Nature shots

I went out and about and took a few nature shots while out in the country visiting family...here are a few of my faves.

Pool time!

While visiting family, the kids went swimming with my sister and niece. Here's Thomas going off the BIG board...he's braver than I am!

We made it!

We made it to my parents' house for the holidays. Both kids traveled well...about 3 hours by plane and 3-4 more by car. Ah, driving through the boonies in pitch darkness on a 2 lane road, watching out for deer (or moose, not sure what the difference is exactly!!lol) and trying to pass into oncoming traffic... don't I just love driving in the country!lol Well, I did get to use my brights... you never get to use the brights on your car when you're driving in the city, but when you're in the country, there's not a street lamp in sight and you're watching for deer because although it's not deer season, it's been unseasonsably warm and the critters may still be prancing about the highways, brights are a nice feature to have on your car!lol

My whole family is together for the holidays...that hasn't happened in years... 7 of us are staying at my parents' house - 7 people with one bathroom...some scheduling required!lol Emma is loving having an entourage though and she met my brother for the first time this week.

I did some last minute shopping yesterday. I've heard the last couple of months that Elmo TMX is hard to get...saw him sitting on a shelf yesterday and picked it up for Emma's birthday today - our baby is TWO today - well, I must admit I didn't have a clue what Elmo did and I wish I still didn't...I want to shoot myself after hearing Elmo over and over and over and over again... I may just start drinking - tis the season isn't it!!lol Emma loves Elmo, I almost hoped she'd be afraid of it, nah, she loves to dance and laugh along with him...any chance there IS a volume control on Elmo and I just can't find it?

Holidays went well, nice to have the whole family together and today we undertook the journey back home. Got to drive in daylight today, although since there were whiteouts part of the way, still couldn't see anything!!lol Some flights got cancelled but ours thankfully didn't. It was pretty bumpy until we got above cloud level, but after that, it was pretty smooth. We're now home safe and sound and I have a few hundred pics to download!lol Hope everyone had wonderful holidays. I must say, between Hannukah, Christmas and Emma's birthday, there are enough new toys here to start a toy store!!! Here's a pic of Emma with Elmo...more pics to come. And finally, may I say that our kids are such good travelers...they're really troopers these two, I'm very proud of them. :-)

What's this?

Do you think she's trying to tell me something - umm...maybe along the lines of "take that ^$*^ camera out of my face"??lol

Just kidding...

Well, a girl can always change her mind.. click away mommy!

Two year old check up

I just can't believe it, but our baby is turning 2 this month and she had her 2 year old checkup today. She weighs 25 lbs and is 32 inches tall. While she was fine going to the doctor's office, I'd say even excited, and was happy to point out the doctor's picture on the wall, as soon as he walked into the exam room, she became velcro child and would not let go of me for anything. She kept saying "Emma afraid of doctor"... he did the exam with me turning from side to side and such so he could reach whatever part of her he wanted!lol She got one shot and didn't so much as flinch...I guess she was too busy being afraid of doctor to notice the shot! Anyhow, he pronounced her healthy as a horse and at or above all developmental milestones for her age.

WAY TO GO!

Big kudos to Thomas who got his blue advanced belt in karate this month. :-)

Just because...

Here's another picture, just because I think it's really cute! :-) Also, have I mentioned that Emma is really starting to pull her sentences together? She's now adding adverbs and prepositions and all kinds of such tidbits to make her sentences fuller and sometimes it's just hilarious what she comes up with, not to mention that you wonder where she comes up with this stuff. Tonight she was telling us some tall tale and at the end, she looks at us and with a very determined look, tells us "that's true mommy, that's true daddy!!"lol Okay, so she's looking us in the eye and lying which isn't good, but it was still so funny to watch her in action!lol

Where's the winter wonderland?

This is a picture taken at the park this morning... not looking too wintery yet is it??

Daddy, I'm a very big girl!

