The cutest 2 year old in the universe!

More Birthday Weekend Pics

Weird new obsession with babuschkas!


EFP discovers it is fun to ride around chaos!

Playing inside a big house at the party place!

Happy Birthday EFP & DTC!!!!!!

EFP Claps to the birthday song - sung in her honor!

Cupcakes are a big hit!

YUM! Frosting!

If you look closely you will see that EFP is munching on Calamari - no joke this kid can eat!!

Happy Birthday in Italian - La Dulce Vita!

Sorry this is a little late - the hoopla has taken over and we are so busy trying to figure out how to celebrate TWO such momentous occasions - we were late in posting!

So - without further ado - pics from the Imperial Birthday Celebration - parts I and II. First a little party at daycare and then a family celebration at EFP's favorite bite out - Carraba's. We were also celebrating the Official Launching of Baby Project 2! We are DTC 3/23 with our dear friends again and we should hear something any 2 or 3 years now... seriously the wait is incredibly long! Which is ok with us... so don't expect any updates or more news.. there will be none - until there is!

The birthday went fine - we also attended the party of EFP's good friend and she had a blast. But I digress - let the pics speak for themselves.. enjoy and yes Sissy I am sorry I made you wait!!!

EFP's pox

Yes - it's true. My baby has the pox. As you can see it is quite serious as the poxes are very large. All of a sudden they started appearing on her face. I grew concerned because she has not been feeling well all week. She was kept home on Friday because she manifested a fever, runny nose, and bad cough - but I never dreamed it would come to this!

She got a hold of the stickers and now it is sticker pox every day. Yesterday is was smileys and today it was butterflies. I get the pox, daddy gets the pox and of course EFP gets the pox on her hands, arms and face. Tonight - she was done with dinner way before we were so we kept her busy with more stickers. We are braving our way through both the cold of the day and the terrible twos. And they are terrible. Every thing is "No! NO! NOOOOOO!" or "MINE!" but it doesn't usually last long and we are able to distract her. Time outs have begun in earnest. I don't like it - but I don't want to raise a child who knows no limits. Most of the time she is sweet and very very funny. She says tons of new words everyday and understands more and more. I suppose that is what the tantrums are about - know what she wants and not quite being able to either get it herself or convince mommy or daddy to get it for her. Like cookies for breakfast...

Other than that - we are hanging tight here. DH did not have to work today so we kept quiet here since it was not a good idea to go out with her sick and the roads unpredictable. I have been getting the photos ready to send with our paperwork - we are in the last stretch for our second adoption. Our dossier is at our agency and but for the photo complete - we should be DTC as planned on Friday 3/23. I am glad it is nearly over and will breathe a big sigh of relief when we are LID and finally in line for another child. This adoption is very different from our first - not that we are not every bit as delighted and happy, just that the anxiousness is removed and assuming we are indeed LID before the May 1 deadline, our chances are excellent for adding another amazing child are good. We think our next child will be a girl - though we have specified either gender as being fine and we did not request as young as possible - we asked for healthy one to three years - we did not request twins this time!

We are getting ready to celebrate EFP's 2nd birthday on Tuesday. Cupcakes and goodie bags for daycare and a quiet family party next weekend. We have decided to forgo the kiddie party for this year. I don't think she will mind - though she does seem to love a party - but I honestly can not see myself doing this for 2 yos. I think I will wait till she is older. We do still have to have some sort of baptism and party at some point... but chasing 2 yos around some loud place is just not my idea of a good time. But I digress. Still don't know what she is getting for the big 2 - but I think it might be a slide or kitchen or something like that. Those are her favorites at daycare and it would be nice to have something big for her to play with. We'll see I guess. All in all a busy week is ahead and then a trip.

Yup - Mommy has to leave town again for a few days... I will be more upset than she I think, but I do think there is some value in having her understand that although occasionally I leave - I ALWAYS come back (with a little T shirt) from wherever I have been. It is a little disconcerting to leave my baby - but I know she will be fine with DH and although he will have to adjust his routine a little it will keep hers the same and all should be fine for the 4 days I will be gone. I guess - I hope.

In like a lion - out like a Pig!!

