And the Classic Elf Dance...

Couldn't resist doing another one...

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Alivia the Christmas Elf

I played around with this a bit last year--it's really cute. This year they've added a couple new dances for your elves. Here's one of my favorites starring none other than my own dearest Alivia...

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Happy Holidays!

I realize it's been forever (well, since September anyway) since I've had any time to post and I do apologize! This has been an incredibly hectic term at work and we've also been busy with Alivia's doctor appointments, vacation travel, and, of course, Livi's school.

This week I'm wrapping up three of the four classes I had on my teaching schedule for this term. I can't believe how much work it was keeping up with the grading and the discussion boards for these classes! It's been really crazy! I'm hoping things will slow down at least a bit after the new year... Since Spring is generally my busiest time at work, we'll just have to wait and see how that works out! Ha!

Back in October we went on a wonderful cruise with my parents and some of our friends who are also families formed by adoption--the group we get together with each year in St. Louis. Alivia, Grace and Kelly all got along great, as usual, and had a wonderful time! We did a dolphin encounter that was so much fun for the girls! We moms all tried scuba diving--tried is the operative word there. Let's just say that it's not a hobby I'm going to be taking up. I did okay during the initial training session, but when it came to the deep water dive, my ears wouldn't clear and I couldn't go down past about 15 feet. I ended up injuring one of my ear drums and I never did get what I would call "comfortable" being under water like that. I'd much rather stay in the boat and drink margaritas...

Alivia is still loving school. She adores her teachers and get's excited every morning when it's time to leave. And she's got a boyfriend! She and one of the boys in her class, Brandon, are "an item". It's so funny to watch them together. They insist on sitting by each other at lunch, they play together, talk all the time... it's the cutest thing! He's in a wheelchair (cerebral palsy, I believe) and let's her climb all over him and ride with him on the back of his chair. They're just adorable together. Even the teachers comment on it all the time.

We are dealing with some behavioral issues at school, though. Livi just can't seem to resist biting. We're trying some new ideas to try to nip her nipping, but so far we aren't seeing much success. We actually have a team of about eight people working on this right now! She also likes to pull hair, but they've given the other kids hats to wear which seems to block that activity pretty well.

She also has difficulty sitting still and paying attention and the teacher has asked about having her medicated for ADHD, but we're not going to go that route. Livi's still having problems gaining weight and the drugs for ADHD kill the appetite. Not the direction we want to go for her at all! I think her attention span can be managed by behavior therapy so we're working on that right now, too. Academically, Livi is doing well, it's just the behavioral stuff that's a problem at the moment.

I got Livi's holiday photos done--and I'm delighted with how they turned out! She can photograph so beautifully! She's still so tiny that most people are shocked to find out she's almost 3 and half years old now. Of course, in photos it's hard to tell how small she is, but she's still wearing 18 month sizes in most things. She's the smallest kid in her class--and probably always will be.

I decided not to do a Santa photo this year, although Livi has been to see Santa twice. She never seems to photograph well in those rushed kind of situations. She really needs a photographer who can take his/her time with her and then we can get wonderful photos like these. I'm looking forward to the photogenic baby contest again this year for that very reason. The photographers they use really seem to know how to engage the kids and the photos we got from them last year were great!

Mom, Dad, Livi and I are planning a little jaunt up to Savannah over the holidays. We're going to go to Lady and Sons Restaurant and tour the historic district. That will be a nice little break. Otherwise we plan to take it easy and relax. I've got all my Christmas shopping done--most of it was done online--and now I just have to get everything put together and wrapped. I'm SO looking forward to Christmas this year! Livi is now starting to "get the hang of it" so to speak. She loves seeing Santa and is excited about getting presents. It's going to be so much fun!

~ Jeana

September Already?

Where did the summer go?

Alivia, contrary to all my fears, absolutely LOVES school! She hasn't cried one single day at this school, and she cried EVERY day when I took her to daycare. It's a nice change! She's also getting chattier every day and mastering new skills, too! She's even started singing along with the music in the car! (I've been trying to get her to do that for months!)

