Happy First Birthday Landon!

I am taking a break from Cute Kitty Thursday today to give you Cute Baby Thursday!  Today is my nephew, Landon's first birthday!  He is so stinking cute!!

Landon has learned all sorts of new things in his first year.  He can say "momma", "dadda", "bye, bye", 'uh oh", "thank you" and "I love you". We are going to work on him saying "auntie and "uncle" when we're there visiting. He's standing all by himself and walking around holding onto the furniture.  The babysitter says, he's the most advance in the group. Of course he is!  His momma says, he's a menace; getting into everything and trying to scale the playpen to get out.  Momma is just kidding.  Landon is just keeping her on her toes!

Landon has eleven teeth and loves to share his snacks with his dog, Tori. Landon eats one and gives one to the dog.  He's such a good sharer and Tori is loving this. They are best buds!

These awesome first birthday pictures were taken by Shotz Portrait Studio in Suffolk, VA.  They did a great job capturing Landon's first birthday!

Happy First Birthday Landon! Auntie Jenn and Uncle Marlon love you!

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Patience is a Virtue

The uncertainty of waiting to adopt is what gets to me.  I am a planner at heart and the not knowing when something is going to happen is frustrating.  I know we all get surprised by life, but usually someone expecting has nine months to prepare.

We got a call from our social worker about two weeks ago asking if they could show our profile to an expectant mother.  We have asked our social worker not to tell us when our profile is shown, it is too nerve wracking for us, but this expectant mother's situation didn't exactly match our profile, so she wanted to check with us first.  Marlon and I quickly decided yes, we wanted our profile shown.

As you know, we've been working on a new adoption book and it's almost finished.  We printed the pages of the new book and sent them to the social worker so they could show the new version to the expectant mother.  And then we waited.  It is kind of like holding your breath.  Will they pick us?  Oh my gosh! We could have a baby soon.  Should plan to do this, what if we did that?  It's enough to make anyone crazy.  This is why we don't want to know when our profile is shown.

We told our parents and siblings and a couple of close friends that our profile was being shown.  It's hard to keep it to yourself.  We decided maybe we should get serious about doing a registry and pick out some necessities in case we needed to go and buy something quick.  We spent an afternoon in Babies 'R Us.  The whole picking out baby stuff made me feel a little lightheaded.  You've wanted something for so long and now it might come true. It's very overwhelming.

I kept telling myself not to get my hopes up. They are showing five couples to this expectant mother.  There is only a 1 in 5 chance we'll get picked. When it's meant to be, it will happen for us.  I had my juju read at Renaissance Faire, all signed pointed to a baby within the next six months which puzzled the fortune teller.  She kept saying it will happen fast.  I then told her we were adopting.  She said, OH! that explains everything.  Really though, I only had my juju read for entertainment purposes.  I don't plan my life around a fortune teller.  It was a encouraging reading though.

When we didn't hear back right away, we knew we didn't get picked.  Someone did though and I am so happy for them.  If anything, this has given us the push to get ready.  We need to think about taking off of work, child care and things we'll need. I found this article, Planning for the Call, on the Adoptive Families website incredibly helpful.  It's time to nest!

photo credit: S. Trykowski

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Cute Kitty Thursday!

This week's cute kitty is the gorgeous Daphne!

Daphne loves people— her momma lets visitors believe that really, they’re the only ones she’s ever been so friendly with from the first moment, but that’s a total lie, she likes everyone.

Her name suits her so far, she's Daphne the lady who will nap quietly while her momma reads; but she can quickly morph to crazy Daffy mode, skittering up and down the hallway and leaping over everything in her path (even if that means she needs to jump on you for leverage in the process). Hmmm, that sounds a lot like my two.

Uh oh, sleeping on her momma's knitting
even though she's not supposed to.

Daphne's hobbies are chasing the cat dancer, serving as a personal alarm clock (set about half an hour earlier than her momma would like, though), and making in-app purchases on her ipad by walking over the screen. I hope the purchases are good ones.

Daphne was adopted in May from K9Kastle, a New York-based rescue group that runs a Sunday adoption event at a local Unleashed pet store in Park Slope, Brooklyn.  Alana had been about thinking about a cat, but was planning to wait until the end of the summer. She wandered in on a whim in May and will forever be grateful. Awwww.

Thanks to Daphne's momma, Alana for submitting! If you want your cute kitty on "Cute Kitty Thursday!", email me pictures at twocatsandacradle@gmail.com.

♥ Our puzzle piece fundraiser is still going! Click on the fundraiser tab to get your puzzle piece! Or if you simply want to make a donation, click on the Donate button to the left. Thank you!