My first annual adoptive family picnic started out with a snooze. I napped for the first half hour while William made the craft and ran around the park. This year's craft was a hand print. I didn't do one since we had recently finished a really cool hand AND foot print project at home and it's not the easiest thing to do with me, or as Mommy likes to call me, "Quickfingers." Add to that the fact that everything has a tendency to go in my mouth, and sticking my fingers in plaster of paris didn't seem like a great plan. I'm sure I'll have better luck with the craft next year. Everyone else really enjoyed their dinner. (I had some tasty cereal and pears at home.) After dinner I went around in the stroller while Mommy chatted with people. Daddy and William were off getting wet in the splash pad, or at least William was. He was also getting hurt a lot. After the third time of him crying over a new injury, Daddy decided it was time for him to go home to bed. It was still pretty early, but William hadn't napped and my evening nap (the one I mentioned earlier) wasn't much to speak of. Mommy was all for it, since she's had a bad cough this week. Next year should be more fun.

I'm sure you're wondering what's new with me. Well, I'm really interested in everything that is out of my reach. A couple days ago, while Mommy was working on getting her application ready for the new job she hopes to get, I was sitting on my blanket playing as usual. And twice I managed to wiggle and scoot my way entirely off the blanket! Once I went backward and the next time I went forward. Both times I wanted to get things that were not baby toys like cardboard boxes (aka soccer goals) or swimming lesson certificates. William's going to have to be careful where he leaves things. I can get up on my hands and knees, so as soon as I can figure out how to alternate my hands and feet, I'm going to be off like a shot!

Swimming lessons and Bam Bam ball are finished for the summer and I can't say that I'm sad. I really had a lot of fun at Bam Bam ball, but I was ready for it to be finished. I loved the last day. They had dilly bars after the game, and a picnic with hotdogs and chips and even a dunk tank! I got to throw the ball at the target three times and then I got to go up and push the button to make the coach fall in the water. I played dunk tank at home for a good solid week afterward.

Last week we only had swimming lessons, so it was much more relaxing. Mommy figured out that I needed to be there ahead of the coaches like we were doing in the beginning, so we went and played at the park for a while one day. Then the last two days the coaches were actually really early so we didn't beat them either time. I still did okay warming up, though. Especially the last day when I was so excited to show the toy I got to bring. I brought my new wind-up scuba diver. I didn't understand why everyone kept calling him "Scuba Steve" even though I kept telling them that he didn't have a name.

William teaching Ellie to play goalie

This week we haven't had anywhere we had to go during the day. We did a library trip on Tuesday and otherwise we've been enjoying the lazy summer. Mommy's been coughing like crazy all week, so that's kept us at home more. But I keep myself busy inventing new games or playing baseball, soccer, and football in the house. Ellie is getting big enough now that I'm allowed. And she can even play, too! Did you see the pictures of her playing goalie? It's not really good to kick the ball at her head, but she's a tough baby.

Here are pictures taken during the month of July 2008.

I put together a video of a day in the life of Eliana at 6 months. You can see her playing and pulling up to stand. There's a nice long segment of her NOT napping. Then you can watch her eating courtesy of William's excellent videotaping skills. And we finish of with fun in the tub! Watch the video.

Since we have a new website, we had to start over with photos. So I have a new Picasa album for my earlier pictures.

I'm really having a lot of fun playing these days. I can sit up all by myself and reach most things. If I can't reach it from sitting, I can dive to it or scoot a little bit. But I haven't figured out crawling yet. One of my favorite new games is rolling the ball back and forth with Mommy. I also love knocking down towers! I still put everything in my mouth. I have started liking little things like the strings on my toys and I can grab them between my thumb and first finger. The other thing I enjoy these days is standing up next to things or holding on to someone's hands. I feel especially grown up when I'm standing.

I've always been a great sleeper, but it's been tough for me to fall asleep the last few days. Just when I start to drift off, I think of something fun I want to do and wake right up! I like to roll over, which I easily do front to back and back to front. Or scoot around in my crib. I can grab the handle on the musical stuffed animal in my crib and play a little song for myself. I'm just a busy little girl!

My mommy's been working on getting some video together, but in the meantime, there are a few new pictures in the July album if you want to take a peek. And if you want to leave me messages, you can sign up for an account and write comments on my blog! That would be fun!

July album

My favorite feature of our new website is RSS feeds. If you're an avid blog reader like myself, you may already use RSS feeds. But if not, you might want to give it a try. Basically, RSS feeds let you know when a website has been updated. You can add feeds to your google or yahoo homepage or to your browser's favorites list. Personally I use a google homepage and read blogs and news from there. I check several blogs all from that one page. It's great! And with RSS feeds now on our site, you can see what's new without even having to visit. Just add our homepage to your feeds and it will tell you when on our site has been updated! It's easy! You can click on the little orange box in the bottom left corner of the page to add us to your browser's favorites. Or, if you have a google or yahoo homepage, just find the little link on your homepage to "add stuff," look for the little orange box to add feeds, and paste in our web address. Our blog will show up in the headlines on your homepage! Good luck! I hope you take advantage of this handy new feature!

I got my first opportunity to speak to a group of potential adoptive parents at adoption education day today. It was a little nerve-wracking. I tend to be pretty abstract-random in my thinking, so I brought an outline to keep me on track. Boy, was I glad I did. I had to refer to it several times when I got off on a sidetrack and had to figure out where I was in our story. I probably drove the couples crazy :) There were quite a few couples this time. I think I counted six. I knew one of them from RESOLVE, so it was fun to see familiar faces. And I also knew the birthmom that talked. We got a nice, long time to speak because the adoptee ended up cancelling due to illness. So I didn't have to worry about my time, which was nice since I'd never done my talk before. I would definitely need to shorten it up a bit if there was another speaker. Both the birthmom and I went a little long and filled up the extra slot with no problem. I could really talk all day about our adoption story if you gave me the chance. But I hit the highlights and then answered a few questions afterward. The questions will help me next time and the couselors promised they'd be asking me back. I guess I didn't do too badly. I guess they're always looking for a positive story and the fact that we have more openness than most people is another plus. They definitely like to have someone speak who is not afraid of openness and we've fully embraced it. It's worked out great for us and I wish every adopting couple an experience as wonderful as ours.

Today was an eventful day for me. Swimming lessons was cancelled due to the weather, so we thought we were just going to have a lazy day at home for a change. Then Mommy's friend Tonya called and asked if we wanted to go out to lunch. So it was a good thing that swimming lessons was cancelled because otherwise I'd be climbing out of the pool sopping wet at 12:25. Instead we met Tonya and Andy at Bravo Burrito and I got to have my first burrito! I had to learn to peel it (but not too much) and bite it. It was good. I got the kiddo burrito and it was still big enough for me for lunch and dinner and to share some with Mommy and Daddy! Maybe part of the reason why I had so much left was because Andy and I were so busy playing at lunch. We get along really well and we sure can get silly together. Just like Tonya and Mommy did before they grew up to be Mommies. We stopped at the play area at the mall to get all our wiggles out after lunch. Eliana liked watching us run around and climb. And she got to play with a baby girl who was a little older than her. It was funny to watch her sit and chew on that baby's dress. Despite the rain, it turned out to be a fun day.