SHE'S MOV'IN ON UP

GOOD THING OR BAD ?????

Not sure which it is. This is a picture of Mimi standing in the
entrance to Freddie's Playland at our local Fred Meyer's grocery store.

Their rules for entry to the playland have changed to the dismay of
some of my mom friends.

When we first moved up here in 2007, the rules were any child up to
the age of 6 could enter. However there are quite a few tall 6 year
olds up here of which Mimi's friend Alex is one of them. He was denied
entry because everyone including the manager would not believe that he
is 5 (at the time in 2008) because he is taller than the archway. This
really made Katrina mad. Management said that the archway is the
proper height for a kindergartner and that if Alex was to sit on any
of the furniture he would break it. Heck, both dad and I have stood on
Mimi's furniture and they're still in great working order.

Management has since changed the rules. They now say that any kid who
can fit under the archway is allowed to enter. This picture was taken
this afternoon. For good or bad, Mi still
Fits under and people still think she's a 5 year old.

WHY??????

This afternoon Mimi and I thought e would have dim sum for lunch. So
we went to the Imperial Garden at Yhe Great Wall Mall. Mimi told the
waitress when she brought the cart to our table that she wanted the
chicken bowl. From where I was sitting I could not tell what Mimi had
chosen to eat till I got a closer look. Chicken feet!!!!!!! Ewwwww!

MORE SELF PORTRAITS

Like I said before, Nathan loves, loves, loves anything electronis so I lent him my camera. And he just went to town with it. These were the best pictures out of the bunch that he took. He is such a sweetie.

EMILY, NATHAN AND MIMI

Tonight was our monthly get together. This month Nathan's family was sponsering. For good or bad, we were the only family to show up.

Little Emily in the background is 19 months and Art and Lisa adopted her from Maoming when she was 4 months old. She is just cute as the dickens but at the same time into everything Lisa says. She really has her hands full that little one.

They received Nathan about four months ago and on his papers Lisa says that they have as a four year old. But when you meet him, he is far from a four year old. He has the thinking more of a 6 or 7 year old. Long story short is that all of the info they received is totally 1000% wrong. Poor little fella has had a lot of hurdles to overcome and he seems to be doing quite nicely in his new environment. One of his issues is that he is deaf.

A couple of months ago when they came to our monthly get together, the other kids did not really know how to play with him. Mimi tried but he in turn did not know how to play with her either so she just gave up. However tonight because they were the only ones close in age, they did swimmingly together. Mimi showed him some of her made up hand signals and he showed her his sign language. Nathan absolutely loves anything electronic. He also loves to figure things out. So Art and Lisa figure that he may be some type of engineer when he grows up.

Nathan just recently was fitted for hearing aids and is getting used to them and even starting to make sounds which is not easy for him at times. Art says that he hears a lot of white noise. Today was the first day he could say Mama and Baba which made Lisa soooooo happy.

Lisa says that when they received his referal picture, he was riding a plasma car. Then when they took him to their local Costco and saw the same exact toy, Nathan just went crazy with so much joy. So they bought him two and both he and Mimi went around and around the house just laughing and squealing with so much joy.

BOUNCE IT UP

This is a new place that just opened up a couple of weeks ago just before going to the Black Diamond Bakery. And because it is new and they don't have the clientele that is needed to be opened more hours, there is a limit to when they are open.

As soon as we were done with the farmers market, Mimi was anxious to try this place as we tried yesterday but they were closed to the public. Both she a Blake had a blast till it was time to go home and play in the pool then play with Shadd and Blake both outside and inside.

She was quite upset when I had to break her away from the boys in order to go and get ready for our monthly get together with our China family. She did not like the fact that the boys were going to have some fun without her. At the time she did not know that there was more fun in store for her at Nathan's home.

MIMI AND JOHN SENSEI

For the past couple of summers, Mimi has been taking Karate from her "Sensei" John down at Lake Wilderness and she absolutely loves it. She has always been quite the tomboy from the very beginning. Not sure if it is because she had a foster brother who is about 5-6 years older than her or it is just her personality or both.

Next week John Sensei wants to test her for a Yellow Belt. I have a feeling she will get it but at the same time we'll see.

This morning at our local farmers market John Sensei's classes gave a demonstration and he also passed out fliers for the next upcoming class that is to start week after next. The downfall about that is it goes all the way till September 17 which is not good for us as she has gymnastic practice and school. So I am not sure as to what we will do.