Out Of Rosie's Mouth.

For the most part Rosie can speak perfectly but the pronunciation of some words just eludes her. For example:
She still washes her face with a loff-joff (washcloth).
She knows if we run out of something we plobably (probably) should buy more at Plublix (Publix).
She loves to play educational games on the plooner (computer).
Eating with chip chops (chopsticks) is her favourite way to eat.
When she eats and is nearly finished her plate is always, always, aldermost (almost) done.

Other things that she says that make me smile are:
Are you very happy with me? She says this when she has just got into trouble. If I tell her that I am not ever so happy with her actions she immediately tells me that, that is not very nice!
If she is helping me she always tells me, that was very helpful wasn't it.
Miami is Her-ami and when one of us says something about Miami she says it's not Your-ami it's My-ami and China is "My China".

She has an invisible friend who is from "her" China and her name is Bubbie. She throws her in the garbage can quite a lot or asks me to throw her out the window. (I am sure lots of therapists would have a great time with this one, I on the other hand just laugh). Last night at dinner she was playing the fool and I told her to stop it. She told me it wasn't her fault it was the girl sitting next to her making her do it. There was nobody sitting next to her...those darn invisible friends were at it again. They usually invade the toilet when she is doing her business.

When she sees Tacoma at the stables she always calls him the most beautiful horse in the world. Every single time. Even if we just walked away five minutes ago she acts like she hasn't seen him for months. They have a very special relationship and I love to watch the 2 of them. When we walk up to the field he immediately comes trotting over to see her, even if he is eating and when she leaves him he kicks the gate a few times as if to say, come back and she always does. It makes leaving very hard.

The girls are amazing and they add sunshine to every day.

Lily received Honor Roll again this week at school and Rosie wanted to be sure to catch the moment on her camera. She shoved her way right to the front and as you can see by Lily's face everyone found it highly amusing. Normally I would have stopped her but what the heck, it's her big sister and she was proud of her. The school photographer took loads of pictures of her doing it cos he thought it was so funny.


The super student and her little sis!


Queen Rosie. She made this letter "Q" at school this week and I think it is so very clever and quite frankly adorable. ~snort~

A Week In Review.

Today is our 2 year anniversary of Rosie's Gotcha day. I have been thinking more and more about gotcha days lately. When we first got Lily it was a huge day. Something that we noted on a monthly basis and then the huge first year anniversary and then as the years passed it became less noticeable. To me the most important date is the day you receive your referral and see their face for the first time. Rosie became part of our family when we sent in our application. that is when I started to love her. My love for her grew and grew and the day I saw her face in a photograph was the most important day for me. Of course the first time I got to hold her and touch was important but that was just a formality if you will. she was already mine. I cannot explain it but maybe some of you who have adopted can understand how I feel. So today is important in some ways but this day 2 years ago was so very, very hard on Rosie that it seems unkind to celebrate it....she was already part of my heart long before so I don't need to remind her of the day we broke hers.

The roofers are here and all I can hear is the pounding and scraping of roofing supplies all day long. The whole house shakes, the smoke detectors have been found dangling from there wires and the pictures are all cock-eyed. With regard to the noise and the shaking of the house this must be what it is like to live in a war zone. I researched this company thoroughly before hiring them. Roofers and movers seem to be career fields that attract scammers and I was not about to be taken. My diligence paid off in more ways than one. On Wednesday my next door neighbour came marching over and accused the roofers of going up on to her roof and stealing 2 of her roof tiles. The roofers were able to produce before photos of our house and also ones showing her house that just happened to show the exact 2 roof tiles already missing. So much for her little scam to get her tiles replaced. I cannot wait for this job to be finished and am oddly giddy about the idea of a whole new roof.

