First Haircut

After 21 months, we finally did it. Zoe had her first haircut today. We could not have been prouder, she didn't cry at all. She bravely sat on the chair all by herself and let the man at Cartoon Cuts cut her hair. We got a nice certificate and a lock of her hair as a keepsake. After the haircut she had her favorite mall pretzel, a trip around the carosel (liked it at first then wanted off), and got to play at the little tot playground. She's now fast asleep! Eric is going to take her to the pool later today while I get more packing done. Can't believe we close on the house in a week. They dug the hole for the new house and will be pouring the foundation soon. We're so glad they got started before we moved into the apartment! With a little luck, and a little drought this summer, we may be in by Halloween.

T-shirt

I'm buying this t-shirt for Zoe from beautifulfutures.com because I think it's ironical :)

When we had you, we had everything....

I can not believe it's been a year since we first held Zoe in our arms. I remember that day so clearly.... all the fear, all the stress, all the excitment, all the bewilderment that we had flown more than half way around the world to create our family, and mostly all the joy. What a year it has been. Zoe went from being a very quiet little 9 month old, to a very active 21 month old who we call our Ambassador of Good Will for all the smiles, hellos, and blown kisses she gives to everyone. (Of course she's also getting a little closer to two now and is becoming a little more bossy. Yesterday she told me to "sit down mommy." I was thrilled with the three word phrase, less thrilled with the attitude :) ) Zoe also went from being unable to sit up, to running, hopping, and climbing stairs. The transformation has been amazing and everything we had been told about the resiliency of the babies has proven to be true. Our little girl is so strong. She had gone through more in her first nine months than most adults I know. She is my hero.

I've learned so much this year, and I know Eric has too. Although I've worked with kids since I was one, being a parent and having the 24/7 responsibilities is only something you can understand when you are doing it. Even know I tell the parents I work with that it is so much easier for me to tell them how to parent than it is for me to actually do it. There are so many things that I never thought I would do, that I do. A year and a day ago I never would have thought I would co-sleep with my child....or that I would love it. I also never knew I had the capacity to worry to much, to hurt so much when I can't console her, or to love so much. Don't get me wrong, I love Eric so very much. But the love I feel for this child is (as I write and cross out many words) indescribable, as is the gratefulness I feel to her birth parents and country.

This year certainly hasn't been without it's share of ups and downs. A good friend of mine, the father of four, told me when I got married to wait to have children. He said that being a parent is hard and if you don't take the time just to establish your marriage first, you won't be able to tell if it's the marriage, or the parenting, that is hard. Boy, he was right on the mark. There are times when we are scared, or tired, or stressed that we have been less than nice to each other. But we can always look back on those 3 years (seems short I know) of marriage and 6 years of togetherness and remember that we got along really well then..so it's just the tiredness/stress talking. What my friend also should have said is to make sure you really, really love your spouse because there will be days on this parenting journey where you won't like each other very well, if at all...but you'll still have that love. Thank God for that.

This year has been an amazing journey and we're looking forward to so many more with Zoe. I know Eric and I both feel so incredibly blessed to have her in our lives. We must have done something right to have been given the incredible opportunity to be Zoe's parents.

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a great Memorial Day weekend. On Saturday we went to Maryland to visit with friends and their family. Zoe loved playing with her little friend who so generously shared all her toys! We had great food and great company. On Sunday we went to another friend's BBQ and then off to Eric's parents house for more yummy food. The weather on Monday was perfect for our first trip to our pool. We only have a month to enjoy it this year because of the move. One really nice thing about this pool is all the water features which Zoe really liked. The pool in the new development is alot smaller...but we're just happy that it's up and running being that development has stalled. We're heading to Illinois for my Nana's memorial service on Friday. Hopefully Zoe will be on her best behavior!

First New Home Photo :)

We put the sold sign on our lot last night and the sales manager took this picture. Tomorrow we go to the design studio to pick out the interior options for the house. Hopefully we'll be in the house in September/October. I'm such a nervous Nelly that I'm going to worry about our townhouse closing until all papers have been signed on June 30th! Anyway, in this picture you can see the tree preserve in the neighborhood. We also have a small tree preserve right across the street so our view will be of the trees. There are also 3 ponds in the development and when we were there last week two Canadian geese waddled down the road. Zoe's eyes got all big and she started towards them. We hope she enjoys living there!

House Under Contract!

Our townhome went under contract in 4 days. The new owners are going to give us until June 30th to move. We're going to have to move to an apartment for a few months while the house is being built, but if you've got to do it then the summer is the time to do so! Fingers crossed that everything will go as planned and we will actually close on the townhome at the end of June. If all goes as planned we will be moving here (follow link) : http://www.greenemillpreserve.com/

Our builder is Stanley Martin and the home is the Ballou. (The website is a bit outdated, home prices have fallen A LOT).

I think I'm running out of blogging steam. We have our one year anniversary with Zoe coming up on June 3rd. I think that may be it for the blog.

Pigtails!

Pigtails! The little stinker still won't let me do her hair but she giggles when Miss Amy or Ms. Astoria (her teachers) do it so I gave them a bunch of hair ties and she's been coming home in pigtails. Since she still hasn't had a haircut, she's got plenty of hair for them!

I've lost the blogging bug as of late but a quick update on Zoe...she's doing great! She learns new words every day, is using verbs and some two word phrases, counts to 3 clearly and 4 and 5 are emerging, has her color words (but is still working on matching the word to the color..seems to know green and blue more than others), says her teacher's name, does the body motions to numerous songs, loves completing Melissa and Doug puzzles, knows and can say circle and star and can pick out a square, and just gets taller every day :) Still trying to put weight on her. She eats well but will probably continue to track on the lower end of the weight chart. She's a 18-24 month on top due to her height, but bottoms are 12-18 month and she could probably still wear 6-12 if they weren't so short. Most importantly, and in writing this I'm jinxing it, we've all been sleeping through the night for a while now :) I think she's growing again right now though so that may change. We're looking so forward to seeing all the family out in Illinois in few weeks and can't wait for everyone to meet Zoe! Oh, and our house is back on the market as of tomorrow...wish us luck this time around!