It's me again

I am so happy. We received LilyRose's Certificate of Citizenship yesterday. I have to say that was a great feeling when I opened the envelope. It really makes it "real" for me.

We went to my cousin's daughters 1st birthday party yesterday. A lot of this side of the family had not met LilyRose yet, so I put her in one of the Chinese outfits we bought back from China and she looked awesome. I couldn't get a great shot of her but I will post the one I did get. Everyone thought she looked great. We just want to wish Courtney a very happy 1st birthday. She looked adorable and she is the cutest little girl. She has the biggest eyes I have ever seen. Just love her lots.

Our friends Rebecca and Andy will be coming home on Wednesday with their beautiful little girl Nola Ann. We want to wish them all the best and we hope that they have a safe and enjoyable flight home. I wish I could go to the airport to see them but if I drive by myself I would wind up in VA or something. I can't wait for LilyRose to meet Nola Ann and they can play together and hopefully be very good friends. We also want to wish Nola Ann's big sister Gracie congratulations on becoming a big sister. We are so happy for you all.

Ok, hope this is a good start for me with posting again. Have a great day.

By the way, I don't have any pictures of the birthday girl. I will have to get some and post a picture because she is beautiful.

Wow, it's been a long time

It really has been a long time since I last posted. Thanks April for pointing this out to me.

So, we are home well over a month and things are just fine. LilyRose is filling out nicely and she is truly a "Spicy Girl". I laugh all day long with her. She entertains both me and my mother everyday. My mother is the one having the best time with LilyRose. She will feed her breakfast some mornings while I get Joseph on the bus and when I come back into the house I hear my mother singing all these songs and there is my daughter either singing right along or trying to snap her fingers or just dancing in her seat. It is the funniest thing to see. The only thing is, I have the "bus song" in my head. You know the one that goes "The wheels on the bus go round and round". I hear it going round and round in my head morning, noon and night. I will start singing it at the weirdest moments too. My mother cracks up when I start singing it too.

Anyway, right now my LilyRose is not so happy. She had a reaction to one of the shots she got and her face & neck broke out. I went to the Dr.'s yesterday and he said it is not contiguous and it will run it course. He said 1 out of 8 kids have this reaction and I guess she is the 1. I have to say though, "who cares" she is my 1 and that's all that matters.

She has a great personality and she says 7 or 8 English words already. "Don't Touch" is her favorite. She hears it so much that she must think it's her name. She is a toucher. Loves to touch whatever she can get her hands on. The best part is, she will look at you while she is touching something she knows she shouldn't be touching. That's my girl.

We went to a cousin's b'day party and some family members hadn't seen her before. She really knows how to work a room. It was so much fun to watch. I tell Anthony, wait until she is 18 or even 16, she will be a pro at getting attention. He kinda gets this pained look on his face which is fun to watch also. Joseph is still trying to figure out if it is ok to share the spotlight with his sister. Joseph has been the only one in the spotlight for 8 years. Although we have 3 other babies in the family who are almost all over 1 now, he was always the "Center of Attention". He will be fine though and he is loving his sister beyond belief. She gets CRAZY when he gets off the bus and walks in the door. It is awesome to see.

LilyRose still has some skin issues. Not as bad as when we first got home, but still an issue. We have an appointment with the ENT on April 2nd. I hope all goes well on that visit. She hears fine and I can't believe that I was so scared about it. Of course you always fear the unknown. I had gotten some comments while I was in China from my "fan club" (I will talk about that group of women soon) saying that I had posted earlier of how scared I was about taking her referral and all this crap and I have to say to them, I wouldn't have been human if I wasn't scared to death. I am just glad that we did accept her referral b/c she is perfect. LilyRose is super happy and very well adjusted. She is very much loved and cherished and I can't imagine my life without her. No one can.

Here are some random pictures I took since we are home. Joseph made the sign for us and it was hung on the door when we got home. He did a great job. LilyRose loves to wear her hat in the house. She will wear it all day if I let her. She loves her headbands also. She will keep them on too.

