We have had a few busy days here

Yesterday was a wet day for Miss Ping. First thing in the morning, she proceed to whine for 20 minutes over not being able to wear her Princess dress to school. So because she was so busy doing that, she missed her opportunity to go to the bathroom. At least that is my take on it. So she rips down her Pull Up and pees all over the floor!!!!!! Not a great start to the day. Whining and pee. UGH. So I cleaned it up and we rushed out the door to get her to school. After school, I took Ping out for lunch. We had a play date at 1pm and bringing her home for an hour between school and an appointment or play date is so not worth it. The minute we walk in the house she rips out her hair bow, she strips and she puts on one of her Princess dresses along with shoes, etc. So I made the decision to take her to lunch instead of bringing her home. We headed to Bertuccis in Westborough. We had rolls, salad and pizza. Just as the pizza was put down in front of us, Ping grabs my shoulder and says she needs to go to the bathroom. So to the bathroom we walked. We get there and Ping is not doing anything. Ever since we were away at the Pinegrove Ranch, she has been afraid to use the bathroom anywhere. The woman in the stall next to us flushed and it was so loud that it made Ping jump. So since then she has a hard time going anywhere but home. So anyway, I told her I would help her. I proceeded to pull down her pants and Pull Up and she pees all over the place including on her sneakers. Luckily she missed her pants. Well this is frustrating. We are in a stall of a public restroom and I need to manage her, my pocketbook and a messy floor. I got through it of course, but it was sort of a bitch. She was upset I didn't have an extra Pull Up in my bag. I did in the car, but not in the pocketbook. I can only carry so much stuff!!!!!!!! We were only going in the restaurant for an hour and this isn't something that normally happens. Not normally anyway.

So we headed back to the table to eat and then scurried out the door to get to our play date for 1 pm. We met Mindy and Ciara at Munchkin Land. We had a wonderful time. It's always nice to be able to catch up with good friends. Ciara and Ping play together, but separately as well. The place is great for kids. It's clean and it gives us a chance to chat while they have plenty of entertainment! When we got there, there were a ton of moms with their kids, but after about 15 minutes, they left and the owner cleaned up the place. We were there for the most part alone! Mindy left shortly after 3 pm to pick up her son. Ping wanted to play a little more, so we stayed till 4 pm. I had to drag her out. She was having so much fun! While there I asked Shayla if she had to go to the bathroom. She kept saying she didn't. I knew better. So I finally said that if she used her Pull Up instead of going to the bathroom, she was going to lose TV. Needless to say, she lost TV for the night.

The rest of the evening was quiet. Ping went to bed and I did a few things on the computer and watched some TV. Bill went to bed with Ping and never returned. Shocker, no?

Today was another busy day. I feel like I have barely been home!!!!! We had a 12 pm play date with Audra and her two girls Ava and Elise. We went for lunch and then while Audra and I chatted, the girls played dress up in their Princess clothes. Miss Ava and Miss Elise have some beautiful Princess dresses and PIng loves them. They also played with the kitchen and colored and watched a little TV. It was great being able to get caught up with Audra. It's hard during the week as she works full time and has two girls! She is a busy mom. Ping loves hanging out with her two, so it was a fabulous visit. The only downer was that Ping lost her TV priveledges again because she refused to go into Miss Audra's bathroom.

We left there to come home, but were not home long. We had dinner plans with Ayi Meri and Uncle Joe and Lucas. Joe's birthday is tomorrow and Meri has to work late, so we decided to go tonight. We went to a new Mexican place in Holden. We had a great time. It was nice to go out with them. It's like a family of six when we get together. We have been going out to dinner for years. We don't go as often as we used to because everyone is so busy, so it's a nice treat when we do go out. We need to plan some more outings. Ping as usual was being silly and hanging all over Ayi Meri. She really does adore them. She looks forward to playing with Lucas as well. I got some great pictures. I am mad that I didn't get one of Shayla with them though! My camera was dying though, so I guess it's just as well. There will be other times!

I rounded out the day by talking via text with Karen and Anita. All in all it was a wonderful day. Now it is snowing like crazy. So I think tomorrow we will be home and doing a lot of stuff around here. I am not looking forward to some of the upcoming projects I have, but they need to be done!!!!!

I am also planning a few more activities for the next coming weeks. I would love to go back to Create A Cookie. I would love to try Build A Bear. I would like to go to Whimsy Arts. I would like to try Claytime. I would like to bring Ping to a local puppet show. I would like to go back to Noodle, Noggin and Bean as well. So if anyone is interested, shoot me an email! If you have any excellent ideas, please let me know as I would like any suggestions you may have.

Well that is it for now. I will upload a few pictures from yesterday and tonight. I didn't get any of the girls today which stunk, but they were so busy running around, so it was never a good time. Oh well!

Mama Out!!!!!!!

Playing in the car and train room.

Playing with the eggs she has been carrying around everywhere. She loves to take the blocks out and stack them.

The taller the better.

Ciara ironing clothes. Too cute.

