Cinderelly says Happy Thanksgiving!

We recently took Jia to see the Children's Theatre performance of Cinderella. Wow. The costumes and sets were out of this world. The stepsisters and stepmother were totally boisterous and outrageously funny. The stepsisters were played by men, which made it even better. (Getting ready for the ball by combing armpit hair, of course!)

Jia went in costume.



Can you tell she is just giddy to go?

And Willa got to spend some fun quality time with Grammy and Grampy (as she likes to call them).

As usual, we have so much to be thankful for this year! Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Two year anniversary of Willa's referral!

I cannot believe it has already been two years since we first saw Willa's little face! Her first photos are here. She was just ten days old at her referral. We received her referral on the Wednesday afternoon before Thanksgiving. It was such beautiful timing. Willa has really completed our family. It feels balanced and whole. We are so blessed to have her!

We spent the afternoon with friends crawling around an outdoor recreation area at our local nature center. They're the equivalent of a nature playground. A place where kids can built forts out of sticks or climb trees or do many things that I used to do as a child at our cabin. I love that our city kids can experience this too right here.

Our little pilgrim

Jia had a Thanksgiving feast at school and the boys wore hats and the girls wore bonnets. She loves her bonnet so much she will not take it off! She wore her extra fancy dress to the feast at school and took it off at home, but her bonnet remains! Willa wanted one too so we made one for her and then she instantly ripped it, oh well.

Latest happenings

There's been a lot of stuff going-on lately, both good and not-so. Here's some of the good stuff.

For Willa's birthday, we took her on rides at the Mall of America. She couldn't get enough! She went on the carousel, train, bus, and balloon rides, and a new one for her, a car that really flings one around. Our daredevil totally loved it!


We attended a Fancy Nancy event at a bookstore.

We also had a couple of small birthday celebrations for her, one with playgroup and one with family. This shows the fun they had at the playgroup one:


We had a monkey theme for her family party. It is so fitting for her! We had fun making monkey cupcakes. We made paper airplanes, played hide and seek and ate a filling meal. We also had lefse given to us by a neighbor so it gave the party a decidedly local flavor.

And we danced to the lefse song!

("Just a little lefse, it’ll go a long way. Gives you indigestion, most all of the day. You burp a lot. ...Lefse’s good for many things. We can give you proof. For tiling on the kitchen floor or patching up the roof. Even sometimes use it as the soles upon their feet, and some folks think it’s even good to eat!...")

Our lefse was actually very good!

Happy 2nd Birthday Willa!

A very happy birthday to our super-wonderful-amazing Willa!

Here are some shots from our morning present opening. She is our monkey, so I thought this wrapping was appropriate.

Very excited about her new robe.

And her new baby carrier.


Willa, you are an infinite joy to us. We are so thankful to have you as our daughter, and as Jia's sister. We are thinking of your birth family today as we honor your birthday as well.

You are two today! You take the world by storm! You are kind and gentle and funny. You love to sing and dance and have endless energy. And, of course, you're cute as a button.

You are so very much two, really. You deliberately take off your diaper during time-outs, and even manage to do it while sitting strapped into your high chair with pants on! You bring being a stinker to a whole new level!

You have an innate sense of right and wrong. Your empathy and caring run deep. I can't even count the number of times I saw you hear a person request something, and you instantly ran to get it for them. You always share your treats with me. In fact, you insist on it and you will not take "no" for an answer. Taking care of others gives you great satisfaction and endears everyone to you.

If someone is hurt, you will race to them and offer your lovey, your most prized possession, for them to hold. You will give the person a hug too. You are aware of others to a degree that I never perceived possible of such a young child.

Your sense of justice is prevalent in other situations too. You are very adept at defending yourself when you're wronged. You don't take it lightly. You are good at sharing and understand taking turns. But if another child hits you and takes your toy away, he'd better watch out! I saw an older boy twice your size hip-check you so he could take your game the other day, and you did not hesitate. You decided that justice was needed and went for him. I've seen it multiple times. As long as no one wrongs you, we don't need to worry. These kids don't know that you know how to fight! You don't just swat back. If someone keeps bothering you? Lord help him. You will eventually pinch or scratch or pull hair or worse. You keep everyone on their toes, Willa!

