christmas eve

Well I deserved this, since I was gloating about going on a holday where there would be little chance of snow! The picture above is the view from our bedroom window, sigh!

And here's a few pictures of our excited girl on Christmas Eve!

[ more pictures here ]

merry christmas

From our house to yours...

...and we're away!

Finally, I have all our suitcases packed. We're flying tonight! Lilah seems pretty excited at this point. She was running around after me this morning while I was packing the suitcases, picking up things, like a bouncy ball and a book and several other things, asking me each time, "Bring dis to Nirnand?". But best of all, she's just thrilled with her flashy 'Dora & Boots' carry-on case! Luckily it has wheels because it's heavier than she is, by a long shot!

I hope to check in and possibly even blog while we're on vacation.

let it snow! let it snow! let it snow!

Only because more than likely there'll be no snow in Ireland and that's where we're heading in two days! And this might be the only snow we see for a long time. That's the reason we don't mind it snowing all it jolly-well-wants right now!

"...but as long as you love me so...
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!"

[ all our pictures here ]

not getting married

Baba has convinced our Lilah girl that she's not getting married. Of course, if she even remotely knew what getting married was all about, she might disagree!

But for now, she agrees - no married, no boys!

supper with a special family

Last night we went out for supper with the family we travelled to China with.

Here are a few of the reasons this family is so special to us...

: Our girls were born in the same province, same year, just 3 months apart.

: We became new (first time) parents together.

: We met our girls in the same room, on the same day, at the same time.

: We spent almost two weeks together in China. Two weeks of flights and hotels and cities and taxi rides and sight seeing and shopping runs and buffets. Two weeks worth of memories and moments that no one else could ever understand.

Our girls went through so many tough changes in those first two weeks, they didn't even notice each other. The first time we saw them interact with each other was on our last evening in Beijing. However, time has brought changes, many really wonderful changes. Last night the girls enjoyed each others company, they copied each other, they held hands and were full of smiles. It was beautiful. It made me realize how strong these girls are and how much they've grown and developed in the past year.

We are two blessed families. We have two amazing girls.

And here the girls are (with their Babas),
on our first full day together, exactly one year ago today...

[ all our pictures from today are here ]

together for one year

One year ago today, we became a family of three.
We are very very proud parents and so SO thankful for our precious daughter.

more of the things i love about her

How she uses the word 'open' instead of 'light'. Like at night she says "dark outside", but in the daytime she says "open outside".

How she calls all belts, seat belts. I have a belt on my winter jacket and as I was buckling it up this morning, she said "Mama put on the seat belt"!

How she simply swoons when I hold her tight and tell her "You're my baby girl".

How when she's washing her hands she always asks me for 'soup', but she actually means 'soap'!

How when we're at the Mall and walk by the Kernels Popcorn counter, she points and says to me "Mama, sweetcorn". (No, she doesn't know they are one and the same!)

How she calls all her small board books her hymn books.

How when we get home from being out and Colin has left us a voice message. I play it back and she chats away to him answering him and telling him all about her day and where she's been, not realizing he's not actually on the phone. When he hangs up she looks at me with a frown and says "Baba not dere (there)".

How after a meal out and we drive away from the restaurant, she waves and says "Bye food - Bye people"!

How she's been asking to go see Santa since we first saw him a few weeks ago, and not to hurt Santa's feelings, but I know all too well she just wants another candy cane!

How when we're driving to meet Baba for lunch (at his work) she is so animated and talks-non-stop-in-a-super-excited-high-pitch-voice.

How she says 'everymore' instead of 'anymore'. For example, "Lilah not singing everymore" or "Baba not sleeping everymore".

How she gets confused and calls a snowball a riceball. (I make her small little balls with the sticky rice and call them riceballs when we are at a Chinese or Thai restaurant)

How we go to Costco once a week and she knows Costco only because of the caramel ice-cream sundae we get there. I don't think it's crossed her mind that we actually buy groceries too!

this day last year

We flew Ottawa-Toronto-Beijing-Guangzhou. And waited just 14 hours (after that long flight) to meet our precious baby girl. I still feel the same way I did this time last year, that feeling like you're living in a dream. It's real now, of course. Our dream came true and we couldn't be happier. We thank God every day for bringing us together and making us a little family.

