Our Fortune Cookie Helaina

I arranged it, and I can't even go

2012-02-07T14:38:00.000-05:00

I surprised Helaina and Jim with a ticket to the Father Daughter Valentine Ball that benefits Golisano Children's Hospital - a place we are unfortunately all too familiar with. I told them over the weekend about the surprise and Helaina was overjoyed.

It's killing me that I can't go watch the fun and take tons of pictures.

Her dress is ready. It's Helaina's first big girl party dress and she can't wait to get all gussied up. "Mom, can you french braid my hair and put ribbons in it?" Sure sweetie.

Helaina has one more surprise when she's getting ready tonight. I bought her a wrist corsage to wear and she's going to flip when she sees it. She absolutely loves fresh flowers and it's going to look adorable on that pudgy little wrist of hers.

We were talking about the dance yesterday and this was her conversation with Jim:

Helaina: Daddy, what are you going to wear?

Jim: A sweatshirt.

Helaina: Daddy, you can't wear a sweatshirt! You have to get dressed up. You have to wear a shirt and put your hair up.

Jim: Put my hair up?

Helaina: You have to put mousse in it.

I didn't know she even knew what mousse was!

Helaina's fast asleep on the couch now resting up for her big night. This morning she was showing me some of the dances she plans on doing tonight. She showed me her disco dance (from the movie Despicable Me) and her hotdog dance (from Micky Mouse Clubhouse). She's also got a wild free style dance along with a bootie shake that makes me nervous for when she gets older. And then there are all the dances she learned at children's theater. I think she'll definately be teaching Jim a few moves tonight. I can't wait to get her all girlied up after dinner!

The 'Cuse is in the house

2012-02-06T22:53:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago we took Helaina to her first SU basketball game. The last time Jim and I went to a basketball game (or did anything by ourselves, for that matter) was pre-Helaina. She was very excited about 2 things: seeing Otto and singing the National Anthem. She got to do both.

A picture before the game started. So cute decked out in her orange t-shirt.

She belted out the National Anthem in true Helaina form - loud. Everyone around us was laughing at how loud she sang, how well she knew the words for such a little gal and how stinking adorable she was. It brought tears to my eyes, unbelievably enough.

I told Helaina that she'd see Otto on the court but that she probably wouldn't get to see him (or her) up close. Part way through the game I couldn't believe my eyes. Here comes Otto walking up the steps in our (nosebleed) section. Jim and Helaina headed to the aisle and Helaina followed Otto up the steps for a hug and picture. She was thrilled.

A sea of orange and blue.

I brought lots of snacks to keep Helaina amused but popcorn was the one thing I didn't bring.

The man sitting behind us thought Helaina was adorable and chatted with her throughout the game. At one point he told her he liked her orange hair ribbon. Helaina said to him "Well, actually it's a scrunchie." I couldn't stop laughing.

She did so good at the game. Considering that she was getting tired, the seats were incredibly uncomfortable and crowded and had no backs - she was a real trooper. About the last 15 minutes she was ready to leave and ended up on my lap, almost asleep at one point despite the loudness (I was glad that I packed ear plugs for her to wear). It was a good game with SU winning only by one basket. I thought West Virginia was going to tie it up with 5 seconds left on the clock but mercifully they didn't. There's no way Helaina could have lasted through overtime.

As if the excitement of the game wasn't enough, we had our FCC Chinese New Year Party that same afternoon and evening. We left the game and headed to our second party of the day while Helaina snoozed in the car on the way there. Once at the party she got her second wind, as usual. A show, friends, food, games and fun. We were all exhausted by the time we left the party that night.

Some adorable dancers from the Chinese school.

Very interesting dances, singing and music.

There were all sorts of games set up for the kids to play with tickets to win and turn in for prizes. There was a bounce house (Heaven help us), balloons, candy, glow sicks and more. Some weekends we have nothing planned and others we don't have a free moment. The next day we went to a dumpling making party at a friend's house for more Chinese New Year celebrating.

Helaina with some of the dumpling making gang.

School pictures

2012-02-01T21:40:00.000-05:00

Here is Helaina's school picture taken in October. We had to laugh when she brought home the envelope with the pictures and we opened it up. "Oh my, Helaina, how beautiful! What a BIG smile!!!" , while thinking to myself "why the heck did you raise your eyebrows like that?"!!! I'm a firm believer in keeping the original picture - no re-takes on re-do picture day at school. The beauty and fun of school pictures is that you never know what you're going to get - a smile, a frown, hair sticking straight up, food on their face, wrinkled clothes - whatever.

Cutie patootie. She was thrilled that the photographer combed her hair before the picture and she got to keep the comb and bring it home. Absolutely thrilled.

Did her dress match that background or what?

We went to Disney on Ice Treasure Trove the first weekend in January. It was a good mix of the Disney classics and some new stories.

Here's the crocodile from Peter Pan just before he swallowed up Captain Hook.

Pumba from Lion King. Helaina's never seen the Lion King but she's read the short story. She likes Pumba and Timone and clapped like crazy when Pumba took the ice.

Simba and Nala, all grown up.

What Disney show is complete without Donald, Minnie and Mickey.

Snow White about to bite the poison apple. Every kid in the arena, including Helaina, was screaming "No, no Snow White! Don't bite the apple!" Thank goodness Prince Charming happened to be skating around too.

Jasmine waiting for Prince Ali Abbaba and the magic carpet. The giant skating elephant was pretty impressive.

Mulan with Princess Aurora in the background.

Each show ends with fireworks. Pretty impressive (and loud).

Bye bye, see again you next January.

During intermission we told Helaina she could pick out one item and Daddy would buy it for her. Jim was suckered into buying another overpriced light-up spinner. This one is Tinkerbell. If I was thinking I would have brought her Cinderella spinner from last year and saved the $22.

Helaina has exciting news. She's got a loose tooth. I found it last weekend. While I was flossing her bottom front teeth I couldn't believe that one of them actually wiggled. When I told her it was loose she broke into song, dance and then unbelievable screaming. "I have a loose tooth! I have a loose tooth! When can we pull it out? How will the tooth fairy know when my tooth is under my pillow? Yippee skippy, I have a loose tooth and I'm not even 6 or 7 or 8 yet!" I've never seen any child so excited over a loose tooth. She told everyone at the bus stop, her bus driver, everyone on the bus, her teacher, classmates, gymnastics instructor, children's theater teachers and anyone else that would listen to her. We've told her that it's only slightly wiggly and it will be a very long time before its ready to come out. Heaven help us when it's hanging by a thread and ready to yank. I can only imagine how happy she will be. Wonder what the going rate for a tooth under the pillow is these days? Hmmmmm....

Yes, that's a butterfly on Jim's head

2012-01-24T23:51:00.000-05:00

Over the Christmas break we went to one of Helaina's favorite places, the Museum of Play in Rochester. This time we ventured into the butterfly garden. We have never taken Helaina in there before because we feared for the safety of the butterflies with our bull-in-a-china-shop daughter. We decided to risk it this time and told Helaina to move slowly, watch where she walks and not to try to catch the butterflies. This was one funny result.

Helaina stood very still and tried like heck to get a butterfly to land on her, but they preferred Jim's head. Guess they thought his hair made good nesting material.

It was interesting, but we wouldn't do it again. It was about 85 degrees in the garden and I don't know who was sweating more profusely - Helaina or myself. We were allowed 20 minutes in there but we left after 10.

They also said that there were 8,000 to 9,000 butterflies in the enclosure, but we found that impossible to believe. I would have guessed about 100! Butterflies must be good hiders.

Helaina's first exhibit. She charged through this dizzying slanted house about 5 times, each time running out like the true wild child that she is. Check out the war cry on her face. Cowabunga.

I'll say one thing - she gives it her all. Dancing and jumping trying to keep up with the lighted floor.

A little slower pace at the pint-sized Wegmans.

There are 2 stages/acting/dress-up areas and Helaina had a blast in both of them. Here she's playing an evil queen. She sang the songs from her Snow White play and entertained the crowd with her antics. We had to literally pull her off the stage to move on to something else.

We finally had about 4 inches of snow (all at the same time!) mid-January and this was actually the first time Helaina was out to play in the snow this season. Good thing she got out that day because it was all melted and gone in a heartbeat.

It's no fun unless you're laying in it completely.

"Look what I got for you, Daddy!"

Gung Hay Fat Choy

2012-01-23T23:59:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year, Chinese style. Welcome the Year of the Dragon. Helaina was beyond excited today to head to school in her silky pink Chinese outfit with her hair done in a Mulan-type bun, wearing her adorable Chinese girl earrings and waiting until I arrived at school to bring cookies and goodie bags for her classmates and the Dragon Dance book to read to her class (I was quite excited too).

Pretty in pink.

Red envelopes with chocolate coins, noise makers, mandarin oranges for good luck, fortune cookies, little umbrellas, dragon pictures to color and whatever else we could cram into the bags.

I got fancy with the fortune cookies this year and dipped half of the cookie in melted chocolate then decorated with sprinkles. Big hit, and yummy too.

Partying in Kindergarten. That's our girl - seated at the table with all the boys!

I had a captive audience at school today as I entered the room carrying 2 giant bags of goodies. I got to sit in the teacher's comfy rocking chair with all the little ones gathered on the rug at my feet while I read them the story and talked about Chinese New Year and some of the customs and traditions. Helaina loves it when I come to school to visit. She had a great day today ringing in the new year. After lunch we went to our local library where they had a special craft day and Helaina made a dragon mask and a dragon lantern. After a quick dinner it was off to gymnastics. We had a few small cupcakes when we got home to celebrate even more, then it was bath, a little SU basketball on TV and then off to bed for our exhausted little gal. Wishing everyone a happy, healthy Year of the Dragon.

Christmas week vacation

2012-01-10T23:05:00.000-05:00

The week after Christmas Helaina would wake up each morning asking "What we doing today?" We definately kept her busy - or was it the other way around.

Helaina was obsessed with getting an inflatable for our front lawn. I absolutely refused to pay full price for one so the day after Christmas we went shopping and found these penguins at Target for half price. Seems so funny to see green grass instead of the white stuff at Christmas.

A trip to the mall isn't complete without a carousel ride.

Aunt Barb gave Helaina a gift card for Build A Bear. She selected Brittney from the new chipmunk movie. It's funny, the place is called Build A Bear but Helaina has never selected a bear to stuff. "Maybe next time, Mommy." So of course, the next day we went to see the Chipmunk Chipwrecked movie. It was cute but yikes, even the matinee is ridiculously expensive. I smuggled in our own snacks and drinks because I refused to pay $3.50 for a small drink.

Basketball at a bounce house with one of Helaina's friends.

They loved this giant rubber ball. It had 4 handles and seats and they really got it going. I had to yell to Helaina to be careful because she outweighed the other 3 kids and at times her weight and enthusiasm almost rolled the thing right over her. After the bounce house it was off to McDonald's for lunch and more climbing in their play structure. Never ending energy.

We started the new year off with bowling one morning. Helaina loves it and has great form! Her and Jim bowled 2 games each and she got 2 strikes. I had the video recorder with me but it never failed - each time I set it down for a while she got the strike. After a while she'd run up to the line with the ball yelling "yabba dabba doo" then would hurl it down the alley. Too funny.

Helaina's been playing with her Christmas gifts all week. She loves stringing beads and making necklaces and bracelets.

Scrabble Alphabet Soup was a hit and it also helps her with spelling and reading words.

The big hit was Sorry Sliders. She was obsessed with this game and thank goodness cousin Beth came through. We've played it every day since Christmas - many, many, many times.

Play-do Dr. Drill and Fill is hysterical. You make play-do teeth (Helaina made colorful teeth), then drill them out with a battery-powered drill and then fill them with gray play-do for the cavities. You can also make braces to put on the teeth and it comes with dental tools. I even like this one.

Yah, it was a busy week. A hint for one of our other day trips during that week. Where can you go and have butterflies land on your head?

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, yippee it's all over

2012-01-05T22:18:00.000-05:00

It's been a busy few weeks. Between the hectic last-minute things to do right before Christmas and then Jim's week off after Christmas, it's been anything but peaceful. We did something just about every day with Helaina and when it was all over Jim asked the question "Whose vacation was this anyways?" Rewind to before Christmas.

Helaina's stocking was hung and the ornaments she made at school were proudly displayed for Santa to see.

The drawing she made for Santa was on the wall so he'd see it when he came down our chimney.

The reindeer food she mixed at school (oatmeal for eating and glitter to light the way) was sprinkled carefully around the lawn and house. She checked the chimney to make sure it was safe for Santa, the tree was lit, some gifts from us were under the tree, and finally the cookies and milk were set out.

Fast forward to Christmas morning. Helaina slept to an unbelievable 8:00am. Jim and I had a chance to get up, get downstairs and get the camera and video all set up for when Helaina awoke.

Ahhhh, Christmas morning happiness. The purple ladybug pillow pet that she had been longing for. Santa delivered - thank goodness.

How adorable does she look in her Smurfette hat.

Santa's got a great memory. He remembered the singing Mulan doll that the Disney Store also sells. One of Helaina's favorite gifts. She has played the Reflections song about a million times and now knows the words perfectly and acts out the scene from the movie as she sings.

Helaina's first ring - a sparkly beauty from the craft store, I mean that the Elves made and put in her stocking.

After our fun morning at home we headed to Aunt Barb's for more fun.

I waited too long into the day to get pictures of the girls. They were very tired and not interested in posing, as you can see by Anna looking away and Helaina's glazed over stare.

No matter how tired, though, I can count on little Miss Sophia for a laugh and a smile. Helaina was jumping around and then pretending to fall down. Sophia thought it was hysterical and did that true baby giggle for the longest time. She thinks her cousin is a hoot.

