Meetcha Day, 3 Years Ago Today........

My little Love. I really can't believe it was 3 years ago today that me and Serena became a family! It does not feel like 3 years have past at all. When I look at these pictures I remember so well how I felt, what my thoughts were and I had no idea what life would be like in the future with this sweet girl I was meeting for the first time. I had no idea what she would be like. She has turned into the most amazing little girl.

I remember the first thing I noticed when I saw her was how she was studying the directors office. She just looked at everything and everyone so intensly and I could see the little wheels in her head turning trying to understand what was happening. Once we started to play together I noticed how interested in everything she was. She wanted to know about everything and was happy to be able to explore her new surroundings in the hallways and playroom. She was so active and into everything too. I liked that then. Not so much now, lots to clean up :)

Serena was looking for fun too. I remember she started to play games with me. She'd crawl away from me and look back to see if I was coming after her. Over and over again and she'd giggle as I chased after her. She was such a happy baby! A happy healthy baby and she was my daughter. I loved visiting her everyday and just watching her. We'd play, laugh, and then I'd just watch her again. I was so anxious to know her, love her, hug her, every single day. She won my heart after the first day. She cried when I put her back in her room. I was attached. I knew that whatever the doctor told me about her health, good or bad she was coming home with me. I couldn't live without her. It's amazing how quickly your love grows for a child.

This is the first picture that was taken of us together. She is the same but different. I love her with all of me and she makes me happy everyday. She fills my heart with so much love I could burst!

About Serena:

Serena can find anything that I'm looking for. I don't know how she does it but all I have to do is ask her where something is and she'll find it.

If Serena sees a crayon, pen or marker she needs paper. She draws pictures all the time. She thinks all paper is hers.

She likes to run the show sometimes. She has definite ideas of what she wants and doesn't want and she won't hesitate to tell you.

She is so affectionate and loving. She puts her arms around my neck and I melt. There's nothing like it! Love that baby love!

She's a shoe lover like me. She likes to wear her shoes and mine too.

She doesn't miss anything!

Make up is her new obsession. My friend Patty introduced her to lipstick and that was it. I have to put my makeup on high shelf now.

Her teacher at school says her scanning skills are really really great. She also told me Serena is very good at drawing and also likes the dress up area at school. She said she is very theatrical, which I do agree with.

She loves to play with barbie size dolls and polly pocket. She makes them have conversations with each other. I play with her too at times but I love to see her play herself. I love the conversations they have together.

She has never liked having her picture taken and still is not a fan. I do my best but she's not a poser so I have lots of snapshots.

Serena loves the water. She wants to jump in without me waiting for her. She said she's a big girl not a baby.

Serena cracks me up sometimes with her one liners. The expressions on her face really add to the comedy too. She is so silly and brings joy to our whole family. I really can't imagine my life without her. It would be so boring!

I am so blessed to be Serenas mom. I really feel honored that I was given the special gift of her. To be able to raise her, love her, and to experience who she is and know that she is my daughter is just the most amazing gift. I have wanted to be a mom since I was a little girl and I played with baby dolls. It felt so natural to me. She has given me so much in these 3 years together. My heart is full because of her.

Serena, Happy Meetcha Day my Love! You are the best and you make me happy everyday. You are such a sweetheart and I love being your mom! Lots of Kisses to you.

Fall 2009 Update In The Spring

Pumpkin picking in October at Casola Farms in Colts Neck, NJ is always fun. Last year Soraya and Max came with us. We missed you two this year!

Serena has been obsessed with The Wizard of Oz since she saw it before Halloween so this year there was only one thing she wanted to be. We pretend to be the characters in the movie, we watch the movie and we have the soundtrack in the car. She loves it! We went around our neighborhood with Grandpa and Aunt Maria and then we spent some time on the front porch since it was a beautiful day.

Serena went inside and I said my goodbyes to family. I walked back in the house to see this. I think she had a busy busy day.

