Saturday in NYC

We headed to NYC for the day Saturday and visited with friends Liezl and Viet and their children Luna and Leo.  It was a beautiful, warm November day and we spent time in Central Park and Chinatown.  It was just a blast and the two girls were soul mates in an instant, though they've only seen each other once before, in September.

                                                I've nicknamed these two LUNA-BEA!

Sweet dreams,my love....

For two days in a row, Beatrice hasn't had an afternoon nap, so this is what happens while she's "looking at books" minutes after I leave her room at bedtime:

We had an early dismissal from school yesterday and have a delayed opening this morning.  There's an inch or two of snow on the ground, it's windy, and very cold.  But I'm not talking about that.  Because it's November and this is ridiculous!  But someone in this house LOVES the taste of snow.....and this someone is very, very happy (She's also ecstatic by the way that she got to go voting with her dad and Pepere onTuesday and when she found out that Obama is still our president at 6 a.m. yesterday, she did a happy dance with Daddy!)

Children's Museum with Ethan

"THE POSSIBILITIES ARE NINE CENTS A RIDE"

I think this quote from Beatrice during Friday morning's commute to school should be a t-shirt or bumper sticker.  It is so ridiculous yet sounds existential somehow. 
I have no idea what it meant, but she added when I looked back at her “I’m talking to my pretend friend on my pretend speakerphone…”

How she loves experimenting with language and "fancy" words! Another thing she's really into lately is being verbally affectionate.  Anthony and I get many "I love you's" each and every day for the past few weeks, and she'll often add so many phrases trying to show emphasis and to quantify her feelings, as in  "I love you SO much, even the most and more than you love me, like to the moon and back, and all around the galaxy  and planets until you die, then 100 days and 600 dollars after that....and not forget anybody, just every single one!" "WOW" is the only way we can respond to all that.  I also discovered a handmade "note" in my lunch yesterday.  She sketched a ballerina, two interlocking hearts, and some sort of hopscotch path.  Took.my.breath.away........

 On another note, I had the pleasure of catching up on the phone last night with one of our friends from Vietnam.  Carol and Paul from Michigan adopted Megan.  Here are our two girls in Hanoi on the day we visited the Museum of Ethnology together in April 2009:

   

And here they are in October 2012:

       

It was awesome to talk to Carol and review the past couple years and share stories about our Bac Ninh girls.  I hope we can get them together some time soon!

Even queens get sick

The three days B. had school canceled this week due to the storm turned out to be perfect timing, because she was sick on Monday and then again part of Wednesday.  I won't get into the gory details, but she had a lot of fun rhyming this new word she learned and came up with "fly-arrhea and ziarrhea." She was a great patient, very understanding about why she had to wear a pull-up and why she couldn't indulge in Halloween candy last night.

Speaking of last night, I have to say that handing out candy really brings out B's best. She had a blast  giving candy to the 20 or so trick-or-treaters that came by last night and I was thrilled. You see, my girl, with all of her amazing strengths, does tend to be, how shall I say this gently, a bit self-focused, even for a 4-year old.  She has a tendency to place her needs high above others and to emphasize how situations may affect her in a bad way, even if it helps others.  Enough said.  Anyway, any time she is able to put herself aside, take joy in the happiness of others, and feel great about giving vs. receiving, is a time for celebration in my book, and last night she these fabulously.