THE CALL!

Many moons ago I dreamed of you . . .
2,231 days ago I took the first step toward you . . .
2,113 days ago I officially started waiting for you.
Today I see you!
In a few short months I will hold you! 
And forever, I will be your mother!

With tears in my eyes and immeasurable joy in my heart, I present my newest daughter . . .

My beautiful girl is 2 years old, healthy, and reportedly "an extrovert".  She is in Guangxi Province in China.  After nearly 6 years of waiting, I believe the longest part of the wait begins today!  I love you already sweet girl!  Counting down the days . . .


An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet regardless of time, place, or circumstance.  The thread may stretch or tangle, but will never break.
                                                           - Ancient Chinese Proverb

"Summer - whoo hoo!"

Yep, those were the words Little Miss uttered when I told her she had only one day of school left.  Spoken like a true middle
school-ish, young teen who longs for the school year to be over!   Where does this come from?  Little Miss loves school and yet she has already been corrupted by the world?, by her older cousins?, by the junior high doctrine that the end of the school year is something to celebrate with shouts of joy?  Ugh!  I prefer to believe she is simply excited about the summer ahead and I'm with her on that!  It is going to be an exciting summer for us!!

How is it possible that my baby girl has completed her first year of school anyway?  Little Miss had an awesome year with 2 wonderful teachers and 10 wonderful new friends!  She learned so much and had a ton of fun . . . I couldn't ask for more.

In order to capture a snippet of my ever maturing 4-year-old girl's current wit and wisdom, here are a few of her thoughts on some random stuff . . .

Mommy:  "Who is your best friend?"
Little Miss: "You . . . and K (friend at school)"

Mommy:  "What do you think Mommy does after you go to sleep at night?"
Little Miss:  "Sleep???"

Mommy:  "How do you do a cartwheel?"
Little Miss:  "Put your arms up, then touch them to the ground, kick up into the air and go sideways."

Mommy:  "When will you learn to drive?"
Little Miss:  "When I am 16."  (Wow!  She has done her homework on this topic!  And she's already preparing by backseat driving with questions such as, "did that guy cut in front of us?" and "why did you move over to this side now" as we change lanes.)

Mommy:  "Where would you go if you had a plane ticket?"
Little Miss:  "Texas! . . . to shop!"

Mommy:  "What do you enjoy?"
Little Miss:  "Painting, coloring . . . oh and writing.  I'm like an artist."

Mommy:  "What makes you happy?"
Little Miss:  "Playing with you!"  (she is a charmer!)

And another gem Little Miss recently expressed:
Little Miss:  "Mom,  where is the mail truck's license plate?" - asked as we are driving behind a mail truck.
Mommy: "Hmm, I don't see one.  Maybe mail trucks don't have a license plate.  I'm not sure."
Little Miss:  "Let's investigate that!"

The Thinker

Four Fabulous Four

Little Miss is officially 4!  And she is proud of it!  She loves to hold up 4 fingers and tell people at random that she is 4 and that she had a gymnastic cake!

Since about three days after her 3rd birthday, Little Miss had been saying she wanted a gymnastic cake for her 4th birthday.  She was persistent and detailed about what she wanted.  She talked about her gymnastic cake for a year.  So, a gymnastic cake is what she got!  I had to learn a thing or two, experiment a little, and hope for the best.  The result . . . a cake that I believe is identifiable as a gymnastic cake and that tickled my girl pink!  She was thrilled to finally have her gymnastic cake and was in a much greater rush than I to cut it and eat it!  All that work . . . cut it?  eat it?  Oh well, I guess that is the point!

Little Miss had a wonderful party at home with the fam!  She actually was lucky enough to celebrate her 4th birthday three times (party day, actual birthday - out to eat, and at school).  She loved every minute of it!

The happy is written all over her face, don't ya think?

And it's written all over mine too!  Happy 4th Birthday to you Little Miss!  I love you more than words can say!

Rounding out 3

As her 4th birthday sneaks up on us, I can't help but think about how much Little Miss has grown over the past year.   Sure she has grown taller, but that's nothing compared to the skill development and maturation that have occurred.  Those are the things that fascinate and impress you as a mother!  Those are the things that remind you just how lucky you are to have the privilege of watching your little person transform right before your very eyes into someone even cooler than she was yesterday!  A truly amazing gift that I, for one, treasure wholeheartedly!

So without further ado . . . a modest (ok, and maybe a tad self-indulgent) list of my girlie's year 3 accomplishments.  Little Miss can . . .

-independently spell and write her first name

-spell and write her last name with just a bit of prompting

-count to 20 (with the occasional omission of 16 and 17 - who needs them!)

-name all uppercase letters, most lowercase letters, and identify many letter sounds

-read/spell about 15 small, familiar, somewhat random words (mom, cat, dog, pop, stop, go, Bob, help, boots, kid, hot, Loden, no, etc.)

-independently go to the bathroom start to finish, including handwashing

-put on and zip a coat or sweatshirt

-make scrambled eggs with close supervision/guidance for the hot pan part

-go up to her room, get underpants and a shirt and a pair of pants and socks and shoes that nearly
match ("Stripes go with stripes, Mom!"), and don the entire ensemble independently

-effectively vacuum at least 75% of the visible floor space in a given room with a lightweight electric broom

-approach an unknown child at the park and ask him/her to play with her

-be incredibly empathetic to another child who is sad or hurt

-offer to share whatever she has with other kids or adults

-make all the adults in her life crack up in an instant with her comedic ideas and timing

-continue to thrill and challenge her mama beyond her wildest dreams every single day!

I love you my Little Missy Girl!  Happy almost birthday!

Rainy day fun

This rainy day activity began like this . . .

It soon advanced to this . . .

And continued on to . . . Oh my . . . this . . .

And eventually concluded like this . . . .

"I know it is wet and the sun is not sunny, but we can have lots of good fun that is funny!" -Dr. Seuss (from The Cat in the Hat)

"Mom, can I please do some homework?"

What? Isn't that the request of every child? Ha! I don't expect this request often over the next 15 years or so, but it is something Little Miss asks most days at this point in time. She absolutely loves her homework! Her preschool offers "optional" homework once a week if parent/child are interested. So far the interest is totally there. If only this is a foreshadowing of years to come!?!?! One can hope!

I must say it is incredibly cute to see my little pip-squeak girlie intensely working on these school girl tasks. It is serious business for her as evidence by above photo.

This was her first homework assignment ever. This one's a keeper. Assignment was to read a book (Little Miss chose Fancy Nancy and the Delectable Cupcakes) and draw a picture about it. I suppose we could call this a primative book report. In the drawing you will note a large Fancy Nancy (complete with arms and legs coming directly out of her head - love that!), and a smaller blob off to the right which is of course Frenchy the dog (come on, it's pretty clear what with all those brown legs hanging down and the straight line yellow tail). Nancy is "wearing lipstick because she likes to be fancy" says Little Miss. And Frenchy has blue "frosting all over his mouth because he ate the cupcakes". Not a bad synopsis . . . for a 3 year old!