Wednesday, February 06, 2008

My baby turned 2 on Monday








Alyson turned two. I couldn't stop her. I guess I have to let her grow but it just seems so fast. She's losing her chubby baby thighs and cheeks :-(
Of course she's still adorable but she's turning into a real little girl now. She loves to sing and dance. The Wiggles are still her favorite. She knows all the words to The Wheels on the Bus and a bunch of other songs.
-She's very curious and still says "whas dat?" a lot. She has some funny little 2 year old speech sometimes. Everything with a "v" has an "f" sound now. When she tells Bailey to move out of her way she says "moof!" She also has something against the letter "w" even though she used to use it correctly. Now it has an "h" sound. If she says her food is too hot we'll say "no, it's just warm" then she'll say "horm?" It's a nightly dinner conversation now followed by lots of giggling.
-She had a stretch of pretty bad, but pretty typical, toddler tantrums but she's been doing better the last couple weeks. Or rather my reaction to them has been less so they've been shorter.
-She's getting opinionated about her shoes now but not her clothes thank goodness so I still have control over some things.
-She peed in her new potty a few days ago but hasn't had a repeat performance. We're not pushing it though.
-Her hair is growing pretty fast and I'm getting better at fixing it. We haven't cut it at all so what looks like bangs in the pictures is just the underneath shaved layer finally growing out.
-And the best news of all is she's pretty much sleeping through the night finally. She has been for a few weeks now but I'm not lulled into a false sense of security just yet. the best part about it is that instead of crying in the morning, or at night every so often, she yells out "Mama?" It's so great to hear that instead of the sad wail. Now she knows for sure that one of us will come get her and all she has to do is call out. She goes to bed happy and wakes up happy. I still wake up every couple of hours convinced I hear her so I'm still waking up grumpy but I'm sure that will get better.
I guess that's Alyson being two in a nutshell. I have a bunch of other pictures from January that I'll post separately another day.
Love to all! :-)

Sunday, February 03, 2008

The storms in China

People have probably seen snippets of news about the snow in China but it's much more severe than what you might think. Many areas of the country are totally unprepared for this weather. Many of the orphanages in the southern provinces don't have heat, they've never needed it before.
Half the Sky is a wonderful organization that trains nannies and foster families for many of the orphanges and their website has updates on the conditions many of the orphanges are facing right now.
Please take a moment and read the updates and see if you can find it in your heart to make a donation to their little mouse emergency fund.

http://www.halfthesky.org/work/littlemouse.php

They are a reputable organization that we have been aware of since the beginning of our adoption journey.
Thank you :-)