Author: Louanne

Hi all! Nadia was baptized in our church on Sunday September 23rd. There were so many great photos from the weekend that I uploaded a bunch. My cousin Jen and her roommate Shawnaka drove up from Houston for the event (and they attended a Ranger game). My Aunt Paula, Uncle Roger, Grammie and Mike’s Aunt Joy and cousin Janis also attended. Our friends Arvel and Laura came, but left before we took photos. Thanks to everyone who came to share her special day. Grammie bought her dress that Mike and I picked out and Roger and Joy matched without knowing it. 🙂

Here we are with Pastor Darwin Jordan after the baptism.

The night before Karen and Kaye hosted the ‘Sip N See’ for Nadia at the McCarty’s house. Many people from our church came to the party and they did the sweetest thing. Kaye and Karen gave everyone a slip of paper with a letter of the alphabet on it (some people got 2). Then they had to write down a prayer or a Bible verse that started with the letter they were handed. Then once everyone was done, they went around the room and read them to us. It really was the sweetest thing. My friend Jaquelyn had ‘Z’ and she started her prayer with ‘He is the Alpha and Omega, beginning and the end’ I was already a little choked up from the sweet things that were said, but that was a fantastic way to end the list. God is good and he brought sweet Nadia into our life. Then Kaye put the book together for us in alphabetical order and gave it to us to bring home and save for Nadia. Thanks to everyone who was a part of that….we were truly blessed by your love.

Here are some photos of Nadia playing with cousin Jen.

Jen took these photos in the car on the way home from the church. Nadia was one tired baby after all that excitement.

Nadia is 11 months old today. Some of you might remember this little dress from the China trip when it was ginormous on her. Now it’s just a little big. It’s a 6-9 month dress. Hee hee. Mike and I had fun last night taking her shopping to pick out some 9 month winter clothes. She is growing and getting taller, but we still think she will be in 9 month clothes through the winter because they are all big on her now.

So what is Nadia up to this week? We really think that she knows “Da da” means Mike. It’s adorable how excited she gets when he comes home. She makes a beeline for him and says, “Da da!!!” It’s enough to melt my heart. She is feeding herself the puffs and wagon wheels with ease, she has figured out how her Leap Pad – Fridge Farm toy works – not just how to turn on the music, but where the little farm animal parts go. She is doing well with the sippy cup, but still needs a little help if it’s filled too full. Soon she will be a pro at that. She has learned that you can put small things inside big things. From her stacking cups to her rings and links, she is seeing how they all fit together. She cruises like a speed racer along the furniture, the kitchen cabinets, the chairs at the table – you name it, if she can get up, she moves along.

She still takes 2 naps a day. She has 3 bottles and 3 solid foods a day. She doesn’t want to go to bed at night. It’s like she is so happy to be with both of us playing that she doesn’t want any part of sleeping when she could be playing. Once she gets to sleep, she sleeps all night except waking up at some point early in the morning for a bottle. She makes the cutest faces and smiles all the time. She gets a little fussy when she gets too tired, but even that is not all out crying.

We are so in love with her and blessed that God has brought her into our family. We can’t imagine life without her and it seems like she has always been with us.

P.S. Saturday AM – Nadia had her 3rd tooth pop out overnight. It’s been trying all week and it’s on the top.

I will have photos up from this weekend soon, but I just wanted to post Nadia’s accomplishment today. And I had to put up this cute little photo. We have been working with her on “self feeding” the little Gerber puffs. She doesn’t want to do it, she just wants to be fed. She will go to extreme lengths to get the puff in her mouth without the use of her hands. She could put some Pilates/yoga doing women to shame with these moves.

But today I put the puffs down where she couldn’t quite bend to get them and she put her head down and used her hand to scoot the puff to her mouth. Yeah for her. So I did it again. She tried to get it that way again, but it didn’t work. So she picked it up with her right hand and made a fist. Then she opened her hand and looked at the puff. I said, “You can do it, put it in your mouth.” She opened and closed her hands a couple more times and then popped it in her mouth. I cheered and clapped and she started laughing with a look like, “Sheesh I didn’t know it was so important.” Hee hee.

So she did it two more times with more laughing and cheering and then decided she was done with that and it was time to play. We knew she “could” do it, but she just prefers us to do it. She cracks me up. She is also cruising the furniture like a speed racer and more and more often I see her let go with both hand and try to stay up. She collapses almost immediately, but it’s fun to see her try.