I'm going to be a Great-Grandma!

Yes, it's true. My 5 year old is going to be a Grandma. I am going to be a great- grandma. I cannot believe it is true but it looks as if the biggest guppy is going to have babies. LOL

I went into Emmies room to see if she fed the fish. The tank light was on and food was spilled on the night stand so I assumed she had. I watched them for a minute but couldn't see the bigger one. All I saw were the wee little baby ones. I started to take the tank cover off and then spotted the bigger one. I replaced the lid and checked the Mama fish out. She seemed to be bigger in the belly than she had the past three days. Then she swam away from me and I noticed that her...ahem...bottom was bright red. I concluded either Emmie was over feeding the fish or the bigger one was pregnant.

I called Laney the friend who gave Emmie the Guppies. I asked her if they get red on the bottom area before they give birth or if Emmie was over feeding. She said that it is a myth that you can over feed the fish. They will not over feed, but the food settles to the bottom and creates a toxic sludge that will kill the fish so we need to ensure we are changing the tank water often. Then she started laughing and said yes, she is probably pregnant! Those fish seem to always be pregnant! She respectfully asked if she needed to take it back and the answer was no. I knew that they breed alot when we accepted them. I knew we would eventually need to get a bigger tank for all of the fish Emmie ends up with. However, I do appreciate the offer. LOL Emmie then asked how the babies got in there. I just told her they are growing in the mommy's tummy and she said "oh". Didn't want to have that conversation with a 5 year old quite yet. I'm glad she accepted that as it was. Less is more right?

Anyway, I suppose being a great grandma is not so bad. I just hope the mommy doesn't eat all of the babies. Below is a drawing sort of like our guppies. They don't have the big fancy fan tails. Ours are also very young so they don't have the bright colors that guppies are famous for. I think I see some guppy breeding in our future. Who knows, maybe we can give Laney some guppies back with big bright tails. It was part number two that seems to be getting bigger on our Mama guppy.

Guppies anyone? I suspecvt we will have lots to share soon! Perhaps I'll start a fish tank at work and can send all of my coworkers home with little guppy babies. :-)

Happy Easter!

Easter morning EmmaLi woke up before me and slid out of bed without waking me up. I woke up to her patting my back and saying "Mommy! I thnk the Easter Bunny came. I think he left me an aquarium." I said "What do you mean you think he brought you an aquarium? Either he did or he didn't." She said "Well, I didn't have an aqaurium last night but this morning there is one next to my Easter Basket. It's not IN my Easter Basket, it is next to it" I said "Well, it sounds like he brought you an aquarium all right." She then said "Come on! Let's go see!" Here is a picture of her with her basket...messy hair and all.

After church we went to our friends house for Easter dinner. Kaya is on Emmie's soccer team and they get along well. We have had a few play dates with her. We had another egg hunt at Kaya's house. Here are some pictures of the last egg hunt of 2008.

Unfortunately, I was in the middle of an allergy attack Easter Sunday. I had to leave the church service to cough my fool head off and get some tissues. Emmie and my noses were running like nobodies business. We went to our friends house for a "real" Easter dinner and to have friends around for the holiday. I wanted nothing more than to go home and crawl in bed to sleep. We stayed at our friends pretty much all afternoon because Emmie had Kaya to play with which gave me a break. It was the most rest I was going to get! LOL We also enjoy Kaya's parents company too. That fact is worth mentioning too. Kaya's mom and I sat at the kitchen table chatting all afternoon while the girls played outside. Kaya's dad brought out a telescope for the girls to look through. We looked outside and found them like this. Emmie looking in one end and Kaya looking in the other. LOL We went back to the table and looked again and we found they had switched places and were looking in the opposite ends.

When Kaya's Mom found out that EmmaLi had gotten an aquarium from te Easter Bunny, she offered Emmie some guppy fish to put in her aquarium. She loves them. She goes in to check on them every morning and feeds them. When we get home from school and work, she goes into her room and feeds them and checks on them again. She is so protective of her baby fish. There is one adult mommy fish and 6 little baby fish. We don't know whether they are males or females as they don't get their color until they are older. here is a picture of Emmie's aquarium.

