easter pastel pretties

1. huggable easter marshmallow bunnies pattern - bearsy23
2. palm sunday matilda summer dress - little whimsy wears
3. pastel hair bow rainbow pack - charlie's halo
4. pink bergen heart dress in swedish design - lingonberry latitude
5. peek-a-boo bunny cookies - bbsweetslove
6. spring chick easter banner - makentake
7. got peeps card - pattie jensen studio
8. perfect pastel baby bow - baby k designs
9. too cool for school tunic top - little whimsy wears

spring is just around the corner...

"Spring is around the corner from winter. Right? I said that to Baba
and he thought it was around the corner in my bedroom. He didn't even understand!!"
~ lilah grace

a month in photos - march

March. It includes the first day of Spring and in many ways it's a picture of new birth. Indeed, we've enjoyed a very happy joyous month - we welcomed with excitement and open arms a new 'birth' into our family. It's a month that we'll look back on over the years and remember the wonderful news we received of a new daughter and sister, Phebe Jayne Yang Qi.

We have so much to be thankful for. Thank you Lord.

It was hard to focus this month, but we certainly took time to enjoy the everyday blessings that we have. First and foremost, Lilah became a big sister - a proud one too, skipping into school with a photo of her sister to tell them her special news! Then we enjoyed a long week of incredible weather, that included running around barefoot in the park, with her friend, who's little sister is also called Phebe!) Oh, those delicious cupcakes and that messy face, how I love it! Balancing on one foot seemed to take preeminence this month, just about every set of photos I have, has at least a couple of photos of her balancing herself on one foot - too cute! Oh, and let's not forget about St. Patrick's Day, even though she sighs and gives Baba an exasperated look when he asks her if she's a wee Irish girl! And last but not least, dying Easter eggs. My girly sure enjoys herself, whatever the weather!

[ the 'a month-in-photos' flickr set is here ]

yak yak yak!

During a discussion (instigated by Lilah) about God knowing everything about us - she said: "God know's everything in the world, except He's not even there in the world."

After a LOT of teasing one night (from Baba of course!), Lilah turned to him and in a triumphant voice said: "Well, I'm NOT going to be your daughter anymore!"

While I was making a reference (to my husband) about a man I work with having a very long beard, Lilah suddenly asked: "How long is his beard?" I demonstrated how long it was and suggested he looked a bit like Santa! "Oh", she said, "I think he probably looks like Noah's Ark, I saw him in a book one time and he looks just like that!"

lilah: "Butt means you're in front of someone, doesn't it."
me: "Huh? Ohhh, you mean when someone butts in front of you?"
lilah: "Yes."
me: "Well, no. It doesn't exactly mean you're in front of someone!"

Sometimes people are friends and then they fight with each other, so they're called enemies!

See that thing out there, it's called a limosine! I know that, Diane told me that!

lilah: "Mama, next week is a holiday, no school."
me: "That's right, it's called March Break."
lilah: "Oh. Do the children march?"

"Don't squish that bug, those are God's creatures."

"When Phebe comes along, she might not know the world of Cuba. I'll have to tell her."

"What are you guys waiting for?? ...Christmas!"

Recently Lilah has started spelling Mom, Moom. One day, after writing me a love note, I felt I should correct her and tell her Mom only has one O. Seemingly baffled, she asked: "Well, what does that sound like?" - pointing to Moom. When I told her, she fell into fits of laughing, 5 minutes later, after recovering from laughing, she said: "It kinda sounds like a cow!"

Lilah had gas pains one night and as I was lying in bed with her, rubbing her belly, she asked me: "What does Phebe's heart condition feel like?"

"Saliva and sweetness mix in your mouth and that makes creatures - they have a green face and body! I saw a movie about that in school!"

"I know some things too Mama - it's not all about you, you know!"

me: "Oh Lilah! Wow! That colouring is awesome. I'm so proud of you."
lilah: "Thanks Mama. It makes me want to hug you when you say things like that!"

the egg head family

Lilah came up with this cute craft yesterday after dying her eggs on Monday past. All out-of-the-blue she asked me if we had any wiggly eyes in the house and said she was going to make faces on her eggs!

And yes, those are the eggs that she dyed blue, green, yellow, red and pink. The same thing happened last year, only the pink seems to absorb into the egg shell! Different shades of pink mind you, that must have something to do with the other colours!

Let me introduce you to... 'The Egg Head Family'!

easter eggs!

Lilah had a lot of fun dying some easter eggs today.

She loves anything to do with water, so it wasn't surprising that she spent two hours messing around with the Easter eggs, the water, the dye and the bubbles - she was having the time of her life. Her hands are just proof of how much fun she had, since they seem to have more dye on them than the eggs, even after a few washes!

