Snow Day

Like a lot of the country, winter weather has hit here with a vengence. We had an ice storm last night and we're supposed to get like a foot of snow this afternoon and this evening. YUCK! I'm not ready for winter. Emma is thrilled, of course, because school was cancelled today because of the ice and, if the forecasters are to be believed, will be closed tomorrow because of heavy snow.

We managed a quick run to Target and McDonald's in between the ice and the snow. And we spent this afternoon decorating the Christmas tree...

It's been a tiring day for both of us and Emma is taking one of her rare naps (that don't involve a moving car) right now. So a little peace and quiet for mom...I think I'll read for awhile and pick up the house a little before the next round of shoveling and entertaining Emma.

Emma and the Big Guy

Wow, I can't believe I went this long without posting anything...I had every intention of checking in while we were on our long Thanksgiving vacation out east, but I guess we were having so much fun, I didn't have time!

Anyway, I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday...we sure did. Emma had so much fun hanging out for a week with her cousins and it was nice to spend time with my parents and my sister and her family. There was plenty of eating and shopping, which is par for the course for our family!

I'm sure the highlight for Emma was going to see Santa at the mall...she went to see Santa for the first time last year, but she was still a little apprehensive when it was our turn. We coaxed her to go up to him while Brennan and D.J. were still visiting and that seemed to break the ice...


Then she had Santa all to herself...


She told me afterwards that she asked Santa for two things that she had failed to mention to me previously. I thought I was done shopping, but I guess not...I have to get her at least one thing she asked Santa for!

Emma and Peter

After school and work today, we went to our favorite children's photographer to get Emma's Christmas pictures taken. While we were there, the photographer asked Emma if she wanted to hold her bunny rabbit (named Peter!) Emma was a little hesitant at first, but then fell totally in love. The photographer took some great pictures of the two of them...I snapped this one while Emma was just getting to know Peter.

Well, I have to get back to packing...we're off tomorrow to spend a week with my sister and her family in Boston. Emma's so excited about seeing her cousins!

Gee, it's FUN being a mom! (WARNING - gross!)

Okay, yesterday was just one of those days. Shortly after we got home from school, Emma told me her tummy hurt. What this normally means is that Emma has a big poop she needs to get rid of. So she sat on the potty and did go. But as she was sitting there, she said her tummy still hurt (I'm sure you can all see where this is going...) So I'm leaning in close to her, trying to see if she has a temperature or anything and -BLEECH - suddenly there's blue vomit all over her, me the floor, the toilet. I guess that fruit punch after school wasn't such a good idea. It was really shocking to me because Emma hadn't thrown up since she was one year old.

Anyway, after like two seconds, Emma looked up and said "it's okay, Mommy, I feel better now." Geez, I would THINK SO! So I stripped all our clothes off, plopped her in the tub and started cleaning up.

It's funny, during the long wait for Emma, one of the (many) things I worried about was how to deal with a sick child. I mean, I would rather see someone get decapitated in a movie than see them throw up! And I just never get sick. But it's weird...when you're a parent, you're more worried about how your child is doing than you are about being soaked with vomit. It's not fun to deal with, but it's not horrible like I thought it would be.

Anyway, it must have been something she ate, because she didn't have a temperature and was asking for dinner an hour later. And she was back in school today, bragging to her little friends about how she barfed all over the bathroom. They were VERY impressed!

Thank goodness that's over for another year...

Emma doesn't have school today and I'm off work for Veteran's Day. Unfortunately, the day has not been all fun...Emma had to get her flu shot this morning. Shortly after getting up, she asked me what we were doing today and I told her we had to go to the doctor and then we were going to spend some time with her friend Helen and her mom. Of course, the first words out of Emma's mouth were "Do I have to get a shot?" I know a lot parents would dodge the question by saying "we'll see" or something. I've done that before. But this time I just said yes. Well, turn on the waterworks! She cried for like 15 minutes, pleading with me not to make her get a shot. I just kept saying it would be over in a second and wouldn't hurt much. Strangely, she stopped crying right before we left, didn't protest on the way to the doctor's office, and didn't shed a single tear while she got the shot. Weird! Anyway, here's a picture of her in the recovery room...

To help her recover from the trauma of this major medical procedure, we went to this big children's indoor play center with Helen and her mom. The girls absolutely LOVE this place! Emma's favorite is the ball pit.

The appeal of the ball pit has always escaped me. I seriously doubt I would love rolling about in a small area filled with hard plastic balls while scores of children hurl themselves and the balls all over the place. But Emma totally digs it. Emma and Helen also enjoyed building a big tower in the contruction room...

As you can see, they toiled away on their building project AFTER they visited the face painting room.

