November. I blinked and it was gone.
I would say it was a pretty boring month, but nothing is ever boring with kids!
We had our first snow this month and Lilah was so thrilled - she made her first snow angel - even though her sister thought she was crazy! She turned 5.5 this month and glowingly told me it was the age she always wanted to be - there were cupcakes, but no pictures, because yes, we were all sick this month! It wasn't pretty, we're just thankful it's over now. During one of her getting-better-after-being-sick days, I pulled the girls little tree out of the basement and Lilah hung all the decorations on it. She had plenty of fun at two different birthday parties this month and came home looking like a tiger from one of them! Her sister and her are really finding their groove and enjoy having fun together, sometimes loving each other and sometimes tormenting each other, in a nice way, of course! Chilly days means more time spent indoors and our little bookworm has been enjoying her books this month. And finally, one of Mama's favourite moments in life, watching her little girl sleep.
Can you even believe it - only one more month left of 2012?!
She turned 5.5 today.
And she said: "AT LAST I'm five and a half now, it's the age I ALWAYS wanted to be!" I made her a card, because believe or not, they don't sell 5.5 cards in Hallmark! And she got a tiny gift, which she loved. And her Baba bought some cupcakes in the bakery, on their walk home from school.
And I missed it all, because I was lying up with the flu. So thankful to be recovering from that. It was just nasty!
Happy 5.5 my sweet daughter!
The tummy bug arrived in our house today. It's going around. I was happy to hear this particular bug only lasts 24 hours.
It scares me when Lilah gets sick. We were half-way to school when she looked at me and said her belly felt sick - she immediately fell limp into my arms, her eyes rolled into her head and she lost her colour.
Oh my.
She's only been sick once before and she did the exact same thing. It scares me to death. So I carried her home... and pushed the stroller. Any more episodes like this and I'm going to need to start entertaining the idea of going to the gym!
Thankfully she recovered pretty fast. And when I told her she should eat bland food for a day or two, she asked me why, I explained the reason and she said... "Is that for real life?"
My little Lilah was SO thrilled to see our first snow of the season, this morning.
Lilah is on the verge of being obsessed about being warm, REALLY warm, maybe even hot! Don't get me wrong, she loves the snow and cold weather, as long as she is VERY warm while out in it! So yes, it was the first thing she said when she saw the snow and she was thrilled that she could finally wear her snowsuit and snowboots to school today! She's been asking for weeks now!
And Phebe didn't know what to think of her sister lying in the snow, flapping her arms and legs, making a snow angel!
Lilah turned into a tiger at a friends birthday party today.
She is fiercely cute!
"Mama, I love Phebe from China to Ottawa!
Can we go back to China and show Phebe my world?
Because I got to see her world. And I want her to see my world now.
I forget what my world looks like."
~Lilah
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Lilah said this to me last night, just after her and Phebe's evening bath. It's not the first time, since we came back from China two months ago, that she's asked me if we can go back to China and see "her world"... I love that she calls her orphanage (in Guangdong, China), her world! It makes me smile and I don't even try to correct her on her terminology, because I feel it's the most precious thing that she considers her orphanage, her world. And rightly so, it was her world, the only world she ever knew, for the first 18 months of her life.
When we were in China, getting our Phebe girl 2 months ago, Lilah knew China was the country she was born in, but she knew she wasn't born in Changsha or Beijing, the two cities we travelled to this time. And we had made it clear (from the start) that this time we wouldn't be visiting her city or orphanage... so she'd know what to anticipate. But we had told her that she would look like a lot of the people that lived in China and that the people there might even think she could talk to them, simply because she looked like them. During our time there, when we mentioned anything about it being 'her country', she would *sigh* and correct us, saying: "This is not my world, this is Bejing/Changsha and I wasn't born here!" In fact, for the first few days we were in China, when we were out in public, Lilah would say to me, "Let's talk quietly, because I don't want them to know I don't speak Chinese!"
The girl is just too smart for her own good!
Anyway, our visit to China and specifically to Phebe's orphanage has brought up a lot of questions in the past few months. And that makes me thankful. I really appreciate the moments when she opens up about her adoption and where she came from. It gives us great opportunities to chat together. She is always asking me to tell her stories about her time in the orphanage, specifically what she did every day. I'm thankful I can share some little stories with her, because we were there, right in her room and the staff (through an interpreter) told us stories about Lilah: Like how she helped the caregivers, how she slept beside Georgia, how she helped pick out the clothes for the babies to wear, how she would pull up a stool beside the nannies and help them. Unfortunately that's all I know.
But what I think she really REALLY wants, is to experience and see her orphanage and the staff there... just like we did for Phebe. She wnats to see her nannies, her crib, her room, she wants to remember it all. She really wants to go back to China and see "her world" - her orphanage. And we've told her we will definitely go back and see her world, all being well... maybe when she's seven or eight.
