The Beach House

Hello, Is anyone out there?

2011-05-03T17:58:00.000-05:00

I don't know if anyone even still checks on us since it has been over a year since I have blogged. I feel the need to start blogging again so I guess I am back. Guess I will have to lure everyone back into this. This time around there will probably be a lot more crafting and cooking and new types of stress that aren't involved with the wait for a Chinese baby, but rather toddlers and pre-teens, and jobs and family life.

We have been keeping pretty busy with work and school and sports. We had spring break last week. We spent a few days in New York/New Jersey. We had a great time visiting family and seeing the sites. We went to the Adventure Aquarium, the Bronx Zoo, and visited the Cake Boss at Carlo's Bakery. We petted stingrays and sharks, feed alpaca, and ate some pretty decent cupcakes. We were all pretty tired by the time we got home.

Here are a few pictures of our adventures.

Say I Love You

2010-04-23T17:56:00.001-05:00

Two Years Ago

2010-04-04T15:25:00.005-05:00

Two years ago today, we received our referral for Annika. I still remember it like it was yesterday. She has changed so much (and so have we). She is an independent, bossy two year old who winks every time you take her picture and keeps her brother on his toes. Here are a couple pictures one of then and one of now.

Halloween 09

2009-10-31T21:03:00.002-05:00

Here is a short, grainy video that I made before the kids went out to trick-or-treat.

A ninja and a duck

2009-10-31T19:31:00.006-05:00

I Heart Boy Scouts

2009-10-18T16:14:00.003-05:00

Our family officially started dating Boy Scout troops yesterday. Alex is a Webelo 1. Half way through next year, he (and us) will have to decide what troop he would like to join as a Boy Scout. In order to make a decision it is recommended that you do something with the troops so you can get a feel for the group(camping-out I think is the preferred choice). So yesterday we attended the fall camporee at a nearby boy scout camp. We had a great time!!! The event as a whole was kind of disorganized, but we got a good idea of what the troop is all about. The boys were very well behaved and kind of policed each other. (Some of the other groups we saw were just ridiculous) The adults with the troop were super nice and welcoming. You could tell that the relationships between the boys and adults were good. The food was wonderful!! Here are a few highlights:

I learned that you can be comfortably warm on a 30 degree night if you have the right sleeping bag and clothes on. I could have used a more level site for my tent and a better air mattress, but at least I was warm.
Alex is a pretty dang cool kid. He jumped right in even though there was only one other kid that he knew in attendance. He asked good questions. He avoided peer pressure to be obnoxious, even though he hung out with the rowdy crowd. He even told the rowdies to tone it down a couple of times and they listened even though he was new to them and younger. I heard him helping other boys in his tent last night when they were cold or not feeling well. He ended up in my tent by morning, but made it in the other tent until 2 am.
You can cook pretty much everything in a dutch oven as long as it will fit inside. We had hardtack biscuits and brownies out of them yesterday.
I successfully made it to the latrine at 1 a.m. by myself even though I am scared of the dark and bears. I walked pretty fast though.

Sneak Peek

2009-10-08T17:32:00.003-05:00

Annika's Halloween costume came in the mail today. We had to try it on immediately. She liked it for about 10 minutes, was even quacking. Then she was done with it and wanted it off ASAP

Birthday bash

2009-10-03T18:46:00.002-05:00

Alex turns 9 on Monday so he is having a sleep over with 5 of his friends to celebrate. Everyone arrived at around 5:30 and immediately proceeded to start a "war" with the various guns (Nerf and other wise) that we have around the house. After opening gift, everyone was very excited to share the gift from Grandma and Grandpa, a Nerf machine gun that holds 35 darts at a time.

The boys have been great about including Annika. While they played Star Wars: The Clone Wars she was christened Asoka (from what i am being told that makes her Anikan's patawan, whatever that means). Here she is helping the boys play a new game that Alex from one of his friends.

Our Weekend

2009-09-27T15:38:00.002-05:00

It seems like we have done a lot this weekend although looking back on it now, most stuff happened yesterday. We had soccer and dance and then went to Kittery to do a little shopping. Today has been the grocery store and football.

Here are a few things I have learned this weekend

it is really not a good idea to take 2 year old shopping when she is not contained in a stroller. Well, our two year old anyway. She is a "shopper", this means that she likes to unfold things, throw them on the floor until she finds the one she likes and then following with it until you take it away from her and pretend that you will buy it (although you really just fold it, and all the others, and put it back on the shelf).
Toddlers should not wear white, EVER. David bought Annika some really cute stuff at the outlets while he was on a business trip last week. One is a white sweatsuit with bugs and flowers all over it and the then there is a pair of adorable white capri tight that have a ruffle on the hem. Annika started out in the sweatsuit, got in the shower, sat on a wet wash cloth. I changed her into the white capris and a brown sweatshirt, very cute. I think the pants may be ruined (see next bullet)
Never give a two year old a bag of m&ms in her car seat when she is wearing white pants. When we got home last night, Annika's pants looked like they had been tie-dyed because she had dropped them into her lap and they fell under her bottom during the ride home. I have been able to get out everything except for a couple of spots of red.
Fat free french vanilla yogurt and homemade chunky applesauce make a pretty amazing fruit smoothie.
There is a pretty amazing Jamacian resturant in Cape Neddick, Maine. We were driving along passing lobster pound after lobster pound when all of the sudden there was a big sign that said Jamaican Food on it. We had to keep going and turn around because we passed it. It had a few jerk meats and curry (including goat). I was a little concerned about eating it since I have been having some reflux issues but went for it anyway. They made it "New England" spicy in my opinion (this means not even a little bit hot) but it was still pretty good.

Some Observations

2009-09-23T17:03:00.002-05:00

We have started to watch more children's shows around here lately. The current faves are Dora, Kai Lan, and The Fresh Beats. Alex and I are starting to notice a few things.

Boots is the master of the obvious. Usually during every episode there is at least one instance where an identity is repeated 5 or 6 or 20 times, someone asks Boots who the person/animal/tree/shrub is, and he always says "I think it is ... (insert name here)".

Twist on The Fresh Beats is a goober. For instance, right now he is tap dancing with his hands, complete with socks.

The animals on Kai Lan all have extreme personality traits. Alex says Tollee has anger management issues, I personally think he's just a bit overly sensitive and somewhat of a pouter. Rintoo has to be ADHD. Still trying to nail down HooHoo.

Happy Birthday

2009-09-20T15:40:00.001-05:00

Annika turned 2 on Friday. It doesn't even seem possible that she could be two. Here are some pictures from the festivities.

Canobie Lake Park

2009-09-06T19:49:00.001-05:00

She's not a rider

2009-09-06T18:24:00.005-05:00

We visited Canobie Lake Park today. Everyone had a good time with a few minor exceptions. I thought that Annika would love the kiddie rides, boy was I wrong. She didn't want to be left on the ride by herself. When we first got there she wouldn't even let me strap her in. After lunch she ran to get in line for the firetrucks. Here is what happened.

She was slightly concerned and a little sad when we strapped her in and walked away. She seemed like she would be okay once it started to roll.

Once it started to roll, she started looking for "Momma?? Momma?? MOMMA?!?!?!"

After one full rotation, there was full fledged terror. Bouncing, screaming, crying. The woman next to me yells, "She's going to fall out on her head". She made it around one and a half times before it all came to a complete stop. A little kove later and all was right with the world again.

Slide show of other events from the day to follow.

Annika being Annika

2009-09-05T19:40:00.006-05:00

Annika has a serious addiction to stickers. Usually she sticks them on her face and arms and anyone or anything else she can get a hold of long enough to stick them too. Tonight she was decorating her monkey with them. I took a couple of pictures and a little video. She kept posing for the pictures and now thinks she is a melmo(video) star because she can watch herself on the computer.

Yes we are still alive

2009-08-27T15:02:00.003-05:00

I realized this week that I have really slacked off on the blogging this summer. I usually just post everything on Facebook, which is great if you are on Facebook, but if not then you get nothing. So I am going to try to be a little more regular with the posting. I will start with a few pictures for right now. I will post a big update in the next couple of days and I need to make a slide show of our Kansas vacation.

Annika decided that she wanted to try using chopsticks. She is really good at eating with forks and spoons. I am going to get her some trainer chopsticks so she may actually be able to use them. The first picture is the face she makes when you ask her to smile pretty.

Alex had his first day of school yesterday. He is a fourth grader now. He was pretty excited to go back.

NE Vacation Pictures, Part 1

2009-07-08T21:11:00.004-05:00

My brother and his family are here visiting this week. So far we have done Storyland, the New England Aquarium, and Quincy Market. Tomorrow we are touring Ben and Jerry's and doing the alpine slide at Stowe, VT and going to Rockport, MA on Friday (busy, busy). Here are some pictures of our adventures so far.

I love the cute little donkey that they have at Storyland, I always want to take the kids pictures on it. You can tell from the following pictures that they are as excited about it as I am.

Here is a picture of Annika crying at another great attraction. She was screaming every picture I took of her.

Here Annika is showing off her spicy new attitude. Share equally with Mom and Daddy.

Alex was determined to take care of the pirate problem that they have in North Conway. Here he is shooting one of them with his putter.

Annika after a hard day at Storyland. She made her blanket into a pillow and then quickly fell asleep.

Alex taking his driving exam. He failed when he took both hands off the wheel to scream and wave at me.

Alex, Annika and their cousin at the city pool. Our visit was short because we didn't realize it was 70 out when we went to the pool and with all of the rain and cloudy days, the water hasn't had much of a chance to warm up.

Hair

2009-06-30T08:22:00.003-05:00

Annika has a lot of hair (that may be an understatement). I am getting tired of doing the same three things with it everyday. The other day when I was blog surfing I found this idea at M3's blog. After following a couple of links I found all kinds of ideas. Here is what I did this morning.
I got her to sit down by promising her princess hair. Then with a little help from Dora and a container of hair bands, it was as easy as pie to pull it back.

Give an anatomy teacher some craft supplies...

2009-06-17T20:44:00.002-05:00

and this is what you get.

