12/30/08 My own Compooter!

I am posting out of order - but I thought these were too cute to wait on. Lacie and Paul got laptop computers for Christmas from MawMaw Edith and PawPaw Scott. They are so excited about them. Lacie has been wanting a computer for a long time and asks us often, "can I write my name" on our laptop. Her computer is still a challenge to her so she prefers Paul's at this time but she will grow into it. It is the Disney Princess laptop. It has a QWERTY keyboard which was important for me (not many for her age group had a QWERTY keyboard). Anyway - here are some pics:

Lacie dancing with excitement over getting her own compooter.


They love playing with their compooters.



Coming soon - a slide show of our multiple Christmases!

Happy New Year!

06/02/2008 Adoption Asst picnic

We had a wonderful day on Saturday! We attended our personal 5 annual Adoption Assistance picnic. Adoption Asst is our home-study provider. They were also directly involved in our finding baby Paul. It was the director/owner who called us in September and told us about him. For Lacie, they were the agency that we chose for our home-study. Anyway, the first we attended in 2004 was without any children, and part of our home-study requirements. We met friends that day who are our most special friends today. In 2005 we went with our referral picture of Lacie. In 2006 and 2007 – we were excited to show her off. This year – well, you will see how much fun it was. We went with our dear friends Bette and Mike and Noah. They are also using AA as their home-study provider for the future adoption of their baby from China. Anyway, enough typing, here is the picture story:

Baby Paul LOVED the grass:

Noah and Lacie – best friends

Noah and Paul – dressed alike

Horseback riding (or pony back riding – first year Lacie was interested)

Can you tell these two just love each other?

And they both just LOVE baby Paul. Noah thinks he is also his baby brother.

Just chillin’ out at the end of the day

Future tail-gators?

Three boys from Korea – all born in the same month - and came home within a few days and weeks of each other. I thought Paul looked much older – but I think it is his hair. Aren’t they just precious?

Yes, we had a blast. Then when we got home, we discovered that Paul had a fever (102.4). But he had a wonderful day. He is still holding onto the fever and yesterday it spiked up to 103.7. We went to the doc today. It is a virus (of course) and needs to run its course – approx 3-5 days. Today is day 3. With Ibuprofen he will eat normally and play well. But when that wears off – Oh my. We pray that Lacie does not get it.

Have a great week!

Blessings from the Blogsingers

Spring Update '07 "Lacie-isms"

Lacie is talking more and more every day and in 4 and 5 word sentences. I love some of her words - and some she is already correcting. But as of the first of the year here were some of her fun words:

Hol me me = hold me

Juke = juice

Da dum = Thank you

Plia = Please

Chia = Cheese

Maa Chia = Mac N Cheese

Pook = Poop

Jack = Jacket

Pre tit = precious

Bik tit = big kiss

Bik huk = big hug

Wa woo = love you

Be daddie = spaghetti

Da-U = "W" (double U)

Tatis = glasses

My mote = my remote

My poam = my phone

When Lacie says a word that ends with a "K" she really emphasizes the "K". i.e. sockkkkkk, jackkkkk, pookkkkkk, etc. It is cute cute!

Lacie is very territorial. Often when we say something like, "Lacie that is my drink." She will respond with, "My juke." (juice). So, when I told Lacie last week to give daddy privacy while he was in the RR, she responded with: "no, myyyy pricy." So, I told her that she could have "pricy," if she goes to play with her kitchen.

One day, when she was naming off her colors -- she named them correctly until she got to one color. It is no longer just "blue." She will point to red and say "red" yellow and say "yellow" orange and say "onage" (orange) and blue, she said - "go big blue!" Daddy was beside himself. I thought it was so so so funny. So, each time I pointed to blue and asked her what color it is, she said - "go big blue" with tons of enthusiasm.

While we are getting Lacie ready for bed now, she will also put her "baby" to bed in a small doll cradle, cover her up and say, "Tie go nigh nigh. Tie go nigh nigh," over and over again. Then she will lean over her and kiss the baby on her head. She is our joy!

