Lucky Mommys Easter Party
The Lucky Mommys is a group of local china adoption families. They meet for all kinds of fun activities. Unfortunately, G and I are often not able to join them due to my work schedule. Stupid work, always getting in the way of my fun ;-)

One of the moms, Tanya, was kind enough to host an Easter party a few days ago and luckily G and I were able to join in the fun. G was super excited about getting to go to a party as well as having another chance to hunt eggs! It was a great party, lots of fun, food and good company. G was velcroed to me for the first hour and half or so but came alive once lunch came out. The way to my girl's heart is definitely through her stomach!!! After that they kids were able to hunt plastic eggs in the yard. G collected quite a few but, in keeping with her personality, is often quite particular about the egg she is willing to accept into her basket. Goofy girl.

G was happy to eat her favorite foods hot dogs, mac and cheese and grapes!
Waiting for the hunt to beginG and Ryan hit paydirt by the swingset!
This is where G found herself in a quandry. She wanted the egg but didn't want to have to step in the dirt to get it. What to do? what to do?
She finally decided the egg was worth it and placed her precious little princess foot into the dirt. Soooo funny!Showing off her peanut shaped egg. When she realized it was different, she became quite bothered and told me "don't want it!!!" Like I said, she's very discriminating.
All the kids lined up enjoying their treats. What's amazing about this picture is that it is the very first time that G has sat with the group of kids for a pic. Usually she just runs over to me whining. From left to right Georgie, Ryan, Grace, Becky, Katie, Megan, Kailee, and Mia.G and Mia are great friends! They go to the same babysitter. They sat on this swing and told secrets to each other for awhile.

Someone
has to keep these band aid companies in business! G is certainly doing her part. She's a little OCD about any sort of scab and/or scratch on her body. If she happens to notice that she has a tiny little cut, she'll point it out to us and poke at it over and over saying "ouchie, I need a bandaid" until we give in and get her one. Hey, they're cheap and they make her happy but she always has at least 2 bandaids on her body at any give time.

Here she is pointing out her "injuries"
As we were taking pix, G noticed this little imperfection on her elbow and said with a concerned face "ooooh, ouchie mommy, need bandaid" too funny!
I've been taking lots of sort of random pix of G's cute little hands and feet. They're just so cute I want to eat them right up!!!

My sweet baby. I love her so!

Easy Rider
G got this cute little Ni Hao Kai Lan trike for Christmas. Bobby pushed her around in the house some but she didn't really have the coordination to pedal. I finally decided to take it outside and see how she did. At first G said "push me" which was fine for a minute or so then, you know, not so much fun for mom. G finally figured out she could get herself going pretty quickly by just walking her feet along while she sat. If she was going downhill she did a bit better on the pedaling but its definitely not a skill she's mastered. Oh well, good thing she has lots of time to learn!

These little walks we go on take a LONG time. Its a great way to while away an hour or so. We don't cover a lot of ground but we have lots of fun discovering leaves and bugs. G has to stop at every house and go pick some of their flowers. Good thing my neighbors don't mind. At least I don't think they mind, maybe they're just not home!!!

Anyway, G's perception of a beautiful flower worth picking is sometimes a little different than other peoples.... given the choice between a flower in full bloom and a completely spent flower a few inches away, G seems to always choose the flower that looks like a stick. Every once in a while she'll choose one with petals. My beautiful silly girl.
Showing me her flower. Yeah, she got one with petals!
Poor G, the sun was in her eyes. She loves her trike though!

Bunny!!
Yeah! The easter bunny finally arrived at our mall this past weekend. I'm off work this week so I took G early Tuesday to meet the bunny. We arrived 10 mins before Mr Bunny was supposed to arrive and managed to be second in line. G spent the time waiting chasing birds who were unfortunate enough to land near G and picking up sticks. Then it was our turn. G loved the bunny! She looked so beautiful and she loved wearing her dress. She told the bunny that she would be leaving him carrots on a plate.

The picture thing was kind of weird. Instead of actually getting a picture, you received a carrot shaped flash drive with 5 photos loaded onto it. Its kind of neat. The girl snapped all 5 photos in about 45 seconds then proclaimed us as "done" .... um, yeah, let's take a look at those, shall we?? It ended up taking a few more minutes to get decent photos as I had her delete and reshoot a few times but it was worth it and G enjoyed her time with the bunny.

THE EGG HUNTRESS!!
Last year at easter, G had very little idea of what the heck was going on. We took her to see the bunny and she was like "huh??" then on easter day, we filled some plastic eggs with goldfish crackers, tossed them out onto the front grass and let her go around and pick them up. She didn't really care too much until she realized that there was a cracker in each one, then she was interested... sort of... a little bit.