We do a project in my anatomy 2 class where the students make t-shirts of the digestive system using scrap fabric and wonderunder. I wanted to make a couple of cool graduation gifts and this is what I came up with.

2009-06-12T21:09:00.003-05:00

Annika and I went to the senior prom tonight. It was a good time and neat to see everyone all dressed up. I didn't recognize alot of the kids because they were so made up (and I am still having some trouble seeing in darkish places after my Lasik surgery).

Here is a video of Annika modeling her "prom" dress before we left. I was having a blond moment when I made the video so either turn your moniter on its side or turn your head to the left.

Bringin' out the sillies

2009-06-09T18:52:00.003-05:00

Alex and Annika got a little wired this evening after dinner. They were sword fighting and having a screeching contest (thank goodness she finally got tired and wanted to go to bed!!!) Here are a few pictures of the Crazys.

Alex showing off his uvula. This is supposed to be his fierce face.

This is he Jack-O-Lantern smile. He has lost four of them now. He swallowed the first three on accident and the last one is in my jewelry box. He asked me to keep it for him, he doesn't believe in the tooth fairy (or Santa) anymore.
This is Annika's post spaghetti sword fighting outfit. I was talking on the phone and she had the bucket on her head and was after her brother with the end of the stick horse.

I wonder.....

2009-06-08T17:23:00.005-05:00

I feel like I am in the middle of a major brain cramp right now. So much to do, no interest in doing any of it. Thought I would post instead of starting the laundry. Here are some of the things have been thinking about. I wonder...

how it can still be Monday. This has been such a long day. Half way through second block I realized that today is our anniversary (Happy Anniversary Sweetie!!). Had a doctor appointment after school which I had to take both of the monkeys to and they acted like total monkeys while we were there. The doctor thought it was pretty funny, I didn't.

how much it must suck to be named Kitten. There is a for sale sign in a house down the road and the realtor's name is Kitten. First of all, who names their child Kitten? Can you imagine the nicknames for that one?!?!?!? Second all, if that was my name I would have to go by a different name for business purposes, maybe Katie or Kitt. Guess it is a name that people remember though.

if this school year will ever end. We have 10 more days left at this point. I am blaming my extreme summer fever on an early Memorial Day that was beautiful and spent on the beach. It isn't hard get out of bed and drive in, but it is getting more difficult to make myself get things done in class. I actually have homework every night this week in order to get everything finished in time.

why only one of pepper plants has died while everything else is perfectly fine.

who Alex will get as a 4th grade teacher. I know who he wants to get, but that doesn't mean anything.

why the hardest parts of my class fall into the last month of the course. I am so ready for everything to be over at that point and usually run out of time and don't get through everything. This week we are studying the nervous system (including impulse conduction) in one class. Last week we studied kidney function (with all of its osmotic and hydrostatic pressures and nephron structures) and are supposed to be talking about acid-base balance (involves gas diffusion, ion exchange, and a bunch of other things that make my brain hurt) but have decided to dissect and study for the final instead. I love the subject I teach but it makes my brain a little numb sometimes.

why any fool wants to be a weather chaser. Those people are just stupid. I don't generally use that word, but C'MON!!!!! Why the heck would you purposefully put yourself in the path of something so dangerous when you can hide someplace in a basement under a heavy blanket?? (Here I have to admit that tornadoes are probably the thing that I am the most scared of in this world. This is one reason why I do not ever want to live in the Midwest again if I can help it. I much prefer living in the land of the nor'easter over Tornado Alley.)

Okay, I have run out of steam and need to get Annika ready for bed so that is all I have for now.

(thought of another one) when John and Kate are going to decide that everything being public is not good for their kids. I am so sick of seeing them every where. I already didn't really care for her because she always seems to be a bit of a ball buster on the show (may just be the way they show her). There are so many things wrong with this whole situation. First, it seems to me that they are kind of selling there family out so they will have money for their kids futures (I think that is the excuse that I heard). I think they will need most of that money for counseling for all 8 of their children by the time it is all said and done. They must not watch any television, subscribe to any magazines, or spend much time in public places because those kids would surely notice their parents faces spread everywhere. I think once the paparazzi got involved I would be done. If the rumors of cheating and divorce don't ruin them, all of the recent bikini pictures may push them over the edge.

One Year Party

2009-06-04T20:13:00.004-05:00

Last Saturday we had a travel group reunion at Jen and Steve's house. It was great to see everyone. The girls all look so wonderful. They were all little bundles of energy running around and blowing bubbles. Here are a few pictures of our kids having some fun.

Big brother chillin' in the little tent. He had to take a break from all of the running around with the older kids.

They don't like each other at all.

First time to try watermelon. It was a big hit.

She loves to slide.

Annika enjoyed some really good chocolate chip cookies.

525,600 Minutes

2009-05-26T20:44:00.008-05:00

One year ago today, we became a family of four in a banquet room in Nanchang, China. We were the last family to receive our daughter from the Yifeng orphanage that day. I remember thinking how she looked like a little old lady with all of her hair and her serious little face. Looking at pictures of that day now, she was so scared and stressed. I remember that she clung to us for the first days, slowly coming into her own. She could not sit on her own or hold her bottle. She was covered with scabies scars and bug bites. She was very thin. She was the most beautiful little thing I had ever seen.

She changed so much from that scared baby to the boisterous toddler that she is today. She never meets a stranger, greeting everyone with a backward little wave and smile. She runs everywhere, is working on jumping, and would really like to do a somersault. She keeps her Bubba on his toes, wrestling whenever the opportunity presents itself, and holding his hand on the way home from school on several afternoons. She is the apple of her Daddy and Momma's eye. She is starting to talk and giggles often, even throwing in a snort from time to time. She was meant to be with us and we love her completely. I don't know what magic those people in the matching room use, but it is something special.

Here is a slide show I put together, it is long, but shows the progress one small girl can make with good food, tender care, and a lot of love. (There is supposed to be music playing with the pictures, but Youtube took it off. So, imagine The Turtles singing Happy Together up until her first birthday and then Bubbly by Colbie Caillat)

promised pictures

2009-05-03T19:17:00.005-05:00

Annika's first encounter with the Easter Bunny. The other kids all ran away crying (big brother even hid behind me), but little Ms. Spicy went right over to say hello.
Easter morning wasn't our best to date. No one waited for me with the camera and Annika had a major melt down. She is crying in this picture but you can't see it because of the cat's tail.

Easter Brunch

Alex in praire dog town at the Bronx Zoo

Giving a caterpillar a drink in the butterfly garden

Trying to be patient while Daddy buys the tickets at the zoo

Annika in her tree hugger dress

Climbing a spider web

Alex and Annika at Hampton Beach

Spring Break 2009 or What happened to my vacation

2009-05-01T15:54:00.003-05:00

Well, it is Friday afternoon of Spring Break 2009. We have what seems like a busy week but looking back more closely I realize that not much actually got accomplished on my to-do list. Here are a few brief highlights.

We spent the kick off weekend in New Jersey and New York. We had a nice lunch with David's aunt and spent the afternoon with our good friends, the W's, on Saturday. Annika would not sleep in the pack and play so she ended up in bed with us (never a good thing in my book). On Sunday we took a leisurely stroll through the Bronx Zoo. Don't know if you have ever been there, but that place is entirely to big. It was in the low 90s with a slight breeze and little shade since the trees haven't completely leafed out yet. I was so excited to go there and it ended up totally kicking my butt for the next few days.
Bill the Painter arrived at our house on Monday morning and finished up today at around 3:00. We now only have one room in our house with white walls. He is coming back at another time to hit a couple other places. He did a great job so if you ever need a painter let me know and I will get you his number.
I spent part of Tuesday afternoon in the emergency room. I have learned a few things from this experience. 1) The doctors and nurses at the hospital I have been avoiding are much friendlier and funnier than at the emergency room I usually go to (unfortunately this is something that seems to happen about every 6 to 8 months) 2) Never make a joke with the doctor's office nurses about the swine flu (sorry, H1N1) when you have fatigue and achy joints 3) being a medical oddity makes them do tests that they really don't see necessary, sometimes just because you often fall into the 1 of the "1 in 1000" warnings is enough to do it 4) A nasal flu swab is not as bad as they make it sound 5) I was not the first confirmed case of swine flu (sorry H1N1) in New Hampshire. It was decided that I was just tired from my excursion through the zoo and being out of shape (not their wording of course), but a couple days later I am fairly sure I have some kind of stomach bug (but no respiratory signs, so no worries). Needless to say, I napped every afternoon and went to bed early a couple of nights.
I think I like the name swine flu better than H1N1. H1N1 sounds like some kind of computer virus. I am getting very tired of hearing about it at this point.
I was going to include our charming VP Mr Biden in the statement above but think that he deserves his own bullet. I have been waiting for about 100 days for him to say something that would result in him not getting to speak in public any more. Think he may have done it this week. I always enjoy the look of dread on President Obama's face when ever they appear in public and Joe is speaking. Too bad no one was there to stop him on the Today show. Maybe the majority of Americans realize you can't listen to a word he says.
Last but not least, I had LASIK surgery yesterday. It worked well but was a very strange experience which I will have to talk about later since I have a small Chinese person melting down at my feet right now.

Pictures and Annika updates to follow soon

One year and one day ago

2009-04-05T19:50:00.004-05:00

One year and one day ago was one of the best days of my life. It was the end of a horrible wait and the beginning of a new love. It was the day that we received our referral for Annika.

It was a Friday and I was in class. I was hot and heavy on the rumor queen, holding out hope that we wouldn't have to wait through the weekend, another horrible two days. But then at around 10:15 I got the call from David that changed our family forever. I still remember how much relief I felt to finally have that wait finished. That caused me some of the worst days of my life. She was definitely worth everything we went through to get her.

I can't believe it has only been a year since our referral. It seems like she has been here forever. We all love her just as much as she loves us. She has made us a complete set for sure. She and Alex are ridiculously cute together. They run to each other most afternoons to share a hug and often hold hands on the ride home from Alex's school. She is becoming a Daddy's girl, but still has times when she wants her Mommy.

