We've been busy enjoying the hot weather this past week. Lot's of playtime in the back yard, especially when it involves water.

The sandbox has been a big hit as well =).

We also went out to dinner at PF Ch*ngs to celebrate one year as a family.

Which reminds me. If you haven't had a chance to watch the video below yet, check it out =).

One year home!

Our huggable, squeezeable, baby-love.

We're pretty much putty in her 2 year old hands.

She's finally decided that she loves to swing. Last summer, she waivered from not so sure about it, to downright scared. But she was fresh home from China and had likely never experienced it before.

This photo, taken a few days ago, gives a better picture of how much she likes it now.

She also loves for us to hang out with her in her little Rose P*tal Cottage downstairs. Sometimes, you can find all three of us crammed into this thing "eating" plastic food.

Like I said...we're putty in her pudgy little hands.

Ker-Bear has really, really been into her crayons, markers, chalk and stickers over the past few days. She sometimes spends up to a half hour at a time on her little projects. All through school I was kinda known as the girl who could draw, so I love that she's taking an early interest in art. Now that I've said that, she'll probably never pick up a crayon again, and that would be fine too. Although my Mom often says how much she's like I was as a child, she's definitely her own person, and I love that. But anyway, I love watching her blossoming creativity.

Though she's far from being able to stay in the lines, she's suddenly gone from just filling a page with colors, to concentrating on specific areas..like the cow and cat above. (Jill, she sort of reminds me of your Lilah in this one)

She's even dabbling in body art...

Why, yes, I do kiss those cheeks about two dozen times a day.

And those sweet feet aren't going to be that little for long, So I thought I should take a picture of them before she grows yet another shoe size.

Kerry speaks

Kerry has had quite an extensive vocabulary for a while now. Before we even left China she had picked up at least 4 or words in English and could use them correctly. And she has no problem naming objects or people. But it wasn't until recently that she started stringing words together. It actually started on her second birthday, 3 months ago, that she started putting 2 words together. But in the past week or two, she's had some sort of language explosion and is starting to use 3, 4, and even the odd 5 word sentences. It's so cute to hear her try so hard to really talk. And now she's doing so much more than parroting what she hears, she's now trying to describe things, tell you about what she's done, and have actual conversations. She says things like:

"Daddy go work"

"Ying Ying nessnace (necklace)" "Mama nessnace, too!"

(whenever we have something, or are doing something alike, she likes to point it out)

"Mama coming, too?"

"Daddy taking a nap"

"Maw Maw go home" (when my mom leaves after watching her)

" da Car! Black car! (when she spots our car in a parking lot)

"Mama fower (shower) gone!"

" Yummy a tummy!" (yummy to my tummy)

" Thank you a helping."

"Daddy/Mama clean up."

"Cheekin dumpings all gone"

"Mama, hold you" (when she wants held)

And this one she said tonight.

"Mama peepee! Mama big girl!

(no explanation needed)

Oh, and guess who's almost learned to count to ten (she leaves out 5 and 7 but gets the rest in order)?! Yikes! Oh well, I guess they can't stay babies forever.

We've had a bit of a heat wave this week, so I took the opportunity to break out Kerry's water table for some wet fun to help keep her cool. She had a blast. She would take her little beach shovel and "scoop" out the water while saying "dig! dig!" In the end there was water everywhere but in the table.

Her smile just makes me melt =). On a side note, I did not intentionally dress her to match the water table, but it's uncanny isn't it?