More partying, eating and gift exchanging Christmas night.

Helaina and Josh checking out some stocking stuffers.

Christmas night when Helaina was finally in bed, Jim and I crashed. Little did we know that Jim's vacation week ahead of us would exhaust us even more - let me rephrase - Helaina's vacation week would exhaust us even more.

The Santa run-down

2011-12-23T22:04:00.000-05:00

Here are the rest of the Santa visits Helaina has enjoyed this year. The big guy has got to be exhausted by now.

One of the walk-through nights for Lights on the Lake.

At our town's tree lighting ceremony.

Family fun night at Helaina's school.

And finally, breakfast at McDonalds.

We sat at a booth so she could watch Santa as she ate her breakfast. She was thrilled and kept waving at him during her meal.

Busy, busy, busy, but it's almost over.

When it comes to candy...

2011-12-20T07:52:00.000-05:00

... more is always better - especially on a gingerbread house. Take one candy-obsessed 5-year old, a giant tube of royal icing, decorating candy and a "blank" gingerbread house and you've got a messy, sugary, but oh-so-much-fun afternoon.

Let the icing mess begin.

One candy for the house, one candy for the artist. I think she licked her fingers after every candy she placed in the super sweet icing. Who knew brushing teeth would be a requirement after decorating a gingerbread house.

Helaina was very pleased with her creativity and use of all the candy that came with the kit, and some additional items from our cupboard.

I think the house looks good enough to eat!

"When can we eat it?" was her question after it was finished. I told her that we had to keep it around until after Christmas and enjoy looking at it because it's so beautiful - then her and Joshua can break it to pieces and nibble away.

Breakfast with the big guy in red....

2011-12-19T00:07:00.000-05:00

Helaina has had lots of Santa exposure this year. She's seen him 7 times, been to 3 tree lighting ceremonies and had breakfast with him twice. Jim and I are Santa-ed out. We told Helaina that Santa was heading back to the North Pole to help the elves get ready for Christmas. Phew!

The first breakfast was at the zoo.

Bacon, sausage, Santa and snakes - what could be better.

Santa made a grand entrance during breakfast and visited with the kids at each table.

Then he took his place near the Christmas tree and got down to business.

Of all the cute body paintings she could choose from, Helaina picked a Christmas snake. While she was geting the snake painted on her hand, Helaina told the woman all the facts she knows about snakes.

She was SO excited when she found out there would be a real snake on display. She listened intently and asked some questions. "Do snakes have ears?" She learned where they are on the snake and how well (or not so well) snakes can hear.

This is the snake that Helaina would not even get near the glass to view only a few months ago. Now it's her best friend. "Can I have a real snake for Christmas? We can put a flashlight in it's cage so it stays warm." Uummm, sorry sweetie, I know we try like heck to fulfill all your wishes, but that's one wish that won't come true - ever!

"Daddy, hold me up higher so I can see the snake."

One of my favorite exhibits at the zoo is the lion area. The giant wall of glass provides an amazing view of the 3 lions, which are almost always laying around right in front of the glass in perfect view. We have NEVER seen these lions be anything but passive when people are checking them out - that was until this time. Helaina did her usual face-to-the-glass viewing and this lion immediately made a snarling face and swatted her huge paw directly at Helaina. It scared the heck out of me but Helaina was not rattled in the least. She thought it was funny. "She's cranky today!" Helaina said.

I love this picture because of the look on the lion's face. You can tell she was still snarling at Helaina. That encounter really made me remember that these are wild animals and not as tame as they appear to be behind that glass.

Prancer and Donner waiting to take Santa back to the North Pole.

The zoo has had the same Santa every year since we've been taking Helaina, and he's a good one. Patient, takes time to talk to all the kids and seems to genuinely care. This is a tidbit from her lengthy discussion with him:

Santa: I see you have Christmas tree earrings on. I like them. Now who is that you have in your hair?

Helaina: That's Elmo on my piggy tails.

Santa: Oh, Elmo, right. Are you married?
Helaina: No (laughing).

Santa: How old do you think you should be before you get married?

Helaina: 21.

At least - good girl!!!!!

She did great!!!

2011-12-12T00:07:00.000-05:00

Oh man, what a show. Helaina was the cutest little bluebird ever. Backstage when we had to leave her to get to our seats she felt a few pre-show jitters, but once on stage she did great. She was in 4 song and dance routines and it didn't take her long to feel at ease on stage - moving and grooving in true Helaina form. She was adorable and hysterical all at the same time. We've got great video that we'll post after Jim gets it on the computer.

Backstage before the show with Snow White.

Beaming after the show, so thrilled with her flowers. Just look at that face.

It was a performance that brought tears to her Mommy's eyes. I just kept thinking that when we brought her home from China she didn't say a word for the first 2 months. When she did start speaking she struggled for so very long just to be understood. And now she's singing her heart out on stage before an audience. She is truly an amazing little girl.

A star is born ....

2011-12-10T16:10:00.000-05:00

Tonight's the big night - Helaina's first play. Yippee! Just like the line in one of the songs, "can you feel the magic in the air".

Her celebration cake is ready ...

... and so are her flowers.

Now, if only Mommy can stop being so nervous. Helaina's fine - it's me with the butterflies in my stomach!

Dinomania

2011-12-08T23:49:00.000-05:00

Our local kids museum had the traveling Dinomania exhibit in November and Helaina loved it. She got to see the dinosaurs that she loves from one of her favorite cartoons the Land Before Time (an oldie but goodie). Triceratops is her favorite dinosaur and it was the first one she saw when we entered the exhibit. You can see the excitement on her cute little face.

We'd work our way through the exhibit but Helaina would always run back to the Momma and 2 baby triceratops. She was very impressed that all the dinosaurs moved and roared.

"It's just like Topsie.", a dinosaur from the cartoon.

They were all pretty lifelike.

The eggs hatching was another favorite. They moved as they "hatched" from the eggs.

My fav, the t-rex.

Can't leave without taking on the rock climbing wall.

This kid cracks me up. She was trying to use these pulleys to lift 2 weights off the ground. When she couldn't do it she layed on the ground and braced her feet and entire body, grunting all the way. Determined little tike, isn't she.

The last weekend of November was still warm enough for some final visits to the parks.

The "shakey bridge" as Helaina calls it, and monkey bar mania.

Monkey bars are not just for swinging across. Superman style down the slide.

Yah, November was a good month. So much for that. It's very cold, windy and snowy now. The party's over.

Mailing Santa's Letter

2011-12-06T00:00:00.001-05:00

We had a few extra minutes the other day before heading out to school so Helaina grabbed her letter to Santa and asked for a stamp. By the way, she's wearing "Snakey" around her neck - her pet snake. Helaina has recently become infatuated with snakes - this from the girl who wouldn't even stand next to the reptile's glass enclosure at the zoo. More on the snake obsession some other time.

"Mom, I need a REAL stamp."

Mailing her letter on the way to the bus stop.

And by mailing, I mean her putting the letter in our mailbox on the way to the bus stop and me taking it out of the mailbox on my walk back to the house.

The envelope containint the all-important letter.

I think that Helaina thinks Santa's going to build a basketball court in our backyard overnight on December 24th.

Sunday morning heading into the dress rehearsal for the play Helaina will be in Saturday night. We were instructed to take her to the side of the theater and look for the "artist entrance". Artist entrance - ha, our little performance artist!

Just a glimpse of Helaina's feathery bluebird headband. She was so excited to finally be at the theater in her costume and get her chance to be on stage.  I also thought she was a bit nervous or maybe slightly apprehensive when her dance instructor came to line up the woodland creatures and lead them on stage to practice. Jim didn't think so, but I think you can see it in her face in this pic. It didn't last for long though because when they came back in between their scenes she was smiling, laughing, jumping with excitement and totally thrilled. I don't know who is more excited about this weekend's show, Helaina or Jim and I.
Funny Helaina:
Helaina asked me a question the other night at dinner and it was a question she knew the answer to. I gave her my usual response. "Helaina, you know the answer to that question. Why did you ask it if you knew the answer?" Her response: "Just to aggravate you." Okay.....

One of Helaina's 4th grade pals at our bus stop is on the bus patrol this week.  Helaina was explaining to Jim and I what the kids to when they are on the bus patrol. Jim said to her "I'm going to be on your bus patrol." Helaina said to him "You can't. You're an old man." Oh my gosh, cracked us up.

Helaina has asked a lot of questions about marriage recently. "When will I get married? Who will I marry? Will you come to my wedding? Will you buy me pretty flowers to hold?" Lately she's expanded her daily 1,000 questions to babies. Her most recent question centers around the fact that we've told her she has to be in love and married to her husband before she can have a baby (we can only pray!): "How will the baby in my belly know if I'm married or not?"  Talk about forward thinking.

More November niceness

2011-12-04T00:21:00.000-05:00

Shortly after Halloween we attended the zoo's annual Squishing of the Squash which was held on another nice day at the beginning of November. There are pumpkins for the animals to play with as well as an underwater pumpkin carving demo in the penguin pool.

Joshua trying to get his small pumpkin out from behind the rock. When he got it he walked around his enclosure holding it in his mouth. We just love the lion exhibit at our zoo. The entire area is enclosed with a floor-to-ceiling wall of glass and the lions are always hanging out near the glass. It's so cool.

Helaina insisted on bringing her baby in to the zoo with her that day. It's kind of a heavy doll and we tried to talk her out of it because we knew she'd get tired of toting it around and pawn it off on us. We made it VERY clear to her that Jim and I weren't going to take it off her hands when she got tired of carrying the top-heavy doll. The time eventually came: "Mommy, will you carry my baby?" No. "Daddy, will you carry my baby now? She's too heavy." Uh, no, told you so. Meanies, aren't we.

Penguins are so cute, in an awkward kind of way.

How many divers does it take to carve a pumpkin under water?

Two.

Pretty cool.

Wild haired baby and Helaina on the teeny tiny elephant statue.

These lemurs were funny. Their heads would almost turn in unison when someone walked by.

Our little actress, really. Helaina saw one of her friends perform with our local children's theater over the summer in the production of Wonderland (as in Alice), and she begged to be able to sing and dance on stage just like her friend. She absolutely loves to sing and dance and act out scenes from her favorite movies, so, suckers that we are, we signed her up. Since September Helaina's been taking weekly classes at our local children's theater. She has three 25-minute sessions each week. Acting (yah, ha!), singing and dance. She's had a blast and it's good for her. Anyone who knows Helaina knows that she's exploding with energy and needs to release it some way. Next weekend is her debut in the Rockin' Tale of Snow White. She's playing one of the woodland animals (all the 5-year olds are woodland creatures). Helaina's the bird, she has one line in the play, and is in several of the song and dance numbers with the entire cast and one song/dance routine with Snow White. Thrilling for a 5-year old. She's worked very hard learning the songs and the sometimes complicated dance routines. Tomorrow is her dress rehearsal at the theater where they will perform. Squeal!

Oh, yah. That brings me to costume making. I searched high and low for a bird costume around Halloween but no such luck. I found Big Bird and the Angry Birds (whatever oddity those things are), but no "woodland creature" bird costume. I checked every store and internet site I could find with no luck. I DON'T sew, but I'm good with a hot glue gun so my internet search began. I took ideas from several sites (Martha Stewart and "ask how" sites), combined them and came up with a vision. Well, after MANY craft store visits (with enough miles put on my car to drive to Florida and back), trial and error mishaps, changes in plans, swearing, tears, frustrated phone calls to Jim, hot glued fingers, countless hours, late nights and actually having to cut one of the completed "wings" off the costume and start over again, I finished the bluebird "costume", wings and headband 2 days ago. It took 26 felt squares, a million glue sticks, a few feathers, a lot of cursing and a bottle of L'Oreal hair color to cover up my newly sprouted (but well deserved) gray hairs. I must say, though, it's exactly as I envisioned and I'm pleased with it. First time I tried it on Helaina she got a huge smile on her face, started flapping her "wings" and danced around the family room so it was worth it. Man, what we won't do for our kids, huh?

November nice weather

2011-12-02T10:23:00.000-05:00

December is now here but November was a considerably warm month for Central New York. We had plenty of time to get yard work chores done and Helaina had an extra month for outdoor activities.

Helaina's into "driveway art" now. She grabs her giant bucket of chalk and creates her masterpieces.

By the time she's finished drawing she's covered in chalk dust and driveway dirt. She's sporting Barbie hair clips in her hair. I especially like the purple one!

Voila, done. A self portrait, a picture of Zoey and a few other oddities.

Helaina was riding her bike one Sunday morning and who came speeding by? Uncle Jack. The second Helaina figured out who it was she yelled to him "Want to have a race?"

Helaina and her rickety old Barbie bike beat Uncle Jack on his spiffy wheels every time. Imagine that!

Turkey Day

2011-11-28T22:47:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving is over, the Fall decorations are coming down and the Christmas decorations are going up (reluctantly). Helaina is very anxious to decorate for Christmas. Today she asked when we're putting up our tree and when will it snow. We put up her little pink tree and yellow chick and plugged them in to keep her quiet. I think if the decorations are up she believes Christmas (and snow) will get here sooner. We put up outdoor lights the day after Thanksgiving because it was so nice outside but planned on waiting at least a week to turn them on, but Helaina insisted that the house be lit up, so it is. A little too early for me, but the outdoor wreath and holiday doormat is out too. Yikes.

Helaina's Thanksgiving hat she made in school.

Yah, my birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year. Every 6 or 7 years it falls on Thanksgiving, depending on when a leap year rolls around. Needless to say, it was a working birthday for me. We went out for my birthday dinner last Saturday night because who goes out to dinner Thanksgiving night? That was my birthday cheesecake that Jim ordered for me. Amaretto, yummy.