Here are a couple of the pictures that we received that day. I still don't think it looks like her in the pictures.

She has always had so much hair.

Just included this one for the shoes.

Six

2009-03-02T09:42:00.003-05:00

This is a picture of Alex playing baseball during the spring of 2007. You can see that he is really into it.

Tag, your it.

Allison

Steve and Jen

Amy

Erin

Kristin

Jan

Here are the rules.

1. Go to your pictures folder & select the 6th folder.

2. Select the 6th picture in the folder.\

3. Tag 6 people.

Old Pictures

2009-02-23T18:09:00.006-05:00

I scanned some pictures to put up on Face Book and decided to post them here as well. They are in order from youngest to oldest. The oldest are from 1989, I'm getting old.

I'm the one on the left with the 'fro. I didn't discover the big hair with high bangs until college.

This is senior prom. We thought we were pretty cool. I made the dress myself, it's good to know how to sew when your 6'3". I also made my wedding dress (8 years after this prom dress).

This is my junior year of college when I walked on at KU. My family came to watch me ride the bench. This is my Grandpa Pete. He was so great and I still miss him sometimes.

I went to the Aloha Bowl in Honolulu with the football team when I was a senior in college (the first time). I was the only person from KU who got hurt at the game. I slipped in a puddle of ice at the end of the tunnel from the locker room as I went out to the side line. I ended up sitting in a dugout near the end zone for the first half and behind the water coolers for the second. Thank goodness it was at the end of the trip.

I just think this one is funny because I look so incredibly tall in it (Yes, I know I am incredibly tall, but usually don't see myself that way). It is a door at a gas station where we stopped on a road trip in college (I spent one semester following the baseball team all over the Big 8 with several of the players girl friends. Ever since that spring it has been my goal to attend spring training.) I also look like my legs are about 4 feet long.

New Pictures

2009-02-16T10:19:00.003-05:00

This is from Alex's Pow Wow at school. It was actually earlier in the month but I had not downloaded the pictures until today. This is his groups village. They were the Indians of the great plains. They had to make them dial back on the blood because they had a buffalo massacre at one point.

Here is our diva on the Friday before Valentine Day. She is into hair doo-dads now and has recently discovered her sunglasses.

On Saturday we went to Portland, Maine. We visited the Maine Childrens' Museum. The kids had a good time.

This is the cut off, but we'll give you an extension

2009-02-10T20:54:00.003-05:00

As a teacher, I am kind of a stickler for things being done on time. It drives me nuts when things are handed in late. I think if your given a deadline, that should be it (unless there is a very special outside circumstance that is beyond your control like severe illness, some type of dismemberment, or your death). I know that not everyone shares the belief that a deadline is a deadline and you are ready for it or you get left behind.

Apparently the US government is one of these groups. The commercials for this stupid digital television conversion have been annoying me for the last who knows how many months (seems like forever). There have been special town hall meetings and training to apply for coupons and special programs with instruction on how to install the boxes. The countdown was started on our local television stations. I was so happy it was almost over. Then I heard that our brilliant government has decided to extend the conversion until July. WHY??????? If people aren't ready at this point they don't deserve to watch television. They should get to sit in their recliners and watch a glowing box without even snow to entertain them. Why can't people be held accountable for themselves?

A Hot Mess

2009-02-09T19:12:00.003-05:00

I don't know much about rap and had never heard of MIA before this evening. I guess she performed at the Grammys last night on her due date. I can't say anything about her talents as a rapper, but gotta say I don't agree with her wardrobe choice. I don't even think that people who aren't pregnant should wear something that ugly!!!! I do have to say that she looks pretty good for a prego though.
Here you have to give her props for standing next to the freakishly thin Katie Perry in another hot mess of a dress. Gotta love the matching kicks though.

I love the term "hot mess" and have been wanting to use it here for a long time. This seems like the appropriate situation. Another favorite is "redonkulous", a word heard on the lips of teenagers in my class 2 years ago and recently coming from the mouth of my eight year old.

Various Stuff

2009-02-02T19:44:00.006-05:00

I am watching some entertainment show and have to say that I just love Dev Patel (the kid from Slum Dog Millionaire). He is so stinkin' cute. I think I am developing a little crush on him, maybe it's the ears.

I am more than slightly disgusted with all of this occtuplet mess. At first I thought "That poor couple, they must be so overwhelmed". Then it became "What the heck, there are six others?". Which let to "Who the hell is the idiot who put in 8 embryos????". Today it was "She's single and 33?!?!?!?". There is SO much wrong with this whole story.
I am tired of being sick. It seems I have reactive airway, which is kind of like reactive asthma. I was good for about a month but then it flared back up last week. My new doctor told me last week when I went in all I need to do is call the office and he will give me refills on my meds since I recognize what is going on. What a concept, a patient could know what is happening in their own body without spending $25 for 5 minutes in the doctor's office.

I am pretty sure that this will be the only year that we go to our agencies New Year Party. We had a good time, but would rather get together with everyone in a place with tables and good Chinese food. We will miss out on the dancers and music, but that is okay with us.

I think I need to get a CD of Chinese music. Annika really liked the music that the dancers played at the party.

I thought the superbowl ads were a little week yesterday. My all time favorite add is the herding cats commercial (it is really old)

Gotta go so I can spend some quality time with Chuck since I haven't seen him in a couple of weeks. Never found the dang 3D glasses though.

Chinese New Year

2009-02-01T21:16:00.005-05:00

We went to the New Year Party for our agency yesterday. It was nice to see everyone (well a lot of people) again. Here are some pictures that David took.

Our Little Cutey!!

Big Brother

Annika and Daddy

The Whole Gang

Annika and Grace Then

Annika and Grace now

And here's one for old time's sake. An oldie but a goodie.

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

2009-01-26T19:41:00.004-05:00

We have been a little busy around here so I haven't posted for awhile. Okay, honestly, I have been hanging out on Facebook during my computer time and haven't had time to post. I will write a longer post later and catch up on everything going on, but just wanted to drop in and tell everyone Happy Lunar New Year!! (I am switching to Lunar New Year, because it isn't only China that celebrates it.)

Chinese New Year

2009-01-11T13:17:00.003-05:00

Now that Christmas and New Year are out of the way, it is time for Chinese New Year. Our agency has a huge party every year to celebrate and we are planning on attending it this year. I would like to get organized a start a few traditions for our family as well. We usually go out to dinner to celebrate so we will probably do that. I have a great book that breaks down all of the Chinese holidays and tells you when you should start planning to start things. It was written for Chinese-Americans who may want to celebrate but don't know exactly what to do. Annika found it in her closet the other day so now all I need to do is read the chapter on CNY and figure out what were going to do.

Update

2009-01-10T19:20:00.002-05:00

It has been awhile is I wrote a post and alot has happened in the time between. We went to Kansas to visit family for the holidays and are now back to school and work and getting the house back in order.

Our trip was fun. Annika is a good traveler. She mainly slept on the airplane and did well in the car until the end of the trip in each direction. The picture was taken after we landed in Kansas City. She and Alex were stretching their legs while we waited for David to show up with the rental car (Annika sure has a great big brother). Everyone was happy to see us. Annika took to everyone. She loved playing with her cousins and meeting everyone else. I will post some pictures of our trip and Christmas morning later.

Now we are home getting back into the routine of school and other stuff. We had a snow day on Wednesday because we were supposed to get another bad ice storm (our neighborhood was spared). Annika is cutting four molars right now so she has the crankies from time to time. They are all at different stages of breaking though. Alex is getting used to doing homework again after almost two weeks out of school.

I have joined the biggest loser group at school. I also joined sparkpeople.com which is similar to weight watchers online (except for its all free). I have been using it for a week now and have my weigh in on Monday so we'll see how it goes.

Get on Board

2008-12-24T12:25:00.002-05:00

Alex and I made a gingerbread train this year instead of a house. I think he did a good job of decorating.

Pigtails

2008-12-24T12:19:00.002-05:00

Since we don't have to get up and out of the house early for the next week and a half I thought I would start trying to fix Annika's hair again. It is finally long enough to get almost all of it into pigtails. Too bad she looks so ugly with it up.

Come on over, mom bought enough bananas for everyone. Their really good.

This is after her nap so she is raring to go.

Getting into "her" Rubbermaid cabinet. This is why it is hard to find matching bowls and lids in our house.

Random Complaining

2008-12-22T20:38:00.004-05:00

Chuck isn't on tonight so I am using my free time to comment on various random things.

I have been sick since Thanksgiving. I have reactive airway syndrome which is basically like having asthma that is triggered by irritants. Usually it is my allergies that set it off, this year it is a virus. I have been to the doctor three times in the last three weeks trying to get it cleared up. The first time she gave me albuterol and sent me on my way. The second time I saw a physician's assistant (which I don't usually get too excited about) and he gave me prednisone because I had basically been having an asthma attack for 2 weeks at that point. The meds helped for a few days but then started to return. Today I saw him again. He gave me a longer course of prednisone and an anti-inflammatory (have an impinged nerve from all of the coughing). Hopefully this will take care of it cuz I am sick of feeling like crap and having no energy.

I heard this weekend that the Dugger family had their 18th child this weekend. C'mon 18 kids, REALLY??? How can you possible parent 18 kids??? I wouldn't even be able to remember all of their names. We would have to have one of those George Foreman systems set up. That way all you would have to say is "DAVID" everyone would turn around to look, then you could just point at the one you want; problem solved. I guess they are lucky in a way. The parents will go practically their entire adult life and never have to wash a dish or mow the yard or take out the trash or run the vacuum or etc. because they can give those duties as "chores". Can you imagine the grocery bill???

I have read the first two Twilight books and am sending David out for the third tomorrow. Yes I know they are written for teenagers and they are poorly written but I DON'T CARE. I am addicted. I have to say that I am not going to see the movies though. Their actors don't match the people in my head so I just can't do it. Did you ever have that happen, you read a book and you see everything one way and then the movie ruins everything for you? It also happened for me with Jurassic Park. Ever since that one I usually don't see a movie after I have read the book (except Harry Potter of course).

