How to eat grapes...

Eating with your hands, really, that is just so.... conventional!lol Here's Emma showing us a new way to eat grapes... yeah, I don't think it'll catch on either!lol

Meme

I got this from Janet's blog...here we go!


Four jobs I have had in my life:

Summer job at a local art gallery
Legal secretary
Summer secretarial temp
Recruitment coordinator for law firm


Four Movies I have watched over and over:

Father of the Bride
The American President
Crash
It's a Wonderful Life


Four TV shows I love to watch:

Studio 60
Mary Tyler Moore
Amazing Race
Design Inc.


Four places I have been on vacation :

London
New Orleans
Charleston
Paris


Four favorite foods:

Shrimp
Sushi
Steak
Pizza


Four places I would rather be right now:

Hawaii, Tahiti, Bahamas, Florida - see a theme?? Anywhere hot and near water!!

Hanging up!

Here's our front hall closet. Perfectly acceptable, actually, I'd even say spacious, and easy to organize as we each have our own basket for our winter gloves, hats, scarves, etc. Got it... okay, see next pic.

So then, why is it, much to Gary's dismay, that Thomas and I always just throw our coats on the little bench in the entrance hall?? Even Emma hangs up her coat!! I guess it's hard to get Thomas to do it when I won't... guess it's time for mommy to clean up her act!!lol I always tell Gary that I was a very neat child but I shared a room for many years with my messy sister and eventually, she just wore me down... so Sue, this is your fault!!lol

Already?

Emma is already fascinated by the female chest. She's constantly asking me if I'm wearing a bra or pulling my shirt to see for herself. She also pretends to put on her bra and "buckles" it as she says. Anyhow, tonight Emma and Thomas were playing with a baseball sized foam ball. I jokingly put it in Emma's shirt at one point and she ran off and Thomas ran after her to get it back...she kept yelling "my b00b, my b00b, give me back my b00b".lol

iPod

I got an iPod for my birthday. I thought it was time someone in this house got to know this particular technology a bit better. I've spent some time this weekend downloading songs and pictures. It's fun. Gary just came in to the office with a "what the *%&% are you listening to" look. Well, is there really a problem with listening to Chris Rea's "Driving Home for Christmas" in March??lol I love that song...it has such an upbeat tempo, it makes me happy...I don't care what the lyrics are! I'm now almost ready to totally embarrass myself for the Tuesday iPod Shuffle meme!lol There's everything on there from classical to Tom Jones to Maroon 5!

Tallest mountain and various other topics...

Emma was watching a Dora/Diego this morning and they had to go to the "tallest mountain". Later when we were upstairs getting ready for the day, she gathered up all the pillows, made a big mountain out of them, climbed to the top of "tallest mountain" and repeatedly proudly proclaimed "I love my new home, I love my new home"!!lolol She's such a hoot!

When we visited my parents in December, Emma met my parents' cat, Charlotte. I love cats (we have 2 of them) but I have to say, out of 10, Charlotte has a personality rating of about -7!! (Sorry Dad!! Apparently Charlotte loves my father and shows some positive personality traits when it's just her and him!lol) She's grumpy and nasty and the whole time we were there, she hid under the bed and only came out occasionally to hiss at us. Anyhow, Emma refers to Charlotte as "the mean, mean cat". While she only saw her come out once or twice to hiss at her the whole length of our stay, Charlotte made quite the impression. Here's a conversation we had this week:

E: I love mean, mean cat.
Me: Really...why do you love mean, mean cat?
E: Poppa (my father) loves mean, mean cat. Emma loves Poppa.
Apparently, no further explanation necessary! Next thing you know, my father will have her loving Johnny Cash, hunting for night crawlers and spending her days trout fishing!!lol

And if you ever want to see a look of pure joy on her face - it's very simple, pull out the ICE CREAM!! You should see this child's face when she see ice cream...it's like nothing I've ever seen!lol

Miss Independent!

