Easter weekend

Our first Easter egg hunt was a blast. Kylie quickly picked up on the idea of placing the eggs into her basket with just one lesson from her Daddy. She was on her own after that. We started off our morning with our good friends from Clermont and then we spent the afternoon with our cousins from Orlando. It was a fun filled day.

This past weekend was also met with happy emotions. I still remember the disapointing wait we endured for news of our referral last year. When we started the process the wait was holding steady at 6 months and then the wait got longer and longer. I didn't feel like celebrating the holidays. We finally got word in June after waiting 12 months. My heart goes out to those families who have now waited 17-18 months with no referral in sight! Only those who are currently going thru the waiting period can understand how difficult that is to endure. My thoughts and heartfelt understanding are with you. It doesn't mean much now, but once you receive the much awaited referral the wait will be a thing in the past. Hang in there!

Now for some pics:-)

The team

Why is everyone looking at me?
Proof that Daddy 'O got into the egg hiding spirit this year. "Try to make it a little obvious for the little ones, Hon". Thanks.

Once Kylie got into it, she shook every single egg to hear if there was anything in it.

These are Kylie's cousins from Orlando. Notice she was too busy checking out the goods to pose for a pic. Notice also that she, yes she placed the basket behind her. I'm almost certain that she was thinking mine, mine, mine her new favorite words along with no and more, more, more.

And finally...Mommy's favorite another scrunchy face:-)

Scrunchy faces

Every week is loaded with new surprises from Kylie. She is starting to repeat some of our words at least once. So far she has repeated so many words that I can't even remember what they are. Lately, she said shoes, off, up, duck, cracker, night-night, stuck (in case you are wondering, I pretended to be stuck in her climber/slide) and so on. Also, it is almost impossible to take photos or video of her. She will scrunch her face for 2 seconds and then she runs towards the camera to see the photo that I didn't get to take because she ran towards me faster than I could snap the photo. I hope she gets past that stage soon because I'm missing out on capturing some great pics! I adore her scrunchy faces which is why I decided to post just that.

Here she is pretty proud of herself as I was completely amazed at how well she drank out of my glass.

What out of focus? Nope, she's just making a mad dash towards my camera while keeping the scrunchy face intact.

Our friend Ellie in the background pretending to snap a pic of me, while Kylie is determined again to see for herself. Yep, this is what most of my pics look like now.

And finally, I thought this pic was adorable even if it is out of focus. I know I'm being biased but I think she has the most beautiful brown eyes I've ever seen.

I'm not sure if we make her happy or she makes us happier. I could have never imagined feeling so proud and just bursting at the seems with so much love that grows stronger and stronger every day for our precious daughter.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

6 months now

I feel like I'm repeating myself but I can't believe that we've been home with Kylie for 6 months now. Our visit to China feels so distant and some memories that I thought I would always cherish and never forget about our trip seems to be fading away as if it were so long ago. Kylie is now 18 months old and thriving! I can't get enough of her beautiful face and I love watching her interactions. Although we are trying not to spoil her too much or treat her like a little baby, it is tough at times. Recently, daycare informed me that they worked with her on drinking from a regular cup and my immediate reaction was "no way". Is she really ready for that? I would not have known at what stages to start transitioning her to try certain things. She did quite well apparently. Kylie is also becoming very independant and throws a fit if we try to 'spoon' feed her. She is trying to figure out how to put socks and shoes on (with much difficulty). Wow, she is barely two years old! She seems to understand colors and almost everything we tell her. She communicates well with us through sign language. She still gets really irritable if we can't figure out what she wants and starts going through all of the hand signals she knows. Whenever she wants us to sing a certain song to her, she tries to motion with her hands successfully although we never taught her those. She is just starting to learn shapes and so far everything round/circles is a bubble. I think its just adorable. Kylie is starting to repeat certain words she hears us say although she will not say it again if we ask her to. This is very comforting as one of my concerns was that she would be a little delayed coming into a new language at 12 months old.

In January, she finally started calling me Mama. It was like music to my ears. She was saying mama prior to that but it was mostly babbling and learning her sounds. Now she clearly yells MAMA when she wants something. Oh the joys of parenting. She has been saying Da-da from the very beginning and she clearly loves her Dada. When I go to get her from the crib in the morning, she looks around or points to the door and says Dada? When she hears the door chime, she says Dada? I can't say that I blame her for having such admiration for her dad. Sean is an absolutely wonderful father to Kylie. He has demonstrated patience I never knew he had. He is the most wonderful, loving and unbelievable supportive guy I know.Whenever she says the word Dada, it is in a very soft and sweet tone. When she says Mama however, it is in a more demanding strong tone. It's actually quite funny. I'll try to catch it on video to share.

