2 Years Ago Today

5 flights, 40 hours of travel, almost 3 days with no sleep, and eating only airplane food for 2 days had me walking in a daze.  In a small waiting room at the front of the babyhouse, a group of caretakers came in holding 2 toddlers and everyone stared at me.  I stared back not realizing that these were my daughters.  After a minute, I realized who they were just before they all continued into the Directors office.  I followed them in and they handed me Leeza to hold.  Sasha started crying so they took her away before I really even saw her.   After talking to the Dr sitting on a couch in the baby house bathroom for about 30 minutes, the director came in and asked me if I wanted to adopt the girls.  I said yes and she said Are you sure?  I said yes again and 2 1/2 months later, 2 little girls arrived in the US to their forever home.

I guess I should have some beautiful portrait photos of the girls in fancy dresses for this post, but really these picutres show them for the 2 little individuals they have become.  Sasha wants to dress herself and loves lots of color and Leeza just loves an audience.  Mama just loves them both.

Saturday or when is it Mama's turn to nap?

 Started off the day taking the dog to the grommers, stopped at the bank and then off to swimming.Sasha made a lot of progress on her back stroke and float today.

 Then we went to the Decatur Celebration -we never got out of the carnival part.  As we approached the park, Leeza wanted to go on the Screamer which goes upside down and a round and around.  Sadly, she was too short so we went on a better ride- the bugs ride.

 We had to ride the carousel even though we ride this all the time at the zoo.

 This ride was cute, but it was really hard for the kids to turn the wheel to make it spin.  So it went in a circle and slowly spinned. 

 The bumper boats were fun.  The longest line of the day.

 This ride went fast and moved up and down like a jet ski.  Much rougher ride than it looks.

This was their lasst ride of the day.  Sasha did not like it.  It went up pretty high.

After the carnival, we went to Culvers and the girls had their first root beer floats.  Leeza te the ice cream, but Sasha ate all of hers.  Then we went home for a little while before leaving again to pick up the dog from the groomers.  The girls wanted to go to the park so we stopped by the new playground for about 15 mintues.  WIth the dog in the car, we couldn't stay long, plus it was almost 6pm so time to finally go home.
After all this, I need a nap, but no little girl will go to sleep.

Another weekend- more swimming

 There is Leeza hamming it up for the camera.  Notice the broom floating in the pool.  They were supposed to clean up the sand play area, but they had more fun sweeping water.

 Sasha loves to dance and will dance for any reason.  I think this one is called the popsicle dance!

 Leeza is doing great at swim lessons.  She can swim a few feet without a floatie.  She is also jumping in the pool without one which is good and bad.  Sasha is great with a floatie on, but really wants to keep the floatie on.

We got a sand table.  The sand is supposed to remain IN the box.  We are going to have to work on that.

Our style

 We can't just swing in our swings- we have to do it our way.  Today that was twisting 2 swings together and then taking turns swinging in the 2 swings at once.  Sasha had to wear her winter boots while Leeza was in her flip flops.

 After mama put a stop to that, we couldn't just sit in our single swing and swing.  No, we had to swing upside down or on our stomachs.

 They came inside and played baby.  Of course, we didn't use any of the many dolls that mama bought us.  Leeza was mama and Sasha was baby.  And of course, we couldn't just push our baby around in the stroller the normal way, we had to push her laying back.

Once Leeza grew tired of that game, she left Sasha strapped into the stroller.  Sasha thougth that was great fun.  Oh, and you can't forget the jingle bell Sasha had to wear all afternoon.  And jingle and jingle and jingle.

Swimming- we love it

 We like to go to the library and pick out our own books.  Sahsa really likes to read books.  Leeza does sometimes.

 I found a couple pictures from last weekend that I had emailed Grandma so I was able to recover a few of the bounce house pictures.

 Yes, they are getting big, but can probably use the bounce house for another year or so,

 They love their tetter totter.  And of course their purses.

