Carwash & Breakfast. . .

Ahh! You definitely know you are a mother when you are oh so excited because you are going to pick up breakfast and eat it in the car while at the car wash and had the time of your life with your daughter :) Ahh! The simple things in life!!

Moscollum is a Pain!

For anyone who has or is adopting from Ethiopia, if your child has Moscollum, take him/her to a dermatologist. It is a LIE that the moscollum will go away on its own. Okay, not a complete lie, but about 95% of moscollum cases will never go away on its own. We are on our second round of chemically burning off her moscollum (the first round didn't work). My poor baby had 6 taken care of yesterday. She doesn't complain, because she gets 6 very bright and cute Dora bandaids :) Moscollum is hard to get rid of, so the sooner you take care of it the better!

Okay, I'm off my soap box for now!

Don't let this face fool you...

She is the reason that I no longer blog :) She keeps us on our toes. I realize that I haven't blogged since around Halloween - whew! I promise I will start again, and if nothing else - pictures!

My Little Bumblebee...

Carving her first pumpkin - helping Mommy prepare for her Wednesday night message!

Her Fall Preschool Program - Check out the Bumblebee!

Uncle Gunner and Nana came for her program. Lil' Cupcake absolutely loves Uncle Gunner - she even said he could have most of her favorite things, including the Halloween cupcakes :)

Definitely Daddy's Little Girl - using Clorox wipes to clean the pumpkin! After cleaning all of the pumpkins - she decorated one with a lot of Dora stickers and drawing on it. Mommy, Daddy, and Raeghan all had carved pumpkins (Mommy carved Raeghan's for her - but more later, must email Carole before posting!).


There's Mommy and Daddy's Little Bumblebee. This is the costume she picked out! She has good taste - she made the cutest Bumblebee.



Little Cupcake with Daddy!


And, Little Cupcake with Mommy!

p.s. Lil' Cupcake did an amazing job at her Preschool Program. I was immensely impressed with how she sang along with each of the songs. She saw Nana during her program, and lifted up her skirt and hid behind it. It was so cute! Following the program, we went out to eat with Uncle Gunner and Nana. I think she had Uncle Gunner around her finger the instant she met him. She somehow talked him into letting her drink a lot of his Mountain Dew. Before she met Uncle Gunner, she wanted to give him everything - we were making Halloween cupcakes for Auntie Brianna, and she said they were all for Uncle Gunner. She wanted him to have her Ducky, err. Baby, her bouncy ball, and pumpkin.

p.p.s. We were so excited for Halloween - I think Travis and I secretly were super excited about carving pumpkins again. Lil' Cupcake picked out pumpkins for each of us - Daddy's was the biggest (since he is tallest), then Mommy's pumpkin was smaller than Daddy's and bigger than her's (I appreciated my pumpkin it had a nice figure :), and Lil' Cupcake's was small and perfect. We each picked a design we wanted to carve into our pumpkins. After carving the pumpkins, we go the costume on and went trick-or-treating. I think we went to 5 houses in 2 1/2 hours. We had a lot of fun, and I think Lil' Cupcake's first Halloween was a success!!

**I'll give more details on the pumpkin carvings once I have emailed someone the story first!

Bump, Bump in the road...Bump, Bump in the road

Yes, we have encountered a bump in the road (though just a tiny bump)! I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we went on a vacation too soon. Lil' Cupcake hasn't been home for a month, and we pushed her progress by going on a trip (new and different surroundings). Lil' Cupcake has regressed a little - she is having horrible nightmares, has wet her pants twice (which going potty has never been a concern-she's very vocal when she needs to go), and is extremely clingy to me (carrying her up the stairs, always having me go with her to the bathroom at home, can't be in a different room than her (except miraculously Preschool), etc.). However, I know a lot of time with Mommy and Daddy will help her out.

Attention all Hope families and adoption families in general, what attachment/bonding guidelines have you used?

First PreSchool Field Trip

Today was Lil' Cupcake's first field trip with her preschool class. They went to the pumpkin patch, and picked out her very first pumpkin! She was so excited to show Mommy! She even called Daddy after showing Mommy and kept talking about her pumpkin to him. However upon arriving at home, we had a slight dilemma. Lil' Cupcake proceeded to get mad at Mommy because she did not cook the pumpkin. Praise the Lord for Google, how else would we teach our kids that pumpkins are for carving and painting and not for lunch? :)

Pierced Ears

Yes, today we had Lil' Cupcake's ears pierced! Aren't I a horrible mother - who pierces her little 4 year old girl's ears? Who pierces the ears of a girl that has only been in the United States for two weeks? Yes, it was me! It was something she has been asking for since we were in Ethiopia. We waited until today since it was her last day of antibiotics (plus, it was the last day I was going to put her in tears for wearing earrings). Enjoy the overjoyed little girl with newly pierced ears!