Fun Filled Weekend!

This weekend, we had a great time!  On Saturday, Saiya had dance class.  Saiya still LOVES her dance class!  Her recital is May 22 and she is so excited!  They are doing a little tap dance to a medly of Elvis songs.  It is too CUTE!!

After dance class, we went to Umma’s and Umpa’s house for the day.  Saiya got to go to Rockledge Gardens’ little bug club.  They made mini worm compost buckets.  Saiya loved making the garden sign, she even wrote her own name!  She wasn’t too happy about picking out the worms, and wouldn’t hold them in her hand.  She would, however, poke at them with the little shovel that came with the bucket.  Poor wormies.  After we made the buckets, Umma bought her a flower to put in her garden and then took us out to ice cream.

After we got back to Umma’s house, Saiya played with a puzzle with Umpa.  She had a blast!  I’m still amazed at how long of an attention span she has.  Umpa said she will be working on her Ph.D. By the time she is 20.  Hahaha!!

Saiya had a great day!

Birthday Party at the Ice Rink

Sunday we had Sebastian’s birthday party at the ice skating rink.  Saiya has never been on skates before, but she had a blast!  Most of the time, I was holding her hand, but she can skate pretty well on her own without needing to hold both hands.  She’s a natural!  Its too bad that we don’t have a skating rink closer to our house.  This one is about 35-40 minutes away.  She had fun though!

No More Rails

Saturday morning, I awoke to a small girl tip-toeing into my room whispering “Mama” at 5am.  I asked her what she wanted sleepily wondering how she managed to get out of bed on her own with the rails in the way.  I took her to the potty and put her back to bed.  At 7am, she tip-toed back into my room and asked for breakfast.

So, we made the decision that it was time for the rails to come down off of her bed.  Chris took them down Saturday morning.  Saturday night, Saiya was getting ready for bed, and noticed they were gone.  She had a shocked look on her face and said “where’d they go?”.  I told her that baba put them out in the garage.  Well, she would not go to bed until we showed her were they were.  So, Chris took her out to the garage to show her that they were still out there and we told her if she fell out of bed, we would put them back up.

So far, two nights and she is fine.  So, I think we are done with the rails.  Maybe we can use them for a tree fort or something….

Time to Relax!

Today we spent the day with my sister and my mother.  My mom treated all of us to Pedicures and a really nice lunch!  Saiya had a blast and even got her toes painted, which was the highlight of her day!  Thank you Nana for an awesome Girl's Day Out!

Catching Up - Our Visit with Wen Wen (aka Matteah)

Last year, we were supposed to travel to China with another family in the middle of July to get Saiya.  We didnt end up traveling until late August, but Saiya's friend Wen Wen got to home in July.  Her family lives in Winsconsin and travels to Kentucky every year between Christmas and New Year's while the kids are on break.  On their way through Indiana, we arranged for Saiya and Wen Wen (aka Matteah) to play together.  We drove down to Indianapolis and Matteah's mother stopped for a break at the local Chuck-E-Cheese so that the girls could play.  I'm not sure if they remembered each other and I would give almost anything to know what they were thinking when they first saw each other.  I asked Saiya repeatedly if she knew who Wen Wen was and if she knew what happened to her.  She told me that Wen Wen had a mama and baba now and that she went with them.  But when she first saw her at the restaurant, I asked her if she recognized her and she said no.  Now if you ask her, she knows exactly who Wen Wen is and smiles alot when we talk about how much fun she had playing with her and her sister.  Still, it would be nice to know what goes on in her mind and whether she really remembered her friend from the orphanage or not.  I hope that we can continue to arrange play dates for them.  I think its really important for Saiya to know what happened to her friend and being from the same orphanage will be something they will both share forever.

Catching Up - Visiting Grandpa in Indiana

The day after Christmas we flew to Indiana to visit with Chris's grandfather and have Saiya meet the rest of his family.  We usually travel over Thanksgiving, but that didnt work out this year.  So, we bundled up well and hopped on the plane for Indiana.  We stayed at Chris's grandfather's house and from minute one, Saiya had him wrapped around her little finger!  I would scold her for something and he would say "Stop making that little girl cry."  Hahaha!  It was funny.

