'Cause Tonight's Gonna Be A Good Night

Well, maybe not quite the end to 2009 that I had thought. I'm currently enjoying some Amstel Light with my brother while watching the Virginia Tech/Tennessee Game and Kevin is upstairs snoring quite loudly (yep, it's not even 10:00pm yet). When did I get to the point where I would have to force myself to stay up until midnight on New Year's Eve?

I'm generally not one to reflect much during this time of year, but it has been quite the year for us. Mostly, I'm thankful for the wonderful friends I've made. Making friends has never been easy for me. Unlike most of my musician friends, I'm the shy type...which is (sadly) often mistaken for being aloof. Yet another obstacle in my friend-making path! But, the upside is that when I do make friends (albeit slowly), I know they are the best kind...and I know I will most likely have them in my life for a long, long time. This, I hope, is the case with The Tribe. They are more wonderful than I could have ever hoped: a group of friends with whom I could (candidly) talk about motherhood, adoption, traveling husbands, post-adoption depression...etc. My New Year's Resolution? To get to meet the newest additions to E, A, M, A, and J's families! And to be the best friend I can be to these wonderful mommies & mommies-to-be.

And some rather shallow news? I actually danced with happiness when I received my Blended Cutie hair products in the mail yesterday. I'm pretty sure Lila had no idea what was going on, but the excitement was (apparently) infectious. Lila was jumping up and down with me and at one point exclaimed, "Oh! Thank you, Mommy!" I will wait until after I've used it a couple of time to give my full review, but so far, so good! I put the Curly Cake Shake and Jelly Cream in her hair this morning and for the first time, her curls held up ALL DAY. Even after her nap. More to come!

Happy New Year!!!

Great new blog

I stumbled upon a great new blog devoted to haircare for girls of color. Check out the blog list to the right...it's called Happy Girl Hair and is written by a mom of two adorable Ethiopian girls  with very different hair types. I love that there is someone out there who will try all of the products for me! I just ordered some Blended Cutie products for Lila's hair - Blended Beauty is giving a 20% discount for the month of December (hurry!) to readers of the blog (check out the blog itself for the discount code). I'll keep you posted on how the products work for my little one. I'm so excited!

Blast from the Fairly Recent Past

Over the holiday weekend I discovered that many of our home videos were on our computer, ready for viewing!! I know, this may not seem like groundbreaking news to you. Perhaps you may be thinking, "Well, where else would the videos be?" Nevertheless, there they were! So, I spent quite a long time watching videos from Lila's first few months home. My thoughts...

1. I can't believe how TINY she was!

2. Despite the fact that I was in full freak-out mode, I actually appear normal on camera!

3. I miss our Chicago apartment.

4. I wish that I had spent less time freaking out and worrying, and more time enjoying my amazing baby. I won't make that mistake again, I promise you that.

And here are a few things that I want to write down now so I never forget:

1. Lila had this adorable "machine gun" style laugh when she was an infant. It was hilarious!

2. She loved her first bath: the combination of getting naked and warm water led to non-stop smiles & giggles. This has not changed.

3. She used to do this funny elbow move when dancing. Very "Elaine" from Seinfeld, but cuter.

4. When she first started pulling herself up to standing, she would make these massive grunting noises. Such effort!

5. There was this one hanging toy on her exersaucer that she LOVED. She yank on it constantly and squeal with delight each time the music started. Each and every time.

6. I was blessed and lucky enough to be there the first time she crawled, walked, said "Mama" & "Dada", raised her hands in response to the question, "How big is Lila?", clapped, said her first animal noises, danced, jumped...etc.

Now I just need to figure out how to attach videos. But here is a teaser: a picture of Lila from our first months home:

More later on my fantastic, wonderful, relaxing trip to Target. All by myself!

Kitchens, and Easels, and Dinosaurs...oh my!

Well, we had a truly lovely Christmas. I found myself quite the weepy one several times over the course of the past few days. Lila was home for Christmas last year, but this year just seemed all the poignant. She was soooo adorable during the Christmas Eve service, I was constantly choking back tears. I am so blessed and so very thankful. 

For now, I'll let the pictures do the talking. I'm way too full & way too tired to be...um, what's the word? See? This is why it's just going to be picture for now. Here goes:

Lila with her new boots & Princess Tiana hat!

The Christmas dress! Beautiful silver, and I found shiny silver shoes at Target (lordy, I love that place).

Our first year of putting together toys on Christmas Eve. This is Lila's first kitchen!

