To Infinity and Beyond...Our Story of Becoming a Family.

We can't believe it has been two weeks since we posted! Life is sure busy with a 16 1/2 month old! We have been having lots of summer fun, playing in the pool, trying to get some projects done, and just being a family.

Tori is amazing, and every day does something to astound us even more. She has such a good understanding of English, which we find incredible. She has started to make connections between words. For example, she has an inflatable duck bathtub that quacks when its bill is squeezed. She can't quite say "quack quack," so she says "ka-ka" to mean take a bath. The other morning Jaydee was feeding her and said she had to wash Tori's bib. Tori said "ka-ka?" So she understood wash to mean bathe, clean, whatever. Incredible.

Tori is babbling a lot more as well as imitating more words and sounds. Today we drove out to see a friend who is moving in a month. Her youngest son is 3 months older than Tori and she had some toys she was giving us. We had never been to their subdivision before, so Jolon used his GPS. The voice on it is somewhat robotic and staccato, and all of a sudden we hear a perfect imitation of it coming from the back seat! Tori couldn't say the words but she had the intonation and pattern down perfectly. It was pretty hilarious to hear that from her.

The week after Father's Day she had her first pediatrician visit. It wasn't too traumatic even if she did get her vaccinations. She cried, but with a little cuddle she was fine, and she liked the Tweety bird band-aids she received.

Later that week we went to Spaghetti Factory. This was Tori's first time eating spaghetti, and as you can tell she loved it. Jaydee thinks she looks a bit like she has a fu-manchu mustache with all that pasta hanging down from her mouth. The best part was the vanilla ice cream for dessert.

We are looking forward to our first 4th of July as a family. We are going to a party and Tori has a new patriotic outfit for the occasion. She will be meeting a lot of new people for the first time, but she always seems to rise to the occasion. Last night we went to a retirement residence to have dinner with Jaydee's godparents and friends of Tutu's, and Tori was the darling of the dining room. It is heartwarming and a bit sad to see the residents' faces light up when they see a baby. Tori didn't disappoint either. After her initial bit of shyness, she smiled and waved at just about everyone.

That's all for now. We wish everyone a wonderful 4th and we'll post again next weekend.