Oh ya.....Merry Christmas to all!!!!

I had great plans for a pre-Christmas post to give an update on all the festive preps that were going on around here and to wish you all a very, very Merry Christmas! But........one thing led to another and.....well...here we are on December 27th. So from the "better late than never" file....Merry Christmas from our family to you and yours!!!

Aren't I lucky????


Soooooo where was I now??? Oh ya.....the Christmas tree...after cutting it down we brought it home and Clarissa helped to set it up and decorate it.




That was the first version...the one before we had to take everything off the tree and start from scratch and do it all again. Why would we do that you ask??? Because...that's why ;-)

Anyhow, here is our Christmas tree version 2.0.



Something nice that we brought back from China....


Nice yes....but not even remotely as nice as...


The three of us are having a wonderful holiday so far and we're looking more family time since I am home all week.

We were happy to have Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Don, Uncle Richard, and Aunt Frankie over for Christmas dinner.


Clarissa loves her Thomas the train set....


Uncle Joey came to visit on Boxing Day.....



Oh ya....I promised Jim that I would post a picture of Clarissa's artwork that she did a while back, but I kept forgetting to do it....until now.


Isn't she good??????

Well that's it for now....more soon.

I started with my girls....I think it's only right to end with them.

I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok....

We.....well ok.....I....decided to go pick, and cut down our Christmas tree this year. No....I didn't sneak into someone's yard in the middle of the night and cut down their tree.....we went to a tree farm. Clarissa loved it so much she didn't want to leave. They had a great set up! There were lots of trees of all different types and sizes. They had a big fire burning so you could warm up....and you could get free hot chocolate after you got your tree. They also had reindeers....I think that they flew in from the North Pole. Anyhow, we picked out a great tree and I cut it down!!!







I have more to add....but gotta run right now....more later.

Run, hide, save yourself!!!!! The Terrible Two's have arrived!!!!!! Still pretty darn cute though.....

So I have heard all about the "Terrible twos". How the switch flips and all of a sudden it is like "Look out!!!". I of course have repeatedly said to myself "Self, terrible twos, shmerrible shmoos!!!". "Self, that's a bunch of poppycock!!!". "Self, it's all a big ruse!!!". "Self, that's the deal of the century that I ain't buyin'!!!".

Yep, I have said all that many times.......but those days are GONE!!!! DONE!!!! FINISHED!!!! HISTOIRE!!!! BYE-BYE!!!! KAPUT!!!!

Well we are a little less than one month into this glorious twelve month period of our precious, sweet, beautiful little girl being two years old. Now instead I am saying to myself "Self, WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!". "Self, Poppycock shmoppycock!!!!". "Self, it ain't no ruse!!!". "Self, ok I'm buyin', I'm buyin'!!!".

Ok....so it is not all THAT bad. However, she did recently set a new record for huge fits!!! Wooooooeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!! She wanted to go outside to play in the cold, dark, night....and Mommy and Daddy said that "We will have to wait until tomorrow to go outside to play."......and...well....she did not approve of that response. She did not approve one bit!!! She got her shoes, coat, and hat on and she was NOT taking them off!!!....AND....she made it very, very clear that Mommy and Daddy were GOING TO put on their shoes and coats.

Anyhow.....after many attempts to sidetrack her we were successful and the hat, coat, and shoes came off, and we returned to being one big happy family.

So to all of you with kids older than two...to those of you who have lived it all....to those of you who are done with it all....to those of you who are laughing at me right now....thanks....thanks a lot!!! :-)

To those of you with kids under two...and you KNOW who you are!!!! (T and M come to mind....) GET READY!!!!!!! (insert Jaws theme here) It is coming!!!!!

She still sure is cute though!!!!! And getting taller....


Doesn't that picture just scream "Yep, I'm two, and I'm all it...and I'm very, very cute...so don't forget it!!!!"

Carolyn has been busy doing the craft show circuit!!



Shameless plug time to promote my wonderful, beautiful wife's home business venture that I think is very cool....if you want the perfect gift for that person who you have no clue what to get for Christmas (or for any occasion..)...something different, something they don't already have....something absolutely wonderful....I highly recommend Scentsy!!! Decorative warmers with scented wax melted by the heat of a light bulb instead of a traditional wick and flame.
https://carolynwentwickless.scentsy.ca

Don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions.


