On our own

Well, today we had a WONDERFUL time! Got up this morning bright & early at 8:30am and headed out to the Tower of London. Abbey had to meet a friend of hers at 11am so she took us half way on the tube then Emelia & I went the rest of the way by ourselves. Ok, actually it was only one stop away from where Abbey got off, but still...we did it by ourselves! Once we got off the tube Emelia & I made or way over to the Tower & waited in line for approx. 45 minutes to get tickets. Once we got our tickets we headed into the Tower & did our own personal tour. I decided not to do one of the guided tours since I'm sure Emelia wouldn't have enjoyed it too much &the other people on the tour would have probably kicked us off b/c they were tired of hearing "Emelia! Stop! Get back here! Slow Down...no running!" I'm sure everyone here in London knows Emelia by name now. We met up with Abbey around 2:00pm or so, grabbed a quick lunch then went on a boat tour to Greenwich. Emelia LOVED the ride & was a bit tired. (Not just because she had a full day at the Tower...but because last night she wouldn't go to sleep until after 11pm!) All in all, she had a good time. I got her picture right at the sundial where the worlds time is centered, the Greenwich time. We headed back to the city center & are now back at Ab's flat...7:20pm! We're going to heat up some dinner, Emelia's soaking off the grit & grime from the city & probably crash this evening. Oh, by the way, on the tube ride home I asked Emelia if she still loved riding the tube or not so much & her reply was "Not so much but I love the bus!" So one thing had fallen from it's former glory! Also, for those of you who are wondering, the weather is beautiful this week. Today it was 74 & sunny! I completely got a sunburn!

A quiet day at home

Well, yesterday we attended a showing of the Lion King here in London. Our seats were great & Emelia LOVED it. Her eyes were as big a saucers watching all the "animals" move across the stage. If this child of mine doesn't end up in some sort of entertainment career I'll be shocked! Afterwards we walked to this outdoor bazaar that was filled with tons of people. There were people cooking food, performing & selling things. I loved it. It was hard to take pictures since Emelia kept wanting to run & there were too many people to let her. Afterwards we worked our way back to Abbey's. Speaking of Abbey, she's been laughing at Emelia quite a bit...Emelia's showing just how much of a "suburbanite" she is! Every time she sees the bus or rides the tube she gets THRILLED & jumps up and down! Everyone must be looking at us thinking "tourists!" But, my daughter is having the time of her life & that's all I'm really concerned about.

Today we decided to have a quiet day at home. We got up & attended church with Ab. I really enjoyed it & Emelia decided she wanted to attend Sunday School with all the other kids rather than sitting through the service. Sometimes she amazes me, I really thought since we were in a new place with new people she'd decide to stay close...but I'm happy to say I was wrong! After church we went to Whole Foods to get some stuff for Ab then back to the flat for lunch and for Emelia & Ab to take a nap. I think this evening we'll got for a walk to get some "Snog," it's just th best frozen yogurt I've ever tasted! I'm trying to get Ab to open one in the US! I'd totally be a shareholder since I'd be eating so much of it! Well, it's time to get dinner ready!

Will write more tomorrow. XXOO

Loving London

Well, here we are! I can't believe we're actually visiting with Abbey here at her flat in London!
Emelia's had the best day of her life so far I think...she's seen about 100 red double-decker buses! Everytime we se one (which is literally about every 10 steps) she sucks in her breath & loudly declares "There's another one Mommy! I TOLD you it was coming!" Like I haven't see one before! Yesterday was her first experience riding one & here into her second day the joy still hasn't worn off. She's done AMAZINGLY well adjusting to the time difference. Today we went on a bus tour of London & she was THRILLED to ride on the top of the bus that didn't have a roof. Then as a surprise Abbey took us to a to store that is 5 stories high! (Enough said!) We did however see the second most wonderful thing in her life....one of her great loves in life are pirates. Well, after lunch we had to walk past the toy store again & lo & be hold there was an HONEST TO GOODNESS PIRATE standing right there on the sidewalk! Her eyes got as big as saucers & she stopped dead in the midst of everyone! As a little side note: Mommy said I'd buy her a special treat from the toy store thinking we'd get something nice....nope, we walked out with a plastic whale & a shark. Anyways, back to the pirate, as she's standing there with her mouth open she holds up the shark & the whale and the pirate starts talking to her! You would have thought you'd have given her gold! As we started walking away, I luckily remembered I needed to get a picture of her & the pirate. He's saying "ARRRR" while she has a HUGE smile on her face. A pure kids moment! Well, the rest of the day she was telling me " told you pirates are nice!"

Well, enough for now. Will write more tomorrow.

Prayers of the faithful & keeping mommy humble!

