8 Random Things About me......

Oh no!!! I've been tagged by Jeana...So, here are the rules of the 8 Random Things tag game:
1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog. (I think the hardest part of this will be coming up with 8 other people to tag! I am not such an active blogger....)

Okay--so 8 random things...about me...

1) I love mustard on my onion rings.
2) My favorite old movie is "It Happened One Night" with Clark Gable.
3) My favorite newer movie is "Shakespeare in Love".
4) I do not like cake.
5) I would love to sleep in again! (just once...ugh!)
6) In high school, my uniform skirt was always the shortest.
7) I almost always drive a little over the speed limit....sometimes alot.
8) It really bothers me when people do not use "ly" on the end of a word they should. For exmaple...."Dont' take it personal." IS WRONG!!! "Don't take it personally." Is correct. I sometimes wonder how people made it out of college...okay, I don't always use grammer properly, either. (but that was a correct exmaple!)

Okay, eight people to tag? Yikes! Stephanie, Beverly, Len, Alice when she returns from Kaz, Joy, Melody, Amy (when her back surgery is over....)

Pumpkin Patch Time....Are We There yet?

It's been a fun and busy October! Birthday parties, hay rides, even Christmas shopping!!

Little Missy has planned to ask Santa for a pink scooter, which he dropped off already and put together! But we've visited a couple different pumpkin patches and Delaney is all ready to go trick or treating with her friends, Lauren and Valerie, as a pretty butterfly princess!

So we were actually off to Valerie's birthday party, when we are not just two minutes away from home and Delaney casually pops out, "There yet, Mom?" I first wasn't sure if that was what she had said. "There yet, Mom?" She just comes up with these sayings out of the blue! I can see if she had an older sibling who said that and she copied them.......now when we are out she has also started to ask, "Where are we going next?" When I tell her home.....she says she doesn't want to go home. Well, I guess her Halloween costume is perfect for the little social butterfly! he he! My fault, for always being in the go, I guess!

We are working on no drinks after dinner so she can get her big girl bed....it's time for her to be out of her crib and I am trying to work on keeping her dry at night, but that will probably be a while in coming, but she's buying it! Every night when I put her to bed she asks, "Why I don't got a drink?" And now she just likes the "routine".......Me: "You know why?" D: "Why, Mom?" Me: "You know...." D: "SO I CAN GET MY BIG GIRL BED!!!" D: "Santa make me what color one? A black one?" (Santa already dropped off the big girl big, too, it's white.) Me: "Santa doesn't make blacks ones." D: "Why not, Mommy?" Me: "He only makes white ones for the girls and brown ones for the boys?" D: "I am going to get a whiiiiiiittttte one? Like my crib? Yea, big girl bed!" D: "Sing Cheeseburger, Mommy......"

Her moon obession has lessened, but we still need to go loo at it and my mom told her she could fly there in a spaceship when she gets grows up, so she like to pretend she has a spaceship. She still asks why AND why not? Oh...and the poo-poo goes to Costco. She determined this once when she asked me where it goes when she flushes, but answered it herself! I have a lot of work ahead of me!!

First Day of Pre-School !! All is well...not Mommy!

Delaney started the 2-day a week, 4 hours a day program at the Presbyterian Church today. Last week we went for an orientation and she loved it! She was so excited today and carefully chose an outfit (from choices I gave her) and loved her new lunch box that she picked out this weekend. She did want the SpiderMan lunch box, though, but I was able to talk her out of it. Here are some pics and the link to a little bit of video I took.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5470492008148125354


She did great....Mommy did not! I hung around for a while, went out to the car to cry and came back to check on her only to find her happily playing! When she got home, my mom called me at work to let her talk to me on the phone....."I played and ran and drew circles, a blue one and green one, and read a book ...and went on the big, big slide like this...." it was so cute!
Although, I am proud of myself ~ I had a meeting with a client afterwards and had to drive right back by the school on my way back to the office and although I was tempted..I did not stop! My mom said that Delaney was happy to see her when she picked her up and then asked where I was! Thank goodness!! he he!

Well, we're working on it.....

The other day we were going to go play outside for a while and had been in our p.j.'s still. I told Delaney to go get some shorts and shoes to wear. I wanted to see what she would come downstairs with....
Remember, we live in California and it's still 80 degress in September! She rode her bike, played in her sand box, she did take the ski hat off, but you never know when you just might need your life vest!!!
Two year olds can be great entertainment!!

The Moon, Why, and Can I go at the Mall?

So here's the latest update.....The MOON: Delaney told me the other night the moon has candy in it and she wanted to open it up and get the candy. I decided to play with her and told her the moon was made of cheese and she said, "I like cheese! The moon has candy and cheese, let's go get it Mama!" We went to get our hair done and all the way home she was looking for the moon, I said we would look at it when we got home....nope, it's still too light to see it! ARRGGHHH!

"Where's the moon, Mommy, is it coming out?"Later she went poo-poo on the potty so I told her we could go look at the moon, so we went outside and it was full and low in the sky, so she wants to touch it! Me ~ We can't touch it, baby, it's too far away....."Let's go touch it in the new car, Mama!" (we have a new car! which is a whole other story about her and the CD changer!) We said good night to the moon and as we were going upstairs, she says she wants cheese...................................ARRGGHHH! again!

