Good-looking kids and funny pics

Naomi's 2nd Birthday!

This post is quite late, since her birthday was March 1, but I've been busy. I have also started to use Facebook to post pictures and video. Anyway, our girl is growing so quickly and adding new words to her vocab every day. Her consonant sounds still need a lot of work, but she is making good progress. She continues to have speech therapy every week. I have noticed at least 50 words and phrases she can say and she also babbles long pretend sentences to me while gesturing with her hands just like we do. I think when she really starts talking she will talk our ears off! As a family we are all growing more attached day by day, month by month. I can't believe it's been almost a year since we got our sweet, funny Naomi.

Happy Year of the Rat!

We recently had the fun of attending two Chinese New Year parties held by adoption groups in our area. The food was great and the kids enjoyed the entertainment, though Naomi was a bit scared of the lion dancers. However, I predict Naomi will become a real party girl, judging by the way she loved being with all the other girls who were jumping around to a mixture of Hannah Montana and Chinese music. Naomi was too mesmerized to actually dance, but next year I'm sure she'll be right in the thick of it! I found it touching to see all the beautiful Chinese children of different ages, and whole families wearing traditional clothing. I hope we can get to know some other adoptive families who live close to us. The ones we met traveled a long distance to get to the parties.

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

Couldn't resist this website "elfyourself" which puts your photo heads on dancing elf bodies. Cute and funny! It's at http://www.elfyourself.com.

Thanksgiving Pictures

For Thanksgiving, we traveled to Roger's parents' house and had a lovely time. Naomi wore cute brown plaid overalls that Danny had worn at a much younger age. Somehow it worked as knickers on Naomi, and with the wide white collar and black shoes she looked vaguely pilgrimish. Mom and Dad had asked me to take a picture of the grandkids, and I gave it my best effort. It wasn't easy. Naomi squirmed and Danny looked sulky in nearly all the pictures, then he wouldn't move out of the way when I was photographing Anna and her kids. I decided to take an extra picture of just the stairs so I can photoshop Danny out of Anna's group! For his contrariness, Danny received a good tickle from his cousin Isaac. Roger and Danny enjoyed building some towers with the foam shape set Kandy gave to Naomi.

Catching up...

Here are some pictures from early November, including a visit to Roger's parents. One picture shows Naomi in action—she saw me packing for travel and got her rolling backpack and bear and she was ready to go! There are also pictures of Danny helping make the cranberry relish by turning the crank on the grinder. The berries made a funny little popping sound.

Pictures by Danny...

Taken with Danny's Fisher-Price digital camera. Naomi will sit on and/or climb on anything that is remotely sittable or climbable. She will also use any possible toy or object to stand on to try to reach something on a table or counter. She's always falling off things, but she gets right back on with few tears.