Mama's New Haircut

Before:










And after:

Six Months Together

Can you believe that it's been six months since we first me this sweet little guy?

Then. Here is Micah on our first shopping trip in Tianjin. He seemed a little concerned about these people who took him from the CWI. And now. That frightened little boy has blossomed into an active toddler who loves his Mama and Baba.

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N!!!!

Hooray for family vacation. We spent the last couple of weeks visiting family and friends in Michigan. I will be trying to catch up on blogging all of the news from this trip. And there was lots of it. We had many first-time experiences and visits with friends, old and new.

We took an airplane to Grand Rapids. We were a little nervous since Micah hadn't flown since that long, painful flight home from China. Not to worry. We had been reading the Airplanes book we got from the library and talking about our plane ride to see Lao Lao and Lao Ye. Micah was excited for the trip and even sat, buckled into his own seat. He was pretty well behaved through the two hour trip there, except for sending his truck back into the lap of the gentleman sleeping behind him. Oops!

The trip back to Atlanta was fine also. The hardest part was leaving the grandparents who had been his constant playmates for the past 11 days.

Fun at the Lake

We spent several days of our vacation visiting our friends Nancy and Diana and their children, Dave and Dayna. We hung out at their house on Lake LeAnn. It has become a summer tradition and usually includes Lao Lao and Lao Ye too. Just last summer the major topic of debate was names for the child we hoped to adopt from China. What a difference a year makes!

Lake people: Happy, tired and sunburnt. As it should be.
Micah's first experience with a lake. At first, he would only float on the sea turtle and refused to get wet.
He loved to stand on shore and throw tennis balls to JackJack.
Jack was just happy to be hanging out in the water with the kids. Lao Lao and Lao Ye hung out on the boat.
Back on the sea turtle after his first dip in the water. By the end of our visit, Micah would "jump off the dock" into Mama's arms.
Drying off of the deck.

Future male model?
Mama went tubing with Micah and Dayna.
A nice gentle ride in the wake. Micah waved to the family on the speedboat, that is, until he fell asleep in the tube.
Mama also rode with Dave on the Dragon Tube.
The ride wasn't quite so gentle!
Lake food has no calories, so we ate well!
Hanging on the boat, playing Uno. Of course Micah is the center of attention.

No, she doesn't wear red shoes

We had an amazing dinner with Kimberley (redmaryjanes) from Seventh Diamond. And no, she didn't wear red shoes. We met at one of my all-time favorite restaurants, Arnie's. There was an instant connection and the air was filled with happy chatter. And the floor was filled with very active boys. The wait staff was very tolerant of our noisy little gathering.
Eli and Micah were fast friends and played with trucks on the tables and floors. Eli taught Micah to shake his booty and Micah was happy to oblige. The boys played until they could play no longer.
This is my favorite picture of Kimberley with Micah. I can't wait to see her with Sophia. We'll have to make another trip north to meet her!
This journey has taken us to so many places and introduced us to amazing new friends. What a gift!

Uncle Kurt

My brother, Kurt has been a huge support throughout our adoption journey. Kurt's was one of Micah's favorite pictures in the photo album we sent to China. When he met Kurt he was initially a little afraid, so we got our his old photo album. When he got to the page with Kurt's picture, he looked at the picture, looked a Kurt, looked at the picture again and broke into a huge grin as is to say, "hey, it's that guy!!!! I like that guy!" From that point forward, there was nothing but love for Uncle Kurt.

It was a kick watching my brother with his new nephew. Here's a video taken of the two of them. It was a whoopsie video. We thought we were taking a still shot, but the camera was set to video. It's a little all over the place as we try to figure out why it didn't take a still picture, but it really captured Kurt playing with Micah. Enjoy!

Big Family Picnic

One of my favorite activities growing up was going to a picnic with the "big family." That's what we called my Mom's family and it included her parents (my granparents, of course), her siblings and all of their kids (the cousins). On Saturday we got to go to a big family picnic. At this point, the cousins are nearly all married and having kids of their own. Micah really enjoyed getting to know his cousins, aunts and uncles.

A big family tradition is the pictures of each of each family with their associated children so you can see how the family grows. This was the first year that my mom and dad got to have a grandchild in the picture. I think they look pretty happy about that!
Aunt Lois brought popsicles for the young ones. Micah wanted a green one.
Here's the whole crew. Can you believe how the family is growing?