I love my beautiful girl. I love her happiness. I love her intensity. I love her creativity. I love her personality. She is such a special girl, in every single way and I'm so SO blessed and thankful to have her in my life.

[ the flickr set is here ]

shopping saturday : spring fever

We've been getting into the way of Spring around here, this past week. However, it's pretty short lived, because even the temperatures today are enough to make your bare toes stop short at the front door! Indeed, the flip flops may have to rest in the closet for another week or two!

But it's inevitable, after that lovely weather we experienced, it's proof that Spring is just around the corner. I enjoy shopping at any time of the year, however, after a dull winter, it seems I'm doubly attracted to bright spring clothes.

Here's a few of my recent finds and buys!

1: personalized embroidered name frames - wouldn't you just love a wall full of these? - oktak
2: funky print bubble stripe dress - the colours, the print, the ric rac, the pockets, I adore! - mini boden
3: personalized name clip - I'd love one of these in every single colour available! - details shop
4: shirred sundress with screen animal print - they have the most adorable bunny rabbit one for easter! - frock star girl
5: owl apron shorts - the apron and ruffle just makes these already sweet shorts extra cute! - palm tree princess
6: flutter sleeve ruffle peasant dress - the colours, the ruffle, it had me at 'hello'! - smashed peas and carrots

happy friday!

It was a very happy Friday!

I picked Lilah up at school and we walked up the street and over the bridge to a little area known as The Glebe. It has some fabulous boutiques and whatnot - not a safe place for a Visa card, I tell ya! We enjoyed lunch sitting outside, on the patio, wearing our flip flops. We purchased a few items for Phebe's little care package, have no fear, Lilah found herself a few new items too, including a new backpack and a lunch bag! She will certainly not be outdone! I also picked up some new spring clothes for my girls - I have a complete weakness for spring colours! And then we topped the day off at the cupcake shop.

Gotta love a beautiful lazy Friday, browsing around the shops.

[ the flickr set is here ]

the glorious weather

Sure glad we went to Cuba when we did, because the weather this week has broken some prior records, around these parts! Today my car was registering a glorious 32°C... wow! I am not complaining. The BBQ has been fired up every day this week! And according to the weatherman, we have at least one more day of 30°C weather before it chills down to some regular Springlike temperatures!

On Monday afternoon Lilah spent two hours running around the park with a school friend, in her bare feet! And then again this evening, she biked over there after supper, with our Baba boy!

all the art i can handle!

As you can see, I'm starting to paper the walls in Lilah's playroom with her art work! Basically, this is just (a portion of) her art work from the past three months. Really, it's true! Every day she comes home with something new and I'm having a very hard time trying to figure out what to do with it all. I've been taking pictures of each piece as it arrives home and after a few months, when the attention has died down, it kindly gets disposed of! I am so not a pack rat! Although there are things, like her handprints and little love messages that I wouldn't even dream of throwing out!

We even have the class dragon from Chinese New Year gracing our hallway! I could have seen the teacher far enough when she suggested Lilah bring it home! I do love art, I do I do! ...for about a week anyway! Ha-ha!

I got a chuckle at the pictures she drew yesterday, showing directly below. The first one she said is Baba driving his Jeep! The photo below that, she said, is of me (moom!) driving my Volvo. Actually, she said there's no roof on it, because I had an accident. Eeks. Sure hope that doesn't actually happen in reality! At least I still have a happy face, maybe it isn't as bad as it looks! I am noticing her attention to detail is improving more and more.

Love her funny little drawings and art work.

This handprint with the tiny heart
Reminds you of my love for you
Whenever we're apart

st patrick's day

May joy and peace surround you,
Contentment latch your door,
And happiness be with you now,
And bless you evermore.
[ an irish blessing ]

To top the day off, Lilah learned how to skip (without holding my hand!)

our week in cuba

: the beach
There is nothing I love more on vacation than a great beach! Cuba so does not disappoint when it comes to great beaches! White sand, turquoise water and plenty of sunshine, it was simply beautiful. We got up early and went out walking two mornings, before breakfast. We walked along the beach, watching the sunrise while the waves washed over our feet. Lilah, of course, was always looking for shells. She said her teacher asked her to bring a shell back, so Lilah made it her mission to find the perfect shell! And so she did. The other thing we loved about the beach, was the ability to build sandcastles, lots and lots of them! Not to mention swimming in the warm ocean water, although I must admit, Lilah wasn't a fan of the salty water at all!