Clarissa will be extremely happy if you check it out.

A snowman revisited, birthday fun, and the cutest little hands.....

Hey!!!!! How are you????? Good to see you!!!! How ya been????

Any point to the previous stuff???? No of course not. Have we just met???? By now you must know me better than that.

Well, I have been meaning to get to the third and final snowman update as well as some birthday stuff....but I was away in Vancouver for work most of the week (got to have a couple of great meals with Don while I was there!!!). But....I have returned!!!

Mr. Snowman the final chapter

....he has moved on the bigger and better things....

Clarissa is now TWO YEARS OLD!!!!!!!! Ok, technically she is now TWO YEARS AND FIVE DAYS OLD!!!!!!!



Now.....for the star of the show.....



She got some wonderful gifts......


We had a great dinner with Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Joey....


Oh....and Uncle Don joined us too all the way from Vancouver....


Clarissa looooooooved her Dairy Queen ice cream birthday cake!!!



Lots of playing with her new mailbox!!!!


Yep.....two.........

A snowman downsized.....

Just thought that I would give an update as to how our friend the snowman is doing....




As you will notice he has lost some weight rather quickly....Jenny Craig eat your heart out. Jenny has nothing on a bit of sunshine.

Wait until you see my next update....maybe tomorrow....

Until then here are a couple of other picutures that I forgot to post:

Clarissa had fun picking pumpkins



She helped Daddy rake the leaves....




Well ok Daddy raked them into a big pile and she jumped into them....


Oh......and Sunday is Clarissa's birthday!!!! She will be TWO!!!!!!!!

I'm Rob, this is Carolyn, and this is Clarissa. And she is?.....She is our daughter of course....

Something interesting that happened recently. Sort of one of those moments....you know? Not a bad thing....just one of those "hmmmm that is kind of interesting" moments. One of those "wow that has never really crossed my mind" kind of moments.

But wait....before I get to that let me get to this......


Oh....and I like this too....


It was Halloween afterall....



Ok, back to my moment....

We were out on the weekend and met someone that we hadn't met before...it went something like this (I will do this "a la Adrian" if I may....)

Him: Hi! Welcome! My name is Mark.
Me: Hi Mark! I'm Rob!
Carolyn: Hi! I'm Carolyn!
Me: And this is Clarissa!
Him:slight pause....and she is?.......
Me: (thinking to myself...what is he asking????? Didn't he hear me???? I just told him that she is Clarissa....Ooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)Clarissa is our daughter.

Of course he then smiled with a look that said "I pretty much knew that, but I wanted to be sure before assuming...."

Now, it took me a few seconds to "get" what he meant. He looked at us, and looked at Clarissa, and wanted to be sure that she was in fact our daughter.

To be honest this caught me a bit off guard. Upon reflection I realized that perhaps at times I am not aware enough of the reality of our world. I realized that perhaps I am absolutely oblivious to the fact that our precious little girl doesn't look like us. I realized that perhaps others look at us and wonder. I realized that perhaps when I am at the grocery store with my amazingly wonderful, special little girl that people say to themselves "I wonder where his Asian wife is. Oh, and his Asian wife must be beautiful because look at how beautiful his little girl is". I realized that perhaps people are thinking "What is that strange looking man doing with that incredibly beautiful little girl???".

Firstly, my wife, while not Asian, is incredibly beautiful, and amazingly wonderful, and special!

Then I am left asking myself "Self, am I wrong to be absolutely oblivious to all this????......or am I right?????".....and.... "Self, am I wrong to not be constantly aware of all this????.....or am I right?????".

It struck me how I truly don't think of her as being "different" than us in any way. I think of her only as my daughter. I think of her only as the amazingly wonderful, special, funny, brilliant, beautiful little girl that I love so very much.

Then I say to myself "Self, you can never forget these things because you always need to be aware of her needs.". Then I say to myself "Self, but even considering this whole conversation that I am having with myself, I am always still very aware of her needs. I will protect all of her needs from anyone, anything, anywhere, anytime.". Then I say to myself "Self, but does any of this really have anything to do with me seeing her as nothing other than my amazingly wonderful, special, funny, brilliant, beautiful daughter who I love so very much?????".

