Saturday, December 27, 2008

Best Eva!

What a whirlwind the past couple of days have been! Needless to say, this has been the most amazing Christmas ever. Marc and I had to say to each other a couple of times, "Can you believe Poppy is home with us this Christmas?" It's hard to believe where we were with this adoption at this time last year. And how difficult the holidays were. It's even harder to believe how much love this little girl has brought into our home over the past couple of months.

Here are a few highlights, first of Christmas Eve...

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Unwrapping gifts, slowly getting the hang of this...

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I swear, this was not posed at all! She was given this book earlier in the night, and we read a few pages at bedtime. When I told her we were all done and tried to put the book away she started screaming and crying. So I let her hold it, figuring she wouldn't really want to sleep with it and would eventually want to put it away. But I was wrong, it was lights out and she was still gripping this book. And when I went in to check on her a few minutes later, she was sleeping, still holding onto "Twas the Night Before Christmas", on her first night before Christmas at home.

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Ah, Christmas morning, finally!

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She was unwrapping like a pro within minutes!

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And she had to take her time playing with each new toy before moving onto the next gift.

Grandma came over later in the morning and brought one of Poppy's favorite gifts... check out this reaction!

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Is that hysterical or what? When she realized that it was her "laptop", she stopped unwrapping and just started laughing and pointing. (and she has yet to stop playing with this one either)

And then after nap-time, we had my family over and Poppy had so much fun playing with her cousins and showing off her new toys.

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It's bilibo - mania!

As lovely and special this holiday was, I am so looking forward to getting back to normal around here. Today was spent cleaning and organizing and catching up on sleep. And getting ready for the parties that are still to come this weekend...

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Merry Christmas!

We got hit with a little bit of snow over the past couple of days...

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Luckily, Poppy has overcome her fear of the snow, and now loves to get bundled up to go outside...img_4163

Today I went out to pick up a few last minute gifts, and on my way home I stopped at Starbucks for a "salted caramel hot chocolate".  Wow.  I then came home and was inspired to go into a sweet-making flurry.  I lost count of how much butter and brown sugar I went through and our kitchen is covered in caramel and toffee confections.  Mmmmm, mmmm, mmmmmmmm.

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So the gifts have been wrapped, cookies have been baked, cards have been mailed, stockings have been hung and I am so looking forward to spending the next couple of days eating, drinking and being merry with my family.  I hope your Christmas is as magical as I know mine will be. 

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Friday, December 19, 2008

So much to do...

Craziness is what we've been up to lately. Marc just got back from another business trip (the last one for a long time, thank god!) and my head is swimming in to-do lists. I cannot believe Christmas is one week away. Christmas cards are at the top of my list, and so is a post-placement report our agency is hassling us about, and a pile of paperwork for Poppy's adoption - which should be taking place in January (that is, if I get moving on this paperwork) and have I mentioned that I have yet to get out the wrapping paper? So, with that being said, this post is going to be short and sweet. Here's another out-take from one of our many Christmas card photo shoots...

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And here is how we spent our time waiting for daddy to come home this week...

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And this is the highlight of Poppy's mornings - claiming her loot from the advent calendar...

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Oh, and remember the jelly window clings that Poppy is playing with in her "19 month" post?  Um, I found one of the red ornament clingys in her poop yesterday. Can I get my award for the "worst mom ever" now?

And speaking of her 19 month post, I did manage to remember a few more things she is doing this month -

She's still BFF's with Lola, but suddenly she's all bossy and her favorite thing to do is tell Lola to "STAY!" and "DOWN!".

Poppy also insists on saying "toot toot" whenever she farts. Including in the middle of the night when she appears to be asleep.

And just in the past couple of days, she loves to sit on the couch staring at our Christmas tree and I sing her a pathetic made up version of "O Christmas Tree" and whenever I stop singing, Poppy says, "Ohhhhh, teeteeteetee, ohhhhh, teeteetee." (which is her attempt at saying "O Christmas Tree).

And here she is telling me I better start singing to her in front of her beloved tree...

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Friday, December 12, 2008

19 months.

I don't know why I always wait 'til the last minute to get these posts done- I should be jotting down her milestones throughout the month because now I can barely remember what they are.  But here goes...

Although everyone is constantly telling me how much she has grown since she came home, she really hasn't grown at all!  According to the doctors, she is still the same height she was at her first appointment (although she is usually screaming and squirming when they measure her, so I'm not sure how accurate that is).  But she has gained about 2 pounds and I think her weight has distributed differently, making her look longer lately.  I dunno.

One of her favorite things to do all day is to walk up and down the stairs and I finally gave in and began letting her do this unsupervised a couple of weeks ago (she's never fallen, thank god) and now this isn't good enough - she needs to bring her corn popper, or some other dangerously long object up and down with her.  Great.

Her obsession with books continues to grow at a rapid rate.  She recently began sitting for longer periods of time to actually listen to a book, whereas before we would get through about 2 pages before it was onto the next book.  Have I ever mentioned that she licks her finger before turning the pages?  It took me a while to figure out where she learned to do that (because I certainly don't!), and then one day I realized that during lunch I usually flip through any magazines or catalogs we get in the mail, and as I'm flipping I tend to lick my finger every once in a while.  We've definitely reached the point where I am more aware that she is mimicking everything I do and say.  Her use of words is exploding!  We were telling the pediatrician that she can say: uh-oh, all done, oh no, oh boy, oh geez, boo-boo, poo-poo, etc.  And the pediatrician responded that she was really impressed that she is using 2 word phrases already (and Marc and I giggled to each other because we're pretty sure those don't really count as "phrases", but oh well, we'll take the compliment).  She also says "Brrrrr" and hugs herself whenever she sees snow.