Emma is REALLY independent - to a fault! Friends tell me girls are often more independent than boys, which might well be true, but I think Emma takes it to a new level. She's 26 months old and pretty much has to do it all on her own. For instance, we were going to do groceries this morning. She went out to the front hall closet, got her jacket off the hanger, layed it on the floor and did a "flip, flop, over the top" and put her jacket on, then on went her boots and she went into the closer drawer to get a hat and scarf and she was ready before me!! We were playing with Playdough earlier and she had to open all the containers (I find them hard to open, but she persisted and got them all done!), get all the dough out and then put it all away when she was done, covers on and all. She has to dress herself, right down to her socks and shoes. When we do groceries, she gets out of the cart and goes to grab whatever she feels like having - today, it was cheese sticks and sushi (not together!lol). The most often heard phrases in our house are: "I can do it" "Do it myself" "All by myself", etc. etc. I swear if it wasn't for the fact that when we met her when she was 10 months old, she was physically/developmentally at the level of a 10 month old (our doctor confirmed that her age was appropriate given her teeth (or lack thereof), soft spot, etc), I'd swear she was a year older than she is! She's a total hoot! She's also always up for anything... Thomas is having so much fun with her...she might be 6 years younger than him, but she'll try anything he wants to do!lol He had her doing pushups yesterday...you should see her do them...she is so strong!

And you thought Dora and Diego were Spanish...

For those of you who might not have little ones running around the house and don't have the pleasure of Dora and Diego, Dora the Explorer and Go Diego Go are very popular kids' shows where the main characters speak both English and Spanish. Emma LOVES Dora and Diego. Her confusion as to their use of Spanish might be a result of the fact that when they read Dora and Diego books, Gary substitutes all the Spanish for Mandarin Chinese!lol

***The video doesn't seem to be working, I'm heading to bed now, but if it's still not in working order in the morning, I'll look into it.***

iPod Shuffle - 70s style!

A few of the blogs I read regularly are doing a "Friday iPod Shuffle" where you put your iPod (assuming you have one, which I don't) on Shuffle and write down the first 20 or so songs that come up. And I hate to admit it, although there's not much of a chance that anyone who reads this blog might actually have thought I was cool, but I haven't even heard of many/most of the songs/artists they mention. Really, if the carpool kids get me to listen and like a Green Day song, I feel super cool!!lol And I have a Matchbox 20 CD and they're from the 90s dude, that's got to be cool!!lol I was just thinking, do you know what the original iPod shuffle was - K-tel albums!!! Anyone else old enough to remember these?? Do you remember the absolutely horribly tacky songs by a variety of artists on each album. Oh my goodness, they were unbearably bad, but how we loved them as kids. Really, who can forget such classics as: "Wildfire" "Run Joey Run", "I'm not in love", "Blind man in the bleachers", "Love will keep us together... c'mon folks, those are classics!!!lol Was there ever a better song than Glen Campbell's "Rhinestone Cowboy"??lolol I remember that was the first 45 I ever bought!! And that my friends, is the original shuffle and I remember it fondly in all its tackiness!! Now I'm going to go listen to my Eagles, Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac, Supertramp and Pink Floyd...because really, those are the classics!lol

Singing Emma

Thomas kindly taught Emma the "throw your teacher overboard" version of Row, Row... ah, what are big brothers for!lol

Puff...Puff

I took Emma back to the doctor's office today and he prescribed a puffer for her. I know puffers are quite common, but nobody in this house has ever used one so we don't know anything about them. I went to the drugstore and got the puffer and the kid version comes with this big plastic contraption that you attach the puffer to. It has this rubber mask at one end that I have to put over Emma' mouth and nose and she has to take 6 breaths. We have to do this twice and then she has to rinse her mouth out with water. Well, I figured, good luck getting a 2 year old to do all that, but she did great!! She wasn't overly thrilled, but she did let me put the mask over her face and she followed instructions. I'll see how she does with it tomorrow now that she knows what it's all about...it may not be so easy the 2nd time!

Thomas and I went to the outdoor rink again. Well, I should say we tried to go to our usual rink but it was "closed due to inclement weather"... excuse me?? Isn't a temperature in the 30s and a light snow PERFECT outdoor skating weather...what are they waiting for, beach weather??lol Anyhow, thankfully another rink in our area toughed it out through the one inch snowfall and we had a great skate! Thomas' skating is really coming along, it's great to see!

Sick!

