Rylie and I just got back from a wonderful "Girls Only" trip to Florida to visit my grandmother, Rylie's Gigi. Rylie had a great time and especially enjoyed all of the attention from my grandmother's friends. She loved looking out of my grandmother's sun room on the water and kept pointing and saying, "more water, more water, more water." Yes, quite a change from the desert :-)
Rylie & Gigi
Even though we were there for five days, I tried to keep Rylie on Arizona time. This made for some really late nights of entertaining Rylie in Gigi's condo. Definitely lots of Mommy & Rylie bonding time. We got pretty creative- Rylie even made a slide out of the recliner.
While we were in Ft. Lauderdale, we had a special treat of getting to visit with Jennifer and Max Axtell. Max and Rylie were in the same room in the Astana Baby House, and Jennifer & Tim traveled to Astana shortly after we came home. It was a very special treat to meet Jennifer and see Max again. After a little snack and some bubbles, the two kids really warmed up to each other. While they clearly do not understand the significance of their history and bond, it was certainly not lost on myself, Jennifer, or my grandmother and her friends. Everyone was amazed that out of a room of eight children, here were two of them, sitting together playing halfway around the world less than a year later. We loved getting to visit with Jennifer & Max and really hope to see them again soon!
We had another special treat on our way home as we had a brief layover in Tampa, which obviously meant a visit with Susan and Leeza. The girls had a lovely tea party in the Tampa airport terminal and snacked on some goodies Susan provided. While the girls will undoubtedly be lifelong friends (Susan and I will make sure of that!) I am not sure that Rylie made such a good first impression. Leeza is very sweet and dainty, and Rylie is anything but dainty. I love my pumpkin dearly, but if I had to list 500 words to describe her, dainty would not be one of them, bulldozer perhaps, but not dainty. That being said, the girls share a common love of puffs, cereal bars, and tea parties. We had a wonderful, but way too short, visit, and cannot wait to see them again soon!
In other news, Rylie's newest standard phrase is as follows: "My ____, mine." For example, she will pick up her cup and say, "Mama, my cup, mine." or "My Elmo, mine." It is like she says the mine for reinforcement or something. I usually remind her that yes, the item is her's, but it is nice to share our toys with our friends. The cutest was this morning when I came into the room and she ran over and said, "My mommy, mine." Honestly.... the cutest.
Love to everyone...
10 comments:
Oh Rylie, such fabulous pictures and stories of your life! But of course, I am so proud of my girl for her multiple word phrases! Great job:)
We hope to meet you sometime very soon!
love, eve:)
how much fun for Rylie to be fawned over by Gigi and all her friends!
One year, my sister and I went to visit my grandparents in Sun City, AZ-the retirement mecca. We had SO MUCH FUN--square dancing with their friends, taking line dancing lessons, eating in their dining room-going to arts and craft shows-it was the best. i was so ready to retire!!! We took Sean there when he was 2-and it was fun-but not as much fun because I was so busy with him I couldn't fully enjoy the retirement lifestyle like before. :)
I love how you got to meet Max! I have only blog stalked them-never actually spoke to them-how cool.
Isn't it so amazing the connection we all have with each other?
It was such an honor to meet you guys face to face-and I would NOT DESCRIBE Rylie as "bulldozer" at all-she is just older than Leeza. I guess Leeza is a dainty lil thing-although she is a chunk a lunk who can out -eat her mother.
I just love wathing her cross her lil ankles while on the potty-and knowning how to have tea parties when i've never shown her...it's so funny and so different than boys.
Having a big brother like Sean, I do not know if she'll remain "dainty" for long. Last night he was playing in the tub with her, his feet in while she was in the tub-naming all her play ducks, and asking her why she liked to take a bath in her own filth, plus his feet filth. LOL
It was so wonderful to meet you and sweet Rylie-who knows HER mommy is clearly HERS and the best mommy ever. Ya'll are even cuter in real life-
thanks for hangin with the homies in the Tampa airport. :)
such a special girls weekend you had there.
ps. will you send me your pictures?
:)
Wow what a great trip! How fun to see photos of Rylie with her great grandmother. Also looks like you and Rylie had a good time just being the 2 girls.
What incredible meetings with other Kaz families. It is amazing how we cover the map. What a wonderful tool the internet provides to help us stay connected and meet up in the most unlikely of places!
We hope to see Leeza and family some time in January. At least you and Rylie prepared them for us too. Rylie and Tougy really are VERY similar. Dainty is not one of the adjectives we would use to describe our daughter either! : )
It's SO fun to watch their parallel journeys. I am really looking forward to getting Tougy and Rylie together again. Looks like it won't be until Kazapalooza. Although I'd love to think that we'll be traveling for kiddo number two during that time, I'm not keeping my hopes up. (Boy, the wait for kid number two SURE is different! Aitugan knows how to keep our minds occupied.)
Hugs to the three of you!
Wow! Both Susan and I left novel length comments, right at the same time. : )
Hi Susan!
Wow, your trip sounds great! You are one strong person for being able to keep to AZ time. That's a really good idea though!
I think it's absolutely wonderful that you have such a great relationship with your grandmother and her friends. I envy you that, and that's one of the main reasons we moved here- I want Gigi (my Gigi, mine) :-) to have an awesome relationship with her Grandmother. It's such a special thing and I don't want her to miss out on it.
And just for the record, I can not WAIT to get Gigi, Rylie, and Tougy together. We can nickname the three "The bulldozers." Quite affectionately of course!
I love the My _____, mine! Cute!
Thank you for the pictures as usual! They are all so great.
Looks like a great time. It is awesome to meet other adoptive families. I love all the friends we have made through both adoptions, it is a strong bond and will surely benefit our kids as they journey through life.
Kim
OOh that is SO SWEET that she says that! I love seeing the photos of Rylie with Leeza and it is so awesome that you had a chance to reunite Rylie with another friend from Kaz. That is an amazingly special bond. AMAZING.
On another note, how did it go keeping her on AZ time for a few days? Did it help? We're leaving for Utah for only 3 days for Thxgiving, and I might just try keeping Aila on RI time - even though it is 2 hours difference. Thoughts?
xoxox
"My mommy, mine!" That is so freaking cute I can't stand it!
Rylie's Halloween costume is adorable! Man, she is changing so fast. What a difference, and cuter than ever! I'm glad you guys are having wonderful times together and all is well.
I love seeing those photos of Rylie and Leeza together. It's wonderful how Kaz families find ways to connect with each other. I think there is something very special about them. ;-)
I love that Rylie and Max were able to reunite half way around the world. (Reminds me of my son's reunion last month in Georgia.) We are so darn lucky to be part of this blog community. Each family is so special. Rylie is simply adorable; I'm sure Gigi was beside herself. I love it!!!!
She is way, way too cute! She looks a lot like Scarlett. Ft. Lauderdale is very close to where I grew up. I was actually down in that area the week after you were there!
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