Reunion time

We had a GREAT month......

Jan 4th Sophia started school and loved it. We were so happy that she really seemed to enjoy going and the new environment. We of course have all had some adjusting to do to the new schedule but I think things are going pretty normally with the whole experience. You know moms always worry to much and i am no exception. School has been a lesson for me as well as for Sophia in letting go and letting grow.....

On Jan 16th we took vacation and meat with three of the other families we traveled to China with when we adopted Sophia. We spent a week with them enjoying each others company and of course enjoying the kids. There were five kids total and it was such a wonderful thing to see how they have all grown and changed so much since our time together in China. The girls all love each other and played together really well considering they are all pretty much the same age (2 1/5 to 3 years old). Savannah is such a great little southern city and provided the perfect backdrop for some really great pictures. We spent most of the week strolling around from one coffee shop to the next or from one Pub to the next. Lots of coffee, wine, and best of all laughter. We just love the families we traveled with and feel VERY fortunate to call them life long friends. We are already planning for next years reunion....LOL .. here are a few pictures from the trip..

LilyKate Love, Claire Palumbo, Sophia Rizzo, Eleanor Love and Stephanie Gonzalas

February promises to be a busy month for us with things planned for several weekends. We are going to do a Journey to Discovery program at Sophia's School on Feb. 6th. This program is designed to help parents fully understand the Montessori method of learning. We are really looking forward to this. I really want to get Sophia into an Art class so I am on the hunt for something age appropriate in our area. If you know of anything please drop me a line. We are excited that this year Chinese New Year falls on Valentines Day. The decoration possibilities have me giddy LOL...not sure what are plans are yet but it should be fun. The weather has been so wonderful this week that we are going to squeeze a trip into Disney World on Saturday.

We are still waiting for a fingerprinting appointment from USCIS so we can move forward with our second adoption. Riz and I are both anxious to complete this and bring a sister home for Sophia.

Go check out the new blog and read all about Sophia's first day at school

Our Montessori Journey

A Brand New Year

All Signs of Christmas are gone and the house is clean. It is January 3rd and a New Year is upon us. One of my many New Years resolutions was to blog more often so I am starting off on a good foot by writing down some of the things that are going on in our lives right now. We had a wonderful Christmas and a very quiet New Year Eve and New Years Day this holiday season. Riz and I don't like to be out on the road on New Years Eve so we usually stay home and watch the ball drop in NCY on TV. We did the same this year too. Sophia was fast asleep by the time that happened tho. We did let her stay up a bit later but by 9pm she said to us "time to sleep" So we took her up to bed and tucked our girl in for the last time in 2009. Riz and I stayed up watching TV and reflecting on the year we have had. It is amazing the changes in Sophia in the last year. She has gotten taller by nearly 4 inches and has gained 4.5 pound since last year this time. Her hair has grown and is now past her shoulders (not for long we get hair cuts on Wednesday). The thing that amazes us the most is how her mind has grown in the last year. Every single day she amazes us with a new word,phrase or action that we haven't seen before. Tomorrow starts a whole new world for Sophia and for her mommy and daddy as well. Sophia will be starting school at a great Montessori School not far from our house. We have been preparing her by talking about school, reading her books about going to school, taking her there several times just to look around and her favorite TV show right now is Little Bill. We love Little Bill too because it focuses on age appropriate things for preschoolers. We are all very excited about her first day of school even if mom and dad are going to be a bit choked up. See it seems when you adopt a 15 month old child everything is in fast forward and every little milestone is a HUGE milestone to be celebrated. My plan is to start a blog that follows our Montessori Journey. I have started working on it and hope to have a post ready for tomorrow night. I will post the link here tomorrow night if I get it ready in time. We are excited about what this next yer has in store for us.

Thanks for keeping up with us :)