: the kids pool
Lilah's idea of a 'great vacation' differs a little to us adults! Her idea of fabulous, is a kiddies pool! And again, the Tryp Peninsula did not disappoint! We had to alternate our days between the beach and the kids pool, just to keep everyone happy! The resort is very family oriented and the kids club was really awesome - lots of fun activities where we could watch Lilah right from our sunloungers! I know, we are THAT lazy on our holidays! Basically, we had to drag her to any of the kids activities, all she wanted to do was swim (with her water wings) and go up and down the slide a hundred times a day! She had SO much fun. One of the things I loved most about the kiddie pool is that she could stand, with her head above water, anywhere in the pool - the deepest part came up to around her neck. I don't like the idea of my girl in water that is deeper than her, even when she's wearing her water wings. So I was comfortable with her swimming her heart out and wearing that slide out... while we lay reading our books, with one eye on the page and the other on her!

: the food
So lets just say, when you go to Cuba, you lower your expectations when it comes to food! Some things are fabulous, some things are different and some things are not so good! We were in Cuba 10 years ago, so I knew this was coming! I lowered my expectations and was very pleasantly surprised for the most part. It was an all inclusive hotel with 2 buffets and 5 a la carte restaurants: Italian, French, Mexican, Cuban and Japanese. You got to choose 2 a la carte restaurants during the week stay and we also paid for an extra one. So we had Mexican, Japanese and French. Our favourite was definitely the Mexican. Lilah lived on rice, noodles, boiled eggs, tomatoes, pickled onions, all the fruit you can imagine, ice-cream and chocolate ice-creams that were handed out in abundance at the kids club! She definitely did all right for herself!

******************************************************************************

Great memories from a fabulous vacation, that ended in an awesome way!
Phebe's referral, of course!
This is her little dress. We had her on our mind, but God knew, His timing is always so perfect.
(you can see 'Cuba' stitched on the bottom right corner of the dress)

[ the flickr set is here ]

we went to cuba?

I seem to have lost a bit of my focus this past week! Funny that!

In fact, I kinda almost forgot that we enjoyed a wonderful week in Cuba! It's a distant memory now, vastly overshadowed by a telephone call that basically changed our lives! Again! For the second time! In a fabulous way!

It's funny how things happen... before heading to Cuba we were reminiscing how just before Lilah's referral, 4 years ago, we'd went on a vacation to Mexico. About a month after we arrived home, we received her referral! I'd been joking with a few people saying "Wouldn't it be nice if it worked out the same this time?" Little did I know it would be the actual day we arrived home and we wouldn't even have to wait a month!

Also, when we were in Mexico, 4 years ago, Baba had picked out a little dress in the hopes that we'd have a daughter to wear it some day - yes Lilah has worn that special dress! Well, the same thing happened this time too. Baba bought a little dress in the hopes that we'd have another daughter. In fact, he bought Phebe's dress (in the airport) on the Sunday, just hours before we arrived home to the message of her referral. Yes, the same day we found out about her, he'd bought her a sweet little dress.

Some things just work out in a special way. It renewed our strength.

So hopefully this week I'll get around to the Cuba pictures, I just had to tell you that little story!

a month-in-photos : february

What can I say? February disappeared before my very eyes!

We celebrated Valentine's Day in a big way this month. We made treats for Lilah's class friends and kept a few for ourselves, of course! It was fun to see all the cards she brought home from her little friends in school. I simply adored all the little 'love' crafts she made in school too! We enjoyed books and built puzzles, galore! And we spent a whole lot of time (evidentally from these pictures!) gearing up for and enjoying our holiday in Cuba.

[ the 'a month-in-photos' flickr set is here ]

big sister in charge!

I don't even have words to express how excited, humbled, blessed I feel right now.

It's true, Lilah is officially a big sister and she is so thrilled! She has talked non-stop about her little sister, ever since she found out about her last evening. When I was putting her to bed last night I saw her polaroid instant camera sitting on her nightstand and asked her what it was sitting out for, she said: "I'm going to take a picture of my sister!" She went on to tell me that when she wakes in the morning, she'll go get her sister out of the crib, carry her downstairs and they'll have a little snuggle in her bed. It completely melted my heart.

We got our new little ones photos today and we are so taken with her - man she is SO cute! Anyway, I met Lilah after school with a photo in my hand to show her, she looked at the photo and exclaimed, "Oh! Does she look like that?" To which I replied, "Yes, that is her!" I thought I'd managed her expectations as to what size her 'baby sister' would be, but maybe I didn't do a good enough job on that! She moved on pretty quickly though, asking me why her little sister was wearing snow pants! She even thought the white part on the bottom of her pants was probably snow! The girl really notices detail!

Anyway, Lilah is now all armed and equipped to head into school tomorrow and tell the class her wonderful news... all decked out in her "big sister in charge" t-shirt! She's been rhyming her sisters name over and over all afternoon, Yang Qi (Chee). I think she's going to be an amazing Jie Jie.

Since I want this to be Lilah's personal blog, I have another one set up for her mei mei, Jiang Yang Qi, soon to be Phebe Jayne Yang Qi. You can check it out here.

Have I mentioned how excited we all are?! Eeeeek!