Getting Ready for #2

Haven't posted here in what looks like a year-and-a-half; seems like a perfect place to share our news.  We're expecting another child from Ethiopia--this time a boy.  We'll be leaving next week for our court date in ETO and will meet our little guy.  No chance of bringing him home yet.  Ethiopia has new adoption laws and now requires two trips for the adoptive parents.  Hopefully he'll be home by summer.

More to come....

Trip "Up Nord"

Trip to Grand Marais was great, in spite of the 38-degree weather and wind that sunk the Titanic (yes, in June). You'll see Gia is a hiker in training. Also, we stopped at the World's Best Donut Shop, where predictibly, we had great donuts. We ended the trip with a visit to our favorite rock store where Gia checked out the gems for her future wedding ring (hint, all you interested parents with sons, start saving!).

Cousin Patrick's Wedding

May 30th---Cousin Patrick's wedding to beautiful Nicole in southeastern Minnesota. The trip that was predicted to be a 2 1/2 hour drive was more like 5 hours, and with a toddler, you feel every one of them. (You'll notice pictures of Gia and her beloved cousin Addison---they wrestled in her white dress. Such lady-like behavior at a wedding!)

The weekend was beautiful and the wedding was great!

Grandma Stoebner Working the Slide

Gia's got Grandma Stoebner wrapped around her finger (well, all of the grandparents wrapped around her finger). She loves getting Grandma Stoebner worked up over her daring stunts on the swingset. (Rob and I....we're not so impressed, we taught her the tricks).

Mother's Day

My Mother's Day request---please let me sleep in! Which was granted. And afterwards, Gia and Rob gave me all kinds of fun handmade gifts (and one from a special jewelry store) and we took a hike to the lake. I will add, Gia ran during most of the hike, and when we got home, fell asleep at 5:00 pm and didn't wake up until the next day! So how was my first mother's day? Pretty special because I'm the mom of a great little girl!

Daddy Saves the Girls from MOA

So today was Gia, Mommy, and Grandma Stoebner's first shopping day. We started at 10:30 am and didn't get back until 7:30 pm. No nap, hard core shopping. Well, not quite. At about 3:00, when Grandma and I decided it was time to head back for Gia's nap, we discovered my jacket, with the car keys, was missing. M-I-A. No where to be found, nada, nien, ixna. Not in the stroller, not in the shopping bags, not in Nordstrom's, not in Banana Republic, not at Caribou, and not at Wolfgang Pucks. Oh sure we made several trips to every dressing room, bathroom, and restaurant we even came within 25 feet of, but, nothing. No keys. Not anywhere.

Dramatic phone calls to Rob, to Grandpa Stoebner---help! We're stuck at the Mall of America with no way home and a two-year who hasn't had a nap! Help, help, help! Eventually we got a hold of Rob (now 3:45 pm), who left Reserves to drive back to our house, pick up the extra set of keys, drive back to the MOA, and save us. Meanwhile, floating on our life raft called the shoe section of Nordstrom's, we were able to snag an additional two pairs of shoes, that were not on sale and cost us, well, let's just say more than the extra trip in gas, missing keys, and missing jacket combined. Hanging out an additional two hours at Nordstrom's, we were able to make quite a few extra friends while advising many other women on the shoes they should purchase (because frankly, our stroller was full of bootie). Gia was a hit, with everyone....strangers came up to us constantly to comment on how beautiful she is, she should be a model, "here little girl, would you like some candy?" (no joke, that actually happened), and so on. We also were called upon to give advice to mothers of other little girls on how to style their daughters hair.

Finally, Daddy was able to find us, and we were all rescued! To celebrate the fiasco, we had dinner at the Good Earth (now entirely beyond Gia's bedtime), and ushered in a new round of "ain't she beautiful?" All told, Gia was a trooper. I only had to peel her off the floor twice, and we learned that she too, loves shoes--though at this age the shoe attendants prefer it when she doesn't try on the floor models.

Naturally we're looking forward to our next shopping day (when I redeem my Banana Republic bucks), and hopefully, it won't be quite as exciting. In the meantime, if you see my keys anywhere at the Mall of America--give them back!

Big Girl Can Talk!

Gia has started putting short sentences together. We were a little worried as her language skills seem somewhat delayed but yesterday she put her first complete sentence together, and ironically, it was to correct Rob! Rob was singing her favorite song, "Gia's here today, Gia's here today...." when Gia said, "No! It's 'Gigi's here today!'" Gigi is Rob's nickname for her and I guess she needed to remind him of that! Poor Rob, now he's got two women in the house nagging him!

Gia's other big event was getting to hold a REAL baby! She loves putting her dollies to sleep, rocking them, reading them books, kissing them, diapering them, and so on. So it didn't come as a surprise that when she met Paul, a 4-month old little boy (the younger brother of her future husband Tommy), that she immediately wanted to hold him. Paulie's mommy was a good sport and let Gia hold him. I had to help a little, and in doing so, I could feel Gia's heart pounding with excitement. Maybe a brother or sister isn't too far away??? You never know.