Gary hadn't been to the play at the park with Emma for a little while. He kept saying "can she go on that, should she be up there" etc... and yeah, she can and she does and you just try to stop her. She kept telling him "Emma is a VERY big girl"!!lol Here she is doing some "big girl" stuff at the park. I can't believe my baby girl is turning 2 next week!!

What a beautiful morning!

It's such a gorgeous day today, temperatures in the 50s... that's amazing for mid-December in these parts! After we dropped Thomas off at a morning program, we took Emma to the park. She had such a great time. Here she is just running around and playing in the leaves.

Blogger

Blogger isn't letting me post comments on any of the new Beta blogs unless I do so as "anonymous"... can anyone tell me if the same is happening to them or if not, what I'm doing wrong??

Fave small kitchen appliance

What is your favourite and/or most used kitchen appliance? While the toaster is probably the most used, it doesn't really do much for me!lol However, I just LOVE my rice cooker. Until I got it a year or two ago, I rarely made rice since I found it was too much of a hassle and I rarely got it to the right consistency - yeah, I know, the new R*chael Ray I'm not!!lol Anyhow, then a year or two ago, I'm walking down the aisle at Home Depot of all places and there they were, a whole stack of rice cookers. One made its way into my cart. I think it cost about $20. It's a basic, cheap model and I so love it. I measure however much rice I want for a particular meal, put in twice as much water, put on the cover and press the button...when it's ready, it switches itself to warming mode and whenever I want it, be it right then or an hour later, perfectly cooked, hot rice! Tonight, we're having our weekly salmon, rice and asparagus dinner...original, I am not!lol Oh rice cooker, what did we do before ye!lol Ya'll have a great dinner!

What more could you want!!

My husband is one of the most intelligent, well traveled and well read people I know. He's a very successful lawyer, speaks 3 languages fluently, including Mandarin which he learned as an adult - and those of us who tried to learn a few phrases for our adoption trips to China know how difficult a language it is to learn! He's Ivy League educated, has more books on China's history and culture than anyone else would ever want to read - really, how many people own all the published volumes of The Cambridge History of China and have actually read them!!!lol You get the picture - serious, intellectual, quiet - the life of the party - okay, not that last one!lol Anyhow, what was the one thing my serious, intellectual husband desperately wanted for his birthday:

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GET SMART - 138 EPISODES...yup, about 25 DVDs worth of what was possibly the worst and dumbest show on TV ever - (it ran from 1965 to 1970 for you young ones!lol)...really, it included such contraptions as the cone of silence, the shoe phone, and various other dumber than dumb gadgets...really, bad, bad, bad, does not even begin to describe it. And as I type, my usually intelligent and reserved DH is sitting upstairs watching and laughing so hard he's in tears... and unfortunately introducing Thomas to the wonder that was Get Smart!!lol Ah the bigger they are, the harder they fall!! And yes, I know, I'm an enabler since I ordered it for him! :-)

Silly Emma!

Emma's beginning to be pretty funny, she totally cracks herself up the most. She'll do funny things and say "Silly Emma" or she'll say or do something really silly and she's tell us "Emma just tricking!" Anyhow, she just spilled a bit of milk on the floor. I gave her a paper towel to wipe it up (remember, Emma is anal Mrs. Clean!lol), so she wipes it up, gets up and goes over to the garbage can, opens it, pops in the wet paper towel and says "good idea, good job Emma, thank you Emma!"lol

Cookie Time!

Here we are, making our chocolate chip cookies and ginger cookies.

First up, Emma gets the mixer going - don't worry, it's off while I'm taking the picture!lol

Now, time for a little hand mixing.

And now it's time to roll and shape...big brother helps with this step.

Here's Emma mastering the rolling pin.

We all know you can't be a REAL baker without a little flour getting in the way!

Sometimes it gets in the way a lot!!lol

Here's the final product.

And now the REAL test... yummy!! We did great!

