Easter 2011

Easter arrived a day early this year. My sister-in-law Karen and her husband Jeff invited us to their country club for brunch and an Easter Egg Hunt. How can you say no to an offer like that? So Saturday morning we got all dolled up and headed to the club.

Molly was thrilled to get her picture taken with the Easter Bunny. Six months ago this would have involved, at the very least, some heavy bribery, coaxing, processing of feelings, and tears. A lot of tears. And even after all of that, there was a good chance that there would be no lap sitting anyway.

What a difference a few short months have made!

Molly was so eager to sit on the Easter Bunny’s lap that she volunteered to do it again with her cousin Allison.

At brunch, Molly got very brave and tried two new foods: bacon and sausage. Healthy? No. Delicious? Yes! And Molly agreed whole-heartedly. She devoured them with gusto. 

This might not sound like a big deal to you, but a few weeks ago I tried to get Molly to try one little nibblet of corn. The gag reflex kicked in before it was even on the fork and she almost hurled right on her plate.

Eating two whole pieces of bacon and a piece of sausage for the first time is big news in my book!

After a delicious brunch it was time for the Easter Egg Hunt. It wasn’t so much of a hunt as it was a grab. There were eggs everywhere. Non-stop rain for an entire week had left the lawn completely saturated. As a result, the hunting ground had to be reduced to a patio.

No matter, Molly still had a great time collecting her eggs.

And she loved having her Allison help her!

After the hunt Ally and Molly headed back to the clubhouse to check out the goodies. It was sugar-fest, as Easter should be.

Then it was time for family pictures. How cute are we?

In addition to everything else, the club has hired two people to make balloon sculptures. Molly was beyond thrilled.

She picked a pink flower. A perfect selection.

Uncle Jeff had to attend a family funeral so didn’t make the brunch or hunt. He did manage to make it right before we left, so had to get him in a picture. Karen and Jeff, Thanks for inviting us to spend the day with you. We had a great time!

Back at home, it was time to color Easter Eggs.

Molly took this job very seriously. In previous years, she did not have the patience to let eggs sit in the dye very long. We had lots and lots of pastel eggs. This year, she had boatloads of patience.

She let her eggs marinate for what seemed like hours so that she could get nice bright colors. She carefully checked, and rechecked, and check her eggs again.

Nope, not even close to being done…

There was plenty of time to take pictures (and do laundry, and wash dishes and mop the floor and…) while we waited for the eggs to achieve the perfect hue.

Finally, the task was completed (and it was almost time for bed).

Molly had more fun after the eggs were done. She sat and mixed colors, moving liquid from one cup to another to see what would happen. A hot mess is what happened, but she seem to be thrilled with the results.

Late last night the Easter Bunny visited, filling Molly’s basket to the brim.

Molly was up at 7:00 AM, eager to check out her basket. Her Dad and I were not so eager. We invited her into our bed to cuddle and grabbed a few more ZZZZZ’s.

By 8:30 we couldn’t delay the inevitable any longer so headed downstairs.

Molly carefully inspected each little surprise that the big furry guy left for her.

Yes, she was a happy girl!

Mmmmm, nothing says Easter like a sugar coated Peep. Yummy!

I am sure Tony (and the jowls that Molly created for him) are less than thrilled with this picture, but dang if that little Molly isn’t looking cute as a bug!

Since it was raining, the Eater Bunny left a big basket of eggs with instructions for mom and dad to hide them in the house.

Five-year-olds are not great and finding things that are right in front of their faces so trying to find things that are hidden is a real challenge. Maybe the country club had it right, just throw the eggs out everywhere and let the kids grab.

After what seemed like an eternity, Molly found all two dozen eggs.

Then she got cracking, opening up each egg to reveal its sugary surprise. 

Sure, there’s a smile on her face now, but there will be tears and a timeout later--after the sugar high wears off. Just saying.Happy Easter, Baby!

And Happy Easter to all of our friends and family!

Some Random Pics, The Zoo, and Some Video, T00!

Because my parents are always pestering me for more blog posts, here is some random pictures taken over the past few weeks.

Random Pictures 1:

Molly had Pajama Day at school. The school had a charity drive where the kids brought in new PJs and books for underprivileged kids. In return, they got to wear their pajamas to school.

