Milestone

Sis has asked me several times over the years about getting her ears pierced. I have always told her that she can get it done whenever she is ready. He next question has always been, "does it hurt". I'm all about telling the truth so I've told her it does hurt for a second...kind of like a shot. At that point she would always decide to wait a bit longer. 

During soccer season she announced she was ready to have it done. But....since the ears have to heal and you cannot wear earrings in games we had to wait a bit longer. She was a good sport and waited until the season was over. 

Finally the day came. Sis was nervous and quiet but steadfast. A rock. Seriously brave.

She didn't even flinch and of course no tears! 

She loves them and cannot wait for them to heal so she can change earrings.  Oh my....what a beauty. 

Pleasantly Suprised

Lately I've come to realize that some of the situations in life that I fret over are things that actually turn out. And sometimes turn out better than I could have imagined. 

Mr. P told me the other day that he tends to look at things from a "worst case scenario". Oh, ouch. I told him that I do that too and I'm sorry I passed that on to him. 

When faced with a change or an unknown I play out all the worst case scenarios in my head...and maybe out loud. For some reason it helps me to feel ready or prepared. I guess in some situations it's good...like disaster preparedness. In other situations it's really not necessary.

One way I'm helping my brain and body to not automatically go into "worst case" is by taking time to recognize how great something turns out that I was initially worried about. 

For instance: Sis's soccer team last year was comprised of all girls she knew and attended school with. We knew every family and they were great people and friends. Then the league made changes to the age cutoff at the end of the season. This meant that none of the girls would be on the same team as Sis. The other girls were born after the cutoff. 

Oh I fretted. Sis is a nervous and shy girl and I worried that she wouldn't do well with a new team. It takes her a long time to warm up. I asked around town to see if she could join a team with anyone we knew. I couldn't find anyone in her age bracket. So, I signed her up and waited....and fretted about all the worst case things that could go through my head. Like, she'd be afraid...wouldn't want to go, wouldn't play well due to feeling shy, wouldn't know anyone, would have a mean/weird/crazy coach. On and on. 

Soccer started back in August and Sis was shy at first. She did not know anyone on the team. But, amazing things have happened! The coach is fantastic. The girls are very nice. Sis has come out of her shy shell. And to top it off the team is really good with a 4-0 record so far. 

At one of the practices last week I got teary watching Sis run around the field while giggling with her team. She and the other girls had their arms wrapped around each other's shoulders smiling and having fun. 

I'm going to keep reminding myself to play out the best case scenarios in my mind too. Because they can and do come true.

Thinking Outside The Box

Sister is creative and free spirited. She is great at thinking outside the box. I truly admire that as it is not something I can easily do. 

At school the kids are asked to color/decorate a cutout person and make it like themselves. Sis was enthusiastic about this homework....which is optional. My boys have never chosen to complete it. 

Sis sat at the table working and when I came to check in and see if she needed any help she had done all of the coloring. She made an adorable kitty! At first I thought...ummmm.....you are not a kitty. But, then I got my thoughts (and comments) in order and told her how great it looked. Very creative!!

I helped her with the spelling on the descriptive part. She came up with what to say.

She is:

A Girl

Ethiopian

Smart

Awesome

Fun

and a Sister.

I loved it when I saw her finished person hanging in the hallway at school. The kitty stands out and I love it! This is a girl that marches to the beat of her own drum. And I love it!!

Shopping Girl

So here's the rest of the shopping story about Sis. The girls all went out shopping on Friday. Sis was very excited to go. She LOVES clothes and shoes and anything girly. Our first purchase was a pair of striped tights. She LOVES tights! She was so thrilled with the shopping bag she got to carry around. She began pulling the tights out to show other shoppers. Soon she was stopping everyone on the street....including little old men and showing them her new tights. This pic is her showing her purchase to another little girl through the store window.

Her next purchase was a pretty headband and then Grandma bought her some play shoes, boa and another headband. She was in heaven. The was thrilled to have two packages to carry.

The next store we went in she found this great coat which came as a 3 piece outfit. Of course she wanted to try it on. Once she had it on...well you can see where this is going. Grandma bought it for her Christmas present. She wore the coat and the new pretty jeans over the outfit she already had on. Good thing it was freezing outside.

Pure joy! This is one serious shopping loving girl!! What a fun day. And...yes, she is still wearing the coat 24 hours a day!

PE

I was at the gym today...trying to be good about going on a regular basis. When I arrived I noticed that there were a bunch of high school kids there working out. The gym is across the street from a high school and I don't know why but there are often teens at the gym for their PE class.

I ran into the locker room to use the restroom and was amused to see a bunch of girls hiding out in there. They were standing around twirling their hair, texting, talking about their hair, looking in the mirror, etc. Basic teenage girl things. It made me giggle to think that the PE teacher was probably a male and he had no idea what these non-PE girls were doing.