2nd Scoop of the Poop

Well, we had the 2nd poop scoop the other day. I laughed my ass off the whole time. They got some corn in that batch. I tried those Gerber Graduates and Lily Rose loved them but they had a lot of corn in them and she seems to like corn. Remember the Corn Doodles in China? Anyway, we all know corn goes in and comes out the same way. So yeah, they got corn.

We are having some sleep problems here in our house. Lily Rose goes to sleep around 8 pm and then gets up at least 12 times during the night. She's not "up" but she cries in her sleep and sits up. We tried lots of different things and nothing works. The only thing we have not tried is to bring her into our bed. That is the one thing we won't do. So, we have many sleepless nights, but I guess we will get through those too.

Everything else is going great. She really is a happy baby and she is very well loved in this house. When I tell her not to do something and she keeps doing it and my voice gets stern, my son yells at me to leave her alone. He will run over to "protect" her. It's awesome to see. At least I know no one will get away with bothering his sister. Joseph is a great big brother.

Other then that, we are getting ready for Joseph's Communion. We went to church the other night for the last meeting before communion and we took Lily Rose with us and at one point the church was somewhat quite and Lily Rose let out this very loud burp. Me and my cousin Gina couldn't stop laughing. Joseph got embarrassed and my mother was also. I thought it was very funny. She is a rip and she fits right into our family.

We had our 1st popper scooper

Ok, so I did the 1st scoop of the poop. Mind you, I never did anything like this in my life. I did not have to do this with Joseph so it was like an operation this morning. I gagged the whole time and I had to scoop for 3 containers today. The room still has the lingering smell of poop. I sprayed air freshener and to tell you the truth I wanted to spray the freshener up my nose to get the smell out. No matter what I do I still smell poop in my nose. Lily Rose thought the whole thing was very funny and she laughed that cute belly laugh while she watched me scoop the poop.

I have to give the technicians a lot of credit. What a job they have. I really wanted to bring them something when I drop off the poop, but I can't think of anything appropriate. At first I was thinking of a box of chocolate, but when I thought for a minute longer, I don't think they eat chocolate. I know I would never eat it. Maybe nice smelling flowers would do the trick. Anyway, I am off to the lab to drop off the poop. More later.....

It's 3:25pm and I just got off the phone with my friend Rebecca and she recieved her TA this morning. I am so very happy for her and her husband Andy and big sister Gracie. She should be leaving March 14th to bring her Nola Ann home. We are so very happy for you guys. Enjoy all the craziness that you will experience in the next few weeks. We Wish You All the Best!!!

LilyRose had her 1st Dr.'s visit today

Oh Boy, what a day. LilyRose was NOT a happy camper today. She weights 20 lbs. and is 32" tall and she has a big head 45. She had blood drawn and a TB test and 3 shots and boy was she off her rocker. I had to leave the room for most of it because I was going to pass out. Thank god Anthony can handle this stuff. I remember when Joseph had his shots and blood drawn. I did pass out. They had her in this contraption thing, like a straight jacket. I think that pissed her off the most. But they took 2 vials of blood which I kept saying was to much. No one paid attention to me though. Then we have to be on poop patrol. I have 7 containers that we have to put poop into and bring to the lab. How funny is that going to be. I can't wait for her to poop now. I have to scoop the poop into a container. HAHA. I was told very sternly NOT to give her a bath everyday. Her skin is SO dry and cracked. She even has scabs on her legs from the dry skin. I have been putting Aquaphor on her like crazy. Thank god it's clearing up. My poor baby. What a day she had.

She's in Joseph's room now watching her big brother and her daddy play pool. She is like "hey, what about me, I want to play too" She tries to pulls the balls out of the pockets and her fingers get caught in the little nets. Too cute. I really need to take more pictures. Maybe tomorrow.

The Dr.'s asked us what she does and if she talks. Well, yes she does talk. She says, mama, dada, hi, bye-bye, nana (which my mother wishes she wouldn't call her, she's wants to be grandma) thank you and something like jo for Joseph. She walks well and she runs really good and she loves her stacking cups which she does really well with and anything that makes music. She loves to dance as all babies do and she likes to SCREAM!!!!! She's doing awesome.