But your tough side is shadowed by your sweet character. You entertain entire stores full of shoppers with your musical medleys. You love to sing Frere Jacques in French and English, Twinkle Twinkle, Baa Baa Black Sheep and Happy Birthday.

You greet everyone around you, "Hi! What are you doing?" You charm the receptionist at my office, "Hi! How are you doing? Do you have a sucker for me? Thanks! Have a good day!"

Willa, you are strong in every way. And fearless. And more stubborn than I imagined any child could ever be. You seem to already know yourself so well. You know what you like (Pickles! Eggs! Jumping off furniture! Jia's stuff!) and how you like it (More! Now! Going for it! Me too!).

You love to play dress-up and babies and chase and hide and seek with Jia. You adore your family and keep tabs on everyone at all times. After nap you instantly name everyone you care about and wonder where they are. Now and then, you like to cuddle. Really cuddle. Those are special times. We treasure you so much, Willa. Thanks for being our daughter.

Willa's First Haircut!

We had a lovely warm (!) weekend. Lots of playing outside. Willa got her first haircut too! It was looking really scraggly in the back. We had the stylist take a couple of inches off the back to clean it up. We decided to go with no bangs as they are such a hassle to maintain, and I think that look fits her better.

It helped that Willa has seen Jia get her hair cut so many times. Willa acted like an old pro!





Now if only we could get Willa to stop messing with her hair clips!

Moments of chaos

Some days it seems like chaos reigns supreme no matter how hard I try. Here are a few events of the past week or so:

The other day I managed to walk around with a pink fleece blanket stuck to my butt for a good part of the day. I picked up Jia and her friend at school with it on! I didn't even notice that I was sitting on it in the car! I laugh every time I think about it!

A couple of days later, I brought the girls to a few meetings I had as we are in daycare transition. They had done well at meetings before, but this time they were horrible! They sat in a main reception area and I brought snacks, games, books, etc. and there was a piano. The two advocates and waiting clients knew I was bringing the girls and they offered to entertain them. I was in a room nearby meeting with a client when I heard screaming. I went out and it was hilarious because my clients and the advocates all started talking at once: "She took her chair! And she hit her! And she pushed her! And she needs a cheese stick!" Both girls had huge tantrums and Willa then sprinted to the elevator, pushed the button and ran into it by herself! Jia made it there first and got her out right before the door closed. It was a disaster.

Then, the next day, I had a meeting with a colleague, and my dad had the day off so he was going to take care of Willa during the meeting (Jia was in school). He picked her up at my meeting spot and then called me 15 minutes later. Willa didn't have a diaper on! And she didn't hold it. I hadn't sent along any spare clothes because it was a short meeting. Joe happened to be near where my dad was, so he ran into a store, bought Willa some clothes and dropped them off. Willa has been dressing herself and put on undies instead of a diaper, and in the rush of the morning, we forgot and she stayed that way. Ugh.

Then, the next day, I dropped Jia and her friend at school in the morning. There are two parking lots and I normally park in the far lot. There is a house behind the lot. I was driving to our normal spot and for some reason the house seemed closer than normal. I figured I must be tired so I kept driving toward it - but the house was sitting on a huge truck in the parking lot! I came really close to the house as they were moving it so I threw the car into reverse and when I looked backward, my seat belt wrapped around my seat recliner lever and I ended up fully reclining back into Jia's lap! I was staring at the roof of the car while we were flying backward through the parking lot! My seatbelt tightened a lot and it was hard to reach the brakes, but I eventually slammed them and unwrapped my seat belt from the lever and we were fine. It was quite scary. Jia kept yelling, "You're in my lap! You're in my lap!" When it was all over Jia said, "Mama, I think you need a time-out." She was right.

So here's hoping for a calmer week!