Emma totally conked out in the car on the way home. I carried her from the car into the house and just plopped in the easy chair and let her sleep. I don't care how long you have your kids or how old they get, there's something so incredible when they're sleeping in your lap. I'll never get tired of that.

Family FotoFun Friday challenge

Donna's FFFF challenge this weeks is HATS! This is one of my favorite pictures of Emma. She has on a cheesy Burger King crown instead of a hat...but it's on her head and she still looks cute to me!

The most exciting weekend of all time

Of course, that's not entirely true. Okay, it's not even remotely true. But we did have a little fun this past weekend. On Saturday, we went to the playground with our friends Mary and Helen. Despite a rivalry that mirrors that of the Red Sox and Yankees, Emma and Helen always seem to have a great time together...

On Sunday, after church and a swanky lunch at McDonalds, Emma and I tried to make a dent in the carpet of leaves in our yard. Emma was actually a big help raking the leaves (hey, it's never too early to put them to work...that's my philosophy!)

It is so depressing to me to spend an afternoon raking and bagging leaves (one of my LEAST favorite chores) and then look outside two hours later and see your yard covered with leaves again. I should just hire someone to do it, but I'm too cheap.

P.S. in the background of the photo of Emma raking, you can see where our garage used to be...they poured the concrete last week and as soon as it solidifies, they'll start building the garage. It's not too soon for me...my poor mini-van is not used to being exposed to the elements!

Four years ago today...

...I was pacing up and down the hall at work like a caged tiger. No, not because it was Election Day, although it was, and I had already voted, but I couldn't care less. Because I knew this was the day I was going to get the call that would change my life. My DTC date was September 24, 2001 and I had been waiting more than 13 months for my referral. The referrals for October were almost two weeks late coming out at this point. There were reports that the referrals were late because September AND October were going to get their referrals this time (boy, those were the days!) That ended up not being the case and the October people would have to wait another few weeks. But barring some catastrophe, I knew I was in this batch. I was still worried though. A year before, my friend Dana was supposed to get her referral and the CCAA had mistakenly included hers with another agency's packet of referrals. That agency couldn't just forward it to her...it had to go back to the CCAA and then to her and it was another three weeks before she got it. So in the back of my mind, I knew there could be a screw-up of some kind.

It was late morning and I was checking the September2001DTC CCAI yahoo group like every 30 seconds. Finally, the first referrals appeared - they were calling people! I ran out to the front desk and told our office coordinator (and my friend) Valerie that the referrals were coming and that if anyone called for me, she needed to ask who it was so I'd be ready. I can still remember how the anticipation was almost dizzingly unbearable.

A bit later, I was walking back to my office talking to my friend Kerry when Val ran toward us. "Your agency's on the phone!!!" Val and Kerry asked if they could stay and we went in my office and closed the door. I took a deep breath and in this embarrassingly shaky voice, I said "This is Donna." The woman on the other end of the line laughed. "Don't be nervous...this is Elaine at CCAI and I'm looking at a picture of your beautiful daughter!" Relief flooded over me...there was no mix-up or lost dossier...I was a mom!

I tried to concentrate as Elaine gave me the details...her name was Yin Yi Qian...she was born on February 24, 2002 (just over 8 months old and the same birthday as my niece D.J. who was traveling with us to China!)...she was at Yiyang SWI in Hunan Province...at 6 months old, she was 13 pounds and 25 inches. I tried to ask a couple questions that she didn't know the answer to, but I wasn't really into asking questions at that point. She said she was emailing me my daughter's photo as we spoke and I would get more details and pictures via Fed Ex tomorrow.

I hung up the phone and Val and Kerry hugged me and congratulated me. Then I turned to my computer to see if I had gotten an email from CCAI yet...it was there. I looked at my friends and said "we're going to see Emma for the first time." I have to be totally honest here...I had tried to steel myself and my family and friends for the reality that the referral picture might not be great and that Emma may not look all that cute in it. I mean, they don't call them mug shots for nothing. I admit there were times over the previous year that I would see someone's referral photo and think "Oh, that's too bad." I mean, you knew the baby was going to be adorable once they saw her...but often those pictures are not so adorable. So I had tried to tell myself that just because the referral picture wasn't lovely, that didn't mean my daugher wasn't lovely. As it turned out, I needn't have worried myself, because when I clicked on the photo attached to the email, I was about to lay eyes on what was, and remains to this day,

the

most

beautiful

face

I

had

ever

seen

in

my

entire

life


About three seconds after the picture came up on the screen, complete anarchy broke out. I burst into tears, Kerry started screaming and Val ran out into the hallway yelling to everyone "DONNA JUST GOT HER REFERRAL!!!" Soon there were like ten people in my office, looking at the picture and hugging me. It was so unbelievable.

