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!

Christmas continues

oops, I forgot to add a couple of pix. Here's the grocery cart one(Thanks Aunt Ronnie, she loves it!) and my favorite one of her sleeping under the tree...I'd add some with other people in them but, well, hmmmm...don't seem to have any of anyone else!

First Christmas

Hi everyone, here are some photos of Laina's first Christmas. We spent the whole weekend celebrating with both Jimmy and Nancy's families and that was loads of fun. We were very wiped out from all the festivities and as it turns out, Laina got sick on Christmas day and spent a good part of the day sleeping under the tree. I got all weepy when I was looking at her there and all I could think of was that she was the only present we could possibly need. It's been an incredible year for us, bringing home Laina is really a dream come true. 2007 will always be my favorite year, although I realize that there's lots more amazing times to come with our daughter! Here's a few photos, and I am including a couple of "runners-up" Christmas card shots too. By the way, if you are friend or family and did not receive a card, please don't take it personally. I ran out of steam, but not out of cards! Feel free to ask for one. Let's see...there's a picture with Daddy under the tree, a picture sleeping under the tree,a picture of just how much energy she had to open her stocking, and just for an action shot to liven things up, I will add a running photo with her new grocery cart. She is a very fast shopper! Happy New Year !