This baby is active

Ken and I always laugh when we think about what we knew of Netsanet during the adoption process. We sent questions to the orphanage, asking what she likes and what activities she enjoys (oh, we were so clueless! It's a challenge to just make sure everyone is fed and clothed there). The response was a form that had the line "Compared to other children in the orphanage, this baby is ___" They had filled in "active" in the blank space. Oh, we had nooooo idea!

Little Miss Netsanet is a runner and a climber and a shouter. She never stops, even when she is watching TV (she stands up and bounces around for the short periods she does watch tv). She's now climbing on everything and no area of the house is any longer out of her reach. She has figured out how to pull out the dining room chair, so she can climb up onto the dining room table and get to the fruit bowl. She can reach all the tops of the counters in the kitchen. She can climb up onto the couch to get things off the back (where we try to fruitlessly put things out of her reach). There are a lot of loud vocalizations to accompany all of this and I think my hearing may be a little damaged from the shrieks into my eardrum when I pick her up in the middle of one of her activities. We have to take her out to run for several blocks every night when we get home, or she gets really crabby. She's also into breaking mode - in the last week she has broken the remote control and the toilet handle.

Life is a little busy right now, but it's also big fun. She has quite the sense of humor - "uh-oh!" when she pulls something over and it crashes, or "hot!" as she tries to pull over my coffee cup. Like she's completely disassociated from the consequences of her own action, and she's just the victim of some naughty baby in the room who's doing these things to all of us. It's hard not to laugh!

Her lanugage skills are rocking along. She is speaking in some sentences now, and started saying "I love you" back to me just before mother's day (that was a nice present :). It will be a lot of fun to hear what she has to say!

Well, this is a short one but life is busy. We're going to try camping in July, and maybe some additional times once the weather is nice. Here's hoping for a great summer!