Today Miss Ella turns eleven months old!!!! How did that happen? She has completely turned into a big girl and looks and acts much more like a toddler than an infant, and has for a few weeks at least. The fact that she is one month away from being a one year old has stopped me in my tracks.

I’ve realized that this first birthday for us; and all adoptive parents of international kids, is a different experience than the rest of the parenting world. How can she possibly be turning one when I’ll only have had her for six months? We will celebrate... more

I cannot even believe how wonderfully my little girl did during her first trip to a restaurant. I’m not sure what I expected, but she was above and beyond amazing! Two weekends ago we went to Veggie Heaven, which is a Chinese vegetarian restaurant that we love and have been frequenting for years.

It’s a very calm and serene place, and I think that Ella really felt comfortable there. She’s just starting to get comfortable in stores like Target and the mall, so we were thrilled that she sat right down in her high chair... more

My poor baby’s sick :( She’s developed a cold and she really is not feeling well. I took this picture Thursday evening and she doesn't look like herself at all.

My husband was just saying how he wished she was talking so she could tell us what was wrong, and I couldn’t agree more. It started on Monday with some watery eyes, but I thought it was from being outside on a cold, windy day. Turns out she was coming down with something.

The only other time she was sick since we've had her was just after Thanksgiving and she had a... more

Love is watching your husband and daughter make “cheese” faces across the table at each other. Ella is so in love with her daddy, it just melts my heart. He comes home from work and she gets all giggly and excited, it really is the cutest thing. Sometime we look out the window and wave to him as he pulls into the driveway and as soon as he emerges from his truck she stands up and nods her head ferociously and bangs on the window as if to say “Daddy! I’m here! Come play with me!”

My husband has assumed the... more

My baby girl. It feels so right and so good just to say that. Mine. My daughter. My Ella. I'm just in a bit of a gushy mood, so that's the tone for this week's Life With Ella :) And she recently started saying ma ma too, which just makes my heart melt every time I hear it.

This picture was taken in our hotel room in Hanoi only a few hours after she was handed to us for the first time ever. Her caregivers gave us a hot bottle all ready to go in case she got hungry during the Giving and Receiving or the... more

We didn’t start working on Ella’s room until we got very close to traveling. I was just too nervous and afraid of jinxing anything to get it all done sooner. I’m so happy with how it came out, even though she doesn’t spend much time in there!

I had read and been told to be careful about creating an overwhelming room for a newly adopted child. Too many bright colors, lights, moving things and loud mobiles, etc. can be frightening to a child who has only known a drab baby center. Well, I’m not too drawn to primary colors and loud obnoxious... more

Our Valentine’s Day started off as a wonderful day. My husband; a teacher, had a snow day due to the snowy, icy roads. So it was really nice to have him home. He got up with Ella and I got to sleep in a little bit. When I got up he told me that she had taken two real steps! She’s been kind of falling into objects as she steps before, but these were real, solid steps!

After I had been up for awhile we decided to see if she would walk to me with me and daddy cheering her on. And she DID!!! She officially walked on her first Valentine... more

Did You Know?

- 192 million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged annually, making Valentine’s Day the second-most popular greeting-card-giving occasion. (This total excludes packaged kids valentines for classroom exchanges.) (Source: Hallmark research)

- Nearly 60 percent of all Valentine’s Day cards are purchased in the six days prior to the observance, making Valentine’s Day a procrastinator’s delight. (Source: Hallmark research)

- There are 120 single men (i.e., never married, widowed or divorced)... more

We call our kids adopted from Viet Nam our little dragonflies, but I realized recently that I didn't know why, so I did a little digging about the dragonfly. Here's what I found:

Dragonflies...

have two pairs of strong transparent wings have incredible eyesight due to their eye structure. Dragonflies have up to 30,000 facets to their compound eyes; each one is a separate light-sensing organ or ommatidium, arranged to give nearly a 360° field of vision. have an average cruising speed of 10 miles... more

If Miss Ella could talk, she would tell you that she LOVES bath time! Next to daddy coming home, it’s probably her favorite part of the day. Of course when we first got her, we had no idea as to whether or not she would enjoy the water. Plenty of kids are terrified of baths and the water, so we didn’t know what to expect.

Our tub in Viet Nam was very deep (re:unsafe!) Ella was sitting up, but was still a little wobbly so it made us nervous. Luckily another family had brought an inflatable duck tub from home... more