Pix from the park

I think the park has to be my very favorite place to take pictures of the girls, I guess because it's so bright and colorful. In spite of the cold weather, we went this afternoon to burn off a little energy.

FFF - Up!

The Favorite Foto Friday theme for today is "Up". These are a couple of my favorites from 2001. Claire was not quite 1 when these were taken. Our neighbors had a baby swing hanging from one of their trees, and this was Claire's first real swing ride.




For more FFF posts, see Sarah's blog.

Random Cuteness

Here are a few photos from the last couple of weeks.

The gym was able to get Mia into a class at the same time as Claire's class. I think she likes it.





I just can't resist doing this when I shampoo her hair...


Just being cute in her new shirt that Grandma got her.

FFF - New

The Favorite Foto Friday theme for today is "New". Claire got something new this week...

I'm glad that she can see well now, but a little sad, too, since I wore glasses as a kid, and know what a pain they can be. It was fun reliving the new-glasses experience with her, driving home and exclaiming over all of the things she could see!
Have a good weekend!

For more FFF posts, visit Sarah's blog.

Goodbye to my little friend

A week ago Monday I had to take our cat Sidney in and have him put down. It was the hardest and saddest thing I've ever had to do. I was hoping that nature would take its course, and he would just die quietly in his sleep one night, but it didn't turn out that way. I did not want to have to make that decision. Our other cat, Zoe disappeared in June, and I'm still grieving for her, so it's been awful. Now we're down to just one cat - Tristan the biter cat. Maybe he'll mellow out a little now that he's an "only child". Lately we've dreamed of having a pet-free home with nice un-picked furniture and no cat hair or vomit stains on the rugs, but I don't know...I think I'm destined to be one of those old cat-ladies. I can't imagine not having a cat to love on --- it would be so lonely.
Here are a few pictures. I had the best time looking back through my cat pictures over the years to find these. We got him as a kitten in 1991, so I don't have digital pictures of him in his young and energetic years. Zoe was about 6 months old when we got her in 1997.

Here were Zoe and Sidney a couple of years back. They got along so well.

Sidney and Tristan --- not so much.



Sidney was a bit temperamental, and tended to scratch if you didn't treat him just the way he liked. He did pretty well with Claire, considering that he was pretty scared of children. Occasionally she'd get in his face too much and get a swat.

He did much better once he lost his hearing. He didn't seem to mind the kids at all.


Hasta luego, Siddy.

I wonder if HGTV knows about these

Our cat, Sidney turned 17 1/2 in December. Poor little guy has kidney failure, is deaf, and is just skin and bones. We keep thinking about taking him to the vet for that final visit, but when I hold him he snuggles up to my neck and purrs so much, I just don't have the heart to do it. Anyway, it seems that now he's either become incontinent, or is mad at us. Any rug, sock or article of clothing left on the floor has become a target. So I went out and picked up some puppy pads to lay around in the places he's gone, to see if I can coax him to use them instead.

I got to looking at the package and I don't know why, but this just cracked me up -

Notice the comment by the dog's foot. Like anyone would REALLY care if these matched their room! :-)

Hair!

Oh, the wonders of the flat iron. What I would have given for one back in the 70's! Here are a couple of pictures of Claire's hair freshly washed and dried. (Yes, I know I really shouldn't blow-dry biracial hair - it's not good for it. But I can't stand for my kid to go to bed with wet hair.) I put a chemical straightener on it in September, and it's still this curly...




30 minutes and a few burned fingers later...



Still need to work on those ends, but tomorrow's another day. After 8 years of working with this kind of hair, I was so looking forward to Mia's straight hair - but I can't do A THING with it! It's too slippery! I've been keeping it cut short so I can just run a brush through it in the mornings. Sometimes I even forget to do that (BAD, BAD Mommy!) and it does just fine.

Family

My sister, her husband and kids were here the weekend after Christmas, and I completely forgot to bring my camera every time we were together! These pictures were taken with my mom's camera right before they left.

The group, taken by Mom. My sister is 1 1/2 years younger than me. Obviously she got an earlier start on parenting than I did. Josh, her oldest is 28!

Another one of the group, taken by Dad. We were telling him which button to push.

My girls love their cousins. Here's one of Claire with Sarah.

Sarah and Brian - the newlyweds.


Josh and Danielle - the oldyweds. Claire was their flower girl when she was 4.




Mia really took to Uncle Roger.

FFF - Favorite 2008 Fotos

Looking back over the past year, these 2 pictures have to be my favorites - not because of the quality, but because of the relief I was feeling at the moment they were taken. Our lives have been stressed and controlled by this adoption since we began the process in December of 2006, so the moment we left the runway in Guatemala City on May 20 felt like such a victory!

I don't have any photos of the landing in Atlanta, but my mom took this one of us arriving home. The relief was unbelievable!


We still have miles to go before things will feel "normal", but I'm looking forward to a much calmer year in 2009. Happy New Year!

For more FFF posts, visit Sarah's blog.