AND WE'RE OFF!!!

Tate and I will be boarding a plane tomorrow. We will be taking our very first of many trips as a family. We're heading to Minneapolis to see Tess and Julie and a bunch of other totally cool mommas and China sisters. I will be looking forward to apple picking, pumpkin patching, outlet shopping and celebrating the Autumn festival.



I cannot wait to have our Minnesota friends meet Tate! PLUS..... since I was last in the Twin Cities, new China sisters have been added to the group. Can't wait to meet these new sisters too!

I CAN SEE CLEARER NOW....

My very active crawler found my cheapo reading glass and had to give them a try. Oh how I wished I looked as adorable in these as she does.

FOUR MONTH FAMILY DAY

Tate, you are my everything.




Happy four months of the HAPPIEST time of my life, our family day.

FIRST VISIT TO THE ZOO!!!

This is the first animal Tate saw at the zoo.... and she was mesmerized.



She loved this momma and baby elephant. How do I know??? She could not stop smacking kisses and blowing kisses to them. After 15 minutes of watching, she had a little meltdown as we left the elephant area.

AFTERNOON NAP...

Somedays you just need to crash and take a goooooood afternoon nap!


When you awake, your are such a delightful girl!

THIRTEEN MONTHS OLD!!!

Tate is thirteen months old today.... She will still be my baby but looks on with envy at the toddlers running and playing. You can just feel that she cannot wait to be talking and walking. I will say she now understands EVERYTHING that is said to her. She has such a funny sweet personality and is still a show stopper. This morning while eating her breakfast, she discovered the use of the spoon. I am still pretty insistent that I feed her. She loves this too. Today I put piece of egg on her spoon and helped her make it to her mouth. She is quite pleased with her new "momma helping" accomplishment....

NEW STATS ON TATE..

Tate's doctor likes to see Tate every two months.... thankfully I have good insurance. I like that he likes seeing her so much and is so on top of things.

Three more vaccines... Chickenpox, MMR, DTP and her flu shot. This time with two nurses and fast shooting... still heart wrenching tears, but only a few seconds of pain.

• Height 31.0 inches (91%) US charts
• Weight 21.94 lbs (57%) US charts

In almost two months, she has gained 1.5 inches in height and 2 lbs.

She has gotten all four teeth on the top which gives her a total of 6 teeth. She crawls around everywhere and pulls herself up on everything. She is walking with help. She will sing along (ahhhhh ahhhh) to music and dances constantly. The other day I was tapping my hand on my leg to the beat of the music while driving... I looked back to her, she was doing the same thing. She cannot wait until she is old enough to walk and play with her best friends Gwennie and Caroline.

My baby is growing up!

OUCH!!!

It had to happen sooner or later. This is just a fact. Somehow this knowledge did little comfort as Tate took her first TUMBLE out of her stroller onto the blacktop of the parking lot. I could hear her hit the blacktop. Oh boy did she cry AND HARD. On the outside I was all momma-like. Comforting and reassuring. In the inside my heart was breaking. After an hour or so I saw her HUGE goose bump and skinned forehead. This was when my cool momma-like exterior cracked and I cried.



To Tate, her booboo has been forgotten. To me, I feel pain when I see the huge goose bump on her beautiful sweet face.

BALLOON BABY

I love the grocery store that we shop at.... I love that they hire "special needs" baggers and even use some as checkers. I will always go to one of these specials needs checkers. I don't mind he takes longer than most. He is thrilled when Tate will grin from ear to ear her sweet toothy smile. He loves when Tate throws in a wave bye-bye. Today Tate blew him a kiss. All checking business stopped in his lane while he went to select this special balloon for such a sweet kiss blowing girl. All in all it was a delightful shopping experience... Behind me I left a happy special checker guy in front of me I had a happy balloon loving girl.







Love seeing Tate's sweet small hand through the balloon.

MY TATE

First some pictures of my girl, then a little update on her milestones and her life.....

