How waz your day?

Last night at dinner, Emma asked D., "How waz your day Daddy?".  We both nearly fell out of our chairs in laughter.  Of course because we laughed, it turned into 5 minutes of asking both of us again and again.  Every morning while Emma is on the potty, I ask if she slept good and she now asks me every morning if I slept good too. 

Emma is 100% potty trained and even stays dry most nights.  What a blessing this is for a 29 month old to be potty trained so easily, definitely not the norm for most toddlers.  I was mentally preparing myself for a battle and dreading the process, but it has been a dream.  She is so proud of staying dry all night and as soon as I walk in the bedroom, Emma says, "I stay dry mommie!".  The first couple of times I didn't really believe her.

The weather is warming up abnormally early this year, so we have already had a few days outside and D. took her for a ride in the jogging stroller yesterday.  A day in the outdoors usually comes with the price of sneezing and drippy nose, for both of us, so I'm thinking she definitely has some outdoor allergies.  Her eczema is under control, but only because of due diligence with no fragrance washes/lotions; allergies and eczema usually run hand in hand, but not something we can investigate until she is a bit older.  Our home is surrounded by trees and the allergies I thought I outgrew returned when we moved into our home.

E's last 2 year molar has surfaced and is pushing through very slowly.  Hopefully once this tooth has pushed through, the night crying will subside for good.   At bedtime, stalling is definitely in her toolbox now, which usually results in prayers being said 4-5 times, plus numerous other tactics like going to the potty and throwing microscopic dirt from the floor into the kitchen trash can.  Emma says, "now I lay me down to sleep, amen".  She can say the whole prayer, but now refuses since the luster of it all wore off; Daddy is not allowed to put his hands in prayer position, he has to hold them wide like a football goal.  If D. tries to clasp his hands, E. stops the prayer and says, "no, no, no". The last few weeks Emma is definitely a momma's girl and only wants me to put her to bed, but once D. gets her to the stairwell, she stops fighting the process and forgets about me.

Emma continues to soak in everything we teach her and she can say her whole name plus our names too.  A lot of the time, she will say her Chinese name is her first name vs. Emma.  As time progresses, I will not be surprised if she decides that her middle name is her first name.  She can also state the first number of our address and the street we live on.  Her language development continuously amazes us, when we take in consideration how many children from China usually need OT for speech.

We have been giving Emma little tidbits of her background from the very beginning, starting with keeping the photos of her in the orphanage on our refrigerator.  We will walk by them and I tell her that is when she lived in China.  Emma now tells us she is from China and that mommy/daddy flew on an airplane to bring her to the US.  We give her a little bit more each time we talk about China but only details that she can mentally process for her age.  When we talk about China, I can now see her little brain thinking about what was said and storing it for later.  We ask that no one besides us starts these conversations about China, unless she brings it up and to not makeup answers if she asks questions that don't have a real answer. 

Missing Aunt Stacie

Our trip to Texas was a great success. The point of the trip was so Emma could finally meet her Honorary Aunt Stacie, Uncle B. and Haylie....the timing hasn't been right until now since returning from China. Emma fell in love with them all and vice versa. A few days ago, Emma was convinced after nap she was going to see Aunt Stacie. Almost everyday since we returned, she mentions Stacie or Haylie's mommie...so cute. Aunt Stacie has been my best friend for 20 years and I couldn't wait for her to meet our Emma.

We can't believe it's almost March! We will be signing up for The Little Gym again and taking advantage of the library and Barnes & Nobles storytime. Emma is busy burning energy on her indoor jumpolene, playing with her babies and coloring. She has a plethora of markers, crayons and stickers that she creates artwork with everyday. Numerous times a day, I hear, "pen please or marker please". Doug also takes her into his workshop a few days a week and they paint watercolor pictures and she "helps" him build model cars. Emma gets a cup of water and a paint brush to "paint" the models. He has a lot of empty jars, drawers and clips in his workshop that keep Emma busy for hours. She does a lot organizing and reorganizing.

Howdy Y'all

Howdy from TX!  Emma and I had a great plane ride to see my bestie in TX.  Emma was a hit with the TSA agents and going through the airport by myself with a 2 yr old couldn't have gone better.  Emma was very excited to get buckled in and take off.  We brought a backpack full of snacks, lunch, stickers, tape, markers and paper.  Of course she was more interested in lifting and lowering the tray table and playing with the seat buckle than anything else.  She took a small cat nap and if the plane hadn't dipped, and caused the cabin pressure to change,  I think she would have slept longer.  I'm battling a sinus infection and I couldn't hear much for 20 minutes after the dip and had stabbing pains in my ears.  I tried my best to stay calm but Emma knew something was up and she kept hugging and patting me as I tried to regulate my ears.  

Emma is a little nervous today and I had to lay down with her at nap and bedtime.  She is doing a lot of lip picking and chapstick applying. She snores and is doing so as I type this.  She is making herself at home here with Haylies toys and Haylie...I think Emma would love to have an older sibling.  

The Cincinnati Children's Museum

We finally made it to The Cincinnati Children's Museum after hearing so many great things about it.  We had a playdate with Emma's little buddy Sophia, who is about 5 months younger than Emma and both girls played really hard.  Emma had to be tricked away from the giant water table or else we probably would have been stuck there all day.  Emma really liked the water table, the sandbox, loading coal into a wheelbarrow, hammering pegs at "The workshop"  and serving food at the Diner.  She served me a taco and a peanut butter sandwich at the Diner and she liked pushing around the grocery cart at "The Grocery".  Depsite digging right into the activities with no pause, she displayed her nervous behaviors all the way until lunch.  The museum is in the lower level, which is not as well lit as the lunch area on the main floor, so we should have probably brought her glasses.  A few months ago we had a playdate at the Dayton museum and she had the same reaction...both museums are on the lower level with no natural light and I think this messes with her sight.  Emma was not as into the museum a few months ago, but now she seems to be the perfect age as long as we can get her to stop blowing her finger and picking her lips while we are there.

 

Today I took Emma to the toy store because her potty training has gone so well.  She picked out a doll that has glasses just like her.  I promised her that I would buy her babies a crib when she did a #2, but Toysrus didn't have any nice ones in stock today, so I had to order one on Amazon.  Emma won't let it go that her baby gets a crib...she has a steel cage from the moment you say anything, so be prepared to have on hand what you promise.  In hindsight, I probably should have bought one last week when I first promised, but I never thought she would this soon.  She was also promised to make cupcakes by her Gramma Cheryl, so I have also been hearing about the cupcakes for days...she gets to make them on Tuesday.  The good thing about the chocolate chip and sticker rewards is that she doesn't always ask for them not that we have been at this for about 2 weeks.  The one step she never forgets is washing her hands...I accidentally gave her a sticker before washing her hands today and she said, "no, no no...wash hands first".

It can't be this easy?!

Emma is taking care of all business on the potty!  We are using pullups at night and in public places, but she is not afraid of public restrooms.  She tells us when she needs to go.  After only a week I am not ready to chance undies in public yet.  We were on a trampoline at Run Jump and Play on Wednesday and she asked to get out for the potty.  I was stunned to say the least and Emma was very proud to show our friends she was going. 

