our last day in picton

It is our last day in Picton, we had a fabulous time and are sad to be leaving, although I think Lilah will appreciate seeing her little crib again! The Traditions Guest House is outstanding, it's changed hands since our last visit and it's even better than before. Delicious cooked breakfasts every morning, we sure came home with a lot of new recipes! Colin said it was a good job there was no weigh-in/weigh-out! It has two bedrooms and a very comfortable and beautiful self contained kitchen, dining and lounging area, a huge pool, a bbq, a patio, a gorgeous garden, the works. Is it any wonder we love Picton and all it has to offer?! Thanks Mick & Patti for an absolutely wonderful 5 nights, you two are the best!

Today we went to The County Cider Company and had some yummy eats. We also stopped by Lake-on-the Mountain for a few pictures, we were treated (by my parents) to a beautiful anniversary meal there last night, but it was too wet to get a lot of pictures.

Lots more pictures from today here.

our tenth wedding anniversary

It's our tenth wedding anniversary today and our first one as a family of three. Does it get any better than this?! Lilah loves being kissed, we call it the 'kiss sandwich' and she laps it right up! Sometimes when we're doing it, she'll hold up her pointer finger on each hand and say 'twooooo'! Oh we love each other and we love our girl! More pictures here.

another fun day at the beach

Another day at the sandbanks beach and another picnic too. Don't you just love sandwiches on the beach? I sure do! Well for me the mission of the day was to build a few sandcastles and actually keep them standing for a few minutes before Lilah flattened them with her little feet. I accomplished it! I think the other three kept her distracted, throwing water out of a bucket at her while she ran up the beach squealing at their silliness! She even walked in the soft sand on her own today, oh and she loved being twirled around by the arms while her feet and legs skimmed the top of the water! You can see more pictures of our day here.

fun in the pool

Today we walked down to the little town of Picton and did some shopping. Baba and Lilah stayed home for a much needed nap. Picton has a nice quilting store that Nono enjoyed and we also enjoyed the little antique stores. We topped it off with lunch at Miss Lily's Cafe, which was just yummy. Egyptian lentil soup and a chicken pate grilled sandwich, mmm, my mouth is watering at the thought of it again! When we came back to the B&B we decided to take advantage of the large swimming pool in the back yard. It was just fabulous, I took a few pictures of Papie, Nono and Lilah before I jumped in. It was a lot of fun and Lilah loved being swung around in the little seat. I think it's obvious that Lilah and I will be going to the swimming pool come autumn, all being well, and starting lessons. She loves the water and seems quite comfortable in it. In fact, she's a little bit fearless, which is kinda scary.

More pictures here.

we love picton...a lot!

We arrived at the Traditions Guest House in Picton yesterday evening. The weather is glorious and this morning we felt the urge to pack a picnic and go straight to sandbanks beach. It's Lilah's first trip to the beach where she can actually wear a bathing suit and dip her toes in the water, even though it's only Lake Ontario and not the ocean! Lets be honest, she doesn't know the difference and I don't think she could care less if she did know the difference! She was a bit afraid of walking on the soft sand at first, but after a few hours she was much more confident. She loved the water, she could have spent all day in there! I think her favourite parts of the day were being buried in the sand and running in the warm shallow water. We'll be back for sure! Lots more pictures from today here.

traditions guest house b&b

nono, where are you?

the jungle book

Does Lilah remind you of Mowgli from The Jungle Book? It's the first image that popped into my head when I saw her like this! All our pictures from our fun filled day at Perth are finally on flickr, check out the slideshow here or the thumbnails here.

papie & nono's visit: almost a week already

Yep, Nono & Papie have been with us almost a week already and the fun is incredible! Lilah is loving all the attention and loving too! As soon as Nono steps out of her sight she can be heard singing, 'Nono, where are youuuuuu?'. Cracks me right up! Today we went down to Perth for the day and I have some beautiful pictures to prove it. Lilah had so much fun and cooled off with a few impromptu dips in the river. I think she is part fish, my Dad had a hard time getting her out of there! There are many more photos to upload to flickr, but for now, here's a few...

fake smile, anyone?

