Sunday, June 29, 2008

I see London, I see France...




Well, we have a new fave around our house - Abby Cadabby! Sesame Street has a new little star on their show - she is 3 years old, loves her magic wand and saying "That's so magic!" Pink is her favorite color too. Hey, I bet you can't say you have your name on your underpants, can you? I didn't think so! ;)-

Friday, June 27, 2008

Are you lookin' at ME? - Update on Katie Li Ling - Now AKA as "Mao"


Well, Jen did get updated information on Katie. She's gained maybe another pound.... We can see from the pictures that she can stand, but she looks like she's leaning more than standing. Abby was the same way. We have to laugh at her Mao hair and her expression - she is so adorable and looks so perturbed. You can tell that she is out of her routine and doesn't understand why the heck she is being made to model on some crazy playground equipment.

Oh Sweet Girl, we are blowing you kisses all the way to China!!! Mommy will come get you soon - she's trying so hard!

xoxo
Ayi (Auntie)

The sound of silence...










Evan and Abby started swimming lessons today...we're going to have private lessons once a week at home. I don't think you can ever be neurotic enough with a pool in your backyard, so that's why we decided to do it. Evan learned basics last year, and he's tall enough to stand in the pool now, which is great. Abby wasn't too keen on taking the lessons, but the teacher, Colleen, is a sweetheart. After watching her big brother for awhile, she went right to her. Abby was adorable, she kept looking at me to see if I was watching her. I stayed with the kids for this session, but afterwards I'll leave Colleen in the pool with each one for half and hour. Abby was very proud of herself afterwards and has officially decided that she likes swimming lessons.

Evan will also take swimming at the beach - those start Monday am. This is my favorite part of the summer - we get into a nice, relaxed groove and spend lots of days at the beach. Our village has a really cute beach right on the bay - everything is fenced in and contained. The kids love it because we don't have to hover over them every two seconds - they can go to the park, dig - try and catch killies, all that good stuff. It's so weird sometimes being back in the town where I grew up. I remember hating it here and my best friend, Vicki, and I couldn't wait to get out. But when I look back, it was a nice childhood and I'm glad we live here and the kids can grow up on the bay. Evan already loves fishing and crabbing!

My parents took the kids to Cedar Beach Marina today - my dad brought the boat over today. My mom picked the kids up at 11 am, right after swimming lessons were over. She didn't bring them home until almost 8 pm tonight. It was so quiet and calm at home today! I got so much done and it's awesome to start the weekend off without being overcome with laundry, etc. Thanks Mom and Dad for the free babysitting - one of my favorite gifts! LOL It was weird having the house to myself and then Scott came home and we were out in the yard together, just chatting with no interruptions. It was really, really nice. Of course we missed the kids, but it was nice to get the chance to have a conversation without having to stop and wipe a kid's butt.

So, my mom brought them home, all happy and tired. We chucked 'em in the tub and they were asleep about 2.5 seconds later.

Took some pictures of the garden today. I planted the purple clematis last year and it's just beautiful this year. I missed the roses - they are pooping out already, but now come the lilies and hydrangeas. The last couple of years the kids have planted pumpkins, which is so much fun. The pumpkin vines got so long last year - one grew from the side of our barn, up and over forsythia, into one of the tomato cages. It grew a huge pumpkin too! This year, the kids planted sunflower seeds with Scott and they are starting to get B I G. I meant to have the kids stand next to them when we first put them in the ground, and keep taking them, but of course, I didn't. So, I'll take them next to the plants tomorrow anyway. My herbs are doing great - I love going out and pinching off fresh basil and parsley and cilantro. Yummy! Sometimes that even motivates me to cook! ;)

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Introducing our new niece!


My sister, Jennifer and her hubby, Rupert, are adopting their own little sweetpea from China. They have named her Katherine Li Ling. Katie is in Guangdong Province, which is located in Southern China - about a 45 minute flight from Hong Kong. Katie is cleft affected; her lip has been repaired in China, but her cleft is still unrepaired. She will be two in November and we just think she's the cutest. She is tiny for her age; please keep her in your thoughts and prayers so that they can get her home soon! They are currently awaiting their Letter of Approval. After that, they will be waiting for travel approval, and will usually be able to leave for China 6-8 weeks later. They are obviously very anxious to get her home, give her lots of love and food! :) Jen is trying to get updates on her, so I'll post them when and if we get them.
We love you, Katie! Come home soon!
xoxoxo

