CHEEEESE!!!!

Quinn is really into saying "cheese" when he sees the camera. As you can see from the bottom pic, sometimes he really gets into it! The past few days we've been working on the frog says ribbit. He has that down now so I thought I would put his frog PJ's on him tonight!

Vietnamese meal

So, my first attempt at cooking a Vietnamese dish went well. It was very easy, quick, good but not very filling. It was just rice noodles with vegetables and the sauce was good. Next time I think I'll venture towards something a little more difficult. Quinn was not a fan. He would try to eat it but then was more worried about the noodles sticking to his hands. Hopefully the next Vietnamese meal I make he'll eat.

A special week

Above, Quinn on 9/25/08. Below, Quinn on 9/20/09.

This week holds a lot of memories and will forever be special. On 9/20/08 we arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam. On 9/23/08 we met and held Quinn for the first time. On 9/24/08 we had our G&R ceremony and officially adopted Quinn. We then flew back to Hanoi that same night. On 9/25/08 we had our first full day as a family.

Sometimes it seems hard to believe its been a year and other times it feels like its always been the three of us. Quinn has grown to be a fun, loving, chatty little toddler. Its been so much fun over the past year to see all of his firsts and they will just keep coming. He seems to be saying new words weekly now. In the past few days he learned to say the dog's name. His name is Zeke but Quinn calls him Deke. Z's are a little hard to say! He still loves music and loves to dance. I need to get some video of his dance moves to put on the blog.

I've been wanting to make this week a special one and thought maybe I should cook a Vietnamese meal every year on 9/24. But, then I don't think I should only cook Vietnamese once a year. So, as Quinn gets older maybe we'll celebrate 9/24 in different ways. This year I'm going to attempt to cook stir-fried vermicelli with vegetables. This is something that seems very easy and something Quinn would eat. I found this recipe on www.saigoncooking.com in case anyone is interested. There seemed to be many easy recipes.

I think most adoptive families celebrate "gotcha day" or "forever family day". I think we'll celebrate all week!

Quinn & Lya - September 2009

We played dress-up with them. Unfortunately, this is the only picture I have of the 2 of them together in their Vietnamese outfits and they are both crying. I think they were fighting over the firetruck.

Playing nice on the slide.

Mommy's with the kiddos

The best picture of them, they are too cute!

Here are a few pictures of Quinn & Lya from this weekend. Quinn & Lya spent the first 7 months of their lives together at the same orphanage in Vietnam. Lya's parents, Nick & Becky, adopted Lya the same day we adopeted Quinn. We all spent about 3 weeks together in VN for their adoption. It was so much fun to see Quinn & Lya together again. This time was much different than a year ago...they could actually play together. We look forward to seeing these two grow up together. We live about 8 hours away from each other but were already discussing our next get together. We hope to see them at least once a year.

A trip to urgent care...

The bandage daycare put on Quinn's boo boo

On our way home after a little skin glue

Daycare called me today at work and said that Quinn had fell, hit his head and had a good sized gash. They thought he needed to see a doctor. Obviously they were right because he ended up having to have Dermabond (skin glue). This was much better than stitches but they still had to strap him down to one of those boards, which he was not a fan of. He's definitely a tough little guy!