I was reminded of myself at that age. Go here for the teenage look. I hated PE. Hello...it messes up your hair, like hello! I would say that it made me sweaty but that would be a lie since I never, EVER broke a sweat....ewwww, like I'm so sure.

I took an aerobics class my senior year. It met the PE credit and sounded a bit more my style. Well, actually my style would have been a room with couches and all my friends sitting around chatting with me. But, it sounded better than weight training...stinky! So, a few of my girlfriends and I signed on. We were horrified to find out....like whatever...that we would have to actually make up a routine and teach it to the rest of the class. Huh? We were such brats and a terrible nuisance to the poor PE teacher (a nice man who I'm sure deserves a HUGE retirement bonus...free from teenage girls:)

We would skip class....often...to go to the donut shop. Great trade! No exercise and lots of calories...and time to chat free of Mr. Teacher scowling at us.

One day Mr. Teacher decided we should go out for a run. Huh??? A what? No, no, no we protested. We signed up for aerobics...no running involved...right? Darn it if he didn't make us go outside...in the elements...and run!

Well, we were smarter than him...we thought. He gave us the route and told us he'd be jogging along to make sure we ran the whole route. Never underestimate the devilishness of teenage girls...especially ones who don't want to run...like hello running makes you sweaty and ruins your hair and makeup!

We set off on our "run" and quickly started walking and talking. Yes, we could do both at the same time. We decided to cut off part of the route since we were so behind and needed to get back to the school for our next class..and no teacher in sight. Along the way of cutting over we spied our Mr. Teacher looking for us. Yikes!!! In true teenage girl drama we ran screaming and jumped into some bushes to hide. Ewwwwww....spiders probably lived in there! I would rather get caught than get a spider in my hair so out we jumped. Thankfully Mr. Teacher was nowhere to be seen. We were hopping around and laughing and not being very inconspicuous....when a car screeched to a halt at the curb. This little OLD lady leans over and rolls down her window and asks us if we are okay and if we need a ride somewhere. Okay, yes, my Mother taught me to NEVER get into a stanger's car...but there were 4 of us and the lady was OLD at least 107...and we were late and didn't want to get caught. So...we jumped in and told her where we were headed. I was feeling pretty good until I looked down at the floor board of the car and there was a BIG axe! Yikes! Like hello, I think this OLD lady is going to chop us up and feed us to her cats!!!!

Luckily she dropped us off at the corner of the high school....we made it into the locker room without being spotted by Mr. Teacher AND most importantly our hair and makeup still looked good! Hello priorities!

Mommy's Girl

Well, the title is Mommy's Girl...but here is Sis and Cam sleeping all snuggled up together. They did wake up as soon as I took the picture...ooops.

This post is for Cam. Yes, Sis loves her Mama. Yes, Sis always wants me. But, here she is all curled up with you. Since you were asleep I thought I'd record this moment for you. Isn't it sweet? And...PS...if you take any photos of me sleeping and post them on the Internet...I'll have to sign-off on the photo first;)

Love you and that sweet Sissy Girl...who LOVES her Mama!

Those Boots

All dressed and ready for the day

Nap time would not be complete without boots.

Sis is a serious clothes horse. She got lots of pretty outfits for Christmas and her birthday and she LOVED it. The boys got really bored watching her open gifts. They looked like they felt sorry for her...but she was in heaven...and so was her mama:) On the annoying side though...she changes her clothes about 20 times a day. She ransacks her dresser drawers and pulls everything out. She layers her outfits and comes up with some pretty interesting (ie: can't leave the house in them) combos. Her favorite things are tights, boots and sweaters. She sounds like a little old lady...and that's exactly what some of her get-ups remind me of. Perhaps a little old lady who is color blind...or pattern blind?

First thing in the morning Sis wants "dinner". She means breakfast but calls it dinner. She is VERY persistent!!! The second she is done with "dinner" she wants a tub...again...persistent! Next, is getting dressed. She is the boss! I can give her choices and she'll choose but there is NO WAY I can get her to wear something if she doesn't want to....(at this point my mom is snickering because it's major payback time for me:). The apple apparently did not fall far from this tree. After trying on her gorgeous Christmas dress...20 plus times...and having Sis scream bloody murder and refuse to wear it...I took it back to the store.

Anyway, back to her love of clothes. All outfits MUST include a sweater or sweatshirt or coat and she picks them out. And...sometimes it includes all three! And, maybe a purse and most of the time tights and those lovely hot pink/purple snow boots too. I did buy her a few new pairs of super cute shoes that she is trilled with. I can't take much more of the snow boots. Soon they will be too small...YEAH! I have hidden them for days at a time and all she does is walk around calling to them...boots, boots, BOOOOOTS!!!!!!!!! I give up.

