Father's Day 2010 aka Toy Story 3D Day!!
As everyone in the United States with a child under the age of 8 probably knows, Toy Story 3 came out this weekend. G's actually never seen Toy Story 1 or 2 but she's seen commercials and was interested. They were doing what sounded like a neat event at the El Capitan Theater-- reserved seat (no waiting in line, yeah!!), popcorn and drink for each person and admission to the Toy Story Fun Zone.

G loved the movie! In the past, she's gotten a bit wiggly during the last 10 mins of so of a movie but not this time. Bobby and I enjoyed it too. Its funny, has a good storyline and is a bit of a tear jerker in parts.

After the movie, we hung out at the Fun Zone --kind of a carnival type thing set up on what appared to be the football field of Hollywood High. Georgie had tons of fun. We stayed until they announced over the loudspeaker that it was time to go. G was completely zonked and fell fast asleep pretty much as soon as we got in the car. Poor baby.

G and daddy waiting for the movie to start:


There's a pipe organ there at the theater and they play music before the show starts... very cool! G loved these giant fake crayons. I didn't really get the attraction to tell you honestly but G messed with them for a quite a while and seemed a bit miffed when I suggested that we go see what else they had to do.

Sweating our booties off with the Barbie and Ken cut outs:

They had these slinky things set up. They were obviously built to be the exact height and width to make slinky-ing easy. G probably spent a total of 30 mins flicking the slinky, watching them progress down the stairs, seeing them drop into a basket at the bottom and then waiting for mommy and/or daddy retrieve it so she could do it all over again. Too fun

G's clippie was a ribbon sculpture purchased from etsy. The outfit, also from an etsy seller, was a super cute and comfy custom that G was very excited about wearing. I thought she looked absolutely adorable!!!

One of the best things about going to these events is that there are just a few hundred people there so it makes seeing the characters pretty easy. G with Woody and Buzz.

The three of us with the Toy Story gang!G had fun jumping around in this gym area. Lots and lots of those thick mats kept her busy. I think in this pic she was pretending that this one was a horsey.

With Jessie

Again with Buzz and Woody

G ended up with a Woody doll. We gave her a choice: Woody or Jessie. I thought, and for some silly reason was hoping, that she would choose the Jessie doll but, no.

Beach Day...
with daddy!! Bobby had the day off yesterday and decided to have a daddy/daughter beach trip. I loved the idea. Bobby was a bit apprehensive worrying that it might be difficult to get G and all the needed beach stuff set up alone. His worries were for naught as he admitted it was easier than expected. G had a great time but I think Bobby was even more excited about the day. They spent several hours playing in the sand, catching sand crabs and splashing, splashing, splashing. G slept REALLY well that night. I was just glad Bobby used the camera I sent him with. I think there will be more daddy/daughter beach days in the near future!!

All decked out and ready to go!

Georgie's "cheese" smile
Beach babe!

Enjoying the waves

Getting super sandy and always with her mouth wide open!!!

I love this pose. So cute!!

Bobby said when they came home Georgie kept wanting to play "sleep" --a game where she pretends she's sleeping. I think he caught her mid snore... she must have learned that from watching Bobby sleep ;-)

G's drawing
We're going to a birthday party this afternoon for a one year old who recently joined his family!! G's been super excited singing the "Happy Birthday" song dozens of times per day for over a week in preparation for the event. My girl loves a party!

I always let G decorate the cards with her "drawings." Her efforts have been improving over the course of the last few weeks from scribbles to something that looks more intentional. The card background was blue and she used blue colored pencils so I had to find a setting on photobucket that would make it show up. As it turned out the Pop Art setting made the drawing more visible than the rest... she only drew one little man of course but here is the Warhol-esque version:

I was pretty impressed! She drew the face, eyes and mouth without any prodding. Then I asked her "do you want to give hime some legs?" which she attached to the bottom of the head, arms (coming out the head of course) and hair (I love that its so spikey!!). Super cool!!!