I've had some friends ask me if we got rid of our first baby because I have not posted pictures of him. He is still part of our family and we love him very much. We just have to keep them apart at times because depending on Kylie's mood he is either friend or foe. I'm happy to say Kylie is finally starting to warm up to Bruiser although she still tends to be a bit rough with him. That is why I barely have pictures of the two of them together. Bruiser on the other hand seems to love Kylie because she is an unlimited source for food supply:-)

Our little ham:-)

Where on earth did she learn this from? I'm not telling:-) And no she is not potty trained...yet.

Kylie LOVES guacamole!

Kylie was napping while Daddy was putting together her new climber/slide. This is her sleepy/happy face with lots o' drool.
Kylie taking tips from mommy on how to go down the slide:-)

Mini bouncy house which she absolutely loves.

On the phone with Grammy

And finally...Bruiser w/ Kylie! By the way, she thinks that 'thing' under Bruiser's belly is his belly button.

This is an older pic of the two of them together. Kylie was going for a kiss and Bruiser was going after the chewey fruit smell coming from her mouth. I probably shouldn't ruin the moment. Let's just say this was their first kiss!

Happy Chinese New Year - 2/18/07

Chinese New Year at Ming Court in Orlando, FL. What a treat! We were a group of 5 families with 5 princesses from China. Getting these girls together for a photo op reminded me of the famous red couch photo in China which was almost impossible. A great time was had by all.

Lilly and Kylie

Ellie, Kylie, Lilly, Rebekkah, & Hannah

No need to teach her how to say cheese, this is a genuine smile.

Kylie was WIRED! Check please.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sorry these are late. Our little Valentine...

Mom!! Can I please eat in peace?!?!?!

I'm in control now...

Hey, how long has this thing been on my head?

Our sweet angel in Downtown Disney

Kylie loves popcorn

First Ice Cream Cone

Kylie reading the funnies. Well not really, but she was giggling so much she might as well have been.

Grammy & Pop pop came by this weekend with Valentine gifts for Kylie including candy and home made cookies.

YUMMY!!!!!

Our first weekend in January was spent visiting one of the families we traveled with in China. They live in Delray which is approx 3 hours south of Orlando. It was the first opportunity we've had to get away since arriving home from China 4 months ago. We also had the pleasure of seeing the pediatrician we traveled with and his wife. They were visiting Delray for a mtg. It was a mini reunion and we had a blast. It was so nice to watch the girls play together. They have adjusted so perfectly to their new lives and they are very happy and healthy.

I'm glad to have the holidays behind us. There is so much to look forward to this year. Hopefully more gatherings with family and friends, I turn 40 this year and I'm not the least bit upset about it. I feel fabulous! I look forward to planning Kylie's 2nd birthday. I can't wait to take Kylie everywhere and watch her giggle with delight and marvel at new experiences. And maybe, just maybe Sean and I will start having a serious discussion about adopting baby #2... We'll just have to wait and see:-) We just love our pumpkin and we are really enjoying our new role as parents. It is at times challenging and exhausting but at the end of the day it is the best reward ever.

Christmas Eve/Christmas Day

Home 4 months now...

These pics were taken in October. Kylie's hair has grown in quite a bit since then but I wanted to post these because they are some of our fun moments. First the girl loves to eat and second she gets excited about brushing her teeth. Let's hope the momentum keeps going.

Kylie also started saying a few words: ball, bubbles, 'dow' for down and bye bye. She says them constantly because she knows she will get an excited reaction from us. Alot of people ask me how she is doing in daycare and I'm happy to say she is doing great. She is blossoming and learning so much. She interacts with the kids well and the teachers love her. The teachers stopped talking baby talk to her when they realized that Kylie understands everything they ask her to do. We are very impressed by this as we thought Kylie may be delayed in the transition from Chinese to English. It seemed that she started understanding us from the 1st month that she was home.

We had a wonderful holiday and Kylie received lots of nice presents from our family. She opened presents by pealling a piece of wrapping one at a time and handing it to the closest person to her. It was so much fun to watch. We tried not to spoil her but it was really tough to do. We waited for her for so long and feel very fortunate to finally have her in our lives.

I'll post more photos and will finally try to load a video clip. I'm still having a tough time with blogger and this new google thing.

'Tis the season...