Kaylee turns 1!
Kaylee turned 1 year old at the beginning of the month. I think I was more excited than anyone else to celebrate her birthday. Tim and I bought her a little baby camelback (she always wants to drink out of mine) and we were giddy to give it to her. I also spent way too many hours making her a birthday sign, but I had fun doing it. For those of you who are teachers, think about those times when you spend way too many hours making the visuals perfect for your 15-minute activity. The birthday sign was my mommy version of that. I also got a recipe from my sister for gourmet chocolate cupcakes and had made 3-dozen of those. We had to invite people over just because we needed help eating the cupcakes.
Kaylee turned 1 year old at the beginning of the month. I think I was more excited than anyone else to celebrate her birthday. Tim and I bought her a little baby camelback (she always wants to drink out of mine) and we were giddy to give it to her. I also spent way too many hours making her a birthday sign, but I had fun doing it. For those of you who are teachers, think about those times when you spend way too many hours making the visuals perfect for your 15-minute activity. The birthday sign was my mommy version of that. I also got a recipe from my sister for gourmet chocolate cupcakes and had made 3-dozen of those. We had to invite people over just because we needed help eating the cupcakes.
Kaylee's birthday cupcakes When Tim got home from work on Kaylee’s birthday we had her open her presents. Really we chased her down and sat her back in front of her presents over and over again. She just wanted to crawl around and get into her regular mischief. She didn’t care very much about presents at all. Although, thank you to all those who sent her gifts. She is appreciating them more now that they are already unwrapped and with her regular things.
Giving Kaylee her birthday cupcake was much anticipated by Tim and myself. It was Kaylee’s first taste of sweets. Her reaction was not what we had anticipated. You would have thought she was eating carrots, pears, or any other food. She just ate it. While she was finishing her cupcake, I was finishing the pizza that we had made for dinner. That really caught Kaylee’s attention. She had no interest in her cupcake any longer once she saw that there was pizza in the room. Anything with bread, this kid will gobble up.
Giving Kaylee her birthday cupcake was much anticipated by Tim and myself. It was Kaylee’s first taste of sweets. Her reaction was not what we had anticipated. You would have thought she was eating carrots, pears, or any other food. She just ate it. While she was finishing her cupcake, I was finishing the pizza that we had made for dinner. That really caught Kaylee’s attention. She had no interest in her cupcake any longer once she saw that there was pizza in the room. Anything with bread, this kid will gobble up.
So happy it's her birthday! Kaylee has grown a lot this past year. She is babbling nearly nonstop. She crawls around the house like she has to explore everything before I notice she’s gone. She stands up and walks around any furniture, door, or wall she can. She closes any door she can. She is just now cutting her 6th tooth. She hasn’t realized it yet, but she can stand on her own for short periods of time. She poops in the bathtub ALL the time. (Cleaning the shower has always been my least favorite chore, but now adding the fact that I have to clean the tub every other day and sometimes bath Kaylee again, it’s becoming even more disliked.) Overall we completely love this kid and can’t imagine life without her.
Home Study
The past few weeks we have been filling out paperwork and asking people to send in reference letters for us so that we can start the adoption process again. Our Anchorage caseworker came out to our home this past weekend to conduct our home study. He came in on the morning flight and left on the evening flight. The actually interview only took about an hour so we had a lot of time just to entertain him. After having lunch, giving him a tour of Dillingham, and visiting at our house, we dragged him to the Seventh-day Adventist Church for a piano recital. I think it went well though. This time around is going much more quickly than it did the first time around.
Tim’s Happenings
Tim traveled to the nearby village of Manokotak this past week. He had to conduct training with the teachers on a program that the students will be using to take their final exams. His meeting took place in the morning before school. Since it’s still dark then, no one flies that early, so Tim had to fly out the evening before. Luckily our neighbors were kind enough to invite Kaylee and I over for dinner so we weren’t too lonely.
Tim finished his semester last Friday. He is now down to one semester left of his Master’s program. It will probably be his hardest semester yet, but it will be so nice for him to be finished. He has really enjoyed his program. Hopefully, some day a job in educational technology will open up that is near family.
If you want to see our family pictures and the pictures from the month of November click here.
Home Study
The past few weeks we have been filling out paperwork and asking people to send in reference letters for us so that we can start the adoption process again. Our Anchorage caseworker came out to our home this past weekend to conduct our home study. He came in on the morning flight and left on the evening flight. The actually interview only took about an hour so we had a lot of time just to entertain him. After having lunch, giving him a tour of Dillingham, and visiting at our house, we dragged him to the Seventh-day Adventist Church for a piano recital. I think it went well though. This time around is going much more quickly than it did the first time around.
Tim’s Happenings
Tim traveled to the nearby village of Manokotak this past week. He had to conduct training with the teachers on a program that the students will be using to take their final exams. His meeting took place in the morning before school. Since it’s still dark then, no one flies that early, so Tim had to fly out the evening before. Luckily our neighbors were kind enough to invite Kaylee and I over for dinner so we weren’t too lonely.
Tim finished his semester last Friday. He is now down to one semester left of his Master’s program. It will probably be his hardest semester yet, but it will be so nice for him to be finished. He has really enjoyed his program. Hopefully, some day a job in educational technology will open up that is near family.
If you want to see our family pictures and the pictures from the month of November click here.
