It was the night before Christmas.....

...And all through the house,

Not a creature was stirring,
Not even a mouse.

It is as though Aimée knows already all about Christmas. For the last past week, she has been crawling over to her stocking and shaking it to see if anything is in in it.

Merry Christmas from both of us!

Baby steps!

Aimée and Little M

Aimée is always pulling herself up everywhere these days. She no longer wants to be in her exersaucer. We were at a Christmas party last night and before I knew it, she had pulled herself up on the coffee table and was swigging down any drink there was on the table. She had some hot chocolate gone cold, grape juice and stale beer running down her face. She did not discriminate at all. That's my girl!!! I was a bit shocked to be honest. I knew other babies did these sort of things, but I guess I forgot that eventually Aimée would be doing them too.

Aimée is slowly starting to take little steps holding furniture. She is still very hesitant and does not yet trust herself. She looks like a little old man with a walker shuffling her feet across the floor. I placed two Christmas animated characters on the coffee table this morning (one on each end). Aimée would slowly (and I do mean slowly) walk from one to the other. I tried to catch it on video. The camera shut off in the middle of the recording so I have two little videos.

Part 1

Part 2

First Progress Report

Aimée and I have been a family now for just over six months. Our first progress report has been completed. It will now be translated and sent to Vietnam along with various pictures of Aimée. One copy goes to the government and one copy goes to the orphanage. When you adopt from Vietnam, you must sign an agreement stating you will complete these progress reports up until when your child turns 18. Completing her first report took me a great deal of time. I really wanted to convey how well Aimée is doing. The government and (more importantly in my opinion) the birth family, if they wish, have the opportunity to see Aimée's development. I do hope that Aimée's birth mother (when and if she is ready) follows her progress. I want her to know that she has created a beautiful, wonderful and sweet little girl. I am tremendously proud of Aimée and I hope that through these reports her birth mother will be too. These reports are my only link to her and I want to make sure they are done just right.

Aimée and Maman (6 months post adoption)

Yes... This kiss was solicited, but, she does kiss her Maman on her own too.

Those kisses melt my heart.

We spent last week in North Bay at my parents. Aimée now knows and loves her grandparents.

A little jam session with Pépère.

However, what she REALLY loves in North Bay is Mom and Dad's dishwasher. In fact, it has become at bit of an obsession. She could spend hours at a time with the dishwasher if we let her.

She loves to look at it and talk to it.

(sorry it is sideways... I don't know how to fix that)

She also loves to climb right in it.

Aimée is becoming very interactive and playful (perhaps even cheeky). She likes to tease Casey with Casey's all time favorite toy (frisbee).

Unfortunately, the quality of the video is not so good.

Happy girl!

CHEESE PLEASE!!!

Feeding Aimée these days has become a bit of a challenge. She is completely cheese obsessed. The only way I can get her to eat is if I drop a tiny piece of cheese in the center of the spoon along with whatever it is I am trying to get her to eat. She will not open her mouth until she sees the cheese. Trust me... I try to fool her on occasion; but, it NEVER works. She has also mastered spitting out the food while keeping the cheese still in her mouth. I am trying to find food that allow Aimée to feed herself. She tends to be a little more adventurous on her own. Here, she is eating cheese tortellini and of course... tiny cheese cubes.

Feeding herself wore her out!!

Happy Birthday Sweet Baby Girl!!!!!!

Twelve months ago, a precious baby girl was born in Vietnam.

Aimée at 4 weeks

Here she is today; a vibrant one year old!

What a special day! My heart is full of many emotions. I am so proud to be her Maman. I am amazed by her little personality and cherish every "First" (first crawl, first words, first standing, first birthday). Adoption is a funny thing, as I celebrate this special birthday girl whom I have the honour of calling my daughter, I am reminded of a young woman's loss. I imagine her birth mother is thinking of Aimée today. My heart aches for her. No words can fully express the immense gratitude I feel towards her. How strange... I have never met, nor will I ever know this woman. However, I feel our hearts are meshed together for life. After all, she has given me the most precious gift there is.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas???

