Lowered Expections

Remember that skit from Saturday Night Live? Well Chris and I resolved ourselves that our visit with Santa may not go well for Miss. Rdette. As long as she didn't throw herself off of his lap we were going to call it a success. Well we got there and...

She LOVED IT! Chris and I couldn't believe it! Lily was also of course VERY excited. When the girls were done he gave each one a bracelet and a button that says "Santa believes in me" While we were waiting for our turn to pay I asked Lily if she wanted hers on. As I was putting it on her she was shaking! She was just that excited. It was so great! She did tell Santa that she wanted her Cinderella Baby Doll.

When we were waiting in line there are several stations that the kids complete. The first was the Naughty or Nice meter. The kids get to push this big red button then the even bigger gage waves back and forth until it settles on one.

Whew!! I didn't know what was going to happen when they touched that button! It kept us in suspense for a second! Then, just as it should and went off the chart for nice! YEAH! From there we get to "mail" our letters to Santa. We didn't let Rdette this time. The snow flies out of the mailbox pretty hard and fast. So Big Sister went ahead and mailed them off to Santa.

I know.... cuteness overload! Once the letters are mailed out it was just a short wait until Santa! They both did so good! Last year we started a tradition of taking them to Build A Bear after Santa. Rdette was only 6 weeks old at the time so Lily picked out one that year. This year Rdette is still pretty much along for the ride, but they were having a really good deal on their Christmas Moose Bears. So Lily picked the one that lights up and we made the girl one for Rdette. They really seemed to have a great time!

Now I will leave you with probably the cutest pictures we have gotten of Rdette....

YES her hair is now long enough for piggy tails! :-)

Chats With Lily

This is one of the best so far!

Me: Lily what do you want Santa to bring you?

Lily: A Cinderella Baby doll

Me: What about Rdette what should Santa bring for her?

Lily: Thinks for a half of a second then says... A Baby baby doll...

Me: Ok, well how about Daddy. What should we get for Daddy?

Lily: A Big Daddy Baby doll. Then gives me the geesh Mommy look!

Me: Now ROFL on the inside says: I bet he would love that!

Lily: Ok that one works.

I normally do not harass Chris at work but this could not wait until lunchtime!

5am

list made- Check
Clothes out - Check
COMPLETELY INSANE - Double Check!

In little less then 4 1/2 hours I will be amongst the masses all looking the same the same thing! A good deal! I am going for the practically free Barbie from Diamond Castle (Dastle in Lilyese!) and Mega-blocks for Rdette!

If anyone reads a story out of Maryland about a Crazed Momma, Barbie's and blocks, it was me!

Good luck to all the other CRAZY Mommas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a very nice day. We stayed home and made a Turkey, and all that fun stuff! We also got the girls' Christmas pictures done! It actually went SO much better then I thought it would have! Rdette has turned into quite a little ummm tornado! She is into everything! So I really missing last year, not the lack of sleep, but the barely two month old who just went with the flow! Those days are LONG gone! I tell Chris all the time she is like a Raptor- she is testing our defenses! LOL


We did in fact get our picture and several more that we liked. We then watched the parade on TV. Lily really got into it this year. She liked the bands, and balloons the best. When Dora came down the road she started shouting 'DORA, right there DORA!!!' She about totally lost it when Santa came. Too cute.


Rdette wandered around the room, looking for things to eat off the floor. I swear you would think we don't feed her! Oh and she will find it, not matter how small! Worse yet she thinks it is a game. She will put fuzz in her mouth give me that "heehee come and get me" look and take off! She normally gets laughing too hard to really get anywhere!



Then we had lunch and Rdette went down for her nap. Lily had special Mommy and Daddy time! We made their letters for Santa. We are going to see him tomorrow morning! Lily is about ready to come out of her skin! Rdette, doesn't like new people so this should be fun times!


Quick Lily story...


You would think that any normal almost 3 year old girl would ask for dolls, and such. Well Lily did ask for a doll a special one Cinderella. She has been asking since August or so. On top of that she has also requested something ummmm interesting a Crocodile! Yup you read that right! Chris and I searched high and low, even pulling up the Australia Zoo's Website looking for this. We wanted one that was stuffed and also didn't look TOO scary. After looking for what seems like forever we did find one on Target's Website. On Christmas morning Lily will be the proud owner of a Cinderella baby doll and a 36" stuffed crocodile!


I have another one about her but I am going to save that for Chat's with Lily.


We did have a really good day overall! Now because I have been a bad Mommy blogger here are some new pictures from our photo shoot this morning! These are the out- takes!

Rdette had her cup wandering around the room yelling randomly

True Lily!
Yeah Rdette is chewing on a remote...sigh..
We love our little goat!

This was a good contender for the cards...
I will post the card photo once we have sent them out! We also have the photo's of the girls by themselves. I will post them as well!

ROFL!

Tonight when we put the girls to bed Rdette made it quite clear she wasn't happy about it. We still tell them goodnight at the door and out we go. Well Rdette gets really going then. Chris and I wait it out a minute to see if she will settle, all of a sudden we hear "QUIET!!!! SHHH" from LILY!

Of course we go right back in and tell Lily that we will handle this and that Rdette will quiet down in a minute. She promises that she "won't anymore" and we close the door again. Rdette still isn't happy, but isn't protesting as loudly.

A few minutes later we hear "it's K Rdette, it's K, the crocodiles won't get you, they are all gone now" Followed by, "See I told you Rdette all gone you no cry anymore."