I'm busier than a postman at Christmas these days--I'm teaching three classes (with a fourth to be added in November) in addition to my regular 9-5 stuff. Plus there's all the post-storm cleanup and the storms just seem to keep coming and coming. Thankfully Hanna has stayed off shore, but Ike looks rather threatening at the moment. And I'm hoping the storms will die down by the time of our cruise in just one month.

These lovely photos were taken by my friend Justin at different times over the last few months. The one on the train is from July 4th when we went downtown to see the fireworks. The others are from a few weeks ago at the zoo. If it's nice enough this weekend I'm going to try to take Livi to the zoo again. She loves it there! The last couple days have been a little more pleasant with comfortable temps and only a little rain. Here's hoping that holds for a few more days.

Mom and I have already figured out Livi's Halloween costume for this year. She's going to be a ballerina. She has the cutest little tutu outfit. We also picked up a Princess Belle (Disney's Beauty and the Beast) gown for her, but it's a bit too big. It should do well next year, though! Of course, by then I hope to have a few other Disney costumes for her, too. Playing dress up is so much fun!

~ Jeana

First Day of School

Today was Alivia's first day of school! Granted, she's in a Pre-K3 program, but it is at the regular elementary school with kids all the way to 5th grade! She's probably the tiniest student at the school. We took the obligatory first day of school photo--Livi wasn't too excited about having her picture taken first thing in the morning... Dropping her off for the first day was a lot harder on me than on her, too. She seemed enthralled with the new sights and people. Gran and Papa picked her up after school and said she was happy to see them (translation--she was more than ready to go HOME.) We'll see how she acts when I drop her off tomorrow... I have a feeling it won't go quite as smoothly as today did.

Here's another photo from our trip to St. Louis last month. Livi was in her element playing tea party! I think purple is a pretty good color for her, too... In other news, Livi had eye surgery last week. It went pretty well results-wise, but she's been very "needy" ever since. Or maybe she's just coming in to the terrible 2s-3s. It's hard to tell.

Only 7 more weeks until our cruise... Can't wait!

~ Jeana

The CHI Annual Picnic Weekend

Alivia and I made it home late this afternoon after a long and exciting weekend in St. Louis with our friends Christy, Cindy, Katie, Kelly and Grace. We had a fantastic time and I've got a lot of pictures to upload, but I'm going to have to do a quick drive by post now with just a few and catch up with details and more pics later. I'm exhausted! So... please enjoy these few while I recover... The one of the three girls all dressed up is from our tea party on Monday. The other two are at the CHI picnic when Livi and Grace couldn't resist joining in with the dancers. Too cute! Enjoy!

~ Jeana

Happy Birthday, Dear Livi...

Saturday was Alivia's 3rd birthday! We celebrated on Friday with Livi's first fireworks outing. She thought riding the train (the elevated railway that runs around downtown Jacksonville) was the best thing she'd ever done. It was all she could talk about the rest of the night... She enjoyed the fireworks, as well, but the train was the best!

Saturday we both slept in and then spent the late morning and early afternoon running around town looking for Blue's Clues items for her birthday celebration. The Party City near us has quit carrying them, and we had to go to two other stores before we found any. Fortunately they did have the main thing I wanted--handy, dandy notebooks! We also got a bobble-head blue for her cake topper. After we finished our shopping we went the long way home and stopped at a park we had passed on our way to one of the shops. I wish I'd had my camera there--it's a great park and Livi had a blast. The whole thing is castle-themed--you enter through the castle gates and it's divided into several courtyard areas--each with swings, slides, climbing equipment, etc. There were several families there, but it felt like we had the place to ourselves the way everything was arranged. Really cool!

After Livi's nap we headed over to Gran's and Papa's house for her birthday celebration. We cooked hot dogs on the grill and had ice cream cake. Livi really liked her new car--although she kept trying to drive it Fred Flintstone style instead of using the pedals. Too cute! She also loved the card Gran gave her--a musical one that played "Dancing in the Streets." She played it over and over again.

Overall, a nice birthday weekend for my little girl!

~ Jeana