Summertime.....and the Livin' is easy

Summertime has finally arrived. The first houseguests have started to come, the first zucchini was picked tonight, the first sunburns have come and gone, Laina is brown and swimming at Day Care, life is good. We are incredibly busy with Laina, work, and a revolving door of guests. Our first were Nancy's Mom and Dad. There's a photo for you of Grampa reading a bedtime story to her. He's a great storyteller and we all enjoyed it. Laina got a beautiful, handmade wooden rocking horse from Jimmy's Mom and Dad, brother Richard, and his wife Mary. We'll post a picture of Jimmy and Laina having a horse race. One night, recently, Laina saw not only her first rainbow, but actually her first 2 rainbows. Look closely at the photo of her and Jimmy. We also had an actual family time at the beach one Sunday and there's a picture of her there. She calls this photo "Daddy's Hand" and laughs and points at it. We'll be going to a 4th of July Parade and having more guests so hopefully we'll be posting lots more photos soon. It's great for her to socialize and get to know everyone in both of our large families. This year she remembers all of the names(with a little practice looking at her family photo album) and asks about people. She'll say something like "Robert home?" when she's thinking about her cousin who was recently here.She has been talking very well, and has a very rich vocabulary with full sentences. One morning I caught her raiding the cabinet before breakfast and getting out a big box of animal crackers. I said "No, no, Laina, you can't have cookies for breakfast." She looked at me very seriously and said "Just a couple of monkeys, Mommy." We laugh a lot around here, and she is starting to show a good sense of humor, as well as a strong will and defiant streak that is in anticipation of the "Terrible twos", but mostly she is even tempered and so much fun to be around. Enjoy all the new pictures, more to come!

Weekend Fun

Here's some new photos for you. The first one is Laina with her first bandaid. She had a bad bugbite on her head that she kept scratching. I gave her a little travel mirror to see her bandaid and she was thrilled with it. She tells me constantly now that she has a boo-boo and needs another one! She is running around a lot now and will suddenly just fall asleep. She likes to play in "holes", which are just spaces that we make in between piles of pillows. There's a shot of her in a pillow hole, fast asleep. We went to the beach and she had a terrific time and actually wore her sunglasses. I will post a picture of her with Jimmy at the beach and one of her in her glasses. There's also one of Laina and her Daddy asleep on the couch. He and Laina are alike in that they really like their naps! When you play hard, you sleep well. We are currently working on tooth-brushing and washing at the sink, counting and letters, she is trying her potty chair sometimes, lots of pretend eating and tea parties. Today she was crawling around and meowing like a kitty, and also puts her toys to bed and pretends to change their diapers. We get to hear a lot of singing and she seems to have an ear for music, gets the melodies and sounds like she is on-key. Lately I have been playing more grown-up music and she is just fine with that and is learning some of the lyrics to the music I listen to, not just the kid stuff. On June 12, she will be 22 months old. Wow! Two in August, hard to believe, it goes so fast

Mom's Days

We're still here! So sorry to take so long between posts. Here's some new pictures. Laina is just growing like crazy. She has sprouted out of all her clothes and so now I am starting to open up the "Big kid's clothes" that people have given us. She is talking extremely well and sings all the time. We are having so much fun watching her. She is doing puzzles, building towers, playing dress-up, having tea parties and doing so many things. We have recently visited some spring lambs and some baby chickens so there's a photo of that.Laina likes to wear my radio-headphones that I bring to work(I am a house painter) so I'll post a picture of that. She cuts quite a figure with a full tummy! There's also a cute one of her playing with Nick our kitty.As you can see, her hair is finally growing and tends to stick up a lot. I have been thinking a lot about Mother's Day and feeling incredibly happy about our little family. We are just so in love with Laina, it is hard to imagine life withour her. I love being her Mommy. She has now been home for over a year and we have definitely completely forever-bonded and it feels FANTASTIC! Every day is Mom's Day.