The rest of the afternoon was a blur of phone calls to family and friends and hours of staring at that picture. I can say with all honesty that getting that call and seeing my daughter's picture for the first time was the most incredible moment of my life. I think I lot of people would wonder why actually getting her in China wasn't the most incredible moment. I think that's because I was so nervous and apprehensive on the day I got Emma, I was almost sick. I remember almost nothing of gotcha day. If my sister hadn't recorded every second of that day on a camcorder, I would probably have no memory of it at all. It was that surreal.

But I remember in great detail almost every second of referral day...it remains the single greatest day of my life. I didn't know it at the time I got that call, but exactly four weeks to the day, I would be on my way to China to get Emma. And my life would change forever...

Am I too strict here?

Emma was playing with her state-of-the-art Disney Princess cell phone last night. She was having an imaginary conversation with her "boyfriend" Rashaan. Rashaan is a really cute 6-year-old boy at her school (Emma has always preferred older men.) Anyway, when she finished with her pretend phone call, she told me that Rashaan had called because he wanted to go out on a date with her.

WHAT...ARE YOU INSANE???!!! I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW YOU KNEW WHAT A DATE WAS! YOU WILL NOT BE DATING TEN YEARS FROM NOW, MISSY, LET ALONE WHEN YOU ARE FOUR YEARS OLD! NOW GO TO YOUR ROOM AND DON'T COME OUT UNTIL YOU ARE 18!

Okay, that's what I wanted to say, but I refrained. I told her I thought maybe she was just a little too young to go out on a date. But I asked her where she and Rashaan would go on a date. She thought for a moment and said brightly "Maybe you could take us to the playground and to Chucky Cheese!"

Frankly, that sounds better than some of the dates I've been on...I won't bore you with the details of the time a guy took me out to an elegant dinner at Long John Silver's on our first (and only) date. I swear, that hush puppy is still lodged in my colon somewhere.

Anyway, call me Mommie Dearest, but I don't think I'll let Emma start dating quite yet. It's really freaky how soon kids today start thinking about stuff like that, though...

Trick-or-treat!

We got back a little while ago from a strenuous night of trick-or-treating. We went with our friends Dana and Jia. It was a little chilly, but the girls had a blast and would probably still be out there if the moms hadn't finally called it a night. Here's a picture of Jia and Emma (aka Mulan and Ariel the Bride....)

And here's Emma with some of her haul (notice her rosy cheeks from being out in the cold!)

I'm sitting here eating one of her many Kit Kat bars...I'm sure she'll notice tomorrow that it's missing. The last thing she said when I tucked her in tonight was "DON'T EAT ANY OF MY CANDY!!!" Geez, am I that transparent?!

Anyway, I hope your Halloween was happy too!

Another birthday

We had a fantastic weekend. Saturday was my birthday (I know, at my age, big deal!) and we met my parents in St. Louis to celebrate. Man, it was cool being in St. Louis the day after the Cards clinched the World Series. We are big-time Cardinals fans, so we were thrilled!

Anyway, the weather was great, we spent most of the time doing our two favorite things - eating and shopping. I didn't take many pictures, but I did snap this one of Emma and my mom, or as Emma calls her, "Biggie" (don't ask!)


We had a super time, but were kind of tired and cranky when we got home early Sunday evening.

When we drove up, we discovered that our garage had been torn down the previous day...don't worry, it was supposed to be torn down this week because we're building a new one. We just didn't expect it to happen over the weekend. I guess contractors show up when the inspiration strikes them. Apparently they were VERY enthusiastic when they began pulling it down...according to my neighbor, they also pulled down a power line and cut off electricity to the whole block. Anyway, I hope to be able to post some pics of our new garage soon. It's supposed to take 5-6 weeks to build, but who knows?

Kids in shades

Donna over at the always entertaining Double Happiness blog has a weekly photo challenge. This week, she asked us to post photos of our children in glasses (sun or otherwise.) I have some recent pics of Emma in her shades, but I thought I'd post a funny photo I took of her when she was about 15 months old. Even at that age, she was such a clown!

SWEET!

Back to school

Today was "bring your parent to school" day at Emma's school. So I spent the morning watching Emma and her classmates do their lessons, go to gym class and eat lunch in the cafeteria (the less said about that, the better - YUCK!) It was fun spending the day with her at school and observing her with her friends and teacher. Here's a picture of her with her best school friend Jasmine...

When I put her to bed tonight, Emma asked me if I'd be going to school with her again tomorrow. I told her I couldn't, but I'd come and visit at the next parent day. I did have a good time, but after 12 years of school, four years of college and two years of post-graduate work, I've probably had enough of going to school (except for visiting Emma's!)

