BLOG:May 2009 · Dec. 26, 2008
New fall tradition September 21, 2008
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We've started a new fall tradition at our house. As the weather has cooled down (a little too much for our liking!), we pull out the firepit at night to try to extend the "outdoors" season just a little longer.

After dinner, we get the girls into their pajamas, with some added layers of fleece pants and sweatshirts, wrap them in blankets and head out to the deck.  I light some candles and Richard lights the firepit. We listen to the final games of the Indians season as it gets dark early.

The girls' favorite part is of course, the toasting of marshmallows. Amazingly, Joelle usually only goes for one. Jonna, never one to pass up treats, loves the "smushmellows" as she calls them.

After the "smushmellows," Jonna is quick to drop off to sleep. Joelle the night owl, fights the sleepys as much as she can until she finally has to give in. They love falling asleep outside on the couch under the stars. That's about as close to camping as we'll get! 

Hard to believe September 08, 2008
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Today is the five-year anniversary of receiving our referral for Jonna. Amazing that it was the first time we saw that little waif face staring at us. Check out this face!

Hard to believe that that little imp is now our "big girl" who started kindergarten and Chinese language and culture school this past week.

I remember that day for a few reasons. I was at work, in an NFL staffing meeting. Richard was on the road doing an interview. Poor Hillary at CCAI was calling all over the place to find us. Once we finally did a conference call and opened the e-mail with Jonna's picture, who could work? We were so thrilled!

We both came home early - concentrating was so tough! We celebrated and after looking at her picture non-stop, we realized we needed to come up with a new name for her. We had originally selected Meredith as her name, but the more we looked at her, the less she was a Meredith.

Back to the name books we went until Jonna jumped out at me. Jonna was a good name - it honored all of the Johns in the Urban family, was unusual enough that she wouldn't have four others in her class and really seemed to fit that little look on her face.

She could be no other.

And now we are just weeks away from that wonderous Gotcha moment when she was placed in our arms for the first time.

First day of school September 02, 2008
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Today was a big day - it was Jonna's first day of kindergarten! She was so excited she had a hard time sleeping all weekend. She kept asking us when it was school.
Last Thursday, I took the day off to go to orientation with her. She seemed a little apprehensive at first, but could not be contained today!
Her day will start at Kindercare as it has for the past four years. The school bus will pick her up there and take her to East Farms Elementary for her afternoon kindergarten. After that ends, she heads back to KC until Daddy picks her up.
It is so thrilling to see her so excited about going to school. She really lucked out in that our neighbor Jilly is also in her class as are two boys from her KC classes so she knows a few of the 18 kids in the class.
Joelle also officially moved into the 3s today too. It was a little rougher transition for her but she does get to see her favorite teacher, Miss Dede, every day still.
A big day is coming up at our house next week, something of a bigger deal for us. On Monday, Sept. 8, it is the five-year anniversary of our referral for Jonna - five years since the first time we saw that little waif face! That shocks me more than kindergarten - that it's been five years since our lives so changed!
Potty trained! August 12, 2008
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It has been a while since we've updated this blog and so much has happened!
Probably the biggest news by far is the fact that Joelle is potty trained. And she did it primarily on her own. No, she didn't just climb up on the potty. But she started telling us when she went or when she had to go. Same thing at day care. And then she ended up going three or four days at school without a diaper change, always going on the potty. So I asked her, are you ready to be a big girl and wear big girl panties? She said "Not panties, UNNERWEAR!" And that was that. She still wears a pull up at night but for the most part, even that is dry every morning.

Oh, she's had a few accidents since then, mostly when she's out playing and forgets to go or tell us she has to go.
One draw back to this of course is that on our recent trip to Maine, I got to see all of the ahem, finer rest stops along I-84, I-90 and I-95!

The girls had a great time in Maine visiting Ivan and Randi (of course, Joelle  had to announce she's "a big girl wearing UNNERWEAR!") We all ate lobster, did a little shopping and the girls frolicked in the sand. We have some pictures from the trip up on the site.

