BaBa says what??

Maisie started saying this a few days ago and I just had to capture it on video as it makes us laugh each time she says it.

Playing dress-up

I'm playing a little catch-up here as these pictures are so cute, I just had to post them. They are from 12/7/07, the day before we left for Aruba. Deb was kind enough to watch Maisie for a couple of hours so that I could get a few things accomplished without my help-hindering shadow. LiLi and Maisie had such a good time playing together, dressing up and dancing around. Deb, thanks for watching little Miss M and for all the cute piccies.

Christmas 2007

Yesterday we enjoyed a wonderful afternoon and Christmas dinner at Deb's house. Deb's house was all decked out, the table was beautiful, the food delicious and the company was lots of fun. Both children and adults had a wonderful time. Thanks L family for including us in the celebration and for the piccies.

Maisie working on opening a gift.

Kisses with my best girl.

A couple of differences and similarities from last Christmas: Last year we had 36 hours of Christmas, 27 hours of which was spent traveling home from China. This year Christmas lasted only 24 hours and we had only about 27 minutes of travel time round trip to Deb's house. Last year I returned home from China with full blown pneumonia and Maisie had ear infections and a cold, this year once again I have pneumonia but I'm already on the mend and Maisie has a cold but she too is already feeling better. ('ve had lots of pressure to get the pneumonia shot this year so not to make next year a repeat of these past two, think this is something that I'll have to arrange a.s.a.p.)  Both this year and last were wonderful as we got to be together as a family with Maisie and for us, we couldn't ask for anything better!

Hope that everyone had a wonderful day.

Tanned and tired

After some extremely long airport delays yesterday we're finally home from our wonderful two weeks in Aruba. It was a great trip but exhausting to say the least. I had a bit of a chest cold during the week before heading down to Aruba and I thought that after a few days on the beach, the sun would bake it out of me. But alas, here it is three weeks later and I'm still coughing up a lung even after completing two z-packs and chugging down more cough meds than I care to admit. Maisie too has been on meds as she's been coughing and sick, in addition her two lower 2-year molars decided to finally erupt whilst in Aruba. Needless to say we're both heading to the doctor tomorrow.

I can't believe how few pictures I took. I had such good intentions of taking lots and lots of pics but between being sick and chasing Maisie around, the picture taking just fell short. Trust me though when I say that Maisie had a blast on the beach, loved being in the ocean, taking walks along the beach, making mad dashes to the massage area, playing on the swings and slide, washing herself at the outdoor shower area, visiting with everyone on the beach, spending lots of time with her grandparents, charming everyone on the beach and just having a great beach vacation. We're looking forward to next December in Aruba and seeing all our friends again but for now it's great to be home.

Little bathing beauty.

Three generations.

Sandra, Maisie & Allan.

Gampa, Maisie & Gamma.

Final sunset 

Grandma & Maisie

We've been having a wonderful vacation thus far, beautiful weather and meeting up with so many old friends. The first day we arrived my Mom immediately took Maisie down to the beach as so many people were waiting to meet her. All of our beach friends knew about our adoption plans when we were researching agencies, then waited along with us in 2005, then last year when we were in China, read printouts of our blog posts each day as my Mother shared all our news of travels and having Maisie placed in our arms.

Maisie is having a blast on the beach and especially loves being with my parents. My Mom spends lots of time with her at the kiddie pool and when Maisie wants to see the "bubbles" (sea foam) my Mom sits with her at the water's edge. Maisie loves passing out kisses to my Mom and Dad and blowing kisses to many of our friends on the beach. She has quickly learned who has the best snacks and she knows batting her eyes, saying hi and blowing some kisses gets her lots of treats. She's managed to charm everyone she's come in contact with and I love hearing all the time, from everyone, just how adorable and cute she is and of course I can only agree.

Since we've arrived we've been having some really big waves but today the water was calm enough that Eammon and I finally took Maisie into the ocean. After a short time she became accustomed to to the feel of bobbing in the waves and over the course of the day, ended up spending a few hours in the water.

Each night we've seen some really beautiful sunsets right from our balcony. Maisie, other than the first night, has gone down for her naps and to bed in her peapod easily and has slept well. My parents have been great about watching Maisie at night so that Eammon and I can go out to dinner with friends. Not that Eammon and I have gone out every night but tonight is my parent's first night out since we arrived a week ago. Eammon and I are having a quiet night, we brought in dinner, I did some laundry and I finally got the opportunity to blog while Eammon watches some movies.

