Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

Just the look in Molly’s eyes lets you know how much she adores her father. She thinks that he is the greatest thing on earth. And she’s right, he is. I should know; I married the guy!
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When Father’s Day rolled around this year, we knew that a tie, coffee mug or key chain was not going to be good enough for Daddy. What we needed was a craft, into which Molly could pour all of her love for her dada. So, off to the craft store we went.
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We decided to make Daddy a stepping stone for the garden. Molly was thrilled when the time came to make it. She did so much of the work herself and was so proud of the finished product. She was even able to keep it a secret until the day she gave it to him. Not bad for a three-year-old.
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Here’s Little Miss Molly hard at work, showing you the process for making stepping stone.

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Step 1: Pick out your favorite beads to decorate the stone.

Step 2: Pour the concrete into the mold and give it a little juggle. Step 3: Strategically place the glass beads around the perimeter of the stone. Step 4: Stop to admire your handiwork. Step 5: Back to work. Place favorite sparkly beads randomly around the stone—this is a must. You can’t make a proper stepping stone for your father unless it has pretty sparklies. Step 6: Pose for a cute picture:Step 7: Wait for concrete to set up a bit and then press hand into it, leaving a memory that will last a lifetime. Step 8: Give the stepping stone to Daddy and watch his surprised reaction. Step 9: Give him the lame gift that mom picked out. Step 10: Select a location in the garden for the stepping stone. Step 11: Tell Daddy how much you love him.
Happy Father’s Day, Daddy! I wuv you! From Molly (and Mommy, too!)

Ka Boom!

What do you get when you take a slightly damaged tree limb and add a lawn covered in little shards of bark?

A lot of trouble if the damage and bark shards are a result of a lightning strike!
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Who knew that a lightning strike in our backyard could fry so many electronics in our house? Not me. And wouldn't you know it, we just raised the deductible on our home owner's insurance because, "Gee, we have never made a claim in the ten years that we have lived here!" Great.
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It could have been a lot worse. If the lightning strike would have hit 10 yards to the north, it would have got our house. Then the damage wouldn't be limited to various household electronics. So, I guess that we are lucky.
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As it stands, we lost our garage door opener, automatic sprinkler control units, Internet modem, cable splitter box, the HVAC controller, computer speakers, keyboard, and mouse, bluetooth headset and charger, digital picture frame and a few other miscellaneous things that are so insignificant that I can't even remember what they are right now. Very random items located throughout the house. Weird.
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I was without Internet service for four days and fell behind on my blogging. Just when I had a lot to blog about, too. Keep checking back over the next few days as I have several new blogs in the queue that I need to post.
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I will close with a quote from Mr. Brown Can Moo Can You? by Dr. Seuss : "BOOM BOOM BOOM, Mr. Brown is a wonder. BOOM BOOM BOOM, Mr. Brown makes thunder! He makes Lightning: SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT And it's very very hard to make a noise like that." Good old Dr. Seuss.
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Arrivederci!

Colorado Dreamin'

I’ve been home from my Colorado vacation for less than 48 hours and so far I have:

• Unpacked 2 suitcases and 3 carry-ons
• Conquered a mountain of laundry
• Cleaned the house
• Grocery shopped and restocked the pantry, fridge and freezer
• Sorted through 2 weeks worth of mail
• Sorted through 2 weeks worth of email
• Paid a stack of bills
• Scheduled multiple appointments
• Took Molly to the doctor for a sinus infection (this is infection #587, if you are keeping track)
• Filled a prescription
• Cooked 6 meals
• Made a Costco run
• Took Molly to her Little Gym class (She did her first unassisted pull over…she was so proud. Heck I was proud and all I did was watch!)
• Played at the park (twice)
• Worked out (twice)
• Downloaded and viewed pictures of our trip
• Blogged

Gee, how I long for another vacation! Since that ain’t gonna happen, here is a brief rundown of our trip:

We went to Tinytown, Colorado which is, well, a tiny town.

We people-watched at Red Rocks Amphitheater:
Took lots of cute pictures there as well:

Molly played in the fountains at Southlands. A tornado touched down a few feet from the fountain a few days later. Yikes!
We went to the Denver Zoo. Molly climbed all of the statues just like at the zoo at home.
We had dinner with Carey, my friend from college. I haven't seen her in 20 years. We sat down and talked like we just saw each other last week. Love ya Care-Nels!
Molly played with Anna. She told me that she wanted Anna to be her sister and also said that she would share her toys with Anna. You know Molly is serious if she is willing to share her toys.Anna is actually Luke's sister. Molly and Luke had cribs right next to each other in the orphanage. We love spending time with Luke and his wonderful family. We are blessed to have them as friends and are so grateful for the bond that we share: our children!

Molly and Luke look took one look at each other, hugged, then ran off to play. What a joy to see! As you can tell, they really have a hard time having fun together.
We also got to spend some quality time with the grandparents. Molly was spoiled with attention!
And we even had time for some gratuitous cute shots in my sister's garden:

There were some other important highlights from the vacation; however I neglected to take pictures.

