Easter Photos 2007

A friend I work with does portraits on the side. She comes to your house and takes pictures of your children. Here are some of the photos:

My New Journey

Well, searching my soul long and hard, I have finally decided to have lapband surgery. I was oriignally going to have gastric bypass, but after futher research, I felt that it was not the best for me. The lapband will be a slower weight loss, but in the end the result is the same as the gastric bypass. My sister Lisa is going on the same journey with me, so we are in it together. We choose the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Noel Williams as our surgeon. I will post and give you the progress as we get further along into the process. More than likely, I will start a new blog and will post that link after I get set up!

Wish me luck.

Cathy

Another Busy Day..

There is never a dull moment in our house ... not since Lizzie came that is! Here is the latest update:

Saturday night, March 17, we were finishing up dinner. Guy and I were cleaning up the dishes and Miss Lizzie was watching us. We have a half wall that separates the eat in part of the kitchen from the actual cooking part of the kitchen. Well, I guess you can see where this is going. Next thing I know, I hear this loud bang and then the screaming started. She fell of the chair and cracked the back of her head on the leg of our kitchen table. Guy grabbed her and gave her to me. I could already feel the wetness in her hair. After getting a wet paper towel, I could see the blood. We quickly grabbed what we needed and off we went to the hospital. After a 4 hour wait -- yes 4 hours, the pediatrician came and said that it was our choice whether or not we wanted a staple put on the wound. The wound was about 1/2 long and about 1/4 inch wide. He said that he would not be able to numb the area before the staple went in and the difference would be a really skinny scar or a skinny scar. We opted not to do anything but neosporin. Well it is now over a week later and she is fine. We of course, lost some of our hair over worry. She knows now that if she hops from chair to chair she can get a boo-boo on her head!

Here is a cute picture of my daughter and how busy a 2 1/2 year old can be. Out of the blue, she decided to put her shoes on. I said to her, where are you going? She said, I am taking baby Cathy for a walk. The taffy went in her mouth. Her pocketbook went on her arm and off she went taking her baby for a walk around the house. Oh, by the way, baby Cathy must wear all of the clothes she has at all times...even if it stretches them out of shape.

Sitting Here Missing My Friend....

I has been exactly 16 months since I saw my friend Kelley in Guangzhou, China. Kelley was and is part of our February Love Bugs group that travelled to China together to pick up our girls. Kelley and I were co-moderators of our Yahoo support group. Kelley was also my go-to person when I had one of a million questions about what to do! You know, WWKD (What Would Kelley Do)!! She patiently answered all my questions, no matter how silly they seemed. Kelley is a wonderful person and I wish we lived closer to each other. Kelley is in Texas and we are in New Jersey! Kelley, I will be calling you soon!
Love Cathy

Alright, Enough Already....

Now, before we took Lizzie to get the "official" portrait done in her Chinese dress, we took some just for fun pictures....these are priceless!

I Know Christmas Is Over But....

I forgot to post Lizzie's Santa Claus picture. This picture was taken at her school right before Christmas!

Pictures of Lizzie

Alright, Ok, I Know!! I Haven't Posted In A While!

I know, it has been almost two months since my last post. There has been a lot going on in our family in the last two months. Most of it not real good, but I won't go into all of that right now.

Lizzie is now 2 1/2 years old. She is quite the little girl now. She is having full conversations with us now. She can sing the alphabet, count to at least 17 and knows all of her colors! She loves her babies (Baby Michelle (for Michelle Kwan) and Baby Cathy (for Mommy)! She dresses them, undresses them, dresses them (usually puts all of their clothes on at once)!

She absolutely, positively love Loves LOVES stickers! She was putting them everywhere, but we have finally trained her to only put them in her sticker book! She also loves to color. Her favorite TV shows are Thomas the Tank Engine and Dora the Explorer.

We are getting ready to celebrate Chinese New Year. We took her to The Picture People to have her formal portrait done in her Chinese dress. She was absolutely not going to smile until the photographer promised her stickers. Here are the pictures, we hope you enjoy them. I promise to post more often!