Looking for a fun easter egg hunt, we ended up back at Irvine Regional Park. We got there early so we could do the first hunt with only little kids. At first, G was still a little confused. But once she realized she could put the eggs in her basket she got super excited and started RUNNING from egg to egg!!! I'm not sure she realized there was candy inside the eggs or not, I think she thought the egg was the prize. After filling her little basket, she got to enjoy some of the spoils of her hunt. G doesn't have sweets too often but she loves them!!

After that, we rode the train. G still loves trains. Its so cute she's very calm and content during the whole ride... she just loves to ride a train. Then after the pony ride I thought, "ok, time to go home." G had different ideas, she wanted to jump in the bouncy house.

Now, we'd gone to a birthday party the day before where she could have jumped in a bouncer to her little heart's content. She was having none of it there. But now, at the easter place, all of sudden she decides she just cannot live without jumping. She was literally pulling my hand and attempting to drag me over there while repeating "come on mommy, let's go!"

So we buy the ticket, wait 10 mins in line to bounce with G trying to pull her shoes off cuz she's so excited, our turn comes and then... you've got it... she doesn't want to go in. Ugh. Luckily, after just a few seconds she regained her excitement and got in there. Then, again, she has some remorse and says "want to get out." Bobby and I acted like we couldn't hear her. Kinda mean huh? but she wasn't crying or anything just sort of walking around, falling occasionally and looking bewildered as the 3-4 other kids jumped about. Then about halfway into the 10 minute jump time, our girl came alive!!! She started jumping and bouncing and laughing like a crazy girl. Bobby and I couldn't stop laughing!!

Every once in awhile she'd bump into another kid (or they'd bump into her) and she'd look completely offended. Bobby calls G a "no impact girl" she does not like to be bumped into. (I need to ask the babysitter about this because certainly she must get bumped into on occasion there). Anyway, the time ended and it was time to get out... you got it, she wouldn't get out!!! I finally had to use my stern voice to get her out and then redirect to the candy basket. Whooo (insert dramatic wiping of imaginary sweat on brow) tragedy averted!

All in all a fantastic few hours of bunny fun!!

These pix are all out of order but I don't have time to fix them so...this is G with her little basket right before we're getting ready to leave. That is one happy face!!

Pony ride! G's pony was named Dolly:

G loved decorating her cookie. To me it looks like a cookie monster cookie.

Enjoying some of her candy after all the hard work of the hunt

This was taken right at the end of the hunt. G was super excited because she found so many eggs. Isn't she beautiful???

This is the face I get if I ask G to smile for a picture... to funny.

This was actually first thing in the morning. You had to pay $10 just to visit the bunny!!! which came with a "complimentary" crappy 5x7 photo. Seriously??? We were lucky though. Since we were there so early and G was dressed so cute the marketing photog asked if she could take some pix with G and the bunny. Sure!!! G loves the bunny but started freaking out a bit whent hey wanted the train conductor to be in the pix too. 7 foot tall rabbit?? no problem. Normal man wearing overalls and a cap?? uh, no.

Alice
I thought the new Alice in Wonderland movie looked like lots of fun! We ended up seeing it in Hollywood at the El Capitan theater. For anyone who's not familiar, its on Hollywood Blvd across the street from Grauman's Chinese (where all the celebrity hand/footprints are set in concrete) and the Kodak Theater which is where the academy awards have been held for the last several years.

So, when I bought the tix, I didn't give a moments thought to the possibility that G would be frightened by the movie. As the date came closer I started hearing more and more about people thinking their kids would be scared which made me a little nervous. G isn't usually scared but, in preparation, I showed her a whole bunch of the trailers on the net the week before the movie. She loved them and would ask to watch them over and over and over again.

The El Capitan is a really cool old theater built in the 1920s. They had the place decorated for the alice movie with giant flowers and mushrooms from the movie. I couldn't take pix because we forgot the camera in the car and had to go get it later :-( They also had on display a bunch of the props and costumes that were actually used in the movie.

The movie itself was really good IMO. The special effects were awesome, Johnny Depp was great as the hatter and Helena Bonham Carter was a fantastic big headed Red Queen. There were a few points in the movie that I thought could be potentially scary but G didn't mind one bit. In fact she loved it and has hardly stopped talking about it since. She wasn't scared at all, watched the whole thing, and kept the 3d glasses on to boot! What a relief.

After the movie we did the Mad Hatter's Tea Party at the disney soda fountain right next door to the theater. It was really cute. The servers wore mad hatter hats and we dined on tea (of course), scones, and little tea sandwiches (egg salad, PB&J, olive and cream cheese--yum!). Then, G's favorite part, a cupcake you got to decorate yourself!

Of course, I had to find G a super cute Alice dress, which she loved!! Following are some pix --sadly G looks kind of grouchy in a lot of them. I'm not sure, maybe she was tired?? she had fun but she wasn't feeling smiley that day I guess.

G checking out the Mad Hatter costume:
Bobby as the Mad Hatter

G peeking in to see her cupcake

G's cupcake. I think she did a good job decorating it. She had a bit of help from mommy.

