After working on it for several months, Alyssa has finally learned how to go down the stairs the right way! Woo hoo! No more falling (though she's only done that a couple of times)! She decided last week that she wanted to go down the stairs herself, so she tried it several ways and finally came to the conclusion that it was best to go down backwards. Now she has full reign of the house whenever she wants. Is this a good thing? Maybe.
In other good news, we took a family road trip last weekend. We trudged through L.A. traffic up to Carpinteria (near Santa Barbara) for Mike's cousin Thom's 40th birthday party. We had a blast. We hadn't seen that side of the family in several years, so it was really good to see them and catch up. The birthday party was so much fun (Thom has the funniest and nicest friends), the hotel was really nice, and we had a great morning and lunch catching up with Thom and his mom. Besides the traffic, the trip was perfect. We'll have to do another road trip soon (though next time we'll try to avoid the L.A. traffic).
I've started my PACT (Performance Assessment for California Teachers), which is basically another thesis. This means I'm nearing the end of the Intern program, and I'm so excited to get my Thursday nights back (I've spent one LONG night each week in class for the last two years) and get my official teaching credential. The PACT is due May 5, so I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm shooting to be done by spring break, so it may even be sooner than that. Unfortunately, there is a LOT of work to do between here and there. Mike has been home on disability for a while, since he hurt his ankle. He's been an amazing Mr. Mom through this ridiculous amount of work I'm doing. I couldn't do it without him.
We're nearing the end of the adoption. The papers were signed this weekend and Alyssa has officially been placed with us! I know, it's been a long time, but this adoption has hit road block after road block. We've pushed through and are now finishing it all up. The final reports should be filed by early next week, and then we should be able to schedule a court date to finalize. We're anxious to have this over with and have Alyssa be officially ours!!!
