Merry Christmas!

A few days ago, Ken and I were reminiscing about our Christmas' past. True, they were good, but mostly, we went through the motions and just barely uttered Merry Christmas to others. I am happy to say that this Christmas brought tears to our eyes for much happier reasons. I never knew that saying Merry Christmas to our child would be such an overwhelming and wonderful thing, but how truly blessed we are to have celebrated our first Christmas with Angelina as a family.

True, Angelina does not know what it all means yet, and she only thing she knows about Santa is that he says "ho, ho, ho". (I am convinced that she thinks he is a farm animal like the cows and sheep) But, to watch her come down the stairs on Christmas morning and see her get excited to see her new rocking moose was just priceless. We have had a whirl-wind of excitement and present opening over the past three days, traveling to both my and Ken's parent's houses. Angelina was certainly a champ and just went with the flow, and even loved tearing the paper off of her gifts.

This was such a memorable Christmas, I have never felt so blessed as I do today to have such a wonderful little girl I can call my daughter. Truly, this is the best gift of all.

Today we are leaving to visit some good friends in North Carolina, where we will not only ring in the new year but also celebrate Angelina's 2nd birthday (which is tomorrow). Wish us luck as we start our 16 hour journey!

Here are some pictures from our various Christmas celebrations:

Christmas Eve

Trying out the new rocking moose from Santa for the first time.

Angelina loves her new lamb slippers!

Playing with her new little people bus.

Finally, a decent picture in front of the tree!

Heard Over The Monitor This Morning....

..."Ho, Ho, Hoooooo." (and I am sure Angelina was pointing at the Santa on her pj's!)

I think someone is ready for Christmas!

Ice and Snow...

...are two things that are very common in a New Hampshire winter! Though being without power for just over 3 days was something that we were not used to, that's for sure. We lose power very easily but I was not prepared to go that long without it. We have no alternate heat source or any running water! So, by last Friday morning our house was already starting to get cold. Angelina and I packed up and went to my mom's house. (or as Angelina calls her, "Mamme" as she can't quite say "Grammy") My parent's house also had no power, but they did have a wood stove and a fire place and running water, so it was perfect. Though as Saturday afternoon rolled around, it became more and more apparent that even my parents living in the city were not going to get power, so we decided to go to Ken's parents home and stay there until we got our power back.

So, to get to the point, we spent the better part of three days packed up and traveling from house to house while at the same time checking our house to make sure the pipes had not burst. There was so much chaos and I was just afraid that we would see Angelina backlash at some point. But, my daughter is amazing. She truly is a trooper and did nothing but smile all weekend. She ate, slept and napped perfectly. To say that I am impressed with this little girl is an understatement. She just never fails to amaze her mother! On Friday night, while at my parent's house, we had to periodically feed the fire in the fire place. At one point, Angelina woke up as I was getting the fire going. We eventually all settled down, and I looked at my daughter in her pack and play. She was sitting, with her dish towel (which is her security item) in hand and fingers in her mouth, staring at the fire. I could see on her face the look of amazement as she looked at the fire. The fire made her face glow, and it was one of those moments that made me fall in love with her all over again.

Last night brought about 5 inches of snow to our house, so I brought Angelina out to enjoy her first real snow of the season. I say "enjoy" because I thought that she would. But, she didn't. I guess Angelina thought that since snow covered her boots, that she was not able to move her legs anymore. she stood in the front yard for the longest time, then when she would topple over, she would whine until I picked her up. After I cleared some of the snow from the driveway, I put her there and Angelina liked it so much more. She could walk around and explore the snow banks on the side of the driveway. I think, overall, she had fun with the white stuff.

When we came inside, I made a fresh batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I think, for Angelina, that was the best part of being outside in the snow. I left some snowy pictures below.

Can't you imagine Cookie Monster saying "Cooookies" in this picture?!

New Traditions and Father Frost

What an exciting time of year to be new parents! After a few years of not really being in the Christmas spirit, Ken and I are having a blast introducing Angelina to the holiday season.

Our family had a great day yesterday. We set out to cut our Christmas tree. Angelina loved riding around in the sled and trying to steal the saw from her Papa. Really, she could have cared less that we were trying to find a tree, nor did she offer her opinion! haha When she woke up from her nap, she walked downstairs to find a tree in our family room with sparkling colored lights. Her face lit up and her smile was priceless, truly a picture perfect snap shot of what Holiday Spirit is all about. She thought it was cool that she got to put ornaments on the tree, but really loved playing with the beaded garland and grandpa the best. After the tree was decorated, we sat down to a great turkey dinner. We were fortunate to have both sets of Angelina's grandparents join us for some part of the day yesterday. Angelina got some very cute new ornaments to add to our tree.

Here are some pictures of tree cutting:

And some pictures of trim-a-tree:

One of the main reasons we chose to adopt a child from Russia is because we have a dear friend who is Russian. We knew that our friend would be a great source for us with regards to culture, traditions, history, and so on. While speaking with her the other day, she introduced me to the idea of Father Frost. Father Frost is the Russian Santa-like figure. He comes around on New Year and leaves presents under a New Year tree for small children. I was excited to hear about Father Frost as I think this would be another wonderful tradition that we will be able to start with Angelina. I know that some of you who have also just brought home your children from Russia may also enjoy this tradition. A link with more info about Father Frost and his differences to Santa can be found here.

I hope that everyone is enjoying the holiday season!

4 Months Home

I think that Angelina has gotten to the point where she has realized that we are her parents and are not going to be giving her back, and that we are just not another shift change in her previous life of shift changes. With this realization, we have seen many great attachment strides. However, we have also seen some unfavorable behavior!

The Positives:

• Angelina now will completely hold on to us when we pick her up. She will fold her legs and squeeze us tight and wrap her arms around us. What a wonderful feeling. Also, what a drastic change from just a few months ago when she would hold her arm between me and her.
• Finally, Angelina will let us read books to her. Now, are are nowhere near novels, but that is fine. She will even go to her bookshelf, grab a book, sit in our labs and let us read.
• Angelina no longer cries at my feet when I am preparing her meals. She, actually, will even play while I am getting breakfast ready!
• We are still kissing about 100 boo-boo's a day and when she is really hurt Angelina will run to one of us for comfort.

The Negatives:

• Angelina thinks that nap time is a time for throwing things out of her crib. Of course, she needs to throw these things out of her crib so she can do somersaults and walk around. The other day, she even got hold of her hamper and had dirty clothes in her crib when I went up there. Yesterday, she had her pj's unzipped to her knee and was tugging at her diaper. I hear lots of interesting talking, babbling, blowing zerberts, etc... during her two hour "nap". I refuse to go up there unless she cries! What a difference this is from the first 3.5 months home when Angelina slept perfectly for her nap, I'm hoping this is just a phase.
• Now that Angelina is confident that we feed her on a constant basis, she feels comfortable playing with her food, and sometimes even refusing to eat it. (of course, she only refuses to eat when I refuse to let her chug her whole sippy cup of milk.)
• Angelina loves to ignore the word "no". Sometimes she will listen unless its something that she really wants, then she will ignore us until she is sitting in her time out spot. Along with this, Angelina has recently been protesting using the word (or sign) for please. I ask her to say please, and she will turn her head in disgust. What a diva.

So as you can see, on the attachment front, we have grown leaps and bounds...now I guess I am going to have to start giving updates on the terrible two's. God help me.

Angelina trying on our new Christmas tree skirt.

Playing with Papa during our first snow fall

Trying to get a good picture with Angelina's Christmas dress...didn't go exactly as planned!