Happy Birthday Victoria!♥

The Gift of Life

I didn't give you the gift of life,

But in my heart I know.

The love I feel is deep and real,

As if it had been so.

For us to have each other

Is like a dream come true!

No, I didn't give you

The gift of life,

Life gave me the gift of you.

--- Unknown

Well my baby girl turns 6 today! She has truly been celebrating all month. We spent the 4th of July in Oklahoma visiting family. While there, we had a birthday celebration for Victoria. She also had an official birthday party on the 20th of July. Friends and classmates joined us at Party Kingdom in Chino. It is an indoor inflatable party place. We all had a great time and she really enjoyed the day. Today Tori, Dylan and I are headed to The Rain Forest Café for lunch.


Victoria is now 34 pounds and 40 inches tall. I am pleased with the physical growth she is making, as is her pediatrician. Since her last birthday she has grown another 4 inches and has gained 7 pounds. Since she arrived home in 2009 she has grown 7 inches total and gained a total of 12 pounds. This is great! For her age she is tiny and still below the 3rd percentile, but she really has had significant growth.


Victoria graduated Kindergarten in June. It was a fun day. Dylan and I attended the graduation. The kids did sing a song and received many awards. Victoria received an award for “Most Improved” in learning her site words. After the events at school, we went to one of Tori’s favorite restaurants. This girl never seems to have enough pasta. She loves an Italian place near our house and always orders spaghetti. Let me just say that graduation from Kinder is not what is was 11 years ago when Dylan was promoted. Wow! Families came with bouquets, balloons, stuffed animals and gifts. Um, we didn’t. Dylan headed out quickly to find some flowers, but it was still early and nothing was open. With that, we made the promise that after lunch we would go to Party City and she could pick out balloons. She had a great time doing that, and watching a large bundle being created for her.


She still loves the beach, swimming and just playing in water. She can’t get enough of the dogs, usually as soon as we walk in the door the first thing she wants to do is go outback and see the dogs. They are so loving and patient, it truly amazes me. Several times I have had to rescue, mostly the smaller one, from being tied up with a shoelace or string to something. She just loves animals, any kind will do. We also have a tarantula as a pet and she is pretty fascinated with it.

Two girls are moving in next door and have been over a lot as their parents get ready for the move in. All three girls have a great time together and are really enjoying play time. The girls are 5 and 7, perfect. I was doing yard work the other day and felt like a Pueblo Storyteller. I was sitting, weeding, digging in the dirt and they were all quite comfortable sitting on my knees, resting on my shoulders and really just on me. The big attraction was not me weeding; it was the roly-polys, of course. All three were eager to grab them as soon they were spotted. Poor things, not the girls, the roly-polys. My pleas to be gentle seemed to fall on deaf ears. They came over another time to help decorate some cup cakes, goodness we had frosting and sprinkles everywhere. It was fun though and Victoria has really enjoyed the girls coming to her house to play.


Victoria will be starting 1st grade in August. We had a difficult time with separation for over a month at the beginning of Kindergarten. That was rough. Finally, by the end of the school year; she would get out of the car at the curb, put her backpack on (which ends at her ankles), gave hugs and kisses, and would run up to the school while yelling several times , “Bye Mom, I love you!” Let’s hope we remember that I will always return at the end of the day when 1st grade begins. In a nutshell, life is good!