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

Lizzie Picture Updates

I want to color Mommy & Daddy!

Elizabeth loves to color...which she calls "ellow" which kind of sounds like a bad french accent of someone saying hello -- sort of like Inspector Clousou! So, her first adventure in coloring were those markers by Crayola.. the ones that only work on special paper. She liked them, so the next day were were in Target and decided to get her two coloring books and a giant sketching book. We also got her some washable Crayola crayons! Well, she is a coloring fool now!! She loves it... She did get into trouble yesterday though...she decided to color on the walls. Guy told her bad girl and we took the crayons away from her for one-half hour. Without the crayons, she went to her tablet, and sadly started turning the pages....she looked so sad, but we didn't give in! We waited the full half-hour before giving them back to her!!! Here are some really cute pictures of her "ellowing"!

Pool Time!

My brother and sister-in-law had a birthday party for my nephew Jake on July 1. They have an above-ground pool. Well, Guy took her into the pool for some fun. At first she really didn't like it, she definitely would not go in the little boat float they bought for her. So Guy just walked her around eventually she started to like it a little bit. She would not let go of him though. Here are some pictures!

Movie Star Baby At The Shore!

Today was my firm's company picnic. It was held in Sea Isle City, New Jersey. Today was also Elizabeth's first day at the beach. It was an absolutely beautiful day at the beach, but Elizabeth was having nothing of it! She let Daddy carry her down to the beach and would not let him put her down. When he tried, she would scream. We did get some really cute pictures though. The big surprise was she actually kept her hat on and loved wearing her sun glasses.

Our Future Beauty Pagent Contestant!

Well, today we decided to finally try on Lizzie's bathing suits. She really enjoyed modeling for us too! Enjoy!

More Pictures!

Mother's Day 2006

I didn't want to forget to mention Mother's Day this year. This was our first Mother's Day with Elizabeth. We visited Guy's family at his brother's house where we had a very nice lunch. My family came over to our house for brunch. Guy surprised me with a beautiful necklace with mine and Elizabeth's birthstones. It was a wonderful day!

More Pictures!

Here are some more pictures for you all to enjoy!

Happy Memorial Day!

I have finally had a minute to do an update! Everyone has been bugging me for picture -- and boy do we have pictures! This weekend was really fun. On Saturday, we went to Art & Ruthanne's house for Lisa's birthday celebration. They opened their pool, but it was far too cold to go in. However, Ruthann sat the baby on the side of the pool and put her legs in. She loved it!!! You can see that in the pictures! On Sunday, Lance, Fran and Fran's mom Christine, came over to have a barbecue with us. Fran brought the baby a giant bowling set. The pins are almost as big as her! They set the pins up and Elizabeth could barely contain herself. She practically flung herself at the pins to knock them over! Today, we went over to Lance & Fran's house for dinner. Elizabeth knows where Fran keeps all of the toys and went right to the closet! We brought the bowling set over and played with that, then Fran took out the bubble cow! Elizabeth loves that!! Enjoy the pictures!

We Can't Believe It Has Been Six Months...

Six months ago, on Tuesday, November 8, 2005, we became a family of three! Elizabeth was placed in our arms and our lives changed forever. Elizabeth didn't cry when they gave her to us, she just looked at us with an expression that said, "They look ok to me, I think I will keep them". From the first minute we saw her, we knew she belonged to us! It is amazing how fast six months went, we feel like it was a blink of an eye. She is so much a part of our lives now. She has grown so much since we were handed that tiny baby! She is 25 pounds now and about 32 inches tall. She loves her daycare and her baby babble is slowly turning into actual conversations! She loves popcicles and ice cream, but also edamame (soybeans). She loves books, Elmo and kitty cats, but doesn't like her hair washed! We don't know what it is like to sleep late anymore, but now we have the fun of spending early Saturday and Sunday mornings, cuddling with Elizabeth in bed after she wakes up!

I will post some pictures tonight!

Some Cute Pictures!

Elizabeth is very into sitting on things now. Her latest is sitting on toy buckets. She drags it over to the ottoman and sits down to eat her snack! We were in Target the other day and I found the cutest sun hat. I put it on Elizabeth and believe it or not, she kept it on until her Daddy saw her. Now she brings it over to us when we are in the living room and wants to wear it around the house! So, just a couple of cute pictures! Take care.