Family Day...

Quite appropriately, our 9 month 'Meron Day' celebration fell on Memorial Day. We went to the cemetery where my ancestors are buried and introduced Meron to her great great great grandparents. I wonder what they would have thought of her. I imagine they would definitely have been surprised. Mer has been with us for 9 months now. I am now the mother she has known the longest. I know I say this all the time, but I am continually amazed at how much she is changing and how much more she is trusting us. Tonight we went to a small town near here so Nathan could test some of his taekwondo students. After the test (during which Mer yelled with all of the kids, laughed whenever someone couldn't remember something and said 'Sir!' when all of the kids did), I was chasing her around the gym. It was lots of fun, because it was such a big space. She was laughing so hard she was almost crying! It struck me that I had never heard her laugh that hard for that long before. She laughs so much more now. It is just amazing to think that for the first three months we knew her we never got a laugh out of her. Then, it was only what we called her 'fake laugh.' It was very forced. She finally really started truly laughing when we tickled her after she had been home about 4 months, but she still didn't laugh much or for long. I am so happy that she is blossoming into such a happy little girl with such an infectious laugh. I am so glad that she isn't scared all the time any more. I am so grateful that she is starting to trust me to be her mom.