I realized, as I was searching my brain for anything to write about, that I didn’t share pictures of our Chinese New Year outing last month. It wasn’t that eventful honestly. While we live in a city that has an International District, this is the second festival we’ve attended that has left us wondering why we schlepped the kids into the city, fought traffic, paid for parking and wandered around in the cold. Because it was highly disappointing. The best part was lunch afterward and this great Italian restaurant. I mentioned it briefly here. The pictures were a bit hard to get, especially of the main dancing area because it was on the street level instead of a stage, which the only people who actually…
Recently, Sprinkles started taking riding lessons from the same instructor I take lessons from. And it’s safe to say she’s in heaven. What little horse loving girl, big or small, wouldn’t love a chance to muck about on a horse for an hour? She does get a better bargain than during my lesson time though. For instance I don’t get to play Simon Says, or ride backward, or touch the letters as I ride around the ring. I get to post, or work harder to keep my horse on the rail, or do light lines. Little kids get all the fun. Every Sunday afternoon, this is where you’ll find us, soaking up some horse goodness. I love the barn, the way it smells (yes,…
It’s so weird, the first day of school here in the Seattle burbs. My kids, for the first time, go to different schools. Vanilla went off to middle school this morning, and already I’m panicking wondering if he’s okay. Did he remember to put the lock on his locker? Will he remember how to open it? What the combination is?? I didn’t remind him nor did I tell him I stuck his schedule inside the front pocket of his backpack so he wouldn’t forget it. ACK. I don’t want to think about him being upset, or frustrated at school. {I’m pretty sure it’s me who’s worried, not him.} Anyway, here he is in the single solitary picture I was allowed to snap: His…
Everyone knows Sprinkles. She’s the girl with the upbeat attitude, crazy happy smile, and the one who wants to play Lalaloopsy at all hours of the day (and night). In case you don’t, here she is (I’d like to note I didn’t pick out her clothes, and I can’t blame her dad either, she created this outfit masterpiece all on her own): Last year she attended kindergarten, and while she wasn’t in the top half of her class, she is a smart girl. One of the biggest obstacles for her is her speech. She has something called Apraxia which means from the beginning everything was delayed when the speech didn’t come out right. It is amazing how much things are all tied…
Since it’s packing day, Sprinkles celebrated her birthday over multiple days, because turning six is a huge event. She got to do many things she’s wanted to do for a long time. Including getting a hair cut (it only took five years to get her hair as long as it was…) And getting her nails done (the highlight of her day) It was like a dream come true. Tonight we’ll go to dinner at her favorite restaurant – her favorite because they have peanuts in a pail on the table for her to crack open (none of us particularly like the food, but the peanuts are worth it.) Happy Birthday Sprinkles!
The other day while outside with Mocha, I discovered a spider web between the railings of the deck. It’s not uncommon, but the pollen had caught it all around the edges of the web making it stand out more. I wanted to see if I could capture it with my camera. It’s hard to see but the spider is there in the center, and I was trying to just capture the beauty of the web. After about five minutes, I finished and put the cap back on the lens, when along comes Sprinkles with a stick and destroys the web, spider and all. As much as I don’t like spiders, we had to have ‘the talk’ about why it’s wrong to kill…
I recently started a discussion on my Facebook adoption group (all of the members having adopted from Taiwan) about Sprinkles, and her recent desire to understand just how we ‘got her’ (those are her words not mine). We’ve been reading a book called Sweet Moon Baby at bedtime, an adoption tale centered on adopting a daughter from China. She enjoys the story, and so do I. We started with David Kirk’s Miss Spider, but I felt we needed something with a more ‘real’ focus. In this case the adoption of a child by parents instead of a spider by a beetle. The question I asked the group was in regard to how to have the discussion about her birth mother (a term that’s…
“I want to be a Cowgirl when I grow up!” Sprinkles is determined to make sure I hear her voice, and I tell her that sounds like a fun goal. My girly-girly, is also very much a rough and tumble kind of child. And after all, she does know the words to Red Solo Cup, courtesy of Papa. Sigh. It started last year, this obsession with horses, when I took the kids with me when I went to visit a riding stable near by. I’ve been wanting to take lessons since I was young, and now that we lived in horse country, I thought I’d take some formal lessons. We got to meet a horse, and I could tell in her eyes as she…
On Saturday we spent the day at the Louisville Science Center (after a fantastic meal at The Old Spaghetti Factory downtown). If you’ve never been here, or to any kids science musuem, it’s highly enjoyable for children of all ages (even big ones.) Slideshow design generated with Smilebox
You can tell when Sprinkles is sick. She ends up looking a lot like this: We’ve had a rough five days, a trip to the ER, a trip to the pediatrician, and lots of tears. Hopefully, she’s on the mend. Hopefully.
