A Year Ago Today

Today is the 1 year anniversary of the day I first met Molly!  You can read my posts about that day here and here. 

Today Molly and I had a leisurely morning, ate our favorite breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast dipped in "applesauces".  We spent some time looking at our pictures from Vietnam, and I did a little crying(!).  Molly loves looking at those pictures and videos from when she was a baby.  I don't know how much she understands yet about why we were there with Nhan and the others, but her Vietnamese family will always be familiar to her as she grows up.  We went to our favorite coffee shop to share a scone together while she read books and I sipped a coffee.  Then afterwards, we went shopping!

We had been given a giftcard as a shower gift for Molly, and decided to spend it at Ikea.  What fun!  We were able to get a tea set, toy fruits, vegetables and breakfast food.  We picked up a set of ice cream cones with cups, a scoop and an ice cream bucket, plus a baking set, all of which we can take to the beach next summer.  And we found a bed for Molly's baby which comes complete with bedding, and needs to be assembled just like any other Ikea furniture!  With what was leftover on the giftcard, we bought a clothes hamper for her bedroom, a roll of paper to color on, some towels to use as doll blankets and a couple of picture frames to save the memories from this special day. 

In the last couple of months, Molly's personality has just blossomed.  I've noticed a big change in the way she is playing, and have watched her imagination start to soar.  She is "making eat, Mama"  with toys that double as a bowl and spoon.  She stirs and blows on the hot 'food', then pretends to eat it, feed it to me, and/or feed it to her dolls.  She has learned to hold her finger to her lips (sideways) and 'shhh' me to say that her baby is sleeping.  She's started putting her dolls to bed, covering them up with blankets.  She's also started to play this way for much longer periods of time without needing me, which makes it easier to cook or do chores during the day.  So getting these types of toys is just so appropriate for the stage that she is at right now.  She certainly doesn't need any more toys - we just got tons of new ones at Christmas - but the toys we bought today will bring both of us lots of enjoyment for a long time.  I can't wait to see what she does with them next!

In the afternoon, Molly laid in bed for 2 hours WITHOUT sleeping, but gave me enough time to get myself ready for our dinner plans.  We got dressed up and went out to a Vietnamese restaurant with some of our favorite people.  My first thought was to share the evening with David, Peter and Chloe, who were with me the moment I met Molly, and David took pictures of the big event for me.  But a few days ago was also the anniversary of when I was with Susan when she adopted Quan, and I wanted to celebrate with them too.  And Merel, Nathan and Nhan were a huge part of my time at the orphanage, so they were invited (but sadly had other committments).  We had to invite Uncle Ron, simply because he is such a big part of our lives, and there was no way we would celebrate without Rita and Ninh either, so the evening was a big, lovely party. 

Thank you to our friends who celebrated with us tonight - for your generosity, your love and friendship, and your continued presence in our lives.  And thank you too, to all the other friends and family in our lives who couldn't join us this evening.  We have had an incredible year together - Molly and I love you all.