What happened to January?!?

I really try to post every month, but January just got away from us! I figured i should post some pictures now or i'll miss February, too!

This picture was taken at a family birthday party for Leslie, who turned SEVENTEEN on January 6th! It's so hard to wrap my mind around the fact that the little 6-year-old who moved in with me over 10 years ago has become a young woman! Happy birthday, Leslie :)

What a great winter it's been! Our area has had near-record levels of snow for the year, and Maelin has had a BLAST playing outside with Baba! (You'll notice that Mama doesn't do much snow...or anything cold, really...i step outside to take some pictures and 'oooh' and 'ahhh' over whatever they're doing, then come back in and thank my lucky stars that Jim likes to play outside!!) Papa brought his golf cart back to our place, so Maelin and Baba ride it around, and Baba pulls Maelin behind it on a sled. When Leslie and Maelin play outside, Leslie makes great snow-creature creations and Maelin 'helps.' :)

Apparently Baba was in need of a 'project' ... he tore up the carpet in the dining room and put down wood flooring. Maelin 'helped' again :)

Happy Chinese New Year! February 7th was the start of the new year in China, and we celebrated with dinner out at a local Chinese restaurant. Maelin said/signed "Happy New Year!" to every worker and patron that she met along the way!

On Monday, February 11th, Maelin woke up at 4:00am sick, sick, sick! She had a fever of 103.something :( I took her to the doctor that morning, and it was just 'the flu,' so no meds or anything. Maelin stayed home from school the whole week and missed her very first Valentine party :( By Friday, she was still spiking 104 temps, so i took her back to the doctor. (They gave her an antibiotic, but probably just so they didn't have to see me in their office again...) Then Maelin was kind enough to pass the flu to both Jim and i, so all three of us were sick for several days. Mine, as always, morphed into bronchitis, so i ended up missing a day of school and getting an antibiotic, as well. In the picture above, Maelin was laying on the floor coloring, when she just rolled over and fell asleep! Being sick sucks, but it makes us appreciate it when we feel well again!!

Coming soon: Maelin's 4th birthday (3-19-08) and the one year anniversary of our Gotcha Day (4-2-08)!!

Maelin's First Christmas

How exciting Christmas is through the eyes of a child! Maelin has absolutely embraced every aspect of the holiday season, starting with her first visit with Santa! Our lower elementary school classes participated in the annual Breakfast with Santa event, and although i prepped Maelin for it ("Santa will give you a present, but you'll have to sit on his lap..."), i wasn't sure she'd be willing. Fortunately, many of her classmates forged bravely before her, so by the time it was her turn, she was fairly confident no harm would come to her!

Here's the annual Christmas picture that Jim dreads so much each year! I have to start talking about it days in advance, just to prepare him - LOL! I'm sure his reticence has nothing to do with the fact that i'm completely anal-retentive about the whole procedure, from clothes and hair to sitting positions, and that i make him suffer through about 20 shots (and sometimes multiple sittings) before i'm even remotely satisfied. It's for posterity, dammit!!

We're all excited that bowling season has started again, because that means Leslie spends weekends with us! Last week we had an extra-special treat: Leslie's sister Brandi (who is a student majoring in Deaf Education at California State University Northridge) came and stayed two nights with us! We also took advantage of the extra time together for Leslie to open her Christmas gifts, since she won't be with us during the two-week Christmas break.

CHRISTMAS MORNING!! Maelin woke up around 7:45am (yes, we're sure it will get much earlier in years to come...) and was thrilled to realize that it was finally time to open all those presents! She got a few small things (clothes, a snow suit, Magnetix, books), but her 'big' gift was a new kitchen set with dishes and food accessories!

After Christmas morning at our place, we got ready and headed to Grandpa Les and Grandma Pam's house for family Christmas with them. I love this shot of Maelin - i think it captures her excitement about the whole day! In the afternoon, we headed to Great Grandpa and Grandma Minkstein's house for a meal and a few more gifts. We also had Christmas Eve at Nana and Papa Gleeson's house (which was really nice) and Christmas at Great Grandma Schmidt's house last week...WHEW!

Happy Christmas and Merry New Year to all of our dear friends and family out there :)

Love,
Mama, Baba, Leslie and Maelin

Much to be Thankful for...