Molly was so thrilled at the prospect of this, she picked out her PJs a week ahead of time. The night before, she took her bath and put on her favorite panda footie pajamas. She thought it was great to go to bed, wake up the next morning and already be dressed for school.Molly and the rest of the class had a blast and collected a lot of needed items to donate.

Random Pictures 2:

Every year on Gotcha Day, I give Molly a small gift that we purchased for her in China on our adoption trip. This year it was a puzzle of China’s Provinces. Molly loves puzzles so was eager to get started.

I assumed that there was a picture underneath the puzzle so that she would know where to put the pieces. Right before Molly dumped the puzzle over, it occurred to me that I paid the equivalent of 10 cents for it in China. The quality might not be that high. There might not be a guide picture.

I took a little peek under one of the pieces, and discovered that there was not a picture underneath. Luckily, I have my new all-in-one printer/fax/scanner/COPIER. I plopped the puzzle on the copier and got a rockin’ color copy to act as a guide for reassembling.It didn’t take Molly long to get all of the provinces neatly tucked back into their proper location.

Random Pictures 3:

Every year Tony buys seeds, starts his little vegetable plants sprouting, loving transplants them, waters them, weeds them, tends to them and then leaves them on the vine to die. Seriously. He never harvests them. Whatever.

Apparently this year is no exception. Here are Molly and Tony getting this years crop ready for their inevitable fate.

Random Pictures 4:

Molly saw me writing this blog and told me to take a picture of her work of art that she drew on her white board. So hear it is:

It’s a brachiosaurus in the rain. I was told that you can tell it’s a brachiosaurus “because it’s standing next to a tree.” Well duh, isn’t that obvious?  

As the title to this blog post implies, there are random pictures and Zoo Pictures. Guess what is coming next?

It was a beautiful day last Friday. I picked Molly up from preschool and was walking back to the van when I had a spontaneous moment. I don’t have those very often, but I did that day.

You see, the zoo is located next to Molly’s preschool. The sun was shining, it was warm, and I could see the zoo. I actually strung all of these occurrences together and realized we could spend the rest of the day at the zoo!

Wow, what a concept!

We rarely go to the zoo alone. Most of the time we meet friends there. So this was a pretty special day. Add to that the fact that this was a spontaneous trip so I had nothing with me. That means we actually consumed overpriced, greasy, sugary and nutritionally void zoo food for lunch. Told you it was special.

I did have a camera with me, so did capture the memories. Molly actually ran from place to place and demanded asked politely if I would take pictures of her.

When Molly was three, she asked to play on the zoo’s playground. It’s one of those multi-level play structures where you climb around inside. I said sure and turned her loose.

When it was time to go, she disobeyed me and ran back into the play structure (which I can’t fit in) and continued to play…four separate times. Yes, four times.

When I actually got my hands on her she was in some serious trouble. I restrained gently carried her from the back of the zoo, through the exit at the front of the zoo and all the way across the parking lot. All the while she was kicking and screaming at the top of her lungs, “Put Me Down!”  Joy.

Once she calmed down I told her that she couldn’t play at that playground until she was four. An entire year. She knew she was in trouble, big time.

Ya know what? She never asked to go back to that park at all when she was four. Not once. She’d look at it and say, “That’s the park where I got in BIG trouble.” But she never asked to play.

Now that she is five, I guess she figured it was safe to ask to play there again. She was very polite and told me that she would come down the first time she was asked.And that’s just what she did. I guess she learned her lesson!

And now for the moment you have all been waiting for, well at least my mom and dad have been waiting for….the video.

Little technical problem, though. You have to tilt your head to the right to view the videos. You see, I captured these clips from my regular camera. I held the camera portrait style. Apparently once you download to the computer, you can’t turn video like you can turn pictures. Who knew? They are stuck in landscape format. So you have to watch sideways.

Here’s the first exciting clip. It features Molly jumping over her jump rope 20 times. Yes, 20 times. Sit back, relax. It takes a while.

Jump, Molly, Jump!

Did anyone besides my mom and dad really watch that whole thing? Be honest.

Next we have Molly saying a dinosaur name for every letter in the alphabet. Riveting!