Eammon and I did take Maisie out to dinner one night at Eammon's favorite restaurant, Iguana Joe's but it was too much for her after a full day on the beach and she just had no interest in being out, in a restaurant or being social so now she stays in and we go out. In addition to dinner at Iguana Joe's we also went to The Promenade with friends Barb and Joe and then last night we had a lovely romantic dinner at my favorite, Madame Janette. We're really looking forward to this coming week where we have a few other dinner engagements planned. Tomorrow, another rough day on the beach, ta for now.

Please forgive all my misspellings as my post is being spell checked in Dutch and I don't know how to get around that.

Maisie day one year later

Dec. 11, 2006 ~ A family of three, ChongQing Civil Affairs Office, China.

Dec. 11, 2007 ~ One year a family, Aruba

Dec. 6, 2007 ~ Maisie modeling her gotcha day outfit. The shoes were too small but the outfit still fits the little peanut pretty well.

Happy one year gotcha anniversary to all our travel mates and friends who share our special day.

The Princess and her court

Maisie loves being a little Princess wearing her high heels in her kitchen and beads, beads, beads. She's also started to like having her picture taken, proving you can take it fast enough before she runs over to see it on the screen.

We had a fun Saturday night as we gathered with other waiting and adoptive families for a holiday party at Stacy & Christian's home. Their home was beautiful and the holiday decorations were lovely. Today Eammon took Maisie to the park in the morning and I worked on getting laundry done and gathering up all the suntan lotion, bathing suits, summer clothes and all the other stuff needed for our upcoming trip to visit my parents in Aruba. We have a busy week ahead of us but that's just par for the course.

Play group Friday

We had a wonderful playgroup this morning at Deb's house. Deb baked and made lots of delicious treats for all of us and Ian made cookies last night night so that the girls could decorate them this morning, Thanks Ian! Briana was the champion eater, not interested at all in doing the frosting and decorating stuff but man can that little one eat! Maisie and LiLi were all about shoving frosting in their mouths and eating as many of the decorations as possible. Anna & Emma had a blast decorating their cookies and just having lots of fun and Sarabeth, well she was just there to look adorable. Then of course there was Kathy who was just glowing with excitement as she leaves for China in just six days to go and get Chani. It was a great time, thanks Deb for making such a fun day. 

Play group Monday

I haven't posted piccies from our Monday Library play group in a while so I figured it was time for updated pictures. All the children are getting so big and they all play together so well, never any fighting or problems. It's amazing that as a group we've been getting together every Monday, either at the Library or some ones home, for the past 10 months. Also amazing is how all the children have grown and changed right before our eyes, time sure flies!!

Let’s dump this truck.

Maisie and Karen playing drum.

Maisie playing her play drum.

Maisie & Alexander. 

3:30 a.m. and pottery

Thanksgiving was great but exhausting and I'm please to say that all the leftovers have been eaten or banished from the house. Thankfully on Thanksgiving Eammon was a great help with after dinner clean up but his true shining moment, in my eyes, was when he offered to drive my parents to the airport for their Friday morning flight to Aruba. See they had a very early flight so it meant setting off from the house at 3:30 a.m., much too early for me especially after a full day of cooking and entertaining. Now my parents are happily lounging on the beach, hopefully resting up because in less than two weeks the three of us will be winging our way down to join them. The way I figure it, they have two weeks to relax before the two weeks of Maisie wanting attention from everyone on the beach and everyone needing another vacation to recover from chasing her everywhere.

Eammon did make the best of his early wake up by hitting a few sales and scoring for himself some fancy HD/DVD surround system something or other, which to me is just another remote that I'm sure I'll never figure out...but he's happy. Friday and Saturday were quiet days for Maisie and I as both of us have little colds which hopefully will clear up quickly.

Today I had a fun day as I met up with Deb, Kathy, Rachel & Randi for lunch and some pottery painting. Kathy

Me

Randi

This was sort of our last hoorah before Kathy leaves for China to get Chani. It was a fun afternoon and we all shared lots of laughs. It will be fun to see how our pieces turned out once they're fired...That may be when the real laughs begin!

Thanksgiving 2007

Last Thanksgiving we were eight and a picture, this year nine of us celebrated as Maisie is finally with us.

We had a wonderful day, sharing it with my parents and friends, Deb, Dan, Ian and LiLi. All the children had fun playing together and the meal, if I do say so myself, was quite delicious.

