My Sister Samantha

I love my sister very much. She has been with us for 6 months today! She is also 17 months old today! We love each other a lot. I love having her as my little sister. She misses me when I go to summer camps for the day – I miss her too. She searches the house for me and thinks I’m doing a BOO. She is obsessed with doing Boo’s on us. She is a lot like the little girl in Monster’s Inc. It's funny because she's never even seen the movie (because she doesn't watch TV just like I didn't when I was little) but she acts just like that. She sounds just like that, talks with the same kind of voice and constantly “Boos” us. She is sweet, funny, playful, happy and very naughty. She likes to take my American Girl dolls, my comb and brush, my clothes and anything that she’s not supposed to have, especially if it's from my room! When I try and get it back from her she runs and throws it as far as she can. It’s very funny, but naughty too! She is very smart and she talks really well. She talks in cute baby sentences now and tells us what she wants to do, what she wants to eat, where she wants to go and everything. If we don’t do what she wants she yells at us. Sometimes instead of yelling she'll scream (it hurts your ears) or she will get a really sad face and pretend to cry (and then take a peek to see if we feel sorry for her) or sometimes she just growls at us! It's very hard not to laugh when she's doing these things. She is so funny. She likes to play jokes on us and she loves to help me play jokes on our mom and dad. She claps for herself when she does something good and sometimes even when she just doesn't do something bad! She will clap and say "yeaa Mamanma *(Samantha)! It is so cute. She also loves to give kisses and hugs and to cuddle with us. She is very affectionate and loving. She also say "Love Jei Jei" and sings the "I love you Happy Family" song that mommy and I made up and it makes me so happy when she does those things! She is the best baby sister I could ever have. Every day she does something new that’s funny, silly, loving or just different. I am so lucky she’s my sister!


We went out to a Japanese restaurant to celebrate Samantha's 6 month anniversary with us. The cook cooked right at the table and Samantha thought it was the funnest dinner ever. She laughed and asked for more the whole time he was cooking. You can't see the fire in the picture. It was an onion volcano and I thought it was cool.


We are sitting in front of the painting I painted last week. It is a painting of a bridge by my house. My mom likes it so much she is going to frame it and put it in our living room. I think it's ok for my first big painting. (From Mommy - Sierra's becoming quite the Artist and I am amazed at what beautfiul artwork she's been creating!)


Our family reunion on July 20th.


4th of July - Daddy's first as an American:

Samantha and me playing piano - she's doing a BOO on mommy in the first one. See her mouth, that is how she looks when she is doing a BOO.


Making the flag cake


Still making the flag cake



Finishing the flag cake - we put daddy's name on it since it was his first 4th of July as an American.



Us with the flag cake.





Samantha practicing her golf!


Playing golf with Samantha and Logan and my dog Eve. It is not easy playing golf with them.


Swimming.



In the yard



Looking at flowers.


Sitting on the fireplace.



Walking around the yard.

Please leave a comment for Sierra to let her know you visited!

Now from Mommy:

Today is the 6 month anniversary of Samantha joining our family and her 17 month birthday. I feel like we have been blessed in so many ways. First, she has bonded and blended with each of us in ways I never imagined possible. She never went through a lot of the difficulties that you hear of with adoption from an orphanage and she is so happy it's hard to imagine she was ever unhappy!

We were also lucky because although Samantha was 11 months old when she joined our family in every way you could quantify she acted/seemed younger so we've gotten to see her grow and develop from a much younger developmental age. She weighed only 13 pounds (the same as she did at 6 months of age). She had just gotten her first two teeth (bottom front) the week we picked her up – she has six teeth now. She was not walking, barely crawling and had just started standing at her crib (nearly every photo we have from there she is lying down!!)– now she runs and even attempts to go down the living room step (she usually falls, but shrugs it off). She was VERY needy emotionally and wanted to be held a lot but wouldn’t truly cuddle (the deep, true cuddle) and now she truly cuddles before and after every nap, and sometimes for no reason at all.
She couldn’t self soothe, wouldn’t hold her bottle, wouldn’t eat and wasn’t gaining. Now she's becoming a little chunk with very strong opinions of which food she will and won't eat, who ASKS for what she wants to eat and is so stubborn if she doesn't get it she just won't eat! She is a great sleeper, goes to bed easily and wakes up happy, happy, happy!
In the orphanage she was a crier (because she wanted to be held) and we've spent the past six months carrying, rocking, holding, bottle feeding and cuddling her and she is so happy, secure and independent it’s hard to remember the timid, quiet, needy baby she was when we picked her up.
She did not like to be with other babies (avoided them at the orphanage) and now she LOVES other babies and yells, “BABEEEE” at every baby she sees, even those who are clearly older than her and she now loves to play with babies.