My Chiefs are killing me this year. They have come so close each week to winning but blow it in the end every time. I would really love for them to just hold out to the very end. It would be much easier on me if they just got totally blown out every week than this leading until the last three minutes crap. A couple weeks ago they lost in the last minute and a half!!!! UGHHHHHH!!!!!

I am slowly becoming addicted to Facebook. I have found so many people from high school and a few from college. I'm sure there are more people I know and I just don't recognize their names.

We still haven't sent our X-mas cards yet (probably related to my Facebook addiction). David is ordering more tomorrow and we will get them out on X-mas eve. We have receive lots of cards this year, many with pictures of beautiful children on them. I need to find a place to hang all the pictures cuz it seems such a waste to not have them displayed somewhere in the house.

SNOW, SNOW, SNOW

2008-12-22T19:11:00.005-05:00

We got about 2 feet of snow between 2 on Friday afternoon and 6 last night. We had a small layer of snow when it all started, you could still see the grass. David took pictures of the kids on Saturday during a break between storms and took the pictures of the house and neighborhood this morning. I think we are set for awhile so if you see Mother Nature ask her to give us a break.

Happy Holidays

2008-12-21T21:22:00.002-05:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Bet you didn't know we were so talented!!!

Because I haven't posted one in awhile,

2008-12-18T20:09:00.002-05:00

I'll give you two

3 for 3

2008-12-18T20:02:00.002-05:00

Alex lost his third tooth tonight during dinner. He told me that it was loose yesterday but he wasn't going to "shake" it because he isn't one of those kids that just wants to get his teeth out to get money. He swallowed it just like he did the other two that he lost earlier. He thought it was pretty cool that the holes from the last tooth and this tooth line up to make one big hole. Now he is worried about how he is going to eat.

Ruby Slippers

2008-12-16T19:41:00.001-05:00

David brought these home for Annika tonight. I LOVE them.

Damn Weather

2008-12-16T19:25:00.002-05:00

We went back to school today. I haven't been in two of my classes for six days(did a half day workshop, was sick one day, had 2 snow days because of the ice storm with a weekend thrown in the middle). It was hard to get back into the swing today. We had just started dissecting (I teach honors anatomy and physiology and we dissect cats in class) last week and still have a few days to go before we are finished. I would really like to get it done and test them before our 12 day winter break but don't know how that is going to work out for me. We have 5 school days before break starts. We are supposed to have snow tonight, doesn't look like anything major though, and again on Friday (and Sunday). We are behind schedule right now and I don't know how I am going to get everything crammed into the time that we have left. Could be fun.

We are supposed to have 3 winter storms before winter even official starts on Sunday. UGHHHHHH!!!!

In other non-weather related news, Alex's infatuation with the military channel continues. Have any ninja questions? Send them our way. He discovered Alexander the Great on Sunday night and that was all I heard about yesterday. Now he wants to know all about Macedonia and is doing self-less acts in all of his video games so he can also be a great Alexander. He also is becoming very interested in Hitler and the Nazi's. He wants to see Valkyrie because it is about an assassination attempt of Hitler(or something along those lines). He is driving me a little crazy with the whole thing. He's 8 for goodness sake!!!!!

Our Silly Girl

2008-12-15T20:03:00.002-05:00

I haven't posted a list of Annika's latest tricks for awhile so I thought I would give a little update.

I never thought I would have to say to David "Don't give her anymore broccoli until she eats some of her chicken fingers." She LOVES green vegetables, actually any kind of vegetables. She actually got angry this morning that I wouldn't give her peas that were still on the table from last nights dinner. She loves hummus. She sucks it off of whatever I use to feed it to her. She will try anything and usually likes all of it. It is nice to have someone else in the house that likes the same things I do. Now I have an excuse to buy avocados.
She loves to dance. She has started dancing for entire songs and then clapping when the song is over. It is really cute, I need to video tape her.
She walks every where. She has started to walk in public places now. She kept wondering around the shop when we went to get her hair cut the other day. She bowlegs it everywhere, generally with something in both hands.
Everything is a telephone now: pencils, straws, shoes(Alex says she thinks she is Maxwell Smart), etc. She will even put her palm against your ear so that you can talk on the phone. At first she would just put something to her ear and walk around that way. Today she started babbling entire conversations. She was very excited to hear the phone ring this afternoon when the phone came back on.
She loves to cheer. Anytime there is any kind of clapping on television, she gets all excited, claps and says "YEAH!!!!". Her favorite is Family Feud although she also fond of football.(The combination of the phone infatuation, dancing, and love of cheering have me wondering where the teenage years are going to lead. )
She has been very good with the Christmas decorations. She has only touched them a couple of times and that was because she got too close while she was pointing and "OHHHHing". I did catch her one morning hitting two Christmas balls together, but once they were moved to higher ground everything was good.

I am planning on taking some pictures and video over the next couple of days so hopefully I can post them soon after.

We made it through...

2008-12-15T17:48:00.003-05:00

As you may or may not know, my area of the world was hit by quite a little ice storm ice storm on Thursday night into Friday morning. We woke on Friday to no phone service but full electricity. David got up to leave for work but was unable to leave the neighborhood due to a tree hanging from a power line in the middle of the main road out. He returned home around 8 and shortly after that we lost our power. We had a great day. Alex was worried about surviving with no computer or video game or television. I was mainly concerned about the lack of running water since we are on a well. We built a gingerbread train, finished our Xmas decorations, and got all of our presents wrapped (the room in the basement with a window was the perfect place to hide and play elf). We called a bunch of hotels and were lucky enough to get the last room at the local Holiday Inn with the rocking diner. When we headed out around 4:45, the line was still down in the road, but the work crew had just showed up to clear it. They had it taken care of in about 15 minutes (even though they said it would take 45 minutes). We checked in at 5:10ish and got a call from our neighbor around 5:20ish that the electricity was back on. We decided to stay put just in case it went back out.

We got home on Saturday morning, power restored and no property damage, although there is part of a tree laying in our back yard. We got off so lucky. We were without phone and Internet until late this afternoon but didn't even lack power for 12 hours. We had no school today and Alex is out again tomorrow and will be going to work with David.

I'm #2

2008-12-11T20:45:00.004-05:00

I was told this afternoon that I am now Alex's second favorite girl behind Princess Annika. He said she really needs to be first because she needs more love and attention until she gets a little older. he promised that we will eventually be tied again.

This sibling love fest is really too much. Since the moment that they met it has been all giggles and hand holding and hugs. He is obviously the most wonderful boy in the entire world and can usually do no wrong. He finally has someone who will chase him around the house and always gets the biggest belly laughs. Some days, she's ecstatic to hold his hand in the car after we pick him up from school, I look back and there they sit with their hands across the gap between the seats. He sings to her in the car when she gets cranky, that annoying African lullaby in some unknown language that he learned last year in music class.

It is wonderful to have two children that think so highly of each other. We were really afraid of how Alex would react to having a sibling, having been an only for such a long time. They have their moments where she looks like she could kill him if he wasn't so much bigger than her or he is sick of her squawking from the car seat because she is tired of it. But the majority of the time, it is love, love, love. They make quite a pair!!!!!

Catching Up

2008-12-09T20:41:00.002-05:00

I seem to be having some trouble staying on top of things lately (well, since the beginning of the school year actually, so lately isn't really the right word). I decide to do something "later" and then totally forget about it. I have spent tonight catching up on a few things, so I guess today is later.

Having two kids has fried my brain and totally screwed up my schedule. I was pretty confident before that it would be no problem, I could handle two kids and still do the things I was before (at least a few of them anyway). Now I am lucky to have things prepared for work the next day and have everyone in clean underwear. I seriously need to get a system figured out.

On another note, I need an idea for one more gift for Annika. Everything else is done (Thank you Amazon.com) I just need something small and can't think of a thing that we don't already have. Got any suggestions?

Give a Little

2008-12-07T17:44:00.003-05:00

I currently take coumadin and am unable to donate blood because of it. I always used to donate at every opportunity. It slightly bums me out that I cannot do it anymore. I have all of this blood and no one can use it (except me obviously). On election day there was a table set up where you could register to become a blood marrow donor. I talked to the man at the table and figured out that I would be able to donate bone marrow, even on the coumadin, so I signed up for the registry. I was so happy that I was going to be able to donate something again. Once I got in the van and looked more closely at the paperwork, I realized that I couldn't donate because I have an autoimmune disorder which disqualifies me. So I had to have my name pulled from the list and my samples I had given destroyed.

I am telling you this in the hopes that someone reading this had thought about donating in the past but didn't know how to get on the registry. I have put the address for an organization called Save Giovannni in the links section on the sidebar. It is an organization run by a family (the man at the table is the father) whose son was born with a rare form of leukemia. The family started to run donor drives throughout New Hampshire. There son is now in remission, but they continue with their efforts in order to help other families who need a donor.

Strange New Obsession

2008-12-06T20:26:00.003-05:00

Alex has a strange new obsession. He has begun watching the Military Channel any time the television is on. He just happened upon it the other day when he was flipping through the channels. He has left Cartoon Network and Disney Channel behind. Up to this point he has been very interested in animals and science, but now it is History, History, History. He started playing Age of the Empires awhile back. It is a strategy game where you are different famous military people throughout history. Maybe that is what started the fascination. He is watching a show about booby traps right now.

Decorating

2008-12-06T20:05:00.002-05:00

We spent part of the day today getting the tree up and putting out the outside lights. David does the outside stuff. We got these cool new LED lights that repeat a 5 minute light show. They are shaped like the big outside lights, but are much bigger. They change colors and have several different patterns that they make. We also got a new inflatable this year that is Santa and a penguin on an island with a palm tree. It is pretty cute.

Alex and I built the tree and then I put up the lights and tinsel. I got new tinsel at the end of the season last year (actually at the beginning of this year technically). I don't think that I like it. It is red and green and looks very dark on the tree. I am used to silver, may have to dig out the old stuff tomorrow. We are putting the ornaments on tomorrow.