Only 22% of toddlers are trained by 29 months old and Emma is exactly 28 months old today...pinch me!

Most of the day I leave the light on in the bathroom, Emma goes in as needed and just yells for me at the end.  She can do it all by herself but I dont want her dumping the potty at the end.  If i forget to leave the light on, she yells, "light please!"  I love her pleases and thank yous...they are so girly and genuine sounding.

I DID IT!

For the last week, Emma has been very interested in the potty and has gone about once a day.  Yesterday, she woke up wanting to go potty like the kids in daycare and went 3 times...today, she has gone 4 times so far.  She is very proud of herself and yells, "I DID IT".  We are giving high fives, hugs, a sticker on her potty chart and 2 chocolate chips as a reward for using the potty.  We believe seeing the other kids in daycare sparked this sudden desire, so we also tell her she went potty just like Mary and Josh.  A few times a day, I tell Emma that her baby said she needs to go potty, so Emma will grab her baby, put her on the potty, then give the baby praises, just like we do with Emma.  We aso do this with the mom, dad, baby and grandma in her dollhouse...Emma even makes peeing noises for each of them.  All of this seems to really be helping grasp the concept.  The Baby also has a sticker chart just like Emma!  As of today, Emma is also becoming very skilled at being able to get herself to the potty without much help removing clothing etc, so we are quickly moving into a very good direction.  There is a bribe that has been offered up if she goes a #2...ice cream! 

 

Even though she is asking to go, I have her in Pullup diapers.  She had an accident on the rug last week which made her melt down and wouldn't touch the potty for a few days.  Everyone says using pullups is a no-no, but it's what is making her comfortable for right now.  We are just happy she has used the potty this many times and not become scared like before.  We have the cloth training undies with plastic covers, but the problem is, if she has an accident, good luck getting the cover off without dumping pee all over the floor.  I think I am going to put a Pullup on top of the undies instead of the plastic cover, but giving it a few more days before we take the next step back into undies.  I'm not in any hurry and considering we fly to TX at the end of this month, I fear that may make her take a few steps back in the potty training.  Emma has definitely shown us in many areas of deelopment, it's her way or not at all, so she is guiding this potty training ship for now.

A Christmas Story

Our Christmas story is so much different than last year. How much Emma "gets" Christmas at 2 years old is amazing. Last year, I would have never guessed that Emma would be able to say Merry Christmas or half the other words/phrases she says to date; her vocabulary really made Christmas a lot of fun this year.

Christmas Eve morning we had a nice lunch and play date with Doug's parents at our house, Emma took a nap, then we went off to Uncle Mike and Aunt Gail's for a family party and to wish Great Pop-Pop Bob a Happy Birthday...how special to be born on Christmas Eve! Emma had a great time playing with her cousin Maria and being social...what a difference a year makes! I felt a smidge guilty we weren't watching Emma as closely, but her cousin was loving being a "sitter". We didn't make it to Christmas Eve service but it would have been too much stimulation for Emma after an already big day.

Christmas morning we carried Emma downstairs, then nudged her towards where the tree is located, telling her Santa had been to the house and brought her presents...the bounce house was waiting for her in our sun room, all blown up and ready to "bounce". Emma wasn't quite sure what the large, yellow, inflatable monstrosity taking up 80% of the room was, but once we tossed her inside, she was like, "Oh yeah, it's a trampoline". She started running around and dancing in the bouncer, but then saw the presents under the tree and wanted out. She could not decide which present she wanted to open, would put one gift down, then pick up another to open instead. Emma repeatedly said one of three things, "Oh boy", Oh wow" or "Ho Ho brought dis (this)" while opening gifts.

After Emma opened her gifts, had breakfast and cleaned up, we headed to Gramma Cheryl's place and Emma enjoyed herself all over again with all the gifts and attention from Gramma, Uncle Jeff and Auntie T or Tandy, as Emma calls her. She received a Fisher Price dollhouse and was so excited, she jumped around and yelled, "Oh boy" and "Dollhouse"...we have this on video and had quite a laugh reviewing the videos at the end of the evening, reliving Emma's Christmas joy. I didn't expect to feel so emotional Christmas morning, but when we were carrying Emma down the stairs and set her down, seeing her, in her snowflake PJ's, running towards the tree, had me choking back the tears.

We are still a stickler with the nap schedule because Emma shows signs she still needs it, so after Gramma Cheryl's we headed home for a nap and Doug went off to work. All the excitement of the day made Emma extra snoozy and I had to wake her up to head off to Great Grandma's house...horrible idea...never wake a sleeping bear! She woke up sweaty, with socks on her hands (yes, socks on her hands, this is something she does lately), disoriented and very, very salty about being woke up. This waking mood called for extreme measures, so she got a cookie for a snack before we headed out the door...the cookie and car ride seemed to soothe the mood, but once we got inside Great Gramma's, with all the people, Emma wasn't having it, but eventually warmed up. She had a great time playing hide and seek with a cousin and opening gifts. Christmas is so much fun, but it is definitely too much running around for little ones.

Yesterday we stayed home to decompress from Christmas and Emma spent the day exploring all her new toys. She rotated between all the new stuff several times and really burned some energy out in the bouncer. On Friday, we will head to her Pop-pop and Neeny's house for more Christmas fun and I'm thankful Emma can have a few days to regroup/get back on schedule after all the excitement, so she will be ready to unwrap gifts and be her normal, silly self at their house.

Emma had two Christmas dresses this year, since we go several places, but she chose to only wear one of them...."the pink one" she said(it's really red). Since we have 2 more Christmas events to go to, I am hoping I can get her to wear the other one, but we will see. This is probably the last year I will buy a Christmas dress or more than one. I feel better about Emma being in comfy clothes vs. cute/frilly. She plays hard and sweats like crazy every minute of the day.

Chipmunk!

I promise, the title of this post will make sense at the end, but it needs some groundwork...

From the time Emma could start talking, I have pointed out to her that she is Chinese and we are not, when looking in the mirror while brushing teeth or washing hands. We touch each other's hair, nose etc. to explore the differences so that one day she doesn't suddenly realize that we look really different. Sometimes we have a little fun with this when we talk about being Chinese...I tell her that Mommy is Norweigan and Daddy is Mexican...clearly, we are neither. If you ask Emma, she will say that Mommy is Chinese and Daddy is Mexican or she will say that nobody is Chinese, including herself, or everyone is Chinese depending on the day.

Today, Emma was talking about being Chinese at the sitters and it continued at home. Doug called from work and we had him on speakerphone, so I asked Emma what Daddy is, which should have been Mexican or Chinese, but she replied, "Chipmunk". She saw the Chipmunk movie today...I fell to the ground laughing.

The first thing she said to me when I picked her up from the sitter was "Chipmunk!", her way of telling me she had been to the movies. She really likes the Chipmunks...I DVR'ed their Christmas special and we've watched it every night this week, so I'm sure seeing them on the big screen blew her mind today.

