Anatomy of an Lj Picture

I’m trying to do a little blog catching up this morning before I get busy doing some real chores.  Last Friday was my first official day of summer vacation.  After breakfast we began to get ready for some errands.  I dressed her in a cute little outfit that Aunt Carolyn bought her.  It was so cute I decided ponytails were in order.  Lexi was really happy with her cute self until I got out the camera.  Okay, you’d THINK that by now a child that gets her picture taken practically EVERY DAY would be more accommodating, but no. She has a “knee jerk” reaction to go right into ignore Mommy mode… just watch what I go through to get her to cooperate.  (I’m pretty sure MODELING is NOT in her future.)

The “OH, GREAT she has the camera out again” look!

The “MAYBE if I close my eyes, she will go away” look!

The “UGH, she’s still here” look!

The “ALRIGHT, if I poke my cheeks that means I’m smiling” look!

The “FINE, I’ll cooperate” look!

The “look at me Aunt Carolyn” look complete with I’ll smile look.

The " I like my new outfit, especially the shirt” pose just for Aunt Carolyn” look!

The “ENOUGH AREADY COME ON MOMMY let’s GO” look!

And with this we left, ran some errands and finally went to Applebee’s for lunch.  We had a great Mommy-Daughter lunch.  Lexi is awesome when we go out.  She has the most manners of any child I’ve ever seen her age.  She says “Thank you” when people open the door for us, give her a menu, bring her food, or do anything nice.  She even says “bless you” if someone sneezes, and “excuse me” if she needs someone to move.  It simply amazes me and everyone else as well.  We had a great first day.  If only I could get her to be as accommodating with picture taking as she is with manners!

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Dancing Princess

Just let me say we could NOT make these stories up!  Today Lj was very congested and whiney.  After getting her home I felt “sorry” for her and gave her part of a chocolate bar for a snack.  She ended up begging for more and Mommy caved and gave her more.  Needless to say I sugared her up, ruined her dinner and made her hyper!  Her Daddy came home and she milked her runny nose and puny disposition.  After not eating dinner, we tried reading to her but then still was not ready to go to bed.  So Dear Daddy got the genius idea that we should let her watch some “Dancing With the Stars” to calm her down.  LOL! Once she saw the dancer, she immediately wanted her tutu (do you kind of get the idea from the “If you give a Mouse a Cookie” story coming on here?? So then once a number started she began to dance with Geoff.  I just about fell over dying laughing as they danced! At the end she began to chant and bow, “Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!”.  (Where did that come from???)  So I grabbed the camera and we rewound hoping for a reenactment.  I did capture some video but needless to say nothing compares to the original.  Notice how she makes sure I know that she is “dancing!” and at one point wanted to make sure that her tutu was correctly in position. LOL! I think dance lessons are a must in our future.

After Lexi’s dancing encore, we began the nighttime routine.  This can be exhausting within itself.  She is a creature of habit.  We began the normal telling everyone on the mantel goodnight routine and finally made it to the family portrait. The she began “good night family, Dada, Mommy, & Lexi!” followed by singing “I love you, you love me… we’re a happy family with a great big hug (as she gathers us up for a hug!) and a kiss from you to me, won’t you say you love me too?!”.  Where she gets this stuff is amazing!  She has not watched Barney in a long time!  She only wants to watch “Caillou”.  Of course, it warms our hearts to the very core of our being.  She is far more than we ever dreamed.  She amazes us every day.  I do wonder if what Mei told us from the very day of our referral is true, that she may be musically inclined.  Who knows?  She loves to sing and make up her own songs (as you can see in the video) and now is dancing and showing off.  I know all parents experience these thoughts and feelings but I just can’t help but deny that at this stage in my life (and Geoff’s) it’s wonderfully fun!

Weekend Photos

The weekend was pretty laid back.   I’ve nursed my cold and unfortunately may have passed it on to Lj.  She’s now got a running nose and is sneezing a lot.   This afternoon we went to an old friend’s daughter’s graduation party.  She is an adorable girl destined to have a very bright future.  She will be going off to college at Ga. Tech with a full scholarship in August.  I don’t know what Sharon is going to do without Kaitlyn at home.  Lexi has not really spent much time with Kaitlyn but she was all Lexi wanted to talk about on the way home.  They live at the coast so I brought my camera knowing that there would be plenty of good photo opportunities.  Lexi was adorable in the new dress her Daddy bought her last week.  She really came alive and tried to steal the spotlight at the party. She’s definitely not on the quiet side like her father and me.

