Random Thoughts

I've decided that our newly-painted bathroom wall is way too plain...it needs a collage of pictures of Maelin in the tub! Here's the first picture in my new collection :)


Leslie stayed with us last weekend for MSD's Homecoming. We loved having her at home for a few days! On Friday night, she went to the Homecoming dance, which was a 50's theme (hence the white t-shirt, black leather jacket, pony tail and scarf!). But she let me put some make-up on her, and i thought she looked beautiful!

Mama's birthday was this past Wednesday, so we had the Frampton and Gleeson gangs over for cake and ice cream. The kids found a bunch of play sunglasses, and i had a blast recording their silly-ness for posterity!

This has got to be one of my all-time favorite pictures of Maelin and Leslie and i ... just us girls :)

I've had an interesting past few weeks. In addition to having a broken ankle (which is getting much better now), i got two spider bites which required a trip to the doctor, a shot and three prescrptions. We had Maelin's 12th IEP meeting (okay, i'm exaggerating, but you know us, we call them every couple of months just for shits and giggles...) which was extremely stressful, and then, because i don't have enough on my emotional plate right now, my purse was stolen from my classroom on Wednesday morning before school! Leslie's sidekick (pager) was taken, as well, so we've spent the last week or so closing accounts, cancelling credit cards, replacing things and doing damage control. *sigh*... But even in light of the stressful events of late, i have much to be thankful for, and i won't soon forget that.

Love to you all,

MamaShonda (which is Maelin's new name for me...ha!)

Six Months

Today is the six month anniversary of Maelin's Adoption Day... I'm thinking back to April 2nd and wondering how much she understood of what was going on. Did she understand that we were her new Mama and Baba? Did she wonder where we were going when we got in the van or on the airplane? I'm thinking of her foster parents and wondering how they coped with the heartbreaking task of letting go of such an amazing child. I'm remembering how much our lives have changed in the last six months, both positive and negative. In some ways, it feels like much longer than six months...i can't remember the last time that i had a couple of hours at home to myself...and i'm wondering what the heck i did with all of my free time before Maelin!!

Maelin has started calling Jim "BabaDaddy," which i think is completely adorable! A few times she's called me "MamaMommy," but Jim is consistently BabaDaddy :)

We're in our fifth week of school, and Maelin is doing very well. Getting up at 6:30am isn't always easy, but she loves going to school and talks about her classmates all the time. New signs she's started using in the past couple of weeks: who, which, now, remember, again, bib, forgot, new, said, you, excuse me :)

It's late and i'm exhuasted, so that's all for now...good night!

xoxoxo,
Mama (and BabaDaddy, Leslie and Maelin)

School's In!!

So we're smack-dab in the middle of a 'fake smile' phase, but i still think she's beautiful on the first day of school! We worked the 2nd half of the summer on earlier and earlier wake-up times so that 6:30 on Tuesday morning wouldn't be a shock to her system, and it was worth it. She was a little unsure of things that first day -- where are we going, what are we doing? But each day since then has gotten better and better. She rides to school with Mama every morning, and after school she takes a van that drops her off at Baba's work. So far, so good! :)

In other news, i'm officially an invalid. We have been trying to spiff up the place, and it was barn-painting-day on Saturday. Most of my friends know that i will go to just about any length to get out of work (ahem)...so i fell off the ladder while painting and broke my ankle! First broken bone of my life, and it really sucks. Trying to care for a 3-year-old has not been easy (hopping and crawling around the house - ha!), and trying to teach six of them during the school day is truly challenging! But my aides have been wonderful (like they really have a choice - grin), and we'll see how things go.

More later,

xoxoxo,

Shonda

The August Post

Here's my new favorite picture of Maelin! She's sitting on our front porch in her new favorite shirt, which was a gift from Aunt Maureenie :) And when i say it's her favorite shirt, i mean she wants to wear it every day...and if it's in the dirty laundry, she whines for a few minutes until she's sure that i won't just dig it out and let her wear it anyway!

A few weeks ago, we took Maelin on her first rides at a little carnival in Davison (again, the favorite shirt!). She loved the cars, merry-go-round, and slide-ala-burlap-bag, and then went on the big ferris wheel with Mama! I put my arm around her for the first few rotations, and then she moved it away -- no fear at all in this girl! She wanted to ride the bigger rides, but neither Baba nor i would ride them with her!

