Mother's Day X TWO!

This time last year I was wondering if it would ever happen~if I'd ever have both my little ones home. This year I got to spend the day with two of the cutest kids I know : )




You can go HERE for last year's post and pics from years past : )

I wrote this in 2007 and it pretty much sums up how I feel about this day.

Thoughts on Mother's Day
So I have been trying to decide what to write about my thoughts on Mother's Day. Do I think Hallmark has made a killing on us honoring Moms this one day a year and we should just spread out the love all year long? Sure I do. Do I realize how incredibly hard and depressing this day can be for some women..absolutely. I grew up in a very rural church where on Mother's Day they would have all the mothers stand to be honored. I learned to hate that tradition as the years went by and I never got to stand. I was 36 when I married and had long stopped attending that church and luckily the bigger churches I started going to realized what a painful tradition that could be. I know now that there were women in my church who had lost children, never been able to conceive or never married who also felt the kick in the gut when others were standing receiving their rose.After I got married I thought church on Mother's Day would now be better. I could spend time with my own mom and dream of the day it would be a shared event for us. That first Mother's Day I was on my honeymoon. I called home from Spain and wished her a Happy Mother's Day and went on enjoying myself thinking there would be many more to come. Unfortunately my mom passed away very suddenly a couple of months later and so the next two Mother's Days were very painful. If I remember correctly we didn't go to church on either of those years (2003 & 2004) and instead just treated it like any other day. In 2005 we had been logged in to China for a little over 3 months and at that time it meant we were halfway to our referral so we celebrated because I finally felt like a Mom! I knew our daughter had been born and we would hold her very soon.Last year I celebrated my first Mother's Day with Annslee and it helped erased all the painful and disappointing years before. It truly was a wonderful day as was this year and I am sure all the years to come. Being someone's Mama is the most precious gift and I cherish it. I also have a wonderful Mother-in Law and she treats me as her daughter so I am blessed beyond measure for that. I am sad that my mom never got to meet Annslee because they would have been big buddies!I do know there are many women who are still waiting for it to be a day to celebrate and I hope that day comes soon for all of you!



Here I am with Annslee on our first Mother's Day together (2006) I notice I look a lot younger, more rested and thinner... but I'll take having my arms doubly full anyday : )



I hope you all had a wonderful day!!

Morning Concert

Yesterday morning I was treated to a concert by these two!



Later Snow Wh*ite decide to do an encore solo performance : )



Yeah, my days are GOOD : )

She wore the SW dress to the grocery store too and LOVED everyone oooing and aaaahhing. I love that little things like that make her happy and that she made complete strangers have a better day.

Puddle

It rained and rained today and this afternoon Coby was still napping and Annslee asked "can we go outside?" I told her it was still raining a little and everything was soaked...all the better for jumping in puddles if you are FOUR!!









Coby woke up and Daddy got home. Annslee kept asking for Coby to come in and I kept saying he was too little. Obviously she won out and Coby was THRILLED!! As you can see, Annslee is clapping b/c he is getting in the puddle : )









She also got her first clover tiara today



Annslee was right~ he did LOVE the puddle!!


I have a feeling this won't be our last time playing in the puddles!!

Water Fun!!

On Sunday afternoon I asked "anyone want to play out in the yard with water?" Annslee sprang into action and grabbed her swimsuit! : )



Coby is a waterbug too so he was anxious to join in!







They both had a great time and we can't wait for the neighborhood pool to open : )



On Monday morning this is how Miss A looked as we were ready to leave for school. Her latest thing is wearing her shades around. Last Friday at the Zoo she said as we got out of the car "People see me...say who dat girl? Take glasses off they say 'oh Annslee movie star!!' " I guess she was going for the movie star look for school too LOL

Are there animals at the Zoo??

I took these two sweeties to the Zoo on Friday. Annslee had her IEP meeting and now she only goes to school three days a week instead of five. In the words of Annslee it is because " I talk beller (better)" : ) To celebrate her first day off we headed out! The weather was sunny and 88 and my girl, who you will remember wanted to move to Viet*nam, kept saying "I hot, I need a cold drink" LOL



I am not sure either of them noticed many of the animals at the Zoo because there were soooo many caterpillars to be found. Annslee was THRILLED!



She loved having them crawl on her and would laugh as they tickled. Later she told me "I fake laugh...joking on you" hmmmm



As we let this little one crawl away she said "Bye Bye Annslee capilla~ have fun being a bufly" : )



Another attraction was a new water contraption they have. It literally shoots water out and blasts the kids. I thought it would knock Coby down so I didn't let him join in..he was thrilled to see the water shoot out though.



Annslee of course loved it...



Later we went up to the "rain room" so Coby could join in on the water fun!



Miss A was so drenched from her water fun she had to ride home sans skirt and top...next time I'll pack a change of clothes : )

Hair

Annslee went with Daddy down to the neighbor's house to borrow a ladder~ he came back with the ladder but without Annslee : ) These are the neighbors who brought home the adorable Wendi from China in November (she just turned 3 in March) Coby was sleeping so Daddy cleaned gutters and I folded laundry(yeah, glamorous I know) Finally Coby awoke and we walked down to get Annslee. When I arrived I noticed Miss Jinni had braided her hair. When we were in China in 2005 it seems that all the girls had their hair in braids. I know it sounds crazy but seeing her with her hair like that..she just looked so Chinese : )

She loved it too!! She wouldn't let Jinni cut the ribbon so it was hanging between her braids. Isn't she a cutie!