This and that

1. My father is having heart surgery tomorrow... good thoughts and prayers greatly appreciated.

2. Thomas and Emma and I will be baking chocolate chip cookies and ginger cookies soon. I just took all the ingredients out and I pulled 4 eggs from a new carton I got yesterday. Each and every egg has a date stamp on it...how cool is that, no more wondering if eggs in the egg holder are still good or not! I know, it's the little things in life!lol

3. Emma was taking all the cushions off the couches in the family room this morning and throwing them on the floor - she does this with great gusto, even though some cushions are about as big as her! Anyhow, as the cushions were piling up, I asked her who was going to clean this mess up at which point she turns to me and says "YOU"!lol For some reason, it just really cracked Gary and I up... she doesn't really use pronouns much yet and normally she might answer with "Mommy" or "Daddy", but the definite YOU just sent us into giggles which probably doesn't send the right message!lol

4. My AOL screen tells me N*cole R*chie was picked up for a DUI and that she weighs 85 lbs. Really, if she gets any smaller, she'd have to go back to driving while sitting in a booster seat since I think the law here is 80 lbs!!lol Many of my son's 3rd grade classmates weigh more than Miss R*chie!!!

5. Am I the only person who thinks that those elastic bands strangling babies' hairless heads are horrid? You know the ones I mean, the ones that look suspiciously like garter belts on babies' heads... guess they're big for the holiday season since I'm seeing them everywhere - in stores and on babies' heads...that just cannot be comfortable folks!! I will say though that there are some nice velvet or cotton ones that don't look like they'd give a poor baby an instant migraine, but most of them...well, don't get me started!lol

Mommy's helper

After I saw this Learning Tower on Shana's blog, I knew it was just perfect as Emma's birthday gift. She'll get plenty of toys from friends and family, so this is her gift from mommy and daddy. She's always wanting to work in the kitchen but I can't get things done while keeping her from jumping off the stool she has to sit on, but with this contraption, she's safe and sound as she helps out and plays at counter height. We're baking cookies today, she can't wait! And when she's not using it at the counter, it can be turned into a puppet show theater and various other things.

Hanging around!

Emma loves to hang upside down on this chair...she thinks it's totally hilarious!

Future pro athlete or shopper??lol

Emma got her hands Thomas' football - she's got a pretty good arm! Notice the cute jacket she's wearing - she picked it!lol We were at a store yesterday and she walked right over to this coat, pulled it off the hanger and brought it over to me saying "look mommy, pretty"!!lol How could I resist, I got it for her...she's got great taste!lol.

Stylin' Emma

Emma found these boots in the closet earlier today... she's in love!lol

They even work well with PJs!

Giving big brother a hug!

Dinner

One of our favourite dinners in the Thomas and Emma household these days is steak in a peppercorn sauce with mushrooms (Emma ADORES mushrooms...this child will eat anything!) and onions on a bed of white rice. I used to make my peppercorn sauce, but one day I was at a neighbourhood grocery store and in the meat counter was steak in a peppercorn marinade, all ready to go. Bought it, tried it, loved it and no longer make my own since the butcher was kind enough to lead me to the bottled marinade he uses. Anyhow, as I'm preparing dinner tonight, I look at the bottle label a little more closely and it reads: "Peppercorn Sauce - The European style prepared with Brandy, Sour Cream, Green Peppercorns and Black Truffles". Umm...brandy?? Perhaps that explains why the kids go to bed so easily after this particular dinner!lol I'm kidding!!! I'm sure the amount of brandy is minimal and nonexistent by the time the sauce has spent 20 minutes in my skillet on the stovetop, but still... brandy, who knew. I might start drinking it straight from the bottle!!lol BTW, it's called Peppercorn Sauce and it's by Buckhead Gourmet in Atlanta, GA. Oh, and I swear it tastes a lot better than this picture would lead you to believe!lol Guess I'll never have a career taking pictures for cookbooks!lol

