We Jinxed Things

While we were away we actually bought some clothes for the baby. This is very out of character for Jacob. I am sure by now you all realise how superstitous he is but he saw these clothes and wanted to get them so we did. Now look what we did we jinxed things this month there were only 2 days of referrals! Even our agency just confirmed it but they still are not sure of the of the cut off date although they said that the CCAA said there just weren't that many paper ready babies this month.

In addition to what we bought we arrived home to 3 parcels. The stuff for her bedroom had been delivered from Pottery Barn Kids, there was a parcel from Nanny Rene who knitted Chopstick a really beautiful blanket for her crib in exactly the right shade of pink (and another one for the orphanage and we also received this surprise gift for Lily and Chopstick from Danny and Ray over at LadYFrog.



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More From Naples................

Here are a couple more photos.

Cute.

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Feeding her breakfast to the sparrows

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Poor unsuspecting butterfly.

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We stopped on the way home at a park to see the alligators and Lily saw this grasshopper and had no fear of picking the ugly bug up........eeeeek.


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Jacob's date!

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Little Hands

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The man the myth the legend......

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Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig

We are back from Naples, or as Lily chose to call it, Nipples. We had an unbelievable time and wished we could of stayed. When Tracy says she lives in paradise she is not kidding! It is paradise in general but the shopping...OMG. Anyway I have all of 5 minutes to do this post as my family arrives today so I will post some photos and videos and say see ya' later alligator.


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I have so many photos that I will post some more tomorrow or maybe later today.It is good to be home and I will explain the Georgia move shortly.

Spring Break

Lily is on spring break and it is so wonderful to loosen up our routine for a week!

We were supposed to be heading up to Georgia this week to scout out neighbourhoods and houses but due to the fact that we are nowhere near a referral we have decided that trip and adventure is still a little premature so we are heading over to the west coast of Florida for a few lazy beach days. That means no blogging......gasp! Referrals are coming and I shall be sans computer.....gasp again.

Mind you this is through choice.

Hope everyone has a lovely week and we will be back soon.

Lets Go Fly A Kite

Okay then, now that you are all singing that little song from Mary Poppins I will ignore you and chit chat about our day!

This afternoon we went off to the beach and took our kites with us. At Haulover Beach, they have a kite festival every so often and today was one of those days. (They also have a nudist beach but that is fodder for another day!)It was a perfect day for kite flying and we had a really lovely afternoon. The only thing missing was my brother who always flew kites with my neice and nephew and any other kiddies who were interested. Once we were thoroughly baked from laying in the sun and staring directly at it we headed across the street to the beach. (no not the nude one)

The water was too cold for wimpy me so I stayed on camera duty whilst Jacob entertained the Schnoog in the sea. She has finally reached an age and size where the big waves don't bother her and she really loved it.

On the way home we stopped at the store to pick up some things for a BBQ and I swear the lady on the register could have worked for the CCAA she was so slow. Jacob always picks up the bags and carries them if we are together so I paid the lady (read snail) and then we left. As we were walking to the car I was muttering about the snail when suddenly a bag boy appears and says, "You left all your groceries behind!" Yepper, we sure did! How stupid can we be. Jacob says it was my fault since he did have Lily in his arms. I pointed out that he didn't notice I didn't have them. I was just so glad to be free of the snail that I didn't stop to pick up the stuff I just hightailed it out of there. Oh, you'd have thought the bag boy would have brought them out to us but, NO that would have been to clever. So I ran back into the store and grabbed said items and we left in absolute fits of hysterics......even Lily thought it was pathetic that I forgot to pick them up.

Anyway it's just life in Dawnland. Enjoy the photos.


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Do you love the look? She did it herself!

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Looky there, the Smarties The 3D's sent for Lily

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The Dreaded Paint and a Surprise.

Firstly I want to send huge enormous thank you's to Doris, Dan and Daisy for the lovely card that arrived in the mail today accompanied by 2 packets of Smarties that just delighted Lily to bits. Thank you so much it was really sweet of you.

