Sunday, December 30, 2007

Our Christmas Photos...

We've posted a few of our Christmas photos on our Flickr account. These are mostly Reagan-focused (no surprises there) but if you want to see the rest of the fam, holler at me and I'll post those, too.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/84389878@N00/?saved=1

Sunday, December 9, 2007

For Unto You a Child Is Born...


Merry Christmas from our family to yours! We are so grateful for this time of year to reflect on Christ's birth and the many blessings God continuously pours out on us. We thank Him for you, our friends and family!

Friday, December 7, 2007

Today is super, duper special!!!

Today some of our closest friends on the planet received their referral!!! Their daughter is waiting for them in China! Danny, Reagan and I are so thrilled. It's all we've talked about since we got the news.

Congratulations, Jen and Eric!!

And, Noelle, we've seen pictures of you already and I gotta say, your hair is simply to die for! We're looking forward to any fashion tips you can share with our Reagan Ru. :)

It's In Her Kiss...

That's where it is.

Reagan is a kisser. She started out with mostly open mouth lunges. We'd ask for a kiss and she came at us full throttle, mouth wide open. She was very reminiscent of a whale feeding or a hyena when it laughs. She often missed our mouths and ended up sort of noshing our noses.

Then her kissing evolved.

She realized kisses were a desirable bargaining tool. She started kissing us and then pointing at what she wanted. She refused kisses when she wasn't in the mood. She kissed her doll and tried to kiss the cats. She learned to blow kisses. She knows when we say bye bye that a kiss or ten is appropriate.

She puckers up now. Sticks her puffy, fish lips up at us and really smacks us.

And lately her kisses have been extra juicy. Reagan has basically been teething since the moment we got her and so it's not like we're strangers to drool. Reagan is a drool machine. However, she hasn't always felt the need to kiss us while in fact, eating something mushy. And that's what she did all week long.

Animal crackers are among the most quickly dissolved snack in the world. This is fact. Reagan crams at least 62 animals in her mouth (it's so full she can't close it and yes I know this is a choking hazard, we're working on it) and then she toddles over. She stands right beside me, often with a soggy elephant in hand. She's grinning a wild, out of control grin. Then she touches me. Perhaps she pats me on the shoulder. I now have ick on my shoulder. All the while the menagerie in her mouth is soaking up moisture and turning to goo...which then starts to dribble out, down her chin in one long, unending line.

And then she kisses me. Full on the mouth.

Repeat with the snack that smiles back goldfish. And Cheerios. And grapes.

Now, I'm not by nature a rude person (most of the time) and I don't want to hurt my little angel's feelings but it is hard not to run in terror when this creature lurches toward me, oozing slime and love all over the place. I know I'm a real mom now. I take it. I kiss her back, reminding myself that soon she'll be a teenager and hate me and I should enjoy ooey gooey kisses while they last.

Then when she toddles off to kiss some other hapless victim...I run to the bathroom to brush my teeth and gargle and wash my face and...

Monday, December 3, 2007

Updated Pictures...

I'm on a roll today! Sure Reagan is in the kitchen playing with sharp knives but by george, the blog is UPDATED.

Go check out our latest pictures on Flickr!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/84389878@N00/?saved=1

Sheer Energy Legs

Reagan came to us in the stink of July. In Southern China. She's mostly seen me in shorts, skirts or capris. She's touched my legs a billion times and despite what Danny thinks, she likes the way they feel. She doesn't seem to mind when they get a little...shall we say...stubbly. And for the most part, I shave on a regular basis, especially now that my shower time has become so precious and such a part of my fight against the insanity of motherhood. I cherish my time in the shower. I look for things to do in there to linger just a bit more and shaving is a great help to me in this quest.

But that's beside the point.

The point is that I don't wear hose very often because A) they irritate me to death and B) I constantly snag them. I can look at hose from across a room and they snag. So I pretty much don't wear them unless it's super cold and/or I have to dress up. I wore them for the first time in front of Reagan last week. Here's what happened.

My beloved child rushed up to hug my legs, after all, we'd been separated about 20 minutes. She wrapped her arms around me and then dropped her arms and stepped back a good foot and a half. Reagan's face was confused and a bit fascinated. She looked at my legs curiously for a few seconds and then reached back to touch one of them again. She pulled her hand back super quick and looked up at me as if to say, "What's going on here? Where's your skin? This looks like skin but it's not." This went on for some time as I moved about the room finishing my dressing routine. I thought she was over it.

That afternoon when I picked her up from Blakely's house, again Reagan touched my legs. When we got home, she kept touching them until I took the pantyhose off. Then she touched my real, live skin and a smile broke out on her face a mile wide. She clapped her hands together and grinned at me, completely thrilled that my legs were back and all was well with the world.

Today I wore black tights and she eyeballed me a bit but didn't feel the need to do a pat down search again.

Our Own Comments

Ok, someone who understands Blogger, write me and explain how I answer comments, ok? Thanks.

I appreciate you writing back to my little rant last week. I'll try to keep the blog mostly upbeat, I promise. Before we got Reagan, I was determined to be very educational, to see questions as an opportunity to help others understand adoption, blah, blah, blah. And I have. Tons of times. The problem is that it's not hypothetical now. It's not educational. This isn't an object lesson. This is my life. This is my daughter. And sometimes I just wish people would keep their remarks to themselves.

We signed up for this gig. It's part of our world. I just need to determine how best to handle these situations when they fly at me.