We hope and pray that everyone has an awesome Easter and beautiful spring. We are enjoying the weather and blooms and such! Here is a picture of Lacie - I asked her to say "Cheese" for the camera - Lacie said as loud and smiley that she could, "CHIA!!!"

September through December 2006

Eeewwwww!!!!!

She is TWO! We are in denial!

She is so smart – but I have told you that before. Her Birthday was perfect with Big Bird as a theme. Aunt Janey made her cake and there were yellow feathers everywhere. She got a potty for her birthday and she loved it. Cousin Isabella sat and read books to her while she sat on the potty. She had a wonderful time.

August and September ’06 were very busy months. Last year during this same time Lacie was so busy developmentally – she sat up, crawled, pulled up and began to walk all in about six to eight weeks. This year it is a similar explosion but in her speech. She has always been verbal – expressing herself with noises that went along with her sign language, but from August to October, she surprised us with her language development. It continues today and there is really no way to keep up. She has something new to say every single day. She amazes us. In September, she surprised me with a 3-4-word sentence: She commanded me, "Ma Ma, sit down Ma Ma!" This is her most favorite phrase, as she wants us near her most of the time. I think that was her first real sentence. Now she says many.

For weeks, I tried to work on colors with Lacie – and only three at that. At the beginning of September, John and I celebrated our 5 years of knowing each other and my mom stayed with Lacie so we could go to a quick dinner. When we got home, my mom said that Lacie asked to sit on the potty and she knows her colors. Yea right. But mom insisted. So, I told Lacie to go get the blue marker. She did. When asked, she also got the purple, green, and brown. The red and orange were brought together. WOW! She knew them. So, the next day, I got out the markers and we began to draw, and I asked her, Lacie, what is this color? She said, "brawn" = brown. I picked up a purple one, she said, "pupal." I picked up the blue and she said, "bu." I picked up the red and she said, "wed." She also named yellow, “wea wo.” Green is “geen” and she can also point to and name “white,” “back,” “pink” and “a-awn” = orange. In September she also began to count to 3. We will begin with “one” and she says, “teeww, tree.” Oh, she is so cute!

Also in September, she began to develop an interest in the potty. Her favorite book, which she calls, “Potty” is actually called, Once Upon a Potty. It is about a little girl who learns to go pee pee and poo poo on the potty. Her favorite videos were, “Potty” and “Elmo’s Potty.” She does not like a wet or pookie diaper. Pook is her term for “poop.” One day when I was checking her diaper and I noticed it was still dry I said out loud, “we can just put this one back on because it is still dry.” Lacie responded with, “Eeewwwww!!” She won – I put a fresh, never worn diaper on her.

She got a potty for her birthday in October, went pee pee in it 3 times that weekend and then lost interest. Each time she opens the lid to her potty, she says, Eewwwwwwwww!”

We finally had her dedicated on September 30 at church. She was the oldest baby and the cutest I might add. She did real well while on the alter. She only began to fuss when daddy was sharing part of her story. She loved that all her grandparents were together in one room to dote on her. Her Aunt Janey and cousins Ciara and Mark were also there to celebrate with her. After the dedication they had cake and punch. Lacie walked right up to the cake table and started to help herself. She looked too little but so sure of herself. I intervened so she did not get icing on her pretty dress. Lacie is blossoming into a wonderful two year old – yes, we have terrible moments, but they are fewer than the wonderful ones. Can you tell we are still in so much love?

October was filled with of course a birthday party; Halloween and we went to visit our big cousin Nate-han. She loves him and thinks he is so cool. He is only six but is very protective of her. When we went shopping he stayed right with her, holding her hand. When he saw a friend of his he looked at his mom and me and said, “here, hold this” handing me Lacie’s hand, so he could visit with his friend.

November and December were full of family visits and holidays. Lacie did real real well for Christmas – she got more toys than I ever did in 10 Christmases. It took us awhile to figure out what to do with all her toys. Mommy and Daddy took the week of Christmas off to be with Lacie. It was a great time.

Birthday picture

Two-Year-Old Portrait

August 16 ’06 - Daily changes – AMAZING!