Rosie had her 3 year old well visit with her pediatrician on Thursday and pretty much blew her away. It was 12 months ago that we saw her last and it was at that visit that Barbara became so concerned due to her weight loss and referred us to the gastroenterologist and nutritionist. This time was completely different and she was beyond happy to see the changes in her. According to her scales, Rosie weighs 28lbs but we know this not to be true as she weighed her in her clothes on a very cold day and she was wearing, a coat, long sleeve shirt, corduroys, socks and heavy shoes, and the other doc only weighs her naked. When I pointed this out to Barbara she said that she needed to do the same but I asked her not to so that I could bask in those high numbers for 2 weeks before we see Katouby again, Barbara laughed and obliged me and then noted in her chart that Rosie was wearing clothes and that I am nuts! She has grown another inch and is now in the 75%tile for height and if the weight proves to be true the 10%for weight. We talked about many things for nearly an hour. Rosie is very very tiny...I already know this, but she in very healthy. We talked about her issues and Barbara says she is so pleased that we are so in tune to Rosie and understand what she is going through and what she has had to deal with in her life so far. We talked about temper tantrums and how to deal with them with the negotiator and then she asked Rosie some questions and while she was answering them she was buttoning up the tiny little buttons on her shirt and Barbara stopped talking and starred at her and said, is she doing up her own buttons? I said she was and was then informed that that is 4 year old behaviour and that Rosie's has incredible fine motor skills. She then zipped up her jacket and Barbara just looked at her and wished me luck with her and walked off to get the nurse to bring her a shot! Rosie is in the in between phase with shots. She is big enough not to cry just for being at the Dr's and still to young to cry for shots so she took it like a champ. Next year she will start howling like a banshee just like her sister has started doing I am sure. She did get upset when she looked at the band aid on her finger from the blood draw and each time her voice got sadder and sadder so by the time I got to the car I ripped it off and all was well. She would not let me take the band aid off of her arm for 2 days and when she would notice it her arm would magically hurt her so when I took off her shirt I maneuvered it in such a way that I was able to pull off the already half off band aid. When she asked where it was I said it was gone and she said, "oh good". Silly goose.

One night this week when I put her to bed she told me she loved me with all her heart and "salt". Lily immediately cracked up laughing and told me she loved me with all her heart and pepper.

Lily had an incredible riding lesson this week. There is a horse at the stables that is particularly difficult and he goes by the name of Red Beauty or more affectionately as Bucking Beauty. When we arrived on Thursday Lily went bounding up to Gema and was informed that she was in for a surprise. She was riding Bucking Beauty. The "big" girls all kindly offered words of encouragement but Lily, being Lily was stoked about the whole idea. To her it was another challenge on horseback and one she was going to embrace. I will admit to being nervous and as I listened to the list of don'ts I couldn't decide if I wanted to watch or if I wanted to walk around and not bare witness to this event. I ended up doing a little of both and when I watched I was amazed to see this 49lb child of mine ride a full sized horse with her feet out of the stirrups and get bucked at least 30 times and remain in the saddle. She made this Mama proud. Towards the middle of the lesson Gema placed dollar bills between their knees and the the saddle flaps and whomever still had theirs at the end of the lesson would win all the money. My girl left the arena looking like a banker as she waved her wad of cash. She beat them all, every single last one of them, the 10 year olds, the 12 year olds and the other 7 year old and the others in between and she was smiling her Lily smile from ear to ear and Gema was smiling for her cos that horse was a tough ride but she did it. I don't like to brag but she is good and she loves it. She has a competition coming up soon and I really hope that she places as this will be her first in her new age category and she will be the youngest in the group. I know she can do it.

One more thing before I go. what is with the weather? I cannot remember a winter as cold as this one that has lasted this long. I have always liked the cold much more that the heat but this year I am freezing all the time. I just cannot get warm. I am in no hurry for the hot Florida temps to come back but can someone please send me a parka!

Hmmm, a week in review is a lot to post. I really should post more often shouldn't I?

I have no idea when I took this or what she is doing but it makes me giggle and I figured after reading all of this you deserve a picture so here you are!

Feeling The Love. ♥ ♡ ♥ ♡

The girls had a great time making Valentines day cards for Daddy on Saturday it took them ages and involved lots of glitter and hearts, cutting and glue and was great fun. They then hid them away and helped to wrap his gift. Rosie once again took charge and I loved they was she chose to do everything.

The very beginnings of Lily's very intricate Valentine's book


Rosie hard at work


Rosie finished card. This photo refuses to turn around. I turn it and when it appears here it is sideways every time???


The girls woke up yesterday morning and were so excited to give us the cards that they had made for us, They were not at all excited about the thought that they would be receiving stuff as well. Lily made me a really sweet card and had then had Rosie sign her name on it. We then had a heart themed breakfast which they thought was the best thing ever!





I did not join them for heart shaped eggs, toast and strawberries cos I was much to busy snarfing a box of white chocolate from Godiva that Jacob gave to me. Sadly eating chocolate for breakfast isn't the worst part of the story but swatting at the girls to keep them away from it so that I could savour every morsel myself is! I have no shame when it comes to white chocolate. I haven't eaten chocolate for ages as I have been on a health bender but yesterday when I saw it I turned into some sort of freak and dove in face first. I did work out for nearly an hour later in the day so I think that made things even----ish.
We had a great Valentines day. There was lots of love, plenty of chocolate, and many other gifts but the love takes precedence to it all and that can always be found in abundance here.

Eating With Chip Chops.

Many of you have already seen this video on my facebook site but some of you don't play the FB game so I had to share it here as well because it is so funny.

