13 months...

Oops, forgot about the 13 month post.  Actually I remembered as my head hit the pillow on Friday night, but I wasn't about to get up and start blogging.....

I'm happy to report that our little Bubbers is officially walking!

He started out a few weeks ago taking a few brave wobbly steps and by this past weekend he has really taken off!

He still can't figure out how to stand back up on his own quite yet but I'm sure that will be coming very soon.  He gets SOO excited when he walks- his little hands flail and he gets a scrunchy nose smile on his face.  He loves it when you cheer him on and is so very proud of himself.

Now that he is a little more sturdy, he walks with one arm in the air and one arm in, kind of like he is doing a Heisman pose. 

He has the pointy little finger thing down, too.... I love it!

Pointing to the neighbor's puppy that was outside.

This boy is trouble with a capital T..... Here he is trying to climb in my refrigerator..

Sassy boy!

Separation anxiety is officially starting to set in.  

My heart breaks when I have to drop him off at the sitter in the morning, but thankfully his sitters are nice enough to send me pictures 30 seconds after I leave with a happy little boy.

Alex continues to be a very happy little boy.  He loves reading books, adores puppies and loves a good tickle.  He's an active little guy and will continually watch for us to leave the baby gate open so he can make his escape up the steps.  

He looks so innocent, doesn't he?

When it is closed, he climbs up the first step and holds on to the gate smiling at me every time...

I try to let him do this so he can figure out how to get back down the step, but I'm not gonna lie his head has hit that hard wood more than once as he rolled backwards.  I think he's almost got it know, though!

He and Makenna love to be silly together.  Lately when we are all talking loud, he will start yelling as loud as he can and he and Makenna will take turns saying "Ahhhhh" as loud as they can and then gigging.  Brad and I can't help but laugh. 

Alex appears to be a bit of a disco fan...... Daddy likes to play the Alvin and the Chipmunk version of "Stayin' Alive" and everytime it comes on, Alex gets the BIGGEST smile on his face and starts tapping his foot, shaking his head to the beat and even getting that little pointy finger dancing too.  It is hilarious!

Oh and I almost forgot.....the tongue!!  The last week or so he constantly has his little tongue out.  He looks like a little dragon.

Last week he woke up from his nap to the BIGGEST snowflakes falling and while you can't really see them in this picture, he LOVED it!

This handsome boy got a new buzz cut from Uncle Derek this weekend, too.  I'll have to admit, I miss the faux hawk but I'm sure it will grow back in no time, right?

Daddy was pretty excited that Alex got to get his haircut in the same chair that he used to get haircuts in growing up....

Happy 13 months kiddo.  We love you!!

Gotcha Day

Today we celebrated Alex's "Gotcha Day"!  

We were a little nervous heading into the courtroom as we were in a new county and had a different judge than we had for Makenna's adoption day.  Our attorney alerted us that things may not go as smoothly as they did in her case and that this judge was very "statute-oriented" but we are happy to report that everything went off without a hitch.  

Part of this is undoubtedly due to our preparation from the start (thanks to my husband!).  Before we decided to proceed with embryo adoption we met with a local adoption attorney who advised us to legally adopt any children in the courts.  This really helped when we got to this stage because we had our initial contracts written such that they included verbage to terminate the parental rights of the donors in the initial contract.  The initial contract also spelled out our intent to formally adopt any children born so that the donors would be aware of it from the start.  Since our arrangement with our genetic family is "semi-open" this was important because we do not know their last names or addresses so for the purposes of the courts they were anonymous.

There are several reasons why we chose to legally adopt them - most importantly because the law has not caught up with science.  When we "adopted" the embryos, it was treated as a property contract.  The law did no recognize (though we clearly did) the frozen embryos as people but rather as property.  So the contract was a property transfer, not an adoption contract.  

Now that our children are here, we wanted to formally adopt them through the courts.  Because there is no law governing this in the State of Wisconsin, we didn't want to leave anything open to interpretation later.  Because the law hasn't caught up with science, we decided we wanted to do what we could legally to make them forever ours.  

Not only that, but I love what this day represents.  Their story is unique.  Their story is special.  Adoption is a blessing and I love that we have one more day to celebrate each year as their "gotcha day".

I was a little nervous when the hearing was set for 10am - right smack in the middle of morning nap, but Alex fell asleep on the way to the courthouse and got a great power nap in on the way.

We got to the court house and after finishing his power nap, he was all ready to go!

It was National Adoption Day so the courthouse had all sorts of fun things set up to celebrate!

Alex took one look at these little adoption bears that one of the agencies was handing out and had to have one - they are SOOO soft!

Makenna was in heaven when she saw the arts and crafts table!

Aren't these sweet?

Thankfully Grandpa came with us and was able to watch Makenna while we met with our attorney one last time before heading into the court room.

Not sure what face Makenna has on here....

The kids did great in the court room!  I was a little nervous because we were in there for about a half hour, but Makenna just colored and Alex had some snacks, took a bottle and amused himself by playing peek with Grandpa who was sitting in the back row of the courtroom - I wish I could have taken a picture of it - it was sooooo cute!!

Thanks for coming to support us Grandpa!!

I think Alex is still trying to play peek with Grandpa here

I know Grandma would have loved to come too, but we didn't even think to invite family until the morning of and she was already on her way to work.  

This was right after the hearing - Alex had the STINKIEST poopy diaper on!  Thankfully I don't think anyone noticed...

The judge let each of the kids pick out a special bear after the hearing, too.

Time to celebrate!!  Because it was National Adoption Day, they had a whole spread of food and goodies waiting for us.  They even catered in a really great lunch!  

Mama, stop tickling me!!!

It's officially official.  Your'e stuck with us forever Bubbers!!!

I don't think he minds one bit

We were planning to go to Chucky Cheese to celebrate after but we ate so much and had so much fun hanging out at the court house for their celebration that we decided to head home instead.  Good thing because while daddy and sissy ran into the library to pick out a movie, this little guy fell asleep while I was feeding him in the car.

Nothing sweeter....

We did head to Star.bucks for a little cake pop treat after Alex woke up to celebrate....

I think we may have a new Gotcha Day tradition on our hands....

Happy Gotcha Day, Alexander Brooks!!

We love you always and forever!!!

What a great day!!