Happy Holidays 2007

Better late than never... here's Lucy on Christmas-card-taking day last month. Mary Ann's mom has recently been sick, but she's much better now. This has caused our usual holiday routine to be out of whack, so we're behind on most everything. Hope everyone had a great Christmas, and please have a Happy New Year!

Welcome Christmas!

Lucy in the early stages of tree-trimming Sunday night

Doing the tree always reminds me of The Grinch song, "Trim Up The Tree." I found the lyrics online:

Trim up the tree with Christmas stuff
Like bingle balls, and whofoo fluff
Trim up the town with goowho gums and bizilbix and wums
Trim every blessed window and trim every blessed door
Hang up whoboohoo bricks
Then run out and get some more!
Hang pantookas on the ceilings
Pile pankunas on the floor
Trim every blessed needle on the blessed Christmas tree
Christmas comes tomorrow
Trim you, trim me!
Trim up your pets with fuzzle fuzz
And whiffer bloofs, and wuzzle wuzz
Trim up your uncle and your aunt
With yards of whofut flant
Trim every house in Whoville from the cellar to the roof
Hang up a mile of dafflers
And three miles of snaffer snoof!
Hang dang-donglers on the bathtub
Trim the occupant the with floof
To every home in Whoville and to every blessed Who
Christmas comes tomorrow
Trim me, trim you!
Trim up the tree with Christmas stuff
Like bingle balls, and whofoo fluff
Trim up the town with goowho gums
And bizilbix and wums...
Trim up the tree with bizilbix and wums

Big Boy, Little Girl

"He's a big boy. I'm a big girl!"

On a mad drive from Lucy's preschool to the mall,
we stopped at the first sit-down restaurant along the way, the Big Boy.
Lucy loooooved him, as you can tell!

Santa maybe...

Today we went to a mall, and surprisingly it wasn't too bad. We were there early enough to avoid a horrible crowd -- except for inside Gymboree. The Santa setup was giving away 20 percent off coupons to Gymboree, and that was on top of a 25 percent off sale already going on, so there was much madness there.
Lucy was afraid of Santa at first, but when we got her a cookie she amazingly calmed down and warmed up to the jolly guy. We met a friend of ours and her daughter there, so it was kind of a playdate for Lucy and the friend, who goes to the same preschool. See video below for an account of the experience!



Happy shopping!

Go Steelers!

Lucy at her preschool's Halloween party
on Saturday. (Dad likes the Steelers.)

A little video for ya...

This one is several months old, but we still laugh at it...
we call it "Lucy's first beer commercial."

Dressed to kill

Lucy took an old boa-esque scarf I knitted
and decided to model it with a new pair of
dress-up shoes she just got for her birthday!

Fun at the Festa Italiana

Becky and Alana danced to a Frank Sinatra tune, I think...(for
some reason I really liked this in black-and-white...)

Over the weekend, I thought some fresh evening air might help my horrible cold. So we went to Mass at our church and then hung out on Saturday night for the annual Festa Italiana held on the grounds of St. James. Becky and the girls, and our friends Ellen and John, who are newlyweds, by the way, met us there and we all had fun eating the food and enjoying the beer, wine and music.
It was good for us to get out, although by Sunday morning Lucy had caught the ick I had had for several days and we all stayed in the whole day to recuperate. Today (Monday), Lucy and I both stayed home.
--M.A.


Lucy liked the playground


John and Ellen


Alexa and Alana ate some dinner

Happy 3rd Birthday, Lucy Mei!

We love you!


Finally Lucy has learned her age!


Lucy has turned into a real computer geek, thanks
to her new birthday computah.


We stopped by at lunch to see Lucy enjoying a little
ice cream cup we brought to her and her classmates
for her bday. (More later from the Chuck E. Cheese
Experience over the weekend)

Stella!!

This one featuring the late golden retriever Bernstein is short but sweet!

Lucy's zoo adventure

A recent trip to the zoo with the munchkin.

Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID): Clinton

OMG.

Dance of the Clownfish

A friend of ours recently gave Lucy this tutu, and over the weekend another friend gave her this goldfish hat...naturally she decided to combine the two for maximum fun.
Actually she really has just started dance class at school, and she loves it. Today we peeked in via the two-way mirror to watch her. Those little kids cracked us up.