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Now on to the baby's room and the dreaded paint job.

The paint job complete with some rather fetching blue painters tape.

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The painters came back on Thursday and finished the room and once it was completed I sort of like it but it still didn't do it for me. I then realised that the room was bottom heavy and needed some life in its upper portion. I grabbed a couple of colourful things and asked Jacob to hold them against the wall while I looked. It really helped. So being me and having to have everything done yesterday I set to work painting some shelves in the same colours as the stripes and hit Pottery Barn Kids for a rug and window treatments.

Chopsticks Rug.


Yesterday Lily had a play date at a friends and then the older of the 2 girls wanted to come home with us so she did. They decided they wanted to have a bash at painting so I let them put a coat of paint on the shelves.In the time that it took me to turn around and put the camera down Caro had managed to knock the paint can over and we had a huge mess. No biggie! If you let kids do big people jobs you have to expect big people messes. We cleaned it up and they carried on. It wasn't the best paint job ever, but nothing that a little sandpaper couldn't fix.

Right Before Disaster Struck.

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So now I have everything except the artwork and some knick-knackeria sorted out for the room but I refuse to put it all together as a room yet since it is going to be occupied by my cousin for a couple of weeks and it is just wrong to let someone else christen the room. Sorry Stephen but you know I am a fruitcake. I am starting to feel good about it now and can't wait to get it finished and put all the stuff in it's rightful place and go to town dressing it up. Once that is done I will take some decent photos of it.

I will post my packing list and gift list a little closer to the time unless someone needs them now in which case I will email them to you.

This Time v's Last Time

Going to China this time will be very different from our last trip there in 2003.
Here is a list of random thoughts in no particular order.

Last time we were first time parents.
This time we will have BTDT

This time we will have 2 schedules to contend with. Lily's and her Mei Mei's

We will confirm our flights out of China ourselves 48 hours prior to departure!
Last time we found out our seats from Guanzhou to Hong Kong had been sold out from under us and we had 15 minutes to pack and get to the airport. (not fun)

We will probably spend a lot of time ordering room service just so that we can get to know each other and not be surrounded by people all the time so that we can start to bond. We did this last time and it was wonderful, for us.

We won't be first time parents who carry the worlds largest diaper bag with them EVERYWHERE they go. We dragged this monster bag with us just to go downstairs. Hey, we were new at this and wanted to be prepared.

I won't spend weeks stressing about the gifts to take to China. I have so many lists about them now it will be a breeze. I can share the lists if you want them.

We won't pack quite so much stuff this time around. Everything you could possibly need is sold in China and the hotels all have laundry service.

We won't be quite as nervous this time as we have first hand knowledge that WACAP will handle everything and very well.

We will buy another stroller when we are there but this time we WILL take a sling or carrier of some type. New mummy arms are incredibly painful.

We will enjoy China this time and not be totally fixated on the adoption process.

We will take a suitcase filled with snacks and chocolate. I really missed my fix of the brown stuff. We will also take cup a soups again as we are not the most adventurous eaters. Anything with a head and eyes attached makes me YAK.

We will be taking a possible entourage with us. Hopefully my dad and Jeanne and definitely my cousin Andrea. They all know the rules with regard to the baby and they are fine with them. We can't imagine experiencing such an important time in our lives with out them. I know alot of people think this is wrong but it works for us.

When we get home we will put ourselves under house arrest for 6 weeks. This was something our agency recommended although they didn't call it house arrest. If you want to see Chopstick you have to come to us and then you leave and she stays put. It gives her a sense of home. We did it with Lily and it is hard cos you don't get to do so much but it helped her get acquainted with her new home really fast. Lily was a really easy baby so we will see with Chopstick.

We will brace for the worst and hope for the best with regard to grieving and attachement. Last time we expected a hard time and prepared for a hard time and were very pleasantly surprised.

