Holiday Blessings!!!!

Well, let us start with saying Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year. Now that the food supply in our home has decreased and the leftovers that were not eaten belong to waste management. We are trying to get back to some sort of normalcy at our residence. We will be putting the tree away (I like to leave it up as long as possible) and the Christmas music tomorrow (I have been getting in my last fix during this week).

We had a great visit in Arkansas (sorry to those of you we were not able to see). We had limited time and a lot of Christmas to get in while there. We were blessed to be able to see extended family as well. We have felt as if we have had Christmas the whole month of December (why not have a good thing for a month). Our visit to Arkansas was early this year because we wanted to have Christmas Day here with Mili.

This year we started a tradition for our family on Christmas morning. We wrap up baby Jesus and hide Him. He is the most important part of Christmas and the reason we give gifts to others. After we find and unwrap baby Jesus, and read the Christmas story from the Bible, then we can unwrap other presents. I always want the focus to be on Jesus first (it is His birthday….but we get gifts….go figure). The older Mili (and our other children) get, we want to have a birthday party for Jesus and give “gifts” to Jesus (give food, clothing, diapers, formula, etc to people in need….as much as you did to the least of these, you did unto Me -- Matthew 25:40). It is so important that we don’t get caught up in the materialism of Christmas time. This year I really think we accomplished putting the focus on Jesus. We had great family time when we were at home with our families and we did very little Christmas shopping. Mili’s Christmas presents were mostly recycled toys from friends and from things Brian and I bought for each other while dating and newly married. We bought Mili two gifts and she had plenty of things to open. After all the gifts were opened, Mili asked for baby “Sesus”. She went to all the doors in the house and said “Noooooo” at each door. That is what we did to help her find the present that had baby Jesus in it. She wanted to play with the nativity set that we have, unfortunately it is porcelain so I had to watch her closely but didn’t have the heart to tell her she could not play with it. Needless to say, we went searching for a nativity play set that she can not break. We successfully found one. She asks to play with it all the time now. She is so cute when she says, Sesus’ mommy, Sesus’ daddy, and baby Sesus.

Baby Jesus is not the only thing that Mili is obsessed with right now. She is in love with Larry and Bob from Veggietales. She says, Rarry and Bobba. It is so exciting to see her language coming right along.

Today I was just happy to be home and back to our normal schedule. We arrived home last Tuesday night and have been running since. Wednesday had church that night (I had to get ready to teach the kidos), Thursday I had to be gone most of the day for pest control to come in and yesterday a follow up visit from pest control. We are glad that is over because both times we had to empty out the cabinets and cover everything. We have never laid eyes on a bug in our apartment (spiders….yes, bugs….no) but we still had to go to that extent for pest control. I am now thinking that maybe the reason there are no bugs is because they go the extra mile to exterminate the place. Don’t know…….don’t care now because it is over. Enough about pest control.

We are so blessed. Brian and I received a special gift this Christmas season. While we were at home with our families we found out that we are expecting a baby. I am almost seven weeks pregnant and very excited to know there will be another piece of JOY in our lives. Mili now points to my stomach and says, BABY???? She obviously doesn’t understand but tries to believe us when we tell her there is a baby in there.

My eyes wail up with tears when I think of all the blessings we have. We don’t deserve all the blessing handed to us but are very thankful for them.

Hugs and kisses to all and to all a good night!!

The Parents Have Arrived

I apologize for the time span between entries but we were getting ready for Brian's parents to come for a much needed visit. We are so glad they are here and Mili is ecstatic to be with them. She didn't understand why they were not on the TV (video phone). After she warmed up, she has been running them to death. She is starting to show-off like I know she can and the grandparents are saying that she is no different than her cousins with all the drama.

I will go for now but just wanted you all to know that we are alive and well and really WELL since we have family here for Thanksgiving.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!! (Miss you this year Dani Lee)

Everyone has something to be thankful for.

I am thankful for all our friends and family who are reading this. Hugs and Kisses.

Growing LITTLE Horns

Mili finally has enough hair to put up in pig-tails. These pics were taken two different days (Tuesday and Wednesday). The women at the church went crazy over the two little horns sticking up on her head (some days I think they are real horns). We have to have "heart check" (a friend at church uses this with her three children) moments more often than I want to. Right now Mili is not old enough to understand it but she will. It is basicly a nice way to say, "your heart needs some attention because it is not on the right track". When I have seen my friend use it on her children it is quite amazing how well it works. It just makes them think about the ugliness (is that a word?) coming out of their hearts and into action.

