FCC Holiday Picnic, 12/3/2006

It’s been some time since we’ve posted. You might say that I have been busy, but the real busy one is Melissa! Being a full-time mom sure takes its toll and Mel is handling it like a champ. Keep up the good work, babe!

Today we went to the FCC (Families with Children from China) Holiday picnic. The weather was awesome and we got to see friends that we haven’t seen in some time and meet new people. It was a blast to see Jinji, the new addition to Mary and Bill’s family. They’ve only been home two weeks! Jarrah was there. She is a bundle of energy to say the least. All in all, we had a good time.

Here we have Bill playing his part as the "baby whisperer". He has his hands full with Linda and Jinji!

Here are the newcomers to the FCC. Jinji is the newest addition. On the Mel's left is Molly. She came home the same time Linda did! Oh, and the young lady on the left in the picture is 15 years old, if I remember. As you can tell some of these children have been adopted years ago and they still participate in this group. Just amazing!

Linda is progressing very well. She so wants to walk it will occur any time now. She barely holds onto your fingers while she walks and I believe she is using it as a safety net as she is not too sure of the balance thing. We have witnessed her testing the waters of standing without assistance and there have been a couple of steps in there too. One day soon she will just motor right on off and bonk her head. I can see it happening. She has done some minor bonking so far, but the big one is to come!

Linda making friends!

Teething. This is the other major event happening right now. Wednesday evening she woke up wailing. It was not pretty and we ended up giving her some Tylenol. Sure enough, there is another tooth coming in up front and something tells me there are a couple of others right behind that one. She learned that the frozen chew toy is a good thing, though she does not use it for long.

We are pretty sure her first word was “dog”. She gets excited if she sees one on T.V. or when Amber comes around. She points and utters what sounds to be “dog”! One of these days she will get that Mommy and Daddy thing down, but we figure that will come soon enough. She doesn’t say, “no”, but she does shake her head when no is implied. It’s amazing how fast that one is learned!

You all have a good time and I hope to write more soon. More pictures. I know, more pictures. I’m getting there! :-)

Giving Thanks

It’s the Sunday after Thanksgiving and we have a lot to be thankful for. We have our health, our happiness, our family, our friends and most of all Linda.

It has been a little over two months since we have met Linda and just about two months since we have been home. I can say there have definitely been a lot of changes in Linda in only two months.

When we met Linda she already had a great personality. Linda could sit up straight, but you had to put her in that position. She would roll around or scoot backwards to get to places. And she never had any solid food.

Now she can sit up on her own from a laying down position. She can crawl very smoothly and even get up and down the little step we have going into the family room. She can pull herself up to a standing position from anywhere she can hold onto (including my bra strap :-)) and walk while holding onto things. She can even take a few steps on her own. I give it another week or two before she’s completely walking on her own… Yikes.

Linda is playing with blocks and putting them through holes and into slots they belong to. She is eating very well (I let her eat lunch with her hands).

The best thing of all is that she knows who mommy and daddy are. She even knows who she is… she’ll show you by pointing at her belly. Hey if she really likes you, she’ll show you her belly by pulling her shirt up. Go figure.

Of course her great personality is still there and even better. Linda has a sweet disposition. She doesn’t fuss much. She whines a little when she’s out of sorts. Now it’s hard to tell if she’s whining because she’s teething or has an ear infection. That happened to us recently. I thought she was teething on a Friday because she was in a bad mood. She had no fever and not tugging on anything. But Sunday she was in a great mood but all this stuff was coming out of her ears. We ran her to the doctor and she still had no fever… just an infection. She’s better now.

I have to say life as parents is very different than without children. You’re on schedules and you are drained by the end of the day. It’s a good drained, but drained. I sleep well at night now. Bill is great with Linda. He seems to know exactly what kind of playtime Linda wants at what time. Linda loves when he plays with her in the car seat and makes funny sounds. Linda also like when dad dries her off after a bath. And she loves when he carries her places. Bill is also great to me. He gives me the breathing time I need when he comes home so I can deflate before I make dinner. Bill is a great dad and husband.

Let me just finish by saying we had a great Thanksgiving at our friends Mary, Bill and Jinji. Yes their family made a nice dinner for them the day after they came home from China and we got to participate. Jinji is a great baby and I hope Linda and Jinji become life long friends like their parents have become.

Update! Oh we are so bad!

We have been soooooo bad at posting lately. Please forgive us. You might guess at how difficult it is to raise a child and keep everything else running smoothly. I must say that Mel has been doing an awesome job of mommy. I commend my beautiful wife for doing such a fine job.

In the last couple of weeks we have been quite busy. Last Monday Linda had her first visit to the Happiest Place on Earth: Disneyland! I had to work, yeah, touch life, and I brought Mel and Linda with me. It was very convenient as we also had a trip to LA to visit Mel's family. Linda had a great time. We hit It's a Small World and I never saw a kids eyes pop out as we floated through the show. She swayed with the music and clapped her hands. We also visited the Tiki Room. Oh, that was just as fun. She sure enjoyed the drummer dudes. We wandered around the park a bit and then we had to head out. No we did not try other rides as it was her first time and we did not want to over stimulate the little munchkin. That night Linda slept like a rock.

The daily routine I will leave to the hard worker of the family, but I will say that it is one busy schedule. My duties start when I get home from work. I just keep Linda busy and distracted until bed time! She is so close to walking it is scary. She holds your fingers and takes off. Once she has that self balance thing going we will not get any rest! In any case even though there are some frustrating moments, it has been a joy to have Linda around.

I will post pictures when I get them processed!

Catch Up!

We’ve been a little busy. No really, we’ve been a little busy. I know you don’t believe us, but we maintain that we’ve been a little busy.

As an update, Linda visited the doctor and got a clean bill of health on the second visit. Yeah! She has gained 2 pounds and though they said she has not grown, we think she has added an inch or two to her height.

While I’m at work, who knows what Mel and Linda have been up to, but I’m sure it is no good! ;-) Actually Mel has been a terrific Mom as I get home and Linda is pretty much wiped out from the day. Actually, that kid sure has a bunch of energy because I’m worn out from playing with Linda after I’m home! Mel has visited friends, going to play groups, and taking Linda to the park. They go on walks, too. Linda is getting better at being left alone, but the play pen (Pack N Play) is still not high on Linda’s “fun list”. She is only in that when Mel needs to get something done and doesn’t need Linda getting into trouble, e.g. shower time.

