Why?

Why do both my girlies love horses so much? Is it because they know I am petrified of them or is it simply because they truly are beautiful creatures and they can appreciate what I can't in the equine world.

Many of the foals at the ranch are now getting so big that they are out in the fields. Rosie knows when she approaches a mare with a foal that the first thing she has to do is gain the Mothers trust. Once this has been established there is a small chance she will be able to to touch the foal. When we approach them I stand back a little bit as Rosie is not as intimidating in stature as an adult.

This past Saturday this worked like a charm and Rosie and this little fella had a wonderful time. I kept my eye on Mama just to be sure she was OK with it and she was fine, just as long as I stayed back. I love to listen to the things Rosie tells the horse. She tells them she would never hurt them, she wants to be his friend, he is the most beautiful horse ever, etc and so on.

Rosie and the foal establishing trust.

Here she is telling me that he isn't scared.
After about 7 minutes of her touch the little guy fell asleep.


While she was playing horse whisperer big sis was galloping about like a lunatic!

Look at that grin! That grin is there because she had just been caught galloping on a horse that isn't fully trained and she isn't supposed to do that yet! Gema just laughs at her lack of fear.

She was going so fast here that I nearly chopped her head off
She looks so good on this horse.

Rosie and "Friend"

Rosie loves her school however she does not enjoy the part where she has to say good bye to us. We make it short and sweet and for a time things were going well. That has changed and now she cries again. Even bribery hasn't worked of late. She adores, loves, idolizes her teacher and cannot wait to see her and seconds after we have walked out of the door she is as happy as a clam.

She made a friend on her second day. A really sweet little girl who also only goes twice a week. They are inseparable and really cute together. I asked her what her friends name was and she told me, "Friend". I explained that friend must have a name but she was insistent that her friend's name is, "Friend". She talks about her non stop and just says, "me and Friend", so sweet.

Finally after 8 weeks of school her friend finally has a name. ( I knew what it was all along) Yesterday when I went and volunteered in her classroom, Rosie came up to me with her hand clasped firmly in "Friends" hand and said, "This my friend, Ria Aldedandro". To you and I that would be, Maria Alexandra. I crack up laughing every time she says it. "Friends" grandma and grandpa take her to school and they tell Rosie to call her Alexa, but she is having none of it. She finally figured out that "friend" has a name and she is going to use it.

Today Rosie and "Friend" had a play date at the park. Their little faces when they saw each other were priceless. They were so happy to be playing together. Rosie thought she should take her school bag with her and loaded it up with snacks for her and Ria Aldedandro and "Friend" did the same exact thing. Lots of snacks on this play date. and bubbles. and dolls. and other stuff.

Friend, friend, here I am I'm coming.

Weeeeee
"Friend" on the swing
BFF's
So absolutely adorable.

Butterfly Moon.

Approximately 2 years ago through my blog I met a really wonderful friend, Maci Miller. At the time she was waiting to travel to bring her baby girl home forever. At one point we started chatting on the phone and then before we knew it we met up with each other. Maci was so sweet and warm with the girls and I just couldn't wait for the day to arrive when she could hold her baby in her arms.

At this time I had no idea she was a singer and when she mentioned it I just sort of said, Oh. What can I say I live in Miami and everyone is something else, a poet, an actor, a singer but they never really are, they just want to be.

As our friendship progressed she told me she had recorded her latest song for her daughter. Something made me sit up and pay attention and Jacob and I listened to that CD and I was in tears. It is without a moments doubt the most beautiful song you could ever play to your little baby. It is now one of the girls favourite songs and even though I have heard it hundreds of times it makes me get teary. Maci has such a beautiful voice and it matches perfectly with her beautiful heart.

All the proceeds of this CD are going to charity. Please take a moment and visit her here to read about all the little children that the world considers un-adoptable that this CD will help.

And yes this is the first time I have ever had music on my blog but this is the song that Maci wrote for her daughter, Butterfly Moon

We did It.

Do you remember this post about how Lily had to find the synonyms for the word orphan and how she was incredibly upset by what greeted her?

As most of you know it started a huge email campaign involving everyone I could think of, adoption groups, family members, friends, concerned parents, school teachers, (not Lily's school though, they were not interested!) radio personalities, fellow adoptive parents, magazine editors, to name a few. I was told by many of you that we crashed the website of Thesaurus .com on more than one occasion. I sent them an email E V E R Y S I N G L E D A Y. I was constantly thinking of ways to keep it going as I didn't want it loose steam before the magazine was published.

