I have been watching the news closely about the terrible earthquake in China this week. Alexa lived in an orphanage in the very southern part of China. While I am sure they felt the earthquake in SuiXi there was no damage there. The reports that I have seen so far say that no children in any orphanages have been injured in the earthquake but some orphanages in the affected area have had damage and some have had to be evacuated. Some have no power and some have no water. There may still be a couple orphanages that have not yet been able to be reached.

I also think about Alexa's birthfamily. I assume they are from Guangdong Province but I don't really know. There are many migrant workers in Guangdong Province. I hope and pray that they are ok.

Yesterday morning Alexa and I headed out to the backyard to get some work done. We put seed out for the birds then we planted some flowers. This was Alexa's first experience planting anything. She did pretty good. She didn't really get the part about putting the flowers in the hole I had dug but she loved the watering part!

Here she is taking a plant out of the package.....

then she places the plant on the ground...

and waters it well!













Then of course she had to take all her tools back to the garage!

So Garden Grandpa - how did she do?

I am thrilled to report that Alexa has a few new foods she will eat for me - she just started eating mandarin oranges and tonight she ate quite a few green beans. In fact she wanted more but they were all gone. In the past the best I have gotten her to eat was one green bean so I was not prepared for this evening. I was hoping for a couple and she ate a very good serving. Dare I hope for carrotts, corn, or peas in the near future?

Note to Garden Grandpa - how many rows of green beans did you plant?

Well yesterday was my first official Mother's Day as a mother. I was bitten (in her defense it was an accident- we were pretending to eat and I didn't get my finger away from her mouth fast enough), had bubbles thrown in my eye (again she didn't mean to - she just hasn't quite gotten the hang of it yet), and I was told "no, no, go away". And yet it was a wonderful day. Even when she threw my present at me instead of handing it to me.

We started out the day be going to church then home for lunch and then we did a little shopping and headed home again. After an unsuccessful nap we discovered the sun had come out and it was getting warmer so we tried out our sidewalk chalk that the Easter bunny brought and then played with the bubbles. She loved the bubbles - absolutely loved them. After we were both half soaked from the bubbles we came inside for a bath. At some point in there we made cookies together. I decided snickerdoodles would be a good project for us. Alexa was in charge of the cinnamon sugar. She insisted on using the measuring spoons (she calls them "keys") to stir. I made the dough then gave her balls of dough to roll in the sugar but she sometimes decided she needed to reshape them. Then she would put them into the cinnamon sugar and smash them down onto the pan. They turned out pretty good. We had to test them as soon as they came out of the oven afterall!

It is hard to believe that last year at this time I was in the midst of planning to go get Alexa. So much has changed in the past year. Some days I go to sleep exhausted. My house has never been so messy, my yard and garden have been neglected, and I would not change anything! Tonight when I took her to the park and put her in the swing she giggled and giggled and when she was finally done with the swing we went to the slide. I followed her up the stairs and she went down first then waited for me and I could hear her calling back to me - "Mama coming?" Then we headed home and blew kisses to the moon.

Where do I start? I really need to do a better job of updating this. My daughter is exhausting me. Every night she wants to go to the park after daycare. She loves the outdoors. She has found the sandbox at the park and loves it. I now carry a little shovel for her in the car so she doesn't have to steal other children's sand toys!

A couple weeks ago we went to a wedding reception. Alexa loved the dancing. She danced with everyone and I mean everyone. I don't think the bride and groom will have any pictures of the dance at their reception without her in the background! She danced with the bride and the wedding party and the mother of the bride and the sister of the bride and everyone waiting in line to dance with the bride! She just started down the line and put up her hands to everyone and expected them to dance with her. She loved it. I even got in a couple dances with her. I had to hold her back from trying to catch the bouquet though. She really wanted to be in on that too. And the little ringbearer did have his eye on her. I think they danced a little too - or maybe they just chased candy together. Anyway she had a wonderful night and I hear that after we left the party people were asking where she was - and even though it was ten o'clock when I got her home the first word out of her mouth was "Park".

I signed Alexa up for a gymnastics class once a week. It is a class that requires a parent to help the child during the class. Every week she catches on to a few more things. She loves the trampoline and hanging from the parallel bar. She likes the balance beam but only if I am holding her hand. The children at this age are not required to wear a leotard but after the first two classes Alexa was the only child that did not have one so after class we checked them out and they had a ladybug leotard! Perfect! And doesn't she look cute!

And so our adventure continues.

It was one year ago today at 10am that I got the phone call that changed my life forever. I got to see a photo of Alexa and find out a little about my daughter. What a special day it was. It still brings tears to my eyes. In fact today at 10am I picked Alexa up in my arms and told her the story about the phone call. I hugged her and kissed her and she looked at me like I had lost my mind then she gave me a kiss.

We made some May baskets for her friends at daycare and delivered them and made cookies and had a good morning before I had to run off to work.

I have been working a lot on her lifebook in the evening which is why I have not posted any pictures lately. I will try to change that this weekend.