Guangxi Girls

We have been very busy lately, every weekend there has been reason to celebrate. First we had a reunion with our Guangxi families. This would be our four families, and our "Peeps" who were together in the same province to bring our girls home. I am posting a photo of the four of them, in tee shirts that Bella's Mom, Tina, had made up. They say "I'm a Guangxi Girl" and have their American names in English on the front and in Chinese on the back. Laina is the yawning, but clapping one. From left to right, they are: Roma, Laina, Bella, and Jianna. We had a wonderful visit and hope to get together often. Yesterday was our official "Gotcha Day" anniversary from when they were placed in our arms. What an amazing time the last year has been. We can't imagine our lives without Laina. I will also post a photo of Roma and Bella just because it's cute! This past weekend Laina and I went for a "Girls Only Weekend" with her Aunt Betsy, to visit Grandma and Grampa and her Aunt Kathy, and anyone else we could see on our journey. It was great to show everyone how much she has grown and we only wish we could visit more often. Traveling with a 20-month old is a real adventure! She was well-behaved though and managed the long drive like a champion, sleeping almost all the way; only waking up for a little singing and a snack now and then.I'm having a little trouble with my photo program, so that's it for now. I hope to add more soon. We have had a fun couple of weeks but right now, I am just so happy to look into the baby's dimly lit room and stare at her beautiful sleeping face and feel thankful.

Hoppy Easter

Laina enjoyed her first Easter celebration since she came home(last year,Laina was placed in our arms on April 9, but at home it was April 10, Easter Day 2007!)This will always be a very special time for our family. This year, we had some friends visit with their baby, Luke, who is 5 months old. We went to see the Easter Bunny and they both had their first Merry Go Round rides. I did not get a good photo at the carousel, but here's one of Laina in her bunny ears, which she wears around a lot. We all have them and she likes us all to march around with musical instruments and have a parade. Parades are a nightly event in the Benoit household and Laina always leads the way. Jimmy and I make up silly words and sometimes manage to cook and set up for dinner as we shake our maracas and keep marching through the kitchen! There's another one of her with Jimmy and the Easter Bunny. I will post a photo of Luke with his cool glasses on, with his Dad Jeff, and one of Laina, reading a story with Luke's Mom, Marjory. It was a fun and busy weekend and it will be hard to get back to work tomorrow. We have a Guangxi reunion next weekend though, so there's something great to look forward to. Also, Laina and I are going to have a Mother/Daughter weekend at her Grandma and Grampas house the weekend after that.Should be a lot of photo opportunities coming up!

Hi everyone; Laina is finally napping so I can catch up a little! She is transitioning from two to one nap so I never know lately when she'll take one, or for how long. She has 2 new teeth, the lower canines are just peeking out. I think that makes 15, but wouldn't gamble on it. She is talking up a storm! Everyday there are new words, and lots of singing. In the car she just sings away from her car seat, mostly Happy Birthday, or The ABC Song, with a few 'doo-dahs' for effect.Today I will put up a picture of her riding a train at Day Care. Her Caregiver, Nancy always has special things for them to do on different days. This was also "pajama Day" so she's all comfy in feety pj's. Another shot is of her in her glamour Girl sunglasses on the swing with her Lambie. This toy is in many pictures, it is a "Lambchop" puppet and has become her special comfort thing. I can barely wash it.She likes to make us smell her for some reason, which is probably a familiar friendly smell to her, but can be well, umm, kind of yucky. And you have say "ummm, very nice, or something special about Lambie after you smell it. She makes me check the dryer every couple of minutes when the Lamb is in there.I was trying to post a video but haven't figured it out yet, so may be able to do that later. As we approach Easter, and our 1 year anniversary, we are amazed at how she has blossomed and how much in love with her we are. We feel so very lucky to have her in our lives and our family. Soon, we have a reunion with our group of 4 babies from the same province in China, Guangxi, and their families. We are really looking forward to seeing them all. When you share something like this, you really bond for life and we hope to keep them in Laina's life and ours, forever.

So sorry, it has been too long since our last post! Laina is getting much "busier", running and exploring everything. She has been getting ideas...like standing on something to get to something else. We have to watch her very carefully. There's new bumps and bruises more often as she finds her way, but she is doing very well over all. Now 1 1/2 years old, she has lots of teeth. In fact, I'm not sure how many, maybe 13, and she wants to eat everything we eat, and also does not want cut-up little baby bites. She has tons of new words, more than we can count and she sings all the time.It's so much fun!Here's some pictures for you; there's one of her riding in her wagon, swinging on the new swings in town(she was the first one on them!), riding in a box with my sister Betsy's dog, Sophie and a cute one of Laina and Jimmy playing with stickers.

