Happy Birthday Amanda!

On May 20th, we celebrated Amanda's 3rd birthday. This post is all about the pictures. So here we go!

First you must start with cake




It was well enjoyed




Caleb gave her a board with pictures of things with which she could practice her talking.



She got a baby doll that looks like her courtesy of the Neumann aunties.



She really thought this doll was a good deal.



A good mommy knows how to teach her baby to be quiet.



She also got pots and pans to practice her culinary skills.



And to top it all off, Elmo has entered the house.





All in all, a good birthday.



We just love to make her happy. It's a family thing.

Her past life

Amanda is fully acting like a natural born child of ours. We tend to forget now that she spent the first two years of her life in an orphanage. Every once in a while though, we get little glimpses of her life pre-Benson.

I was watching Oprah yesterday and they had a preview to the Baby movie. It's about four babies and their first year in different parts of the world. I know she likes to see babies so I told her to look at all the babies. She was having a good time until it came to one baby whose older sibling pushed her over and she started crying. No one came to her rescue. This REALLY upset Amanda and she came to me sobbing and crying wanting to be held. I just held her and kept telling her that I'm your mommy, I'm your mommy. That seemed to calm her down and she got up and went back to playing. She has either a soft heart for those in need or a wound of what she didn't get. This has happened before when she saw a similar situation with a baby. Love can heal a lot of wounds, but only time helps you to forget.

The dark side

Yes, we have entered the dark side of girlhood. Things that I thought would never enter my home. My lego/match box car/anything sports related boy home. My pretty pony is in the "howse"...we found these at a garage sale. Four for $2.




Of course they came with accessories like a hairbrush and underwater snorkle (not shown) so my little pony can go swimming in the great barrier reef.



Overall, Amanda is happy with the purchase.

Happy mother's day!

Nothing like having mother's day with a new little person to "mother".

Last months zoo trip

Judah is just happy to be with us. He could really care less where he is:



OOOOOHHHHH.....Fish! (we're still trying to get the fff sound to come in front of the ish sound. It usually comes out "ish")




Nathan just takes a good picture. What a smile!




Caleb found out that if you put your fingers near the chicks, they all congregate there. He had a chick monopoly.




Amanda and her Nana (Brett's mom). I'm sure Nana is not that crazy having this picture here because the coat she is wearing is less than attractive, but she had to borrow it from me....she is soooo not in the cold weather anymore.

Potty Time!

Since Amanda was showing us how totally ready she was to re-learn the whole potty thing, I decided to bite the bullet and go with it. She kinda sorta not really learned in the orphanage. We have pictures of her and her room buddies half naked. But, with all that was tramatic in all of our lives, we decided to skip adding a "go to the potty" thing. Her indication that she was ready to begin again? Strip down into nothing every time she peed in her diaper. One day, she was awake in her crib for around 10-15 minutes while I finished up some things I needed to do. I walk into her room (equipped with crib tent) and (insert whistle sound here) there she is au natural. Happy as a lark. My usual way of potty training is to just put them in the thick underwear and deal with the accidents. I just. couldn't. do. it. again. There are two things that make me cringe right now in life. Teaching a child to read and potty training. So, needless to say, I'm trying pull ups and continuing to support the economy in the diaper area. You can thank us anytime.

Now, I always thought training a girl would be easier since you don't have the extra equipment to malfunction. Yup - it's easier. A girl just sits down and that's all there is to it. A boy has extra steps you have to remind him of every single time. But the main reason I'm posting about all this is that I always know when she's done her deed. She'll be sitting there with an expressionless face when all of a sudden BIG SMILE. She's done it. It's hilarious. She basically is working for cookies right now, but hey- cookies are a lot cheaper than diapers. As an extra added bonus, I have two helper boys who will also get whatever treat Amanda has earned if they help and encourage her. I'm all about the bribe.