Salad tongs

If you give a toddler a pair of salad tongs and show her how to pick objects up with them, you are guaranteed a good 20 minutes of entertainment.  We (I) got the idea from a book on Montessori learning techniques.  In January we could register E. for preschool but we are going to hold off for one more year.  The Montessori approach is fascinating and I'm going to start building her shelf of activities in January.

We are really excited for Christmas morning this year.  It was hard to figure out how much was too much gift wise.  Emma is receiving a jumpolene, Fisher Price camera, books and watercolors with a painting smock.  She has a few stocking stuffers like a slinky and ball.  We are amazed at how well she grasps the concept of Santa, so we've had to take special measures to hide gifts etc.

Daddy did it...

If you ask Emma where an item is or what she did, she will blame Dad, mom or the cats.  I could not find the TV remote and when I asked her where it was, Emma replied, "Daddy took it"...D. was at work and clearly did not take it.  I nearly fell on the floor and busted a gut laughing at the shock of her blaming someone else. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Brownie Time

Emma has become quite the talker this month and become very direct/bossy in what she wants.  Examples:  "Daddy, sit down here."  Emma not only tells you where to sit, she will point or drag you to the location, should you choose not to comply with her demand.

There are some funny phrases she uses a lot now, "oh boy, oh boy, oh boy" and "there it is"...they don't seem that funny in writing, but the excitement in her voice is funny in her little girl voice.  "Oh boy..." is usually associated with treats, shopping and bath time.  Who knew going to the grocery shopping could be so exciting!

November has become a hide and seek month...Emma sometime hides by covering her eyes and she likes the chasing part of hide and seek once we find one another.  She is venturing into darker places of the house when we play this game, so that's a positive development that not every room we are in has to be lit up like a Christmas tree.

Speaking of lights...she can reach 50% of the light switches in our home.  I thought I was losing my mind, but found out she was turning them back on after I turned them off.  Look around your house...not all the light switches are the same height...I had no idea until Emma was able to reach them.  Now when I go into other houses, I'm obsessed with looking at the light switch heights.  So far, I haven't been in a house yet where all the light switches the same height.

Emma is growing like a weed and we've had to move up to 2T pants for the height and some shirts she is in a 3T because of her long waist.  I have to really inspect shirts because some are crazy short in length.  The pant waists are still loose in a 2T, so we have to stick with legging styles that fit a bit snugger.  They do not make kids belts in stores and I've had to get creative with a few pair of her jeans using ribbon.  I need to search on the Internet for no-sew belts or learn to sew because I have a feeling she is going to be battling the tiny waist problem her whole life.

We are getting really excited to buy her Christmas gifts this year since she is really into presents.  I have been pumping up the idea of Santa, in hopes to get Emma to sit on his lap this year and not be afraid.  I told her Santa is really nice like Pop-Pop Bob, she doesn't have to cry he is so nice, that she can ask for presents and that he wears glass just like her .  For three days, at the sigh of anything Christmas or if you ask her about Santa, she states, "Ho ho. nice. presents. sit on lap. no cry. glasses".  Just our luck we will get a Mall Santa that won't be wearing glasses!

Sweet Little Pumpkin

We went to our local pumpkin patch on Sunday for the first time and Emma wasn't too sure about the surroundings.  She woke up with a mild cold or allergy issue on Sunday morning, so that may have been part of the problem.  We packed our lunch, took a few photos then rode the tractor to the pumpkin patch.  The hayride was E's favorite part, but I'm not sure if it was the ride or seeing all the mud that she liked more, because she kept saying, "mud".  We have had a lot of rain the past few weeks and the trenches of mud the hayrides made were fairly spectacular and a little smelly.  There was a discussion between two little boys how the mud looked like chocolate, but it didn't smell like chocolate, lol.  I told Doug the mud smelled exactly like what I crawled through during a mudathalon a few weeks ago...stinky!

Yesterday E. woke up a snotty mess, but in a better mood...I'm fighting the cold off with Zicam, but not feeling very victorious at moments today and feel stuffy.  This morning she woke up with runny eyes and a stuffy voice...I think we may need a Dr. appointment since this is the 2nd illness this month.   I'm having a really hard time deciding for myself if I have a cold or allergies and she isn't having night issues, only daytime, which is perplexing.  Despite her cold, she is still eating like no tomorrow and states that she is "hunger", asking for more, even when dinner is done.

The Negotiator

Emma has developed the art of negotiation. Example:

D&I: It's time to go to bed

Emma: Almost

Really? At 2? I guess we must say "almost" a lot, because that seems like a strange response for a 2 year old, but I guess "almost" is better than a flat out "no". There are numerous examples of when she uses "almost", but bedtime is what stands out the most. There is also a funny head movement when she says "almost"...she tucks her chin down into her chest and looks up at you through the top of her eyes. She must think the head movement makes "almost" more powerful or true.

Speaking of words Emma says... this is ALL D's fault...she said her first four letter word last night. Hint: another word for poop. She will repeat all of what you say or the last word...his last word was poop, so she repeated it. Swell.

The new change of schedule is going really well. It's nice to have extra family time in the evenings and Emma seems more relaxed when Doug comes home, not as clingy. After a day at the sitters, Emma returns home extra tired from the additional stimulation of being out of her comfort zone. Tuesday night she slept for 12 hours and took a 2 hr nap later that afternoon, plus it took a lot to keep her up until bedtime Tuesday night. E. was yawning before dinner and she fell asleep 20 minutes earlier than usual, with no fussing. I spoke to the sitter about an hour ago and the girls are wearing one another out playing. They have both been caught yawning several times this morning.

Emma leaving the safety net of her home and detaching from me a couple days a week is going to hopefully benefit our separation anxieties. We've spent the past year glued to one another, so now is as good time as any to give Emma some wings.

Fever and New beginnings

Well, we have had our first fever this week, unrelated to shots. I started off ill on Tuesday with a cold/flu like illness and Emma followed suit. She has run a fever anywhere from 100.7 to 102.7 since Wednesday afternoon. Emma woke up from her nap with the rosiest cheeks I have ever seen and I knew instantly she was sick too. The Tylenol kicks the fever down fast, within 30 minutes and she is still running around, eating, drinking and playing, so I am not too concerned. Our book says as long as she is not lethargic and eating/drinking, it is normal to run a fever for up to 5 days without calling the Doctor. I haven't been running a fever nearly as high and have at times lost the will to move around, but not her.

Since the Tylenol was working so well and she was in good spirits, we kept our photo session which turned out AMAZING! Emma was a total ham posing and following direction. I HAD to buy the CD because there was not one bad picture in the bunch...we don't get the pictures or CD for a couple of weeks, so I sent the link of photos to family. Emma is so stinking adorable...I can't believe how much she has changed since our first photo session last November.

D. was sent back to his Detective position, effective this coming Monday, so we are entering a new chapter of change. It has been a blessing to not have to send Emma to a sitter for the past year like most parents do. When I work in the office two days a week, Emma will be going to a sitter. We have one day arranged and we are testing out options on the second day before we decide what is best. It would be good for E. to be around other children in preparation for preschool, for at least one day a week while I work, to learn to share and to adjust to a load of attention not solely on her everyday.