Everything that was true of her six, or even four, months ago is the OPPOSITE now (except for her discomfort and intense fear around strangers - She does react visibly to a stranger getting to close and when the grocery guy started to push her, in the cart, to the car she freaked and panicked in a way that was so emotional that Sierra and I nearly cried). When she first came home she was clearly trying to please us (the “too good” baby you hear about in adoption) and at the same time she wanted to be held 24/7. I was surprised that a baby that young would be able to attempt to placate people with her behavior but she was clearly doing just that. Well, that behavior ended and she has NO interest in keeping us happy anymore and she's able to play on her own, as long as she's not alone - she cannot stand to be alone. She’s a VERY LOUD, assertive, very bossy, very, very silly and joke playing Boo baby! She hides behind boxes, tables, even drawers she opens and then jumps out and yells “BOO” probably 80 times a day! Although she is no longer trying to placate us she does love to help us and will bring us things when we ask, take things from one to another, and will even help us clean up (give her a rag and some water and she's busy for at least 10 minutes!). She absolutely adores and worships her sister and literally tries to talk like, act like and “be” her. She has loved having Jei Jei home all summer but now that Jei Jei is in all day summer camps she is struggling with missing her. All in all Samantha is a JOY to all who know and love her!

From Ashland to a US Citizen it's been a crazy two months!

In the past two months I, along with Samantha, have chaperoned four girls (Sierra and three classmates) on two huge field trips - a three day field trip to Tahoe, and a five day field trip to Ashland, Oregon; finished our living room (plan to post new photos because there are minor, but important, changes!); fully tore apart one bathroom, finished redecorating the other two bathrooms and replaced the other bathroom toilets (ok the plumber actually did the toilets but we did the rest); helped finish our back yard and put in a summer garden; celebrated Mother's Day and Father's Day; gone to no less than four major end of year events at Sierra's school; had our final Social Worker visit; gone to Sierra's piano recital and celebration; hosted numerous play dates and sleepovers and FINALLY had Samantha's welcome party and got Sierra's braces put on, all while still working full-time from home and taking care of Samantha full-time. Oh, and Jeremy finally became a US Citizen!!!! He wants everyone to know that he has dual citizenship with Great Britain (as does Sierra) ! I love my life but I have to admit I'm tired!!!!!!

Samantha is doing extremely well and has changed a lot. First of all she's much bigger. She's now 18 pounds and 30" tall, which is a gain of 5 pounds and 3 inches in five months! She now walks like a big girl and can even run (if you yell "run" and chase her!). She's not the least bit quiet, meek or timid like she was when we picked her up or during her first weeks and months here. She is VERY strong willed and will not back down from what she's decided. She is very loud and assertive. She is very happy and expressive. She is none of that when out or around strangers! Which is just like Sierra - how weird is that!!?? In public she is very reserved, mostly quiet and clingy. Besides all of that she is still very verbal and is talking up a storm, understands everything we say to the point that we now have to spell most things and LOVES to read books with us, play games, slide and swing, play in her new sand box, swim, run in the sprinklers and generally play in the water and play house and store with Sierra. She is also very polite and ALWAYS says please and thank you - sometimes too much! She also still takes two naps a day and is a pretty healthy eater, although she doesn't have a huge repertoire and is on her way to being a picky eater like her big sister! The strangest thing of all is that she loves dark chocolate. Most babies, and even kids, prefer milk chocolate. Sierra only likes dark chocolate (for her the darker the better, even darker than I can eat) but we didn't expect Samantha to like dark chocolate at all let alone love it and beg for it!! She recently had her first cookie and now everytime we are getting ready to eat she asks for a cookie. When I say no she then begs for one!

Now on to the photos, of which I think there will be A LOT! Click on any that you want to see bigger.