Christmas songs

I was just reading Judy's list of her favourite Christmas songs on her blog. The radio station I usually listen to has now switched to an all Christmas song lineup - who knew there were that many to play that they could do it all day long!!!lol Anyhow, I actually enjoy Christmas music, particularly in December - I can do without it the day after Halloween!!lol My favourites are the songs I grew up with - the traditional Christmas songs like Silent Night, O Holy Night, Angels We Have Heard on High, Jingle Bells, etc. As for the new Christmas songs (or newer versions of older songs), well, I can handle Bruce doing Christmas with the E Street guys, I can even handle Madonna singing Santa Baby and I do love a good rendition of Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer, but the one Christmas song that will always lead me to change the dial is that amazingly formulaic and annoying one about the little boy buying shoes for his dying mother. Oh.my.goodness.could.a.song.get any.more.corny.if.it.tried!!!! I know loads of people love it, I can't stand it. The one new Christmas song I really enjoy is Chris Rea's Driving Home For Christmas - that one I always play real loudly. :-) Now, ya'll going to pelt me with snowballs for dissing the most annoying Christmas song ever played???lol

Bad habits

Here's what started this. Judy tagged me weeks ago to name 5 odd things about me...well, it's not like there aren't many to pick from, but I haven't really had time to sit down and write a coherent post about it. Then I was sitting here, hands poised on the keyboard and this topic came to mind...it's not 5 odd things and perhaps it's not even that odd, more of a bad habit, but here's one thing I'm trying to change. What do you see in this picture? A hand? Actually, it's my hand. Yeah, I know, it's a big ugly hand with psoriasis (I have psoriasis and an allergy to many metals, my hands are always a mess)... that's okay, I know, I've resigned myself to never having a career as a hand model - well, unless the Seinfeld show tapes another "man hands" episode!!lol If you don't know me, you probably can't figure out what's different about this hand, but if you do know me, look closely?? What do you see at the end of my fingers??? My, would that be FINGERNAILS... on moi??? Yup folks, hate to admit it but I've been a nail biter for about as long as I can remember. It's just been one of those things I've done forever and did without ever noticing I was doing it. Since my nails were so atrocious, there was no way I'd ever be seen in a manicurist's chair but a few months ago, I decided to try it. I thought if my nails were polished - just a clear polish, perhaps it would make a difference. Let me tell you, the first time I had them done, I thought the smell of the stuff on them (polish and nail strengthener and various other things I'm not sure about!!lol) was so strong, I could barely bring my fingers near my face without my eyes watering!!lol Well, I went back to the manicurist every week and one week led into another and then another, and now it's been a few months and my nails are starting to look, well, normal!!lol Honestly, I'm finding having nails to be kind of a hassle and it still distracts me when I hear my nails on the keyboard instead of the quiet of my fingertips, but I'm getting used to it. :-) I usually get a French manicure which I find pretty, but today I went for a dark colour - the manicurist tells me short dark nails are in...I can handle it for a few days, although I keep startling myself with these dark nails!!lol And now that I've pointed it out to everyone, I have to be sure to keep up the no biting! So, 'fess up, what bad habits are you trying to break??

Pulled screaming into the 21st century...

My cell phone died this weekend. It was a good phone - you could make and receive calls with it - what more could one want?? While I always carry my phone with me, not many people have the number and I rarely use it. I want it so that if anyone I've given the number to as an emergency contact, like Thomas' school, can reach me when they need me. We have a pathetic plan with 100 minutes per month (that's for both mine AND Gary's phones together!) and I don't think we've ever gone above our allotted minutes!lol

Anyhow, I go in and I want the most basic flip phone I can find. It just so happens that our contract with the cell phone company had expired and if I renew it, I can get a free phone, up to a value of $250. Well, not seeing any reason why I'd leave money on the table for Megalocorp, I pick the $249 flip phone. If I can figure it out, I think this phone might cook breakfast for us!lol Really, what the heck is one supposed to do with a phone that's a camera and an MP3 player amongst other things...it has Bluetooth as well... not the slightest clue what that is except that I know our laptop has one and a car we looked at this weekend had it too!!