This morning Doug had court, so we had a dry run of what it is going to be like to get ourselves, plus Emma out the door on the days I go into work. Last night I picked out outfits and decided what was for breakfast which helped the morning run smoother. Emma woke up earlier than normal because of all the movement in the house, so that helped speed things along. We were able to sit down to a hot bowl of oatmeal and time to spare before heading out the door. She was a little nervous with a change in routine, as was I and we both wanted to cry when we parted, but we will all adjust and she will benefit from getting outside her comfort zone.

MY TURN!

Emma is expressing her independence with every task by stating, "My Turn!". She is quite good at getting her pants and shoes on with no help needed. Of course her shoes are velcro, but 9 out of 10 times the shoes are on the correct feet. Shirts are still too much for Emma to put on, but she is getting closer by the day...it doesn't help that her head is larger than most shirt openings and children's long sleeve shirts are so tight...maybe they make them so tight so kiddos can't remove?

It is also "MY TURN" when buckling/unbuckling booster seats and the carseat. The booster seat is ok to let her help with, the carseat is a no-no. She unbuckled her carseat on our trip home from Gatlinburg which freaked me out. The car got really quiet, I snuck a peek and Emma had the harness off. Thank goodness I had a co-pilot to re-secure the straps and didn't have to park on the highway!

We have had a really busy few weeks and Emma has handled most of our new experiences really well and others not so well. There was a family gathering where Emma met a sea of new faces and while there she warmed up really well at the party, that nights sleep and next days nap involved a ton of the scary screaming and thrashing about. From 6am until bedtime, she was a clingy, crying and sensitive child and she doesn't normally wake up until at least 8am.

We were leaving for a mini vacation to the Smokey Mountains the following day and I was terrified to leave out of fear of what another change might do to her. She was picking her lips to the point of bleeding for 2 days out of nervousness and I had to buy Carmex while on vacation to keep them from scabbing. We felt like we had time traveled back to Fall 2010 the day after the family reunion.

While Emma has made great strides the past year, we have noticed that Emma's anxiety to new experiences/overstimulation is played out in eating, sleeping and lip picking for days afterwards. The reaction to the family reunion was more dramatic than her first Christmas, so not sure what the trigger was surrounding the family reunion, other than it was a bunch of all new faces versus the ones she is used to seeing at her Grandparents house for the past year. The Pediatrican said these are very common reactions to being overwhelmed in adopted children and the lip picking is the equivalent of thumb sucking as a way to cope.

The anxiety around leaving for the mini vacation was for naught. We headed to the Smokies with Emma, Kim and her almost 2 year old, to my grandfather's condo for four days. What was supposed to be a 5-6 hour journey turned into 11 hours and included a speeding ticket a 1/2 mile from our destination. We took a wrong turn that set us 77 miles in the wrong direction, then endured a 2 hour detour due to a UPS truck turnover. The 2 year olds handled the 11 hour car ride beautifully and once we arrived, the toddlers ran around the condo to burn off all the energy they had stored up.

Emma co-slept with me for the 4 days while we were away and loved it...this actually turned into a welcome break from the bedtime screaming fits we had at home, despite getting kicked to a pulp all night. In the morning she would wake up, see my face and give me the biggest smile while scrunching up her eyes. We had a great time at the Aquarium, taking a nature walk, driving nature road trails during naptime, playing in a park and outlet shopping. Emma likes to shop and says, "More shopping" when we exit each store.

When we returned home, Emma sort of snubbed Doug for a few days...I guess all the mommy-time and co-sleeping won her over. She is typically extra clingy when away from him, but she wouldn't even let him put her to bed until we forced the issue last night. It's been, "mommy...hug" when it's normally, "Daddy-hug" and "Daddy-night-night".

This past Saturday, I participated in a Mudathalon and Emma stayed with her Uncle Jeff and Auntie T. for the first time. On the ride to their house I explained that Mommy was going running and she was going to play/eat lunch with her Uncle and Auntie. She said, "home" and I thought "uh-oh", but it all worked out. She even napped 2.50 hours when we returned home and I had to wake her up so as not to ruin bedtime...YAY for 2.50 hour naps!

Sunday we went to the Renaissance Festival and with some "playing up" how fun it was to see people in costumes, wenches washing laundry and knights jousting, I think she had a good time and only nuzzled into my neck and said, "hug" a few times.

This week we are having pictures taken, headed to the Zoo for a Halloween special, going to a pumpkin patch and celebrating her grandma's birthday. I am tired already...

Very clean

Emma is very passionate about helping D & I clean.  She asks for squirts of windex on a paper towel and goes to town wiping down the floor, tables, cabinets, and her toys.  If you give her a paper towel, the cleaning will keep her busy for about 30 minutes.  She received a High Chair for her baby dolls on her birthday and I have watched her wash every rung of that chair down with a baby wipe, several times. 

Right now, Emma is supposed to be taking a nap...I watched her take her socks off and use them to wipe down every rail on the frontside of her crib, starting from the top and moving downward  She might have taken the need for clean too far today.

The Songstress

Emma loves music and she loves to sing.  This week she has started offering live performances, from her crib.  Renditions of "Happy Birthday", "Wheels on the Bus" and self-written songs about her babies have been heard.  At nap and bedtime, she will scream for about 10 secs when we leave the room, then start singing.  The singing goes on for about 10 minutes and when it stops, she is passed out.  The singing is quite loud...the other night I took a shower after I put her down, had the exhaust fan running and I could hear her yelling her songs out.  Doug had the monitor so I couldn't see what was going on for sure and when I asked him if I had heard her singing her butt off, Doug just started laughing and said, 'yes, yes she was".

No like!

Emma "no likes" apple pie and chocolate milk...I'm going to go ahead and assume she doesn't like baseball either.  HA!

I gave E. a teaspoon of chocolate syrup in her milk after nap, thinking it would be a fun surprise treat for her...not so much.  At least she's rejecting "not so great" food choices and 95% of the time, she's still a great eater and we are thankful for that.

We are trying to get her to prefer the good stuff in these critical food years, not the crappy addictive stuff that is causing obesity in the US.  I talked with the pediatrician about trying to live healthy and she said it's an uphill battle, because of course the junk is everywhere and it's impossible to control when your children go off to school, spend the night at friends, family etc.  We do eat treats but in moderation; we don't want her raiding the pantry at others houses and gorging herself on sugar elsewhere because she isn't allowed to have any at home.

The interesting battle is "juice".  Apparently the older generation was taught to give juice as a source of vitamin C.  You wouldn't believe the looks we get when we say she can't have juice.  They also ask, "how is she going to get Vit. C?". Um, by eating mandarin oranges, peaches, pears and grapes.

The other night Doug and I were laughing at our obsession over E's diet and keeping the high levels of sugar and high fructose corn syrup out of our pantry.  I am actually stunned at how aware Doug is of ingredient labels now.  He called me out for buying the Quaker Oatmeal To Go bars...they have like 20 grams of sugar!  

We have witnessed other kids all jacked up on crap and how their behavior escalates with the sugar intake.  No thanks, the toddler insanity is enough on it's own without external forces amping her up.  We gave E. a store bought cupcake on her birthday and within 20 mins she wasn't able to control herself or listen to direction.  We took her for a walk around the block to burn the sugar off and said, "never again".n There were still a few more cupcakes left but we scraped the icing off!  I know, scraping icing off is crazy talk.