Since the last post, we had a good Halloween. No pictures from that day as we did not do much. A Tuesday night is not great for Halloween. We just went to a birthday party yesterday. That was fun. Thanks Joy!

One exciting moment last week was when I received a call from Mel. I was meeting with an electrician and Mel calls sounding serious, but with a sense of excitement. Mel was sitting in the office, the doorway is about 8 feet from Linda’s room, and tells Linda to come on down if she likes. Next think she knows, there’s Linda’s head poking around the corner. This is the first time Linda has ventured down the hall on her own! It is her first time doing the full on crawl, too! My thoughts: “Uh oh. We’re in trouble now!” Linda has gone mobile! Today we took a couple of pictures as she made her way towards the living room! Double Uh Oh!

We are at the point where we needed to add the glass doors to the stereo cabinet for obvious reasons. Here I caught Linda contemplating how to get past this little obstacle. Hmmmm? BTW, pull those pants up!

That’s all for now. We need to go for a walk and let the dog stretch her paws.

The First Week

Well this was the first week of Bill back at work and me alone with Linda. She took pretty well to Bill leaving for work. It really didn’t faze her. But when Bill came home in the evening, you could see the look of relief on her face like, “Wow he came back, now let’s rough-house”.

I have to tell you that it’s amazing the feelings you go through in a day. Part of you feels like am I doing enough with Linda, how many times should I repeat that the block is a red circle or is she getting enough exercise. The other part is thinking Oh my gosh, it’s already 5pm and I need to give Linda dinner. But it all works itself out in the end.

We have figured out a pattern with Linda. She is somewhat independent in the mornings. So that means we can take showers and leave her in the “Pack n Play” with some toys and she is self entertaining. I can also do some light cleaning while she is playing with her blocks and other stuff.

In the afternoons she is needy. You need to be in the same room with her and at times on the floor with her. So that’s when we play catch with her first baseball or her talking blocks and of course other toys. This seems to be an easy pattern to work with.

Linda is better at her naps. She naps for about 45mins in the morning and about 1½hrs in the afternoon. I think this also helps getting her down in the evenings.

On Thursday Linda’s Bubby (Grandma) came down for a long weekend. This is the first time they have met. It was pretty much love at first sight. We meet Bubby at the train station and at first Linda gave her the cold stare (this is pretty common) and then looked at me. I gave Linda the okay to be curious nod and said to Linda, “Isn’t this exciting?” When you say that, she does this little shake and puts her fists into the air. It’s really cute. Bubby had a good laugh at that.

Of course we like any good women (and baby girls) do, we went shopping. Mom needed a new pair of tennis shoes. So off to Nordy’s we went. We had a nice lunch there and Linda showed off her great “sitting in restaurants” routine.

Linda had a great time playing and singing with her bubby. It was nice for me between the great basket under Linda’s stroller and bubby pushing the stroller. I had my hands free for the first time in a month… Wow!!! Bubby was a great help.

At the end of the week, Zayde (grandpa) came to meet Linda and pick up bubby. We had a nice visit. Linda had a great time. She didn’t get fussy through the picture taking stuff.

Well that’s it for now. Pictures of the visit will come later.

Special Post! Many Faces of Linda

This is a sample of the many faces of Linda. I think this will become a project of mine. It is sooooo damn cool! Mel is loving every bit of it, too! Here you go!

Bates Nut Farm

One thing nice about having Linda this time of year is the fun! We ran off to Bates Nut farm with our friends Cory and Lena to find pumpkins! We were wondering if it was going to be a good day or not (I am a week behind on this blog!) as it was raining.

Our day started with hair appointments. Mel was due and I had 3 or 4 that were getting out of hand. It was also our chance to show Linda off to our hair dresser. As it turns out Linda enjoys our excursions and she is so good when we do these. The fun and excitement of the salon did not over stimulate Linda and she would wave to patrons and workers as they walked by. It was so cute. Since we had planned on going to the farm I kept close eye on the weather. Sure enough I looked outside and it was pouring! Uh oh. Linda enjoyed watching the rain fall and the drops hit the puddles. All I could think is, “Oh well, maybe next year.” Ugh.

After the hair appointment, we decided to head to North County anyways and at least pay a visit to C & L. Weather still did not look good and it rained as we approached their exit. EEERRRRGH. We hung out and Linda displayed her cuteness as always once she settles into a new place. We decided if we can’t go to the pumpkin patch, we would go to one of them parking lot patches. You might have guessed we were determined to come home with a pumpkin! So, off to lunch we went and our search for Mr. Pumpkin.

Our drive to a patch that Lena had found online was uneventful until we approached the patch. Pumpkins! The sign said so! We drove by and our hearts sang. The place was pretty much cleared out. It was pushing 2pm and we did not want to make a long day of it, but at this point we bit the bullet and headed to Bates anyways! It was cold, but the rain did not get us!

Linda had a field day at Bates Nut Farm. No pun intended. Since the ground was still damp we decided to forgo the stroller and use the Bjorn. Mel took the weight. As we walked by the animal rides and petting corral, Linda was so happy she could not contain herself. She was laughing and giggling everywhere we went. We quickly found a wheel barrow and headed into the fields for the right pumpkin. It took a bit, but Cory and I found a nice 32 pounder with our name on it. We also picked up a couple of smaller ones. FYI, 32 pounds is 25 pounds lighter than the pumpkin Mel and I scored last year, but as we had an extra 20 pounds to carry around with us, the trade off was fine for us!

After more laughing and giggling, we headed back. We did pretty good as we arrived home about an hour later than expected and it did not take much to get Linda fed and cleaned up for bed. We are so glad we made the effort to go to the farm. It was well worth it. Thanks C & L!

Now let’s hope I don’t fall so far behind on the blog!

PS- We enjoyed our Sunday at Dante’s 1^st birthday party. Linda had a good time and I think she learned some lessons from some of the “elders”.

Next: Daddy’s first week back at work & Bubby's visit!

