Monday Madness Update...

I feel like I just wrote the other update yesterday, but it was a week already. I don't know where the weeks go. I can't believe it's Monday again so soon! Avery is doing great as usual. It's almost October and the bug will need to get her next set of vaccinations soon. We also need to get some stronger ointment for her eczema on her legs, it keeps coming back-pesky stuff!!

She continues to be a happy girl. Her teething has gotten better in the last 3 days-knock on wood-lol. She has been playing a lot on her own, and continues to re-arrange my cupboards everyday but I love it. Her appetite has come back in the last few days too, so she must be feeling better. Avery will be 16 months old tomorrow. She is still very small for her age but gaining in big strides everyday. She has started to eat with her spoon a little bit at the dinner table, and does "Cheers", with her sippy cup at the dinner table and clinks glasses with everyone before taking her sip- so darn cute! Last week we did have 1 day where she got a little upset when Mommy had to go to work. She has figured out that when Mommy puts on her black pants and shirt she will be leaving soon. Also she has figured out that when the Grandparents come over there's a good chance Mommy will be leaving also. Mommy had to sneak out that day... We are looking forward to the holidays, and doing lots of fun things together as a family.

We took Avery to her first football game last Friday. It was Homecoming weekend at our high school. She did pretty well, she lasted the first quarter, and part of the second. It started to rain harder so we left and got ice cream. We had a pretty lazy weekend, Avery and I did go to a baby shower on Saturday, but other than that we stayed at home with Daddy. That's all for now. Just enjoying our family!

Have a good week!

Friday Faces!

Monday update on Tuesday...again I'm a day late!

I am yet again a day late on my Monday update. But here we go...

Avery is teething, and for the most part is a happy girl, but has her moments of being uncomfortable.  She has her fingers in her mouth a lot and looks at you with that, my mouth hurts look and a whimper.

We made it through the first week of Mommy going back to work. I will say that I missed her something fierce though. Grandma Scofield watched her all last week. They had a grand time!! It's really only 90 minutes between when I go to work and Gary comes home, and Avery loves having her Grandparents come over.

We took Avery to the Ontario Orchards Fall Jamboree last weekend. It was a lot of fun. They had really good chicken BBQ, and homemade donuts. There was music, a corn maze, and pumkin' chunkin'. You walked through the big apple orchards to get there. Then we went to their market and got some pumpkins, and gourds, and the best muffins from their bakery. All in all a good day! It's about an hour away from our home. Other than that we had a very low key weekend at home, which we love!!

Our girl has learned how to twirl, and it's the cutest ever! She is also almost running now, and although she's walking, when she crawls she is now up on her knees, and she does the China squat all the time.

That's about it for this week. We are enjoying life, and our family. Our little ladybug makes everyday a special day. It is the Mid Autumn Moon Festival this week, we have been invited to a dinner on Friday, not sure if we are going yet.

I can't wait for Halloween!! Avery's costume should be here this week. I'm not telling anyone what it is. But it isn't a ladybug- too expected!! But it is really cute!! :)

Enjoy your life!!

Friday Faces!

Monday Madness update...

I am up early today, it's back to work week for Mommy :(...

I have been dreading going back to work, but I will be fine once I'm there. I am excited to see all of my students, and meet all of the new ones. My schedule is actually pretty sweet. Monday & Tuesday 4:00-8:30, Wednesday 4:00-8:15, Thursday 4:30-7:00. I really can't complain at all. I have about the same amount of students and the schedule is a little less. My older students were combined, a lot this year, and we have broken some of the other classes up and my performance group this year is meeting a lot less...a lot less, and that's what really took up our weekends, and we're not working the weekends anymore. So wish me luck as I go back to work, and wish Daddy & the bug luck as this will be their first week together in the evening, and wish the Grandmas luck as this is the first week where they will be watching the bug Monday -Thursday. Good Luck to all!!

The bug is great!! We are now running a little bit. We now have seen the China squat a couple of times. She has learned how to twirl (chainé turn-lol). It is the cutest ever. She gets a little dizzy, but it is very sweet. She loves putting things in her Ni Hao Kai Lan car (in the seat), and then taking things right back out. She absolutely loves the Lego Mommy & Daddy got her for her birthday, plays with them all the time.

Avery goes down for her nap in the afternoon really well now. She takes a little cat nap usually in the morning on Mommy's shoulder, about 30 minutes. She has 3 cupboards in the kitchen that are hers, has her cups, and plates, and the glad ware in them. Loves to take them all out, and leave trails of it all throughout the kitchen. She loves our cat Koko. Pets her all the time, and says her name over and over and over. Sometimes it sounds like kumquat, and it makes us giggle. Every animal now is called Koko.

We have pictures of her all over the house, and would say to her, "Who's that?", and now when she points to the pictures she says, "that, that"...oops! Were trying to change that one, and keep saying, "Avery" over and over to her. It's cute though!