I don't think so.

Oh....before we got dressed up for Halloween we did this.......








Yep.....that's Clarissa. She's our daughter!!!!! We love her very, very much!!!!

Gatineau Park, a budding musician???, Contributors????

As I type on this Saturday night the Sens are tied 3-3 with the Habs (boooooo Habs!!!!!!!) in the third period. Go Sens!!!!!

Soooooo what's been goin' on???? Well lots of this.....


and this.....


Uncle Joey came to visit and I don't think that I need to say whether Clarissa enjoyed seeing him or not...I'll just show you this.....

Ahhhhh crap.....Habs scored with lest than 4 minutes left....

We made a trip to Gatineau Park to see the fall leaves.


What???? Forget the leaves???? Show us Clarissa???? Oh....ok...let's see....





Hmmmmm is it just me or does it seem like I loooooooove Gatineau Parc???? Yep, I sure do. Probably because Mom used to bring me there every fall when I was a kid (not to be confused with the "big kid" that I still am....). Miss my Mother. I was lucky to have her.

So, it looks like Clarissa is following Daddy in the love for music...and especially the drums. We make regular trips downstairs so that she can play the keyboard, bongos, guitar, and of course the drums....


So I just happened to notice on the left side of the site there is a section that says "Contributors"....and it has me "Sensfanrob" (ya ya they lost tonight...don't bug me...;-)) and it has "Carolyn".....but I don't recall any posts from this "Carolyn" person.....do you????? Who is she????? Does she really exist???? These are all very, very good questions. So I say that we start a movement to find out. Send a comment asking this "Carolyn" person to post something. Let's see if she is real!!!!! I put it in your hands good readers....hmmmmmm do you exist???

We went to Carol's 40th birthday party last night at the Tartan Pub. We had a great time with the golf guys and the ladies!

I like this picture taken during a visit from Grandma and Grandpa....




Check this out and see why I feel like I am sooooooooo lucky........


Tell me.....do I need to say any more than that???????? I am blessed.

Fall, nightmares, and it is no longer a secret....

Well.....fall is here. Wahhhhhhhhhhh summer is over!!!!! I think that it hit me last week when we made a family trek (with Grandma and Grandpa)to the Byward Market and I had to wear a sweater (but it was a Sens sweater....GO SENS GO!!!!). I picked up a whack of tomatoes and made what is...if I do say so myself....a spectacular batch of sauce. Yep we will be eating fantastic pasta dinners well into the winter



Driving to work in the dark is another clear reminder that the days are getting much shorter. I would normally be sad that it means that end of the golf season is near, however this relentless back pain has me pretty much unable to play anyhow. Oh well....spring will be here soon enough. Huh??????

Enough about me....how about this.....


I think that in my last post I mentioned Clarissa's sleep troubles. Funny enough for 3 or 4 days after that post she slept right through the night. I thought to myself "Self, maybe writing about it did some magic and the sleepless nights are a thing of the past!!!"......then reality set in and we returned to the nightmares. Now some may say that it is no big deal and that all kids have bad dreams. While this may be true, our research tells us that in the case of internationally adoptioned children who were in an orphanage it "could" be a sign of adjustment/attachment issues. Now we are not hugely concerned because other than that she doesn't really display any other warning flags. In fact she seems to be a very happy, well adjusted little girl. However, we understand that in some cases all seems fine for sometimes years before signs appear. We will continue to watch carefully and do everything that can to help her.

Now that Adrian and Roberta have officially announced it, we would like to send a formal congratulations to them for beginning the process of a second adoption with FOI. We are really, really happy for you! It is something that we have thought about a fair bit lately. Our incredible experience of working with Yulin, Bob, and all of their fantastic people at FOI makes it very appealing.

I have lots more to say...I've been thinking quite a bit about a discussion on one of the yahoo groups about it not being ok to feel that we or our children are lucky as a result of the adoption process, but my glass of wine is empty and I am exhausted....off to bed I go.....I'll get back to that....

How about this bit of wonderful before I go....