For those of you who do not reside in Ottawa: This is not trick photography! The snow really is here already. It is hard to believe that our homes are all decked out for Halloween and not Christmas. Aimée is not quite sure what to make of all this white stuff. She enjoyed kicking it around with her boots. Getting her all dressed into her winter clothing is quite the challenge. Hopefully it will get easier with practice.

The children in the Mother Goose Program we attend on Thursdays were invited to come today in costume. Aimée was a bunny rabbit. Here are some pictures of her and her best buddy M.

Little Rabbit FuFu and Stripes The Zebra

They were sooooooooo adorable romping around with tails on their bottoms.

I have a special request to make. As you know, Aimée's official birthday is November 4th. I would love to show her one day just how many people read our blog. I know many of you are out there (but the usually empty comment box does not really reflect this very well). Perhaps you would be willing to step out of your comfort zone just this once and make a special birthday wish to a special birthday girl. I would like to print it off so she could to read it one day when she is older. Merci!

Have a brilliant Halloween day!!!!!

My big girl

We celebrated Aimée's first birthday last weekend. It was a few weeks early but my parents, nephew and sister were here in Ottawa. It was so nice to have them here and be part of the celebration.

Birthday girl looking oh so serious!

Unfortunately, the pictures do not show how incredibly excited she became when the cake came out and everybody sang her Happy birthday. She was vibrating head to toe.

Aimée adores this little truck from Mémère. She could sit on it for hours. She loves being pushed in it and shouts at you if you stop.

Aimée playing with her cousin Kael

It was so nice having my family here for the week. We celebrated Thanksgiving with an awesome turkey dinner. My father helped me (or should I say I helped my father) repair some frames on my windows just in time for the winter. My sister and I had the chance to just hang out together. One of the bigger events was Mémère taking Aimée to get her ears pierced. This was something my mother was really looking forward to for a long time. However, I do think she was second guessing the whole thing when she was told she would have to hold Aimée down. Aimée only made a small whimper and did not cry at all. She was fine for the rest of the day.

Here is Aimée shortly after getting her ears pierced. She is trying to pinch my nose. I knew then that she was feeling just fine.

On Tuesday, Mémère joined Aimée for her swim lesson.

She is doing awesome at the pool. She can blow bubbles and knows to hold her breath under water. She does not cry when we put her head under water. I am so proud of my big girl!

In this next picture, Aimée and I are singing "Alice the Camel" (Alice happens to have way too many humps in my opinion). Beside us are our good friends Jeff and baby Michael (Mommy Jo-Ann is taking the picture)

Aimée realy likes music. She will listen to her Pépère sing and play the guitar forever. She will tap one leg and sing with him or throw her arms up in the air and orchestrate. Our friend Tracy gave her a brilliant little set of musical instruments for her birthday. Aimée loves taking them out and shaking them all. A few weeks ago she had her first opportunity to play the piano at her cousins. Here is my little Mozart!

New development: 1. Aimée has learnt she can clap her hands. So cute!

2. Aimée can now pull herself up to a standing position.

A Feel Good Weekend

What a fabulous weekend we had! Aimée and I drove out to Burlington to meet up with the two families that traveled to Vietnam at the same time I did to adopt our children. I don't know how to put in words how good it was for my soul to visit with them. I still feel warm all over.

Daniel, Aimée and Noah

O.K. then...... I guess the photo shoot is now over.

Aimée wants to play!!!

It was so neat to see the three babies together after four months. How they have changed. They know exactly who their parents are. The miracle of adoption is that in their eyes there was no miracle... this is simply the way it was always suppose to be. I am sure if they could speak they would say: "Yah, yah... that's my mom, that's my dad... what's the big deal?"

On the last evening of our visit, we watched videos and looked at some pictures from our trip. It was very emotional. Here are some pictures from when we were in Vietnam.

I LOVE this picture of Aimée.

In a matter of moments from the time this next picture was taken, I would be walking out of the orphanage with Aimée in my arms. I would be caring for her from then on.

My heart was racing.

Aimée was so tiny. Here, (at 7 months) she is wearing a 3-6 month outfit and it is falling off of her.

Here, Aimée and I are at the Canadian Embassy waiting for Aimée's passport.

Check out the maple leaf patterned couch!

Bananas anyone???

I call this next photo "East meets West"

On Saturday we went apple and pumpkin picking. It was a blast.