 

 

Just before we left, Lexi surprised Sharon with a big hug and actually let her pick her up.  Lexi’s a smart girl.  She knows when people want to hold her and will play her games and make them work for it.  She made Sharon very happy!  Her lips look like she has on black lipstick from her eating a Ga. Tech black and yellow cookie!  It was a very nice party.  We wish the best in life for Kaitlyn. 

Last Day of the 2009-2010 School Year!

Wahoo!  Yes, it’s over.  Only four more work days to go.  However, I think the excitement and joy of the end of the school year has been lost with a quickly oncoming Sinus Infection.  Those of us who suffer from them know exactly what I’m talking about.  It hit me yesterday after lunch… sore throat, sneezing, tiredness, runny nose.  This morning I woke up after not being able to breathe through my nose all night and waking all night to get water to ease my dry mouth complete with such a terrible headache  on the left side of my head that hurt to even touch my face. I went to work anyhow and made it through the day.  My biggest regret was feeling awful during the day and not properly saying good bye to my dear students, especially the 5th graders who will be moving on. Some of them are just jewels that melt my heart each time I see them. 

So this afternoon as soon as the buses were leaving, I went home leaving Lj with Mom so I could rest.  I was hot, clammy and achy and turned the air down to about 70 degrees.  Took more meds and went to sleep.  At about 5:30 I work up and went to get her.  I do feel better as long as I am still and keep taking the meds.  Geoff is now Lexi’s prisoner.  Yesterday as I laid on the couch after bringing her home from Mom’s and telling her that I felt bad, she kept climbing on me and just begging me “read to me please, Mommy!”.  You can just imagine how hard it is for me to not read to our precious child at the age of two begging to be read to, especially when the books she wants to read right now are “I Love You Like Crazy Cakes!” and '”Chinese New Year”.  I feel that she is interested in her beginnings because every time I read the Crazy Cakes book, I relate how it is so much like when we got her.  I think during the summer break I will make our very own Crazy Cakes book for her using her pictures.

Tomorrow we may be keeping both Grandsons while Sara gets a hair cut (providing I don’t feel any worse).  It should be fun and we are looking forward to 3 little electric charges to keep us energized!  So since I have very little pictures of today I will post a few recent pictures of pictures of Lj, Brennen and CE in anticipation of tomorrow!

What a messy breakfast!  Amazing, they both ate pretty well!

Who says Lj can’t share well? 

Two water babies! 

Little Lj has to get some “junk in her trunk” to fit into Daddy’s bathing suit pick for this year!  LOL! (she even has on a little swimmer diaper!)

Brennen caught in mid-air!  Lexi was not nearly as brave!  But Lexi was very impressed!

Smokey actually liked Brennen more than Lexi for some reason.  Lexi scares him!  They were so funny because at one point Lexi was standing in the yard and he unexpectantly rubbed her little tushy and knocked her down.  From then on, they both tried to position their bottoms so he would rub them and knock them down.  They are such copy-cats!  

You’d never know they are not cousins but instead Auntie and nephew!  It’s amazing how the American family has changed into it’s own unique miracle.  We just must just always remember to bring along our faith and family values as the family unit continues to change.  I can with 100% faith say that I know that God smiles down on our family and wouldn’t have our multi-cultural family any different.  And when I say that I mean my sister’s family as well has Geoff’s brothers and of course, my very own family who was made complete with my brother’s adoption many years ago. I couldn’t love my family any more!

Quick Courtsey of Lissa!

Melissa can get crafty for me anytime  She made this Quick Page for me last night.  All I had to do was stick a phone it!  Thanks Chickie!  Lj and I love you sooooo much!

The Lexi Catwalk!

This afternoon Aunt Carolyn came over with new duds for Lj!  Not only did she bring a straw hat with matching “kini” for Lexi, she also brought a new pair of shorts and an adorable shirt from Baby Gap.  We had to get Lexi to model it for us and with very little prompting she began her “modeling” career!  She reminds me of the old fashioned Coppertone girl just Asian style!

 

Who would ever think our Lj would have a tummy much less those athletic thighs!  Don’t you just love the Betty-boop pose??

And this one… a little “Shirley Temple”!

And of course, Daddy’s reaction to seeing his precious baby daughter in a “kini”. 

She quickly changed his tune working her Lj Magic sharing her hat and posing for the camera even giving him her “signature smile” pose! 

Let’s just say, our LJ will be the cutest babe on the beach this summer!

Love Me Some Quick Pages! And some Lexi Jayne too!

 

Quick pages are a digital scrapbooking Mommy’s best friend!  These were done in a matter of minutes using a few Mother’s Day photos.

E-i-e-i-o!

