two fun days

Wow! Summer vacation brings opportunities for all kinds of fun adventures. Saturday we spent a few hours at the Multicultural Festival at Bethany. There were all kinds of fun things for kids to do. The best spot was the critter area. Meili got to hold, pet and give kisses to all kinds of cute and fuzzy animals.

(notice where Meili puts her hand)

Initially, Meili was a little nervous about the cute duckling...

but it got a kiss too.

totally wiped out after lunch...

Today we had another fun adventure. It was a first for both of us - picking strawberries. Once Meili figured out that strawberries tasted good, she picked a few of her own to eat. She also ate a leaf or two and tried eating a few pieces of straw. Her shirt, arms and legs were covered with juice from the berries. Tonight we had delicious jam on crackers and a piece of strawberry pie! YUM!

socks...

Meili loves socks - our socks. It seems like it's on some of the hottest days that she manages to find them and asks one of us (with motions) to help her put them on. Then she walks around in them. Meanwhile, it's just so hot and she has sweat covering her head. What a funny kid!

vintage toys rock

It sure is fun to watch Meili enjoy toys that we had when we were kids! This barn was 5 cents at a thrift store. Meili loves the mooing sound and also likes sticking all of the cows and pigs into the hay loft!

a few more bath pictures

bath foam

Meili loves taking baths - especially when we pull out the can of bath foam from Grandma. The only gross thing about it is that it makes the water all yellow. (At least I think it's from the bath foam!)


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fun with Grandma & Grandpa

It's so fun when we have family visitors! This weekend Meili got to spend lots of time with Grandma & Grandpa who were visiting from Ontario. Grandma got to babysit on Friday and she took Meili for a visit to the park and the library. She also introduced Meili to the idea of putting her hands in her pockets. (Bakka will get a kick out of that!) Meili was SO proud of herself when she got her hands in her pockets but had a hard time keeping her balance when she tried to walk!


Meili loves giving kisses... this time she shared them with Grandpa!

sitting pictures

Well, Menga and Bakka have spoiled Meili again. (Thank you!) Here she sits on one of her new little chairs - she just loves them. She hasn't quite figured out how to get down from the chair by herself but she's getting close. She usually has her afternoon snack in this chair and likes sitting at the table with some of her toys. Today she did some coloring at the table. She has a really funny grip on the crayons.



The high chair is another place Meili spends a lot of sitting time. She's been eating solid/regular food for about a month how and she's starting to get really good at chewing! Two favorites of hers are Kraft Dinner (that's Macaroni & Cheese in American) and pancakes. Of course her pancakes are covered in REAL, Canadian maple syrup. Only the best for this little girl!!!


Meili isn't saying a whole lot of words yet - at least not words that we can understand! She tries to copy what we say but it often sounds quite different. She knows about 20 sign language signs and uses those all the time to communicate with us. Here is the sign for "drink."

Fun in Chicago

What a fun weekend! We hung out with my parents, had beautiful weather, ate TONS of delicious food, solved crossword puzzles together, and loved having an extra day off! Here are some shots from the WhiteSox game. Enjoy!






We walked to the park this afternoon. Meili especially loved the slides - the curvy one was her favorite. After the slide, she played in a sandbox for the first time. It was hilarious to see her trying to figure out what sand was - especially when she put a few handfuls of sand in her mouth.

5 tired kids

Is it possible to put five tired kids together and get them all to smile at the same time? Not today... Our nephew Benoit was baptized today (he's on the right.) It was so great to have all of the nieces and nephews together. Here are Grandpa and Grandma Kingma with all their grandkids.


Meili is really interested in trying things by herself. Here she's trying to figure out how to put her sandals on. She also knows how to hold her cup now and spends a lot of her dinner time taking tons of tiny drinks - just because she can!


An up-close look at the camera!

Better go.... Meili is supposed to be sleeping but she just woke up screaming!

tulip time

We went. We ate TONS of greasy, sugary food. We saw LOTS of tulips. It was a really fun day!

twinkle, twinkle

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obsession with a dog bed

The other day Meili was OBSESSED with Otis' dog bed in the kitchen. She saw Otis laying in it when she first came in the kitchen so when he left, she wanted to try it out. She laid on it, sat on it with his food bowl, and later tried to pull her walking cart over onto it. Check out what her hair looked like after all that hard work!


Another beautiful weekend!!! Here are some pictures from our visit to the Meijer Gardens on Saturday. We had to take some pictures in the barn. The lighting in there was so cool!

family shower

Another fun weekend.... this time a "Meet Meili" shower with family and friends of the family in Ontario. We enjoyed the BEAUTIFUL weather and spent as much time as possible outside. Thank God for SPRING!!! Here are a few pictures from the weekend. (It was a challenge getting a picture with all five of the tired Kingma grandkids: Meili, Jean Baptiste, Christian, Benoit, and Carloyne).

the next generation

What a fun day! Yesterday some friends threw a "meet Meili" party. We spent time at the butterfly exhibit at the Meijer Gardens and then hung out and ate lunch at our place. This group began as a group of high school friends (Henry's). The guys all lived together while they were students at Calvin. The group grew as everyone got married and it now includes kids. It's so fun to see our friends as parents and to watch everyone's kids grow. Here are some pictures from the Meijer Gardens.

the tongue and a new dress...

Meili discovered her tongue last week. She loves pointing to it, sticking it out, and making different noises using her tongue. She often sticks it out when she is trying to concentrate on something. And the drool just keeps on flowing....


Here's a picture of Meili in her first Easter dress. She wasn't very happy because I set her down to take the picture. Thanks for the dress Renee!

they got him!!!

HOORAY! Kim and Mark are now officially Ben's parents! Follow their journey here! Ben is a little boy who lived in Meili's orphanage - he and Meili are just a few days apart in age. Kim and Mark received their referral for Ben the same day we got Meili's referral. However, their paperwork was still being processed so they had a longer wait before they could travel. Here's a picture of Ben and Meili at the orphanage -Ben is wearing the maroon sweater and Meili is wearing the one with all the bright colors. We sent the cake to help celebrate Meili's birthday.

a car rock star!!!

Meili is a traveling rock star! We drove for 8.5 hours in the car today to get to Minneapolis. Except for a short 25 minute nap, Meili was awake the whole time - just playing and talking. No crying at all - just a short whimper when she got hungry for lunch. How great is that!

We're busy making plans for our visit - lots to do and not so much time. It's cold right now - some small flakes of snow blowing around. BRRR... so much for a warm spring break.