Thanks to all of you for keeping on it.

Nobody ever heard from them at all. In one of my emails I even stated this fact. It wasn't my kindest letter as you can see......

Both of my daughters started their lives living in
orphanages and as such were classified as orphans however
they were NEVER waifs strays or ragamuffins. The synonyms
that you offer for the word orphan are incorrect and need
to be removed and replaced by something that is correct
which in this case word be the phrase, no matches found.
It is unthinkable to me that you can offer this
misinformation and wrongly educate the 1000's of students
that use this site.
What baffles me more is that you don't have the decency to
reply to any of my emails.

I hate to admit but even I was growing dubious that we would ever see any results. I just kept chugging along.

Finally yesterday as I was checking email one addy in particular caught my eye.. help desk, thesaurus .com

It isn't exactly what I wanted to see but it is something. I immediately contacted Adoptive Families Magazine and asked them if they wanted to pull the story but they said, NO. This still isn't good enough so we are going to print with what we have.

Here is the email.

Dear C**e Family,

Thank you for bringing this painful situation to our attention. We
apologize for the distress our Thesaurus entry caused your daughter. The
modern uses of "orphan" differ from the historical or literary uses of
the term. Therefore, we are adding a note to the entry that will
describe how the word "orphan" has been used in the past and in
literature. We feel this common reference practice will clearly explain
the distinction between recording how the term has been used
historically and what the term accurately means now. Please let us know
if you have any further questions or concerns about this topic and we
hope that these changes will make you, as well your daughters, satisfied
users of our Web site.

Regards,

I also received an email from another thesaurus that I had contacted and they were really helpful and gave me the names and email addy for the publisher so that I can contact them. I need to explain that their definitions and synonyms are outdated. Apparently they pride themselves on being up to date.

So it's just a small step in the right direction but we did it. We did make a change and I think it is big. I thanked the lady for doing what she is doing and told her I felt it was a start but that I still believe her synonyms are incorrect and outdated.

Lily you are a ROCK STAR. You stood up for what was right and you have changed a little piece of the world by doing so.

Funny Girl.

On Sunday Rosie attended a birthday party for one of her friends. She wanted to chose her outfit, so I let her. When I saw what she chose I wanted a photo of her in it because this cute little number is a hand-me-down from Lori and Katie Starr and I wanted them to see her wearing it.

She was in quite the silly mood!






I am not sure if I have mentioned this before or not but this nutty little girl of ours has super skinny feet, well not the whole foot just the heel portion, consequently she is very limited in the styles of shoes that she can wear. No pretty strappy sandals for this kidlet cos they fall off of her skinny heels. We have even tried buying shoes in other countries on the off chance that they run narrower at the heel....no chance. So if you wonder why this child is always in k*eds or Cr0cs or other clodhoppers, that is the explanation. Oh, it's a travesty to be a girl and be limited on footwear choices.

Oh For The Love Of Horses.

She loves them, everything about them. She must because she gets hot, sweaty, dirty and smelly and never once complains about it. Sometimes she rides so hard it hurts. Sometimes it's her legs, others it's her hands but she won't stop. If Gema turns her back for a second, which she will do on purpose to test her, she will gallop, even if she is on a filly who isn't completely trained. Fear doesn't exist, she is careful but throws herself into her lessons with everything she's got.

She makes everybody look, not on purpose but with her style. Everybody has something to say about her. And finally she makes everyone laugh, often and out loud.

Riding is in her blood.

Warming up the horses

On her favourite horse of all, Marquesa. She doesn't ride her much anymore since she is a beginner horse but they had a contest last week and Lily won and when asked what she wanted as her prize she chose to "ride out" on Marquesa.
And she is outta there.
Just 3 minutes from our house we have this beautiful area known as Horse Country
This is what Rosie does when Lily rides horses, she drives.
So lucky to have met Gema and have such a positive influence in our lives. This lady is truly one of a kind.

Pool Party Fun

Take a handful of school friends, a swimming pool and a birthday celebration and you have a recipe for lots of fun and giggles.

Adam, the birthday boy.

Lily climbing to safety.
Lily and Sana racing
The only girls at the party.
Friends.

