The attention we get
When we were completing the paperwork necessary to adopt, I watched some educational videos online about what it was like to be a "conspicuous" family. They talked about the different things that we might encounter and offered response alternatives. While we waited for our referral, I read countless stories online written by families who had kids of a different race. Some of the things that have been said to them are SHOCKING! Seriously unbelievable mean and stupid comments. I knew that by becoming a bi-racial family we may get some additional and possibly negative attention.

We've been home with G for just about a year and half now. Fortunately, we've received only a handful of stupid comments and been the victim of only 2 really ugly stares that I recall. Most of the attention we get is positive... or at least intended to be positive. But sometimes, it is a bit annoying. Maybe annoying isn't the right word. Maybe "tiresome" is more descriptive.

Example: A week or so ago, I took G to a birthday party for one of the little girls from her daycare. There were about 10-12 little kids there, all in the 2-4 range. All of them very cute. I mean they're toddlers, they're cute! We were there for about 2-3 hrs and during that time the parents just stared and stared at G. I got dozens of comments on how cute she was, how cute her clothes were, how beautiful her skin and hair were, etc. At one point, I looked over and noticed that there were no less than 8 parents and grandparents standing and gawking at her as she ran around playing. I heard no one make a single comment to anyone about any of the other little children. She's like a celebrity! And, our family is always remembered by store clerks, waitresses, etc. Always. I guess we do stick out: a fat girl, a short guy and a little asian kid. It does tend to leave an impression.

In some ways, I think the attention can be a positive. I believe that children who generally receive smiles and positive comments from people they encounter can develop high self esteem as a result. On the other hand, as time goes on, I wonder if she'll expect to be treated as special or possibly even resent the extra attention she recieves???

We also get unintentionally dumb/ignorant/uncomfortable comments. One of the grandmas at the party said to me something along the lines of "its wonderful that you adopted from one of 'those countries' --thank you for doing that." So what is the proper response? "You're welcome"?? or "Yeah, you're right, it was pretty great of us"??? Its hard for people I guess. They don't know what to say. I think a lot of times they just want to let us know that they feel positively about the situation. They're nice people and they're trying to be nice. I appreciate the effort. But.... sometimes I wish they'd just treat us the way they'd treat anyone else.

Elmo's world!
I haven't posted in a few weeks. We've been super busy. Ijust feel like I have no time. Two saturdays ago Elmo came to the Inland Empire!!! G was thrilled. She loves her some elmo. We chose a package that included seats in the front row and a pre-show meet and greet with some of the characters. The meet and greet was just ok. They kind of rushed the kids up, parents could snap a couple pix and then off you went. It was unfortunate too, because there was plenty of time to let it be a more relaxing experience but, eh, G liked it. I don't think she realized she was being rushed.

Of course, we had an outfit planned for the event. G loved her elmo outfit and clippies. You can't tell from the pix but one was cookie monster and the other elmo. Both outfit and clippies purchased from an etsy seller. She kept touching her dress and saying "elmo, going to see elmo and big bird and, and, and cookie monster and osser the grouch." So, so cute!!!

The show was fun and it was really nice to be so close to the characters. Of course there's always something happening up on stage but during 75% of the show, the characters also came down to the floor and pretty much danced right in front of us and would shake G's hand or give high 5's.

At intermission the balloon guy came out with a GIANT bunch of elmo balloons. Seriously, he must have been holding about 200 of them. When G saw them, omg, the look on her face was priceless... mouth agape!! "What is that?" followed quickly by (in her most carefully worded voice) "May I have one, please?" So, how do you resist that??? I asked Bobby how much he thought they'd be. He guessed $6, I guessed $5... we're so naive. While we're discussing this and looking at G's cute little face with pleading eyes, the crowd around balloon man grew and grew. Deciding that if we were going to get in on the "opportunity" to purchase a five or six dollar balloon, we'd better get a move on, I hustled myself over there and joined the throngs of parents waiting to be ripped off in the name of making my little sweetheart happy. Those balloons were going fast but I managed to score one for the very low price of $10!!!! And, its a good thing I moved fast cuz balloon guy sold out just about a minute or so later. She really did love it though and its still floating in my family room now almost 2 weeks later so I guess it was a good investment :-)

Bobby and G waiting for the show to begin.

G was decked out all the way to her earrings! G loves to change earrings to match her outfit. She asks to do it each morning which I think is a total crack up.

G with the characters. She was having fun but, alas, no smile.

Mommy and her very best girl

Ok, G liked elmo and the music but, because she is my daughter, she was most excited by the cotton candy!!! Yum!

G with her $10 balloon

What a weekend!!
Georgie is officially 28 mos old! She continues to grow and learn at an amazing rate. Her biggest improvement in the last month has been her ability to communicate. She's started piecing 2 or 3 sentences of 6-8 words together to get her thoughts across. She understands the concept of why/because and can answer those types of questions. Example: "Georgie, why are the trees moving?" ... "Because the wind is blowing them" or when looking at pix in a book "Georgie, how does Curious George feel?" "He feels sad" "why is he sad?" "Because he is lost. Can't find man in the yellow hat" stuff like that. We've been working on counting items and she's getting the hang of that.

She still likes to color and do playdoh and draw on her easel. But her favorite activity is going for walks in the neighborhood and hunting for bugs, seeds and leaves she finds interesting. She's quite observant and will walk along slowly looking at the ground and the bushes searching for some poor little bug to pick up on her stick. Special leaves and seeds are gathered and brought home. She has quite the collection of finds on the ping pong table in the garage at any given time!

She's tons of fun!

It was also Mother's Day of course. Saturday night I went to a dinner auction with my mom to support a local organization. They had a live auction. In an effort to raise the price of one of the final items, I bid, then won! Eeek. It turns out that the package was something I hadn't expected but sounds like a hoot! More on that in the weeks to come.

Sunday morning started bright and early with a happy Georgie kiss, hug and "happy mother's day!!" Awesome! Then I was off to enjoy a nice brunch (again at the Mission Inn) with my mom. The food, of course, fantastic and it was great to spend some one on one time with my mom just chatting. Again, awesome!

Came home to find a nice bouquet of flowers and Georgie presented me with my gift she made at the babysitter. ADORABLE!! Its one of my favorite parts of having a toddler, the holiday projects. Love them!! I knew something was in the works a few days earlier after I asked G what she'd done at the babysitter's that day and she told me that she'd "painted blue" and "picked flowers" but "don't tell mommy" hahaha! Got a hug and a sincere "I love you" from Casey and a nice call from Brett who couldn't make it home this weekend to round out the day. After G had a little dinner (I was still full from breakfast!) we went for one of our walks and I got to take some pix of my beautiful little G.

It was a great weekend! These are my flowers, a nice card and hot tamale cotton candy. Bobby knows I love, love, love cotton candy and anything hot and spicy. Voila! the perfect snack!
G with the gift she made for me. She was very proud!
Close up view. As you can see, the pot is painted blue and apparantly G picked the colors of the flowers and the stickers for the pot... "don't tell mommy" cracks me up every time!

Going on a bug hunt. G found this huge grasshopper (think 4 inches long or so) and kept tickling it with her stick to make it jump then she'd laugh and laugh. After a bit we told her she had to find another bug to torture.

The insect hunter with her septar

The sky was so beautiful I had to take a pic. See the clouds??? Silver lining!