Olivia's Birthday Party

Happy Birthday Lela!!

(from left to right)

Bella, Bill (Olivia's Dad), Olivia, Sharon (Olivia's Mom), Brock

Olivia, Sharon, Bella, Brock


Nathan, new girl, Bella, Miss Sonja, Miss Mavette, Olivia, little boy, Miss Carrie, Miss Naima, Brock, blonde boy

Look closely to see Bella's white frosting goatee!

Bella, Olivia & Brock

Bella's best friend, Olivia aka "Lela", celebrated her second birthday last week. Sharon sent us some great pictures of the girls tonight from her school party.

Snow!

Xin Nian Kuai Le

Happy Chinese New Year - The Year of the Ox

People born in the Year of the Ox are patient, speak little, and inspire confidence in others. They tend, however, to be eccentric, and bigoted, and they anger easily. They have fierce tempers and although they speak little, when they do they are quite eloquent. Ox people are mentally and physically alert. Generally easy-going, they can be remarkably stubborn, and they hate to fail or be opposed. They are most compatible with Snake, Rooster, and Rat people.

courtesty of: www.c-c-c.org/chineseculture/zodiac/ox.html

Chances are that #2 will be born in the Year of the Ox unless they were born recently then they are in the Year of the Rat. We'll take a generally easy-going baby please.

We love this year's stamp - it is gorgeous. I can't forget to pick up a couple of books to keep for our babies.

Bella and I went to a CNY festival with some friends and we had a great time. There were face painters there who did amazing work. This wasn't some cutie flower on your cheek but full on facial painting with shading and what not. Bella watched one girl getting her face painting and she wanted to do it too. I asked if they would do someone so young and they said sure. Bella told them she wanted a butterfly and they asked what color and she says GREEN! She chose purple for the other side.

She received a lucky red envelope with a sucker inside. For first time sucker eater, she did well. She also made a dragon craft project with her friend, Lorelei and they got their picture taken with a big stuffed bear decked out in traditional Chinese dress. Neither girl was interested in the big dragon running through the crowd, but the bear was a hit.

Just getting started...

Watching the artist very closely...

The finished project with a big grin and cherry sucker!

Markers!! You can just barely see Lorelei in the left hand side of the pic.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Aprons Aren't Just for Baking Anymore

Bella has asked to wear her new Dora apron (thank you Nana) to school for the last couple of days. Today, Mommy said "sure, why not" and Daddy obliged. We assumed she would want to take it off once she got to school but nooooooooooo......she wore it all day and was so proud of it. It didn't come off until bathtime tonight. Here is the only picture I got of it...

Four Referrals

Great news - there were four referrals for our agency for the Taiwan program we are in this week. Three of the families are part of a discussion board that we are a member of so we know more details.

Girl - born 11/26/08
Girl - born 12/1/08
Boy - born 12/10/08

Both girls went to families who are "ahead" of us in line and the boy went to a family who is "behind" us and actually, behind a lot of families. Fortunately for them, they have all of their final paperwork. Our social worker emailed us earlier this week to check our status so I'm assuming that they were confirming that we were still waiting for our final govt clearing.

We followed the advice of our former agency and waited to start our paperwork. We should be finalized in the next 4-6 weeks and then we will be ready to receive our referral. Like anything in life, your fate is already laid out and we are meant to get the baby we are meant to get when we are meant to get them.

It is crazy to think that we could have gotten a referral today of all days (Daddy's birthday).

Of course, this "surge" of referrals doesn't mean it will be like this next month. It may be two months before our agency sees anymore referrals - no one knows until the day the call is made.

Exciting - so exciting! Congratulations to all of the families!

Silly Bella

This kid is something else. I was making dinner and she comes walking around the corner with a hat and her Dora book bag on her head. She walked right past me and into the laundry room, heading for the garage. I was able to grab the camera quick and when I asked her what she was doing she said "going to work". I know I feel rough some work mornings and I probably look a little rough too...but who knew that this was what Bella was seeing.

Or maybe she is trying to tell me I should put a bag on my head, too?

I don't know what came over Bella tonight - she was quite a clown and would crack herself up. Her laughter was infectious and Daddy started egging her on. If you have two minutes to kill...take a look at the video. Yes, she's topless (spaghetti for dinner) and one of her favorite things to say lately is some version of "what are you doing" which translates to "Daddy doing", "Bella doing", etc.

In case you're wondering what happened at the end...she laughed herself into a cough and grabbed her milk. When she said "Mommy hold it" she was referring to me holding the video camera. Sorry for the dark video - we had the light on in the dining room. It seems that unless it is daylight, we can't get very good video.

January 2008

January 2009

Where did our baby go?

On The Mend

Bella is feeling much better today. Daddy has been working so hard on our remodel that Bella and I made him a batch of brownies. I got out the ingredients and Bella named half of them. She carefully poured in each one and turned the mixer on after each addition.

A baking experience wouldn't be complete without licking the spatula.

Super Baby Genius (her nickname at preschool) surprised me again today. We were in Daddy's car and we came across a penny and a dime in the cupholder. She picked up the penny and handed it to me and said "here Mommy - money". My first surprise was that she knew what money was my second surprise when I asked her who was on the penny and she said "lie can" (Lincoln). I wish I could say that when I asked her again later who was on the penny she said it again - nope, that time she said it was Grandpa.

We also caught a certain someone counting to 11 today all on her own. She only missed one number - 4. Its a common miss for some reason. I am guessing that they go up to 12 at school.