Time Flies

The three of us at a wedding where I was the photographer.

Photography class practice...and experimenting with Photoshop!

Practicing my "portrait photography" and experimenting with Photoshop!

I can't believe that summer vacation is almost over for school kids! It seems that they just got out yesterday...

Our anniversary is this weekend. Last year for our tenth anniversary, Brian completely took my by surprise. He called me from work to tell me to dress somewhat nice for our dinner. He picked me up and took me to a nice restaraunt I had never seen before in our area. It had a little balcony. When we walked in, the server practically jumped to seat us. He took us all the way upstairs and out onto the deck, where there was one tiny table with a dozen red roses on it. All the servers were beaming. They all knew what was going on because the flowers were delivered earlier that day. We started to have a really nice dinner...until it started to rain. We ended up having to move inside after being on the balcony for only a few minutes.

This year won't be so romantic, but it will still be special. Brian is going to an AC/DC concert tonight. On Saturday morning, we will drive to my in-laws. Their community is having like a Family Fun Fest. We will spend the afternoon there or in their pool. We will then leave Grace with Nanna and Pappa (and Monique and Kiyana, her cousins) to go out to eat. On Sunday after church we will go see my mom before heading home.

Grace's potty training continues to do well. We had a little trouble last week when she had a few days of accidents all day, but we are back on track, and we added pooping on the potty! She took me completely by surprise yesterday. She said she had to go potty, and I assumed it was pee. She sat for a few minutes, and I wandered away because sometimes she like "privacy". Well, after a minute or so she started to whine and-there it was! She calmed down once she saw I was excited that she went on the potty. She got two MnM's. Today, she did the same. However, about a half hour after she went the first time, she said she had to go potty, but it was too late, she had already gone in her pull-up. I wasn't mad or upset, but I just told her to tell mommy next time she had to make poo. I guess that the fact she went twice willingly is a huge step forward. Everyone is telling me that training for poo takes a long time after they master pee, but she's starting now. Horray for that!

Cute Pics

Since this summer has been cool, I've decided to potty train Grace. It took her a good three weeks to really get the hang of it. The first week, she really did not want to sit on the potty, and when she did "go" on the potty, she acted all freaked out, like "wait, this isn't supposed to happen!". I made the error of taking her away from home for a stay at the in-laws. Up to that point in the week, she had been used to sitting on the potty and even going once in a while. However, she now had a new place (the same potty) and more audience (her grandparents and cousins). This means that she absolutely refused to go on the potty. She would sit for a long time and not go. Needless to say, we were there for about three days, and she ended up going in her diaper the whole time....a major setback.

That Sunday, I resolved to continue on as if we had been home the whole weekend. She did an awesome job of "going" on the potty that day. That next week, beginning Monday, I resolved to stay home and really work on it. By that Wednesday, she had very few accidents. I again had to go to the in-laws for a few days, but this time when I took the potty, she actually used it! I still had to keep her in pull-ups while we were there because my MIL would have been furious if Grace had peed on the floor. However, she didn't go through many pull-ups because she remained dry the whole time.

By the third week, she was peeing like a champ. Again, only about one or two accidents for the week. I must say, however, that this involves pee. She has not yet mastered pooping on the potty. I know when she is supposed to go during the day, and I try to catch her, but she either holds it in until she's wearing her diaper (or underwear) or she goes on the floor if I'm letting her go in the buff.

Last night I let her wear training underwear to bed for the first time. We had to have her wear a pull-up during church, but she came home dry as a bone. She wore the training underwear the rest of the day. This is the first time we've really let her go without a pull-up for the majority of the day. This week, we will be exploring outside the home. Any time I ran an errand in the last few weeks, she'd been mostly dry. Now, I want to try a longer outing and see how she does using public toilets.

I plan on taking her to the zoo this week. The bathrooms usually have "tot potties"...toilets that are smaller and lower to the ground for toddlers to use.

Otherwise, she is doing well. Her language skills improve daily. She is now using two-and three-word phrases. She can communicate her needs to us either verbally or with simple sign language, although speech is becoming more common and sign language rare, which is fine...the sign language was used to jump-start her learning of English and a way for her to communicate her needs to us. It really worked, but now that her language has progressed, she doesn't feel the need to use sign.

Sadly, Kiddie Land, which is just a few blocks away from us, is closing at the end of this season. I am hoping to take her there even though she's too young to really enjoy too much of it. I am hoping to have my nieces go along, so that they can go on the rides with her. I am sad to see this amusement park go. It has been there for many years.

Fourth of July

Swimming with Daddy. She loves the water!

Tired on the Fourth of July!

Although our day was cold and rainy, the celebration was great. Our Fourth of July was very relaxing with friends and family gathered to celebrate our freedom. Grace had a lot of children to play with. They certainly kept her busy!

Saturday was rainy and cold, so I kept her out of the pool. She didn't seem to miss it much. She did keep saying "pool" and pointing at it, but she didn't get upset when I didn't put her in her suit and take her down.