I am thankful for some very strong Christian families at our church. I feel like I need that kind of parenting to look-up to since I am not at home with my family and friends that I have trusted and been around all my life (although Brian and I both grew up in great families who loved us and disciplined us accordingly). I would like to talk with some of the parents at church who have teenagers that are serving and making great choices in their lives. Brian is in a parenting class with some of the best parents in the church and I am always asking him to pick their brains while they are in small group time. I want to keep all my options open when it comes to Mili's future. Enough about parenting.

Holly Springs family, we love you and miss you. Can't wait to come home and worship with you guys. We will be home December 8th-19th (we will have two Sundays and one Wednesday with you all).

Love to ALL!!!

Mili Bear AKA Super Urkel

Wow....it has been almost a week since I have posted. Don't know where the time has gone but I am posting now because Mili is sleeping and it is quiet in my home (something that happens very few times a day).

The pictures above are of our sweet Super Urkel. Mili has found that she is in control of her clothing now. She knows how to take off her diaper (we keep pants or a onesie on her at all times or we would have a mess if you know what I mean), she can obviously pull up her pants (at the waist and at the bottom of her legs), she can also take off her shirt (not often does this happen thank goodness, we would hate to have a streaking daughter). Oh and I forgot, she also knows how to take off her bibs (this would not be a big problem if the faucet would stop running ). We are so tired of soaking wet shirts around here. Mili seems to be a continuous faucet (we think she has her mother's salivary glands....they are double everyone else's.....the dentist even says the suction has to work overtime for me).

Last week we had a night from you know where with Mili. She kept getting up and crying and wanting out of her crib and so on, etc. etc. etc. So, Brian and I were strong and kept our promise not to take her out of the crib (we didn't want this happening every night). We got about 4 hours of sleep that night and it was quite a chore to stay awake the next day (poor Brian at work). I am happy to announce that Mili is again falling asleep on her own and sleeping thru the night. I am hoping this will continue.

Mili is also starting to talk some. My favorite thing she does now (started last night) is say NO DEAL. We are big fans of Deal or No Deal (don't have to worry about language or in appropriate behavior for Mili's eyes and ears). If you have watched the show you know that the person normally waves their arm horizonally across their body and says "NO DEAL". Mili waves her arm and says "NO NEAL". It is so cute and she did it each time after a person on TV did it. She was so proud of herself that she could say what they were saying (this is exactly why we don't want her watching anything and everything that comes on the tube).

We took a trip to the Doctor today (no worries, everyone is well, thank God). Mili got her flu shot. She did great! Cried for a second until she saw the Elmo (or Melmo as Mili says it) band-aid. She stopped immediately and then was mad at me because I covered up her Melmo band-aid with her pants. I was never so thankful for an Elmo band-aid (Mili doesn't know any other characters from TV). I love the trip to the doctor's office. The trees, fences, two lane roads, farms, fields, pot holes (gotta take the bad along with the good), houses on grassy hills all reminds me of home (Arkansas).

I am sorry that I keep jumping from one thing to another but I feel like it has been forever since I posted. For those of you that don't know already, Brian accepted a position here for another two years starting in January. Oh my baby is awake....hold.....will be back.

Okay, back again. Mili is so adorable these days. When she wakes up she is so loving and just wants to be held (I hate to stop what I am doing and hold her.....yeah, right). She has learned what it means to love and even says she is sorry (in sign language) when she hurts us.

I guess I have hopped from one subject to another enough for today. I will go now and let your brains rest from too much talk about Mili Bear. She is so much fun, I can't help but share. That is what I started this blog for is to share Mili's life with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousin, and friends back home in Arkansas. I am doing my job, right?????

Love to ALL!!!

As you can see the weather is getting cooler here. Mili is understanding what it means to bundle up a little bit now. She likes to keep the hat on all day. She is a little hat lady (I should see if the red hat society needs a mini mascot). I have a feeling we have a Miss Priss on our hands with the hat, shoes, and purse issues. It could be all my fault since I thought she had to have shoes to match every outfit when she was an infant and also put hats on her a lot. Oh well, it could be worse. Last night we had an argument about which shoes she wanted to wear to church. She wanted to wear these shiny ruby red shoes (dress shoes) and I wanted her to wear her white tennis shoes. She was wearing red corduroy overalls and I ended up letting her wear the shoes of her choice. At least they did match the outfit and I have vowed to say YES when I can because I am sure there will be plenty of times that I must say NO.

