Fun weekend!

Mikayla, Lila, and Grace at the Children's Museum

Lila being silly at the zoo!

Greg, AJ, and Mikayla at the zoo butterfly house.

Our family at the zoo butterfly house.

Greg, AJ, and Mikayla were here for Memorial Day weekend. We went to the zoo on Saturday then had a barbecue while the kids played outside. Sunday we met for lunch, went to the new Clifford the Big Red Dog exhibit at our children's museum, then ended the day with dinner at our house. It was a fun weekend with good friends, getting caught up, watching the girls play together, and just hanging out.

Happy Birthday Dear Lila!

My baby girl is 3! She had a wonderful "first" birthday with presents, ice cream cupcakes, and her favorite meal for dinner (fried rice). We will have a big party for both girls on June 5. We are waiting until my sister & her family are home from Texas to celebrate with us!

Tearing into her first present at breakfast to start the day off!

Birthday girl with her yummy ice cream treats! She was a pro at blowing the candles out. I'm not sure if they celebrated birthdays at the orphanage or not. We think this was her first real celebration ever but definitely her first full of love and joy, at home, with her family. It was a day that made me think of her birth family and know they are missing her & wondering where their little girl is on this special day.

Today Grace is 6!

Her new big girl bike!

Ladybug cookies for her Kindergarten class! The party theme this year is ladybugs.

What is it about a birthday that makes you remember the first time you held that tiny little baby? I can remember every detail of what I told her and her tiny little face peeking out from the tightly swaddled blankets. She'll always be my little angel.

My first real haircut

Lila had her head shaved in typical orphange style in China. She had a lot of growth since we got home and it was time to get it shaped up. She wasn't scared at all, climbed right into the chair, was silly & squirmy for the cut, and came out looking much better. Delores evened it all up and cut it into a cute little layered bob.

Update

Grace in her soccer uniform singing for Mother's Day at church, this was about 10:25, her game was at 11:00! I am so glad we stayed to sing, they did a great job. Very well enunciated, nice volume (not yelling but loud enough to hear), very melodic. Aunt Andrea was so proud of Grace she got tears in her eyes. The 2 bigger kids on the left are the 2 in my class.

The Tigers with Andy and their trophies! Mother's Day tournament 2010

Jessica called me last Saturday to tell me that due to a change in his dad's work schedule Wyatt is going to a daycare much closer to home. I'm happy that he will be at home with Billy more now than being here 10 hours a day. We missed him horribly these first few days but know it's what is best for him. He will have more time at his own home with his Mommy and Daddy! It was wonderful though to get to see him this weekend and rock him to sleep, I needed some time with my Mr Muffin Man.

We are getting back into our normal routine and enjoying our family time together. As much as we loved having Wyatt here, I was worrying about the effects of sharing Mama with a new baby. Lila did start having some sleep issues and nightmares. She also started referring to herself and Shishi again instead of Lila, avoiding eye contact, speech progress slowed, just several little things that made me feel that she was feeling insecure. I'm trying to do a lot of holding, loving, bonding time this week to get us back to the strong security we had.

So far the Mary Kay venture is not going well. I only have a couple people interested in facials. I'll do those in May and June and see if they lead to any more. I am calling and emailing but the market seems saturated with Mary Kay consultants but if you're interested in a facial or some products, let me know or go to my site www.marykay.com/chrissyc

Our backyard has become the neighborhood gathering place this spring. I usually can count on the doorbell ringing about 4:00 to find someone asking "can I come over and play???" We have several kids raning from Lila to about 4th grade. They really play well together and it's fun to have them here. I must stock up on popsicles and juice boxes for the summer!

Grace's team was in an annual soccer tournament this weekend. I don't know who decided that mothers want to sit at the soccer field all day on Mother's Day... They played well today, Grace got in some really good passes.

Lila's second surgery is in 3 weeks. We check into the hospital on June 7 then surgery is the next day at 10:00. This will be a longer surgery and a longer hospital stay than the December surgery. Before then we have my niece's graduation, both girls' birthdays, birthday party, end of school, Kindergarten graduation, friends coming from out of town (cannot wait!!), my sister and the kids arriving from Texas for the whole summer, Gerry's family arriving in June for a week (hoping some of them get to stay with us!), plus all the usual appointments and events. It's easy to get stressed over all this stuff but when you step back and appreciate it they are all really blessings!

Happy Mother's Day! It's my first with both my little girls!