Michelle and her chopsticks

We took Michelle to dinner at our favorite Chinese buffet the other night. We love going there. Everyone just loves her and she gets a lot of attention. We're very proud parents. We always eat with chopsticks so we decided to let her try. She actually did better than expected. She had to pick the food up with her hands and put it between the sticks but she was able to get the food into her mouth from the sticks. We were quite impressed. A friend of ours gave us a set of training chopsticks awhile back. I think it's time to try them out.

From mother to daughter

When I was a little girl, I loved to color. I spent many happy hours with my coloring books. I came across a couple of my old coloring books that were only about half done when I was preparing Michelle's room so I put them on a shelf with her books. Now she likes to get the crayons and scribble in them. I could never have guessed way back then that someday my daughter would be coloring in those books.

How many bibs does a girl need?

If the girl is Michelle, the correct answer is 3. Minimum. She used to be able to make do with one bib until the day there were 3 bibs within view. She decided she needed to wear all of them at once. Ever since then, if we try to put just one bib on her, she looks around to see where the rest of the bibs are and points to her neck. If there are more than 3 bibs within view she wants all of them. I think one day she had 5. She keeps us laughing all the time.

A fun-filled weekend

Michelle had an action-packed fun-filled weekend. After a nice dinner out Friday evening followed by a ride at the beach in her new car (where she met a cute dog and gave him a kiss on the head) and the party Saturday, we took her to York's Wild Kingdom in Maine yesterday to see the animals. She loves dogs and ducks so we thought she'd really enjoy seeing some more animals but she couldn't have been less impressed. She had no interest in any of the animals except the ducks. She loved the duck pond but that was about it. Dada fed the llamas and she found that a little scary. Then I took her into the petting zoo to feed the baby goats and she was a little scared of them too. It didn't help that one of the bigger goats (he was a bully) grabbed the whole ice cream cone full of food out of my hand. That scared me too a little bit. It triggered a flashback to when I was 5 and a goat ate my nametag at a petting zoo on a class trip. That scarred me for life. :)

After the zoo, we went to York Beach and she loved that. She's definitely a water baby. We let her wade a little bit but she wanted to go further out so I had to pick her up. She kept pointing out to sea wanting me to go further and further out. She loved it when the waves splashed us. She squealed and laughed. She didn't really enjoy sitting on the beach and playing with her toys, though. She saw no reason to put sand in a pail or to make sand castles with the sand molds. Just get that girl in the water!

The red couch all over again

Today we went to a midsummer party hosted by one of the families in our travel group. All of the Guangxi families from our group were there. It was a lot of fun seeing everyone again and seeing how all the girls have grown and changed. They all seem to be adjusting very well. We decided it would be fun to take a group picture of all the girls. It went about as well as the red couch picture from the White Swan. Michelle cried again and wanted to be picked up and one of the other girls would only be in the picture with her mom holding her. This photo shoot may have actually been more difficult than the red couch photo because the girls were all more mobile and kept trying to escape.



The lawnchair group photo


The infamous red couch group photo

Michelle's New Ride

Michelle got a new car today so we had to take it for a test drive. She loves her car. She squealed with delight when we put her in it. It even has a horn that she can honk. This is probably one of the best things we've gotten for her. We just love seeing her enjoy something so much.

Little faker

Mornings with Michelle are getting funnier and funnier every day. She pretends to be asleep when we're trying to wake her up. She thinks we're buying her act but we know the truth. While she was "asleep" Roman asked her to smile and she smiled with her eyes still tightly closed. What a stinker. She makes mornings fun.

Happy Father's Day!

After waiting so many years, Roman finally got to celebrate his first Father's Day. He's such a great husband and Dada, he deserved a nice celebration. I took Michelle to get professional photos taken and I had her picture put on a mouse pad and a display box. I also put several photos in cute frames for him. He was very impressed. And of course it wouldn't be Father's Day without a "World's Greatest Dad" t-shirt, which he wore to lunch.

I want to wish my dad a Happy Father's Day. He's a very proud grandpa. I also want to remember Roman's dad today. Sadly he died a few months before Michelle came home. I know he would have adored her.

Make a Smilebox postcard

Michelle's Summer Fun

I just discovered this online scrapbooking through my friend Kim's blog so of course I had to try it. I love it. I may end up addicted to blogging now. This is so much fun.

Make a Smilebox postcard

Make Way for Michelle

This morning we took Michelle into Boston to see the Make Way for Ducklings statues and the swan boats. Duck was one of the first words she learned to say and she's always loved them in pictures so we thought it would be fun to show her some real ducks. Despite her shortage of smiles, she had a great time. She loved sitting on the ducks and she wanted to pet the real ducks. We had to hold on to her pretty tightly around them. She's very squirmy so we didn't take her on the swan boats this time but she enjoyed watching them. She also wanted to climb into the fountain. She really loves water. We ended our outing with a Happy Meal from McDonald's. It was a great day.

NEWSFLASH!!!

Tonight is a very proud night for us. Our little girl did her first poopoo in her potty chair. We put her on there a couple of nights ago and she seemed interested in it but she didn't do anything. Tonight during dinner she was showing signs that poopoo was imminent so Dada asked her if she needed her potty chair. She nodded yes so we put her on it and she broke it in with her first poopoo. What a proud moment that was for us. :) It was her first step on the road to potty training. She's very smart and doesn't like to be dirty so we're really hoping that potty training will go smoothly and quickly.

My dream come true

I bought this outfit for Michelle two years ago. It was one of the first outfits I ever bought her. I looked at it hanging in the closet for so long and I dreamed of the day my daughter would wear it. I spent so much time (and money) shopping for clothes and toys knowing that someday my daughter would be here to use them. Somehow it made me feel closer to her during the long wait. It's so exciting to see my precious daughter wearing all the clothes I've been collecting for her for so long. Sometimes I still have to pinch myself to believe she's really here.

Sleepyhead

Michelle isn't a big fan of waking up in the morning unless it's on her terms. When we try to wake her up, she clamps her eyes shut and turns away from us. Yesterday this is the position she ended up in. Could she be any cuter? I don't think so.

Michelle's Day at the beach

Sunday we took Michelle to the beach for the first time. She absolutely loved it. We weren't sure what she'd think of the water. It's pretty cold to us but she couldn't get enough of it. We just waded at the edges but she wanted to go further and further out. Afterward, we got some ice cream and walked across the street to a little park that was blessed with shade.

Welcome to Michelle's new blog

I ran out of space on my babysite so I created this new blog. Michelle is always doing something adorable so I want to be able to continue adding new pictures without having to delete the old ones. I plan to keep the babysite since there are a lot of pictures on there but at this time I don't plan to add any new content.