There were presents there for her when we arrived, one of which was a sledding-saucer.  There was lots of snow, so we took her outside with Chris's cousin and she went sledding for the first time.  We even got to try the sled out ourselves!  Unfortunately, we only got to go out and play in the snow the first day we were there since the weather got too warm for it to stick around for vey long.

On day two we went to see Tangled at the movie theater.  This was the first movie we took Saiya to see a movie and she did great!  She loved the movie (which was very cute) and sat through the whole thing.  She only got a little restless at the end when she started to complain that she was hungry.

Before the movie, we went to the cemetary so that Chris could visit with his mom and grandma.  Saiya picked out flowers for the graves and said hello to them while we were there.  It's heartbreaking that she never got to meet either of them.  They were both amazing women.  It is our hope, though, that she will learn about who they were from us.  We miss them very much...

She got to meet many family members and took to everyone (and all the attention) like a fish to water!  She did great the whole time we were up there and traveled really well.  I love visiting up there and can't wait until later this year when we can go again.  Hopefully we will be able to travel around Thanksgiving like we usualy do so that we can visit with more of Chris's family.  We really didnt have enough time to see everyone and it was a shame that Saiya could not meet them all.

Catching Up - Christmas!!

We spent Christmas Eve at Umma's and Umpa's house.  Saiya loved opening all of her presents and I think it might have been just a little overwhelming for her.  She had fun coloring and we watched Rudolph The Red-Nose Reindeer.  She liked the singing parts, but I dont think she was paying much attention to the movie iteself.  Maybe next year we will have better luck.

Saiya got a ton of toys from Chris's family and really loved opening all of her gifts.  At points she got a little cranky because she had to wait for other people to open presents, but for the most part, she did great!  One of the most memorable items (and one she plays with ALOT!) that she got was a play Doctor set.  She absolutely LOVES it!  She keeps trying to give everyone shots!  When we say "Ow!" she sits back and laughs!  I'm glad she thinks its funny.  She wasnt too thrilled about shots the last time we were at the doctor's office, but maybe she is changing her mind about the doctor himself.  He's great and really good with kids.

Saiya made a picture frame for Umma and Umpa and I put one of my favorite pictures of Saiya in it.  It came out great!  We made one for Umma, Nana, and Grandma Jenny.  Saiya had a great time making them!

When we finally had our fill of Christmas cookies and presents, we headed home, put Saiya to bed and then we proceeded to load our own tree with tons of presents for Christmas day.  I put together the table that Umma bought for Saiya and we stuffed the kids' stockings full of candy and toys and then headed off to bed.  It was very strange being on that side of the Christmas Night fence.  We kept thinking about all the stuff our parents did while we slept Christmas Eve...

Christmas day was at our house and Saiya got to unwrap dozens more presents with the other kids.  They all had a great time.  When the wrapping paper was done flying, Saiya and the other kids started opening boxes and pulling out toys while the adults sat and visited with one another.  Saiya and Syrafina got a jointly shared dollhouse, complete with outdoor accessories and dozens of furniture items, Sebastian got a train set, and Saiya got a ride-on tiger and a bike!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Catching Up - Saiya and Her Christmas Pony

Saiya asked Santa for a pony for Christmas.  Well, he could not fit one on his sleigh, so Umma arranged for her to have a one-on-one session at a local ranch.  She got to have a pony ride, learned how to brush the horses and even met a llama and some pigs!  The ranch people were awesome and went over the basics of horseback riding and even let her ride the pony by herself.  She had a blast and now keeps asking for a Pony Party for her birthday.  The ranch is great and really focuses on educating the kids about the outdoors and horsemanship.  We are thinking a Pony Party for her birthday might spawn horseback riding lessons when she gets older.  We will see...

Thank you Umma!!