Normally we exude better manners than this at our luncheon table but sometimes things just go awry.

Cleaning Out.

Lots of things are swirling through my head right now for example:

• my idea of an emergency and hubby's idea of an emergency are about one million miles apart. This morning I accidentally left the house with his keys as well as mine. Now obviously this caused him a momentary panic as he was dashing about looking for his so that he could take Lily to school. I on the other hand was calmly driving along singing to some tunes oblivious to his heart attack. He regarded this as an emergency even though he had another set sitting in his drawer. Panic monger!
• We were watching Kai Lan in China with Rosie this lunchtime. I mentioned to Rosie that she had been to China and her response was this, "I didn't like China because you were not there." I really do think that Rosie remembers some of her life prior to us being in it even though "experts" say that typically children don't remember before the age of three. (bite me)
• I am seriously addicted to exercise again. Gawd I am loving it even though I still find it necessary to yell naughty words a the trainer on occasion. I have passed the point of daily agony and now I just feel the rush.
• Lily is finding it necessary to be a typical 7 yr old in school at the moment and bought home a B in conduct on her report card. As much as this is not a problem and I am glad I have a normal child we are nipping it in the bud now! She has always been such a goody two shoes this is quite funny but she has no idea we feel this way.
• Talking of behaviour, Rosie is testing her limits on a daily basis. Three is going to be a challenge with her. She is becoming a master negotiator and it is annoying. Law school will be in her future if she keeps this up. I must say that I do find it rather amusing when I realise that I am having to negotiate things with a kid that is only 2 ft tall and she is winning. Sometimes when she has done laying out her ideas she will say, "see, that was helpful wasn't it?"
• We are supposed to be getting a whole new roof but it won't stop raining so the roofers are backed up. We are meant to be heading off to see the snow very soon.....I have a feeling that these to things are going to collide! I am not going to be happy about it.
• My BIL has a bumpy few months ahead of him. I wish it was behind them already. Limbo is a really awful place to be.
• My head is empty of it's thoughts now and to think, not one of them changed the world. Shocking!

Celebrating, Rosie Style.

There are a few things in this world that I do not care for, one is that horrendous place that the kids love called Chuck*E*Cheese and another is that truly annoying children's show called D0ra the (freaking annoying) Explorer. As luck would have it Rosie lurves both of these little nerve graters and when asked what she wanted for her birthday she announced, a party at Chucky's and Dora on her cake. Yuck! We were not actually planning on giving the child a party, she's is only 3 for heavens sake, surely a few friends over to the house, a cake and some rambunctious fun would have sufficed but noooo not with this kid. Her friend Trevi just had a party at the mouse house and she remembered and decided she wanted one too. So we sucked it up invited her friends and our chosen family and headed off for a few hours of chaos. Seeing her happy little face and her friends having so much fun really did make it worthwhile.

Afterwards we came back here with Hollis's family and they played for a bit longer. As is the norm with Rosie the whole gift routine went right over her head and after opening one she left the room and headed for the comfort of her old familiar toys. We did end up opening them all and she was really excited with her new bounty and most disgruntled when she had to say good bye to them for the day.

Today marks the end of what seems to have been a week of birthday celebrations for her and she really loved the attention which if you know Rosie, this is a milestone.

Thank you to everyone for all the good wishes, cards and gifts, we saved everything for today in hopes of not making her believe that her birthday really does last for a week!

Evan, Lily and Rosie


Jen and Danielle


Rosie and her cake...she thought she got to eat it all??? If only she would eat some.


Let them eat Pizza


Anlei


Joie and Ed


Rosie and her friend Nadia with moi.


Rosie and Hollis, Hollis is the only other person that Rosie feels safe with. (I love that )


Rosie on a horse


Pure cuteness.....Danielle


Rosie opening her one gift before she gave up.


Now for some silly pictures that I took of the girls having fun.

Playing

The weather lately has been really odd. One day it will be really chilly and the next day it is hot and humid and then we have rain, lots and lots of torrential rain that ushers in the next cool front. Today we had a glorious day, blue cloudless skies, and lots of wind. I have no idea what the exact temperature was as I failed to look but it was not hot and humid and that is what counts, at least to me.