Rosie, with blue lips. Once she gets the tiniest bit cold her lips always go this lovely shade of purplish blue. Just in case you wondering, it was in the mid-80's here .

Cheeky.

Can you see what it says on the front of Rosie's swimming costume? It says, Cheeky........



.......Now I know why!

The Importance Of Family Dinners

All child development experts will tell you that it is extremely important for families to sit down together and eat dinner as a family.

They say this because they have never sat down and had dinner with Rosie and Lily and never had to endure a conversation with the two of them.

Rosie: Mama, I am going to drink all of my milk because milk makes you big and strong.

Me: That's right Rosie it does. Gosh when you grow up you are going to be so smart just like Lily.

Rosie: I don't want to be smart Mama, I want to be just like you.

Lily: Oh so you'd rather be blonde than smart Rosie huh?

Me: You two are right charmers! I happen to be very smart and just a little blonde.

Lily: Mummy, you are really blonde.

Good thing I haven't got a fragile ego.

Putting On Her Walking Shoes.

When I told Lily about her friend Katie Starr's diagnosis of Cone-Rod Dystrophy she immediately wanted to know what we could to do help. That is just the way she is. I explained that Lori was arranging a walk that involved lots of people walking in a team and raising money for research that would help find a cure for this disease so that Katie Starr would never go blind.

Lily wanted to get involved and was happy to know that we had donated to the Lori's team but she still wasn't happy. She wasn't doing anything herself.

Now she is. Lily will be walking the 5K walk, instead of just talking the talk! If you click HERE you will be linked to Lily's sponsor page.

It explains what you need to do in order to donate and how to do it. You can donate directly to the cause with your credit card.

Please help Lily to help Katie Starr. A dollar is just a tiny amount to most of us but it would mean the moon and stars to Lily knowing that she is helping Katie.

Thank you.

Eating Crow.

Yep, I sure am. I'm eating crow.
Do you remember when I posted about going to Rosie's open house and feeling absolutely no connection towards her teacher whatsoever? Oh my goodness I could not have been more wrong. The woman is a saint. She is so sweet and kind and exactly what Rosie needs in order to get used to being away from me. If I had had to hand pick a person to leave Rosie with it would be Ms. Maria.

Normally I consider myself an excellent judge of character but I missed this one by a mile.

Rosie loves her too. Once she sees her she flies into her arms and gives her the biggest hug. Yes, little Miss Shy-pants goes running as fast as her legs will carry her to see her teacher. It is a beautiful thing. Today when I got to school Ms. Maria had a special gift for Rosie, Llama Llama, Mad at Mama. Apparently they read the book in class last week and Rosie laughed so much and enjoyed it so much that she went out and bought a copy for her.

Gotta go now, I have a little bit more crow left on my plate!

Don't forget to bug the crap out of Thesaurus.com in your politest way possible! Thank you. I send them a little reminder every day. You get more flies with honey that you do with vinegar so be nice!

When It's Windy.....

.....it's a jolly good idea to wear shorts to the park!

Face has been hidden by flying dress to prevent child from humiliation in later life. Bwa ha ha ha ha.

My Girl

Today I took the girls for a bike ride. Daddy had some "boy" jobs to take care of around the house and it was going to be a lot easier for him to get them done if we were AWOL. One of our favourite places to ride bikes is at a local park but tis involves things like bike racks and I really wasn't about to tackle that without the help of hubby so we made do with me running and the girls biking.

As I was watching the girls riding today I realised that LIly couldn't have a more appropriate helmet.

The words at the bottom read "LOUD GIRLS RULE"


She has been quite loud in the last few days! (with some help from all of you)

She Rocks!

Making Lemonade

I am continuing my quest to have the synonyms the word orphan changed at www.thesaurus.com. I have contacted as many groups and people as I can think of and will continue to do so. Our adoption community is a powerful group and we pull together. We can and will make a difference. Sadly more and more people keep contacting me with different websites and many of them have similar synonyms so this is going to be a long crusade but I know we can make a difference.

Adoptive Families Magasine is going to run the article in their November December issue under the Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down segment and is going to urge their readers to contact Thesaurus.com.

Lily has gone from feeling down trodden and belittled to feeling empowered and this is what I wanted for her.

Our children should never feel belittled because of their humble beginnings. No one should. Surely if you have been orphaned in your life you have suffered more than enough pain.