On any given day it's about 7:20 by the time she has eaten, bathed and is fully dressed and is then asking to go OUTSIDE or wants to go bye-bye in the car. Sheesh! It's not even light out...which I have to open the blinds and point out to her. No problem...lots of time in the day left to change outfits and turn all her drawers upside down. :)

Sister

Check out the hairdo! Snazzy;)

My sweet little girl is OBSESSED with shoes. I know it's a cliche to say that...but it's true. We don't wear shoes in our house...except that Sis will not follow this rule. She is constantly raiding the shoes rack and putting on shoes. She clops around in all her brothers shoes. She can't manage to walk well in Cam or my shoes. But, she did pee in Cam's sandal this week:) It was bound to happen since she loves to be naked AND wear shoes. Her very favorite shoe is this adorable snow boot. No, we haven't had any snow but Sis doesn't care. She asks for "boots" any time we leave the house. She can get all her shoes on herself...even on the right feet. Spooky. I'm thinking for Christmas this little girl needs some slippers...and maybe some dress-up shoes!

She is growing so fast. She's going to be 2 at the end of the year. Talking, singing, counting...all day long. She counts to 10 and then yells, "ready NOT, here COME!". She is right in the mix with her brothers but also is starting to love playing with her babies. She puts the binky in the baby's mouth and covers it with a blanket. She and Baby George are a hoot. They are so much like twins sometimes. They will hit each other on the head or pull each other's hair and then when the injured one cries they pucker up and kiss. So precious! First thing in the morning when Sis wakes up she calls for me. The second thing she does is YELL her brother's name until he wakes up too and can join her in yelling my name. They are in separate cribs in the same room. Double trouble.

For Nana

This pic's for Nana. How cute is Sis in this outfit? It finally fits her. I had to put her up on the dining room table to get her photo. She couldn't run too far. It still took about 10 shots to get one of her looking at the camera and holding still. She looks like an 80's Pop Princess!

Happy Girl

All the kids have been sick with a terrible cough and fevers. Most of them are well now except the occasional coughing fit. Sis is still really sick. She was better for a couple of days and then spiked a fever again last night. She woke up this morning really cranky. Nothing would soothe her. I carried her all around until finally I had to get ready to go (to take her to the Dr.). I finally found something to quiet her. I plopped her onto the bathroom counter and let her play with my makeup bin! Heavenly silence...and a happy girl...for about 20 minutes. She took all the items and put them into the cotton swab bin.
The Dr. checked her ears and they are fine. He gave me a prescription and said to fill it tomorrow if she is worse.

My Girl

Lydia is....."Soooo Big"! She is learning all kinds of fun tricks. She claps, waves and loves to show how big she is. She loves to sing songs and will rock back and forth to request Row, Row, Row Your Boat....also loves to sing Patty Cake. She was laughing hysterically tonight as she would stand for a few seconds on her own and then plop onto her hiney and crack up. She and Tuba have loads of fun playing. They crawl and chase each other around. My favorite thing she is doing...she wraps her little warm hands around my neck and lays her head down and snuggles into me...gives me kisses and hangs onto my hair. Melt my heart! Also, her hair is getting long enough for clips....whoohoo! I've had such a fun time doing her hair each morning. Now...if I could just get her to leave the clip in her hair:)

This One's For The Girls

I had a great time last night at my book club. The gals were all so fun. I actually knew a couple of them....one from Pre-school and one from the gym. We had yummy snacks and discussed the book. I'm so happy to be part of this fun group of gals. We are all about the same age with kids about the same ages too. I'm thankful today for all the terrific women in my life. I have so many great friends....family friends (those I'm lucky to have in my family and have as friends), childhood friends, church family friends, blogger friends, adoption world friends, teacher/school friends, and neighborhood friends too.

Our next book club book choice is.....

My First Head Band

It's my first head band....so exciting....so cute...so fun! Okay, I know it's Lydia's head band but it's so much fun for me...it's my first head band too:)

What a beauty!

I got some new photos of our sweet girl this morning. She looks so great! Only 18 days until hubby will leave to bring her home!!!

I got luggage today so that is checked off the list of "to do". IYesterday the lovely ladies at church had a shower for me and the babies. It was so much fun to open girly things. Today I have been washing baby clothes and getting piles ready to put into the luggage. I'm going out to buy her some pj's today...she has so many beautiful dresses...her closet is a dream!

Tomorrow I have a check up and I'm anxious to see when they will be doing another ultrasound. My diabetes has been fine. My sugar levels are very controlled....as long as I don't eat pizza!