So much to talk about. First, Happy New Year to everyone! I am so excited that a new year is here...so much to be thankful for and so much to look forward to! Edith is just over 9 months old! Where is my baby? She has two front teeth on top and her two on the bottom, and yesterday I noticed that the two next to the bottom teeth have cut and are on their way! As everyone says, she will be eating steak in no time! For the time being, she is content with graham crackers, scrambled eggs, pancakes and the regular purees. She has gotten to be a pro at chewing (gumming) solid food, and she is very excited about eating.

She has also learned to crawl (finally!) after about a month of rocking back and forth on her hands and knees, and then scooting backwards, and some awesome yoga moves...Friday was the official day, and she decided to crawl for Daddy when I was out to dinner. Hmmph. We now have a gate at the top of our stairs and we have netting around our bannister so she won't fall to her death. That wouldn't be the least bit cool.

Saturday, we hung out with her birthdad, his cousin, his brother and his fiancee! She was very sweet and had picked out clothes for Edith as a gift (which we always appreciate!) and a cute stuffed pig. We played "Pass the Baby" and had lunch...they were all impressed with Edith's awesome new eating skillz, and that she can sit in a high chair like a big girl.

AND! Next Saturday (Jan 10), we will be speaking in front of an Adoption 101 class at our agency! I am so excited to talk about my awesome little family :) We will talk for 15 minutes about transracial adoption, being a conspicuous family, how our friends and family have accepted Edith and how we are handling open adoption and then we get to answer questions. I never in a million years, thought we would be the family talking to the prospective adoptive parents. It just never occurred to me that we would be in the position to be inspiring to other potential adopters. It feels so good to know that we could be positive role models to someone thinking about transracial adoption. Edith is certainly going to charm everyone in the room :) But you already knew that!

Well, HI! Fancy meeting you here! I know you never expected to hear from me again, but rest assured, I will not desert you :)

Edith is getting her top two teeth! They are just tiny white slivers right now and they aren't growing in as quickly as the bottom two did, but they're there. And SO CUTE!!!! I think she is definitely going to have the Wanat Gap like her aunts - but she is a Wanat woman, so what else would she have :)

We're working hard on Christmas stuff - almost all of the gifts have been purchased and wrapped, and we have quite a mound in the living room. Which means that Edith has fun stuff to look at while she plays on the living room floor. She's not crawling yet, so I can still leave things in reach, but she is rocking on all fours still, so any day now.

We're looking forward to meeting with Edith's birthdad after Christmas. He is going to be SO shocked at how big she is! The last time he saw her, she was 5 months old and not doing most of the cool stuff she's doing now. She is "talking" a lot - and she is eating like a pro. She is out of her first helmet, and in a transition period before her second one...and her head looks great! She loves Lucy - she watches Lucy constantly! She wants to touch and grab Lucy's tail, ears and fur, and Lucy is incredibly patient. Just moving out of the way of the grabby kid, but never making any aggressive noises or gestures. We are constantly working on "gentle hands" and "be loving" so Edith knows that hurting your puppy is not acceptable. They are already good friends, and I can see them growing up together and being besties :) Edith is talking and laughing to Lucy right now!!

We went to the Helmet Dr. today...and her current helmet is only going to last her about another month because after that, there won't be enough foam inside to shave down for adjustments. The problem is that although her head has changed a GREAT deal, it isn't as symmetrical as I (and the Dr.) would like. Her ears are still off and there is still a flat spot on the back of her head. So today, the Dr. asked if I had thought about a second helmet, and I told her that I would be open to a second one because I can't see everything shaping up in the next month. I don't want to settle for "good enough"...as long as we're doing this, I want to have the best possible outcome and I don't want to stop before we're done.

So they took measurements and photos to send to the insurance company, and we found out that Edith is still under the line and should be covered...which is awesome! After we were done there, we went to see Jeremy at work to talk about the new developments...I told him that we should be covered, but what if we weren't? He said that if she needs a second helmet, we would be doing a second helmet whether we were covered or not, and that I shouldn't worry about it. I feel so much better now,

I just want her to be happy with herself when she's older! I know we all pick some arbitrary part of our bodies that we hate or wish were different...I don't want Edith to have something real to hate.

Now, Edith has two teeth...the second one came in about 2 days after the first. She looks so cute - although I am a little sad to lose that gummy little smile! I would post a picture, but she is asleep and I'm not going to wake her up to flash the camera in her face...perhaps later :)

Teething has been an EXTREMELY easy experience (knock wood) because I took some advice from my Mom-In-Law that has made all the difference. She said that when her kids were cutting teeth, she would take a tongue depressor (she was a nurse) and rub their gums with it until she felt the tooth rubbing on the tongue depressor. Granted, you have to wait until the tooth is near the surface, but that has seemed to be the worst time for Edith, so it's easy to figure out the best time (because she is a grumpus). It has really made this experience better for us...and for Edith! Try it! I was lucky enough to get a box of tongue depressors from Michelle, who works at a dental office...she had ordered a bunch for a project and had tons left over, so she gave me a hundred or so. Gladly, I won't have to use them all because Edith doesn't have that many teeth.

Anyway, look for pictures of the shiny, white teeth tomorrow...I'll have to take a picture for posterity then.

ELECTION DAY TOOTH!!!!!

Houston, we FINALLY have a tooth, and as you can tell, I am super excited! Edith was really fussy yesterday and it wasn't for the normal reasons (hungry or tired) and I could see that little tooth right below the surface so I figured that was the culprit. This morning when she was eating breakfast, I saw actual tooth! YAY!!