Happy Birthday Handsome!

Happy birthday my dear husband. You are my love and I am so happy I get to be your wife. I hope that in our 34th year we get to have many happy changes and I hope that we are brought closer together through joyful experiences. I love you and will stick with you through thick and thin. Your stuck with me I'm afraid. Happy Birthday!

This weekend we started Peter's birthday celebration at my parents house. This was what the sky looked like on the way there.

Lily is not so sure about this pony. I wish I could help her be less timid.

Papa wants to take his girl fishing.

No one told him once he had a child he wouldn't ever open a gift again.

Just a little pancake. Lily still insists on referring to cake as pancakes.

Some tunnel fun.

Oh so soft

I have to note that a sticker chart is quite the miracle solvent for my family. I haven't had an argument in the morning since we started the chart. I am a much happier mama this week. Lily is saying some pretty funny stuff lately so of course I must record it here. The other day Lily was taking a bath and I was using the phone. I dropped it and said oh no. Lily said what the matter mommy. I told her what happened and she said Oh, what a shame. She also says I gotta think about that, quite often. She was reading to herself the other day she closed the book and said I'm gonna sink(think) about that. And todays funny yet horrifying story is this. Lily has a slightly runny nose. Not the kind your constantly wiping like a faucet she's just slightly stuffy. So we went to the mall to meet a friend and we were shopping. She kept rubbing clothing on her face and saying oh so soft. I thought nothing of it. Then she wiped her nose on a shirt and said much better. I stopped frozen horrified yes my friends she had been wiping her nose on new clothing all day long. And that my friends is why you must wash your clothing before wearing it.

Aunt Sandy

Peter's Aunt Sandy is visiting us. she lives on a small island off of the coast of Spain called Menorca. Why we are not visiting her is still unclear. Her neck of the woods seems a little more enjoyable to me. She came to help celebrate Peters Mom's birthday. We have enjoyed the last few days together.

Grandpa Tim and I

Lily wanted to join the love fest.
The gang. Peter's Aunt is sitting on the couch she says it is cold on Menorca right now so our 68 degree January weather is very pleasant.

Just wanted to show off my girls sweet haircut as I have not gotten a good shot of it yet.

Operation Toddler Cooperation

So wish me luck in trying to tame my Mayan Lion. We started operation toddler cooperation today and it went really well, but tomorrow is the true test cause I will need to wake her up for work. She has three jobs her hair, get dressed and get in the car. She gets a sticker on her chart for each completed job and earns an M&M for each sticker once we are in the car. I was seriously debating the food reward but seriously I don't think three M&M's a day could possibly cause any serious damage.

GRRRR

Here is an example of why the below picture represents me.
Mommy: "Lily do you have to go potty?"
Lily: No............Yes
Mommy: Would you like to go by yourself or do you want me to come?
Lily: No thank you I'm not going potty.
Mommy: Ok I'm going to take my contacts out.
Lily: I have to go potty.
Mommy: ok lets go.
Lily on the potty I not going potty stands up to pull pants up.
Mommy:Lily go potty
Lily:okay
Lily: I not gonna wipe.
Mommy:leaves room to take contacts out big sigh....................................

Grrrrrr!

Here is how I'm feeling these days!
Lily and I are struggling as of late. I have heard that the 3's can be more difficult than the 2's. My girl is going through a phase. I am having trouble keeping my cool and not being baited into battle mode. Lily is such a happy child when no one has to awake her from her slumber. Unfortuneatly I have to leave my house by 7am in order to get her and I on time. She does not like arising this early and is SUPER uncooperative in the morning. She will not get dressed or in the car without a major battle. Twice this week she has slapped me in the face. The first day it happened I didn't have time to properly discipline her. I had to get her in the car. I told her it hurt I said what do you say when you hurt someone. She looked at me with those beautiful eyes of hers and said I say nothin. WHAT!?! I arrived at work crying she got my goat good and I felt she got away with it. When I picked her up we had a little discussion and I felt better. The next day she hit me again. Thankfully it was early and I was able to give her a time out, so I felt at least like she didn't get away with the behavior. Luckily I have a voice of reason who teaches next door ( she helped me understand I am not failing) and she helped me make a plan. Thank you Meg. I will be instituting said plan this weekend wish me luck that I turn my beast into a well mannered toddler again!

New haircut.

I have decided that I will take my princess to a regular salon to get her haircut next time. I have come to realize that people who work at childrens hair salons are not there because of a love of children. Lily, I thought, did an excellent job, especially since before arriving at the salon she said mommy I scared I scared I no want a haircut. So the potential for complete and utter breakdown was fairly high, but she sat in the car and babbled about Thomas. I was pleased, but her stylist was less than pleased that she does not hold her head perfectly straight and that she was distracted by the other children in the salon. She said why doesn't she hold her head still. I said, "um cause she is three." I gave her a sucker midway through cause she was getting a bit antsy and wanted down. Anyways I am happy with the result.

Lily thinking about whether or not we were going to cooperate.

Look how long those locks were.The finished doo.

Bud light at school?

Funny story. Today I packed my lunch like every day. If you know me I am a creature of habit. I could seriously eat the same lunch, breakfast for a year. So every day I bring a coke zero to work with me. I am a first grade teacher. That bit of info is important for this story. So I walk into my room and go to my fridge to put my lunch in and pull out a bud light. Apparently a certain 3 year old did some rearranging in my fridge at home and daddy's bud light somehow made it into the soda box. My teacher friends and I had a good laugh and luckily no one drove me to the brink and it stayed tucked away in my purse today. I had a long meeting after work and was so tempted to crack it at the meeting just for a reaction. I am a chicken though.

FFF the best photo of 2008

Here it is my favorite picture of 2008. It was certainly hard to choose, but this picture captures my girls beauty. She can take my breathe away. Lily has been so much fun in 2008. She is what kept me going this past year I absolutely adore having the priveledge of being her mother! I look forward to seeing all the changes in 2009. One more thing I have started a yahoo group. My hope is that it will be a place for adoptive parents to discuss adoption related concerns as well as parenting concerns. Perhaps share ideas and good books we have read. Please join me. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/circleofadoptiveparents

Welcome 2009!

It is with a great sigh of relief that I say goodbye to 2008! We had some hard times but we also had some wonderful times. We grew as a family and became closer. Lily and her daddy formed a great bond and Lily is now a daddy's girl. This makes my heart feel full as the two of them needed this bond.

Peter also had Wednesday off so we headed uphill a bit and out of our foggy valley for lunch. After lunch we found this very sweet park and a opportune photo op. I can not pass up a good photo op you know.

In the evening we went to our friends house for some poker. This is Lily's friend Madison. Madison is always eager to play with Lily but usually Lily is quite content to stay at my side. Tonight she said mommy play with me. I told her to go play with Madi and she hopped off my lap and discovered that she is really fun to play with. I don't think she'll be on my lap next time we see Madi.

I took several pictures of Lily and Madi together and asked them both to smile. Lily gave me a smile each time and Madi would not. Later she came to me with the camera and said did you want me to show my teeth. Turns out knowing the magic words helps.

Here is Lily showing her teeth.
This is daddy's poker face. I find it a little intimidating.