Getting ready for the holidays!

Sarae is very excited about the holidays. She loves all of the decorations and now understands the concept of Santa and presents. She still isn't thrilled with Santa himself (still scared of him), but loves the idea of his bringing her gifts. If you ask her if we can leave cookies and milk for Santa, she will say no. I guess she doesn't want him hanging out, just dropping off. The second picture is her and "her best friend, Cody," lying down watching television together and the third picture is her "scary" face . The last picture is her wearing the dancing skirt Tia bought for her. She wears it shopping, to church, to daycare, to sleep and to dance around the house. She loves to sing and when I join in and sing with her in the car, she will ask me what I am doing and tell me I need to stop singing and just drive. Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays as much as we are!

Happy Halloween!

October was a busy month for us. Sarae went to her grandmother's church's fall festival where she was able to go down the blow up slides, sit in a fire truck and eat some yummy sweets. Next we went to Green Meadows farm with the Ziegler family. Those of you who have followed the blog from the beginning should remember Leslie Ziegler as one of the people who went to China with me to pick up Sarae. Her husband and two children met us at the farm for a fun morning. The kids got to hold/pet many different farm animals, ride a pony, milk a cow and finally pick their own pumpkin. The next weekend we went with our friends, Shery, Elyn, Francie and Henry to the zoo for Boo Bash. The kids got to dress up and trick or treat at the zoo. Beautiful weather and lots of fun! Finally, we went to Sea World for trick or treating which was great.

Sarae is growing up so quickly. She is now singing songs like the alphabet song, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Baa Baa Black Sheep. She still has some difficulties with certain letters. She says Mook for Look and Pooh for Who. She is also getting very independent and when I put on shoes on her that she didn't want to wear, she became very angry and stuck her finger in my face and said, "I no listen to you Momma!" A preview for the teenage years I am told : ) Hope everyone had a wonderful October and we'll talk with you soon!

You decide...

Sarae's favorite doll is a Wonderwoman doll that she has named Tia. My niece, Tia, thinks this is the ugliest doll she has ever seen and is not very happy that Sarae calls her Tia. I've posted both of their pictures so you can decide if they look alike : )

Tia, Sarae and I headed to Sanibel Island in August. We stayed at the Sanibel Inn which we really liked. They had bicyles (with children's seats) there and we were looking forward to riding around the island. We got there Sunday afternoon and immediately hit the beach. Sarae made her first sandcastles and while initially was wary of the water, once she got used to it loved it. Unfortunately, Tropical Storm Faye joined us and we were asked to leave the inn the next day. Tia and Sarae did get to walk on the beach that next morning and pick up seashells while I packed. We hope to go back soon.

Butch, (Tia's boyfriend) had to go back to Kentucky to college and we miss him. Before he left he came over and played with Sarae yet one more time. He's great with her as you can see from the picture.

Hope everyone had a wonderful summer!

It's Hot, Hot, Hot!!!

We have had a great summer so far and hope everyone reading this blog has as well. Sarae and Cody (black dog) are still best of friends, even when Sarae doesn't allow him to take his nap! He forgives her since she is constantly sneaking him food. She has learned to open the cabinet where the dog treats are kept and I've found her on several occasions giving Buddy and Cody extra treats. We've enjoyed Butch (Tia's boyfriend) being home from school and she loves it when he makes her "fly". As you can see, Sarae has begun to brush other people's hair for them, I'm afraid she's not too gentle though and will yank the brush right through your hair. Tia was a good sport and let her do this for quite a while. The last picture is our neighbor Diane who brought over a new book for Sarae. So far, Sarae is very much like me and absolutely loves books. She will ask/demand to be read to as well as read to Cody. She also loves the princesses and dancing. I was excited to find tu-tu's at Target's dollar spot and she is now up to 5 "dancing skirts". Hope everyone is staying cool this summer!

I'm wearing big girl pants now!

