Twenty Pounds of Joy

Yummy has been so yummy lately, it's more fun to play with her than to update my blog!
(Or to finally read the 7th Harry Potter while she's napping...)

We've seen so many changes since we've been back! I knew we would gradually see those changes, and I knew that it takes a while for these amazing babies to show their true personality, and to let it shine. However, I didn't know how good it would make me feel to watch her grow, and change, and learn, and trust. Every new step is like an incredible gift, and lately, we see changes daily!

She is understanding so much, and she started to purposely use signs, "more" being her favorite one. "More" food, "more" music, "more" toys, "more" play... She does it in the most enthusiastic, determined way a not-quite-one-year-old can, and it's quite funny to watch! She's even combined two signs, her pointing (to the bowl of egg yolks, a favorite food) and signing "more".

More music mama!











Also, last night, something clicked, and she realized the power she had over making us laugh at the dinner table. She was funnier and more charming than we had ever seen her, and it continued today. For two weeks, now, I've been trying to get her to make "beaux yeux" (literally "beautiful eyes"), squinting my eyes at her, and all of a sudden, she started doing it last night, scrunching her whole face in the cutest way. These pictures don't even do her justice, but that's the best I could do!


























The weather being so nice after this week's storm, I bundled her up and took her on a walk, with a stop at the coffee shop where she proceeded to smile and play and sign "more" for cookies while I was able to enjoy my latte and a few pages of my book. "Before baby", it was one of my little pleasures to go out for coffee in the afternoon, and I see no reason to stop, so I'm training her! :o)

Walking back in the sun, with everything so nice and white, big lazy snowflakes falling out of nowhere, and my smiling, happy baby making cute faces and sounds at me in the stroller, I thought about the Long Wait, which seems so long ago now, and how I had yet to fully understand what was coming up, the hard stuff as well as the wonderful stuff. And it's a good thing, because the wonderful stuff still outweights the hard stuff by about 1000, and The Wait would have been that much more difficult.

A few weeks before we left for China, a good friend of mine had told me that we think things can't get better, and then they do. And then you think they can't possibly get better, and they do again. So true...

Twenty pounds of joy.

And she keeps growing... :o)