As the Child Develops

The last couple of days have been fun and exhausting with the emphasis on the fun. Linda has begun to take to our new sleep routine even though she whines and cries a bit when we put her in her crib. The difficult part is putting her down for naps; we haven’t been able to! Most of her naps come while we are out doing errands and meeting people. The day is the most difficult to get into a routine, but it will come soon as I go back to work on Monday and Mel will need to keep her sanity so a schedule will be had.

We have worked on leaving Linda on the floor while we do some chores. She whines a bit and cries, but in most circumstances she is faking it. She even has the fake tears down. You know she is testing the waters because as soon as you poke your head around the corner she stops and has a big grin on her face! We have also started doing this with the Pack n’ Play. This is for those days when either Mel or I have to do something and don’t want Linda running, crawling, rolling around. We know that it will be soon when we cannot use the PnP, but we will while we have it. Doing these things with an adopted child is actually quite disturbing to us adults as we try to be sensitive to the fact the poor thing was abandoned, grew up in one place, and has been displaced from there to a new environment. We are doing the slow route which seems to be working. Hopefully by next week Linda will be more comfortable with it.

Saturday our friends Bill and Mary visited us and we hit the La Mesa Octoberfest. Linda needed a good drinking party. Oh, um, well, um, oh. NOT! Here it is a big street faire with some music and, yes, a beer garden. We walked around and spent almost 3 hours there. Bill took the record for stranger attempting to hold Linda. I forget how long, but it sure beat the 15 seconds for most strangers!

Yesterday Linda got to meet and play with her new friend Jarrah. A slow start ended in quite a good time for all. We think that this time with Jarrah and her Mom, Sam, helped Linda realize that all is good and the toys we have are actually fun and useful, and that life is not just playing with mommy and daddy and running crazy errands!

Today Linda was perky and very loving and alert. She woke up on the “right side of the bed”! She did not cry and whine when she woke up like usual. The norm has been quite a bit of crying/wailing which indicated to us that she was up for good, while some of the cries and whimpers during the night are something else because she goes back to sleep or has never really awoken. I took advantage of the peaceful wake-up by getting Linda before the crying started, thus allowing Mel to catch a few more winks, snores, or whatever. Everything she did today was just so darned cute. The best was when she was standing at her table toy and swaying to the music!

We also visited my work today. What an impression Linda made on them. She was so well behaved. She showed her serious side upon meeting the folks and showed her cute, adorable, happy side the rest of the time. No fussing except when she was held by others. The longest was maybe 15 seconds before the arms stretched out to Mel or me. Bill, you still hold the record for the longest hold by a stranger! By the end of the visit she had so much fun and excitement she fell asleep in Mel’s arms. It was so cute. Linda’s favorite pastime is showing people how well she stands and attempts to walk. She could do this all day. Of course our old backs would never hold out!

All in all it was a wonderful day. She ate more than normal and at the same time missed one bottle feeding, and she did not complain! Of course this will not become a habit until after 12 months, but it was a good sign that she does not depend on the bottle. Bed time was a little rough, but she went down after Mel made a second appearance to calm her crying. Good night!

Playgroup Day

Sleep update (probably the last unless we really have something to say): Well, Linda slept through the night! Yeah! She woke up just before 7am and I went in to get her. For the second time this week, Linda and I joined Mom in bed to wake her up. It is so fun!

Today we headed off to Linda’s first playgroup. We decided that it would be a good thing to get out and have some fun with other kids. The park we went to was very nice and we met up with Anton and Dante, future friends of Linda and children of families we have met over the last year. It was a good time as it was Linda’s debut. Linda enjoyed her time on the swing and really enjoyed “showing off” her standing abilities and desire to walk. She was not too sure of the sand, but that was not a hindrance to fun.

Mel and I have noticed that when Linda first meets people she is in a pseudo-zombie mode. It is quite interesting and in a way nice to know she doesn’t run to just anyone. As she warms to others she begins to show her playful side and that cute smile of hers. As we do these outings we are more aware of how she has attached to us. She knows who mommy and daddy are and she does not let us out of her sight. It is also cute how she has learned to wave with those tiny little hands.

Today we tried a repeat of last night because Mel needs her sushi! So we placed an order to go and when it came time to pick up the food Mel decided to go and see what happens as last night Linda did a mild meltdown when Mel left. Tonight we had no issues whatsoever. The humorous part of the exercise was when Mel returned. Linda started to whine until Mel came into the room to say hi! Wacky!

Other than that we had a good day. Enjoy the pictures!

Linda hangin' out!

Am I cool or what?

I can do it, I know I can.

This swinging stuff is fun, now where does my arm go?

Over-tired & Attachment & Feeding

Linda slept most of the night. We did have one wakeup incident at about 2:30am, but it was minor. Just a little encouragement and a couple of minutes comforting and she was out again. I woke up at about 7:00am to make sure we stay on our schedule.

Today we decided to start Linda on real food so we can get her up to speed with others of her own age. She is still on formula and the doctor agreed that we can start easing her into the food world. Also Linda needs to learn to feed herself, so we need to work on the finger pinching and of course “food play”. She is doing pretty well with the veggie puffs. She either grabs them or uses her index finger and thumb depending on what neurons are firing in that little head of hers. In either case she gets it to her mouth just fine, but once there the firing combination does not say, “Release”, so she sometimes just nibbles at what is visible. There have been a number of successes though, and this evening she actually downed at least 8 of them little suckers without our intervention. We were too busy eating our own dinner!

Lunch was fun. We gave her some mashed potatoes I whipped up the night before. (Yes, I can cook and can’t wait to grill up a nice Tri Tip for her!) With spoon in hand Linda had a field day. Some of the food actually made it to her mouth. In the morning I let her play with a spoon I was using to feed her cantaloupe and she simulated eating and digging with the wrong end. At lunch she was holding the spoon the correct way. She will need some practice on the shoveling and stuffing in mouth part, but she seems to have the drum and fling parts down. It was a blast. It was the first time I think she was able to play with food and it wasn’t too bad. After a hosing down, she was good as new. Well, it was more of a wipe down, but you get the picture.

We did get to the park today. Jackson Park is just around the corner from us. Linda actually seemed to enjoy the swing. Kids like swings. She also enjoyed the attempts at walking. This is a fun game we play, but it sure is hard on daddy’s back! I swear this little kid will be walking pretty soon. If we can only get her to sit up on her own we will be on to something. Adopted children seem to have this issue and may never crawl, so one day she may just pull herself up and take off!

