Beaded, Beautiful, Beachy and Brilliant

Laina has been keeping us so busy, Wow. She moves really fast these days, and she's curious about everything. Her 8th tooth just finally came in after a few sleepless nights. We've all recovered now, and things are back to our usual comfortable chaos. I have a few new pictures for you. She's just so beautiful I can hardly stand it. There's a new pink coat shot, one of her in her beads that she likes to wear all the time, a picture of her in her hippie vest on the grass, and a cute one of her on the beach just yesterday. We have finished our post-placement requirements this past Friday when we had our final Social Worker visit. Next, we are going to re-finalize the adoption in the local court so she has a U.S. Birth Cretificate. This is not required and she is "officially " ours already. She even has a U.S. Citizenship certificate and a letter from President Bush. We got her a SS number too. I think the re-finalization will give us a sense of closure and a sort of "ceremony" here. The birth certificate will, of course, make it easier to enroll her in school, etc. This past Sunday we visited with Laina's friend, Bella. She is a child from the same orphanage as Laina and we traveled together to get our babies. They had a good time playing and we all enjoyed the visit but we forgot to take a picture of them together, RATS. But here's the photos I promised..

Twirling

Wow! October already. On October 20th, Laina will have been home for 6 months. It's hard to believe. Feels like she has always been with us... As you can imagine, Laina is growing now by leaps and bounds. She is not only running around, but also can walk backward, and twirl in a circle. The big kids at Day Care are great for her to be around, everyday she learns more just from watching them. There are new words all the time, I'd say she has at least a dozen now and she's mimicking all the time. There are 6 teeth in and more on the way. She'll eat anything, and I mean anything, but she is learning to put things in the basket when we tell her it's trash. We have given away the first batch of clothes that she's grown out of. Here's a picture of her with her favorite articles of clothing..SHOES! Also one of her with her Grandpa(Bampee) and Grandma(Mamma), and a cute one of her in her Saturday jeans and sneakers. I have had trouble finding time to post, but will make a better effort. One thing is that our computer is in a guest room and we have had a lot of people visiting lately. More arrive tomorrow and I'll be taking some new pix with her Aunt Kathy, Uncle Tom and cousin Robert to post next time.