Um, whose birthday was it?

Anna wasn't in the mood to be photographed at this particular moment. She was too busy walking around wearing Helaina's wedding veil and asking people to marry her.

Sophia, on the other hand, is very photo friendly. She's too young to know that cameras are clicking in her face every few minutes. She's 5 months now and smiles even when you just glance at her. I think she had just stuffed handfuls of mashed potatoes in her cheeks and was saving them for later - ha ha. Too stinkin' cute. Her hair at this age is exactly like Anna's was. We're waiting for it to go into a wave then the ringlets just like Anna's did.

I found this turkey at Walmart and had to have it. I thought it was artificial until I picked it up to put in my cart. It's a real flower. Clever.

Some school art. "I'm thankful for my mouse"? Hmmm. What mouse? Is there something she's hiding in her room we don't know about?

Just love the school projects she brings home.

Yum, multi-color peas or cranberries. With Helaina, more likely M&M's.

We're running out of room to display Helaina's school projects. She brings home at least 5 papers, drawing or projects daily.

My little helper in the kitchen. Mixing peanut butter cookie dough is tough work.

The annual tree lighting ceremony is held every year on the day after Thanksgiving. Helaina loves ringing her Salvation Army bell and counting down to the flipping of the switch. Then she yells, rings her bell even louder and jumps up and down like crazy.

I don't even know how long we waited in line for our picture with Santa and Mrs. Claus. It was a LONG wait and Helaina was actually more patient than I was. It was a warm night though so at least we weren't freezing while waiting. It's actually been an extremely warm November for Central New York.

Halloween, finally

2011-11-17T21:38:00.000-05:00

Halloween pics, finally. Helaina decided to be Belle several months ago and stuck with her decision without ever changing her mind - amazing. She already had the dress but picked out long white princess gloves to accessorize (good thing because it was cold Halloween night and the gloves came in handy). She wore earrings we already had and for her hair chose a ribbon and a tiara that we already had too. Wow. It was a cheap Halloween this year!

Our yearly Halloween card we send out.

Halloween prep: curled hair then make-up.

The finished product. She was so happy with her total look.

The stash. We did just 3 streets in our neighborhood and Helaina scored big-time.

The Friday before Halloween Helaina's school had a Fall Festival that included a dance with a DJ. Helaina had a blast and loved the live music.

The limbo.

Dancing with her little friend from down our street.

They all held onto each other's shoulders for several dances and snaked around the gym. Helaina loved these dances and wouldn't let go even after the music stopped.

Helaina has already selected next year's Halloween costume - except she's already changed her mind about 10 times. Let's see if I can remember them: Dorothy, a queen, Tinkerbell, the Pink Power Ranger, Mulan, a snake (more on that later), and several other things that I've forgotten. Thank goodness Halloween only comes once a year. She's still munching on candy 2 weeks later.

4 years ago, really?

2011-11-07T21:29:00.000-05:00

It was 4 years ago yesterday that we "met" our daughter - on paper, that is. We requested her photos and whatever records our adoption agency had after being fortunate enough to find her on their waiting child list. This was one of the first pictures we ever saw of our daughter.

"She has a big pair of eyes and a little cute round face." A direct quote from the paperwork.

This was the very first sentence we read in her paperwork: "...female was found abandoned at the gate of the Children's Welfare Institute...". Wow, that line still knocks my socks off even reading it four years later. Those words "abandoned at the gate" make me cringe. Helaina's Chinese name given to her at the orphanage translated to "brave little girl found at the gate". Here's one of the first pictures we have of Helaina. She was about 3 weeks old. So precious and so oblivious to the hand that life had already dealt her.

Jim and I spent that evening staring at the 3 pictures we were provided and reading over and over and over (at least I did) the paperwork from the orphanage. Here are some of my favorite quotes from the reports: "She is a very healthy and very pretty little girl ... she enjoys being held by visitors, including foreign visitors, and she likes to touch their faces ... she plays well with other children and shares toys ... she has an excellent appetite and is never picky at food (one of my favorites!) ... she likes to take bath and likes to stretch her legs in the water and splash water ... she likes her caretaker to sing songs to her ... she will stare at you when you calling her name ... when mealtime gets close she will look toward the direction of the kitchen (also another favorite!) ... when you walk toward her and tell her "let me hold you" she will open her arms and with a big smile come running into your arms ... she is a very adorable, pretty and engaging little girl ... we hope she can be adopted by somebody who loves her and she is looking forward to bring you more joyfulness and happiness."

The next morning we called our agency and set the wheels in motion to adopt this amazing little girl who lived on the other side of the world. She was 20 months old at the time and had no clue that in less than 4 months Jim and I would rock her little world. Three and one-half years later that amazing little girl is still rocking our world - every day - and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Apple picking

2011-11-03T23:57:00.000-04:00

We went apple picking 2 weeks ago for the last time. The golden delicious were just that - delicious and sweet, but ridiculously small. The Jona Reds that were also available for picking were terrible. I picked one off the tree, took one bite and spit it out. They were miniature, the skin was tough, the apple had no taste and it had a funky texture. We picked 2 bags of the golden delicous and have been munching on them ever since.

Climbing the ladder is as much fun as picking the apples.

Tractor ride to the orchards.

Can't go apple picking without having a few sugar-cinnamon coated hot apple fritters and cider.

We can't go anywhere that there is a dog without Helaina gravitating toward it and and asking the owner "May I pet your dog please? Is it friendly?" If the answer is yes, more questions follow, "Is it a boy or girl? How old is your dog? What's her name? Oh, she's so cute! Our dog is in Heaven but we have another cat now.", and on and on. A day doesn't go by that Helaina asks when we are getting another dog. Tonight she said she wanted a dalmation, then a spaniel that she will name Heidi, followed by a pug.

Last ride of the year on the Apple Ponies. This one was called Missy. Missy has a pretty face.

Of all the times we've been to Beak and Skiff I never noticed this tree with the face carved into it. Pretty cool but at first Helaina didn't want to get near it. It spooked her, for some reason.

Asleep for the drive home but still clutching her balloon that she got from a witch at the apple orchard.

A Bouncy Halloween Party

2011-11-03T00:05:00.000-04:00

A few weekends ago we went to my niece's annual Halloween party. This year she outdid herself by renting a bounce house. There were a few bumped heads here and there, but it was a giant success with bumps and bruises not getting in the way of totally bouncy fun.

Totally decked out for the party in her favorite Halloween attire, including the curled hair "just like Anna's."

In the bounce house where Helaina spent most of her time.

Painting her pumpkin, mostly pink, of course - a very natural color for a pumpkin. Notice the completely sweated hair with flushed red cheeks from bouncing non-stop for hours.

Ok, there's just too much cuteness between these 3 little girls. So much cuteness that it's almost too hard to handle.

Ahhh, those chubby little cheeks. Did I say "little" cheeks??!!

What, no candy?

2011-10-27T20:59:00.000-04:00

I had the mail in my hands yesterday while I waited at the end of the driveway for Helaina's school bus. She got off the bus, saw the oversized envelope in my hands and asked "What's that?" I showed her the envelope and she saw her name on it. "Who's it from?" I told her Aunt Terry and Uncle Mike. A squeal came from her lips. She called her Daddy to ask if she could open the package after lunch or if he wanted her to wait until he got home from work. "He doesn't care." She started ripping open the envelope while swallowing her last mouthful of soup.

Here's how the conversation went as she was opening her card and 2 gifts.
Helaina: Ahhh, I like this card. Now hand me a present. Oohh, Halloween pencils.
Me: Those are nice. You can sharpen them and use them to do your homework packets.
Helaina: Oohh, a stripe shirt. Can I wear it to school?
Me: Yes you can. It will look nice with your purple leggings.
Helaina (while holding and shaking the crinkled tissue paper): What, NO candy?????
Oh, the honesty of children! I reassured Helaina that she'd be getting plenty of candy this weekend. Thank you Aunt Terry and Uncle Mike, even though there was no candy!

Last Friday and Saturday the Disney Store had a Halloween party. If you wear your favorite Disney character costume you get to play games, parade through the store, watch a movie clip and get some gifts. Helaina decided to go as Cinderella. This dress is a play dress she's had for a long time and is not what she will be on Halloween, but she looks absolutely amazing with her blue eye shadow and red lipstick.

Yah, she looks 5 in this picture - uh huh.

She plopped down in a sea of stuffed animals and was quite comfy.

When dressed as Cinderella you simply must ride your white horsie - round the carousel. As far as Helaina's choice for Halloween this year? Well, let's just say if you guessed a Disney princess, you'd be on the right track! Last year she was Snow White. Any bets on what princess she selected this year?

More Fall Festivities

2011-10-26T22:59:00.000-04:00

Hafner's garden center has fun Fall activities each weekend in October. When their schedule says that Coco the Clown will be there, Helaina will be there also. Coco is great. The kids love her and she's got a good sense of humor. Helaina requested a ghost this time and was pleased with her Casper.

Helaina is particularly interested in mazes this year. She made her way through this hay bale maze on her own. Every once in a while she'd stand on her tip-toes and check to see that Jim and I were still there - like where would we go? It was funny because we could barely see the top of her head but we could clearly see her balloon ghost that she was holding up rather high.

She surprised me with her facepainting choice. Thought she'd pick a pumpkin or ghost but she opted for a glittered cat nose with whiskers.

Ride 'em, cowgirl. She just can't get enough horsie rides.

Helaina got behind this witch cut-out and started laughing like a witch and "cackling". People were walking by her and laughing.

A hay bale racetrack? There was a line of kids waiting to ride trikes through the hay bales and, as usual, she impatiently waited her turn.

We de-gutted a pumpkin recently and Helaina was actually excited to pull out the strings and seeds.

Helaina drew the face and I did the carving.

Weeks are just flying by...

2011-10-24T23:56:00.000-04:00

The Fall weekends are whizzing by us faster than we can keep up. Seems like every Saturday and Sunday we've had something fun and Fall-like to do. It's keeping Helaina happy and busy but putting Jim and I way behind on outdoor projects we'd like to wrap up. We try to squeeze some of our stuff in between Helaina's busy schedule! Two weekends ago Carousel Mall was celebrating it's 21st anniversary so we headed there on Saturday morning to take advantage of some events.

There were free carousel rides for the kiddos. Helaina took advantage of that - twice.

Free cupcakes. Or in Helaina's case, free frosting and sprinkles. She ditched the cupcake after getting her sugar high off the frosting. Check out those nails. She's into the multicolored designs now. I'm getting good at painting stripes, polka dots and letters on those cute little nails.

Helaina saw 2 clowns walk by the cupcake table and watched them like a hawk. Free face painting - in Helaina's case, arm painting.

And free balloon animals, which in Helaina's case turned out to be a flower. This very nice clown, who had a very long line of kids waiting, saw me trying to take a picture and she stopped for a moment and posed with Helaina. Very nice of her.

Sunday found us at the local garden center to enjoy more Fall festivities ... clowns, balloons, face painting and pony rides. It never ends, much to Helaina's delight.

So that's a cow train

2011-10-21T22:49:00.000-04:00

We had never been to Critz Farm before and decided to check it out on Columbus Day. Thought we'd be there a couple hours tops and ended up staying twice as long. The place is huge with lots of things to do and room for Helaina to run free and wild. I was most interested in the cow train - couldn't imagine what it was. Then when I saw it I couldn't stop laughing. Helaina waited impatiently in line then sprinted for the first cow when it was her turn. Clever idea, that cow train.

The tractor pulled the train around a big open lot. Helaina wanted to immediately ride again, of course.

She rode in Bessie.

Feeding the alpaca it's kibble.

There was a giant mountain that had several different slides going down each side of it.

Hay bales to climb on and jump from. Love this pic of our happy gal in mid-air.

We rode the tractor to the pumpkin patch and picked out a few.

There was a huge enclosed play area that had several play structures that Helaina could have spent the entire day on. Jim and I pulled a few lawn chairs under a shady tree and relaxed while Helaina ran, climbed and jumped until sweat was dripping down her face. Still obsessed with monkey bars and rings and her calloused palms prove it. She's got amazing upper body strength.

Hanging from something ... an absolute favorite thing to do.

The white bin held apples that the kids could toss into the green bin which sent the apples down a conveyor belt to be made into cider. You could watch them get washed then go the the pressing machine that pulverized the heck out of them. I think Helaina would have stood there all day tossing apples into the washing bin.

The trip was a success. We ended up having lunch there because there was so much to do. They have a corn maze and a small kid-friendly haunted house that Helaina went through at least 6 times. We had some yummy teeny tiney apple cider donuts. Jim and I had a hard cider tasting. I wanted to pick apples too but after nearly 4 hours we were too beat. Critz Farm gets 6 thumbs up from us all.

Columbus Day Weekend - Sunday

2011-10-20T21:59:00.000-04:00

With temperatures in the 80's on Columbus Day weekend, attending the Apple Festival seemed like a summer event instead of a Fall event. We go to the festival every year and have encountered all sorts of weather (rain, cold, knee-deep mud, occasional pleasentness), but never have we gone when we wore shorts and were sweating. Helaina suffered being dragged through the craft tents where I start my holiday shopping - her reward being an apple pony ride, numerous overpriced kiddie rides and ice cream.

Helaina climbed in and on everything she could at the festival. She's into climbing lately. I think a small rock climbing wall will be next Spring's additon to her playground.

She couldn't wait to climb up into this enormous tractor.

One of her favorite activities, the apple ponies. I think this was Herschey, or was it Brownie?

Mini-hymalaya type ride. She went on this twice and squealed with delight both times. It whipped around the corners so fast that her braids were flying in the air.

