Breakfast with an old friend

We went to a Breakfast with Santa party on Saturday. The girls had a wonderful time talking to Santa and playing with friends. You can't get anything past Olivia, though. After she sat on Santa's lap, she whispered in my ear, "Mommy, is Santa really (our good friend) Dave?" I asked her why she would think that. "Because, he has Dave's face and his voice." Good thing she knows that Santa has helpers all over the world. And how cool is it that our buddy Dave just so happens to be one?

NFL's Most Fanatic Family

A friend of mine and his family have been selected as finalists in the NFL's Most Fanatic Family contest. The prize is a trip to the Super Bowl. I really think they deserve to win because they are Browns fans, and anyone who can cheer for the Browns is truly fanatical! If you have a minute to go vote, they are the Vetalice family in Group A (the Browns fans). Thanks!
http://callingallfamilies.com/

BANGS!

O’s First Trophy

And just because she's cute:

The Phone Call That Change The World

Ok, so it changed my world. Six years ago today I got a phone call that I had been dreaming about for over 4 years. "You have a daughter," she said. "Her name is Pan Chun An and she was born February 9^th in Gaozhou City in Guangdong province." My daughter. My baby. My Olivia.

Today, she is a healthy, happy, smart, crazy, fun 6.5 year old who loves pretending she is a pop star or that her little sister is a super model. She can spell turkey and pumpkin (can you tell they are doing holiday words?) and read One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish all by herself. She got her first trophy last night for being a Pop Warner cheerleader (pictures tomorrow!) and scored 2 baskets during her evaluation to play Upward basketball. She is everything good and wonderful and perfect about being a little girl. And the best part is, she's all mine. I love her to pieces, and then I love up the pieces. My Pan Chun An. My OBaby. My girl.

Y Baby is officially a School Girl

Today is YBaby's second day of school. She went to preschool Monday for the first time. She was so excited to go that she didn't even hesitate when it was time for Mommy to leave. I got a quick "bye" as she raced off to see what great adventure was in store for her. Today, she is supposed to get to ride the bus home. All by herself. My baby. On a school bus. Alone. She is thrilled. Me, not so much. Sigh. Guess she's not really a baby any more.

Halloween 2009

I got to spend Halloween afternoon with all of these beautiful princesses. Have you ever seen a cuter bunch of friends?

This is Princess Aurora - the princess with an attitude. Yes, she is way too cool.

And here we have the Butterfly Princess. She is as sweet as she is cute.

Any wonder why we now have enough chocolate to feed a small army? Girls this cute collect major loot!

Remembering

William Thomas Carr. Born Billy Franklin Anderson in Johnson City, TN on October 23, 1971. Died September 10, 1998 in Virginia Beach, VA. Despite a rough start, the last few years of his life were filled with love and happiness. There should have been so much more to this story, and so many more people to remember it.

Loud and Proud

OBaby loves, loves, loves being a cheerleader. And, she is good at it. She is always the loud one. Surprised? Not really. YBaby loves it, too. Who says you have to be 5 to cheer?

The Tooth Fairy's Been Busy

Teeth

No teeth.

Happy Birthday, Grandma!!!!!!!!!!!!

We hope you have a great day. We're glad we got to see you dance at the state fair. We had a terrific day. See -

Tweaked

Yeah, that is OBaby's new word. Last night we were talking about "movie magic" (how they make things that didn't really happen look like they happened). She said, "Oh, yeah, they took a picture of him jumping, then tweaked it a little to make it look like he jumped over the whole pool." Um, yeah, they did, but how did she know tweaked?

"I just thought it seemed like the right word."


All I can say is that I sincerely hope her first grade teacher is up for the challenge.

What 4 Years Old Looks Like

New TB Testing Keeping Kids, not TB, out of the US

The USCIS (Immigration) and the Center for Disease Control have enacted new regulation for the testing of TB in immigrant populations. While the desire to protect US citizens from being exposed to TB is certainly a need, there has been an unintended consequence to the new regulation. Children legally adopted by US citizens are being denied their visas. One of these children is the newly adopted daughter of my coworker who is in Ethiopia right now, trying to figure out how to bring his child home. She does NOT have TB, but she must be tested, and the test results take at least 6 weeks. She had been legally adopted before her parents were told she would need to be tested. So now, they are the legal parents of a child who cannot enter the US. They are with her now, and naturally do not want to have to leave her, but at the same time, they will eventually have to return to the US because they have to work and they have a 2 year old son (also from Ethiopia) waiting at home.