The household has been hit by a few bad colds. I've had a variety of colds since late December, Thomas stayed home from school one day this week and Emma's now been diagnosed with bronchitis. She's on antibiotics for the first time since she's been with us (Oct. 05) and thankfully, she happily downs her banana flavoured Amoxi and asks for more!lol She was particularly pathetic today though. She's not a child who normally cries much at all, she's tough physically and she's easygoing emotionally and not much sets her off. Today, you'd look at her crosseyed and she'd start hyperventilating! Her ped. told me that if her chest hasn't cleared up by Monday, she has to go on a puffer... I really hope it doesn't come to that! In the meantime, I'm sleeping in the guest room right next to her room and listening through the night to make sure she's okay! On a happier note, Thomas and I did make it to the outdoor skating rink again today and I'm happy to report his skating is quite improving. Emma keeps begging to come along, she also wants to "hate" (remember, we recently noticed she can't pronounce her SK sounds and turns them into "H" for some reason!lol) but I think we'll wait a bit on that one, although she's so physical, she could probably pull it off!lol Anyhow, sorry for the lack of photos. It's just too cold to go out much and Emma and Thomas have pretty much had it with me following them around the house taking pics!lol

Metcha Day

I've been reading a few blogs in the last week or so where either bloggers are discussing their upcoming, current/recent adoption trips to China or looking back on their adoption trips with the perspective that being back home a few months allows.

It all got me thinking about our time in China and the day we met Emma and the days that followed. I went back and read my archives. Today, I pulled out the video my sister took of the moment we met Emma. I'm not sure I've ever watched it before, maybe once shortly after we got home. It's been around 16 months (in some ways it seems she's been with us forever, in other ways it seems like it was yesterday) now since Emma joined our family of 3. Already, the memories are fading. I remember China, but I don't really remember physically what it felt like to be there - the sounds, the smells, the energy. It's all blurry in my mind already. I wish somehow I'd paid more attention, somehow been more in the moment and maybe now the memories and emotions would be more vivid.

We got to Hong Kong on a Friday and I remember us exploring a bit on the Saturday. I remember feeling nauseous and, after a 15+ hour flight, feeling like I was off balance for the first day back on terra firma. In retrospect, flying in a day before most of our group was a great idea, we really did need that one day to get our equilibrium back, both literally and figuratively. On Sunday morning, we met our whole group for breakfast and off we went onto a bus that would take us to Guangdong Province. The bus we got onto in Hong Kong took us to the mainland border and then we had to get out, lug around all our stuff through a series of checkpoints and then, on the other side, get onto a different bus. I think the ride took about 3 hours and then we were standing in our hotel lobby. I remember Gary heading off with many of the group members to the bank to get some Chinese money and I headed upstairs to our room. Lunch was organized at a nearby restaurant but I skipped it. I think that Gary, Susan and Thomas went along without me. I just needed time to get things together, make sure we had all baby things and papers needed for the big meeting in a couple of hours and let's face it, I just couldn't eat!

I think we got on the bus heading to the Civil Affairs Office around 2:00- 3:00pm - I'd have to check archives to be sure. I believe we were originally set to meet the babies around 3:30pm, although I think in reality it was closer to 5:00pm. I remember the atmosphere on the bus (we were 15 families) being very different as we made the short trip to the Civil Affairs Office as it had been when we traveled earlier in the day from Hong Kong. You could now really feel the tension and anticipation.

We arrived at the Civil Affairs Office and got on the elevator and went up a few floors - anyone remember which floor we were on? Probably somewhere between 3 and 5 floors up...I remember looking out the window, we weren't that high up. At first, we just waited in the lobby. There were families from a variety of countries and all rooms were currently taken. We could hear lots of crying and talking, the elevator's constant "ding" as people came and went. Then someone told us the babies were there, waiting for us. People starting going down the hall, trying to take a look into the baby room without being too obvious and getting shooed away. I didn't want to look. Susan went over and looked ( she actually videotaped a bit), I think Gary did too. They told me they saw Emma but we realized later, it had been a different child they thought was Emma. I think I went eventually and took a quick glance in but didn't linger and didn't really see anything... I'm horrible with faces at the best of times...somehow I couldn't really seriously look in.

Finally, our group is led into a room. There are still a couple of families from the previous group just finishing up. I think they were from Spain. We saw the last family meet their baby (or did they have the baby already when we walked in...I'm pretty sure we saw the baby being put into their arms). What I do remember though is that the baby, I'd say a boy, maybe around 2 years old, was crying bloody murder. The parents were trying to calm him and he was just screaming with every fiber in his body!! With every scream, I could feel the tension in the room escalate. I looked around and noticed that a lot of the people in our group were starting to tear up... we were just so emotionally vulnerable at the moment and just hearing this child was tearing us all apart!