We will have to buy another suitcase to fit all our loot in for the return journey, again. There will be more shopping this time around than last time.

We will hopefully get to meet some of you since there is a large group of us in close LID proximity and the way they are splitting up months who knows who will be there at the same time.

We will be just as incredibly giddy and excited this time.

There won't be a "last hurrah" for us in Hongkong this time around as we will have Lily with us but we will probably go to Beijing first instead.

When we leave our hands will be very full and our hearts will be overflowing with love.

P.S. I had all these cute little graphics for every thought and blogger said, "no way baby" and dumped every single one of them, the bas***d.

A New Perspective And YUCK

Yesterday in the mail we received our new 171-h visa approval. It took exactly 14 days from the day we mailed the application and the huge wad a cash required for this little ditty, (why the heck they cannot be renewed or extended beats me). Anyhoo we have decided to look at the wait differently now and if things go at the same snail like rate we have another 6-8 months ahead of us which was the original time line. So we are going to act as if this was our first visa and now we are starting the new and very short wait. This sounds great in theory but we will see if it sticks.

Onwards to the YUCK part of this post. The painter came yesterday and painted 90% of the baby's room and I HATE it. I don't just dislike it or feel kind of off about it I HATE it and I never use that word. When I told Jacob he looked panic stricken and told me to go back upstairs and tell Carlos. I did and Carlos suggested I pull out the bedding and leave it out in the room and see if it grows on me, if not they will start a new paint job on Thursday. So far it hasn't grown. I had such hopes for this room and it looks bloody awful. I will post pictures when it is finished be it like this or some new fandangled idea. Fortunately it is only paint. Lily and Jacob both love it. I'm off upstairs to see if anything has grown.

13 months

We have now been logged in with the CCAA for 13 months.

We were talking about the wait yesterday and agreed that it is definitely easier this time around thanks to Miss Lily. Some days I just think that this will be a perpetual wait for the rest of my life and that nothing is going to transpire. I know that is really quite daft because we will get our daughter but it just seems so very distant and unreal. The painting of the nursery is going to happen today that might make things seem more realistic.

When you add in the time frame for paper chasing we have been going at this for ever.
In a bright and sunny note this is month 13, we have 13 months behind us and these are thirteen months that we will never have to wait again. And this is it folks. NO more paper pregnancies for us, we are done and to steal a quote from my friend Lori's hubby Marc, "our paper tubes are being stapled shut!"

This Day Started In A Hurry

Yikes. We overslept today. I have an early appointment on Mondays and always get up at 6.00am. Not so today. I turned on the alarm clock last night and hit the hay. To my horror when I opened my sleepy little eyes this morning my clock said 7.54. I just lay there staring at it thinking something must be wrong and then I realised I could hear a fuzzy sound coming from the radio. A little person had apparently been playing with it and had turned down the volume and managed to set the dial between two stations. So my day started in a hurry and as you know I don't do mornings. I had 16 minutes to get up, showered and out of the house. It was a nightmare but I did it. Once I came home from work I headed back into the shower and started my day over again at a more normal pace! It worked I feel normal again. And here is the post that I was going to do before work.

Here are some photos of our day yesterday. We took Lily to the Youth Fair. It was awful: there were millions of people, smelly greasy food everywhere and loud obnoxious carnies yelling all over the place. I hated every second of it and we were there for 5 hours. I owe my father the biggest thank you for taking me to the fair every single year and riding all the rides with me. I never knew how awful it was for him but now I do. Jacob and I took turns riding the rides with her with me begging for the easy ones. But I sucked it up and we stayed and Lily had a blast. So much fun in fact that she was in bed asleep by 7.05 and didn't wake up today until I started crashing into things in my panic this morning.

This juggler lady was awesome and after Lily came running to me she said, "thats it run back to your mummy", as opposed to the normal, is that your mum. Turns out she also has an adopted daughter. We ended up chatting to her for about 5 minutes and she let Lily try out her equipment.

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Tada

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On top of the world.....with me.

