My Baby, Isn't A Baby Anymore

Yesterday, Amanda got a big girl's hair cut. She looks so cute! Doesn't she look so much older... Like a BIG GIRL? Whahhhh!!! My baby girl is growing up way too fast!!!

This afternoon, Amanda decided now that she's sporting a new Big Girl's hair style, she needed to play the role of a Big Girl in a broader fashion. To debut her newly founded independence, Amanda chose to climb out of her crib after she was done with her nap. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Not only does this mean naps are pretty much thrown out the window... It also means we had to take down her crib this evening. :( My baby, isn't a baby anymore.

After dinner we went out a bought Amanda a toddler bed. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I'm one of those nervous Nellie's who is scared to put my VERY petite, 24 pound toddler in a big twin size bed that is way too high off the ground for my comfort level. We purchased a simple, white metal toddler bed frame that is a VERY safe distance off the floor... Without Mommy having an anxiety attack at night, thinking she'll fall out of bed... bonk herself unconscious, and we won't know it until the morning! Yes! I am that much of a nervous Nelly!

Now back to Amanda's new bed. We played up the whole 'Big Girls bed' all night long. She anxiously watched her Daddy put her new bed together! It was so cute. Once it was put together we got her favorite blankies and babies all situated and she was ready for her first night in her new bed!







Now you're probably wondering 'how are things going?' So far, so GOOD! We put her down, said our prayers, exchanged lots of hugs and kisses... and I haven't heard a 'peep' from her. YAY! WOO-HOO!!! That was over an hour ago, and we only have 9-10 more hours to go! Hopefully she will stay in her new bed until morning!

My Little Donkey Whisperer

On Monday Amanda and I went to Crow's Nest Farm in Manor, TX for her speech therapy session. That's right... Speech therapy at a farm! How fun is that?!?! Crow's Nest Farm is the cutest, most educational farm I have ever been to. We went on a tractor ride, saw a cow milking demonstration, learned a bit about agriculture and took a walking tour of the farm.

Tinaya, Amanda's speech therapist thought it would be fun to take a little field trip to see if we could get Amanda talking... or at least get her to talk to the animals. At first Amanda didn't say much at all. She gestured and pointed at the animals a lot, and blurted out many "ooh's and aah's". She also preferred to make the animal sounds than say which animal it was... UNTIL we she met a Daisy. Daisy the Donkey!

No joke! Amanda fell in love with this donkey at first sight! Daisy was trying really hard to reach for some grass outside of her enclosure and Amanda noticed this. She then pulled up some grass out of the ground and began feeding this donkey! At first I freaked out a bit, thinking the donkey might bite her! But Daisy was sweet as could be and gently took the grass from Amanda's closed fist. We stood there (in the blazing, hot and humid sun) for over a half an hour, while Amanda fed Daisy. It was so cute! Amanda 'talked' to Daisy the whole time too. It was hilarious! It took a lot of convincing, but we finally got Amanda to say "bye-bye" to Daisy and we went on to see the rest of the animals. She didn't take much interest in the rest of the farm animals after meeting Daisy, but when it was time to go she did turned back and said, "bye-bye Donkey". So cute!

WARRIORS!

A few weeks ago we headed up to Dallas for a quick visit. I had plans to meet some friends for lunch at The Cheesecake Factory, while Soowan, Micah and a couple of his buddies were going to go to Dave & Busters next door to play. We arrived at the mall early to do a little shopping, and while browsing around I made an awesome discovery! Micah's favorite author of the children's book series 'Warriors' and 'Seekers', Erin Hunter was doing a book reading & signing at the Barnes and Nobles at the mall! Micah LOVES these book and has read almost all of them! I couldn't wait to tell Micah... and when I did he was bouncing off the walls!

At the time of this great discovery it was a little before Noon, and Erin Hunter was to begin her book reading/signing around 2 o'clock. The was already a heap of people in the bookstore waiting to see her as well. Micah wanted to forgo Dave & Busters so he could meet his favorite author. At first we thought we were in a bit of a pickle because we already committed to Micah's friends to go to D&B for the afternoon. We were not too sure they would want to sit around in Barnes & Nobles for hours over playing video games at D&B. To our surprise when Micah's friends arrived, they too wanted to skip D&B and see Erin Hunter as well! Apparently they LOVE Erin Hunter's books too!