This evening was pretty interesting. Actually it occurred throughout the day; Linda did not like being in a room alone. She would whine and cry. A little regression from the last couple of days it appears. This evening a neighbor stopped by and dropped off a card for us. Nice man. After he left, Mel ran out to pick up our dinner from the Mexican place just up the street from us. (She was craving cheese enchiladas which are hard to come by in China.) As soon as she was out the door Linda started to whine and cry. She was sitting in my lap and we were “reading” a book when this occurred. I was amazed that she even knew that Mel was gone. I had to pick her up and walk around with her. I knew she wasn’t hungry since we had just finished feeding her. I was at a loss. The carrying seemed to help the most. Playing did not do much whatsoever. We are going to keep and eye on this behavior and see if it is something we are encouraging or if she is “using” it to gather more attention. Of course it is too early to tell. It may be due to being a bit tired as we continue to “force” the schedule on her.

As for tired, we are attempting to keep that schedule and tonight we started a routine of slow down a bit, bottle, PJs, a book reading, and soft snuggle time. Our target is to put her down by 7:30pm. Today Linda had her two naps, but they were very short. This may be the cause of the tired and cranky stage of the evening. Anyways, we started the routine and it was going pretty good. She got all happy and playful after getting her PJs on. Ok, this is partly our fault as she was like that in China, but tonight we “ignored” her attempts at “hard” play. Reading the book, Goodnight Moon, is a challenge as she wants to hold and play with it. Once complete, we sat on either side of her on the couch and told her how much we loved her and just let her roll and tumble around us a bit. We did not encourage any play. Just before 7:30pm we picked her up and told her, “Night night time.” We placed her in the crib and she whined a bit with a bit of a fake cry. She did the customary rolling around with the whine. (No cheese with it, though.) I stepped back and sat on the floor after saying goodnight and see you in the morning; Amber came in and sat next to me. Mel took the lead of a couple more soft caresses and a final “I love you” and stepped back. In a couple of minutes, Linda was quiet. I moved out of the room and Mel was right behind me. So far so good, so cross your fingers we have a full nights sleep!

An exhausting day for us all and tomorrow will be just as fun! Goodnight!

PS- No we have not taken more pictures. It has been work enough trying to keep our lives going. I plan on taking some pictures over the next couple of days as we begin to do a bit more outings.

The Doctor’s Visit

Sleep update: All night! 7:30pm to 6:30am! That’s two nights in a row now.

We all have been through the first doctor visit. Those who have adopted know that the first doctor’s visit also can be quite and experience for these little ones, especially when they have procedures that are normally conducted on newborns!

Today was Linda’s first visit here in the good ole US of A. If the quick medical exam in Guangzhou was any indication, this was going to be quite interesting. Off we went to visit the doc! BTW (that’s By The Way for new readers that do not know the acronyms, i.e. the old folk….), since Sunday we have not had the car seat melt down (CSMD). Linda was back to normal riding in the car. She was asleep about half way there! Once we found the place we were right on time and we were called in to begin the fun.

For those curious, Linda is 29 ½ inches long and weighs 19lbs 4oz without clothes. Yep, the first time she was weighed nekked. So far so good; she usually begins crying when the clothes start coming off. The real fun began when the doc started to check her out which meant holding her down for the ear check and such. She began to howl when that started. She did not cry during the eye testing, but she was not happy about it and would not look at the monitor. She preferred to squirm and I held her hand away from the probes stuck to her head. Very high tech I'd say. Not long after than came two shots. Oh, that was just the tip of the iceberg for crying, but we knew this was going to be a fun outing.

After the questions were asked and the preliminary check was clean with a mild yeast infection which we are treating it was off to the next stop, Scripps Hospital. We had to hit the lab where they drew blood. Ear plugs are a must the next time we do this! The blood work is to check and make sure there is nothing really wrong with her and to see what vaccines have been given her and to verify the Chinese immunization chart that we received. The nurse who drew the blood was quite nice and did a good job, it was just hard work keeping Linda still and comforting her. She screamed like a banshee! My ears continue to ring from that. We figured the rest of the day would be payback for the hell we put her through! Once we left and settled in the car, Mel fed her some food and Linda quieted down quickly. She was asleep when we got home.

The rest of the day was very boring. Lunch, play, play, snack, bottle, and nap. We bought a toy that can be used sitting, standing, or kneeling. Linda so wants to walk its quite amazing, so we got this toy that plays music and has the different shapes and textures. This seems to be the typical children’s toy of today. Linda does prefer paper and water bottles over these high tech gadgets, but it does humor her enough. After dinner we were sitting at this toy Linda pulled herself up twice from my lap to a standing position while I steadied the toy! She could not do it while sitting on the floor, but she sure did give it a try.

We are easing her into real people food now. We have some of the Gerber’s stage 3 foods which are a bit chunkier than the other ones. She likes them! She does not eat a whole lot, but at least she will eat it. We plan on trying other foods that we will eat ourselves and cut into small pieces for her. Soon we will be working on getting her to feed herself. This will take time, though, as she has never done this before. She will make the attempts with veggie puffs and at times succeed, but in general she is helpless right now. Like I said, it shouldn’t take too long and the mess will begin. Amber, the doggie, can’t wait for this stage. Talk about a feeding frenzy! I joked to a neighbor I am about ready to Teflon coat the walls and floors.

Now Linda is asleep. We still are trying to find the best method of putting the little one down. Any suggestions would be quite helpful! I have a feeling she will not sleep through tonight, but that is alright, it was quite a traumatic day. Tomorrow: Costco!

Good Night!

The First Days Home

Home. It’s good to be home. How have we faired these first couple of days? Let me count the hours of missed sleep! I’ll recap the first 3 nights as our little Linda still is adjusting to Pacific Daylight Time.

Midnight. Wake up! Linda woke up at approximately 12 midnight and would be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. She was very playful. Well, it’s 3pm in China, so it made sense. The first night she was up for about an hour as we decided we would take turns if she went longer; Mel stayed with her. They played a bit and Linda rolled on the floor. Away from Mel, back to Mel, away from Mel, and back again. Eventually she nodded off.

