First present of the season...

Anna opened her first present of the season, today. Traditionally, she would be required to wait until Christmas to open gifts, but this was a special gift to be used in her travels to Florida. Therefore, Aunt Jessica and Uncle Dustin wanted her to open her present upon arrival. As you can see, the gift was a big hit with my little Minnie Mouse loving girl.

This was our second year partaking of Jefferson City's Living Windows. This year we were joined by Debbie and her son, Dustin; Felix and his daughter, Paloma, and son, Fernando (seen with Anna on the bench); and my boss Ed Cordero and his wife, Conchie.

We had a great time eating spaghetti at a Boy Scout fundraiser, visiting the different shows and getting to visit with St. Nick (aka Santa Claus).

And now back to our regularly scheduled holiday...

The last two days have been a little nerve racking in our household. It is at times like these that I do wish there was a husband or serious boyfriend in the picture and/or that we were still in Indy. I could have used a little extra support. But truthfully, I love being a single mom - because the control freak in me is in charge of all major decisions (except for those the princess makes).

On Monday, Anna went in for her annual physical. She loved running around the exam room in only her underwear. Her new pediatrician is great and Anna warmed up to her quickly. One of the things I asked about was about testing Anna for kidney stones due to the tainted formula scandal in China. Several large international adoption clinics have suggested testing children who have been adopted within the last three years. I took an article in for the pediatrician to read, which she did. She then suggested going with a simple urine analysis test.

Anna did great with peeing in the cup. And hasn't stop talking about peeing a cup since Monday. I figure if I don't make a big deal, sooner or later this conversation topic will die on its own. Anyway, the urine analysis showed she was fine for kidney functions, but there were elevated compounds for liver function. As a precaution, the pediatrician ordered a complete metabolic panel test, which required a blood draw.

Yesterday, Anna and I went to the hospital to have her blood drawn. Before hand, we talked about how the vet had taken blood from Jake two weeks ago at his appointment. And that the doctor needed to do the same with Anna to make sure she was healthy. Yeah, I am comparing a vet appointment to her appointment, but it worked and she wasn't nervous. Which is good, because goodness knows that I was. Anna was a trooper. While she cried, she didn't try to fight the procedure and laid on the table while her blood was taken.

Results came back today, she is fine. Normal kidney and liver functions, so no more tests and I can get back into enjoying the holidays. I might actually sleep through the night tonight - something I have not done the last two nights.

So, while I think I am holding my own in single motherhood - at times the support of a husband/boyfriend would be appreciated. Or if not that, being back in Indy where I have large support network. Someday, we'll hopefully have both - so, Teresa, Beth, Janelle and the rest of you Indy people cannot move. :)

What I did over my Thanksgiving break...

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and weekend. We kept busy but had some down time as seen here. Actually, this is the result of morning baking and afternoon at the movies; we saw Madagascar.

We also made a large number of cookies. Anna quickly the concept of licking the mixer thingies along with eating raw cookie dough. Both fond memories from my childhood.

She also caught onto cookie decorating...and knowing her cookie visions, like a pink snowwoman.

I also noticed several other milestones this weekend:

1) She is beginning to role play. I lost count of the number of times she came up and said - "You are Moto. I Gloria. 'Hi, Moto'". For those of who missing the tie-in Moto Moto and Gloria are both hippos in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, the movie we saw on Thursday. She has has been role playing as Little Red Riding Hood - wanting play out the scene between Red and the Wolf, who is disguised as grandmother.

2) She has entered the "why?" stage. This one might just kill me.

3) Her imagination is growing. She asked for a big bowl, and then proceeded to threw a whole bunch of wooden play food into the bowl. She said that she was making soup. She then served both Jake and I her soup.

4) Yesterday, I colored my hair. When Anna asked me what I was doing, I told her I was coloring my hair. She then claimed she wanted to color her hair - to which I said that when she had gray hair to color, then we would color her hair. Later in the day, she was taking a bath and dumping water over her baby's head. I asked if she was washing her baby's hair, she said "No, I am coloring her gray hair." She doesn't forget a word.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

I am thankful for the following (in no particular order):

* My family & friends, some of whom are family - but especially my daughter.
* That a nameless, faceless worker for the CCAA determined that I would make Anna a good mother; and, therefore, chose me for her.
* My job and co-workers
* Eleven wonderful years with Remmie before his life sunsetted on September 4. I don't think I can ever find another Remmie (Jake is a good dog, Remmie was the best).
* I live in a country where I am free
* A roof over our heads, food on the table, clothes for our backs, and money in the bank. Really, who could want for more?
* Time spent with my daughter.

Happy Thanksgiving from Jeff City, I hope everyone takes time to think about all for which you have to be thankful.

The beginning...

...of a new tradition. Since it appears that we won't be near family for Thanksgiving in the foreseeable future, so Anna and I are starting our own family tradition for the turkey day weekend. It involves baking lots of cookies, watching lots of Christmas movies, and going to a movie theater to see a movie.

So, here is the first cookie we made. In the event it isn't evident, it is a snowman. I got this great cookie sheet in the shape of a snowman at WalMart the other day.

Before decorating (other than white frosting) and the after photo

and the artist herself decorating the snowman - ok, I did the writing, but she did the candies.

Shortly after I took a picture of the final product, we decapitated the snowman and ate.

Photo catch-up and funny stories (at least to me)

Well, we are officially Chinese school drop-outs, but it is not because Anna wasn't into learning Chinese. Anna is the youngest student and the other girls close to her age are 7 and 8. This year the kids are starting to learn reading and writing of Chinese characters. Anna is too younger, in that she doesn't have the fine motor skills to draw the characters. So, in order to avoid her and I getting frustrated, we dropped out for the year. But we are still learning some things - like colors. Which leads to a funny story...

When Anna wants to know how to say a color in Chinese, she'll say "what does (color) say." So, the other day we were driving to the store and

She started with "what does red say."
Me: "What does red say?"
Anna: "Red says hongse."
Me: " Good. In Chinese red says hongse and in Spanish red says rojo."
Anna: "No, RED SAYS HONGSE!!"

So, we will put off learning Spanish (you know, the other language I actually know) for awhile, since in her worldview Chinese is the only other language of value. But she knows four colors and counts to ten. I know 7 colors, 4 body parts, can count to 100, and draw 10 characters. Which means that sooner or later she will over take my limited knowledge unless I keep studying outside of Chinese school next year.

Now to the photos - really the only reason most of you come to the blog.

Anna modeling a dress-up outfit (she is claims to be Tinkerbell), and then Anna modeling her new monkey robe. The robe was suppose to be for Christmas, but it is rather chilly now and so she received it early. It is not as if she is going to be hurting for Christmas gifts.

A couple of weeks ago, Anna and I (well, mostly me) babysat Dustin, who is the son of my friend Debbie. Anna did rather well with sharing - but had to be reminded to share and play nicely.

Anna's purple dragon/dinosaur scooter was the big hit of the evening. Dustin used it as his chair for watching videos and Anna play.

And a couple of left over photos from Halloween. One is of a ring that she received and the second is of her checking out her haul.