The ducky park

This weather this past weekend was not great...as a matter of fact, it totally blew. Cold, windy and rainy for two straight days. On Sunday, when there was a brief reprieve from the rain, we dashed out to our favorite park to get some fresh (and cold) air. The park has a big lake that has become home to about a hundred ducks and several cantankerous Canadian geese. Emma loves to feed the ducks (the geese...not so much!) So we brought some bread to feed them...

I think we lasted about 30 minutes at the park...Emma didn't even want to go to the playground because it was so cold. Let's hope we haven't jumped right from summer to winter already!

Even after four years...

there's nothing more beautiful to me than my baby girl sleeping peacefully.

Princess Potatohead and Billy Monster

This will come as a great shock to many people, but I'm not very crafty (see October 11 post.) So I'm not one of those people who would or could spend an afternoon carving an elaborate pumpkin. It's just not my skill set. Emma and I got a couple of pumpkins from the pumpkin patch and decorated them this morning. We used Mrs. Potato Head things to make a princess pumpkin and then this other pumpkin decorating kit to make Billy Monster (Emma named them.)

They're not as cool as carved pumpkins...that's for sure. But they're pretty cute and Emma loved decorating them.

Our day at the pumpkin patch

More than two years ago, our best friends moved to Tennessee. Dana was my closest friend and her daugher Jia, who is a year older than Emma, was her best buddy. Although we have been in constant touch via email and the phone, and we've seen them a few times since they moved, it was still a tremendous adjustment for us when they left.

Last week, Dana and Jia moved back here. We were so happy when we found out they were returning. But I have to admit, I was a bit apprehensive. Would things be the same? Emma and I had made other friends and I was worried that the girls wouldn't be as close. Kids change a lot and you can't force friendships.

Well, I'm happy to report that it's almost as though they never left. We spent most of yesterday together and it was so fun! We went to a local farmstead, which had a big pumpkin patch with all kinds of activities for children. Emma and Jia ran all over the place, hand in hand. It was so adorable! Here are a couple pics...



It was such a lovely fall afternoon and we had a blast. Today, it's supposed to rain all day, so I guess I will be forced to clean up my cluttered house. That's what rainy days are for...

Calling Martha Stewart!

We've got some really nice neighbors next door...these two gay men who are really delightful (even more so after they took out their swimming pool and stopped having late-night pool parties!) Anyway, they always really knock themselves out when it comes to decorating the outside of their house for holidays. Their Christmas decorations are amazing, although they did have one of those huge inflatable snow globe things last year that I think are pretty tacky. So this year, they have a whole new Halloween decor, with orange and white blinking lights and scarecrows and pumpkins and ghosts and witches. Pretty spectacular.

So Emma and I were outside last night taking in the whole thing. She turned to me and said "Momma, I wish you were more talented so we could have a cool yard like this." I just cracked up (a) because it's true and (b) my daughter's "tell it like it is" personality is pretty hysterical (at least at this point.)

Even though I thought it was funny, I was embarrassed enough to make a run to Michael's over my lunch hour to pick up some Halloween-type decorations. Emma and I put them up after school. So here's my pathetic attempt at decorating for the holiday...

It's so sad, I know...but Emma thinks it's stupendous and that's all that matters to me!

Oh #@*%!

Yesterday I had to take something back to a friend's house that I had borrowed for the Moon Festival. I had only been to her house once and thought I knew exactly where it was so I didn't even bother writing down the address. But we found ourselves driving up and down the street trying to find a house that looked familiar. As we were crawling up the street once again, here's how the conversation went:

Me: Emma, I don't think I can find the house.
Emma: Oh DAMN!
Me: WHAT DID YOU SAY????!!!!!
Emma: Uh, nothing.

I should say at this point that I don't use profanity. It's not a big moral thing with me, it's just not my style. I guess if I dropped a safe on my foot or something, it's possible some expletive would escape my lips. But my point is, I knew Emma didn't hear this word from me. Now back to our story...

Me: Emma, where did you hear that word?
Emma: (silence)
Me: Did you hear it from someone at school?
Emma: Yes.
Me: Who was it?
Emma: (starts crying)
Me: Sweetie, it's okay...I just want to know who said that word to you.
Emma: But if I tell you, then you'll call their mom and they'll get in trouble!

Sigh...smart girl. I guess I should be happy that she's so empathetic AND that she did use the word in perfect context. So I just told her that she should NEVER use that word or other swear words because people will think she's not a very nice girl (and she is a very nice girl.)

Maybe I should send her to Catholic school...I'm sure no one swears there.