It's a girl!!!!

A wonderful lady became a Mom today, go and wish her and her husband best wishes.
Their daughter is just beautiful, we are so happy for you both.

A huge sigh of relief.

Today Jillian had another assessment, this time at the London Speech and Language Centre.

I was more than impressed with the one hour assessment she was given, they were able to target three areas we have to focus on, gave us a good directive and assured us she would be well prepared to start school in September.

We chose to put her in a private and group setting, she will be given one and half hours with a speech pathologist then be integrated into a group setting for another hour and a half, total of three hours every Saturday for the next eight weeks. To my shock, there was an opening this Saturday, we can start immediatly, no six month waiting period!!!

To say Jillian is excited is an understatement, they call this program the London and Speech Centre's summer camp, all Jill heard was she is going to camp like her big sister.

To add to the excitement Mom and Dad are over the moon excited because our private coverage will cover a lot of this program, a little added bonus, wink!

So a big huge sigh of relief, my Jilly Bean is going to get the added help and support needed with her speech, I am confident with the centre, we liked the Pathologist and it fits the budget!

Whew......

You couldn't make this stuff up!!!!

I have often prided myself on how creative, artistic and imaginative my two little monkeys are.
They can take a piece of paper and turn it into a wonderful, colorful masterpiece, they can make a box take on new life as a ship, their tree house is just never that, it 's often a magical place inhabited with princesses, mermaids or the odd dog and cat.
While sitting sipping my coffee on the deck, I was impressed with how well the monkeys were engaged in play(translation, no hitting, screaming, crying or tattling). I sat back enjoying the sun and just relaxed, suddenly I noticed in the creative play that they were dogs, there was a lot of barking, running after a ball and some growling. Grinning, thinking that this was hilarious to watch, I had no idea just what was about to come next!!
Jennifer rounded the corner butted up the pool, lifted her leg in the air and make a ssssss sound, Jill of course never to be outdone by her big Sis, followed suit. Let's just say the dogs must of had a lot of water before coming outside to play.
I must say Mom was also glad they were already acquainted and well they didn't have to sniff their way around to meeting each other.
Oh and yes, coffee is not good going going down the wrong way as your choking from laughter, kids, you can't make this stuff up. LOL...

It's like when two planets collide....

First let me say that I feel guilty about this post(complaining and all), I know how many of you out there have been waiting forever to bring your daughter home and how agonizing the wait is.
I want to also add that I love my Jillian beyond the sun, moon and stars.

Lately this little monkey and I are like two planets colliding at high speed. Jilly bean has been challenging me(more than usual), throwing tantrums that are going on for what seems like hours, making me so stressed that I have sat and cried myself silly.

Now I have given much thought to why her behaviour has escalated so much lately, I have come up with a couple of things.

First I know that my life in the last couple of weeks has been a little stressed and I think she has picked up on that, I have not been as patient, not been my usual self.

Second she is testing me to the limits, now she has always been one to throw tantrums when things don't go her way but wow, she is going for complete control of the castle.

Now being the Queen as I am, letting go of some of the control has been an issue for me, heaven knows I am trying to bend a little, LOL.

Lately I feel like I have been smashing my head against a brick wall, Superman says that I need to take a break, go do something on my own, as he is running out the door to go and do something??

Jillian has also decided that she only wants to listen or do things for Superman, now I am a big girl and I know I shouldn't take this personally but "ouch".

Wow, I just unloaded a lot here, sorry if I sound like a big whiner or complainer, LOL. It feels good to let this go, start the day anew, go from here.

Just had to share...

Our family just recently ordered this video called Long Wait for Home.
It is one in the few documentary videos put out by Dr. Changfu Chang.I can't tell you how valuable this video is to our library and when the time is right I can't wait to share it with our girls.
The documentary sits face to face with birthparents as they share their heartache of surrendering their child because of the one child policy and poverty.It take you into several orphanages, one being Jillian's (Fuling , The Lily Care Center) which we were honored to have gone to and had the privilege of speaking with her caretakers.
They also interview the general population about how the people of China generally feel about International Adoption.
It is one of the best adoption videos we have purchased. To get more info or to purchase go here to "Love without Boundaries".

Thank you to everyone for their thoughts, good wishes and prayers for my family. The overwhelming supported lifted me through some dark days, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Special thanks again to Helen, xo.

Some personal time.

I am going to take some family, personal time.
I just found out not only my Dad is ill but now an Uncle.
I need time to sort out some emotion, hug my kids and be with friends.
Thank you Helen for being on the other end of the phone, your truly the best!

I've been tagged!

4 Jobs that I've had.
1. worked through high school in a nursing home kitchen.
2. waitress while in college, boy was I the worst!!
3. on nursing staff in a nursing home, on staff for 14 years.
4. My best job, not that is a job really, a stay at home Mom. The benefits are the best. ;)

4 shows on my Tivo or DVR.
I don't have a clue what either of these are, I am so out of the loop. LOL.
My four favourite shows are,
1. All the CSI's
2. E.R.
3. Criminal Minds.
4. Cold Case
Boy, all my shows sound so depressing and morbid, yikes!

