June's Top Ten: Week 3

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2

3

Mia is June's self-appointed comforter:

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5

Sweet cousin Sydney is particularly interested in our real-life dolly.

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7

Dad soaks up all the June time he can get...and it usually looks like this:

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As tired as I've been, I love the new look my bed has during the 5am hour:

10

Our musical repertoire is limited to whichever movie was last on the docket...
and as lovely as my out-of-tune voice is, please try to tune it out.

Mia's Top Ten

1

Fearlessly (as always) gettin' her climb on:

2

Concrete floors and high ceilings make for lovely acoustics...

but not so enjoyable when a toddler is still developing her fine motor skills!

3

Finally, Mia has a real dolly to rock in her chair!

4

Since she could walk, Mia has had a cleaning fetish.  

I try to encourage it--especially when it keeps her occupied for any length of time.  

The vacuum is often running, but my floor isn't necessarily any cleaner.

5

I never tire of recording this sweet cousin-ship!

6

Baby June arrived at home bearing a peace-keeping gift for her attention-laden big sis.

Here is Mia giving it a trial run!

7

Sunday morning pancake routine with Dad:

8

Savoring her chocolate dipped marshmallow from a fancy-schmancy brunch we had with June's birth family:

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Directing Dad's wood-chopping chores:

10

Trying oh-so-hard to fulfill mom's "soft & gentle, soft & gentle" mantra:

June Saves the Day, too!

Our beautiful girl is here!

Welcome

Julianne Pearl

February 8th 2012

6 lbs 15 oz

21 inches

We've been calling her "June" or "Baby June" (for Mia's sake).

Su, our ever-gracious birth-mom, sacrificed her privacy to let us be a part of every second of June's incredible birth (I even got to "cut the cord." I'm surprised I was allowed to hold the scissors...I was such a mess!). Su is such a trooper and quite the natural birther. Like Asia (Mia's birth-mom), she has been so courageous and is trying hard to be strong though this heart-wrenching process. We also get to have birth-father, Anthony, involved in this adoption.  He is, likewise, our hero.

Our precious first moments with our new daughter.

                                                              June meeting grandmas...                                                                   

and grandpa...

    And the part I had been waiting for all day, 

June's intro to her proud big sis:

Home at last!

Next step? Finalization.  

Prayers please for all parties involved.  

This is joyous, but difficult and highly emotive stuff.

Of Birthmoms, TteokGuk, and Metric Measurement

For the last year, amid major career changes, return to academia, theoretical homelessness/construction, and the trying throes of toddlerhood, we have been privileged (ahem) to have lead after lead of potential baby #2.  Mia's adoption had been so smooth... She almost literally fell into our laps!  We were certain that round two would surely be a gloriously similar experience. I thought that in the baby-getting arena (biologically) I had maxed out my difficulty quota and our gathered babies wouldmake their way to us easily.  I haven't said out loud that I am grateful for the heartbreaks we've had while trying to grow our family and I don't think I ever will.  I have sincerely loved these girls with whom I get to anticipate life--and I've loved the babies.  So, since we are dealing with real people and some of the strongest of human emotions, each of these losses will always hurt. But I am grateful that I have seen what I can do regardless of hard stuff...not just once, but over and over again.

Now you have my disclaimer for being shy of documenting any hopeful (but potentially tragic) events.  Having no record of the experience makes for a much less difficult recovery.  Alas, I made the realization as I was driving our sweet birthmother, Su, home from today’s prenatal check that nearly all of our inner (and outer!) social circles are very aware of Su’s growing belly size, her purpose here, and our little family’s BIG hopes, because they see her every Sunday.  So there is no reason to keep it quiet, right? And although our entire social circle does not (I hope!) solely consist of ward or family members, here’s the scoop for the rest of it. Su made her way to us from Korea in November and is staying here with our dear friends until baby (girl) arrives and she has time to recuperate.  She met birthfather, Anthony, during a summer internship in Michigan (he is African- American btw, so we are thinking this baby has got it made when it comes to beautiful genes!)

