I used to think a friend of ours was nuts to take her daughter to the beach in flowy white dresses, but we're at the end, no point saving dresses she'll never wear again, so here is Jia digging in the sand in a petal pink Baby Gap summer dress. So sweet. Wish I'd taken some more photos.
Transfer beach, dress is too wet and dirty, time to move onto a swimsuit.
Say cheese.
Found ourselves invited to a private lake. Very cool.
Yup, that's Eric up on the diving platform. Crazy man.
Swimming with Penny at Elliot Beach.
There are the big girls WAY out there. It was painful watching them swim out there. Weren't they still in arms reach just the other day?!
Kids all loved this rope swing and stayed on it until we were the last ones on the beach and it was almost dark.
When did Fei become so daring?
Jia thought this was the greatest time ever! Huge grins. When they were done she was sticking to Eric and wouldn't come to me, he was the new hero after that much fun.
Lewis is coming along, starting to come to us, he's still spooky but an amazing cuddler once you catch him. I can't catch him. Lili and Fei trick him and bring him to me :)
I've been spending abnormal amounts of time trying to figure out how to travel with Jia since she isn't a Canadian Citizen yet and we'd have to use her Chinese passport. Arg. It's a frustrating situation. I've spent a lot of time on hold, going through on-line and basically doing anything to reach a real person in the know. Today after many, many, many, many calls to Immigration and Citizenship I finally reached a man who was as nice as can be. He couldn't tell me much but he was clear that we should have heard something in 20 weeks and it's been 40 so he's sent an inquiry in and told me if we don't hear something by mail in Sept. to give him a call.
I'm trying to book a holiday for Feb. for Fei's Birthday. Fei doesn't want to go to Disneyland for her Birthday. We've tried to figure out the whys. I'm guessing it's sensory and fear of the unknown. She wants to go on a cruise. So, we sat her down and tried once again to pinpoint what she actually wants because we're not sure she knows. She is horrible at making decisions. Even picking out colors is hard for her. She is always asking me to choose flavor, colors etc. for her. The final decision at this point is to go as a family and do a 3day Disneyland and 4day cruise to Catalina Island and Ensenda Mexico. Great. Affordable. Actually found a boat with rooms to accomodate five people. But how on earth to book Jia or take her over the border is a whole other thing. I've found the cruise, found the flights and I'm just not comfortable booking until we know how to take her with us.
I've been clearing out Jia's little stuff to hand to friends who leave in a couple weeks for their new baby and it was all great until I came to the silk hoodie I bought in China, that Jia only used once. Sob. She grew so fast. I think she forgot to be a baby. She certainly has had no interest in being a baby. I'm working really hard at accepting that this is it. Last little one. It's hard. Eric is clear that he is done. I just don't feel done. I remember feeling done after Fei. Eric wasn't done. He had to reassure me that one more was no big deal, it wasn't a tough sell and Jia is worth every second of that horrible 5 year wait. Just rambling now.
