Eleven months old!

I always have good intentions of updating more often. I also have good intentions of getting my Christmas cards out on time, remembering people's birthdays, keeping in better contact with my friends, eating better, exercising more...oh the list goes on. So another month has passed and here I am. And I'm a little late on the monthly post.

My niece graduated from SDSU on May 3 so my parents, Murphy, and I stayed the night before at a motel. The change of scenery didn't sit well with a tired Murphy. We were up quite often. And since we all shared a room, so were my parents.

My first Mother's Day has come and gone. We spent the day as a family of three. We went to church and then Rob and Murphy gave me a Rachael Ray cookbook for kids, a Chicken Soup for the Mother's Soul, and an outfit for Murphy that says "Baby Girl". Rob and other faculty members were giving the graduating seniors laundry baskets, towels, and a mug with an R and a pheasant on it. We needed 52 of everything. We bought out Walmart in Aberdeen and didn't really find anything we liked at the other stores. So on Mother's Day we went to Huron after church and bought some more there. Then we went out for dinner. It was nice and relaxing and the weather was beautiful. After we got home, Rob was on Murphy duty. I just wanted to read a book that day. I haven't been able to do that since we've been home and I used to read and read and read. Sometimes the same book more than once. So Rob and Murphy went on a bike ride in the new bike trailer we bought and I read my book. The problem when I read is that I get absolutely nothing else accomplished. All I want to do is read. Right before we moved here, we had gone to Florida and I read about three books on our trip. After we got home, Rob came here during the week to start working and I was supposed to be in Elk Point packing. I was in a reading kick so when he'd get there, I'd have about two boxes packed. So I had to wean myself off of the books otherwise we'd still have stuff there three years later.

Rob had a busy May. Awards banquets, concerts, and finally graduation. Two of Rob's cousins graduated from here and one of my from Langford. So we had a busy weekend with parties. Murphy was really good during gradution. We sat in the front row and I was a little concerned that she'd be vocal during the ceremony. She wasn't but she was hot. She is a hot blooded little thing so she was sweating all over me. He's now finishing his required days after school got out. It will be nice to have him home. I seem to fall further and further behind when he gets busy. I have a sticky note with about ten names of people that I need to email. So if you emailed me and haven't heard back, I promise I haven't forgotten about you.

I started golfing women's league with one of the girls I work with. So Rob and Murphy have their night every Tuesday. I think they go biking quite a bit. Murphy falls asleep for about half of the trip. She has a few toys in the trailer (as in a postcard and a coupon for formula).

The weather wasn't supposed to be very nice over Memorial Day but we went to the lake anyway. My dad already had one of the jet ski lifts and the dock in and then he and Rob put in the boat lift. Dad had on waders but Rob went in swim trunks and a t-shirt. His legs and arms were beet red like he'd been sunburned. It was really cold in the water. He dipped Murphy's feet in and she didn't seem to mind it. Murphy was 11 months old on the Sunday of Memorial Day. She had been scooting around for a few weeks and that night she actually took a few "steps". It didn't take long and she was moving all over the living room. And now that's all she wants to do. She doesn't want to be held at all. Just down. And she can whine like the best of them. Rob worked at the Memorial Day ceremony so we came home on Sunday night and had a relaxing day on Monday.

Murphy has a summer babysitter. Haley is going to be a freshman this year and in between volleyball and basketball camps she'll be watching Murphy. They've been out to eat uptown and Haley got her hair cut one day so they've been to the salon. Murphy loves to be outside so I think she'll get a lot of that this summer.

We blew up her pool this weekend and she enjoyed that. Yesterday the water was pretty cold so I filled it up today while she was sleeping and then let it warm up a while. It was like bath water warm by the time we got out there. She wasn't sure what she should think at first. She wouldn't let go of my hands but then she moved her foot and it splashed and she knew what to do. Today after Rob got home from guards we sat on a blanket in the shade while she played. It was nice and relaxing. We signed her up for swimming lessons. It's only for eight days and starts tomorrow. I'll take her tomorrow and then Rob for a few days and then Haley for a few days. I think she's really going to enjoy it.

She still isn't holding her own bottle. She can pick it up but she just doesn't lift it. So we spoil her by holding it for her. I wish she would figure it out, though. She's eating everything we give her. We aren't sure why, but there is a Gerber toddler food that has macaroni and cheese and peas and carrots on the side. We've only fed it to her a few times because we usually feed her whatever we're eating. But when we do feed it to her, she spits out the peas and carrots. Only when she's eating mac and cheese though. She eats them every other time. It's weird. She's really getting tall. She's in 12 month clothes now, although her belly sticks out of her swimsuit quite a bit. She's drinking milk instead of formula and eating three meals a day. We had a rough patch of sleeping for a few weeks but that seems to be over. I should say it was a rough patch for us. She was waking up once a night for a while and would go right back to sleep once we picked her up. But when we laid her down, she woke up and bawled. Repeatedly. I told Rob it was a good thing she was a good sleeper normally because I was drained by the end of those days. We started keeping her up until about 10:00 and fed her right before she went to bed and that must have done the trick because she's sleeping all night again.

She goes back to the doctor on June 30 and I'm anxious to find out how much she's grown. And of course we're looking forward to her birthday on the 25th.

We wanted to stay on the moving path for the next adoption so we've had to actually start the process again instead of being on an informal waiting list. We are going to the two day workshop in June. We went to the same workshop in October of 2006. And we're submitting an orphanage application to Pisingos so we can formally get in line. We've been told it will probably be a full three years so we'll wait patiently (we hope patiently). It will be a little easier this time as we have a distraction at home.

Well that's been our month. I'm sure I forgot something exciting but my mind has been slipping lately. If it weren't for sticky notes I don't know what I'd do. Have a great summer!