We got our 5th Tooth!

While visiting my sister on Saturday to welcome my nephew, John, home from six months of army training, she found Rachel's fifth tooth! Rachel has been drooling a lot and gnawing on her fingers like crazy. I've been feeling around in her mouth the last few days and found nothing! It literally must have finally broke through Saturday morning. Rachel is still gnawing, so there may be another one or two that will break through sometime soon.

We were excited to see my nephew after six months. It didn't feel like he was gone that long, but I'm sure it did to him and my sister. LOL. John looks great and has lost a ton of weight. My sister thinks he got taller too, but I think being so thin now makes him look taller. Jake was thrilled to see his oldest cousin. Jake really looks up to John. John will continue in the army reserves once a month and will have to attend 2 weeks every year. He is even considering going active in another year or so and making army life a career. I just wish we weren't at war right now. It's scary to think about it. We are very proud of him for completing boot camp and serving our country.

We are all doing really well. I'm sorry that it's over two weeks since my last post. I'm sure you all must be getting bored with our family life. Rachel is thriving in every way and is right on target for a 10 1/2 month old baby girl. We are waiting for her to crawl any day now. She is getting up on all fours, but then flops on her belly. She absolutely loves to stand and hold onto things. I won't be surprised if she goes right to walking.

Rachel started her vaccinations last week with four shots. It's very difficult for a parent to watch her child getting stuck like that and screaming with tears running down her face and reaching her arms out to you for you to rescue her. I just can't stand it! Rachel ended up with a 101.5 fever the next day with some vomiting in the morning. Thank God it only lasted a day or so. She seemed to be back to normal the following day. She will have her 12 month well visit at the end of August where she will most likely get four more vaccinations. She is quite behind on her shots, so most of her visits will include shots for awhile. I just hope she doesn't get to a point where she screams every time we enter the doctors office. Rachel currently weighs 22.5 lbs. She gained 2 1/2 pounds from her first well visit in early June. Believe me, my back, arms and legs are feeling it!

We are in the process of planning Rachel's first birthday! Hard to believe that it's next month already! We are having it at a local park under a pavilion. We checked it out yesterday while we were out and I think it's a great location. The kids should have a blast with the awesome playground that's there.

We are really starting to see Rachel's true personality. When something doesn't go her way, she will let you know with her little temper tantrums. She is truly our "spicy girl!" LOL. She gets so mad at times and she will scream her head off. Jake thinks this is funny and will tease her at times, then I have to yell at him for teasing her. She loves to scream while we are in the car. I guess because we can't pay full attention to her, she screams to remind us that she is there in the backseat!

Rachel attended her first girlfriend birthday party on Friday. We were invited to Annie's 2nd birthday party at Romp & Roll. Annie is the sister of one of Jake's classmates, Claire. Even though the party was geared for 2 years and older, Rachel still had a blast! She really loved the bubble machine at the end. She let everyone know she wasn't happy when they stopped making bubbles! Rachel loves to dance to music too. As soon as she hears any type of music, she will start bobbing her head up and down. It's so cute. We love to dance in the car with the radio on.

I finally went to the ENT last week. Mostly because I started with the pain in my head again. All the tests that were performed that day were normal. I go back on August 4th for a 2 1/2 hour balance test. I don't want them to find anything for sure, but I do wish I could get an explanation of the dizziness and head pain that I've been experiencing off and on for 2 months. It's quite unnerving to not know what is wrong.

My brother Paul came home from the hospital last week. He has moved in with my sister, Sandy, who has been a tremendous help to him these last few weeks. The infection has improved in his leg, but he's still not out of the woods. He needs to loose weight and get his breathing under control so that they can operate and remove the pins out of his ankle. My brother broke his ankle quite a few years ago now and the pins are what is causing the infection. My sister has been working on him with his calorie intake, so hopefully he will keep up the will power to loose weight. Moving is very difficult for him, not only from the infection in his leg, but his weight his another huge barrier. Please pray for him.

We are planning a short vacation to the beach the last week in July. I'm looking forward to getting away for a few days before heading back to work on August 11th. Today reality was truly setting in about going back to work. I'm truly not looking forward to it. I found out a week or so ago about a co-worker who is leaving. Our office staff will be down to 9 employees. I didn't mention this before, but a week and half after returning from China my company informed me that they have cut everyone's salary, including mine. It was pretty drastic too. It put quite a damper on our summer. When you get used to living a certain way and you have your salary cut without much notice, it really makes life quite difficult. I'm glad I still have a job to return to, we just have to re-adjust our lives. We think twice before eating out or stopping and getting ice cream. It's hard saying no to your child when he wants to stop for ice cream on the way home from the playground. I even have to second guess Jake's activities now. We wouldn't even be going to the beach if we weren't my friend's brother. We gave him our used family room furniture last summer in exchange for 5 days in their beach house this summer. We will be taking all our food with us so we won't have to spend money eating out! I just have to have faith that we will be all right. Like I said, at least we still have jobs!

On a more positive note, we received Rachel's U.S. Citizenship Certificate last week. She is officially a U.S. Citizen. The certificate was accompanied by a letter from the White House welcoming Rachel. There was even a stamped George W. Bush signature! LOL! On Friday I went and applied for Rachel's social security number and I went to the courthouse to register her adoption with the Orphan's Court. I learned that we do not need to re-adopt Rachel in our state. I have to fill out some forms and make copies of some of the adoption documents and we will get an English birth certificate. I was thrilled that I didn't need to relinquish any of the originals which are very precious to us. Not having to re-adopt Rachel in our state saved us about $500 or more. They recently made this change and I couldn't be happier.

I can't believe we are more than half way through the summer. Hopefully you all are enjoying the summer. I'm going to try and enjoy the few weeks I have left with Rachel & Jake before heading back to reality!

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