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Happy New Year and Welcome Year of the Pig - FCC Style! We had a fabulous day Sunday welcoming in the Year of the Pig (or boar) and although I didn't get to sit much - enjoyed watching so many families celebrate their good fortune in becoming part of this community! What exuberance and joviality! I didn't get to take a lot of pictures but here is the jist of a highlight or two! Oh, and I won two raffles one for me and more for EFP... though technically I suppose they are really both for her! One was a generous gift cert for the Amazing Lori & Veronica's A family's Heart and the other an adorable stuffed "Neigh Neigh" for EFP. We saw bunches of friends.. again didn't get to hang much but it was nice seeing everyone for sure. We were ALL totally blown away by the Lion Dancers headed by some of Stony Brook University's students and our volunteers from the same - were just super!! All in all a very good day!

Last year at this time - we missed the party because we were in China and so did not get a chance to be part of the party. Well - this year certainly made up for it! We adored seeing our darling absolutely delighted with the Lion and not the least afraid of the loud drums.. and well we know my baby can eat and boy did she!! Noodles AND dumplings!! I can only hope that 4074/4075 will be as good to us as 4073/4074 were! Zai Jian!

Total Eclipse..... (Last in the Series)

First Total Lunar Eclipse in Three Years
March 3, 2007

And you thought I was talking about how my EFP totally eclipsed our life!!!??? Well - yes! One year ago today we returned home with our 19.5lb Spicy Girl from JiangXi! Never have I been so happy to be home as I was this time last year. I was sad to leave China but really happy to get home to my creature comforts and begin the process of becoming a family of three. It didn't happy right away - we had jet lag and sleep issues to get over but it DID happen. And this whole year has flown by so quickly. Tonight I had to open the suitcase that we purchased in GuangZhou to get one of the Chinese outfits we purchased for EFP to wear tomorrow at the big FCC-LI Chinese Lunar New Year celebration and it brought back such memories - just looking at the items. I did not buy enough. Thank goodness we are going back (some time in the next 3 years) so I can buy all the stuff I did not buy last time. More pearls, more jade, more clothes, more more. Less squeaky shoes! They really are annoying after a few hours!

Seriously - EFP is amazing, more each day. She is my heart's darling and such a fun little girl. She sings all the time, shaping up to be a great dancer and already has a fabulous sense of humor. Aside from being incredibly sweet and all, she really is charmer.

I can't write more - have to be up pre-crack o'dawn. More later with pics!

Big Decision

Well - we have decided to just wait wait wait. We had thought, indeed we had already discussed, that our next child would be a Waiting Child (WC) or Special Needs Child (SN) from China. Our agency's list came out and we did see two children we felt we would love to have as our family - but a small nagging little voice kept saying... it is too soon to add a child to our family. Even at one year (the possible time line for a WC) I just don't feel that EFP is ready to be a sibling to a big or a little. I know that kids get sibs sometimes within a year or two - but she is just really at the point where she accepts us totally and completely as her family. We are, on some level, the only parents she knows or remembers at this time. I can't imagine - given her propensity to cling and be really needy at times - how she would react with a child who needed my attention and invaded her space to some extent.

I am saddened on another level because I really like the idea of parenting a WC/SN who may not otherwise have a chance at a family. But I keep trying to remember that the timeline is not of my making - I was rushed to make the leap again and honestly at times I feel all the weight of this decision on our life, pocketbook and heart. While I know that we very much want a second child and I know there will be room (in our hearts and home) for a second - at this moment I truly feel that EFP needs all our attention and love just for herself for a while longer and I need more experience as a Mom before I can do this again.

There is so much about being a Mom that you just can't know until it happens - no way to prepare for the way your whole body reacts when the phone rings and it's the daycare calling. Or when you hear something unusual and in your mind your child is in some dire straits that you can only barely imagine. I don't know that this ever goes away - though I hear that at some point you do get to sleep through the night without interruptions by night terrors or erupting molars/canines! In short I am just not ready to contemplate another child. Of course I have also had my heart broken recently over a child and so it may be that I need to have some time to deal with how that has effected my willingness to embrace another child. I know that 2 years (maybe three!) will allow us the time we need to resolve some of this and be those anxiously waiting parents we have in us!! We really felt that this new list would be our last chance - as our agency will not allow us to switch after our Dossier has been logged in for six months. I have to say there were quite a few children who we would have liked to wait for.. and I already know that both of them are being considered by more than one family so they will be united with forever families!!

So with that in mind we are preparing to be DTC early in March and wait the long wait... I am thinking that we may not see a referral until early in 2010! Can you imagine? But if things continue at the present pace of 1/2 a month of Dossiers being referred each month - well I can (and do!) do the math and that is when our referral should arrive. Another plus is that my darling would be nearly ready for Kindergarten by 2010 and so we will reduce the number of months that we will have two in daycare - yay! So here's to the long wait and keeping our minds off of it!