has it really been 5 years?

On March 25th, 2003 I walked into an office in China and my life changed forever. Can it really be five years ago that I held Stefanie for the first time? Those baby teeth are gone, that little bald head now grows hair down her back and that mouth that cried for 3 hours now reads. I knew then that Stefanie was someone special and she has continued to amaze me everyday since. Happy "gotcha day" Stefanie-- look how you have grown.

Mommy's Birthday

While I was at work, the girls spent the day decorating the house for my birthday. Here is a picture of the wonderful birthday sign they made. I've also posted a few pictures of everyone enjoying their cake, as well a picture of Jena and her buddy Katie making the most of their cupcakes. What more could a Mommy ask for!

tales from the toothfairy

The toothfairy has been working overtime at our house. Stef is loosing teeth faster than a minor league hockey player! The top front tooth was helped along by a big fall. Since it was the fall that helped it fall out I think we will be looking at that big hole for a long time. The tooth next to it is also getting ready to go so that hole is only going to be getting bigger!

CNY, real mommies and red balloons

I went to Stefanie's class to celebrate Chinese New year. We showed all our pictures from the trips to China and also many of the things we bought, the pearls jade and papercuts. We read a book about a paperbutterfly and then the kids all made papercuts of a panda and pasted it onto red paper. The children were very interested and Stefanie loved being the center of attention.
Of course, there were lots of questions about "Stef's real mommy in china" Stefanie explained that we don't know who her birth mommy is or why she couldn't take care of any babies. When I told them that we don't know what her birthmommy looks like one of the kids said 'sort of like G-d', which I thought was a nice way of looking at it. I tried to explain to the kids that we call the china mommy the 'birth' or 'tummy' mommy because that is the mommy who grew Stef in her tummy, but that I am the 'real mommy forever'. On the way home Stef announced that she wanted to send a balloon to her china mommy. This was something we had talked about in the past but at that time stef wasn't interested ("why in the world would I want to let my balloon fly away?).She said that she wanted to send her chinamommy a balloon because it was CNY and she wanted her to be happy. She wanted her to know that she was happy that I was her mommy now and that she loved me. We bought a balloon. Stef wrote 'happy new year', signed her chinese name and we let it go. She says she hopes it makes it all the way to china. It was very sweet. She was then so tired from all the excitement of the day that she was a miserable beast all night; the mac and cheese wasn't cheesy enough, Jena was sitting in the exact spot she needed to sit in, the cookies were too crunchy etc. What happened to all that sweetness?!?
Happy Year of the Rat to all our China buddies and their Real Families!

birthday-party-palooza!

Yes- Jena's birthday was back in November but we decided to wait and have her party with Jessica, one of her friends from school. All Jena cared about was making sure she had a Dora cake. It was full birthday craziness, singing, dancing, coloring and lots of cake eating. I think the pictures do a good job of showing that everyone had a blast!

Piano recital 2007

Stef had her 3rd piano recital today and did an amazing job. If this works right you should be able to enjoy the video for yourself.... I've also included a few pictures. Stefanie is growing out her bangs and I was so impressed with my new found hairdresser skills that i had to take a picture. Jena's hair continues to 'do itself'. She wakes up with her hair looking terrific. Stefanie and I require a little more effort!

Happy Hanukkah!

in the west ot texas...

... in a town called El Paso we met up with friends and family! Everyone survived our first plane flight since 'the Big One' which included a 5 hour layover in Houston. the girls were troopers and kept busy with their new leapster games and the DVD player. It was our first chance to meet some new cousins, Judah, Jordan and Jackson and get reaquainted with some old cousins, Jacob, Joey and Mia. With all those cousins Stef and jena both had plenty on friends to play with.
The whole gang drove up to the mountains of New Mexico where we were able to meet up with one of our China travel families. it wasn't the same as if we had everyonew together but it was still wonderful to see how much Claire (and Hannah!) had grown. It didn't seem that jena remembered Claire but she was happy to play with her.
we had a really nice experience while we were there- My cousin Rachel has 4 kids, Jacob and Joey are biological and Jordan and Judah are domestically adopted and are african american so, you can imagine that when my girls and her kids were all together we attracted alot of attention. Add Hannah and Claire to the mix and we were a real attraction! One morning the 14 of us went out for breakfast. My Uncle went to pay the bill, only to be told it had already been taken care of. On older couple sitting at the table next to ours had paid our bill and told the waitress to tell us that the "sight of our family put a smile on their face" We were all touched by the random act of kindness.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

I think the picture says it all....

so I've been a little busy....

I know, I know, Halloween, birthday, and no blog update. It's been crazy busy around here and it didn't help that i was actually expected to show up and work! Anyway, here's what has been going on-

Oct 30th: big news at our house as our new cousin, Baby Rafael is finally born. the girls have yet to meet him, as we are waiting for a window where everyone is cough/cold free. At the rate we are going I am hoping they get to see hime before his first birthday.