The boys ran into the bookstore, got their wristbands and each purchased a book to get signed. They waited almost 2 hours for Erin Hunter to arrive and stayed perfectly quiet while she read a chapter from her new book. After the reading, these 3 boys gleefully waited ANOTHER 2 hours to get their books signed. They did this with no complaining and COMPLETELY WILLINGLY! We were all blown away by their patience and ENTHUSIASM to me an AUTHOR! I know when I was 10 years old, I could care less about meeting an author, let alone reading for fun! But then, I've never been a big book person.

After 4+ hours of waiting the boys finally got to the head of the line and had their books signed. It was worth every minute of waiting to see the expression on their faces when it was their turn to meet Erin Hunter. PRICELESS!!!

Amanda's First Gymnastics Class

Yesterday was Amanda's first gymnastics class. It went pretty well, but she did become a bit antsy the last 20 minutes of the 50 minute class. Amanda did such a good job, and waited in line so patiently!!! Something her big bro was never good at at her age. Amanda is the youngest and tiniest one in the group. Most of the kiddos are 3 or 4years old. The class is designed for 2-4 years old. Everything went well enough, that I decided to enroll her into the program. YEAH!

Amanda was soooo excited to 'tell' Soowan and brother all about her gymnastics class yesterday. When she tries to say 'gymnastics' it sounds more like she's saying 'nasty'. So you can imagine the belly laughs we belted out when she was jumping up and down in excitement yelling, "Nasty... Nasty... Nasty!"

Easter Pics!

Better late than never... Right! ;0)

8 THINGS

I was tagged to do this '8 Things' list by Jeana... THANKS! I think. :0)

8 Things I am Looking Forward To:

1. Seeing my sister and brother-in-law in June!!! I need my sister sooooo badly right now, it hurts.

2. The vacation we're taking in November. I'm not stating the location because Micah doesn't know where we are going yet. We are planning on letting him know on his birthday... Four days before we leave! I'm worried someone might accidentally mention where we are going and spoil the surprise! So my lips are sealed.

3. I'm looking forward to seeing most of my Dallas friends this weekend! I'M SOOOOO EXCITED FOR OUR LADIES NIGHT OUT!!!

4. To meet new people in my neighborhood and community.

5. To develop a more missional mindset.

6. Amanda's progression in her speech, so myself and others can understand her better.

7. Amanda being fully potty trained. She's in panties at home and has had no accidents in over a week! We're still using pull-ups while we're out and about though.

8. Micah being home for the summer! Only 6 weeks of school left!


8 Things I Did Yesterday:

1. Took Amanda to her first gymnastics class.

2. Talked with several people on the phone asking them what they are looking for in a church and what community groups/activities they would be interested in attending.

3. Had a funny conversation with my 10 year old. (see post below )

4. Made chili dogs for dinner.

5. Cleaned the house.

6. Chatted with my neighbor Erica and her sweet daughter Lexi.

7. Put up with a grumpy toddler who refused to nap and drove Mommy crazy.

8. Watched TV by my lonesome because Soowan spent the evening watching the Lakers game.


8 Things I Wish I Could Do:

1. Add to my family.

2. Have more energy than I currently do.

3. Fly... but not too high because I'm scared of heights.

4. Go on a vacation with just Soowan and I.

5. Do a weekend girls trip with my friends from California. We've been talking about it for over 5 years now, and have never planned anything. (hint, hint ladies)

6. Convince my brother-in-law that living in Sweden is NOT better than living in the North America. This way my sister and I could live on the same CONTINENT at least... because I know he'd rather move to Canada then live in the U.S.A. again.

7. Go back to school to become a Pharmacist.

8. To sleep 8 hours strait without waking up. Any sound wakes me up. I honestly can't remember the last time I slept through the night... EVEN before having children, I didn't sleep well.


8 Shows I Watch:

1. Law and Order SVU
2. The Office
3. House Hunters (HGTV)
4. Throwdown With Bobby Flay
5. Iron Chef
6. Landscapers Challenge (HGTV)
7. Curb Appeal (HGTV
8. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition


8 People who are tagged:

Maggie (sister)
Soowan (got to get you blogging again babe!)
Kelli I
Crissy Y
Michelle H (give you something to do before you go into labor)
Jill Y
Sarah T
Rachel L (I think you still read my blog)

Funny Conversation With Micah

I HAVE to share the conversation I had with Micah this afternoon while driving home from school. It amazes me what this kid thinks sometimes...

