1 Year Ago today.....

We got the phone call that our court date was scheduled and we had to leave for Russia in 9 days and stay for 3+ weeks!!!! We were literally on cloud 9 that day!!! I remember wanting to scream to the world that we were going to get our baby!!! The next couple of days were a scramble trying to make arrangements to get our plane tickets. Thankfully daddy is an expert in that field and that job was left to him. We also had sent for our visa's a few days before so they were all ready in process and one less worry for us. These next few weeks are filled with some many unbelievable memories with being reunited with our little angel after 4 months, going to court and hearing the judge say "yes", leaving the orphanage on Gotcha Day with our baby boy and never looking back and pulling in the driveway that very late night saying "We are finally home!!!".

Matt has come so far in a year. He has gained almost 8 pounds and has grown 5+ inches. He is becoming such a little boy instead of our baby! His vocabulary in the last 2 months or so has exploded. He is most probably up to about 50+ words and just in the last week or two has started to put 2-3 words together!! He is also able to count to 10 (with a little help) and knows almost all of his colors. When we sing his songs with him before he goes to bed he is starting to learn the words and sings along with us. So cute!!! His teachers at school are so proud of how he is progressing and are starting to talk about moving him up to the next class. Only problem....he needs to be potty trained! He has started talking alot of "the potty" but still not really too interested in actually trying. We have bought a little potty seat and are really going to start focusing on it. Mommy bought a book on Potty training so will see how that goes but boys will be boys and he just turned 2.5 so maybe still a little bit too young! He is still a bit of a picky eater but starting to expand his menus. His favorites are chicken nuggets, mac n cheese, mashed potatoes, turkey meatballs and pasta, cheese quesadilla, loves loves yogurt and would live on it if we let him and he is starting to try pizza. He also loves his fruit but vegetables are tough. We need to get a food processor so we can start trying to trick him with vegetables!! If anyone has any suggestions for getting him to eat vegetables, would love to hear them. He still is not a fan of the bathtub as he stands up the whole time and will not sit down...too funny....so needless to say, bathtime is short and sweet. He has figured out how to stall when he does not want to do something. At bedtime now, he likes to go in his crib instead of being rocked but then he wants us to rub his back or hold his hand or his newest thing is.....he lays down and then when we start to walk out of his room saying good night to him.....he stands up.....hug, hug, hug....how that tugs at your heart so we have to do hugs over and over (which could certainly never get old) he knows that gets us!!! :)

We also this past saturday had our 1 year post placement visit with our social worker which went very well. She too was very pleased with Matt's progress since she saw him back in July for our 1st post placement visit. So all is great at the Cooper's.

Here are a few recent pictures including our latest snowstorm. We have had 2 snowstorms already this winter and we live in the south....crazy! The storm that came in last sunday and left us with about 6-7 inches of snow closed the schools for the ENTIRE week. So it was a crazy week trying to juggle work, home, etc but we managed and we had lots of bonding time at home.