Summer Lovin'

Hidden walking cam

A week ago Julie took her official first steps. Her ability to balance herself is still pretty hit or miss, but we predict she will be officially walking in about 4 weeks. To date, her record is about 10-15 steps in a row before falling hard. Something has clicked in her brain, however, that told her that walking can be dangerous, so we are happy when she decides to get on all fours as oppossed to jetting out dangerously.

She continues to amaze us everyday with her intelligence and cuteness. With her new teeth she has acquired a new smile and it's gorgeous. Check out the summer pictures we took today.

Uncanny resemblence

Please, no more pictures or autographs.

Julie the Baby Genius

I am going to use this post to shamelessly brag about our daughter. She is 9 months now and has impressed us with all that she has learned since we have had her. Please keep in mind that this little girl was in an institution for the first 8 months of her precious life. Here's what she is already doing:

Julie is almost walking. Yesterday she stood on her own for like 3 seconds and then took 3 steps!!! It's an amusing yet scary sight. You have to be right by this child at all times. Right now she is in her exersaucer bobbing her head to early Beatles. She screamed during the song "Twist and Shout". I guess she really likes that one. Every day she listens to a Slovenian nursery songs CD and loves it. She likes polka. Who would have guessed?

Julie started waving "hi" and "bye" this week. It's cute because she waves towards herself and we find her practicing on her own every once in a while. Sometimes she confuses that hand motion with clapping and will clap "hi" instead.

She babbles a lot of "words" like baba, dada, mama. She fake coughs and sneezes for attention. She shakes her head back and forth when we say "shake shake shake". She imitates screams and intonations. Sometimes she plays a game of imitating screams. She'll scream for daddy's attention, Spencer will scream back, and Julie will scream louder, more obnoxiously back. This can go on for minutes on end. Julie "wins" in the volume and pitch department.

She loves swimming and making splashes in the water.

She seems to understand a lot of words, like mommy, daddy, ball, bottle, more, hi, bye. Somehow she hasn't quite grasped the word "no". ;-) Actually I think she understands the word, but pays no mind to it!!

I am thrilled that she enjoys books! I can read her the same book 3-4 times in a row! She just seems to love it.

I am sure I am missing a lot of awesome things she can do, but I will leave you all with that for now.

New Pix

Gratitude

I am sorry it has taken so long to post again with a home update. The first week home was actually quite difficult. We were jet lagged and Julie was not sleeping at all the first few days. I became very sick and exhausted and lost a lot of weight. To top it off, Julie became very ill and was diagnosed with bronchitis/"possibly pneumonia". She was started on antibiotics and has been doing much better, but is still coughing.

After about of week of being home, Julie is sleeping better. She pretty much only wakes up for a brief comfort bottle and is back in bed. As a result of Julie feeling better, I am doing better. But I am also doing better because of all the people that have called, visited, and helped out. I can not begin to express the gratitude I have for my family and friends, but let me try...

I want to thank my aunt Mimi for coming over and giving me support, bringing food, and showing me some "tricks of the trade". Thanks to my Mom who came over and cooked, grocery shopped even though she was sick and jet lagged herself. Thank you Steve for bringing over the congee, rice pudding, and lasagne. Thank you Susie for coming over and giving me a bit of rest on "Black Monday". We so appreciated every visitor, every phone call, email, and encouragement from you all. I don't know what I would have done without you all.

But our gratitude extends even beyond. We thank our adoption agency for making our dream come true. We thank the Chinese government for allowing International adoption. We thank our travel group that will be our extended family for the years to come. And of course we thank our daughter's birth parents for placing her in an obvious location so she could be found quickly and safely. May God place in their hearts the knowledge that their birth daughter is forever loved and nurtured.

I will end this post with an exerpt from a Sinead O'Connor song. It's called "My Darling Child" and is from her Universal Mother album. It's just one of the myriad of lullabies I sing to Julie.
My Darling Child
My Darling Baby
My Darling Child
You came and saved me
My Darling Child
My Darling Baby
My Darling Child
You gave life to me
My Darling Child
My Darling Baby
My Darling Child
God gave you to me....