Yep, she did, she is now potty trained with no accidents for the past 3 days! Yea!! I believe I'm more excited than she is although she does like her new Elmo and Princess big girl panties. I took the week off to work on this new skill and we had lots of fun. While we were stuck in the house, she drew, painted and we had water fun in the backyard. By Wednesday Sarae was asking me to go bye-bye and I was more than happy to comply. Saturday our adoption facilitator had coordinated a picnic with past and present clients. It was great seeing everyone. I feel so much for those parents who are waiting on their referral as the time has gotten even longer since Sarae and I were matched. We saw two families that were on the same trip to China as we were. Both their children were also doing very well. Sarae had a great time playing for 4 hours straight. I'm not sure which of us was more tired by the time we left. To celebrate her great job at potty training, Sunday we had breakfast with Elmo at Sea World. We had a wonderful time. We went to the 8:30 a.m. breakfast and it was not crowded at all. The characters actually come to the tables and since there were not that many people they stayed and the children got to play/hug them quite a bit. The whole experience from the characters to the food to the wait staff was excellent. Sarae was nervous with Ernie and Bert and they were wonderful with her. They came up but let her initiate contact (high-fives) until she felt comfortable. When we left the breakfast we went over to the Pets Ahoy show where the Elmo and Abbi show is playing so we also got to see a show and after the show she got to pose with Elmo again. After that we went to her favorite - the dolphins, the sting-rays, manatees and penguins. By that point I thought I was going to melt in the heat so we came home, napped and then hit the pool. She absolutely loves being in the water this summer which is great since it is a great way to keep cool. Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Happy Spring!

Sarae seems to be changing every day. She loves to walk around in my shoes, especially my heels and loves to wear a bathing suit skirt that she believes is her "dancing skirt". She also likes to walk around the house with my panties on her head, no picture of that posted on the blog though! : ) She has been earning time-outs lately both at home and in daycare. She likes to climb and kick walls (enjoys the sound I think). She is definitely an outside girl and will ask often to go there. We just got an annual pass for our local zoo and have been twice already. Sarae had a blast feeding the goats. She seems to be growing up so quickly - just yesterday she was saying "Otay" and today she is able to say the K sound for "okay". I miss hearing her say "Otay Mama". Sarae is definitely the best part of everyday! Hope everyone is doing well.

Happy Birthday Sarae!

Monday, March 3rd Sarae turned 2! We celebrated at Monkey Joe's on Saturday and I believe everyone had a great time. The kids played hard and I think were all ready for a nap by the end of the party. Big thanks to my mom for watching Sarae so I could bake the cake and cupcakes and Tia for planning and decorating! As usual, everyone was extremely generous and we spent Sunday cleaning out her bedroom to make room for the new toys/books/clothes, etc. I have to say, she received some really neat books that we have enjoyed reading each night. I gave her a tricycle for her birthday present. She hasn't quite gotten the hang of it and prefers to push it as opposed to ride it with her feet on the pedals. I'm thinking I'm going to have to borrow a little one who knows how to do it to role-model it for her.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Gotcha Day Anniversary!

It's hard to believe it's already been a whole year since Sarae and I became a family! I took the day off today so we could celebrate and met our friends who also were celebrating one of their daughter's Gotcha day. It's amazing how much Sarae has changed as you can tell from the pictures. The first picture is just a few minutes after they handed her to me and the rest are recent pictures. Sarae is definitely the best thing to happen to me ever. She made her first batch of brownies (with a little help) and is walking about 1/2 mile a night with Buddy and I. She even tried out the treadmill one night when it rained and we weren't able to make our normal walk. She put her shoes on the correct feet for the first time today (probably just lucky, but I'll count it anyway)! Her birthday party is this weekend so I will try to post pictures from that as soon as I can. Hope everyone is doing well!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We are hoping everyone has had a great start to 2008! January was an incredibly busy month for me at work so I wasn't able to blog for that month - sorry! Sarae is doing well. Since the last blog, she has learned to climb up on the barstools and like Cody, she has climbed up to the kitchen counters. She is attempting to get a writing pen. I keep these up high since she will draw on furniture, walls, etc. Cody goes up for food, but they both are unable to get down on their own once they climb up. Sarae loves to play in the laundry basket and to walk around in my shoes. She loves music and listens to anything from 70's music, to Jazz. Currently her favorite songs are Girlfriend and Hooked on a Feeling. She will put her sunglasses on (usually upside down) in the car and will clap and nod her head to the music. Unfortunately I can't get a picture since I'm driving, but trust me it's very funny. Sarae seems to learn new words on a daily basis and thanks to Ms. Iris at daycare, she is learning her numbers, colors and shapes. I can't believe it will only be 12 more days for our one year anniversary of meeting and becoming a family!!