9 months! (1 day late)

This was right after S got out of bed, and before breakfast, so she was still waking up a bit


After breakfast, before Puffs. She just wanted me to put the camera down.

Celebrating her 3/4 birthday with Daddy. They had a wonderful time.

S had a good 9-month birthday. She ate, she played, she napped, and she repeated. When Daddy got home, we went out to dinner at our favorite diner (they even brought her a bowl of applesauce) and hit the grocery store. S was SO tired, but she wanted to see all the pretty colors and lights at the store.

She slept great last night and has spent most of the morning with Daddy. We measured her on her growth chart, and she's 27" tall. Sweet.

Advent Scarf: Day 3

I didn't have to rip this one back!

Today's pattern was a lovely diagonal Spanish lace. It looks better in person. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings :)

Advent Scarf: Day 2

This took a while to get done. J had to stay late at work, I had to rip this one back (this seems to be a running theme), and all of a sudden it was after 10pm and I had to finish another 6 rows.

Fortunately S slept until 8:30, just as I expected, and I got those last rows done. I now have a set of gull wing lace and a set of fleurette lace. Day 3 hit my inbox early this morning, so I'll get to work on it at some point today.

Advent scarf knit-along (sorry Mom)

My mom prefers that all my posts center around S, but she'll have to settle for some knitting posts as well.

My local yarn store is doing an Advent scarf knit-along. Let me explain. A knit-along is where a group of knitters knit a pattern, usually one sent to them periodically over a set period of time. Advent comes in because we're getting a piece of a pattern every day from 12/1 through 12/24, much like an Advent calendar. Except instead of a sweet treat in the form of candy (as our Advent calendar has), our sweet treat is the completion of a pretty lace scarf.

I decided this morning that I'm going to post my progress each day and let you know how it's going. December 1 brought a 16-row gull-wing pattern, and it turned out like this:




I only had to rip it out once ;)

Adoption Awareness Month: Last Day!

Learn or teach about positive adoption language.

I've been noodling over a post about this anyway, since we occasionally get a comment that uses negative adoption language. Someone recently said S was "pretty close to being mine" because she came to us at 2 days of age. I assured her that S was well and truly ours, legally and otherwise.

I'll admit I'm not always as consistent as I should be with certain terminology. So here we go. This information is derived in part from information provided early in our adoption by our agency.

The words we choose say a lot about how we really think. Using positive adoption language means choosing words that show respect for all participants in the adoption (birthparents, adoptive parents, and adoptees). Using positive adoption language can help validate adoption as an option to build a family, just as birth is. Both are important, but one is not better than the other.

• Birthparents should be described as such. Using the term real parent or natural parent implies that the adoptive parents are imaginary, or artificial.
• Mom, Dad, or parent are fine, and don't need to be preceeded by "adoptive". There are certain situations where it is germane to conversation, but not usually.
• Birthparents don't abandon, relinquish, or surrender their child, or put their child up for adoption. Birthparents make an adoption plan, just as some biological parents make a birth plan. Birthparents are actively involved in the decision to place a child for adoption, and their involvement should be reflected in the language we use. And you can only imagine how an adoptee feels when someone says their birthparents abandoned or surrendered them.
• My adopted child is my own child, just as much as any biological child would be.
• S was adopted (vs S is adopted). I'm guilty of this every so often. The point of this type of language is to emphasize the fact that, while adoption is a part of her life, it's not the end-all and be-all of her life. She may have been adopted, but she's also tall-ish, has blue eyes, and loves bananas. As I've mentioned before, this is one of the fine lines I struggle with. I want adoption to be part of her life and something to be a positive thing, but I don't want it to define her.

My dad the cook, part one

Ever since we hosted Thanksgiving, my parents have been chomping at the bit to make dinner. Tonight I planned kabobs, and my dad graciously offered to make them. He disappeared to the grocery store, then got busy in the kitchen.


The carnivore kabobs, complete with scotch for Dad


The veggie kabobs for Mom.

Tomorrow night we get homemade mac n cheese. Yum!

Our daughter the football fan

We bought the diaper when S was tiny.



We bought the football onesie in September.



This was the first time we just hung out and watched football.



I don't even care if she looks like a boy.