Friday, July 29, 2011

Conversations

Janie

Lexie

I love that I can now have full conversations with Janie. She pretty much talks all the time, asks tons of questions, repeats things over and over to get my attention, and basically is exploding with language development. I look forward to this time next year when Lexie is doing the same. I can only imagine the conversations I will hear from the back seat :):)

Here are a few examples of some recent "conversations" Janie and I have had (or that she has tried to have with Lexie).  Too sweet!!
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I pulled into Publix parking lot. 
Janie: "Do you have grocery list" 
Me: "Yes, baby, I brought it" 
Janie: "Do you have bananas for me and Wexie"
Me: "Yep, sure do" 
Janie: "Yay, I'm so excited"

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Janie: "Mmmmm, I have a question" (while holding her finger up to her mouth)
Me: "What is your question"
Janie: "I have to tell you something"
Me: "OK, What is it"
Janie: "Ummm, it is about a hotel"
Me: "What about a hotel"
Janie: "I saw a choo choo and lunch"
Me: "Yes, baby, we did see a choo choo train and eat lunch" 
This was a few weeks after we stayed at the Chattanooga Choo Choo hotel in Tenn. I guess she was still thinking about it
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Janie was laying up on the sofa with her head on the pillow pretending to be asleep. She then got off to get something from the toy box. Lexie jumped up on the couch and laid down. When Janie turned around and saw Lexie she screamed:
"Nooooo, WEXIE...No ma'am, that's my sleep....get off the couch now" 

Not a very nice conversation..but she got her point across....

Such a funny, funny girl!!!
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And not to forget about Lexie....she is talking up a storm too. But of course hers is just words....and lots of baby jibberish still. But, she is trying soooo hard. Some words she knows and uses consistently:

ma ma, more, mine (got that one from Janie), no, bye-bye, night-night, ball, book, bottle, blanket, nap, napkin, baby, juice, snack, wake up (from a silly game we play), shoe, boo (for boo-boo or hurt), and lots more that I can't think of right now.....

She also loves to tell you the sounds that animals make. So far she knows cow, dog, cat, horse, elephant, duck, and pig. She is working on frog and goat.

She tries to repeat everything she hears....just doesn't pronounce very good yet...but she is trying so hard-she has so much to say!!

Janie

Lexie

Monday, July 25, 2011

Lexie 18 month pics and Janie 2 year post-placement

Janie's 2 year PP report:

Tomorrow my social worker is coming over to do Janie's 2 year post-placement report. Oh.my.goodness.....

Deana placed my sweet baby in my arms on Sept. 14, 2009 and we arrived home on Sept. 22, 2009. So hard to believe that is has been almost 2 years! 

My sweet baby in my arms at last (Sept. 14, 2009)


My sweet baby (or big girl) today!!
You've come a long way baby!!!!
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Lexie's 18 month pictures!

I finally got around to taking Lexie to have some "professional" pics taken. I know, I know--bad mommy! I have waited toooo long. But, I have been a little busy--and I do take TONS of pictures myself. 

But, I wanted Lexie to have her own pictures (without Janie) since I will likely do all professional pics together from here on. And since she will be 18 months next week-it was the perfect time....Of course since the IRS still hasn't given me my adoption tax credit yet, I am on a Sears budget...so that is where we ended up. I think they did pretty good though! Here are a few of my favorites...they were all really good...but I think they had a beautiful subject so it wasn't too hard to capture the beauty!!










Love, love, love this sweet baby girl! What a blessing she is! Such a sweetheart!! Each day I still ask what I did to deserve these 2 amazing sisters. God is so good!

Friday, July 22, 2011

4th of July

Well, this is a late 4th of July update....but, I finally got around to loading the pics from that day and just had to share! We went to a parade in a nearby small town. It was basically just police motorcycles, fire trucks, a few businesses handing out coupons, and lots of old cars (oh and can't forget-lots of candy thrown). I think it maybe lasted all of 15 minutes...but it was fun!! 

There was a little celebration after the parade with food vendors and music...the girls liked that too. It was soooooo hot that day! But, it was a great first Independence Day with the girls home together. Looking forward to many more!!

Found our spot...now waiting for the parade to begin

Lexie showing her American pride!

Janie showing her American pride!

Janie showing off her USA outfit!

Lexie showing off her USA outfit!

After taking a short walk with mommy, Janie spotted her Mimi saving our spot 
and took off to her! She loves her Mimi!

Lexie and Mimi taking a walk while waiting for the parade to begin!

It's almost time for the parade! Let's get ready!!

Janie liked the firetrucks!

Lexie liked it all and kept waving to everyone! 
Here she wanted Mommy's sunglasses!

The girls kept looking up at him in disbelief!

Lexie won this inflatable frog and didn't let go of it all day! 
Janie won an inflatable turtle too!


Wednesday, July 20, 2011

PURE JOY!

I love thier smiles and laughter!


Monday, July 18, 2011

Petting Zoo & Can I be just like you?

