The short take...

We're enjoying a crazy summer (already), before Kate starts Kindergarten (ALREADY!!?) this fall. Our kids are so much fun, and we are SO blessed!

If you want to browse our pictures, you can do so at our new Google Picasa album).

August 21, 2008

Well, Kate's over a year old! Her party was great- thanks to everyone who came! It's been such an amazing, but super-fast year!

Within a week of her 1 year birthday, we got a call from the church, saying that there was an unexpected opening in the preschool's 1-year old class for Kate! That was a real blessing, because we hadn't expected her to get in until October, at the earliest! So she started attending on Monday, and as you can see from the picture on the right, screaming all day long is hard work! :) OK, that's mostly a joke, but she hasn't been too thrilled about it so far, not that that's really unusual. Her teachers say she's getting better each day. Meanwhile, the few times we took her out to the preschool's playground ourselves to try and get her used to the fact that this can be a fun place, she's discovered how to climb up a slide (both sides!), sit down, and slide down all on her own! I don't think she's done it by herself at preschool yet- my guess is she insists on the teachers holding her as much as possible- but she loves playgrounds when we're around!

She's taken to letting us know exactly what she wants now- pulling us off the couch and leading us where she wants, bringing us our shoes when she wants to go for a walk (she LOVES the outdoors!), shaking her head 'no' when we ask her if she wants the wrong thing...it's amazing to watch her little head work! Oh, and her favorite thing to do (besides eat) is to bring us books to read to her. Lots and lots of books :). Which is great, especially when after a few she sits down with them and tries to read them to herself!

Well, our friends are back from their trip to adopt their daughter, Zamara. We got a chance to meet her a few nights ago- what a cutie! She seems really mild-mannered, though they assure us she can scream when she wants to! From their e-mail, it sounds like they're in the final stages of trying to adjust her body's clock to local time, which has been an eye-opener for them! Fortunately, she's feeling better than she did when they picked her up, and God really blessed them with some timely paperwork that didn't look like was going to come through in time while they were over there. It's been fun getting to follow their progress on their blog.

Well, I hope everyone is doing well- check in again soon for more updates...and even some pictures when we can! Hopefully by labor day we can publish some more pictures for you, including pictures at Kate's birthday party!