This morning G and I were having our reoccurring conversation about how I don't eat breakfast. Those of you who know me, know that I have never been a breakfast eater-a cup of tea or coffee and I'm ready to start the day.
G wanted to know if I wanted to share her banana and I told her I would eat it later in the morning to which she said, "You know you're not 18 anymore...."
She obviously has overheard R and I discussing our aging bodies:-)
Monday, October 26, 2009
The Dentist and the "Pumpkin Patch"
Thanks for all of your prayers! G's trip to the dentist was successful! She's still a little sore from the crowns but thankfully she wasn't sick from the anesthesia and didn't have any lasting effects from it. I'm predicting a full recovery within another day-the new Tinkerbell movie seemed to really help the recovery:-)
Each year we go to a local farm to pick pumpkins for Halloween. Not only do you get a good selection of pumpkins to choose from but it also allows for some great pictures. This year we were supposed to go with our friends to Westmoreland Berry Farm and we got rained out. Our next opportunity was G's school field trip and it was scheduled for the same day as her dental surgery.
So feeling a little nervous that I was going to miss my picture taking opportunity, we staged our own little pumpkin patch this past weekend at Grammy and D-daddy's farm. Here's a peek at a few of the pictures. I say a few because out of the over 100 that I took these were the best ones. (I now have a true appreciation for why professional photographers charge so much!)
Each year we go to a local farm to pick pumpkins for Halloween. Not only do you get a good selection of pumpkins to choose from but it also allows for some great pictures. This year we were supposed to go with our friends to Westmoreland Berry Farm and we got rained out. Our next opportunity was G's school field trip and it was scheduled for the same day as her dental surgery.
So feeling a little nervous that I was going to miss my picture taking opportunity, we staged our own little pumpkin patch this past weekend at Grammy and D-daddy's farm. Here's a peek at a few of the pictures. I say a few because out of the over 100 that I took these were the best ones. (I now have a true appreciation for why professional photographers charge so much!)
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Thought Provoking Conversations
In the past couple of weeks I've had a couple of interesting conversations with complete strangers. It always amazes what people will come up with and while I usually like to take the opportunity to educate them on the positives of adoption, sometimes I just have to let it slide.
Take the lady who assumed that I gave birth to Baby K. Those of you who know my girls, know that we do not look even remotely related-there is no match in our skin, eye or hair coloring.
Baby K and I go to our local mall and walk several times a week after we drop G off at school and most of our "walking friends" know about our adoption experience. This one particular morning, we encountered an older lady that we hadn't met before and the conversation started out mundanely enough about how thin I was and how it was such great exercise to walk with the baby in a Baby Bjorn.
This nice lady then started to tell me about her granddaughter who had gained 50 lbs while pregnant, didn't have good eating habits, didn't like to exercise and was going to be carrying that weight for a long time and how lucky I was to have lost it so quickly, blah, blah, blah. Not only was I finding it hard to get a word in edgewise, I was also finding it hard to get away from her. It was at that point when I realized if she was going to talk so harshly about her own family, it really wasn't my job to educate her about mine.
My next interesting conversation was the lady who said, "I just don't understand how a mother could give up her baby?" Again, this was an older lady and so I feel that some of these thoughts can be accounted for because of the generational difference but I didn't back down this time. I told her how much respect I had for both of my girls birthmothers and how difficult a choice it must have been for them to put their girls well-being before their own. I also took the opportunity to educate her on the conditions that these women live in-the poverty and the lack of education-and most likely the conditions that my girls would have been living in had their birthmother's decisions been different.
I'd like to think that I was able to convey how blessed we are to have two such wonderful girls because of these two women who for the most part are anonymous to so many. There is not a day that goes by that I don't look at my girls and see their birthmothers, it's impossible not to, and there is not a day that goes by that I don't say a prayer for these two women who have given me the most precious gifts in my life.
Take the lady who assumed that I gave birth to Baby K. Those of you who know my girls, know that we do not look even remotely related-there is no match in our skin, eye or hair coloring.
Baby K and I go to our local mall and walk several times a week after we drop G off at school and most of our "walking friends" know about our adoption experience. This one particular morning, we encountered an older lady that we hadn't met before and the conversation started out mundanely enough about how thin I was and how it was such great exercise to walk with the baby in a Baby Bjorn.
This nice lady then started to tell me about her granddaughter who had gained 50 lbs while pregnant, didn't have good eating habits, didn't like to exercise and was going to be carrying that weight for a long time and how lucky I was to have lost it so quickly, blah, blah, blah. Not only was I finding it hard to get a word in edgewise, I was also finding it hard to get away from her. It was at that point when I realized if she was going to talk so harshly about her own family, it really wasn't my job to educate her about mine.
My next interesting conversation was the lady who said, "I just don't understand how a mother could give up her baby?" Again, this was an older lady and so I feel that some of these thoughts can be accounted for because of the generational difference but I didn't back down this time. I told her how much respect I had for both of my girls birthmothers and how difficult a choice it must have been for them to put their girls well-being before their own. I also took the opportunity to educate her on the conditions that these women live in-the poverty and the lack of education-and most likely the conditions that my girls would have been living in had their birthmother's decisions been different.
