Readoption

Long time no post. There has been a lot going on around here. In July, Alex had a tendon releasing surgery and was in a cast for 6 weeks. She is walking much better now and is happy to out of the cast.
For those of you not up to date on adoption lingo. Alex was officially adopted in China last year and became a US citizen the moment she entered the country, however, in order to obtain a English birth certificate, we had to readopt her in Alabama. The readoption finally took place on the 26th of this month.

Alex had the judge wrapped around her little finger. She even got to wear his robe.

And she got to sit on the judge's bench. That is the judge you see smiling in the back ground.

Here he is again holding Alex. He even let her have a tea party in the court room while we waited for the paper work to be processed.

More pictures

Can we hunt Easter eggs now?

Look! There's one.

Beach Bum

Can you get that bucket for me?

What's in your egg, Cameron?

Alex, Maddie and Lilly.

Alex and her cousin Maddie.

Alex and her friend at school.

One year ago

One year ago today was this first time I saw Alex's face. The smile, the bright eyes, the obvious silly, funny, smart personality. This day started a flurry of activity that would lead to the biggest change of my life. I tell her daily she is the best thing in my life. Most people remember April 15th as tax day. I will always remember it as the day my life as a MOM started.

This is the face that greets me everyday. Happy, healthy, secure, and loved. I thank God for the phone call that started it all and allows me to be the one to be with this amazing person everyday. Happy April 15 th.

It was going to happen sooner or later...

When one of your parents is a vet, it is inevitable that an adorable puppy will come in to your life. Earlier this week, this little guy came into the clinic from our local shelter to be neutered. I thought he was adorable. On Wednesday Alex saw him at the clinic and announced that she liked that one. Since Alex is still unsure of dogs most of the time, I let her play with him for a little while. "Fargo" was great with her and just her size. Today, I finally decided to add him to the family.Here is Alex holding her new puppy. Yes she carries him around, and yes he puts up with it. I'm not sure how this little guy became so tolerant.

Here he is doing what he puppies do best, make trouble.

Here he is being tortured, I mean tolerant again.

Isn't this the one of the most adorable faces you have ever seen.

Alex's BIG day.

As I have mentioned before, Alex started pre-school last month. She goes 3 days a week for 4 and 1/2 hours and she loves it. Her class has about 10 children in it, 5 girls and 5 boys. Mornings are always tough around here, because Alex is NOT a morning person. This morning in an effort to get her motivated I agreed to let her wear one of her fancy dresses to school. This particular frock was very pink and girly. Alex even asked me to put her hair up, which never happens. Every day when I pick her up after work I ask how school went, etc. Tonight on the way home Alex announce that Nathan, an Chinese-American boy in her class, said she looked like a princess today. He then went on to say that maybe one day they could get married. I told Alex she needed to tell Nathan to talk to her Baba (Dan) about that first. Alex then very wisely told me one day she would get married when she found the right man. I can't believe she has already gotten her first marriage proposal.

Today was a big day on another front. I think Alex is finally figuring out that this is her forever family. Often in the past 3 months Alex has talked about going back to China. She talks about her friends and her other "mamas" there. But today, we were walking up the stairs from the basement and she notice a mark on the wood. She asked me who had drawn on the wood. I told her probably the people had built the house before Mama and Baba lived there. She corrected me by say "Mama, Baba and Alex". I said yes. Then she said "We live here. We are a family. I don't have to go back to China" and I said " No, baby. You don't have to go back to China. You can live here forever"
Or at least until she gets married...ha ha

Alex's snowy day.

Well, it finally snowed today, and it was a big one ( for Alabama) between 3 and 4 inches. Alex loved it. We played in the snow for 3 hours this morning. She did everything a little girl is suppose to do with her first snow fall.

She played with the dogs...sort of.

She made a snow man....sort of

She had numerous snowball fights.

She caught snowflakes on her tongue.

And she got cold.

It was the most snow Birmingham has seen in 10 years. I got lots of pictures and even some video. I hope Alex will remember this day in the years to come, it may be a while before it happens again.

The long over due birthday post

Well, better late than never. Our little princess turned 4 on February 6th, but we had her birthday party on January 31st since Dan left for Korea on the 2nd. As you can see, the birthday party was heavy on the Di$ney Princesses. Alex had a ball and the weather was even nice enough for all the kids to go outside and play afterwards.

Four princesses and a prince enjoying hamburgers and chips before the cupcakes.

Alex opening the mountain of gifts. Our friends and family spoil her.

Alex blowing out her birthday candles. She picked out the cupcakes with the pink icing.

In other news, Alex started Pre-school the first week of February. It is going very well and she seems to like it. The school had a Valentines Day party on Thursday so I finally got to meet her friends and teacher. I, of course, forgot my camera. She actually likes it so much I'm planning on adding a 3rd day a week in March. We also managed to move Alex into her own room upstairs and she sleeps in her own bed all night about 75% of the time.

The Year of the Ox

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!
I know, I've been a neglectful blogger. The good news is, I HAVEN'T been a neglectful mother, wife or business owner which is why I haven't been updating the blog.
We have big weekend coming up. We are having Alex's birthday party on the 31st and I'm sure there will be lots of pictures. We have been home for over 6 months now and things continue to get better. Alex sleeps through the night 95% of the time. She is still a bit of a Velcro child, but she will actually leave me to go play with other children now, which is a big step. We are planning on moving Alex out of our bedroom and into her room this week. Pray that it goes well. Alex seems really excited about it, but many times she changes her mind when the actual time comes.
Anyway, I hope everyone has a great week, and check back this weekend for a party recap.

Look what we did.

Several months ago Alex started to notice ear rings. I told her that when ever she was ready we would get her ears pierced. This week she announced she was ready. I waited several days to make sure she wouldn't change her mind, but she continued to tell me she wanted her ears pierced. Yesterday, we went to the mall to have it done. The first place we stopped, only had one person to pierce ears and we really wanted to have both ears done at the same time. So we walked to the other end of the mall to another store. I've never seen Alex walk so fast and with so much determination. When we got there, Alex picked out a pair of "diamond" studs for her first ear rings. She got very nervous but when I asked her if she was sure, she kept saying yes. She cried a little bit right before the actual piercing, but as soon as she saw herself in the mirror with the diamond ear rings she stopped crying. While we were at the mall, Alex got to ride the carousel and the hot dog truck. Overall, it was a good day.


Alex bundled up to go outside and see the fire works on New Years Eve.

Riding in the hot dog truck.

Riding the Christmas carousel at the mall.

Right after the ear piercing.