After the hard work of gardening yesterday, today we enjoyed a day of hot summer sun at the local splash pad.
Lilah was in her glory, making lots of new friends and playing in the water! Is there anything better?
I learned something today. Gardening. Is not for wimps.
We live downtown, so our front yard is what I best descibe as a postage stamp! The extent of my gardening skills is walking around the grass on a weekly basis with our (very eco-friendly) push lawnmower. And digging out the dandelions, which I tell you, is a full-time job in itself every spring! On top of that, I normally even go all out and buy three hanging baskets, two for the top porch and one for the bottom porch.
But this year I decided it was time for a 'real' garden!
Today, yes, even though it was 32 degrees (celsius) of blistering heat, sweat and humidity, I dug up the grass/sod, put in some landscape edging, planted a couple of spirea shrubs, a dicentra - otherwise known as bleeding hearts and some other tree-kinda-thing that my Granny Brown used to have - I remember this, because my cousins and I used to pull off the blooms and play with them, as if they were little ballerinas! It's obvious at this stage that I'm not a gardener, right?! (Mum, or anyone else, if you know the name of this plant, let me know! It's the one behind Lilah in the second photo!)
We then added some mulch and watered the plants like mad. It took us 4 hours. But I have to say, it was rather therapeutic and I'm quite proud of myself! Maybe I'll eventually get onto this gardening thing after all!
Lilah, who was (supposed to be) my right hand woman, spend the best part of those 4 hours eating ice pops and torturing worms! Dear love them. I actually caught her with a pile of them in a flower pot and they were all wet - she confessed to me that she'd just given them a bath, because they were, in her words, muddy! I wish I had my camera handy and my hands weren't caked in soil. It was priceless.
Our baby girl turned four today - Happy Birthday Lilah Grace!
On the way to bed this evening she asked me: "Will I still be 4 tomorrow?"
We love our Lilah girl dearly, with all our hearts. Each night her Baba and I lay in bed and just wonder and amaze over her, talking and laughing over the little things she's said and done. Every evening we always come back to the fact that she's such a sweet girl and how blessed we are. I simply can't find the words that express just how blessed we are to have this opportunity to raise her as our daughter. Parenting is such an incredible experience, watching our girl grow and learn and enjoy life...
We adore you Lilah Grace. You might think we're the ones doing all the teaching and showing you what life is all about. But quite honestly, it's the opposite way around. You've taught us so much over the last two and a half years. You have a shining personality, a heart full of gratitude and you're always so tender, compassionate and loving. You've taught us about love, the love that a parent has for their child, it's such a strong, deep, selfless, unconditional love - we'd do absolutely anything for you.
The day before your birthday your Baba and I talked about your birth parents and how they might be feeling on the day you were born. Were they thinking about you? Were they wondering if you were cared for? Did they take note of the day and date you were born? Or was it too much for their hearts to bear? We have no answers to these questions. We know nothing of the circumstances that led them to the point of leaving you in a special place where someone would find you. But there's one thing we do know, we know you were loved, truly loved. And now we get to have a part in that same wonderful love for you.
I found this quote today and something about it made me think of your birth parents... “Just because somebody doesn't love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean they don't love you with everything they got.” ~Anonoymous
We love you baby girl. I know you're four and you're not a baby, but you'll always and forever be our baby girl, because that's what you tell us, all the time. And we couldn't be happier.
We celebrated Lilah's birthday (as a family) today.
We went out for a delicious breakfast together, came home and she tore into all the cards and presents! She was thrilled, absolutely thrilled with all her presents. I am always in awe with everyone's generosity to Lilah, she is blessed to have so many wonderful family and friends in her life.
Afterwards we took her to her most favourite place in the world - the swimming pool. She and I go swimming every Wednesday, so she was eager to show her Baba the new tricks she'd learned!
And finally, we ended the day with cake. The exact cake she asked for: "A yellow cake with an elephant on top!" What can I say, the girl has good taste, I was very surprised it wasn't a Dora the Explorer cake though, because she talked about that for a while after her third birthday. Oh well, she's a girl, who is well known to change her mind and have us all scratching our heads! And that's one of the things we absolutely adore about her, her spontaneity. Lilah chose the (schleich) elephant at Mrs. Tiggy Winkles and the bunting on the cake was an idea that I came across on Etsy.
It was a wonderful day.
I think I've mentioned on here before that both Lilah and I attend a playgroup every Friday, here in the city, called the Open Door Society. It is an amazing playgroup that's for families that are formed through adoption. We absolutely love it, it's one of those environments that is very stress free and everyone has a mutual understanding of your journey to become a family.
Lilah and I love the people that make it up. And Lilah, over the past 2 and a half years has made some wonderful wonderful friends - they are definitely among her besties, her lifelong friends. And she's not the only one, I have met many wonderful friends as well. One of the things I appreciate about this playgroup is that when Lilah and I chat about adoption at home, we're able to talk about other families (from playgroup) that are 'like ours'. It's such an excellent resource for the adoption community in many ways.
Unfortunately, with Lilah starting school this September, unless it's a 'professional development day' for the school teachers (and she has the day off), we won't be able to attend playgroup. We're really really going to miss our Friday playgroup routine.
Anyway, I guess I should get to my point here! Last year we made a cake and Lilah celebrated her birthday with her playgroup besties and this year we did exactly that, again.
I don't know if she's ever been this excited before.
My little girl turns 4 on Sunday, oh my, this growing older business gets tougher (on Mama) every year!
Lilah was so thrilled to get a letter from her teacher in the mail today, inviting her to an open house at school next week. Meet the teacher, see her classroom and hopefully meet some new little friends that will also be in the same Junior Kindergarten class!
She was so thrilled that she spelled out every letter on the front of the envelope!
The day I signed her up for school I was not in the least bit excited about my baby girl heading to school in September, after all, she's just so young and I love spending my days with her. But so many things have changed since that day, just 3 months ago. I know, such a short space of time and so many changes. Lilah turns 4 in another 4 days and her social skills are just going crazy! She always wants to be around people in a social setting, she's definitely our social butterfly! She talks about friends friends friends, *my* friends, ALL THE TIME! She is more than ready for school. And because of that, I'm so excited for her too.
I'm heading back to work in September too, after I get Lilah settled into school. I'll have spent almost 3 years at home with my girl and am returning to work on a part-time schedule, 3 days a week - Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I'm excited to be going back to work and excited to have the other 4 days off with my girl. We'll both get to enjoy the best of both worlds. I SO can't wait to volunteer in her classroom and enjoy this new stage in her life.
But for now, we're just going to enjoy the rest of our summer together!
Oh and speaking of spelling out her letters, she was eating her cheese at snacktime this morning and turned to me and said, "Oh look, I made the letter I".
“The miracles of nature do not seem miracles because they are so common.
If no one had ever seen a flower, even a dandelion would be the most startling event in the world.”
[ the flickr set is here ]
* Happy Birthday Baba Boy *
You know you're getting old when the candles cost more than the cake!
I have an incredible husband and I know Lilah would be the first to tell you how much she loves and adores her Baba Boy.
He never ceases to amaze me with his strength and devotion - to the Lord, to his family and to his friends.
“The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means, never losing your enthusiasm.” ~Aldous Huxley
Lilah: Mama, do all babies come out of a shell when they're born?
Me: No, not all babies sweetie...just some little chicks and penguins and birds and a few other things come out of a eggshell when they're born.
Lilah: Oh.
Me: Why, did you think you were born from a eggshell? Or do you think you were born from a tummy?
Lilah: Noooooo, all babies were born in China!
