Happy Family Day, D!

Two years ago today- while we stood waiting in a small office in Xi'an China, into the room walked 2 nannies holding a sweaty little baby in a purple jumper. Her nanny handed her to us and she gazed into our eyes and started wailing. We had no idea all of the wonderful and amazing and challenging ways you were going to change our lives. It is hard to believe that it has been two years. On one hand it seems like it was just yesterday, while on the other hand it seems like you have always been here. You have come from being that baby so afraid of us that you clung to me for dear life hours upon hours to the brave girl who climbed without hesitation onto the biggest horse during horseback riding the other day at your school. We are so grateful to be able to be your parents. Today we also remember your birthparents, because as you are a part of us, they are a part of you.

Happy Family Day D- We Love You

This Won't Look Good on a Homestudy

I was downloading photos off my little point and shoot (the one in the diaper bag for photo "emergencies") and stumbled across these two.

This is the morning after the pajama party back in December. X and D were pulling the leftover soda out of the water filled cooler and drying them off on a towel so we could store them back in the boxes. They apparently opened the cooler with the "adult" beverages as well. On the plus side, it's a great sorting activity to develop math skills. Maybe I should try it with my preschool class........

Easter Morning (in honor of May Day)

So I finally upload the Easter photos from the camera only to find out that my suspicions the autofocus wasn't working Easter morning are true.  The photos of the kids finding the eggs only vaguely resemble the kids-okay, they barely resemble people at all.  However- I did take a bunch on manual focus which are better (or at least good enough you won't feel the need to run to your eye doctor) so here they are- Easter morning.

Yeah-Even in these bunny ears I'm cool- 

and don't you forget it

This is Supposed to be Fun Right?

Just a few examples of all the fun we had at the Community Egg Hunt our neighborhood hosted a couple of weeks ago....

K was not impressed with the crowd of people or the fact someone had dared to set her on the ground

D decided that if K wanted held so did she- Eventually the thought of candy won her over

However, X is not happy that I made him dump out his basket of 20 eggs (since the kids were each allowed only 5)

And A is unhappy that no one else's parents cared about the 5 egg rule besides his. He found it very unfair (and he's not wrong) that some of the bigger kids were taking "way more than 5 eggs"

Although by the end everyone had some eggs and was basically happy

Everyone was basically happy except for K that is- she decided the only thing worse than being set down on the ground was the 6 foot tall bunny

Happy Birthday Little Man!!

Hard to believe he is FIVE- seems like just yesterday he was a baby.....

And Exactly When Would You Like Me To Do That?

So B was cleared (by me) to drive early March so I calculated (yes, because I am that obsessive) my "stats" on what I accomplished in the 80 days between when he broke his leg and when he began driving again....

3 tours of local day care centers to figure out what to do with X now that our kindergarten is half day rather than full day

1 weekend trip to my parents house

5 functions at church

4 meetings with our local school district regarding IEPs

1 toddler (almost) potty trained

3 parent/teacher conferences, sometimes the parent, sometimes the teacher

26.5 days of actually going to my job and working

1 post placement meeting with our social worker (who thankfully didn't take the fact I was laughing about everything to be a sign I had gone completely crazy)

2 Girl Scout events that I was personally responsible for coordinating and running (including one with K along for the ride in a backpack carrier on my back)

12 meetings for all the things I foolishly committed to without thinking that sometime in the future B might break his leg

8 miscellaneous appointments for unspecified reasons

38 kid related events/lessons/social events (and apparently they have way more interesting social lives than I do

63 appointments with doctors, speech therapists, occupational therapists, psychologists or other people I am hoping my insurance company will pay (Yes, we blew through all $3000 of our yearly medical deductible before the end of January)

and finally, a grand total of 5035 miles driven in 80 days. So to put it another (somewhat more disturbing) way... In the last 80 days I spent 177.5 hours or 7.4 DAYS in my car.

Thank God for satellite radio....

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!!

Happy Third Birthday to D









And probably my favorite shot-A got too close to the cake and she yelled "Mine" and gave him the "look"- you know the one I mean- the universal facial expression for "get your hands off MY cake".