Hmmm, I think she likes it. But perhaps not quite as much as she loves her...

DINOSAURS! ROAR!

Princess Tiana doll. She actually liked it much more than I anticipated. I think it's weird that Princess Tiana is going commando under that pretty dress.

Pretty princess Lila.

Uncle John bravely attempting to free Sid the Science Kid from his shackles. Seriously, these days you practically need the jaws of life to free toys from their packaging.

Merry Christmas! Stay cool!

Up on the rooftop, click click click!

We're definitley in the Christmas home stretch. I have only one more present to purchase (and only a gift card, so does that really count?), which is not too shabby! But enough about the holidays, I have Lila anecdotes!

On Thursday Lila managed to lock me out of the house. At night. In the freeeeezing cold. Totally an accident, nothing malicious, I assure you. I was taking Molly outside and when I tried the door Lila looked at me through the glass with absolute PANIC. She was beside herself: crying, hyperventilating, begging me to come inside, telling me she wanted me to hold her...etc. It was one of those situations where I simply had to remain calm. I couldn't scream, swear, hit something (all things I wanted to do sooooooo badly) because if I did, all hopes of getting Lila to unlock the door would be dashed. So, after 10 minutes of talking to my hysterical child in the most soothing voice I could muster, she finally unlocked the door. The best part? She then launched herself into my arms and cried, "Oh Mommy, I love you so much!" She repeated that phrase about 50 times in the next 10 minutes. It was worth every shiver. And hey, it's a great story, right?

THEN, we woke up to snow on Friday! Sure, she experienced snow last year, but the excitement was completely lost on her. And she was barely mobile in her snowsuit...more like a beetle...she would fall over and be completely unable to flip herself over. This year she ran about in her adorable pink boots (with faux fir trim...thank you, Target)in absolute bliss. She was thrilled for snow. Ecstatic. And we made snowmen!!!! Two of them. They both have carrots for noses and coal for eyes and sticks for arms. And I love them. I wish I could put them in the freezer and keep them forever...Lila's first snowmen. Pictures soon, I promise.

Other things I love: the way Lila sings the "Mr. Grinch" song, her reaction everytime we see this yard that has a blow-up Santa, how she is equally excited each day we open the advent calendar, how she loves it when I sing Christmas carols to her, and her new holiday dress! It's silver and cream and lovely. I can't wait. And my joy just overflows infinitely when I realize that this time next year I'll be able to enjoy this holiday with our son.

You know you've slacked on the housekeeping when...

Your daughter is lying on the bathroom floor playing, and ends up with giant dust bunnies in her hair. Yikes.

Don't judge me! The "public" areas of my house are quite clean, I swear. But my own bathroom (where said dust bunnies were growing & multiplying) has been sorely neglected.

Lila's been having a hard time with baby Kendall this week. I think the sense of competition has really hit her. The past couple of days she's cried, "No Mommy! You no hold baby Kendall!" when Kendall is dropped off in the morning. Sigh. It's a hard balance, for sure. How do I explain to my toddler that I love her to pieces? That she's my one and only? That I love baby Kendall because she's my niece (and darn cute), but my love for her (Lila) is infintely more profound? I still haven't figured out quite how to get this across in toddler-ease. Until then it's lots of extra hugs & kisses, repeating that she's my absolute "best girl."

Right now she's putting her playdough away all by herself. How cute!!!

'Cause you gotta have friends

I had such a great time last night. I stayed out until (gasp) 11:00pm last night. That's like 3:00am in mommy-time. The Ethiopian adoption mommies brigade gathered last night for some wonderful food, wine, and company. Michelle & David are leaving in a week (!!!) to pick up their son, Benjamin (who has just about the cutest smile I've ever seen). So, we spent a lovely evening talking about all things adoption: the painful wait, traveling, parasites, formula, post-adoption depression, and the joys & scariness that accompanies new motherhood.

I am so thankful to have found such an amazing group of women. I wish that I had had this when I brought Lila home, but I'm exceedingly happy that I will have such a wonderful (and funny) support system of mommies and mommies-to-be when we bring Elijah home. Adoptive parenting is such a unique experience, it's great to be able to find a whole group of mom's that truly get you. Other highlights of last night: a streching plan for my IT band issues (going to Target to get my roller!!), two adorable chairs for Lila (thank you to Amy...Lila was over the moon!), getting scolded by a 3 year-old that we were laughing too loudly - that was priceless.