Christmas is Coming!!!

Well, Christmas 2006 will be here in only three days! We are running around like nuts trying to get ready -- just like everyone else! This year, Christmas will be at my brother and sister-in-law's house. We usually have everyone over, but we needed a break this year! Lizzie knows who Santa Claus is this year, but is still terrified of him. We have a lovely picture of her molars that was taken when we visited Santa! If you ask her what Santa says, she goes ho-ho-ho. She can also sing her version of Jingle Bells. Here is Lizzie's official Christmas portrait and her first school picture too. I will post an update next week about Christmas Day!

Our February Love Bugs Referral Video

I was remembering today when our Yahoo group put together our referral video. You can see the video on my previous post.

Cathy

2005 February Love Bugs

This movie has the referral pictures of the 2005 February Love Bugs. Families who are adopting from China

Lizzie: A Year in Pictures

Our One Year Anniversary As A Family!

Wednesday, November 8, 2006 was the one year anniversary of us becoming a family. It is hard to believe that a year has past since our lives changed forever and this amazing child came into our lives. Everyday we thank God for this gift. Lizzie has been fun, a learning experience and definitely a challenge! Since the day we got her, we have been on a fast track!

When we first received Lizzie, she was 14 months old. She could barely stand by herself. By the time we came home from China on November 18, 2005, she was walking while holding on to furniture; by Thanksgiving, she could take very short steps; by Christmas -- she was completely mobile! Now, she moves faster then us! As for eating, that has never been a problem. She definitely needed to be fed by us one year ago and was still on a bottle. By New Year, 2006, she was feeding herself and was completely off the bottle. She now prefers a specific sippy cup with something she calls "Mommy Juice" in it. Mommy juice is Fruit-2-0! I made the mistake one day of asking her if she wanted some of mommy's juice and the name stuck!

In November 2005 she was only wearing a size 6-9 months clothes. The pictures of her from China make her look huge, but she was very tiny. She is now in 24 months to 2T sized clothes. She went from weighing 17 pounds to almost 27 pounds in a year! She was about 24 inches tall then, now she is almost 37" tall. So she is tall and skinny...lucky her!

Her language skills are truly amazing. By the time we left China, she was saying Mommmy & Daddy. Now we can have full conversations. She can count to 11 and knows her ABCs up to around "L". She is as smart as a whip and has a stubborn streak: we are definitely in the "terrible twos" now! Everything we do now with her is a struggle. We now try to give her a choice, do you want this or that. This is working...for now... until she figures it out. She puts on her own shoes and socks and is almost at the point of dressing herself. She has decided that she does not like the bath anymore, so on bath nights, the screaming begins! She stands in her little tub, stiff as a board, clutching the shampoo bottle until her evil parents are finished washing her! Hopefully this phase does last too long!

Our previously spotless house is now toy central. Everywhere toys and God help us Christmas is coming!! We have started weeding out the toys and sending them to Goodwill. She doesn't play with even a quarter of them!

Well, that is our Lizzie update. I am going to be posting some pictures for you to see how she has changed! Enjoy!!

The "Official" Birthday Party

We had Lizzie's official birthday party on September 23. Friends and Family came and we all had a great time. Let me just say this... Toy Central!!!











Aunt Fran gave Lizzie her Cow Girl outfit! Hi Aunt Kelly!!!

More Birthday Pictures

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, we have been so busy! Well, you saw how Lizzie's birthday started out. Here are some pictures from when we picked her up from daycare..."The Birthday Girl"

















Then, we came home, Aunt Lisa met us there and we had a little birthday party for Lizzie:

Lizzie's Birthday: The Day Begins

We decided to go in and take pictures of her as she wakes up on her birthday! She was very pleasant until...I lifted her out of the crib and the screaming began: NOooooo, NOooooo, Nite-Nite, Kitty Cat....She did get pleasant again when we went downstairs for breakfast!!

Today is Lizzie's Birthday!!!

Here are some more pictures from our photo session at Sears!