Overall (allergies aside) it was a great day. We went to church, had a wonderful Easter dinner with friends and had a nice relaxing afternoon.

It's egg hunting season!

Yesterday we had our fourth annual Easter Party. Ever year we have a little Easter Party on Good Friday. The day cares are closed and many mom's have to take the day off due to no child care. Below are the pictures from the party.

Today we went to our neighborhood church for an egg hunt. The reader board outside said they have a "Massive Egg Hunt with 25,000 eggs". I had no idea what 25000 eggs would look like until we got there. They had sandwiches, chips, cookies and drinks for everyone afterwards. There was a raffle (we didn't win anything) and a band playing. It was a lot of fun. Half of EmmaLi's day care class was there and we didn't know they were coming. After loading the pictures onto my computer I saw that a little boy that used to go to Emmie's first day care and then went to her current day care for a few weeks was right next to us. I had lifted my camera up over my head to take pictures of the crowd and spotted him in the photos. Small word isn't it?

Sing and Dance Chinese

One of our local libraries hosted a local woman who is native Chinese to teach Chinese words, songs and dance to children. In the past when she has hosted these classes, they have been during the week at 4:00pm. Of course, I work til 6:00pm every night so Emmie has not been able to attend. They offered the classes again this time on Saturday afternoon for those with working mothers. So this Saturday was a bit busy for us. We had a soccer game this morning and the Chinese song and dance this afternoon. Below are a few pictures of the song and dance.

We learned the words for a song Emmie has listened to and danced to for a couple years. We have a tape called Sing and Dance Chinese with Mei Mei. Emmie used to watch it all the time. We also learned to count to 10 in Chinese, all of the family names (not new to me but some what new to Emmie), and how to interchange all of those titles when saying things like I love you, big brother loves little sister, Mommy loves you. We also learned the proper tone to use when we saying a few greatings like Good Morning, good afternoon, good evening, how are you, I am fine, thank you and good bye.

We also learned a few China/Olympic facts. Did you know that the 2008 summer olympics mascot is actually 5 or 6 mascots in one? Each one is named after the Chinese word for Beijing welcomes you. For example the Beijing is actually two words so the names of two of the mascots are Bei Bei and Jing Jing. We learned the names of each. They had a display of the mascots in a glass case as well.

In two weeks we have class two. It is a continuation of class one. I was impressed with the instructor and how much she covered. She sent us home with hand outs with the information we learned today. She also teaches an adult class for anyone going to China for adoption or for a holiday. I would have loved to have taken that class before my trip to China.

She scored a goal!

Today Emmie had her third Spring soccer game. It was cold and windy but the girls were real troopers. In the second quarter EmmaLi scored her first "non-set up" goal. She was so proud of herself. Last season in the last game the coaches of both teams set two girls (one from each team) up to get their first ever goals. Emmie had one attempt and another one of her own team mates stole the ball from her and kicked the goal in at the last second. They gave her another shot and she was successful in kicking it in despite the same team mate trying to take the ball from her.

Today however, it was ALL EmmaLi. She played well and took that ball down the field and scored all on her own. She stayed ahead of the "pack" and kicked it in the goal beautifully. I did the "Emmie scored a goal dance" on the side lines which I think Emmie would be embarrassed about in a few years.

I was surprised today to see the entire team playing as well as they did. They were protecting their goal and stopped a number of the opposing teams attempts to get goals. They passed the ball to one another. They didn't steal the ball from their own team mates. It was awesome to watch them play today. They have matured in their playing a great deal from the first game last fall. The team has gained three new players this season and lost two from last fall. One player returned to her previous coaches team and another found a spot on the same league as her sister which was very helpful to the parents. So the team is as intact as it could be from last fall. The girls are all sweet and work well together as a team.

I didn't have my camera with me today because of the threat of rain. So I didn't get a picture of the goal but it is etched in my memory for the rest of my life. EmmaLi was smiling ear to ear after she made the goal. She was so excited that she got her goal. I am so proud of her. She has stuck with the soccer and is doing well. The funny thing is she didn't want to go to the game today. She kept telling me that she wanted to stay home on Saturday and Sunday and didn't want to go anywhere. Once we were there she was fine. She is gaining confidence in her own skills and most of all she had fun.