She's at it again...and an update

Let's just say that 2013 is starting off with a bang for Madeline.  This little girl of ours is bound and determined to do it all.  Last month, she learned to ride a bike without training wheels.  Last week, she declared to me that she learned how to hula hoop.  And to my surprise, when I walked outside to said hula hoop, she was hula hooping!  You may recall the photos I took of the dumplings hula hooping at the Winter Carnival.  Caleb was hula hooping then; Madeline was faking it. lol.  Now, she no longer has to fake it.  

And if learning to hula hoop wasn't enough, she has learned to tie shoes!  As with Caleb, I had Madeline tie my shoe when learning because adult laces are longer and, therefore, easier to work with.  She's had the first part down for a while, and she has watched me tying my shoe one-handed.  (I figured I'd better learn how to do it myself one-handed if I was supposed to show her how to do it one-handed.)  Well, she found her own way of doing it!

This was her very first time tying it by herself.  I wasn't even sure she was going to do it because she did it completely different than what I had just shown her. But she did it!  After she ran off to play, I watched the video several more times so I could see exactly what she did.  Then I figured out a way to tweak her version to make it easier.  Instead of holding the loop in her left arm, she now just pins the loop down with her left arm so she can take the other lace around.  Also, she generally uses her left arm to help make the criss cross and pull the laces tight.  She was just being a bit silly using her toes because she knows she can't tie both shoes that way.  Stubborn and silly.  That's Madeline!

Oh, and one more thing....she's reading!  She's still working through Webster's syllabary and using the Writing Road to Reading phonogram cards to learn all the multi letter phonograms.  But  we've now added the McGuffey Primer and the Abeka K readers to the line up. She's something else, I tell ya!

Well, the reasons I have been MIA from bloggy land lately are many.  We are in the process of updating our home study for Havi, which has required me to collect a long list of documents (like practically all of the documents we needed for the original homestudy, with some of them needing to be updated.)  We finally sent that off to our agency this week and hope to get this update completed before our LOA arrives.  Our hope is to submit our Supplement 3 along with our I-800.  And we're hoping and praying that our Supplement 3 will be ready and waiting for our LOA to arrive and NOT the other way around.  I'm dreading the idea that this update might delay this part of the process for us, and that might mean bringing Havi home in July rather than June.  I soooo want to go in June.  *sigh*

And speaking of the little peanut, I have been busy sewing for her.  Prior to bringing Madeline home from China, I had the privilege of my niece Leah trying on new garments because she was/is just 5 months older than Madeline.  Well, my nephew Josh is also 5 months older than Havi, and I've already hit him up with a cute little romper.  My sister and brother-in-law are being such good sports and helping this mama out. lol. But unlike with Leah, I will NOT be photographing Josh wearing Havi's clothes!  I will, however, have to take some photos of the garments so I can share them here on the blog.

We are also preparing for a few special visitors who will be heading down here next week from Connecticut to help Madeline with an early birthday celebration.  We're looking forward to seeing Aunt Shell and Lydia!!!!  And we apologize in advance that the weather won't be bringing its A game.  But hopefully it will still be warmer than the winter you've had to endure this season.

I also haven't had much time lately to take any photos with my big girl camera.  So I just might have to whip up an iPhone photo bomb or post some older recents shots I've stumbled across.  I'll see what I can get around to...if I can pry my fingers away from my sewing machine.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Two months of hodge podge-y moving fun

Now that the holidays have come and gone, I can finally get around to sharing some photos I snapped during the slow move to our new house these last two months.  I tried to pull just a few to highlight the long drawn out process.  So I'll start back in early/mid November.  We would pack up a few boxes, just enough that would fit in the back of my mini van swagger wagon.  The dumplings played on the Wii one last time before we boxed it up.

The kids were eager to help, even if it was just moving puzzle boxes.