Photos of Sierra, Samantha and Logan:




The professional photos of Sierra, Samantha and Logan went pretty well considering we had two toddlers involved. Unfortunately, Logan did not cooperate much and only two photos with him turned out. As a matter of fact they couldn't get one of him alone so the individual shot of him is actually culled from a shot of the three of them. Samantha did not do much better. She did not throw fits like he did but she is very uncomfortable around strangers so although she was happy and smiling when we arrived she just stared at the photographer during most of the photos shoot. As soon as we were done she was happy and smiling again! We did manage to get her to smile a little bit a few times and once really big so we were happy that we managed to get any happy looking photos. Sierra, of course, was the consumate big sister/big cousin and not only smiled throughout being kicked, pushed, having things thrown at her (Logan) and being yelled at (Samantha) but she worked really hard to get them to smile and is mostly responsible for the few smiles we got!!


Jeremy becomes a United States Citizen!!!

We left our house at 6:30AM with no breakfast. Thankfully we had plenty of time (three hours!) between the time they told us to arrive and the start of the ceremony. They did NOT tell us this so we were very rushed and stressed getting there. The 1st photo is Sierra, Samantha and I at La Bou to have a light breakfast after standing in line for a half hour while Jeremy parked and then J stood in line while we walked over to La Bou and ate. The 2nd photo is Jeremy standing in line at the point where people got into the building BUT this was only our first time around. The line wrapped around the block TWO TIMES before we were actually at the front of the line. After getting in we had another hour to wait before the ceremony was supposed to start but since it started a half hour later it was actually an hour and a half. Through all of this Samantha was hungry (she didn't like La Bou and wanted her normal eggs and oatmeal!) and tired and since we weren't allowed a stroller trying to hold her in the heat while trying to get her to sleep was almost impossible. Actually the holding part was possible, thought hot, but the sleeping part didn't happen!

The 1500 new US citizens -
17 were British!

The line!!!!


A new US citizen with our Red, White and Blue girls -- Sierra watching J sign his Naturalization document!

Samantha's Welcome Party:

Samantha and Sierra in front of the cake and food and the photo board that Sierra made of Samantha's first five months as a part of our family. She worked very hard on this and I think she did a fabulous job showing not only all of the fun and exciting things that we've done with Samantha but also the love and joy she feels for Samantha. Sierra also made a photo album of our trip which was passed around during the party. The rest are just random party photos. I took so many, too many, so I've probably missed some of the more important moments.







Random moments of play:

First sandbox and first baby doll in first buggy!

Father's Day:

All in King's outfits!!
Guess whose idea that was!
He even had to buy a shirt for
Sierra so they could match
(we bought one for Samantha before she was here).

Sierra's piano recital:


It was a jazz recital so she got to play jazz instruments with other kids and when she played piano there were two kids playing jazz instruments with her. It was fun but Samantha wanted to be up front with Sierra so Amber and I had to take turns walking with her outside.


Last Day of School:

The party at school and the middle school swim party.

Wednesdays Logan comes over for the afternoon and evening...


This is what they do...swing although Logan likes to watch not to swing, eat cookies (usually something a little healthier but this day it was actual cookies!) and just generally look cute!!!


Ashland Field Trip:

Dinner on the Rogue River...A snake on the way back to the boat


The Rogue River boat ride and the screaming during boat spinning!


The girls I was in charge of during the trip -- the Rogue River

Mother's Day:

Sierra and J helped me to plan and plant my summer garden...


then we went out for a nice dinner and some fun rides...


then we came home for homemade and store bought gifts and cards and lots of cuddles!

Samantha's first Swim:


Samantha's 15 month birthday:

She's standing like ET in this photo -- Sierra and Samantha in their fort.

Just photos:

Samantha yelling, "UP" and Samantha "playing" golf!

BEFORE & AFTER in our BACKYARD:

The rock delivery...both girls had a great time with that!
BEFORE.................................... AFTER

Everyone helped, even Sierra! Here she is helping pull out overgrown plants (she went back to swinging right after that!)

BEFORE (after storm)............ BEFORE................................. AFTER

After the storm in December...The new fence...The new yard!!

BEFORE.................................... AFTER

Sierra's playhouse

BEFORE.......................AFTER

We all love our new and improved yard and I'm hoping not to have to do that level of back breaking, outside work for a long time! It is too hot for me to work outside most of the time!! Now J and I are working on the garage...emptying it so we can insulate it and put up some sort of shelving. It will be so nice when we can walk into our garage without the intense heat - it was 120 degrees in there today! Since that's where the washer is I have to go out there but I don't do well in the heat so I am really looking forward to it not being hot!