Night two was even better, as she woke up at 12 midnight once again. This time she was up for 2 hours. This time we both played with her on the floor. We just went with the flow as nothing seemed to work. Once back to sleep she was out.

On night three she was up at, you guessed it, 12 midnight. This time she must have been frightened of something or just plain did not know where she was. She did not want to have anything to do with me this time. Very interesting it was. In this case Mel got the honors of holding her and we all ended up in the living room. Mel played with her on the couch and I sat and read a book. I did all the “errands” of the evening; if something was needed, I fetched it. It worked out very well. Two and a half hours later she was asleep.

As we discussed, the weekend was “over” and it was time to get the kid on a schedule that matched our time zone. I did the honors of waking Linda up at 7am Monday morning. Yep, that was the morning after 2 ½ hours of Linda time. Linda did not really know what was happening and actually woke up pretty well. She was tired and just a bit out of it. I’ll elaborate on the days in a bit, but what we did on Monday worked pretty well. Other than a 9pm phone call that woke her up, she slept the whole night. Today I woke her at just before 7am. We hope she makes it tonight, too.

As for our days together, Linda has been a little princess except for Sunday afternoon. This was the most traumatic day. We set off to the mall to pick up a couple of items. A “quick” trip and figured that Linda did well in the morning riding in the car seat in the back seat alone. This is also the second time in her new stroller. All was going well until we got back to the car. She lost it! She began to bawl. Oh, can this girl let loose with the screams. Since it was only a couple of minutes drive to get home we went for it. Well, she cried so hard and loud she puked right at the end! OMG it was amazing. Once home and walked around, she calmed down and was good. That was it.

Fast forward to today. No problem in the car seat or stroller! I don’t know what set her off that time, but we are going to do the couple of days with someone in the back with her and then to the alone ride. We need this because Mel will have to do errands while I am at work. We hope to change her from rear facing to forward facing soon. We are doing the recommendation of rear facing for children younger than 12 months, but I think we will change sooner as she is a bigger baby and seems to have decent muscle control.

I found it quite interesting to watch Linda develop from Friday’s arrival through today. She was unsure about the house and the people. Saturday she was a bit more comfortable, but we could not leave the room without her whining. Sunday, other than the above experience, she was more comfortable with the house and the fact that we were not going anywhere. We could leave her with some toys and leave the room, but not stray too far. Monday and today we were able to leave her with the toys and leave the room and go to another room. She would put out a screech at times, and then laugh. She also likes it when we come out from around a corner. She puts on this great big grin and sometimes adds a giggle.

Out in public she is wary of her surroundings as expected and also of strangers. We met neighbors down the street and she went into that blank stare mode, yet she would respond positively towards me or Mel. We let the lady hold her and within a minute Linda was turning around reaching for one of us. You might say we are experiencing good bonding mojo. Linda responds to either of us equally. I could be holding her and then she would reach for mom, and then vise versa.

Other than our time change issues and lack of sleep, we are doing pretty darn well. We think we may accept casseroles beginning Thursday. (Wink Wink, Nudge Nudge)

Let’s hope for a peaceful night tonight! Later!

Picture Gallery of Homecoming

We made it through our first night home without too much of a problem Linda fell asleep about 8pm last night. She was so uneasy about the whole transplant thing, but she finally fell asleep. At around midnight she started to fuss (love the baby monitor!) so we checked on her. She did fall asleep without a bottle, so we knew she had to be hungry; we fed her. Mel and I discussed the plan and she took the first shift and I went back to bed. We both thought that she may be on China-time, so we expected some oddities in hours. The next thing I know is I am up about 8am with Mel sleeping and no sounds from the baby's room. Wow! Linda woke up at about 9am this morning!

Today was good. Linda was quite relieved that we were still here and not much has changed. I had her fed and diaper changed while Mel slept away the morning. At about 10:30 Linda and I decided to wake mom up, so off to the bedroom. Linda and I sat down and watched Mel sleep which was too much for Linda; she started to laugh! Mel woke up with a smile as dad and Linda were right there . Mel told me that they were up for about an hour before Linda nodded off again. Now that was a good night.

Here's a gallery of some photos taken when we came home yesterday. Enjoy!
We arrived quite tired, but still vertical.
Let me go! Let me go! Where am I?
Wow it's bright here! Where the heck am I?

Just out of the car where she fell asleep. I know I will be wasting a lot of gas in the future to make her sleep. This is also her first sight of the dog, Amber.

Still not sure of the dog, nor is Amber sure about the kid!

Send your own caption!

Good night!

Time To Go Home

Today was a big day in Linda’s life. Time to head to her permanent home with Mel and myself. From our last post you know we had a little issue getting Linda down and the night was pretty uneventful until about 4:00am. She became a little whiny so I got up and talked with her and stroked her hair to sleep the last half hour or so before real wake-up time. I wanted to do as much as possible so Mel could sleep as much as possible since her cold made it difficult for her to sleep. (Now that is one run-on sentence!) We got up at 4:45am as our check-on bags had to be outside at 6am and we were on the bus by 7am. I checked out, returned the Panda phone, and we had breakfast. Linda was still a bit fussy since it was a bit early.

Guangzhou airport is big. It is clean. It is pretty easy to get through though it would have been helpful getting there a half hour earlier. We had to stand in the checking line for a bit. Three lines and it became a little contest to see who would get through first. Our single mom and her mother got stuck. For some reason they could not find Grandma’s assignment in the system. They did find it finally. Phew. We all pretty much got on the plane at the last minute.

Hong Kong has a mighty big airport. After arriving on Chine Southern, we had to exit and transfer to Cathay Pacific. One family arrived to the transfer counter before the other 3. We slackers almost got to the counter before the first family got through! When they left the counter we gave them an ovation. Mel and I pulled a winner by walking to the gate when we find out later there was a train that ran there. We were tired and my shoulders were hurting after carrying Linda such a long distance. What are we, nuts? Being that we were going to be on a 12 hour flight, we thought the walk was justified. Since the US is being the US we had to go through another security check right at the gate! They made us toss Linda’s water. We boarded a 747-400 which was much more comfortable than the 747 we took going.