All medical evidence indicates that children AT LEAST up to age 7 are NOT contagious, EVEN if they have active TB AND after 2-4 weeks of treatment NO ONE is contagious. The new regulations do not apply to citizen children who live abroad, even if they live in TB epidemic areas. Also there are no rules to prevent someone with active TB from entering the US on a tourist visa. Please consider signing the petition below. It only takes a couple of minutes and while it may not affect you personally, it is affecting my friend and his family.- Please feel free to forward this on- the more people who voice their concerns the more likely to get a solution that protects both the child and the country.

Build Families, Not Barriers Petition

My Girls

2-4-6-8

Who do we think's really great? OBABY! The cheerleader. She is going to try cheering for Pop Warner football this year. Of course, she knows nothing about football and really doesn't care to learn, but she loves the idea of being a cheerleader. And why not? She gets to wear a really cute uniform and have treats at every practice. We'll see what happens when she has to actually practice and be there for the games. Oh, God. That means I have to be there for the games. Football games. Played outside. By little boys. In northern Indiana. Ug. Mommy is sooooo not going to love this. But hey, she does look cute in the uniform!

Where's My Sister?

That's all I'm hearing right now. OBaby is visiting with Grandma and Grandpa for 4 more days, and YBaby is missing her like crazy. (Ok, so Mommy misses her like crazy, too. but YBaby keeps asking, "Where's my sister?") We are ready for her to come home, and I don't think we are going to want her to go away again for a long, long time!

We miss you, O!!!!!!!!!!

More Art By OBaby

The Artist Known as OBaby

Word to the Wise

If you have a spare iron, don't ever store it on the top shelf of a closet. And if you do, make sure the cord is securely wrapped around it so that no one can accidently pull the iron off the shelf and onto one's head. And if that happens, don't ask a 6 year old to look at the injury and tell you what she sees.

"Your hair is all bloody and there is a hole in your head."

I'm just sayin'.

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!!!

Have a happy birthday, Grandpa, from your best girls!

See you Saturday!!!

Pomp and Sweetie Face

Tomorrow is OBaby's last day of kindergarten. These pictures were taken at her combination Mothers Day/Graduation ceremony. Yes, she is the shortest kid in the class, and yes, she is the cutest one (sorry Aunt Donna Cake)!

Spring School Pictures

Cause apparently we didn't spend enough $$ on fall school pictures, so they offered us:

My American Girls

Yesterday the girls and I took a trip to Chicago to visit the American Girl Place. It is something of a cross between a doll store and a doll museum. Olivia loved getting to look at all of the historical dolls in their different period clothes with their different accessories. She liked Depression-era Kit with her junior reporter accessories, and WWII-era Molly with the really cool (and expensive!) camping gear. But, her favorite doll turned out to be Julie from the 1970’s. I think she really liked the fact that Julie’s “historical” period happens to be the same time that Mommy was a school girl! Ack – I’m historical!

Ying was more interested in “driving” the stroller around the store than looking at all of the cool dolls – until we hit the “Bitty Baby” section. There she quickly fell in love with the little blue-eyed blond baby who she has named “Essa”(pronounced E-sa, yeah, I don’t know). While most little girls seem to love being able to pick out a doll who looks just like them from the AG line of semi-ethnic looking dolls, both my little Asian beauties went for the blonde dolls. As OBaby so wisely told me, “The baby doesn’t have to look like the Mommy.” Um, no, she doesn’t, does she, baby?

Overall we had a great day, although OBaby could have done without the mile long hike back to the train station. She really was a trooper, never mentioning how tire she was or how bad her feet hurt until we were back at the station. It really was too much for her at the end of a long day, but I’m really proud that she didn’t whine or complain while we were walking. She just kept plugging along – even helping Mommy push the stroller (since either of the HUGE red AG shopping bags weighed too much for her to carry). I promised her I’ll never make her do that again! We could have grabbed a cab! Jeesh, we were in the city. They do have cabs there. Ah, next time I’ll know better.

Tomorrow's American Idols

Ying may well be one of the world’s greatest 3-year-old lip-syncers. It helps that she has a great teacher. Check them out.

Bye Bye Baby Mullet

I finally worked up the nerve to get rid of Ying's baby mullet. It was hard to have her hair cut off, since she'd come to me with so little of it. However, her hair wasn't very pretty. It had grown into a full-blown mullet, and I just couldn't take it any longer. So, after bribing her by allowing her to wear her minnie mouse dress (a previously never-worn Halloween costume), I took YBaby in for the haircut of her life. It was one of my better parenting decisions this week. She looks amazing. Beautiful. Like a princess. See for yourselves:

The new Ying hair cut

Way Back Wednesday

Any idea what year this was?