What We Have Been Up To

I meant to post many times last week but it never happened.  25% of the time it was because I was lazy.  75% of the time it was because of our internet connection.  Or in our case, lack thereof.  We have comcast and they stink.  When we had Verizon we never had an issue.  We switched to Comcast about a year ago and it's been awful.  Thankfully, we've had enough and as of tomorrow, we'll be back with Verizon.  So then the excuses for not posting will all be on me but I can live with that.

We had a really great Christmas. It was just the right kind of crazy.  lots of family, lots of fun but lots of time to play and to enjoy the new toys.  Gracie loves the idea of Santa but the thought of him coming in our house terrifies her.  So I have convinced her that he leaves the presents outside and sends me an e-mail to bring them in the house.  This year we even hung Santa's cookie and Rudolph's carrot in a Ziploc bag on the back door. 

So excited to receive the trampoline she asked for. 

She couldn't believe Santa really brought it.

Doc McStuffins Doctor Kit

Donatello the Ninja Turtle.  This is who Gracie plays when she plays Ninja Turtles with the cousins

 

Cousins in Christmas Jammies

In the Doc McStuffins Dress that Auntie Amy had made for her.

New Dollhouse from Grandma Judi and Baseball Honey(my parents)

Gracie with the new dollhouse

She asked for a little trampoline and some Doc McStuffins toys and she got those plus a lot of other gifts.  She also got a beautiful new dollhouse from my parents.  They told me they bought her a dollhouse and had it shipped to me.  I got the box and it was pretty big but nothing out of the ordinary.  Then I opened the box to assemble it and after 3 hours of putting it together I learned 3 new things. 1. I can put a dollhouse together all by myself. 2. The next time my parents decide to buy her another dollhouse that takes 3 hours to assemble they either need to make sure I have a husband by then or they need to get me one and send him with the dollhouse.  3.  The dollhouse is beautiful but where are we going to put a 4 foot dollhouse? I'm still trying to figure that one out.  Hopefully I will have an answer once we put the tree away.   Seriously, I think that aside from the trampoline, the dollhouse has been her favorite present by far.  She can play with it for hours at a time.

On the 27th Grace and I took a short trip.  Grace has been dying to take a ride on a choo-choo train so we took the train to Portland, Maine.  It was about a 2 hour train ride and she loved it!  We arrived in Portland to about 8 inches of snow and she was delighted by that.  We got to our hotel about 3:00 and swam in the pool and had dinner at the hotel restaurant.  On Friday we went to the Maine Children's Museum.  It's a cute little museum but very small and we saw everything they had to offer in about 2 hours.  Then we just walked around town, had lunch and then headed back to the hotel to swim.  On Saturday we hung out, went for a walk and then headed back home.  It was a great little trip and it was so much fun for it to be just the two of us. She also enjoyed having a double bed all to herself and is trying to convince me that she needs one of those in her room.  

Taking Pictures outside our hotel window with her new camera.

Snowy and beautiful Portland, Maine

On the Train

Taking a picture of Mommy who is taking a picture of Gracie

Riding on her first choo-shoo train

Children's Museum of Maine

All in all, it's been a great break and I am trying to hang onto these last few days as much as I can before I go back to work on Wednesday.  It's such  blessing to have this extended time off with her.  She really is the best present of all.

First Pre-School Christmas Program

On Thursday, Gracie had her first Preschool Program.  It would be an understatement to say she was excited. She could not wait to get into her new dress and she was incredibly cooperative with getting her hair done. She was so excited to have mommy come and see her classroom.  When I walked into the classroom she was sitting in a row with her classmates waiting very patiently.  When she saw me walk in she burst into her million dollar smile and started waving at me and yelling Hi Momma, Hi Momma!!! She and her class sang a number of Christmas songs with my favorite being the reindeer pokey.  They were all adorable.

Gracie thinks this picture makes her look like one of the presents.

All dressed up!

Ready yo go!

 

Being Sassy!

After her show we went to lunch at her favorite Mexican restaurant and then later in the day we went to my work for a secret santa exchange.  She had so much fun.  It was a great day.

I am so excited that I am off until January 2nd.  So thankful that the college I work for closes the week between Christmas and New Years.  I am happy to say that other than one last gift card we are done shopping and we're all wrapped.  Which means we didn't have a lot of running around to do this weekend.  I'm hoping to get out tonight to look at Christmas lights. 