Since we rarely used our old dining room for eating but rather as my sewing room, Patrick wanted to convert the dining room in our new house to a play room.  I, on the other hand, was on the fence about what to do with that room, though our old dining room saw much more fabric than food, for sure.  Well wouldn't you know that on one of Patrick's first trips down the road to drop stuff off, he spied this air hockey table tossed to the curb.  He called me and said that if it was still laying there after he dropped off his load, he was going to grab it and put it in the dining room.    

So now the dining room is a play room.  This room also holds all the kids lego pieces that you saw them playing with on Christmas morning.  (Photography friends, it has two nice size windows plus a wall of mirrors to help light the space.  Plus, it is open to our well lit living/family room).

As soon as the boxes were emptied, we would head back to the old house and load it up again.  I had wanted to snap a shot of the dumplings in the back of the mini van (aren't they the most precious cargo), and of course, Madeline had to do her obligatory "I'm gonna pose myself by looking at my brother" shot.  She's too funny.

My sister and crew came for Thanksgiving.  So the kids got to work coloring in the pavers.  We actually stayed at the old house because that's where all the big furniture was located.  They were troopers.

As I unpacked boxes, the kids would watch shows on the iPad.  They would drag their anywhere chairs out front and chill.

Finally the first week of December, our friend Shail and his buddy Carlo loaded up the moving truck and hauled all our big stuff over.  They were amazing! And we're ever so thankful.

So one month later, our house still looks like we've just moved in.  No, it doesn't have tons of boxes piled high everywhere.  I'm thankful that we did it piecemeal because we have just a few boxes left that need rummaging through, and those are keeping watch over our guest bedroom.  But we have nothing hung on the walls because they still need painting.  And we're a long way off from having everything in its place.  Thankfully, though, the wall color is neutral.  So I can live with it until we get around to painting.  The only "room" painted so far has been the pantry.  And that's because the painters removed all the anchors from the wall to paint and left us with a completely non-functioning pantry!  We needed to patch all the holes and redo it so that we could actually put our food away! I'm happy to say that our food is no longer accessorizing the kitchen counters.

Although the kids now have a pseudo playroom, it doesn't hold all their toys.  They still have some they keep in their rooms.

Our school area is much more spacious than at our old house.  We're no longer schooling in the smallest guest bedroom.  Instead we are able to use the family room off the kitchen.  I love how bright this room is throughout the day, and I'm in love with its location!  I can fix snacks or lunch while keeping my eye on the kids during the day, and they can continue to work.  

We still need to organize the room so it functions well.  Right now it just has everything moved into the built in already there.  So we can function, just not well; it's a far cry from ideal.  And for my photography friends, I thought I would also let you know that there is a BIG bay window off to the left in these shots (the same window I used to light the dumplings when they had breakfast in the previous post) AND a big triple slider right behind me.  You can actually see that slider in the shot of Caleb a few images up.

Anyway, there you have it!  The reader's digest version of our move and a few intro shots of our new house. Although we've only been here one month, it's safe to say that we love living on a cul-de-sac!  The kids really enjoy playing with the young kids across  the street.  It's just like one big giant asphalt playground.  We've already endured more scrapes and bruises than I think we ever had at the old house all those years! lol.  But it's worth it.  And I'm in love with all the natural light throughout our home....like, in almost all of the rooms...not just one.  So you'll be seeing lots more of our "doing the daily" throughout the interior.  That makes this every day moment snapping mama happy.

Speaking of snapping, I've joined ProjectLife365.  Now, I don't think I'll be taking a photo every day.  But I wanted to push myself by using daily prompts to get my creative juices flowing.  I've been sharing those images on Instagram (username is lifewith2dumplings) .  But I'll be sharing some of those highlights here too.  AND I will also be working my way through an Everyday Photo checklist from Rebecca at Simple As That. I hope that 2013 also finds you looking for the beauty in those ordinary, everyday, "doing the daily" moments!

