A big step

The reason I haven't posted anything lately is that I was in New Orleans for most of the week for a conference. Emma and I have been apart for an evening when she went to a sleep over, but never for a period of several days before. So this was a test for both of us, I think. I had to leave early Wednesday morning and didn't get back until Friday afternoon. My parents, who Emma adores, came to stay with her. Long story short, although there was a lot of missing each other, we both survived and everything went pretty smoothly. Of course, this is just a precursor to a week-long trip I have to take in May...I am NOT looking forward to that one!

Anyway, it was back to our busy weekends today...Emma's Daisy Scout troop had a field trip to a local nature conservancy, which was fun. I took a couple of pictures...



The second photo is of Emma and her best friend Emme...they have known each other since the age of one and are in the same class at school...they are just inseparable! Emme's mom and I both worry what will happen if they aren't in first grade together, which could happen, of course. Hopefully they will stay friends for a long time, because they are so cute together!

Happy Easter...

from Emma and Donna...


and from Emma's doll Julie, who has her matching Easter dress on, and from Emma's new stuffed bunny named Chocolate!



Hope your holiday was as blessed as ours was.

Princesses on Ice

Today we attended yet another "on ice" production. I think, so far, we have seen Disneyland on Ice, High School Musical on Ice and Sesame Street on Ice. However, this was the really big one...Disney Princesses on Ice! We bought the tickets a couple months ago and, at the time, Emma seemed really excited about it. But her love for all things princesses has cooled a bit of late, to be replaced by an obsession of all things horses. Which is okay by me...frankly, I've been suffering from princess overload the past couple of years (although I have to admit, princesses are much cheaper than horses!)

But despite all that, we were still looking forward to the Princess on Ice thing, even if it was sort of our princess last hurrah. We went with our friends Mary and Helen...here are Emma and Helen a few minutes before show time...


I told Emma that in addition to the trash bag-sized cotton candy that we always get at these events, she could also buy one small souvenir and she chose the Minnie Mouse ears, which I'm sure will never grace her head again after we left the arena. But they were pretty darn cute.


The show was pretty good and they managed to cram most of the princesses in (Pocahantas was missing, much to the girls' dismay.) But we had fabulous seats (third row) and really had a nice time. I tend to think this will be our last "on ice' extravaganza...unless they start up a production of Hannah Montana on Ice (which wouldn't shock me!)

The rest of the day consisted of grocery shopping and going to the park for our first bike ride of the year. Emma was a bit tentative at first, but before long, she was zipping around the park...


I really think Emma is pretty close to being able to ride her bike without the training wheels. She tends to be really timid about such things, but I have a feeling this will be the summer she finally rides a two-wheeler!

Spring has sprung...

...at least for a few days. Temperatures have been in the 60s most of the week and the sun has shone brightly the last two days. Emma and I have gone for long walks after work/school every day this week. Here are a couple photos I took on our outing this evening...




Of course, it's not like this is going to last much longer. It's supposed to be about ten degrees cooler tomorrow and they're forecasting snow on Easter. Fantastic...perfect weather for Emma's sleeveless Easter dress!

Oh well, at least we've enjoyed this week...hopefully the nice weather will be here to stay soon.

My funny girl

There's a college basketball tournament in town this week and some of the players came to visit Emma's school yesterday. Emma told me that the players lifted up some of the kids in the gym so they could dunk the basketball. I asked her if she did it and she said "Mommy, I'm afraid of heights and I'm afraid of teenagers, so there's no way I was going to do that!"

I just thought it was so funny...but I'm her mom and I think just about everything she says is hilarious!

The great Easter egg hunt

It was a cold and dreary Saturday here (I know...what a shock!) and Emma and I had a rare day with nothing specific planned. So we headed to one of those indoor edu-tainment centers that I keep thinking Emma will outgrow, but she still loves. Plus, an added attraction today was that they were having an Easter egg hunt out in the bitter cold and wind.

We got there about 90 minutes before the big egg-stravaganza. Emma, as always, heads to the face painting area first. Here she is starting to glam herself up...


She asked me to help her look like a kitty, so I did my best...


Then Emma played in the pretend grocery store, the art room, made an Easter cookie in the kitchen, on and on. Finally the masses of kids started to line up for the mad dash outside to the Easter eggs. This is like our 4th Easter egg hunt and they're all the same. Some poor group of people spends hours and hours putting candy and miniature toys in little plastic eggs and then it's an additional hour or so to hide them all over some field or garden or some place similar. Then the kids are unleashed and the whole thing is over in like 13.4 seconds.

This one was no different. Fortunately, Emma had grabbed a spot near the front of the line and while most of the kids headed in one direction, I spotted a little circle of grass with lots of eggs sitting there and steered her in that direction. She had the patch all to herself for a good ten seconds and was able to snatch up about 15 eggs. I tell you, it's total insanity out there...she was lucky! Here's a pic of her with her booty (she had made another visit to the face-painting area before the egg hunt - with mixed results, although I told her it looked fabulous).


So another Easter egg hunt over with...can't wait until next year.

Well, I have to get my princess to bed...have a good one!

Winter blahs

So it's March 8th, it's 9 degrees outside and we got 2 more inches of snow yesterday. When will this madness end?!

To get in the mood for spring (which, at this rate, should be here in July), I've been buying spring and summer clothes for Emma. It's always so much fun to start browsing the Gymboree, Gap and Children's Place web sites and stores when you're looking forward to a change of season. I've totally fallen in love with Baby Gap's new Sunflower line and have bought Emma several things from it already (with coupons, of course!) Here's the fashion show...




I'm also crazy about the Gymboree spring line called Tennis Match...lots of bright pinks and greens with cute little turtles on it. I've bought a couple of things, but I'm waiting for markdowns before making a major investment.

Yeah, it's a bit sad that I'm blogging about children's clothes. But it's fun to look ahead to the time when Emma might actually get to wear these beautiful summery outfits. Let's hope that day is soon!

It's always when you least suspect it...

...after school/work yesterday, Emma and I did our usual Friday routine: out to dinner and a stop to get a DVD to rent. When we got home, we were getting settled, when out of the blue, Emma said "Can you tell me why you adopted me?"

We have had a number of conversations over the years on this subject, so I wasn't totally taken aback. So I told her our story - making sure to make it as much about her as about me. Usually that satisfies her, but for whatever reason, she really wanted to talk it over this time. She talked about how she would like to see her "bookmark" parents someday (her way of saying birth parents.) And she wanted to talk again about what it was like when she and I saw each other for the first time.

I just felt like this was a special time, so I ran downstairs and brought up a big bag...it had all the clothes she had on when they handed her to me (and there were a lot of them!) It also had some little gifts and tokens the orphanage had give her. And a little bag of dirt I had scooped up and put in a pouch at the spot where Emma was left.

I had never shown her any of this stuff before...it just never seemed to be the right moment. But this time, it did. She was really fascinated by it all, especially a little necklace the orphanage had given her with the Chinese symbol for "good luck."

I know some adoptive parents get really freaked out when their kids want to talk about where they came from. But this was a great experience for the two of us. Maybe the conversations will get more difficult down the line, but so far, she seems to be processing it well.

Anyway, here's a picture I took today of my girl...have a nice weekend, everyone!