My "Greatest Wall of China"

As we were playing and folding laundry today....E put the laundry near her brother and said "I'm building the Greatest Wall of China!" So here is a picture of the Greatest Wall of China with my two kids on it....

My wonderful news

I just spoke to the international adoption doctor who informed me that all of Z's blood test results and stool results are completely normal. There is some question as to if he has received the Hepatitis B vaccination, but even if he hasn't, all we have to do is give it to him again. All other vaccinaitons are accurate per the Chinese shot record.

Also, we went to the craniofacial (skull) doctor for Z's flat spot on his head. The Dr. felt that Z's case was very mild and no helmet is necessary. It will simply correct itself as he spends more time not lying in a crib so much.

Good news all around!

My newsflash

Just wanted to let you all know of some new things Z can do now:

1. push up to a sitting position from his belly (new last week)
2. Get up on all fours (new last week)
3. wave bye bye (new this morning)
4. Scoot/crawl (new just now)

When he woke up from his nap, he was sitting up in his crib. Just now he scooted over to a toy!

WOW!

My daughter's new puppy

We have been talking about a puppy for a long time. Our dog JD died last July (a year ago). Recently, E has been telling us how much she missed JD. So when an opportunity came up to take this dog (his previous home didn't work out) we too it. His name is Sydney. he is 2 months old. E loves him.

My son's open house party

On Saturday we had an open house for Z and invited our friends over to visit with us. We had a wonderful time. It was great to be able to spend time with our friends and family. Here is a picture of the great cake and pictures of some other things we'v been up to....




Z's first grilled cheese sandwich



E eating mac and cheese with chop sticks

My sleeping kids

Somtimes I think I'm the luckiest person in the world. T is working late. I can't sleep without him here, so I check on the kids. Notice the "s" in kids. It still makes me giggle.

E is in her bed rolling over as I walk in to check on her, smacking her lips in her sleep (she only came out of her room once tonight...). Z is also sleeping soundly. He amazes me each day. Over the weekend, he started to get his knees under him when he tries to crawl. Today he pulled up on the coffee table. He'd then sit back down and try it again and again. I think he will be crawling by the end of the month.

I have a friend who is a physical therapist for kids. She kindly showed me how to teach Z to go from being on his side to sitting up. She also gave me some exercises for each stage from starting to crawl to walking to help Z along the way. Very cool. Z is already starting to figure out how to get into a sitting position.

My Speed Demon

You think my kids can't play chase just because Z can't walk yet. Obviously you haven't seen "Mr. Speed Demon" in his walker. He chases E around the wood floors like crazy. The gleeful screams are beautiful music to my ears.

My, my, my....This is what happens when lunch is not served fast enough....

Z was being a bit fussy. Which, for this happy little child, usually means one of two things....he is hungry or tired. Silly me, since it was lunch time...I thought he was hungry and starting cooking some dumplings (Z and I love to share dumplings for lunch). Actually, he will eat almost anything, but I love dumplings for lunch. So I was cooking them and as I was getting them ready I put Z in his high chair. As I made the rice cereal that I usually make with them for him, I returned to the high chair to see this sleepy little man. Completely pooped. I tried to wake him, he even took one bite in his sleep. But the urge for sleep was clearly stronger than the urge for hunger, so I put him in his crib. 30 minutes later, the refreshed little man was ready for lunch. And ate all of it.

We are trying to get Z to drink out of a sippy cup. He is going to day care in October when I go back to work and he needs to be off the bottle. He already knows (and likes) to drink out of a regular cup (with our help). We are also trying to get Z off of formula and onto milk. We thought both of these changes were too much to do at the same time, so we tackled the milk one first. Here is E drinking out of one of Z's new sippy straw cups. And Z drinking out of one of his orphanage bottles. The orphanage director gave us a new bottle when we received Z. It is a no tilt bottle. It has a nipple on the top, but a straw down to the bottle so he can drink it without tilting the bottle up. We gave it to him for the first time. Why we waited this long I do not know. He really enjoys it (and is drinking milk out of it in this picture). And he can handle it on his own.

While Z was taking his 30 minute power nap, E and I finished watching the movie Annie. A girl from our neighborhood was in the play this summer. She was one of the orphans. E and I went to see the play. We left half way through, but E enjoyed the play. We had an old tape of Annie, so E and I have been watching it. It is the late 1970s or early 1980s version with Carol Burnette (one of my favorite comedians!), Tim Curry and Bernandette Peters. A very good version. In this photo, E is dancing to "Easy Street". She enjoys dancing so much we are going to sign her up for ballet lessons this fall.

My daughter's cardiology appointment

Hello everyone,

We took E to the cardiologist today. She was a very good patient. We did an echo, which is an ultrasound of the heart. Then we saw the doctor. She said that E's heart was just a little bit worse than 6 months ago. But we don't have to go back for 6 more months, which is the longest we've gone between appointments. So we are happy.

