She'll eat when she's hungy

Feeding Mary is a constant struggle. She never, NEVER wants to eat. I know she's maintaining a healthy weight and that her growth is consistant, but I still feel like a horrible mother when she picks at her food like a bird.

The funny thing is...she'll go for days eating hardly anything and then all of a sudden have a GREAT eating day. I love those days. She'll eat anything I put in front of her, the highchair isn't a struggle, and I don't have to FIGHT with her over food. One more time....I LOVE those days! I took pictures on one of those "good eater" days recently:

Here she is eating a piece of licorice that she got out of the cupboard all by herself (boy was I surprised to walk around the corner and see her with it in her mouth)!
And then later-on she took a stab at some spaghetti with a big-girl fork!
And to top off the day daddy let her munch on a few oreos just so mama would cringe at the thought of the mess everywhere!
What a silly girl!

the best vacation EVER

So over the labor day weekend our little family packed up the mini-van (I should use the term "packed" lightly - it was more like cramming or stuffing to the brim) and headed westward. South Dakota was our destination, Interstate 90 was our route, and the trusty Ford Freestar was our chariot.

What's that you say? South Dakota is boring? South Dakota is a snooze? South Dakota is not a vacation destination? Well...let me tell you....you are one wrong puppy if this is your response. We had a BLAST!

The whole trip was very Griswold Family Vacation - we packed our own sandwiches, slept in a tent or cheap (CHEAP) motels, and spent as little money as possible. But let me tell you, it was so darn fun!

We saw a ton - the Corn Palace in Mitchell, Mount Rushmore, Rapid City, the Badlands, the Black Hills, Custer State Park...I could go on and on. There's a ton to do and we barely scraped the surface. We had a great time watching the landscape change from the bluffs of our hometown, to the cornfields of western Minnesota, to the rolling prairie, to the desert in the badlands, to the dramatic Black Hills. We saw tons of wildlife, did lots of cheesy family activities, and just enjoyed our little family. Mary was a dream and barely fussed at all (even though we spent almost 40 hours in our vehicle in a matter of 5 days).

Kurt and I kept getting excited and talking about future family car trips...seriously, it's the way to go.

Anyway, here's some fun pics from our trip. Enjoy!

43 always was my favorite number

So on the drive back from South Dakota ( a little family vacation last week...I"ll blog about it soon). Kurt and I became bored and started to count all the words that Mary knows. Now, she can repeat just about any word you ask her....but these are words that she'll say on her own, unprompted. Basically, we've got a genius on our hands (is that Mom-bragging coming out?). :) I seriously do think that she's too smart for her own good...freaks me out some days. Anyways, if you have nothing better to do...check out all the words that Mary knows!

1. Book (she loves to read)
2. Hello (such a social butterfly)
3. Hi
4. Buh-Bye
5. Wow
6. Cow (driving through South Dakota we heard this word a LOT...."cow"....."cow"...."yes, Mary that's a cow"....."cow"....etc.)
7. Duck (mostly "duckie)
8. Puppy (loves her puppies)
9. Clayton (is it weird for her to be THAT obsessed with her cousin?)
10. Dadda
11. Mommy (melts my heart)
12. Milk (sounds like "milky")
13. Nice (this what she says when she knows she's been naughty....it's a beginners apology)
14. Mine
15. NO! (hear this a lot)
16. One ("How old is Mary?")
17. Bath
18. Copper
19. Jack
20. Cracker
21. Cookie
22. Kitty
23. Baby (We're trying to really talk a lot about babies at our house, in the event that we are chosen in the near future. Every night we have Mary put her babies to bed in a little cradle. It starts out sweet with a kiss and then she lifts them over her head and SLAMS them into the bed. It kinda scares me!)
24. Binkey (When she wants her pacifier she'll just repeat this word non-stop: Binkeybinkeybinkeybinkeybinkey! Kids are weird)
25. Potty
26. Up
27. Down
28. Night-night
29. Happy
30. Sad
31. Mary (it sounds like this: "Meme" Very cute!)
32. Owie
33. Buckle (She's obsessed with buckles lately...can't get enough of them)
34. Diaper
35. Okay (I must say this a lot because she just started picking up on it. She uses it very conversationally. "Mary let's go outside, okay?" "Okay!")
36. All-done (Comes out like this "All-dumb" cracks me up everytime I hear it)
37. Hooray (As in..."if you're happy and you know it shout Hooray!")
38. Meow
39. Beep-beep
40. Nay (is that how you spell the sound that a horse makes?)
41. Moo
42. Roar!
43. Nana (for banana AND for grandma!)

