Three year gotcha anniversary

Three years ago today, sweet little scared Wan Chun Miao was placed in my arms and life hasn't been the same since. Life is great with my Maisie Miao Miao and she's no longer that scared little girl. Maisie's now a beautiful, vibrant, talented, smart, driven, sweet & lovable four year old and she's the best little girl in our world.

We enjoyed a nice anniversary day spending lots of time in the pools, playing in the sand and with Grandma, Grandpa & friends. We're send big hugs and kisses to Baba back at home and hope that he had a good day too...even though it was a full day at work. We're also sending happy gotcha day anniversary wishes to all our travel mates and Julie & Tess, big hugs to all of you.

Below are some piccies from the past two days.

Maisie & Bob feed the birds. Bob is so sweet with Maisie and always brings bread & crackers to the beach so that Maisie can help him feed the birds. Maisie started talking about seeing "bird man" Bob a couple weeks before we came down to Aruba, she couldn't wait to see him again and feed the birds together. In this post from last year you can see them feeding the birds together. Bob is just so very sweet and funny with Maisie, we're sad to see him heading home tomorrow but we're look forward to hopefully seeing him again next year.

Sandy & Allan are friends we always look forward to seeing. Usually it's just in Aruba where we see each other but this year back in June we stayed with them up in Boston which was great fun, even if oh-too-short of a visit. Maisie looks forward to visiting with them daily and I'm sure that it has nothing what-so-ever to do with the candy treats they bring down for her each afternoon. A couple of weeks before we left for Aruba Maisie started asking me if I thought Sandy, Allan & Carl (their son) would have anything for Maisie in the afternoons. I'm telling you, that little girl has people pegged and she never forgets.

Maisie and Kayodee were best friends from the very first moment that they met earlier this week and each afternoon they've had a blast, giggling, swimming and running around together. Both of them have talked about the other from the time that they awake in the morning, asking when the other will be at the pool and how long until they're together. Here they are sharing some crackers together. They would each eat a cracker or two then look at each other only to crack up laughing and then sweet hugs.

Sadly, Kayodee flies home tomorrow so today was their last day together. Email addys have been exchanged so Maisie now has her first Dutch email-pen-pal.

Though Maisie's generally the Energizer Bunny she sometimes winds down. This piccie is from yesterday when I told her that she didn't have to take a nap but that she had to play quietly with her dolls and toys in the sand while I rested a bit after lunch. After about 15 minutes of playing she asked if she could cuddle with with me on the lounger and within 5 minutes she was sound asleep. Gotta love those naps.