I have baby pictures!!!

I was so excited to get my mail once I realized there was an envelope from Half the Sky. This is a non-profit organization that helps train orphanage workers on how to care for the children and implement a practice to write up quarterly progress reports on each kid in the program. Once you complete the adoption with a Half the Sky orphanage you can petition to get a copy of your child report. This is what I received! I now have pictures of Malia as young as 9 months old and more information on her progress from her time in the orphanage.

At 9 months


At one year


At 16 months


At 19 months


At 22 months


We also had the dentist appointment this week. She did fantastic. She loved the chair and her dental hygienist, Jenni, was wonderful. Malia let her count her teeth and even clean a couple, including flossing. OK, I forgot to take Malia's picture in the chair but I got one outside of her holding her prize bag (a sticker, toothbrush, and floss).



Finally we had a Single Moms get together at the Maple Grove Community Center on Saturday. This pool was great fun and it was nice to have so much space where Malia could touch so it wasn't even that crowded feeling.

Chicago Trip

Well, we had a nice anniversary of the day we came home from China. I can't believe that we have been home 3 months already. Time is flying but we are taking advantage of our moments together.

Friday we went to a book signing and concert at Barnes and Nobel. It was for Puff the Magic Dragon. My uncle Jim is good friends with Peter Yarrow (from Peter, Paul and Mary) and he was performing to promote his book. His music was so much fun for the whole audience and he was fantastic with the kids. Malia even got to go up on stage to dance for the one song (This land is your land).







Then Saturday morning we flew to Chicago to visit my sister, her husband, and my nephew, Jude. Malia did great on the flight. This was our first flight since coming back from China and my first time flying with her alone. People were fantastic helping out and talking to Malia. Even the TSA people were super cute with Malia. We went to a fun kids museum on Saturday (www.kohlchildrensmuseum.org). I would recommend it to anyone in the area and it was very inexpensive. Malia was in heaven checking out all of the interactive areas (cars, dolls, Potbelly Sandwich area, water, art, and even a mini grocery store). Then Sunday we went downtown shopping and of course had to go into American Girl store. It was busy but not crazy. Malia loved the bitty baby area and got a new dolly that looks like her. Today we flew back and didn't even have any issues flying out of O'hare. I guess we might be ready to tackle a Disney trip this fall or winter. The DVD player helped a lot... Elmo always works.












Thanks again to Auntie Susie, Uncle Ryan (also known as Mo Mo) and Baby Jude for sharing your house and weekend with us. We had a lot of fun hanging out and seeing the sites this weekend!

Happy Belated 4th

I hope everyone had a happy and safe 4th of July. We celebrated with my brothers family and went to the parade in Eden Prairie (correction - Apple Valley, he, he....). It was a nice day but got a little hot at times. Luckily they were smart and bought a canopy thing so we could cool off in the shade at times. Malia caught on quickly how to pick up the candy the floats threw out.

We also spent the 3 month anniversary of being together at the Mall of America for Toddler Tuesday. There was a performance from "If you give a mouse a cookie" by Children's Theater. We got to see some actors that my sister used to perform with when she was an actor there. It was fun and Malia got to also see her cousin Garrett.