Giving Thanks

We hope everyone had an excellent Thanksgiving. Laina did, although she came down with a terrible cold that day(sorry to all of you that caught it!)She met her Aunt Mary, cousins Lee and Greg, and their wives, Emily and Heather, for the first time. We were all so happy to see more of our extended family. The picture I took isn't great, but I'll post it anyway.
People have been asking for more funny stories, here's one that I told some of you already; Laina recently went for her annual physical and vaccinations. She was absolutely miserable, crying and sobbing "No, no, no"...the Pediatrician who is very nice was asking me some basic questions, and she said, "Is Laina putting together a couple of words yet?", Laina looked at her, stopped crying, then scowled and turned to me and said, very clearly "Mommy, I want to get OUT of this hospital!". We laughed, the Doc had to turn away so Laina wouldn't see her giggling. She has LOTS of words. She told Jimmy that the Doctor "hurt her with a pin!" She has started focusing more on art projects and coloring, etc. Here's a picture of us playing with stencils. There's also one of her giving one of her fingerpaintings to her Grandma, or Memmere'. She also spends some time "reading", and looking at her books by herself and making up stories. This morning, her story was " Once there was a Mommy, a Daddy and a Laina, and they went to Ice-Cream Island. They saw animals and it was fun". I think I would like that island...

Racing Rabbit

Here we are again, at last! Amazing how little time a mother of a 2 year old has. I am extremely thankful today that I have a day off and she has Day Care. I miss her and feel quite boring by myself but I can catch up with a lot of things. Here's some pictures of her in her Halloween Mouse costume. She started with a tiger one but screamed that it was "biting" her and I had to get it off her quickly. Guess it was a prickly edge of a velcro strip or something.We tried a comfy mouse suit given to her by Aunt Betsy and as you can see in a picture with her Daddy, she was especially pleased to have a tail. This costume lasted all day long and into an evening party also. She took off the ears though, we can't get her to keep anything on her head or in her hair. Another photo is of her doing her "laps" in her bunny towel. This is a regular after-bath event, she gets energized and dons her Super Buny cape and runs around the dining room table. There's a couple of other cute ones, taken at the playground in town, finger-painting at home, and in a pretty flowered dress. She is very entertaining lately and I try to remember the funny things she says. She gets very relaxed as she is swinging on the playground, and some funny questions start flowing, like: "Mommy, do Dragons like macaroni?", "Does Old MacDonald have monkeys?", and when I asked her what her favorite color was, her answer was "Rainbow". I love that!

My Little Mommy

Taking care of our kids is a very busy job. Laina is constantly putting her babies(mostly Lambie and the cat) to bed, and cooking in the kitchen and giving them medicine because they are sick and telling us to "shush" with her finger at her lips because they are sleeping, etc. She received two beautiful cradles for her birthday, one from her Grampa and Gramma, and one from her "Auntie" Kristin. She loves and uses them both and needs them because she has lots of babies. She just got a new Lambie, in hopes that she would retire the old one but she won't, when she was smaller we could just tell her that Lambie had a "Super Tubbie" and she'd be psyched, now she is onto our tricks. Lately, she has been bringing her stepstool all over the house so she "helps" me in the kitchen. I'll post a couple pictures of her doing that, and playing with her cradles too.
One morning I told her that we had the day off together and asked her what she'd like to do and she looked up at me with a totally serious, and hopeful face and asked..."how about going to a monkey parade?" Her imagination is on full speed all the time. She is also going into a kindergarten once a week, not because of her genius(although of course we think she is brilliant!), but because her Day Caregiver, Nancy does something at a school once a week and takes her along. She loves it and we like that she is getting a "sneak peek" into school. Her vocabulary is amazing us everyday, and not always the way we want. I took her to see the big waves at a local beach after a storm and she looked and said "Oh My God!" very loudly when she saw them. Could be worse so we all try and curb our "potty-mouths" so she won't mimic us. Sorry about the whole month going by between blogging!

Laina the Kid

Laina announced from her carseat,"Mommy, I'm a kid, not a baby" and added for emphasis "Jack is a baby" He is a 1 year old at her Day Care. She is super busy, getting into everything. She mimics a lot of what we say and when she is relaxed at home, talks endlessly. In front of strangers she still freezes up, but it takes less time now for her to warm up to them. This past week she had her first overnight away from us. Jimmy and I had a "date night" and she stayed over at her Day Care. It worked out great, she already naps there and just loves Nancy. I found that I missed her, even though I enjoyed relaxing. Things are pretty dull around here without her! Today I am posting a family photo of Jimmy's Mom and Dad's 60th Anniversary, one of her with our cat Luna in a box, one of her in her Birthday Tutu, and one of her sitting on a big dirt pile at her Aunt Pam and Uncle Paul's Camp. She had a lot of fun there, swimming and playing in the sand with her cousin, Jacob.

Peek-a-Boo, Look who's 2!