In November we got a new addition to our family. Her name is Roxy, she's 3 years old and she is the sweetest most lovable dog I ever met. I was never a dog person, we always had cats. Serena has always asked for a dog but I never thought I'd end up with one. Roxy was my friends dog. Roxy was always with him when he came to visit and I just loved her and so does Serena. My friend unexpectedly went into the hospital in October so he asked me to take care of her until he came home and I said that I'd love to have her. Unfortunately he did not come home and he is at peace now. It's a great loss for all who knew him and he is terribly missed. I'm glad I have Roxy because I feel like a piece of him is always with me.

This is one of Serenas people that she makes. I remember the first time she came home from school and drew these little people I was so excited!! I was an artist back in the day and always dreamed of sharing my talent with my child. I wasn't sure that was possible since I couldn't pass that gene on to Serena but I'm thinking now maybe it will happen. I think that's pretty good for a 3 1/2 year old!

My friend Patty got tickets for us to go to New York City to see the new Disney movie "The Princess and the Frog". It was a rainy day but Serena had so much fun! The movie was at the Ziegfield Theatre and up a few blocks, at the Roseland they had an event where you could meet and take pictures with all the Disney princesses. There were crafts and a playroom. Serena seemed really shy at first like she couldn't believe she was meeting the real princesses, she almost blushed.

One day in the kitchen Serena was scribbling on a piece of paper and I saw a tornado in her scribble. I said "Serena, what are you drawing?" She said "A tornado like in the Wizard of Oz." I almost fell over!! Never in a million years did I think she was going to say that! Coincidence?? I just love this picture!

This is one of the 4 or 5 snow storms we had this year. I'm not a snow person but with Serena and Roxy it is THE BEST! We were out there for hours in the snow. I'll show more of those pictures in the next post.

Christmas morning was at home with me, Serena, and my sister. It's always so much fun to wake up in the morning with family and open presents. This year Serena really got the whole idea of Christmas, Jesus' birthday, Santa Claus and opening presents. Later in the day when everyone came for dinner I said to everyone "What day is today?" Everyone one said "Christmas, December 25, Sunday......" Serena said "Jesus' birthday!" She is one smart cookie!

Grandpa playing with Serena and her new princess castle that Santa Claus brought her. He's a good grandpa! He just turned 80. I can't believe my dad is 80 years old. You'd never know it!

I just want to eat this child up! I know all kids in this age group love to sing and dance and all that but Serenas teacher tells me she loves playing dress up and she is very "theatrical" in her play. As soon as she turns 4 I'm signing her up for drama classes with the local park system to see if she likes it. I really believe whatever comes naturally to your child is what should be supportive of. If she doesn't like it we'll try something else but I'm interested to see if this comes naturally to her.

New Years Eve was for once a quiet night at home. Every year as long as I could remember we went to my aunts house for dinner and slept over for another dinner on New Years Day. (it's the Italian in us) Over the years other people have taken over that holiday but this year I just wanted to stay home. My sister came over again and we had a quiet celebration for 2010. This is Serena before she passed out. I love the expression on her face.

Her hair is getting so long. I just had it trimmed. We're both growing our hair until September and then we're getting it cut off and giving it to Locks for Love. My hair hasn't been this long since highschool and I'm bored with it so we'll give it a little more time and give it to a good cause.

I always said "I would NEVER get in the habit of sleeping with my child." I was sure I never would. What did I know? You don't know anything about raising a child until you have one. You may think you know but until your in those situations you NEVER know. About a year ago I gave up staying with Serena until she fell asleep. Sometimes it takes her 45 minutes to an hour to get to sleep. I'd end up hanging over the crib until that time came. Finally I said "screw this", she's sleeping with me. I'd put her back in her crib when she fell asleep but finally it was time for her to get her own bed. I talked to her about it for a while and then in January it was time. Aunt Maria wanted to help and she bought Serenas mattress and I bought the bedding. Thanks Aunt Maria! It was tough to make the transition but all is good now. A nice routine and a little bribery with Dorothy, Glinda and the Scarecrow really helped out. Aunt Patty got Serena Dorothy and Glinda Barbies for Christmas. I used a sticker chart and the promise of the Scarecrow doll to get her to get used to her bed. I'm sleeping much better now.

