Look who's back!

Big Panda is home. After a brief stay at the "panda hospital" he's all better and Kerry has her friend back. To me it looks as if he's, um, gained a couple of pounds and Kerry even looked just a tad bit suspicious when she first pulled him out of the box, but she quickly welcomed him back with open arms.

I know my girl is bright, and I don't feel bad in saying so since I can't take any genetic responsibility for it, but she kinda blew me away earlier today. See, she has this little sight words DVD that she's shown a lot of interest in watching lately, so of course I let her. I wasn't sure how much of it she was actually taking in since she usually just kinda watches it while also engaged in some other activity, and I'd not yet heard her "read' any of the words. Well, let me tell ya, she proved me wrong today.


She read the first word that popped up, which was "my", so of course I cheered and congratulated and so she got all excited and then......she proceeded to read almost every sight word on the DVD. She read: my, with, like, but, see, here, go, had, are, was, she, we, his, on, they, as.


Let me just say that I was all excited that she had read her first word...one word...and would have been thrilled if she'd left it at that, but she just kept on going. And she was so jazzed up and excited about it, too! I absolutely LOVE that she loves to learn new things...now lets just hope we can keep up with her.

And since it's still impossible for me to post without photos, here are some that I took earlier in the week =).

burned......

Let me start by saying that no one was hurt...well, aside from "big Panda". I was cooking dinner earlier and Kerry was in and out of the kitchen, as usual, and apparently while I was peeling an onion over the trash can I didn't see her plop big Panda on the counter....right by the stove. He's kinda long and floppy and, well, his hind end apparently flopped right into the gas flame on the stove. It took a few seconds before I started smelling a "melting/burning" smell and by that time she had left the room. He never caught flame, but his hind quarters sorta scorched and melted. Ooops. Thankfully I knew that he was made by Ty and that it was named "baby Xio Lin" so 10 minutes on-line later ....replaced. Should ship out tomorrow. Phew! Poor Kerry took it better than I thought, but she did keep saying "baby Panda's okay. And pink bunny's okay. And robe's okay" as if to reassure herself that at least she still had her other friends. And she needed a little cuddling while we talked about what happened and I reassured her that Mommy would "fix it". She looked a bit sad on and off throughout the evening, but then she would rally and once again say how her other "friends" were okay.

(the gory aftermath....the white/red mess was his tag)

I'm so glad I was able to find her a new one.

Because I love my little monkey...and that smile.

cookie face =)


This child of mine just melts my heart. She's really getting more and more affectionate lately. I can't tell you how many times this week that she's said "I yuv you, mommy" and I can't explain how happy and blessed I feel every single time she says it. She also still says we're "best friends", and last night for the first time she said "you're pwetty, Mommy". I know...awwwww, right?! When I come home from work she says "Mommy, I way way missed you".

When I think back to those first months with her, I can really see how far she's come. It's hard to explain, really. She's always wanted to be physically close to us. She still sometimes gets nervous if I have to leave the room abrubtly. She's always been able to give hugs and kisses, and she's always enjoyed physical play, like tickling and "rough-housing". I guess you could say that she always enjoyed affection.... in small doses. Maybe it's just what she was used to for her first 15 months. Her style was...give or get hugs and kisses, then run off and play. Have a tickle fest with Mommy or daddy, then go do something else. Run to Mommy for comfort after getting hurt, "get over it" in one minute flat, then run off and and play. She was not one for prolonged cuddling, or being rocked to sleep. That sort of thing took a lot longer.

Now, my girl asks for "cuddles" before bedtime...and I'm more than happy to oblige her. We're still having issues with separation axiety if we try to leave her with anyone but the grandparents, sometimes pretty severe issues, but we're getting there.

So what's new with Kerry? Well she's still growing like a little weed. The dress I put on her for church today seemed longer the last time she wore it. One of the church nursery workers even noticed and pointed it out to me. She's becoming even more of a little Miss Independant, and says "I do it all by myself" A LOT these days. She's been able to spell her name for a month or so without mistakes. But its cute because she says "K-E-R-R-Y, that smells Kerry!!"

Some other Kerry-isms:

Smatuwa = spatula

nemonade = lemonade

yook! = look!

ImagiwashunWoovers= Imagination Movers (Disney show)

scoof=scoot

She says "yeahh, I fink so." a lot lately, and when she's looking for something or someone she'll say "Mommy, have you ever seen ____?"