The Petting Zoo

A few weekends ago, we took the girls to the Yellow River Game Ranch. It is basically a petting zoo where you can see animals and feed many of them. I used to go there TONS as a kid. It has really become run-down and kind of sad...but the girls had a pretty good time anyway. 

Janie and Lexie both LOVE animals so I thought they would enjoy it. They did have a good time, but it was quite comical!!

Janie LOVES dogs, she is constantly running up to them wanting to pet them. Lexie is the same way. But Janie DID NOT want anything to do with the animals here. She did not want to touch or feed any of them (except the ducks and chickens). Those of you who know my fear of birds, ducks, chickens (anything with wings) find that funny I'm sure!!! She did OK with dropping the food into the little tubes that go into the cages but she WAS NOT going to let any animal close enough to take food out of her hand. Funny girl. 

Lexie was the exact opposite and was completely fine with any animal touching her, licking her, snorting at her...anything. Her only thing was she kept trying to eat the food instead! She would not let go of the food. The poor animals were biting and trying to pull the food from her hands and she had a grip on it. Then she would try to eat it-yuck!! It was quite the adventure!!!

Mommy and her girls walking thru the zoo

Janie climbing up Mommy because the deer is getting too close!

Lexie trying to give a carrot to the donkey. She wanted to eat it instead!

This sweet rabbit came up to visit Janie...she didn't like it at all, she pulled away and then began to cry! Silly girl!
Lexie didn't have any problems with the rabbit (as long as it didn't try to eat her carrot)

I joke about Janie and her fear of the animals that day...but who can blame her. Look at this face below. I guess seeing that come at you could be a little scary-ha ha :):)

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Can I be just like you?

When Janie came into my life, I felt my life was complete. Little did I know that Lexie would make my cup runneth over. These girls are amazing. There is a Chinese belief that a red thread connects people that are meant to be together. An invisble red thread that can twist/turn/and stretch all the way across the world if needed. It connects the hearts of those meant to be together and can never break. In the adoption world, many waiting families cling to that belief.I did too. Now, I fully believe that Janie and Lexie have a red thread that connects them. There is really no other explaination. God created them to be together.

It is simply amazing to watch them together. I know all siblings are close and love each other but there is really something special about these girls. Of course they look so similar. Obviously they would since they are full-bio siblings...but still, they look beyond alike. It is sometimes a little scary. Today at the shoe store, I had a lady kind of "argue" with me and say they have to be twins. There is no way they are just sisters. Of course she was kidding, but it is just that way. Unless they are standing up and you see that Janie is about 3 inches taller--they pretty much like identical, especially when they both have thier hair down.

However, thier look is not what I mean. I am talking about thier actions, thier love, thier hearts. They are connected in a way that I cannot even describe. You just have to see it and experience it. They have thier own language. They nap at the same time. They sleep at night at the same time. They wake at the same time (mostly). Their interests are pretty much the same. They love each other with all their heart. They argue and fight with all thier heart. Their passion for each other is beyond description. It can only be explained by the hand of God. He created them for each other. And I am honored to be thier mommy. 

Lexie adores Janie. She wants to be just like her. If Janie takes a sip of juice, so does Lexie. If Janie sneezes, so does Lexie (a fake one). If Janie sits on the floor, so does Lexie. If Janie walks down the hall, so does Lexie. You get the point. Janie tolerates this for about 10 minutes then she starts to get annoyed. However, when she thinks I'm not looking..I see her engaging Lexie to copy her again. Tonight they were wrestling (their new favorite play activity) and Janie kept complaining saying "Wexie, no. Wexie, stop". Then when Lexie finally did, Janie immediatley yelled out "Wexie, come back". Too cute!

We went to the Lazy Days festival in Winder this past weekend. The girls had a blast.

Pony rides with Gramps
Janie wouldn't do it at first, but then when Lexie did and she saw it was OK she did it several times...and loved it!

Jumping, jumping, and more jumping (thier absolute favorite activity)

They had this HUGE inflatable slide thing that was WAY TOO BIG for Lexie. It was almost TOO BIG for Janie..but she was determined that mommy would let her do it. So I did. She did great of course and loved every second of it!!

However, like I said above....whatever Janie does, Lexie has to do too, right. Well luckily there was about 30 minutes or so that no other kids were on the slide so I just let Lexie go for it. Here is what this tiny little thing did--no slowing her down!!

Lexie taking off to go up the HUGE ladder!

She slid down a couple of times until she finally got the hang of it. Check out the face below..she looks so exhausted. Looks like she is thinking "why did I attempt this?" 
Hard work climbing up that big ladder.

Janie wasn't much help, she kept passing Lexie by. 
She didn't have any patience to wait on her sister. 

But Lexie was determined. If Janie was doing it, so was she!
She finally made it to the top and then came down on her belly!!! So funny!
So proud of herself. Looks like she is saying "I did it"
You go girl!!
Love these girls. What an experience it is being thier mommy!!! I am so blessed!