Stuffed Animals And Cabbage Patch Kids

This has been another busy week for the Miller family.

Mark had knee surgery on Wednesday and was out of commission for a few days. But the bandage is already off, the crutches have been kicked aside, and he's already looking forward to getting back to work on Monday. Merrilee loves to sit with him on the floor and read books, so she was happy when daddy could get back down on the floor with her.

A very nice package arrived in the mail this week from Bob, Kendel, Drew and Josh Ehrlich. It was a gray, stuffed elephant for Merrilee. She already loves it, and her phrase for the week was "G-O-P." "Republican" had too many syllables for her. As you can see, she already loves it...

Hopefully, she'll cherish it always. And in about 16-and-a-half more years, she'll be old enough to vote.

For those of you out-of-state, Bob Ehrlich is Maryland's former governor, and he and his wife, Kendel, now do a talk show on WBAL Radio.

A special thanks too to the Myers family down the street -- Kim, Andy, Hannah, Drew and Sophie. They gave Merrilee a cabbage patch doll. As you can see, this has become another one of her favorites...

And mommy went out shopping the other day and got Merrilee a special cradle for her cabbage patch doll...

By the way, how about that fancy striped turtle neck sweater. Merrilee picked that out all by herself!

Merrilee is looking forward to her first Thanksgiving in her new forever country with her forever family. The whole Miller clan is coming over for dinner. We'll try to post some pictures of that event too.

Baptism

Sunday, November 16, 2008 was another important day for Merrilee. She was baptised at Catonsville United Methodist Church during the 11 a.m. service.

Rev. Mark Waddell officiated. This was especially meaningful for us since Mark and his wife, Libby, have adopted two wonderful children from China.

Here's the abbreviated version of the baptism...

If you'd like to see the full version of the baptism, you can see it on YouTube HERE.

Merrilee looked so cute in her baptismal outfit. A special thanks to Aunt Judy and Uncle Jim in Arkansas who gave us her outfit as a gift. From the bow in her hair, right down to her cute little shoes, Merrilee loved being dressed up for this special occasion...

She can't wait to visit all of her relatives in Arkansas in December. She is really getting excited about meeting everyone.

A special thanks to Doug and Sharon, for hosting a little post-baptism luncheon at their house. That's Sharon in the picture above with Merrilee. Doug, by the way, was our videographer for the baptism. Their two sons, Stephen and Christopher, were the two acolytes during the the baptism!

Can you tell that mommy and daddy are two proud parents? Merrilee is really loving her "forever family" and "forever friends."

Pumpkin Patch

We posted some still pictures a few weeks ago from Zoo Boo at the Maryland Zoo.

The highlight of the afternoon was probably when Merrilee, dressed as a lady bug, ventured into the "pumpkin patch" with Emma, our neighbor across the street, who was dressed as Shrek.

Here's a short video of that.

Bath Time

Merrilee is pretty self-sufficient at bath time, at least as long as the radio is on and she has her rubby ducks with her.

Here's Merrilee's version of "Rub a dub dub. I'm in the tub!"

Climbing Hills

On Saturday, we went to the Bat Mitzvah for our friend, Rebecca Gould, the daughter of our friend, Rob. She is so grown up and she did a terrific job.

When we got home, Merrilee was outside with Doug, Kadie, and Jordan, who babysat for us while we were at he Bat Mitzvah.

Merrilee is growing so quickly. She can already climb the hill in front of our house without falling down!

Love You

What can be any better than having your little girl understand the words "love you" and be able to say them back. With Merrilee, the phrase "love you" is connected to her head tilt...

Getting To Be A Big Girl

We've been so busy this last week that we haven't done a good job with the blog.

Merrilee is getting bigger by the day. She's packed on some weight, which is a good thing. But even more importantly, she's becoming a big girl with a lot of her mannerisms.

She prefers the big girl potty (toilet) over her own potty.

And as this picture shows, she prefers adult eating utensils, rather than those designed for children.

She is beginning to talk more and more. She's getting really good at:

"apple"

"yo-yo"

"bow"

"shoes"

"please"

"nana"

and "uh oh"

Last night, it really sunk in that we have to treasure all of these moments, since it won't be too long before they are memories. We'll miss the way she hugs us at bedtime...the way she runs down the hall to her room to get dressed...the way she tilts her head when she says "love you"...the way she claps her hands when she's finished on the potty.

She is getting the hang of talking on the telephone. For the longest time, she would just listen. Now she'll actually speak a few words.

She LOVES books -- all kinds of books. They are helping her learn the alphabet and words. She loves her Dr. Seuss book "The Foot Book."

Yesterday, Merrilee and mommy went back to one of their favorites places -- the Mall in Columbia. Today, Merrilee and mommy went to visit the Goddard School where Merrilee will be enrolled come December. They have a lot of fun together!