Happy Thanksgiving!

Christmas card photo-shoot attempt...take one.

Started off pretty good, as long as I kept a steady supply of her new favorite cookies and M&M's coming (hey, a Mama's gotta do what a Mama's gotta do).

Look closely and you'll see the chocolate drool under her mouth.

I started losing her right about here...

Checking herself out in the mirror I was using to reflect the light from the window

Then the headband came off...

And the dress came off....and so ended our attempt at this years Christmas card photo. I would have loved to take outdoor photos but it turned off cold today =(.

...and I felt like the worst Mommy in the world.

We have two cats, Sassy (gray,tabby-ish, almost 15 years old), and Salem ( big, black, and very nosy). Anyway, we were down stairs tonight and Kerry was playing and I was doing some laundry and then I decided that the litter in the cat's box needed changed. While I was trying to put a new liner and fresh litter in, Salem (who somehow knows ahead of time when I'm going to do this so he "holds it" and waits to do his business in the fresh litter....every...time) kept jumping in and out of the box and making my job way more difficult than it had to be. Well, I got irritated and yelled at him ( I made it up to him with treats later) and I guess Kerry couldn't help but hear me as she was making pl*y-dough "pies" just a few feet away. She didn't show any sort of reaction and I didn't think anything of it until later.

Now let me just mention that lately when Kerry is, shall we say, naughty (she's two AND she's a "spicy Jiangxi girl" so it does happen) and I sometimes have to scold her, her new way of apologizing is to do something sweet or cute and then say "I make Mommy happy." Sometimes its like a statement, and other times it's more of a question. I usually say something like "Yes, Sweetie, you make Mommy very happy. Mommy loves you, even when you're a little stinker." I find it interesting that she does this, and I don't want her getting the idea that my love for her is conditional.

Anway, we made our way upstairs and I started dinner. And all evening she was just being extra sweet and kept giving me hugs and wanted to hold my hand through dinner-time and she kept saying " Make Mommy happy?". I was wondering what it was all about and then I finally traced it back to the litter-box incident. I don't think she'd ever heard me use that tone of voice and I guess it startled her. I felt about this big. I felt so bad that I'd snapped at the poor cat, in front of Kerry, and then she somehow felt she needed to make me "happy" again. Needless to say I gave her lots of hugs and kisses and assured her that Mommy is very "happy" and we had a good tickle fest and lots of giggles and she seemed to be just fine by bed time. I'm glad to know that Kerry is starting to show concern for the feelings of those around her, and show empathy, but I'm definitely going to be more careful with how I handle irritation from now on.

On another note, and because a new post = photos, check out how long Kerry's hair is getting!

Kerry loves to sing lately, especially when we're in the car. I finally caught a clip of her singing and thought I'd share it.

She apparently thinks the song goes; "Michael row the boat ashore, Ha-may WOOOOOO-yun" =)

Fall leaves and smiley faces

Getting ready to go to work.

We had a hard time actually getting her to play in the leaves. Daddy and I jumped in the piles and kicked leaves around and pretty much acted like a couple of goofballs, but she was still not interested. She did end up pretending the pile was a bed and "took a nap" in it, but thats it. She's just not one of those kids who likes making messes.....typically. On occasion she does a pretty good job of it, but not often.

She did however have a lot of fun raking and transferring leaves from one pile to another.

Kerry has been wanting to paint almost every evening this past week, and I had to share her first recognizable face =).

Skates and small talk...

Kerry is becoming more and more of a chatterbox. It seems every day she comes up with something that she wasn't saying the day before. I wanted to document a few of the more memorable things she's come with these past few weeks. Things like:

"Wind's blowin', gonna rain! Need a 'brella. Don't rain on meee!"

"Mommy have a back, Daddy have a back, Kerry have a back, we ALL have backs!"

"Be careful, don't fall in there" (while sitting on the"big potty").

"Wow!, Cool stuff, Mommy!"

She now adds "Mommy" to nearly anything she says, I guess to make sure she has my attention. And she tells on herself sometimes.

"Mommy, I makin' somfin!"

"Mommy, I burp!"

"I pee-pee inna baftub, Mommy!"

"Mommy, I pee-pee again!"

"Mommy, I climbin"

"Mommy! I'm over here, Mommy!"

I love it.

On another note, We were wandering around a consignment store yesterday and I found this little pair of strap on skates for Kerry, complete with knee pads, elbow pads, and carrying case. She is in LOVE with them. She even had to fall asleep with them last night and bring them with her in the car to church this morning. The skates stayed in the car, needless to say. She can stand in them and scoot around a little bit, but mostly I hold her hands and pull her around while she smiles from ear to ear =).

Strapping on the skates.

Steady....steady...

Ta-daaaaa!

I adore that smile, but I'm not sure I like how tall she looks in those skates..I keep telling her not to grow up so fast, but like most 2.8 year olds, she's got her own ideas about things =/.

And she looked so sweet napping today, I couldn't resist snapping a picture.

Which reminded me of one of my favorite pictures of my girl taken one month after she was placed in our arms. Since today is Orphan Sunday, I can't help but think about all of the other children still left in her orphanage, and all of the other orphanages in the world. More than 132 million worldwide. I wish I could do more for them. Giving what little monetary donations we can is something, I guess, but somehow I feel like I should do more. And sometimes I feel like God is leading me to something more, I'm just not sure what yet.