Sitting on a Plane

One year ago at this moment I was sitting on a plane, half way between my old life and my new life.  I was full of anticipation, adrenaline, fear and overall excitement about what lie ahead for me.  With only a few photos and doctors' notes to prepare me, I anxiously waited as the plane brought me closer and closer to my new life as a mom to Grace.  I had no idea what I was in for, sitting on that plane.  I imagined quiet, calm days where Grace and I would cuddle and read books together.  Instead I got a firecracker of a girl who is always on the go, full of hugs yes, but only for a moment as there is always something else to explore.  I imagined having all this "free time" because Grace would sleep from 7 till 7 and would nap for two hours a day (it really did say that in the notes!!!LOL). I just imagined.  And none of it has turned out as I had imagined but wow, has it ever turned out great!

Birthday #3 and Finally the Birthday Celebrations are Over!

This morning during our "milk and coffee" time, I explained to Grace:  "Honey, just so you know, we won't be celebrating your birthday like this every year, having three parties with cupcakes and cake and special get togethers throughout the whole month of August.  It's happening this year, but really sweetie, it won't be like this every year."  She just laughed and climbed down off my lap to play.

Family Birthday Celebration
Today my family came over for a BBQ to celebrate Grace's birthday.  Finally "birthday month" is over and this will absolutely be the last birthday party this kid gets this year.  Seriously, 3 celebrations!!!???  I'm kidding really, as this was our first chance to get together as a family since the wedding.  My brothers and sisters have been in Ireland and Colorado and along the Trent Severn and even up in Yukon and Northwest Territories.  Finally everyone is back home again and we were able to take some time to relax, eat outdoors and celebrate Grace's first birthday in our family.  
I love seeing the kids running around the backyard, wearing themselves out!  The older nephews practised their soccer skills or kick boxing or whatever skills, kicking apples across the field while baby K and Grace spent their time chasing my sister around on the grass.  Everyone got fed, thanks to Eddy's BBQ skills and the evening ended with cake of course!!!!  After everything you're going to see in the photos following this post, you would think my girl would have crashed immediately, but no, no, no!  Grace chose to toss and turn and have me stay in her room to keep her company till well after 9:00.  Does that mean she will sleep in tomorrow morning??!!!

K-man dumping everything into the pool!!

action shot!

An August Full Moon

A full moon tonight.  I remember very clearly the full moon last August, right about this time.  I was finishing last minute preparations of Grace's room, packing for China, shopping for coming home and overall just rushing around.  But I very clearly remember that full moon.  It was hot and I sat outside on the deck late that night, watching the full moon, thinking about my upcoming motherhood and a child who I had yet to meet face to face but already knew I loved.  I had sent a picture book to Grace's orphanage in China weeks before I would get there, with my voice recorded, reading the story.  I had to record it a few times because my voice kept breaking, it was such an emotional experience.  The story was about being under the same moon, even though we are on opposite sides of the world.  A beautiful story about wishing two people could be together.  I wrote a post about it, you can find it by clicking here.  It's so strange to think back to that time.  I've been thinking about it a lot recently, my time just before Grace.  It was such an exciting time, so full of anticipation.  Now, here we are, almost a year later and it's so hard to remember what it was like to not be up half the night, to get up early and have a quiet coffee on the deck, to be out late.  I miss it, yes, and am currently working on some writing about that, but, one thing I know for sure, being a mom trumps it all!

Pie! Oh My!!

It's hard work getting that piece of pie onto a fork!  You gotta concentrate!  Here's Grace enjoying her first Church Supper.  She ate her own pie and then chose to "share" with Grandma.  Whether Grandma wanted to share or not was irrelevant!!!

Mmmmm Ketchup!

Today my daughter discovered the pleasure of ketchup.  Yummy.

It's My Party and I'll Cry if I Want to.....

So I hosted Grace's "friends party" on Saturday, which really just means a party for my friends who have young kids, and for those friends who were there and are reading this, you know exactly why I titled this post the way I did.  Grace had a fantastic time.  For the first half.  Then she fell asleep and woke up grumpy.  Poor thing was inconsolable.  Until the cake came out and happiness arrived once more for Grace!!!!!