Arms up (always) on the caterpillar roller coaster.

The leaves are late turning colors this year, "they" say. Still pretty though.

Final soccer game

2011-10-17T14:46:00.001-04:00

On Columbus Day weekend Helaina played her final soccer game of the year. Thankfully it was a beautiful sunny day. Helaina ran her little butt off trying to get a goal but was unfortunately unsuccessful. She really didn't care though - better luck next year. After the game her coaches presented the kids with their trophys. Helaina was absolutely thrilled to get her first trophy.

In hot pursuit of the blue team.

Get to that ball no matter what!

I think the theme from "Rocky" should be playing in the background with this picture.

Presented with her trophy.

It's actually really cute - appropriate for the 6 and under teams.

Green, green, green, green plus green equals ... candy!

2011-10-07T14:56:00.000-04:00

All those green days in a row at school means only one thing on Friday: Skittles! Helaina had such a good week at school that her teacher called to let me know. Miss S said that Helaina had been great all week, polite, helpful, mindful of the rules, walking and not running, keeping her hands to herself (which is tough for Helaina because she loves to hug and hold hands with her friends). She even said that Helaina caught herself a few times doing something she's not supposed to do and corrected herself.

Helaina got off the bus today beaming and yelling "Mom, I had another green day so I got SKITTLES!!!" I told her that her teacher already called me with a "happy face" phone call and told me all about her great week.

Helaina's "kiki" skirt outfit she wore to school today. The girl's got a style all her own. She wore hearts on the skirt, heart earrings, heart piggy-tail ties and her favorite Belle t-shirt.

Last weekend we headed out to the country to celebrate a trio of family birthdays. Uncle Gerd had the tractor all set up for rides around the acres of land looking for deer and turkeys.

Helaina and Anna were both looking down for this picture. Must have been a bug in the trailor that they were keeping their eyes on.

Oh this face, this adorable amazing little face. Sweet Sophia smiled so big when Helania bent down to say hi. Helaina was just thrilled with Sophia's reaction to her.

Dedicated (and cold and wet) soccer parents

2011-10-06T11:31:00.000-04:00

Last weekend's soccer session felt like a winter game instead of a Fall game. It started out Friday night sitting through a very cold, dark, windy practice. Saturday morning we awoke to more cold, grey skies with drizzling rain. We layered Helaina in long clothing underneath her uniform, which she hates. "Why can't I just wear my uniform?" Because you'll be blue like a smurf from the frigid weather, that's why. We layered ourselves too. We got to the field carrying the usual stuff we drag with us (chairs, drinks, snacks, etc) and a few extras (blankets, umbrellas, heavy jackets, towels for rain and mud clean up - should have brought gloves too).

We've been very happy with Helaina's 2 coaches. They set up a tarp and brought blankets so that the kids could stay out of the rain while waiting for the game to begin. They've been great - very encouraging with the kids, not at all negative with the many mishaps, mistakes or distractions that the team puts them through!

Umbrella, blanket, boots for wet and muddy fields, plastic bag to keep things dry. Ugh. And to think that this weekend the weathermen have predicted temperatures in the high 70's or even low 80's. Yup,
Central New York at it's Fall finest. Freeze one weekend, sweat the next.

Waterproof apparel is a must.

A break-away from the pack. Still no goal yet this year for Helaina, but there's always next year.

Sometimes Helaina's favorite part: after the game kicking her soccer ball back to us while holding her team snack and drink. Juice box and rice krispie bar this time.

Good thing we started off the morning with a good breakfast. Helaina's school had it's first PTO fundraiser - a pancake breakfast at Applebee's. Helaina was a little social butterfly at the breakfast. Lots of her friends and classmates were there, along with her teacher who she promptly ran up to and gave a big hug. Pancakes, bacon, juice, milk and coffee served by volunteer parents and students. It was fun. Believe me, we needed a hearty breakfast to get us through the cold chilly morning outside. One more game to go, along with a trophy. Squeal! Her first trophy!!!

Sentence writing

2011-10-03T15:06:00.000-04:00

Helaina continues to learn new things on a daily basis at school. I'm amazed at what she's learned in such a short amount of time. Fortunately her teacher is very organized and crams lots of learning into less than 3 hours per day. Her school actually cut out Kindergarten snack time last year because it would take too much time out of their already-short day. I think that's the hardest thing Helaina has had to deal with in school - no mid-morning snack! She comes home RAVENOUS every day, ready to take a bite out of the door if lunch isn't ready and waiting. They get 2 new sight words every week to practice. Last week's words were "I" and "am", hence the sentence "I am Helaina." Cute, but this child definately needs a line to write on or her sentences take on a downward slant. She said that the picture is of her, the blue blob is the sky and the grey is rain. I love the way she draws fingers and toes at this point in time - as many as she fit on the hand or foot, usually in a circular pattern.

Helaina floored Jim and I one evening last week when she suddenly put her right hand across her chest (and up around her neck!) then started reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. WISH I had the video camera handy but she caught us offguard with her recitation. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Here are the words that came out of our little darling's mouth:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the republic for which it stands, one nation, and one dalmation, invisible, and thank you God. Amen."

She was so serious too. Talk about laughing til you cry. With more practice recently she's got it down correctly almost to the end - our patriotic little gal.

Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, or our Kite Festival

2011-10-02T22:51:00.000-04:00

Last weekend we headed to Fair Haven Beach to celebrate the Chinese holiday of the Harvest Moon Festival with our Families with Children from China friends. It's a holiday that honors the female goddess of the moon and is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month (which is September by the Chinese New Year calendar) when the moon appears its brightest and is said to be the most round. We celebrated with home-made mooncakes, a picnic barbeque and kite flying on the beach. I think it's Helaina's favorite event because she loves the beach and the water.

Flying the kite she decorated on the windy beach at Fair Haven.

The kite amused her for a while then she got down to what she really came here for.

A romp in the water. It was cool with a brisk wind but thankfully the sun came out later in the afternoon for the brave kids who wanted to frolick in the cold water.

Writing her name in the sand with a stick.

With her buddy Maddie.

Splish splash.

Thank goodness the playground had monkey bars. Helaina loved these ring-style "bars" because she had to get momentum and swing from handle to handle. She made it across many times like a pro.

Tunnel of fun.

How many little princesses can one tire swing hold? Apparently four.

Home-made mooncakes (made by some of the FCC families). They were quite yummy. Maybe next year I'll get adventurous and order some mooncake molds and try making on our own cakes. From what we understand, though, it's rare that people in China make the cakes themselves. They are mostly purchased from bakeries for the celebration.

Off the bus at home, first day of Kindergarten

2011-09-22T11:41:00.000-04:00

This clip is of Helaina getting off the bus at home after her first morning of Kindergarten. I was so paranoid that she would be put on the wrong bus that I couldn't function that entire morning. I didn't relax until I saw her face looking out the window. She was so excited about school and riding the bus - still is. Too bad most kids don't carry that same enthusiasm all the way through high school!

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First Day of Kindergarten, getting off the bus at school

2011-09-21T00:05:00.003-04:00

Here's a clip of Helaina getting off the bus at school on her first day of Kindergarten. She looks a little leary until she sees me and yells "Mommy!", then she grabs her friend and they skip off together into school. I took pictures and Jim recorded the mayhem.

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Happy Birthday Daddy and Uncle Jack and Zoey

2011-09-20T10:02:00.000-04:00

With Jim's birthday falling on a Monday (a/k/a gymnastics night) we weren't able to go out to dinner as we normally would have done. We celebrated the "twins" birthday on Sunday then we celebrated Monday with just us.

Helaina made similar birthday cake posters for Daddy ...

... and Uncle Jack. Give Helaina a pair of scissors, a glue stick and her craft box and she'll create you a custom made masterpiece.

Sunday's celebration. The best part, in her favorite order: candles, frosting, cake.

Helaina has a curly hair obsession now. We let her pick out a package of foam curlers at Target and she wants curls every day. Unfortunately, even with putting the curlers in her hair when it's wet, letting her hair completely dry, then hairspraying the heck out of the ringlets, they still start to flop after a few hours. Her hair will absolutely not hold a curl - just like mine. She doesn't mind, though, she's happy with whatever ringlet, bounce or wave she can get.

Jim took 1/2 day off on his birthday and was home when Helaina got off the bus. We went to Red Lobster to celebrate.

One of Daddy's presents with his specially decorated card.

"I'll help. I'll do it."

German chocolate cake after gymnastics.

No, this wasn't a special treat for Jim. We know that Zoey was born in the month of September but we don't know what date. Helaina decided it would be nice to celebrate Zoey's birthday on Jim's birthday. So, here's Zoey's special birthday treat - turkey and giblet pate. Mmmmmm.

We sang Happy Birthday to her and Helaina blew out the candle. Zoey wasn't interested in the hooplah - she just wanted to eat.

And then there's another birthday in September to remember. My sweetiepie Heidi Doodle. Even though she's been gone since March 2010 I still miss her like crazy.

She was such a sweetheart with a full-body wag that started at her back and went right down to the tip of her stubby little tail. Just as excited to see you if you were gone 5 minutes or 5 hours.

So, Happy Birthday to all the September birthdays, whether they be human or animal!

Autumn Festival and Fall Soccer

2011-09-18T22:47:00.000-04:00

Last weekend the Fall soccer session started up and we went to Beaver Lake to celebrate their Autumn Festival (which basically was a kids carnival with hundreds of ways to spend your money on them, along with a small craft show and food on the side).

Two ways to spend your money in this picture. Monkey in palm tree balloon and flower headband. I tried to talk Helaina into the headband with the adorable hand-made bow on it but no, she wanted the ginormous gawdy purple flower. I caved when she tried it on, looked in the mirror and gasped "I love it!"

Jumping up and down with anticipation while the magician made her monkey palm tree balloon.

She could hold it or also wear it as a hat. Oh what style.

I think she's actually mooning the goat?!

Helaina hates snakes - and yes, I use the word hate. Don't know where the fear came from. She's only seen them at the zoo in their enclosures behind glass, but she won't even go up to the glass to see them. "Can they get me?" she'll ask. So when waiting in the ridiculously long line to get her face or arm painted I asked her what she wanted. "A snake!" was her reply. Go figure.

Had to end the day with a rainbow sprinkle ice cream cone.

There were games set up for the kids, like throw the tree disk frisbee in the bucket (which she did, bottom row), and ...

... toss the ring around the antlers, which she also did.

There were scarecrow type people set up all over the place but Helaina liked the bride and groom the best.

Fall session of soccer. There are only 5 games then she's finished until the Spring. She'll probably play again next year. She certainly enjoys playing and making new friends. I'd like to get her signed up for t-ball too but I think the schedule conflicts with soccer.

Chasing down that ball.

Clear kick to her teammates.

Always time for a wave to the spectators.

Kindergarten? Piece of cake...

2011-09-12T22:01:00.000-04:00

Oh yah, she's a pro at this school thing after only 4 days (and I'm actually starting to get used to it too). She woke up ready to roll on Wednesday morning, just a bit apprehensive. Me, on the other hand, I was full blown sick to my stomach - couldn't eat breakfast, kept walking in circles and felt scattered - not knowing what I was doing. Helaina couldn't wait to get out of the house. "Is it time to go? Time to go to the bus stop yet?" We waited on the front porch and took a few pics and video until we saw the other kids emerge, then "Let's go!" Excitement (and nausea) was in the air.

Unfortunately it was raining so raincoats and umbrellas were necessary.

The moment of truth at the bus stop. The open door, the smiling face of the bus driver, the cameras flashing and recorders recording then up those big steps she went. Helaina was the first one to climb aboard the bus. I didn't even cry - now how about that!!

Jim and I drove to Helaina's school and waited for her bus to arrive. She knew that we'd be there but she looked a little apprehensive when she stepped off the bus until I yelled to her and she saw us. Then the big smile came and Helaina and her pal Jennah skipped to the school doorway. There were teachers and helpers there saying "Welcome to Kindergarten!", they opened the doors, I yelled to Helaina "I love you - have a good first day and I'll see you when you get home!" and she went through the door - THEN I started to cry. Almost made it through the morning with no tears - almost.

I was so anxious about her getting on the right bus to come home that I couldn't do much around the house except be more nervous and wait for the 3 hours to be over. Jim and I were waiting there in our driveway when the bus pulled up and she got off, delivered home safely and totally happy and excited. Later that day she said that she didn't think the bus was going to stop at our house so she told the helper on the bus "Stop! Tell the bus driver to stop! That's my house!" How hysterical is that!!

Oh yah, Kindergarten is exhausting. Helaina has zonked out on the couch every afternoon for a little over an hour since she started school. She's ravenous when she gets home, scarfs down a huge lunch then grabs her pillow and settles in for a nap on the couch.

This was day 2 of school and I thought it was a cute pic of her marching to the bus stop with her purple monkey backpack.

Second day of school getting on the bus after a quick wave goodbye.

Friday, day 3, all happy and excited waiting on our front porch.

Another exhuberant wave goodbye. Man, this kid just loves going to school, as we were certain she would.

One of the coloring pages Helaina brought home on the first day of school.

I just love the "How was my day" traffic light Helaina's teacher keeps in the classroom for good behavior. There's a large cardboard and construction paper traffic light on the wall. On the green light there's a wooden clip-type clothespin with each child's name on one. If they are having a behavioral problem that they aren't correcting after several occurrences they have to move their clothespin up to the yellow light. If they continue with the same problem even after being asked to stop they have to move their clothespin up to the red light and possibly sit out of an activity. At the end of each day they color in their circle with either green, yellow or red to show the parents what kind of day they had (Helaina's are all green, by the way, just a lighter shade of green for Thursday and Friday). At the end of the week the children with all green days get to pick a piece of candy out of the bag. Helaina came home Friday with an orange tootsie pop that she clung on to like it was gold. I'm liking this traffic light idea - might even make one for at home!