Laina turned 2 years old on August 12. She is an amazing little girl and we are more in love with her everyday. Her vocabulary is excellent for her age, especially considering that she didn't even hear the English language until she was 8 months old. We gave her a tiarra to wear at her birthday party(with visiting family at our house) and she found her own unique way to wear it. Every day she surprises us and makes us laugh. I'll post that and one of her eating her favorite food, watermelon.All the pieces of melon in the picture are hers and she finishes them all. Another picture is just a really nice shot of her looking around a post that her cousin Amy took. Love it, Amy! Thanks. She does so many funny and new things each day. Yesterday, she walked away from Jimmy in the yard and just marched over to our next door neighbors' house. Jimmy called out to her "where are you going?" and she answered "visiting" and went right up to their front door and inside. They are close friends and she knows them but this is a huge change from the girl who doesn't go anywhere by herself. We have to watch her carefully but that's our favorite thing to do anyway! It's the Laina Show! Lately she has had a fascination with bugs and worms(calls worms, "slimeys" because of the worm on Sesame Street. We look for them and she inspects all the creatures we find very carefully. A magnifying bug jar was one of the gifts we gave her, and she 's having fun looking up close at all sorts of toys and things too. Maybe a budding scientist, who knows?

The Big Sand Box

Hi; Laina has been enjoying her summer. This year she is more interested in the sand than the water and calls the beach the "big sandbox". Here's a couple of pictures of her playing and watching the sunset with us, one of her with her friend Colin, and also one of her in her sandbox at home. We built it within our fenced garden area which works out great! I can enjoy working in the garden and still be close, while I know she is nearby and safe. In a couple of weeks, on August 9, we are going to have a reunion with the extended China group of 28 families. It will be so much fun to see them all together, all but Laina will be 2 or older and she'll turn 2 herself on the 12th of August. They are very fast at this age but hopefully we'll get some good photos, especially with the "Guangxi Girls", our four girls from the same province. Can't wait to see them all! Some recent milestones for Laina include; jumping (and actually getting her feet off the ground), walking heel-to-toe across a beam without holding anyone's hand, climbing everything, saying "please" and "thank you" and "excuse me" and even "I'm sorry". She has too many words to count now and speaks in full sentences quite often. She can handle the stairs without holding hands and is getting better around people she doesn't know, although she still waits to get to know people before she really speaks to them. Enjoy the new pictures!

Sleeping Beauty and the Kiss of Prince Taylor

Laina had a fantastic 4th of July. We went to the big parade and she seemed to enjoy it a lot.Jimmy marched with a fife and drum corp on the second time they came by(our parade route goes in a big circle so you get to see everything twice) , it surprised her to spot him and she started yelling "Daddy, Daddy!" and I had to run after him with her in my arms, weaving through the crowd until he was able to glance her way. We met with her friend, Taylor at an annual party and we asked him to give her another kiss, like last year. She didn't want to at first, until we said she could wear his beads.Then she said okay. The power of jewelry, eh girls? Later, she fell instantly asleep in the car for the ride home, closing her eyes and murmuring.."where Taylor go?"... Jimmy took a shot of her sleeping that really shows how beautiful she is. I love it and just printed it for a frame. I also took a shot of Laina with her Day Caregiver, Nancy, who she really adores and you can tell just by the way she looks at her. Laina knows that Nancy is my name too and today she addressed me as "Mommy Nancy, my Mommy". OOps, just put up the wrong picture with Taylor, so I'll add the kiss shot too. There's a photo in last July's posts of the two of them in the same spot. Check it out by going to the Blog archives and searching by date. This is also the way to read about our China trip to bring Laina home in April 2007.

Summertime.....and the Livin' is easy

Summertime has finally arrived. The first houseguests have started to come, the first zucchini was picked tonight, the first sunburns have come and gone, Laina is brown and swimming at Day Care, life is good. We are incredibly busy with Laina, work, and a revolving door of guests. Our first were Nancy's Mom and Dad. There's a photo for you of Grampa reading a bedtime story to her. He's a great storyteller and we all enjoyed it. Laina got a beautiful, handmade wooden rocking horse from Jimmy's Mom and Dad, brother Richard, and his wife Mary. We'll post a picture of Jimmy and Laina having a horse race. One night, recently, Laina saw not only her first rainbow, but actually her first 2 rainbows. Look closely at the photo of her and Jimmy. We also had an actual family time at the beach one Sunday and there's a picture of her there. She calls this photo "Daddy's Hand" and laughs and points at it. We'll be going to a 4th of July Parade and having more guests so hopefully we'll be posting lots more photos soon. It's great for her to socialize and get to know everyone in both of our large families. This year she remembers all of the names(with a little practice looking at her family photo album) and asks about people. She'll say something like "Robert home?" when she's thinking about her cousin who was recently here.She has been talking very well, and has a very rich vocabulary with full sentences. One morning I caught her raiding the cabinet before breakfast and getting out a big box of animal crackers. I said "No, no, Laina, you can't have cookies for breakfast." She looked at me very seriously and said "Just a couple of monkeys, Mommy." We laugh a lot around here, and she is starting to show a good sense of humor, as well as a strong will and defiant streak that is in anticipation of the "Terrible twos", but mostly she is even tempered and so much fun to be around. Enjoy all the new pictures, more to come!

