Christmas 2010

It is hard to believe Christmas has come and gone. Sophia enjoyed Christmas shopping for BaBa, Mommy, Nick and Katie. She made beautiful ornaments for her grandparents, aunts and uncles.

We made cookies for Santa but Sophia only left him one cookie and two pieces of cheese. She saw an episode of Imagination Movers where they mentioned Santa needed to go on a diet because his pants did not fit any longer.

We tracked Santa on norad.com. When we first checked in the morning Santa was delivering gifts in Chongqing, China. This was were Sophia was born. To think that we began tracking Santa at the minute he was Chongqing was amazing.

We made ginerbread sleighs to add to the decorations in the house.

Nick and Katie are spending Christmas with us. It is great to have them here. Sophia loves spending time with her brother and sister.

Sophia, Mommy and BaBa went to church and watched the navity pageant. Sophia had one question after another. She is the most curious child I have ever known. I guess that is part of what makes her so smart.

On Christmas morning Sophia woke up at 6:45 and began to ring her "Christmas Bell" saying that Christmas is here... wake up. She woke up Katie and Nick and we all went downstairs to see what Santa left.

Santa left Sophia a big dinosaur from Dinosaur Train along with the Dinsosaur Train trainset. She was thrilled. He left Nick a Harry Potter lego set and Katie a pillow pet. After playing a while we opened gifts from each other. Sophia loved everything she got. Katie got her a horse and Nick got her a remote control car. She got more dinosaurs for her Dinosaur train, a horse calender and a leapster game from us.

We then went to Grandma Bev's for Christmas dinner. It was nice to spend the day with all of Steve's family. We opened more gifts there. Sophia got horse sheets and a blanket for her bed from Grandma Bev and Pop Pop and horse posters from Grandma Beadle. She also got another stocking filled with goodies, stamps for her scrapbook, jelly belly filled crayons and a coloring book. Sophia had a blast playing with her cousin Emma.

I am thankful for the time we get to spend with family. As our own parents are aging we are thankful for the time we do get together. Pop Pop had an "off" day today. He wasn't feeling well. It is hard to see the toll Parkinsons takes on the body.

Christmas in Connecticut

We traveled up to Connecticut on December 17 to celebrate Christmas with Anne's family. We spent the night at Grandma Barb's on Friday night. We were greeted with the typical bag of gifts for Sophia. Sophia presented Grandma with her typical gift of a bag of M&Ms they share together.We headed to Linda's house on Saturday after breakfast. George and his family joined us on Sunday for a wonderful Christmas dinner. We headed home on Monday.

It was great to be all together for Christmas. The kids all enjoyed playing together. They get along so well. There were plenty of gifts to open and good food to eat. Sophia got the gum ball machine she has been longing for from Uncle George. She got a game for her leapster from Aunt Linda as well as things to decorate her room. Grandma Barb gave her stamps for her scrapbook, soft pajama's and a doll.

It was a joyous day after what has been a very difficult month for us. Grandma Barb has breast cancer. She will have a lumpectomy on January 13th. At this point the tumor is small. We are hoping it has not spread but we won't know until later in January after the pathology reports come back. We are hoping that this is an easy surgury and that she makes it through without any complications.

December Update

December was an extremely busy month. We prepared for Christmas. We wanted Katie to help decorate the Christmas tree but on the one weekend Katie was down Anne was away at a scrap booking retreat. Sophia had a perfect solution. We put the tree up one day and decorated around the house. Then when Katie came down they decorated the tree together. It worked out well.

Sophia and BaBa went to Virginia for a holiday dinner with the re-enacting group on December 3rd. They had a blast. They got to town early and found a huge playground and then went into town. There was horse drawn carriage ride in town. Sophia loved this. Sophia and BaBa also saw their first snowflakes that day.

Sophia talked with Santa three times - once at the mall in late November, then at the train station, and once at the Bass Pro Shops. She asked for a gum ball machine, trains, and dinosaur train toys.

BaBa took Sophia and Katie to the train station to visit Santa. They had a blast. Sophia loves trains and never tires of seeing them and climbing on them.

We got a little snow on December 16th. It wasn't much but was enough to go sled riding with Boba pulling the sled. Sophia laughed so much. Her laughter is contagious. If we could all get such pleasure from the simple things in life we would all be much happier.

November update

November started with the big birthday celebrations. Sophia is growing up so quickly. She now has a chore list and has begun to earn an allowance.

November included the typical fall activities like raking leaves and preparing for the holidays.

We celebrated Thanksgiving at Grandma Bev's house. It was nice to be together for a delicious dinner.

Sophia's favorite cat. Noelle (No-No) wasn't feeling well which meant a trip to the vet and the administering of now daily meds. It is no fun trying to give this cat medicine every day but she seems to be more "regular" with it. Sophia was very worried about No-No and took good care of her while she was sick.