Her favorite movies right now are the "Toy Story" movies and "Despicable Me", and she will watch them in their entirety. her favorite shows are Yo Gabba Gabba and Umizoomi, although she still loves Kai-Lan and Dora, too.

She doesn't care what I put on her to wear during the daytime, but she insists on picking out what pajamas she wears at night.

She still loves to build things plays with her mega-blocks and tinker-toys a lot. I'm thinking of getting her some of these for her birthday.

She is obsessed with painting right now.

She still loves her robe, her pink bunny blankey thing that we sent to her while she was in the orphanage, an her pandas "which she now calls 'Baby Panda' and 'Big Panda". Oh, and she got some frog slippers for Christmas that she wears around the house all of the time, and she has to wear them to bed even if she has footed jammies on.

Anyway, this ended up being a long and rambling post, but she's growing and changing so quickly that I want to document these things so we can look back on them later. That and, well, I just love her so much that I can't stop talking about her =)

Snow day!

We got about 3 inches of snow late yesterday, and Kerry was itching to go play in it, so as soon as I got home from work today, we bundled up and went outside.

Games we play...

We bought Ker-Bear the Candy L*nd game for Christmas and last night I decided to get it out and see if she was ready for her first board game experience. Boy was she! She LOVED it and caught on very quickly. We ended up playing for an hour straight, and when my Mom came this morning to watch her while I went to work, it was the very first thing she wanted to do with her Mamaw. I love getting to experience all of these "firsts" with my girl!

She still likes to line things up =).

Yoga baby...

It looks like I have a new yoga partner =). I have a couple of yoga DVD's and Kerry loves trying to mimic the moves. She seems to pick up more each time, and looks so darn cute trying to do them.

Snow day!

We got a bit of snow yesterday, so Kerry and I went out for a little while to enjoy it. And enjoy it she did...much more so than her first snow experience last winter.

She spent a lot of time trying to make snowballs...

throwing snow up into the air...

...and here, she's making the worlds smallest snowman =).

And I just had to share something funny that I witnessed earlier this evening between Kerry and her Daddy. I've always known that she pretty much has him wrapped around her cute lil finger. Now I know just how tightly. Doug had her occupied downstairs while did some quick after dinner cleaning, and as I was mopping the kitchen floor I could hear them playing "tea party" and playdough...she even had him squeezed into her little R*se Petal Cottage at one point force feeding him fake fruit... but all of this is pretty common place between them. What made me laugh was when I heard her saying "Jump Daddy! Jump high! Jump wayyyy high!" ...and of course he did. You know...kind of like a when I say jump, you say "How high?" sort of thing.

And now I'm just a bit worried for the future man in her life. I hope he's good at taking orders.

The sweetest birthday gift ever!

This is what I get to wake up to every morning =). She makes turning thirty seven a joy. And yes, she wrote that all on her own. Daddy just told her to copy "mom" from the card. One of the m's is upside down, but c'mon, she's only "two and fwee quarters" as she says these days.

Happy 2011 !!!

I loved Kim's idea of looking back on the year with a photo a month. And since 2010 was the first year that had our girl with us for the entire year, I thought it would be fitting.

January 2010

I just love how those baby pig-tails stuck straight out.

February

Wearing the same dress/shirt as in the first picture. This month we celebrated our one year referral anniversary(the 27th) as well as Kerry's second birthday (the 28th).

March

This month Kerry had her first beach experience. She wasn't too sure about it at first.

April

My little "collector" had a blast hunting eggs and filling up her basket.

May

This month we took our first vacation as a family. We went to Ashville, NC and visited the Biltmore Estate and drove the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway and Kerry showed what a great traveler she is...and that she could nearly eat her weight in ice cream over a three day period.

June

This month we celebrated one year as a family of three (on the 21st).

July

We took Kerry to Holiday World. She LOVED riding all of the rides and playing in the water park.

August

Kerry learned to pedal her trike, write her first letters (x, o, and w), and she graduated from her crib to a big girl bed.

September

This is about the time she started complaining about pains in her legs. And over the next few weeks, she had a big growth spurt to show for it.




October

November
This month Kerry started wearing big girl panties during the day, and pull-ups only at naptime and nighttime.

December