If you haven't sent a letter of complaint to thesaurus.com go to the highlighted link at the top of this post and scroll down to the bottom of the page to where it says contact us and please do contact them.

Sadly, I am still waiting for Lily's school to contact me....sigh. I do not blame her teacher but I would like them to be aware of what is happening. I have sent a letter and made phone calls.

"Be the change that you want to see in the world."

Ghandi.

Never Saw This One Coming. Updated

Homework, some love it, some despise it, some battle over it, some do it willingly. Thankfully in this house Lily has not only always done it willingly but she has always done it well. This evening was no exception and she sat at the desk with the computer as her study guide as she worked her way through her vocabulary words. She had to define each word and list 3-5 related words. As she sat down to do that I read over her math homework and then went about my business in the same room as her waiting to see when and if she would want my assistance.

I didn't wait long.

Her voice was filled with angst. "mummy, come here". I hurried over to her because I know that tone. On the screen in front of me was the word, "orphan". I looked from the screen to her vocabulary list where I saw the word again. I shuddered to myself as I thought how insensitive it was to put that word on her spelling list. At the same time my rational brain is telling me we can't avoid all sensitive words. It only takes nano seconds to glance at a computer screen and a composition book and at the same time Lily says with her voice drenched in a mixture of sadness and disgust, "I am NOT any of these. I am NOT a beggar, a street person or a hobo. I am not a tramp an urchin or a bum nor are any of my China sisters and I WILL NOT write these words down." I stared in utter disbelief at the screen wondering what the hell I was seeing. What Thesaurus had the teacher suggested that they use.

I held her and comforted her, I begged my tears to stay and not roll down my face. We talked and I searched 3 other sites, 2 matched exactly and one said,"no matches found".

Lily was hurt, angry and in fact defiant. I stood with her. I picked up the phone and called my voice of reason in matters like this and she concurred. A short note to the teacher was in order explaining that Lily was classified as an orphan at one stage in her life and she found the related words offered by numerous Thesauri to be insulting and demeaning and consequently I am asking that she be excused from that one line of the homework assignment with no attention whatsoever to be given to her in class regarding this matter.

I am angry. I am hurt. My child nor any other orphaned child should be classified as a beggar or a street person. WTF?

Yet again my girl has made me proud and I have told her that if there are any repercussions from this in class tomorrow I will declare a war.

This is straight from Thesaurus.com
orphan - 4 of 4 thesaurus results
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Orphan Synonyms
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Dictionary.com
Main Entry: orphan
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: child without parents
Synonyms: foundling, ragamuffin, stray, waif
Main Entry: ragamuffin
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: person who is poor, tattered
Synonyms: beggar, bum*, gamin, guttersnipe, hobo, loafer, orphan, scarecrow, street person, tatterdemalion, tramp, urchin, vagabond, vagrant, waif, wastrel
Antonyms: sophisticate
* = informal/non-formal usage

Many hours have passed since this happened yet I still have a knot in my stomach and my hands still don't feel as if they truly belong to me. I am not upset at the school teacher for giving this word although with all the words in the English language I think she could have found another it wasn't as if her vocabulary words for the week followed a theme.

Update.

Instead of fuming and being bent out of shape I have started a letter writing campaign to Thesaurus.com If you go to the website and scroll to the bottom of the page it says contact us. Click here.From there you can follow the links. I told them that their synonyms are incorrect. I also posted a similar post to this on Faceb00k, and all of my adoption groups and told the fine folk at thesaurus dot com to expect an increase in their email.

Lily has so many supporters and even my clients have emailed on her behalf. This isn't just for Lily but for all of our children. Please take the time to let them know that this is unacceptable.

Thank you.

Thank Heaven For Little Girls

This has been a really bad week. If it could hit the fan it did and the stress level has been high. To top it off I can no longer utter the words, I have never had a car accident because on Thursday that clean slate of nearly 30 years was taken away from me. I am fine and so, thankfully, is Lily. Car seats and boosters seats.......this will be my soapbox for many years so don't get me started.

I am really thankful to have these two little nutters to make me laugh constantly with their silliness. They keep things real and remind me of what matters most in this world.

The latest in Wii fashion. A gift from a client/friend. The girls refuse to take them off. Aren't they lovely?

