Her First UNDENIABLE Step!

...for I am the LORD that healeth thee.
Exodus 15:26

Twas the night AFTER kindergarten and all through the house... 

were two little monkeys moving faster than a mouse!

Gabriella and Amaris came quickly to the front door. 

Baba's home! Baba's home! They roared!

One of the families I tutor in reading walked in as well. 

As I shut the door, Gabriella stood and paused. 

My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.

Job 23:11

For some reason... I didn't grab her to protect her from falling. I stood quietly watching her. 

She took a step forward... keeping her balance and planting her right bare foot on our hardwood floor. 

Then, she brought her left foot forward to her right foot. 

She stood. 

She stepped.

And, she never waivered. 

While I posted months before about her first step... it COULD HAVE BEEN disputed by some. 

This first step could not be disputed by ANYONE!!! 

She took a step in faith... and, God honored it!

The Lord gave me this verse and a song to claim for Gabriella's healing:

and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame 

may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.

Hebrews 12:13

New King James Version (NKJV)

Go God!

First Day of Kindergarten!

Somehow I convinced her to "sleep in"... until 6:30AM. I think I slept in until 6:45AM... that was nice... since Amaris was up from 11PM until 3AM... so, if I do the math, I think I got 3hrs. and 45 min. of sleep last night. Lovely!

But, today was a new day...

We waited and waited for the bus... guess it takes longer that first week of school...Gabriella could hardly wait for this day to come...

I had her read to help make the minutes tick faster until the bus came!

She really likes this "Bob" book because it is so easy... 

Here it comes! She always squeals in delight and kicks her feet!

I realized this morning, that I was pretty darn proud of myself... I sent my first Kindergartner in 13 years to school with OLD shoes and last years backpack and snack pack.  But, then I realized I had bought each of the girls boots from Nordstrom and princess backpacks when they are finally together... so, I guess it doesn't really count.

 I kept Amaris is the car so she could watch everything but be EXACTLY where I wanted her to be!

Gabriella wanted to ride the bus, so we let her... but, we drove to school as well.

This is her classroom... because it is a special needs room, it is pretty bare, but her teacher has a phenomenal way of tracking the kids and their progress through the use of 4 activities per child each day that go in the personal bins you see in the middle of the photo.  

We snapped this photo as her bus got to school... it was the last bus to arrive,

12 minutes behind the other very late bus. 

Here are a couple of the sweet ladies helping Gabriella out. 

 Here is Amaris when she first saw her jie jie... she asked to get out and "hug". So, I let her!

She is so excited that she points to her jie jie. 

  

Gabriella is one of 8 children in the class. 

Because her bus was so late, when she finally arrived to her Kindergarten class today, 

she sat in circle time for less than 2 minutes before she was whisked away for snack. 

She is wearing a school shirt right now to protect her clothes. We bought her a new blue smock after school.

After her 5 minute (literally) snack... which she ate 1 grape and 2 spoon fulls of  nuts, 

she had to go back to circle time. 

She will have to learn to remove the lids off of her snack... 

because she is the only one that brings her own snack. 

Because her body consumes ALL of her calories rapidly, 

she needs to have meaningful calories every time she eats...

 so, her diet consists of 90% organic food: mostly fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans and chicken... 

No fishy crackers and pretzels for this princess!

The teacher read Brown Bear Brown Bear... 

The kids were silent. Gabriella looked at me. I smiled and told her to say the words... 

she did... it was fun to hear. 

While Gabriella was at school, Amaris and I went to grab a latte and cookie 

and to check out a gymnastics class...

And, I discovered that my Super Powers are coming back... I TOTALLY forgot I even had any.

This last 3 months with Amaris has been A LOT of work... 

a newly adopted two-year-old needs quite a bit of guidance and correction. 

When I shared this with my husband, he asked which super powers were coming back... 

I am not quite sure yet, but I may know better tomorrow. I know I have them... because he is Superman... 

and there has to be a close proximity, power-sharing thing that happens when you are married to Superman.  Right?

Twas the Night Before Kindergarten!

Twas the morning before kindergarten and mama takes her shower (like every morning)... while Gabriella and Amaris play together for less than 20 minutes.

I was so excited that I wasn't hearing... "MOM!" "MAMA... Uh-mare-jay (What she calls Amaris) bad choices!"

So, I decided to check on them... wow... only a couple toys were out. No need for the camera... at least I didn't think so. Next time I will take a photo of just one or two toys out so that I can SHOW them what good choices are.

I zoomed back into the bathroom to finish getting ready... only to come out a few minutes later...

This is what I found! Gabriella happily on her I-pad... while Amaris was "making bad choices".

How is it Gabriella, that you couldn't figure out any time sooner that I should probably come and put a stop to Amaris' fun! The sad thing is, this photo is only a portion of the room... it was a DISASTER!