Weekend Fun

Here's some new photos for you. The first one is Laina with her first bandaid. She had a bad bugbite on her head that she kept scratching. I gave her a little travel mirror to see her bandaid and she was thrilled with it. She tells me constantly now that she has a boo-boo and needs another one! She is running around a lot now and will suddenly just fall asleep. She likes to play in "holes", which are just spaces that we make in between piles of pillows. There's a shot of her in a pillow hole, fast asleep. We went to the beach and she had a terrific time and actually wore her sunglasses. I will post a picture of her with Jimmy at the beach and one of her in her glasses. There's also one of Laina and her Daddy asleep on the couch. He and Laina are alike in that they really like their naps! When you play hard, you sleep well. We are currently working on tooth-brushing and washing at the sink, counting and letters, she is trying her potty chair sometimes, lots of pretend eating and tea parties. Today she was crawling around and meowing like a kitty, and also puts her toys to bed and pretends to change their diapers. We get to hear a lot of singing and she seems to have an ear for music, gets the melodies and sounds like she is on-key. Lately I have been playing more grown-up music and she is just fine with that and is learning some of the lyrics to the music I listen to, not just the kid stuff. On June 12, she will be 22 months old. Wow! Two in August, hard to believe, it goes so fast

Mom's Days

We're still here! So sorry to take so long between posts. Here's some new pictures. Laina is just growing like crazy. She has sprouted out of all her clothes and so now I am starting to open up the "Big kid's clothes" that people have given us. She is talking extremely well and sings all the time. We are having so much fun watching her. She is doing puzzles, building towers, playing dress-up, having tea parties and doing so many things. We have recently visited some spring lambs and some baby chickens so there's a photo of that.Laina likes to wear my radio-headphones that I bring to work(I am a house painter) so I'll post a picture of that. She cuts quite a figure with a full tummy! There's also a cute one of her playing with Nick our kitty.As you can see, her hair is finally growing and tends to stick up a lot. I have been thinking a lot about Mother's Day and feeling incredibly happy about our little family. We are just so in love with Laina, it is hard to imagine life withour her. I love being her Mommy. She has now been home for over a year and we have definitely completely forever-bonded and it feels FANTASTIC! Every day is Mom's Day.

Guangxi Girls

We have been very busy lately, every weekend there has been reason to celebrate. First we had a reunion with our Guangxi families. This would be our four families, and our "Peeps" who were together in the same province to bring our girls home. I am posting a photo of the four of them, in tee shirts that Bella's Mom, Tina, had made up. They say "I'm a Guangxi Girl" and have their American names in English on the front and in Chinese on the back. Laina is the yawning, but clapping one. From left to right, they are: Roma, Laina, Bella, and Jianna. We had a wonderful visit and hope to get together often. Yesterday was our official "Gotcha Day" anniversary from when they were placed in our arms. What an amazing time the last year has been. We can't imagine our lives without Laina. I will also post a photo of Roma and Bella just because it's cute! This past weekend Laina and I went for a "Girls Only Weekend" with her Aunt Betsy, to visit Grandma and Grampa and her Aunt Kathy, and anyone else we could see on our journey. It was great to show everyone how much she has grown and we only wish we could visit more often. Traveling with a 20-month old is a real adventure! She was well-behaved though and managed the long drive like a champion, sleeping almost all the way; only waking up for a little singing and a snack now and then.I'm having a little trouble with my photo program, so that's it for now. I hope to add more soon. We have had a fun couple of weeks but right now, I am just so happy to look into the baby's dimly lit room and stare at her beautiful sleeping face and feel thankful.

Hoppy Easter

Laina enjoyed her first Easter celebration since she came home(last year,Laina was placed in our arms on April 9, but at home it was April 10, Easter Day 2007!)This will always be a very special time for our family. This year, we had some friends visit with their baby, Luke, who is 5 months old. We went to see the Easter Bunny and they both had their first Merry Go Round rides. I did not get a good photo at the carousel, but here's one of Laina in her bunny ears, which she wears around a lot. We all have them and she likes us all to march around with musical instruments and have a parade. Parades are a nightly event in the Benoit household and Laina always leads the way. Jimmy and I make up silly words and sometimes manage to cook and set up for dinner as we shake our maracas and keep marching through the kitchen! There's another one of her with Jimmy and the Easter Bunny. I will post a photo of Luke with his cool glasses on, with his Dad Jeff, and one of Laina, reading a story with Luke's Mom, Marjory. It was a fun and busy weekend and it will be hard to get back to work tomorrow. We have a Guangxi reunion next weekend though, so there's something great to look forward to. Also, Laina and I are going to have a Mother/Daughter weekend at her Grandma and Grampas house the weekend after that.Should be a lot of photo opportunities coming up!