One by one, we got called to fill in a bunch of paperwork. We all sat around a large table, filling out a variety of forms. Gary filled them out for us, I signed where he told me to. Finally, it was time for us to meet our babies. I think the first baby in was Jackie's Sadie. I have it on video... she's beautiful and Jackie is in tears. I think then came Dana and Kevin's Keira and again, a beautiful baby girl. Then came Mike and Louise, another delicious baby girl, everyone in the background, oohing and aaaahing, and then, I think it's our turn. Gary, Thomas and I go up to the door and there is a nanny with Emma. Emma is dressed in a blue and white sleeper with feet which is obviously too small. Her name, in Chinese characters, is taped to the front of her sleeper. They hand her to me and she immediately grabs my glasses and hangs on for dear life. Everyone in the room is laughing. I realize how strong she is as I try to pry her little fingers off my glasses. We go sit, Emma on my lap, and Thomas and Gary sit beside us. Thomas hands her a "Whoozit" toy that has made its way to China with us. Emma is calm and just looking at us, from one to the other. She seems particularly fascinated by Thomas. Perhaps to her, he's the least threatening looking person in the group. Most of the time she's on my lap, she's holding on tightly to one of my fingers. She's just sitting quietly, taking it all in. We'd prepared a bottle for her and we feed her and she gulps it all down. I'd read that it was important to keep the baby in the clothing they were wearing for a little while as the smell is familiar, but after holding Emma for an hour or so, it became obvious that she had a very full diaper and it was beginning to seep out through her sleeper. A change of diaper and clothing was definitely in order. I took her into a quieter room and changed her diaper. I softly cooed to her and she just lay on the diaper pad on the floor, looking at me. In the meantime, Gary took care of more business and the SWI director gave us an adoption certificate and the disposable camera we'd sent a few weeks previously. Gary, who speaks Mandarin, tries to ask her and the nannies some questions about Emma, but they obviously don't know much or won't say much. They tell us she likes to suck on a white washcloth the SWI gives the babies (many of the babies at the SWI do, Emma wasn't one of them) and that she's a good baby.

Finally, we hop back on the bus, 15 stunned families with 15 stunned babies. The babies were all quiet on the moment of meeting their families. Some people say this is good, some say this is bad... in our case, it's just the way it was. All the babies were clean, healthy and seemed well cared for, given the circumstances. I think the worst we encountered was a couple of upper respiratory infections.

We spent the evening in our hotel room, getting to know each other. I remember lying down on the couch and Emma falling asleep on my shoulder. We had dinner - I can't remember if someone went out to get it or if we ordered in. I remember Emma sitting in the room, surrounded by us and some stacking cups and other little toys we'd brought along. She wasn't that mobile at this point and she was contorting herself every which way to follow Thomas with her eyes as he moved around the room. The hotel had set up a little crib in the bedroom, right beside the bed, and eventually we put her down to sleep. I think I lay down on the bed beside the crib, keeping her company. She slept through the night. We had to wake her up as we were all heading out early - I think that morning was the passport office, or maybe it was to finalize some other paperwork and the following day was passports...I just don't remember. BTW, any members of our group reading this, I'd love any further input of things you remember, particularly relating to the day we met our babies.

Guangzhou was relatively relaxed as far as organized activities were concerned and that was a good thing. It gave us some downtime to just sit back, relax and get to know each other. There was apparently a cold snap in Guangzhou which made it bearable during most of our time there. The last day or two were back to normal temperatures and we didn't go too far as we found it was hard to breathe. This is saying a lot because neither Gary nor I suffer from asthma or any such ailment and we could really feel it (and this was in early November!).

After about a week in Guangzhou, we flew to Beijing. Other than absolute chaos ensuing in the airport in an attempt to get all 15 families on board, the flight went smoothly. The approach to Beijing went unnoticed - it was so foggy, you couldn't tell if you were up or down! Thankfully, a couple of days after our arrival in Beijing, the fog/haze/pollution or whatever you want to call it cleared and we had a spectacular day for our visit to the Great Wall. We also went to all the other usual suspects and it was beautiful indeed. However, it's truly weird to be on an adoption trip and going from one sightseeing/shopping adventure to another...it's really surreal!! I do remember feeling like my arms were going to fall off because Emma insisted on being carried everywhere. Some babies did well in strollers, Emma was not one of them. I was happy to carry her and I loved it, but my arms were just killing me until I got used to it. Do carry heavy bags of flour around your house in preparation for your trip!!lol And be sure to bring along the Motrin!lol We did skip a few planned excursions, but overall Emma was a trooper and she handled it all well, as did Thomas, he was a fantastic traveler and an amazing big brother from moment one. How the babies manage all of this is beyond me...can you imagine the upheaval they've been through and how all this must totally overwhelm them! I really can't even imagine. It speaks so much to the strength of the human spirit.

