Happy Birthday!!!

Today was Malia's 3rd birthday! Woohoo! We stretched the celebration over a few days for maximum enjoyment. On Sunday, my cousin and his family joined us for pizza, cake, and ice cream. All of the kids had a great time playing together. This afternoon, we had a little party at Malia's day care and tonight the three of us celebrated by opening presents, going to Malia's favorite restaurant, and having more cake. Here's a few pics from the fun.

Happy Gotcha Day!

Hard to believe it's been two years already.

Last Gasp of Fall

OK, so we finally had our first measurable snowfall here in Denver, almost 6 weeks later than normal. We're expecting more over the next couple of days. It's pretty and all but I was really enjoying the abnormally warm November that we had. Well, despite the cold and snow there's no reason it can't still be Fall here in blog-o-world so here's a few more pics from our final leaf-raking of the season. By the way, a few weeks ago I went out and did some raking on my own without Malia. When I came back inside she gave me the dirtiest look and in the saddest little voice asked "Leaves all gone?" So from hence forward, she is my official leaf-raking assistant.

You think these two like each other? Some of Tucker's actions over the past few weeks have been reminiscent of the "Marley and Me" book (coming to theaters soon!) but stuff like this makes me forget all about his shortcomings.

Not sure if this is a good or bad thing. Malia still fit into her Halloween costume from last year. We asked her over and over what she wanted to be for Halloween and she routinely answered "Hot dog". We tried but ultimately failed to find a hot dog costume but she happily settled on last year's chicken.

I took a day off of work before Thanksgiving and knocked out the little step stool for Malia. I know I could have run down to the local big box store and gotten a plastic one that would work just fine but I got a new miter saw from the mom-in-law so I needed a little project to test it out. Malia really likes it so when time permits I'll make a couple more for other rooms. Unless you are a woodworking fanatic, you can skip the rest of the paragraph. The joints on the step stool involved hand-cut dovetail joints, something that had always intimidated me as being beyond my meager skill level. I was amazed that they came out OK. On the other hand, you can fix some pretty big goofs with some wood putty.

December should be exciting. Malia's 3rd birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks. Mama and Baba have each had birthdays over the past 6 weeks and Malia routinely asks "Is it my turn?" She is also much more aware and excited about Christmas this year. On Christmas day, we are flying to Florida. It's nai-nai's birthday and to celebrate all of her kids and their families are going on a 3-day Bahamas cruise. My brother and I decided that it would be a crime to be that close to Disney World without going so after the cruise we'll spend 4 days (including New Year's) at Disney. Talk to you later.

Fall is Here!

Maybe I should remove the exclamation point from the title as I would prefer that the cold weather hold off for awhile longer.

We went down to New Mexico in early October to see family and go to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Unfortunately, the day we planned on going to see the balloons the wind was too high and they were not allowed to take off. Having grown up in Albuquerque, I highly recommend going to the Fiesta. It's pretty amazing to see anywhere between 500-900 balloons in the air at the same time. Also, there's nothing better than a cup of hot chocolate and a breakfast burrito on a crisp NM morning.

On the plus side, no balloons meant getting to spend more time with family. We got to spend a couple of days with each set of grandparents. Here's Malia enjoying grandpa and nai-nai E's rocking chair and Malia and grandpa playing with some leaves.

Back home, most of the leaves fell from our trees after a couple of cold and windy days. Malia had a blast playing in the leaves.

I'll end things with a cute story. It was my birthday last week and I took the day off and kept Malia home from preschool so we could hang out together. It took me awhile to convince Malia that it was my birthday and not hers. I was busy doing something in the kitchen while Malia was playing in the family room. I saw her tear the cover off of a magazine which was strange because she's typically not real destructive. I didn't really thing much of it and went back to doing what I was doing. A few minutes later, Malia walks into the kitchen and say "Happy birthday ba ba" and hands me a gift. She had taken that torn-off magazine cover and folded it around a little note pad that she doodles in, her version of wrapping a gift. Of course I made a huge deal about it. Well, since for all 2 year-olds, anything that is fun is worth doing over and over so she quickly took the gift back, re-wrapped it and and gave it to me again. This repeated for the next 15 minutes. It was one of the best presents I've ever received!

Where has the summer gone?

