9 months old



This sweet girl is 9 months old!  She's been home for 3 months.  She's SUCH a big girl :)

She's pushing up and thinking REALLY hard about crawling.  Unfortunately, many of her best and most enthusiastic attempts have her arms and legs raised off the ground and her stomach touching.  Just a few logistical errors :)

I found her like this the other day.  She had been given a toy or two, but little miss curious tipped the whole basket over and then went exploring for treasures.

She found a little shark, one of her favorites, so it was a successful mission!  (PS  Is it weird that my sweet little girl loves her shark, mouse, and donkey toys so very much?  And ducks.  Lots of ducks.)

It just seemed like such a "big girl" thing to do to go exploring.  She's definitely growing up!

AND, she's laughing!  You know that she was slow to laugh, so I was so pleased with the little haha's we were getting.  But I wanted a CHUCKLE, you know?  Well, it's like someone flipped a switch this last week, and my sweet Lucy is laughing, chuckling, and squealing with delight.  Oh, it's SO nice to hear!  Below is one of her first ones... it's been outdone many times over, but it's really hard to catch on video!  Tadaa....

Lucy brings SO much joy to my life! 

And my Mama's middle name is Joy, and I added it to Lucy's name while I was finishing up all her paperwork.

I love my Lucy Joy Tesfanish Northcutt!!

more fun...

Susan, guest photographer

I have this adorable child, but I get so caught up in her sweetness that I often forget to take pictures.  This weekend, my best friend from Texas came to visit.  We lived together for 2 years in Bangkok several years ago, and before that at seminary.  She is quite the photographer, so I have LOTS of lovely pics of our time. 

Susan and Lucy

Susan, me, Lucy, Jana, and Micheal

We were joined by Jana and Michael--Jana, Susan and I lived in a "lovely" roach-infested house and worked with refugee neighbors in Texas.  (Funny side-note:  Bonnie Freeman (now Myers) lived there before us, battling roaches and befriending new citizens... She and her husband are adopting two beautiful Ethiopian babies and they stopped by last week.  We took a similar bookshelf pic... you can see it at http://teammyersathome.blogspot.com/2011/07/cincy.html.  Bonnie:  Jana says HI!  :)


I don't think all the cute-ness can be contained by one post, but I'll give you a sneak peak... We went swimming one day....

what Lucy does while Mama is away...

My funky little turquiose office  (yes, with a sweet baby on my desk! :)

Last week I had a few days of professional development--no fun in the summer!  But I NEED it, because I'm in a new job next year--I'll be teaching English as a Second Language for the district.  I'm SUPER excited, and I actually learned a lot from the P.D. last week.

But what about poor little Lucy?  Oh, it seems she fared okay :).  She spent the first day with Abby and the second with Aunt Bonnie, both of whom were kind enough to record all the fun I missed!  Here is what Lucy and Abby were up to the first day.  (Spoiler alert:  It mainly consists of being cute!)

I think you can actually SEE the sweet-ness she's exuding.  (She's pretty dang sweet.)

I know this look well.  It's pure delight when she sees something fun... like a ducky... and is usually accompanied by this little shrug and a squeal.  I love it!

O look, a ducky.  One of our favorite things!

No day with Lucy is complete without a little hair-admiration :)

Don't say I didn't warn you about the cute-ness :)

Sigh, I don't even want to think about the fall! Does anyone know of any lonely, Christian, funny, financially secure, wanna-be-a-daddy type men?  Juuuuuust checkin'.

gifts

Hi friends!  I know you've seen the new picture at the top... I don't know if you can read the tag--it says,  to Kristy, from God.  Enjoy!  I made her extra special!  Lucy is SUCH a precious gift from God.  I prayed SO often during this adoption process that God would place just the right child for me in my life, and I know He has done just that.  Lucy is such a joy!  She is so much company for me.  She gives me these big sloppy kisses and sweet smiles and she "talks" to me a lot!  She's so much company already, and I know it's just the beginning!

I've been thinking about how much I've been given.  Lucy, of course, is amazing.  But even beyond that God has blessed me, and has used my sometimes fearful obedience to show me that He's really taking care of us!  Taking on the responsibility of a PERSON (a pretty helpless one at that :) ) is pretty daunting.  I have been nervous about different aspects of this, but trying to trust God.  And He has been so good in providing what we need!

I was cleaning out a closet the other day and found the spot where I've stashed all these gift bags (that once contained LOVELY gifts for Lucy).  I spread them out on the bed, and felt amazed at the support that my friends and family have shown for us!  (That's when we had our little "Lucy is a gift" photo shoot.)  We have just been shown so much love!  So thank you, friends and family, for all the prayers, cards, precious goodies, coupons, hand-me-downs, and LOVE you've shared with us!   We're feelin' it!

I think she looks like a little doll!

Yes, please!!  (Maybe two??)

Oh Lucy...

I'm in awe!  I get to be her mama.

I wanted to catch her in action, so I put it on video mode.  She does this adorable thing when she's starting to babble.  She moves those sweet lips without making any noise, like she's getting warmed up.  She does it at the end of the video, and I hoped to hear "mama"... but instead I heard...  She cracked me up with this one!

breaking news

My sweet baby is changing!  She seems like the same little one that I met 3 months ago, but she's getting bigger and stronger!  When she first came home, when I would sit her up and let go, her head would drop like an anchor and be right at her feet.  She didn't have the strenght to sit up.  I got some exercises from the occupational therapist we met at her big first doctor's appointment, and we practiced every day.   And she sits on her own now!  She seems like such a big girl!

She's pretty proud of herself!

Sometimes she's still a bit off balance...

  

And sometimes she needs help from a friend :)



     Tonight I went to a fun mexican restaurant with some friends.  Lucy was fussy, so I gave her her bottle.  In the middle of it, she started screaming.  Wailing!  She was frantic and furious and maybe a little scared.  I didn't know WHAT to do.. I almost just left because nothing would satisfy her, then I thought maybe I'd put some ora-gel on her gums to see if that helped.  AND... I felt a sharp little edge of a tooth sticking out!  She has a tooth (well, part of one!).  Poor baby was experiencing some trauma!  She settled right down with the ora-gel and we had a nice time.  I can't WAIT to see that sweet smile with teeth!