Haven at 11 Months

Hi to all of our family and friends,

Haven is growing fast and getting places quickly these days, although still by crawling. Her 7th tooth is now most of the way in so 4 on top, 3 on the bottom. She's playing games like Peek-a-Boo and So Big without having to help her at all now. Before we had to raise her arms above her head, now she does it herself. She's also blowing kisses, pulling herself up very well, and once or twice has started "cruising" between objects. She's still mostly easy going, does really well in the church nursery, and has even been to the gym nursery (the boys are with her) a few times which is great for both Mommy and Haven. She also loves walks in her stroller. The faster the better, it makes her giggle especially over bumps. She's had her first yogurt which she likes. She's not crazy about canned peaches. I think all of them were scooped into her highchair or fed to the dog. She loves to dance and also rocks her stuffed animals and dolls and gives them kisses/hugs. Very cute! Her favorite book right now is the "Ten Little Lady Bugs".

Well those are her new accomplishments. It's hard to believe that we've been home with her for 6 months. It's even harder to believe that she's about to turn 1.

We're also nearing the end of the whole adoption process. Haven's adoption WAS finalized in Vietnam and she is a citizen. However, it is also considered wise to readopt in your home state and get a state birth certificate which makes life much easier. Her American name will also become officially her name during the readopt process. So we've recently completed all 3 of our post placement (since we're home) Social Worker in-home visits. Now that's done, we've also contacted an attorney who specializes in adoption stuff to start the readoption process. I hear it contains more fingerprints...goody.

The rest of the family is doing well. We just survived another on-call week with Mike which included Mother's Day. I wouldn't recommend that to anyone. Ethan is reading more and more, figuring out how words are spelled in his head by sounding them out, and reading off of signs etc. Eric is still our most physical child. He thinks he needs to jump off of everything which has resulted in 2 pair of tennis shoes having the toes ripped out in the last couple of weeks. Both boys have gotten to go fishing quite a bit already this Spring with their Daddy, and once each of their Grandpas could come along which was very special. I'm telling you usually the Scooby Doo Fishing Pole wins the most fish caught contest hands down. So if you're down on your luck with fishing...you might want to consider one! Mike got his turkey yesterday morning which was great. More dedication than I would have--getting up at 3:45 am. Then all of us were able to go the SAC museum where the boys have a blast with all the airplanes.

We hope you're all well and enjoying your Spring.

Blessings,
Shae