Here's how it went:  True to her Gracey self, she did not nap well before the party.  I blame it all on the propane guy.  I needed to fill my propane tank so that we could BBQ the hot dogs, so I drove all the way across town to the place I knew that had propane.  Something was up with their phone system or whatever it is you need to process credit cards and it was chaos inside the convenience station store, people searching for cash to pay for gas, people angry, it was a scene.  I quietly wait my turn in line, all the while, Grace is getting closer and closer to her nap time.  He finally gets to me and says he'll be out in a minute.  Well, one minute turns into 10 and Grace is now really in need of a nap.  I don't want her to fall asleep in the car, because I had last minute stuff to do at home and needed her to sleep at home!!  The propane guy tells me my tank is too old, he can't fill it, something I had suspected but was not worried about because the sign outside the door says "New Propane Tanks Available Here."  So I ask for a new tank.  He doesn't have any, tells me I have to drive to Walmart or Canadian Tire or somewhere like that and buy one myself first.  Both of those stores are at least ten minutes away.  If I drive there, Grace is sure to fall asleep.  I consider what people might think if I just boiled the hot dogs even though the invitation clearly said Barbeque.  Would they notice?  I decide I had better make the drive to Walmart and get a new tank.  In the meantime, I am singing, clapping my hands, tickling Grace's head, doing everything I can do to keep her awake.  My efforts were fruitless and she fell asleep on the way back to the Petro Canada.  So Grace slept soundly as the guy filled the tank and I drove home.  A 20 minute errand had turned into almost an hour.  I slowed to a crawl as I came in the driveway but, alas, it was not meant to be.  Grace's eyes popped open and there it was.  I could almost see nap time flying out the car window.  She smiled (because now she's had 20 minutes of sleep and feels refreshed!!!) and started babbling to get out of the car.  So to end this long drawn out saga, that's how it came to be that Grace had a great time at the beginning of her party, then crashed at 4:30 in my arms.  

Enough about my troubles, now on to the party!!!  It was a lovely afternoon and the kids had a blast running around the yard, chasing each other, pulling kids in the wagon, playing with the toys and eating junk food.  Grace did wonderfully, mingling with the kids.  She showed them our raspberry patch and the kids went to town finding all the ripe berries.  Grace is getting more and more confident every day and I love it.  Everyone got fed and enjoyed a drink or two and then the cake came out.  As you can see in the video below, Grace liked being within "dipping distance" from the cake at all times.  She enjoyed her own cake, yes, but liked to be able to dip into the main cake once in a while too.  Too funny!!!!

Thanks for barbequing Steve!!!

Someone had to take a little break from all the partying!

I want some cake from this side too!

The Morning After Party......

Grace is Two!!!!!

Well, the day has finally arrived!  My little Grace is a two year old!!!!  Not to say that she hasn't acted like one for some time now, LOL, but today Grace officially became two.  We started the celebrations today and we will continue this weekend and later on in the month with family and some friends.  
I don't want to spend too much time writing about it because today was for celebrating, but it is not lost on me that two years ago today was probably the most difficult day one woman across the world has ever had to face, making today, two years later, one of the best days of my life.  The magnitude of that is not lost on me and I thank God every day that Grace has come into my life.
Grace and I spent a lovely day with my parents and sister Lynda by an outdoor pool and playground.  The weather was spectacular and we had a great time swimming and splashing in the fountains, sliding and climbing and swinging and eating a picnic lunch.  Grace enjoyed herself so much she fell asleep on the way home, as I was backing out of our parking space at the park!!   

Have I mentioned how my girl has discovered chips????!!! 

Grandpa sharing his chicken.  I can never get Grace to eat chicken!!  She ate and ate and ate with Grandpa!  What's up with that?!?!?

Who's walking who here??

Bubbles!!

"It's my birthday, I can sit on the table if I want to!"

Singing Happy Birthday

Mmmmm.... cupcakes with icing!

Grace, learning how to lick her fingers!

Just because.... he's so darn cute!