Eleven down, one to go

Guess who is 11 months old?
Yesterday our sweet Lulu had her 11 month birthday. This is how she celebrated...
with a 10 hour road trip. Doesn't everyone want to celebrate like that?

This has been a month of firsts for our sweet Luci May. She started waving "hi"...
(you'll have to trust me that the above is a wave in process. It's hard to capture on film)

And clapping "yay"...
We left her in a childcare situation for the first time...
I was a complete freak about it. Hovering and pleading with the workers to take care of my baby. I was also taking pictures of her and even her name written on the sign-in sheet...
She didn't cry when I finally left, but boy was she happy when I returned. It felt like a moment in a romantic movie when the couple is running toward one another in slow motion and music is playing in the background as she crawled to me and squealed with delight. I may have squealed a bit myself as the hour I was gone felt insufferably long. While observing her with the other babies we learned, not surprisingly, that she loves other babies. Unfortunately, she likes to show that love by pulling hair and trying to squeeze their cheeks and remove their eyes. Smiling all the while, of course. Proving that the most dangerous assailant is one who doesn't look dangerous.

She has slowed down a bit on giving "the flirty", but has picked up a really cute growl and teradachtal screech. She finally can say "Mama", but still has not referred to me directly as such. Believe me, when she does you will know about it as I will be shouting it from the blogland rooftops.

She learned how to use a sippie cup...
Kind of...
And she has just barely entered the world of table foods with her ever-vigilant "choking hazard freak" mother nervous about every bite. But that, my friends, is a whole post in itself. I hope your anticipation of the post detailing the eating habits of an 11 month old does not keep you up at night.

She also had her first public appearance in front of 1,000 people doing a cardboard testimony. It was a special moment for us to celebrate what God has done in our family at a conference with college students. One side of the cardboard said "I was an orphan" and the other side said...
I didn't want to "exploit" her in anyway, but we thought it would be cool to expose all those students to one of the ways that God transforms lives. A way he has transformed our lives. When we flipped the sign over, our sweet Lulu started to flail her arms and smile as if to say she was in agreement with God's plan. To be honest, I know she may not always celebrate her adoption and she has that freedom. But it was a moment I will always cherish as our family stood on that stage together to say "Thank you, God, for making us a family."

And this, the last of the "month birthday" posts is to say, Thank you God for making Luci May!