4 places that I've visited.
1. China
2. England.
3. Most of Canada.
4. Florida, spent a month there every year until I was 26.

4 favourite foods.
1. Potato chips, my biggest weakness, trying hard not to eat them anymore!!! It is killin' me!!
2. Grilled salmon steak.
3. anything barbecued, sorry to all the vegetarians out there, I love a big juicy steak.
4. Pizza with tons of cheese.

4 Cd's that I recently have listened to.
1. Nickelback.
2. Boston.
3. Simon and Garfunkel.
4. James Taylor.

4 things you can do to make my day.
1. Make me a morning coffee.
2. hide my treadmill
3. let me sleep in past 6:30 am.
4 answer my phone so I don't have to talk to any telemarketers for one day, wow, would that make me a very happy Mom.

Okay, the first 4 people that read this, your it, come on play it's fun. ;)

Couldn't resist.

This t-shirt was found yesterday while shopping, I could not resist, it screamed Jillian's name, LOL. No explanation needed here.

Another cute find. I uploaded this photo and I really could notice my sweetie girl's injured front teeth.

The one tooth is losing it's blood supply, so as you can notice if you click on photo, you will see the tooth is very gray. We have a return appointment in May. The dentist said if it's not better they will have to pull it!! This saddens me, thank goodness it's a baby tooth. :(

3 Little words .

Jennifer has lost another tooth, the tooth fairy came last night and left a toonie under her pillow.
The little Monkey was up to tell me all about it at quarter to six this morning, she was just a little excited, LOL. It could be a long day...
For details on the 3 word Sundays go here, the videos this amazing lady creates are fantastic, check them out!! You'll be hooked. ;)

Blowing off a little steam...

This post is for me, it's me blowing off some steam, it's not intended to irritate, offend or to show that I am ungrateful in any way. I'm just frustrated, my insides have been churning for weeks and my emotions have come to a boil, thus the steam.

This man means the world to me, I could not bear to think of what my life would be without him in it for one second.

I am so frustrated with our medical system, it has been weeks to find out what the heck is going on with my Father. He has see a specialist two weeks ago and has a return appointment on Monday for more testing.

It takes so long to get appointments that if treatment of any kind is required it's going months. This seems unacceptable, this is my Dad, I only want the best for him. If he needs treatment I wanted it to start yesterday.

I know we are fortunate to have O*.H. I*. P., please don't get me wrong I am grateful, just needing to vent.

I think we should have some results soon, sigh...

A day of pretend and play.

We went to the London Children's Museum a couple of days ago when the weather was rainy and cold, it was a great day of fun.
Here is Jillian standing in front of a huge tarantula, YIKES!!!!

Jennifer is planting a vegetable garden.

A team of wild horses couldn't keep them away from having a fabulous time.

A class from the bygone days.

Cooking up a storm in the old fashioned pioneer kitchen.

Mopping up in her grocery store.

Jillian working the check out, price check on Cheerios please!!!

A very scary man, close enough!! LOL.

This is as close as my kids get to a Mc*Donalds, I know I am such a mean old Mom!!

Where's the fire?? Jillian is driving, get off the roads, Yikes!!

Playing at Jelly fish beach.. Digging for Dino bones.

Took me all day to assembles those bones, job well done. ;)

A little off track.

Over the last few months I have noticed our Jilly-bean's speech is a little off track.
Don't get me wrong, she knows every word in the Webster's dictionary (and more, LOL) but her pronunciation is usually incorrect. She says F's for S, V's for B and so on, as for Mommy and family we understand everything that's being said but that's not so for the general public, they might get 80%. It has been difficult for me to access because Jennifer talked clearly since the day she uttered her first word, so following my Mommy instinct I made an appointment for her.
The appointment lasted 75 minutes, it was through Tyke Talk, a free service we have in our area. Well my instincts proved correct, she needs some intervention, she is not far off the track but definitely needs some assistance.
Tyke Talk put us on a list for free(yes, free) speech therapy but the wait time is 6 months!!!!, this will put us into September before we are seen, Jill will be in school and then the board of Ed will intervene and she will be seen through them!!
Not wanting for my Jilly to fall behind and have any disadvantages starting JK, I have decided to call Superman's benefits through his employer. We have incredible coverage,but to my surprise we are only covered for $500.00!!! a year for any kind of therapy(physical, speech, chiro).
Wow, I was blown out of the water, we will go through this very quickly with a private speech therapist, but I feel we have no choice to start her off immediately.
So we are going to call some to see how quickly we can get her into to see someone and start eating up the $500, then it's out of our pockets until she gets to be seen through the education system(then we will probably still need to have some private intervention, we'll see).
It's my hope that Jillian will only need a few months of therapy and be back on track for the start of school in September.