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!