Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Twas the night before the night before Christmas . . .

Yes, I know it's the middle of the night but I can't sleep. I guess this is what Christmas does to a new Mom.  Can I just tell you I'm a little excited.  On a very small scale I can begin to understand how much our God loves us and how happy He is to bless us as His children.  This is the first year to bless our child with Christmas and memories that surround it and I can't wait to do so.

Each night as we go to bed we have been reading a few books in preparation for this special time of year, since to our knowledge Delaney has never experienced Christmas.  We read about waiting for Santa and how he brings gifts to us and places them under the tree in exchange for cookies and milk and we give gifts to others too.  We do this all in celebration of Baby "Jees-a".  We end our readings each night with "The Christmas Story".  She reenacts each scene as Joseph "walk, walk, walks" to Bethlehem and Mary rode "clip clop, clip clop, clip clop".  When they reach Bethlehem there are "so many people" and they "knock, knock, knock" or various doors only to be told each time "no room".  It's precious as she makes the animal sounds for the stable and then lifts her hands in praise when the Baby Jesus is born.  Here's a little glimpse.

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

So amazing . . .

God is so good and we are so richly blessed beyond belief.  I knew Delaney would bring us so much joy but I don't think I could have ever fathomed just how much,  She is such an amazing little girl.  Yes, I know everyone thinks that about their children but just delight me for a moment and let me brag.
Her speech and her ability to communicate were one of our greatest concerns, you know, how well she would acclimate and be able to relate to her surroundings, feel comfortable and make her wishes known.  Let's just say this girl can make it very clear!   "No" has become a favorite word but not always in defiance, she mostly says is when we try to help her too much, like putting on socks, shoes, pants, or making selections for pj's or lunch time,  Her persistent "no" lets us offer other choices until we get it right.  She also has a vocabulary of a little over 60 words now, many she will repeat and many she says spontaneously.  Not all are intelligible to others but in the context you can usually figure it out.  If she doesn't know the name of something then she will act it out, pint, or combine a series of actions to let you know what she means.  Sometimes a very dramatic game of charades!  She also reenacts any event in which she stumbles, bumps herself, falls down, or drops something.  We may have an actress in our midst!
 Her Early Intervention specialist comments on a weekly basis of how amazingly she's catching up and is now around the 28-36 month mark, where she should be.  We've had her to the pediatrician now three times and she's up to date on her shots until early spring when we get the third Hep B vaccine.  Her eye exam was good and the hearing exam and dental exam will come after Christmas.  Our little one will likely start a school-based class once a week to help with language aquisition.
She loves fruit, especially clementines, we have to hide them or seriously "cut her off" at three because I believe she'd eat them until she popped.  She also loves "peacha" (peaches).  Aside from soup and noodles her knew loves are deer meat and noodles or deer with barbecue sauce.  She has become a lover of condiments too, especially honey mustard sauce.
She loves her baby dolls and takes very good care of them, dressing, diapering, feeding, kissing and taking their temperature- she also gives them shots from time  to time too.  Along the lines of her babies, she also loves her bear, "goggy" (doggy)  and "pan-a" (panda)  which she pushes around the house in the stroller too.
She loves all things from the movie FROZEN. and screams out Elsa and Anna any time she sees them.  She is totally mesmerized by the movie and will watch every second, especially the scene of Elsa singing "Let it go".  We "let it doe" a lot at our house and in wal-mart and in church whenever she sees the characters or a song is sung.  She reenacts it with the dramatic hand motions and everything.
She also loves music and dancing and I'm sad to say that the most recent season of "Dancing with the Stars" is over for now.  That was my monday night workout!
We just had our Christmas program at church on sunday and this Ma-ma and Da-E could not be more proud!  She imitated the motions form the program  all season when we would read about the Christmas story and she can spot "the baby" and "Jees-a"  most anywhere in pictures, cards or story books.  What a blessing hat she is understanding so much.  Of course we saw "San-a"  at he mall and int eh parade and the park but he still doesn't prompt the enthusiasm of Jesus and Elsa.  The old man is gonna have to step up his game, lol!
I think it goes without saying,  we are truly grateful for Delaney, God knew all along what was best.  Even though it seemed at the time that it was taking forever to get her home and the wait would never end; that time has vanished and it seems hard to recall life before her.  We love our precious angel!
First Snow


Loved eating the snow!

Couldn't get enough! 

The REAL Santa

Taking in the lights! 

My elf! 

Helping Pa-Paw with the tree


She was a big help!


Very meticulous!

Learning from the Best, . . Nana! 


Our tree in process

Helping . . . 

The finishing touch

Not thrilled

Candy made it better

Oh yeah, candy! 

Tree inspector

FROZEN tree

Elsa, her favorite.