Our evening started with bacon wrapped shrimp and a veggie tray. We then feasted on Jerk Turkey Breast with Raspberry Sauce and/or Gravy, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes, Sweet Potato Casserole, Roasted Beets, Corn Souffle and Cranberry Sauce along with two very nice wines courtesy of Deb & Dan. Of course no holiday is complete with out dessert so after letting dinner settle for a bit we had coffee and enjoyed a delightful Cranberry Cake with Butter Sauce, and a Spiced Streusel Apple Crisp accompanied by much to much whipped cream. It was a fun holiday for us and we hope that everyone reading had a great holiday too.

Keeping the Grandparents busy

My parents arrived last Saturday to spend Thanksgiving week with us and Maisie has been charming and entertaining them.

Maisie is quite the little chef in her apron, hat and high heels, making coffee and toast for all in her kitchen.

Sunday morning Eammon took Maisie down to the Aquarium for her weekly dose of fish and by the time they returned home my parents and I were up and ready to spend the rest of the day with little Miss M. It was a beautiful day so playtime in Maisieland and bubbles galore entertained us all.

Monday morning we hosted our Library play group and then in the afternoon we ran a couple of errands and then played outside enjoying yet another beautiful afternoon.

Tuesday morning Maisie attended Mother's Morning Out and had a wonderful day as she now really enjoys being there and loves her teachers. While she was at school my Mom and I ran errand after errand until it was time to pick up Maisie. After Maisie's nap, my Mom and I took her to the playground where she was a little monkey hanging from all the rings and bars, walking the tightrope and going down the biggest slides.

This morning we didn't have music class so we were able to go to The Playroom where for a full 75 minutes Maisie jumped on the trampolines and ran around like the Energizer bunny. I really thought that she would take a longer nap but an hour and fifteen minutes was all she gave me. During nap time and into the afternoon I started my Thanksgiving preparations and my parents entertained Maisie with blocks, puzzles, books, bubbles and more outside time on yet another glorious day. Unfortunately it was a rough afternoon for Maisie as she seemed to be feeling under the weather and her teeth were bothering her. I always try to do my best to not put her to bed much before 7:30PM but tonight she was in bed just after 6:30PM and sound asleep before 7PM. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that her early bedtime doesn't cause her to wake earlier than her usual 6am wake up. I'm hopeful that Maisie is feeling better tomorrow and that she has a better day.

Tomorrow is our first Thanksgiving with Maisie and I'm so excited that she's finally home and part of our family. So many Thanksgivings that we dreamed of having her here and now she is, so much to be thankful for. Here's wishing everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Not a single tear was shed

Today I took Maisie for her first real haircut and she was an absolute star! We've been talking about having her hair cut and cheering "Yeah haircut" but I still feared that once at the salon she would freak out.

She loved the whole experience though, first playing with the huge train set that was in the waiting area, then being able to choose to sit in the fire truck, getting an animal cracker at the end of her haircut and finally choosing a bracelet from the treasure chest before leaving. They even put a foam sticky heart in her hair which she's still wearing four hours later. She just looks so adorable with her new do...not that I'm biased or anything!

Florida finale

Maisie and I had a good couple of final days visiting with my parents. Both Thursday and Friday we stayed close to their house spending our days at the playground, visiting with more neighbors and riding around in the truck (golf cart) going through as many tunnels as possible. Our flight home went really well especially since Maisie fell asleep within five minutes of take-off and didn't wake until we landed. We did have an hour before our flight at the airport in Orlando but luckily Maisie wanted to ride the train from the Main Terminal to the Airside Terminal over and over, so between those 27 trips, a visit to the rest room and a stroll by all 59 gates on our side of the terminal, the hour just flew by.

Once we landed in Atlanta, Maisie was so happy to see Eammon and just wanted to be held by him. To keep Maisie entertained while I waited for the luggage, Eammon rode up and down the escalators with her...very cute. Now we're home and getting back into our normal schedule. Saturday Eammon took Maisie to the park and ran her ragged then Sunday we all headed down to the Aquarium to see more fish. Today we had Library play group and tomorrow Maisie returns to Mother's Morning Out. We have a busy week ahead and it's difficult to believe that Thanksgiving is just over a week away!

Uncle Donald's Farm

Yesterday was another beautiful day so Maisie, my parents and I headed over to Uncle Donald's Farm.

We had a great time feeding the animals, going on a hay ride and even milking a goat. After a much to short nap for both Maisie and I, we did another drive around the neighborhood in the truck (golf cart) for more Maisie show-and-tell. Maisie especially loved going through the tunnels on the golf cart and closing all the doors in each house we visited.