Accessorized!

Ellie recently received these pretty 'princess' items as a birthday gift. For the benefit of the giver, we wanted to post these pictures of Ellie enjoying her present. She says, "prinence" instead of princess which I think you would agree is pretty cute.

BCS Multicultural Adoption Festival

The jumping house was a huge hit...

It was really cool to see the 'real' thing after learning about them in books!

Not so sure about the baby chicks

Finally brave enough to pet the goat ("Rainy size", she said. Which means, "Reagan's size.")


I was very proud of her for touching the duck's feet. The animals in cages were much easier to approach!

Probably her favorite of all the animals was the rooster above. She gave him quite a few "cock-a-doodle-do's"

Hmmm.... I thought pigs were pink (that's they way they are in the books!)

The coolest part of the day was meeting fellow Albanian-adoptee, Maria (bottom right), and her sister (adopted from Ukraine), Natalie. They and their mom, Joann, invited us to swim at their hotel pool afterwards! It doesn't get much more fun than that!

Cycling Attempt #1

This week some friends of ours who are moving gave us their child bicycle seat -- something we were quite excited about as cycling is something we want to add to our list of outdoor activities. So, today we eagerly purchased a helmet for Els, even letting her choose which helmet she wanted (hoping it would make it more fun to wear). It came down to Grover and the Sesame Street gang verses a girlie blue helmet with pink ladybugs. Well, the ladybugs won and so blue and pink her helmet is. As you can see, though, the inaugural bike ride was quite short-lived. Nathan didn't even make it out of the parking lot.

Ellie's Birthday Part 4 (the video)

Ellie joins us in singing "Happy Birthday"...

Ellie's Birthday, Part 3 (the Party)

Ellie's birthday also happens to land on flag day...


Uncle Steve (in town for Icthus) getting to know Viktor




Tua, your gift was a hit!


art supplies are very cool

Ellie's Birthday, Pt 2 (Making the Cake)

Ellie's B-day Part 1 (breakfast)

Google Reader is a wonderful thing!

We need to run over to the other side of town for a quick photo to accompany our next update, but in the mean time, I thought I would put a free plug in for Google Reader. If you're like me, your list of friends and family who blog grows every month and it can be difficult to keep up with all of them (I'm up to 48)! Last month Nathan introduced me to "Google Reader", and I've been hooked ever since! Just copy and paste the URLs for the blogs you follow (your 'subscription list'), check your Google Reader box when you go online, and see when someone has posted something new! I've found it saves me tons of time AND helps me stay more connected and up-to-date with those I care about!

Goodbyes...

On Saturday Ellie turns 3. While that's wonderful, it also means that she ages out of the First Steps program and we have to say goodbye to the special ladies who have been providing her therapy these past 15+ months. They have been coming to our home several times a month and working with Ellie, assessing her abilities and providing valuable advice & instruction to get her to the next level. They've been such an encouragement when we needed it and know more than most just how far she has come.

I'm kicking myself for not getting pictures yesterday with her OT and SLP but was a little more on the ball today. With her permission, I just had to post these photos from this morning of Ellie with her developmental interventionist, Cynthia. Thank you!!!

Jersey Picts Part 2

(above) waiting at the Columbus Airport
(below) a sample of the victorian architecture in Cape May

Jersey Visit

Last week we enjoyed a quick visit to see Nathan's grandparents, uncle & aunt & cousins in south Jersey. Here's some photos from our trip!

We took a very relaxing carriage tour of the beautiful neighborhoods of Victorian homes in Cape May.

To say Ellie was thrilled to see the ocean was an understatement.

Nathan's PopPop was sweet to get this working for Ellie in advance of our visit. Unfortunately she didn't want anything to do with it.

Ellie's new favorite game she simply calls, "Face!". It's simply a matter of displaying various emotions on your face and she's proud that she's now mastered 'sad face' without laughing.
Oh, and she's topless because we didn't come to Uncle Paul and Aunt Melanie's prepared for a dip in the pool -- but Ellie insisted suit or sans suit.

Swinging with great-aunt Melanie

Enjoying a fountain at Cape May