Serena loves to bake and help me in the kitchen, like every other child her age, so we saw a childrens baking set for mini muffins and thought it would be fun for us. She asks to bake almost every weekend now. I don't do it with her as much as I'd like to. Working full time and being single leaves the weekends for all the chores but we squeeze some fun in somewhere! I'll post again soon.

Can It Really Be 6 Months Later?

What have I been doing the last 6 months that I haven’t been keeping up with this blog that I said I was going to update weekly or at least monthly? I guess I’ve been a single mom with a beautiful 3 year old daughter, owner of a custom framing store and giving away hundreds of dollars of FREE sterling silver jewelry at homes and at catalog parties. I'm selling sterling silver jewelry for a very successful company. It's an amazing company! The jewelry is beautiful, so well made, and they are super customer friendly. I couldn't think of one reason not to sell it. Email me if you're interested, I'll tell you more about it and send you the website address. If you like jewelry you'll love it.



Anyway, here is a Serena update. We went to a birthday party for one of her school friends and it was at a horsefarm. Here she is with one of her favorite kids splashing around in the mud. I had second thoughts about it but she had fun. Then I stripped her down, poured Poland Spring all over her and she fell asleep on the way home.





Now I remember another reason I don't update that much. Blogger makes editing, copying and pasting and rearranging photos just impossible. It takes too long and it's giving me a hard time again.



Pony rides made all the kids happy. People were saying how Serena seems like she's been riding horses a long time. Maybe it's in her genes being Kazak.

I love this picture! This is another friend from school and he is such a sweet kid!

She loves a good pony ride.

Serena hiding in the closet from Grandpa. These jammies are from Kazakhstan. I bought them while I was there when she was 1. They're a little short but I'm glad they still fit her.

Checking out the news of the day.

This room was clean. I was in the kitchen cleaning and after a while I came out to see what she was up to. I couldn't believe it!! One kid did this. This is so unlike her. She makes messes but I didn't know she was capable of this.

Future Dentist?

Reading to Raggedy Ann after peanut butter and jelly.

Our first snow storm of the winter.

Serena loves to wear her winter clothes. She has to have on the gloves, hat, scarf in any kind of weather. It took her a while to stop wearing a jacket even though it was warm.

Post a comment to let me know if people are still reading, even if it's just your first name.

Things Will Be Different They Say.............I Can Only Hope

Today was historic and I wish Serena was old enough to remember it. We have a new President. Everyone is confident he is going to change things in this country for the better. I hope they're right. Look at the excitement in Serenas face about the changes that are to come.



School pictures.

I can't believe my daughter is getting so big. She's gotten so tall. No more chubby baby legs. I also can't believe how often blogger gives me a hard time about such miniscule things like getting the font I want to be consistent through this post.

Serena has not been interested in eating vegetables other than peas so tonight I decided to make faces on her "smiley potatos". She ate every vegetable on this plate. I can't believe it worked.

Since it was a historic day today I'm going to give you the details, although not exciting, of what your day was like today. I was at work and you at school. I picked you up and you were full of smiles when you saw me. As usual you refused to put your coat on to leave to come home. Just like you did this morning when you didn't want to go to school. I made a quick dinner since we do not get home before 6:30pm.

We ate and you ate all your veggies because we made faces out of your food, you, me and your friend Malachy at school. He has red hair and since we used carrots to make hair on a smiley potato we named him after your friend. You gave me lots of "biiiiiiiiiig huuuuuuuugs" as you like to say, and they are wonderful!

We changed you into your jammies or should I say you changed you into your jammies and snuggled up on the couch under a blanket. You were bouncing off the back of the couch and me while we watched the Inaugural Ball and American Idol and off to bed we went. I just love that you go with me to bed without an argument now. You take my hand and we walk upstairs into your room and you're all ready for sleep. You're such an angel Serena. It's always, usually, sad to put you to sleep because I miss you till morning but it's just such a special time too. I stay with you next to your crib and you rub my arms until you fall asleep. It's so sweet

Good night Serena. I just wanted to put in a quick post on this special historic day. I love love love you!

