18 Months Old Today

My baby girl is 18 months old today!! I can't believe how fast the last 18 months have gone. It seems like yesterday that we were bringing home this little 6 pound peanut in a car seat that looked waaaay too big for her. She has grown by leaps and bounds and everyone already thinks that she's 2. I quickly correct them and let them know that she is still just a baby because I am not ready for her to be 2 any time soon.

I think I had posted about her cutting 4 teeth and finally the 2 bottom molars have made their way through. Sleeping has been a little better since this happened.

She has also REALLY started saying alot of words in the last week or so. I will definately miss her cute little babbling she does but it's also cute hearing her talk. She's been talking for a while now but usually just the same few words that she has mastered but she is starting to relate words to things better now and then pointing and saying them.

She is such a complete joy and my heart just melts every time I look into that beautiful face and she shoots me one of those gorgeous smiles of hers. She is such a bundle of energy and love and it's so wonderful to be around something so pure every day and to see her react to the world.

I just realized that all the pictures I have posted all have the same hair style. I do actually know how to do other hair styles. I will have to post pictures in the future with a variety of hair styles. Sorry!!

Momma D Visits

I just received a new comment from Betina and she said she would like to hear more about Asha's birthmom visiting us this summer.

Well to start with we weren't sure when we were matched with Asha's birthmom how open the adoption would be. We were willing to be VERY open but her birthmom wasn't sure what she wanted yet. When Asha was born and we were able to spend that week with her birthmom we decided that we would try to see them (Asha's birthmom and bio brother and sister) at least once a year. If money allows we would love to go down there once a year and bring them up here once a year but she is very understanding and is ok with only once a year visits.

Momma D as we call Asha's birthmom is a grad student, supporting 2 children on her own and working as an intern to help put her through college so she was having a very stressful year and we decided to bring her and her son up her so she had to rest. We knew if we went down there she would continue to try and work so up here they came. Momma D's other daughter did not come because she was spending the summer in Jamaica with Momma D's aunt. How lucky is that little girl!!!

We bought their plane tickets and picked them up at the airport. It was great to see them again and to get caught up. We do pretty well communicating via e-mail but it's nicer to talk rather than type.

They were here for 5 days and we did so much that week. The first day we just got caught up and let them get settled here. The next day we went to the local fair and unfortunately her son did not like most of the rides and ended up crying ALOT. The next day we drove to the zoo and had a wonderful picnic. Then the day before they had to leave we had a cookout with our families so they could get to know her as well. It was very nice and she liked our families very much. The last day we had a big breakfast and took them to the airport. Saying good bye was hard but with her son and Asha pulling us in different directions we didn't get to be all emotional.

Asha loved Momma D and we actually think she called her it a few times. Asha would put her head on Momma D and say "ove" (love) and would hug her head if she was sitting on Momma D's shoulders. It was so cute!!! Momma D also put corn rows in Asha's hair and she looked so cute!!! I did learn alot from Momma D on how to take care of Asha's hair. We just love Momma D so much and we put the pictures we took of her visit up on Asha's wall so she can see her Momma D and brother all the time.

When Momma D got home she e-mailed to let me know they got home ok and to tell me that she loves us even more than she ever thought she could and that she is so happy to have us as her extended family. We feel the same way about her and her kids.

Nothing in particular

I just absolutely love this picture of Asha. It shows her little personality so well. The more I have her around other kids the more I realize exactly what a little character she is and how fun she is. I babysit for a little boy who is only around adults except Asha every once in a while and he is such a serious little boy. She laughs and plays and gets all silly and he just looks at her like she's weird. We like to dance and be silly and he didn't even know how to dance until we taught him.

I just love this little girl so much!! We went to the local fair the other weekend and she went on the carosal and LOVED it so much she kept saying "ride" "ride" all night because she wanted to go back on. She's my little dare devil and when she gets old enough to ride bigger rides I'm sure she'll ride the scariest ones she can find.

The hardest part about being her mom is the not sleeping. I know by the time she's this age she should be sleeping through the night but I think she has nightmares. Not all the time but they go in spurts. She will be good for a few weeks and then we are back to getting up almost every hour because she's screaming in her sleep. She won't sleep with us because she thinks it's play time so we can't bring her to bed with us but we are constantly getting up to check on her and it's so hard!! Her and I have been sleeping until 10 or 10:30 every morning for the last few weeks because we are so exhausted from the nighttime.

Well I just thought I should post since I haven't in a while and I just had to share this picture of her.