We decided that since it was breezy, we should make the most of it and go and fly our kites. Ha, that seemed like an easy feat but 2 little girls both attached to the ends of very long pieces of string on a very windy day is a recipe for one very large knot. I spent so much time running back and forth untying knots that my camera laid, untouched, on the grass. We were all alone on the outer area of the park when I noticed a chap with a large breed dog walking towards us. The dog was not on a leash so I sort of kept an eye on them. I must have had to untie a knot because when I looked up the dog was heading straight for us so I picked up Rosie and turned away from the dog. It jumped up at me and sort of snapped at the kite string. It scared the hell out of me but the man seemed very calm so I knew i had to remain so. I was a good distance from Lily and she was busy with her kite when the dog approached her. I told her to turn away from it. She did but the dog jumped up and again I think it was trying to get the kite string but it put her whole hand in it's mouth. Where is the man????? Oh he is calmly saying, "no Buddy, down Buddy." I went over to Lily and she is covered in slobber, her whole hand and wrist, was in it's mouth. Now obviously the dog was friendly cos if he had wanted to bite her he would have taken her arm off. What is wrong with people? Not everyone likes dogs. I know that is hard for some of you to believe but it is true. If you own a dog keep it on a leash!!

We decided it was time to leave that area and head over to the swings. I was shaking like a leaf and Lily was shocked that a strange dog had put it's teeth around her arm. I used it as an example of how we never approach strange animals and hoped she could not tell I was ready to keel over.

The slide made for some crazy hair styles with all the static.






Attitude


In her own little world


hanging about


Sliding


Swinging

Riding Fools.

Rosie really wanted a bicycle like Lily's for her birthday. She loves to ride her trike but knows full well that it was not the same as her sisters. This seemed like an easy request to fill until we took her out to buy it. The kid is a midget! We needed something with 8 inch wheels and we could not find one anywhere. I finally decided to check eb*y and see if there was an organ grinder somewhere that owned a monkey who was willing to sell me the monkeys bike cos honestly that would have been the right size!

She tried a few out for size and struggled so much with them but finally she found one with large pedals and was able to do it. Hooray! It is a Barb!e bike which is really funny because I don't think Rosie has ever seen a Barbie. One happy little 3 year old now has her very first big girl bike and a very proud smile to go along with it. She will probably still be riding this when she is 10 unless she has this growth spurt that everyone assures me that she will have "any day now!"

She is so very happy, in fact, to own her bike that she woke up at 4.am today and asked if she could go out for a "bi-shickle wide". I suggested, in my normal 4.am bedside voice that she go back to sleep and we would "wide" her "bi-shickle" once Mr. Sunshine woke up. And indeed we did, we rode this morning and again this afternoon once Lily came come from school. Aghhh, it makes my brain itch to see my baby girl getting so big and riding her bike so fast and with so much confidence.

It takes full concentration to get moving.


Bunny had to come along.


The loud and proud 3 yr old


The even louder and prouder big sister.


This would have been a really great picture if Rosie had been looking. Oh well.


The speed demons

Searching for a blogger..... Shawnstribe

I woke up this morning with this crazy idea in my head to have a blogger gathering of Families with children from China when we go back to the U.K. this summer. Now that I have this crazy idea in my head I have to follow it through.

When I first started blogging and before I went private and then public again I had so many followers and some were from the UK and I am trying to find Shawnstribe. I located her via my old comments but she is no longer public. If anyone reads her PLEASE can you redirect her back over here. Thank you.

My fathers wife is starting to gather families that live close to them so the wheels are turning and if you plan on being in England in June of this year let me know and we can have an International bloggy bash. Fun Huh? ......well it will be if I can locate all of my old readers. If you have readers that follow your blog that are from the UK please feel free to pass this along to them and send them over here.

I must really have way to much time on my hands!

I'm 3 Now.

Those were the words that woke me up this morning. Rosie bounced out of her bed and came to tell us that she is now 3. Lily looked at her and said, "I am so happy for you Rosie but I miss you being 2 because you are getting so big". I echo Lily's sentiments, so big indeed. Perhaps not physically but mentally this kid is now enormous.

The other day at the park as I was about to have a nervous breakdown as she traipsed her way across this huge piece of equipment Jacob just laughed and informed me that she scales it every single time they go....oh dear, she is getting big.
This year will be a huge growth year for our baby girl. Hopefully some of the demons that are chasing her will be scared away and laid to rest. I think she will finally grasp the world by the horns and step on board with gumption. She is starting to show some really strong signs of independence and we couldn't be happier even though it means letting go ...just a tiny bit. I really don't remember Lily being quite so excited about her third birthday but this kid really gets it and knows she is no longer 2.

Last night before she went to bed I interviewed her to see if I could capture any of her thoughts regarding her turning three and this is what I got:

And of course a few photos of the 2 of them.




We are celebrating on Sunday with a little party for her so today we just had a cake at the park with our friends.

Looking a little bit shy with her hands up in her hair as everyone sings happy birthday to her.


My sweet baby girl.


The same photo the way I like it.


She is three and she is loud and she is proud. We love you Peanut.