I put on the lights and stuff while Annika was napping. After she woke up we were sitting on the floor beside the tree. She smiled real big and pointed at the tinsel. She also pointed it out to David. She hasn't tried to touch it or anything, but we'll see how she does after the ornaments are up.

I put a poll about X-mas decorating on the sidebar.

OMG it's already 10:30?!?!?!?!?

2008-12-04T22:32:00.003-05:00

Am tired and want to go to sleep so all you get today is some silly posters. Sorry about the F-word on the second poster, I don't use that word but thought the poster was pretty funny.

Amen to this one!!!

Off to finish up classwork for tomorrow, respiratory anatomy -- yahoo!!!

SPIRIT and Anatomy Greetings

2008-12-03T20:12:00.002-05:00

I have a few things that I am really looking forward to right now. I teach honors level anatomy and physiology at a large school in southern New Hampshire (the only part of the state with large high schools that are consolidated I think). We have a very diverse population (both culturally and economically) of students which can be wonderful but can also be a pain in the behind. Although I teach only honors now, there was one point where I taught all lower level classes, which is a totally different animal. This afternoon I went to training to become a facilitator for a program called SPIRIT. It is a program that works with people to discusses the issues in a community (city, school, etc.) and to find resolutions for the issues. They ran the program at our school a couple of years ago and it was a great success. I did the short program for teachers then and thought it was cool, I can't wait to be involved with the students. I think it will be quite an experience.

On another, much sillier note, I have decided to have a holiday tree in my class. I stole the idea from my friend who has a Chemistree each year (Yes we are nerds!!) My students have christened ours the Anatomy and Physiolotree. The students are making the decorations and I have decided we will call them Organments. They are talking about making small intestines out of pantyhose for the tinsel and topping it with a skull (although I think a lumbar vertebrae would be more star-ish). I got red and blue lights so we can arrange them as arteries and veins. Now I need to find an artificial tree that doesn't cost a bundle and we will be in business.

If I had time...

2008-12-02T17:49:00.004-05:00

If I had time I would be a crafty person. I would quilt and scrapbook and try knitting and other new things that I have found online that look very fun. I found a couple of cool websites (well actually Stumble Upon found them for me) that have FUN, cool crafts on them.

The first one has me wanted to not use my reusable grocery bags anymore. It is instructions to make cool stuff by fusing together plastic shopping bags. I guess I can start stockpiling cool bags now and then use them once I have time. I linked the instructions to the picture. There are endless possibilities of what you could make and you are recycling at the same time.

The other site is called Craftster. I has a bunch of crafty stuff. Check it out!!!

Also, if your not crafty but want to buy crafty things check out Etsy

Santa pictures

2008-12-01T21:23:00.001-05:00

Three times in one day. I think it is a record.

I Believe...

2008-12-01T20:33:00.003-05:00

I believe that no catalog should sell a size 14 as an XL. Not only does it insult the size 14s of the world, it also insults us greater than a 14. I haven't been a 14 since I was 14.

I believe that teaching cursive to 8 year olds is horrible punishment for parents everywhere.

I believe that the Thanksgiving pie made the day after Thanksgiving is better than the real meal itself. (Gotta love everything completely drenched in gravy)

I believe in Santa Claus.

I believe that NO ONE should look the same 20 years after they graduate from high school. NO ONE!!!!

I believe that I have the two most adorable children on the face of this earth.

I believe that grounding a child is much worse punishment for the parents than the child.

I believe that chili with dill pickle slices and ketchup is one of the best food combinations ever.

I believe Crocs are quite possibly both the ugliest and most wonderful shoes every created.

I believe nothing is better than a day at the beach, although in NH it is a little hard to enjoy the water since it is usually FREEZING.

I believe in cheering for my team loudly and whole heartily (GO CHIEFS!!!)

I believe I could blog every day this month.

I believe that is a long enough list.

What do you believe in?

Thanksgiving Pics

2008-12-01T20:24:00.003-05:00

We're Back

2008-11-28T19:13:00.002-05:00

We spent the last couple of nights at the CoCo Key water park down in Massachussetts. A good time was had by all. I do have a few complaints though.

The Sheraton Sweet Sleeper bed has been horrible misnamed. If you haven't stayed in a Sheraton, they have a super special bed that they have in all of their hotels. It is called the sweet sleeper and, in my opinion, it is horrible. I think it should be called the Sheraton Stone Sleeper bed since it was so stinkin' hard. David thought maybe it was actually a Chinese mattress (since the majority of the patrons of the hotel seemed to be Asian), although he loved it (this is why we have a sleep number bed -- Him 55-60, Me 40). I complained when we checked out this morning and the woman was amazed. She said that people stay at the hotel just for the mattress, I think these people must usually sleep on the floor because that is what the mattress felt like to me.
Five little words "Just Say No To Speedo!!!". It doesn't matter what you are built like, don't do it. PLEASE!!!!! No one wants to see that (especially if your hairy(man at CoCo Key)). Invest in a nice baggy pair of trunks that hang to your knees and leave something to the imagination.
If you have an A&W restaurants, you should have A&W root beer. The kind from the special fountain that is only behind the counter. I was looking forward to a big frosty paper cup full of A&W goodness, and they only had Mug on the fountain. It's a disgrace.

I'll post some pictures once I edit them to make sure there are none with me in my swimsuit snuck in. David was in charge of photography.

Six Months Ago

2008-11-26T14:08:00.004-05:00

(This was typed yesterday, 11-26)
I am in the middle of packing for our Thanksgiving trip to the indoor water park, but wanted to stop and commemorate this special day. Six months ago today, Annika became a part of our family. Little did she know that day what she was in for, but I think she has adapted beautifully and fits right in. I have thrown together a little slide show to remember some of the high points of our time together.

One small step...

2008-11-09T21:23:00.003-05:00

As usual ignore the idiot in the background.

Yummy Mashed Potatoes

2008-11-09T21:17:00.002-05:00

Annika was supposed to be using her spoon to eat the mashed potatoes, but I guess the fingers are much easier.

I am on the phone with my mother so please just ignore me.

A bunch of stuff

2008-11-05T19:32:00.003-05:00

Annika is an the verge of walking. She is cruising all over the place and starting to walk behind her push toy-lion thingy. She has taken one or two hesitant step as she lunges toward you. Shouldn't be much longer until she is running all over the place here.
Alex has become an expert on the presidency. I was told yesterday as we pulled into the parking lot where we would vote that no matter who won, this election would make history. Today he told me that once he turned 35 he would run for president and then change the law so that Annika can run when she gets older (since she wasn't born in the US).
Annika has started to try out silverware. She really likes to hold the spoon/fork in here left hand and feed herself with her right hand. I have a good video of mashed potatoes that I will load once I can find the cord to my digital camera.
I had treacle taffy for the first time today. A British woman I work with brought it in for Guy Fawkes day today (Hadn't heard of that before today). I remember reading about treacle in Harry Potter, but always thought it was something made up for the book (cut me some slack, I grew up in the middle of Kansas). Turns out treacle is molasses (or like molasses???). We decided it was similar to a mix between fudge and homemade caramel.
I am very excited that Barrack Obama won!!!! I personally find it ridiculous that it took so long for an African American to be elected president. I guess it just took the right person to get it done.
Yesterday I took an exit poll. There was a question on there about if race affected my decision. I thought it was talking about how the campaign race, advertising, etc. were handled. I actually completely finished the questions and then reread it before I realized that it was talking about the race of the candidates.
I am happy that Obama won (already said that I guess), but now we have to see Oprah gushing all over the place. That woman just really gets under my skin. I NEVER watch her show and avoid her at any cost, but when I turned on the television this morning there she was carrying on. YUCK!!!

Halloween

2008-10-26T19:08:00.003-05:00

We had our annual chili cook off/costume party in our neighborhood today. It is always fun. The kids paint pumpkins and run around while all of the adults stand around and eat very little chili but get alot of talking done. Here are some pictures of the kids in their costumes.

We went out a couple of weeks ago to buy Alex a costume. He is too big for the kids costumes and I refuse to pay $50 for an adult sized costume. He wanted to be a ninja when we first bought our supplies, but then he saw Speed Racer and changed his mind to Racer X for his costume. I duct taped some xs on his black sweatsuit and we were set to go.

I had to buy this costume for Annika when I saw it. I have had it since August.

Almost Chinese, part two

2008-10-15T16:09:00.007-05:00

Yesterday I went to Wal-Mart to pick up a new pair of glasses (no more contacts for me UGHHHHH!!). I had Annika strapped into the ergo (because I was hoping she would take a nap). The nice girl at the vision center made a comment on my height (always one of my favorite subjects UGHHHH!!!) and asked how tall I am. She then asked how tall David is. She looked very surprised when I told her that he was also 6'3" (seemed odd at the time). Then she said, boy your little girl is going to be really tall. I guess she thought that Annika is my biological child and I am married to a very tall Asian man. I (stupidly) corrected her and said she was adopted. This is when the questions started. She was very polite so I didn't mind, but I wonder how far I could have taken the biological thing.

I don't get how you can look at Annika and not realize that she is Chinese. The beautiful, deep brown, almond eyes should be enough to give it away. What about the silky, shoulder length dark hair (okay, I know most one year olds don't have shoulder length hair but thought I would rub it in LOL)? Look at the rest of us in the family picture and look at her, do you see a physical resemblance? I don't see it (she is much cuter than the adults, although she's running neck in neck with her brother). I know that she shares our love of food and napping. She has a blackberry addiction just like her father and talks all the time like her brother.

Misc. Stuff

2008-10-14T19:00:00.002-05:00

I have discovered Facebook. I could possible waste hours there, although I have really held back to this point because I have more important things to do like care for my children and do work I actually get paid for.
I am sooooooooo ready for this election to be over. We get calls almost daily from survey companies wanting to know who we will be voting for. Thank GOODNESS for caller ID. I am tired of the commercials and the debates and all the political talk that goes along with the first Tuesday in November.
Annika missed four days of school last week because she had a stomach bug. She is doing better now. I got a four day weekend out of the deal.
Leaving in New England in the fall is a wonderful thing. Everyone not here should be totally jealous of those of us who get to enjoy this wonderfulness every year.
When is the appropriate time and situation break-up with a doctor? We have used this guy for several years now, but getting a call back from the office in the last couple of month seems to require a life or death situation. We really like him but are getting very frustrated with the whole situation. I don't even want to think about trying to find someone new.

