Valentine's Day 2012

Hello All,

My girl loves Skittles...

Emily and Mommy had a good Happy Heart Day! This is what Emily has been calling today...cute huh?? Valentine's Day is a tad hard to say, plus I think Happy Heart Day is precious!

Emily awoke to her surprise from mommy...a nummy breakfast, a fun princess card, and her gift bag with new outfits, a little candy, and some toys! She was very appreciative and very excited that she got to watch Winnie the Pooh Valentine's Day video while she ate her heart breakfast.

At school, she took her cards for her friends, gifts for all of her teachers, and treat bags for her class. I heard from her teacher that they had a very active and fun party.

This evening JuJu came over to have dinner and give Emily her Valentine. She also helped Emily sign a card for mommy and gave me a new book to read. Thanks baby girl!

After dinner, we watched a new DVD that Emily got from school. Her teacher, Miss Laurel, who left as of January to do her student teaching, put together a DVD of still pictures and some video clips all put to music of Emily's class from August-December. It is SO COOL!!!!! JuJu and mommy teared up at some of the photos of Emily and her friends. It is so fun to be able to see what they do at school when their parents are at work.

Happy Heart Day to you all, and give your loved ones a HUGE kiss and hug!

Love,
Kathy

Happy Heart Day Breakfast

Happy girl

Sticker crazy

New puppy named Heart

All ready for school

Love you Mommy

A musical card from JuJu

Listening to Beauty and the Beast music

Love you JuJu

Valentine Buzz...

She is looking so much older...

Doggy had to get in on the action

Well, it started this weekend! All of the Valentine fun and goodies for Miss Emily.

On Friday night we went shopping for her cards for her friends at school. OF COURSE she picked out none other than DOGS...with a few cat cards thrown in! She also picked some boxes of chocolates for all of her teachers at school!

Saturday morning, Titi and Belen came over with cards and gifts for the darling and the girls had a grand time playing together. I just love that girl, my Sugarplum Belen. I am sure it is hard at times to play with a five year old when you're nine yourself!  It was a fun time opening cards and gifts.

Sunday at church, Emily took her card and some flowers for Nana, and what do you know...Nana had something for the wee one as well. Later Sunday morning, Grandpa and Grandma came over, and Emily gave them her card and flowers too. She loved her chocolate from them as well!

Overall, Emily has had a very blessed weekend. So many people love her and think of her. She truly is one lucky little ladybug!

More to come on Tuesday, as Emily calls it..."Happy Heart Day."

Love,

Kathy

The silly face pose...

The two Amiga's

New PJ's from Titi

Little Angel...chocolates

Fun new book from Belen, Titi and Uncle Larry

Doesn't get much sweeter than this

Happy Heart Day Nana

Card and candy from Nana

Emily and her friend Jaycee at church

JuJu and Emily

Lan Su Chinese Garden

Ni Hao,

Emily in her Chinese finery

Today we celebrated Chinese New Year with JuJu at the Lan Su Chinese Garden in Portland. Emily had a great time exploring the grounds, LOVED the fish in the lake, listened to a few minutes of a Chinese story, helped mommy make a lantern, and watched some preschool and Pre-K dancers from Northwest Chinese Academy. It seemed that what she loved the most was walking around and exploring. JuJu bought her a new panda from the gift shop, and then we headed off to lunch. We wanted to stay and watch the lion dance, but the wee girl had other plans and was "hungy."

PF Chang's here we came...Since it was a Sunday, and Super Bowl Sunday at that, the restaurant wasn't busy at all. Emily had a delicious lunch of chicken lettuce wraps, honey chicken, fried rice, and Mongolian beef.

We all had a very fun day spent with each other and enjoying a wonderful meal, and now the sweet girl is napping hoping to go outside on her swing set after she wakes up!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!!!

Love,
Kathy

Emily and JuJu

Beautiful gardens

Tea House

Mommy and Emily looking into the bright sun

Chinese Storytelling

Preschool dancers...too cute

Pre-K dancers

Another beautiful picture

Making a lantern

So serene

Interesting doorway

Waterfall

Quite the pose...

Yummy lettuce wraps

Emily and her JuJu

Mommy and her girl

Hearing Aid Appointment

Today Emily had her hearing aid appointment, and I had no idea how she would do, and like I have said on numerous past occasions, my girl rose to the challenge and did SO GREAT!!

Happy girl!

I had her teacher have her all ready in the big room for me to pick her up early, and she was crying when I got there as this was DIFFERENT from the norm. Many of you know that Miss Emily likes things on her regular, normal schedule. She was fine once she saw me, and off we went! Her teachers had been telling her today that she was going to go with mommy on an adventure...THANK YOU teachers!