Ciara and Ping sitting in the middle of the rock tower.

Another shot of them in the tower.

Ping climbing up the rock tower. Did she have to carry so much.

Ping, it is a drum, NOT A HAT!

Ciara hanging out.

Yay, made it to the top.

Grass skirt, drum on the head, flowers in her hands. My girl knows how to be on the cutting edge of style.

All of us. I hate photos of me, but decided to put it up anyway.

Love this photo of Lucas and Meri.

The Stand family.

Lucas with his Mexican sombrero.

Ping with her Mexican sombrero.

Hmmmm, first it's a grass skirt and now it's a Mexican hat. This girl gets around the globe.

My smiling girl.

I love this picture of her. It's amazing how happy she looks. Considering the amount of whining she has done this week, it's wonderful to see a smile. First week back to school must be hard getting use to?

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday I slept in. Ping didn't have school due to snow, so I did what an smart mom does. I stayed in bed. Ping did make a mess, but I have seen worse. I could have slept for hours longer, but I did get up so I wouldn't waste the day in bed. That and Ping occasionally likes to eat:) The phone rang in the morning and I went to grab the phone, but it was dead. It's been dying off early since we had the big power outage. Ping took it upon herself to answer the phone downstairs. She was yelling "Daddy, where are you??????" I told her to hang up the phone and come upstairs. She says to me, "that was Ayi Meri, I said hi to Ayi Meri." It was so cute. So I called Meri back once I got another phone. Meri proceeds to tell me that Ping said I was sleeping and that she was making a big mess. NICE. Thanks sweetie. I will not be getting the Mother of the Year award for 2009. Huge shocker!!!

So we went on to clean up her room from her "mess." The rest of the day was spent doing things in the house. Ping watched some TV and played in her Princess dress. I did a lot of computer work and made a bunch of business calls. I am trying to also organize a bunch of upcoming things. Ping will have been adopted one year on 2/25/09. There is also Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year which is in just a few weeks. So there is a lot to plan. It's important to me that we mark these special milestones in her life. I want her to look back on her life fondly. I hope that will be the case.

The weather was snowy and icy all day, so stepping out to do anything was not going to happen. So she missed school and I missed swim! Aggravating that I missed swim again since the day before I sat in the parking lot of the Y without my bag, so I had to turn around and leave. UGH. I need to get a second set of stuff and store it in the truck!!!!

Today was a busy day. There was school and swimming to be done today. After I picked up Ping, we did a few errands. She was NOT at all happy about it. She is getting worse and worse about running around doing errands. We just had a few days of not being out and she wants to give me grief about going to the stores? I told her that we were out of some things including some things she wanted. She calmed down shortly after! I will say though that if Ping could get drunk of of whining, she would have been trashed today. She was relentless. I was beside myself. When it goes on and on and on, it's very frustrating. I remind myself daily that I still have a lot of friends who are waiting to bring home their little ones and would do anything to listen to a little one whine. That does help me to be more tolerant.

While we were out, Ping spyed more Princess dresses. I bought two for her. One was on sale. The other one wasn't, but it was a Silvermist Princess dress and that is the Asian fairy. I fought with myself not to get them. I think they are expensive for what they are. However, they bring her so much joy. She has been ripping her clothes off daily and putting the same Princess outfit on all week. She would wear it to school if it was allowed. She would wear it to bed if we allowed it. She is obsessed. So two more dresses it is. They will last her some time I hope! She also got some shoes. They were $1.00 each. Can't beat that price. She got a new tiara that is already broken. That was $1.00 too. You get what you pay for!!!! It's a tough line to walk for a parent. You don't want to spoil a child and have them think they can get everything they want because they can't unless you have money trees in the back yard. On the other hand, many people would spend $20 on a few glasses of wine after work and think nothing of it. Not that I would, but I know people who would. For $20, she gets immense pleasure. She is always so grateful too which is wonderful. A lot of people assume because we wanted her for so long and because she is our only that she gets anything she wants, but that is hardly the case. I was raised to be responsible and to not expect everything and I am teaching her the same.

Anyway, we spent the rest of the day home. I had some cleaning to do here and she had some dress wearing to do! Our wonderful neighbor came by to take Ping for a quick walk. Ping was saying she didn't want to go because she didn't want to take off her darn dress. I told her she could change and change back into her dress when she returned. That seemed to work.

Tonight Bill was going to go to a meeting, but thought he would stick around here to get a few things done. Guess what got done? The two of us passed out in the living room while Ping watched the Backyardigans which turned into the Wonder Pets and then Wow Wow Wubbzy. I kept waking up knowing that it was growing late. She was snuggled up to me and incredibly toasty. I think it was a ploy to keep me sedated!!!! So finally I got up and told Bill that he needed to get her upstairs. The little devil. I am sure it was a plan!!!! Now it is time for me to turn in since morning isn't my strong suit.

Here are a few pictures of Princess Ping.

Mama Out!!!!

