Spring Break

...was just that.  A break.  In the truest sense of the word.  Now that Madi is in school full time, I find that our free time together is even more precious than it was before.

Last week we enjoyed time off from schedules and plans. And time off from people, too (no offense:)

Madi made it quite clear that she had only one desire: to spend time with her little brother.

And she did. We abided by her wishes, and the two played wonderfully together all week. They truly enjoyed each others company while they swam, played in the yard, ate lunch together, and simply hung out. We took family outings to the beach, to the zoo, and to the community pool. Much like she did with Daniel, Madi even got to dress up her little brother and named him "Princess Charlotte."

I'm not sure who's more bummed out about the end of Spring Break, but I think it might just be Charlie. We are all very excited for Summer break, now that we've had a taste of freedom again!

One Year with Charlie.

Yesterday...

So special beyond words.

We celebrated Gotcha Day--our one year anniversary with Charlie in our family.

Seems like the blink of an eye.

To say he's "blossomed" is an understatement. He is doing fantastic. We love this little guy so much. The three of us must've kissed him a thousand times yesterday.

We spent the day as a family, just hanging out and spending quality time together (except Daddy who had to work).

I pulled down an old kiddie pool from the attic. It belonged to Madi as a baby, and the kids had a BALL for a solid hour.

 

 

 

Charlie adores his Jie Jie (big sister), and you can see why. He observes her every move and quickly imitates whatever she is doing or saying. We are thankful that she is so good to him.

We were joined by the Grandparents for dinner and celebrated with a pizza party. Grandpa and Miss Suzanne brought Charlie his own little cake, which he dug into (literally). He also got to do one of his favorite things...blow out the candles!

 

Happy Gotcha Day, Charles Stanley Chuan-Qi-Qi!  We thank the Lord for bringing you into our family!!

Sweet St. Patty's Day

This time last year we were on a big ole jet plane to China to bring home our little Lepre-Chuan.

And life has changed so much in one year.  It's almost inconceivable that we celebrate Gotcha Day in just four days.

Thank you, Jesus.

Today, we have chosen to celebrate family style. We took a trip to the Mausoleum to visit Daniel, Grandma and Uncle Bill, and then we headed south to Nu-Turf to pick all the necessities for reviving our butterfly garden. The kids loved the trip to the nursery.

Bubba and Grandpa are coming for dinner. They are bringing corned beef and cabbage, and I'm making a big pot of Irish white bean and cabbage stew.

We wish you all a Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Our son plays with dolls

 

And I love it. What? Is there something wrong with that??  Not in my book...

Last night, Madi decided to pull out a few of her babies to introduce to Charlie. It has been a while since they've surfaced, but she wanted to bring them out, since he took a liking to one over at Bubba's house.

He played for about twenty minutes, taking time to feed them and cover them with blankets.

Then, when it was close to his 7 p.m. bedtime, Madi and Charlie took the dolls in his room and tucked them into his big-boy bed (he still sleeps in his crib at night).

Madi talked him into taking one tiny baby into the crib with him. He wasn't so sure at first, but decided to give it a try. I figured if he got freaked out at some point, I would find the baby face down on the floor this morning.

I heard him on the monitor talking to the doll until about 8 o'clock last night. Then all the babies must've gone to sleep shortly thereafter.

Charlie woke up with the tiny baby next to him this morning:)

He's such a sweet kid...

A Chip off the Old Block

When I was six-years old, my friend Susan and I used to walk the neighborhood (in Atlanta, GA area) selling tickets for our "gymnastics show" which consisted of doing a couple of tricks on Susan's monkey bars and then taking a bow.

Easy money.

I see Madi is following in my footsteps. She has been busy preparing "her stage" this afternoon.  The stage is her bedroom, and her show consists of dancing and magic tricks.

She hit me up for a ticket. She's all business. Her entry fee is a quarter. And I'm going to spring for Jimmy, too. Madi called to invite Bubba and Grandpa, and they will arrive promptly at 4:30.

Thanks to her "babies are free" policy, Charlie gets off cheap.

So excited to see the show! This is gonna be cute. Will have to post pix!!

The Performer

The Audience

The Performer and her little assistant

A volunteer from the audience

Bring on the Books

Charlie loves books.

Like really loves books.

It's the first word he says when he wakes up.

It's the last word he says before bed.

He wants books at the dinner table.

He wants books in his crib.

And he wants everyone who comes over to read to him.

He's our first child who's adored books quite this much.

And I hope our little sponge never loses interest in them.