We were also very lucky in that we had an amazing travel group. While we're spread out all over the country, most of us still stay in touch, either in person or by e-mail. We'd met the families within travel distance of our home before our trip and that made all the difference in the world. From the moment we got to China, we already had a comfort level with each other which made things easier. I have so many wonderful memories of our group, of everyone pitching in and supporting everyone else. I remember a bunch of us sitting in the hotel hallway one evening once our little ones were asleep, having a drink and eating chocolate and just relaxing and laughing, sharing such an amazing experience, half way around the world!

And then, it was time to come home. If you're still a waiting parent, be prepared. Those first few weeks at home are simply hellish...there's no other way to describe it. Everyone is off schedule, everyone is exhausted, babies often get totally freaked out by this whole new series of changes... again, can't even imagine what it must be like for them... and while we want to make it as easy as we can for them, it's hard for everyone. Every day, you try your best and ask for forgiveness when you fall short. But somehow, everyone muddles through and then you reach a point where you can't remember what your life was like before you went to China... and you forget the hard times and you try really hard to hold on to the memories of the good times.

And now, here we are, 16 months later...and I'd do it all again if I could. :-)

Happy New Year!

I got exactly 2 silk dresses for Emma while in China - one in size 2 and one in size 6 - so you may see her in a silk dress again in 2011! However, I've seen so many pictures of kids in silks in the last few days that I felt I should go hunt through my closet and pull this little number out of its bag even though Emma isn't well and we're not going anywhere - so, without further ado, here is Miss Emma in her finest silk, with a red nose and refusing to smile!lol She had that dress off about 2 seconds after the photo shoot in our hallway (she's sitting on a tablecloth!!lol) and I don't get the impression she'll be asking to wear it again any time soon!

Crusty

Yeah, Crusty is what we're calling Emma these days. She has a bad cold and therefore, a constantly runny and crusty nose... pretty picture I paint isn't it?lol Anyhow, yesterday I picked up some headbands at the drug store and she's been trying them on. Here she is modeling one from yesterday, and then in today's picture, she's eating her Chinese New Year mandarin orange and is glued to the TV (Dora or Diego or course!)...the profile shot saves you having to see the nose - I guess if I had Photoshop I could do something about it!lol

Cantaloupe

For a 2 year old, Emma speaks really well. She's usually quite clear and speaks in sentences. You can actually have a conversation with her. So, I was a bit mystified earlier today when we had the following conversation:

E: Mommy, I want more cantaloupe.
Me: Emma, we don't have any cantaloupe. Do you want grapes or blueberries?
E: I want more cantaloupe!
Me: Emma honey, we don't have any cantaloupe.
E: I want more presents, I want more cantaloupe!
Me: You want more presents?
E: I want more presents, I want piggy and cantaloupe!

Ah, and then the light went on in my head! Yesterday, Thomas' Mandarin teacher gave Thomas and Emma envelopes for Chinese New Year. Emma's envelope contained a few little gifts, including a little piggy for the Year of the Boar. Emma was looking for more cantaloupe aka ENVELOPE...she wanted more red envelopes!!lol

On to a totally unrelated speaking story. Emma enunciates pretty well. She pronounces most of her letters appropriately. Over the last few days though, we noticed there's one sound she just can't make - the SK sound. I came to this realization when she kept asking to wear her HARF when we were going out. She finally went to the closet, took out a skarf and said "Harf Mommy, harf!" like I was the one with the problem!!lol Thomas now thinks it's really funny and tries to get her to say all kinds of SK words!lol Ah, what are big brothers for!

Flashback!

I was moving my computer today and in going through various disks found around the computer desk, I came up with a photo disk from 2001. 2001 is the year I got my first digital camera. Here are a few pics of Thomas when he's around 2.5 to 3 years old.

