She's So Busy

B is a child that has unbridled glee and enthusiasm. She is fearless, except of fire and thunderstorms. She embraces fun and play and life with an excitement and enthusiasm that I cannot fathom.

I sometimes wonder just how she can be so enthusiastically happy sometimes.

She loves:
pizza
pasta
tofu
the park
swimming
scooters
tricycles.
going fast
sliding
swinging
running
animals
Itchy Frog
noise
singing
more noise
watermelon
ice cream
candy
books
Dora
doing "it" herself

She continues to amaze, delight and inspire me daily.

What is Your Background?

Today someone asked what ethnicity my wife was.

So I told him.

Welsh.

The Full Story

Today marks one year since we were first united with Beatrix. At times it feels like it went by so fast and other times it feels like time has stood still.

Looking back,we still can't believe how perfect this kid is for us. She is not an easy child, but she is just enough for us to handle. Most times.

This year we have come to understand Bea and her personality. Which is great. She has a wonderful sense of humor and is quite a clown. She loves to run and bounce and throw and kick and generally destroy things. She is seldom tired. Never sedate. Loves to sing and dance and draw (mostly suns) and read.

Bea is also a strong kid. Both physically and mentally. She loves to charge at me and jump on me and roughhouse. She is like having a boy sometimes. However, she is also a very strong person mentally.  Bea knows no fear from physical obstacles, or mental ones. She will always want to do things herself, or at least try. She is a daredevil and loves rides at the park and slides. The faster the better. There seems to be no stopping this child and she does not seem to understand limits. Both her own and ones we set. This can be trying at times.

Bea is terribly curious and now is asking "why" all the time. Speaking of that, Bea has developed quite the vocabulary. She is still behind her 3.5 year old peers, but is rapidly catching up. She knows so many words that I often wonder what she doesn't know. She lets her feelings and desires known, like it or not.

Bea also has found the wonders of TV and especially Dora. She is also seeing the difference between Dora and Kai Lan. She also loves Maisy and Wonder Pets. Her favorite movie, and about the only one she wants to watch, is The Lion King.

For food, Bea loves Spaghetti and Meatballs and pizza. Must be Italian in her. Other favorites include Mac & Cheese, carrots, cauliflower, hummus, yogurt, eggs and sausage, bananas, clementines, chocolate and any kind of soup she can get her hands on. However,I don't understand how a kid who was raised in China for 2.5 years can be so bad at eating rice. She doesn't appear to be capable of getting any in her mouth.

Bea has also found a partner in crime. Itchy Frog.











Bea has been through a lot and this past year was probably her biggest challenge. Not only was she uprooted from a place where she looked like everyone else, they spoke her language and she was familiar with the food and smells, but she was thrust into a new world full of crazy friends and family. She was given more attention than she probably ever had or expected, she was introduced to a new language, new faces, new smells and foods and experiences. She celebrated strange new holidays and customs like coloring eggs, finding said eggs hidden in the yard, saw fireworks, had a cake with candles for her birthday, dressed up as an octopus and a bee and got candy from neighbors, she had turkey, sat on an old fat guy's lap who then brought presents, and she played in the snow. She took it in stride and enjoyed it all.

In all, she is completely a part of the family now. She and O get along much better. They act like real sisters, fighting about typical stuff. Bea knows all her grandmas/grammies and grandpas/papas, she knows her aunts and uncles, her cousins and friends. Most importantly, she knows her jie jie (sister) and her mama and daddy, and she tells us she loves us, and we love her.