Update After a Long Wait

For all you millions of people out there (I am speaking to you, Jennifer :) that check my blog every single day, I apologize for not making any new entries in a very long time. I started my own Yahoo! Group for World Child International (our adoption agency) and that has kept me quite busy.

Speaking of the children, which I do often, both are great! Luckily the swimming pool in our neighborhood is open so we are there every afternoon for 2 hours. Elisabeth usually has a friend to swim with and I have the privilege of carrying Isabella around in the water. She hasn't yet figured out how to take a drink of the water without submerging her entire face. Even with sunscreen, they are both getting quite dark. Obviously, they (at least one, that is) didn't inherit it from me...I am still glowing white! Everyone knows, though, that white is the new 'tan' :)

We are off to Syracuse for the Memorial Day weekend. There are a bunch of adoptive parents and soon-to-be-adoptive parents who are meeting up with us at Onondaga Lake Park. It should be fun!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all! We had a great day....church, lunch, soccer, and dinner out :) Elisabeth's team won and Isabella learned how to pluck the heads off all the dandelions and eat them. What a day!

Summer Heat

Can I tell you how much I dislike the heat?? It is only the middle (almost) of May and it is already up to 80+ degrees here in PA. Luckily my car and our house are both air conditioned. My offices at school are NOT. I don't know why I even do my hair in the morning-by mid afternoon my bangs are little curly knots. UGH! There are only 4 more weeks of school left until I can spend my days lounging at the pool with the kids.

Speaking of kids, both are doing fine. Isabella is a little pistol and Elisabeth is seeing the value of shutting her door and keeping her things up off the floor. Isabella, at 10 months, is now eating mainly table food, drinking from a sippie cup, taking a few steps on her own, saying 'mama' and 'dada', sleeping through the night for 11+ hours, and taking 2 naps a day. Those are all the positive things. Here are the not-so-positive ones: climbing up the stairs with no fear of falling back down them, screaming in the highest pitch possible because she wants something, turning red when she doesn't get what she wants, spitting out her food into her hand and then putting it back in her mouth-MANY TIMES, chewing on anything and everything on the floor including pennies, paperclips, dog hair, and old cereal. I am not complaining and I would never want to send her back :) but it would be nice if she would just lay in my arms, looking lovingly in my eyes while she babbles "Mama". I didn't expect her to be so independent so soon....I liked my needy, little baby!

Elisabeth, at 10 years, is a super big sister. She plays soccer 2 times per week and is learning her multiplication tables. We just put another twin bed in her room so that her friends, when they com over, will have a place to sleep. I suggested moving the crib in there and making Isabella's room a play room but that didn't go over too smoothly. A pre-teen needs her space :)