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Zoom Zoom.

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Roller coasting...Lily size

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The DO NOT TOUCH THE ANIMALS sign isn't much good when you can't actually read!

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Lily Doolittle talking to the ducks. When she squeaked at these ducks they would "talk" back. We got stuck here for ages whilst she held court.

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From That To This

I have not been in Chopsticks room today. I started to clean it up yesterday but Jacob asked me why since the sanding of the drywall makes an even bigger mess. The contractors doing this work know what a freak I am as they are the ones that gutted and rebuilt this house 18 months ago so they hoovered the room before they left!
So we will be going from that ugly mess to this ( look down for photos) in 2 more days time. I have picked everything out but am still undecided about the painting. I cannot decide whether to go with green and cream stripes under the chair rail or pink, cream and green stripes under the chair rail. The top half will be a creamy color. Decisions, decisions. But it is only paint so if I don't like it Carlos will just have to redo it.
I can't wait for it to be done and Jacob even said that maybe this will actually speed things up. My cousins will be in there in another week so I won't be doing anything other than the paint until after they leave.


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Under Construction

No, no, not the blog that would take some techy prowess. I keep telling myself it's going to happen ever since new blogger sucked me into it's vortex but apparently it's not. Our house is under construction. Well not the whole thing just one room but it's awful. ( my dad and his wife are rolling on the floor laughing at me grumbling about one room cos they have just gutted and rebuilt a 400 yr old house and this to them is a day off!)

We have finally got to the bottom of the hurricane damage from 2 years ago with the insurance company and we are now having the work done. Most of the stuff we had to do without them cos things like rooves are basically quite helpful. As this was cosmetic we left it since it is in a room we don't even use.

So today I had men with messy boots traipsing in and out, up and down, to and fro for hours and they are coming back to do it all again on Monday. Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy ?! In some aspects it is quite fun cos this will be Chopsticks room and I have all the paint picked out and the idea is ready to go but I am a self confessed clean freak and I am very obsessive about mess and things being in their rightful place and basically this is giving me a nervous twitch and an itchy brain. So right now I have to breathe deeply cos this mess is my life.


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Tonight was our Mandarin class and it was great. Lily is really picking it up fast and I love seeing all the children yipping away in Chinese. After the lesson the kids got to play and we were all taught how to make dumplings and then we all sat down and ate. It was so much fun and dumplings are one of Lily's all time favourites and now I know how to make them. I am not a great cook, I cook cos we need to eat but I do not enjoy it. But move over Yan cos I can cook too now!

Just A Glimpse

The other morning as I walked Lily into her school the teacher who always stands outside to greet the kiddies commented on how Lily is always laughing. She really does laugh all the time and she is not the only one. Here is a glimpse into my days with Lily and why I am always cracking up.

Today it has rained cats and dogs all day here and so she went to school in her raincoat and wellies and carried her matching umbrella. I told her that if it was raining when it was time to come home she must put her raincoat on and I would meet her with her brolly. I didn't dare let her keep that in school for fear of her using it as a sword or something. It was raining so I met her and handed her back her umbrella. She put it up and we walked to the car that was parked just across the street, (that took forever as she had to jump in all the puddles that we encountered en route). Once we were at the car I said, OK sweetie put your umbrella down, and with that I turned to unlock the car and out of the corner of my eye I see her brolly float by me into the street and attack a brand new Honda Accord that was still sporting it's temporary tag. I yelled to Lily to stay there and don't move and dove into traffic to retrieve said brolly before the driver of the brand spanking new set of wheels had a clue that he had been accosted. When I got back to the car I asked her what she was thinking and she just looked at me and said, you are the one that told me to put it down! Yepper I suppose I did but that wasn't what I meant dearie. Never tell a kid to put down there umbrella, to them that means put it on the floor! Hubby just informed me that I should have said, close your umbrella not put it down.....hmmm, now that makes sense.