The flight was tough on Mel. She never really could sleep on planes and with the cold it complicated things. She did take care of the dirty work changing Linda and getting the fixin’s together for feeding. I had the easy job of sitting there and holding Linda and having Linda sleep on me. For some reason I was the pillow of choice and with my luck we estimated that Linda slept at least half of the trip! Talk about luck.

We arrived at LAX and got through immigration and customs without a hitch. Then came the worst part of the trip; we had to stand in line for our boarding passes. This line was not overly long and it moved like molasses. On top of it there was this couple with two boys that kept pushing their cart into me. It was a pain, and then they left the line. Go figure. We finally get through and now our flight is delayed due to weather! We departed at 3:30pm instead of the 2:30pm scheduled flight.

Linda has been on 3 plane flights before this one without any issue. Well, our luck ran out on the commuter flight from LAX to SAN. Linda was asleep when we boarded the little plane and was doing fine until the engines started and the cabin was pressurized. Instant wailing! Oh, talk about the embarrassment and classic parent moment when it comes to air travel. She would not suck on her sippy cup nor chew on a veggie puff. Just prior to take-off she stopped and fell back to sleep. The flight was fine and sure enough on decent about to land she begins to wail again! Conclusion: no more small plane flights for her.

When we arrived at the gate of the commuter terminal my Dad and Ellen were there waiting along with a surprise from our friends Jack and Carol. Oh the picture taking session began. It was nice since we have not had time to take many pictures in the last two days. Hopefully we will be posting a few in the next couple of days.

At home we finally found a little relief. Home. What a fine feeling. Linda was not too sure of the whole thing though she did enjoy her first car ride in a car seat. The strangeness of the place was bothering her along with the stress of being moved once again. Amber, our doggie, was taking everything in stride and came up to Linda and kissed her. Needless to say Linda did not like that one bit as it is probably the first time she ever saw a dog. The rest of the evening she was wary of Amber and when around would just stare. I think she will come around soon. We had a nice dinner that Ellen prepared and got some food into Linda. Dad and Ellen took off for the motel to let us settle down. Linda fell asleep just before 8pm and we hope will be a good night, but being in a strange house and a strange room does not bode well.

We hope to get some sleep now and start a new day at home with our new family.

Later!

Consulate and then Some

What a fine night. We made it through the night without incident once again. The bummer part is Linda just fell asleep 10 minutes ago: 9:15pm. We have to get up at 4:30am and have our bags ready by 6am tomorrow. We are in soooooo much trouble as we feel Linda will not be a happy camper. This forebodes a long flight. No optimism here.

As for today, we had a pretty good start, and then we saw what looked to be dried blood in her left ear. Mel began the concerned mother mode. We cleaned the little bit up and did not see much else. After a good breakfast and noticing that Linda was not concerned or bothered by anything, we had time before the temple trip to check a store we wanted to go visit. Once outside, Linda turned her head and Mel saw the ear and almost went into panic mode. In the light it looked pretty bad and really baffled us. So much for the temple trip; we headed to the Holt office (yes, they have an office in the hotel) and told Catherine. Mel was obviously concerned since we fly out tomorrow, so an appointment at the clinic was quickly set up. We finished our trip to the store before the appointment.

Mel and I were both very concerned and continued to be baffled as there was no sign of anything at all prior to this morning. At the clinic Linda entertained the staff and was measured and weighed. Linda showed them how she is trying to walk, etc. The doctor was quite nice and we explained the situation. I had the honor of holding Linda’s head while the doc swabbed the ear. Oh, Linda told us she was not very happy. After the cleanup, it turned out that Linda had a scratch that was just inside the ear, not the canal, and was a little infected. The doctor let Mel look and he showed her how the ear was clear and clean. What a relief! We can fly! Catherine was amused on how happy Melissa was and pleased that we were able to appease her. Mommy needed the extra vote of confidence.

We arrived at the hotel just in time for lunch, so we decided to head over to Lucy’s. It was good. As we have been informed it is one of the few places that serve “western” cuisine. Linda enjoyed her mashed potatoes. We had a good time and relaxed after the morning’s ordeal.

This afternoon was our trip to the US Consulate where we received Linda’s visa. The consulate office is next to the new train station and was a 30 minute bus ride. Leave it up to the US government to put a consulate office near a public transportation depot. We arrived with 57 other families to take our oath and receive visas for our daughters, and I think I saw at least one son. I watched as the others arrived, and I may be biased here, but Holt seemed to have a very well organized way of doing business. The oath was basic swearing that we filled out all forms as truthful to our knowledge, and then we waited for our brown envelopes and passports for the little ones. All was good and off we went back to the hotel. No pictures are available as the US Consulate does not allow cameras or phones or anything that is not essential to baby within the facility. Today turned into a no picture day. Bummer.

We are all packed, mostly, and ready to go. I will get very little sleep and Mel just nodded off. It will be a wild and wacky morning and one long flight back. We are due in San Diego sometime around 3:30 or so in the afternoon. We so look forward to coming home. See you soon!

BTW, we want to thank you all for you wonderful comments. They were all quite helpful. We will continue to blog our experiences as Linda grows and may add elaborative posts of things during the trip that we may wish to divulge after we return.

Good Night!

School Day, Shopping, & BBQ

Another uneventful night! We must be lucky, and I bet that changes soon. Linda woke up about an hour early, so I played the sneaky dad and picked her up, paced a bit, and then lay down with Linda on my chest. It worked; she fell right to sleep again and squeezed another hour out of her! Payback was not as bad as I thought it would be, but there was a little tonight as she did take a little bit to get her asleep tonight. Needless to say, this trip isn’t too bad since we are getting some sleep.

Today was very “busy” as we chose to take the optional trip to the school down the road. We visited a class and those kids were sharp and quite excited to see us. It was a 5^th grade class and they have been learning English, so this was part of their study and test to see how well they did. We had a blast. At first we were divided into sections so a family had about 7 children to ask questions and in turn be interrogated. Yes, there were more boys than girls, but not as bad as you may think. This little session was quite interesting as the boys really liked the sports talk, either about basketball or football (soccer), and the girls were not too interested in that. Both were quite good with Linda who soaked up as much attention as she could stand.

