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!