The big day

2011-09-06T21:12:00.000-04:00

"It's not unusual to have some criers on the first day of school. We just comfort them and tell them it will be ok. Usually by the time they walk to their cars to drive home, they're feeling better." A recent newspaper quote from an elementary school principal. Wise guy, huh, but oh so true!!!

Who knew there was a supply list for Kindergarten. $24 worth of stuff that also included clorox wipes, liquid soap, paper towels, tissues and ziploc bags. Anything else?

Orientation included a bus ride around the block. When the principal said "Ok, all my new friends come with me for the bus ride", Helaina was the first one up and walking alongside the principal, and the first one on the bus! Excited, oh yah.

Going (sigh) .... bye bye.

Back safe and sound from the long trip around the block!

They each got a pencil topped with a school bus eraser from the bus driver.

At the back to school picnic Helaina found a few boys to do gymnastics with. They showed her their one-handed cartwheel and she showed them her handstand.

We've been to the classroom and met Helaina's very sweet teacher. This is her 6th year teaching Kindergarten and she's got some pretty impressive credentials so we're happy with Miss S.

The classroom is big, bright, very colorful and all set up for the excitement to begin.

A little something funny that was in Helaina's Kindergarten packet from her teacher.

Helaina's asleep now having sweet dreams and I'm left wondering if I'll sleep tonight. Surprisingly enough, she showed a bit of anxiety tonight about starting school tomorrow. We reassured her that it would be a piece of cake because she's already gone to preschool for 2 years. She'll make lots of new friends and her teacher is a "nice girl", to quote Helaina! The only thing different is the bus ride, but she knows half of the neighborhood and will ride the bus with all her buddies. Well, we'll know how it all plays out at 8:38am tomorrow morning when we see the bus coming down the street for the pickup. Wow, Kindergarten. Unbelievable.

The rest of the week...

2011-09-05T21:49:00.000-04:00

Our other adventures last week included fishing. Is it still fishing if you catch no fish??!!

The Dora pole. It hasn't seen much action. Helaina's hooked one fish ... ever ... total.

Captain and co-captain. I've been told I'm the first mate because I'm the dock-grabber when we get back to the marina.

Helaina's patience when fishing is, well, not great. "This boring" (and her Momma agrees) if she doesn't hook something other than grass pretty quickly. Going fast and bumping over the waves is her favorite thing to do on the boat. Her 2nd favorite, snack time.

Helaina was so tired last week (as were we) from being on the go so much. On our way back to the marina she was wedged in between Jim and I and she actually fell asleep. I got up, then Jim got up and she fell right over, still sleeping!

First time apple picking this year. We picked Paula Reds and I wasn't impressed. The apples were very small and I thought kind of tasteless. We only picked a partial bag and will head back in a few weekends when there's another variety to pick.

It's not just for the apples, though. Helaina loves the tractor ride into the orchard, climbing the ladder, picking and tasting the apples right off the tree, the giant pumpkin bounce house they have and all that country fresh air.

Then there are the sugary-cinnamony hot fresh-cooked apple fritters. Yum. Helaina takes a few bites then just licks the sugar off of them!

Her absolute favorite part is riding the Apple Ponies. She waited all week for this ride. She ran through the gate and headed straight for Butterscotch - an old pal from last year. Ride 'um, cowgirl.

Our trip to the zoo was fun. Helaina loves the lions because one of them is usually right up against the glass for a close-up viewing. The paws on these animals are massive.

Thought this was a funny picture of a lizard plopped in the middle of his salad bowl.

It rained most of the day today - bummer of a way to end the holiday weekend. We headed out to some stores this morning and made a quick stop at the mall and then putzed around the house the rest of the day. Tomorrow for Jim: back to work. Tomorrow for me: my last full day with Helaina before the start of Kindergarten on Wednesday. Gulp. Where did the last 3-1/2 years go?

The State Fair, Times 2

2011-09-04T22:52:00.000-04:00

Yah, we're State Fair people. I find that either people love the fair or hate the fair - there's no middle ground. We love it, despite the fact that it's basically the same thing every year, it is ridiculously expensive, it's crowded and not the cleanest, there isn't a lot of seating to take a rest, and it's usually 90 degrees when we go. Wait a minute, why do we like it? I...don't...know. We always go twice, with the first day being spent on the midway. We get the ride-all-day-till-you-puke wristband for Helaina and we let her go wild on the kiddie midway - 4 hours worth this time. She would have kept going but Jim, Josh and myself were parched, drenched in sweat and tired of watching her run from ride to ride as many times as we'd let her.

There were several of these slides and Helaina loved them over and over and over again.

These bumper boats were new and the kids all had a smile on their faces.

Arms up on the dragon roller coaster every single time. Our little thrill seeker.

She actually had her arms up on this Himalaya as it started to move and I screamed at her to hold on or else. This ride was fast and smashed the kids into the left side of the seat around every bumpy curve. Helaina, of course, loved it.

Helaina finally made the height requirement on this roller coaster this year and rode it several times.

Four days later we were back at the fair to do the buildings and the animals. A rainbow on each cheek for our colorful little girl.

We actually lucked out and got something totally free at the fair because Upstate and Golisano Children's Hospital (Helaina's hospital) was sponsoring a free bike helmet give-away. Helaina got to pick the color helmet she wanted and then it was adjusted to fit her head perfectly. It's a great "big girl" helmet with lots of adjustment mechanisms on the inside so it will fit her for quite a while. We learned the proper way to put it on her too. It needs to fit down over her forehead slightly to protect the front of her head as well as the back.

In the cow building Helaina had her picture taken with the Dairy Princess. When Helaina saw her tiara of "diamonds" she asked "Is she a real princess?" We told her yes, she's the Dairy Princess and Helaina was very impressed. Too cute!

She just loves to watch the horses. They were all lined up getting ready for a show.

We watched a little bit of the circus. Helaina had a snow cone while waiting because inside the blue circus tent it had to be about 110 degrees. The high on Saturday was around 92 and that is NOT good Fair weather. We never sweated so much in our lives, seriously. I bought a snowcone and dumped it over my head to cool off. (Did I?)

While I found a shady spot to sit and wring the sweat out of my hair, Jim took Helaina into the petting zoo tent. She suckered him into buying a cup of carrots to feed the animals. I would have absolutely REFUSED because 2 cents worth of skinny carrot sticks in a plastic cup was $5! I go to the fair knowing that everything is expensive and I accept that, but $5 carrot sticks? No way in heck. Helaina came running out of the tent excited and screaming "Mommy, Mommy! Daddy bought the carrot sticks and I fed the animals!" I gave him the "oh no you didn't" look. Oh yes he did.

At the end of a very long and HOT day, our State Fair Princess was fast asleep in her car seat on the way home. Ice cream and chocolate sauce still on her face, gritty, grimy and sweaty to the core with fading rainbow cheeks, she was probably dreaming about next year's fair and how much fun it will be.

Seabreeze

2011-09-03T22:09:00.000-04:00

First there was Enchanted Forest, then Darien Lake, so we had to round out the summer with Seabreeze, which we went to the day after Joshua's birthday. Always a good time. I prefer Seabreeze over Darien Lake because it's a lot smaller and attractions are more "compact" - not spread out so much.

Helaina still enjoys the boats even though she's a roller coaster kind of gal.

The dizzying teacups.

They road these flying machines several times. Helaina loves them because you can turn them with a rudder and it makes the ride swing out sideways and go faster, giving Mom a heart attack while watching.

Rode these cars a lot, over and over and over again.

The train ride took you around the log flume area, which fascinates Helaina.

She rode this coaster with Josh a few times then by herself about 6 more times until we bribed her with the water park to get her off the coaster. Think she would have kept going if we didn't end it.

Absolutely loved this pink water slide in the kid's soak zone. I gave up counting how many times she went down this one.

Every time she flew out the shoot with an unbelievably large splash.

Every time she would splash someone and every time she thought it was a hoot.

Ahhh, gotta love the lazy river.

This was the first grown-up water slide Helaina went down and my heart was pounding while waiting for them to appear after walking up countless steps to the top. Of course, she LOVED it and they went about 5 or 6 more times after the first.

Log flume before ...

... during ...

... and after - and of course again and again.

Jim's been on vacation this past week and we've been on the go go go. It started out last weekend with 2 birthdays... Aunt Kathy and little Nic... (and happy birthday to Aunt Terry too).

Then there was the baptism of the sweetest little baby girl who, by the way, wore the same dress that her grandma, great aunt (yah, that's me!), mother and sister wore for their baptisms. Yikes, that's an antique dress!

This past week we continued our adventures to the fair (twice), a bounce house, fishing, the zoo, kindergarten orientation, back to school picnic and any other exhausting adventure that we could fit in with Helaina. It's only Saturday - there are still 2 more days left to the holiday weekend. Who knows what we're in for on Sunday and Monday.

Birthday fun

2011-08-27T20:34:00.000-04:00

Joshua's birthday was last week and we celebrated on his birthday and then on the weekend with a family party. Red Lobster was his restaurant of choice and Helaina was pleased with his selection.

Popcorn shrimp and rice for Helaina - lobster, shrimp and scallops for the birthday boy.

A birthday present from Wildwood. A huge beach towel with the actual amusement rides on it.

We knew we'd be full from Red Lobster so we had small cupcakes at home for dessert.

Opening presents at the weekend family birthday party with his helper.

The cousins.

Chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting per Josh's request.

Ok, there are no words to describe this precious little girl, Baby Sophia. She has the EXACT same head of hair that Anna had as a baby. I see more light brown ringlets in the future.

The Wildwood Water Parks

2011-08-22T21:46:00.000-04:00

An all-day waterpark wristband got you entrance into both waterparks on Morey's Pier and Mariner's Landing. The parks are within walking distance of each other via the beach or the boardwalk. We started out on Morey's Pier, splashed all morning, had lunch then ended the (very long) afternoon at Mariner's Landing. We got to the first waterpark about 10:30am and didn't leave the 2nd park until about 5:30. We were all exhausted but every time we told Helaina it was time to go she would beg and plead to stay a while longer. We ended our day with 2 trips around the lazy river. One would have been enough since Helaina actually fell asleep sitting on Jim's lap while floating down the river on their inner tube!

Queen of the water slides. Helaina absolutely loves these kiddie sized flumes.

Waiting for the huge overhead bucket to fill with water and pour down on you.

"I soaking!!!" she would scream.

Wheee, over and over and over and over again.......

An overhead view of the kiddie area on Mariner's Landing. We were riding around the park in an overhead suspended boat ride.

Helaina was so tired that she fell asleep in her stroller while we waited for Jim to get the car and pick us up. That was a very long day for all of us. We didn't even hit the boardwalk that night. After dinner we stopped at a playground and Helaina spent most of her time on the monkey bars (what else). Thankfully the playground closed at 8pm and we headed straight for our hotel. Of course, even as exhausted as she was, Helaina asked to take a dip in the hotel pool before going to sleep. The girl's got boundless energy.

Boardwalk fun

2011-08-17T15:08:00.000-04:00

We hit the boardwalk every day, either after the beach during or after dinner - sometimes both. Helaina loved all the rides, emphasis on the word love. She couldn't get enought of them almost to the point of obsession.

This jack-in-the-box type ride was Helaina's absolute favorite. Each of the 3 piers had one but this one was the "bounciest". She would immediately exit after riding and get in line to ride again, as many of the kids did. The look on this little boy's face cracks me up. He was probably thinking "Why the heck is this chick screaming so much?"

Each pier also had a carousel and Helaina rode every one of them more than once.

I called these the "whip it" cars because at each curve she got whipped around the corner - and naturally loved it.

Kiddie bumper cars are another favorite, especially when she drives into another car.

Helaina and Jim rode this sky-way thing and got a teriffic view of the beach and boardwalk. I stuck to riding the roller coasters with Helaina, something Jim didn't want to experience.

Helaina liked the scrambler too. She begs to ride the full-size ones but she's not allowed - yet.

Convoy trucks. She spent a lot of time going around in circles!

One of the props next to the Great White - a massive wooden roller coaster. Joshua and I used to ride it over and over years ago. It's loud, rickety but loads of fun.

At the end of a very long night on the boardwalk, Helaina's about to fall asleep in her stroller. She begged for this lighted sword and well, she won. She's also holding a stuffed Smurf. We played one of those water squirting gun games and unfortunately didn't win. A young man in his mid-20's won but didn't want his prize. He saw Helaina looking all disappointed and asked us what prize she wanted. He let her pick out his prize and keep it. Nice gesture. She was thrilled. I thanked him profusely and told him she made his night. Helaina gave him a hug, said thank you and was happier than anything.

In dreamland back at the hotel. She fell asleep almost immediately with her new Smuf by her side. Life is good when you're 5 years old at the Jersey shore. Next up - the waterparks.

Ahhhhh, the ocean

2011-08-15T23:44:00.000-04:00

Who doesn't love the ocean, really? How could you not love sunshine on your face, warm sand beneath your toes, the sounds of the surf, the taste of salt water on your lips, riding the waves and splashing in the beautiful ocean. Not much out there that's better than that, in my opinion. And Helaina seconds that motion.

Helaina and her hero. Lately she'll say "Daddy, you my hero."

The southern Jersey shore makes me happy.

We stayed in Wildwood Crest this year.

How true.

I usually had Helaina wear a t-shirt while at the beach. The sun was intense and she tans so quickly even with the glops of sunblock I slather on her. She's got a brown body and a white butt!

