Celebrating Ailee's Birthday -- In photos...

The cutest little man in the world....

We tried out her birthday dress that Auntie April gave her -- but it didn't go over well. She just ended up staying in her pyjamas for the rest of the day. :)

Love that these two are now such good buddies...

These cousins are just so cute together! Ailee loves to take care of Ian...

Ailee was feeding Ian his dinner and was very proud of herself...

Happy birthday, sweet girl!

Yang Yang was very tentative with the cake...

But the bigger girls got right into the action...

Soon everyone started joining in -- and ended up eating our homemade cake over the pretty cake we bought!

Happy Birthday, Ailee!

Happy Birthday, Ailee!

Our sweet, incredible, amazing little monkey turned 2 years old today! And what did we do today to celebrate?

Well, we headed to Sick Kids hospital where Ailee had day surgery to get tubes put in her ears. This was never the original plan, but we found out a few weeks ago that her surgery date had to be changed and the only date available was today. After having Ailee on medication four times over the past three months, all due to ear infections, we decided that it was important to go ahead with the surgery.

Our day started out very early and we arrived at Sick Kids by 7:30 this morning. Paul works across the street, so although he had to head to work, we were able to drive into the city together, which was really nice. :)

I entertained Ailee while we waited over four hours for the surgery to start -- the waiting is always so much fun. :S  I think I sang 'Baa, Baa, Black Sheep' about a million times today! It was nice, however, to spend one on one time with our little monkey.

The surgery went well. Unfortunately, the nurses did not come and get me before Ailee woke up in recovery and our poor Yang Yang completely lost it when I wasn't there. It was so frustrating for me that they forgot my request to be there right away because Ailee ended up being absolutely inconsolable. The nurses had tried to feed her a bottle (which she can't drink out of), and they were trying their best to reassure her. When someone did finally come and get me, the look on their face told me that something wasn't right and I was worried. A few steps down the hallway and I could hear her panicked screams -- which made me want to scream in frustration.

Almost an hour and a few bruises later for this Mama, Ailee had calmed down and I was able to take her home.

At home, Ailee fully recovered from the morning and was, in fact, very active -- even though this Mama was totally exhausted and was hoping for a late afternoon nap. Didn't happen.

After dinner we sang Happy Birthday to Ailee and she squealed when she saw the candles. Can't wait until we get to put a full cake in front of her at our family birthday party for her on Saturday!

"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you..."

Big sister Maelyn wasn't very happy that it wasn't her birthday....

We love you so much, Yang Yang!!

Beautifully made...

Tomorrow is Ailee's second birthday. Hard to believe that our little monkey is already going to be two years old!

After having returned to China and having visited where Maelyn was found, the girls' birthdays hold even more meaning for me than they did before. We always thought of and honoured Maelyn's first family on her birthday, but I don't know that I truly spent the time to think in detail about the sacrifice her first family made so that our family could have the joy of celebrating Maelyn's special day with birthday hugs and kisses.

Tonight, we will honour Ailee's first family by lighting candles and knowing that her first family is most likely thinking about her on her special day. Oh how I truly wish we could let her first Mama know that her little one is celebrating her birthday this year with her forever family. I wish we could let her know how much Ailee is loved. I wish we could let her know that we will always care for and provide for Ailee. I wish we could reach out to hug her, reassure her.

But most of all, I wish we could tell her how thankful we are for the chance to parent such a wonderful, sensitive, quick-witted, cuddly little girl.

Happy Birthday, Yang Yang! You are so beautifully made....