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Nadia’s Grandpa Greg, Grandma Brooke and Aunt Bayli came up from Houston this weekend to meet the lovely and cute thing! On Sunday Grandma Brooke cooked a fabulous Tuscan dinner including a yummy asparagus appetizer and lasagna with crusty bread. Grammie, Uncle Roger and Aunt Paula joined us for dinner and “Nadia Watching”. My dad asked if I just played with her all day and I said, “Yeah, when she’s not sleeping 🙂 ” Nadia showed everyone how well she can crawl and pull up on the furniture and her mastery of the Curiosity Cube which Aunt Bayli gave her. That is really the coolest toy and it’s perfect for Nadia because she is so inquisitive and likes to figure out her toys. She plays with it everyday and has figured out how to work all 6 sides.

Sunday marked our 6th week with Nadia and Mike and I just feel that we are so blessed. It is surreal to us sometimes that this sweet baby really is a part of our family. Yesterday I told Mike that it seems like she has been with us forever and it’s really hard to believe that we waited so long and then travelled half way around the world to get her. I have continued to take her on my KIDS HOPE interviews this week and she just has fun playing and checking out new people.

Nadia cruised all along the couch last Thursday to get to Daddy and she made really good time. She waved and said, “Ba ba” to Shirley and Grammie on Thursday also. She seems to get the idea of bye bye, but uses it sporadically. She continues to say Ma ma and Da da, but hasn’t quite put together that we are Momma and Dada. I really think she is on the edge though by how she reacts when you say, “Where is Dada?” or things like that. When Mike got home from work last night, I said, “There’s Dada.” and she immediately turned for the door to the pantry. And of course she got SO EXCITED to see Mike and started her little breathing heavy laughing thing that she does. It’s really cute!

Mike checked the mail today and Nadia received her first piece of mail….her Certificate of Citizenship from the United States of America!!

Included was a letter from the President welcoming her to this country and how her family must be very proud of her on this day. I looked at the photo and the first thing I said was, “Look how much her hair has grown.” And Mike commented on how much she has filled out. She was a tiny little thing in China and look at her now!

Hi all! Nadia turned 10 months old yesterday and had her big check up. She has grown 1 inch and gained 2 pounds since the 3rd!! WOO HOO!!! She has those cute little baby legs and baby belly that are so kissable now. She got her boosters and blood drawn and didn’t cry, just fussed a little. All afternoon she was pleasant and doesn’t try to pick at the band-aids or anything….apparently because they don’t have holes to poke your finger in and they aren’t shiny 🙂

We are very excited that the doctor said she is doing so well. She said, “Usually at this point I am trying to help parents get the children to sleep through the night, but she’s not having any issues.”

Nadia has been joining me on KIDS HOPE USA interviews and other errands this week and she is just so sweet. She just checks everything out about our surroundings and watches the people that we meet. She even joined me at the church staff meeting and just played with my hands and her toys.

Today is 5 weeks that we have had Nadia. She is doing really well and has progressed so fast. When we got her she was physically along the lines of a 5 month old. In 5 short weeks she is on track with 10 month old babies (which she will be on Tuesday). She is crawling like a wild woman and can move really fast. Soon she is going to realize that there is more to explore downstairs than the area where her toys are. 🙂

She babbles and baby talks to us all the time and is doing really well taking solid food now that she got the hang of the spoon. She loves the Gerber Graduate puffs, but can’t quite figure out how to get them in her mouth herself. She tries to put her whole hand in her mouth, but it’s just going to be a matter of time before she gets the hang of it. Her little legs are getting thicker and she has developed quite a little baby belly. We take her for a check up on Tuesday and should see how much weight she has gained since the 3rd.

Nadia sleeps all night and gets up for a morning bottle. Then she goes back to sleep for 2-3 hours. During the day she takes another 2 naps that are about 1-2 hours long. She is like a little lion with all that sleep, but I am convinced that it’s because she is going 90 to nothing every waking moment. Her 2 little teeth are growing in and I expect we will see some on the top soon. Even when she is obviously teething, she doesn’t get very fussy.

We are adjusting to home life and getting into a routine which is nice. This weekend we took her to a dear friends 40th birthday party and Nadia got loved on so much! Rachel from church came with us as the babysitter. It was such a blessing to me that person after person came up to tell us how excited they were about her after praying for her for so long. It was really sweet and after she got over the shock of the crowd she let some people hold her and she was babbling along as the night progressed. Thanks again to everyone that prayed for her before we knew she was ours and for all those that have prayed for her adjustment to us. She is the perfect baby for us and her personality fits right in – as we said in China, “She’s home.”

Louanne

P.S. Thanks to Michelle R. and Cyndi J. for mentioning me to Monique at Lil Sugarplum 🙂