Thursday, October 2, 2008

One year ago today!

October 2, 2007 - the day we first met and fell in love with the 4 1/2 month old baby girl named Nguyen Thi Lai, now known as Emelia Anne Lai - our daughter, Jimmy's little baby sister. We cannot believe it's 1 year ago already although sometimes it seems like a lifetime ago. It feels like we have always had Emelia in our lives, just like it feels like we have always had Jimmy in our lives. We are so lucky to have Emelia in our family. She is a perfect fit for us. How God could have picked such a perfect baby for us - only he knows.

A few of you (you know who you are) asked me to update the blog. It is very time consuming and so that's why I haven't done it, but I thought it was worth doing it now. It is also much easier than emailing everyone with pictures or videos.

Emelia has grown into a very happy and bright baby. She has always been happy since the day we met her. She has also been a very easy baby. She eats well, sleeps great - 12 hours every night with at least a 2-4 hour nap every day. We tell her it's time for sleepies or a nap and we just bring her up to her crib, put her in and walk out of the room and she goes to sleep. That's easy!

Emelia is very determined and independent as well. She feeds herself most of the time and has been for a while now. She is such a smart little 16 month old. We can't believe how smart she is.

Emelia is now officially Emelia Anne Lai too! We received her U.S. passport and she is ready to go to Ireland on 12/26 for the first time.

We keep in touch with our Vietnam travel mates by email and exchange pictures and stories. I love that we keep in touch. I think it's a very special relationship that will be very important for all our girls when they are older.

Below are recent pictures and video of Emelia.

















Here's video of Emelia and Jimmy



Here is a video montage of Emelia dancing at a Christening we went to in August. She didn't get off the dance floor all night. It was so funny.

We have been thinking about Vietnam so much lately. We all cannot wait to go back. We went for Vietnamese to celebrate our one year adoption anniversary. It was delicious!

Friday, April 11, 2008

Referral and updated pictures

When we first received our referral on 7/5/07, we were told not to post her pictures on our blog. So I am posting them now so that they will be a part of this blog. I plan on printing it out.

This pictures was taken on 5/29/07, at Emelia's medical. The below pictures were taken on 7/1/07, days before our referral.







These next pictures were taken by a fellow adopting mother who was able to take pictures of Emelia for us when she was picking up her daughter on 7/11/07.



This picture includes one of her caretakers.

This was an updated picture of Emelia sent to us on 9/7/07.


Scroll down for updated pictures and video. I'm not sure why it's posting so far down the page.
You can see how much Emelia has changed since the above pictures were taken. She is almost 11 months old and is such a joy.



Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Belated Happy St. Patrick's Day, Happy Easter

I haven't posted in a while. Don't know if anyone even checks the blog anymore. Emelia is getting so big. She is so funny and smart! She knows where her belly is, she says ruh ruh when you ask her what a doggies says, she waves bye bye, she's crawling like crazy and pulls herself up easily. She is still a very happy girl too. Jimmy is still crazy about her and she is about him. She follows him around a lot, but also will play by herself too.

Poor baby had an ear infection in both ears and she never even complained. Our daycare was very aware that she was not herself and suggested we take her to the doctor and that's how we found out. We have a great daycare, don't we? By the way, her ear infections are all clear now.


So here are a few pictures of Emelia. By the way, she's almost 11 months old!


Note the t-shirt.





These are from Easter Sunday.













Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year

Here are some random pictures from Christmas. Note the gorgeous outfit that Emelia is wearing! She looked adorable!

Emelia is clapping hands now and she is so proud of herself.







This was her Christmas Eve outfit. It also was adorable.

We had brunch with Santa Claus a few weeks ago. Jimmy loved having so much one-on-one time with Santa. He kept thinking of questions for him and he'd just go over and ask whatever it was he thought of. Santa said he won the prize for most questions and the best questions! Too funny!

This was the best of the pictures that I took of Jimmy and Emelia on Santa's lap. Miss Emelia was not too happy, but Jimmy sure was!





Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Emelia's Christening

Emelia's Christening was on Sunday, 11/25. Ray's mother, sister and husband came from Ireland. It was the first time Ray's mother came to visit. Emelia is her 50th grandchild and so she thought that was a great reason to come. They were here for Thanksgiving too. Ray's sister, Margaret, is her Godmother and my brother, Stephen, is her Godfather. We had a family party in a restaurant near our house and everything was great. The food was delicious. It was a really nice day.

Emelia is sleeping through the night all the time now. She's is eating very well, she has 2 teeth. She has her 2nd pediatrician's appointment on Tuesday, 12/4. I start back at work next Wednesday. I can't even believe it. My time at home has gone so fast.

A few people asked me to post pictures from the Christening, so here they are.
Father Jude presenting Emelia Anne Lai for the first time!
Pictured below is my father, Ray's mother, the 4 of us, and the Godparents - Ray's sister and my brother.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Six months old

Emelia is now 6 months old. She is doing great. She cut her first tooth on 11/9/07. We were all very excited! She is eating cereal now and she's tried peas too.

Emelia sometimes sleeps all night long. When we do have to get up with her, she is not looking for a bottle. She just needs some comfort and then goes back to sleep.

She has such a little personality now too. She is talking so much more. It's adorable.

She has also started daycare, sort of. I have taken her there 2 different days for 2 hours and she did great. I wanted to introduce her slowly so that she is okay with it by the time I go back to work. So far, so good.

Here she is trying cereal for the first time.The different faces of Emelia eating.



She curls up her nose now when she smiles and it is just the cutest thing. Just look for yourself.
Jimmy is just the best big brother. He helps with her a lot. He looks forward to seeing her all the time. He has adjusted so well.