We get to be an ultramulti-cultural group now which will add so much more spice to our whole family’s lives.  To our delight, Su has been giving us a crash-course in Korean culture while she’s here!  Just last weekend was Chinese New Year (which Koreans also celebrate), and while Su’s mom was making it on the other side of the world, Su and her friend, Jihye, Americanized the same thing for us here.  

Jihye & Su whipping up someTteokGuk (Ricecake Soup)

So, as far as centimeters go (she's been at 4 for a week), circumstances are right for this baby to make an appearance any day now. I am down to 8 boxes of non-essentials yet to unpack in our new house. All the good stuff (i.e. really small outfits) is clean and folded in a new dresser.  Despite the fact that Mia previously wore most of the clothing and used most of the toys, pulling them out of storage with the anticipation of the little warm body to be their inheritor is far better than Christmas!

Baby's 3-D Ultrasound: Can you believe how much detail is in this photo?!
She is posing contemplatively...

Mia's Top 10

1

 I try to bask in the rare still and lady-like moments we catch of Mia... 

 

 ...because this chickadee is a mover and a shaker in every sense 

(we to appreciate the moving and shaking too)!

2

Here she is moving and shaking on the make-shift bungee swing 

Dad made her out of Gma's exercise bands:

3

Dad is also proud that his girl is NOT a fair-weather athlete.  

Mia would take her daily cruise in our sub-freezing whether with nothing more than her birthday suit 

if mom didn't always cramp her style.

4

Moving and shaking while trying to be helpful:

5

Some more moving...

 6

Some more shaking (or "shimmying," to be exact)...

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...and a little something more to go with that shake!

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Lately, Mia finds it comical to escape and hide when I'm not looking. She knows that one of my pet peeves is  retrieving her from the glories of Gma's kitchen just beyond the door at the top of the stairs back to our basement abode.  Thus, when Mia decides that the ennui of Mom's routine needs to be spiced up a bit, she will make a break for it! Today she must have noticed her tactics becoming stale because when I went to steal her from the usual pre-freedom perch (see the photo below), 

I found her, instead, crouched sneakily behind the dryer in our laundry room. 

9

Casually putting Beyonce to shame...

10

My favorite milestone this month:

mastering the toilet.  Hooray!

Holiday Season, Part Two

Mia and cousin Talan jollifully celebrating by Great-Gma R's fire on Christmas 'Eve:

Loves for Mia's sweet Great-Gma R who is so ahead of the gift-giving game that present opening is just as much a surprise to her as it is to her recipients. 

Her Christmas shopping is usually done before March and all is wrapped by Easter! 

The usual excitement of Christmas morning was deflated a bit this year. 

We had so wanted to be in our new house for the holidays (moving day, by the way, will officially occur this week instead) and even worse, Mia woke up feeling crummy. 

It literally took us a valuable hour (the church hour was fast approaching) to convince her to open her stocking...let alone open a present.  She just wanted to go back to bed!

Once she had tasted a few of her stocking goodies however, she had picked up a little steam:

            Having Christmas on a Sunday was really quite nice.  Our ward is blessed with tons of musical talent...particularly a harpist, so our meeting was perfectly ethereal. 

It was also a bitter-sweet ending to six years of attending this ward (well, a life-time of attendance for David...six years for me).  We will miss seeing both the temple and Gma K sitting next to us each Sunday.

For a touch of nostalgia, Mia wore the Christmas dress my mom had made for me when I was her age (complete with giant white collar) but topped it off with a most appropriate new Christmas coat.

Post-church celebrations with our fun R family:  Mia was so pleased with her new purple tutu.

We got to celebrate with Gma K and my siblings the following day.  

Mia was feeling much more seasonable after a long, sound sleep.

Gma K made Mia a night gown that, along with her purple tutu, 

has been the most key piece in her wardrobe these past two weeks.