Commercial

What do you think of this commercial for The Royal Bank of Canada? Opinions are mixed on one of the adoption boards I read. I like the ad. Here's the address if the link doesn't work: http://www.canadianadvertisingclub.com/?id=20523

Because I said so...

Emma is a funny little character, somewhat dramatic. Whenever she asks me for something, be it watching TV or having a cookie, and I say "No", she puts her hands out, palms up and dramatically says "but why mommy, why"!!lol I have to say though, she's a good sport, not much fazes this child, she's so easygoing!

Snow Day!

Snow day...we had some fun in the back yard.

Skating

Thomas and I have been trying to go skating a few times a week now that the outdoor rinks are up and running. I know we can always go to an arena, but it's just not the same. There's such a feeling of wonder and freedom in skating outside...I guess it reminds me of my childhood - I spent countless hours at the outdoor rink (I'm from a small town, there was no indoor rink!lol) with friends. I'm also enjoying just spending time alone with Thomas. I've thought of getting skates for Emma, but we'll wait until next year, although she's such a physical child, I'm sure she'd get the hang of it in no time. For now, this is a fun way for Thomas and I to have some one on one time. :-)

Puzzles

Emma is totally in love with puzzles, particularly the magnetic Dora and Diego ones. She'll stand at the counter and work on them forever while I'm working in the kitchen. Much to my surprise, the other day I noticed she can now do these puzzles by herself! Oh, and ignore the mess on my counter. May I also add that I love the Learning Tower Emma is standing in. It allows her to play safely at the counter while I'm working or to help me do some cooking and baking...she loves it!

Emma, America's Next T0p M0del!lol

When I took the kids to have their pictures done, I knew Thomas would be great at the sitting. He is after all 8, a very easy going kid about this stuff, and the photographer could give him whatever instructions and he'd follow them without problem. Emma however, is our wild card. If you have a toddler, you know what I mean. Some sessions go off without a hitch, some sessions you leave tearing out your hair without one single useable picture. So, we didn't know what to expect from Emma. I have to tell you, this kid is just too much! The photographer gave her instructions and she followed them to a T. For instance, on the above pic, he told her to sit in the middle of the bench, put her legs up and look down near he feet - and there's the pic!! He had her doing all kinds of poses and she just went along, even giving us a few smiles along the way. You could tell the photographer was getting a total kick out of a 2 year old following along with whatever he wanted!lol

Pics

I took the kids to have their pics taken...here are some proofs.

Profiles

A mom on another adoption blog has a photo challenge. The latest challenge was sharing some favourite profile photos. After a quick search through the last year or so of pics on my computer, here are some of my fave profile pics of Emma and Thomas.

More sledding!

It was a gorgeous afternoon for sledding so while Emma napped, I took Thomas and his friend Jeremy to the hills! We all had a blast.

Here are the boys getting settled in and ready...

Heading down...

And further down...

And now the hard part, coming back up the hill!

Ready for the pool!

Here's Emma, ready for the pool...of course the fact that her swim lessons aren't even today doesn't mean she can't be ready!lol She's always complaining that she's very hot in the house, if I'd let her, she would have worn this all day long! Thankfully we had to go out and this just didn't work well with her snowsuit!lol

Too much Dora?

We never turn the TV on just to see what's on, but I do TIVO Dora the Explorer and Go Diego Go. These are 2 shows Emma really enjoys (not to mention shows that I can bear to watch!). I'm thinking she might be watching them a little too much though. These days, when we leave the house, Emma starts singing "Where are we going" with the corresponding answer "To the grocery store, "To Rebecca's house", etc... just like in Dora. And then, when we get back home, she starts singing "We did it, we did it..."!!lol But then again, I could say that it's educational TV since we were at Toys R Us the other day and there was a Diego display with animals from the various episodes and Emma went through them, naming them one by one, everything from a red eyed tree frog to a sloth to a pygmy marmoset!!lol May I add that I had never heard of these specific animals til I learned about them watching Go Diego Go with my 2 year old!lol And I'm embarrassed to say that I thought the pygmy marmoset was a sloth...Emma corrected me!lol At least she's not rolling her eyes at me yet!lol

Long Hair!

Look at how long Emma's hair is getting...we're definitely going to have to get a trim soon. Here she is waking from her nap and taking a bath.