I'd like to think that I was able to convey how blessed we are to have two such wonderful girls because of these two women who for the most part are anonymous to so many. There is not a day that goes by that I don't look at my girls and see their birthmothers, it's impossible not to, and there is not a day that goes by that I don't say a prayer for these two women who have given me the most precious gifts in my life.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
The "Car Wash Sweater"
This morning as the kids were getting ready to leave for school, G said, "She's wearing the cutest car wash sweater"-talking about Baby K who was wearing an argyle sweater:-)
What a great way to start the day!
What a great way to start the day!
Thursday, October 8, 2009
We have an artist in the family....
A couple of weeks ago G submitted 2 pieces of her artwork to be in a children's artshow. I encouraged her to do so because I knew that everyone would at least get an honorable mention ribbon.
Well this past Wednesday evening was the Artist's Reception and both of G's pieces placed-she got 2nd place in the Pencil/Marker category and 3rd place in the Mixed Media category. See pics below.
She was so excited that we just about had to peel her off the ceiling! After the reception we went and had ice cream and then you had to just about pull R and I off the ceiling from all the sugar!
Baby K also had some exciting news this week-she graduated from her baby bath seat to a baby bath ring-see pics! She is so much happier now that she is sitting up instead of reclining. Take note of the adorable "kewpie hair-do".
I've also included G's kindergarten school picture. It turned out much better than I had anticipated. This was my first experience with LifeTouch School Portraits and I was pretty skeptical. You have to prepay for the pictures and that always makes me nervous. I did a little research and found out that I could purchase the pictures on CD and the right to reproduce them for less than what one of the small packages cost. The benefit of doing it this way is that I can go to someplace like Costco and make as many copies in the sizes that I want for much less than what LifeTouch is charging and I can continue to reproduce the image for as long as I need to. How come everyone isn't doing this?????
"Stained Glass Butterfly"
"A Ladybug in Spring"
The artist and her work
Bathing Kewpie
Well this past Wednesday evening was the Artist's Reception and both of G's pieces placed-she got 2nd place in the Pencil/Marker category and 3rd place in the Mixed Media category. See pics below.
She was so excited that we just about had to peel her off the ceiling! After the reception we went and had ice cream and then you had to just about pull R and I off the ceiling from all the sugar!
Baby K also had some exciting news this week-she graduated from her baby bath seat to a baby bath ring-see pics! She is so much happier now that she is sitting up instead of reclining. Take note of the adorable "kewpie hair-do".
I've also included G's kindergarten school picture. It turned out much better than I had anticipated. This was my first experience with LifeTouch School Portraits and I was pretty skeptical. You have to prepay for the pictures and that always makes me nervous. I did a little research and found out that I could purchase the pictures on CD and the right to reproduce them for less than what one of the small packages cost. The benefit of doing it this way is that I can go to someplace like Costco and make as many copies in the sizes that I want for much less than what LifeTouch is charging and I can continue to reproduce the image for as long as I need to. How come everyone isn't doing this?????
"Stained Glass Butterfly"
"A Ladybug in Spring"
The artist and her work
Bathing Kewpie
Monday, October 5, 2009
Happy 1/2 Year Birthday Baby K!
It's official-Baby K is 6 months old today! and it seems like she got a new 6 month old attitude overnight! Take a look at her big girl pics-not only is she sitting up by herself but she looks like she grew hair overnight. Okay, maybe not measurable in inches but it definitely looked "fluffier" this morning :-)
We are so in love with this little munchkin and it is such a joy to watch her grow and discover her surroundings everyday-just wish she wouldn't do it so quickly!
We've had such great fall weather this past week. See the pics of G and R working on what I call "G and Mommy's Bulb Planting Project". G had mentioned planting bulbs a while back and in theory it sounded like a great project. Of course that was pre-baby when we first talked about planting bulbs in the fall.
A couple of weeks ago when G and I were shopping at Costco she spotted the bags of fall bulbs-the bags that contained 90 bulbs. I knew I definitely was not up for putting in 90 bulbs-R will tell you that he still has nightmares from the 500+ bulbs we planted when we moved into the house. So I let convenience completely override my penny pinching self and when G and I saw boxes of bulbs at Ukrops that only had 6 bulbs per box, I knew that we had found the right compromise for the bulb planting project. I splurged and bought 2 boxes:-)
Baby K and I supervised while G and R did all the work (someone had to take the pictues)-now we hold our breath and hope that the neighborhood squirrels don't get hungry!
We are so in love with this little munchkin and it is such a joy to watch her grow and discover her surroundings everyday-just wish she wouldn't do it so quickly!
We've had such great fall weather this past week. See the pics of G and R working on what I call "G and Mommy's Bulb Planting Project". G had mentioned planting bulbs a while back and in theory it sounded like a great project. Of course that was pre-baby when we first talked about planting bulbs in the fall.
A couple of weeks ago when G and I were shopping at Costco she spotted the bags of fall bulbs-the bags that contained 90 bulbs. I knew I definitely was not up for putting in 90 bulbs-R will tell you that he still has nightmares from the 500+ bulbs we planted when we moved into the house. So I let convenience completely override my penny pinching self and when G and I saw boxes of bulbs at Ukrops that only had 6 bulbs per box, I knew that we had found the right compromise for the bulb planting project. I splurged and bought 2 boxes:-)
Baby K and I supervised while G and R did all the work (someone had to take the pictues)-now we hold our breath and hope that the neighborhood squirrels don't get hungry!
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