This and That

Kate:
Kate is now 10 months old and busier than ever. She is crawling and pulling herself up on everything. She is trying to stand on her own and can maintain her balance for up to 10 seconds before falling on her bottom, then she gets up and tries all over again. She is verbalizing all kinds of sounds babbling away... we just love it.

She suffered her first cold a few weeks ago and made it though with no ear infection or croup. We were happily surprised. She started waving bye-bye last week and will shake her head back and forth to try and make us laugh. We think she is just amazing! We are beginning to plan her 1st Easter and Birthday party and can't believe that almost a year has passed since she entered our lives.

We finally got a camera that takes video I can upload to blogger
Just a little clip of peek-a-boo

Chris:
Chris was picked as one of two boys in his class to compete in Quiz Bowl. It's a 'Jeopardy' type competition for all the Lutheran Schools in the area for 7th and 8th graders. The competition is this Saturday and we are so excited to see how his class does. He is also getting ready for a trip to Washington D.C. with Boy Scouts, it will be his first trip away from home without Mom & Dad... sniff... I'm not sure how I'll handle it, but I know he won't miss me one bit!

Me:
I've been just enjoying my kids and finally allowing myself some alone time. A few weeks ago I implemented "Mom's Night Out". I have Jim choose a week-night he can be home by 6 and is free, then when he gets home, I leave... The first week I had dinner with a friend and went clothes shopping. It was much easier trying on jeans without trying to put a stroller in the fitting room! The second week I got a long overdue haircut, and went grocery shopping without having to stop at some point and feed Kate in the cafeteria section of Meijer! This week? I'm putting out an e-mail to all my girlfriends and see who I can get out of the house with me to have dinner.

I have also been keeping busy with my embroidery machine. I got a call in January asking me if I could embroider hand towels for shower favors. The job started out for 50 towels, now it is up to 106!! So some days I just stay home and change threads all day! Here's a picture of a few of the designs.


China:
Last week China matched 4 days... through March 6, 2006. This puts us (March 22, 2006) 16 days away from matching. Here is my prediction going forward based on the polls from RQ (the queen rules):

This is my most conservative guess based on the last 6 months of an average of 55 poll families:

April - March 7th (63 poll families)
May - March 10th (47 poll familes) (averaged with April 55 poll families)
June - March 14th (54 poll families)
July - March 20th (44 Poll families)

Now after this - I don't know how they will divide them out...

Either: (both months averaged together is 54 poll families)
Aug - Mar 21st (38 poll families)
Sept - March 23rd (70 poll families)

Or: (both months averaged together is 54 poll families)
Aug - Mar 22nd (75 poll families)
Sept - March 23rd (33 poll families)

So of course I am hoping that their average goes up even a few poll families.... At this point I am conservatively thinking we will be referred in August or September... but only God knows at this point. If I'm accurate then we should be in China in September or October. I will be happy to miss the hottest part of the summer and I'm sure Chris will love to miss school but I was hoping we wouldn't have yet another summer without Hope...


Paperwork:
Last Wednesday Jim mailed in our third I-600a. After a month of physicals, paperwork and social worker visits it was a relief to mail it off... now we'll see how quickly we are approved and if we will have to update again before we go to China!

Scout:
And just because my friend Judy wanted me to blog more about Scout... the most neglected member of the family... he looks pretty content to me! Pillow and foot furnished by Chris' friend Jacob the morning after a sleep-over!