Strawberry Picking

It's strawberry season!

Sammy, Lily, my friend Laura and I headed north to Wisconsin to pick strawberries. It was a great day for picking berries in a hot, shadeless strawberry patch.

Here's a good one.

Wow! You can eat these things and boy, are they tasty!

(Of course, Lily didn't know how to pick off the green leaves, so I had to remove several of those from her mouth later that day!)

Hmmmm, if she helps me, I can eat them even faster!

Let me find a good spot.

At some point, Sam got tired of picking berries and picked up my camera. I just let him snap away while we filled our baskets. Surprisingly, he took some excellent photos:

He even took a self-portrait:

I love the strawberry juice dripping down his chin and cheeks!

One Year Ago Today...

we received the call! A little girl in Jiangxi Province, China was waiting for us to come and make her part of our Forever Family. Then, Fu Ni Run was 8 months old. Today Lily Rose is 20 months old and has been home with us for over 10 months.

According to our referral, ONE YEAR ago, Lily Rose...

weighed 13 pounds...TODAY she is a robust 24 pounds.

could not sit...TODAY, she can sit, walk, twirl and go up and down stairs.

was described as suspicious of strangers...TODAY she is STILL suspicious!

liked sweets....TODAY she LOVES sweets.

favorite activity was taking a bath...TODAY, not so much, but she likes it as long as we don't wash her!

loved to be held...TODAY, as long as it's mommy or daddy, she still prefers to be held more than anything else (other than eat!)

cried before falling asleep....TODAY, alas, some things don't change. But if we're lucky, she'll fall asleep after just a few minutes of crying.

was beginning to babble...TODAY, she says "Uh Oh," mama, dada, kitty and bye bye (but only when SHE want's to!)

was described as impatient...TODAY, her impatience fits in well with her two impatient brothers.

slept in a room with 8 other babies. TODAY Lily Rose, sleeps in a crib in her own room in a house with her two big brothers and her adoring mommy and daddy! We are so happy she is a part of our family.

WE LOVE YOU LILY!

Kid Quotes

Setting: Just after dropping Joey off at his pre-game warm-up, Sam, Lily and I are looking for parking.

Sam in back seat: Mommy, I want two peanut butter sandwiches just like Joey.

Mommy: But Sam, Joey will be getting lots of exercise while he's playing baseball. That's why he had two sandwiches.

Sam: Mommy, watching and relaxing a little bit, that's MY exercising.

Ahh, the apple falls not far...

COWABUNGA!

We had a blast at the Indiana State Dunes today. It was a bit chilly, but each child got to do a little of what they love most. For Joey, that would be running and jumping:



For Sam, that would be rolling around in the sand and playing with rocks and logs:




Sammy also enjoyed flying a kite. The kite looks like it is miles up in the sky, but it's actually a teeny, tiny kite so it's really not that far up in the sky.




And of course, Lily did what Lily loves best...cuddle up in the arms of Mommy and Daddy. Lily HATED the feel of the sand under her shoes. This does not bode well for summer vacation at the beach in Door County.

As for me...I'm lucky I'm not in the hospital. I probably should have thought this little adventure out a bit better. Climbing the formidable Mt. Baldy is probably not the thing to do if the tendon supporting your ankle is torn.

Today's date is not that special, except that...

today marks the day that Lily has been with us more than she has been anywhere else (9 months and 21 days)!

Now this may not seem like much of a milestone, but to me it is. I don't know why. It's a mental thing. She's come such a long way since "gotcha" day:

When I look closely at these photos, Lily doesn't even look like the same little girl. Her nose is different, her eyes are different--everything seems different. However, I know for sure that this is the same little girl because she has never been more than a few feet (maybe inches?) away from Rob or I since Gotcha Day!

I think I can literally say "you've come a long way baby" (both literally and figuratively)!

At the Playground

Sam and Lily have developed this very sweet bond. If Sam cries...Lily cries. She does NOT like it when he cries. In return, Sam always lets me know when Lily is sad or when she wants something. Of course they still have their sibling squables, but they are always looking out for each other. So on a recent outing to Sam's school's spring festival, we spent a few minutes on the playground equipment. Sam loved to help Lily climb and slide.