happy birthday to our little Anna

Today our little Anna is three years old.  She is growing up so quickly which reminds me how fast time goes by when your kids are little.  Was it really just a year and a half ago that we brought Anna home from China to join our family? I also realize that she has now spent half of her life with us. There are so many thoughts that have passed through my mind today. And as Tony and I were talking at the end of the day, we discovered that we both have had repeated thoughts about Anna's birth mother.

Every mother I know thinks about her child on their birthday.  And for a birth mom, she often recalls that miraculous experience of giving birth. All day, I thought of Anna's mom thinking about Anna's birth. I've thought so many things ranging from her hope that her daughter made it to a loving family who could take good care of her to her possible anguish of not knowing what happened to her little girl.

While I know we are not supposed to create a story around Anna's birth story, I can't help but feel that her mother loves her dearly and thinks of her often.

I have a fantasy of someday finding Anna's mother and introducing her to her beautiful daughter. I hope someday that she will read this blog and learn about her daughter's life and be able to watch her grow up through these pages.  

And so, with this in mind, I wish you, our little Anna's sweet birth mother, a most wonderful birth day. Thank you for the gift of this little girl. 

We truly cannot imagine our lives without her.

chocolate bribes

I'm one of those stingy parents who rarely gives my kids candy or treats. I'm loosening up quite a bit, but we still have a small bag of skittles from Halloween that we're working on. More and more I view candy as bribes than as treats though.

Ryan, who is four and a half years old now, is still taking naps (proof there are still answers to prayers). However, the number of days when he "doesn't have the tired" and doesn't want to nap is on the rise. Enter skittles.

Me:  Ryan, if you take a long nap, I will give you TWO skittles!

Ryan bless his heart, doesn't know how stingy TWO skittles is and excitedly accepts the offer.

So the other day, we were driving home from Auntie Patty's (Auntie Patty watches Anna and Ryan while we work) and Anna was unusually sad for some unknown reason. Which translated to fighting with Ryan. Which was driving me crazy. And so I offered her and Ryan a piece of chocolate to see if that would both perk her up and end the fighting.

I knew perfectly well that there would likely be melted chocolate to contend with when we got home, but the bribe was well worth it.

surprises from Ryan and Anna

Today is my birthday. I'm not really a big birthday person - I don't like attention (yes, I see the contradiction in that statement and announcing it's my birthday but a blog is a different kind of attention that for some reason, I don't mind) and I don't like a big fuss made over another year. But I digress...back to my birthday.

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about this one...49...which means next year is the big one. Yikes.

Actually, I don't think turning 50 is that big of a deal except when you have two children who haven't even started kindergarten yet. And that probably isn't as big of a deal except when I think about how old I will be when they graduate from high school or college or get married. Yikes again.

I took today off work, mostly to just relax and get some things done. Exciting things like going to the Social Security building to have Anna's name changed from An Jing to Anna Jing Smart. I also went to the gym for the first time in months. And I'm getting a massage in a few hours. See? Exciting birthday stuff (I'm obviously a bit rusty writing a blog posting again...apologies).

But I did have some very bright moments this past weekend. Tony and I had a night out on Saturday and went to the movies. Auntie Liza babysat the kids and decorated a birthday cake with the kids while we were out. It was supposed to be a surprise.

Sunday morning, the kids got up early and Ryan ran in my room and yelled "mommy we made a surprise birthday cake for you!" I pretended not to hear while Tony tried to shush him and hurry him out of our room.

On Sunday night, Tony made his famous enchiladas and guacamole for my birthday dinner and after dinner, I was able to shoot this gem of a video:

So tell me, with two adorable children like Ryan and Anna and an amazing husband like Tony, how can I have anything but an amazing birthday?

Thank you all for your Facebook birthday wishes. How wonderful to see so many notes, texts, voice mails and message.

Love to you all!
Natalie

Here's the deal...

I never expected potty training to be a four part process that spanned...a year.  Yes, you read that correctly...a year.

In July of 2013, we began potty training Ryan (he is no doubt going to hate me when he's a teenager if he ever reads this) because I wanted to get him good and trained before Tony and I left for China and came back with his little Chinese sister.  That potty party part one was great fun (sarcasm) and so we repeated it (part two) a few months after Ryan's relapse after our return from China.