All Smiles

2nd year checkup

We survived the 2nd year checkup and do not have to go back until 3 years old.  There was a flu shot today, but no vaccinations.  The nurses were commenting on how much she has grown and I told them Emma has grown half an inch to a full inch every month.  The nurses didn't really believe me until they plotted it on Emma's growth chart and were blown away at the serious height spike since March.  They brought the chart in and said, "ok, you weren't kidding, you need to see this" and handed me the paperwork.  Dr. B. feels like she is still catching up from her first year and isn't concerned that her height is growing too quickly while her weight is staying around 27lbs.  We are also free to step down to 1% or skim milk because Emma is 93% in height and 90% in weight, on the American growth charts. 

Since gum seems to really calm Emma down, I gave her a piece for this Dr. visit and until the flu shot she stayed calm.  She stopped crying immediately after we sat her up and yelled, "done" which got the room chuckling.  The pediatrician was blown away by the fact that E. does not swallow the gum and encouraged us to use the gum in any situation that we know Emma gets anxious in...she feels this calmness of chewing is related to the little bit of sensory issues she has.

This week was a big week, with a lot of activities and her family party.  By Sunday, Emma was "off her rocker" and trying to come down from all the excitement of attention and stimulation.  Emma is definitely showing off when people are around now and testing us to see if we will discipline her in front of others.  She lures visitors into places of the house where she knows she isn't allowed to play, like the formal living room, dining room and in the stairwell.  Yesterday, her great grandmother came to visit and in addition to dragging her to every room she isn't supposed to be in, during lunch, Emma decided to spit out every bite she took...smiling as she did so.  She got a timeout and when she returned to the table, she ate as she normally would.  We've noticed that sometimes kids just needs to be removed to regroup and will come back to themselves.  Toddlers are odd little humans!  Hopefully the Terrible 2's go quickly...the boundary testing is exhausting.

Molars

It's only right, that 2 molars come in for your 2nd Birthday. Emma woke up with a second molar peeking through on Thursday. Two molars pushing within 2 days is kinda cruel, but she has been handling these teeth coming in MUCH better than the previous 14 she cut since last September; nowhere near as moody or clingy as before. When we met her in China, she had just cut a second tooth and spent the next 6 months cutting teeth like crazy. Her pediatrician told us in January or March (can't remember which appt.) that the molars were right there and ready to come out...they took forever to emerge since that visit.

I do not miss the drool those first teeth dumped everywhere. We couldn't wait for the major teething to stop so we could clean carpets, which we just did this week, ironically. She is not as drooly this time around and the molar symptoms have been sneezing and a running nose. When E. teethed before, she wouldn't chew on anything for relief. This week she found a bottle nipple I had given her, for her "babies" and she has been chewing on it everyday...funny how kiddos change things up. I am sure part of the molars coming in so smoothly has a lot to do with how much more mature and less anxious she is now compared to last Fall.

Birthday Mail

Emma still enjoys going to the mailbox everday, so you can only imagine her delight in going to the mailbox, on her birthday, and seeing all the cards addressed to her inside. D's arm is stretched out in this picture, trying to keep Miss Grabby Hands away from the mail so she would look at the camera. Momma bought her a special birthday hat that she can grow into from year to year. The hat is awesome. Everyone should have a special birthday hat to pull out of a box once a year. Now I need to find a hat box to stow it away until next year.

Emma is 2!

The Birthday Girl is really enjoying her day from the moment she woke up; we have been singing the birthday song and telling her she's now two.  Emma was trotting/skipping around in her diaper as we were singing in her room and she was saying, "Happy".  Just in time for her 2nd Birthday, one of her 2 year molars popped in on Tuesday morning, but we didn't find it until last night during teeth brushing.

After breakfast Emma opened her gifts and she definitely has the hang of unwrapping presents now compared to Christmas.  We got her a Leap Frog birthday cake that sings/counts and she has been practicing blowing out the candles.  She also received a few Kai Lan videos about China, some bath toys, a view finder and a wooden recorder.  At one point, Emma was blowing out her fake cake, by blowing into the recorder.

We took Emma to Entertrainment Junction to look at the massive train displays for the first time with her Great Grandpa Bob who also enjoys rains.  She rode up on Dad's shoulders most of the time so she could get a good look at the trains then played with the Thomas The Train set in the gift shop.  We went to Bob Evans for lunch and all this activity apparently made her starving.  She woofed down half my garden omelet, fruit, pumpkin bread and a slice of toast with jam.  Emma is currently napping right now, approaching her 2nd hour of sleeping.  Trains and food wore her out!

Tonight, just the 3 of us are going to cook on the grill, then have cupcakes.  Emma's cupcake will have a red candle for her to blow out in honor of her China Mommy, whose sacrifice made such a special day possible.  It is also our 10th Wedding Anniversary today...9/14/11 is all kinds of special!

Professional Gum Chewer

Emma was born to chew gum.  We use the gum as a "treat" to calm her down when she is looking nervous/anxious or when we need her to stay awake in the carseat.  She knows not to swallow the gum and will tell us when she is done with it or go and spit it out all on her own.  I know, it's crazy to give a 2 year old gum, but if you saw how relaxed Emma looks, chewing her gum and watching Barney in her carseat, you would be tickled.  Plus, Emma's already chunky cheeks and pouty lips get even larger when she is concentrating on chewing her gum...we hope those extra large cheeks never disappear!

What a Pony looks like

A Pony

No, Emma is not getting a pony for her birthday, but she might be wearing a Ponytail; the stick up straight from your head, sprout-like style on her big day.  The kid loves her "pony" and asks for one before she is out of her crib in the AM.  Emma also likes Momma to wear a ponytail and will try to bunch my hair into one if I'm not sporting a pony when I grab her from the crib in the morning.  Last night I had my hair in a ponytail and I was seated on the floor below Emma, while she was watching Barney; Emma stroked my ponytail for about 5 minutes, even though her eyes were glued to the T.V....I stole a glance of Emma and she had a very relaxed look and smile on her face as she watched Barney and played with my hair...too cute. 

Emma also likes barrettes, but must have two, not one...her demand, not momma's.  I put one barrette in and she asks/signs "more".  As far as hair doodads go, she really doesn't have the volume or texture, so all day long they slide out, she gets concerned about the sliding and we readjust..all.day.long.  I am grateful that Emma will tolerate the hair doodads as her bangs are growing out though because I know a lot of kids are like, NOWAY and yank them out, along with the hair that isn't very abundant to begin with.  The hair in her eyes makes me insane, but doesn't seem to bother her.

When we were in China, I was "given" advice several times to shave Emma's head to make it grow in thicker and faster...apparently that's what they do in their culture.  At the time, I wasn't willing to cut off the amount of hair that had grown in since her referral paperwork, it seemed like so much, but now, I look at the pictures and crack up...she didn't really have hair and I should have shaved it.

Park and Picnic = Happy Girl

Emma loves to swing and go down the slides.  We have spent the last several days eating lunch on our deck, "picnic" style and going to the local parks after dinner because the weather has been amazing.  Whenever Emma gets to the bottom of the slides, she says/signs "more" and goes running for the steps.

