22 months

We took 167 pictures today. Thank goodness for digital cameras, huh! Of those, we got a dozen decent shots and I liked this one best. I think it really captures the personality of our little sprite!

Gwen is 22 months old and has been home for about 7.5 months. She's finally figuring out that verbal communication is a two way street. She produces a sound (a word) from her mouth and Mommy understands it and something good happens. We're so happy to have her pass this really important milestone but it's brought with it something quite dreadful: screaming

Mommy has zero tolerance for screaming. I think it really does actually make my blood curdle and I'm pretty sure that's not supposed to be good for you. I have to get her to stop it but the more serious I get with her about not screaming the more she thinks it's a game. So she'll let out little bursts of ear-piercing screams and then her little scream-hole will turn back into a mouth and she'll produce a beautiful smile like the one in the picture above.

Aside from that, life is good. Our new house will close escrow in a couple of weeks and so will our current house. Our son is doing well in school and has been accepted to SJSU. Hopefully our 171 will arrive any day now and our dossier will be on its way to China. Norman (the Director of our agency) called me yesterday and told me some very exciting news about Madeline's adoption. I don't want to jinx it by sharing the particulars here (and I also don't want to get my hopes up too much that it can actually happen) but it's super exciting and it's going to be hard to stop thinking about it. I almost wish he'd not even mentioned it until it was more certain.

Kat and Colin stopped by today to get some blogger advice and it's fun to imagine that the next time I see them, they'll have Sophia in tow! M3 and Gwen and I have a date with some geese tomorrow afternoon. I'll try to remember to bring the camera!