2009--The Year Our Family Became Four and More

Some memories of 2009.... Our beautiful three year old girl One of the first big smiles

Our new wheels

RIP Fudgie--We miss you everyday. January 1995 to December 2009 (adopted at 2)

Love those Seth baby smiles

Love my sweet kiddos

In Disney when we found out about Seth

Savannah's third forever family day celebration

Daddy's princess

Our angel baby

First day of school

I love my baby brother

Mommy loves her best girl--in FL on my birthday

A family of 4 home and together forever

Our handsome baby boy at 9 months

2009 was quite a year in our household. We had a lot of changes, the unexpected, mostly happy, some sad, many sleepless nights but mostly amazing moments and wonderful memories as we became a family of four. Wishing everyone a safe and happy new year and a healthy and prosperous 2010.

2009 started out with uncertainty and a lot we did not know

Beginning with a lot of snow

Our plans were changed and we stayed home watched the year turn

Boy we did not know what we had to learn

A week into the new year I received an e-mail

We did not know what this would entail

We had been in process for months to adopt Kazakstan

But that did not seem any longer like a viable plan

My dear friend put me in touch with someone who knew

And could relate to what we had been through

There is a pregnant woman very far away

She made an adoption plan and a paper ready family was needed today

This of course I did pursue

And we knew what we were going to do

Changing paperwork and countries fast

I did it in all in a blast.

The next two months were quite a blur

And some things did a occurr

Then in March things did not go right as planned

It was heartbreaking and I just did not understand

So we took our darling daughter to Disney

This is where she turned three

She got transformed into Tinkerbell

And we were under her spell

We had a week of fun

But it all just had begun

We got an unexpected call

That changed it all

A baby boy was waiting for us in Japan

Getting there in three days was the plan

We went from Florida to home and back on a plane

Our life was busy and insane

We flew 13 hours to meet our son

On March 28th our new life had begun

28 days in Tokyo was life changing

The things we experienced were amazing

But the best was our baby boy who was there

With those gorgeous dark brown eyes and lots of hair

On April 20th we went the Embassy to get the visa to go home

Said our oath, got his visa and said bye Tokyo that we loved and we have known

On April 26th we were back in the USA

And before we knew it, it was May.

It was quite an adjustment to two kids from one

Oh the work and the fun

It is amazing to see your children develop and grow

The sleepless nights we did not know

But by three months Seth started to sleep through the night

And we saw the daily light

Savannah started to talk a lot

She no longer seemed like a little tot

We traded in our car with not enough room

For a mini-van with a DVD player, vroom, vroom, vroom

Potty training for Savannah in the summer

She did a great job, so it wasn't a bummer

We celebrated anniversary number 15

We went to the beach with two kids alone, we are quite a team

In September Savannah started school

Seth was rolling over and had lots of drool

We went to Boston and had Mickey and Minnie for Halloween

We had lots of fun with our family in between

In December Rich had a conference in FL, so we went to the beach and Disney

Seeing friends and characters for the kids was pure glee

December had a very sad day

We said good bye to our beloved cat Fudige when he passed away

Then we celebrated the holidays with the Savannah and Seth

Having them to party with is the best

We are excited to start this new decade

We will probably watched the Rose Bowl Parade

We don't know what exactly is in store

But we know Savannah will turn four

Seth will celebrate birthday number one

And walking will come soon, oh the fun

He will make a lot of strides

It will be an exciting ride

All we know for sure

Is that our a family is filled with pride and love and we are so happy to be a family of 4

A Little Bit of Disney

I have been having so much difficulty uploading the photos from Disney. We took the with our SLR camera and I think the files are just too large and it takes too long. So, I am finding my favorites and slowly but surely e-mailing them to myself in a reduced size for viewing. So they will be added little my little. Here are our pictures from Chef Mickey and the Princess Dinners. Both kids loved the characters and the fun! I would highly recommend Chef Mickey at the Contemporary Hotel and both the princess dinner at the castle and the one at Epcot. In awe of the charactes at Chef Mickey Laughing with her Tinkerbell ears

Mommy, Seth, Minnie, Savannah, Sheila

Me and the kiddos with Donald Duck

It's Pluto

We all love Pluto

Me and my best girl at Epcot

2 Princesses

Savannah and Belle

Savannah and Cinderell

Mickey Mouse as a Chef

A hug for Minnie Mouse

Talking to Mickey

Savannah and Ariel

Savannah and Snow White

A hug for Donald Duck

It's Goofy

Princess Dinner at Epcot in Norway

Seeing Mickey Up Close for the first time

Everyone needs a crying Mickey Mouse photo. However, he wasn't afraid. He wanted to come out of his high chair and see them up close.

Much happier

Seth LOVED the princesses

Another princess

In awe of the all the pretty princesses

I think Seth is in love

Christmas Weekend and Some iPhone Favorites

Who Me? Getting ready for the snow

Swimming with Papa in Cocoa Beach

Now walking in the snow (quite a contrast from swimming in FL--only two weeks apart)

Sleeping Seth

Love sleeping photos

Smiling Seth on a warm day we had in November

One of our favorites of smiling Seth one morning

Savannah got a puppet theater from Auntie I and Uncle Jeff

My next act will be....

PUPPETS!!!!

I love Miso Soup

Who is that in the mirror?

Cute little bear

More soup please--smile with dimple and all

Savannah making Seth laugh in car--hard to do--not a car lover

My new teether--thanks Yolanda, I need it.

Nothing is better than a cold teether on my gums

That is the spot

Happiness is teether

We had a great Christmas weekend. We started out at our favorite Japanese restaurant on Christmas Eve--Sakura Garden. Then, my dad came on Christmas around noon and Rich worked at the hospital from 8-6, but it was very slow. My dad and I took Savannah to see The Princess and the Frog. Seth watched the first half hour, then went to sleep, woke up for the last 15 minutes and had a bottle. He was awesome. Great movie goer. Savannah like the movie and said it was only "a little scary." Disney is always a little scary. The music was good and so was the animation of New Orleans. Then we went to Mohegan Sun and ate dinner at an Italian place we really like and we are glad we went there since we found out it is shutting down after the first of the year because they are adding more retail stores. After dinner we shopped and got ice cream. The next day Rich had to go into the hospital early and my dad and I and the kids went out to brunch. Then my dad headed home to work today. We had so much fun and we love having Papa here.

Savannah got a puppet theater and she is loving it. She is so creative and works the clock for the next show. She has learned o'clock and that is a good thing since most clocks are digital these days. She is so creative and imaginative. She will tell you it is time for the "big show" and she is doing magic tricks. She loves the curtain too. It is so much fun to watch her. Since we were in Florida, her language has exploded again. She is speaking in full sentences, using contractions, connectors and answering questions appropriately. She is adding in adjectives to explain objects. She is singing all the time. It is amazing to hear your child speak like this when they were language delayed. She is definitely making up for not speaking for the last 3 years now. She talks all the time. It is music to my ears. I have been so worried about her for so long. Before the break she was tested at speech and her expressive language came out like a 3 year old, but her receptive language scored at 6 years, 2 months. We always knew she understood.

Seth is developing so quickly. He is pulling up and standing on everything. He uses two hands and carries objects He really wants to walk, but mommy isn't ready yet. He says mama, dada, and nananananana (which we think is Savannah). He is so smart and alert. He has 3 teeth and one more coming. Soon he will have fangs since his eye teeth are emerging before his front teeth. He is an amazing baby who is growing up too fast for Mommy. He loves people and is so social and interactive.

We had a great holiday week and are looking forward to ringing in the new year.