Overdue Pictures of my Easter Lilly!

These are all from Easter...sorry they are so late! Easter morning was cute...she found her basket and was DELIGHTED to discover there were goldfish crackers in the plastic eggs (I know - I won't be able to get away with that for long). After a breakfast of goldfish, we headed to church, and then later in the day (& another outfit later) my family came over for dinner...hence the "I love chocolate pie" picture. It was wonderful to have everyone together. And, it certainly did not go unnoticed that the day after Easter last year was when I finally got the call we were out of PGN. She will always be my Easter Lilly!

On the adoption paperwork front (yes - still filing paperwork here there and everywhere)...we are very much closer to being done. The readoption came through, her name change is official, and Friday I received her new Virginia birth certificate in her new name! Yea!!! (& for those of you who are curious - yes - it says she was born in Guatemala, but that the birth is now registered in VA so she can get a VA birth certificate whenever she has to do paperchasing for things like passports, adoption, security clearances, etc). All I need to do now is change her social security card to her new name, get a new certificate of citizenship, change her medical records.insurance card to her new name and then get her a passport! YEA!

3Ps: Palm Sunday, St Patricks Day and Playing!

Just had a bunch of cute pics to share...

Not sure who likes the palms form Palm Sunday better...Lilly or Didgy?

The St Patrick's Day shirt is from an Irish co-worker who recently went home to Dublin...so its the real deal! ;) The shirt says "GORGEOUS Just Like My Mummy" And, no, in the picture with the hat she isn't flipping us off, she is demonstrating my bad housekeeping skills by highligting a bunch of "fluff" (aka cat hair) she has found. "Fluff Mama!"

And here she is in my shoes. My ugly, worn, flat, black loafers that I KNOW qualify me to be on TLCs "What Not To Wear," (and yes, I wear them with black socks) but don't even bother to tell me how ugly or out of style they are. There have been others who have tried to intervene before (ie Maren & Sue M), but its a lost cause. At least Lilly likes them (for now anyway).

Ollie!

Maren has been in Belgium on business, so her dog Ollie has been staying with my parents...which makes Lilly ssssooooooooo happy. She just LOVES playing with Ollie!

Random Thoughts...

Thought #1: Daylight Savings Time is much more of a challenge with a 2 year old than with only myself. However, the evening is much nicer when we can be outside after dinner. Tonight was the first time in an embarassingly long time that I did not emply the TV, TiVo or DVD player as a babysitter for part of the evening. She and I had a lovely dinner w/ no tv...then headed outside to play until bath time. A girl could get used to that. Just a slight struggle to convince her it really was bath time even though it was still light out...but all ended well.



Thought #2: I was watching some tv show this weekend and it was looking at the question "where were you 5 years ago...." And, it struck a real chord for me. As I rocked Lilly last night, with my cat curled up on us as well, I couldn't help but be struck by how far my life has come in 5 years. In March of 2003...I lived alone (no cat, no kid). I was in a job I didn't really like. I was in a relationship that wasn't really healthy. I hadn't exercised in years. Fast forward to March of 2008...I have a cat and an almost 2 year old daughter. I run (sort of...well I did do a half marathon in 05, and I have started running again recently...though maxing out at 3 miles). I like my job, my boss, my coworkers and the direction my career is headed. But most importantly, I come each night to my family instead of an empty house. I can't tell you how much happier that makes one's soul. Life is so much better!!!!



Finally...here are some fun pictures of when we went to the circus weekend before last. Lilly LOVED it...especially the animals. She was so excited leading up to it that she didn't sleep during her nap, so she did briefly crash at the circus, but woke up in time to see the elephants. (Ok - technical difficulties...I promise to try again on the pics.)