So tonight I'm thankful for my adoptive mommy friends. I'm sending good travel vibes to Michelle and my love & support to Emily & Amy, who are showing great strength and grace as they endure "the wait."

One of Lila's funny moments today was her singing (loudly) the following:

"T-Rex (ROAR!). I'm a tyrannasaurus. I'm the biggest carnivore in the cretaceous forest!"

I never thought the words "carnivore" and "cretaceous" would ever come out of my 2.5 year-old daughter. She is, by far, the funniest person I know.

Little full...lotta sap.

We have our Christmas tree!! We had a great time tree shopping yesterday with Papa and Uncle John (who came out despite having had shoulder surgery just days before). Some pics of the tree-choosing process:

A pinecone! What could be more exciting!

Lila and her Papa.

And now to the decorating. We started first thing this morning. It was lovely. I put on the Christmas music and we began to decorate in our jammies.

As you can see, Lila was much more interested in playing with the ornaments...not so much into the hanging on the tree.

Hee hee. I like this picture because it reminds me of The Wizard of Oz. A Christmas tree has clearly fallen from above onto my beloved.

The finished product! It is a bit on the large side, but at least when the netting was cut branches didn't shoot out the windows. No rabid squirrels, either. Which means I'll never get to say, "I'm going to catch it with the pillow case...and smack it with the hammer." Darnit. Maybe next year.

I was also uncharacteristically crafty today, altering Lila's stocking. We bought it at Pottery Barn last year, even went and had her name embroidered on it. It wasn't until later that we realized the stocking featured a very blonde, very white little girl. No longer! Behold...

I still have a bit of tweaking to do. Kevin and I both agree that somehow her eyes make her look angry and slightly evil. Not so good for a Christmas stocking, no?

Still so much to do, but I'm THIRLLED that I have my girls' night out on Tuesday to keep me chugging along. To say that I can't wait is a massive understatement. I spent Saturday night with some of the girls wrapping presents for Ethiopian Orphan Relief. Such great fun, and we made some moolah for EOR to boot! I'll be getting the ingrediants for hummus & tabouleh tomorrow. Yum!

The first two weeks with Kendall went by like a flash. She really is adorable in every way and Lila is taking the competition better than I had expected. And if I can take care of two kiddos and not loose my mind with Kevin out of town, imagine how great it will be when he's here! Piece of cake!

And lastly, my favorite Kevin quote from our outdoor light decorating adventure:

"You need the proper distribution of sparkle." Yep, he was serious.

Clever titles elude me

So there won't be one tonight! Seriously, I've been sitting here for at least 5 minutes trying to think of something clever and I'm completely blank. Nothing. I'm sure it will come to me sometime in the wee hours of the night.

Let's start with adorable & hilarious things that come out of my child's mouth: the other day she did a very dramatic and slow fall to the ground whilst yelling, "Goodbye, cruel world!" I almost fell over, it was so funny. At first I had a tiny bit of concern. Is my daughter morbid? Death scenes? At 2? But then I realized she was quoting the Oppossum from Over the Hedge. One of my favorite characters, the oppossum is voiced by the fabulous William Shatner. He is at his melodramatic best, which is why Lila seems to be drawn to his character, I think. My little sweet one does have a soft spot for some good old fashioned drama. Which is the reason I spend much of my day smiling & laughing. Seriously, Lila is one of the funniest people I know.

The holiday weekend was long and lovely. Lots of family, lots of food, and marred only my Kevin's departure on Saturday. I should know now not to get my hopes up, but I still hope that he'll be home this weekend. I want to buy & decorate the Christmas tree, put up some more lights outside, check out the zoo lights...etc. And I don't want to do any of those things without my dearest beside me.

The biggest change: I've officially started babysitting my niece, Kendall! I wasn't terribly nervous, but I think there was some fear there because it would really have some bearing on how life would be once Eli comes home. The report: so far, so good! Lila has only had a few moments of true jealousy, but they were short-lived. I've been working overtime trying to remind Lila that she's my best girl, pumpkin, doodlebug...and thank goodness I'm strong enough to hold them both, because that was necessary several times today. Kendall is just adorable. Smiles, coos, squeaks, a minimum of crying, darn good sleeping. I can't ask for much more.

Actually, that last statement applies to my life in general. Lila's sleeping, clothes are laundered, kitchen is clean, family is close by, friends are wonderful, and there are some Ghirardelli brownies in the kitchen. Kevin's absence is what is keeping this night from being absolute perfection. Looks like I'll probably have to have a second brownie to cope.