Last night there was an Asian family at the park...their daughter and Emma kept sizing one another up but wouldn't interact.  Emma kept running and hiding into my legs, but then peeking to see where the other little girl was.  I tried to get Emma to say 'hi" but she acted shy; the other little girl, looked to be about 4 years old, and was speaking in Chinese to her mom and Grandmother, so not much conversation was going to happen anyway.  The mom and grandma kept staring at us and chatting in Chinese...I would love to know what was being said!

I am really noticing how much of a little girl Emma has become in these pictures...there is no sign of the baby she was last year at this time.  Next September she will be getting ready for preschool.  *sigh*  It's going too fast!

"No" is the word of the week, with lots of sass in her "no"...especially when it's time for diaper changes.  Emma doesn't want to stop what she is doing to be changed and doesn't believe us when we tell her she can go back outside or to playing once we are done.  Our girl is busy, busy, busy.  This week she is burning so much energy, she is asking for more food after every meal and snack.  I swear she looks taller every week and the Mail Courier states the same.  Emma and the Mail Lady have forged a friendship...she will actually give us our mail, even when she isn't on our side of the road yet, just so she can interact with Emma.  She binds the mail with a rubber band, just so Emma can carry it all on heavier days.

If I had one word to describe Emma right now, it would be Octopus...that kids hands are everywhere and snatching things from us in a blink of an eye.  Keep your eyes on and your hands wrapped around drinks, cellphones, remotes, receipts and food when she is around!

Where's Waldo?

Growing

This is the time of the month we measure Emma's growth...she shot up a little more than a half inch this month.  The lightweight champ is 34 and 5/16th of an inch tall, 27lbs and in a 6.5 inch shoe.  Now if we could just get her hair to grow and fill out like the rest of her!

Bedtime must-haves

Elmo, three bears of various sizes, two babies, Minnie Mouse, Lassie the dog, Mr. Sock Monkey, 3 blankets, 2 character pillows and a bear hat...yes, a bear hat.  I had to carry a majority of these items in a laundry bag yesterday morning because Emma wants to be carried when she wakes up, but wants her friends to come too.  I will not willingly die on the stairs trying to carry 27lbs of toddler and a booty of stuffies, so the laundry bag is an excellent solution.  I could "just say no" and not be so indulgent, but carrying them down seems to start the day off on a high note, which is really important now that the terrible 2's are here and I have her for 11 hours of the day solo.

You are probably wondering how there is room for Emma in the crib, but I promise, the crib is plenty big enough for "everyone", no reason to call CPS.  One morning I climbed into the crib with Emma and her friends...still plenty of room and Emma thought mommy in the crib was hilarious...full of smiles that day.

This evening when I put Emma to bed, she screamed for about 10 seconds as I walked out the door and closed it, then I watched her from the monitor, rifling thru all her crib stuff, find the bear hat, put the bear hat on, adjust the bear hat into a few different positions, look around for a few seconds, throw the hat off, lay down, then pass out.  Video monitors are the greatest invention ever...I wish we had bought one that records, but I didn't know she was going to be this funny when purchasing.

Conversations with Emma

Emma's language is getting clearer by the week and I love that I can call home when I am at work now to talk to her...of course we are not really having a conversation, but she will say, "Hi", "Hello", "Yo", "What" and "I love you" as part of our "conversations"...sometimes she replies, "don't know" when I ask her questions.  She doesn't get that people can't see her on the other end of the phone, so she will show people her belly over the phone and do a lot of smiling/showing off when I am on the phone with people.  Emma really likes my friend Kim, so whenever I answer the phone, she will say, "Kim?" assuming it's Kim.

Yesterday we were hanging out after running a bunch of errands and I caught her putting her shoes back on.  When I asked, "Where are you going?", Emma replied, "Gamma's, dog-dog", which means Gramma Cheryl's house, her Grandma with the dog. I asked Emma a second time where she was going to see if the response would change and she replied, "Ice cream, dog-dog". 

Emma LOVES ice cream and gets very excited...we share a snack size McFlurry's at McDonalds about once a month and she goes nuts when the drive-thru hands the ice cream to me and I put it in the console to take home.  Her Dad has taught her to yell, "whaaaattt" in excitement, so I get shouts of "whaattt", "ice cream" and she sticks her tongue out really far, moving it around like she's going to reach the console with her tongue...hilarious.

She uses her "more" sign, a lot, everyday now..."more" is really helpful now that she is starting to talk but can't quite find the words she is looking for in her brain.  When we went to the Zoo this week, she was signing "more" at the monkey's, on the train and on the carousel.  It's nice that Emma can communicate when she really likes something or wants more food, water etc.  "More" seems to also be a replacement for "do it again", i.e. tickling, running, and piling her stuffed animals on top of her.

Stuffies and Dress up

Emma is all about her stuffed animals and baby dolls the last few weeks.  When she wakes in the morning, Emma wants every bit of her crib" friends" to come downstairs with her.  Yesterday, Doug took this desire to a whole new level after nap time...I love seeing her Fred Flintstone feet peeking out from all the stuffies in this pic.  I was in line at the grocery when I received this picture and was laughing like a loon all by myself...I was expecting the text to say, "pick up Pop-tarts", not our kid buried in stuffies.

Dress-up is also a fave lately.  Her Nana Karen showed up a few weeks ago with dress-up items and I posted a pic on Facebook of the getup.  Well, a co-worker saw the pic and donated his daughter's dress up items to us and Emma piles the clothes on everyday...she especially likes the faux heels, or click-clacks as we call them.  The other night, she had on about 3 layers of princess dresses, click-clacks and her winter hat...imagine stay-puff marshmallow man!

This weekend, we have all been under the weather and missed out on the gorgeous, cooler weather.  Emma developed a cold and passed it along, hitting her and Doug the worst.  I was ingesting loads of vitamin C, fruit smoothines and veggies all weekend, trying to stay one step healthier than the rest of them.  I made lots of soups and made sure lots of water was consumed.  Thank goodness Emma loves water...we still have issues with her drinking too much, but when an illness strikes, I am so happy she drinks this much. Fortunately, Emma is the happiest, sick kid, I have ever encountered.  Despite her "dripping faucet", she was singing her "ABC's" and "Hot Dog" songs plus dancing around, all weekend...I felt like a lead balloon, but not her.

"Mommy-daddy, daddy-mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, daddy"....this has been Emma's script, constantly...by the end of yesterday, I wanted some duct tape for either my ears or her mouth.  I had to go outside to place a phone call because she was saying it so much, she was screwing up the automated connection; the computer kept kicking me back to the beginning menu.  Doug was inside with Emma and said she must have said this no less than 50x's.  I could hear her behind our wood front door, albeit muffled and Doug said she was also on her tippy-toes peering out the bay window trying to get my attention...which I knew, but was ignoring.  Our kiddo oozes determination!