When we completed the classroom session the children got to show us their school. I must say that it was one nice place. The classroom we started in was pretty Spartan until you notice the little computers built into the desk and the pull-up section for the monitor. Their main classroom had desks very similar to what I remember and they were grouped in 4s or 5s. We had the opportunity to watch the classes come out and do their mid-morning exercises. Their library was not bustling with books, but it was stocked pretty well and nicely laid out. Then the kids were so excited to show us the “animals”, so we trekked up the stairs, 6 levels from my count, onto the roof. There they had plants growing and on one corner had some animals! A monkey, a goat, an emus or ostrich (I can’t tell the difference), some chickens, and a couple of other critters I did not get a close look at. The garden had a variety of plants. These kids get a pretty good all round education from what I could see. Before we left, two boys just had to show the swimming pool. It was a 3 lane pool, enclosed, and pretty well maintained. All 3 boys claimed they could swim the length of it at what I guess to be 25 meters in length. Phew, too bad they don’t have AC because we were sweating profusely from running up and down stairs!

We spent some time walking up and down some streets and doing some shopping. It looks like
we will be heading back to a couple of places since I did not have the cash on me when we went browsing. There are some incredible prices to be had around here and I bet if we were able to take time and travel a bit further away from the hotel it would be much better. Alas, we will have to stick with our local area do to time constraints. We leave early Friday morning and we have a trip to a Buddhist Temple tomorrow morning and our trip to the US Consulate for Linda’s visa!

Before dinner we had the Holt customary group photo by the red couches located in the hotel. We dressed Linda in a dress we acquired in Nanchang. The other girls were also dressed similarly. Oh, how darling they all were. We definitely had a nice batch of children. (Bias, I am.)

The highlight of the day was the Holt BBQ at the restaurant by the pool. Here you select your choice of meat and/or vegetables to be grilled and they grill it up. Not a bad fair. The fun was when you finished or close to finishing a wait person would swoop in and take your plate. On one occasion I had gotten up for another round and left a small plate with cantaloupe all cut up for Linda. Mel was feeding something to Linda and they swooped in and snatched the plate. I had to get another slice of cantaloupe for her. Amazing! They tried a second time, but everyone at the table stopped them. At the beginning of the meal, they brought out these little dishes of steamed eggs of which we decided not to feed to Linda until we returned home. At first we had two at our table as we had two children. I came back from the buffet and we had another one and I was informed they had to turn down two others! What’s with the steamed eggs?! Towards the end I was finishing up my salad and I had maybe two bites left when staff came by and asked if I was finished. Jeez, can’t a guy finish what’s on his plate? As soon as I had taken the last bite, I commented, “Now they can take my plate.” Sure enough, the plate vanished. Amazing! This annoying sequence happened all through dinner and turned into a joke. At least we enjoyed what was served.

Have a great day, all. We can’t wait to be home!

Paperwork, Pictures, Medical & Fun

Linda, Linda, Linda. I sit here with a bottle of Jack and Coke. You read that right. We hit the 7-Eleven for some simple stuff and I saw this bottle of premixed Jack and Coke. I’ve never saw that before, but I digress….

Linda had an interesting sleep last night. Three times she woke up with a little whiny type cry. I would get up and rub her chest or stroke her hair, and once held her little hand. She immediately went back to sleep. This told me she never really woke up fully, but was like in that half awake state. Other than disrupting me sleep and Mel’s, who was already having a tough time with the cold, Linda had a pretty good sleep overall. She was up about 5:30am which is pretty much right on schedule for her.

We had a nice breakfast and met Susan and Jim who adopted a waiting child and you may know through the FCC. Molly, their recent addition is very cute. They also brought Hailey along, whom they adopted 4 or 5 years ago. She is 7 years old and very outgoing.

I drew the short straw and got to do the paperwork meeting while Mel got to go get the visa photo session. We actually had a pretty good time in the paperwork session as everyone would chide each other on what mistakes we made. This session was only just over an hour as Holt had us pre-fill out the paperwork before we even traveled. Our poor Holt representative had fun as some of the instructions changed slightly because there were 4 different provinces that she had to cover in one group. We all managed to get through it and we all have our fingers crossed we didn’t miss something the US Consulate will not like.

11:00am and we head off for the visa medical exam. Mel was treated with a free, yes free, stroller rental from the laundry place earlier, and I received help from Hailey on the walk over to the medical offices. Our exam went just fine. No obvious problem with our little one, her weight is still about 20 pounds, but she has grown 2cm! She is now 72cm long! Linda was a trooper through the ordeal. The only time she cried was when she had to drop trow and get checked out. This cry lasted about as long as the doctor check her belly, heart, and make sure everything was in place, if you know what I mean. That was it. Done. We headed back to the hotel.

Mel was craving Mac n’ Cheese, so a call to Danny’s was made and we ate good. We watched a little TV. and played with Linda. All day Linda seemed to be a little needy. She had minor fits here and there while we are in the room, and seemed to squirm more when held. This could also be her trying to become more mobile. We wanted her to nap, but that was not going to happen. Crazy kid.

This afternoon we took a trip to the Pearl and Jade markets a short bus trip away. We wandered the Jade market a bit. Some very beautiful stuff was to bee seen. We ended up buying a jade bangle for Linda which we plan on giving to her on a future birthday. On hindsight it was a little fun bargaining with a wholesaler. To kill the rest of the time, we crossed the street and entered the pearl market. We were beat, so I hung with Linda while Mel took a quick walk around one floor of the market. The jade market was 5 levels and a long block. The pearl market looked to be 7 levels and setup like an indoor mall.

Once we returned to the hotel we made our for mentioned 7-eleven trip. On the way back another couple asked us about this Danny’s place. Then Paul from another family we told about the place saw us and asked us for more information. We have become the information source for laundry and food. By the time we got back to our room 3 families were planning an order from Danny’s. Thanks to you all who did the reconnaissance mission earlier this year! When things settled down, our phone rang and another family asked about where we were having our laundry done. We chose Susan’s, btw. I answered the phone, “Bill’s Bait and Beer”, and the guy was laughing at the other end. His name is Bill, too.