• Tate is 20.6 lbs and 29.5 inches. She no longer is on formula and HATES baby food. She will gum most anything and prefers ME to feed her. In daycare she like to feed herself.
• When I first met Tate in China she could barely sit up without toppling over. She also would not roll from front to back, etc. She was strong, but not too motivated to move around. I will say that the amount of people loving on her did not help this. We wanted to carry her and love on her. Fast forward to the month of August. Tate is now a one year old and hanging out with a 2 1/2 yr old girl and a 19 month old boy while momma is at work. Amazing what a little peer pressure will do for a girl.
• We have a crawler!!! For the first few weeks, she would do this crawl on one knee and sit-scoot on the other knee action. Real cute but not too affective for getting around quickly. I totally missed out of getting a video of this. SUDDENLY she now has learned to do the traditional crawl AND FAST.
• Not too sure how long this crawling gig will last. Tate is pulling up on things. At nap time I am greeted with a STANDING SMILING girl! She is trying to figure out the footing and pull coordination for pulling up on random things like chairs, coffee table and couch.
• Mesa is also an item pulled up on. Mesa is not too sure on how she feels about this one and has started to move out of the way when Tate-the-Terror comes crawling her way.
• Walking is a big motivator for Tate. She LOVES when she can get someone to hold her two sweet hands and let her walk. What used to be tiny close together steps are now strides with purposeful movement.
• She has caused some frustration on her walking helpers by her choice to STOP the walking action for a little dancing in place action. Tate is still a crazy dancer. She will move to the music she hears or just stop and dances.
• Tate's life is full of older kids... walking fun older kids and Tate wants to be part of their play. You can see the envy on her face when she see the fun. I am sure I will have a walker in no time.
• Language and sounds are exploding around here. Tate will try the first sound of words like..... PPPPPP when I say pretty. SSSSSSSSSSS when she hears anything that starts with a S. She is practicing with the back of her throat.... Sucking in air and growling. I hear her practicing all the time from her crib and car seat. My girl likes to perfect her sounds before she showcases it to the world.
• Not sure I like the discovery of the tongue which sticks out a lot. I know the four new top teeth coming in needs exploring and is helping this tongue involvement.
• Teeth are popping out on top. She is getting four at one time. Even with her teething discomfort, Tate is still a HAPPY baby.
• Since being in daycare, Tate is much more snugly with me. She will sometimes wake in the wee hours of the morning just to snuggle for a few minutes and then back to sleep. I am sure she is loving her time in daycare, but still misses me. I am so glad she is having a tearless time in daycare but wants her momma too.

This is the way I have baby proofed this sudden quick crawling baby. While she naps today, I will be moving stuff and making it baby friendly.

MORE FIRST BIRTHDAY PICTURES....

Cannot get enough of some sweet momma Tate snuggles....



PRESENTS...

BIRTHDAY TIGER HAT

Somewhere along my long journey of adoption, I heard that it was a tradition for a Chinese child to wear a tiger hat on their first birthday.... I just might be way off on this tradition, but for me, I had to do it for Tate's first birthday....





Not liking to wear her FIRST birthday fancy hat.....

CAKE ATTACK!!!

First birthday cake....


Ahhhhh.... she is such a delicate picker....






Tate found the plate "bothersome" and ditched it pretty quickly....












This was such a FUN time watching Tate and her first birthday cake............

JUST PICTURES...

I have been shooting Tate with my purse size point and shoot since I first met her. I have noticed lately MOST of my shots have been out of focus. I am thinking it is because Tate is always in motion.... I am now shooting with my Canon Rebel... it seems to catch the action much better.

My life has been more than HECTIC the last two weeks.... Because of family members being on vacation, we postponed Tate's 1st birthday to Monday August 17 (hey, she doesn't know the difference!).... I cannot wait to see Tate attack her cake with all her Tate-exuberance. She is such a delightful personality!


I love Tate's hair like this... ahhhhh, the bedhead!!!

This is the face that greets me when I walk into the room....


JUMPING.....


The landing.

CLOSE-UPS....






It has been cold around here lately.... I have the hardest time keeping socks on Tate's feet. She seems to think that toes should be bare. Even if they are frozen toes.... I was able to sneak these piggie slippers on her feet while she was "jumping". The minute she was out of her jumper, she had those piggies OFF.



How cute are these piggie slippers on my girl???

THE EVE OF TATE'S BIRTH...

Tonight as Tate lays her head down to sleep, on the other side of the world Tate's birth mother awakes. To me, Tate's momma, this is the night before my baby's first birthday. To Tate's China momma, it is the last day she felt the sweetness of our baby. I will never know the circumstances that surrounded Tate abandonment. With a heavy heart for China momma's loss, I feel the JOY of being blessed to be Tate's momma.

SLEEP SOUNDLY SWEET TATE... tomorrow when you awake, you will be ONE!!!

HAPPY TO REPORT...

Tate and I both survived our first day away from each other. Tate knew something was up this morning when I got her ready and out the door way earlier than her normal. She happily went to Lindsay but turned and wanted me back. I told Lindsay I did not know what to do. Her good advice, "Hug her and leave".... So I did.

Tate did as well as expected. Cried for 10 minutes before her first nap, wanted to feed herself (she prefers me to feed her) but LOVED having the other kids to watch and learn from. I swear she seems older after eight hours!

ME??? I could not stop thinking of her. My arms craved her. Her sweet little smile just lite up when she saw me. My heart skipped a beat and then it BURST. I swear, I kissed her so many times her cheeks are now chapped.... Dang it if she is napping now .... I'm hoping this will be a quick nap!

Job??? I will be teaching special education part-time in an elementary school. Exciting and scary change, but such an amazing job when you are a single momma.

