Glamour Girl

This one speaks for itself.

Holiday Happiness

Happy New Year! The Benoits have had a terrific Christmas and winter so far. Laina enjoyed the holiday much more than last year when she was sick all Christmas Day. Some memorable moments this season: We read some Christmas cards to her and explained that "Peace on Earth" is when everyone likes each other and everyone is happy and that it might be a good thing to ask for from Santa. We were in the Post Office and someone came up and asked "What do you want from Santa this year,Laina?" and her response was "Peace on Earth and a couple of toys", and added "an alligator and a duckie". It was very cute. She made her first snowman, as last year we didn't get much snow where we live. After we came inside, we looked out the window at him and she said, "That's my first snowman in the Whole Wide World". On Christmas evening, we went to visit with our friends next door and their daughter had a new pet gerbil named Dolly. Laina asked to hold her and was very gentle with it, petting her with one finger and talking like a Mommy.."It's okay, Dolly, I'm holding you". Very sweet, she is not afraid of animals at all, sometimes teases our cats a little too much but is generally very gentle. One of her special gifts this year is a toy horse barn and paddock made by her Uncle Rob and Aunt Betsy.One of the photos is of when she flipped the roof open and put the horses up there.They also made her a Super Girl cape and accessories that she likes a lot. She played some new musical instruments while wearing her cape, it was a good show.There's also a photo of a really nice balloon puzzle that her Gampa made and a couple of other shots. Photo opportunities are many but I am often just too busy with her to pick up the camera.Today I am unable to crop or brighten or edit the photos for some reason so they are not as good as they might be. We'd welcome any good pictures from the family. We hope that all our friends and family are weathering the storms, and that 2009 will bring good fortune, health and happiness to us all.

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!