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!