So anyway, on to the update:
One of us became a U.S. citizen in December, and more importantly, a citizen of the great State of Texas. One of us had to wait in a Social Security office to get proof of the above, and witnessed (a) a young man with two arms of homemade tattoos give a moment by moment commentary on the night he got pulled over with drugs and a gun in the car and the inequity of being charged and booked in jail for it, and (b) a woman take out her entire plate of dentures in the waiting room while admonishing the little girl waiting next to her to brush her teeth...or else. God bless America.
We visited our friends the Irvings in Montgomery in January, and had a great time. Ellie had her first "sleepover" when she and Jacob camped out in the game room and living room during our visit. She and Hannah had a great time dressing up as princesses and playing with their matching sparkle ponies. We all went to see the Tooth Fairy, and Ellie and Samuel carpooled together and rocked out to the latest Vampire Weekend CD (after I convinced Samuel that the music had nothing to do with vampires, and that his mom wouldn't be mad.) Of course I have only a handful of pics of the weekend, but here's two of my favorites:
These kids crack me up. In the first one they're adorable, sweet, photo-compliant angels, and then two frames later Ellie's doing a Joe Cocker impression and Jacob's practicing his "how YOU doin'?" face.
Global warming? El nino? I don't know the cause but we sure have enjoyed the unusual snowfall this winter. I fear Ellie's expectations have been unfairly raised, but she's had a really good time. We made snow angels (which were preceded by my warning about how sitting in snow will make your pants wet and quickly succeeded by tears and a demand to go inside because her pants were wet), and made snow ice cream which was rejected as "too cold." Fortunately, she like hitting shrubs with a stick to knock the snow off, and drinking hot chocolate, so the day ended well.
I know it seems we haven't been up much the last couple of months, but to me that is kind of a milestone event in itself. When Ellie initially came home everything was so packed with NEW for both of us, that it felt like every day we crossed some milestone or had a new first to add to the childhood resume - first ice cream, first trip to the grocery store, first trip to the park and the zoo, etc. The end of February marked 7 months for us as a family, and I can't believe how quickly we have arrived at the steadiness of family life that I thought it would take a lot longer to get to. I never thought settling into a mundane routine would be such a comfort, but to me it's a sign that we've shifted from a constant state of transition into the rhythm of ordinary - which in our case feels pretty incredible.