One of my most firm opinions is that a child can never have too many books!  Research clearly shows that reading to children is one of the most important things parents can do for their children.  Plus, I just love children’s books!  We’ve read to Lexi from day one.  At first she wouldn’t let you get through an entire book and tried to turn the pages too fast but now she sits so patiently and listens and looks and takes it all in. 

Well, I bought her a new Old MacDonald book last week and brought it home on Monday.  She has several versions already but I liked this one better because it had more animals in it.  Lexi found the book on the table and I asked her if she knew the name of the book.  She flipped through the pages and said “e-i-e-i-o!”  I was so proud that she recognized this!  She really is beginning to read!  Later that evening we were reading a book about numbers.  At the end of the book they had a few pages where you counted objects and then were asked which item had more.  She floored me when she got them both right! This shows me that she is developing number sense and her counting is getting great too.  She now counts to 10 and we are adding more numbers slowly. 

Yesterday afternoon, I was trying to do something I never do anymore (watch Dr. Phil) and Lexi began to say “Mommy, please read book!”  Over and over!  I told her we would read later and I ended up going to cook dinner.  So after dinner we read, and read, and read.  We read two books about China.  One was about Chinese New Year and the other “I love you like Crazy Cakes” is about a woman who adopts a little girl from China.  As we read the books Lexi was just thrilled to see pictures of children that look like her and as we read the Crazy Cake book, we talked about our experience adopting her.  She was so amazing and so interested.  I couldn’t help but get tears in my eyes as I relived our experience through the story.  It was indeed a special moment.  Later we moved on to reading more books like “We’re going on a Bear hunt”.  She LOVES that one!  And others that included Cinderella  and even one that has first words in it.  She can read that one to me by reading the pictures.  We read for close to an hour and as I scanned the living room last night you can tell one thing for sure… Lexi loves books.  If there was ONE book pulled out, there were at least 25 laying on the tables and the floor.  She does have tons of books but like I said, you can never have too many as long as you are reading them! 

 

These are the ones we read last night… many of them more than once!

And yet more that were stacked on the coffee table.  I think this stack was from the night before! 

I need a hero!

Okay so I’m “dating” myself quoting this 80’s song from “Footloose”. Who cares!  Age is just a number.  But today when I came home after working all day finishing grades for the year and dealing with Kids that are soooooo ready for summer vacation and taking Lj grocery shopping (where she never fails to say “hello” to anyone who walks by…. such a polite, friendly little child!) and then walking in to the house only to discover Sable busted out of the laundry room and gave me a nice little “pee-pee” present on the living room hardwood floor, I was a little more than NOT in the mood to clean it up.  (Those who went to school here will understand when I say that Mrs. Darsey would “fry” me for my long run-on beginning sentence!) Anyhow…. I put the deaf Sable outside and began to clean up the floor.  Lexi was really sweet and stayed on the couch as I cleaned the floor but eventually she got up and proceeded to “help” me.  Who needs a housekeeper when you have such a cutie to help out…. or at least make things more fun?

This was after she laid on the couch with her new “pillow” … who knew you could save so much money on pillows!  Lexi sure had fun with the Kroger $1.49 paper towel roll! (We’ve had to scale down from our favorite Viva paper towel!)  Maybe one day we can afford a housekeeper from the savings we make from not buying Viva anymore… (NOT!  Just wishful thinking!)

In closing… the t-shirt explains it all!  LOL!  In the middle of Kroger this afternoon Lexi proclaimed, “I happy girl!” How sweet! And I’m so thankful!  She makes us as happy as we try to pay it forward with her every day! I always wanted two children and now I have them and love them both so much! 

No pictures but a really sweet story…

I’m back tracking a bit but have a sweet little story to document lest I forget.  We knew we were getting Brennen for the night ahead of time.  Geoff and I had an agreement that he would get up and take Lexi to breakfast and let me sleep in after a really hard week at school and then we would go get the little guy. It was a nice thought but in the end we were all awake at 7:00.  So we all ended up going to breakfast.  It was so nice! After a really nice family time, we were walking Lexi out when a man stopped us.  I had noticed him watching us, which is not uncommon.  It’s very noticeable that Lexi is Chinese and we are not.  We simply see her as our daughter but we do draw interest in others. I usually just feel proud that we have Lexi and refuse to buy into any negativity. We are after all, very proud parents!  This man stopped us though and told us that if we ever noticed anyone staring at us to not think it is because of anything negative.  He wanted to let us know that it was because people see the miracle of our family. He told us that Lexi was a miracle.  We agreed with him and of course told him what a blessing Lexi was from our gracious Lord.  Needless to say…  blessed we are!