Dinosaurs A to Z

And finally, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, in Chinese. Mostly. I think.

Chinese Twinkle

There you have it. Random Pics, The Zoo and Video Too!

Gotcha Baby!

Family Day, Metcha, Day, Adoption Day. There are a lot of different names for it. For us, it’s Gotcha Day.

What ever you call it, this is the day that our beautiful baby girl was first placed into our waiting arms. The first time that we saw her in person. For two months prior, we stared at, kissed, talked to and loved a picture. But on Gotcha Day it became real. We became a family.

March 29, 2007 was a joyous day, but it was also a difficult day. We were madly in love with Molly, but Molly, not so much in love with us. Molly was grieving hard. She screamed and screamed. We could do little to comfort her. We were also the parents of a one-year-old, not a newborn. She was used to her routine and we had no clue what that was. She was frustrated, to say the least.

Flash forward four years (FOUR YEARS! How did that happen?) and things are much different. We have a confident, secure, loving daughter who doesn’t look at us and scream, but instead showers us with kisses and hugs .

Although 3/29/2007 will forever be one of the best days of my life, 3/29/2011 was filled with much more mutual love. I don’t know how it is even possible, but each day I love my little girl more than the day before. She is amazing and her Daddy and I are the luckiest parents on earth.

Instead of screaming, crying, mourning,and stressing out, here is how we spent Gotcha Day #4.

Molly started out with a little dress up time.

And then it was time for soccer practice.

Molly requested Chinese for dinner. Anything that I didn’t have to cook was okay with me. I was knee deep in pneumonia

Here’s my little girl showing us how to use chopsticks. This is a skill she taught herself. When she is determined, she can do just about anything. ….and she finishes up with a cute face, just to let us know that she is showing off.

When Molly and I went to China last November, we finally downloaded the video off of the camcorder and onto the computer. Now we can actually watch it. What a novel idea.

I like my memories sanitized. All of the unpleasant parts, like bad hair and pants that make my butt look big quietly forgotten, and only the pleasant warm-fuzzy moments remaining.

I am not a huge fan of video. Video shows bad hair, big behinds and a variety of other unpleasant things that I would rather not remember. There is no hiding from the truth.

Anyway, Molly wanted to watch her Gotcha Day video for the very first time. How could I say no? I even managed to dig up some yummy leftover Chinese Birthday Cake in the freezer.

Molly was enthralled with the video. She wanted to watch every last minute of our trip to China.

And I must say that the video turned out better than my sanitized memory. It all seemed so calm and peaceful. I don’t remember it feeling that way at all. In actuality, it probably wasn’t. But apparently, when the camera was on we all fell into this Zen-like state.

Last stop of the evening was a walk down memory lane.

Molly and Tony 2007.Molly and Tony 2011

Me and Molly 2007Me and Molly 2011.

Don’t know how many more years I can recreate the 2007 photograph, but as long as she requests it, I’ll give it my best effort!

Happy 4th Gotcha Day, Molly! Mommy and Daddy thank God and China for creating such a perfect family. We love you!

Dante’s 7th Circle of ….

Well I’m sure you know the rest of this line.

And so do I, because for the past few weeks I felt like I was a visitor to this place. Front row seat.

About two weeks ago, I got pneumonia. Again. Twice in one year. There’s proof right there that life is not fair. It was awful.

This was probably the sickest I have ever been in my life. There are no adjectives to describe it so I won’t even try. Just look at the picture above and you can pretty much figure out how I was feeling.

I probably should have been in the hospital for a few days. There were times that I fantasized how great it would be if I could just check in. For me it would have felt like a Club Med vacation. Morphine drip, inhaled steroids and forced bed rest. Aaaaah.

But I had too much to do to go that route. Think that could have been part of my problem? I kept pushing along with the daily routine, went to a few meetings and delivered Molly to every one of her activities. Oh, yes I did. It wasn’t pretty, but I did it.

I did have a few meltdowns along the way. Ask Tony. I am sure they are etched in his brain. They were that ugly.

Anyhoo,I am glad to say that I turned the corner and am feeling much better. I promise to catch up on my blogging this week. And from now on I am just sayin’ “no” to pneumonia.