Micah: "Mom. I need to tell you something weird that happened at school today."

Me: "What weird thing happened at school today?"

Micah: "When I was playing at recess, Cameron came over to tell me that Natasha likes me."

Me: "And what did you say?"

Micah: "Oh... and walked away."

Me: "I don't know anything about Natasha. Tell me about her."

Micah: "Well... She's one of those types of girls that is pretty on the outside and pretty on the inside too. She's really nice."

Me: "Oh... OK."

Micah: "But I don't think it's going to work out... Natasha and I."

Me: "And why is that?"

Micah: "Well... She was adopted from Russia and she said she wants to adopt a baby from Russia one day. I want to adopt from Korea, so it's not going to work out.

Me: "I never knew you wanted to adopt from Korea. Why would you like to adopt from Korea? Is it because Daddy and Amanda are adopted from Korea?"

Micah: "No... I want to adopt so I don't have to be in a room with my wife and watch her push out a baby. That's just gross. When you adopt, the baby is all clean... and it's so cute... and has nice clothes on."

THE END

Acclimating

We're just about unpacked and are now able to kick back and enjoy our new surroundings. We really like our new neighborhood. It is very family oriented and neighbors are always outside so it is easy to get a chance to know them. Micah is ecstatic that there are many boys his age to play with. Everyday, once he's done with his homework he's outside playing with new friends until dinner time. He's having a blast.

For Amanda, the transition has been very rough for her. She's been suffering from allergies since day 1, and her eczema has been really bad. She has not been sleeping very well due to her itchiness either. She has an appointment with a pediatric dermatologist on Friday, so hopefully he can prescribe/recommend something to help us manage her flair-ups. I really don't want to go the steroid route and my prayer is that we can steer away from going there. We're also waiting for an appointment to see an Immunologist. Now that's she's two we're going to have her tested for allergies and see what can be done to help her out.

We also had Amanda evaluated for Early Childhood Intervention last week. She's about 6-7 months delayed in speech. We are to begin the actual speech therapy next week. The speech pathologist recommended that we have her hearing checked by a pediatric audiologist. She thinks because of Amanda's allergies and her constant runny and/or stuffy nose, this could be one of the reason's for her delay. Even though she's only had 1 ear infection, there could be some issues with fluid build-up in her ears that can be affecting her hearing, therefor delaying her speech. It is something the speech pathologist wants to us to look into, so we have an appointment to get Amanda's hearing checked out on Monday.

So for Amanda, this past month has been a lot of transition, a lot of sickness and now a lot of doctor appointments. If you're a person of prayer, please pray for my sweet girl and for my heart. It's hard to see your child so restless do to her allergies/eczema and watching her feel so unsure of her new environment.

Soowan is really enjoying his new job, and so am I!!! His new company allows a much better work life balance. He's home at 5:00 to 5:30 PM just about every night! Even with a little more of an extended commute than he had in Dallas. With that said, business for Soowan is really good, and he's busy! I think when a company has 'happy' workers, production is higher. At least this is Soowan's company philosophy and we would have to agree with it 100% ;0) With Soowan getting home earlier, we've been eating dinner sooner than we use to and this has given us more quality family time during the work week. For this I'm grateful and praise God for His faithfulness!

As for myself, I'm keeping with tradition and having our annual egg decorating party at our house Friday morning. There is no school on Friday and we've invited all our neighbors to come join us! Soowan's taking the day off and we're excited to have a chance to get to know our neighbors a bit more! So far everyone we have talked with said they'll be there... so I think it will be a good turn out. One year we had over 40 kids at our house dyeing eggs! It was so much fun! My prayer is that we can make new, fun memories with our new neighbors, but still hold tightly to those we shared so many sweet memories with in the past. (***sniff-sniff***) Yeah, I'm having a tough time right now missing all dear my friends in Dallas. :0( Again, if you're a person of prayer, this is something you can pray for me as well.

Here are a few pictures I took of the kids yesterday as they were playing out front. I'll have many more pictures to share soon! We have a busy weekend ahead! With the egg decorating party on Friday, a picnic on Saturday with our Texas adoption group, and of course celebrating Easter on Sunday!!!

I love this picture! Everyday Amanda runs to Soowan when he gets home from work. She will babble on and on to Soowan about her day. Even though he has no idea what the heck she is saying (hence needing the speech therapy), Soowan always offers his ear to listen to every single 'word' she says. He's such a loving Daddy and Hubby too!