WHY: Little Missy now asks "WHY" in her sleep! Last night she wanted to take her little Matroyshka doll that rattles to bed. (loud as heck on the monitor!) When I went to bed and checked on her, I took the rattle out of her bed, along with a plastic Polly Pocket, and a little car, so she wouldn't roll on it while she sleeps. Half asleep she says, "M-toy-sha, Mom" I said, "You can't sleep with it, baby." A soft "Why?" comes out of her usually loud voice.
"So you won't get an owie while you sleep."
Another soft, "Why, Mommy?" "M-toy-sha go nite-nite on da shelf?"
"Yes, baby"
"Why, Mommy? She got time-out? Why?"
"Go to sleep, baby!"
"Mommy go nite nite?" Her voice is still very soft and she is obviously falling back asleep....
"Yes, Mommy's going nite-nite, g'night, I love you." As I leave the room......
"Why, Mom, doing? Go nite-nite, shut da lights off at the water park? Why......"
I keep walking.........it's quiet!

POTTY: Delaney's doing great with potty training! No accidents, sometimes misses placing herself over the toilet and will even go in public restrooms.....in EVERY public restroom, I mean we have seen the inside of every bathroom within a 20 mile radius! I think she's either planning an escape route or is going re-design them all! Well, she had to go the other day and we had been to the mall.....she told me she had to go poo-poo.....but wanted to go at the MALL!!

I think I am doomed!!! The pic: What happens when you let a 2 year dress themselves!

Developmental Milestones...Why oh why?

The time has come where we have reached very significant developmental milestones with 2.5 old Delaney……

1) She was potty trained successfully last week! LOVES her new panties and when Mommy does the PEE-PEE and POO-POO dance! Only a couple small accidents! Even went at Grandpa’s house yesterday and stayed dry on the 2 hour drive there!

2) She has become obsessed with where the Moon goes during the day! Mommy’s answer, “The moon goes to sleep during the day,” only sparks the next milestone…..

3) THE DREADED…….”WHY?” Just in the last couple weeks and gaining speed she has been asking “why?” to everything!! She had been asking “Where, who…,” so I knew “Why?” was around the corner! Not a single answer suffices! I have been through this with my nieces and nephews….but how much more crazy does it drive you 24/7? I have tried so hard to answer and be patient and consider it learning and have tried to re-pharse her questions…..every now and then I get an “Oh.” But OMG!!! When will it stop? He he!! Just trying to find the light at the end of the tunnel…..well, I know there’s something else waiting down there……she will be three soon! YIKES!!!!

Delaney's First Adoption Day/Top Ten "Mom" List

One year ago (Aug 8th) a judge in Kemerovo, in a downstairs courtroom with a “jail cell” in it, officially made me the Happiest Mommy in the world!! I cannot believe it has been a year…it still all seems surreal….from the time they brought this beautiful child with two tiny pig tails sticking out of the top of her head in to me, to last night, when she licked me on the leg and said, “Mommy’s yummy! I like Mommy…LUUUV you Mommy!” And I never thought I’d travel to Siberia twice in my life!

Someone at work asked me what I like best about being a mom, and I said EVERYTHING! I have never been so tired and so happy. What really makes me feel the best in my heart is knowing how happy she is! We celebrated our first Adoption Day/Family Day by making a heart shaped cake and opening up some presents. While I was videotaping her opening up her cards I asked her where her family is and she immediately pointed to me, then my mom then herself and said, “MommyDelaneyGrandma family…” “…and Pamp-pa and Auntie!” (she calls my dad’s girlfriend Auntie). I always want to cry when she says she wants to go home and we drive up to the house and she says, “Delaney’s house, right there!” Last night we were looking at the photo book I left with her on trip one and she looked at the picture of the house and said, “My house, that’s my home!”

We also went to a water park that’s just for small kids and she loved it! When we came home, I gave her turtle sand box and she spent the rest of the day making “sandcastles!” Although I have yet to actually see one, they are mostly just mounds of sand…he he!
She just acts like she has always been here, always in charge! He he! She was walking around telling me Happy Adoption Day, and my boss called it the “Mama-versary”. Well, you’ve all heard a lot of stories about Little Missy, so I came up with a top ten list: “What I have learned my first year as a Mommy!” Here are some pics of our little celebration, I took pictures at the water park with a waterproof and will put them on my blog when I develop them. She was so disappointed she could not go on the bigger slides, that little 2 year old daredevil !! The picture in the pink dress is from trip one, the picture in the jeans outfit is from Gotcha Day, she loves that outfit and always says, "that's cute!" and she loved her light up sneakers, too! Gotcha Day was also the day my baby discovered shoe-shopping! I have been paying for that all year....that child loves shoes! I bought the green dress on a trip to Scotland when I was 5 months into the dossier, those portraits were in March. I thank God every single day for how lucky I am to be this wonderful person's Mommy! (and wonder, "what have I done?" when she tries to put lipstick on the cat!)

Top Ten Things I Have Learn as a Mom ~ Year One
10. Anything you SAY can and will be repeated!
9. Babyproofing? HA!!!!
8. Any toy or object can and will be used as something other than it's original purpose!
7. Cats don't like to drink from a sippy cup.
6. Anything you DO can and will be repeated!
5. Two year olds like to lock doors.
4. Every word to every Wiggles song, every word to every Ralph song, the entire Sound of Music score, the entire score to Mary Poppins, every note to the Jeopardy theme, and all the words to Three Dog Night's "Joy to the World".
3. Broccoli has excellent trajectory.
2. A bath can bide you enough time to make a phone call or have a glass of wine!
1. No matter how it is said, whined, shouted, screamed, yelled, whimpered, whispered....."Mommy" is the sweetest word in the world!!!!!