the short version

More to come...I promise! But here's the important news: we're now a family of four!!!

On Thursday, January 24 we got the call that our second child was about to be born! The birthmom that had chosen us to be the adoptive parents of her little one was in labor so we (quickly) packed up the mini van and headed out east to Maryland (where we'll be for the next few weeks).

The next day we got to meet our baby girl: Ella Rose!

Here's a few sneak peek pics - I plan on taking more today and then writing out all the details as well. For now, I think I need to go snuggle this little girlie and love her up!

not a fluke, afterall?

Potty in the potty chair again last night. This time Kurt got to see it happen. Is our little girl growing up? I think so!

And not a minute too soon, either. More on that later.

hello potty!

Yesterday morning Mary was eating candy by 7:30 am.

Yeah - that's right, I gave my 1.5 year old candy before the general public is even at work.

You see....I had to. I made a promise.

"Mary, if you go potty in the potty chair...momma will give you some candy"

And, lo and behold, she did!

We've seen no more potty since (well, we've seen pleanty --- it's just all in the diaper). Perhaps it was a fluke. But at 7:30 yesterday morning...you couldn't have found a more proud mom or a more satisfied little girl.

As a side note...we've just recently decided to try to get things going with the potty chair in our house. On Monday night, right before bath time, I tried to get Mary to "go." She was not interested at all so I thought maybe I would have her just hang out naked for a bit (only on the tile floor) and eventually I could get her to go. I was explaining my theory to Kurt (who thought I was nuts) when we heard Mary banging around in the bathroom.

"Come on out here Mary," I said

The little girl listened, and came out the door of the bathroom. Standing in the hallway.

Just joking, Kurt said, "yeah...Mary, don't be in the bathroom. Just pee on the floor"

And wouldn't you know it...right on cue, she did just that. All. over. the. floor.

At least she was listening, right?

Her first date

This past weekend we had Kurt's work Christmas Party, which was an overnight at a Casino about an hour away (so fun!). Needless to say, we couldn't take Mary so we left her with my parents. Well as it happens, they were off to Green Bay for the weekend to visit my sister. So, both my parents, Mary, my oldest sister and her twin boys loaded up the mini-van and headed northeast on Friday night.

Not two hours after they left, my phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Yeah, it's mom. Just wanted to let you know that your daughter is officially on her first date."

HUH????

Evidently they buckled Clayton and Mary next to each other in the backseat. These two just adore each other and they figured (correctly so) that they could keep each other entertained during the looooooooong car ride. As added entertainment, I let them bring our new in-car DVD player so they could pop in a movie.

As it turns out, my parents turned around the find Clayton and Mary snuggled under a blanket together - HOLDING HANDS - and watching the movie. Her very first drive-in movie date! :) I guess the story only continued to get more funny as Clayton would occasionally do the yawn, strech, and put my arm around my girlfriend move that is soooo suave. And to top it off, when Clayton got tired he laid his head near Mary's lap where she instinctively rubbed it.

These two crack me up!