We witness a miracle every time a child enters into life.
But those who make their journey home across time & miles,
growing within the hearts of those who wait to love them,
are carried on the wings of destiny and placed among us
by God's very own hands.

round-like-a-circle painting

Since there was a wild snow storm and we were housebound all day today, we decided to do a little bit of painting. Baba has been asking for a painting for his work office wall for awhile now. So I gave Lilah four pots of paint and she got right to it. This painting is unlike any of the previous ones she's done, this one actually has some logic to it. While she was painting, she was rhyming to herself, "Round and round like a circle". And indeed she did paint a few (fairly recognizable) circles!

Needless to say Baba is very impressed with his piece of art, by our very own, Lilah van Gogh!

She's known some of her shapes for several months now and I take no credit for it. In fact the ever delightful Dora-the-Explorer has taught her all the shapes she currently knows, which are: Circle, Star, Triangle, Square and Diamond. She says rectangle, but I don't think she's quite figured out what shape it is yet.

first snow fall

It's beginning to look a lot like winter, here in Ottawa. Yesterday evening we got our first light coating of snow this season. And there's a bit more than a light coating due tomorrow, in fact they're calling it a 'big snowstorm', with up to 20cms of white fluff.

I guess the mild weather (we were experiencing ...and loving) could only last so long!

Anyway, it must be the nice ease into winter that has helped Lilah this year. I took her out last night to experience the first snowfall of the season and gave her the little snow shovel I bought her at the dollar store. She had so much fun. Can you believe it, she laughed so hard when I threw a snowball at her, aiming just for her jacket of course! She kept saying, "Do it again, do it again"! Funny girl. I think we're going to have a lot more fun this winter!

she cracks herself up

She loves making faces, she cracks herself up all the time!

[ more pictures here ]

christmas cards

Our Christmas Cards were all posted today. Check.

They're really lovely this year. Which isn't even a question since Lilah Grace is, well, gracing them! We took a stroll down to the Post Office and Lilah posted them, one by one. Did I mention there were seventy altogether?! A few hours and a bag of penny chews later, we arrived home! Oh yes, we went to Starbucks too and a few other shops! It's 5°C and raining here today, really mild weather for this time of year. Definitely no complaints here!

The hat and scarf was handmade with love by Aunt Marion. Lilah's first Christmas pressie.
[ all our pictures from today are here ]

i am who i was born to be

I asked my hubby last night for Susan Boyle's latest 'I Dreamed A Dream' CD for Christmas.

Have you heard of Susan Boyle? Silly question I guess! Some of the songs on this CD are absolutely amazing. My all time favourites are 'Who I Was Born To Be' and 'Amazing Grace'.

Her voice is just fabulous, it gives me goosebumps.

"i'm tross"

In a recent post I mentioned Lilah's 'Tross Face'. She's learning a lot of emotions at the moment. I must admit, even though she has books with emotions in them, it seems this development has only recently been realized by watching "Ni Hao Kai-Lan". At least, that's who I'm blaming! Not in a bad way though, I really like Kai-Lan's little 'life lesson' movies. Anyway, Lilah turned to me in the grocery isle about three weeks ago and said "I'm TROSS". Me, in a dumbfound voice says, "What? You're cross?". She immediately falls into laughter and I think to myself, this is the beginning of the end! Well, it has to be the funniest thing, she now does it all the time, puts on this cross face and says, I'm tross, meanwhile, underneath that cross face, she is just dying to burst into giggles. It cracks us up every time.

Now lets see if we can keep the cross thing as happy as it is right now! She's going to be so confused about emotions when this is all over. Welcome to my life!

Lilah also comes out with Kai-Lan's little saying now and again, 'you make my heart so happy', and it's the sweetest thing ever. On top of that she has caught onto Rintoo's 'tiger tiger ROAR". We hear a lot of roaring around our house at the moment!