Happy Mother's Day

I started this post a week ago and never got around to completing it. We've all been SICK around the house. It seems to go back and forth between Kylie, Sean and I. Thank goodness I'm finally starting to feel a bit better. Sean had bronchitis, Kylie has had a sinus infection for about a month now and I now have a sinus infection too. Hmmm not at all contagious, huh? Sean and I have been sick this year more than we have been in the past 4 yrs combined. I guess we are starting to build up our immune system now...whatever.

Happy belated Mother's day to all the momma's and momma's to be! We didn't do much on Mother's day except for going out to breakfast which was lovely. I was gleaming and happy to finally spend my first Mother's day with the sweetest little girl of mine...oh and it was nice to have my sick hubby along too. I received a nice card and gift from Kylie and a sweet card and gift from hubby. Sorry I have no pictures to show. I received an 80gb hardrive. If you think that doesn't sound romantic or personal, let me explain. A while back I made a comment thinking that hubby completely ignored me about how I would go into total depression mode that would last a long time if I lost pics from China to current. We've lost data and pics before due to our PC crashing and I was just thinking how awful it would be to loose any pics since Kylie. I guess he WAS listening:-) Second, my car did not come equiped with a DVD player. Although I have a 15 min drive from daycare to our home, that trip can seem like a lifetime when Ms. Kylie is not in a good mood. Thanks to our DVD player I no longer have to fetch thrown sippy cups, crackers, toys etc to avoid a meltdown which ultimately happens anyway. I know, I'm waiting for my mother of the year award any day now.

I received this from Kylie/school prior to Mother's day and it made my heart melt. My eyes immediately swelled up with tears as I pulled it out of the bag it came in. Are you as impressed as I am with Kylie's handwriting?

Kylie and mommy having fun in the pool

Learning basic motor skills in gymnastics. We love this class! Thanks Jeanne for recommending it! We have alot of friends attending and we are trying to get Kylie's friend Lily to join us too.

Notice the glassy eyed, zombied look on Kylie's expression as she is watching whatever is playing on the DVD player. Priceless.

This was after breakfast on Mother's day. There is a pond next to the restaurant we went to. Kylie had fun hiding behind daddy's leg when the ducks started to come her way. She was getting a kick out of pretending the ducks where chasing her. Too cute!

Uncle Don & Aunt Nora sent Kylie her favorite gift - books!

Hanging out in our backyard earlier this year.

I've seen similar pics on other blogs and I thought that would never happen in my house because I keep the bathroom doors closed. I was shocked at first and then I had to run to get the camera.

Very proud of herself.

Having a blast with her cousin Cole.

Wuwei Sista!

This past weekend one of the families we traveled with in China where in Orlando for a visit from Maine. It was so wonderful to see our girls interacting once again! I took so many pictures (approx 200+) that it was difficult narrowing it down to just a few for the blog. We enjoyed our time so much with Tammy, Doug and Caris that we are planning to venture out to Maine and visit with them sometime in September. We continue to meet so many wonderful friends in the adoption community and it almost feels like an extended family. We will always share a common bond. The wonderful support I've received during the referral waiting period and now thru the rollercoaster ride of toddler hood is priceless.

The month of April was pretty hectic and busy for us which is why I have not posted as often as I would have liked. My wonderful hubby and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary and 11 years of togetherness in total. Every year is pure bliss. Thank you honey for being such a wonderful, caring, giving, thoughtful and loving guy. Thanks for always supporting and encouraging me to do whatever it is that I set out to do. I won the lottery the day that I met you!! :-) Additionally, this month we enrolled Kylie in a gymnastics class thanks to our good friend Jeanne who raved about it. She is right! It is a wonderful program and not only does it give Kylie and I the opportunity to interact with other kids and their parents but it also teaches Kylie some basic motor skills while having alot of fun doing it.

I barely have time anymore to sit down and jot down my thoughts. I'm sure you much rather see the pics anyway. So here you go!

Kylie at the Liki Tiki Village toddler pool

Kylie & her Wuwei sista, Caris

Forever buddies

I love that face!

Priceless!

Hugs!

Buds

CHEERS!

We took the girls to Universal to see the Barney show. The girls think Barney is pretty cool!

The gang

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.