Monday, May 28, 2007

Here She Goes!

Our beautiful girl decided that today was the day to take her first steps! Who would believe that less than four months ago she wasn't even able to sit up by herself.

Had I known we were going to be taking video for public viewing I would have at least combed her hair after her nap. But here she is, wild hair and all. (And, yes, I realize mine is worse than hers.)


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Sunday, May 20, 2007

Who Needs Toys?

Here is Bryn's big screen debut, a video short of her with her new favorite toy...an ice cube. Go figure.



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Sunday, May 13, 2007

Mother's Day




I wish I could write something profound and from the heart about what this Mother's Day means to me. Unfortunately I'm not very good at expressing that sort of thing.

I've been thinking a lot lately about Bryn's birth mother and what she may be feeling today. We don't know anything about Bryn's background but we know enough about her circumstances that we can assume her mother tried very hard to keep her. We can only imagine the heartache she must feel. We wish we could show her how happy Bryn is now -- what a beautiful little girl she is and how very much we love her. How much she's grown and flourished, even in the three short months since we first held her. I wish I could thank her mother for bringing her into this world, for giving her a good start in life. As a mother, maybe somehow she knows these things. I hope so.

One of our travel mates posted a beautiful poem on her daughter's blog. Here is part of the poem:

Without you, I would not be a mother.
Your loss and hers is my gain.
I honor you by loving her
shiny black hair, rosebud mouth,
She is made of you,
how could I not?

She is neither you or me.
She is the third way,
already crafting her own story.
You gave her life,
I give her a future.



Happy Mother's Day to all the moms I know...enjoy your day. And to my own Mom -- I love you!!

And an extra special Mother's Day wish to all of the moms in our travel group. You are an incredible group of women and I'm honored to have shared such an amazing experience with each and every one of you.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

More Photos


Waking up on a bad hair day


Sleep comes easy some days after a long ride in the stroller


Bryn wears her big summer hat


Books get scattered all over the place in Bryn's house


Good friend Caia comes over for a visit


Cousins Anna and Katja become best friends

Sunday, April 29, 2007

We're Back!



After days and days of coaxing Bryn will finally wear a hat.



Yay! Spring is here and it's warm enough for both of our girls to sit out in the back yard.



This one is for Carolyn.



As you can see, Bryn is in the driver's seat.



I wait and wait for posts from our travel mates, and am thrilled when I see news and pictures of the babies. Yet other than a couple of pictures-only posts, I haven't written about Bryn for almost a month and am weeks behind with news about her. I had hoped to do this more often but it's been a busy few weeks. We've been taking some video clips and hope to post some of these soon, too.

Our little girl is almost walking. She still holds on to our hands as she walks but she doesn't hold on as tight as she once did. She'll walk around the furniture and move from one thing to another now. She's still a bit wobbly but is getting pretty brave, a bit too brave for my liking. She wants to walk and stand ALL the time. Gone are the days she'd sit and play in her saucer or high chair for awhile so I could catch up on a few things. It's a good thing none of us is allergic to dust.

Much to Girard's relief she now says Dad. Some other new words are ball, toes, baby, watch, light, puppy, hat, shoe, moon, baa (for a lamb), eeoww (for a cat), and bowl. All food and drinks are "hot" even ice cubes (I guess she doesn't quite understand the meaning of that one). She babbles constantly when it's just us but gets rather quiet around other people so I'm sure everyone is skeptical when I tell them all of the words she can say!

Jessie likes Bryn more all the time. Once she realized Bryn would drop the occasional Cheerio when she was sitting in her high chair, Jessie started hanging out under it at meal time. Bryn will now deliberately throw food on the floor for Jessie (grinning from ear to ear at me as I'm telling her not to), so our once jealous dog has learned having this little girl around isn't such a bad thing after all. Bryn also likes to share her toys with Jessie which is great fun when the dog is sitting beside the tub and plastic cups full of water come flying out.

Some other tidbits:
- She loves books. And magazines and catalogues and flyers. She even has a book for the tub.
- We've discovered she hates underground parking, parkades and being stopped in an underpass. These aren't fun things to find out when she's sitting alone in the back seat of the van strapped in her car seat and we can't pull over to try to calm her down. She also decided quite suddenly (and loudly) that she no longer likes elevators. Thank goodness we were only going up one floor when this happened.
- She still doesn't like Alphagetti.
- Her new security blanket is a damp face cloth which she has to hold while having her bottle and sleeping in her crib. Go figure.
- She has very ticklish knees, just like me.
- She loves watches and clocks and flashlights and phones. She even has her own cellphone (it's a toy, with ringtones, so we're starting her young).
- She hates getting her hair washed but loves getting her teeth brushed.
- She can be very impatient at times and will lose her temper quickly, something I'm sure she's picked up from her dad.
- Despite the fact her hair is getting longer it's still a bit thin (sort of looks like male pattern baldness -- her dad's influence again) so she still has no piggies. Though soon I'll be able to give her a comb-over.
- She sleeps through the night once in awhile but we still don't.
- If you look closely at her little finger you can see us wrapped around it.