Three Years

Three years ago today we landed in Boston as a family of two. Though I had prepared as much as I  could, I really had no idea what I was in for.  I had no idea how completely and quickly I could fall in love with this little person.  This year has been filled with a lot of challenges.  We finally made it through the terrible two's (and man, they really were terrible), and while I think the three's are easier in a lot of ways, it came with it's own challenges.  I remember thinking that when I chose to adopt an infant that in many ways it might be easier emotionally because they wouldn't have the same memories an older child would.  I certainly did not expect everything to be filled with sunshine and lollipops.  I knew there would be challenges and very hard times but I seriously underestimated the level of grief she would be feeling as such a young age.  It's been a challenge to work through but we have sought out and received amazing help and support. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail because these are really her stories to share if and when she wants to but  I'm really in awe of how hard she is working to figure out and feel her emotions.  She's incredibly brave and there is not a moment that goes by that I don't thank my lucky stars that I get to be her momma.  I'm proud of the little family we have created for ourselves and I am grateful for our Ethiopian family who entrusted me to raise her.  I never forget what they had to give up in order for me to have the privilege of raising her.

Today we celebrated our three years of being a family by going to visit a local Audubon society farm and having dinner with Auntie, Uncle and cousins at Gracie's favorite Italian restaurant.  They have great Italian bread and if we sit for more than a minute without someone bringing us bread Gracie starts asking every server passing by for it. Gracie also received two gifts from Mommy.  One is always a a black Christmas angel and and the other is a gift I brought back from Ethiopia.  This year it was a yellow fabric pencil case with a acacia tree and a hut that looks like the houses in Gracie's village.  She was really excited.

So yes, things can get hard but this amazing, smart, funny, stubborn, opinionated, loving and sparkling girl is worth it.  I am so grateful for her.

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of our trip to the farm.

Thanksgiving 2012

2012

2011

2010

Halloween

Halloween 2010

Halloween 2011

Halloween 2012

Random Stuff

On Saturday we were at Gracie's dance class.  We walked into the changing room and there was a lady with two young girls she was getting ready.  I started to  put on Gracie's tap shoes and the lady said "oh, It looks like all the Nana's are bringing their granddaughters to dance class."  I turn around expecting to see that someone else has walked into the room and then realize she thinks I'm a Nana.  I said in a slightly too loud voice, Gracie, give mommy your other shoe so I can put it on.  Lady says "oooooohhhhhhhhhhhh........." I guess the silver lining is that at least I had my hair colored a couple of weeks ago.  Otherwise, she might have thought I was her great grandmother. 

Gracie has this outfit that has khaki pants and a pink and white striped cardigan.  Every time she wears it she tells me it's her mommy outfit because she looks like me when she wears it.  Not sure why she thinks that but it cracks me up every time she says it.

Grace is terrified at the the thought of Santa coming in our house.  She is very excited about presents but doesn't like the idea of the jolly guy coming inside so I told her that Santa leaves the toys outside and then sends me an e-mail so I can bring them inside.  She said ok, tell him thank you but don't let him in.

Jennifer Lopez has a song that has a line in it called Dance the night away.  Gracie thinks she's saying Dance the Lemonade and she sings it at the top her lungs.

We went to a fundraiser the other night and I bid on and won this fabulous painting.

The picture I took doesn't really do it justice.  Gracie said "mom did you get this picture because it's so beautiful of me riding my swing?"  I said well, it does remind me of you. She said "cause it's so beautiful?" As you can see the self-esteem at our house is A-OK.  I feel really lucky to have gotten this painting.  It turns out that the artist is a friend of my co-workers which I didn't know until after I bought it.  I got it home and recognized the name.  It really is a small world.  I'm sure I could have never afforded it under normal circumstances so it was a win for me and for the humanitarian projects in Ethiopia that were the beneficiary of the auction.  Plus, we had a great night meeting friends old and new.

Gracie and I are going to take a short trip after Christmas and we're going to take a train to get there.  The other day Grace was eating lunch and said "Mom, I so happy I get to go on a long train ride with you and swim in a pool." I guess it really is the simple things in life.

We took a family picture this summer when we were on vacation and I love that Grace talks to it.  Yesterday she had quite an animated conversation with Uncle Kevin. He got to stay silent which is really Uncle Kevins favorite kind of conversation.

My daughter is a poser.  She poses for pictures.  If someone takes out a camera (other than me) she puts her hands on her hips and puts one foot in front of the other.  Then breaks out the toothy grin.  We were at a Halloween themed birthday party last week and whenever someone whipped out a camera she walked right over to pose, whether they wanted her in the picture or not.  She clearly doesn't get this from me.

 She does make a really cute Minne Mouse though.

Road Trip

Gracie and I went on a four day road trip to Delaware to visit one of my college roommates and her family.  It was our first car trip together and she did great.  On the way we stopped three times but only twice on the way home.  It took about 6 1/2 hours each way but she handled it beautifully.  We had a fantastic time visiting Auntie Brenda, Uncle Bill, Thomas and Emma.  Thomas is two months younger than Grace and they get along famously.  They had such a great time together.  Emma just turned one and Gracie is in love with her.  They are terrific kids and we had such a fun time.  On Saturday we went to the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia.  What an amazing place.  It's one of the best children museum's I've ever been to and Grace loved it.