Happy Easter to everyone.
Friday, Amy's friend Emilie got her new playground delivered, so most of the day was spent over there on the swings and slide. It was a great way to wear them out and enjoy the nice weather.
She is also enjoying playing with her sunglasses also known as gla-glass, and her bracelets. Which first were on her wrists, then on mommy & daddy's wrists, then on her ankles. She is being more creative lately, playing more independently with her toys and coloring on her easel.
She now associates the answering machine with Happy Birthday. Aunt Sharon & Corey called on Amy's birthday and sang Happy Birthday to her. She enjoyed it so much that we had to save the message. Now everytime she's in the kitchen and she spots the answering machine, she says Happy Birthday and starts trying to sing it too.
Enjoy today's "pictures of the day".
Uppily is Amy's newest way of asking to be picked up. We think it's a combination of up and please - just kind of run together.
Amy went for her first plane ride with Daddy as the pilot, yesterday. At first she didn't want to get in, and then she didn't want to sit in her car seat, so Oma had to hold her on her lap. But once we were up in the air flying around, she was sound asleep. Also, as you can see by one of the pictures, it was quite bright outside before we flew and she was trying to figure out how to shield the sun from her eyes. She succeeded more at pushing back her bangs than anything.
We've been having a fun visit with Oma. Amy has been helping to cook, clean with her new toy vacum cleaner, and has definitely been enjoying playing outside. One of her birthday presents was a swing that we hung under the deck. That has been a huge hit.
Here are today's "pictures of the day".
Amy had her birthday party today. It was a lot of fun and Amy got lots of neat stuff. Her friends John, Emilie, and Abbey all came over to help her celebrate.
Here are pictures from the party today and also from yesterday at Kindermusik and playing around the house with Oma.
Happy Birthday dear sweet Amy.
Today was a a busy day. We have been to Wal-Mart to pick up cupcakes for her class party tomorrow and order her cake for her party on Saturday. Then to John's house to play with him and another friend Jarret. That apparently wore her out so much, that she took a 3 hour nap this afternoon. She hasn't done that in I can't remember how long. But she woke up happy and then had to go back and play with John some more. Emilie was also around this afternoon, so the three of them got together to play.
Then if that weren't enough, she decided that she was going to walk down the first flight of steps by herself. She didn't want to hold on to my hand at all, she said "no, no, Amy do it!" and she did. The next flight though she wanted my hand again and told me so by saying "hand, hand" very emphatically.
Tomorrow Oma arrives to help celebrate Amy's 2nd birthday. We'll have her party Saturday - with a Pooh cake, balloons, a new swing, and just a few friends coming over to play. I'm hoping that the weather stays as nice as it was the past few days and the kids can play outside. This afternoon we had some much needed rain, but at least it's stayed warm.
Here are today's "pictures of the day".
Amy certainly is the little helper these days.
We decided today to do some landscaping in our backyard. It's been in desperate need of it for a while, and today seemed like a good time to get started. So first it was off to Home Depot to rent an auger, purchase some dirt and trees. We came home and Dean started digging the holes with the auger. I came next making the holes a little bigger with my shovel and then came Amy who had to push the dirt back into the holes we just dug - before the trees were planted. Fortunately we quickly found another spot for her to dig and play in that wouldn't fill back up what we had just taken out. Now after a long day of hard work, we have 5 new Leyland Cypress trees, 2 Pussy Willows, and 7 other assorted trees that I had gotten last year from the Arbor Day foundation. There is still more work to be done, but at least we've finally gotten started.
The outfit she is wearing is a new one from Carters. She's pretty much running true to size in their clothes. She's still fitting in the 18 - 24 month size onesies they have and the 2 T dresses and shorts. Surprisingly she can still wear a couple of the shorts/overalls that she had from last summer, but the playsuits are all too small. So it will be another trip back up to the outlets soon to pick up some more shorts. Especially if the weather we had lately is any indication of what's to come. I think we're going to skip Spring and just go right into Summer at this rate.