Halloween- I've posted a picture of Jena in her Dora costume. After assembling the perfect Hannah Montana costume for Stef she had an emotional breakdown and decided she was unable to trick or treat. she put her PJs on and sat on the sofa while Jena and I gave out the candies. it reminded me of when you read about how lindsy lohan or britny spears were admitted for 'emotion exhaustion'. After an hour of crying and a rest onthe sofa she was all recovered by bedtime. jena, meanwhile, had fun giving out the candies. the highlight of the night was when jena's OT therapist (from soon after was came home) happened to be trickertreating in our neighborhood. We hadn't seen her since Feb and, when she came to our door ans saw jena and myself she introduced herself and said "i was the therapist for your other daughter"--no I told her, not my OTHER daughter, THIS daughter! She thought jena was Stef-- she couldn't believe how great she looked.

Nov 7: we welcomed Baby Cameron, born to my friends lenny and linda. Stef's comment- ANOTHER boy!

Nov 15th- the big birthday. in the middle of my service week, everyone has been sick all week- Stef temp 103, jena on abx and nebulizers--won't stop us from partying! amah and zayde brought uncle harold and Jan over for dinner and our friend Judy brought an amazing Dora cake. jena was in her glory. i was so busy i never took and pictures!

now- NOv 28th we all head to el paso to visit family and we even have a special treat and get to see one of jena's Anhui sisters in New Mexico. i will bring the camera and hope to have some great pictures of the two of them together.
well- that's all for now - happy thanksgiving to everyone!!

look Ma--no training wheels!

A big milestone at our house! We took Stefanies training wheels off on sunday and away she went. She took right off and by then end of the hour she was stopping, starting and turning on her own. Jena decided she was ready for two wheeler as well and hopped right on the "little bike". She peddles around great but usually stops by running into the curb. Depending on her speed this is often enough to bump her off the bike.

Fall Fun

We have been busy busy busy at our house. All the Jewish holidays are past and the girls really enjoyed getting dressed up and going to synagogue. They both looked so adorable that no one even noticed I forgot half my clothes and wore the same outfit every day.
School is going well. we had back to school night already and the teachers think Stefanie is just as wonderful as I do, so we should get along fine! She has already impressed them with her reading and she tell me since she is "zooming ahead" with her reading her 'reading buddy' is the teacher. She has a bunch of new friends and was all set to 'break up' with her old friends. We had a long talk about how old friends can be the best friends. Jena is happy to go to the JCC and, except for a tiny biting problem, has done well. the story on the biting is that both times she was defending herself, once after being poked in the eye and once after being pushed on the slide. Not that it makes biting OK but i am glad to hear she wasn't the agressor. the teachers think as her speech gets stronger she won't feel the need to bite.
We went on a apple and pumpkin picking trip this weekend with friends. Alisa ( the Mommy) and I have been friends since we were 9 and we are both thrilled that our girls are the same ages and love to play together. they live by my parents so we try to get together when the girls are at Amah's house. It was just too cute to watch jena and kate walking around the farm holding hands. Enjoy the pictures!

UPDATE: the bus came !

After my careful stalking of the bus driver last week, the bus arrived promply at our house on Monday morning. Stef got on without complaint and away she went. The good news about this whole bus fiasco is that the driver now stops right in front of our house so when the weather gets bad Stef (and Mommy and Jena) can even wait inside where it is warm and dry.

Welcome to Kindergarden

I'd love to post a picture of Stefanie getting on the school bus for her first day of kindergarden, however, the bus never came. Yep, we stood on the corner for an hour and no bus. I drove her to school where she told me she just wanted me to take her to her classroom and not even come in. I gave her a kiss, she walked in, sat in the circle and never looked back. The school told me the busses had come 'early' on the first day, so get out there sooner. Day number 2 we were on the corner at 7am- complete with a big sign to flag down our bus and- you guessed it--no bus! That afternoon I stalked the bus driver by going to another stop on the route (Stef doesn't take the bus home becasue she does "aftercare")I caught the driver and found out that she has disregarded the published route and comes down the street from the other direction, which means she hits the other end of our street instead of the corner we stand on. I told her of the mistake and she promises she will be in the right spot on Monday. The good news is Stef is loving school. She already has two new best friends and a boyfriend (but "just one" she told me). She also already came home with a note saying what a good job she did reading. Here are a few pictures of us waiting for the bus on the first and second day. And yes- Jena is eating a bag of Pringles chips for breakfast pringles=potatoes=hash browns, right?

back from the beach

We are back from our week at the beach in North Carolina. The 9 hour drive was very long and it seemed like we stopped every 5 minutes for a potty break. The girls had a blast at the house with lots of 'big girls'(9,11, and 12) to play with. I felt like I didn't see Stefanie all day. She would peek her head into the room to tell me she was going to the beach with the girls, or was outside with her new best friends making bracelets out of gymp. Jena was terrified of the ocean. She didn't like the way the waters edge can seek up on you while you are playing in the sand and she really didn't like it if I went into the water. I guess she figured it was OK if Stefanie got washed away but she was't willing to lose the Mommy. She did like digging in the sand (at a safe distance from the water)and flying kites. She also like jumping into the pool. She now even goes underwater. If we had another month of summer I think she would bne swimming on her own. I didn't take a single picture (bad mommy!) but have asked our fellow travelers to e-mail me theirs. As soon as i get some I will post pictures.

fun with friends

We are having so much fun this summer I don't want it to be over! It seems like we have friends over every weekend and spend all day playing and swimming. We are all in for a big shock when school starts again.