Friday, January 30, 2009

forever friends, forever families, forever thankful

Salta & Lilah @ ODS playgroup

Lilah & Salta - two best friends, two precious daughters, two families complete.

Sometimes I feel so overwhelmed that it brings tears to my eyes; I'm just so thankful that we have been blessed with our little Lilah. This picture was taken last Friday at playgroup by Salta's mama. I adore it! The girls are eagerly awaiting their plate of 'healthy' snack food!

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

starr gymnastics

under the rainbow!

Lilah attended her first gymnastics class today, although it may not seem like it from the cute clothes she's wearing! She received the outfit as a pressie in the mail yesterday from nono & papie, thanks mum & dad, it's beautiful. From the moment she put it on, she loved it, headband and all! As soon as she woke this morning she pointed at it and grunted, and I just knew the pre-planned (boring) gym outfit wasn't going to make the cut.

Anyway, all that to say she loved the gymnastics class and had sooo much fun. I was a bit pessimistic when I was registering her, but I was wrong - I think it's probably the first time! The highlights of the class were the trampoline, rolling down the 'hill', crawling under the rainbows and doing handstands (with a lot of help from me!).

There was also a little girl in the class that Lilah liked a lot, she got a lot of smiles from Lilah. Most of the time she is oblivious to other children, and then, all out of the blue, one of them will strike her fancy. I would just love to know what's going through her little mind. There are more pictures from today here, I seemed to miss all the laughs and smiles unfortunately.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

my first trip to the library

I feel dizzy...books books and more books

Well, lets just say our first trip to the library was a change of scenery, and to be honest, Lilah prefered to play with the few toys that were there than look at the books! She must think she has enough books at home! I asked about registering for 'toddlertime', but it was full, maybe next season.

A funny story... I showed Lilah one of the books with a picture of these little yellow fluffy ducks. When I told her they were ducks she looked at it and did the sign language for bath! I had to laugh! The ducks in the book sure don't look like her bath ducks! I just thought it was funny that she linked the ducks and the bath together in her little mind! You can see more photos from today here.

Monday, January 26, 2009

happy new year - 新年快乐 - xīn nián kuài lè

xin nián kuài lè

More photo's from our Chinese New Year celebrations here.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

just one minute

just one minute

I guess there is a high possibility you might be overdoing something when your daughter turns around and starts doing it back at you! I'm not totally sure she knows the true meaning of 'just one minute' though, because that one minute can, on occasion, stretch into quite a few minutes! A few more pictures from today here.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

happy birthday papie!

Happy Birthday to a wonderful Dad and Grandfather, Papie!
We love you so much and can't wait to see you soon. Have a wonderful day. xoxox

Happy Birthday Papie

Monday, January 19, 2009

it's beginning to look a lot like...

...Chinese New Year! Yep, this day next week will start the year of the Ox and this will be our first year celebrating! Check out more about Chinese New Year here.

chinese lanterns

Friday, January 16, 2009

they say i'm cute, who am i to argue?

they say i'm cute, who am i to argue?

Lilah had her first doctors appointment today. Nothing major, we just needed a few referrals, and while we were there she was weighed and measured. Can you believe she has put on 3 pounds in 5 weeks, actually 3 weeks, because she didn't eat in China.

Anyway, our doctors office just happens to be in the Real Canadian Superstore, and really, I couldn't have planned it any better myself! So after visiting the doctor we checked out the new spring line of 'Joe' kids fashion. Yes, it was hard to say no to that sweet little stripy sailor dress. Maybe it was more wishful thinking, hoping for the spring season to arrive already!

Gosh she's cute! I wouldn't normally dress her in nautical theme clothes in the middle of winter, but I had to make sure it fit her, and I was changing her diaper anyway, and then she didn't want to take it off. So there you have it, enough excuses already! More pictures here.

I love her so so so much, she's such a sweet and happy girl. I count my blessings every day.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

our little inventive ice skater

our little skater

On Monday past we took Lilah to the Rideau Canal Skateway. It is the world's largest skating rink (in the winter time), and it's just a few blocks from where we live. It seems Lilah has picked up a few tips after spending a bit of time there! She's ready to go back any day soon wearing her nice colourful IKEA beaker skates! Her little inventions are just too funny! She also got to taste her first beaver tail pastry which of course was yummy. We are definitely all about the food! More pictures from today here, and a few from yesterday here.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

wheelers pancake house

mmm, big decisions!

We took a road trip to Wheelers Pancake House today! Lots of snow and fun, and of course, the real reason we went there, yummy food! Pancakes, sausages and maple syrup to be precise! My camera's battery died while there, oh well, I guess I'll be better prepared with the back-up next time!