Day 1 in New York City: Museum of Natural History

Since I took lots of photos each day (both with my big girl camera and iPhone), I'll cut to the chase.  We had an early morning flight which meant grabbing breakfast at the airport. Caleb thought teasing his sister with his shark tooth necklace would be a good way to pass the time.

One of Caleb's upper front teeth was very loose. I thought it might fall out before our trip, but I was wrong.  Instead, I found him wiggling the tar out of that tooth with his tongue or fingers during our entire trip.

The dumplings took turns sitting by the window. They love to fly/travel.

Lorna Doone cookies were an in-flight hit.  They always are.

Thankfully our flight and cab ride into the city were uneventful.  And once our bags landed in the room of our hotel, you better believe Madeline was searching for that infamous pad and paper.

The kids loved gazing out the window, and so did I.  We stayed on the 35th floor of the Marriott Marquis in Times Square.  People watching is fun from up there.

I'm kicking myself that I didn't pay close enough attention to this next shot and subsequently placed the window pane right through the "2012" below the ball.  *insert slapping my forehead*

Once we got settled, we decided that we still had some time to hit the Museum of Natural History for a little hands on learning.  It's located in the Upper West Side right next to Central Park.  So the kids gazed out at the expansive park before them and tried throwing fallen leaves over the wall.

Then it was time to hit the museum.

The bonus for arriving so late in the afternoon was that our tickets were discounted.  Woot!  And good thing because we made up for that by purchasing some really silly photos of us with dinosaurs.

We spent a wee bit of time checking out American birds (since we studied them last year as part of our natural history studies), the animals of Africa, and Asian history.  

But we primarily spent our time browsing all the dinosaur exhibits.  The kids used our iPhones to snap their own photos.  And I just kept snapping them doing it.

A nice gentleman offered to take a family photo.  Madeline's double chin smile is hilarious.

These last photos of the dinosaur exhibit crack me up.  We're very open with Madeline about her limb difference.  We talk with her as needed about how to handle people's questions.  One of the responses I told her she could use if she felt like being funny and getting a rise out of the person asking was that she could tell them she (or her brother or whoever) got hungry and just ate her arm.  So here she is at the dinosaur exhibit sticking her missing left arm in the mouth of a dinosaur fossil and pretending that it's eating her. 

And I guess if it's eating your arm, you're at liberty to poke its eye out! lol.

That night we hit Becco's for dinner, right there on Restaurant Row.  We were relieved they sat us waaay before our reservation as it's popular with theater goers.  I had the absolute best stuffed peppers ever, served over fried spaetzle.  Delicious!

Well, to sum it up..our first day in NYC was a fabulous one, and it only got better! And since I don't have the time to be organized right now, I'll be sharing my iPhone photos in a separate post later.

A time to read

Well, it seems like I can't get my act together these days.  I had wanted to share these photos before we went out of town, but that obviously didn't happen.  We actually just returned from a 5 day trip to New York City!  We had an absolute blast with only one major mishap, which was thankfully short lived.  I'll get into all the details in another post, and I will be sure to share some of the many photos I took.

For now, I'll get back to the reason for this post....a time to read.  As you can see, I took these photos of the dumplings at our old house in my favorite-y favorite room to photograph them in.  We loved to read in this room because of all the natural light.  Sometimes we would get distracted when looking out at the oak tree and all the birds that would visit our yard.  And sometimes Madeline had her own way of distracting her sweet brother, too.  Good thing he doesn't mind.

Although I'm going to miss the light in that room terribly, I'm thankful that our school area in our new house has good light too.  It's not as bright as our old living room, but it's brighter than our old school room.  And it's large enough that we now have a little sofa in there (which was last used in Madeline's old bedroom.)  We love to sit on it and read for school now, although we've actually done very little school here since moving (because we actually haven't been home!)  Oh well.  Ya gotta love the flexibility homeschooling offers.  Anyway, I'll be back with more photos to share.  I promise.