For Lacie’s forever-family day, we went to the zoo with another family who traveled with us to China and got their beautiful daughter Annika. That evening, we stayed up late (late nap actually) and watched the video of the day we got Lacie, showed her the outfit she came to us in, and just spent time together as a family. While watching our forever-family day video, Lacie saw mama holding her and loving on her when she was a little 9 month old. When she saw that, my dear toddler could not figure out what baby mommy was holding. She did not like it. For the rest of the video, she would not look at me or sit on my lap or hug me. She went and sat on Daddy's lap for most of the video. We watched a few more clips too of us at the hotel and singing to her and playing with her. By then she thought the “baby” was funny. I asked her, “Where is Lacie?” Lacie patted her own chest. I asked, "where is baby Lacie ManMan" and she pointed to the TV. I think it is funny that she was jealous of herself. How cute! She did let me hug on her and kiss her before she went to bed that night.

She is beginning to try and dress and undress herself. She works on it like she will be tested at school. She will get a T-shirt and practice and practice until she gets it on correctly. She has done the same thing with her shoes. One day a couple of weeks ago, she worked and worked on putting on her shoes. She finally succeeded and oh, my, she was so proud of herself. Her shoes were on the wrong feet, but imagine my delight, and hers when I began to praise her for getting those shoes on. I told her to go show daddy. She was just so excited she could not get to him fast enough to show him she got her shoes on by herself.

Usually when one of gets home and Lacie is already here with the other parent, Lacie will get excited and run around the room and then to us and want us to hold her and hug her tight. Well, about a week ago, when I got home from work, and instead of running around the room and then to me singing MaMa, MaMa, MaMa, she just stood up and began to do summersault after summersault after summersault. I did not know she knew how to do that. She does them pretty well I must add. Future gymnast? Possibly!

A few days ago after we got home from school, she sat on the couch and began to look at a magazine. Every few pages she turned, she would stop and put her little fingers up to her mouth and lick them, and then turn a few more pages. She did this about 10 times as she was viewing the magazine. I was quite amused, of course and most of the time she did not use her moistened fingers to turn the pages. I think Daddy is the finger licking page-turner in the family.

Lacie's language explosion is happening. She is beginning to imitate most everything we say or try to anyway, and she says some words that I did not know she knew. For example, last weekend, Lacie pointed to her elbow and said, “elbow.” It was that clear. She also pointed to an apple about a week ago, and said, “apple.” She had been calling apple sauce, “at-da.” She still tries to use that term, but since she can now say apple, I try and encourage her to say, “apple-da.” She is beginning to put words together too to make short sentences.

This past weekend at my family reunion while a bunch of us were talking, someone obviously said something funny cause we all began to laugh hard. I was holding Lacie on my hip and she began to say, "MaMa, MaMa, MaMa." Then to get my attention, she grabbed my chin, turned my head toward her and said, "MaMa - happy!" It is so cool that she is recognizing happiness in others, and not just herself.

After two nights in a cabin with her cousin Nathan at the family reunion last weekend, Lacie got up on our bed and began to jump on it. I took her hands to balance her so she would not fall. I asked her, "Lacie, who taught you to jump on the bed?" Lacie replied with, "Na-tan." All good and fun things should be credited to your bigger cousin, don’t you think?

Last night after I trimmed her nails, she took the clippers and held my hand real tight and still – and pretended to clip my nails. She even turned and tilted her head like she was trying to get a better look at my nails – like I do with her. But when I am doing her nails I tilt and turn my head to try and focus under my glasses instead of through - since I am about to need bifocals.

Lacie does or says something new every single day. I wish I had time to record it all for her. This is the time in our toddler-hood that we need to capture all the fun, funny and interesting things she says and does. But – it happens every single minute at this time in our lives. I hope I can capture and journal most of the highlights for her too.

