Arrgh, Trick-or-Treat!

Remember last year's baby bumblebee?

This year, she's a "Pirate Princess"

Our little swashbuckler has had a very busy last few days, which resulted in a few cross moments today.

Thankfully, these moments were relatively few, and brief =)

After the making the rounds of the grandparents, and the neighborhood, we decorated the cupcakes that Mommy baked during her naptime.

Then, umm, dove in face first..

mmmm, "chock-wut".

She grabbed my glass of milk to wash it down, even though she had a sippy cup full of her own. Then she nearly gave me a heart attack when she somehow broke the cup IN her mouth. I had to sweep a shard of glass out of her mouth! I fit the broken pieces back together puzzle style to make sure they were all accounted for and none were swallowed. Amazingly she didn't get so much as a scratch in or around her mouth.

After all of the day's excitement, and cupcakes eaten at a ridiculously late hour, she was not easy to get to sleep. But, c'mon, Halloween only rolls around once a year.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Pumpkin painting..

This is what I get now when I ask her to smile for the camera =)

Kerry is still a little under the weather. She's hanging on to a little runny nose and she gets a little "out of sorts" more easily than normal. I took her back to the pediatrician and he said her ears still had a little fluid in them she she's on another round of antibiotics, a different one this time. I blame the changing weather. And we've had several fires nearby due the to recent drought so it's been smoky the last 2 days...not helping, I'm sure.

She still has plenty of smiles to go around though

Yesterday evenings attire? A pink shirt with a giant heart, a pull-up, legwarmers, and her new "spock-a-wee" tennies, which she loves.

(they have elastic attaching the tongue to the shoe, no laces...designed by a mom, no doubt)

Because, ya know, pants just get in the way when you're trying to put the wraps on this whole potty training thing =).

A sweet milestone

Kerry has now been with us for one year, three months, and 23 days... exactly the same amount of time as she wasn't. I've read that this can be an important and pivotal point in the attachment process and I'm inclined to believe it. It has sort of felt to me lately as if we're closing the door on one phase in our relationship with her, and she with us, and moving on to another. She's testing us a bit more at times, and yet she's been extra affectionate and cuddly these past few days, especially at bedtime. And as I mentioned in the last post she's taken to referring to she and I as "best friends" =) . It's also been several months since she's had any "night terrors" or whatever sort of episodes they were. We never could figure out exactly what they were. I never felt so helpless as the time she was in the middle of one that lasted for more than half an hour. In any case, I'm happy that they seem to be behind us. And I'm so thankful for every day, and every little milestone with my girl =)

The above photos were taken Saturday at Bernheim. We spent the afternoon exploring and enjoying the fall colors, then we ended the afternoon with a little picnic. And just because I'm feeling all nostalgic, I thought I'd throw in photo of Kerry taken last fall at Bernheim.

Kerry has been coming up a few new little phrases over the last week or so, ones she's never used before and some I have no clue where/how she came up with.

"Dat's a WHOPPER!"...she says this when she sees something she perceives as big.

"(insert name here)'s so funny!"

"Whatcha doin'? Lookin 'a' somefin?" (looking for something)...she said this to me from the top of the stairs after I ran down to the basement doing laundry. In Kerry speak, 'a' (pronounced like uh) can be used in place of the words to, for, at, and the.

"I see moon. I see CRESCENT moon!" She said this last night while in the car, and the moon was, in fact, a crescent shape.

And she's taken to calling me her "best friend" this week. I love it! But she also said the same thing to her soup (yeah, this girl loves herself some soup), so I'm not sure how much I should read into it. Then again, she only said it to her soup once, and has said it to me, like, 4 times so....I win! =)

Guess who turns 41 today!
(October 8th)

Happy birthday Daddy!!

We love you =).

These photos are from a little hike we took a few days ago at one of our favorite nearby spots. This is right before we found out Kerry had a sinus and ear infection.

See the fingers in the mouth? That was the only clue at all that anything was amiss. She never once even touched her ears or complained about them at all. I took her to the doctor because for several days she'd been saying her legs hurt . Nothing wrong with her legs at all, but we were surprised to find out that her sinuses looked "raw" and her left ear was infected. Poor baby = (. She'd had her fingers in her mouth alot recently so we thought maybe she was getting the last of the two year molars. Apparently we thought wrong...sorry sweetie. Thankfully, she loves the Am*xil she's on and asks for her "meh-sinn" several times a day so giving it to her is easy. This is really only the second time she's been "sick" in the 15 months she's been home. Wow, has it really been that long?!

The hike ended right at naptime. Yes, thats "robe" that she's still firmly attached to at naptime and bedtime. =)

Kerry sings...

Kerry has been singing up a storm lately. She sings at home all of the time, she'll happily perform a song or to for friends and relatives, and earlier this week, she decided to sing...very loudly...for all of our fellow shoppers at Kr*gers. Thankfully most were amused and just smiled or even applauded. Have I mentioned that I'm the kind of person who would rather just "blend in to the woodwork" in a crowd. Yeah, that's impossible with Kerry in tow, ha ha. She just attracts attention, even when she's not trying to. Anyway, her repertoire of songs now includes:

• "Twinkle, twinkle little star"
• , the "ABC's" song
• "God, is so good"
• "Jesus loves me"
• the "Happy Birthday"song.
• "Bye, Bye baby blues" (the Judds)

And we often get a medley of some or all of them at once. =)

She's wearing her "cuh-pake jammies" in keeping with one of her current obsessions. I think I mentioned them in a previous post. I just wish the clip didn't cut of the end of her song.

The "look"

I saw it today...from a couple in the childrens department of Old N*vy. It was the "look". You know, the "look" that only a couple, or person, who's waiting to bring home a daughter from China can give. The husband spotted us and then quickly tapped his wife on the shoulder and then they both just looked at Kerry and gave the "look"...as if their hearts were melting, and breaking, and bursting with anticipation all at the same time, and as they walked a way he put his hand on his wife's shoulder and gave her a smile and a little squeeze . I knew that look well, because I'd been there not so long ago and had given that same look, I'm sure, every time I'd spotted a small raven haired, almond eyed, Asian sweetheart in a store, on the street, or in a restaurant. It really brought back those feelings I had while waiting to finally become a Mama. I felt for that couple, and said a little prayer that they won't have to wait much longer..