Katie continues to be 'close' to taking her first steps on her own, but has yet to let go. We know pretty soon we won't be able to stop her, so we're letting her figure this out on her own time. She continues to prefer being vertical instead of horizontal, so she's pretty much only crawling to get from one place to another, then she's standing up. She can stand unaided for a fair amount of time if she doesn't think about what she's doing! Above she's riding one of her toys. She can push herself around the house on this, though she does backward a little better than forward.
Alex, Katie and cousin Hayley (4 months older) at Grandma & Grandpa's house for Father's Day. It is nearly impossible to get a picture of just our 2 kids together where everyone is smiling and looking at the right place, and getting a good one of 3 is darn near impossible! In this picture, Katie is in her little ladybug dress. Gymboree had a ladybug line out in the winter, and I bought it sometime between her referral in December and our trip in February. It was going to be her birthday dress, but since it was barely 50F on her birthday (unseasonably cold), she ended up in a dress that wasn't sleeveless. It was fun to have her wear this outfit since I'd had it for her for awhile now. It had cute little shoes, but since she wears a tiny size 2 in shoes, they were more like 'crib shoes' and not safe to let her walk around in. They were used for pictures only, though didn't make it for this one.
Katie enjoying some time with Aunt Patricia. She is at the age where she prefers mom and dad until she has time to 'warm up' to other friends and family members.
This is the view of Katie that we see most often at home. She is always standing up, and if one of us is standing up somewhere, she darts over to us and pulls up on our legs. Who could resist that face? Of course Katie gets whatever she wants at home!
Aunt Margie and Uncle Henry came for a visit. They are a special family in our lives because they have created their family in a way similar to ours. Their oldest son is biological and their two younger girls are adopted from Korea. Knowing their family always made international adoption seem like a very 'normal' thing to do for us and made the decision to adopt a fairly simple one for Brad and I.
Alex and Katie outside the children's garden at the Missouri Botanical Garden (which, by the way, is awesome). This is how we travel most days when a lot of walking is involved. Alex could technically walk almost anywhere on his own, but of course likes to ride if Katie is riding, too! The good thing is I can pack enough stuff under this stroller to have most of the house with us. We almost always pack a lunch for everyone to avoid allergic reactions (Alex has a life-threatening peanut allergy), so that's pretty handy.
Things continue to go well for our little family. Katie is thriving and is starting to use some language. She has 10 teeth, including 2 molars which were a little more challenging to 'welcome' into her mouth. Thank goodness for Tylenol! Alex and Katie have been enjoying lots of fun in the baby pool and on the slip 'n slide in the backyard. Katie actually just does a crawl rather than any sliding, but she enjoys it! We continue to be amazed at how easily our new family has evolved and we're talking about going back to China. We'd be back in a heartbeat if it was free, but we are hoping to figure out a way to add another sibling to the group.
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