A Night in Rancho
About a month ago, I went with my mom to a fundraiser dinner for the local senior center. They were raising money to help fund the transportation program. Its a great program that our city provides and without it many seniors wouldn't be able to get to doctor's appointments, etc. Its a nice little affair they do annually.

Anyway, they always have lots of items for a silent auction and a few bigger things for the live auction. Sadly, this year the turnout was a bit light and the live auction wasn't garnering as much interest as in the past. I was chatting with my mom as they were describing a package. All I heard was "blah, blah... tickets, blah, blah, picture package, blah, blah, dinner at the local nicer italian place." In hopes of spurring some interest I thought I'd bid on the item... you know how it works at an auction, if a couple people bid it makes people more comfortable to jump in there. So I bid, was outbid and then bid once more...then heard "going once, going twice, sold!!! Huh??? What did I buy???


As it turns out I won an evening in the city of Rancho Cucamonga, a specific evening June 5, 2010. This included: a night at a local hotel, a manicure, haircut and style at a salon, dinner at the new italian place at the mall, 2 tickets to see Air Supply, a limo to drive us around, and a photographer to be our own private paparazzi for the evening to record for all eternity the fun we would have! Wow!!! As I later found out, besides the photographer, we would also be followed around by a videographer who would be getting footage to create a 3 minute promotional video for the city. Oh boy, you don't say... someone to take my pic?? Eeek. I hate having my picture taken.

Anyway, Bobby and I decided that he would stay home with G (we've never left G in the evening and didn't feel this was the right time) and I would take my mom. We got our nails and hair done --yes, there is now video in existence to record for all eternity my hair being washed... and then went home to get dressed. Soon, our limo arrived to drive us the two miles to the local mall. For future reference: if you ever alight from a limo in front of the movie theater at the Victoria Gardens Mall while being followed by a picture snapping photog and a guy with a video camera, expect to be noticed and stared at A LOT!!! We had a super nice dinner (I have proof, there are pix and video of me eating!) and then returned to our limo to be chauffeured to the cultural center (it was actually only about a block but they took the long way around so it made it seem farther).


Then we saw Air Supply... before that evening, the only thing I could remember about them was that it was two blond guys and the lyrics "I'm all out of love, I'm so lost without you..." But, they were actually quite good. The lead singer sounded EXACTLY like he did 25 yrs ago. Impressive! We had awesome seats in about the 8th row (not that there's really a bad seat in the Lewis Family Playhouse with its capacity of only 536). I was really surprised by how many hit songs they had. It really brought back the high school memories! My mom wasn't familiar with their music but seemed to enjoy it just the same. During one song, the singers walked through the audience and women (now in their 40s but reliving their high school crushes I guess) came out and hugged them. It was really funny!


I felt kind of silly wandering the streets of Rancho with my little entourage but decided to just go with it and it turned out great! The whole thing was a bit cheesy really but it turned out to be a fun and very memorable evening spent with mom.

Me and my mom getting our nails done. Ahhh, pedicure, my fav!

I went for a soft mauve, my mom... she went all out, red nails with flowers and little crystals! At the drying station

Just two hot ladies getting ready for a night on the town!

At the hair place. I like this pic because I never get to see the back of my hair. She did a good job!I like this picture of my mom

Our limo awaits! This picture is out of order. They made us go in and out of the house and the car a few times. I know, can you believe it took several "takes" to get this shot??

In our limosine. Can you believe, a bottle of wine, vodka, etc... no water. So thirsty. But, we weren't in there long. Its only about 2 miles to the playhouse.

At the restaraunt. The food was really good. We had a traditional style antipasto, angel hair pasta with shrimp and the most wonderful breadsticks. Yum!

In front of the playhouse where we saw Air Supply. They didn't want our camera crew taking pix of us inside.

MAY PIX
When I chose this outfit for G's May pictures, I had in mind rainbows because of all the rain and gloomy weather we'd been experiencing. Super unusual for our area of the country. Its usually hot, hot, hot near the end of may. But, when it all came together, it seemed to be an homage to Madonna....right down to the rolling around on the floor! My little 80's girl. G loved this outfit and she loved her sparkly wand.

I love her pretty little face!

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!