The Park

I took the girls to the park for a little while on Thursday afternoon. It was a gorgeous day! Below are the pictures that I captured. These are "natural" pictures...meaning that Emma and Sophie are not always "happy" and smiling! Which my posts may sometimes lead you to believe! ;)



Emma leads the way....
Teaching Sophie how to climb up the wall...and not leaving her a lot of room.

The slide was a bit hot...Sophie's turn....
Emma was bouncing the teeter toter a little bit too fast and Sophie was afraid!

"Hold on tight Sophie"!!! (Emma loves this teeter toter). Here is the full view shot. Sorry that it's off center... it was bright out and I coudn't see very well. The dumb looking kid in the backround climbed onto the middle as I was finishing the picture & started to jump...he recieved a little scold from me. I am sure that his white trash mom was eating a bag of chips and sucking down a sugary pepsi on a park bench somewhere. ;P

Oh Mommy, it is REALLY warm and crowded here today...do we have to pose for another picture?!

Emma LOVES the swings....And, Sophie not so much. We are still easing her into the whole park thing, she is going to get a lot of practice this summer!

Just Sophie!

First of all, this is a fluke that I'm posting two days in a row so DO NOT expect it to be the norm! ;)


It was 87 degrees outside and sunny today. Sophie looked SO cute in her Cubs cheerleading outfit that I decided to have a little photo shoot outside before it was time to pick up Emma from school.


Sophie has been a little bit grumpy this week so I was grateful that she decided to cooperate and smile for a few minutes! :) She is a VERY sweet little girl who is normally easy going and happy. But, she and Emma have been at war with each other this week. The honeymoon is OVER and while they love eachother they do not want to share toys or their parents! ;) I guess that this means that there is no doubt that they are "REAL" sisters....*lol*!



Sophie is talking well and called me "MOMMA" over and over today. She is also and becoming a selective eater. She hates tortillas but loves grapes. She will wrap her arms tightly around me when I hold her and she ALWAYS has to kiss Emma goodbye when we drop her off at school. She tells every clerk that she sees at the store "thank you". :)


Life before Sophie is now a distant memory.

"Captions"!

FLOWER GIRLS: Emma and Sophie posing in their spring dresses before we took Em to school today! Greg bringing the girls and boys back from the park the other night (what a GOOD Daddy)!

DADDY'S GIRL: That's okay...I can understand why she loves him so much! ;)

STYLIN'!: Emma has had her own fashion opinions lately. One of them is that a barrette, headband (& sometimes a rubber band) look fabulous together. Ugh. And, she wants to do it by herself (this is good). So, when we are at *home* I let her fix herself up...when we are in public what I say still goes. :)

Sophie wants to be just like Emma in SO many ways. (God help me...). :) Last week I caught Sophie wearing one of Emma's backpacks and Emma informed me that Sophie was getting ready to go to school. (It was about 5:00 pm). As you can see Emma styled both of their hair.

What is the Kleenex necklace that Sophie is wearing? Well, Emma had a nasty cold a couple of weeks ago and she was blowing her nose ALL of the TIME. I didn't want her to use up the classroom's entire supply in one day so I fashioned her this necklace to wear for easy access. *lol*. The girls and the Pooh's! I have no idea why Soph is not smiling in this picture because she was having SOOOO much fun and screeching! :)

Pooh and Zoo: We met our friends Kathy and Emma at the Zoo on Saturday. Emma insisted on wearing this red shirt because it was "red like Pooh's". We were running a few minutes late so I did not have time to iron it! :( And, yes I know that Sophie was not smiling for the camera again. She DID enjoy feeding the animals!

This was right before Emma hugged the poor goat with such "love" that he almost flipped out! ;)

Easter Pictures (Finally...)!

Better late than never...

Oh yeah-I almost forgot...for those of you wondering; Emma *LOVED* the Easter Bunny! She ran right up to him and gave him a huge hug. And, Sophia was not as excited to see him as her big sister. In fact she screamed at the top of her lungs from 6 feet away. ;) Hmmm, better luck next year maybe?

White Ribbons and Red Noses

Poor Emma and Sophie BOTH have colds (and of course so do I)! There is no need for anybody to worry about Sophie though, Emma has taken it upon herself to wipe Sophie's nose when ever she thinks that it is necessary. Emma tells her "blow" and Sophie does! :) Of course Emma still asks US to blow HER OWN nose half of the time....sometimes she wants to be a big girl and other times not.

The girls are looking forward to Easter this year. Emma tells us that the Easter bunny is in the ground and she takes Sophie to the window frequently to check if they can catch a glimpse. Emma is also very aware that he is going to bring them candy (not as much as she THINKS though)! :) We are taking the girls to visit the Easter Bunny this weekend and Emma is thrilled, we will see how Sophie does. She is shy around strangers and I can not imagine what she will do when she sees a giant bunny. Sophie is enjoying playing with plastic Easter eggs and that may just be enough for her this year. :)

The girls Nona (Greg's Mom) is flying in for Easter tomorrow. Emma is quite excited and I am sure that they both will both enjoy her visit!

What's New?

We had a pretty uneventful weekend...no big news to share. Greg worked from home instead of going into the office on Saturday & Sunday so that was NICE! It is his busy season at work and unfortunately we have not seen a lot of him since we have been home from China.

On Saturday we took the girls out to dinner. We had sushi at Sumo; Emma peeled apart her maki rolls and ate the insides while Sophie just ate the entire roll. Sophie will eat anything. :) Last night we played some music while cleaning up after dinner. The girls were jamming to The Stones! :) It was pretty funny.

The other night we let them watch television together in our bed and they fell asleep together. This was the first time that this has happened. It is neat to see the two of them bonding. :) Sophie says Emma's name very clearly now and when she sees Emma she says "Hi" and waves.

Oh My!

As I sit here with the girls watching them eat lunch I can't help but think of how lucky I am to have both of them. They are both wonderful and unique...and simply meant to be my daughters.

:)

I also can't help but think of some of the ignorant comments that I have heard this week.

:(

People really are ignorant. They will say things to you that they would never ever say if you were a biologically formed family. As a Mother of two daughters who are asian I expect people to ask questions and that is okay when they are respectful. I do wish that people would just ask me NORMAL questions sometimes...like "How old are they" or "What preschool does your daughter attend"?....but realistically that is not always going to happen. :) BUT-When they start to ask a barrage of personal questions and in front of my girls I get very angry. This week I have tried to simply cut inappropriate questions off before they start while still being polite.

A sampling of the questions and comments have been:

"Is she yours"?
(Duh....she calls me MOMMY)!

"Do they like to eat noodles"?
(Huh?! Yeah like all toddlers they like carbs...they also love Mexican food).

"Where was she found"?
(Excuse me but that is nobodys business).

"How much does it cost"?
(My children did not "cost" anything and how are the adoption fees your business)?

"Yeah- China does not want their girls. The parents just throw them away or kill them".
(Wow, did you just say that out loud? And in front of my daughter? China has a very different government and set of rules regarding pregnancy and families. Both of my daughter's birth mothers had to make a very, very difficult choice. I am grateful that they were strong enough to give their beautiful daughters a chance to have a good life).

Honestly I could go on and on with more examples, but I have made my point. Other adoptive Moms who read my blog will "get it".

Yes, She DOES SMILE!

Sophie is getting used to the camera. She is actually starting to smile-sometimes. She even says "Cheese"! :-)