GAG....

Tomorrow starts the beginning of a whole new chapter in Tate and my life together. I am starting a new job and she is starting in daycare. I will talk about the new job later in the week. Tate will be staying this Monday and Thursday for 8 hrs while I am in a workshop, with her buddy and our neighbor Lindsay and Gwennie (2.5 yrs old) Lindsay will be having a little boy in November. I just feel that this is the best situation for my sweet active girl. Tate has been hanging out with momma, Lindsay and Gwennie all summer long. Hopefully there will not be any tears on her part. Me???? Most definitely tears!

MOBILITY AND OTHER MOVING ISSUES......

Stuff with Tate are exploding around here....

• Tate has always been a busy girl. Always observant, always wiggling. Lately, her wiggling has met purpose. She is still not crawling, but will sit on her toosh and scoot from place to place.
• Tomorrow I have an appointment to her Tate to be assessed by Early Childhood Intervention. I am sure they will give me some pointers on how to get my gal crawling and walking.
• In her bed she is one wild sleeper. In the past, she would sleep on her back and her left side. Now I will find her on her tummy on the opposite side of her bed. She seems to prefer sleeping on her tummy.
• We are big into the "OH OH" drop game. She will say "OH OH" when she is ready to drop food in her high chair. Mesa loves this kind of "OH OH" game. Me?? Not liking it to much when I am trying to drive and have a sweet baby dropping toys.
• Tate has always been real social. In church the other day, she saw her friends Tiffany, Liza and Sollie. She flapped her arms saying hi so hard it looked like she was about to take flight.
• Tate is into smacking lip kissing. She will give momma a kiss when requested. Sometimes the smacking happens after contact and I get an open slobber mouth, but all kisses are cherished my me.
• We have an activity center that Tate's Fairy Godmother gave her. It is full of fun things and a musical keyboard for playing. It is also a bouncy thingy. In the past, Tate has loved the musical component on this center. Today, she could not get enough of some WILD jumping.
• I really think it is just a matter of weeks before she is crawling all over the house.

PONY TAILS WITH ATTITUDE....

What the heck are these???


Okay, momma, I won't touch....


I know, I know I am tooooo cute!

DISCIPLINING MESA.....

"NO MESA, no more food!!! Now leave me alone!"

"momma, I took care of the Mesa food mooch problem"

"I am talking nicely to Mesa. Momma, this is not fair!"

"How 'bout I try charming you instead?"

TATE TODAY....

BULLET TIME....

• My girl is teething... at least she is acting like it. She is eleven months old and only two little teeth on the bottom. For weeks now I have been waiting for some pearly whites to erupt from her swollen top gums... All evidence is pointing to this happening. WHERE ARE THOSE TEETH???
• Tate is learning where her nose is.... and where Momma's nose is. I usually do this during face to face in the high chair feeding time. This is kind of how this time plays out. "Where is Tate's nose?" she points with with such concentration with her sweet finger. Then I ask "where is Momma's nose?" and lean in for her to touch my nose. After a few times of this I end up kissing her. Funny thing, now she thinks that a kiss is in order each time I ask where our noses are.
• I have started to say NO to my girl. She hears nose instead of NO and will point to her nose with a big smile. How can I say NO to such a cute sweetie?
• Tate is sharing.... she will play with something and then hand it to me so I can have some fun. Back and forth this will go. She does this with food offerings to Mesa or me. Sometimes she shares something right out of her mouth. Me??? I decline this offering. Mesa??? Takes it with gusto.
• She has gained in five weeks 1/2 inch and almost a pound.
• Sadly, she has started her vaccinations. She had four, two in each thigh. Man did she cry so hard. There was only one nurse doing all four. Next time I will DEMAND there be at least two nurses both shooting at the same time.... QUICKLY.
• Man of man, I love it when she reaches her arms out for me.
• Tate's MD gave her the go ahead to eat whatever she can gum. New taste for Tate this week is small tastes of refried beans, guacamole and soft tortillas (Mexican food at party), tiny piece of raw broccoli, tastes of ice cream, string cheese. "People" (who will be nameless) gave her a small taste of chocolate. Funny thing, why I say "PEOPLE" is because I have been told by a few "people" that they have given her a tiny taste of chocolate. Keep in mind before flaming me, Tate comes from a long line of chocolate crazy family... who can blame them?
• Why do they have to make little girl clothes SOOOOOOOOOOO cute???

BONUS

FUN AT CHERRY HILL WITH FAMILY

Matching colors and chillin' with Twinkle Toes. Tate wants to know when she gets her own iPod.

Waving with Gramps as the family floats on by on the lazy river.

Sparkle and my Love

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!!!

VIDEO FUN AT MEAL TIME....

TATE TEASING MESA....

AFTERMATH OF THE TEASE