We went to the pediatric surgeons appt. on Thursday. Avery has a lymphangioma on her upper right arm. They said that the treatment used is usually 80-90% effective. That would be the treatment they did in China. We are just going to monitor it for the next 6 months. To make sure it doesn't get bigger. They took a measurement of it, and it is smaller than the measurements in China. So, that's good!! If it remains the same, or gets smaller, it means the treatments scarred the tissue and killed the cells, which is good. Then they will decide what and when to do anything if it is necessary. But the doctor's were not worried about it, and thought she looked good. So that was an awesome response, we were very happy and liked the doctor's a lot, they were very nice and very professional, and very informative-GREAT!! :)

Avery is 3 inches longer in length, and has gained about 2 pounds-She is definitely a lot heavier than when we got home.

We are really going to try to adopt again within our time limit of our dossier being still good/valid. We will have to file for an I-800 this time around for the immigration paperwork, which is a little different than the I-600 we applied for last time. Regardless, we still do the clearances, and fingerprints, and a home study update. The home study will be updated in 6 months for Avery anyways (part of the post placement). So this seems to be our path again. China changed this rule on August 17th , so it is definitely really worth thinking & praying about. We want Avery to have a sister, and we would like to do it as soon as possible. We just have to see if we can swing the rest of the financials while still recovering from this past trip. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Everything is great here. Life is good...really great!!

Hope all is well in your world too!!

Friday Faces!

Monday Madness update...on Tuesday

Yesterday was my Birthday and I didn't get around to an update, so we'll do Monday's Madness on Tuesday-oh well!!

The bug is doing just fine!! She is walking all over the place, and I mean all over the place. We love hearing her little pitter patters throughout the livingroom and kitchen. We have gotten more gates to keep her where we want her, and out of where we don't want her.

We took her to the NYS Fair again on Saturday with my family. She had a blast, and we looked at the pigs, and the goats, and she really enjoyed all the animals again. This time the draft horse show was going on. The 6 and 8 horse hitches. She took her nap during the 6 horse class. There were 22 hitches. The Coliseum was loud, and there was loud music, a lot of clapping and hollering. But I took her out in the hallway and rocked her to sleep, and then went back in and she slept for 90 minutes in her stroller. What a girl!! She woke up to see the finals of the 6 horse hitch, and was clapping for all the teams and dancing to the music-quite the entertainer!! :) My Brother and Sister in law, and their 2 daughters were up for Labor Day weekend. There were 10 of us that went to the Fair on Saturday. We left at 5:15, and stopped at our favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner on the way home. We had arrived at the Fair at 9:30 AM. Avery did really well! It was pouring cats and dogs when we got there, but cleared up and was just cool,and windy the rest of the day. We had Dinosaur BBQ for lunch, and Avery had Tully's chicken an fries-both favorites of ours!!-YUM YUM!!

The next pics are of her B-day celebration on Sunday...

We had the bug's first B-day party on Sunday. We wanted her to have pictures of her first b-day celebration, so we celebrated her 12 month/15 month birthday. We had about 20 people here, all family. We did a ladybug theme, and Grandma Judy made the cutest little ladybug cake just for her to eat, and then a beautiful big cake for everyone else. These cakes are valuable, she is retired and only makes cakes for the grandkids. Believe me if people knew we had a "Judy" cake at the house we would have had a ton of people there. Her cakes are the best!! Avery wasn't sure about the texture of the frosting and liked the chocolate cake more than the vanilla cake-Daddy's girl!! Gary likes chocolate, and I like them both but prefer the vanilla. We had frosting on her dress, and in her headband...exactly how it should be.
















We started in the B-day dress that Great Grandma Vi bought her (the light pink dress), and in true "dancer" style had a costume change after cake into the flirty tutu, and striped leggings, and B-day shirt Mommy got her-haha!!

She got a Ni Hao Kai Lan car to ride around the house in. A Little People airplane, and other little people (the little Asian girl). A  Leap Frog drum, Baby Einstein song book, Duplo Lego, a stuffed Tigger and book. Infantino matching puzzle cards, maracas, and a lot of really cute clothes. Also, so money to put in her savings account when we get that opened for her.

















She is a very lucky little girl to have such loving and thoughtful people in her life. Not just for the gifts but for all the love that her family has shown her for the last 3 years while we waited for her to arrive-LUCKY GIRL!!!

Monday was my 37th B-day! It was the best B-day ever! The best part was going to get our daughter up in the morning on my birthday and being able to hold her...waited a long time for that! We had a very low key day. We went to the Labor Day parade in town, and came home and had lunch, and watched movies and played all day. The perfect day...with my bug, and my hubby!!

Gary got me a locket that has 2 footprints on it. The back says, "Our family just grew by two feet".-perfect!! Avery got Mommy a necklace with heart charm on it that says Mom on the front, and on the back says, "Mom I remember all the hugs you gave me in my heart".-also perfect!! All in all a great day!

Avery is a blessing, and we love being parents and hopefully by next Summer we will be a family of 4...more on that later-China has changed their rules-YAY!!  :)

So...there's the Monday-Tuesday update...

Hope you enjoyed the pics!!

Friday Faces... (Allison's picks)

I couldn't resist this last one, had to put it in!!

Friday Faces!