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.

Playdate got rained out, what to do? Take the girls to the Mall !

Mary and Claudia ham it up at the mall, and hold hands when they stroll the halls !

We got so many "Awwww how cute" looks and comments !

We had brief conversations with two adoptive families who happened to be at the mall!
Very nice, even the Mom who rushed over and exclaimed "oh, they are adopted! Here's mine, all grown up!And she motioned to her lovely KA (Korean American daughter). And this lovely maybe 20 something year old came over smiling, happy and not at all embarassed that her gregarious Mom had run over to us to comment! It was so quick and good natured in tone that we were laughing, not bothered in the least ! And that woman's daughter was just great !! Good sign for those who worry about how their daughters will adjust and accept the fact of their having been adopted. After all, it was just one day in their lives! : )

Mary is still napping! wow!

This allowed me some precious time to update the blog. prob won't have time to add a slide show.

Seen and heard, August 2007

More goings on in the life of Mary.
word development wise, we have heard 'pease', a variation of thank you, cook, fro fries (this is not new, but oft repeated), wall, walk, more, etc etc.

We drove past a Wendy's on the way home, after dark, and Mary, who should have fallen asleep in her car seat by then, called out "fro fries" repeatedly. She recognized the structure and signage of the building, which is pretty cool. She also knows when we near our house, or one of her grandparents' houses, from a few streets away.

Mary with her (formerly my) Fiorucci handbag

Fiorucci is an Italy-based young fashion label founded by Elio Fiorucci. The label's heyday was the 1970s. In the early 1960s, Fiorucci was a small shoe shop in Milan owned and run by present Fiorucci tycoon Elio's father. The elegant Milanese with money used to have their clothes and shoes made to order.

This handbag was a gift, not sure where my friend found it. I thought the New York Fiorucci store had long since closed!

Mary and her Mommy meet Ava for the first time

At long last, Ava is home ! So adorable, we are going to visit Ava and her Mommy tomorrow, can't wait !

Our Hunan reunion party

This past Saturday, one of the families with whom we traveled to Hunan, China, hosted a reunion party for the girls (and their parents were invited too : )!

It was wonderful to see everyone in a more relaxed atmosphere than when we were
traveling. Visiting China was great, but there is no place like home! Especially since we are almost a year home with our precious daughters! All the girls are thriving and doing very well developmentally! A few families had scheduling conflicts and could not make the party, and we missed seeing them, but will send photos.

Some things, like a shopping day at Nordstrom, are destiny!

My First Summer Vacation by Mary Rose

This girl loves the beach, no fear!

Tomorrow will be Mary's first glimpse of the ocean

this link is to a low budget video about cape may. the narrator has such a philly accent, but the photos of the victorian houses are cool.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFnanz6-qmo



Ok, it will only be the Atlantic Ocean, but she will most certainly enjoy it!


Anyway, photos...