She's happy that we're going to take her back some day, for a visit. But for now, she's enjoying the pictures I've shared with her and the little bits of her life that I know are fact. Unfortunately it isn't much, but it's all we have right now.
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“Mama, you have to respect Baba nicely!”
lilah: “You’re the big Mama and I’m the wee Mama”
me: “How come you’re the wee Mama?”
lilah: “Because I help out a little bit too!”
“Mama, if you eat poisionous berries, you would be straight dead!”
Driving to Church one Sunday evening she said to me: “I love you as much as I could ever love you.”
After school one day she said: “You get what you get and you don’t get upset!”
“When I get to be a big adult, I’m going to get married, get a different house and two babies.”
lilah: "Mama? Does hair come from a monkey?"
me: "No, hair is grown when you're in your Mommies belly and you are a human, so it is human hair. The first hair was made by God, for Adam & Eve."
lilah: "Oh, the girl in my class must be telling jokes"
"Tuckered out means sweating in a different word!"
"Baba's mostly as that stage - he's taller than everything. But he's growing down now because he's getting an old man. Isn't that for real life?"
"I know everything in the world now, because I'm in Senior Kindergarten!"
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I never understood a Mother's love, until I met this girl.
I love her with every ounce of my being. She is part of my soul.
Lilah told me today, that she LOVES when Phebe sits on her knee.
Phebe definitely tolerates it, well, you know... for a little while anyway!
And since she doesn't have enough English words (yet) to express her disgust concern... at being squashed half to death!
She does what we now lovingly refer to as - "The Squalk!"
The big sister doesn't seem to mind the squalking and will happily hang on tighter than ever.
In which case, the squalking that ensues makes Mama think that she might actually loose her mind!
[ the flickr set is here ]
I just love watching my daughters playing together.
And the Mommy/Baby role play, is probably what I love watching the best.
In fact, it about makes my heart explode, with the incredible love I have for these two girls.
They most definitely share a beautiful bond together... sisters and friends.
Seriously, is there anything sweeter?
Oh Fall! How I love thee!
There is something splendid about Fall. I'd happily say it's the most wonderful time of the year - my favourite in fact. I love Fall clothes, layers of sweaters and jackets and boots and scarfs. I love hot drinks, tea, hot apple cider and my favourite, lattes! I'm not so fond of pumpkin spice lattes though... I know, I'm odd like that. But I do love the look of pumpkins and chrysanthemums and all the colours of Fall! I'd happily live somewhere where it is Fall all year round.
Have I mentioned I love Fall?!
It's been a brand new Fall around here. A Fall with two kiddies! And because of that, we've been doing some new things - like taking a weekly trip to the library. You know we never did that before. I know. Hangs head in shame. That's probably why we have sooo many (bought) books in our house! Lilah's school has a book catalogue that comes out monthly and we usually buy 2 or 3 books each month. So yes, it's getting a little cramped around here!
Lilah also started her second year of skating lessons and boy does she love skating. Oh yes she does. She is very proud of her accomplishments and was thrilled that Phebe got to come along and watch her on her first lesson of the season. She loves to show off her skills to her little sister Phebe.
And there was the usual running through leaves, throwing leaves, collecting (the biggest!) leaves, playing with sticks, a visit to the pumpkin patch and of course, drinking hot chocolate... listen to this, she's had hot chocolate in many little coffee shops along the way, BUT... she tells me that Mama makes the best hot chocolate in the whole wide world! Ohhh, that girl, she knows exactly what to say, to give me the warm and fuzzies! I haven't told her my secret recipe, how I make it purely with half and half cream! Oh yeah, any wonder it's delicious!
Fall. You're slipping away quickly this year. We're going to miss you. Seriously.
We visited Miller's Pumpkin Farm this day last week. (I know, I've been laging lately - I used to be pretty good at blogging, on time!)
Anyway, it was 25 degrees. I mean really, those kinda temperatures don't happen too often around here, in October. Colin had the day off work and shhhh, don't tell anyone, we kept Lilah home from school! Believe me, she was still "learning" at the pumpkin farm... and having fun too. A lot of fun!
On the walk over to the pumpkin field, Baba had his two girls in a wagon running them down a little hill. They were shrieking with laughter. This Baba sure knows how to entertain his little girls.
I love my husband and our little family. Since bringing our little Phebe pumpkin home from China, you know I've always felt incredibly blessed, but now I can't even find the words to express how I'm feeling. It is a overwhelming joy, love, thankfulness, all mixed up into a very blessed Mama. And I know my husband feels the same, recently he said to me: "Can it really be this good?" I think he was pinching himself at the same time!
: choosing a pumpkin : playing in the hay : taking care of little sister : throwing leaves : eating candy apples : wagon rides
All that fun at the farm. And we ended the day with a picnic and two sleeping girls!
Yes, I have been blessed, beyond words. Thank you Lord.
