I just finished putting Piney to bed.

I put her in her warm p.j.'s and cuddled her under her warm blankets.

We talked about how it was cold, dark and freezing outside, but we were so happy to be in this warm house, in a soft bed with our little lamp.

Then we played with her magna doodle for awhile.

She made the whole thing dark because it was dark outside.

But then she was sure to include the moon. She went on about the moon for a long time.

Then we played with her little leapfrog bus and she kept asking me if the buttons were too loud for me.

I would agree that they were loud, so she would turn it down or off.

Then she would turn it on again and ask me if it was too loud.

Of course it was really never too loud.

Then we read several books.

She always wanted to skip to her favorite parts.

Finally I whispered a song in her ear, but she wouldn't let me go until she whispered one in mine.

As I was leaving her room I thought of how far she had come in the past year.

She was a completely new child.

No longer a baby who could not understand us, who rocked herself to sleep and could barely walk.

Now she is tall, strong, confident and happy.

And then I remembered.

I came in my bedroom and said M, "Isn't today the anniversary of the day we brought her home?"

Has it really been one full year since she has been with us?

And right at that moment (I am telling the truth here!) I looked over at our computer and (we have all of our photos rotate as a screen saver) the photos of her homecoming came on the screen.

You will appreciate the significance of that if you knew the huge amount of pictures on my computer!

So I sat down and I went back into my blog archives and sure enough!

We touched down on the 14th and the 15th was her first day home one year ago today.

Re-reading over those old posts made me remember what an exciting and special time that was.

Only one week away until her birthday on January 21.

She will be three!

Hooray!

What a special joy she has been in our lives!

We love you Piney!

Labels: Russian Adoption, Russian Pineapple Princess: our adopted daughter