It's been great to have Leslie with us for a few weeks this summer! We went swimming at the beach, played at the park, and (pictured here with the shirt...did i mention it's her favorite?) rode the Huckleberry Railroad at Crossroads Village. Maelin really enjoyed the train ride :)

We've been doing a few home-improvement projects over the last several weeks -- ripping off wallpaper and painting the bathroom, finishing the upstairs closets, bleaching the gunk off the shingles, experimenting with sandblasting and staining the outside of our house -- and Maelin loves to be in the thick of things! She looooves helping Baba fix things...he says she's going to be an engineer when she grows up :)

I can't believe that the summer is coming to a close! Ten weeks sounds like such a long time, but it really flew for Maelin and i. We've really and truly had a wonderful time together, and althought i'm looking forward to the start of a new school year, i will miss the days at home with Maelin! And just for those keeping track (me!), Maelin's expressive sign vocabulary is at 233 words!! What an amazing little girl...we love her soooooo much :)

xoxo,
Shonda

July already?!

I can't believe that three weeks have gotten away from me since i last posted here! You would think that i could commit to posting once a week, but we've been so busy! Even if Maelin and i stay home and play all day, there just isn't time to do more than check email. Maybe if we had cable internet i would do it more often, but dial-up sucks, and it takes me forever to get logged in and upload pictures. Anyhoo...

Speaking of pictures, the top one is Jim and i on our 3rd wedding anniversary at the end of June. We went out to eat at Damon's in Grand Blanc while Maelin played at Aunt Laura and Uncle Jon's house (thank you Jon and Laura!!).

The second one was taken just a few days ago; we got together with my friend Kara and her two kids for a day at the beach ... what a great time! (The last picture was taken while we were swimming at the beach also.) Before i realized it, three hours had passed! Anyway, Kara and her kids gave Maelin a new towel, and she looked so cute in it, i just had to get the camera :)

The third picture was taken last night. I wanted to water some of my flowers that i can't reach with the sprinkler, so Maelin kept herself busy in some sand...andwater...and made a deliciously messy mud puddle! She said she was 'cooking' and told me over and over, "Don't touch!"

The next one was taken on the Fourth of July (you can tell i'm pretty concerned about the order in which i've posted them...). The three of us went to North Branch for the annual parade, and Maelin loved it! I think the tractors were her favorite part, but she really liked the horses, too.

Leslie was at summer camp at MSD this past week. She had a wonderful time canoeing, playing kickball, swimming, fishing, and traveling to Lansing to watch a Lugnuts game. Now she's staying the weekend with a girlfriend. They're going to Ohio to hang out on their boat for a couple of days, so that should be fun!

I guess that's all for now. I need to wake up Maelin from her nap if we want any hope of a decent bed time tonight!

xoxo,

Shonda

School's Out!

Isn't she beautiful?!

I'm so thankful to have survived the last couple of weeks of the school year and made it to the point where Maelin and i have ten weeks to spend together :) We are getting back into the groove of being together all day again -- balancing down time at home with short trips out to keep us busy.

The third picture down is our first time putting Maelin in a dress (she's SUCH a tom-boy and so darn active, they seem impractical except for special occations!) so we could go to a wedding reception. One of Jim's second cousins got married, and we attended the reception in Vassar last weekend. Maelin had a great time dancing -- what a hoot!

Our other recent adventure was a mini-surgery to remove any fluid that might be lurking behind her eardrums and causing additional hearing loss. We arrived at McLaren Hospital in Flint at 5:30am (ack!!) on Wednesday morning, and i walked back to the surgery room with her just before 7:00am. I was really worried about the whole thing, especially the anesthesia, but all went well. The doctor found no fluid behind either ear, so we know that her moderate hearing loss is just what we thought -- sensorineural and not affected by any ear infections. She also got her first hearing aids a couple of weeks ago, so we're working on wearing them more and more each day. She hasn't shown any real responses to them yet, but we'll go back to the audiologist in Flint some time next week for a follow-up appointment.

That's all for now. Maelin is sleeping, Jim is gone to a poker tournament, and i'm exhausted. Good night!!

xoxo,

Shonda

Our New Favorite Thing - Swimming!

Well, being back to work all day -- especially at the hectic end-of-the-year time -- and keeping Miss Maelin busy every evening leaves very little time for blogging! As you can see from the pictures above, we have a new favorite pastime: swimming! I took Maelin and Laura (bottom picture) to the Lapeer Rec Center on Memorial Day, and we had a grand ol' time! We have been running through the sprinkler at Uncle Jon and Aunt Laura's house, and we ran through one again at Great Grandpa and Grandma Minkstein's (second pic) this past Saturday. The top picture was also taken at their house. In it, Maelin is sitting with cousin Adrienne, also known as 'baby.' Ha! The third picture happened when Baba and Maelin were jousting for the same piece of faux crab meat one night. I thought it was a perfect 'Lady and the Tramp' moment and couldn't resist catching it on film! :)

Maelin continues to amaze me at the rate she's picking up signs! I have several more to add to our tally, but i think we're at about 85 signs now! She's also picking up a few spoken words, but it's just so obvious that she's a visual language learner at this point. Signing has been such a blessing for us! Our communication with Maelin would be seriously limited without it.

That's all i have time for right now.

xoxo,

Shonda