Although I posted yesterday, I decided that since it was a "flashback" to give you some new stuff too. Here's Laina in a cute purple dress, one of her with her Grampa, one of her outside in the snow, and one of her with her buddy, our cat Nick who really seems to like her and is very tolerant of her crawling all over him as you can see.There's also one of her in her new beanbag chair from Christmas. She likes having her own spot to sit and she plays on it a lot too.Lately, she has been getting very brave about climbing on things and wants desperately to go down the stairs. It gets scary sometimes! She has progressed a great deal with her dexterity and is doing a lot of puzzles and shape sorting. We sing the "Happy Birthday" song a few billion times a day, with an occasional burst of "Twinkle, twinkle little star"-she is getting more words everyday and fills in with her own sounds but she is starting to get the melodies.I could listen to her all day. My radio broke in my van and I don't even care!

Flashback

Yesterday, February 1, was the anniversary of our "Referral Day". This is the most exciting day for an adoptive family as it means you are finally matched to your child. We had heard through the rumors online and from emailing other families that the referrals may come on February 1. It was a Thursday. They said that they were being delivered by DSL to the agency, but then they would all(28 families total) have to be translated before anyone was called so there was nothing to do but wait...We decided that we probably wouldn't get "the call" before the afternoon so Jimmy went to work for a while. We tried to conference call but that didn't work between the phones we had. We then planned that I would take the call if it came and record it, call Jimmy right away and tell him everything, then he'd listen to the recording when he got home. I had my coat on to go out for a quick errand at 10 a.m. and the phone rang! It was our Social Worker and I scrambled to sit down and get the recording going and get my pen out and try to slow down my heart rate. She told me as much as she could about our baby and I called Jimmy right away but couldn't get him! I left a crazy voice mail and waited, clapping and jumping up and down all by myself because I was so excited. No call back...I was literally trotting up and down the stairs chanting,"call me, call me..", my adrenaline was so high.Finally I tried another number at the jobsite(after leaving 2 more voice-mails I think), got the Foreman and told him to get Jimmy to call me right away. He did and we were both so excited, he came home right away and had pink balloons to put outside. We spent the rest of the day calling everyone we knew, hugging and staring at the scribbled information I had written. It was amazing. The hardest part was that we couldn't see her pictures until Tuesday! That was a long weekend but so full of joy too. Today's post is the original referral photos that we were given that Tuesday, February 6 last year. The Social Worker left us alone in the office for privacy and handed Jimmy the manilla envelope. We looked at our beautiful baby and cried with joy. We are so blessed with our Laina. It was the birth of a family, what we call in the adoptive world our "Forever Family".

New Year, New Teeth and more news

Well, here we are in 2008. Nothing can top the excitement of last year but we're off to a good start. Laina is doing new things everyday. She now has 11 teeth, and more coming soon. She is doing Ring Around the Rosy and dancing a lot. She sings to us, and everything is the tune of Jingle Bells(Just like Elmo does it). She says a few 2 word phrases and they all have to do with food. At Day Care and now at home too, she announces "Snack Time!" when she feels sure the time is right. She is growing taller and is running out of feety pajamas quickly. We play tea party everyday with her toy dishes and there's lots of play-eating (as well as the real thing.) She sleeps pretty well, about 9-10 hours usually with a couple of adjustments during the night; you know, blankie rearranging and binkie maneuvers...She is also working hard at learning to jump, which is just the cutest thing you've ever seen. She throws her body up but doesn't get any air, but she laughs and loves it and keeps trying and trying. She puts all our coins in her nice piggy bank that she got from our friend Alexandra. I'll post a photo of that. I have a cute one of yogurt-eating. We are still encouraging the spoon but she likes to use all her senses to really experience a meal as you can see.You'll have to imagine all the lip-smacking and "nummy" sounds... She was inspired by her Daddy to try coloring with her toes, and actually did pretty well and since then, she has been trying to do a lot with her feet. Yesterday she wanted to try playing the piano that way! Well, it's almost time for her to get up from her nap. She wakes up and shouts "All Done!" (This is cute, except for at 3 or 4 a.m.) Enjoy the pictures!