 Sunday we spent the whole day in the pool.  I set it up around 9:30 and they finally got out at 5:15.  They ate lunch in their swimsuits and a towel.  They love to run and jump in the pool.

 Sasha had to wear her water wings even though the water was just above their knees.

 Yes, Leeza is getting ready to jump off the top of the slide.  She did this a few times until mama caught her and put a stop to that.

 They love to slide into the pool.

 The pool is in the sun in the morning when the water is cold and in the shade in the afternoon when the sun is so strong.

 They just run and take a flying leap into the pool.  Fearless!

 They did practice floating a little and putting their heads under water,

 And kicking of course.  Kicking makes a lot of splashes!

They did not want to wear their Dora suits today so Leeza wore the cinderella/princess one which was too big and Sasha wore the Minnie Mouse which was too small!  They didn't care- they got to swim.

No Pictures

I'm not sure what happened, but I lost all the pictures on my camera this week.  I had a bunch of the girls in their bounce house, but not much else new so it is not that horrible, but now I am wondering what went wrong and can I trust the camera.

Saturday was swim lessons again and Leeza made a lot of progress.  Her teacher, also known as the swim Nazi, actually paid her compliments and said she did very good keeping her legs straight and her face in the water.  This is half way through the second level class for kids 3-5 and she wants them to swim without floaties!  I guess she must be a good teacher since Leeza likes the class and is learning a lot.  Sasha and I are in the tadpole class, but she is also doing well.  She can jump off the side when I stand about 6-7 ft away and swim to me and then I give her a push and she swims back to the wall by herself.  She has a floatie on, but she doggie paddles with the best of them. 

The girls played in the bounce house ALL day long Sunday.  They had a lot of fun.  I don't get it out very often so it is like it is new each time I do get it out.  This coming weekend is more swim lessons, probably some time in our own pool and then Ice Cream Day at the Zoo Sunday.  It is supposed to be in the 90s Sunday so I am not sure how much luck the ice cream stations at the zoo will have keeping it from melting.

Happy 4th of July

 We had a busy weekend.  It started out Saturday with swimming lessons at the YMCA.  Then we went furniture shopping for bunk beds.  We also ate lunch at Road House then did more furniture shopping and then stopped to get the girls some flags for the 4th.

 Sunday we went to Fletcher Park opening.  They had a Dora bounce house and a big slide.  They also opened up their new playground.

 The girls bounced and slide until they were so tired they were falling when they tried to climb the mountain.

 Leeza got slide rash on her back as her shirt came up on her last trip down and she got a friction burn on her back.  It was hot too- in the 90s.

 Sasha's feet stuck on the slide on her last trip down and flipped over forward half way down and did a face plant on the bottom of the slide.  The guy watching the slide started to panic, but then Sasha got up laughing like she always does.  She is one tough little cookie.

 Later that night, we got ready to go to the fireworks.  There are my little americans all dressed up in red, white and blue.  They loved the flags and paraded around the house for a long time with their flags.

 We parked at the library and played around there for a while.  I thought the fireworks would be at 9, but they were at 9:30.

 The girls didn't seem to care and had a good time running around.

 Someone was shooting off small fireworks.  the girls thought these were the fireworks and loved them.

 Sasha loved to see the small fireworks go off.

 When the real fireworks started, Sasha was not happy.  They were loud and she didn't like that.  We were about a mile form the fireworks.  I'm glad we didn't go closer.

 Leeza had layed down in my lap right before the fireworks started.  She slept through most of them and Sasha huddled on the other side of my lap trying to block the noise.  They said they liked the fireworks, but I'm not so sure.

We made it back to the car just in time for Sahsa to pass out.  It was about 10pm which is way past their bedtime.  Leeza decided she had to go pee and cried the whole way home that she was going to wet her pants.  She never did and made it home to the potty.  There were lots of tears when I told them they had to go right to bed, but everyone was asleep in less than 5 mintues.