I've noticed that I haven't done a very good job of keeping up with Kerry's smaller milestones and "firsts" lately. I guess things have just been so busy with the holidays. I'm going to treat this whole blog thing as sort of a scrap book, as a lot of other bloggers do, so we, and Kerry, can look back on these things later. Let's start with what was quite possibly Kerry's first experience with snow. Last winter she was in southern China where snow is pretty rare, not to mention she was just an infant. So when we got a few flurries after church the sunday before last, I couldn't resist letting her spend a few minutes watching the snowflakes fall. There was absolutely no accumulation, but she seemed to notice the snow flakes..even though she kept saying "rain" and making her little rain sign with her hands.

Checking out the Christmas lights

And I have to talk about this robe. This used to be my robe. It was..is..a very soft, very comfy robe. Then one day I picked Kerry up while wearing it. It then became her robe. She sleeps with it, and has to cuddle with it several times a day, and calls it "obe". I'm thinking of cutting it down into a small blanket, but she seems to like it just as it is.



We had our 6 month post placement homestudy this past week. It went very well. We've had the same social worker for each homestudy since we started the adoption process, and we really like her. Kerry also had her 6 month follow up with her cardiologist on Tuesday. He said the VSD is still there, but it's very tiny and restrictive and doesn't seem to be affecting her heart at all, thank God. At lunch after the appointment, Kerry strung 2 words together for the first time. She was stuffing rice into her little fist and when I tried to take it from her and clean her hands before we left she said "no, mine!" Lord, help us =). Technically, she's been saying "there it is" for a while now, but the way she says it sounds like one word, and I think she considers it one word. And she's been saying that ALOT this week,too, just pointing to random objects, people, or pets, calling the object, person, pet by name then saying "deh-id-isss"! It's so cute.

Kerry had a wonderful first Christmas home, and we had a wonderful first Christmas with our girl. She got way too much stuff from everyone (including Mommy and Daddy) but she's had a blast playing with her new things, especially her new kitchen. I had so much fun just watching her. And to think, last Christmas, we didn't even know that there was a 9 month old baby girl in an orphanage in southern China, who this year would be calling us Mama and Daddy, and making a wonderful mess of our living room =).

She was so into her kitchen we had a hard time persuading her to open anything else for the longest time, but she finally did, and quickly decided that this classic FP cash register (remember those) was pretty cool, too.

and this rocking horse...

and this doll stroller..

She got an art easel with a chalkboard on one side, and a marker/magnetic surface on the other side. She had other ideas for what to do with the little magnetic letters that came with it. I don't know where she comes up with this stuff...and, no, I don't use toe separators when I paint my toenails.

Kerry got her first real taste of Christmas tonight. We spend Christmas Eve with Dougs parents, his sister and her husband, and their daughter, Sydnie, eating dinner together and opening gifts.

a little pre-dinner piano music

Nana and Papaw got Kerry this beautiful, Amish-made rocker. She has a big rocking chair in her room and she loves to climb up into it and make it rock with all her might, so this smaller one was a big hit.

Of course, there were lots of other presents for her, too. I think everyone wanted to spoil her a little for her first Christmas home.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Christmas goodies with Grandma and special guests

The past few years, my Mom and I have gotten together to make Christmas goodies. One of the things we make are super simple white chocolate covered pretzels. We melt almond bark and white chocolate morsels, dip pretzels in them, then spread them out on wax paper to harden . This year, I had a little helper =). This is one of the little things that I am so grateful to finally be able to share with my own child.

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You may remember my looooong time friend, Jessica, and her little boy, Jamey, from previous posts. She and her husband came up to visit with Jamey and their newest addition, 3 month old Joshua. This was my first opportunity to meet Josh and their first time meeting Kerry. It was pretty special to finally have our three little ones together. One of the highlights was piling our three and their carseats into Jess's new Niss*an Quest and driving around looking at Christmas lights until they fell asleep, then going home to tuck them in to bed . We did the same thing last year, with only Jamey, and talked about the day when we could add mine to this little tradition. Jess learned soon after that she'd have another to add to the mix, this year, too.

Yes, those are matching pajamas (we couldn't resist) =)

We took whatever photos we could get from two little imps and one unhappy baby.

isn't he adorable?! He's as squeezable as he looks, too.



He's not thrilled with the bath, but looks like he's resolved to just accept it,anyway.

They shared their toys pretty well, for the most part =)