Xin Nian Kuai Le!!!

Xin Nian Kuai Le! Happy New Year everyone! 

Welcome Year Of The Horse!!!

Passing It On

I saw this outfit online years ago at Red Thread Stitches for Briana and absolutely fell in love with it. She wore it a number of times and I even put her in it for a family photo shoot. Briana was 4.5 years old in the above picture.

Briana eventually grew out of the outfit of course and that made me so sad. I held on to it for a little while because I really wanted to pass it along to someone I knew would appreciate it (and would look super cute in it too!).

I finally figured out the perfect person. I sent the outfit to my bloggy friend Catherine for her beautiful daughter Hannah. Hannah is as cute in it as I thought she would ...

It makes my heart happy that another little girl will get to enjoy the outfit as much as Briana (and I) did!

Miss Asia Update

Honestly, I cannot believe she is still with us. 

She's a fighter I tell ya...

If you had told me around Christmastime that Asia would still be with us at the end of Jan, I would have told you that you were crazy.

This IBD is pretty nasty though. I thought cancer was bad. I can say this is worse.

Asia has good days and bad days. She's pretty skinny. She eats sometimes and sometimes she doesn't. She is on 4 different meds. She seems to be going potty ok still. She still throws up a bit - not every day but I don't freak as much when she does. It's definitely not fun, but I am accepting the new normal. I force feed her with a syringe at dinner time each night (she is really good about it - it almost feels more like I am feeling a bottle to a baby). She needs to eat food with her steroid med, so I feed her. And since she doesn't eat all that much on her own, I know she is getting at least one meal a day when I feed it to her.

She rests all day. She picks quiet little corners to puff up in. She purrs every time I pick her up - so I think she is still happy enough. She seems comfortable.

We are status quo for now.

I am doing the best I can with all this. I know she won't last forever. She seems content enough for now. I'm trying to keep her around for as long as I can.

So What Have We Been Up To?

I can't believe I went for several weeks without really blogging. I guess am playing life catch up after being sick so long. So, what have we been up to the last couple of weeks?

Well, Briana has been keeping stylish as always...

She's been feeling school spirit too...

She is enjoying the cash box she received from my uncle...

Adding money to it - like the $3 she got from Bubbie for Christmas...

Briana has been Lego crazy lately. She put together this Cinderella castle in just a few hours...

And she is creating things on her own too...

The weather has been wonky around here. Very cold days and then not so cold. Bri had MLK day off and the weather was beautiful, so she did a little bike riding...

We had new friend Robyn (and mom Donna) come over to play...

Bri and I have been doing some friend catch up lately. With all the sickness we had going on in Nov and Dec, we hadn't seen a lot of people. January has been a busy month so far! Bri got to visit with Mary Lin, Emma and Kira. And I had some girl time with Joanne, Miranda, Carole, Kathy, Amy B and Beverly. Doug, Bri and I caught up with Uncle Khalid and Uncle Jimmie too. Whew - I'm tired just writing about it!

Briana has been feeling very artistic lately (I'm digging my Princess Leia buns in the below pic)...

 

I've been doing some organizing and cleaning. I finally got into Briana's black hole pit playroom and organized and purged a bunch of stuff...

As for Doug, he has been busy working - which is always a good thing. He's been traveling a bit - leaving me and Bri to fend for ourselves. :)

So - that is some of the stuff that we have been up to.

* I do need to give you a quick update on Bri in the Venture (gifted) program. Unfortunately, Briana cried once again after her second day in Venture. She was SO unhappy at the end of that day. She wasn't understanding some of the material given to her and she wasn't really making any new friends either.

I finally had to write an e-mail to the Venture teacher explaining what was going on with Briana and also tell her that I wasn't sure if I wanted B to continue with the program. I couldn't have B crying after the end of each Wednesday. Her Venture teacher wrote me back and tried to reassure me that Bri definitely belongs in the program. She went to B's regular classroom after reading my e-mail and talked with her. She tried to reassure her as well that things would get better and she asked Bri to give her some suggestions that might make the class more fun/interesting for her. Bri said she would think about suggestions and give it another try again on Wed.

Bri had a much better third day last week (class is every Wed - all day). No tears! Yay! She "got" the material a bit better. She was happy the teacher knew she had been struggling. She talked to a couple of girls too. (On a side note, I found out from Bri that 5 girls in the class - there are only 13 kids total - were all in the same 1st grade class together last year. Bri only knows two boys from her class last year and she didn't talk to either of them really. So, some of the girls were already good friends coming into this. Bri is having to make new friends from the ground up.) Bri did suggest to her teacher that she would like to have some more artistic stuff to do in class. Let's see if the teacher tries that. Bri is never going to be a fan of sitting around all day trying to figure out logic problems.

The one thing I did have to explain to the Venture teacher is that Bri isn't just "breezing through" her regular class. The teacher said sometimes smart kids freak out when they start gifted because they have never been challenged in a regular classroom setting. I told her that is NOT the case with my kid. My kid is smart, but she most definitely isn't coasting. My kid could really be freaking out because the info might be too hard for her. I know my kid better than anyone- and I certainly know her better than a teacher that has only seen her for two days. "Testing" only reveals so much about a person. I don't want B lumped into the coasting category - at all.

Sadly, Bri is still not super excited about going to Venture this week. I wish she was. At least she isn't dreading it anymore. I'm still going to keep a close eye on her though. I'm still not totally sold that this is the right thing for her. Only time will tell.

Fun At The Legoland Discovery Center

Yes - I am back! Finally!! Trying to get my blogging mojo back!

Doug was going to be out of town for his birthday, so the Saturday before, he wanted to take Briana once again to the Legoland Discovery Center's Star Wars Weekend. (Here is our adventure last year.)

What we usually do when we go to the Discovery Center is start off by checking out Mini-Legoland and then hit the Kingdom Quest ride. We had tickets for 11AM, and we were told upon entering that the Star Wars characters were already arriving in the main Lego area. We dashed for the main area and managed to get some really good shots with/and of the characters. (Briana was pretty nervous this time about meeting the characters. Even Princess Leia. But, she pulled it together and we got a great shot with Leia)...

I am thinking Doug was having the best time of all...

He asked a couple of the characters to do a "selfie" with him - it was hilarious. I've never seen a storm trooper give a "peace out" sign...

Warming up to Princess Leia...

After all the character meetings, Doug and Briana rode the "Merlin's Apprentice" ride...

We then headed back to see Mini-Legoland and ride Kingdom Quest...

Funny seeing storm troopers checking out the attraction...

Doug and Bri got into the "Master Builder Academy" and got some special instruction on the Lego "SNOT" (Studs Not On Top) technique...

We managed to grab a seat for some lunch and it was getting more and more crowded.

Bri definitely wanted to make a car and race it before heading out...

Look at all that pink and purple "girl power" - love it...

A couple of cute photo opps...

We were there a couple of hours and the crowd started getting insane. It was really time to bolt.

We headed home for a little rest that afternoon and then Bri and I took Daddy to one of his favorite restaurants for dinner.

When we got home, he opened gifts and blew out candles on some cupcakes...

It was a great and very full day. I'm sad Doug wasn't home on his actual birthday, but I think he had a really good send off. :)