Our Lilah is not only our wonderful Chinese girl, I would say she is also enjoying being Canadian too! She devours her maple & brown sugar porridge every day and fits into our family just perfectly, we all love to eat!

wheelers pancake house

wheelers pancake house

wheelers pancake house

wheelers pancake house

[ more photos here ]

Monday, January 12, 2009

ssh, guess who's sleeping all night long?

daddy's girl

Yes, I am so very very happy to announce that our sweet girl is sleeping all through the night, 9pm to 7am, 10 hours to be exact! Alone, in her own crib, in her own room! Not even a peep! I was afraid to mention it after the first night, but now that it's happened two nights in a row, I feel compelled to post about it! Did I mention how happy I am?!

She has also learned her first sign! I borrowed a sign language book from our adoption agency's library last week and taught myself the sign language for hungry, more, bottle, cookie and bath. Anyway, I'm not really good at remembering to sign as I say the word, and I think I signed 'more' to her about two times that day. Well, the next day we were playing together and I was building up the stacking cups for Lilah to knock down. It's a great game, especially when they all come crashing down and scatter across the floor! Anyway, Lilah tries to knock them down when I only stack two, so I was saying to her, "wait until mama puts more on top". She looked at me and tapped her fingers together to sign the word 'more'. Oh yes, there is no doubt, I am a very proud mama!

Friday, January 9, 2009

our first playgroup experience

drinking my juice

Lilah and I attended our first playgroup together today! I'm not sure what she thought of it all; she mostly observed the other children and she enjoyed the song circle. Soon enough she will be one of those children running around wrestling toys off each other!

The playgroup we attended is very close to where we live, called The Open Door Society. It's specifically for adoptive families, which is nice because we've all been through a very similar experience and we don't have to explain everything we went through to get to where we are today.

Interestingly there was a little Tong-Tong in the group. I'm not sure if you remember from my previous posts, but Lilah's name in the orphanage was Tong-Tong and we call her that as well as Lilah. It was cute to see and hear another little Guangdong girl with the same name.

We also got to meet up with our good friends Pam & Saltanat and also our China travel buddies Jodi & Amelia! It sure was a nice time and so great to see them again! We've been a family 4 weeks today, seriously, where does the time go?

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

my first cold and maybe a new tooth too

doesn't everyone do this?

It didn't take long, but it seems Lilah has caught her first Canadian cold, she's been sneezing all day. She also has a nice little rosy patch on her left cheek and is slobbing too, which is very unusual, so I think she is cutting a tooth to boot. She is being really good about it all though, she is still our silly happy girl! She was patting her cheek with her hand tonight so I gave her the boo boo buddy from the freezer and showed her how to put it on her cheek to cool it off. She thought it was a little game, but I think it helped a bit. I just bathed her and put her into her crib, she felt it very necessary to wear sunglasses while drinking her bottle tonight...of course! It took forever to drink that bottle, do you have any idea how hard it is to drink a bottle when you can't breathe through your nose! Here are more pictures of her from today, mostly of her in the little car my co-workers bought her, and also a few of her standing on her baba's feet while he walks. It's a fun new game! I remember doing it as a child too!

Today we dropped by and visited our adoption agency (Children's Bridge), Cathy in particular. As we were driving there I was thinking about how she 'matched' our little family. She could have matched Lilah with another family, but it was meant to be ours and we are deeply thankful for her involvement in making our little forever family. It was so nice to see her and the team, and for them to meet Lilah.

I also forgot to blog about Lilah's first Church appearance! On Sunday morning past she was out to Church with us for the first time and she did very well. We were very proud of her, long may the good behaviour continue! The only thing that kinda upset her was the singing, which surprised me, because she loves music and singing! Oh well, maybe she feels we just need a bit more practice in that department!

Saturday, January 3, 2009

cuteness overload

as sweet as honey

I can't get enough of my girl. I am a little biased, but I do think she is the sweetest little thing on this planet! She has a fabulous personality, full of love and silliness. I know she is learning from us, but I can't help but feel she was shown a lot of love before we got her. I am so very thankful for those in the orphanage who cared for her and really made her feel special and secure. Building a bond with Lilah has really been amazing, I never imagined it to be like this at all. I want to thank all those who prayed for the bonding process to go smoothly, we have a lot to be thankful for. Colin and I continually look at each other and shake our heads in disbelief, she is all we ever dreamed of. Some more pictures from today here.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

happy new year

Wishing you much love, peace and joy in 2009, from our family to yours.

Lamentations 3:22-24 ~ It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

our little lady in red