WE HAVE A NEW BABY!! My sister Shelli gave birth to baby #4 this morning at 3:56AM! Josie Kate weighed a very small 7lbs 2oz (her other three were 9lbs 8oz, 10lbs 2oz, and 8lbs 15oz, so this one seems so tiny!) and is 19 1/2 inches long. My mom and i (and Shelli's husband Darrin) were there to watch Josie make her way into the world. What a beautiful experience! I am soooo thankful for a healthy baby niece, an amazingly strong sister, and the opportunity to have seen the births of all four of my nieces/nephews!

We were thankful to wake up on Thanksgiving morning to the first snow of the year! A beautiful blanket of snow (just a couple of inches) on everything...and Maelin was sooooo excited! She and Baba spent some time outside making an awesome snowman...

...and sledding down the not-so-big hills around our house! We were definitely thankful for Baba's safe return home after seven days of hunting up north.

While Baba was up north, Aunt Maureen and Adam came to keep us company and stay overnight with us -- we had a blast! We did some shopping, went out to eat, played at home, and best of all, Mama and Aunt Maureen got to stay up until 2:00AM and talk til we couldn't keep our eyes open any more!

We've made a break-through in our nightly bed-time routine. While Baba was gone up north, Maelin and i started working on her going to bed by herself! We played up the fact that she looooves to do things by herself, and she went to bed that Sunday night while i worked on school work at the table. The first night took 45 minutes and she yelled for me three times (but didn't get out of bed), so i considered it a success for the first night! By the third night, she went to bed by herself without any calling out for me :) Buuuuut, then Baba came home the next night, and she thinks she's missing out on something at bed time! Every night she says, "Not MaeMae bed do-by-self!" She's actually done very well, but it's taking time. I'm thankful for the extra time to catch up on things around the house while she's falling asleep!

I'm also thankful for those of you who are still reading our blog :) Last Sunday marked 8 months since Adoption Day (4-2-07), and we appreciate those of you who are still hanging around!

xoxoxo,

Mama, Baba, Maelin and Leslie

Mae's First Halloween

I mentioned about a month ago that we'd reached the six-month mark since our adoption of Maelin. We had an appointment with our homestudy social worker, who sent a report to our agency in California. Along with the report, we needed a few pictures, so we took an updated family picture last weekend. Aren't we cute?! :) Jim set the timer and we all posed...i figured that Maelin would be completely confused by the timer and no one really taking the picture, but she "cheesed" just perfectly! Now we have a new game: Maelin makes us sit on the hearth in front of the fireplace while she runs over and 'sets the timer' on an imaginary camera, then runs and sits with us, commanding everyone to smile! It's fairly comical!

Maelin and BabaDaddy spent last Saturday afternoon gutting and carving two pumpkins from Papa and Nana. At first she was enthralled, watching BabaDaddy's every move...by the end, she was riding her tricycle around the garage while he finished carving the second pumpkin - haha!

I wondered how Maelin would react to the whole Halloween hustle and bustle, but she did just great! I bought her 'ladybug' costume at Old Navy for $11 (score!), and she was t-h-r-i-l-l-e-d!! The three of us went to a Halloween party at the Deaf Club in Flint on the Friday before Halloween, where she played games and hung out with some of her classmates and schoolmates. It was really a good time. On Halloween day, she wore her costume to school and had a blast trick-or-treating around the school. By that evening, Mama had had enough Halloween, so we only stopped two places to trick-or-treat: Great Gramps and Gram's (Mama's grandparents), and Papa and Nana's house. We stayed at Papa and Nana's house for a while and played with Jacob and Lucas while everyone visited. Then we headed to Uncle Darrin and Aunt Shelli's house for a birthday celebration for Cousin Lauren (who turned 10 on Halloween) and Adrienne (who turned 2 the Thursday before).

Leslie has been staying in the dorm a lot this school year. She comes home one or two nights each week, and Maelin looooves it when Leslie is home! This is the first year that Leslie has chosen to stay in the dorm on Halloween instead of coming home with us...i guess that's a sign of growing up! The end of the first quarter of school is coming up; i've heard mostly positive reports from her 10th grade teachers, so we're hoping for a good report card. :)

With Halloween successfully behind us, we're looking forward to the next big holiday 'first' with Maelin. We're guessing since Christmas involves presents, she'll handle that one alright, as well :)

Love to all,

MamaShonda, BabaDaddy, Leslie and Mae

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