We Made the Front Page

Here is our 15 minutes of fame! Well, one day's worth. We were actually on the front page of The Villages newspaper the day after Christmas. One of the neighbors on Papa/Rea Lewis' street convinced us to be covered in the newspaper. We figured we'd merit a paragraph somewhere--we had no idea we'd be on the cover! Christmas was hectic, as usual, but lots of fun. Christmas Eve at Papa/Grandma Lee's, Christmas morning at home, then Christmas Day at Papa/Rea's near Ocala, Florida. Emily and David really enjoyed themselves.

Note: the photo of David standing on the yellow stool is a Gotcha pic! He made a ladder to get to the Ritz crackers (his favorite). And so it begins...

And What About Big Sister?

Emily changed so much in the two weeks we were gone! She's more outgoing, even more verbal (if that's possible), and such a little lady! Everything's about dressup, including (toddler) makeup and glass slippers. Her Cinderella dressup dress from Papa/Rea has been on her little body since Christmas.

This morning she insisted on wearing her dress to Publix for her Good Will Tour. The princess sported charming glass slipper heels and her new, favorite "diamon neckiss". She was an absolute hit with the employees and customers. It took us 2 hours--I'm not kidding--to finish food shopping, because we were stopped in every aisle, folks were so excited to admire her ensemble. "Cinderella" was very gracious to the crowd, twirling and pointing out each detail of her quality attire. Then, good princess that she is, she toured the behind-the-scenes refrigerated section of the produce department, taste tested fresh grapes, and helped Felicity and Tiffany stack fruit.

Christmas Videos

Here are some videos for you to enjoy. David is experiencing sleep issues right now, so we've been up from 3am on most nights with him. Hopefully he'll be okay soon...hopefully it's not palate problems causing the sleep apnea. He has also mastered 28 different signs and can speak 10 words. The most amazing sign he mastered was "cracker". Try it--place your right hand on your left shoulder, then knock twice with your left fist on the bottom of your right elbow. Now imagine yourself physically delayed at 2 years old and try and do it. And he did! He adores Ritz crackers. We started signing sentences to him tonight, and we're sure he'll catch on soon.







David is also mastering using a fork and spoon with his meals. The nannies hand feed the kids at his orphanage until they're 5 years old, so it's been amazing watching his manual dexterity advance.

A Special Thanks

We want to extend a big, sincere THANK YOU to all our friends who sent David and Emily Christmas gifts. You really didn't need to, and we are overwhelmed by everyone's kindness. A special thanks also to all Dave/Maria's friends at the Villages who made such a fuss over Emily while we were in China, and then another fuss over David and his big sister when he arrived. What an amazing group you are.

P.S. Grandma Lee, Emily is sleeping on her Thomas the Train sheets tonight! She's very excited!

Take care, everyone.

Love,

Caroline