So lately, well actually since about Oct/Nov 2007 Emelia has taken it upon herself to pray for a daddy. Yes, you've heard me right! One afternoon when I went to Grammy & Pops house to pick her up after work, she met me at the door & announced "I need a Daddy & a baby sister!" No "hello mommy" or "I missed you" and not even a single request...NOPE... a double WHAMMY! A Daddy AND a baby sister! (I guess if you're going to dream you may as well dream big!) So you may be wondering "What in the world did you say to that?!" Well, the first thing out of my mouth was "Well, I guess you need to start praying!" And her response was "OK!" So...for the past 8 months at least 4 times a day she prays for a daddy. AND if we're at dinner, no matter who's there whether we know them or not, if the one who's praying for the meal ends the prayer...Emelia will promply say "You forgot to pray for my Daddy!" and we all have to bow our heads again & pray. Talk about a humbling experience as a mom!

The other day, Emelia was with a sitter while Grammy & Pops visited Owen & Mary Helen and Olivia (the sitter) was talking about her brothers & sisters. Emelia asked how many sisters she had & Olivia said 6! Emelia then asked "Do you have a mommy?" "Yes" Olivia replied. "Do you have a Daddy?" Again "Yes." To that Emelia threw her hands up in the air and declared "I been prayin' a long time & I STILL don't have a daddy!" Poor Olivia tried not to laugh out loud & said "Well sweetie, sometime when we pray God takes a little while to answer us" Emelia was none too happy with that & replied "Well, I still need a daddy & I guess I'll keep prayin!"

A story from storytime

Monday was Emelia's first day at storytime this summer. She had a wonderful time! The kids get to hear a story then do a little craft & have a snack. Well, I get home at lunch to see her & find out how her first day (actually it's only an hour, but you know...) went & she had a blast! They read a story about camping & made a picture of a camp out scene. Well, fast forward to Wednesday evening & we're at her last soccer practice this season & her coach says to me "Did you hear about the little story from story time?" I said "Oh no, what happened?!" (To give you a little back ground, for some reason Emelia & Elizabeth, the coaches daughter, think it's really fun to stand on the field and "ROOAAAARRRR" at eachother rather than play soccer with the rest of the kids.) So being who they are, Elizabeth saw Emelia at story time & propmtly went up to her, tapped her on the shoulder & "roared" at her! My daughter followed suit & "roared" right back! Right in the middle of the library! It took a few minutes to get them to calm down after falling into giggles but they were finlly able get ahold of themselves & were told they couldn't roar in storytime! So then, the coach says, "Elizabeth, did you tell Emelia's mom what you said at dinner tonight about Emelia?" "No, I don't remember" "Remember you said, I really like Emelia & she's my friend because...." Then Elizabeth says "OH I remember!!! I like Emelia & she's my friend because she can put 2 marshmallows in her mouth at the same time!" What a proud moment for any parent!

10 months worth of catch-up: just the highlights!

Well, I can't believe how much time has passed! I guess I'm one of those "terrible" parents who says they're going todo something & then doesn't always follow thru like I intend.

Let's see...what's been going onin the Hytree household these past 10 months:

1) Emelia started Pre-K in Sept 2007 & loved it. She's still a little shy when it comes initating play with the other kids but ready to jump in as soon as someone invites her to play. She's still having a tough time with her letters & numbers but it's something that we'll keep working on & eventually it will come. She's able to identify all the letters & say them (plus we're working on what sound each letter makes) but her hard-time comes in writing them.

2) We had a very nice Thanksgiving & Christmas. Thanksgiving was spent in VA with Amy, Jimmy & the kids, while Christmas was spent here in OH with Amy, Jimmy & kids coming here.

3) Emelia celebrated her 5th birthday on Easter Sunday this year...March 23! This birthday was a big milestone for us. From that day forward Emelia has been a part of her family longer than she was without one. God is good isn't He?! For her party my little girl wanted a Lightning McQueen party! I tried every way I could think of to make it "girly" but ultimaly there's just nothing "girly" about cars. Which by the way worked out well since all of her friends that came were boys! And my girl isn't "girly" she likes some girl things but she informed me the other day that she wants to be a boy because boys get to wear Lightning McQueen "panties".

4) School is now out for the year & summer break has set in! We're signed up for storytime at the Library, she's going to Safety Town in the morning for 2 weeks, and has swimming lessons June-Aug. Plus on June 25 Emelia & I will be heading to London to visit Abbey for a nice vacation. In Aug we'll head down to VA to visit a new little addition to the family!

5) Emelia is beginning to show a little more of her independent streak as time goes bye. I just can't believe sometimes how stubborn she is! During those times I remind myself that she's exactly what I prayed for (and more!)

I'll try to do better with the updates! If not...email me & tell me I need to get it in gear!

Oh Yuck!

