A Word of Caution

I've always thought babies try doing new things once or twice and then think about it, then try again later until they finally get something. And then as they master whatever it is they might be learning, they eventually get faster or better or more comfortable. Right??Not "Amelia". The only thing she appears to be cautious about so far is about what we might be trying to put in her mouth (food, medecine, teething gel).
She's not cautious when approaching animals, namely dogs. She crawls right up to them at parks. The other day she chased our poor friends' dog, Sandy, around the living room until Sandy didn't know WHAT to do and finally had to be sent into her kennel.
She's not cautious when learning to walk. She doesn't just take a step or two and then pause. She takes as many as she can and goes as far as she can go before falling to the ground.

And finally, she's not cautious about learning to drink from a cup. Tonight in the bathtub she was downing glasses of bathwater (oh, yum; and is she getting too much salt in her diet?) with a little shot-type cup as well as a 46 oz. Target cup. It made no difference to her that she was completely gagging on it while it also went down her nose and into her eyes--she was having a blast!

She's a little daredevil! And just so totally cute!

Family Reunion

We just returned from a family reunion with my mom's brother's and sisters and their families. We reunite every three years. This year it was held in Reno, Nevada, which is sort of the center point of where everybody lives. We stayed at the University of Nevada in the dorms. It was nice to have the entire building and cafeteria to just ourselves. It helped us feel pretty safe, not to mention the security system of just getting in the buildings. Actually we were REALLY safe. It reminded me of my time working in the youth detention in SLC. Too many doors to unlock or get through can be cumbersome, but that's OK.

We were together for two days and spent most of our time eating. The all-you-can-eat style dining catered particularly towards the kids, but we adults definitely overate too! It brought back some great memories of living in DT. We also played relay games, visited, went to a great park nearby, and honored my Uncle Joe who passed away last October. All in all it was a great time, and I'm looking forward to seeing everybody again in three years.

Here are some pictures. No permission has been asked, so if you are family and see your picture here but would like it removed, please let me know!

The first four are of "Amelia" and Edana, who are three weeks apart. None of us could get over how similar they looked--surprising, of course, because Amelia is not a blood relative! Amelia is the one wearing the strawberry.

We Are...

No, I did not finally become a Fertyl Mertyl: we still have the apparent Fertile Hurdle. BUT we are expecting now to adopt "Amelia"! She is officially out of foster care (which is why I can show her face now). Her mom has custody again, but she is allowing Amelia to remain with us. We are beyond excited and are hoping that it will all work out. We won't know for another month or two, but we can't keep quiet about this.

When we started foster parenting we never dreamt the opportunity to adopt a baby would come this way instead of through the adoption agency with which we are registered. Someday I will relate the whole wonderful story of how we got to this point with Amelia, which started to get good back in November. Its a pretty neat story. But for now, please join in our excitement! We hope it all works out. We will be praying for the judge to execute wise judgement!

I will conclude with some pics of the little star, who has just discovered a love for sunglasses!

Mmwaahahaaa...

Just because I can now! Please enjoy a few recent pics of "Amelia".






You've got to admit that she really is the world's cutest one year-old!