We had a rough night last night with Mili. Got about 4 or 5 hours of sleep and I need to get some now. I love you all. Good night.....I hope to sleep tight.

A BE-A-UTIFUL DAY!!!!

Who couldn't LOVE God's wonderful creation. We went to the park Saturday to take some fall pics of Mili (and mommy and daddy). Mili was in leaf heaven. She loves picking up the leaves and throwing them to see them float down (I have to pick her up to see them float from more than two feet off the ground). The trees looked like they were on fire. I didn't want to leave the park, it was so beautiful. The wind was a little sharp but it was not continuous.

We had a blast. I hope to teach Mili that you don't always need money to have a good time. We want her to use her imagination.

Hope all is well with everyone back home in Arkansas. We love you all!

Leaves are Falling

Just a few pics of the view outside our balcony the past couple of days. I had to hurry and take pictures before all the leaves fall off the trees. The wind tends to be stronger around this time of the year and all the leaves fall off when they are still colored. It makes for a beautiful sidewalk covered with red, green, yellow and brown leaves (God's artwork seems to be the kind that takes my breath away). It was all good until the lawn care guys came today and blew the sidewalks off. Bye-bye leaves (as Mili says to everything....when we watch the squirrels and they run away or up a tree, when I put away something, when she leaves the house, she says bye to everything). I am hoping for more leaves to fall in the next few days so I can take some fall pics of Mili outside.

Hope you enjoy the pics and I hope you all are enjoying the fall weather. Don't forget to stop and smell the crisp air and gaze at the lovely colors in the trees and watch the sun rise or set. They are all part of God's handy work and are beautiful. I am much happier when I stop and "smell the roses". If your life is too busy to stop and enjoy God's creation, you need to get rid of some of the technology in your life and spend some time in creation.

I am now stepping down off my soapbox.

Hugs and Kisses

The TREASURE has been found!

Whoooooo……I am so glad tonight is over. The things I will do to keep 6th, 7th, and 8th graders busy for an hour. We had a treasure hunt tonight. I got the crazy idea to do this off of my friend Kamrin’s blog. One of her advertisements was about treasure hunts at birthday parties (thanks Kamrin). I decided to make one up myself with bible verses being the clues. The clues were hid all over the church campus (minus the construction zones-we are building an activity center……can’t wait!!!). The students got a flashlight in their first clue and a bible on the second. The rest of the clues just listed the address to the verse and they had to look up the verse then pick out the word or words that they knew they could find on campus. We kinda had to help them along because just like always Alice over planned (too many clues….not enough time).

The planning for this event this week has been crazy. Last Friday is when I decided to do this tonight. I had asked for some boxes from some of the staff and they brought them on Sunday. I forgot them at church and they were thrown out. Yesterday was my shopping day and you guessed it, rain all day (pouring rain). Through the rain I have found that I am capable of doing multiple things at one time. Hold an umbrella (golf size) get Mili out of her seat, and carry the diaper bag. Coming out of the store and into the apartment was quite the effort with many bags plus all the above. Mili just thought the whole thing was fun. I am happy that she was laughing instead of crying (I felt like crying). I finished all my shopping and planned to bake cup cakes last night (the “treasure” was cup cakes and frosting with decorations). It took me longer than I thought last night to make up the clues so I had to bake the cupcakes this morning. By mid afternoon I had all the items boxed up (didn’t want the students to see any of the clues). The plan was for me to hide all the clues while my partner in crime, Eric, watched the students inside. On a normal Wednesday night we are the only group of kids outside after 6:45 pm. Guess what? Not tonight. It was such a great day today (76 degrees) that every class wanted to be outside. This was a problem because I needed to hide clues where the other kids were playing. I hid the other items that were not on the playground and then waited until they were leaving to hide the others. On clue number 3 or 4 one of the students found the treasure (they couldn’t open the lock on it without all the other clues…..the combination was on three different clues). The end result was that we had a blast and I definitely got a workout. I was literally chasing my team to keep up with them. If I do this again some day (in the far away future) I will give myself more time to plan out everything. I wish I would have brought my camera to photograph their faces with icing all over them. They had fun decorating their cupcakes and eating them.