• I had a dinner party with the 7 Less Lonely People (minus one—miss you Peg). Long story about our name, but this a group of 7 friends. We met our first day of college and have been together for 27 years. Needless to say, they are very special people and I love each one dearly.
• I had coffee with another friend, Jill, who I haven’t seen in 15 years…this was a trip about reunions, I guess. Loved catching up with you, my friend. Let’s not wait another 15 years to see each other!
• We took Molly to the pool a couple of times...what a little fish. She was on cloud nine. Me…not so much.
• I had a girl’s night out at my favorite restaurant with some of favorite people in this world: my daughter, my sister and my niece.
• And finally, I drove my 19 year old niece’s car and lived to tell about it!

It was a very full, very fun few weeks! Now it's time to think about the next vacation...

World Class Sleeper

If sleeping was an Olympic sport, Molly would win a gold medal. Multiple gold medals. Heck, she would be the Michael Phelps of her sport.

Molly has plenty of other issues, but sleeping is not one of them. She sleeps 10 hours each night and naps for 3 hours every and every afternoon. You put her into her bed, read a book, sing a song or two, flip on the CD player and head out the door. She sleeps.

I am a lucky, lucky woman-- I realize this. I dread the day when nap time shortens or (*gasp*) disappears altogether. Here’s Molly participating in several different sleep events…earning gold for each one!
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Here she is narrowly edging out Baby to win the overnight back slumber.
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Here she is taking first place in the forty wink sidestroke (hand tuck position).

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And another victory in the forty wink sidestroke (finger suck position).
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Amazingly enough, she even emerges victorious with a sinus infection (note the open mouth to aid breathing during slumber).

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Here's Molly beating the competition in the one arm napstroke.

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And finally a recent triumph in the two arm afternoon siesta.

When it comes to sleeping, Molly is truly in a league of her own. Hurray Sleep!

China Friends

Between the ages of two and three, Molly came to some important realizations that helped her make sense of herself and her world. These realizations came about in a very distinct order:

• China is a place that is much different than the USA and it is far, far away. She pretty much got this concept on her own from looking at pictures. We have one of those digital photo frames and for the past two years it has scrolled through about 100 pictures from our trip to China. She still loves to sit and look at those pictures over and over and over and over….
• lShe is from China. Molly figured out this concept because, well, we told her. Pretty simple.
• Mom and Dad went to China to get her. This one went hand in hand with the whole photo thing. We have always told Molly that we took those pictures in the digital frame when we traveled to China to adopt her. That’s where we met her for the very first time. That’s where we became a family. It holds a very special place in our hearts.
• She is Chinese. Amazingly enough, she figured out this one on her own, as well. I say amazing because it still is so fascinating to me at what a young age a child can apply logic and reason. We’ve told Molly that Chinese food came from China. We’ve told her that certain things around our house were Chinese. For instance, framed Chinese calligraphy characters are examples the way they write in China. One day Molly casually said, “I’m Chinese because I came from China.” I know she is not spontaneously spouting out principles of nuclear physics, but I think it’s kind of cool that a two year old could take a concept and apply it to her own situation.
• Mom and Dad aren’t Chinese. Pretty much had to be direct with this one. When asked, Molly would say that we were Chinese. We had to explain that we didn’t come from China so we weren’t Chinese. Hmmm…that two year old logic and reasoning can only get you so far. Up to this point she hasn’t asked why she is Chinese and we aren’t (insert sigh of relief here). I know that discussion is coming sooner rather than later. I’ve been planning for it. I think I know how to handle it. But I have this big fear of screwing up that important conversation.
• There are other people in her world who are also Chinese. (I have this knack for making a short story long. I hope that you are still with me! This is the concept that I wanted to get at for this post. I should probably delete everything above this, but golly gee, I worked so hard on it that I hate to trash it all!) After Molly grasped the concept that she is Chinese and we are not, she started noticing others around her. She began making a distinction between who is Chinese and who is not.

Here's an example if one such distinction Little Miss Molly has made. We belong to a playgroup of kids adopted from China. For a long time she just said we were going to see the kids. Recently, she started calling them her China Friends. See I finally got to the point! Last week we had not one but two opportunities to play with the China Friends. Molly was thrilled!

Part One: China Friends at the Park

Mia and Molly are on a roll.

All the girls looking up and smiling. A minor miracle!

Gracyn and Molly hanging out.

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China Friends Part Two: At the Zoo

Molly and Mia: new buddies.

Molly and Alex wrestle for ownership of the cookies. Just kidding, it's really just a tickle war.

Not so lucky with this group shot. 12 of the 13 China Friends who went to the zoo. A few looking at the camera, a couple smiling, one missing and no one standing still. I guess we should consider ourselves lucky just to get this much in the picture!

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Added Bonus Material! Molly and even more China Friends at our FCC (Family with Children From China) Chinese Culture Class.

Molly and Misha:Princesses for the day.

Chinese Zodiac Group Pictures...Girls born during the Year of The Dog . Yep, that's my kid picking something out of her teeth during the group photo. Beautiful.