Lots of -ings

Walk-ing:

Evie started walking about a week before she turned 13 months old. She will still default to crawling if it's distance beyond 6-7 steps, but it it's less than that she'll walk it.

Point-ing:

Evie starting pointing at everything on the day we left for the cruise. She's even taken to using both hands to point at the same time. I'm sure this is proof that she'll cure cancer some day.

Cruis-ing:

Evie's first cruise was awesome. Thankfully she remained relatively healthy, just some tummy issues for 36 hours. She sat through all of the dining room dinners without an argument or meltdown. She slept great in the pack n' play. She charmed everyone she came in contact with. We were only faced with tons of stares (used to it), one "Where did you get her?", and one "Is she yours?". Not bad considering we were on a ship that was probably 98% white people. I would definitely cruise with Evie again. She may not share DNA, but she certainly shares our love of travel. One of the ladies in the salon took a real liking to Evie. She had Evie's same skin tone and hair. She later told me that she had a daughter back home in Jamaica that was 10 months old. My heart was hurting for her. She took to Evie because she looked so much like her daughter.

Cough-ing:

Thankfully Evie made it until the day we got back from the cruise to get her first full blown cold. She's been coughing, snotting, and sneezing for the past 6 days. She's been in a great mood during the day, but the nights have been a challenge. She can't seem to settle herself back down when she wakes up. I'm not sure what the deal is with that. I know she's not feeling great though. I've tried to remain very patient and loving toward her when I'm in there in the middle of the night, but I am really looking forward to her getting back to her norm.

Remeber-ing:

We just celebrated the one year anniversary of the day we met and brought Evie home. How quickly the year has gone! I now face the difficult task of sending a one year mark letter to Evie's birth mother. I'm praying I find the right words to explain to her just how much of a gift the past year has been. There just aren't words that explain it fully.