So, I spent a good part of my day today redoing my cell phone book and such. And you know what, picking the right song for your ringer is really quite a stressful process!!!lol Thankfully, I don't really know how to download anything other than the ringtones already on the phone so I picked from that. Being the nerd I am, when the songs I picked come on, I'm more likely to just sing along than answer the call - I'm really that dumb that it'll take a few seconds for me to realize it's my phone ringing!!lol So, what great tidbits did I pick. Well, when Gary calls me, the ever so fabulous 70s hit "Daddy Cool" will play...anyone remember that? I picked it for no other reason than I remember liking it as a kid... probably haven't heard it for 30 years until today!!lol A regular call will give you "I walk the line" in honour of my father forcing me to listen to Johnny Cash incessantly as a kid and C3PO will kindly remind me to pick up my messages... can't find anything else that appeals at the moment. I will figure out how to download songs so I can pick anything... oh, the pressure... so, what do ya'll have as a ring tone if you have a song? BTW, I'm gonna have a friend show me how to text - yeah, I've never once sent a text message to anyone...if you have my cell phone number and know how to text - send me a message!!lol Oh, one annoying thing though. Why can't these companies ever use the same type of plug/battery, etc. for more than one model? My old phone was a Samsung, so is the new one, but I had to buy a new car charger. When I bought my Nikon D80 camera, the charger wasn't compatible with my other 2 Nikon chargers...c'mon, give us folks a break, how many chargers are we supposed to keep around and figure out what to do with!!lol Yeah, kicking and screaming, I'm being pulled into this century!

How cute am I!

What a face!! :-)

Pardon me? - with update

Emma's just having breakfast - she requested pancakes for both her and Thomas this morning - and I was telling her that we're going to head off to do the groceries when she's done. Her reply: "first, Emma help mommy tidy". Ummm...excuse me, but are you telling me the house is too messy for you??lol It's funny, I was just reading a blog where another adoptive mom mentions that her daughter is very much like her. I'm not sure I could make that statement about Emma and certainly not about her love of tidying...we're going to drive her crazy when she's older because we're all messy!!lol

***UPDATE*** We really are going to drive her crazy. We just got back from running our errands and I'm carrying the groceries from the front hall to the kitchen. I call out for Emma and ask her what she's doing - "Emma get hanger" I hear... go back to the front of the house and Emma is trying to reach a hanger in the front hall closet to hang her coat - why can't she just throw it on the bench by the front door like I do??lol She kindly hung my coat up too... she definitely doesn't get that from me!lol

Emma singing!

Here's Emma singing her current fave song - can you tell what it is?lol And notice the one glove...she's doing a little bit of a Michael Jackson thing I guess...lol

Emma the tree frog!

Here's Emma, jumping like a tree frog - there's a Go Diego Go episode starring some red eyed tree frogs - Emma LOVES those frogs!lol

Let it snow!

The kids, okay, Thomas mainly, were pretty excited to see snow when they got up this morning. As soon as breakfast was over, we headed out to play in the back yard. Emma's looking a bit like the Michelin Man isn't she?lol She's not too sure about this whole snowsuit thing - actually, I quickly ran to put my camera in the house and when I came out, there was Emma in her sock feet in the snow - guess boots aren't tops on her list!lol

Random Act of Kindness

Early this afternoon, I decided to go out and run a few errands. The weather was atrocious, windy and rainy, but I needed to get out of the house. I pulled into a public parking lot. As I was walking towards the meter to get a ticket for my windshield, an older gentleman approached me and offered me his ticket for my dashboard. He said he was leaving now but his ticket was still good for a few hours if I wanted to use it. I thanked him and walked back to my car to put the ticket on the dash. When I was done shopping and leaving the lot, another couple of hours remained on the ticket and I gave it to someone who was pulling in who very gratefully accepted it. Sometimes the little things do make a difference. :-)