So... Saturday evening a bunch of us went out to Mongolian BBQ for dinner. At one point during the meal Emelia turned to me & told me she had to go potty. So, off we go to the potty. As we're walking there I reminded her not to touch anything because it was "dirty." Well, to make a long story short, I look over at Emelia as I'm getting ready to unlock the door and see her standing in front of the wall with her arms straight down at her side, face about a 1/2 inch away and her tongue sliding up the wall! HELLO!!!! I hollar out, "What in the world are you doing?!" As she turns around her tongue is hanging out of her mouth and she say "Oh Yuck!" As I continue to try to get past my upset stomach at this point, I ask her if she's allowed to lick the walls at home? Her respones is "No." (Ok, at least THAT stuck!) So I proceed to ask her why then did she think she was allowed to lick the wall in a public bathroom? To which she replied "I not no." As we walk back to the table I'm trying to figure out how in the world I can clean her mouth...I can't use anti-bacterial wash, I don't have a toothbrush, well it looks like we're gonna have to see what happens.

Somthing sweet

So, every night before Emelia goes to sleep she asks me to lay in bed with her so we can "talk." Just about every conversation we have is her talking about how she can't go underwater in the pool because that "scares mommy." (That's another story about swimming lessons.) Also quite often she wants to hear her story about how mama looked and looked for her and finally found her Emelia in Ukraine. Well, the other night we were talking about her story and we got to the part where I told her how mommy looked all over Ukraine and she piped in and said "mommy come to my-kraine" I looked at her and said "What?" She said "Mommy come to my-kraine to find Emelia!" I started laughing so hard. I said "yes, I did come to your-kraine!" I guess she's correct in a way. Being born and raise in Ukraine for the first 2.5 years of her life does make it "her-kraine"

Still alive!

Ok, so much for updating this more often! I realized that over the holidays I completely let this go! Sorry about that!
Backing things up a bit...Thanksgiving was a nice time. Emelia and I headed down to VA to visit with Amy, Jimmy & the kids. Emelia & Owen had a WONDERFUL time together. It's so fun watching the two of them together. Even though they only see eachother a few times a year they just click. So, we spent the week down there and enjoyed our time. Next came Christmas. Now THAT was a fun time! Emelia really got into the holiday spirit. Santa, mommy & anyone else who would listen was told the only thing she really wanted was a dinosauer, thanks to Owen. Santa did a double take when she said that. Here she is all dressed in her "pretty" dress sitting on Santa's lap and when asked she told him! He looked at me with a question mark on his face. But Santa regrouped & did indeed bring her the favorite gift!

Today she went to work with me. Had quite a few clients stop in and she was the welcoming commitee! Made for both a fun and long day! Some who was supposed to take a nap didn't. I kept hearing from the back room..."Mommy, all done resting" That went on for about 1.5 hours. Finally I gave in & had her sit down and watch Little Mermaid on the portable DVD player I brought.

I can't believe she's going to be 4 in March! Time really is flying! Her teacher said yeaterday that she's finally coming out of her shell and talking non-stop at school and interacting with the other kids. When her teacher told her a few months back that she really didn't talk at school, I asked her if we were talking about Emelia. She trys to talk 24/7. Looking forward to her birthday & getting to have some time with her outside in the warmer weather!

Little potty mouth

Here's a funny little "update". Last night I was in the kitchen cleaning up from dinner and Emelia decided she was going to play in the hall outside her room. She had her little rocking chair set up there along with little stool she was using as a table & some of her Pampered Chef cookies cutters set . I checked on her at one point and she was being just as cute as could be...pretending she was making cookies. So, back to the kitchen I went to clean and shortly there after she came in with the bathroom cup and said "Mommy, drink". So, I said OK...let get your milk. Emelia, "No... water...bathroom". I continue on asking if she wanted a drink from the bathroom & she said "Yes...'Melia have drink...water in potty" GROSE!!!!! I almost died! I took the glass from her & noticed her sleeves were all wet. I had her show me where she got her water & sure enough, she pointed to the potty! As you might imagine we sat down & had a little talk about how we shouldn't drink out of the potty...that's ewwwww, yuck! Next time come ask mommy for a drink!

Updates on Emelia

Pop's came home again this weekend and let me tell you...Emelia LOVES when he comes home. It's all about Pop's when he's around! Today when he had to leave he decided to tell her that she could come to DC with him. It's not like we weren't already having a bad day...this just added to it! When she finally settled down & we left...she started up again crying "Mia...DC with Pop's" Talk about making me feel ike a creep! I was the bad guy telling her she couldn't go. I'll write more later, need to get dinner on the table.

Hello everyone! Welcome to our new site. I just wanted to start by saying that this past year has been an AMAZING journey. Emelia has been home now a little over a year and is doing wonderful. This picture is from her first day of Pre-K. She "loves" school. Tomorrow is her "special" day. It's all about her. She gets to take in snacks for all the kids, she gets to bring in pictures of herself AND she gets to bring her favorite book so the teacher can read it to the class. Plus, tomorrow is open house! She's going to have a great day. As I get more time here I'll write a bit more updates on how this past year has gone and the future here looks like. Blessings to everyone & good night!