Mid-June Updates

I'm heading to the NC mountains this weekend to visit my sister, Michelle.  Woohoo!  It should be a great time.  She just moved into a new house and is having a "rock party" which means that instead of bringing a housewarming gift, we're supposed to bring her a rock to put in her yard.  As you can see, we're very extravagant. 

So Deanna's 5th birthday is coming up in less than a month, and I have no idea what to get her!  Dolls?  Crafts?  Games?  I'm running out of good ideas.  De said that Deanna wants to have a pirate/dolphin/mermaid birthday party theme.  Can you tell that she has been to Sea World recently?  I'm thinking maybe some kind of mermaid doll for bathtub play time or a cool craft set would make a good gift for a 5-year-old. De told me that Deanna has been really into tye-dye lately, so maybe I can incorporate that into her birthday present....ideas are welcome!  

De called me a few weeks ago and told me that Deanna has been organizing things lately.  If you know me personally, you know that I am the queen of organization and neatness.  De had to call me immediately and tell me that Deanna had taken it upon herself to clean out her top dresser drawer and neatly organize her underwear into tidy piles.  She did this all on her own without being asked!  What kind of  4-year-old does that?   When De walked into Deanna's room and saw what she had done, De started laughing and said, "We need to call AmyHutton!" 

It's interesting and fun for me to hear these kinds of stories from De and to piece together how Deanna has become the person she is.  She really is a little bit of everyone!   

She gets her neat/organized side from AmyHutton.  Example: As I mentioned before, Deanna organizes her underwear into neat piles without being told.  That Type-A personality is already shining through.  When Deanna was 3-years-old, she made certain that the hair bands tied on each side of the handlebars of her bicycle were matching and perfectly aligned. 

She gets her crafty/creative side and her good heart from De.  Example: Deanna LOVES crafts. Absoluely loves them.  And when she was in preschool last year, Deanna walked up to her teacher and told her, matter-of-factly and completely out-of-the-blue, "I'm going to pray for Ava."  (Ava is a little girl in her class).  
How sweet is that?

She gets her tough/sporty side from Don.  Example:  Deanna had a Wolfpack mobile hanging above her crib since the day she was born.  (In case you're wondering, yes, it played the NC State fight song.)  A die-hard fan, Don has ingrained the phrase "Go Pack!" into Deanna's head.  I think that may have been her first sentence.  And when Deanna starts to cry, Don will tell her to say, "I'm tough!" 

She gets her silly/hyper/rambunctious side from Robbie.  Example: Deanna came to my house on Mother's Day with Don and De.  She was the most hyper-active individual I had ever encountered.  She was bouncing off the walls!  My roommate Emily commented, "She is just like Robbie!" and we all laughed because we knew it was true.   Deanna has a BIG personality, and she definitely gets a lot of that from the Robster.

And of course, outside of the four of us, Deanna has gotten a plethora of great characteristics from all of her many extended family members as well.  Open adoption is certainly multi-faceted, and each person who cares about Deanna has in some way molded her into the amazing nearly-five-year-old that she is today.  

Alright, off to the mountains!  Now if only I could find a really cool rock...