"Ladies and Jigglemens! Please, start your engines!"

I heard Kerry say this today and could not help but laugh.

Actually, I may have snorted...a little (hey, she caught me by surprise).

And we were in the middle of Meijers.

She's such a funny little monkey.

Doug was on vacation this past week so we took a little overnight trip to visit the Newport Aquarium (right before her tummy troubles kicked in). Kerry loved the sharks and all of the colorful fish..some were HUGE. All of these pictures were taken with my little point and shoot "purse camera".

You can watch divers feed the sharks..but we didn't time it well so I didn't get pictures of that.





She saw pengiuns and got to feed a Lorikeet. Mommy and Daddy got to pet some sharks (maybe two feet long) but Kerry opted out of that

Then we enjoyed some ice cream.

And an evening swim in the hotel's indoor pool. See the adorable little stuffed baby penguin she's holding? She fell in love with it at the aquarium gift shop, so it came home with her =)

She looks very serious here, but she loved the pool.

warning..may be too graphic for squeamish readers.

Did you know that,with enough determination....and sphincter strength.. one can go 6 days without a BM?

Did you know that even a three year old girl can posess such strength of will and sphincter?

Did you know that it's pretty much impossible to force this same three year old girl to sit on a potty chair when she's scared to have a BM?

Did you know that, even after 3 enemas and multiple doses of Miralax, certain three year old girls can still "hold it in", thereby requiring the Dr to prescribe Magnesium Citrate (the stuff they give patients to "prep" them for a colonoscopy) as a last resort?

Did you know that, while "night time absorbency" pull-ups work fine for containing pee, they are not absorbent enough to contain Magnesium Citrate induced poo?

Did you know that its a great idea to keep folded in half bathroom towels on the floor at strategic places through the house after a three year old has taken 3 days worth of enemas and laxatives...especially mag-citrate?

Did you know that even with tears running down her cheeks and poo running down her legs, this Mama still thinks she's the most precious and adorable thing ever.

If you already knew all of these things..don't laugh...this is still my first time at the Mama rodeo =).

(This photo was taken on Mother's Day at Church..they rolled out the red carpet for the Moms.)

She was sooo miserable..it just broke my heart. Thankfully she finally got relief and feels soooo much better today.

"Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother." -- Lin Yutang

My dogwood tree was in full bloom recently and was so pretty that I couldn't resist taking a photo. Have I mentioned that I'm loving the new lens I got for Christmas?

And we all know that I also can't resist taking a few photos of my girl....especially when she's having fun.

Isn't it wonderful how a child can completely change your life, in ways big and small. I love that! For Doug and myself, I think it's brought out things in us that we didn't even know existed, and even, I hope, helped lessen some of the more selfish and trivial aspects of ourselves. We're still far from perfect, Lord knows we'll never be. And children quickly learn how to "push our buttons" and show us just how much we often lack in patience, but I really think that having children just grows us in ways that might not be possible without having them...I hope that makes sense. Just another example of what blessings they are.

I've also been thinking of all of the fun, and even not so pretty, things that I've gotten to do since becoming a Mommy. Things like:

Falling in love with a precious baby girl on the other side of the planet.

Spending 30 some-odd hours traveling to China to meet this baby girl, fall even more in love with her, and officially become her Mommy.

Watch my husband take "like a fish to water" to his role as Daddy and fall in love with him all over again.

Try foods like squid, roast duck, and a few things I didn't really recognize , while in China.

Attend a service with other believers, in a C*mmunist country.

Buy multiple pairs of noisy shoes for MY child, something one usually does only for children that don't live with them, ha ha.

Change a "blow out" diaper about 5 hours into a 13 hour nonstop flight at 30,000 feet on a table the size of a shoe-box lid in a restroom the size of a small broom closet.

Worried more about another human being's poo than I ever imagined I would.

Given up control, for the most part, of the television and car CD player to a person smaller than myself...and found myself perfectly okay with that.

Used my childs "Disney Princess" lip gloss when I couldn't find a chap-stick or lip gloss of my own.

Had "I love you" mean something more beautiful than I ever imagined.

Yesterday I asked Kerry if she was "sorry" for misbehaving (I can't even remember what the misbehavior was). Her reply?

"I'm a widdle bit sorry".

Ha ha, what a little stinker...it's a good thing she's so cute =)