I mentioned about a month ago that we'd reached the six-month mark since our adoption of Maelin. We had an appointment with our homestudy social worker, who sent a report to our agency in California. Along with the report, we needed a few pictures, so we took an updated family picture last weekend. Aren't we cute?! :) Jim set the timer and we all posed...i figured that Maelin would be completely confused by the timer and no one really taking the picture, but she "cheesed" just perfectly! Now we have a new game: Maelin makes us sit on the hearth in front of the fireplace while she runs over and 'sets the timer' on an imaginary camera, then runs and sits with us, commanding everyone to smile! It's fairly comical!
Maelin and BabaDaddy spent last Saturday afternoon gutting and carving two pumpkins from Papa and Nana. At first she was enthralled, watching BabaDaddy's every move...by the end, she was riding her tricycle around the garage while he finished carving the second pumpkin - haha!
I wondered how Maelin would react to the whole Halloween hustle and bustle, but she did just great! I bought her 'ladybug' costume at Old Navy for $11 (score!), and she was t-h-r-i-l-l-e-d!! The three of us went to a Halloween party at the Deaf Club in Flint on the Friday before Halloween, where she played games and hung out with some of her classmates and schoolmates. It was really a good time. On Halloween day, she wore her costume to school and had a blast trick-or-treating around the school. By that evening, Mama had had enough Halloween, so we only stopped two places to trick-or-treat: Great Gramps and Gram's (Mama's grandparents), and Papa and Nana's house. We stayed at Papa and Nana's house for a while and played with Jacob and Lucas while everyone visited. Then we headed to Uncle Darrin and Aunt Shelli's house for a birthday celebration for Cousin Lauren (who turned 10 on Halloween) and Adrienne (who turned 2 the Thursday before). Leslie has been staying in the dorm a lot this school year. She comes home one or two nights each week, and Maelin looooves it when Leslie is home! This is the first year that Leslie has chosen to stay in the dorm on Halloween instead of coming home with us...i guess that's a sign of growing up! The end of the first quarter of school is coming up; i've heard mostly positive reports from her 10th grade teachers, so we're hoping for a good report card. :)
With Halloween successfully behind us, we're looking forward to the next big holiday 'first' with Maelin. We're guessing since Christmas involves presents, she'll handle that one alright, as well :)
Love to all,
MamaShonda, BabaDaddy, Leslie and Mae