Baby Boy

2008-10-06T18:36:00.003-05:00

My baby boy turned EIGHT yesterday!!! EIGHT!!!!! We had a slumber party on Saturday night to celebrate. He has been wanted to have one for the last couple of years so we finally caved this year. Six eight or nine year old boys, 15 hours at our house, BIG FUN!!! We had a couple rough patches, but everyone ended up with a little over 6 hours of sleep and lots of Wii hours logged. I would do it again (with a slightly different guest list though).

We went to the doctor today for his annual physical. He checked in at 59 inches and 96 pounds. He has grown 4 inches and gained 30 pounds over the last year. H just keeps growing. He completely skipped the size 10. He doesn't even seem like my little boy anymore (besides the way he acts LOL). I am anxious to see where he will stop. I did a thing online when he was younger that predicted 6'4" as his adult height. That seems low to me but I'm sure it is based on some kind of scientific technology. I think he will be taller than that but hope it isn't too crazy. Guess we'll just have to hang out and see what happens.

** I just redid the predictor and it says 6'9" at age 21

The Olden Days

2008-09-29T20:14:00.005-05:00

Alex was telling us this weekend that he has a friend who owns one of the very first video games every made. It is so old that it is from the 1900s. He made it sound like that was a very long time ago (I guess to a 7, almost 8 year old, it is). We nearly blew his mind when we told him that there were no video games when we were his age. He wanted to know what we did with our time. We told him we played with toys. He said "Yeah, they were probably wooden", guess he thinks we were pre-plastic as well. He always thinks its horrible that David grew up without McDonald's (lived in Panama until he was 18).

It is so strange to think how fast things have advanced since we were younger. My senior students are all freaking out right now because they are starting to apply to college. They think it must have been almost impossible to not only find schools but to apply without the internet (add to that the fact that they are totally reliant on their guidance counselors to file their applications and they would have been totally helpless back then). They just laugh when I tell them about doing research projects without the internet. I have found myself saying "Back when I was a senior..." alot this year. Heck, I can even talk about internet-less college. How did we ever survive?!?!?

Family Pictures

2008-09-22T18:52:00.004-05:00

We had family pictures taken on Saturday. Here are a few of my favorites.

Birthday Weekend

2008-09-22T18:39:00.004-05:00

We spent the weekend celebrating Annika's birthday. We didn't mean to spread it out over two days it just kind of happened that way. Here are a few pictures.

Annika received this cute lion from Grandma and Grandpa. She loves the music and the silly roar that it makes.

It took a little coaching from brother, but she started to get the hang of unwrapping.

It took no time to get into cake eating.

She scraped the tray clean before she was finished. She was even picking the crumbs from around her legs when we took the tray off. That's our girl!!

The Big 01

2008-09-17T19:51:00.006-05:00

Annika officially becomes a one year old tomorrow. We are majorly booked up tomorrow afternoon and evening and David is out of town so we are doing the official celebration on Saturday. Here are a few pictures that compare Annika through the five months that she has been in our lives.

Referral

Gotcha Day

Finally in America

One Month Home

Spicy Girl Celebration

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!

She's one of us

2008-09-14T18:48:00.005-05:00

I have been thinking alot lately about Annika's birth family. I chose to think of them as a family, a mother and a father and possible a sibling (or two). I may be delusional but I figure that she has a daddy in America that loves her to pieces and she has a birth father some place in China who may have a huge hole in his heart just like her birth mother. We will probably never know who her birth family is or the situation that led to her abandonment, but we will speak of both of her birth parents when the questions arise. I will think of them every September 18th for the rest of my life.

I wonder if they will take time to think of her on Thursday, her birthday. Will they be sad? Will they wonder where she is and how she is doing? Will they wish they could kiss her sweet cheeks and receive one of her silly smiles? Would they be proud of her progress since she has come home? Do they have any idea what a wonder they are missing out on?

If I could talk to them I would tell them thank you for such a wonderful child. She is our sunshine. She is a joy. She is funny and charming and lovable and beautiful. She has her brother and daddy wrapped around her little finger (and me too). I would promise that we will protect her and guide her as she travels through life. We will make sure that she knows where she comes from and do our best to make her proud of her heritage. I would tell them that she is our daughter and sister and that we will love her unconditionally for the rest of our lives.

PARTAY!!!!

2008-09-08T19:46:00.003-05:00

Here are some more pictures. If you have anything you would like to add please send them my way.

FOOOOOOOTBALLLLLLLL

2008-09-08T18:35:00.002-05:00

So the first Sunday has come and gone. My Chiefs started 0-1 (no surprise) and still managed to cause heartbreak throughout the land of the Patriots. They managed to (accidentally) take out Tom Terrific. According to all of the talk radio folks, this is the end of the world as we know it. Listening today you would have thought that he was dying or something. I am SORRY but one player does not make the entire NFL. GET OVER IT!!!!

In other (much funnier) news, Mr. Ochocinco still has to be C. Johnson when he wears his jersey. Seems that the jersey maker, Reebok, had already made all of the jerseys for the season and they said C. Johnson on them. So, unless Ochocinco wants to buy all of the already produced jersey, he will remain C. Johnson. Guess you should have planned ahead a little better, Knucklehead!!!!!

Birthday Party

2008-09-06T19:55:00.003-05:00

Today was the birthday party for the Jiangxi Spicy Girls. There were seven families who were able to attend. And despite the soggy ending, we all had a great time. There was a ton of food (we will be eating left overs for days) and lots of catching up. The girls all looked the same but bigger and we took another red sofa picture (with similar results to the first). I made fancy birthday hats for everyone in hopes of getting a group picture. Annika fell asleep right before we lit the 14 candles (one for each either recently turned or soon to be one year old) and missed out on the hat fun, but we did take some pictures once the guest had all left. Hanna (the storm) arrived just as David was heading out to grill (Thanks to G. for the assist as umbrella man). She stuck around and it really started pouring when it was time for everyone to leave which lead to alot of wet dads.

I have posted a few pictures today and will have more once I get the pictures off of David's camera and receive some by email.

August Picture

2008-09-06T19:50:00.002-05:00

I guess I got a little behind on posting pictures (and yes I have been hearing about it). So here is a brief slide show of some of the highlights of the month.

Knuckleheads

2008-09-05T16:55:00.005-05:00

I am a sports talk radio junkie (esp. in the mornings) and two things have happened this week that I just have to comment on or I am going to die from not getting it out of my system.

1. The former Chad Johnson (outrageous (and I usually think funny) wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals) has legally changed his name to Chad Ocho Cinco (his jersey number is 85) so that he can put that on the back of his jersey (I guess the NFL thought it was stupid also because it took them a week to officially announce that he would be able to put it on there). Although I don't know more Spanish than is necessary to order a cheeseburger and ask where the bathroom is (what else do you really need to know?) I am pretty sure that ocho cinco is not 85 but rather eight five. Seems like a rather extreme measure to get a stupid nickname on the back of your jersey.

I have decided that we should all get new last names as well. David is going to be Mr. David Circle Star.

Alex will be Master Alexander NintendoDS (no explanation necessary)

Annika is switching to Ms. Annika Whatadoll, she may already think that is her name since she hears it everywhere we go.

I have not decided on one for myself. I could do Ms. Carrie Blogaddict, but that doesn't seem to fitting since I have become a blogging slacker. It could be Ms. Carrie Cutnsew since I am a quilter. Or maybe Ms. Carrie Bonesnguts since I teach anatomy and physiology.

2. The second knucklehead is actually two people. Two brilliant former Kansas basketball players decided to have a little party this week during the NBA rookie education thingy. Seems they got caught with women and marijuana in their hotel room even though both were not allowed. Maybe they should have stuck around Lawrence for a few more year, although I'm pretty sure you can't teach common sense.

Yes, We're Still Alive

2008-09-05T16:25:00.003-05:00

It has been such a long time since I have posted anything it is a little embarrassing. We started back to school on the 25th and the time since then has been a blur. Annika has started daycare and Alex is back in school as well. I am hoping to get ahead of my work and get my body adjusted to getting up around 5 am again so that I can actually have some energy to do some fun stuff. (Now that I finished those damn grad classes, I have all kinds of free time on my hands.) Here is a brief summary of the last two weeks.

Annika started day care. She seems to love it there. She doesn't have any problem being left in the morning, because there is toast and cheerios ready and waiting when we get there. Her friend M helps her eat every morning. She started greeting M with a smile yesterday morning which is the first time she has done anything like that with someone besides family. She loves her teacher and crawls behind her around the room when she isn't busy playing that is. She is getting used to the napping and eats anything they feed her (of course, she is definitely one of us).
Alex is in 3rd grade now. He is starting cursive next week, which he seems to be excited about. He has met some new friends in his class and has his best friend in there as well. He seems to like his teacher and seems to be happy to be back.
I am teaching all honors this year. I had never taught an honors class before last year, I was actually a little scared to teach one (alot of these kids are alot smarter than I am). I guess I am doing okay though because I went from four classes of Anatomy and Physiology last year to six this year which means I have a full schedule.
We went to Connecticut last weekend and met up with some friends from New Jersey. it was really fun. They have two kids, 11 and 12, so Alex was in hog heaven playing with the big kids and Annika never had to worry about being put down for too long.
I am soooooooo happy that football season has started. My Chiefs are going to get clobbered by the Patriots this weekend. That isn't going to stop me from wearing my new Tony Gonzales jersey and yelling at the from the recliner though. I LOVE football and so does David. This is the only time of year that you will actually find us at home on Sunday afternoons because we have to be here to watch our games.
We are having a first birthday party for the Spicy Girls tomorrow. The girls in our travel group from Annika's orphanage will all be turning one between mid September and mid-October so we are having a party for them tomorrow at our house. 7 of the 13 girls and their families will be coming over (there was going to be 8 but unfortunately B is sick and can't make it). I will post some pictures tomorrow or the next day.