Next week I am planning on using that comparison of the pumpkin or jack-o-lantern and a Christian. I will have to plan for this as well but not as much as the treasure hunt. I am really starting to fall in love with these students. God has put a special place in my heart for middle school students. At least that is what other people tell me because they think I am crazy; I think they are missing all the fun.

Well I am about typed out and worn out from planning, hiding, and chasing down kids. It is bedtime for me.

Love to ALL!!!

Fall has arrived!!

Just thought I would post some pics of our sweet thang with a cute fall jumper on (thanks to Dani Lee.....it was Emma Grace's....I am sure at a different age since it is a size 3T). Our baby girl looked like a GIRL for the first time on Sunday. The people at church loved her jumper and thought she looked so grown up. I may not put it back on her for that reason (smile). I know she must grow but it would be nice if she would stop growing taller for just a few months so we can keep clothes on her. I thought that the growth spurts stopped after 12 months but she is not slowing down.

Can't complain too much she is happy and healthy and we are so thankful for that. God has really been blessing our family with some decisions that we needed to make and He has made it easy for those decisions to be made. Some people would look at our family (with one car, living in an apartment, don't have lots of material possessions, just make it from pay check to pay check) and think that we should be so unhappy but we are soooooo blessed and very happy (besides the fact that we are so far from family and friends).

I am planning a treasure hunt for the middle school students at church for Wednesday night. I think I get more excited about planning things for them than they do actually doing the activities. I am thankful that God gives me this outlet for my creative juices (otherwise, I think I would explode).

Hope you enjoy the pics and look for more updates on the family soon.
Love to all!!!

In a nutshell (or a basket)

As you can see, Mili has been playing the last few days in a small basket. She is so creative with her playtime and sometimes I just enjoy sitting and watching her when she doesn't know I am. In one of the pictures she is signing "more" because she wants me to take her picture more. This is starting to be a trend everytime I get the camera out. I love her cheesy grin and the way her eyes squint up when she smiles (just like her daddy's).

Mili is learning to shake her booty (little Baptist girl dancing). She bounces everytime she hears music. She wants me to get up and dance with her. Her energy is contagious and I love that about her. Sunday at church one of the ladies said, "You know what I love about Mili, she always makes you feel important....when you walk into the room with her it is like she hasn't seen you in a long time and she is thrilled to see you." When I hear comments like that it makes me want to have more children. I have said before that I love how Mili makes people smile when we are out in public.

Things have been going well here and we are gearing up for a visit from Brian's parents in November. I don't think I have ever tried to hurry things along this fast. We are excited to have company. We haven't had company since Aunt Bec came in May (hope you are doing well Aunt Bec, we love you). We just relaxed over this past holiday weekend (oh, I had a crop at the church on Friday night.....I love me some scrapbooking).

I guess that is all for now. I would have posted before now but the internet was down.
Love to ALL!!

Catching Up!

So Sorry to all of you that thought something must be wrong in our family since it has been so long since I posted an entry. We are all doing fine, so fine that I guess I didn't have time to blog. Since I took on the task of teaching middle school on Wednesday nights and helping during small group time for Sunday mornings, I have been spending a lot of time studying for both lessons every week.

Two weeks ago I went to an all day crop (scrapbooking) at church. I love to go to these because I get a break from all the responsibilities of motherhood and Brian and Mili get time alone. It also gives me a chance to develop relationships with women of all ages. The best part is preserving all our memories of Mili in her scrapbook. The pictures above are some of the newer pages I completed (the empty spaces are left for journaling). The two last pages are old but I think I completed them after our last visit home and don't know if my family has seen them yet.

Last week I broke my toe (I think, not sure what that feels like). It turned blue, purple, and eventually black. It is much better now and yesterday was our first time in a week to take a walk as a family again. We (Mili and I) normally take a walk every morning (weather permitting) and every evening (if not at church or bible study) we take a walk as a family. Brian is waking up early and working out every morning (six days a week). I am so proud of him. We are eating healthy in our house and it feels good.

Mili is learning all the motions to different songs. She is the cutest when she hears the first few notes of "Oh be careful little eyes what you see" she points to her eyes then her ears and then she stomps her feet (she forgets the hands part) this is all before the first word in the song. When the Zacchaeus song comes on she points down with both hands and then claps her hands. It is so cute how she loves music so much.

I am sure there is more to share but I am too tired to think of it right now. I hope to keep the blog more up to date now. Love, hugs, and kisses to all!!!!!

