some of the rewards of becoming a parent. Milestones

A few weeks ago we finally have J's birth certificate (thanks to DH for his hard work). We finalized in April so it took a while longer than expected.

He got the birth certificate, after we paid our final bill to the adoption lawyer, and he immediately went to the SSA office and applied for J's new social security card.

We got her ss card in the mail this past week so we went to the bank on Saturday and opened J's first bank savings account. YEAH. Fun. I took the cash out of her piggy bank and we used that to open her account.

We bought J her first tooth brush and tooth paste. I took about 10 minutes tonight to show her how I brush my teeth and she immediately took her brush and rubbed it on her TWO NEW teeth on the bottom gum. LOL (yes, she did get two teeth a few months back on the bottom that were coming out all wonky wrong, but they went back in and are now back out through the gum like normal. YEAH).

I saw J take a full step yesterday. We went to a party at our friends house and were playing in a washers tournament. While Daddy was pitching his washers I turned around to watch J. She took one foot and put it in front of the other while standing and then lifted her other foot and moved it out another step. Previously she was only taking 1 foot forward and then plopping down to the ground. This time she did both feet and just stood there. FUN.

I must watch her in the cart at the store now. Tonight we went to the local retail store to pick up some sundries. I had pushed the cart (with J strapped in) to the right side of the isle while I was looking at some dental floss. I turned back around to find her grabbing for some hand lotion on the shelf right next to her. I forgot she could reach out so far. I know one day she will be that kid reaching for the candy in the check out lane, right? I'll be saying "No, J, you can't have that kit-kat bar!" (then I will hear her throw a fit, right?)

I could swear I heard her say "Hannah" tonight. Hannah is our blond lab mix dog. It was more like "HanHan" coming from J, but she had also pointed her finger right at Hannah so that made me believe she is trying to say her name.

these milestones, my friends, are what we have all been waiting for since the day we were ttc!