One of my favorite videos is from potty party part one which can be seen here.

A few months ago, we re-potty trained for the third time and it looks like this one is sticking.  Within a couple of days, Ryan was peeing in the potty like nobody's business and a couple of days after that, he went to bed at night sans diaper.

Success!

Except I can't get this boy to poop in the potty.  Every day he says, "mommy, I want to go poo poo in a diaper" and so I put a diaper on him, he poops and then we revert back to his big boy underpants.  For some reason, my brave little boy is deathly afraid of pooping in the potty (and yes, I understand this is fairly common).

So the other day, I decided to bribe, wheel & deal, whatever it took to get him to poop in the potty. 

Me:  Ryan, here's the deal...if you go poo poo in the potty you can have ice cream, cookies, chocolate, whatever you want.  OK?

Ryan:  OK mommy...here's the deal...(holding up 1 finger)...one elephant and one giraffe.

Needless to say, he's still pooping in his diaper. 

A belated wish

Ryan and Anna at the zoo.

Has it really been a month since I've posted something? 

I haven't really felt that inspired to write anything clever, but in the interest of trying to keep some semblance of a family history going, here are some pictures of the kiddos.

 

 
In March, we had our six month visit with our social worker and we had to submit several pictures of Anna.  I love the one below. She really is that cute. I've always thought Ryan was a pretty cute kid, but now when they are together, people never even notice Ryan and go on and on about how cute Anna is. Of course, we agree. 

I've been thinking a lot about Anna's birth mom this month since we just celebrated the mothers in our lives. I'm pretty sure Anna's birth mom has no idea that I celebrated and honored her in my heart last week. How I wish I could show her this picture of her little girl with her repaired cleft lip. I wish she could see how well Anna is adapting to her new family and how she tries everyday to talk.

I have a dream that one day we are able to find her and she will be able to go through this blog and read about her little girl and see all of these pictures.  So if by some miracle, that dream comes true, this picture is for you, the woman who gave birth to our little Anna Jing.

Easter with Ryan and Anna

Ryan's been pretty sick the past several days.  Auntie Patty called me on Thursday and said Ryan woke up from his nap with a 104 temperature. He has a bunch of white spots on his throat but has tested negative for strep.  We (the doctor, nurses and Tony and I) are assuming it's a virus and we just have to wait it out.  He's been hitting 103 and 104 about once a day and yesterday we had to give him a cool bath to bring the temp down, but today, I think we've broken the high streak.  He woke up with a 100.6 temp and has been running around playing and terrorizing Anna as usual.

We were healthy enough to search for our Easter baskets and Easter eggs this morning and the kids had a blast. 

The saddest part about being sick was missing the annual Mano family Easter egg hunt where the hunt for the little kids is first and then the "real" hunt for the big kids follows.  It's my favorite family party of the year. Auntie Linda sent some eggs to the kids so we had a lot of eggs to hunt for. Unfortunately, all I have are long videos which aren't going to post on here so here are some post hunt pics.

We attempted a short Easter lesson about the true meaning of Easter.  Anna didn't understand a word I said and I think Ryan thinks Jesus brought him his Easter basket this morning.

Hope you had a happy and healthy Easter.

just a note...

to let you know that we're still alive.  March pretty much kicked my butt. During the entire month, one or more of us were sick at any given moment.  I was sick for about two weeks during which I may or may not have become addicted to Nyquil.  To a chronic insomniac, that stuff is magic and quite frankly, still hard for me to resist. From time to time, on sleepless nights, I may or may not get up (after hours of tossing and turning) and down a 1/4 dose. Yes, I usually suffer the next morning from a Nyquil hangover, but I will admit that the Nyquil hangover is preferable to 3 hours of sleep.

I've recently become aware that there is a product call Zquil or some iteration of that spelling. Because I have been Nyquil free for a few weeks now, I am resisting the Zquil urge.

I'm also told that talking about sleeping habits is not that interesting, but there you go. Such is my life.


In the meantime, here is one of my new favorite pictures of my two little ones. I promise to write again soon and about something more interesting than my ongoing battle with sleep issues.  We have a few other interesting stories to tell...