Gotta Have Faith and Daniel: October 2015

Hello Friends and Family,

It's hard to believe it's almost the end of October. So we thought it was time for a photo dump (haha!) and an update. As the title of this posts says - we've been busy with school, pumpkin farm visits, and a new baby cousin for Faith and Daniel. Jess's sister Andrea and her husband Michael welcomed, Scarlett Estelle, on October 14th. She's perfect! Faith lovingly referred to her as Scarliff for the first week of her life. I think we've finally convinced her that her name is actually Scarlett. I went to the hospital to meet her the day after she was born and Faith was distraught that she couldn't come with me. She bought the explanation that kids are not allowed to visit babies in the hospital. But when she couldn't meet her for another week - she just assumed that Scarlett was still in "hopspital". We just went with that assumption to avoid a melt down. Needless to say she was beyond thrilled to finally meet her this past weekend. Those of you who know Faith, know that she never stops moving unless she's asleep. Well we found the thing that will keep her still - a newborn baby. She sat and held her for at least 20 minutes when we first arrived. It was a miracle! Scarlett - I hope you're ready to be showered with kisses and hugs from your brother and sister and your cousins. Welcome to the wonderful chaos that is our family!

And just a quick update on those crazy cute Grove kids.

Faith must be learning about in "front of" and "behind" and being first or last at school because she HAS to be the first one day the stairs every morning. And she is constantly asking me if there are cars in front of us or behind us. Or if we're first! The priorities of a three year old, folks.
To say she LOVES school and her teacher, Mrs. Julie, is an understatement. She is obsessed with Mrs. Julie and she asks us if she can go to school every single day. She had a melt down one Sunday morning when I told her that her bus wasn't coming. And she spends much of her time at home playing school with her baby dolls, recreating scenes from her day. Actually, it's how we learn a lot about what she's doing in school. We hope she always loves school this much!
Faith and mommy spend a lot of time in the kitchen together - baking or cooking. If she notices me prepping for dinner or a baking project, she grabs her stool and drags it to the counter to help. I love it - even though it definitely slows me down when she "helps". Its one of the things that I hope we can do together for many, many years to come!
She's been saying some pretty funny things lately, but the one that takes the cake is the night she told me (with the most serious face she has): "Mom, it hurts my life when you tell me no!" I literally couldn't stop laughing and honestly don't even remember what I said no to, but it probably had something to do with chocolate.
Her current singers of choice are Madonna and Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters. We had some family photos taken a couple weeks ago and she asked the photographer if he was Dave? Best part is - the guy really does look like Dave Grohl and says he gets that all the time. Just not usually from a 3 year old.
The littlest Grove is acting more and more like a toddler than a baby. At nearly 11 months old -I'm in major denial that his first birthday is quickly approaching. Some of his current favorite things to do to interact with us are give and blow kisses, give high fives and wave hi and bye.
He is A LOT more curious and into everything (and I mean everything) than Faith was at his age. There is not a drawer or a cabinet that he hasn't found and opened in this house - even ones that Faith literally never touched in the last 3 years.
He can climb the stairs in 30 seconds flat and he has MacGyver quality stealthiness.
Like his sister, he loves music and dancing. We have an embarrassing number of dance parties around here. And they almost always start with Uptown Funk (aka Funky Wood to Faith) because it's Daniel's favorite. He breaks out his signature side to side dance move and his arms to start flying.
It's funny how even at such a young age we can start to see little quirky personality qualities emerge. So far for Daniel we can report that he is a crazy intense eye rubber when he's tired. Like a lot. And when he's falling asleep and really tired he completely looses control of his arms. They just start flying. We've been hit in the face and head numerous times while trying to snuggle.
And last, but certainly not least we have our first allergy. After a few minuscule bites of scrambled egg last month we discovered that Daniel is allergic to eggs. Luckily it wasn't a bad reaction since he didn't eat very much, but it was still a little scary for mommy and Faith. Hopefully he follows the statistics and outgrows it in a few years like many kids too.

There are lots of exciting things happening in the Grove house and we're coming up on the busy holiday season. So I'm sure we'll have lots to share soon.

Thanks for keeping tabs on our little family.

Much Love,

The Groves

Our dear friends at Adoptions Together invited our family to participate in a free photo shoot for their new website. We were thrilled to be able to help them out and we got some great family photos as a thank you! The best part...the photos were taken at Patterson Park in Baltimore City, very close to where both Faith and Daniel were born.

For the first two weeks of school (or more) Faith demanded I take her picture in front of the tree every morning. She still asks every once in awhile. I kind of love having each day documented.

He can get to the top before I count to 10.

They were ready for their last O's game of the season.

A little yoga time for Faith. She LOVES it and it's so relaxing for her!

Someone fell asleep during dinner after his first day of daycare.

Story time

We spent some time at the Maker Fair in Silver Spring.

We had a Mommy, Daddy and Faith date to the Frederick County Fair on one of her days off school.

Someone is a messy eater!

9 moths old and on the move.

He was 18 lbs at his 9 month check up and he handle the shots like a champ!

Such a big girl, but she looks so small in that big bed.

Cousin time on a fun Saturday afternoon.

I still can't believe I let her drive him around.

Another awesome show at Adventure Theatre!

How big is Daniel....?

One of her favorite activities - puddle jumping.

How does my new swim cap look, mom?

Oh you said DON'T eat any chocolate chips. Ooops!

Eyeing up the finished product. She's thinking if I touch them all then maybe I'll "have" to eat them.

These two love each other so much.

He stood there and watched Daddy mow for over 10 minutes.

First family campfire of the season, complete with s'mores!

Our first trip to the pumpkin patch was with our dear friends, The Kiernans. We're so lucky to have such amazing people in our lives, who also share the adoption bond with us.

What a typical morning looks like in our house.

10 months...already!

I was trying to take a nap. He had other plans!

Naked chef. This was the same night she told me I was "hurting life when I told her no".

Selfie for daddy - someone was VERY happy and someone was VERY grumpy.

But a donut made everything better.

We were able to spend an afternoon at Fall Family Day with Adoptions Together and a ton of other families who built their families through adoption. Faith was particularly happy to see Ms. Beth, the social worker who came to help us discharge her from the hospital as a newborn and who goes with us to her birth family visits. We love her and everyone at Adoptions Together!

Faith's preschool took a trip to the pumpkin farm and Mommy got to join the fun! We went to Gaver Farm, the same place our family cuts our own Christmas tree every year. We spent the day with her friends and her beloved teacher Mrs. Julie.