Suzanne and Sydney are looking at Liz’s old purses. Checking them out and going through them. They found old tickets to shows, Muni passes, and then Suzanne grabs a HANDFUL of items and brings them to Liz.
Here is the very short conversation:
Suz: What are these?
Me: You get to take that one! (pointing at my lovely wife!)
Liz: Well those are for when you hit puberty.
Suz: What’s that?
Liz: Well it is when you grow up and it is when your body changes so you can have babies.
Suz: Ah… Okay!
And that was the end of it!
I’ll give you three guesses as to what she found and the first two do not count!
I think she dodged a really big bullet!
What do you think??
The other day I was picking Suzanne up at her after school care and two of Suzanne’s friends came up to me and asked me I knew who Suzanne’s parents were. Normally if an adult would ask this question I would say, “Yes, We are!”
But I knew exactly what they were asking. “Do you know Suzanne’s biological parents?” OF course we do not but you need to tell kids in a different way. After I told them no and why they seemed okay and went about their business.
On the way to the car I started talking to her and making sure that she knew if she had ANY questions that I would do my best to answer as best I could. She thought of a second and said, “Could I write a letter to the orphanage and let them know how I am doing?” With tears in my eyes I said ABSOLUTELY! I also told her that we could send it with some pictures to the director himself.
Last night after dinner she asked if she could use Microsoft Word on the computer to write something. I said of course, not remembering our conversation from the previous day. Then I looked at what she was writing. All I can say is that it was AWESOME!!!!! I can’t write what she wrote without asking her if I can post it so hopefully in another day or two I will be able to post the letter here.
Sydney Update Too!!
This little girl is a HUGE smarty pants! She is reading at a 2.5 grade level and she has just started first grade! She is also excellent in her Minute Math levels. Minute Math for those that don’t know is where you have a sheet of problems that you on until the minute is up. She has gotten up to the letter O, I think they go from A - Z.
Only one other classmate is even close to her and they are on K.
WTG Sydney! Now she wants to get Multiplication Flash Cards to work on!
You GO GIRL!!!!
I think I’m a bad parent! Why? I forgot Sydney’s gotcha day! If it wasn’t for my phone calendar I would have blown it for sure. I can only chalk it up to being busy. That it NOT a good excuse, it just isn’t. Sydney I am truly sorry. Tonight we will do a last minute dinner wherever you want. Sorry we didn’t have more family at dinner. We will still be celebrating your day. I can remember that day very clearly 5 years ago. We landed I Changsha found our guide and started off for the hotel. Little did we know you would become a part of our family in just under a hours time. We had expected to meet you on the following Monday. Suzanne was so excited to finally meet you, she was jumping for joy! When you were finally brought into the meeting room you were so quiet, Mama and I were scared and excited. Suzanne was just plain excited, she was getting a little sister. We had a great weekend as a new family of four, finally!
Today is Gotcha Day! The day you joined the family, the day our family became whole, a very special day for sure! 5 years ago wow!
One day I will never forget. (again)
Love you kiddo! Wai ai nie
I saw this video posted on a friends blog.
Couldn’t resist sharing it myself.
Enjoy!!
I also have some news on the job front.
Last April our department was told that we were no long needed. That meant we were getting laid-off. Yep! It sucked! No small task here either. We were the department responsible for maintaining a lot of stuff at work. When we would tell people that this had happened one of two things would be said, and always followed the third.
“How are they going to run things now?”
“Who do I go to now when something goes wrong?”
“What the HELL are they thinking?”
All of us had those questions as well. As it so happens one of the systems that we kept track of failed on the first weekend after we were gone. Am I smiling? Yes and No!!
Almost 14 years at that job and a lot of wonderful memories! It will be missed but I know I will come back to visit on occasion.
But I did get a new job! I am now working with the payment crew at the Dept. of Transportation. Great group of guys and they have fun. So it looks like I am in good hands… just a really different job.
So when I saw that video above it made me smile and I wanted to share a smile with everyone else!!!!
Quick note to 3D… Hopefully sooner than later!! My fingers are crossed for a faster timeframe!!! HUGS!!!!
How in the heck did that happen? I remember the day we held her in our arms for the first time. Full of fear and terror! Okay not really, but we should have been!
I little 9 month old just given to us to hold. We were in a small hotel room in China and had no idea WHAT to expect, but she was ours!
Fast forward to today!
I walked into her room to wake her up for the morning. Groggy and sleepy eyed, she tells me, “You forgot to say Happy Birthday to me!” Well I didn’t forget, she never gave me the chance! Liz and I have to both had work today so she and Sydney went to the beach for beach day monday and had a great time. I told her to have the car back by 5pm!! Just kidding! They went with our close family friends, second parents/family if you will!