Act 2. Tonight Lily asked if she could serve herself ice cream so I said of course. She stood on a chair at the island and scooped some into a bowl. Then she climbed down and somehow managed to flip the bowl over and it's contents landed on the chair seat. She looked momentarily panicked and said it's OK I can fix it and starts scooping it back in the bowl with her hands. I tried so hard to use my stern voice and say her name but it was all just so comical that I burst out laughing and we both ended up sitting on the kitchen floor in fits of giggles. And now even typing it I am cracking up!

You see I try to be stern but she is just so darned funny. Well not her but the things that she does. I love my funny girl with all my heart and she just gets better by the day and if you don't believe me ask her daddy.

Talking of Daddy's I can now say that mine is doing better. We spoke tonight again and he is feeling and looking (according to others) so much better. I finally breathed tonight for the first time since Sunday and I think Jeanne (his wife) might start breathing again soon. And he thanks everyone for their wishes. Lily made him a card and she put a little pocket on it and put a red heart in to it and told me that was for when Grandpa needed some Lily love. He said he would need a lot of that. See she is unbelievably sweet as well as comical.

Ladybugs

One of Jacobs closest friends, ( not quite sure that is what guys call their buds but I am not a guy) has recently started a new hobby and it has to do with garden ornaments or garden art I think is what he calls it (again, a guy thing). Anyway he sent Lily 2 little ladybugs for her to paint and paint them she did. Actually Jacob did one and she did the other and I bet you can't tell which one was hers....wink wink Kick. She used special paint that is weather proof and now they are outside with Poki Homoki the frog.Yes I know Poki Homoki is freakish but he belonged to my friend Nancy and he has history to go with his freakishness. Thank you Bucko so much Lily loves her ladybugs.


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Thanks for all the q's regarding my father, he is doing OK at this point. I spoke to him yesterday and he promised to behave and be a good patient.(yeah right) He is in good hands because the cousin that stayed with me at Christmas and her mum are both nurses so he can't get away with to much cos we send in the cavalry and then act dumb as if we have no idea why they went to see him. Of course he reads this so now I am in deep doo doo.

Another job, jobbed

This morning Jacob and I had our fingerprint appointment. The office that we have to go to is jampacked with people regardless of what time you go and you wait for hours and I always need a shower once we get home because it is so nasty in there. We had a 10.15 appointment and I even made arrangements to have someone pick up Lily from school at 2pm cos I know this place is S-L-O-W. When we arrived the it was reasonably quiet and we were in and out in 40 minutes! We were so impressed. The Miami UCIS (or whatever they are calling themselves this week) is currently taking 90 days to process the I600a with no exceptions, or at least that is what they are telling people over the phone however a friend of ours received hers in 14 days! We will wait with baited breath.

Since things moved along alot faster than we anticipated we headed off to do some shopping and found new bamboo blinds for the living room and then I found sheets for the baby's bed. I think Jacob nearly fainted when I bought them even though I asked him if he would be OK cos he is so superstitous and doesn't think we should get anything until we receive her referral. And talking of "her" if you have followed this journey for any time you know that Lily chose the name Molly for her sister but it seems that her name has changed and I am very happy about the replacement. I am not spilling the beans this time around she will still be known as Chopstick to us. (Yes that is why we are called Eggrolls and Chopsticks) my mum named Lily, Eggroll and that is all we ever called her until her referral since my mum also was very superstitous.

Happy St Pattys (part deux)

Today we really celebrated Saint Patricks day by going to a St Pattys celebration for kids. We drove just over 100 miles to get to this place but I have to say it was worth every single, "are we there yet?". This is the kind of madness that we do all the time so the drive really wasn't an issue. The festival was brilliant but I can't say that it had anything to do with St Patricks day other than the very occasional shamrock and pot of gold however they did have a rock wall, paddle boats, bounce houses and the whole thing was set up amid a village of yesteryear. If the kiddos wore green or dressed like fairy's or pirates they got a prize so needless to say we were accompanied by a green fairy.
The big hit of the day was this huge pit filled with foam. Frankly it looked like so much fun I was a tad cheesed off that it was just for the kids. Lily didn't want to try it at first but then she changed her mind and we couldn't get her out. I am posting a kazillion photos and videos cos it really was one of our more eventful fundays.
If any of you live in the South Florida area I highly suggest this website, www.sfparenting.com It is for a magasine that is distributed for free and it tells you all the local attractions and coming events plus it has some great articles. Todays event was sponsored by them.


