Lunch Date

Amelia and I had a lunch date with our friends Courtney, Lily, and Micah at Sumo today.  Micah was Amelia's friend in the orphanage.  They shared the same room but not the same nanny.  We were so excited to be able to meet him while in Chongqing and send Courtney pictures of him.  Courtney is a director at Camp Winnataska, so before she headed to camp for the summer, we decided to get the children together for a lunch date.  We had a great lunch and wonderful visit.  We took some precious pictures of the two together.

After we ate, we decided it was time to leave, but we wanted to stop by to see the fish.  I was standing by Amelia when all of sudden, she was somersaulting into the water!  I couldn't believe my eyes!  I dropped my things and pulled her out of the water.  Amelia had actually tried to pet a fish and had fallen in!  She cried and clung to me because she was scared.  Praise the Lord that she wasn't seriously hurt and that he gave me the ability to stay calm during emergency situations.  She has a bump on her head from hitting the rocks, but it could have been much worse.  Fortunately, Courtney had a beach towel in her car, so we dried Amelia off the best we could.  After a few minutes, she was running around with Micah and Lily and wanting to see the fish again.  I had to sit down because the adrenaline rush was leaving me shaky.  Amelia was soaked from head to toe, so we weren't able to make a trip to Costco (her favorite store).  Instead, I stripped her down and put her in the car to head home.  As I drove home, I called David to tell him what had happened.  He laughed and said he had to share this story so he couldn't talk to me anymore! 

Just a note: For those of you who have young children, Kobe does not have bars that go all the way down the railing like Kobe.  They can easily decided to swim with the fish and there is nothing to hold them back.

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a wonderful weekend with Amelia.  Our dear friends, the McMullens, invited us to visit their lake house.  This was Amelia's first time to go to the lake, swim, and ride in a boat (not counting the dinner cruise in Guangzhou).  She had a FABULOUS time!  She loved playing with Emma and Anna Claire and wanted to do everything they were doing.  The three of them were so precious to watch.  Emma and Anna Claire have such sweet spirits and really seemed to love helping Amelia.  Amelia wasn't so sure about swimming in the lake (or the life jacket), but she LOVED the boat rides!  Speeding along with the wind in her face gave her such a thrill. We had a great weekend and appreciate Katie and Mike's hospitality.  We always enjoy getting together with this special family.

Today, we also found out that Amelia likes pickle juice.  She had both bread and butter and dill and begged for more!

I honestly can't believe that she liked it so much!

Five Months Since Gotcha Day

Amelia became ours 5 months ago today!  We continued to be amazed at her progress.  God has truly given us the perfect child for our family, and we are so grateful that he chose us to raise her.

Since last month's update, Amelia

- is still left handed.  She eats, colors, pushes buttons, works puzzles, and opens doors with her left hand.  We thought she might change over, but it hasn't happened so far.  You can see in each of the pictures where a hand is being used - it's her left!

- OPENS DOORS!  She can reach up and pull the door handle to open the door.  She loves doing this.  I think I need a lock for the pantry door.  Amelia is CONSTANTLY opening this door.  She also likes to open the door to the back deck.  I think she really checks to see if it is unlocked and gets excited when it actually opens.

- turns the washing machine and dryer on when I'm not looking.  I have gone into the laundry room and wondered why the washing machine is running with nothing inside of it.  She loves to push the buttons!

- works eight piece chunky and peg puzzles.

- sings in the car.  It is so cute!  If she doesn't know the song or the tune, she just moves her mouth and acts like she is singing.  If she knows the tune, she will say certain words that she knows and "sing" to the music.  Her favorite CD is the Veggie Tales Favorite Sunday School Songs.  She loves "This Little Light of Mine"and "It's a Miracle" from this CD.

- LOVES Hello Kitty!  She gets extremely excited to see "Cat Meow".

She tried to take this HUGE Hello Kitty home with her, but she couldn't carry it.

- sits on the potty.  We are still waiting on the day that she actually uses it.

She loves to read her "potty" book while she sits on her potty.

- demands to dress herself.  She wants to choose everything, including her pajamas at night.

The first outfit she chose from head to toe.

- begs to play outside.  She feels free to run all over the yard and yell at Bailey when he gets too far away from her.

- distinguishes between hot and cold drinks.  Isn't that amazing!

- walks with her hands on her hips or behind her back.

- was treated to her first pedicure!  She is such a girly girl that I knew she would love having color on her toenails like mommy.

- grew more teeth.  All of her teeth are now in except for her 2 year molars.  Her eye teeth have broken the surface and are almost halfway to full growth, so I am counting those.

- learned some new words: Amen, bubbles, ME!, all gone, PawPaw, night night, home, wow!, Shoo, fork, turtle, fish, up (when she wants to be picked up), bite, bed, cat, Oh NO!, book, bath, cup, cold, hot, phone, and swing.

We are so proud of her progress and can't wait to see what else she learns!

Water/Sand Table and First Pedicure

This morning was quite a busy time for us.  I decided to let Amelia play with her birthday present from RuRu.  We got it a little early, but RuRu said it was fine to let her play with it now.  The temperature was going up to 90 today, so I thought it would be best for Amelia to play with her new water/sand table this morning while it was cooler.  She LOVES this present and has so much fun playing in the sand and water!  She does not understand why I won't let her play with both at the same time, but for now, she is allowing us to leave one side covered while she plays on the other side.

The sand side:

Can you tell she is her father's child?  She likes to use the push broom to sweep up sand that has fallen on the ground.

The water side:

Sometimes sand and water get added to the flower pots...

She likes to water the flowers with water when her watering cans are empty.

After playing outside for a bit, Mommy realized that today was a good day to go get a pedicure.  David and I discussed letting Amelia have her toenails painted the next time I went, so I decided we should try it.  She loves seeing the fish in the aquarium and watching my feet go in the "bath".  She is mesmerized by my toenails being painted.  Tim, the shop owner, and I decided the best way to have Amelia sit still was to put her in her stroller.  He put the first coat on her toenails, and Ms. Kim put the second coat on after putting on her shoes.  They were so sweet and commented on how well Amelia did the entire time.  They also pointed out that Amelia has Mongolian Spots on her ankles.  I thought that they might be but did not realize that Mongolian Spots occurred in other areas of the body.  She has them on her lower back and bottom like a lot of Asian children, but it seems that she also has them on her ankles.  It's nice to know so people won't think that they are bruises or dirt (like I did at first).

Mr. Tim showing her the color we picked out for her (a soft pink from the new Disney collection)

Checking out her new nail color.

The first brush stroke of polish

She wasn't so sure I was allowing this, so she kept looking at me as if to ask if it was okay.

Ms. Kim put her shoes on and put her second coat on her toes with some quick drying spray.

First coat

Amelia kept trying to grab her toes to look at them, so we gave her a squeezy to occupy her hands.

All finished!

Amelia did great!  Now that we are home, she keeps pointing at her toes and saying "boo boo".  I have to reassure her that her toenails are not hurt, but they have been painted with a pretty pink color.  I can't wait for Daddy to see them!