Cool Yule

Who knew? All those toys and she's a dancing fool over a new coat! That's my baby!

What The Snowman Learned About Love

I am Alicia and this is my heart:

*song and inspiration courtesy of Stars

When You Say Nothing At All

There isn't a whole lot of talking going on in our house just yet. There's babbling, plenty of sign language and half-words, but not much in the way of clear communication. Except when it comes to smiling and laughing - we've got that in spades!

Laugh away, Baby Doll...you tickle my soul!

"It's amazing how you can speak right to my heart
Without saying a word you can light up the dark.
Try as I may I could never explain
What I hear when you don't say a thing.

The smile on your face lets me know that you need me...

Old Mr. Webster could never define
What's being said between your heart and mine.

You say it best when you say nothing at all."
----Alison Krauss

Passenger Seat

"From the passenger seat as you are driving me home.

Then looking upwards

I strain my eyes and try
To tell the difference between shooting stars and satellites

From the passenger seat as you are driving me home."
--DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE

This Must Be The Place

This must be the place we were meant to live. I really can't complain about living in paradise. I have my little gripes - like, I wish our florida bungalows were on streets that actually had sidewalks and I wish the grass was lovely and soft like it is up north instead of hard, prickly, and drought resistant. I would love to watch Rio roll down a hill on soft grass but that ain't happenin' so I'll focus on the positives.

We get to frolic in the fountains as we overlook the bay full of boats. We get to play in the sun and splash in the water while those people with the soft grass are beginning to shop for jackets.

I'll take the heat, thank you. I'll trade the smell of fall and the leaves changing for a few more months at the beach.

After all, we can't play in the yard!

Let's Hear It For The Boy

Bwaaaahhhhh! Gross!
That's what I just heard coming from the kitchen.
He says, "Here's a tip for you, Babe: don't ever drink buttermilk."

What?? Why did you drink that??

"Grammy (my grandmother) said it's supposed to be good for you! I don't know where on earth she ever heard that! ugh! Do you know what's in it? Crap! It tastes like rotten salt!"

What does rotten salt taste like? Does salt rot??

"I don't know but if it does, that's what it tastes like!"

I have to hand it to the guy, he'll try anything and he usually likes it. I give him a medal for bravery.

I've Just Seen A Face

This is my beautiful little darling....

who learned how to make a funny face

and get lots of laughs

and now my worst fears have come true

mom was right - my little darling's face is frozen in a cheeky grin!

Could be worse...
could be a scowl.
I'll take this funny face and cover it in kisses.

Two And A Half Feet High And Rising

Anyone else have one of these?

so cute. so innocent. so happy.

oooh, now i know why they're called OH chairs!

she won't notice me...i'll just pull myself onto the chair

oops! she saw me!

maybe she won't notice if i slowly move up

quiet....qui-eeeeeettt

just flash her a grin and act normal

mission accomplished.

Show Me Heaven

My grandparents had an outside shower at their place on the jersey shore. It was heaven.
So when I had the chance to add an outside shower for only $100 while we were renovating our house, I jumped at the chance.

Best hundred I ever spent!

Rio has finally been introduced to heaven on earth and she loves it! Of course she spends most of her time tossing toys under the enclosure at the dogs, but the rest of the time she's a splashing little fool.

I Heart Cupcakes

It is no secret that I am a huge chocoholic. I was born in Hershey, after all, and they give the babies chocolate milk in their bottles. At least that's what my mom told me. It certainly would explain the root canal I had at age 4!

Anyhoo, my point is that I cannot pass a joint with sweets in the window without a little taste. And whilst we were wandering the streets of NYC, we noticed a crowd gathered in front of the tiniest little window of the tiniest little piece of real estate I have ever seen. The gal in the window was handing her patrons boxes of itty-bitty cupcakes and suddenly I heard my name. Yes, the cupcakes called out to me and I answered.
They were $1 each and for most people, only big enough for one bite. They came in flavors such as cookies n' cream, s'mores, red velvet, peanut butter cup, cookie dough, tie-dye, and peanut butter and jelly. We had to try them all!

Baked by Melissa is the name of the shop/window. If you are ever in New York, you must seek out this tiny window and eat up some bits of heaven. You'll definitely thank me later!

Let's see...we came home from our trip a month and a half ago and I am still drooling. Still dreaming....of those cupcakes.

The Funny Farm - Where Life is Beautiful All the Time!

We recently went on a family trip to Pennsylvania for a cousin's wedding. It was nice to escape from the heat for a little while.

The first half of the vacation was pure heaven. We stayed in cabins on Lake Nockamixon, strolled through New Hope, visited New York City (ate the most amazing cupcakes - more on that later,) and explored around my aunt's farm.

We fed the horses. Rio thought it was HILARIOUS when the horse would take a piece of apple.

Swinging on the porch with cousin Jeriv...rocked our girl right to sleep!

And finally, the happy grin that comes after a wheelbarrow ride:

You Only Turn 1 Once

We celebrated Rio's first birthday on Sunday and it was a blast! It was an under-the-sea mermaid pool party and the guest of honor was a little hula girl...take a look:



If you look close you can see the bubbles from the bubble machine.

Laughing, splashing, and cake - it doesn't get much better than this!

One is the Luckiest Number

My little munchkin turned 1 yesterday! I can't even believe it. I am the luckiest person I know!

A year ago we had been packed and ready to go for two weeks before we finally got the call at 6:30am that our birth mother was in the hospital in labor. We frantically ran around tying up loose ends as we prepared to leave when we got another call - 12:23pm It's a girl!!!!!!!!!!!

We jumped up and down and cried and yelled and hugged and laughed!

Our flights were a series of cluster-beeps but we finally arrived in Ohio at 11:30pm. We were told we could not go directly to the hospital (and later found out that was misinformation and in fact they were all expecting us) so we fell asleep with huge grins on our faces.

The next day we met our baby girl! I know this is going to sound awfully cliche but it was like coming home. It was like finding a huge piece of my soul that had been lost. She is my miracle; my dream come true, and I will eternally be grateful the woman who made our little family possible.

My baby is 1 year old - life doesn't get any better than this. One is Love. One is Luck. One is Life Changing.
She just woke up...time for a little snuggle.

Let's Go Back To The Start

I realized that this blog starts off with Rio at 6 months old, and anyone who might want to take a gander would be missing the start of our journey!

After eight years of struggling to start a family, the stars and moons aligned long enough to bring Rio into our lives. I had always planned on adopting but thought I ought to give my body the chance while I was still young enough to do it. Luckily for us, it never worked!

As far as I'm concerned, Rio was my baby from conception - she was just in the wrong body. Both her birth mother and I knew it, found one another, and corrected the problem. I never knew life could be this grand!

Here is a little video I made of our first two weeks as a family (from the hospital to our hotel to await ICPC):

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Wipe Out!

We took Rio to the beach to watch the sunset...it was such a beautiful evening! She had tons of fun crawling around in the sand, seeing just how far she could go before she would get scared and turn around. In fact, she must have worn herself out because the minute we got in the car she fell asleep! She was completely zonked! Nanny had an idea to run a little bath for Rio to wake her up just enough to take her nightly bottle. Well, as you can see from the pictures, nothing was going to wake up this child! It was so bizarre! Poor honey

Feeding Gone Awry

I'm sure you've heard this one before - I turned my back for ONE SECOND to get the baby food and Rio had gotten a hold of the curtain! She was absolutely thrilled with herself and was quite surprised that I caught her red-handed! However, the feeding soon went south as Rio refused to eat her peas and instead chose to paint herself green (check out that oh-so-innocent look on her face...it cracks me up!) Maybe she'll get the fiber through osmosis - lol!

Siesta Beach

Our friend and Office Manager, Kate, was lovely enough to take some pictures of our little family to celebrate Rio's 6 month birthday. Unfortunately, we couldn't coordinate our schedules until the day before Rio turned 7 months old...but better late than never! Rio had fun crawling around, people watching (except for the old men in thongs), and especially eating the sand! We figured since we don't have snow in Florida, we'd take our December pictures in the white powdery stuff we do have down here - close enough! Anyway, we're very grateful to Kate and we hope you enjoy the pics.

Here Comes Trouble!

Our little angel has figured out how to pull herself up into a standing position and she mastered this new skill overnight! Yikes! We had to move her from the bassinet into her big girl crib and I've had a hard time adjusting. I miss her being right next to me and I had to spend a couple of nights on the floor beside the crib, but I'm okay now that I'm sure she's okay.
Rio is also crawling all over the place and can't stand to be restrained (like in the car seat - ugh.) She wants her freedom and she wants it now! The minute she's free you see a big grin plastered across her face and she starts to chatter about how pleased she is with herself. lol
Rio is certainly a headstrong little thing, but we've never laughed so much or enjoyed life more!

Busy Baby

Rio (6 months old) has been a busy little bee lately. We laugh because every time she falls asleep in the car seat she wakes up in a new place and has the cutest puzzled look on her face as if to say, "where am I now?" She's been going to art festivals, the park, E-Fest (an environmental festival) and she's been meeting new people like Uncle John and Aunt Shirley! And during her "down time" at home she is constantly working on something whether it be crawling, walking, grabbing a hold of the wood blinds, or playing intently with one of her many toys! We know one thing for sure - she's not bored!