We decided to stay an extra night since my husband had a change of plans. On Sunday, we couldn't have asked for better weather! We visited a church and even my sister-in-law attended service (I think her mother just about had a heart attack!). It was so nice, the kids all went swimming! My MIL and SIL are taking my niece to get evaluated in Indianapolis, so I have my other niece here with us for a few days. It's great, because she keeps Grace busy!

All in all it was a nice weekend. Since we were all stuck indoors for the majority of the day on Saturday, it gave us all a chance to just sit down and talk to everyone. It was great to just catch up and relax. We hope next year brings fantastic weather. Of course, Grace was so tired from all the excitement that she went to bed early. All the noise from the fireworks didn't seem to bother her at all.

One Year Ago Today

One year ago today-June 23, 2008, Brian and I walked into a Russian orphanage and met our daughter for the first time. When the caretaker placed her into my arms, she was so confused, but she didn't complain. We got to spend an hour and a half with her that day. It was so hard to say good-bye. I remember going back to the hotel rooom, and although we were very tired from the time-change and excitement, we watched our videos and looked at our pictures over and over again, wondering if this really did just happen! In the 8 months since we brought her home, I marvel at how much she's changed. No longer is she a shy, quiet, confused little baby. She is now a talkative, stubborn, smart toddler!

Memorial Day

We had a fantastic Memorial Day! Every year (well, almost every year) we go camping on Memorial Day. This year we had a lot of fun. Well, we always have fun, but this year was special because it was Grace's first camping trip! We were a little nervous about how she would handle it all. Actually, she did a pretty good job. We left on Friday morning. I went with the owners of the property and Brian came with friends later. It didn't take us long to get there. Grace did pretty well with the long car ride. I just kept playing her music over and over and over again. I had a bag of toys next to me and I would hand them back to her at intervals. I also had snacks and water I would offer her. It kept her busy. We set up camp and Grace loved to explore her tent. We had our sleeping tent and then we set up a smaller tent near the cooking area for her to play in safely. That night she went to bed normal time, and she slept really well.

Saturday the girls went to garage sales. I got Grace a couple of cute toys. Someone had been to Mardi Gras and I bought her some beads. There was a cute little back pack, too. We just hung out at the camp the rest of the day. On Sunday we had a picnic at a nearby park. It also had a war memorial with a WWll tank. The kids had a blast climbing on the tank. I took lots of really great pictures. The men went to play golf and the women went back to camp. Grace refused to take a nap. I even put her to bed late, and she still refused to sleep! Once she did fall asleep, she slept well for about four hours. She woke up around one in the morning. I woke up because my mattress had gone flat. I put her crib mattress (she was in a port-a-crib to keep her in place...) and tried to sleep on that. I tried to bring her in bed with us, but she just wanted to play. Finally, I wrapped her all up and put her back in the crib and prayed for her to go back to sleep. She woke up again around six. Monday we packed everything up and headed home. She refused to sleep in the car, but the minute we arrived home and I put her to bed, she zonked out!

Some new families came with us this time, and the children are in love with Grace. All of them say "she is just a little peanut!" I really appreciate them being there, because they really helped keep an eye on Grace when I was busy cooking or cleaning up. She absolutely loved all the attention, and she loved that they had an endless supply of energy when pushing her on the swing!

Grace had a great time, and she loved being outside. Other than the sleeping (which I now know to be better prepared for...) I'd say it was very successful.

What a Blessed Mother's Day

I am so looking forward to my first Mother's Day! Every year prior to this, I would go to church on Mother's Day, and each year the church would hand out a flower to all the "mothers and young women". I'm guessing they started this so that the "young women" who don't have children wouldn't feel left out. Anyway, the last couple of years, my mother-in-law thought it appropriate to get me a Mother's Day gift....and call it an "Aunt's Day" gift. While I appreciated the gesture, I couldn't help but feel depressed about it. If she had given it to me on a different day and called it "Aunt's Day", I think I would have felt better about it. Anyway, those days are now behind me. This Mother's Day I am going to be so proud of the name "mama". As I was reading my Bible the other day, I ran across a verse in Psalms 113:9 "He gives children to the woman who has none and makes her a happy mother. Praise the LORD!" I love this verse and couldn't help but use my photo editing program to make a picture I can put in a plaque. Enjoy!

Our Easter

The three of us on Easter morning ready for church.

Grace with Nanna and Gigi (great-grandma)

Grace with her cousin Raymond.

We had a wonderful Easter this year. On Saturday we went to my mother's house to celebrate. Grace and Raymond hunted for eggs. Some were outside, so it was so special for her to be outside looking for eggs. I can't remember how long it's been since it was nice enough to hunt outside. We had a nice lunch of ham and potatoes. It was really nice. On Sunday we got up and the girls hunted for eggs in the living room. Those eggs were empty and were there for fun. After services the other guests arrived and we had a nice lunch. Afterward, the kids looked for eggs in the basement. Those had coins in them. Grace went down first because she's the youngest. When the older children came down, it was complete mayhem. Later, I distributed some coloring pages of Russian eggs. The kids sat down and and colored...I was surprised. We left early because Brian had to run and do some work. He got paid like double time for the couple hours he was there.... All in all it was a REALLY nice holiday.