Since the T family sent us several cute pictures from our evening together a few weeks ago, I thought I would post a couple. One of them happens to be Lilah's 'lovely' fake smile which I mentioned in the previous post. The other is of Lilah with the T's two beautiful kiddies, Adam and Lane. I have a funny feeling they're all wearing fake smiles in that one! Too cute! They had a lot of fun together running around the backyard. Thanks again for good times and great memories!

new telephoto lens

My new Canon 55-250mm telephoto lens arrived in the mail today. So when Colin and Lilah were on their way down the street to the park this evening, I decided to catch up with them! I must say, I am quite taken with this lens, albeit a little heavy and long, I think I can get used to that. My other lens is an 18-55mm, which came standard with the Canon XSi kit I bought. I'm so happy I decided to go for this lens, it takes some sweet pictures of my Lilah girl and there is also the added bonus of our little missy not even knowing I'm photographing her... 'cause believe me, the fake smile ain't that pleasant!

[ more pictures here ]

it won't be like this for long

It won’t be like this for long
One day soon we'll look back laughin’
At the week we brought her home
This phase is gonna fly by
So baby just hold on
‘Cause it won't be like this for long

He lays down there beside her
‘Til her eyes are finally closed
And just watchin’ her it breaks his heart
Cause he already knows

It won’t be like this for long
One day soon that little girl is gonna be
All grown up and gone
Yeah, this phase is gonna fly by
So, he's tryin’ to hold on
‘Cause it won’t be like this for long

It won’t be like this for long

rain rain go away, come again another day

[ more pictures here ]

gift from the orphanage director

It's taken me a long time to get around to posting this, however I want to record it on Lilah's blog, so better late than never! In April the director from Lilah's Social Welfare Institute made a trip to the US to speak at the 'East Meets West' Chinese Adoption Conference. One very kind (and very organized) Mommy (Kelly) on the Yangdong SWI Yahoo Group went to the conference to hear Mr Huang speak. She asked if anyone wanted to email her a few pictures of their Yangdong children, she would print them and pass them on to Mr Huang. She not only did that, she created a fabulous album with all the pictures that were sent to her and gave it to the director. It sounded like he was thrilled to see all the little ones growing up and happy! In return, he kindly gave gifts to Kelly to pass on to all those families that contributed to the album. Kelly very kindly mailed the gifts to each of us. I have added a few pictures below of Lilah wearing her jade necklace and also a picture of the gifts from Mr Huang.

I have to say, I think the director of Lilah's orphanage is a wonderful man. He works hard and really has the children's best interest at heart. I have an email of everything he said at that conference, kindly typed out by Kelly. There are many parts that make me feel thankful that Lilah was brought up in his orphanage, for those first 18 months of her life. Here is one part that reinforces to me what a great director he is, it is interpreted...
"Remember the tainted formula, the melamine? He said that when he took over in 2004 they were using the formula that was tainted. And he felt that formula was not right, so he decided to drop that formula and started using Nestle, even if it means that one can of formula costs 100 Yuan more, especially back then it was 40 Yuan. Now the price has gone up to 200 Yuan. So he said, "It doesn't matter, that's expensive, but we're using that" and that's why his children are not affected, because he dropped that formula manufacturer company and is now using American formula."

happy canada day

Colin and I both said it was our best Canada Day celebration to date, I think Lilah has a lot to do with that! What a beautiful day, there was just one heavy downpour that lasted about 5 minutes, just before we left, which was really quite nice! It cooled us down and Lilah enjoyed the puddles afterwards! Lilah had a lot of fun, she even stood still to get a maple leaf painted on her cheek, which we were all wearing by the time we got home!

More pictures from our fun filled day here. Also, I was sent this link by a lady who follows our blog, someone captured a picture of our Lilah today and the lady recognized her, so she kindly sent me the link!