Here is a short video of Kayti the day before her birthday!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbmC_erwbk4

Home 5 months, BIrthdays and other firsts.

I have been long overdue to update our Blog,  but I wanted to wait till we had another milestone and we had one this week. We had a birthday in the house. Her first one with her family! Kayti turned 5 on October 5. I wonder if her birth mother was thinking of her or wondering about her on this day. My hope is that she could someday know how very much Kayti is loved and cared for now. Dale and I are so blessed and proud to be her parents. We could not love her any more! She fits in with our family so well and every one loves her to pieces! We had a wonderful summer and are sad to see it end, but I love fall. We really enjoyed being at the fairs and Kayti loved it as much as I knew she would. We are going to try and get our own camper next year and have the spot next to Mom and Dads. She loved riding all the rides at Stoneboro. Most of you have seen them on FB but I will put a couple of them here too. We also had a wonderful end of summer party/haunted hayride last weekend. It was so much fun. Really missed my Grandma Peggy for this though. She always had so much fun. Kayti is now working on learning the alphabet song and almost has it down. She has also learned Jesus Loves Me. We say our prayers every night and she now does this on her own when she gets in bed. Yes she is still sleeping with us and I hear you all yelling at me know. But we are (at  least I am) enjoying having her close to us right now. Her bedroom is pretty far from ours and I am afraid to have her that far away right now. She has started to play with her toys now. For the past 5 months she would play with them if you got one out, but now she will go to her room and look for a particular toy. She has also started becoming very possessive of her things. We will work on this, but right now I am letting her go with it as she has NEVER had anything of her very own her whole life. Everything is shared at the orphanage. I know she will remember how to share when the time comes. I am just happy she feels that this is her home and these are her things now. For example, she has a Dora doll at mom's and Dale put her sweatshirt on it and she comes over and says NO, take it off and pulls it off. Then she has a little car and I sat down on it and she yells no mama get off and pulls me off. We are still a potty training work in progress. Sometimes she remembers and even goes in and sits down on her own and sometimes we completely forget. Oh, we still do not like pasta. Last Saturday I had to work and Dale made her hot dogs and macoroni and cheese for lunch and she ate the hot dogs, but not the mac and cheese. I came home and ate some of it and gave her a bite which she did eat, but said All Gone. I said all gone, do you mean no thank you and she said Yes no thank you! Too funny. Not really sure why she dislikes it but there is no question she does! Hoping maybe she outgrows it. She is also more of a salty snack girl than sweets, which is ok with me. Lianna says she can not possibly be related to her because she loves pasta and sweets! LOL! She has started to learn to tell me instead of just drink now she will say which one, water, milk, or juice. We also have another special day this week. On Wednesday we will have been home 5 months. One month short of half a year. We have made great strides and are doing super. We have grown 4 inches and gained about 12 pounds since being home. So happy about that! We still have a lot of catching up to do, but she is doing awesome so far and I have no doubt she is going to do fine! She is also learning to feed herself with a fork and spoon. She could a little when we got her, but it was pretty messy and just easier for me to do it, but now she is getting good at it and loves to be a big girl and feed herself. And now for our birthday. We started practicing blowing out the candles this week. She thinks that is great fun. Daddy took off Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and I took of a half day Thursday and all of Friday. On Thursday, we went to the Erie Zoo. It was a beautiful day weather wise. Sunny and low 70s. Perfect! Kayti really enjoyed all the animals and just being outside.  For those not from the area, the Erie Zoo is a rather small zoo, but very nice. Then we went to the mall and to Toys R Us for the first time. I think we were more excited in the toy store than she was though. LOL. We topped the afternoon with a nice dinner at Outback Steakhouse.  On Friday her actual birthday, we stayed home and had a quiet day inside as it was raining. Actually we did venture to Wal-Mart and also got our hair cut. Kayti opened her presents from Mommy and Daddy and loved them. She only focuses on one toy at a time though, so I will have to remember not to overwhelm her at Christmas. Uncle Mike got her a Cozy Coupe car and he wanted her to have it today, so we went to Moms and she LOVES her car. Had a hard time convincing her to get out of it to do anything else. She even sits in it to watch TV. Too cute!! It looks like she is at a drive in movie!! Boy mommy is showing her age with that analogy. How many of you actually remember drive in movies? Then we had a nice supper and a DQ cupcake with a candle for her to blow out. Today is Saturday and we had her family party today.  We had chicken and sandwiches,  from Giant Eagle and grammies baked beans, macaroni and cheese, angel fruit salad, chips, and lots more. And of course, cake and ice cream! Kaytis guests included Grammie, Papa, Aunt Lianna, Uncle Mike, Uncle Daryl, Aunt Heather, Dane, Naomi, Uncle Bill, Aunt Marty, Aunt Mabel, Kathy, and Tom. Grandma and Grandpa Buchanan and Aunt Carla were sick with colds and could not come. She got lots of nice gifts and was a little overwhelmed with all of the gifts at first but since everyone has gone home, she is playing with all of them now a little at a time. Again, I will say that Dale and I are ready to go back for another one. The only question is when. We have already made an inquiry about a waiting child and although we are not ready to start over financially, I know that God will provide. I will try and keep you all updated on that front. I can not believe I am saying this, but I actually miss the crazy emotional adoption roller coaster. At least the good parts!! LOL. Please everyone remind me of that when we are in the middle of another one and I am complaining of the crazy paperwork and awful wait! I will say Kayti was so worth every single second of heartache we went through and every penny we spent. We are a VERY happy family!! I can only pray that the second one goes half as smooth. She has had 0 issues adjusting and is just the best, sweetest child. Of course she has her moments, but for the most part, she is a sweet, obedient, and loving child. We can not wait to see what the next few months will bring with Christmas. So looking forward to her seeing Christmas lights!! God is so good! I thank Him everyday for blessing us with this beautiful sweet child! And now for some pictures: