The Last Dance

Here we see Lili and all the other girls in her dance class laying in their pods, waiting for the comet to come take them to Heaven........
Pretty creepy looking, huh?
Actually they were 'birds' getting ready to come out of their eggs.

Shrouded Lili

Lili got a gift bag!!! She really likes dance class now!

Lili in her sparkly new tutu compliments of the dance teacher and the library in honor of 'National Dance Week'.

And here's Lili in action.

She's supposed to be jumping as she runs and end in a pretty little 'plie', but as you can see, it didn't turn out as graceful as all that.

Maybe we really should try gymnastics.

Take a Listen

Just wanted to let you know to check out the bottom of each page of my blog.
I added a playlist from www.playlist.com. Just some songs I like and songs that remind me of Lili, Brett, Jeff.......
It's free and I was able to find some songs on there I can't find on iTunes.

OK, Fine. Talk about me behind my back, we're doing this.

Lili and I went to another pageant meeting today.

We had a couple of weeks since the last meeting to reflect and make sure we wanted to do this. (yeah, and I say we when we ALL know I really mean ME!)

So, we walk in, sit down and start filling out forms.

I look at my little Miss and see her picking her nose . Now, I swear to you, this girl does NOT do this type of thing. What IS it with these meetings that turn her into Shrek?

sigh.....

Anyway, I felt a little better about the whole makeup thing. They stressed that natural beauty is the focus. Let little girls be little girls, etc.

So, we'll see. I'm sure there will still be some little Tammy Faes running around.

Lili wasn't too interested in the whole thing until they grouped them and called for the "Little Miss Princess girls". Lili turned to me, gasped and said "Princess?!?!" Then, she took off into her little group.

They practiced walking and smiling and standing. And yes, I KNOW how stupid that sounds, but that's what they did.

The major thing that worries me are the questions.

They have a 'Judge's Tea' where the girls have to answer some questions eloquently .

Such as: "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

Now, seriously just about the only word Lili understands of that sentence is 'what'. So, we'll be practicing at home.

Lili was so sweet when we were done. She came tearing across the room to me yelling "MOMMY!!! MOMMY!!!!" pigtails flying, legs askew, arms akimbo......

And when we were leaving she said "Goodbye" to every single girl.

Hmmmm.......methinks someone is already stumping for "Miss Congeniality".

Now that's my girl! :)

Some more pictures I wasn't going to post, but they're just too funny not to!

Don't ask me what she's thinking.

Notice my hand around Brett's throat? Just for fun, of course.

"Hey, look at me, I can pick up my glass with my face."

"I say ol' chap"

I swear at some point during the night one, if not both, of my children took a sip out of my drink.

Just can't take us anywhere.

"I Lie Danseeen!"

Here's the kids pre-wedding. Lili was SO EXCITED to wear her purple dress (AND purple shoes!)

Lili just loved, loved, loved the whole night. She loved the food (they had spaghetti AND corn!), she loved watching the bride dance in her long, pretty dress, she loved the table decorations and (surprise surprise) the DANCING!!

My dad has never, ever danced so much in his life.

Here's the kids with their Meemaw and Peepaw.

Here we are. Notice how I'm holding Lili down, keeping her for just one second from running out onto the dance floor.

Brett shocked me by coming out on the floor with me willingly to dance the 'Cha Cha Slide'. He was all like "Hey, this is the song on that McDonald's commercial!" So, we Cha-Cha'd our little hearts out.

More Cha-Cha-ing. Do you see Brett's face? This is his 'why-are-you-making-me-move-I'm only-out-here-to-stretch-my-legs' face.

How low can we go? Some lower than others, thank you very much!

And the Winner Is......

"Oh! I Lie Dees!!"

Hope you enjoy Lili's 1st ice cream cone (maybe as much as she is!). She's had ice cream before, but I think it's always been in a cup. I remember in China how she flat out refused to even give ice cream a try. We of course forced her to eat some and she's loved it ever since. She used to call it 'cold', as in "I wan' cold." So, yeah, her english has come a long way.



And did you notice Lili's hair?
She is now sporting bangs. Or as she calls them, 'bains'. She likes them and so do we. We can't figure out why, but somehow they just make her look more Chinese !!



And thank you all SO MUCH for voting in the dress poll!

I'm seeing some old favorites ("Hi Kim, Cindy and Heather!") and some new faces ("Hi MOM!! and all the girls in Birmingham!") Thanks for the comments. I LOVE to hear from you.

As of now, the purple dress is winning 6 votes to 3.



Oh, and if anyone (other than my mom 'cuz that wouldn't be fair!) can decifer what Lili's quote is in the title, I'll give you a gold star for being fluent in Lili-ese.

Oh, Shoot!

It seems at the end of Day 1, we have a tie.

So, we're down to the Black and the Purple.

(and I just realized that every dress was polka dot!)

Thanks for playing. Keep the votes coming.

Warning! 'Dancing with the Stars is NOT for Children'!! Lili's world has been shattered!

I'm sure you recall Lili's Fonzie fascination. How every single boy/man/prince is named "Fonzie"?

Well, I think our little girl has had her first taste of cold, cruel reality.

Did anyone watch 'Dancing with the Stars' and see Henry Winkler?

Well, unfortunately Lili did.

We told her that that saggy, grey haired old man was Fonzie.

She gave us that "Wha'choo talkin' 'bout Willis" look and refused to believe that THIS was her Fonzie. She just kept shaking her head and saying "no....no.....nooooooo".

Poor little kid.

(and remember to vote so Lili has something to wear Saturday) :)

Calling all Fashionistas!

We're going to a wedding this Saturday and Lili has TOO much to wear! (and I, of course, have nothing to wear, but who cares about me !)

This will be our first wedding of a 3-wedding summer and I'm looking SO forward to taking Lili. Not only does she get to dress up but, as I'm sure you're all aware, she enjoys dancing just a little bit (hee hee hee).

FINALLY!! Mommy has someone to dance with! Jeff and Brett aren't into the dancing so much. So I'm really looking forward to our wedding-palooza.

So, I'm asking all you fashionistas out there for your opinion.

Which dress should Lili wear to wedding #1?

Leave me a comment with your choice, and Lili will wear whichever one gets the most votes. (and you can trust that she will because we'll have photographic evidence!)

So, get out there and vote!

I Felt the Earth Move

Guess what woke me up this morning?

Oh, just a little 5.4 earthquake!

I was half awake/half asleep at around 6:00 or so when the bed started shaking. It actually felt like a dog was on the bed scratching itself, which in my sleepy stupor, is what I thought it was. Jeff left me a note telling me what happened. The quake was centered in southern Illinois.

And this is not the first earthquake we've had in Indiana in my lifetime. There was one in the summer of '87. I was home alone and I thought I was going insane. No internet to check things out back then. I had to wait for the local news to come on.

It just figures, doesn't it?

Can't have palm trees

warm weather

360 days of sunshine

ocean and beaches

fruit trees in the back yard.

Nope, the ONE and ONLY thing we have in common with California?

earthquakes.

Life just isn't fair.

Lili Goes To High School

I decided to take Lili to work with me today. I only worked an hour and 1/2, so I figured I'd take a chance.
Let me just say that she was a total and complete star. That hour and 1/2 spent at work was like a Lili meet-and-greet. She soaked up every second of it. Even the high school girls in the hallway were 'ohhhhhhh'.

My decision to take Lili to work with me led to the following conversation: (I know how much you just love the sparkling conversation at my house!)

Me: 'Lili's going to high school tomorrow.'
Brett: 'Awww, how come she gets to go to high school and I'm still in elementary school?'
Me: 'Well, maybe you need to study harder.'
Brett: 'Mooooooooooooooooooo-oooooooooooM' (followed by the mother of all eye rolls)

Brett: 'Hey, dad, if mom's smarter than you why were you 3 grades ahead of her in school?'
Jeff: 'Uhhhhh, because I'm 3 years older than her?!'
Brett: 'Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....'

Sometimes by the end of the day, my mind is just numb.

PBJ Picasso

During lunch today Lili yelled "Mama, Mama, Y!"

The more I look at it the more it actually looks like some creepy alien writing, or an algebraic equation or something, but hey, at least she's recognizing her letters.

I guess I'm one of those mothers.....

I signed Lili up for our local town pageant today.
I had a sickening feeling about it mingled with a 'why not' attitude.

I really don't want to be a mother that puts her daughter in a pageant, but Lili's so darned into singing, dancing and dressing up that I figured she'd love it......
...we'll see.

We went to the informational meeting tonight.
It pretty much went how I expected a pageant meeting to go.
Lots of mothers there checking out the competition. It wasn't the warmest room I've ever been in, if you know what I mean.

There was instruction on what to wear, the 'theme' outfit, etc.

Then there was the discussion about how to not change hairstyles because there's not a lot of time between wardrobe changes and how not to change make-up because there's just no time for it.........................
not to change the MAKE-UP ??????

OK, seriously, I just about freaked out.

I DID NOT go to a meeting of some pageant pageant where the girls wear sky high hair and blue eyeshadow, did I? It certainly wasn't my intention anyway.

So, now I'm just kind of sick about the whole thing. Not only is Lili N-O-T wearing any make-up, but even if I did want to blow out her hair in country music superstar form, it just couldn't be done. She doesn't have enough hair....and what about the 'Judge's Tea' where all the girls sit around with the judges and demonstrate how eloquently they speak?? Do we have any business doing this at all?
I don't know.

But, just to show you how special MY kid is, when we were all standing up to leave Lili sneezed. Nope, not the cute little 'eechoo' sneeze that we always see at home, but a hairy, snot-flying 'AAAAAAAAAH CHOOOOOOOO' sneeze of a 60 year old truck driver.
So, as Lili stood there with a line of snot stretching from her nose to her hand, I grabbed her hand (the other hand) and we walked out of there with our heads held high......well, Lili held her head as high as she could, Mommy of course didn't have a Kleenex.

So, girls, I think the field is wide open. Nothing to worry about here.

sheesh.

I have often said that being a mother is like being pecked to death by a chicken....and here's the chicken

Oh my.

Then (of course) Lili was on a roll.

8 month Liliana-versary!

I can't believe it's ONLY been 8 months since we saw Lili for the first time.

Unreal.

We haven't even been home for 8 months.

I look at her now and I can't even see the resemblance to the girl we met in Guangzhou, China just 8 months ago. She has come so far, not only developmentally, socially and emotionally, but physically. She just doesn't even look like the same girl. It's absolutely amazing.

Her hair has grown and become shiny and thicker, she has gained weight and height, even her coloring is different. She is so PINK and rosy now.

I try saying Chinese words to her now, words that she used to say to us, and she just looks away and shakes her head. I call her 'Xiu Yuan' sometimes and she says "No, Lili !"

And don't even get me started on her sense of humor and how FUNNY she is. She just 'gets' it, you know what I mean? Nothing gets past her..........

She's something else!

Happy Liliana-versary!!

Presenting the Chinese Medieval Shirley Temple

This is just a sample of what we experience every single day .

And why are most of our videos/pictures shot in the bathroom, you might ask? No, not because the toilet is such a lovely backdrop.

It's simply because there are 4 mirrors in there and one is full length. Nothing gets Lili going like seeing her own reflection.

(maybe I should've named her Narcissus instead of Lili) :)

Hmmm......wonder why Lili's so tired. Let's review...

Here we are on a BEAUTIFUL (actually springlike) spring day, setting off for a day of fun in the sun.

We went to the park where Lili quickly incurred her first injury of the day.
She had a run-in with another boy.
A literal run in. They came around the slide and knocked into each other.
Brett's very concerned that Lili may have to go to the ER for a knee replacement.

Here we are on the brink of Lili's second injury of the day. Notice her form on the slide.........yeah. She doesn't like to actually stop herself at all....

....so she landed BOOM right on her butt in a puddle of mud and gravel. And I mean puddle! We've had lots and lots of rain here forever. So, yeah, PUDDLE!

I'm amazed they can still smile after all the drama.

The Many Faces of Lili

I Always Said Oprah Scares Me....

I know this may not be my most popular post in the world and many people may disagree with me and stop reading altogether, and if so, so be it.

I am not an Oprah fan.
Not just because of her stance on Christianity (although that would be enough).
She has WAY too much power and influence.
Have you ever really looked at her audience? The way they WORSHIP her and hang on every word? It sickens me. It really does.
I would dare to say that Oprah is a cult leader. She scares me. Seriously scares me.

And remember, if you open your mind too much, your brain could fall out.

Roundup!

We went to Kindergarten Roundup tonight.

Kindergarten...........where have the last 5 years gone?? :)

5 years ago, we were not even thinking about having more than one kid. Brett was going to HIS Kindergarten Roundup in 2003...........

I feel so guilty. How could we not have somehow known about Lili when she was born?

We didn't even begin thinking about 'her' until she was 3. So weird.

Anyway, we saw a few people we knew. One of Brett's bud's sister will be in Kindergarten too. And, of course, seeing a bunch of people I used to work with was nice too. People that were SO excited to meet Lili and are hoping to have her in their class.

By the way, I'm going to go back to my old job for the month of April.

Say what??? Work when I don't have to? Am I crazy??

Maybe, but I'm actually looking forward to it. I'm covering for someone while they take a leave of absence for a month. A little extra money and a little time out of the house should do us all some good. I'll be doing what I did before I resigned so hopefully I'll remember it all. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again. I'm going in tomorrow while Lili's at preschool. Yes, tomorrow, April 3rd, one year to the day since I submitted my resignation. Guess I've come full circle.

eek.