Well, I need to go because it is almost time for David to be home. Friday night means dinner out and tonight we also need to go grocery shopping. Plus, the munchkins is headed my way right now so I need to free up my hands.

Jon and Kate

2008-08-22T20:06:00.002-05:00

During the last week I have developed an afternoon TV habit (yes, I can't believe it didn't happen until the last week of the summer either). I watch What Not to Wear(which persuaded me to go out an buy a very cute wrap dress), than switch to Bravo to watch whatever is on there (Shear Genius(has been added to the TIVO line-up), Top Chef (finally found out who won this season), or Project Runway(I'm so far behind on this one, I think I have missed the last 3 episodes because the Olympics have messed up my TIVO list). After my Bravo stopover, I turn back to TLC to catch a little John and Kate Plus Eight. I had never watched this show before this week. I like it but find aspects of it extremely annoying at the same time. The kids are so stinking cute, the one with the glasses is just too much. I can't even (and don't want to) imagine having 8 kids, OMG what a zoo our house would be. I'm sure that it helps to be as organized as the mom is (I admire that about her), but she gets whacked out my the littlest, weird things. One thing that really annoys me is the way that the mom treats the dad. It may just be the way that they show it on television, but, man, that woman can get on your last nerve. She tells him to do one thing and then either yells at him for doing it or complains that he is doing it the whole time (although some one in my house may say I am the same way, I, of course, would disagree). I think it is kind of funny that the lady who talks to them during their little interview sessions calls her on her over-reactions from time to time.

I did it!!

2008-08-22T19:57:00.003-05:00

I finished my last graduate class this evening at 8:30 pm. I am so happy it is finally over. No more weekends cramming in all the classwork I didn't do during the week. No more feeling exhausted just from trying to understand the information for the assignment I am supposed to be doing. No more stressing over writing research papers. I AM DONE!!!!!!

Now I get two days rest and it is back to teaching.

Little Lady and Yes We Know She is Adorable

2008-08-21T15:20:00.005-05:00

Annika had another doctors visit this morning to get her third set of shots. She gained a pound and a half since our last visit, which puts her up to 17.7 lbs. It seems like she eats sooooooo much and she has only gained a little over two and a half pounds since we have returned home. Doc S is not worried about her weight so we aren't sweating it. I guess our family is just going to be on both extremes of the size scale. You have the three big white people and the itty bitty Asian. We have always joked that our daughter would probably be very tiny because we are so big and I guess we were right.

I was going through some of Alex's old clothes the other day and I found the Elmo sweatshirt that Alex wore to his first birthday party, it was a size 18 months. Annika is just now starting to outgrow her 6 to 9 month stuff.

People comment all the time about how tiny she is. Why do people always call small babies a little peanut? I swear if one more person says she looks like a little China doll I am going to either scream or hit them. Okay since I have gone here I am going to go all the way. I am starting to get embarrassed by the number of people who comment on Annika being cute, adorable, beautiful, etc. I know they are being nice, but after you hear it every time you go out in public it gets a little old. Today at the doctors office, four people from the back actually came out to look at her because one of them saw her through a window. I have had people at the mall cut across the traffic in the if the walkway to comment on her. We don't really get that many adoption comments, mainly physical appearance comments. I thought maybe it was the pigtails, but we still get comments with her hair down. I try to not make eye contact with people which seems to help a very little bit. At first it was nice to have people say nice things about our baby, now it is getting to be embarrassing. I am glad that she doesn't understand what people are saying and it doesn't seem to bother Alex to have his sister admired (he usually agrees with them, saying she is the cutest baby ever!!). I usually just say thank you and keep moving because I figure making a flip comeback isn't going to help since it is different people making the same comment over (and over and over and over).

*Don't mean to sound like a whiner about the comments from strangers, but it is getting to be annoying.

Annika the Explorer

2008-08-19T14:45:00.002-05:00

Annika is getting better at crawling everyday (up on hands and knees totally) and has now discovered that she can move around to different parts of the house. She has mapped out all of the reachable wires in the living room and family room, discovered the one outlet that did not have a cover on it (I took care of that quickly), learned to open the dog food container, attempted to pull up on almost every piece of sharp furniture that we own (stays away from the padded chairs, loves the glass tables with the metal legs), figured out how to work the cat door to the basement, and loves to wonder into our bedroom to play with the shoes and pocket change on the floor. Thank goodness she hasn't discovered the stairs yet. I looked up today and she was under the glass coffee table, leaving fingerprints that will be almost impossible for us to clean off, maybe we will just leave them there as a memento of how tiny they are. I am guessing it won't be much longer until she discovers the other two rooms on the first floor (and the stairs).

She is surprisingly fast and very quiet so if you look down for a couple of seconds when you look up she is gone. Unless of course she is performing her other new trick, jabbering on and on at top volume. Alex and I decided that she is going to be a whale whisperer when she grows up.

Run for the Fallen

2008-08-18T20:39:00.002-05:00

I wanted to share an event that is happening this Sunday, August 24. There is a group that has spent the summer running across the US. They are running one mile for every soldier who has died in Iraq. They are traveling from California to the gates of Arlington National Cemetery. They will finish their run this Sunday and have invited all Americans to join them by walking on mile on Sunday in support this idea. There are several communities that have organized walks on Sunday, we will be participating in one here. Here is a link to the their website if you are interested in more info http://www.runforthefallen.org/

She's a Beauty!!

2008-08-17T20:26:00.002-05:00

I wanted to congratulate Alyson and Ford on the referral of their gorgeous daughter, Alyzabeth An. They have been waiting a l-o-n-g time.

New Tricks

2008-08-15T22:23:00.002-05:00

Annika had her third early intervention visit this afternoon. Last week we were given two assignments, crawling on hands and knees and work on starting to pull up to standing. We have been practicing the pulling up all week but she hadn't done it by herself, only with assistance. Today, the therapist put the toy up on the ottoman and Annika crawled right over, got up on her knees, put her foot down and pulled right up ALL BY HERSELF. She has done it a couple of times since them this afternoon. I will try to catch it on video tomorrow so I can share it here.
Yesterday I gave Jake (the dog) two biscuits and stepped out of the room for a couple seconds. When I walked back in, he and Annika were laying facing each other, each with their own dog biscuit. I guess she must have been hungry and figured since she always shares with him, he should share with her.
Anytime the red eye light on my camera comes on, she stops what she is doing and makes the most awful, hysterical face. She wrinkles her nose, squints her eyes, and smiles so big you can see all five (soon to be six) of her teeth.
Alex has a few new tricks, too. He has started occupational therapy and one of his at home exercises is to run the vacuum cleaner. This one is really hard on me, especially since we need to run it daily since the Little Miss Lint-Picker eats everything she picks out of the carpet (her current favorite is dog hair). Other exercises include carrying in the groceries, putting groceries away, carrying laundry baskets, taking out the trash, and putting away laundry (no, I am not teasing, these things are really on the exercise list). Now he no longer complains when I ask him to help with these things because the OT said he should do them (He loves OT so anything the therapist says is fine with him)

Let the countdowns begin

2008-08-14T18:51:00.005-05:00

With the summer coming to an end, it is time for several changes to occur around here. Here is a list.

Ten more days before I go back to work. I am so not ready at this point. School has been my last priority (actually not even on the radar AT ALL) this summer. I have been too busy enjoying my time with the kids and finishing up my last grad class. I have already started to get the annual pre-school year jitters. I haven't actually progressed to the insomnia phase yet, but I have been staying up watching the Olympics so it is hard to know if there is insomnia or not.
Ten days until Annika becomes a daycare kid. We have visited twice now and plan to stop in a couple more times before she actually starts. She has been fine with getting down on the floor and playing with the toys in her room. She hasn't really interacted with the other kids but was happy to see the teacher the second time we visited. I know it will be good for her to be around other kids, but I still feel guilty about leaving her.
Twelve days until Alex becomes a third grader. He is very excited because one of his best friends is going to be in his class this year. I have heard good things about his teacher. The teacher he had last year worked with him very well and helped us discover some things to help him succeed. I am really hoping that this teacher will be as understanding as Mrs.C was.
Seven days until the graduate classes are finished. This is the thing I am most excited about. These classes have made the last year one of the most difficult I have ever had. They have totally fried my brain, I don't even think that I remember half of the information that I "learned" in them. I am very proud of my grades,but honestly don't know how I ended up doing as well as I did. Most of the time I got to the point where I felt like I just couldn't do anymore and handed the assignments in.

Two monthes together

2008-08-09T07:41:00.002-05:00

Annika has been home for a little over two months now. The first picture in the slide show is this months bear picture. She is wearing the same outfit that she wore the first day we were home. It fits better now, no need to roll the sleeves anymore. She is still wear a 6-9 month size. i have tried on a couple of twelve month outfits and they are huge. She is getting around better, mainly by army crawling. She can go short distances on her hand and knees, but if she needs speed (like when going after the cat, Brody) she drops on her belly and off she goes. We started to work on pulling up during early intervention last week. She has the strength to pull herself up, but she can't balance herself once she gets up. She has started to wink. She mainly does it when you have left to someplace and come back into the room.

Gotcha

2008-07-30T08:54:00.003-05:00

On the day that we met Annika, we were the last family from our orphanage to get their daughter. This meant that we got pictures of everyone getting their babies, but we weren't sure if anyone got a picture of us. There was one family who's daughter was from a different orphanage and she was coming later. I was very excited to see this picture on their blog this morning. We have video of the moment but no pictures. YEAH AMY!!!!!

All Hail The Mighty Five Tooth

2008-07-29T22:10:00.007-05:00

It is amazing how fast children grow and learn new things. Here are some of Annika's latest achievements.

She cut another tooth, so now she is up to five. Alex and I had to change her nickname from the Mighty Four Tooth.