We went to a model train show the day after Thanksgiving. Sophia loved the trains. She even was able to control a Thomas train. She picked this up quickly and wanted to return to that set up to drive the train several times.

Sophia loves stuffed animals. She surrounds herself with them every night. When Sophia is put to bed at night she tends to play quietly in her room for almost an hour. One night she took out many stuffed animals and piled them up on her bed. She feel asleep surrounded by these animals.

Five years old

Sophia turned five today. I can't believe it!! She is growing up so quickly.

We celebrated her birthday with a party with a few of her best friends. Katlyn, Jason and Jennifer joined her at Chuck E Cheeses to celebrate. They all had a blast there.
We then did the traditional birthday morning cupcake and balloon in her room this morning. She now knows it is coming but seems to enjoy the tradition. She was a bit sleepy this morning but woke up quickly. We gave her the gift we bought for her 5th birthday while we were in China. This year she got a backpack. We want her to always remember her beginnings. We want her to know that China will always be a part of her. That her birth parents will always be a part of her. These are some of the things that make her special. We honor her roots and hope that we can instill that in her.Because I taught that night we also let her open her gifts in her room. I took her out to Chinese food for lunch and Steve played with her and her new toys that evening.

Our baby is growing up!!

Halloween

Last year Sophia changed her mind about what she wanted to be for Halloween around ten times. This year she decided early she wanted to be a Banana Witch and never looked back. She created the concept herself. A banana witch is a banana with a witches hat. A banana witch steals bananas. She had a broom to go with her costume but decided she could not handle that, her treat bag and knock on doors at the same time.

We went to the zoo for their trick or treat festivities on Saturday and then trick or treating in the neighborhood on Sunday night. She got loads of candy and had a blast. We love watching her enjoy life so much.

October update

October has flown by. We had lots to do to keep us busy. We went to visit Katie and watch her perform in the marching band. We saw a football game in the afternoon and then a band competition in the evening. It was great to spend some time with Nick and Katie. Sophia misses them so much.

We went to the duck park. We gave them a few small pieces of bread. One goose decided he wanted more and got out of the water and started to chase us. Yikes.

We went pumpkin picking. Sophia took her time and picked out the "best" pumpkins.

We did a family re-enacting event. Something I thought I would never do. I know how much this means to Steve and how happy re-enacting is making him so we joined him for one night. It actually was fun. I would have been happier if I didn't have to dress in the funny clothes but other than that it was just like camping. It was fun being outside. I sat around the fire and knitted for a while. Steve cooked for us and did all the hard work of getting our tent up and stuff.

Sophia went fishing with BaBa one Sunday morning. They did not catch anything. Sophia probably scared all the fish away splashing in the water. She had so much water in her boots!!!

BaBa took Sophia to get her hair cut one night while I was teaching. She looks so cute. She told me she almost cried when she looked in the mirror. I asked, "why?" She said, "Because I looked so cute." How is that for confident!

Before .....

and after....

Visit to Connecticut

I try to get up to Connecticut every three months or so to visit Mom. I know how much this means to her. I want Sophia to know her and understand the influence she has had on my life. Sophia loves these visits to Grandma's. After all, Grandma always has presents for her, we go out to eat and get to visit family.

This time we didn't spend too much time with her cousins Hollie and Stephanie since they were in Florida for the week. We did help Grandma take care of their dog, Jessie. We got to spend a morning with Auntie Linda, Chuck and Stephanie and Hollie before we headed home.

We had a rainy couple of days there. We went to Chuck E Cheeses one day to stay dry.

We also visited my cousins, Tommy and Lisa. I haven't seen them in years. It was nice to see them again. Tommy has been diagnosed with ALS. It is sad to see how quickly this has affected his body. He has an eight year old daughter and Lisa has a twelve year old son so Sophia had fun playing while we caught up.

Sophia and I met Damien and Melissa at the green for the Annual Apple Festival. Sophia had a blast. She rode all the rides and even was a magician's assistant. She is getting so big.

September update

September always brings back routine into our lives which typically means we have some time to breathe. I am not sure why this September was as busy as the summer months.

We started the month with a day at the State Fair with Katlyn. The kids had fun. We even watched some horse races and cheered on our favorite horses.

Sophia played a lot with Jennifer and Jason, our neighbors and two of her best friends. They will be moving back to Korea in November so they took advantage of all the wonderful weather and spent as much time as they could outside and when the weather was bad they played inside. Sophia is going to miss them.

We went to the zoo, had our last swim of the season at Grandma's and Pop Pop's house and visited Baba at a re-enacting event.

Sophia went to her friend, Elena's princess birthday party. She had a blast as you can see her here all partied out. Needless to say, we were busy but it was all fun.