Why Do They Have to Grow Up?

My oldest turns 10 in two days, it seems like yesterday when she was 8 months old and meeting her mom and dad for the first time. She is growing up so fast and won't be a little girl any more. We have four girls coming over on Friday night for her first slumber party. I figure that I will spend Saturday recovering from the chaos!!

Got A Shovel?

I have just about finished cleaning the mess left over from Christmas. I made the girls help me clean their playroom today and we hauled out three bags of trash and three boxes of toys, etc. to donate. It is amazing how much junk they can accumulate. McDonalds toys and dolls with wild hair and no clothes seemed to sprout out of each corner. I hate that they are growing so quickly but am happy that their interests are leaning away from toys and towards more grownup and less messy stuff. The littlest seems to leave a trail behind her of whatever caught her eye. I am looking at a headband in the middle of the floor right now. She just doesn't get the idea of putting something away. She'll probably grow up to be a neat freak but for now she is just driving me nuts!!

School's Out for Christmas

Spent most of the day at the girl's school putting on a Christmas Party of the youngest class. What a blast!! Her class only has 17 kids and is a split class with 6 kindergartners and 11 first graders. The kids were so much fun and I had a lot of help from the mothers so there was a lot of food. There was two fruit plates, a cheese and crackers platter, a veggie tray, and three different kids of cookies. I ordered a couple of crafts from Oriental Trading, one of the mom's brought all the stuff for cookie decorating and we even had a fun game. The time flew by and since it was a minimum day, we got home soon after lunch. Our older daughter's teacher didn't have a party for the fourth graders. They watched a movie and had popcorn and juice. Not sure I agree with the toned down day since I think the kids really look forward to the few parties that they have each year but they have a wonderful teacher and she is the boss!! Now, the two week vacation starts and I need to come up with some projects to keep the girls busy so they don't drive us crazy. We got snow this week so they won't be able to play outside all day and I hate to have them watching TV all day.

Motherhood is not for the weak!

Before kids I had all sorts of expectations about how well they would behave and how I knew everything about how to raise charming, responsible children. Boy, was I wrong. There are days when I wonder exactly what kind of demon is possessing their sweet little bodies. My youngest is probably the most stubborn child on earth who would rather be tortured and starved than do what she is told to do. The oldest has the soul of an actress and the title of Drama Queen truly fits her. Of course, my darling husband hasn't a clue how to deal with so many emotional females. You would think with Christmas coming and the possibility that Santa might pass by our house would make them into model citizens. WRONG ... they have turned into raving maniacs!! So I found a website where you can email Santa and put Emily on the naughty list!! Hopefully, the thought of not receiving any gifts from Santa will make her act a little more civilized but I am not holding my breath.

Hello World!

Well, I have finally ventured into the world of blogging. I decided that as long as I am going to spend half of my day reading blogs that I might as well have one of my own.

Life as I know it now started nine years ago on December 4, 1999 when at the age of 47 I became a mother for the first time to the most beautiful 8 month old daughter. Within a two month time span I became a mother and quit my job as a pharmacy technician/store assistant manager. I had all intentions of continuing to work after we brought Abbey home but after returning to work for a couple of weeks I found that my heart and head were not at work but at home with my daughter.

After my dad passed away in 2003 I keep feeling like Abbey needed a sister. So in December of that year we started the paperwork to bring home daughter #2. In October of 2004 we received a referral for another beautiful China doll. Emily was 25 months old and we met her for the first time on December 6, 2004.

The amazing coincidence to the dates we adopted our girls is that they were five years and two days apart. They would have been exactly five years apart but the first time we adopted the Chinese government opened the Civil Affairs office on a Saturday to process the paperwork in time for us to leave for our appointment in Guangzhou. Had they not opened the office, both the girls would have entered our lives on December 6th.

I refer to myself as the World's Oldest Mom as I am now 56 and the mother of a 9 year old fourth grader and 6 year old first grader. While other mothers my age are now grandmothers I am experiencing all the firsts that come with motherhood. I now volunteer at their school and help to with class parties. Most of the other mothers are in their 20's and must think I am as old as Medusa but my girls keep me young and I love keeping up with them!