And she also does some random other animal noises but I thought I'd stop at 43 because...after all...that IS my favorite number.

Can you believe this kid!!?

huh?

So it's no surprise to anyone that my little Mary is sporting some pretty fabulous curls on her head. I love them, I adore them....I seriously think they're just so. darn. cute. And, evidently, so does the general public. Everywhere we go we get comments on "those curls." People love to talk about her crazy hair and how adorable it is.

This morning was no different. I had to get an oil change so Mary and I dropped off the minivan and walked to McDonalds for a coffee and some breakfast while we waited. As I ordered my McGriddle this old, grandmotherly woman took my money. She, of course, commented on Mary.

"Oh my...isn't she just darling? How cute is she?!?!? And those curls...wow....tell me, are they natural?"

Huh?!?! Are they natural? I was just so confused? Did she think we permed her hair? Or that it was a wig? What does that mean, "are they natural"? Bewildered I just muttered "yes" to which she responded, "You know, I thought so!"

Weird, weird people.

two years

Two years ago today I married the man of my dreams.

Two years ago today (probably at this very moment) I slow-danced underneath shining twinkle lights, staring into my new husbands eyes.

Two years ago today I took my vows in front of my closest family and friends, promising to love my best friend eternally.

Two years ago today I began my life, my future, my forever.

What a whirlwind two year journey we've had. What a wide open road we have in front of us.

I love you, baby. Thank you for making me the happies woman in the world.

Quicker than I had thought.

So Baby 2 is progressing much faster than I thought he/she would. Again, NO I have not been chosen, placed, or anything like that. However, evidently, they roll out the red carpet for you when you've adopted through an agency before.

About one day after writing the last post about "Baby 2" I decided to call Bethany (our agency) just to see how things were progressing, did they have everything they needed for our formal application, and when should we start setting up the 3 meetings that comprise a "home study."

This is the response I got, "Oh...well....we're still missing a couple forms (background checks, etc.) but those forms shouldn't really hold us up. You know what, why don't we go ahead and start scheduling the homestudy. And since you guys have done this before, we're really just updating things. Let's condense it all into one meeting. How does next Tuesday work?"

(GULP)

In my head I'm thinking, "Woah....really? NEXT tuesday?"

Yes, really.

Evidently, God wants us to speed some things up. So we had our homestudy on August 7th. Our social worker (also the Branch Director....lucky us!) was fabulous and she knows several of the people we worked with in Iowa. We talked for nearly 4 hours, had pizza, and just enjoyed ourselves! It was great. Mary was a stinker and wouldn't nap, but aside from that it was such smooth sailing.

And so now I just need to get my act together and finish these profiles (the scrapbooks that birthmothers view to get to know a waiting family) so that we can be...officially waiting.

Wowza...so surreal. So awesome. So exciting!

Baby 2

"Baby 2"

This is the term Kurt and I have, affectionately, given to our next little baby.

And that little baby, is in the works. Sort of.

Now don't get excited, we haven't been matched or gotten a call or anything. We've just....begun the process. We actually began a few months ago, but for some reason I didn't feel the urge to blog about it yet. It still feels weird to blog about it. Surreal, actually.

Officially, we've completed our formal application and will proceed with the homestudy in the next few weeks. My guess is that we'll be actually "waiting" at the end of summer/beginning of fall. And then...it's in God's hands.

I predict it could take longer this time, to get matched. We're going with Bethany Christian Services again, of Minnesota this time. The MN branch doesn't seem to have the same activity that the Iowa branch did. Plus birthmothers typically prefer to place with a childless couple. These factors, combined, make me think it could be awhile before we're a family of four. And I'm okay with that, I'm okay with whatever. I'm just along for the ride.

My heart is ready for another baby. Mary is so not an infant anymore! It will be good for her to have a little brother or sister as she's very spoiled with my attention all on her. Kurt is itching to hold a newborn again. We both have dreams of a big family and, in order to have that, we need to get the ball rolling again.

We're going into this so differently than last time. Less naiive, more sensitive to birthparents, more demanding of ethical and fair practices, more cautious....

....but at the same time, this tiny place inside of me is jumping up and down with excitement. Ready to grow my family, ready to hold my new little one, ready give my heart to a child all over again.