Home 4 weeks today!

We really need to teach this child to climb stairs. hahaha. She likes to run over to the stairs so mommy will come get her.



Trying to figure out how to sit in a chair. Which she mastered in about 2 days. She sits like a pro now. She's fast becoming my big girl. I'm sad -- watching her grow up before my eyes is very bittersweet. She's catching up so fast these past couple of weeks.



Tehya's going to help her.



Giving daddy hugs. She won't hug our upper bodies yet but love to hug and slobber on our knees.



Being a big girl. Notice the remotes all lined up on the back of the chair -- Cassie can't reach that high. Unless she's sitting like this -- which is rare since she can't climb up onto the furniture....yet.



Getting ready for bed -- daddy is reading to her.






No -- she's not in trouble. Grandpa Spring made us a stool to reach the high places, and she decided it would make a good seat. Not exactly what Grandpa had in mind when he made it, but if it makes her happy, I'm sure it will make him happy too.

FYI - The brown blob is Thunder walking by.





So proud of herself.




Elmo was very interesting this morning. Once Elmo got boring -- about 4 minutes later -- she tripped and fell into the corner of the end table not far from her chair. She's got a big bump and indentation on the right side of her forehead. Of course she was tired too so it made matters worse. I tried to hold a cold pack on her head -- yeah right -- I'm sure she's going to have a huge bruise. Poor baby -- her first official boo-boo. She's napping now and I'm sure will be just fine when she wakes up.



Update on the last post ("Not all butterflies and rainbows"). The nights are getting much, much better. Cassie actually slept though the night twice this past week. We had one tiny night terror last night and Cassie actually let me hold her and she put her little head on my shoulder. That's huge for her. That's been the only night terror since the last post. Yay!!! And the same night I wrote the night terror post -- June 2nd -- when putting Cassie to bed that night right before she was almost asleep she stood up and gave mommy 9 kisses!!!!! Cassie had never kissed me before. Never. I think she snuck and read the blog post while I wasn't looking and felt guilty and thought she should be nice to mommy. :) Those were the best 9 kisses of my life. And in between each one she leaned back and smiled -- what a sweet baby girl I have. (yes -- I'm taking all the credit for her on this). Then she laid down and was asleep in 30 seconds. Since that night I get at least 1 kiss every couple of nights -- after she's in her bed. I'll take what I can get and I see this as great progress. But those first 9-sweet-wet-kisses will be burned into my memory forever. Of course I cried - I'm a sap :)


Together the three of us are figuring out how this family thing works. I think all three of us are very happy to have each other. I don't know what I did without Cassie and Sonny for the years I didn't have them both in my life. Even though my days are crazy and I'm not getting a whole lot of sleep I'm still the happiest I've ever been in my entire life. Seeing Cassie's smile or hearing her laugh -- even at 5am -- makes my entire body melt and the smile on my face is constant.

We have been home for 4 weeks plus our 2 weeks with her in China and still it seems like we have always had her. I can't wait to see what the next month brings and what my baby will learn.