Once this little party ended, we had time to bathe Linda. She is now quite content to sit with one of us in the tub and play with the stacking cups. (Another good call, gang!) She whimpered a little with the head wetting and rinsing, but overall it was a successful bath. While waiting for the time to pass I need to exchange some cash to pay for said laundry and prepare for the next day, so I headed to the lobby. Mel entertained Linda, who once again was in needy mode. Oh, we are not be talking about being held needy, just plain be in the room needy. A bit of retraining between Nanchang and here I guess. We proceeded to prepare and feed Linda who was showing signs of hunger and we were trying to hit the “regularly scheduled time” mark. A feeble attempt at some order in her life, but worth the effort. Guess what? Linda fell asleep while sucking down the bottle. It must have been right at the end as she did finish the bottle. Poor thing must have been wiped out from her two days of over-stimulation.

Now it is time for Mel and I to unwind and get this stuff posted! Sorry, no pictures today as we did not have the urge or drive to carry the camera. I guess this tells you how tired we really are and we can’t wait to get home. Tomorrow is our exit meeting with Holt and group picture at the red couch, and a BBQ at the pool! We will get pictures for you on those! Have a great day!

PS: Congrats to all who have just received their match! We are very excited for you!

Trip to Guangzhou

Sorry readers for missing a day of blogging. We had a very uneventful trip from Nanchang to Guangzhou; pretty amazing if you ask me. Don’t ask, please. Our day was filled with a trip to pick up Linda’s passport. All members of the family had to attend so we can be sized up. Actually, they wanted to see if our pictures matched on the Adoption Registration. That’s the red book which we received a week prior. Can you believe we have been parents for a week now! Wow!

At the hotel we had to make sure our bags for check on were ready for pickup at 2:30pm and we had to be ready to hit the bus to the airport at 3:20pm. Linda was quite wary of the situation. She could tell that something was up and we knew it could be a long day since there will be more change in her life. Off to the airport we went!

The flight was quite comfortable and we were surprised to find out that a little “meal” was served for a flight that was just over and hour in length. Linda was showing off her moves at the airport. She so wants to walk, but just doesn’t have the balance or the strength just yet. We are in sooooo much trouble in a few months. On the plane she was quite interested in everything tray or latched. She even tested the window for sturdiness. Good girl! When served our snack Mel did all she could to keep the poor gentleman next to her safe from wandering hands. Linda loves the water bottle. Who needs toys when you have a partially filled water bottle! After I was done, it was all I could do to keep Linda’s hands out of Mel’s snack. Oye! We finally began our decent into Guangzhou and not soon enough as Linda was becoming quite miffed at being cooped up for such a long time. Darn it, she did not sleep. Once on the ground and luggage collected wouldn’t you know she was passed out cold. Ugh, now we will have trouble putting her down for real. Another Oye!

We are staying at the White Swan Hotel of which some of you are quite familiar. What a place! It is beautiful. This is definitely a 5 star hotel. Of course I am a bit perturbed that I have to pay for internet access when at the Gloria in Nanchang it was free, but I will get over it. Errrrrrrrr. Anyways, we got to our room and scored, once again, a king size bed and a wonderful view. We are 3 for 3 on king sized beds. Oh, and I forgot to mention that on the flight in we were in row 6! We were so beat. Our flight arrived at 6:30pm and we got to the hotel about 7:30pm and in the room and somewhat settled a little after 8:00pm. Linda was bouncing off the walls. We ordered room service we were so tired and it was worth every penny. It was that good. Ravioli and French Onion Soup. Yum. Linda continued to bounce off walls. She was also quite needy, so the trip and change was making her uneasy. After many attempts to tire her out, and she was over-tired now, we finally gave in and put her in the crib. It took about another half hour before she finally passed out. We are talking 10pm now. Mel picked up a cold so she was really out of it and I knew she was not going to sleep well either. Will we make it through the night?

Good night.

The People’s Park

Today we took a trip to the People’s Park. It is similar to a Central Park in that many people go here to hang out. It was very interesting to see so many people congregate in a single place. Some were doing traditional Chinese dance and some were doing dance similar to ballroom dancing. Others were doing their Tai Chi. There were ponds were kids where feeding the fish. An amusement area towards the back had rides similar to carnival rides. Some elderly folk were playing instruments and having a good time. Children were running around with their parents and grand-parents. Family fun was had by all.

The amazing thing was how friendly the people were. Being Americans with Chinese children we drew the looks of many. Some of them even practiced their English on us. The talk of the granny patrol was known long before our trip and you wouldn’t believe it until you were in the middle of it. We never did get reprimanded for “not covering” our child, but we did get the “beautiful” and “very pretty” from them. As our Linda is large for her age, we got the “very healthy” comments from a few. The best one I thought of the day was from an elderly lady who told us how smart Chinese girls are. It was pretty funny. Even our guide got a chuckle out of that one.

The other highlight of the morning occurred while we were resting on a wall before leaving. Linda has the drive and wants to walk. With support she makes the motions for walking. Today she actually was doing quite well. It won’t be too much time before we have a little motor baby running around. One family still can’t believe that Linda is only 9 months old!

Back at the room we played with Linda and she took a good healthy nap. This time when she awoke, she did a little yelp, but no crying. She did want to be held right away and would not let us put her down for awhile. Not bad, I’d say. We took a walk down the street and checked out the shops along a “walking” street. This is a street blocked to all vehicular traffic lined with shops. Today people were out in force. As with the park, people would turn and look at us as we strolled by. It is weird being the center of attention and in some cases Linda soaked up the extra attention.

For dinner the staff arranged a group dinner at the same place we had lunch yesterday! Woohoo! On the bus back from the park, they asked if we would like to have a group dinner, and everyone was all into it. Then they mentioned a family that had eaten there already and asked if it was all right. We responded with two thumbs up and the others in the group were surprised we had wandered to a place on our own. Of course we confessed that we had assistance from one of our guides yesterday. After dinner one family agreed this was some of the best food we’ve had on this trip.

Well, Linda is asleep now and Mel is watching the tube. We are getting ready for our trip to Guangzhou tomorrow. Actually tomorrow we pick up Linda’s passport in the morning and we travel in the afternoon. We arrive in Guangzhou in the early evening. This starts the last leg of our trip which will consist of more paperwork! It also will be interesting to see how Linda responds to yet another new environment and her first plane flight. We’ll let you know how it goes!

Goodnight!