Christmas At Home

Did I say I was going to post once a week?? I don't know where the time goes but a month has passed and I've posted nothing. I'll blame it on December being an extra busy month and we'll just see what happens in January.

This year was the first year I did Christmas at my house and it was GREAT! All my life until 1997 my parents did Christmas. My grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins would sleep over Christmas Eve after a big dinner and we'd all open presents together. The kids slept in the livingroom with the tree and it was always so much fun. My mom left us in 1997 and after that my aunt, cousin and sister would take turns hosting the holidays. No more sleep overs until this year. My brother even came up with his family for Christmas and that just made things extra special. Everyone brought something for dinner and stayed the night. Opening presents with Serena was extra special since she was able to understand better this year. She got sick Christmas Eve and had a 102 degree temp and slept most of the day in my bed. Poor baby.

Serena woke up for a bit when my brother, SIL, and nephew got to the house. She loves my nephew Alex and he's so good with her.

Christmas Eve before bed and after some Tylenol Serena was a little happier.

Christmas Day Serena was still a little out of it. She opened her presents but was quiet through most of it. She loved the tea set that Santa Claus brought her more than anything I think. The piano seems to be a favorite too.

More Tylenol brought her spirits back to usual and I had my happy girl back again.

The day after Christmas my nephew got the stomach virus that's been going around. I had it 2 weeks ago, luckily Serena managed to escape that awful 3 days. Here they both are resting. My poor nephew had it for the drive back to North Carolina but he was feeling a little better by then. The day after Christmas my dads partner got sick too. She was sick for 3 days and after my brother got home to N.C. he was sick too. It was still a great time for all of us.

Serena was up and down alot with how she was feeling. She had a fever for 4 days and the highest I saw her temp was 103 degrees. The Motrin and Tylenol really made such a difference in how she felt. She has never been this sick before. I took the week off between Christmas and New Years. I was going to send her to daycare for 2 of those days so I could catch up on cleaning from the holidays but she got sick so I stayed home and took care of her instead.

After Serenas fever went away she was very congested. She was very grumpy so I was very understanding of her mood swings and grumpiness. Well, after a week I think she started milking it. I would never think a 2 year old, well, 2 1/2 year old would do this but I know she was. Her behavior around New Years was bad. She became very bossy and everything was no no no. This is not typically Serena. We had a "stand off" the other day. She refused to say she was sorry for throwing things like toys, shoes, her binky when she is mad, which was often the last few days. She got a time out which I don't normally have to do with her and she just refused to apologize. I just knew, knew this was an important moment as far as letting her know the boundaries around here. She stood her ground for about 10 minutes. Finally she gave in. I don't know if she meant she was sorry or she just gave in. After that I had my angel back for the rest of the day. I know this is small potatos compared to the teenage years but this was the toughest time I ever had with her. I'm glad she was better today.

Serena and her Christmas stash. Someone said it was a very girly Christmas for her. She loves to play with her babies, and make tea. My cousin bought her a wooden fruit set that she can "cut" with a wooden knife. The pieces of fruit are held together with velcro. She loves to cut up the pieces and pass them out to everyone. She's a peach!!

This is just before bed and she's not usually happy about bedtime.

Even though a few people were sick, everyone enjoyed the holidays. Having everyone at my house really made the holidays great for me and my family. I feel very fortunate for all the family, love, and memories I have in my life and Serena is the icing on the cake, everyday. I truly am blessed.

A New Start For The Blog

I'm starting this blog with the idea that I'm going to keep up with it better than I did last year. Even if I post once a week I'm ahead of the game. The last post I made was the first week of November 2007 and I have to say this last year flew by way too fast! I can't believe how much Serena has grown in the past year. She was just a baby this time last year and now she's a little person.

Serena is a very happy and very funny little girl. She's always been happy but now that she's older she has new ways of expressing it. Her sense of humor is just too cute! It has really come out much more in the past few months as her little personality takes on new ways of expressing itself.

I could just gush about her all day so I'll give it to you a little at a time over the next months. I don't want to overwhelm anyone.