She's a little bit country...

It's Lucy's last day in her room at preschool before the fall term starts and she moves to a new class next week. To mark the day, the kids are at school in cowboy/girl outfits. Last night when we put Lucy's new pink boots on, we taught her the Nancy Sinatra "These Boots are made for Walking" song. She was diggin' it.


Lucy will give Nancy a run for her money

FTIA reunion

Lucy was proud after her face-painting


We're in Indianapolis, where the annual reunion of our adoption agency, Families Thru International Adoption, happened yesterday. It was a humid, gray day, but no rain, so everyone had a great time. It was the first time we had seen any of the families in our travel group. Since they came from various parts of the country, not everyone was able to make it but we saw about half a dozen members of our group and their children.

All the kids had grown so much, and it was great to see everyone. It was just like we were in China again (especially with the humidity)! A couple families have already started the process for a second adoption. Made me wish we could. It's taking much longer now, though, and we don't want to be so old we can't pick her up!

Lucy with Kristina, our FTIA coordinator,
whose voice we still have a recording of telling
us on Jan. 25, 2006 that she had some
"super-exciting news" for us -- she was calling
to tell us we finally had Lucy...

Just a couple photos...

Important Update: Lucy got a new bathing suit!

We look like the Beverly Hillbillies in our little "cement pond" out back. I can't believe it's already July!

Just wanted to play catch-up and say hey to everyone. And if you have an idea on how to remove the ugliest swing frame in the world (see background of water splash photo), please let us know.

-M.A.

Catching up!

Lucy was a true Beatles fan at "Abbey Road on the River" today

We have been awful, and we apologize.
We have no excuse other than our own laziness for not keeping up the blog. Really, this is all about photos of Lucy (even if it bores the world maybe it'll be fun for her to see!), and we have been bad!!!
So, in reverse order, here's what's been going on in the world of our fast-growing baby lately....!


She's always been a bubbly girl. We were hanging out today at the Beatles fest!


Last week of regular semester preschool included a "wear-something-of-Dad's" day


Proud mom and her girl on Mother's Day 2007 (no kidney stones this year, thank you, Dad!)


Our little Easter angel holding her pig Wilbur


Clowning outside Lynn's Paradise Cafe before brunch...


Do we have a future Martha Stewart?

What a difference a year makes

April 3, 2006, moments after we met Lucy in Guangdong Province, China


April 3, 2007, moments before heading to Chuck E. Cheese in America

WOW. How much Lucy has changed, how much we have changed as a family, as individuals. One year past the "gotcha day" on April 3 and her little personality has really emerged. What a sweet, smart little girl, the best child on the planet! ;)

Reflections on a very happy new year...

A goodbye hug for Lyla from Lucy


Lyla and Lucy in Lyla's big-girl room!


Lyla helps her "baby" up the stairs


From left: Pals from Yangjiang to Louisville (far right)

Ni Hao to everyone!
We are celebrating the Chinese New Year right now (it's the year of the pig if you haven't heard), and yesterday we went to the home of Lucy's "big sister" from Yangjiang orphanage in China for a CNY celebration.
It's been awhile since they've seen each other, so it was nice to have them reunited. Lucy ran around all day saying, "Lyla, Lyla, Lyla." Whether Lucy remembers her from China or not we can't be sure, be we do think Lucy loves Lyla now.

There'll be a big Chinese New Year party on Saturday, put on by our local FCC (Families with Children from China) chapter here, so we'll have more pics soon!!

I am behind in posting some fun pics, so I promise to be a better poster in the new year -- both American and Chinese!

---Mary Ann

Happy Valentine's Day

Lucy is ready to go to preschool, complete with her mother's 60's/70's-inspired foil-covered shoebox we decorated last night. She's armed with her Hello Kitty Valentines, ready to hand out to all her friends.
So happy V-Day to everyone, & sorry we've taken so long to post something new!

--Update: Joe reported on drop-off of Lucy that the 2-year-olds ooohed and aaahed over the shiny foil shoebox. She was the only one who had one. Thank goodness toddlers aren't easily embarrassed, and I got away with one there (she doesn't yet realize I'm an old Mama)!

;)