Snow Princess pants and the bean bag

Well Ping at the last minute put her hands in her pants, so I didn't get a great photo as we were dashing off to school. As you know, Ping only likes dresses! I told her these were pants that Princesses wear!!!! She didn't believe me, but I got them on her anyway. Of course the 20 minute whine added to the loveliness of the morning. Meri bought this outfit for Ping before she even came home. The bottom of the pants have a fur trim and snow flakes with silver sparkles and there is silver thread in the shirt. There is even a cute matching hat, but didn't want her to lose it at school. So cute and it looked so cute on her for the time she was in school. Once home, it was Princess dress time as usual.

Hey Sophie, I bought that for Ping!!!!! As long as you are inside, I don't care where you sit baby.

Christmas party with other adopted children

Some of the children, not all. Social workers best friend in the light Ping and social workers daughter in the green. Some of there girls are from China. Some domestic, some Guatamalan. No boys got in the picture. Not sure how that happened.

Smaller group. Maddie, the little one in the red outfit on her Mama's lap is so precious.

Playing Pass the Stocking. Only person that couldn't pass the stocking was Ping. Yeah, she had to literally open it to see if there was anything for her. She got out of the game quickly with that passing style!

Waiting to see Santa.

Twirling in her dress.

I LOVE PANDAS!!!!!!! She is the only one to say something into the mike and that is what she said. The whole room cracked up laughing!!!!

A few more pictures

Ping hanging while I am washing the dishes.

Opening a thank you note from her teacher.

Bad picture of beautiful bracelet. I will try and get a better one. It's a silver bracelet with a pink ladybug charm. I love it and am looking forward to adding to it. This was give to me by Meri. On the Friday night after Christmas, we went to Meri and Joe's to have dinner and exchange gifts. I totally forgot to mention it before in the blog as I was rushing to get the blog post before heading out of town. Joe cooked an awesome fried turkey. Best turkey I have had. There was gravy and potato latkes with applesauce. It was all very yummy. Joe is a good cook. Meri helped with the latkes. I think that is how you spell it! So we had dinner, played the Dreidel game with little Dreidels and exhanged presents. It was a fun game. I love learning new things. Ping got a beauitufl sweater with a ladybug and a ladybug watch. Can't wait for her to wear the sweater. Bill got some awesome beer and a 4 leaf clover key chain which he loves. Thank you so much for a wonderful time!

This is one of my gifts from Sarah and Brad. I love this saying. I have seen it before. I actually have the saying on a 4x6 photo in a photo album that Ayi Meri made me! This plaque is so perfect for me and Sarah knew it. It's hanging right above my computer so I can see it daily. Thank you sweetie.

I got some awesome stuff this year. I have the best friends in the world.

XO,

Mama Out!!!!!

So much more to discuss

So as you can see, vacation was a bust. That is okay though. We had a nice holiday. We got back on Friday and emptied and washed the hell out of our stuff. On Saturday, we had a Lutheran Social Service Adoption party to attend in Rhode Island. It started at 11. It's only an hours drive. We had a great time. I have some pictures that I will share with you from that party. When we got home, we did a few things around here and that was about it. I did stay up very last to watch a Hallmark movie which just about put me over the edge. I also watched John Edward Cross Country.

Yesterday I really slept in. My face mask is really giving me some trouble, so I am not sleeping well. If it's too tight, I get terrible red marks on my face. Too loose and I get awful noises that come from it. It's all made harder by the fact that I am a belly sleeper! When I finally did get up, I did a few projects around the house. Every year after the holidays, I check off who sent a card. If I don't get one after a few years, I stop sending them one of ours. I get sick of sending them to people who don't really seem to care, you know? It's even worse when you get one back clearly because you sent one to them. Thanks, but spare me. Anyway, after I check off the cards in my special book designed for this, I cut all the pictures down to 4x6 size and put them in albums. I keep all pictures. I then wrote out all the thank you notes that I needed to do. I changed from my Christmas purse to my regular Vera Bradley and I made a mean to do list for this week. I did a little cleaning as well. I have a lot of things I want to do to get the new year started out on the right foot.

Now for some pictures!

Mama Out!!!!!

Merry Christmas Eve.

Michael opening his gift card from us.

Nicole opening her gift.

Donna showing off one of her ornaments. It says "#1 Nurse" and then Donna on it.

Opening gifts from Ayi Donna.

Opening gifts on Christmas morning.

Her Snugglekins Panda.

Trying to carry all her gifts and avoid falling on her bean bag.

Her new camera.

New red shoes.

More presents from Santa.

Daddy showing off his sweatshirt.

New apron and hat. Personalized with her name "Shayla."

Showing her Snugglekins stroller.

Kissing ball.

Up close picture of kissing ball.

Bill's mom, Ping and Daddy.

Uncle Robo and Ping on the exercise bike at Ayi Anita's parents house.

Ayi Anita and Ping.

Ayi Sarah's present to Ping was an awesome bath toy that was a tea set. So cool.

Lunch with Amy, Brittany, Juliana and Ping.

Amy holding Ping.