened to be standing holding out the cookie bribe). Also, below are some pictures from yesterday's get together with my family. We celebrated Nini's and Kyle's birthdays .



Mom and Fred sporting matching "Brown County" hoodies

14 candles (12 for Kyle and 2 for NiNi)
The "queen" opening her presents.
Signing "thank you"

Sunday, January 13, 2008

A New Year!


Hard to believe it is the middle of January already. Here is a little update on our comings and goings:

Chris is applying for a new job within his company. The position is called a "business analyst" and would get him off the the phones all day and sounds like something he would really enjoy. As you can see from the photo, the stress has been really getting to him lately. Luckily, NiNi loaned him one of her "lovies" until he's up and running again.



Speaking of the Neen-ster, we just had our 6 month post-placement visit with our social worker. I think we all performed beautifully and are a little baffled that we can keep passing ourselves off as a "stable parental unit". NiNi continues to get speech therapy once a week and her vocabulary is really taking off now. We recently bumped her up to 3 days/week at the sitters and she hasn't seemed to even notice. Now I take Saturdays off and we get some much needed family time. Here is NiNi playing with fake food, her new favorite past-time (and as an added bonus, we can check off another developmental skill "pretend play")



Meagan is becoming more and more.....what is the word...."complex." I once heard this quote and now I believe it. It went something like..."A daughter's love for her mother is matched only by her desire to be separate from her" You can say that again! Chris says she is exactly like me and that is why I get so frustrated sometimes. Well, what does he know anyway! Here she is at the children's museum a few weeks ago.

We are gearing up for a busy first part of the year with Alina's birthday Jan 26th and Meagan's about a month later on March 9th. I am also about to embark on a fundraising effort to benefit children in China....more details to follow!