We went to the Natural Science museum to visit the butterflies. E chose McDonald's for lunch. Not our first choice as parents, but she was a super patient today, so off we went. Below are some photos from the past few days and some photos from the butterflies today.

Here is Z. We're trying to teach him to drink from a sippy cup. He already knows how to drink from a regular cup (if we are holding it), but we're trying to get him to drink from a sippy cup on his own. He is getting up on his knees these days.




Here is E excavating a dinosaur. She had a credit at a local toy store from her birthday, so this is what we got. We have not fully excavated the dino yet. It also can with a glow in the dark dino and another kind that grow when you put it in water.



Here are Z and E in the jolly jumper. Z's pediatrician recommended some time in the JJ to strengthen his legs. I can attest that his legs are strong enough because he has kicked me!

Here we are at the butterfly exhibit. They just redid the exhibit and here is E on a new caterpillar.

Z and E on the caterpillar.

They also had an area with hand puppets.

E, Z and T visiting with the butterflies.

Butterflies.

My husband's dead duck

What is this a picture of you might ask? Well, last December T went hunting with some friends and shot this duck. P, T's friend and hunting partner, had it stuffed and now it is hanging in our living room! T is a novice hunter, only having gone hunting twice. This was his sole shot of the trip.

The wingspan is about 18" across, so you have some perspective. I told T he couldn't hang it in the bedroom. And at that moment, he found that empty hook in the living room. We probably should give it a name.

My budding pediatric cardiologist

Last Friday, I took Z down to the internaitonal adoption docotor. She was really very nice and examined Z. She gave him very good marks. He is 45 percentile for head cir., 65% for height and 25% for weight. He has gained over 2 pounds in the last 3 and a half weeks. Previously he was at the 10th percentile for weight. We then had to have some blood taken for titers. That is when they test his blood for antibodies for the innoculations he has been given. Once those results come back, we'll know which shots he has had and which ones (if any) we need to repeat. We were given his official shot record when we adopted him, but we want to make sure he has all the shots he needs. To do all the tests they wanted would have meant taking too much blood at one time. So when we go back next week for E's cardiologist appointment, we'll have the other blood taken.

Z is making lots of improvement in crawling. He just had to figure out how to get his feet out in back of him. Otherwise he scoots backwards a bit and can roll all over a room. When he is in the high chair and we're feeding him, if we don't feel him fast enough, he makes this loud yelling noise to let us know that he is hungry. We call it the "Siren Call of A Hungry Child". He can certainly make his needs known. I think he has used the baby sign for "eat" twice, but it could just be coincidence.

We took these pictures as we were getting ready for church this morning. E was listening to Z's heart.

He is a smiley picture of Z.

Here is a picture of Z and E. Happy siblings.

And here is a picture of E. She didn't want me to take this picture and had her head down. But I slipped the camera in her lap and took the picture. I like this picture very much even though she was a bit cranky.

Time is so difficult as we lead up to E's cardiologist appointment. It is very stressful. Please pray for E, that the test results are good on Friday and for us that we are not too stressed.

My son's first birthday

Yesterday was Z's first birthday. We took (just a few) pictures. We had some friend over and ordered Chinese food to celebrate. I made a cake (with some help in the icing department from E below).





Here is the cake. It is some kind of animal. I'm not sure what kind. It started out as a dog since Z was born in the year of the dog. But I had some problems with the eyes. Either way, it tasted great!



E got dressed up like a star for a fashion show with the boys. She had a great time playing with them.

Here is the proud papa with his Chinese silk shirt on.

And here is the birthday boy enjoying a large piece of cake!

He really got into it when we gave him a fork!

By the end, it was all in his hair. I don't think much of it made it into his mouth. But he sure had a great time.

My son is learning how to crawl and walk

Here is Z trying to crawl! He can also pull up with our help and he has a semblance of walking with some encouragement. His motor skills continue to get better-especially when food is involved! We hope walking is only a few weeks away so he can chase his sister around.

My life with E and Z

We've been home for two weeks today and here are a few things that we've been doing:



E has taken Z for a ride on his changing pad.

We have been taken walks around the block while E rides her new bike and Z gets pushed in the stroller. E is very good at riding her bike.

And we've been swimming. E has taken swimming lessons this year and is a fish in the water. She can do a silent glide. She can do the crawl stroke. She wears goggles and swims underwater, holding her breath. She also can jump off the diving rock. She loves to be in the water. Z and I just watch when she is at swim lessons.

We'll spend the month of August just hanging out at the house. E has a tennis camp at our church and we have some doctors appointments down for both Z and E. We plan to go to Westport for a bit in September.