I tried to calm her anxiety in the car while driving to the appointment. I had brought some snacks and a new toy to also help occupy her during the appointment.

She wasn't too sure upon arrival, but Rachel was GREAT with her.

Emily played with all of the toys in the room while mommy learned all about hearing aids, kinds of hearing aids, how Emily's will work, what they can do, the differences between brands, what sounds exactly Emily is missing, etc. A LOT of information to take in, BUT I must say Rachel was very sweet and would re-explain anytime I asked.

Emily will have many appointments with Rachel in her future, especially in the beginning while Emily is getting used to them. Emily did great having the molds made of her ears with her ears filled with pink silicone!

We even got a new story book written by a boy with hearing aids, and a new stuffed animal with hearing aids, so Emily can see how hers will be. :-)

Drum roll please...Emily picked pink with butterflies for the part over her ear, and red and white mixed together for the soft part that goes in the ear. Each time she needs new inner ear parts, she can choose from a multitude of colors! These she will need every time she has a growth spurt! YIKES!

Also, I was informed that hearing aid batteries only last about two weeks, and for the rest of her life will need to be replaced every two weeks!!!!!! Costco here we come!!! YIKES!!!

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Notice her new friend's hearing aids

Now for the good news! With my insurance coverage for hearing aids, my part will only be $65.00. Every time she will need new inner ear parts they are about $40.00 each. I am willing to do ANYTHING for my loveybug!!! I can't wait for her to get them and see how she adjusts to them!

I know this wee one is destined for GREATNESS!!!!!

Enjoy the pictures!

Love,

Kathy

P.S. Thank you Kira and Kayla for the Red Envelopes! We love you!

Chinese New Year Continued

Sweet Asian Princess

Chinese New Year continues at the Schroeder home! We have had lots of little things since the holiday began on January 23rd. It has one more week to go, and we will cap it off by visiting the Chinese Gardens in Portland next weekend. They will have lots of crafts, music, a lion dance, and many Chinese dancers.

Over the past few days Emily has worn her Chinese hat, received some stickers, a drum toy, a fan, some craft toys that she can color of the Chinese zodiac characters, a card from mommy, and her favorite so far...flavored/colored fortune cookies!!! Yummy!!!

Mommy still has a few more surprises up her sleeve before the holiday ends!

We would've gone to downtown Vancouver today to see lots of fun things for Chinese New Year at the library, including a lion dance...but...Emily is still fighting off this very bad cold!!! We spent only 20  minutes at the park yesterday until the wee one threw up three times from coughing so much! Today we took it real easy after church. We watched Beauty and the Beast three times, and Emily took a three hour nap! Darn cold...I wish she could just get rid of it!

News on the hearing aids. We have an appointment Tuesday at the ESD 112. They will be the ones to help her until she is 18. Her aids, molds, all hearing tests, appointments will be there from now on. Thank you so much to my new friend Katherine, a fellow parent at Emily's school, whose son has hearing aids as well. She has been a wealth of knowledge. Will give you all updates after Tuesdays appointment! Wish us luck!

Enjoy the pictures of the angel!

Love,
Kathy

Big smile even though didn't feel that well

Stickers, fan, and cookies

Love you baby girl!

New drum toy fun

Love that smile

Such concentration

Good job loveybug

Chinese New Year Treats to School

All ready to share at school

Well, my little darling is still feeling a bit under the weather, and has a bad cough and runny nose...BUT...she had a GREAT day at school! She wore her Chinese dress, shared her book, took and helped pass out all of her treats for her friends, and had a well behaved day at school!

Her teacher had her take off her dress before snack and lunch were served today. Good thing, as she came home with tomato soup down the front of her shirt. :-)

I could tell when I got to school to pick her up she didn't feel that great, although she was in the kitchen center making "dinner" for her teacher!

When I got to her room today, one of the little boys came up to me, and this was our conversation:

"Hi Emily's mommy"

"Hi CJ"

"Hey Emily's mommy, did you know Emily's from China?"

"Yes, CJ, I did know that."

"She brought us treats."

"What did you think about them?"

"Cool!"

"I'm glad you liked them."

For the past week Emily has been VERY interested in China, her "baby" pictures, and especially movies on my video camera from our time in China. We have watched them over and over. She has even wanted us to reenact the moment she was placed in my arms down to every detail. We have reenacted a movie from our time there, of Emily being tickled on the hotel room bed by mommy and auntie.

This is a huge step for Emily. She has never wanted to, nor shown any interest in, viewing herself in China when she was a "baby."

It is GREAT to see her watch herself and me as we first became a family!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Love,

Kathy

All decked out for school! My sweet Princess