A "Red Thread Celebration"; Two Years Ago This Day...

Unbelievable! Two years ago today, this precious photo arrived via email! This precious face of a 19-month old baby girl, living in China, needing a Mama, needing me! At first glimpse of this photo, my heart skipped a beat, my emotions overflowed, my eyes filled with tears, my heartstrings pulled and tugged, my brain, still skeptical, waited, as if this “invitation” might disappear as quickly as it came, but I was already in love with this sweet little face, my heart was already attached by that magical invisible red thread that, according to ancient Chinese folklore, at birth, connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance. This magical thread may stretch or tangle, but will never break. It is truly “meant to be”. As I look at the two of us today, there is no doubt that we were meant to be together. It is only through divine intervention that our two souls, a world apart, are now a family. To quote a verse from one of my favorite songs, “I tip my hat to the keeper of the stars. He sure knew what he was doing, when he joined these two hearts!” Each year we will celebrate this momentous occasion, the one I’ve named our “Red Thread Day”. So, Kayli, Happy Red Thread Day, my Sweet Pea! Love, Mom

I Can't Fix Everything

Why do these things always happen after the lights are out? Kayli is crying, Mom is sighing. Rubber frogs only stretch so far! Poor Frog. Poor Kayli. Poor Mom.

My Beautiful Butterfly

This story was just too funny to not include in my blog. Recently I was talking to Marion about the previous night with Kayli as Kayli sat on my lap, listening. I told Marion that Kayli had a restless night and at one point was yelling “Help, I all tangled up in my blanket!” So, as I proceeded to tell the story, my report was “ I climbed out of bed and found her all rolled up in her blanket, and it was wrapped so tight it was like a cocoon. So, I just grabbed one end of the blanket and rolled her out.” Without missing a beat, Kayli spontaneously says “Then, I a Beeeeautiful Butterfly!”

Pooh Reads to Kayli: The Fringe of Reality

Kayli is at the age where puppets and “talking animals” are still on the fringe of reality. She knows they are toys, but when they “come to life” and speak to her, she can’t help but respond. Recently, she had a chance to have a story read to her by a little Winnie the Pooh toy that “reads” pages of a story as the listener turns them. I love the look on Kayli’s face in the first picture posted. I can only imagine what she’s thinking! Click on the video below to see the introduction to our Interactive Pooh.

Kayli's "Driving" Skills

Kayli has several “big wheels” that were given to her as either gifts or “hand-me-downs”for when the time was right. She also has a few “hand-me-down” tricycles. She has climbed onto these little vehicles many times but has never been able to reach the pedals. So, at Christmas time, Santa brought her a special tiny trike that adjusted to the tiniest tot. We were so excited! What we found, however, is that this tricycle is perfect in size but less like a trike and more like a bike with training wheels. The problem with this is that it tips easily, so after a few tips, Kayli was not interested in this toy anymore! So, we put it away and recently pulled it out. As this child doesn’t forget anything, she said she didn’t want to use the pedals “cuz I fall” So, I guess we need to donate this bike to the circus where they can train monkeys to ride and roll when it tips. The good news is that her feet now reach the pedals on the smallest big wheel we have. Woohoo. The bad news is that she just can’t seem to get the hang of the steering wheel. I have visions of her at 16, turning the steering wheel in the car back and forth and then cranking it to one side, steering the car up onto the grass as she does her big wheel. One thing she does seem to have established, though, is what kinds of things you say while driving. To my surprise, the other night while I was driving us home from somewhere, she suddenly yells “C’mon move it, we tryin’ to get home” then she says “Pick a lane, you can’t have both!” Well, I would say her language skills are coming along nicely, wouldn’t you?

Irish Fest Fun!

We had soooo much fun at the Irish Fest! We met up with Aunt Suzanne, Bill, Aunt Marion, Uncle Jim, Jake, and Nick. We strolled around, listened to music, looked at some unique handmade Irish wares, ate some yummy food and had some ice cold drinks. Kayli got to jump in the Tinker Bell inflatable jumper and kept telling me how much she looooves Tinker Bell! Wonderscope had a tent with MANY things for kids to do. The weather was beautiful! The only caveat we ran into was at the end of our day, when Kayli said she needed to go potty, and the nearest potty was nowhere near the “kid section”, hmmm, guess nobody on this planning committee thought about a port-a-potty for the designated children’s area. Well, it was time to go anyway, so I told Kayli to “hang on” and we’d find a potty on the way to the parking garage. Well, I got so distracted with weaving my way through the crowd, and wondering if my car was still going to be in the prime parking spot I had found upon arrival, that had a sign reading “Retail visitors” (Well, I was a visitor) Anyway, I was so distracted that I wheeled the stroller right by all the port-a-potties, and when we arrived at our car, I am putting the stroller in the trunk and Kayli says “Mom, I doin the potty dance” and “Oops, too late” Yes, this time it was Mom's fault. But never fear, super-mom was here with a full change of clothes. So, before we gave up our precious parking spot in the garage nearest the festival, we did a quick change-a-roo, and off we went to the next destination, a visit to Uncle Kevin and Aunt Karen’s! We had decided to pay them a surprise visit. The partying goes on…