G absolutely loved this mickey mouse thing in front of the soda shop. She kept climbing all over it and finally had to be dragged away so that the dozens of other hollywood tourists could take pix by it.

With Woody. They have all these characters roaming the street out in front of the theater. You have to pay them a dollar to take a pic with them.

Later at home. I just loved this dress! It was beautifully made and the characters were embroidered onto the apron. Another one of my etsy purchases!

Happy Birthday Seuss!
It was last week actually. The local library did a cute event where they read the Seuss book Green Eggs and Ham and then had some little activities for the kids. As it so happens, I found this super cute Cat in the Hat hairbow a few mos back, then I came across the tennis shoes and finally the cute little top... ta duh!!! the perfect Dr. Seuss outfit!!!

G had lots of fun. She still won't sit on the carpet to listen to the story with the other kids so I sat with her. I'm hoping that if I continue to do so at some point she'll decide she doesn't need me to sit right next to her and I can sit in the chairs instead... my back will appreciate it a LOT!

They had an activity where the kids tried to balance a plastic egg on a spoon while they walked... G was really good at. She managed to balance it until the last foot or so! Her prize was two free lollies from the See's candy place there at the mall. (We're fortunate to have a brand new and incredibly gorgeous library is attached to the new mall by our house). G loved the chocolate lolly although it was super messy! Hmmm, now that I think about it, this may have been the first time G'd ever had candy...

G giving high five to the cat in the hat lady who read the story:

G showing off her mad balancing skills with her plastic egg on a spoon!!

G wanted to bring her own cat in the hat stuffie

Enjoying her lolly... it was super messy!

G is 2 years, 2 mos, 2 days old
Once again, I can't believe how quickly time has passed! Baby G is now 26 mos old. She's so beautiful and sweet and funny and smart and cute and energetic! She's quite the little chatter box these days. She's started saying some really funny things too. Like, the last few days, when you ask her something she'll respond "yum" instead of "yes" or "yeah" like she used to before. I don't know why. She's also renamed Bobby and me. Instead of calling us Mommy and Daddy like she used to we're now both referred to as "Moddy" sort of a combo name. So silly.


G really loves coloring. We'll often spend an hour or so coloring together when I come home from work. She holds crayons and pens with a proper grip and she makes a pretty good attempt to color things in. She doesn't seem too concerned with the lines yet--its more about completely covering the thing being colored --but I'm sure coloring in the lines will come with time. She still loves playdoh, and her legos and her puzzles. She knows all her capital letters by sight and maybe 1/4 of the lowercase letters. She usually knows all the sounds of the letters but still doesn't seem to have any concept of putting the letters together into words. She shocked me the other day. She was happily playing in her crib in the morning while I was getting ready and I was watching her on the monitor. Imagine my surprise when she sang the entire ABC song! I didn't even realize she knew it. I mean I've sung it for her lots and lots of times but she has never made an attempt to sing along with me that I recall. Crazy! She also sings a very "interesting" version of Twinkle Twinkle which always cracks me up. She can count to 20 but sometimes skips over 17.

G has a good appetite and eats most foods. She still loves pizza and applesauce and strawberries. I believe her favorite food is probably ice cream! She's getting better about eating green foods. We just keep offering them and she's found quite a few veggies she likes.

G loves to look pretty and has taken to advising me each morning her choice in hairstyle for the day: 2 ponies, 1 pony, or just clippies. She's also become more interested in choosing the shoes she'll wear but doesn't seem to mind if I pick the actual clothes. Her hair is so long that I've curled it a few times with the curling iron and she really loves that! She's kind of girly and likes to pretend that her play cell phone is make up. She opens it up then pretends to dab into it with her fingers and then apply it to her face like blush. I think its funny because I'm not really that into makeup and only wear it on days I have to. But G is fascinated by makeup and lotions and things like that. She also likes to play with more stereotypically boy things: trains, cars, and dinosaur figures which makes ROAR!

Overall, she's expressing herself and her desires much more. She's still a very easy kid though and has only ever had 3 tantrums --even then she got over them within a few minutes. She does tend to be a slow waker though and her mood is much better when she has a few minutes (or 15 or so) to transition between sleep and awake. Two of her tantrums were on hurried mornings but we did the Supernanny system and that seemed to solve that.

G is timid in new situations or around people she doesn't know. It takes her awhile to warm up to things but then she seems fine. She's also very quiet around people she doesn't know well. Again, seems pretty normal to me. Its funny though, because she's quiet around new people, people have the mistaken belief that she is, generally, quiet. She is so not quiet! She is noisy, super noisy and very active. She loves to run and climb and jump!!! She's been known to screech but I discourage it because it gives me a headache :-)

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about how lucky we are to have been chosen to parent Georgiana. She's awesome!!! So far the twos have been terrific not terrible and for that I'm quite thankful!!

The many faces of G: