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This is the story of my journey to bring Willow home from Guatemala. I am now mom to two daughters: Lily (5) who was born in China and Willow (2).

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Back to work

I told Lily we were going somewhere fun, but it was a surprise. Here's her face when she realized we were at Como Zoo:
And Willow's face at the same moment:Checking out the new baby (born this winter, named Willow):

They had fun smelling all the flowers in the conservatory. Seriously - they had fun. I didn't have to force them like I remember from my own childhood. Willow loves to give hugs at her discretion. If you ask for one, you will NOT get one. She started with Papa this day and kept moving around the room. Until she got to grammy - she STILL will not hug or talk to grammy!


It took my dad three set of training wheels and three bikes to find a combo that worked so Lily can ride her big-girl bike to the park while I ride my bike with Willow on the back. We are no where near getting rid of training wheels and I'm not pushing it. Thanks for the wheels dad!

Willow's babtism was this morning. Jen and Ross are her God parents. Pastor Bud did a beautiful job declaring God's purpose for Willow here in our family. Willow was happy and laughing most of the morning. Lily and I wore shirts from Guatemala. Willow wore a dress from Baby Gap - the irony!

Other random developments:
1. Willow cheers "HOME!" every time we pull in the driveway now. It's so cute that she knows and says that words. It's one of my own favorite words too.
2. I have taken Willow to two movies (Hannah Montana with Jen's family) and the new Earth one. She sits great eating her popcorn and eating M & Ms. She hollers "UH OH" if anyone, anywhere drops anything.
3. Jen's family, grammy and us King Chicas all saw the Paper Bag Princess at the Stages Theater this weekend. Again, Willow sat like a super-star. I am relieved to know we can do these sorts of things and she can enjoy them (and so can Lily and I).
4. Tonight we were with about 20 relatives at Aunt Jo and Uncle Rick's house. Willow ran around laughing, dancing, doing acrobats, throwing things at Uncle Dave and laughing, playing catch with lots of people, and acting completely confident and happy. It is amazing that after 7 weeks, she has come so far.
The girls will be spending the week with grammy as I go back to work. Lily is going to have a blast hanging out with one of her biggest fans. Willow and grammy have a lot of ground to cover. I wish I could peek into the future and read the next blog post to know how this goes for them.