Time in a Bottle

Wow... has it really been this long since I updated this blog? Boy, that's bad! A lot has happened in the past couple of weeks...

First, I have to say congrats to our friends Margie & Charlie... they are now officially homeowners... and the best part of all is, they bought a house 3 doors down from ours!!! WOOHOO... they will get electricity tomorrow, so I guess the big move will be happening this week!

Sadly, another friend of mine lost her dad on Friday to cancer. It's times like this that makes it hard being here in Florida. I would have wanted to be up north with her...

Strange thing is, I will probably be heading up north for an extended visit. Not all for fun, unfortunately. As most of you know, I've been having some really bad issues with my neck and back, oh forever it seems... so back in August I had the first of a probable two surgeries. The Dr removed 4 discs from my neck, replaced them with plastic "cages" and then fused them all together. Unfortunately, I was recently declared a "surgical failure" (surgeons words). So right now I'm out of work on disability (no pay but hopefully my insurance will kick in soon) and the surgeon basically said he has no need to see me until I am ready to let him operate on my LOWER back... uh... yeah... right... as IF!!!! So anyway... my regular Dr wanted me to go to another neurosurgeon for a 2nd opinion... well, that guy refuses to see me. So now he says I should go outside the area for the 2nd opinion so no chance of anyone covering for anyone else..

So that being said, it looks like I might be heading up to Boston to get my 2nd opinion! That way I can stay with my family up there. If I do this, I'll take Rachel with me so Tommy doesn't have to worry about finding a babysitter. Marla volunteered to babysit for us both! LOL...

As for our little Rachie.. all I can say is wow... what a ride! This kid is more amazing every single day. She now has a pretty extensive vocabulary, and is saying several complete sentences to get her point across! Life sure is SO much easier now that we don't have to GUESS what she wants all the time!

She watches too much TV, for sure... BUT... she is really learning SO much from the shows we let her watch. Naturally, she watches Sesame Street. So, she now can count to 20, and she knows her ABC's.

She watches NiHao KaiLan, so she also knows at least 20 different Chinese words, as well as a few sentences. I have to admit, I've had to really pay closer attention to the show, because she comes out with a few Chinese words that I wouldn't have recognized otherwise! It's pretty funny, but I'm actually learning from my 2 year old! Some of her other favorites are "Max & Ruby" (which I don't really like... Ruby is just so darn bossy! LOL) and of course, she STILL loves M*A*S*H*.

We haven't really pushed the potty training issue with her. She will sometimes tell us when she has to go and other times she'll tell us when she already went. I just know that when the time is right, we will ALL know it.

Lately, she has also taken a real interest in gymnastic moves. She does sumersaults, and is ALWAYS trying to stand on her head! She is also really into climbing, and the more "Daredevil" the better! She is climbing on the furniture, but purposely going the hard way up instead of taking the normal route. She also LOVES to climb up onto my bed BY HERSELF! So, I guess I'm gonna have to find some kind of gymnastics or tumbling class or something! Sure hope they are cheap enough!

Oh, this outfit she is wearing in today's pictures is one I bought for her while we were in China. I had to let her wear it at least once before she outgrew it! LOL... trust me, it was a really close call! I was thinking of waiting until Chinese New Year, but didn't want to risk it!