As I have said before, today is a day that I think about the birth family of Suzanne. Do they wonder what type of little girl she has become? Do they wonder if she is smart? Do they wonder if she is healthy? Do they ever wonder what she looks like? I wonder every single day, when I get to look into her wonderfully deep brown eyes, what her birthparents wonder about.
She is a happy little girl! She is a healthy little girl! She is a smart little girl! She is also a beautiful little girl!
She is in the Girl Scouts and has had a great time with it this year. She has a lot of badges and has a great time with her friends. She loves to swim and loves playing at the beach and finally in the water! WooHoo! I am bummed that I am missing the first beach day monday of the year but I also know that I will make a few, I promise!!
Happy Birthday Little one, it is so great seeing you become a little girl!!
Shao bao bei
Today, was Sydney’s 6th Birthday party. Her Birthday isn’t until Tuesday but since it was a long weekend we decided to make the party today. She was so excited! She invited two of her friends from school but only one could make it. Still it was a fun time had by all. Suzanne was able to invite one of her friends too. In Sydney’s words, “So she wouldn’t be lonely!” Such a great sister!
I can’t help thinking, at each one of my daughter’s birthdays, about each of their birth families. I often wonder if the families or the birth-moms even think about how these beautiful kids turned out. I can only hope, someone out there is thinking of them, like I think of them. I can only say, THANK YOU!
Sad news in the world of cartoons and legends!
Wayne Allwine who was for the last 30 years has been the voice of Mickey Mouse!
The love of his life is the voice of Minnie Mouse! I always thought that was pretty cool!
Here is a link to a great write up with a video from YouTube. I suggest looking for all three videos. Very cool insight to two of the the best known Mice in the world!!
I have a few updates!
A few weeks ago our family received some FREE tickets to the Hannah Montana Movie at Oakridge Mall! Everyone was excited. Sydney could not contain herself, it was pretty funny.
“Mama, How long until it starts?” was heard over and over again!
They both sat still for the entire movie and enjoyed it very much.
If you are a HM fan and have seen the TV show then you will love this movie!
If you have only seen the show once or twice, you should like the movie.
If you are a Dad, with a daughter, this movie will tear at your insides!
Trust me, it ripped me apart.
Overall it is a great family movie, you will have fun. It is not so much about Hannah Montana as it is about how you should always respect where you come from, and your family. Great Movie.
Last week I helped in Suzanne’s school. Apparently in 2nd grade you get to dissect a cow’s eye! Yup! Big old nasty cow’s eye! Suzanne has been dreaming,or having nightmares, about this ever since she heard it was going to happen. (About 6 weeks ago!) So the day finally came. All of the 2nd graders were able to do it. There were 5 classes of 20. Each one came in at different times and everyone was able to watch and see and experience the dissection. I was one of the parents that did the work. The first class it seemed that every table was taken care of so I just watched one of the mom’s do it. It was really neat. After the first class I was able to do the other 4 without a care. When it was time for Suzanne’s class they all came in and stood around the teachers table and she did a really quick demo of what was going to happen. Most of the kids were grossed out and I was able to get a few pictures of Suzanne and her friends hiding under the table ledge. Then I took Suzanne and another girl to a table and started in on mine. We went through all of the parts and and listed them one by one. Then the kids had to draw on all of the same parts on their paper. The kids all wore goggles, and gloves. Then we asked if the wanted to touch any part and Suzanne, to my surprise, decided she want to touch some of it too. It was really neat seeing her get past a fear that had bugged her for such a long time. During the drawing time the teacher came around and handed each kiddo an eye to hold so she could get a picture, and EVERY kid did it without a problem. Kids can be GREAT!!!
The last class was the BEST! I had two girls again and they wanted to touch and play with all of the pieces. They wouldn’t stop! With gloves, with bare hands, pencils. They asked all sorts of questions! It was great! They didn’t want to stop. All in all a really fun day!
This week coming up is spring vacation. Both Liz and I are off and the girls are out of school. The girls will be visiting Nana & Grandpa for two nights so Liz and I can go to San Francisco to see Wicked!
Can’t wait for that night!!! Also Sydney gets to go to a place she has really wanted to go for a longtime. The Rock Climbing Gym!!! The family is going to take a class on Monday and send a little bit of time climbing and jumping and having a blast!!!
At the end of the week Suzanne is going to go on her FIRST sleep over party!! She is very excited!
Last weekend Sydney was invited to the drive-in movies with one of her friends from school. Her mom is one of the Kinder teachers and also invited one other friends and the partner teacher in kinder, Sydney’s teacher!! She said she had a lot of fun. A little tired when she made it home but it was a great time!
<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffs_place/3431044332/” title=”IMG_1796.JPG by schimoo, on Flickr”><img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3411/3431044332_945c2c5a5f.jpg” width=”375″ height=”500″ alt=”IMG_1796.JPG” /></a>