Daddy’s Little Helper

Daddy (and MOMMY!) finally has a little helper.  Mom’ s been telling me for weeks how they can’t  do anything in the yard without Lexi underfoot trying to help out.  Yesterday we picked up Brennen and had him stay for the first time all night since we brought Lexi home.  They had a ball and so did we despite the fact it was tiring!  Yesterday Geoff bought me new hedge trimmers and I went to work as the kids played.  So today Geoff had to get the trimmings out of the yard for the pickup tomorrow.  Lexi would have nothing to do with letting her Daddy work alone.  It was too cute to not photograph!

I have to start the pictures with this morning with Brennen and his bed-head.  I love this picture!

Lexi’s bed-head was not so dramatic.

 

The best picture I could get before church of the two of them…

After church Lexi went to Nana’s and Brennen went home with Sara and Geoff and I took off to Savannah for a quick shopping trip and lunch alone with no kids! We had a great time but missed our Lj and still couldn’t keep our minds off of her.  We bought her two dresses and a pair of shorts and a top.  We’ve began to look for adjustable shorts because her waist is so tiny that most of the shorts we have bought fall off of her unless they have an adjustable waist. She needs the length of 18 to 24 months pants but the waist of 12 months.  It’s too hard to clothe this child!

On the way home she discovered our Micky-D Sweet Teas.  She kept saying “I like sweet tea!”.  (the red spot on her face is courtesy of a mosquito that hitched a ride in our car)

Then helping Daddy…

 

This one reminds me SO MUCH of me as a child… always on the heels of Daddy trying to do everything he was doing. 

 

I have more pictures of Lj and Brennen and others from last week but it’s just been hard to keep up with the blog like I usually do.  Hopefully, I’ll get to post more soon. 

Mother's Day

I know it’s been awhile.  Last week was exhausting.  On Friday my Jury duty ended at 7:30 pm.  Sitting on a Murder trial was exhausting and just so sad!  There are so many things that happen in life that are just pointless.  I really hope I never have to sit on a jury again for many years.  But my life with MY family made me feel happy again.  On Sunday morning as I took my shower to get ready for church, I felt sad for the families of everyone involved with the trial but reminded myself that it was Mother’s Day and that I was a mother to two beautiful daughters.  My only regret is that I didn’t get pictures of me and my TWO daughters.  I meant to but we all got distracted.

I had a great Mother’s Day.  I spent time with MY mother and MY daughters. I also had other wonderful family around and we enjoyed every minute.  I wish I had more pictures!

Here’s our Lexi at breakfast displaying all her “creative” sense of style.  (Daddy let her pick her shirt and she picked the sunglasses!) I didn’t get a homemade Mother’s Day breakfast but I did get my favorite Micky D’s breakfast complete with no mess to clean up complete with a very quirky Lj!

She cleans up nicely, huh?  This was before church.  Notice she is wearing the dress she wore when she came home to GA.  The one Mom bought her from Strasburg. Finally, it fits perfectly!  (even if it IS a 6 months size dress) She was beautiful in it. ( I just hate ironing it because it gets so wrinkled in such a short time! LOL!)   

Quite a change from March 6, 2009…

It was a Happy Mother’s Day indeed!

Tired….

Nine hours of jury duty.  Getting a picture for the 365 project may be hard to do tonight!  I just want to gel… oh, but wait!  I’ve sat all day!  How can sitting make you so tired???

Rainy Day Tuesdays…

So today was a true Spring Rainy day!  I had jury duty and fortunately allowed to go home a little after one. I didn’t pick up LJ since she was sleeping but then picked her up later to go get a hair cut from Mrs. Cheryl.  Lexi was awesome!  She loves her some Mrs. Cheryl and totally understands the concept of getting her hair cut.  The worst part of the day was that it rained ALL day.  I couldn’t find my umbrella so I was forced to squeeze us under Lexi’s!  After a very rainy afternoon, we made it home.   I decided to let Lj go puddle jumping in all the rain buildup in the backyard.  She put on her boots and got her umbrella and me with my crocs headed outside with the camera.  (Along with a new frog I picked up for her at a local gift shop outside the courthouse that I thought she would love for her little flower garden).  We had so much fun in the rain!  I just wish I had bought her the raincoat to go along with her umbrella!  Needless to say it was a fun afternoon!

It’s hard to believe we had this much water today!  Our backyard is like a sponge! Oh, but look how it makes her garden grow!  She is her Mommy’s daughter! Her little garden space is just getting prettier and prettier!  And now it has a Frog Prince to oversee it when she is not watching!