As you can see in the video, she is starting to get mobile. She can get on her hands and knees, but only moves forward with the army crawl, rolling, and pivoting. Part of early intervention is getting her up on her hands and knees.

She is feeding herself more. Some of her favorite finger foods are pasta, bananas, avocados, and veggie straws. She is getting very good at picking things out of the carpet and putting them in her mouth as well. She can't get a cheerio in her mouth, but she can locate, pick up, and stuff a dog hair in there (I am now vacuuming daily!!!).

She has decided there is no need for Kleenex when I am wearing a nice, clean shirt. It never fails.

We survived our first babysitter. Annika did great with the sitter on Sunday night. She had no problem with going to sleep (which I was really concerned about) and I didn't call one single time to check in (although I sis ask about 15 times what time it was around bed time, just in case I needed to be ready for a phone call).

She started to nod her head yes instead of just shaking it. She has been a head shaker ever since we met her. It didn't really have a meaning at first, I think it was a stimulation thing. This week she is getting a little spicy* with the head shaking (see video below) it makes it hard to reprimand her without laughing.

*Annika is from Jiangxi province. They say that the people there are "spicy" because of their personalities. We have seen a few examples of this, mainly when we set her down someplace when she wants to be held. She tattles on us to whoever will listen.

The many faces of Annika

2008-07-29T14:29:00.002-05:00

**I discovered the Slide website today. This is so much more fun than doing homework.

Changes

2008-07-29T11:27:00.005-05:00

After seeing Amy's blog I decided to make a few changes as well. The old "new" title wasn't really doing it for me so I changed that and finally got around to making a heading. What do you think? Is the font to hard to read? I would like to use some other colors, but the colors that they give you to use with blogger are pretty limited.

Please scroll down to the bottom and sign into my new guestbook. I found it on a different blog and thought it looked pretty fun.

I promise there is a big post about Annika's progress coming. She is army crawling and feeding herself and doing cute new stuff everyday.

Only in New Hampshire

2008-07-26T11:54:00.003-05:00

I was just settling down to get to work on my grad stuff when the phone rang. When I answered, the teenage girl from next door was hollering "You have to look outside there is a huge black bear in your backyard." They were out getting their camper ready to go on a trip tomorrow when the bear moseyed up their driveway and into our yard. By the time we got outside (I know, great idea there is possible a bear in your backyard so why not run out there!!!) we saw it walk up the drive of the house behind us. All I saw was a bear butt and its rear left leg. It was pretty big. The woman next door to the driveway it walked up was out watering her flowers and never even saw it. That would be pretty startling (to say the least) to turn around and have a big bear walking through the neighbors yard!!!

What We've Been Doing

2008-07-25T12:41:00.010-05:00

My sister and her family came for a visit so I have been a little too busy to post lately. We covered alot of area while they were here. We hit the beach and Story Land, spent the day in Portsmouth, and played at the indoor playground that Alex loves. We had alot of fun and everyone got along great. Annika loved meeting her cousins and playing with them. The pictures are in no particular order. Here are some high lights of our trip.

Annika met Cinderella and rode several rides, including the Ferris wheel and pirate ship, at Story Land.

We met another family who had adopted through our agency three years ago at the hotel where we stayed. They even had the same national guide that we did.

Alex got to spend alot of time in his favorite place at Story Land: the Loopy Lab, it is this big open area with air powered cannons where you can shoot foam balls at people. He loves it.

My nieces, my sister and I all tried boogie boarding for the first time. It was pretty fun, I spent most of the afternoon doing it actually. I don't usually go to the beach with other adults so I took my chance to stay in the water when I got it.
We passed Mount Washington (the highest peak in the northeast US with the worst weather in the world(that's what the website says anyway)) on our way home from Story Land although we never did figure out which mountain it was.

In other news, David and I are going to the Red Sox-Yankees game on Sunday night. We will be behind the Yankees dugout. The game is on ESPN so if you watch look for the big guy in the Yankees jersey, that would be David. I am a little nervous because it will be Annika's first time with a sitter. I know she will do fine, but if gives me something to worry about none the less.

I will post an update on Annika's progress later today so I can put up some video of her newest tricks.

What the HECK!!!

2008-07-24T13:01:00.002-05:00

One of the best things about living in New England is that you (usually) don't have to worry about severe summer weather such a major thunderstorms and tornado's. Well, the last couple of days have been like Texas in the spring. There have been tornado warning and hail and torrential rains. The meteorologist don't know what to do with themselves. You can tell that they are concerned but you have to know that they are falling all over themselves they are so excited to have some real weather to forecast (yes I know we have major winter storms here, but this weather is way different: constantly changing, popping up out of no where). They keep using all these big weathery-words and using all of the gizmos on the radar that they thought they would probably never get to use. The big discussion right now is straight line wind vs. tornado and what has caused the damage today.

There are already 5 towns in New Hampshire declared disaster areas because of storms that hit around 11 this morning (it is 2 pm right now) and there is still another line of storms coming our way. We have escaped anything but rain so far. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Princess Cranky Pants

2008-07-15T15:16:00.002-05:00

Annika has been in a foul mood for the last few days. I think that she is cutting at least one tooth. She is usually pretty independent and likes to play on the floor or in one of her various baby contraptions for periods of time long enough where I can actually get some things accomplished around the house. Now she has decided that she needs to be held the majority of the time or she wants you sitting where she is actually able to reach out and touch you. She doesn't really cry so much as complain. We usually call it tattling (or being spicy). She kind of hollers in baby talk, it almost sounds like she is crying but there are no tears involved, and she looks back and forth between who ever she is talking to and whoever offended her. It is actually kind of funny unless she is doing it all the time. Another fun thing she has started in the last couple of days is biting my shirt. It wouldn't be that bad except sometimes she also gets skin. i keep telling her that I don't taste that good but she doesn't seem to believe me. Hopefully this is just the result of some new chompers and she will return to her wonderful self again soon.

We tried to have a play date with Grace from our travel group this morning, but she spent half of the time trying to crawl into my lap. She was very clingy. I don't know if she was confused because there was another baby from her orphanage here or it was just more of the crankies. Eventually she came around (after some food) and then ended up taking a nap for the remainder of their visit.

In other, non-cranky, news, my sister and her family are coming to visit starting on Thursday. They can't wait to get here and meet Annika.

Pictures

2008-07-12T21:03:00.005-05:00

Here are a few pictures that David took at the zoo last weekend. I really wanted some of Alex and Annika together that didn't have one of them in the pajamas or underwear/diaper. They appear to like each other and Alex was very excited to get to hold Annika outside of the house (he can only hold her inside the house on carpeted areas, away from hard furniture)

He also snuck a couple of me and Annika. Here we are reading about the zoos educational programs. She is quite the reader already.

Here we are discussing the rhinoceros. As you can tell, they are very amusing animals.

(She has always got at least one handful of my shirt any time that I carry her. She has been this way since the day we met her. I have to be careful what I wear and/or pay close attention to where my neckline is falling at all times.)

OH MY!!!

2008-07-12T17:00:00.002-05:00

Those cute pigtails lead to some awfully bad hair.

Picture Update

2008-07-09T20:17:00.005-05:00

I finally got around to taking some pictures and loading them on my computer. The first ones I took today. When Alex was little I would take his picture each month on about the same day. I always took one with Froggie, the stuffed frog that he got on the day that he was born, so we could see how much he had grown. I have decided to do that with Annika as well. When we got home we took a picture with the bear that Alex made for Annika so I have decided that will be her monthly animal. I also wanted to get some decent non-screaming pictures in her red sofa dress. She didn't want to cooperate so I just put her on the floor with some toys and layed on the ground and clicked away.

Here is last months picture.

This weekend we went to the Southwick Zoo in southern Massachusetts. It was much better than we had expected and we can't wait to go back.

I put Alex's old baby swing up the other day and Annika is enjoying it alot.

Shout Out

2008-07-07T18:25:00.002-05:00

So, we have been home for a little over a month (three days to be exact) and I have to say that I am missing everyone still. I thought that it would get better after a couple of weeks, but now that we have settled in I have time to wonder how everyone is doing. I know that some of you have been blogging (and some have not!!!) but it isn't the same as when we saw each other everyday and could discuss "bathroom" issues and sleeping and etc., etc., etc.

So anyway. I was wondering if anyone would like to meet up. It could be for a mother-kid day at the beach or a family dinner get together or whatever. I would even be happy with an email and a current picture. Let me know what you think.

Eating

2008-07-05T17:58:00.003-05:00

I wasn't going to post again today since I am supposed to be working on my homework right now, but Annika did something pretty cool tonight. She fed herself. It may not seem like a big deal, but to us it is. She doesn't really seem to know that her hands are hers. She didn't really discover that she even had hands until we go her. The second day she was with us she looked down and there was this super cool thing there that had wiggling fingers and a thumb and could turn back and forth. She knew that she didn't like people to touch them but didn't really understand what they were for.

Every time that we feed her we put puffs on her high chair tray. They give her something to chase around the tray and she will pick them up in her palm and that is where they stay. When early intervention was here on Tuesday, they recommended that we foods that are long and thin, similar to the shape and size of french fries, since she doesn't have a pinching grasp yet. They suggested cutting toast into long strips and these things called Veggie Stix.

Today we picked up some of the veggie things. I had to forcefully hold her hand in mine while I fed her a couple, but then after a while she picked one up in her right hand (GO ANNIKA!!!! another big weakness is using her right hand) and began to slowly gnaw away until she got to her hand. At that point she figured it was all gone and stopped not realizing there was more in her palm. Once she started, she was on a roll. I gave her some more and she would eventually position them so she could get them in her mouth and then gnaw away. She was very happy about this, there was lots of growling (her new thing when she eats), and MMMMMMM-ing, and lip smacking. I am going to try toast sticks again in the morning to see how that goes.

It is amazing how fast she learns new things. After you show her a few times she tries and tries until she can do it herself. She also started to stick her tongue out in the last couple of days because we have been trying to get her to mimic us doing that.