Happy Half Birthday to Hope & Halle!

Our little bundles of joy are six months old tomorrow! They just recently began reaching out and grabbing objects, reacting with irritation when the object falls or is taken away. Hooray! A wonderful developmental milestone... anger/injustice. :o) They are still only on formula and still sleeping 12 hrs straight a night besides the occasional nose-suction (we have yet another cold!), a quick cuddle or binkying. Halle weighs an even 16 pounds and Hope is just over 13.5. More importantly, they are belly laughing and "talking" now. This is my favorite baby stage! They are such a joy to interact with.

Halle has changed so very much from her younger days. While she still loves to be held close, moved slowly, sung to softly and fed immediately, she is much more easy going now! She used to fuss and fret, and even scream, when the tiniest thing was done to her that she didn't like. I couldn't go anywhere when she was tired or she'd cry in her carseat, never falling asleep. We joked about how tough she would be as she grew~how we'd struggle knowing how to quiet her temper without breaking her spirit. Hope was always so relaxed, and Halle was uptight. Yet all of the sudden, the tables have turned! Hope isn't really uptight, but she's much more, what is the word... insistent? Or is it determined? I'm not sure but while Hope has changed somewhat, Halle has really changed. She is mellow, smiley and very very easy. It may have been her kinked neck, as she was always very stiff, or it may have been sensory overload related to the cocaine exposure. It also could've been the acid reflux, though when we took her off the Zantac, at 5 mos, she was still happy as a clam. She spits up so much still, so I'm changing both she and I at least twice a day, and sometimes more. She's so worth it. :o) Her little crinkle-nose, scraggly-tooth smile is so funny! She doesn't have any teeth yet but her gums are kinda bumpy on top so it looks like it. She's so very happy and so are we to have her in our lives!!! We adore our Halle Faith.

Halle with her Nana. Two of the sweetest people I know.

Hope kept pinching Papa Ricks cheek after church at Charity's send-off. She had such a mischievous look on her face~she knew what she was doing. (I promised Sharon I would post more pics of this event tomorrow, as well as ones of the Bezansons and Thronesses at our place after Ethan's birthday party.)

Hope Noelle is as much of a joy as her sister of course! Her smile also lights up the room and she has made me completely unaware of our our Western Washington grey skies this Fall. As I mentioned earlier, Hope is much more aware now and interested in being involved in decisions regarding her care. :o) She makes me laugh so hard when she is mad or hungry or whatever because she will not cry. She yells. Yes, there is no crying rhythm whatsoever. It's just plain a yell. Though she is happy most of the time of course, but with two there is usually once a day where it takes a sec to get to her when caring for her sister. She is really so very easy and I'm enjoying have two to go back and forth between, smiling for so long that my cheeks ache! She still sucks her pointer and middle finger on only her right hand, putting herself to sleep easily where ever she may be, on my chest or Daddy's usually. She is currently cutting her first two teeth!

Hope adores Ryland. Here she was grabbing his cheeks and batting at him for about 15 minutes, smiling and smiling while Ry giggled and giggled. Siblings are one of the greatest blessings in childhood!!!

Hope began rolling over from her tummy to her back and we're very careful about where we set them down now. Though neither of the twins is set down for very long anyway while they're awake! No bald spots or flat spots on these baby girls' heads! They sleep so much of the day still (2~2.5 hour naps) that I cannot imagine not being with them when they're awake. I just love my Ergo carrier. It rocks! I can hold one baby and carry the other comfortably in it. I've been very close to/bonded/attached with all my boys, but didn't enjoy carrying them and was never able to sleep without my space. While the girls don't sleep with us, they're with us nearly every waking moment and I can't imagine them being any more bonded to me than they are.

It's a bad pic but here is my Ergo carrier. Highly recommended :o)

Well that's about it for now. We're praying everyday that the Lord would keep these precious souls in our home, under His protection, asking Him to ordain every detail of their adoption. Their first birthday, May 15th, 2008, we will have a will be a huge adoption celebration party as well. I can't wait.

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