I wrote this last night but had problems uploading the pics so I gave up until today.

Just another typical day

I wanted to share some of the pics of Mili in our normal routine from day to day. We take a walk every morning. Mili LOVES outside and everything that lives outside (this is the cheesy smile I see every morning when we get dressed to go out). She would much rather be outside watching the birds, squirrels and people walking their dogs than to be inside. I am so thankful for that. I would rather her be outside than in front of the TV all day long.

Speaking of TV, we have limited TV in our house these days. We find other things to do. Mili will dance and sing to music (after demanding that I turn it on). We also color a lot. We like to bring in things from outside to use in our craft time as well (our leaf collage). We also color a picture related to our Bible story (the internet is awesome for printing off coloring sheets). For those of you that don't know, I also love to color. It has been a stress reliever for me most of my life (a box of crayons is much less expensive than therapy sessions). As you can tell our story was about Jonah and the big, big fish (Mili can say Jonah (sounds like doe-nah) and fish (sounds like ish)).

Just wanted to share our lovely day with you. We have fun everyday together.

Love and Hugs to all!

Everyday with Mili !!!

What a great girl to have as a daughter. Look at what kind of personality she has. These pics where taken in the last two weeks (some of them today). You can see that Mili likes to help Mommy "fold" laundry. She is a fantastic unfolder. I think she is learning how to pose for the camera these days (I don't know why, her picture is never taken).

The pictures of Mili with the striped capris on is one of my favorite. I have no idea what made her do this but she pushed her head thru the blinds all the way to the sliding glass doors.

In the one with the pink shirt and striped skirt, if you look closely you will see that she is coming out of it. She has one leg in and one leg out (I have no idea how this happened, I looked up and she was standing like this one Sunday after church).

I am so thankful for technology. Many days Brian is greeted when he arrives home from work with the pictures on the camera that I took of Mili that day. I am just hoping to give him some of the day that he missed out on. It is usually the cute or unusual things she does, but I think it helps him to feel more connected to her. Technology has also changed how our long distance relationships from our family and friends has been. We have been able to keep them as updated as possible.

Hope you enjoy the pics. That's all for now.
Love to all...and a big smack!

A ZOO-tabulas Day!

We visited the National Zoo in DC today. What a great place to go for FREE! Yes, you read correctly, I said "FREE"!!!! We only had to pay for our fare on the Metro. The Metro actually drops us off about four blocks from the Zoo. We started off the day cool, breezy and misty. The weatherman said it was not suppose to rain. Well he was half right. It didn't ever fully rain but it was misty off and on all day (at some points hard enough to take cover for a bit). The sun hid while we were at the Zoo (a little peep of the sun when we were on the way back to the Metro station, isn't that the way it always goes). Despite the dreary weather, it was a great day.

Watching Mili see these enormous animals so close up for the first time was worth every drop of water (Mili was quite dry under her stroller canopy). She enjoyed signing giraffe over and over again as it came very close, just to visit Mili, of course. Her eyes were wide and glistening when she first saw the momma panda (the baby was hanging out in the trees and very hard for us to see, much less Mili). She signed dog when she saw the horses and prairie dogs (I guess she was half right on that one). When we stopped for lunch and a diaper change (we took our lunch in a cooler, meal prices are terrible in a place like that, so we went prepared)Mili watched some birds eat everything that the children had dropped on the ground. I think she may have enjoyed that more than the zoo animals. Oh, well as long as she was having fun, I didn't care how or what kind of animal she was looking at. Mili soon fell asleep (as you can tell in the photos) for her nap and slept a good while. We walked for a bit longer and then made our way back to the Metro station.

After our day at the Zoo, we needed a few things at Sam's. Sam's here and Sam's in Arkansas are two very different things. We could shop for five minutes here and stand in line for well over 30 minutes sometimes longer depending on the day. We had our cheap date (pizza and a coke for $5.27). We then picked up what we needed to get. Don't know how long we stood in line because now I try not to look so I don't get uptight about how long it takes.

We left the house at about 10:00 this morning and returned home at about 6:00 this evening. We had a long day but a very fun one. We didn't get to see everything so we will be going back. Plus it is cheap entertainment for us and Mili.

Hope all is well with all of your families and sorry I have not posted in a while. Been very busy with church and Mili (oh and I have a husband in there somewhere).
LOVE YA'LL

What a dreary day

Here in the DC area it was rather dark and rainy today (in more ways than one). Lots of talk about 9/11 today since it is the mark of five years since the towers, pentagon, and flight 93 were all attacked (and our country as a whole).