Our Pirate Fairy

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Do you think she was having fun?

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We want to buy one of these for the pool!

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Damn rock walls, she loves em.

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Entering the foam pit quite gingerly at first

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Getting much braver

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Having the time of her life (and cracking us up!)

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Out....finally

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And finally Lily and Mummy before the foam bath.

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On a down note we came home all very happy to get word that my Father isn't very well. I know it is nothing to serious but you don't know what kind of patient my dad is. On top of that the message also said that Nanny Rene tripped over her walking stick and landed in a big heap so she isn't so great either. The one who is really suffering is Jeanne who is playing Florence Nightingale to all. (I hate being so far away from home sometimes) Jacobs first word was, GO! But it isn't really necessary and my dad would be in an awful mood since he is always so active and chipper and he can't be that way at the moment. We hope you are feeling better really fast Daddy.

Happy St Patty's Day....not exactly

Happy Saint Patricks Day to all. Only in Miami would the parade "for all things green" be held last week and the big celebration held the day after the actual day, but what can I say. In this town all the holidays last about 3 weeks anyway but usually something happens on the actual day. Not this time.

So we decided today would be a great day for a playdate so we invited Lily's friend "S" to come over and play. They were both dressed in green but that only lasted a few minutes because they morphed into Disney princesses moments after "S" arrived. These 2 are school chums and have hit it off from day one. We went to feed the horses because "S'''s mummy isn't to keen on them and with me there at least "S" was able to actually touch them. They had a great time and it ended with huge floods of tears when it was time for "S" to go home. Lily climbed into the back of their car and gave her the biggest hug and kiss and told her she could come back another day. I love watching Lily when she has friends over to play as I use it as an opportunity to see how she will feel about sharing her stuff once her Mei Mei arrives. Of course it will be alot different then as her Mei Mei will be hers.

Even Princesses have to snack.

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Cinderella gets her groove on

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It's All Chinese To Me.

It was our second Chinese lesson tonight and I remembered the camera. Lily got stage fright tonight for a while but then she warmed up. This class is so much fun and you actually learn things that will be useful however I am sure I will never get the tones right and instead of saying something sensible I am sure I will tell some poor unsuspecting soul that I love their undergarments or something just as ridiculous. Lily is apparently doing very well and has great pronunciation. We even got homework this week.......yikes. All this for $5 a week. Actually the money is optional but you can put it in a love box????? I like to feel the love so I participate.

The little guy in this video went to nursery school with Lily and the 2 of them were inseparable from the second they met. Even the staff used to say, God help anyone who comes between those 2. He is such a lovely little chap.

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She can do it, why can't I??

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These are the Chinese phonics sung in a little song. I know the alphabet in English doesn't that count for something?

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A post for Grandpa

My father does not have a sweet tooth however the man does have a passion for fresh cream and he will eat anything if it is covered, and I mean covered, in cream. He is genuinely disappointed when he finds someone that doesn't share his passion for the stuff and always says the same thing which is, oh well more for me.

A couple of days ago for dessert we had strawberries and I asked Lily if she wanted cream on them. She detests whipped cream in a can or cool whip but I offered her some fresh cream anyway. To my surprise she tasted it and liked it and now the rest is history. Now I must offer an excuse for her table manners here as they are plain old awful but it had a lot to do with every time she put food in her mouth I asked her a question so she answered me. She does not nomally carry on like this at the table.....I promise.


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The nectar of the Gods

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Somebody call Miss Manners....we have gone to the dogs!

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