What has Willow been up to?

It is hard to believe that Willow has been home now for 7 weeks tomorrow. Time is going by so quickly and every day she is doing something new. Here is a little run down of how her summer has been.

• August 9th Willow danced and sang at our Church Benefit Concert for the food pantry. She got to meet lots of new people that have been waiting a long time to meet her.
• August 10th she helped celebrate her big brother Luc's 7th birthday.
• August 16th she went to meet her new friends Malin and Kane and helped to celebrate Malin's 1st birthday.
• August 17th she got to meet some of her other Taiwanese friends at the JOH Reunion. She met Emma, Alex and Shawn.
• August 18th Willow met some more friends for the first time Blake, Reese and Drew.
• August 31st was Willow's baptism and she did great!

August was a very busy month and September is shaping up to be just as busy. Luc started his first day of school today. Willow and I waved goodbye to Luc as he stepped onto the bus for the first time. It was a bittersweet feeling for me. It is wonderful to think of all the free time I will have to spend with Willow and I am watching Luc who is now 7 years old step onto a bus away form my love, care, comfort and protection. I well up with tears just thinking about it. He is such a big boy. I loved his excitement for school today. I can't wait to hear how his day went.

Willow and I are going to do a little shopping today for some things we need and then hang out with my niece and her daughter Scarlett. Willow and Scarlett are about 9 months apart and are so cute together. They have fun and Jennifer and I get to have adult conversation. It is wonderful!

Willow has reached some big milestones over the past month. She now has two teeth (lower fronts) and loves to put any form of paper in her mouth. She is excellent at getting around. She does a combination of army crawl, worm crawl and traditional crawl. She can stay sitting up for some time now and is working hard on trying to sit up on her own. She can transition from sitting up into crawling position and is finding all sorts of things to pull herself up on. There seems to be this big debate on whether or not Willow will be a gymnast or a swimmer. She is amazing in the water. She absolutely loves it! I put 3 inches of water in the regular bath tub and she goes crazy rolling, kicking, swimming, and she doesn't even mind putting her face in the water. It is crazy! On dry land she enjoys doing back bends and somersaults in the air. She is very flexible and has a great arch to her back. My plan is to sign her up for gymnastics at 14 months and swim with her at the pool as often as I can. I will hone in on each skill and see what she likes best.

I thank God everyday for bringing Willow into our lives. She is a gift that was well worth the wait.

Hugs, Love and Blessings to all,

Andrea