Summer is almost gone

This summer is flying by and I cannot believe it is August!  We have had swim class and at least one play date every week this summer...adding weekly activities to the 2 days I work, plus house cleaning/laundry and the weeks are gone in a flash.   Most weeks we go to the zoo too, but the heat has been excruciating in July; heat causes Emma to get a bad diaper rash, so we have had to skip the zoo for 2 weeks...we went last Friday and the diaper rash returned with a vengeance, so we will wait until cooler temps to return.  The zoo visits we have made so far have more than paid for our pass prices and the pass doesn't expire until next June!

During the hot weeks, we have spent a lot of time at the mall play centers and letting Emma walk around at Home Depot in the evening.  The mosquitoes are killing us as well because of the humidity and Emma has really bad reactions to the bites, so being outside after 4pm is not worth the price of bad skin reactions  Yesterday we did some gardening at 4:30 and we both were eaten alive within 30 minutes and Emma was a ball of sweat...she looked like I had poured a bucket of water over head.  Our deck finished in early July and we have only used it a couple of times because of heat and bug issues, which is a bummer!

Swim class ends next week...YAY!  10 weeks is way too long in a class that your kiddo doesn't love.  For the month of August, we are going back to The Little Gym once a week, so Emma can burn energy.  We started class this week, in the next level up, which is called "Little Beasts".  They sing, run, tumble, walk on balance beams and swing from rings and uneven bars, but the skill level is bumped up a notch.  When Emma was a "bird" she was one of the older kids in the class and seemed too advanced, but at the Little Beast level, she seems "youngish" for most of the activities; the other kids seem to be 2.50 to 3 years old, which is a huge skill gap compared to an almost 2 year old.  I think after August, we won't return to class until January, which will give her time to "age up" a bit.

I can't believe Emma is going to be 2 years old in a month!  I found her birthday outfit today and purchased some party supplies.  We have a birthday decoration theme and here is your clue:  Mooooooooooo!

Dad is on duty

Yes,  Emma is drinking her sippy cup, being kept cool by a beer coolie

One year ago...

We were landing on China soil, living our last few days/moments childless.  This past year has been a roller coaster of fun, love, fear, patience and growth, for all of us. The first 3 months home were a blur... as we look through our photos, we can't recall half of the pictures taken once home.  New parents are warned that they are going to be tired, but no one says you are going to feel like you are going to feel like you have mono for months and lose your memory...the jet lag didn't help matters!

The first 6 months we had to take much slower than we expected, introducing Emma to new people and experiences...most people were patient with us and we thank you for giving Emma the time she needed to adjust.  Her "gun blowing" coping mechanism is almost non-existent now, but pops up as a warning sign of doing too much every now and again.  Emma's schedule is the key to her happiness (and ours), so we are very strict still about staying on track with eating, nap and bedtimes...everyday is truly "groundhog day" at our house for now.

You would think after waiting for almost 5 years we were 100% prepared for parenting...in most ways we were, but there were other ways we weren't.  To say we hit the ground running when Emma was placed into our arms is an understatement.  We expected Emma to be delayed and the only delay was weight, which she caught up on within months; going to sleep is still an every changing issue, but there are definitely more good naps/bedtimes than bad...in fact, as I type, Doug just sent me a message that she melted down at nap time.

We prepared ourselves for the worst case adoption scenario but were blessed with a on-target, funny, smart, stubborn, beautiful, ball of energy and compassion that walked within weeks of being home and has yet to stop!  She will turn 2 in a few months and it's just so hard to believe. How big/small the party will be is still undecided, but I am already on a mission to find the perfect birthday outfit!

Perfect send off

As I was leaving for work this morning, I kissed/hugged  E goodbye and said I had to go to work to make money...she said, "I wuv you"....totally made my day.  She has had a horrible week, behavior wise, but those 3 words made me reconsider sending her off to boarding school.  I kid, I kid...

Singing

This week Emma is starting to sing parts of songs that we have been singing for months and "asking" us to sing songs, by starting to sing them and doing the hand movements.  The ABC song, Row, Row Your Boat, Itsy Bitsy Spider and The Wheels on the Bus are her greatest hits.  Emma has a couple letters in the ABC song, "Z" being one of them, that are her favorites and she knows when they are coming up because she sings them at the perfect time before we can sing them.  Dad is very amazed that she is beginning to remember the words to songs...she still seems too little to be doing half the stuff she does!

 

There is no further development on the potty training.  Doug tried again with her last night and Emma had the same panic reaction she had with me on Monday...I was kind of relieved to see the panic so I knew it wasn't just me.  She told him "pee pee" and patted herself, so we thought for sure she was going to go again, but then got whiny when he set her on the throne.  He even tried moving her to the adult potty but she wasn't having it despite saying she wanted to. 

 

However, E thinks we should still clap when she does nothing and asks for a treat, so the fear aspect is perplexing since she knows she will get a reward if she goes....she does NOT get clapping or treats for not going.  I bought plastic pants at Target today so she won't leak everywhere when we go cold turkey on the diapers.  I really think the cold turkey style of potty training is going to be best, but we have to wait until our schedule isn't so jammed packed.  Right now there is nothing I can clear off the schedule and I'd like to pick up a book about potty training before we go full throttle. 

Dancing in the rain

I returned home from an errand on Saturday to find a very soaked Emma and Doug standing in the driveway while it was raining.  They were dancing in the rain and loving it.  A few minutes later as I was putting groceries away, I was brought a "present"...pee in a potty. The rain dance was in fact a celebratory potty dance.  Emma used the potty for the first time while I was gone, so Daddy took her dancing in the rain as a reward.

Emma has been showing serious signs of potty training readiness for months and in the last week, even more so, but we were on vacation and couldn't do anything about it.  We have stocked up on undies in preparation and purchased the Bjorn potty chair, in pink of course!  Yesterday I tried all morning to get her to use the potty, but she acted scared of the potty, whining and crying for me to pick her up, so I backed off because we don't want drama surrounding potty training.  Doug didn't have any drama the night before, so not sure what the difference was.  I tried making it as fun as possible, reading books and sitting on the the big throne myself to help her wait it out, but no dice.  I even ran water thinking she would not be able to resist...as soon as I put the diaper back on, she went, so she definitely has control of her "business".  Emma also stopped telling me she had "done her business" in her diaper yesterday too, probably in fear I would throw her on the potty if she sent me signals.  We will revisit the training again in a week or so. 

We have been reading potty books and even pretending to put Emma's baby on the potty, then clapping, trying to encourage how fun the potty is.  Emma loves the potty book, we read it almost everyday and she thinks the fact that her baby is wearing undies is awesome, so I thought yesterday would be way easier.  She hasn't really been 100% herself since returning from vacation, so this week isn't probably the best week to push hard on the training.

First Car Trip

Since last year's trip to Hawaii, we have been extremely leery to travel with Emma. To say the plane ride was traumatizing to Doug is an understatement...anyway, I decided to give a short car ride trip a try, leaving Doug at home. Emma, Gramma Cheryl and I packed up and headed to Gatlinburg for 5 days for a test road trip. We purchased a DVD player set up with Barney CD's and this was a life saver for the ride to/from.