But Amaris was having the time of her little two year old life!

In just minutes, we would need to get dressed for photos... eat breakfast and get out the door! Geez!

We talked about kindergarten quite a bit as we have been prepping for this new change over the last month.

We had a little princess and butterfly posing done at Babies 'R Us... then, back home for lunch, a nap, and our own ladybug photo shoot. There are lots of photos in the ladybug post today.

We talked some more about kindergarten. I wanted to share an instructional drawing Gabriella did earlier last week of herself... I drew on my paper and she copied what I drew.

We had Chinese pigtails with hair pretties, earrings, and even 5 fingers on each hand.

Earlier last week Gabriella also got to meet her new teacher and classmates. I think that visit was helpful!

    

We talked about what our morning will be like tomorrow and each school morning hereafter.

Now, it twas the night before kindergarten... we have played, eaten multiple times, but our favorite meal was a frozen yogurt snack... the girls are bathed, Mama has chosen the clothes for tomorrow, Gabriella's snack and backpack are ready... and, the little princesses are fast asleep.

Amaris and I will get some photos of our new kindergartner in the morning... hope we can pull it together to be ready by 8AM.

Our Little Lovebugs!

While it would have been MUCH easier just to photograph the two lovebugs below... 

These are my favorite little lovebugs!

Why is it so impossible to get good photos of two year olds?

Ladybug Gabriella Grace!

Ladybug Amaris!

Best Friends!

Two Years Home... What's Her Vocab Like?

Gabriella came home July 31, 2010...

These photos were taken August 2012.

She is now a big sister to the super flexible monkey: Amaris Nanette...

While I haven't written down her daily phrases, I thought I would capture these. She is 5yrs. 7mo. old.

Here number 1 question each day, literally asked somewhere between 150-200 times per day:

"Mama, what zu dean-er?" (which means: "Mama, what's for dinner?")

• "Uh-oh uh-ma-rez bad choices!" (which means: "Uh-oh, Amaris made bad choices!")
•  "So, so ummy" (which means: "I want something to eat")
• "Ooooh...ummy" (which means: "This is really yummy!")
• "Belle-Belle eating feet!" (which means: "Belle is eating her feet" Our dog Belle is allergic to our grass and has owee's)
• "Chai-Chai sick" (which means: "Our dog Chai died and lives with Jesus now")
• "Toys-aye" (which means: "I want to play toys!")
• "Game right-so now?" (which means: "I want to play a game right now!)
• "Potty!" (which means: "I have to go potty")
• "Potty - yes!" (which means: "Amaris went potty")
• "No nigh-night!" (which means: "I don't want to go nigh-night, but I will.")
• "Wha-chu get me mama, two hours? (which means: "When are you getting me from my nap, mama? Two hours!")
• "Bye-bye car-car" (which means: "We are (or, Are we) going bye-bye car-car.")
• "Walker come?" (which means: "Is my walker coming?")
• "Baba's home! Baba's home!" ... as she screams or squeals in delight (which means: she is really, really happy... and mama is too!)
• "Wo ai ni" (which means: "I love you" in Chinese)
• "Candy, read?" (which means: "May I read to you and get a piece of candy?")

I remind her that she needs to speak in a complete sentence, so she will re-phrase her one and two word sentences generally to this: "I want ..." or "I want to..."

Interestingly enough, while her expressive language is still fairly low, her receptive language seems to be growing rather quickly. I speak to her just as I would any other child...  though I have to repeat myself often.

Gabriella can read the Kindergarten and First Grade "Bob" books... which is fun to watch...
Here are some sample pages from one of the series that we are in right now:

• "Molly's Mom had a big hat, but Mom was hot."
• "But the red car did not start."
• "And that was the end of jumping on the bed. "Good night, Meg. Good night, Fred.""
• "Jon had six pennies. Dolly had ten pennies."
• "Mop ran after Jack and Zack."

The Life of a Ladybug! Two Years in the Making!

 In August of 2010, I took photos of Gabriella in her 3T ladybug costume. 

She was 3 1/2 years and 25 pounds. She had just arrived home from China 27 days before.

Here she is in January 2011 on her birthday... 

making her's and Amaris' ladybugs. 

Today, we took photos again... 2 years later...

Same 3T costume, this time, she is 5 1/2 years old and a whopping, ZERO FAT, 37 pounds. 

And, here is our baby ladybug...

Same costume... her first ladybug photo shoot. 

Size 3T, age 2 1/2, and 25 pounds... same weight as Gabriella, a year younger!

This is just a sample of the crazy photos Amaris gives me... generally in a photo shoot, 97% of her photos will be doing something crazy... she makes the funniest faces... I am sure she will be the class clown.

Here is our littlest princess ladybug at her finest!