Photo Cropping is a Wonderous Thing

There is a reason I've never taken MaryAlice to a photo-sitting before...she won't sit down unless there is a meal being served or Barney on TV. But, I had a coupon for some free photos, so I thought, why not. In this shot, she is actually holding onto my leg and her blankie behind her head. I like that it is off-center, but mostly because it captures "her" and how I see her.

New Places, New Stuff

I call this photo, "Momma's Time Out"...ahh, naptime! That one hour in the day, on the weekend, that I can either go into chore overdrive or take a nap myself...heaven.
She finally made it into the water at our local splash park and I'm lovin' it.



I bought this slightly used bike trailer since MaryAlice is still warming up to the helmet idea and I thought I would feel more comfortable with her in that rather than the bikeseat. She's a sturdy girl and I was worried about balancing her on the bike. She loves it so far and I get a bit of exercise.

"Your Referral Is Here"

One year ago today, 7-7-08 at about 10am I got this subject line in an email from my agency coordinator. I knew referrals were coming in after checking Rumor Queen every 15 seconds. We had arranged that she would email me first, so I could have my video camera ready to film "The Call". She then sent me the first pictures I saw of Nan Qi Guo taken when she was 7 months old. From that point until about 1 month after being home, I felt like the whole journey was surreal. My almost three year planning skills went into overdrive as I prepared for the trip. It's fun to look back on videos of the trip and see the tranformation. I feel like I've crossed a threshold and so far, I think we're doing just dandy. MaryAlice is doing very well. She's healthy, happy, affecionate, silly and is eating me out of house and home. She's on her way to becoming a very active two year old soon and knock on wood, no signs of "terrible" yet.

22 Months old!

This will be a short post seeing as it is already 9:30pm and I have a list of chores to get done. MaryAlice has discovered Barney and could probably watch the one DVD I own 24/7 if I let her. I think I sang the "I love you, you love me" song 30 times this past weekend while driving down to my sister's house. It's actually a pretty catchy tune. She also learned some new words this past weekend. Eyeball and freckle...both very useful words that will serve her well in the future.

I will be posting something tomorrow morning, as it marks a special anniversary.