I, like everyone else was remembering what I was doing when the attack took place. Like any other day I arrived at work ready to tackle another day. At that time I was an educational interpreter at the middle school in the town I lived in. The student I interpreted for was in speech class and I had slipped out to run to the restroom. While walking down the hall I saw one of the substitute teachers that I knew well from working with her at the elementary school for several years. She came running down the hall announcing what had just happened. We were all a bit confused until the second plane hit and then things kept getting worse with more planes being hi-jacked. We were instructed NOT to tell the kids anything (with today's society, kids have family members scattered all over the world, not to know if any of the kids had family members in the towers or on the planes). Parents started coming to pick up their children and we ended up with about half the kids by the end of the day. The hard part was the next couple of weeks trying to answer questions that the kids had and try to comfort some of them that lost family members.

The most important thing that changed in my life after 9/11/2001 was that I promised I would not be silent anymore. I would live my life with love for all people and show them that Jesus loves them even more than I could. The inspiration for this was a true story that was told on a radio station sometime after 9/11. The story was about a Christian woman that was trying to convince her co-worker that she needed Jesus in her life. The co-worker stated that she was not ready to give up her worldly lifestyle. The Christian woman would walk by the co-workers office and say, "Let me know when you want to get on the bus." (meaning when she wanted to develop a personal relationship with Jesus). This was a common statement between the two woman for many days or even weeks. When the towers were hit, the women started their descent down the stairs to find out that they had been separated. Just as the Christian woman ran free from the building, one of the towers started to crumble. The woman ran to the nearest cover, which happened to be a bus. She climbed up in the bus and took cover only to hear someone crying in the bus. Guess who, none other than her co-worker friend. The co-worker asked the Christian woman if she could help her "get on the bus". Right there in the middle of pure chaos two co-workers were praying. One showing God's great love to the other. Sharing the incredible joy she holds in her heart with the other. The co-worker asked Jesus to forgive her and to start a new life with Him. She gave Him control. Coincidence, I don't think so.

Another thing that 9/11 reminds me of is that we are not promised tomorrow or even our next breath. So kiss your kids, your spouses, your parents (mom here comes some electronic xoxo, I love you) everyday before work. If you are not "on the bus" GET ON before it is too late (remember 9/11 was just another day). All those people went to work or got on a plane fully expecting to go home to their families at the end of the day. To the families that ended the day without a family member, you have been in my prayers this week.

To everyone reading this.....I love you lots. Didn't want to go to bed without letting you know that.

Dress up

We have a dress up queen on our hands. Mili loves shoes, hats and purses so much it scares me. She is starting to be a Miss Priss. Mili doesn't talk much but she sure can say "shoes". We have been trying on a lot of shoes recently (only the ones she will let me put on her feet). We are very opinionated these days.

Tonight was a wild night. It was my first night to teach the middle schoolers at our new church (thank God it was not my first time ever, I taught middle schoolers at my church back home). I think we had 19 all together but it sounded like 50. The sixth graders coming in for the first time were so excited about coming to the class that they were wild. There are very few girls and lots of boys. The boys were quite active and didn't want to be quiet while I was teaching. I warned some of them that they would be going back to their fifth grade class if they can't behave in this class. It is definitely going to be a challenge but I am up for it. I will get plenty of prayer time in on Wednesdays before I tackle this class each week. It should be fun. I planned too many things to do tonight and didn't feel like I accomplished any of them. I will do better next Wednesday.

After cleaning up and locking up the room tonight, I saw a crowd or people around my car. In the middle of that crowd was none other than my precious Mili Bear (her daddy holding her, of course). All the teenage girls were admiring her and watching her sign. She was putting on a show for them. They thought it was too cute the way she communicates and she ended up saying Bye-Bye to them when they were leaving. All the girls said "aaaaaawwwww". The thing I love the most about Mili is that she always seems to make people smile. It doesn't matter where we are she is waving or smiling (or both) at someone and they just have to respond.
The other day at the mall I saw Mili get frustrated for the first time that someone didn't respond to her wave. She grunted and looked up at me like, "mommy why don't those people want to wave at me, I am cute you know."

I forgot how tired I get after teaching. I am going to rest for now. Hugs and Kisses to all!