Every day Helaina made countless trips from the water back to her "digging spot", filling holes in the sand that she dug with water. She was one exhausted little gal at the end of each day.

The Bo Derek run, with braids flapping!

She was fearless in the ocean, not quite realizing the danger of being knocked over by a wave and getting knocked around under the water.

Daddy and daughter.

Happy beach face.

I think this picture was taken after our exhausting day at the water parks. Helaina fell asleep in her carseat on the way back to our hotel. Jim carried her from the car and plunked her down on the chair outside our room. I think she would have slept there for hours if we had left her!

North Wildwood Inlet. Beautiful, isn't it?

We need a vacation ... after that vacation ...

2011-08-14T13:52:00.000-04:00

We've been vacationing at the southern Jersey shore in Wildwood for the past 7 days. Needless to say, Jim and I are EXHAUSTED since returning home very late Friday night (thanks to that blasted Philly traffic). Helaina was a wild child in Wildwood, the true Energizer Bunny, pushing through exhaustion for one more romp in the ocean, one more chase with a seagull, one more ride on the boardwalk, one more lick of an ice cream cone. For the last 2 days we've been shaking sand out of towels, trying to unpack, doing laundry, getting organized, lawn mowing, grocery shopping - all that fun stuff that awaits you at home when you return from vacation. Here's a preview of the fun ...Splashing in the warm Jersey water. Last Sunday the ocean temperature was 82 degrees! 82 degrees? I've never been in ocean water that warm.

There were mud pies to be made.

Treasures to be found.

Water slides to conquer.

Seagulls to be fed.

Bouncy cars to be driven.

Roller coasters to be ridden.

Dolphins to be spotted.

Starfish to be held.

These are just 9 of the 238 pictures I took while on vacation. When I'm rested up (ha), I'll share lots more.

Our little gymnast

2011-08-05T14:41:00.000-04:00

Helaina absolutely loves gymnastics class. I'm glad we signed her up for the summer session instead of waiting until the Fall classes begin. She's gotten so much stronger since she started in March. Here she is after climbing up the wall with her feet to practice a hand stand. Between the monkey bars and gymnastics she's got unbelievable upper arm strength. She is one solid little package!

The kids had never used the rings before so at class this week when the instructor asked "Does anyone want to try out the rings?", every kid screamed yes, raised their hand and asked if they could go first. I'll bet you can guess who went first.

They learned how to correctly grip the rings and just swung back and forth for the first time, but they were all thrilled to do it. Helaina was most likely thinking "higher, higher!"

Even though we've got the pool, Helaina still enjoys a sprinkler every so often. She's got her Little Mermaid Barbie with her and she's getting "soaking", which appears to be Helaina's favorite word lately.

She had a pool party last weekend with 2 friends - nothing more fun than dumping buckets of water over your head, I guess.

Helaina's having a good summer so far. I'm savoring every moment of it because in September it's off to Kindergarten on the bus (eee-gad). We're waiting for the letter to arrive from school that will tell us who her teacher will be and when the next open house night is. Oh my smurfness.

She's had a Smurfy good time

2011-08-03T00:24:00.000-04:00

Oh My Smurfness. Forgive me if I use the word "smurf" too much in this post but once you start doing it, it's hard to stop. Helaina has loved the smurfs for the past few months, watching the old cartoons on Boomerang and Cartoon Network. Then she saw that there was going to be a smurf movie and she just couldn't wait for it to be at the theater. Jim had Friday off, it was raining outside, the smurf movie opened that day and well, the rest is history. Posing in front of one of the many giant-sized movie theater displays.

After the movie posing with Helaina's favorite character, Smurfette. Helaina absolutely LOVED the movie. It was the first movie that she sat through in its entirety. She even held her potty because she didn't want to miss a second of the action.

We went to Carousel Mall today to see one of the $1 summer movies (Despicable Me, also an adorable movie with 3 little girls who get adopted - one of them Asian!), and yet another pose with the smurfs. Notice that Helaina is "smurfed out" with the smurf shirt and a stuffed smurf. The Toys R Us ad in Sunday's paper had smurf stuff and Helaina begged to go, literally. I caved and told her she could pick out 3 items so she selected a t-shirt, a stuffed Poppa Smurf (no Smurfette's left, bummer) and a puzzle.

After the movie they were handing out paper smurf hats. Holy smoke, how cute does she look.

Poppa Smurf is her favorite stuffed critter now - even taking the coveted place beside her in bed at night. Her cabbage patch doll (named Smurfette) has dropped into 2nd place now. How sad. Smurfs also enjoy riding on carousels.

Sunday night Helaina saw the McDonald's commercial that advertised smurf Happy Meals. She jumped off the couch, squealed a high-pitched squeal that every dog in a 10-mile radius could hear and started clapping and jumping up and down so hard that the furniture was actually shaking. Jim came down from his shower and she screamed at him "Daddy! Daddy! McDonalds has smurf happy meals! Can we go?" His response: "Great." Yah, we went the next day. Damn that McDonald's.

Smurf puzzle.

Zoey likes smurfs too.

Even napping with Poppa Smurf. She's slightly smurf obsessed.

I will admit that I loved the movie too. It was absolutely adorable, full of color, action and slap-stick which Helaina loves. She's still talking about her favorite scenes, her favorite lines from the movie, her favorite characters. As with most kid's movies there is also adult humor sprinkled throughout that goes right over their heads but that the parents enjoy. My favorite was when Smurfette (voiced by Katy Perry) says "I smurfed a girl and I liked it", playing off her hit song. Funny. The Smurfs will be a must buy when it's available to purchase later in the year. Maybe Santa or his elves will smurf it for Helaina.

Jim's 4 day weekend equals go ... go ... go

2011-08-01T00:28:00.000-04:00

Jim took vacation days on Thursday and Friday so our first fun-filled activity was Darien Lake. Helaina had her usual blast and we were at the park for a RECORD 10 hours. I couldn't believe we lasted that long and I think Helaina could have kept going until the park closed. One of her fav rides is this mini coaster. She would get off, get back in line, ride, repeat, repeat, repeat until we got tired of watching her and had to drag her (literally) to somethng else. Arms up in the air for maximum thrill is the only way she knows how to ride a coaster ...

... she even rode this solw-pokey kiddie ferris wheel with arms up! Too funny.

A glimpse into the future.

She rode this paratrooper for the first time and wasn't too fond of it. This pic was snapped while they were waiting for the ride to start. I could tell by the look on her face as she whizzed by me that she wasn't a fan. "It gave me a funny tummy" she said when it was over. Our fearless little gal will give just about anything a try, though.

Helaina likes this spinning balloon ride. Dizziness is not a problem.

We all rode the lazy river in our own tubes the first time around. Helaina had a hard time keeping her butt from slipping through the tube so she hopped on Jim's lap for the second go-around.

Hooks Lagoon is always a favorite for Helaina. It's wet and wild, full of splashing and kid-sized water slides.

And then there was Shipwreck Falls (and 20 more grey hairs for me). Helaina wasn't tall enough to ride alone but could ride with a "responsible" adult - Joshua? Hmmmmm. "Pleeeeeeze Mom?" she begged. I agreed and then had a full-blown panic attack when they were belted in and on their way up the hill. I screamed to Joshua "You hang on to your sister!" and said a prayer.

At second look the drop looked huge and EXTREMELY vertical, I turned to Jim and with tears filling my eyes and a lump in my throat asked "She's not going to fall out, is she?"

Well, she absolutely LOVED it and they rode it 4 more times, one right after another. I said to Joshua "Really. You picked the front row - REALLY??!! Why'd you do that?" His respose: "It was open. She wanted to." Geez, responsible, ugh. But if you look at the pictures he did have his arm wrapped around her waist. When they were finally finished Helaina squealed "I'm soaking!" Unfortunately she's the same daredevil her brother is.

Vacation day part 2 - I'll give you a hint. Smurfity, smurf, smurf, smurf.

Enjoying the summer

2011-07-27T22:45:00.000-04:00

One day last week we headed out to camp with the intention of spending the entire day - wrong. The biting flies that literally swarmed and attacked us were too much to handle and we spent only a few hours at the lake. Even the bug repellant we used on our skin didn't deter them and their bites hurt quite a bit. We were there long enough for Helaina to take a dip and that was about it. The picnic lunch we planned on eating outside turned into eating our sandwiches in the car on the way home in a hasty retreat.

Whizzing around the yard in her jeep. She's got 2 of her babies seatbelted next to her.

Sporting her new Rapunzel "tutu" dress that she absolutely loves. Gotta love that sale rack at Target. I've got her hair in 2 french braids. It's her newest favorite hair style. I'm a little rusty on the braiding technique but it looks cute even so.

The obsession with monkey bars continues. She can't get enough of them and the numerous hard callouses on the palms of her hands proves it.

Helaina refuses to nap in her room, but she is more than happy to get her pillow, her baby and Zoey and snooze on the couch. She plays so hard that most afternoons she'll sleep for at least an hour. Works for me.

The Smurfs, ah yes, Helaina's latest fascination. She watches the old cartoons on Boomerang and just loves them. The Smurf cartoon she watched today was made in 1981.

Her favorite? Smurfette. Helaina even renamed her Cabbage Patch baby - it's no longer Sophia. Her name now is Smurfette! The movie opens this Friday and Jim has the day off. I think it may be a Smurfy Friday for us all.

Who's in Charge at your House?

2011-07-22T00:00:00.000-04:00

Jim is giving it his all in attempting discipline with Helaina. He's trying to make changes in how he handles things because right now, well ... let's just use the words "pushover", "marshmallow" and "doormat". Helaina definately knows which parent she can get away with more (uh, Daddy) and instead of duplicating the semi-effective techniques I use, he's gone out and bought a book! He's been reading it nightly and trying a few things out. Helaina likes the book too and thinks it's a hoot. There's one sample situation where a child wants a twinkie right before dinner. She's had Jim read it to her so much that she's memorized it. She picked up the book one afternoon, opened it up and by sheer memory, "read" the entire twinkie situation out loud almost verbatim (which I thought was a hoot). She's even gone so far as to say to Jim "Daddy, you don't discipline me." Hey, if she reads enough of the book maybe she can discipline herself. 1-2-3 Magic? Nothing magic yet.

We visited Baby Sophia recently and she's just so stinkin' cute. I held her for about 45 minutes and just stared at her face, watched her breathe, laughed at her facial expressions and little baby sounds, played with her tiny little feet (with unbelievably long toes!) and just drank in all that babyliciousness.

A pic from Helaina's bowling birthday party she went to a few weeks ago. We've got some video of her bowling - I'll have to post it soon. Too bad we didn't have the video camera rolling when she got a strike and when she picked up a spare that a pro bowler would have trouble making.

We went to the Penguin Palooza at the zoo Sunday evening. Games, face painting, animals and the most important part - enough ice cream stations set up around the zoo to make you go into lactose shock by the time you leave. Between the four of us we had small free samples of ice cream in dishes and cones, root beer and orange floats, fudgsicles, creamsicles, sundaes, cookies, donut holes. Helaina's favorite of the night was bubble gum ice cream with pieces of gum running throughout it.

Thought this pic came out funny. Looks as if the male lion is complaining to his female counterpart about something and she's less than receptive to listening. Hmmmmmm...

Saw the new $8 million elephant enclosure, play area and housing area. Very nice. Helaina's favorite part was the new baby elephant to pose on.

Cannonbaaaaaalllll !!!!!

2011-07-15T23:05:00.000-04:00

It's been very hot lately. The air conditioning has been cranking and the pool has been a life saver. To say that Helaina has improved with her water abilities since we opened the pool this summer is an understatement. At the beginning of the summer she wouldn't even put her face in the water. Now dunking herself is her favorite thing to do. She jumps in, dives in, swims with her face in the water, bounces off the bottom, likes being thrown in the air ending in a splash, and can almost swim across the entire width of the pool (21 feet) without her swimmies. It's exhausting just watching her.
Joshua taught her the cannonball. Just before she jumps off the deck she screams "cannonbaaaalllll"!

She likes to jump into the center of this tube - she got good aim and hasn't missed yet.

She also "dives" into the pool - more like bellyflops. Occasionally she'll bend over far enough and point her arms and head down toward the bottom enough so that it's an actual dive. No fear, which I haven't quite figured out is good or bad.

Helaina's turning into quite the athletic little girl. She spends lots of time on her playground, specifically the monkey bars. Again, at the beginning of summer she couldn't even move her hands from one bar to the next. With stubborn persistence that makes Helaina who she is, she has practiced, grunted and groaned all 52 pounds of herself all the way across the bars now with the ability to turn herself around and head back. She's got grit galore!

Last Day of Preschool

2011-07-14T22:33:00.000-04:00

Here's the clip of Helaina accepting her recognition award on her last day of preschool in June. Helaina had a great year at school and is more than ready for Kindergarten in every way possible. Her teacher's words: "... never standing still, never a dull moment, never more than 30 seconds of quiet...". Oh yah, that's our amazing bundle of Helaina so very deserving of her "Energizer Bunny, Perpetual Motion" award!!

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Enchanted Forest Water Safari

2011-07-12T23:12:00.000-04:00

During the last week of June we met 3 families at Enchanted Forest Water Safari for a day of fun in the sun. Jim and I had been there once before, years ago, pre-Helaina; and I remember when I was young going to Enchanted Forest with my family. I have memories of walking down the paths surrounded by tall trees, riding on a few of the rides and mostly the huge Paul Bunyan statue at the entrance.

Being the outrageously wet and wild child that she is (and also super adorable), Helaina had a blast. Splashing in the water and riding rides with her friends was a winning combination.