Swimming

Emma loves the water so when we registered Thomas for swim lessons this month, we registered Emma for a Parent and Tot class. She's loving it and Thomas' swimming is getting quite strong - he swam 100 meters without problem this week! The pool is in a new and modern complex, pretty clean and well maintained overall. However, when you're walking (barefoot) around the pool deck or in the change rooms, well, it's wet, dirty, and worst of all, there's wet hair on the floor - I can't even tell you how much wet hair on a floor grosses me out... particularly when it's not mine and when I'm barefoot!! Anyhow, today I went and bought us all Crocs to wear at the pool. Yes, I know they're ugly as sin, but they're practical. Here's Emma showing off her Disney Crocs:

Here she is doing her impression of "Wilson"... c'mon, you all remember Wilson, the neighbour on Home Improvement whose face you never saw?lol

Hodgepodge

I'm warning you, the variety of topics will make your head spin... don't say I didn't warn you...now here you go - here's what a day in my head looks like!lol

I know, I know, not a whole lot of pictures these days. It's really that much harder to lug around a camera in the snow!lol Not much happening in the house worth taking pics of and since Emma has started asking to wear panties, she's pretty much wearing a variety of mismatched tops and bottoms all day long as she pees through her pants...not exactly a pretty picture!lol

I just dropped Thomas off at an after school program. There's a kindergarten in the building during the day and there was a big poster with pics of the kindergarten kids on it on the door. When did Joey, Shane, Harper, Hayden, Noah and Hunter become girl names?? As you can tell from our name choices, we're pretty old fashioned in the naming department, and I while I like these names, I'm not sure I like them for the long run, kwim?

Are there really bad songs that for some reason you like? You know, songs that just reach you at an emotional level and you're not quite sure if the song is brilliant or just really the biggest pile of drivel ever. This morning, as I was driving to our car dealership (may I add for the 3rd time in 2 weeks to "fix" the same exact problem!!), the song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" came on the radio. You youngsters may never have heard of it...it was somewhat of a hit in the 1970s for Gordon Lightfoot (never heard of him either - try Google!). Really, was there ever such a topic that screams "song" as a ship loaded with iron ore going from Wisconsin to Cleveland?? Now how sexy is that...I'm sure Britney will be singing about it next!! This is based on a real event. The ship sank on Lake Superior in November 1975 and 29 crew members died... now there's a fun song topic!! I really can't decide if this is one of the best songs ever or the worst songs ever, but just about every time I hear it, I feel teary eyed... it just gets to me. Thankfully the radio station followed this song with "Footloose", a song I'm pretty sure IS pure drivel, but just makes me want to sing and dance whenever I hear it! Of course, if I'd walked into the dealership in tears, perhaps they would have felt really sorry for me and actually fixed my car for real!!lol

We're in the early days of house hunting. We love our house, but unfortunately, it has a postage stamp yard and we'd really like a little more space for the kids to run around, not to mention that Gary desperately wants a library for his 1000s of books - and no, I'm not kidding, there really are that many. There are built in and free standing bookcases all over our house!! Anyhow, our real estate agent took me to see a house she thought we might like today. A nice 4 bedroom house on a dead end street with a good sized yard and a main floor library. Sounds good so far, but here's the part I just don't get and neither does Gary. This house has 7 - yes, you read that right, SEVEN - bathrooms!! Who needs 7 bathrooms in a house? SEVEN!! I'm sure as he** not cleaning 7 bathrooms!! Each of the bedrooms had its own bathroom, there was a powder room on the main floor and 2 bathrooms in the basement, including one which had a steam shower and a sauna. So apparently not only do kids no longer share bedrooms, they can't even share bathrooms now? Now, don't get me wrong, I think a certain number of bathrooms is nice. Our house now has 4 - a master bathroom, another bathroom for the rest of the upstairs, a main floor powder room and a basement bathroom - that sounds pretty good to me - a lot better than the one bathroom per family of 5 that I grew up with, but not totally over the top. Seven bathrooms just seems like conspicuous consumption at its worst. However, our agent tells us many people love this over abundance of bathrooms... am I the only one who doesn't get the point of 7 bathrooms in a regular 4 bedroom house???

We're meeting our SW for our 12 months post adoption report tonight. I know, we're a few months late. This is the FINAL piece of paper in the overload of paperwork required by adoption. I swear if I never have to fill our another form for the rest of my days, I'll be thrilled!