Why yes we do play Wii in our undies don't you?

Just getting ready for bed can prove to be a challenge in this house and one that ends up making me laugh until my sides hurt.

Oh, this is possibly the first glimpse of Lily's newly decorated room that I promised photos months ago.

R.O.F.L. A Whole Lot

I know as a parent we are supposed to laugh with our children and not at them but yesterday I just could not control myself and I just burst in to uncontrollable fits of giggles at the sight of my little girl in her new, mandatory school uniform.

Rosie goes to a nursery school and is only there 2 mornings a week so I was quite shocked to find out that this year they were implementing uniforms for all the children. When Lily was a student there she only had to wear their shirts when she went on a field trip. I happen to be a big supporter of school uniforms....but I do like them to fit. I have never thought that that was a requirement of them until yesterday when I went and picked up Rosies.

Judge for yourself and bear in mind that Rosie is 43 months old and these uniforms are age 2. How big are children getting now that the average 2 year old fits into these clothes?

Excuse the headless child...just look at the size of the shirt. I was laughing to hard to focus on the whole picture.

These are some "bring sexy back" shorts if ever I saw some!
Rosie, laughing herself silly. Thank goodness she has a great sense of humour.


Here is a little, very short impromptu video of her in her new threads. I couldn't stop laughing, so please excuse the quality of the audio.

Fun Between The Showers

We are having typical Miami summer weather which means lots and lots of rain with many thunderstorms. So if we plan anything it has to be planned for the morning hours and even then there are no guarantees but the odds are better. Yesterday some friends of ours who recently moved away, sob sob, came back into town for the long weekend and we planned a pool get together with the kidlets.

Of course the weather didn't approve of our plans but the good news was that it didn't thunder, at least not for a few hours so we all had plenty of pool time. Kelly, we miss you and it was great to see all of you yesterday.

Lily in the centre of some sort of water brawl...such a lady!

Rosie and Jacob

Trying to capsize Daddy

At least on of my girls is a little more refined.

Rosie isn't to sure about the rain

The big kids love being in the pool when it rains......
....the biggest kid of all made them a house.

Friends In Need Are Friends Indeed

So many times I have mentioned just how many amazing people we have met through our adoption journey and one of the very special families that we have met on this journey has just received some devastating news. The Weinstocks are personal friends of ours and have 3 wonderful children. Katie Starr has just been diagnosed with rod/cone dystrophy, a disease that ultimately could rob her of her sight.

This news could have landed in the laps of any of us. None of us are immune to this type of devastation and the effects
on our families. Makes you stop and shudder to the core doesn't it?

Marc and Lori are not ones to sit back and feel sorry for themselves, as easy as this would be to do at a time like this and as understandable as this would be. No, they are fighters and have already started their fight and that is where all of us come in. Please click HERE and read their story and then donate whatever you can.

Thank you.

Finally......we are through.

After nearly 2 years of being a patient Dr K's Rosie is all done! We had a 6 month check up this morning and even though she hasn't grown very much and hasn't gained much weight she has held her own for the past 6 months and is still crawling forward at the speed of a sloth!

At 43 months of age Rosie weighs 27.5 lbs and is 38 inches tall. This puts her in the 3rd percentile for weight and the 75th percentile for height with her overall percentile at just under 10%. She is going to be long and lean. Honestly I don't see the long part considering how tiny she is but I suppose in comparison to her weight gain her length pushes the percentile up, up, up!

So all of this means we are through with the Dr. just as long as we check in after her next well visit with her regular pediatrician so that she can chart her numbers then.

I learnt something today from the Dr. regarding poorly nourished children and that is the first 2 places that they look on their little bodies for a visual is the calf muscles and the shoulder girdle. Kids can be scrawny skinny but the musculature in these 2 places is really important. Rosie is a little power house even though she is tiny.

And one quick note for my father straight from the doctors mouth after I asked her about Rosies high fruit and veggie intake:

Nutrition is key to good health. Rosie has not had any stomach flu's, or general childhood illnesses in over 2 years and has never had the need for antibiotics. This is a reflection of her overall nutrition. Some children do not like certain foods but I can see that this child has a balanced diet and receives the nutrition she needs. It is not good for children to eat to much just as it is not good for them to not eat enough.

I rest my case!

We are off to celebrate this banner day with a clementine and a few cherries........her latest favourites.