New Pictures

She wanted to ride in the wagon wearing just the football helmet....so she did.

Makenna with her cousin Sam. I love the look on her face. Like she is really pondering something. Also you can see how much her hair has grown!

I managed to get two little pigtails in on this day!! But did not manage to get a picture where she was actually looking AT the camera.

Makenna is really blossoming every day. She has started being so much more affectionate with all of us. When she climbed into my lap the other day and just laid her head on my chest and snuggled with me I just about cried. And now she will sometimes just walk up and want to give me or her brother or sister a kiss or hug. She would do these things before but only when you asked for a kiss or hug. Not just because SHE wanted to give you one. And just today she did the sweetest thing. I always give her kisses while I am holding her and getting ready to put her into bed. Today at nap time and again at bedtime she would reach up and grab my face and give me kisses. Then look at me and do it again. About three times in a row. I think she is really deciding that we are her family. We were Ok before, but now she has really claimed us for her own.

And it is wonderful.

Funny Girl

She is so silly! Makenna had her 18 month check up and all is well. She is a little over 31 inches tall and weighs 24 lbs 12 oz. Her iron is still a little low but improved from 15 months. She was doing lots of things on the developmental checklist but she is not really talking much. Had a meeting with the First Steps (early intervention)coordinator yesterday and she will be evaluated soon. I am sure they will help her get all those thoughts into words! She understands so much of what we say and she is getting more and more frustrated that she can't respond.

I love how you can see all the way to her tonsils in the last picture! She cracks me up.

Big Brother

Makenna has the BEST big brother in the world. Jackson loves her so much and the feeling is definitely mutual. Nobody makes her laugh like he does. It is so cool to see them together.

Updates

Makenna can do lots of things now. She still has no real words yet in English(except mama) but she communicates with us pretty effectively. She uses a few simple signs like more and eat and all done. When I say things to her sometimes she just watches my mouth and moves her mouth but doesn't make any sound. It is like she is practicing the movement of her mouth or something. She understands what we say a lot of the time. She can point to several body parts when we ask. She will give kisses and hugs to me and both the other kids but not all the time. When we ask for a kiss or hug she sometimes will just shake her head no. She LOVES books and will bring me books to read her all the time. When she gets hurt just a little (not really hurt) she makes a little whiny sound and walks over for me to kiss it and make it better. If she falls or bumps into something pretty hard she will usually cry really hard and resist me trying to comfort or cuddle her. She is still very clingy with me a lot of the time. She wants me to walk around the room with her or walk with her to go look out the door. It is so frustrating at times. I know she is trying to learn to explore on her own but doesn't feel confident enough yet. When I get irritated with her I feel pretty guilty because she is doing really well overall. I am just tired of being everything to everybody I guess, and I really want a break. Guess I will just have to wait for that.

Article on our family

The Air Force paper wrote a nice article on our situation with Drew being deployed and not meeting Makenna yet. I will save a copy for her to see when she is older and can understand how much her Daddy missed her before they met!

http://www.445aw.afrc.af.mil/news/story.asp?storyID=123157005

Adoption everywhere!

Apparently, if you didn't already know the Target on Westport Rd. is a hotbed of International Adoption. Today during our hour or so in there we met a mama home four weeks with her adorable Olivia (also from Jiangxi province), a woman with her sweet 8 or 9 year old daughter, and another woman who is starting paperwork for an adoption from Ethiopia! So nice to meet other families like ours. Hard to know how to approach them but easier than before Makenna was home. We can kind of exchange looks and usually start a conversation. I exchanged numbers with Olivia's mom Sara, so hopefully we can get together sometime. I would love for Makenna to have friends adopted from China. We will get involved with the local FCC but it is kinda nice just meeting people by chance (or by blog like Kerry Lu's mama)!

And here are a couple of pictures of course.

Running up and down hills

One of Makenna's favorite things is to find a hill or ramp and go up and down it...oh about 250 times! This hill is at the park on the waterfront and it is made of the recycled rubber stuff so I felt a little better about her running down it. She just laughs her head off while she is doing it. It is hard to get a good shot because she moves so FAST! But my favorite is the one where you just see the outline of her and her sprout of a ponytail! Cracks me up:)