You made it all the way through?? Well, I did warn you!

Serenade!

Over the last few months, Emma calls MIL every day or two and MIL sings to her. Now, Emma is returning the favour and most of their conversations are Emma singing to her!lol Here is Emma serenading her with her version of the ABC song.

Sledding!

Sledding is one of our fave winter activities...I don't care how old you are, it's just always so much fun! Here are the kids enjoying themselves... Emma got the hang of it very quickly and kept asking "again mommy, again" and of course wanted to go on bigger parts of the hill than we'd let her!lol

It's a style...

Emma's always telling us that she's "very hot" and needs to take layers off and often ends up running around the house in an undershirt. However, she does love mittens, hats and shoes... it makes for an interesting look!lol She must get this from her father who pretty much wears shorts year round in the house!

Consider yourself told!lol

Emma loves to sing. One song Gary has taught her is "Brother John" in Mandarin. She sings it all the time and I thought I'd try to get it on video. Please ignore messy hair and lovely undershirt style!lol


Here is attempt one - well, I've been told!lol





Here is attempt two - well, told again!lol




Ah finally, some degree of success!!lol

Let me show you who's boss!!

Here's Emma showing Elm0 who the boss is around here!

Following in daddy's footsteps...

I think Emma may grow up to be a lawyer, just like her daddy... she can manipulate words like a pro already!lol Yesterday, I was sitting on the couch and she was standing on my lap. She was jumping up and down on me and I asked her to stop jumping on me to which she replied "Mommy, Emma's not jumping, Emma's bouncing"... well, okay then, that makes all the difference!!lolol

Snow girl!

Well, at the very least, she's a snowpants girl - she LOVES her snowpants. It's 50 degrees out and she refuses to go play in the back yard without her snowpants... she'd wear them around the house half the day if I'd let her. Let's face it, they have zippers and velcro, could there be something more fun!!lol Thomas put on some winter wear to play along with her! Also, please note that in this pic, she's in her undershirt because apparently it was too hot in the house for her to wear her long sleeved shirt - however, it's not too hot for snowpants...go figure!!

Time for a little wash...

Here are the boys, doing a cleanup after a long day of nothing!lol

Hair, hair!

I think Emma's starting to wonder if we'll ever take her for a haircut... come on folks, work the bows or get it cut - I can't see!lol

Funny Emma!

Emma's a pretty relaxed, easy going, funny kind of kid. Generally speaking, not much phases her at this point. She's starting to totally crack us up. Here are some examples:

1. This morning, I made her some scrambled eggs. I set her up at her high chair and brought the eggs over. She says "mommy, very hot" and I blow on them and then offer her a bite. She opens her mouth, I put the food in, she spits it out and says "mommy, I told you so, hot!!" Well, I guess I've been told!

2. Gary was reading to her earlier. I've been cooking/baking for a couple of hours now so the kitchen/family room area is pretty hot. As she's sitting on his lap, Gary takes his shirt off, only to hear "no daddy, put your shirt back on"!!lol Ah, there goes the fragile male ego!

3. Gary introduced Emma to Hide and Seek this weekend. She now loves to play it REPEATEDLY!! It's hilarious to watch her though. She closes her eyes (although she cheats and peeks through her fingers) and counts to 10 and then heads off to find daddy, the whole while calling out to him and waiting until he finally answers to find him!lol Okay, so I guess she's still a little unclear on the concept. Also, Thomas and I enjoy playing Connect 4 - Emma now always wants to play, although her version is simply putting a chip in every spot and then declaring proudly "Emma wins"!!lol

Can you guess?

Look at where we spent a good part of the day today...go ahead...take a guess...give up?? The BEACH!! Yup, you read that right... January 1st in the snow belt and we were at the BEACH!! Oh man, what a great day...temps in the 50s and not a drop of snow...at the beach...did you get that??lol We packed the kids up early this morning and headed off to the beach, then the park, then lunch and now we're home with the little one in bed. I can't remember ever in my lifetime (and I'm old!!) a 1st of the year like this...even if winter hits with a vengence now, it will feel relatively short since we haven't had any winter yet!! For various reasons, we didn't end up booking our usual fun in the sun winter getaway this year and I'm just as glad... don't feel like I need to get out of the cold at all yet. Here are some pics of the kids enjoying the beach.

Happy New Year to all!! Wishing you all nothing but the best for 2007.