First Valentine's Day, First Birthday and more!

Thursday was T's first Valentine's Day.  We were all decked out in Valentine gear for the occasion.  We went for a walk with our dear friends.  T did great in the Ergo and M and L were cozy in the Burley cart.  It was snow/raining, but Charissa and I both agreed that it felt good to get out of the house and move a bit. 

After the walk we attempted to get into the car to go to the Chiropractor's office. It took 16 long and painful minutes for Charissa and I (both working) to get the car seat into the back seat of my 2 door Cavalier.  Yes college friends, I am still driving the 1999 Cavalier... though during those minutes I was thinking that a minivan might be needed by the time the day was over.  SIXTEEN minutes later we heard the beautiful latch and we finally figured out the trick to getting it in.  T was NOT happy about being jerked around by two mamas in a hurry.  She cried a lot all the way to the Dr's office.  Of course we were late.  Of course there were tons of forms to fill out for T.  Of course I didn't know Brandon's social so I had to call him... BUT the cool news... The receptionist offered to hold T while I filled out the paperwork.  It might have been because I had crossed out almost everything I had written due to errors.  Anyway, T was not happy at all to be held by another woman.  Great news!!  She keeps wanting to come back to her people.  Way to go T!!!  The adjustments went very well.  We are all activator users.  T's back was great and actually the only thing that was off for her was her pelvis.  I was out all over, and M was quite a bit too. 

Getting T back into the car was quite uneventful... yes Cavalier, I can handle you for a few more months... and then summer can come and we can walk and won't need a car much at all... We stopped at the Dr's office on the way home to have T's arm read for TB and all was fine.  Yes! 

We tried to take some photos in the evening, but they were not super successful.  T is a mover!!! 

The best photo of the three of us, you can all see the cute Valentine's shirts, right?

M: Ouch, she is hitting me (and she was)

M was done with photos so mommy and T got his one... me and my baby Valentine.

Friday was our first small group with T.  There were 16 of us.  We had a great time.  T did great.  I can't believe we didn't take any pictures.  Opps.  Well, just imagine a kitchen full of people and food.  Friday morning we were able to spend time with a local family with kiddos from China.  The kids all played so well together.  My darlings both had great naps in the afternoon.  We had a successful day because we made it an entire day without calling daddy to rescue us! 

Random note on M: M has been saying such funny things lately involving pretending.  I am forgetting one of them, but in the last two days he has asked me to pretend to be a light bulb and pretend to be a cow escaping.  Silly guy!

Saturday was T's first Birthday.  In the International Adoption world, having a child home for their first Birthday is a huge deal!  We feel so blessed to know that T never had a single Birthday without her family while she waited. 

T's First Birthday outfit.  After previous photo shoots I decided it might be best to get a photo of just the outfit so you all can read/see it.

My stunning beauty on her first Birthday!

T at 12 month.. her first red chair shot.

We took off the tutu so you could see her size better.  Apparently that was her ticket to wiggle!

My fearless daughter!

M tires to hold her down.

So we decided to just let her stand next to the chair!

I made T a banana bread cake (and one for M too) so she could gobble it up and smash it etc.  Both kids had a blast.  Brandon noticed that T's upper right tooth came through which is her #3 tooth.  This morning when I was changing her diaper she grinned and I noticed the other top tooth came in too.  This means it might have popped through last night.  So basically she has 4 teeth at her first Birthday.  Here are some photos of the "cake."  I realize there are a lot of them and they are a lot alike, but I like them.

T is super excited about her "cake."  M needed a candle in "his" cake too.  Check out their matching bibs.  T's has sleeves. 

T: Can we really tear this apart?

M: We sure can let me show you how it is done!

M: There you go T.

This is fun!

Hey, who needs a plate?  Not this one year old.

Here mom, you can have the plate.

Yum!

Hey, where did that leg come from? Oh yea, it is mine.

The view from above... sadly M enjoyed helping himself to much of what fell down so this photo dose not capture all that was on the floor.

T can Praise the LORD with her hands and leg raised... she is growing into her name nicely :)

T started sucking on her foot so we thought a ziplock bag might be the trick... and it was... for about 20 seconds.

Today, Sunday, T and I stayed home from church.  M went with friends.  Brandon did his first message back and talked about our journey to T etc.  I am so excited to listen to the talk soon.  I think he is excited for me to listen too since I have asked him so many details about it. 

This evening Brandon moved the basement swing to a better location and hung up a second swing.  The kids were thrilled to both be able to swing at the same time. 

Two swings in action.

You might have noticed many mentions of other people in this post.  Yes, we are still cocooning but we are branching out a little bit.  We are still staying away from big box stores and crowded places, church, groups like library etc.  We are also staying out of other people's homes so we can continue to establish this house as home.  If you are a local person who is dear to us and you have not yet met T, send me an email or FB message and we would love to have you over for a short time to meet T soon.  Brandon and I  (and M to some degree) are the only ones who hold her, feed her, hug/kiss her, change her diapers, dress her, bathe her make lots of eye contact with her etc.  I long for the day when I can run to Target with T or attend church as a family.  Those days will come... in time.