Monday, June 23, 2008

OD'ing on Disney








We've booked a vacation to Disney World in September - we're going to take the kids out of school. It's going to be our first vacation in quite a while, and we're totally psyched! Abby is totally into Disney Princesses - if it's pink and has a picture of a princess on it, she wants it! The kids know who the basics are (Mickey, Minnie, etc.) but we wanted to get them more familiar with the characters. So, we started our infamous "Movie Nights". We pull the couch sideways, make popcorn and snuggle on the couch and watch different Disney movies. The kids love it! (Abby loves it until the popcorn runs out, and then she tends to get a little chatty.) Evan is totally digging the princess movies, but every time he says "I really don't like princesses, you know". Yeah, sure, we know, we know.

Today we went to a birthday party for our friend Michele's daughter, Emily. Emily and her little sister were also adopted from China. It's really great because we have met so many friends through our FCC (Families with Children from China) group. We're a pretty close-knit bunch, and it's so great to be able to get together with other families that look like ours. These kids (and there are quite a few boys now too!) have all been adopted from China and they are all growing up together. I think it's great for the girls to have that bond - that you can say to them, "Your friends, X Y and Z were also adopted from China, just like you."

I was recently able to get some information on Abby's foster mom in China. It's taken quite a long time, but we were able to track her down through an online service called chinababies.com Misty, who runs Chinababies is an adoptive mom too, and she has hired people within China to get information for adoptive families. We were initially told that although they had made phone contact with her, that she had moved and they weren't able to locate her. Finally, though, a few months later, they were able to find her. I actually have pictures of her! Her name is Liu Huizhen and she took care of Abby the first four or five months of her life. She is 62 years old and her husband is 66. We were told that she loves having children in her home, because "they bring life" to a home. When she had to bring Abby back to the orphanage, she said she was so sad. She put a red thread on Abby's wrist for good luck and to "keep the ghosts away". It is my understanding that she wants updates on Abby, which I'm thrilled about. She hopes that Abby will get a very good education because "it is so important". My ultimate hope is to get back to China someday soon so that we could possibly meet her. The orphanage where Abby lived after staying with her foster mom is going to be turned over to the local college, and may not be there after the end of this year. I firmly believe you can't just wait - China is changing too rapidly and you just don't know how many things will change if you wait too long to go back.

Before I forget to post it, Evan lost his first tooth on Friday night. He came running up the stairs, "My tooth fell out, my tooth fell out! AWESOME! " My grandma had bought my sister and I a little "tooth pillow" when we were Evan's age, so it's a little over 30 years old - it's so cute - it's a little patchwork pillow with a big fabric tooth sewn on it - we still have it - and so he put his tooth in there. Another milestone. Sigh.

(I haven't figured out how to put a picture on the top of posts, then add a couple lines of text to explain what the pictures are and then post. Obviously, the first one is of Abby's foster mom, then Abby, squeeky clean and ready for "Dumbo" and Evan and Abby chillin' on the couch for Movie Night. Also, Evan's new grin. And last but not least, what I saw, to my horror, when I opened my washing machine today. It's not what I thought it was - it was a rock. Boy O Boys! LOL

Sunday, June 22, 2008

To blog or not to blog?






I wish that I had started this years ago! It certainly would have made it much easier to document the things that are going on with the kids and our lives. But there is no time like the present, as they say!

Evan just had his stepping up ceremony from Kindergarten last Friday. Where did the year go? Where have the last six years gone? They just flew. Scott and I were so choked up at the ceremony. I felt so silly sitting there dabbing my eyes as the kids were singing adorable songs - but how can you not? My first baby is no longer a baby, and you just can't help it. As much as I want to make time stop, it's so exciting to see them grow into these little people. We adopted Abby almost three years ago - how can this be? What a blubbering idiot I'm going to be bringing her to nursery school in September. I really don't want to let her go. But go she must.

The school year was great. Evan had such a great year in Kindergarten. Abby took a Mommy and Me class (that's her playing with shaving cream above). It was with the same teacher that she'll have for nursery school. She LOVES princesses and dress up - I have to laugh at how great she clicks around in those dress-up high heels. Baseball just ended - Scott has coached for the last two years and already it's summer...
And now it's the week after school started and they're fighting and acting pretty gross in general. LOL I'm looking forward to getting into our summer routine of the beach, swimming lessons and going in the pool. But no matter how hard the days are sometimes, they are the loves of our lives.