This is one of my favorite pics from the day. Helaina was so happy to be on this pint-sized water slide all by herself - zipping down big girl style.

Out the tunnel with a swoosh, climb back up the ladder, down the slide, up the ladder, down the other slide, up the ladder, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat over and over again for HOURS!

Launching into the lazy river, which is always a nice slow drift through the river, for a change of pace.

Jim and Helaina went down this Amazon River slide twice. They both loved it and Helaina would have gone 10 more times, except for the fact that Jim had to carry the huge boat up the winding hill to the top by himself (it was at the end of the day and my aching boo-boo knee kept me from the hike up the hill).

Helaina went on this kiddie slide countless times. The attendant would have all the kids sit at the top of their lane and then yell "Go!" so they could have a race to the little splash pool at the bottom. Then it was a race by all the kids to get back up to the top the quickest.

Helaina had her eye on this sky ride from the second she saw it from the parking lot. She had never been on anything like it before and couldn't wait to get the birds eye view. I rode in the balloon behind them and was nervous the entire time. The only thing to hold you in was a chair-life type bar that plopped loosly over your front.

Another first for Helaina - a ferris wheel. She had never been on a grown-up version and was chomping at the bit to ride. I was a ferris wheel fan when I was younger - way younger - and Jim didn't want anything to do with it. Thank you to our friend and her daughter who braved the wheel with Helaina.

It was an amazingly fast ferris wheel and the trio loved every minute of it. First thing Helaina said when she got off and came running down the ramp was "I want to ride again!"

Funny Helaina:
Helaina jumped for joy one afternoon last week when I told her we were having macaroni and meatballs for dinner. "Yippie, my favorite" as she literally jumped in the kitchen while clapping her hands. She was right by my side as I dumped the macaroni into the boiling water and she asked me "Is that tiggeroni?" As I laughed out loud I said "Yes, it's RIGATONI." "Oh yah, that what I mean." How many 5-year olds know the names of the different shaped pastas? She started out with a hefty plate of rigatoni and 2 meatballs. After the 2 meatballs were gone she said "Another meatball please." (in her defense, the meatballs were small). I looked at Jim and groaned. "Helaina, the plate of macaroni and 2 meatballs you had was plenty for a little girl." "Noooo, I want another one, pleeeeezzzze!" She begged. Ugh, as I scooped up another small meatball for her I was muttering half out-loud, half to myself "Geez, Helaina I sure hope you grow 4 inches by your 6-year check-up to spread yourself out a little bit." She reached her hand down to the top of her leg, pinched it and with a grin yells out "Look at these thighs!" Oh my gosh, we laughed out loud! At her 5-year checkup this past March Helaina had grown 3 inches to a height of 43 inches, and gained 8 pounds. Maybe she will top that this year and grow 4 inches!

Sophia Ann

2011-07-09T23:04:00.000-04:00

We all excitedly headed to the hospital Wednesday evening so that we could meet little baby Sophia. I just couldn't WAIT to get my hands on her and when I finally got to take her in my arms, I cried like a baby. There's nothing more moving than holding a newborn and just staring at them, watching their facial expressions and listening to their little squeaks and coos. I didn't want to put her down!
Too bad little Sophia couldn't enjoy any of her "welcome baby" cookie!

Helaina, could you get any closer to your new little cousin? Helaina renamed her baby doll Sophia and later asked me to "waddle" her baby - she meant swaddle - too funny.

I could have stared at this adorable little face for hours.

And here is Anna's picture when she was 24 hours old. To look at Anna today with her locks of light brown Shirley Temple curls you wouldn't believe she was born with a dark head of "helmet hair"! By the looks of it, I think in about 2 years we're going to have 2 little sisters that look very alike!

Helaina's good news!

2011-07-05T23:32:00.000-04:00

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As Helaina would say, yippee skippy! At 7:05pm tonight, July 5th, my niece Beth Ann gave birth to her 2nd child - another beautiful daughter, Sophia Ann. She weighs a healthy 9-1/2 pounds and looks like Anna did when she was born with lots of dark hair. Sophia out-weighs Anna at birth by 10 ounces - and I thought Anna was a big newborn! Baby, Mommy and Daddy are doing wonderful and Aunt Berta is very excited as well!

Happy 4th of July

2011-07-04T18:28:00.050-04:00

It's been a very hot 4th of July weekend which meant lots of pool time - nice to be able to cool off in the backyard instead of packing everything up and driving to the crowded beach. We'll hit a few beaches this summer, though, because Helaina loves sand. Her little sandbox on our deck just doesn't cut it. Patriotic Helaina in her sparkle butterfly shirt and new ruffle skirt from Aunt Cynthia

Baby Anna, although I can't call her "baby" any more - she's 2 and about to be a big sister ANY day now. This suimsuit is totally Bedrock. All she needs is the bone tied into her wild hair and she'd have the Pebbles Flintstone look going on.

Ahhh, you know summer is here when the watermelon sherbet roll is at Friendly's. Notice the holes in Helaina's slice? That's because she picks out all the chocolate "seeds" and eats them first! Face painting courtesy of Daddy.

My latest internet find - cake pops. Made them for sis-in-law Cathy's birthday this weekend. Super yuuummmyyyy, but time consuming to make. There definately was a learning curve making them this first time around. They were a big hit and I'll be making them again.

Dragon Boat Festival

2011-07-02T00:32:00.000-04:00

Helaina had more than a blast at the annual FCC Dragon Boat Festival. It's a really fun event for the kids, as well as the parents. She spent lots of time on the playground but then went running to each event when she heard them announced over the megaphone. Just like last year, Helaina was at the head of the pack for the parade.

The race for kids 5 years and younger. Again, her feet were flying as soon as she heard "Go!"

A fun relay game where the kids were split into teams and raced with cups full of colored water and dumped the water (that they hadn't spilled while running!) into a bottle.

Then they ran back to pass off to the next team mate. First team with a full bottle won.

New this year was the tug of war. The kids LOVED this one.

Helaina couldn't stop smiling.

Parents and kids then took a turn.

Helaina and Jim's side won this tug. Helaina did a victory hoot when they were declared the winners.

Our contributions: Worms in dirt cupcakes ...

... and 50 water balloons.

Helaina and her partner.

Helaina dripping after the balloon toss and free-for-all. "I soaked!"

There were even 2 rickshaws there. Helaina conned this boy into giving her a ride, but he seemed happy to do it.

Then she hops off and then tells him it's his turn. I'm yelling to Jim to go help her because she'll never get going on her own. Uh, I was wrong. Being the muscular "ironman" that she is, she gave one little grunt and our suma wrestler was off ...

... however, when she tried to turn around she went into the grass, down a tiny slant and the boy went flying (literally) out of the rickshaw, landed on the ground, rolled like a stuntman and got up holding his wrist. As I gasped I'm screaming to him "are you ok, honey?" and Helaina is running off to the playground. Jim gave him a lift back but look at the boy's face - he's probably thinking "girls, hmmmfffff".

Yes, it was a bit cloudy and cool with a good breeze off the lake but that didn't stop the fearless kids from putting on their bathing suits and sliding down through freezing hose water.

The park has a great playground that Helaina always enjoys. This year she was OBSESSED with this bar. She wanted to climb it, sit on it, hang from it - oh my gosh, she was nuts.

See, nuts.

At home, resting on the couch with her cute little green cat painted on her face. Exhausted and dreaming about all the fun she had - or wait a minute, dreaming about her next adventure - Enchanted Forest Water Safari.

Busy weekend equals exhausting weekend

2011-06-30T00:15:00.000-04:00

Some weekends we don't have anything planned. This past weekend was not one of them. On Saturday we went to our friends' house to meet their new daughter, little Miss T., who has been home from China for only a few weeks. She's sweet and oh so petite! Helaina was very excited to meet her new friend. There was a cookout, romping around in a huge park-like backyard and fun with their dog.

Sunday we attended the FCC Dragon Boat Festival. Helaina had an absolute blast. There was food, friends to play with, games, swings and slides, nail polish and face painting, an inflatable water slide and of course, the dragon boat parade and race - oh my, she hit the grass running and didn't stop for hours. Here's her dragon boat that we made together. She selected the wrapping paper, painted the dragon's tail and head and then decorated it with stickers. Check out the look on her face and the folded arms. She was not in the mood to pose for this picture at all.

Jim took Monday off and we continued the fun by meeting 3 other families at Enchanted Forest Water Safari, where the fun never stops - just like the commercial says. There was lots of water fun and "dry rides", as Helaina calls them. We were there when the place opened and there when the place closed. Needless to day, Helaina was asleep in her booster seat before we hit the Thruway.

I've got lots of good pics from the weekend and will post them when I have the energy. Jim and I are still recovering from exhaustion. After our tiring 3-day weekend we continued the "fun". On Tuesday Helaina had her kindergarten screening at school, Wednesday was a dental appointment to repair a front tooth that had a chip in it that started to decay, and Thursday is a pediatrician re-check for her ears that regularly accumulate enough wax for me to open my own candle factory. What the doctor dug out of her ears with a long, lighted pipette made my jaw drop. Helaina's been on eardrops for the last week to soften and "float out" the remaining mess. The gunk that I've cleaned out of those 2 tiny ears in the last week has been unbelievable.

Oh my, last day of pre-school

2011-06-24T00:13:00.000-04:00

Helaina has successfully completed 2 years of pre-school. Wednesday was her last day and there was a fun little program for parents. They sang for us, there was a recognition award and completion certificate presented to each child, then there were snacks for the kiddos, hugs and good-byes. Helaina was very excited to give each of her 2 wonderful teachers a thank you card with a Target gift card enclosed (I figured who doesn't like Target, right?).
Singing one of the many songs they performed. Helaina positioned herself front and center, which was great for pictures and video taping.

Mrs. M individually recognized every child with a recognition certificate. She called each child's name then spoke a bit about them while explaining her thought process behind the specific award. There were awards for the bravest child, best reader, best smile, most creative braided hairstyles, most traveled - it was so nice and special for each child. As I was waiting for her to call Helaina, I was trying to figure out what Mrs. M would say. I thought for sure it would be something like "most questions asked" or "most inquisitive", but when we heard her award we laughed and agreed - she started out by saying something about the Energizer bunny and then we knew!

Mrs. M also said something about a Mexican jumping bean in her speech about Helaina - too funny. Jim taped the presentation and I'll post it some time, along with some of the songs the kids did.

Best buds.

The afternoon class girls.

Helaina's handprint bag and a ceramic tile she made - typical of the "freestyle" painting and coloring she's been doing lately.

We went out to lunch with Aunt Barb, Uncle Gerd, Aunt Cathy, Beth and Anna to celebrate graduation. Here's Helaina's "Where my food, I hungry, what taking the chef so long" look. The child has absolutely no patience in restaurants while waiting for food.

Ahhh, at last, kiddie cheeseburger and fries.

I picked up a few little graduation gifts for Helaina. I spent less than $10 but she was SO happy with everything. "Oh, thank you Mommy and Daddy" with every present she opened. "I love it" - the $4 Little Mermaid ballerina doll was her favorite.

Checking out the Disney priness bubble jewelry set. I can't believe how old she looks in this pic.

She's still into the peace sign stuff so these necklaces were perfect.

Helaina loves glass stones and rocks. She sorts them, makes patterns with them, puts them in different containers, holds them in her pudgy little hands and cherishes them. She knows the names and colors of most birthstones. I knew she'd be fascinated with these smooth stones. They are the first thing she plays with each morning when she gets up.

Who knew they made preschool graduation cards? Thank you, Aunt Barbara.

When parents were ready to leave there was no crying from the kids but I found it difficult to say goodbye and thank each of them personally. I gave each one a hug, thanked them for a wonderful school year and then the tears came. I just love the school Helaina attended and she lucked out with 2 great teachers who really cared about the kids and in turn, each child in that class adored Mrs. M and Mrs. P. Oh my gravy, the school bus and kindergarten in September. What ever will I do? Helaina already knows. "Mommy, you going to cry and follow the bus to school?" Yes, baby girl, most likely I will.

Class trip adventure

2011-06-21T23:48:00.000-04:00

This morning Helaina's pre-school class went on a field trip to Beaver Lake for the Turtle Tour. They looked at stuffed animals in the lobby, listened to a talk about turtles, went investigating on the trails down to the water, listened for frogs, but saw no turtles or beavers. "It called Beaver Lake. Where the beavers?" Good question, Helaina.
Posing in the lobby with a beaver.

Stopping to enjoy nature.

We had a picnic lunch at the park and playground after our morning field trip. Helaina's latest obsession are monkey bars. She can finally fling all 52 pounds of herself across them and is very proud of that fact. Over and over and over again - so much that her hands have built up callouses.

There were only 3 girls in Monday night's gymnastics class so there was lots of individual attention along with a good workout. Helaina was excited to work on the higher balance beam that night.

Another pre-school creation that I forgot to post on Father's Day. So sweet.

Could it possibly be that tomorrow is Helaina's last day of nursery school? Could 2 years of pre-k have just flown by so quickly? Can my baby possibly be ready to board a bus in September headed off to 1st grade? Can I possibly be ready for her to board a bus to 1st grade in less than 3 months? Yikes.