Despite a slow start on the garden (we didn't really get it going until early June) it is now quite large! Every day we have to go back and check out the plot to see how our tomatoes are doing. I have nine tomato plants in (four Prudens Purple, one Anna Russian, and four yellow cherry), four pepper (yellow, red, green and purple), one cantaloupe, one cucumber and three watermelons. I know, I am nuts. Every time we go see the plants, Joelle goes crazy for the tomatoes. We've already had one of the Prudens purple and she has been popping the yellow cherry tomatoes like candy. In fact, the first day she saw we had one that was red and ready to pick, Joelle was jumping u and down and doing a happy dance to get at the tomato!

Jonna is so excited for her purple peppers she even tried a regular green one and said she liked it! They both keep waiting for the watermelons to be ripe too. The like checking out how big they are getting.  Unfortunately the late start could mean we don’t get any cantaloupe or cukes - both still don’t have fruit, just a ton of blooms.

Both Jonna and Joelle have been fascinated by the Olympics. I went in the house the other night (we spend most of our time outdoors on the patio during the summer) and she was glued to the set watching women's synchronized diving! Every night she has fallen asleep on the couch watching the Games. Unfortunately she keeps missing Michael Phelps swimming though.

The cool thing has been how aware they are of China hosting the games. Joelle saw the Beijing logo in the Hartford Courant and immediately started yelling "China! China!" I guess she remembered seeing it someplace. Jonna has asked a couple times if she is from where the Olympics are going on now. And she likes to tell people she's from China too.

She'll be starting Chinese school in September. I think she is excited by the prospect, especially the dance classes. Hopefully she'll want to stick with it. She's also excited about going to kindergarten in the fall. We have her orientation at the end of the month and she'll get to ride the big-kid bus too. Joelle has been telling everyone about how she's going to the 3's soon. But we know she'll miss her teacher Miss Dede.

Busy June July 01, 2008
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    As you can see by the updated photos on the main page and the Around Home photo page, we had a very busy June, highlighted by Jonna's "graduation" from Pre-K and our 10-day vacation.
    Jonna's graduation was very cute. They all wore the red caps and gowns and sang songs. Then each child was called up by Nicole, the daycare center director to receive their "diploma." Afterward, there was cake and all of the kids got funky "Rayban" sunglasses.
    Jonna wanted to go to Rainforest Cafe to celebrate afterward.
    Of course, the next day she had to go back to school!
    A few days later, we left for Denver. I hadn't been there since the All-Star Game in 1997; Richard and the girls had never been. We went to CCAI's annual reunion and carnival. What a great time we had! We were all impressed by the city.
    We got to spend time with Hillary from CCAI - we went to the Indians-Rockies game on Thursday (of course the Tribe lost). Both girls loved the fountains that go off whenever the Rockies hit a home run.
    At the carnival we were reunited with Cheryl and Ben Burger. It was great to see how big he's gotten and the fact he is walking and talking. When we last saw him in China, he was barely sitting up by himself. He's still tiny, but active.
    The picnic/reunion was fun too. There were Chinese dancers, Lion dancers and musicians. While we were eating lunch, I said to Jonna "Look at all the pretty Chinese girls!" She turned to me and said "Where?" It's amazing how she doesn't notice any difference at all.
     One of their favorite things at the picnic was playing in the fountains at the Nature museum nearby. Most of the kids came prepared in their swimsuits, but we didn't realize the fountains would be a play area. Joelle just loved it! She would stick her face, or her bottom right over the fountain spout so she could get sprayed!
    We also took them to Dinosaur Ridge and Tiny Town, local attractions. On Dinosaur Ridge, we looked for fossils and found dino tracks. At Tiny Town, the girls had fun being "giants" near the little buildings. Joelle especially loved the train ride. She kept repeating "Please get off my train!" afterward, just like the engineer did at the end of the ride.
    From there, we went to Cleveland to see my family. Of course, we also saw the Indians lose again, but this time we were there for the big Omar Vizquel tribute. It was awesome.
    We spent lots of time with Aunt Kris, Uncle Dude, Sparty, Nino and Grandmere. We went to the West Side Market and bought fruit and I found my all time favorite treat - lamingtons or coconut bars. Yum!
    The funny thing was, on our trip home, we thought the drive would be bad. Joelle had never been in the car that long (about 10.5 hours) while Jonna had made the trip several times. Surprisingly, both did terrific! Thank god for the portable DVD player and the Wiggles!
    We wrapped up our busy vacation with the ARCCT annual picnic at Quassy Park. Again, the girls splashed around the fountain area. But after the long 10 days of fun, they were ready for some rest.