9 months old

Kya turned 9 months old this week. I can't believe how fast the last couple of months have gone since I have gone back to work, and it seems like Ky can do something new every week.

She is officially crawling when she feels like it. She still will do this weird scooting/dragging her body with just her arms thing when she gets in a hurry. She has been doing this for over 2 months and we finally figured out that she does it because it is easier than crawling. We have all wood and tile floors on the main level of our house, and it is much easier for her to "slide" around on the floor, than to get up and crawl. Crazy kid! :) But, now she is already trying to get up on her knees and pull up on everything she can find. Oh, and sometimes she does a little showing off too and adds a little extra kick to the crawl.

She has grown a little again, but is still a short little thing. She also now weighs 22+lbs! She has doubled her weight in about 4 months! She is a solid little brick. She also is strong, ridiculously strong and often tries to out muscle her big sister (who only weighs 33 lbs). It is hilarious to watch...for now at least! But, she is also very tolerant of her sister and enjoys just about anything Makenna dreams up to do to her. Including lay on her and pulling her around by her feet(under supervision of mom and dad), which sounds dangerous, but Kya LOVES it. See the evidence below! :)

And, she says Da Da ALL of the time! When Daddy walks in the room she is babbling instantly. We have also been doing sign language with her and she consistently signs for her bottle, and is starting to do food, more and all done. So, we are making progress on the communication front as well, which is SO important for her. She gets frustrated very easily, so I think this will be key.

She has changed so much already from when we got home. It's amazing how resilient kids are. She is funny, determined, loud, a snuggle bug when she is tired and is still a major Daddy's girl(that part hasn't changed :)). She is a joy to have around (most of the time-ha ha!) and I love watching the girls together. It is amazing to see their love. It is so sweet, pure and undeniable. It's what helps us get through the days when they forget that they really do love each other! :) I really can't imagine our life without her. I remember what it was like, but I can't imagine going back to that life. We have blessed in a way I barely understand.

SOOOO big!

That is Kya's latest trick and she is SO proud of herself when she does it. It is always followed up with applause and a lot of cheering by her big sister(and mom and dad of course), so I'm sure it's a trick that will be around for awhile since she worships the ground her sister walks on. Makenna swears that "she taught Kya how to do it just like me". Seems like the proof is undeniable after all. :)

Kya will bust out her trick whenever she thinks it will distract us from correcting her, or any time she is into something she isn't supposed to be. It was funny at first, but now Makenna thinks it will work for her too, so we have our work cut out for us! :)

Art---3 yr old style

Sorry to go missing in action again for so long. Life is kicking our butts again around here, but hopefully soon things will get back to "normal".





Clearly you can see that we are SO busy working on important things like playing with PLAYDOH! This is one of Makenna's new favorite things to do. She made a nest and eggs (and did an awesome job I might say) and commissioned me to make her "a momma birdie" for the nest. This is our collaboration. Pretty cute huh? Clearly you can tell I was never an art scholar!

Heaven

Kya's first 'do

Well, I finally decided to do Kya's hair. Her hair is so soft and fine that it doesn't really NEED to be done, I just wanted to try. And, Makenna has been asking me to do it as well. Besides, what else is there to do on New Years Day right?

Let's just say it didn't go well. She didn't mind that I was messing with her hair, but she HATED that I would hold her head still and that she couldn't follow her sister around the room. There were tears immediately, which would stop when Makenna did. So, needless to say I recruited Makenna and worked quickly! :) Even Makenna got in on the action after I got them in. She LOVES doing hair and pretended to braid them for Kya after I got the little pony tails in. Someday she will be a great helper during hair time!

It's not great, but we got it done! The parts are horrible, but her hair is so many different lengths that it's all we could do. She looks so different with her little pony tails in, but I don't think they will last long, because she has such slippery hair. She just looked so cute (and so much older-yikes!) that I couldn't resist!

So, here are the pics--the good, the bad, and the ugly. And, as bad as it looks no children were harmed in this hair doing time! :)

We're Official!

We finalized Kya's adoption last week at our local courthouse. So, she's officially our daughter on paper and will have a WI birth certificate. So, now we just have to get her Certificate of Citizenship and a Passport and we will be done with the paperwork involved with her adoption. How wild is that? I won't know what to do without having more paperwork to do, maybe we'll have to think about starting the process again! :)

The camera battery died at the courthouse, so we only have 1 pic (and it isn't good, but I am sharing anyway--Ron and I look TERRIBLE!) for now, until we get some from family.

I can't believe that even happened, it is SO not like me to not have a working camera. A bunch of our family was there to celebrate with us. We love them very much and were so glad that they were there too. The judge was awesome and took pics with us and held Kya and kept telling us that it's the best part of his job when he gets to do adoption hearings. The rest of the time he said it's divorces, custody hearings, etc. So, it was nice to have something good too in his courtroom. It was pretty sweet. He even let Makenna go take the stand after it was all done and pretend to answer questions like Ron and I had done.

When we got home we were hanging out and Kya was playing with the scarf I had worn to court while I was changing her. Makenna had done the same thing on her court date, and I couldn't believe Kya did too. So I grabbed a camera and started snapping away. Anyhow, there is a picture that I took that is so similar of the two of them. What do you think are they sisters or what?