All the toys Mary has and she prefers to play on the bathroom rug

And yes, she is wearing my underwear around her neck. Mary also creates havoc in the sock drawer, which is now a complete jumble.

more pumpkin patch stuff

To the Pumpkin Patch

Mary's pre school class visited a farm, went on a hayride to the pumpkin patch and then had ice cream (the farm's own prodcut).

It had been raining overnight, and in the early morning, and we just got through the activities when if began raining very heavily ! The window of opportunity was just large enough to allow for the hayride & corn maze and then it began to rain.

Columbus Day on the farm

and in McDonald's.

It's a start !

These pony tails did not stay in Mary's hair for very long, but at least she allowed it. Usually, she won't tolerate anything in her hair, not even for a second!

Mary's aerobic workout inspecting the rows of front load washers at Sears

Last weekend we went to Sears to select a new washer, as the one that came with our house had an acute myocardial infarction and could not be saved.




Busy day, as we had been invited by Homeland Security to visit the local USCIS office, once again. We were fingerprinted, for the third time. I am sure there will be another session in approx a year and a half. Anyway, Mary fretted and cried during our respective sessions, probably because we were each out of her line of vision for about 10 minutes.





Last time we were there, we still had a long wait in front of us, and this time, we had our girl there with us. I will be better able to visualize the long wait and the happy result this time, but


the wait will not be easier, and will be much, much longer. Possibly 3 times as long.





Anyway, back to the clothes washer. So that evening, after dinner, we went to Sears, and here are photos of Miss M investigating everything in sight!

Shoes

We love shoes, and photos of the floor that occasionally happen. Don't look for any deeper meaning, Owl pontificates, Rabbit frets, Tigger bounces, but Pooh just is !

The mischievous "two's" are upon us!

I was upstairs putting in my contact lenses and applying makeup, hurriedly. Mary had been downstairs watching tv. She came upstairs and her sleeves were wet halfway to the elbows. It had been quiet, as Shrek says, "t's quiet, too quiet!"

Though I knew, I said, what did you do? Did you put your hands in the toilet again? She slyly smiled and said a staccato Yes!

So I washed her hands and changed the shirt. When we went downstairs again, I saw the 2 hand towels from the powder room on the floor in the foyer. There were also a few toys and a roll of toilet paper on the floor.

The towels were saturated halfway, and there was a little bit of water around the toilet and on the seat. So I wiped it up, gave my little we do not do that speech, and took the towels to the laundry room.

I flushed the toilet and it was very sluggish. It seemed to get even worse after I tried the plunger.

So, here are the photos of the aftermath of this incident, after Bruce took the toilet out to try to fix it. You can see the item that cause all the trouble, on the brick patio! And also, the guilty party peeking out the door.

Incidentally, she put her hands in the toilet several other times in the recent days since this event. She threw my comb and hairbrush into the mather bathroom toilet. I promptly threw those out !

Sunglasses at night at the Lotus Inn

Mary's 2nd Birthday Party

Sunday was her Shrek-tastic birthday party and Tuesday the first day of her morning pre-school. After we slipped out of the room, the teacher had to comfort her for about 15 minutes, but then, she got engaged in the activities and even held hands with the only other little girl in the class as they exited the gym. This is based on hear say, as I was in the lounge for a while and then made a quick trip to the food store. I can see that there will be time for a manicure one of these fine days, at the strip mall that is within shouting distance from the pre school! 2 hours all to myself, what will I do??? Hee Hee! Probably go home and watch my tivo of Damages or MadMen!

September 5, 2007 Mary poses and gives attitude!

Mary does her imitation of Edvard Munch's "The Scream".

Today, September 5 2007, marks one year since our Adoption day in Changsha , China.

We celebrated Mary's first anniversary of her adoption day with a steak dinner (at home) followed by a chocolate cake. I don't bake much, but I went all out and made a betty croc devils food cake mix in a designer pan.

We sang to Mary, and let her blow out 2 candles, as practice for her 2nd birthday party this sunday.

Also some shots at Daddy's office and assorted family stuff.

Allentown Fair 2007

We ate our way through the A Town Fair this past Saturday. Mary went on several kiddie rides and closed the evening by devouring a chocolate and peanut covered vanilla ice cream cone.

See the slide show for photo documentation of that.

We also ran into one of the families with whom we traveled to China. With the huge crowd of people at the fair, it was a fun coincidence that we saw them! Mary went on an airplane ride with their son! Cute !

Pedicure time !

Come Full Circle: Guilty confession

Dressing up, Princess style

Mary goes all girly girl. She is going to have her second birthday party on Sept. 9,
and it's going to be a Shrek fest, Shrektastic, as the invite says.

Mary makes cupcakes, or just eats the batter...

We mad these gooey fudge center streusel cupcakes the other day. The step stool seemed to work well. I have thought about getting the "Learning Tower", but then she would have access to all the drawers, knife block, too close for comfort. I already moved all the knives out of the drawer to higher ground long ago.

Mary's Menagerie

This is just the collection that is housed in the living room toy chest. There are more 'critters' downstairs and still more (just one mesh container full) in Miss Thing's bedroom.