Vivi's visit with Santa

We went to Bronners in Frankenmuth on Friday to see Santa, just like I did every year since I was born. Vivi was excited to go up and see him, she even tried climbing up onto his platform while another family was there, but once she was on his lap and I walked away, she got a little nervous, and I ended up back up with her. She showed Santa her pretty painted nails, and he gave her a star ornament :)

Our adoption group holiday party

We are in a local group for adoptive families that meets once a month at various kid-friendly places like Chuck E Cheese or a park. For our holiday party, we had a 'Festival of Cultures' where everyone was instructed to bring a dish relating to either their culture, or their child's culture. We hosted it at our church, and it was SO fun! We had Italian, Haitian, Mexican, and 'Soul food' represented in various dishes and it was all soo good! I made my grandma's fudge, and Vivi's birthfamily's sweet potato pie. (Did I share that story? Vivi's birth-aunt shared with us a family recipe for sweet potato pie that she makes every year for Thanksgiving. I made it for thanksgiving this year, and that is going to be one of our family traditions too. It is so special to me to have that for Vivi, and she LOVES sweet potatoes. I hope it will be special to her too as she grows up :)

Anyway, the party was very very fun, the kids were able to run around and the parents were able to talk. It is always nice to talk to other adoptive parents who have jumped through the same hoops we have to become parents, and they are all great people, we're so happy to know them!

Here is the best picture we got with all the kids in attendance. Jenavieve is on the left with the back of her head to the camera-in every picture at least one kid was up and moving, but at least there were no tears!

How Vivi rolls

The picture every toddler needs-riding in the diaper box car!

A bit of an update on the adoption front

We sent all of our paperwork out last week to all of the places it had to go, so everything is out of our hands and we have to wait for everyone else to do their jobs. We just got this email from the agency:

"I just wanted to let you know that we received the two documents from the State of Michigan and the State of Washington with the notary seal pages. My next step is to forward them to the State Dept and the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington DC to be authenticated."

Our compilation of papers that have been filled out, signed, notarized, etc, which is called the dossier, has also been sent out. The agency will check that over to make sure we did it all right, then send it on to Ethiopia to be translated and processed.

So, slow going, but moving along!

Halloween Recap-it's not too late yet right??

I'm a bad blogger, it's just so hard to find time! I've had the post sitting here waiting for pictures to be added since just after Halloween. I figure as long as it's up before Christmas, it's ok, right?

Jenavieve had a lot of Halloween events to attend! She was a ballerina-we bought a leotard at Once Upon a Child (a resale shop) and found some cute leg warmers and a tutu on clearance at Target. She wore tights and shoes we already own, and my mom picked up a shrug sweater.

She had a couple of Halloween parties, one with the June Bugs, the play group for babies born in the summer of 2009:

We hosted a Halloween party for the community at church this year for the first time in a long time, which was a success:

The Friday before Halloween, we visited Uncle Rick's office (where I used to work) for their annual party, Vivi took her bucket and got some candy there, then on the way home we stopped at Eric's office, and he took her trick or treating through all 3 departments he has worked for there. Then to the bank, where they gave her a whole handful of suckers. Her bucket was already almost full!

That same night we went to the Zoo Boo at the Detroit Zoo with Eric's mom and grandma, which was really fun. Chilly, but not rainy like last year, and Vivi was able to enjoy it more of course.

The next day we went to a birthday party for Vivi's friend Vivi. It was Halloween themed, and because they live right downtown, after lunch and cake, all the kids put on their costumes, and we walked downtown where they were having a trick or treat event. It was really cool, any business that wanted to participate put an orange balloon outside their door. Most places had people dressed up and standing outside to pass out candy, but other people made you go inside, which was really inconvenient because it was pretty busy and there was only one door for people to get their wagons and strollers and costumes in and out. We did it once, then realized how silly it was and skipped the rest of them.

On Halloween, we went to my friend Alex's church in Walled Lake, where they were doing a fun thing called trunk or treat. I had never heard of it before, members of the church dressed up, and decorated their cars, and kids went from car to car to collect candy. Alex and her parents were dressed as scientists and did fun experiments with the kids, like the mentos and diet coke trick. It was a pretty chilly night, and Vivi wore sweat pants under her tutu (and I made a mental note to pick a costume next year that can be made from sweats) but she had a good time trick or treating. She started to get the hang of holding out her bucket, and sort of said trick or treat. She doesn't know that most of it is candy, but she DOES know what a sucker is, so when given a choice, she would reach into the candy, pull out a sucker, and put it in her bucket. Then she would pull it back out and ask me to open it for her. We let her eat one, and when it was gone, she pulled out another one and handed it to me :)


After trunk or treating, we headed over to see my cousins Adam and Amy. Adam was out with his friends in a bigger subdivision, and Amy had gone out with her mom, so we took the opportunity to warm up in the house. When Amy came back, she took Vivi trick or treating around their little neighborhood, making sure to avoid the scary houses. It was very cute!

How to get kids to sit for a picture

We don't want to sit together for a picture!

You have a sucker? I do too! Maybe we can sit still and eat them.

Yes, that will cheer us up!

A successful cousin picture!

When Jenavieve does laundry

Thanksgiving Day Stuffing Strut

Way to go Stuffing Strutters (5k) - The weather was great, no rain and only a little chilly, it was a great race!

Grace - 23:53

Ana & Eric - 29:46

Zac & Ann Marie - 43:26 & 43:27

Brandon & Alison - 55:56

Way to go Mike - Turkey Trot 10k - 50:52

If I find Amanda's time I'll post it too

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

-Eric

Guess what we're starting to do!

No, I'm not crazy enough to try toilet training right before the holidays, this is a Jenavieve-led thing. She has just started showing an occasional interest, and while she has asked to sit on the toilet 7 or 8 times this week, only 2 of those times were 'productive'. This is her very first time asking (and very first time she went!). It is also probably the best blackmail picture I have of her so far ;)

Vivi's Holiday Wishlist 2010

Is it that time of year already? It has been so warm that it doesn't feel like the week before Thanksgiving...

We are still trying to avoid having a lot of plastic toys and anything with batteries if possible. For a wishlist of specific items she would like, you can click here . She would also enjoy having:

~Dress up clothes/jewelry--she spends A LOT of time in front of the mirror with anything from a plastic lei to a skirt on her head ;)

~Kid's colored nail polish-this may sound like a weird one for her age but she loves to sit and have her nails painted, and is so proud to show them off to anyone she sees.

~Play food (plastic is ok-sometimes that's the only way to get the cool textures!) Melissa and Doug has some really cool wood food sets too. She already has pots, pans, plates, and silverware.

~Her current love (obsession) is Sesame Street. Anything Sesame Street. The stuffed characters she already has are Elmo, Grover, Cookie Monster, and Ernie. She would love other stuffed characters, you can get them at Target for like $6 (and they say their names on the tag so you don't have to be a Sesame Street expert). Clothing, Dvds, cds, books, basically anything Sesame Street would be a big hit!

~Winter clothes size 18 months-sweaters, hoodies, jeans, dresses. She has a lot of long sleeved shirts and plenty of pajamas. Shoes size 6.

~She would probably tell you that she would love more baby dolls, although she does have quite a few already ;)