Obla Di, Obla Da, Life goes on...

First, let me say that TODAY (1/9) is our "Gotcha Day"...Leila and I have been together for 3 years now, and I can never thank China enough for giving me this gift. Here she is in her "Gotcha Day" clothes. Believe it or not, the shoes still fit her...but they were big on her to begin with.

So sorry I've been negligent in my posting, but between school, work, and being sick, and having this monstrous house to take care of (I so need a maid), I just don't have time to blog. But I DO have time for pictures. So here's what's been going on since Leila started school.

In October, we welcomed our dear friends, Liz and Jay's, new baby, Alex to the world. He truly is the cutest baby I have ever seen. How good a friend are Liz and JR? Well, they let Leila hold little 5 1/2 pound Alex.
Halloween: I waited until the last minute to get Leila her costume...she can never decide what she wants to be, so I always have to choose for her. I got her a Renaissance Dress, and a Doctor's outfit (they were 50% off by the day of Halloween, so it was like BOGO Free)...she wanted nothing to do with the "dress"...so guess what she was? And her annual traditional pose with Uncle Jay. Alex was only a month old, and far too little to go "Trick or Treating" with us, but I'm sure he'll be out there next year.

Thanksgiving was a feast, and Leila enjoyed helping out in the kitchen this year. She also had a wonderful show at school. See how little she is? She's the littlest one in her class. She needs to have a growth spurt...poor little thing. Oh well, I was never petite and always wanted to be, so she can be petite and tell me what it's like!

We made Brownie's for dessert, and Leila and I enjoyed making this video of Chef Leila. Also of note, you'll see a white dog laying on the floor in the family room, in the background...that is our beloved Aragon, who was 16 years old, and was in congestive heart failure and had chugged along for a year with this fatal disease. She was gently put to sleep right after Thanksgiving. Leila took it all in stride, and since she understands about God and Heaven, she was content that Aragon was up in Heaven with God. Oh, and you'll notice Leila is in an eye patch. Nothing's wrong, it's just that she spent 2 1/2 years in China without glasses, and she has good vision in one eye, and bad vision in the other. So her brain got used to only using the good eye, and now, even with glasses, since her brain has been trained to use only the good eye, it won't use the bad eye. So we've patched her good eye, to force her brain to start using the bad eye. The good news is, she went from 20/100 (with glasses), to 20/70 in just 6 weeks. So she's still in the patch, and will be until the Dr. feels that her vision can't get any better.

Christmas: This year Leila was a BIG help in decorating the tree. She was very proud of her accomplishment. Then of course, her big trip to see Santa and to pose in her Christmas dress (I hate this year's Santa picture, it didn't come out well, at all, but I really didn't notice how bad it was until I got home...so it is, what it is).




And finally, we had professional portraits done at Target...I wasn't too happy with them, so we'll have to go to a "real" professional soon. But, here's a decent shot of me and my little darling (I got this picture off the Target website, and it's low quality, because they want you to buy the pictures, not steal them...and I did buy some of them, just not this one). It was the first time I curled her hair...and I thought it came out really cute.