Rdette is pretty much quiet at this point, Chris and I are just giggling at what Lily had just said. Then we hear.. " DAAAADDDDYYYYY, DDDDAAAADDDYYYY, COME HERE... DDDDAAADDYYYY"

Chris goes tearing off into the room. He asked her what was wrong her reply..in a hushed tone

"Rdette sleeping now"

ROFL!!!

She called him two more times just announce this! We haven't laughed that hard in a long time!

FFF Family Photos

Our most recent family photo!

Our very first picture as a family of 4!

This was at the airport the night we got home! A true family!

Our very first picture as a family of 3! This was the last picture of Lily we took on on visit trip. We didn't see her again for 8 months :-(

Ahhh young love.... I think we had been dating about 18 months

13 Months and Counting

Today

One year ago this month

Rdette is now 13 months old. She is turning into a young toddler with all the fun that comes with that! ;-)

She is:
Walking/running independently
Able to sign More and Eat- her two favorite things!
Completely on a sippy cup
Completely on table food- loving everything!
Sleeping through the night
Has all but 4 teeth- they are coming
Still exploring her world with through her mouth
Pointing to things and saying "Tis"
Can say, Hi Dadee, Momma (once with intent), Gus (our dog), Da (dog)
She can wave Hi
Loves to snuggle when she is tired
trying to eat with a spoon/fork
She is into EVERYTHING! LOL
Trying to dance
claps her hands when she is excited
Loves the remote control, phone, cell phone
She has started mocking us more and more
she loves to feed the dogs from her tray
she is tall enough to open our bedroom door
she knows when she is being funny
she has been feeding us and gives us her cup
Laughs at us when we tell her No LOL

I am sure I am missing things. It is fun to watch her right now. She is exploring her world. Mostly leaving destruction in her path! Chris and I were remembering last night when Lily was this age. From now until about 20 months we are just going to baby proof very well, and hold on tight!

My Minority Child

Earlier this morning I turned on a recording from our DVR. We had turned it on before we went to bed last night so that we could see Obama's full speech. Lily and Rdette were sitting on my lap as we started to watch, then Rdette got off to play. Lily was asking her normal 8,000 questions, then she stopped dead when the camera panned the audience. She looked right back up at me and said "Mommy that is beautiful."

I told her that she was right and that is was indeed a very beautiful thing. The more I watched a single thought entered my head. This was the day the sun came up to a different world. It will never be the same. Never the same for the world and never the same for my girls.

Then I got thinking about Lily. I found myself staring at her tears running down my face. It hit me like a ton of bricks. She is a minority. She will have a life filled of people assuming (good and bad) just from her appearance. Chris and I take great strides to make sure that she understands how special she really is. But that is us, what happens when she has to leave our protection and face discrimination. Her cards are truly stacked against her, she is Guatemalan American, female, and adopted.

Just as quickly as those thoughts entered my head I looked back at the TV and I saw Obama. Like I said yesterday, I am not here proclaiming him to be anything more then a man with all the faults that come with that. But, unlike yesterday I him in his simplest form. An African American, in no way different from my Guatemalan American daughter. People across America yesterday did just as MLK prayed one day would happen. People judged him by the content of his character and not the color of his skin.

Now as I once again look at my beautiful brown skinned daughter, I hope and pray that the events that occurred yesterday are just the beginning of what is to come. I can dream that she can do and be anything that she wants to be. Right now her worries consist of having bear in her bed each night. I know that won't always be the case, and that life is never that simple. However, if not having to worry about being discriminated against isn't one of them then the world is a better place.

When she is old enough to read this I hope that she takes great pride in being Guatemalan American, Female, and Adopted. That she understands that being all of those wonderful things make her who she is and not what she is. Then I hope she smiles.

First Vote!!

Lily went to Vote for the first time this morning!
Rdette was there too- but she ate her sticker!

This morning the girls and I got up and got ourselves together and then we hit the road to Vote! Lily was very excited and kept saying so. Although she really didn't understand what voting was. I think at one point she thought she was getting on a Boat! She got to take a book along and got to walk instead of being in the stroller so that made her happy!

The girls were really good while we waited our turn. Rdette is such a people watcher. She loves it. As long as no one talks to her. Then she will try to turn completely around from a seated belted position! Lily was just as happy and 'read' her book.

When it was our turn the Poll Worker showed us to our spot. Rdette continued to look all around and Lily got a little restless. She knew I was voting, but, again had no clue what that really was. More then likely she was still wondering where the boat was! I happily made my choices. Chris and I really have educated ourselves, so I already knew what I was going to do. That helped it go quicker too.

I turned in my card and got my 'I voted' sticker. The Poll Worker asked if Lily wanted one- ummm yeah it is a sticker! He also asked if Rdette could have one. I said yes, she tried to eat it before we even made it out of the school! Lily was very unhappy when we leaving and wanted to Vote again. Promises of calling Daddy to tell him what we did helped with that.

When we got home I took pictures of Lily with her 'I Voted' sticker on, and of Rdette. This is another day in their lives that they will never remember. Now they will have pictures of themselves from this historic day!

Like I said above Chris and I have been following this election from the start, often laughing that we are really old! But it isn't just about us anymore. What we do or don't do right now will effect our girls in the in future. No candidate is ever going to be perfect, or totally represent me. So you have to just go with your gut and do what you think is best. In the end we made the best choice we could to protect their rights as future women. This Obama-Momma will sleep better at night knowing that. :-)

HAPPY VOTING!!!