Moon Festival weekend

The "Geek Squat" lives in my house and I happen to be in love with him!! Woohoo, Sean had my laptop up and running the very next day even better and faster than it had been running before the whole bug incident. But I knew Sean would get me up and running in no time. He is so freakin' smart! I would love to back up my statement by sharing some of the intricancies of the bug but if I did, you guys would start yawning and you may even fall asleep and miss all of the wonderful layouts I decided to share below-lol

We had a really nice weekend. We met up with other adoptive parents at a Moon-Festival event downtown. It was really nice to see and catch up with families we've met before and some families we met for the first time. On Sunday we were invited to a princess birthday party. Although pics of little princess and pirates would have been cute, most of the kids and some of the adults spent most of their time in the pool. Ahhh have I mentioned lately how much I love living in FL? We still have a few weeks left for pool and water play for our little fish.

This week we are looking forward to Jim, Lisa and Madi spending a nice long weekend with us. We traveled together to pick up our Wuwei beauties two years ago.

In the meantime check out what's been keeping me busy this past week. I'm learning how to use certain elements like torn edges, paper curls, changing photos to black & white, sepia, etc. It's a digi thing and I'm hooked:-) Enjoy!

Laptop caught a bug

I was going to create a cute layout of our wonderful weekend but I decided to surf the net one more time for that must have embellishment. Then, it finally happened...we caught a bug. Never mind that I have the N*rt*n antivirus protection on. These nasty, pesky little creeps still figure out a way to try to ruin a fun little hobby for me. Thank goodness my wonderfully, handsome hubby (yes I'm sucking up big time) is also a computer geek. I'm sure he'll get us fixed in no time. In the meantime, I've jumped on my desktop for a quick blog update and then off to bed.

Hubby and I have been trying to catch a movie at least once a month. It's a bit easier to do now with his wonderfully wide open schedule:-) Last Friday we saw the new movie "Burn-After-Reading". It was surprisingly a dark comedy and I guess I must like that sort of thing because I found myself LMAO!! We really enjoyed the humor and surprising twists and turns. Friday night we met friends at the park for a family movie night. The featured movie was "CARS" and Kylie talked about how she saw a movie with her friend Amanda the next day - too sweet! Saturday my SIL came over for sort of a day trip "a kinda we'll see how it goes type thing" and next thing I know we finally said goodbye to each other on Monday morning - lol!! I sorta had a little something to do with that. She mentioned that she would spend the night if she ended up having a cocktail or two and I made sure to give hubby the gentle nudge to bring them on. We went to our favorite stomping grounds, Sea*World and then we had a little play time in the pool. Thank goodness here in FL we can use our pool for another couple of months. Of course we also went to the park and the kids enjoyed the water play area. The kids played beautifully together and we all had a blast.

Lately Kylie has been into Princess and Pirates all on her own. She TELLS her Daddy that he MUST be the Pirate.

Family movie night at the park

Sea*World fun. Not sure what my SIL was saying. Was she singing Opera?
Water play at the park. I love this pic. And if you are wondering, what's with the hat? Sean had a fancy, shmancy chemical peel and must protect his face from the sun for a few days.

New blog look

Today I spent most of the day neglecting my family while I obsessed over how to makeover the look on our blog - LOL! Luckily the instructions my friend BarbaraZ sent me who by the way is a wealth of information made it seem pretty simple. Is as if she was in the room holding my hand guiding me through step by step. Thanks Barbara! The longest time was spent trying to create the banner with the endless digi kits I've collected in the past year. I'm by no means done with the new look but it's a start. I have to figure out how to make it all fit nicely. Thanks to my hubby also for being so understanding and supportive and giving me a few hours to myself. He and Kylie ran some errands while I played today. Here is a video with Kylie singing her ABC's with what sounds like a slight accent:-)

Family Day Anniversary

Today we celebrated what is commonly known in the adoption community as "gotcha day" or our "forever family day". Whatever the preference is, today marks our two year anniversary of meeting our beautiful and precious daughter who has forever changed our lives in ways we would have never imagined. Kylie fills our lives with so much joy and happiness. There is nothing we wouldn't do to ensure her safety, health and happiness. We have become stronger and better human beings because of her. We value our family more than anything and our bond grows stronger with each and every day.

Mommy and Daddy love you more than words can say baby girl!!

Gotcha/Forever Family Day 09-03-2006
Our Family 08-31-2008

Our 1st ER visit

Sean and I have been together for 11+ yrs and I can honestly say that we have yet to visit the ER for any reason (knock on wood) that is until this past Sunday night. Kylie came home from a wonderful playdate and complained on the ride home that her forehead itched. Once at home she kept scratching and upon close inspection it turned out she had a minor scratch on top of a little shiner. I was not alarmed at all instead I wished that I could take away any discomfort she was feeling. Poor Bean. The next day we had a lovely time visiting one of our favorite places Sea-World and the day went on as usual. Sunday evening in the middle of a movie, Kylie asked us for juice and I was a bit concerned at how different she seemed to look to me at that moment. I asked Sean in the faintest whisper as to not upset Kylie if he noticed the same thing I did. Once he confirmed that he did, we immediately went into action contacting our after hours pediatric nurse. Kylie's profile was no longer the one that we knew of instead it was a slightly enlarged forehead area. The little indent between her nose and forehead were no longer there. The after hours nurse suggested that we take her to the ER as the first 72 hrs were critical for head injuries. Sean and I immediately went into action as if we've done this a million times before.
DVD player...check
coloring book and crayons...check
snacks...check
and so on. We pretty much planned that we'd be spending several hours in the ER. We never panicked or let Kylie think there was anything wrong. When it was time to dress her into warmer jammies, Kylie asked "where are we going mommy"? I told her we were going for a ride. She then asked "where are we going Daddy"? She received the same response. Once we arrived I expected to fill out tons of paperwork. It ended up being just one page and I was barely done signing my name when Kylie was called in for the registration, blood pressure, heart check and all that jazz. We barely waited 10 min in the waiting room when we were called in to see the Dr. We couldn't believe our luck! The whole time Kylie was happy as can be. I guess anything was better than having to go to sleep. Have I mentioned how difficult it is to get her to bed each night despite the routine? But I digress... She was never scared or seemed concerned. It's almost as if she was enjoying the attention. The Dr. said it seemed that Kylie had a Hematoma and judging by how alert and happy she was, there was no need to put her thru x-rays or cat scans. He said that the Hematoma will continue to drain down and to expect bruising or black eyes and to notify our daycare of such so that they don't call the authority on us. Yes sir! That was it. We were on our way to the hospital at 10:30pm and Kylie was finally in bed by midnight. Is that amazing or what? I'd like to think that we will not have to visit there again but if we do, we are ready. Sean and I don't work well together on home improvement projects or even picking out furniture but I was really impressed with how we each instintively seemed to know what our roles were in preparing for our first ER trip and took swift immediate action. Wink.

On a precautionary note, if your little one experiences a head injury followed by vomiting or acts lethargic, seek immediate attention. Per the Dr. the first 24 hrs are critical rather than the 72 hr window that the nurse mentioned.

My little purse camera came in handy for documenting our scary event. I'm not sure that the pics really show the swelling on her forehead, over her eyes or even above the bridge of her nose as much. But believe me, it was a cause for concern and we would not have slept thru the night without having it checked out by a professional. Thank goodness all is well - whew!