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And yes, that is a pink Christmas tree in her bedroom.  Every little girl needs one.  She is totally into all things Christmas.  She says "ho, ho, ho" when she sees a Santa, although she also says "uh, ho, ho", instead of "uh-oh" lately.  And every morning she points to the advent calendar because she knows there is a treat waiting for her in it.  She loves our Christmas tree and says "ahhhh!" when we turn the lights on.  She has been really good about not touching the ornaments, other than the few at the bottom that we told her were hers to play with.  Except that I do catch her trying to eat the cranberries off the popcorn garland we made, but she can't figure out how to get them off.  And Marc even set up his trains under the tree, which we were nervous about, but she has been really good about that too.

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Oh, and she is still sleeping in our bed, but after talking to a few of the mama's at the LTC Christmas party, we are trying something new this week.  We brought a mattress into her room and all week we've been playing on it and reading books, and this weekend we are going to start sleeping on it.  I'm going to sleep in there with her for a couple of weeks and then if that goes smoothly, we are going to bring in a toddler bed.  Wish us luck!  I know I am forgetting tons of fun and cute stuff she has done this month, but this is all I can remember.

Ok and now for our Christmas card picture...

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Ha, ha, ha, we're not really using this picture, but it is cute, isn't it?  This is the new look I get whenever she sees me reaching for my camera (which is why we don't have a picture for our Christmas cards).  Can you see how dramatic she is?  Look how hard she is scrunching up those eyes and even flaring her lips to show her teeth.   That's my girl!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Saturday morning was time to get our Christmas tree...

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(lately, if she is having fun, she's gotta stick her tongue out)

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There's a little Charlie Brown tree lot around the block from our house and the trees are usually skinny and scrawny, but we like them like that. And it was fun to walk there with Poppy. And the owner has a little Jack Russell that Lola gets into a fight with every year...

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Poppy helped Daddy pick out the perfect tree... and even helped carry it home.

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Poppy was filled with ooh's and ahhh's when she woke up from her nap to see our tree all lit up and decorated with glittery ornaments and popcorn for her to snack on...

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...and daddy even let her put the star on top, or at least try to...

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Saturday night was my work Christmas party and let's just say that drinking as much beer as you can before the bar closes, only to have the bar stay open for 2 additional hours, and yet I somehow forgot to slow down with the beer intake, well, just isn't a good idea anymore. I'm not sure it was ever a good idea, but this was my first super bad hangover since Poppy has been home and wow, having to chase a 19-month-old when you're hungover is so not fun. And that would be why I missed my photography class field trip that was bright and early on Sunday morning (but at least I had fun at the party the night before!). We did manage to make it to our agency's Christmas party later in the afternoon.


We started at the craft table making an ornament. Poppy loves stuff like this...



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And then we had a visit from the lamest Santa ever (apparently he missed the memo that said Santa has a big white beard and big belly) and we were shocked that Poppy didn't freak out just by looking at him...

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Time for the group shot...

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We had a great time at the party. I love being able to talk to adoptive parents about some of the issues we experience. And Poppy even has a little girl that she was friends with in Korea that she is able to play with at these get-togethers.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Babushka Baby

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Little Miss has a nasty cold.  Unfortunately Marc is out of town until tomorrow and we ran out of Puffs Plus, so I had to bundle her up like a little Babushka and head out to the store.  Actually, once we got outside we realized that it wasn't even really that cold out, but I had to snap a picture before I de-Babushka'd her. 

Luckily, she has finally learned how to blow her nose and that makes a world of a difference.  I do however, still need to wipe her nose about 1000 times a day, and by the end of the day every time she saw me going for the box of tissues, she would run away yelling "All done!", but she's so stuffed up that it's sounds like "Awww doh!"   Poor baby.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Double Trouble!

We went over to our friend's Mark and Natalie's for dinner over the weekend.  We love getting our girls together because they are only a couple of months apart in age.  It's so funny to watch their relationship grow.  It started off with them not really even noticing each other, but they are slowly starting to check each other out and interact.  During this get-together, Poppy taught Claire how to play ring-around-the-rosies, and Claire taught Poppy...

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...to sit and pretend to be reading,

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...and to pose in front of the Christmas tree.  (we didn't even plan it, but when we put them in their jammies they were matching!)

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...come on Poppy, follow me!

img_35881What?  We're not doing anything wrong...

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Busted!  Teaching Poppy how to toilet-paper the house!


Friday, November 28, 2008

Our Thanksgiving...

We had the most perfect Thanksgiving this year!

I was cooking up a storm all morning, but luckily I had a little helper...
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Unfortunately, as soon as I turned around, my little chef made a dash for it and escaped to go play with her dolls...
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Once we got to Uma's and Upa's house, it was time to be spoiled by all of her grandparents and play with her cousins...

...being tickled by grandma...
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...Tucker and Poppy concentrating, I mean playing with my old bank...
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...Upa entertaining Poppy by pretending to be on American Idol...


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...and what would a holiday be with a performance by Tucker...
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...finally time for some turkey...
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...the highlight of Poppy's Thanksgiving - discovering black olives...
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...and then a perfect ending to our perfect day - reading a book with Uma...
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I have so much to be thankful for this year that I barely even know where to start... of course I am the most thankful for having our beautiful daughter in our lives. I can't even imagine a day without her in it. I am thankful that her birth mother had the courage to place her for adoption, I am thankful for the love and care her foster mother gave her the first year of her life, and I am thankful that we were led to adoption. I am thankful for my wonderful husband and all of the love and support he gives me, and for being the world's best father to Poppy. I am thankful for my family and friends, for our home, our jobs and our health. And the list can go on and on, because I am truly blessed. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, too!



















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