Lizzie's Two Year Pictures

Well, our little princess will be two years old tomorrow. So, to celebrate, we took her to Sears on Saturday to get her picture taken. The pictures are absolutely amazing. It was so hard to pick just one out. Here are a few for you to look at. I will post more tomorrow!

One Year Ago....

On Friday, September 2, 2005, the phone rang and our lives changed forever. At about 2:30 p.m., Great Wall called and gave us the name of our daughter. Guy and I were off that day from work planning to leave in the morning to go over to my brother's house for my mother surprise brithday party (which was the following day). Everytime we got ready to leave, something held us back. Around 2:00, my friend Kelley called and said that the calls were starting!!!! We got out our laptop and sat in the kitchen... waiting! When the call finally came and we say Great Wall's number on the caller ID, we just started crying.Amanda from Great Wall started reading the information to us over the phone and then the email came. The email with her picture! Cen Xiao Bei (soon to be Elizabeth Grace (Lizzie) was the most beautiful baby we had ever seen! The picture was from when she was six months old and by now she was already almost a year old! Here are the referral pictures:

We fell in love with her immediately! She looked like us too!! Click on the September 2005 link to read more about Referral Day!

Potty Training -- Step One

Well, yesterday Miss Lizzie surprised us all! We had just finished dinner and were cleaning up when she came over to us and said "poop". I said to her, did you poop? She said "da" which means yes. (Sometimes I think she is a baby Klingon (Star Trek reference here)!!) I said, let's change that diaper. Well, for a while now, she gets the changing pad, put it on the ottoman and then climbs up on top ready for her diaper change. (She also sometimes gets a book!!!) Anyway, it was almost bedtime so I didn't put a diaper on her and we walked up the stairs. I started to get her PJs out and asked her, just for the heck of it, do you want to go potty. She said "da"!!! So we walked into her bathroom and I put her up on the throne. I held her arm and she went!! I was shocked! I thought, this is a fluke and won't happen again. Boy was I wrong! This morning after I got her up, I said to her, do you want to go potty? She said "da"! (Side Note: her diaper has been dry in the mornings for a while!) Anyway, in we went to the bathroom and up on the throne. She sat there and went pee-pee. When she was finished, reached over for some paper and cleaned up, put it in the toilet, shut the lid and then flushed it!!! Guy and I stood there with our mouths hanging open.

So, today, I spoke with her teacher and they are going to work with her to start the "formal" training! We are off to buy some Pull Ups tonight! Wish us luck!!

Updates!!!

I have been getting so much grief because I have not updated in over a month!!! Here you go. In the last month, Lizzie has really begun to talk. She is putting three and four words together to form sentences, she is almost singing now too! She walks around the house humming! She also discovered TV. We never really said "no TV", she just never really noticed it before. She absolutely loves Elmo, Thomas the Tank Engine and Barney. She can even say "Thomas", but it is with a kind of accent. She also loves to help us. When we go grocery shopping, we have to make sure the bags aren't too heavy so she is able to carry them and help us unload. Yes, it takes a long time, but she is so thrilled to help. We also give her paper plates and she helps to set the table! I am not kidding, this kid loves to help. If you give her a diaper wipe, she will get down on her hands and knees and wipe the floor or she will clean the table for you! She is such a worker and she loves to do it!!

Let's see, in July we celebrated my birthday and my father's birthday which was fun. We are practicing singing Happy Birthday so she is excited in September when we have her 2nd birthday party. We also celebrated my brother's birthday, which is on August 10. Next up, Daddy's birthday on August 13!

Did I mention that Elizabeth has so many summer clothes that they no longer fit in her dresser or closet so I have to keep some folded in a basket? I admit it, I got a little carried away buying her stuff this summer, but I couldn't help it!!

My new job has been absolutely wonderful and busy. I just love it! Guy and I are well -- except, Lizzie's daycare sent a note home last week about an instance of hand and mouth disease. Lizzie didn't get it, thank God, however, Guy did!!! The doctor had never seen a case in an adult before, he actually had to look it up!! Guy is much better now and just missed a couple of days of work.

Well, that is all for now. I promise to update more frequently! Take care and enjoy the pictures.

Cathy