Closer to Gracie

We had our first meeting with our social worker today regarding Gracie's adoption. Things are moving along at a fast pace. We asked our social worker if she felt we would travel in '09 and she said and emphatic "Definitely!". It's hard to believe after such a long wait with Molly that Gracie will be with us so quickly. Molly is incredibly excited. We flirted briefly with changing Gracie's name to another M name out of pure superstition since all the M girls in the family are so wonderful - Marie, Molly and Maybel - but whenever we tried anything new on her she protested. So Gracie it is.
Molly has had some really great potty progress. In the past 2 weeks she only had two accidents. Today at nap time she wanted to sleep on her little sofa instead of her crib (so she could be closer to Maybel). Marie heard her through the monitor and heard the potty flush. "What the heck is going on?" thought Marie and she opened her door to see Molly climbing back on the sofa and announced "Pee-pee mama." She had gotten up on her own, gone into the bathroom on her own and done her business, put her panties back on and was returning to bed. Then tonight after Mom and Dad kept harping on her to go poopy she announced it was time and promptly shut the door on us and told us to go away. She did her business on her own and made us so proud.
Okay, enough poop talk. The short version is - Molly is ready for a sister. A big girl bed is on the way shortly and after that - Gracie!

Christmas in Pennsylvania

In Pennsylvania over our Holiday vacation Molly spent time with her Pop-pop and Nana Dawn, Aunt Joan and Uncle Frank and her cousins Daria(who is only 2 days older than Molly) and Haley(15) and lots of other family and friends some that she met for the first time. While in PA we stayed with my cousin Joe and his wife Veronic(Daria's Parents) so Molly got in a lot of play time with Daria. One day we went out to the farm where Molly's cousin Haley keeps her horse and she took Molly and Daria riding. We got to visit some of my old friends from back east and Molly got to play with their kids and we all had a great time. We even got some snow on our last day as we headed out to the airport!



The 10 day trip was a long time to be away from home! It was exhausting and Molly and I were sick for most of it and Eric has been sick ever since we came home and is having a hard time getting rid of his nasty cough. Seeing Molly bond with friends and relatives and have such a great time made it all worth it. Thank you to everyone in Ohio and Pennsylvania that made our trip so special. We enjoyed spending time with each and everyone of you! You all made such an effort to make us feel at home and make it a special Christmas for Molly and we appreciated that more than you could know. Our home in sunny California is open to you all next holiday season! The forecast for today in Reading is 6-10 inches of snow while here today it was 72 and sunny. Jealous?

Christmas in Ohio

The first 5 days of our Holiday adventure was spent in Ohio with Papa Beetner, Great Grandma, Aunt Gigi and Uncle Brian, Aunt Riley and lots of new relatives Molly didn't even know she had. Papa always comes first for Molly but she had an especially fun time with her cousins Laina and Celia who were so great with Molly and taught her lots of new songs and games.

At Papa's Molly fell in love with playing Wii boxing and was actually good at it! We thought her little arms were going to be sore by the end of the trip! She learned all her moves from her Aunt Gigi.



We were hoping for snow on Christmas Day but the forecast changed. Aunt Gigi however couldn't let Molly down after we talked up a white Christmas so she packed up a cooler of snow in Chicago and brought it with her to Columbus! Here are photos of Aunt Gigi teaching Molly how to make her first snow balls.






A very tired Molly after 5 very fun and busy days at Papa's and a two hour delay at the Columbus airport on her way to Pennsylvania.

Home after the holidays

This is what the Holiday trip meant to me.


Molly had a great time with all the cousins, friends and kids her age but seeing her with her family - reading a new book with 'Papa' and learning how to make Pop-pop's signature sauce - is what the trip was all about. Worth the travel, the exhaustion and the cold (Brrrr...the cold....)
Much more to come from Molly's grand cross-country adventure.