OK, so I thought that when I did the last post way back in July that it would either a) inspire me to continue with it or b) guilt the permanent blogger into a triumphant return. What actually happened was neither but I've been informed that the job is now mine to keep so hopefully I'm up to the task.

It's hard to believe that Malia is just three months short of being 3-years-old. I guess that's something to look forward to since it signals an end to the 'terrible twos'. Although really the 'terrible twos' has not been all that bad. Well, not that bad if you're not bothered by 180-degree changes in mood, nap-time defiance, food refusal, and lay-down-on-the-ground-kick-your-feet-and-sling-your-teddy-bear-through-the-air-in-the-middle-of-Pottery-Barn, that is. Of course, I've been warned that 3 is the new 2.

One of the best things about Malia being two has been some of the funny things that come out of her mouth (I'm not talking about food refusal!). For example, the other day on the way to day care, which she calls 'big school', I asked her if she knew where we were going and she said 'going to big school.' I asked her where mommy was (she works at the day care) and Malia said 'at the big school.' Finally, I asked her if she knew where I went after I dropped her off at school. She gave me a puzzled look, paused a few seconds and said 'a different school.' Oh I wish that were the case!

Another big highlight recently is that she's now close to 100% potty trained. She even did her business on a big toilet at Target. I don't even like to use those!

Recently the music group 'Bare Naked Ladies', came out with a children's CD (can we even call them CDs anymore if we download them from iTunes?). Being somewhat of a fan of BNL and, more specifically, not a fan of most children's music, I got the CD. While most of it is pretty good, Malia's favorite song is one called 'Popcorn' which has got to be the most annoying song of the group. It's like castor oil for the ears but Malia was addicted to it for a few weeks straight. It's possible to listen to that song 8 and a half times during the short drive from our house to day care. Trust me, I know.

Anyhoo, enough of my rambling and on with the pictures. Some of the summer highlights include:
- we got a mid-June LID for Malia's mei mei! Now, we wait.
- a visit with some friends that travelled to China the same time we did
- trip to Winter Park, CO with my dad, stepmom, my brother and his wife and son
- balloon festival outside of Denver
- Labor Day weekend trip to Grand Lake, CO with the in-laws
- the start of Chinese language classes for Malia

They were just eating cookies, but in their mind, they were up to something much more devious.

On one hand, Malia is still pretty small. On the other hand, Tucker is a moose trapped in a golden retriever's body.

Malia loves this pink hat. No truth to the rumor that she'll dress up as Super Mario for Halloween.

13,000 feet above sea level!

Mugging for the camera before her first day at the Chinese school

Baba to the rescue

Well, we've received some complaints (ahem, Nai Nai) about the timeliness of blog updates so Baba is taking a stab at it. It's been a pretty busy month and a half since the last post. We took Malia to her first professional soccer game. Do you think she enjoyed it?
In mid-June we spent an extended weekend in and around Monterey, CA visiting grandpa and nai nai. Malia loved playing in the sand dunes near grandpa and nai nai's place.
One of the main highlights for Baba was getting to meet Forrest Gump. Malia, on the other hand, was more interested in the treat she got from Forrest's box of chocolates.
I guess you can't have a post about Monterey and not include some scenery. Here's the famous Lone Cypress. It has a system of cables holding it in position. I speculated that the original tree has been replaced with a replica from Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks studio. We had father's day brunch at The Lodge at Pebble Beach. From our table we were able to watch players finish up on the 18th hole. The verdict: you need $$ to play Pebble Beach but you don't necessarily have to have talent.
Here's a link to some more pics from the trip. I'll post more within the next few days to bring you up to date. Highlights will include the 4th of July and potty training. I bet you can't wait!

Waiting for DTC to happen

We are waiting for our second dossier to finally get moving to China. Hopefully this week. As we know it, we are still in critical review and translation. I am already back to stalking RQ. We have at least a 3 year wait at best I think. I need to try and forget that we are waiting as I don't want to wish away any time with Malia.

Malia is doing great aside from sudden late night wake ups and screams. I am hoping that these are not night terrors. Perhaps she is just feeling a little bit under the weather.

We are looking forward to the CCAI reunion here in Denver in a few weeks. Any bloggers out there planning on attending?

A few weeks ago we visited some extended family who live nearby. Malia had lots of fun running and going to the park. Below are a couple of photos.