We don't go to the doctor until May for her two year checkup. But at last weigh in on our scale she came in at 25 pounds and 2 feet 6 inches. If it's true what they say about you are half your height at age 2 I guess she'll only be 5 feet tall when she is fully grown.
Here are today's "pictures of the day".
One year ago yesterday was the first time we met Amy. She became our daughter, our family, and a part of our lives in Wuhan, Hubei, Peoples Republic of China on the morning of March 12, 2001.
Here we are one year ago...
Here we are one year later...
I can not believe that on Tuesday it will be 1 year since we've adopted Amy. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago, but at the same time it feels like she's always been with us.
Every day she talks more and just grows up right before our eyes. She still manages to charm everyone everywhere we go. Including this morning at the Waffle House. As you can see by one of todays pictures, the waiter was so charmed with her that he gave her her own hat.
These past few days have been beautiful weather wise, so we've been spending a lot of time outside. She loves to be outside, playing with her chalk, picking up rocks from the driveway, or kicking one of her many balls around.
She found one of her Chinese outfits in her closet the other day and wanted to put it on over her clothes. We did and managed to get a picture, but she doesn't look very happy about it. Hopefully we'll be able to get a better picture of her in the outfit for her birthday. It's amazing how it just fits, except the pants are a little too long still. Guess she won't have the problem I do of trying to find pants that are long enough.
Amy has discovered play dough. She has 2 cans of neon colored (green and pink) play dough and is having a blast playing with it. She was standing at her table picking it apart in small pieces, saying what sounded like doughnut for each piece that she pulled off. I'm not sure what the significance of that was, but it was cute. I have two more cans hidden in the closet for her birthday. Hopefully she'll still be enjoying playing with it by then.
Here are today's "pictures of the day".
Well after rolling out of bed three times, and trying to get into the closet twice after rolling out, we decided to put the side rail back on the crib for now. It seemed to be more traumatic than it needs to be right now, so we'll try this again in a few months maybe. In the meantime she seems to be much more content with the rail back in place.
Amy successfully drank a cup of Gatorade without spilling it all over herself at dinner the other night. Now if I can just remember to keep using a cup with meals and not her sippy cup we'll be using a regular cup from now on.
Today at MMO, Amy and her classmates were learning about community helpers such as: doctors, nurses, police officers and fire fighters. One of the crafts they did was to make Dr. headbands and bags that contained a band aid, a piece of gauze, a glove, and a cotton ball. As you can see by today's picture, Amy looks very cute as a doctor.
This afternoon after coming home from playing with John, Amy was whining and carrying on while I was trying to get dinner ready. I finally had enough and told her to go to her room. She however decided that she should go to the couch and told me this. When she got to the couch she climbed up on it and then told me she was in a time out. I couldn't help but laugh. She has only had one time out before this and that minute and a half was spent in her chair in her room. However this evening when she was sent to a time out for not listening to either of us, only her second one since she's been with us, she was not happy about it and cried for the two minutes she was in her chair. After which she calmed down and behaved the rest of the evening.
Enjoy today's "picture of the day".
Her favorite phrases have changed once again. Now it's "mommy, read the book" and "no, no, Amy do it". She has also been saying "bless you mommy" whenever I sneeze lately.
She definitely has an independent streak in her. She is determined to do things on her own - imitating actions that she see's us doing. She is starting to drink from a regular cup. Only water right now since it's easy to clean up. But she's fast getting the idea of how it works.
Amy is now moving to a big girl bed. Her crib converts to a toddler bed just by taking the one side off. As you can see by the pictures today, we are placing an air mattress on the floor beneath her for the next few nights - just in case.
For the past day and a half I have been to a Creative Memories weekend crop workshop, so Dean has been taking care of Amy. I guess the excitement was too much for her this morning that she fell sound asleep on the way home before lunch. Dean laid her down on the couch, where she took a short power nap before lunch. She then still took her regular two hour nap this afternoon, much to everyones surprise.
Here are today's "pictures of the day".