"We didn't get you Fudgie the Whale, Daddy"

2011-06-20T13:57:00.000-04:00

I realize that no 5-year old can keep a secret, and Helaina certainly falls within that category. The week prior to Father's Day was tough for her, trying not to spill the beans about gifts, brunch and cake. She would start to tell Jim something, I'd yell "Helaina!!" and she'd cover her mouth with both hands, say "oops, sorry Mommy" and then 10 minutes later we'd repeat the scenario. Sunday morning while we were eating breakfast here was the conversation:
Helaina: We didn't get you Fudgie the Whale cake, Daddy.
Me (as Jim and I are cracking up): Helaina! You weren't supposed to tell Daddy about the ice cream cake! It's a surprise, remember?
Helaina: Oops. Sorry. Daddy, we didn't get you Fudgie the Whale cake, we got you ..... cheesecake with strawberries.
Jim: Ohhh, I like cheesecake with strawberries.
Helaina: Good, because we didn't get you Fudgie the Whale this year.
We wrapped one gift in plain paper so Helaina could decorate it. The pink people are me, Jim, Josh and Helaina.

The things Helaina made in school for Father's Day are really cute - and one was hysterical.

Jim's reading Helaina's responses to questions her teacher asked about her Daddy. I nearly wet my pants when I first read them, they are so funny.

Blond hair?! My favorite one is "will you get something for me". Makes it sound like we use Helaina as a slave! The teachers must have a blast asking the kids these questions and hearing their answers.

A framed picture of Jim being a good Daddy and allowing Helaina to paint nearly his entire face one Saturday afternoon.

Helaina picked this t-shirt out for Jim. There was an entire rack of all different kinds but she wanted this one.

This surprise was truly a surprise for both of them because I didn't say where we were going until we were in the car on our way. Chinese dim sum brunch - yummy. We selected all sorts of "small plates" from a menu: shrimp stuffed wontons, dumplings, sticky rice, beef sticks, won ton soup, a seafood noodle dish and steamed pork buns. Not a fan of the buns - looked like a giant snowball with some bbq pork filling. Couldn't figure out what the "giant snowball" was made of!

Yah, here's Fudgie the Whale ice cream cake that we DIDN'T get Jim.

This weekend was Helaina's last soccer game until September. They play 6 games in the Spring and then 4 or 5 more in the Fall, so their picnic was held Saturday. Lots of kid-friendly games. We let Helaina use some of her tickets on the dunk tank, which she begged to do. With the very first ball she unbelievably hit the target but not hard enough to make the kid fall in the water. Second ball, missed completely. Third ball, a direct hard hit and the kid went for a swim! We couldn't believe it and she was absolutely thrilled. Look at that stance - maybe we should sign her up for t-ball.

Her ring and bracelets were some of her prizes (she hasn't taken them off since). She also used some of her tickets to get her nails done ...

... have her face painted and get her hair sprayed pink, with glitter and pink and blue clip-on braids. Stunning.

While in a store last week shopping for Father's Day, we (fortunately) had to pass the girls department where we just couldn't pass up the great deal on a new "tankini" swim suit with peace signs on it. It is just too adorable on her - big girl style suit. I couldn't stop grinning when she tried it on at home. "Mom, look, I can do this."

And check out the back of the suit. Helaina just LOVES it, and I do to.

Helaina swims every day, rain, shine, 80 degrees or 60 degrees - doesn't matter to her. She jumps in and refuses to get out no matter what.

Happy Flag Day

2011-06-14T23:41:00.000-04:00

Yesterday the hallway board in Helaina's preschool read "Tuesday is Flag Day. Don't forget to wear your red, white and blue!" All of Helaina's 4th of July shirts from last year don't fit her this year (what a surprise), so a last-minute Target run this morning was successful. She was dressed in red, white & blue from the top of her star hair bow to the bottom of her spangled flip flop feet (this is the first year Helaina can wear between-the-toe flip flops without the strap bothering her - she thinks it's a huge deal). $1 - gotta love the Target $1 bins.

Swimming, swimming and more swimming. Helaina can't get enough whether it's 80 degrees and hot or 67 degrees and windy.

This picture was taken Friday afternoon. By the end of the school week Helaina is tuckered out. Friday's are tough because they start out with O.T., then she has school where she works hard and plays hard, she came home and went swimming (even though I protested, I lost that battle) and then crashed on the sofa while waiting for Jim to get home.

Zoey zonked out on the other end of the couch. She curled herself in between the pile of toys Helaina had tossed aside and went to sleep on the Leapster speller with her paw around the Build-A-Bear cat also named Zoey. A true cat nap.

Learning to swim

2011-06-12T22:06:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was the first day Helaina felt daring enough to take off her swimmies and start learning how to doggie paddle. She did good at her first attempts and was very proud of herself. Back into the pool today with Daddy for more swimmie-free swimming.

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Inquisitive? Oh yah....

2011-06-09T21:59:00.000-04:00

To say that Helaina is inquisitive is an extreme understatement. Questions, questions, questions and more questions all the time. I frequently think back to 2008 when we brought her home from China and she didn't say a word for at least 2 months. Flashforward 3 years and the child never shuts up! It's her gift of gab and adorable personality that has endeared her to the speech pathologist on Helaina's surgical team.

Dr. Eileen absolutely loves Helaina, is very impressed with how far she's come and refers to Helaina as a true success story. She thinks that Helaina is hysterical, articulate, cute as a button and anything but shy. Those qualities are why Eileen invited Helaina to be a "subject" at one of the undergraduate classes she teaches. One Friday a few weeks ago I dressed up Helaina in her finest ladybug attire (above photo!) and Jim and I took her to an undergraduate class of about 35 students so she could be their "test". When we walked into the room there was a collective "ahhh, ooooo, ohhhh, she's so cute, look how adorable she is" from the female students. Small groups took turns speaking to Helaina, doing some standard speech testing on her and asking Jim and I questions. Their mission was to determine where Helaina was in the speech therapy process. They got it right and figured out that she no longer needed speech therapy and was given a round of applause. Eileen was thrilled, Helaina was happy to be the center of attention and even happier when Eileen gave her a Disney princess basketball and a Disney princess pop-up play tent for her efforts. We couldn't be more proud of our little lady.

Helaina sported some of her finest jewelry for the occasion. "Let's paint my nails in a pattern - pink, blue, pink, blue, pink." The ability to recognize and create patterns is one of the skills kids entering Kindergarten should be aware of. Helaina's got it covered.

Getting back to being inquisitive, frequently I'll jot down things during the day so that I remember to tell Jim some of the conversations I have with Helaina throughout the day. Here are a few questions that Helaina has asked in the last 2 days: Do cats blink? Why is water wet? Why do I have a nose? Where is my voice? Will I have this voice when I get married? What color is my voice? Is it clear like a protoplasm? (the protoplasm reference comes from a Scooby Doo movie, believe it or not!). I was talking about a bridal shower the other day and Helaina asks "What is a bridal shower curtain?"

Then today at lunch while slurping down noodles, IT happened.
Helaina: Mommy, how does the doctor get the baby out of a lady's belly?
Me: (gulp) Well, the Mommy's go to the hospital and the doctor has special tools to help the Mommy push the baby out of her belly. (special tools? what was I thinking)
Helaina: But how does the baby get out?
Me: (double gulp), Well, the Mommy has to work really hard to push the baby out of her belly.
Helaina: Out of her belly button?
Me: Well no, out of ..., well ... the doctor helps the Mommy in a special way and the baby comes out.
Helaina: Oh. (mercifully, that was it)

After dinner tonight Jim and Helaina were on the couch and I was in the kitchen cutting up watermelon:
Me: Helaina, why don't you ask Daddy the question that you asked me at lunch today.
Helaina: Daddy, how does a baby get out of the Mommy's tummy?
Jim: Well, it pops out. Just like popcorn. Pop, pop, pop, pop then out comes the baby.
Helaina looks toward me in the kitchen and I shake my head and smile. She smiles too and then goes back to watching a cartoon. End of that conversation for now. Jeepers, she's only 5 - how much detail are you supposed to go into with a 5-year old girl????!!!!!

Phew, what a scorcher

2011-06-08T22:48:00.000-04:00

What do you do when it's a record-breaking 97 degree day? You switch off between playing in the water and sitting in the air conditioned house. Helaina reached a pool milestone this evening when she jumped in the pool with nobody catching her. Her head and face goes under water a little and it's a good start to getting her to submerge her face completely. After her initial jump she was so proud of herself that she continued to jump in, get out do it again, jump in, get out, on and on about 20 times in a row.

After gymnastics Monday night we stopped at Toys R Us to buy their advertised $4.99 slip 'n slide. Best $4.99 spent in a long time. Helaina absolutely loves it.

Another weekend, another soccer game, another birthday

2011-06-07T21:47:00.001-04:00

With each passing week Helaina gets more into her soccer practices and games. She's still majorly exhausted by the end of the hour of play but her skills are slowly improving. She usually has a huge smile on her face when she's in pursuit of the ball.
Check out her stance while trying to block a ball being thrown in.

She got to play goalie for one quarter but unfortunately she didn't get any action. I don't think she minded because she loves wearing the vest.

A little one on one.

On Sunday we celebrated Baby Geo's 1st birthday. He did not like wearing his crown and ripped it off his head pretty quickly.

Oh joy, another pinata.

Nic with a daisy in her hair and green frosting all over her face.

There was a gazebo and lake at the park where the birthday was held. Jim snapped a few nice pictures before Helaina had enough and took off looking for something more exciting to do than pose.

Funny Helaina:

Lately Helaina's coloring has been very colorful. If she's coloring a princess instead of doing the dress all blue, the hair all yellow and the crown all silver, she'll use every crayon in the box and put different colors next to each other. One day I asked her why she does that and she said "It like a rainbow. This is creativity. I being very creative." And right she was!

Sometimes it works out that I'll give Helaina her evening bath when Jim is in the shower in our bathroom. She has this routine where if he's in the shower she'll take off all her clothes, charge into our bathroom, pull the shower curtain back and moon him. He screams and tells her to get out, she laughs hysterically (as do I) and runs out of the bathroom - it's their "thing", but Jim's not a fan of it when she sneaks in and he isn't prepared for the attack. The other night Jim was just getting in the shower when he heard Helaina charging down the hall like a bull. She had bolted upstairs to moon Daddy. I heard some complaining from upstairs and as I rounded the corner to head upstairs I see Helaina standing on the top landing, totally naked, about to cry. "What's wrong?" I asked her. Her reply: "Daddy heard me coming and locked me out of the bathroom. I VERY disappointed 'cause I wanted to moon him." She had such a pout on her face! So I took her by the hand and she told Jim, through the locked door, that he's not supposed to lock her out any more. Too funny.

Memorial Day Weekend

2011-05-31T13:45:00.000-04:00

With 80 degree weather upon us, it was time to get the pool open. Jim hooked up the hoses and gauges to the filter. We added water, took off the winter cover, added a ton of start-up chemicals and voila - pool water with a 69degree temperature. After 24 hours it was ready to swim in. Jim had to go in the pool, no choice, because he had to anchor a 50-pound sandbag under the ladder to keep it in place. I give him credit, he went in relatively quickly without too much screaming, then he actually went back in later to swim with Helaina. I wouldn't even get my toes wet! Helaina was delighted because she's part penguin and part polar bear.

Easing herself in ...

... then splashdown, didn't take her long to get back into the swing of things.

Helaina was all too happy to help with cleaning the pool cover. She thought it was one giant slip and slide.

She liked scrubbing and then hosing the soap off. At one point when she was on her knees with the bucket and sponge, she started scrubbing and singing "Sing sweet nightingale, sweet sweet nightingale, ahahahahahhhhhhh..." She was acting out a scene from Cinderella. Too darn funny.

This weekend we also celebrated Anna's birthday - 2 years old now, with a baby sister due mid-July. I remember the day she was born and it doesn't seem like it was 2 years ago. Check out those Shirley Temple ringlets. We all can't wait to see if the new baby will have the same curly hair.

Surrounded by piles of gifts, she hukered down and got to ripping paper, only to lose interest after opening about 8 presents, then she took off running toward the playground.

Nic was hesitant to go down this big curvy slide by herself but she was more than happy to slide down with Helaina hanging on to her. They'd get to the bottom, Helaina would start running to the steps again with Nic following her yelling "Helaina, wait up!"

Helaina totally loves gymnastics. The regular season finishes at the end of June but we decided to sign her up for 7 weeks of summer classes because she enjoys it so much. She's made friends with the little girls in her class and looks forward to it every week. Her newest favorite, aside from doing cartwheels continuously everywhere, is the uneven parallel bars because they are learning how to get on the top bar now and our little daredevil loves it.

Family fun day at school

2011-05-29T15:44:00.000-04:00

Thursday was family fun day at school. There was face painting, a bounce house (oh joy), a home-made water slide, hotdogs, ice cream and more. Mercifully the rain decided it wouldn't ruin the morning of outdoor fun.

Somersaulting down the slide. I'm surprised she didn't try to do cartwheels down it. Since gymnastics, Helaina is obsessed with cartwheels and with all the practice, she's getting darn good at them.

Zoey's favorite place to be lately is in our kitchen bay window. I happened to catch a kitty yawn in this picture. She looks wild and crazy-eyed.

There, that's a better look.

Funny Helaina:
Helaina's been interested in geoography lately. She likes to look at a map of the states and can recognize many of the "easy" ones: Florida because that's where Disneyworld is, Texas because it's the biggest, New Jersey where Wildwood is, New York of course, and Pennsylvania because that's where Aunt Terry and Uncle Mike live. I've taken the opportunity to teach her our address and she's got that memorized, with one funny exception. I'll ask her "Helaina, what country do we live in?" Her response: The United Steaks of America!" United steaks, ha!!!!

It was warm on Sunday

2011-05-25T18:47:00.000-04:00

We broke out the sprinkler and beat-up elephant pool Sunday afternoon for some water fun. The temperature was warm, the hose water was freezing and Helaina was happy. I think she's a future Polar Bear Club member. The icy water doesn't phase her in the least - totally opposite of her Daddy who screams like a girl if the water is cold!

And when it's too early in the season for the water parks to be open, you make your own water slide.