Almost Spring Photoshoot

The weather this weekend broke 50 degrees so we took the opportunity for a little walk to a local park for a photo shoot.  There is still a bit of snow on the ground but it was nice to get outside for a change.  Spring can't get here soon enough.

Critters

We attended a birthday party this weekend and they had a woman with a bunch of little critters come to entertain the kids.  Grace loves animals but she was not a fan of the reptiles.   Some pics below

 No like the little alligator

 Big Bunny

 Not so sure about the armadillo

 Only willing to touch daddy's hand while he touches the snake

Grace and the chinchilla

Ice Skating

We took Grace ice skating for the first time this weekend.  Let's just say that I don't think we have the next olympian on our hands.  We all had a blast though and that's what counts.  Pics below...

Gung Hay Fat Choy

Yes, it is that time again (Chinese New Year).  We celebrated this year by attending the CAWLI party.  It was night to catch up with a couple of our travel mates as well as meet a few of our blog readers.  Grace has a great time this year, as she gets older she is really showing her independence and it is nice to see her just jump in to the crowd and have fun.

First Manicure

Dancin'

Grace and Mommy

We rounded out our weekend with a trip to see the Disney Princeses on Ice.  We went to the show last year and Grace loved it so we surprised Grace again this year.

Grace and Tiana

Pricesses are serious stuff

Snow, snow and more snow

It started snowing here in early January and it seems like it hasn't stopped.We have close to 4 feet on the ground and 2 of those feet came in the last couple weeks.  It's getting so there is no place to put it, but we live in New England so this is what we deal with.  For Grace it is all great fun as it should be.  Heading out to the CAWLI Chinese New Year party this Saturday, hope to see some of you there.  Some pics from our most recent storm below.

Catching Up

Been a couple weeks since I last posted so here is a little catch up....

Jen and I had the week after Christmas off so we had some nice quality time with Grace.  We didn't have any big plans for the week, we just wanted to hang out and relax.  Which we did and it was nice.  We started out our vacation week with a nice little snowstorm so we took Grace on her first sledding excursion of the year.  She had a great time sledding in MeMe's back yard with mommy and daddy.

Sledding with Daddy

On New Years Eve we went out to dinner with the Shah family and then came back to our house for a little New Years Eve kids party and of course some adult beverages for us.

Party with the Shah Girls

 

Grace also recently got to experience what it is like to "have curly hair like mommy".  This is actually what happens to her hair after it has been in braids all day.  But her hair is so straight it doesn't last too long.  Grace got quite a kick out of it while it lasted though.

I can be cute

And I can be bad-ass

Christmas Chaos

Christmas with a 3 year old...well what can I say....total chaos, excitement and overall fun.  We started out Christmas eve with dinner at our house with some of Jen's family.  Grace has a great time exchanging gifts with Me Me, Pa Pa and her cousins.  On Christmas morning Grace came into our room nice and early letting us know it was time to get up.  She was very excited to go downstairs to see what Santa had brought her.  Later in the day we headed out to my mom's for dinner.  By the end of Christmas day we were all wiped out but it was a great day.

Happy Holidays

Our holiday cards are going out a little late this year.  For our blog readers not on our holiday cards list the list the 2010 edition below.  Hope everyone has a great holiday season.

This kid needs to be in theater

No idea where she came up with this or what she is singing but it is pretty damn cute

Getting ready for the holidays

We are about a week late getting started with our holiday activities this year as we had some home improvement stuff going on and are just getting our house back together.  We ventured out to the mall this weekend for a visit was Santa.  We weren' t sure how it was going to go as last year Grace wouldn't sit will Santa unless mommy was with her.  Grace seemed excited but we thought she may freeze up when her big moment came.  But she surprised us and marched right up and plopped herself down next to Santa and rattled off the list of presents that she has in mind this year.

After our trip to Santa we headed home to finish decorating our tree with a little help from Grace.  Perfect photo oppurtunity.....

Really!?!?!

Last Friday after Jen picked Grace up from school they were having  a conversation about Grace's day.  During this conversation Jen referred to herself as mommy, after which Grace stopped her and said "but not the real one".  Jen's first reaction was a bit of shock and sadness but she quickly composed herself and asked Grace who had told her this.  I think Grace knew from Jen's reaction that something wasn''t right so she tried to get change the subject.  Jen eventually got it out of her that one of the little girls in class had told her this.  Jen handled the situation pretty well explaining to Grace that she did not grow in her belly but she was still her real mommy.  Luckily Grace didn't seem to be upset by the whole situation, but I am not sure she fully understood either.

Now we knew we would be dealing with this type of thing eventually but not so soon.  The kids in Grace's preschool are three and four years old.  We have to assume that this child was just repeating something she heard at at home.  We don't blame the kid, it is obviously the parents that need a little education.

The teachers at Grace's school are really good but we realize that not everybody is as familiar with Positive Adoption Language as we are so we printed out a couple adoption language documents to bring in to school on Monday.    Jen had a conversation with one of the teachers on Monday and to say the teacher was surprised would be an understatement.  She totally got why this was an issue and was very supportive.  She told us she would keep an eye out for future conversations of this type between the kids and would be sure to correct any of them if it comes up again.  Unfortunately you can't teach the parents proper adoption language but hopefully if a kid is corrected at school this will find its way back home and make the parents think twice about the conversations that have with or in front of their children.

We were really happy with the way the school handled our concerns but still were a bit shocked that this has come up so soon..... Since this was kind of a downer post I will sign off with a cute pic of Grace...

Action Packed Weekend

We had a very busy long weekend.  Thursday wa,,s of course Thanksgiving.  We had dinner at MeMe and PaPa's and then traveled to Gram's to spend some time with cousins James and Sammy.

On Saturday we took Grace to see the Annie Musical.  She has the movie and watches it all the time so when we noticed that it was playing locally we had to take her.  She loved it,  but was very quick to point out all of the differences from the movie.  After Annie, we headed into Lowell for the City of Lights Parade.  Grace was on the GLTHS Candy "County" float dressed as a peppermint.

Today we hung out at home and got started raking all of the leaves in our backyard.  Luckily for me Grace was able to help me out this year.

I Whip My Hair Back and Forth

Grace channeling Willow Smith

Foliage Photos

Spent some time enjoying the fall weather outside with Grace this weekend.  It was a great opportunity for a little photo session.  I bought a new portrait lens for my camera so I had to take the opportunity to try it out.  Results below....