BTW - she is sleeping through the night now - Yea God!
Check below - a Year in Review of photos - July '05 to July '06.
Love to all our family and friends at home and in China
Vonda and John and Lacie

Year In Review - July '05 to July '06

July 2005 9 months old



August 2005 10 months old


September 2005 11 months old



October 2005 12 months old



November 2005 13 months old


December 2005 14 months old


January 2006 15 months old


March 2006 17 months old



April 2006 18 months old




May 2006 19 months old



June 2006 20 months old





July 2006 21 months old - Happy Anniversary Lacie - so grown up

July 13 2006 Forever Family Day First Anniversary

It is so hard to believe it has been a year since we first met Lacie. As I look through photos from a year ago and also our videos from our trip to China I am amazed at how much she has grown and is really no longer our baby but our wild little toddler.

Since our last post, you might imagine a lot has happened. It has. I wish I had kept a better blog because so much goes on and I do not remember everything. Lacie is 21 months old now. Our daughter is a beautiful, intelligent, charming, loving, energetic, humorous, hot tempered, stubborn, strong willed, and fearless climber. If it can be climbed on – she will figure out a way. She will even create “steps” out of her wet wipe containers and/or books, etc to help her get to where she is going – UP!

In her short time in the U.S. she has become quite famous. As I wrote before, she was on the news in October briefly as they filmed children at the Zoo for Halloween trick or treating. This spring, she was on the cover of a churches newspaper for the Easter edition – this is a real newspaper that is circulated all over the city. For mother’s day, we decided to partake in the mother/daughter look a like contest for the same paper. We did not win, but I thought we did well to post a picture. The pic we used was one posted last of us brushing our teeth together.

Lacie had her first real injury in the spring called nursemaids elbow. While getting out of her car seat, and while having one of her tempers and she arched her back and she slid down and got hung up in the arm/chest straps. She began to cry. John got her out, rocked her for a while and then she got better. We fed her, dressed her for bed and put her down. While changing her she cried a little more than usual but I just thought she was tired. The next morning she would not move her left arm – but only cried when we moved it. We both feared she had dislocated her shoulder the day before. John called the doctor and took her in. The doc took one look at her and diagnosed her. He just popped it back in place within seconds and she immediately began using her arm and seemed to be fine. This is apparently a very common thing that happens to kids under four. It technically is a partial elbow dislocation. OUCH!

At her 18 month check up she weighed 25 pounds and was 31.5 inches long. She is 50% height and weight. She still eats like a little pig. We cannot figure out whre she puts it all. Lacie loves fruit Bars. She calls them "Bea que Bar" for "breakfast bar." She also loves "At qua" which is applesause. She calls our standard poodle, Jonah, "NaNah." She recently began saying, "gee down," "ma more" as she hols up one little finger wanting one more, "hup" means help. This we taught her so she won't get too frustrated. She also does the sign for help. She recently began saying "daddy doe?" This means "where did daddy go?" It is so cute. Daddy can leave the room for two seconds and she begins her chant, "daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy doe?" She has many words now and we can't keep track. She still prefers to use her signs though.

As I mentioned above, she is a very loving child. She loves to give hugs and kisses. She loves on the dogs and kisses them. She is a special girl. One day after being out with friends all day without John and me (the first time we left her more than a couple of hours), and after our friends brought her home, she was so so so excited to see us. She ran back and forth between us, “Daaa-dy” and she would go hug John. Then she would run to me, “Mamma” and then she would hug me. She did this over and again. At one point, she squeezed my cheeks in her little hands and she kissed my face about four times. I melted. We so love this child. I just can’t imagine loving something or someone any more. And she completely has John wrapped!

We are still struggling with sleep – she seems to catch a healthy 4 hour nap and gets up somewhere between 12 midnight and 1:30 a.m. Sometimes she will go right back to sleep but others – she is AWAKE! We always stay in her room in the dark. I would never want her to think it is a time to play. On the rare occasion we take her to our bed, she flops and wiggles – getting more energetic so that really does not work either. The other night I went into her room to comfort her a minute. She wanted me to rub her belly. I refused because she needed to just go to sleep. So she took my hand, opened it and put it on her belly and began to lift my hand up and down as if to pat it. She is no dummy. Yes, I gave in – do not tell daddy.

Here are some pics: This is our grown up daughter on her new climbing toy that we got her for our Forever Family Day celebration. She loves it. More pics to come in a few days I promise. Maybe a "year in review."