She came back inside and Coby couldn't resist that ribbon...he grabbed it...the braids fell out. I swear her hair is slick as glass and so I will have to practice braiding (hey Jinni is Chinese..she has worked with this type of hair all her life) Anyway, I couldn't get it back into the braids so she had to settle for piggies... this is how she felt about that : (



After a few people told her how cute the piggies were she started feeling better LOL

Field Trip Day

Annslee went on a field trip today~ they started at a gymnastics place where she showed off her skills then it was on to the park. Parents were invited to meet them at the park for lunch and play time so of course Coby and I went along : )

For a while this little boy followed Annslee everywhere and I thought she had a little "boyfriend" However, later when I saw him he ran up and said "picture of me" Apparently it wasn't Annslee he loved but merely being in the pics LOL




Coby wasn't real sure about sharing Annslee with all her "school friends" and would just watch everywhere she went



She did play with him some though~ I love her sweet face watching him swing



Mommy also pushed him on the swings and he loved it as always



Annslee loves the tire swing



She really likes it when I spin it really fast!!



We had great weather and a great time! Oh, and the orange shirt is "field trip attire" and the minute her class left she yanked it off hence the other shirt in some of the pics : )

Annslee gets her wish

For months now Annslee has talked about sleepovers~ either wanting one at our house or going somewhere else. Honestly, we didn't think at 4 she would stay somewhere all night or that another 4 year old would stay here. Finally, we thought of the perfect guest~ Paige!! She is 10 so we didn't know if she would really want to hang with a 4 year old all night and certainly she wouldn't want to play dress up or girl party. It all worked out though, and they had a GREAT time!!

I had a girls night out and when I got home this is what I found : )




Later this is what I saw!!! Daddy was totally grossed out but the girls thought it was funny!



Annslee has a perfectly good full sized bed in her room but this is where the girls decided to sleep. They finally went to bed around 11:30 pm and were up at 6:30 am!!



An hour or so after they woke up it was time to make pancakes



Poor Coby was left out of most of the girl party time : )





This one really made me smile..check out that run and the tongue : )



Annslee then went to a birthday party, home for a very short nap and then we had a Sunday School cookout....long fun day!!

15 month and 54 month check up

Coby had his 15 month check up today and Annslee went along. As he was weighed and measured of course Miss A had to get all of it done too so I guess she got her 54 month check up~ she didn't ask to get the shots with him though : )

When we first went back the head nurse, who usually doesn't weigh in babies, took us. She is Vietnamese and her family still lives in Saigon. We had a great chat about our time there and she gave us a good restaurant recommendation for here : )

Our pediatrician said Coby is doing GREAT...and he grew an inch in ONE month!! We still need to fatten him up some though. Here are his stats:

At 15 months:

your child is 20 pounds, and that is at less than the 3rd percentile for weight.

your child is 30 inches, and that is at the 14th percentile for height.

your child has a head circumference of 19 inches, and that is at the 77th percentile for head circumference.

I know he is still really little for his age but just look at the change he has made already in 4 short months!!

Saigon~ Dec. 2008



Home~ April 2009




Annslee wanted all her stats done too so here are hers:

At 4 years and 6 months:

your child is 40 pounds, and that is at the 69th percentile for weight.

your child is 40 inches, and that is at the 26th percentile for height.

At this age they don't do head circumference but of course Annslee wanted hers measured too and it is 20 inches : )

I took these pics last weekend and couldn't believe how much older she looks suddenly...where did my baby go!!!





She was such a great big sister at the doctor's office. I don't stay in the room for shots with my kids. I prefer to sweep in as the good guy and cuddle them when it is over. Just never was up for holding my child down for shots, especially the first round when we basically just met! With both my kids they bring in THREE nurses b/c they are both strong and fight the shots : )

So we went out into the hall but once Coby started screaming Annslee rushed back in. When I asked her about it later she said "I hold Coby's hand to help him" Awww...my baby girl!!

Fun with Mia

I know this is out of order but maybe I will change the dates later~ I wanted to get our Eas*ter post up...so here is one from Saturday

On Saturday we planned on going to a big East*er outing and it was suppose to be with Paige and Missy too but then they got sick. Instead I just took Annslee and Mia while Daddy stayed home watching golf with Coby : )

I was lucky enough to hang out with these two beauties : )







She takes her crafting very seriously





The flowers were beautiful but paled in comparrison to these two (yeah, I'm a little biased LOL)


We also ran into Claire!



The bottom pic is how they occupied themselves while we waited in line for a balloon animal~ they built bird nests and generally just played with leaves, rocks and sticks



Annslee is always up for a game of chase but Mia didn't really go for it at first so Annslee decided to taunt her into it ; )



On the way home we stopped for ice cream because they had been such good listeners all day!!