Emma traveled very well and even slept all night in the hotel room. Most mornings we were waiting for the princess to wake up so we could head off to breakfast and begin our day. She slept through both of us showering, chatting and peeking into the pack n' play at her. I brought all Emma's comforts from home I could...blankets, white noise CD etc. to make the trip as smooth as possible. We also kept her on the exact same schedule she is on at home as much as possible.

The first day, we took Emma on a small hike, on a paved path, then visited Cherokee shops, had lunch by the river then ice cream before we hopped back in the car. The ride from Cherokee to Gatlinburg is about an hour, so Emma took a car nap on the way back to the hotel and we went to The Old Mill for dinner later that evening. She woke up kind of early from her nap in the car and we think it was an elevation issue because she was playing with her ears.

The second day, we headed to Ripley's Aquarium and Emma loved the fish, but had to wear her sunglasses to tolerate the dark areas...I know, sounds strange. It is very clear Emma dislikes low light areas, even at home. We had the same issue at the Cincinnati Zoo, needing to make fast exits out of the Manatee exhibits and other darker areas. I need to ask her eye Dr. if this low light tolerance is related to her sight issues.

The third day we took Emma to Parrot Mountain, which I wasn't so sure about, but Emma LOVED the birds. If you get a chance to visit Parrot Mountain, do so. This is a very special garden and bird rescue sight that shouldn't be missed. We have a great picture of the 3 of us, with Macaws and Parrots all over Gramma Cheryl and Emma has a tiny Finch on her shoulder. Emma wanted the bird back because she kept pointing to her arm and saying "bird" when the picture was done.

In downtown Gatlinburg, there are a lot of motorcycles and the engines revving bothered Emma. We thought she would get used to the noise, but didn't and we found it odd the squawking birds didn't bother her at all. She still definitely has noise stimulation issues, especially in restaurants, so we tried to be near a window and away from the noisiest part of the restaurants. Overall, she ate well and did way better than expected with being away from her Daddy. We called Doug a few times a day and checked in, but Emma was usually too busy to talk to him. HA!

The last morning, Emma actually woke up before we were finished readying ourselves, so I cuddled her when she first woke up, sang her "good morning" song and tried to pass her off to Gramma for her morning milk so I could finish getting ready...Emma wasn't having this at all. I was surprised that after that many days together she melted down over the hand off, so I had to take her back for our morning routine. After that incident, all we heard was "no" on the drive home if we looked at her or tried to engage her, so we just let her be until she forgave us for trying to change her morning routine.

The next trip test will be a plane, probably to Dallas, TX. If that trip goes well, hopefully we can convince Dougie to travel with us again. I am still trying to get the courage to brave this plane trip by myself with Emma, so stay tuned!

Emma's fondness for cows has reached a new level

Happy 4th of July

Ice, Ice Baby

Or as Emma says, "ish"...our kid is nutso over ice and not the good kind of nutty. If she deems there to not be enough "ish" in her sippy cup, which is every cup, a tantrum ensues and yells of "ish, ish" follow. Last night we had to remove the cup from the dinner table and she is banned from "ish" until the temporary restraining order, of no less than 2 years is lifted...we will revisit "ish" when Emma can recognize that a few cubes is plenty and the cup isn't left sweating all over furniture because she knows how to use a coaster. Sitting on a wet couch isn't fun.

Over the weekend, we went to a graduation party and Emma kept grabbing ice from the outdoor beverage bucket. As soon as one melted, she "had" to have another, but following around her cousin, Maria, finally distracted her enough from the ice bucket. Who wants to hold ice?! Brrrr.

D-O-N-E

Last night we had our final social worker visit to complete the China post-placement report requirements.  The social worker visited for about an hour and a half to observe our interactions with Emma and to track her development.  Of course Emma put on quite the show...dancing, skipping and cleaning up her toys.  In general, Emma has been a bit of a wild woman the last few days and not in a good way, so we weren't expecting the best from her during this visit and she was naughty a few times.  The social worker will write a report, send it to our adoption agency, who will then forward the report to China.  We have decided to no more kiddos, so yes, we are really, really, done with a crap load of paperwork forever...but not really.  We are still dealing with the IRS/adoption credit issues and we need to file re-adoption paperwork in Ohio to receive an Ohio birth certificate; having an Ohio certificate makes enrolling for school easier and if something would happen to her Chinese certificate, it would not be replaceable and as we all know, birth certificates are extremely important.  We hope to have everything finished before Christmas...we hope. 

How old are you?

Emma's response, "I'm one", in a deep, growly voice and she also holds her pointer finger up to show you the number.

The last few weeks, she is putting more words together and "connecting the dots" between objects and numbers.

Her recent phrases:

"I'm ready"- when having a game of roll the ball across the floor, she situates herself across the room and let's us know she is ready for us to roll the ball in her direction

"Come on"- when we are taking walks or in stores and she gives us a hand movement trying to hurry us along to follow her

"1, 2"- while counting her blueberries or noodles

"all through the town"- screaming this phrase as we sing "The Wheels on the Bus"...we have a really cute video I should post because of course she won't do this unless it's just mom and dad

Her language clams up when in a crowd or when we ask her to display her new skills in front of others, so we always end up looking like liars. :)

Emma is now 21 months old and you just "see" her brain sponging up everything, all day long and she is growing in height like crazy. We try to measure her height around the 14th of every month and this month she grew from 32 1/4 to 33 1/8 tall... almost a full inch! I've had several people tell me how much taller she looks but I never imagined she grew this much! She has lost her "baby Buddha belly with all our summer acitivity, just in time for swimsuit season, lol. We had to downsize her diapers since Buddha disappeared.

Oval

Emma owns a few of the wooden Melissa & Doug shape/color/word puzzles, with handles, that we have been working on since Christmas. From the get-go, she has been able to put the shapes in place and sometimes she says the colors, sometimes she will say circle, but last night she handed me a piece and said, "Oval" all on her own...the piece was oval, so of course we cheered and clapped. I took this opportunity to go through the other shapes, but then all the pieces were oval and Emma said this with a Cheshire Grin. Emma knows exactly what she is doing, being funny. You could see the twinkle in in her eyes and grin, that she knew each shape was not an oval, but was going to say "Oval" anyway because it's not what we wanted her to say.

Zoo, Zoo, Zoo!

We went to The Cincinnati Zoo for the first time today and Emma loved it!  In fact, I just purchased a membership so we can visit a lot more this year and attend the Festival of Lights at Christmas time.  The weather was perfect today, in the mid 70's and it did not get hot until right when we were leaving.  Emma did a lot of walking, a lot of being held by her Auntie T., Gramma Cheryl or Uncle Jeff and I (mom) spent the majority of time pushing a empty stroller with purses, lol.  I was old news today with this many helping hands, she was not having being held by me at all until it was lunch time when I gave her a slice of pizza and Moo-goo cookie dough ice cream for lunch. 

I can't say there was one animal in particular that Emma loved more than another, but she loved making monkey sounds and she loved saying "bear"...strangely enough, she seemed to like the alligators, which I thought would freak her out.  Emma did NOT love the Manatee exhibit...this exhibit is inside and kind of dark, so Emma got nervous and we made a quick pass-thru.  We will not be going into the Nocturnal or Reptile Houses anytime soon! 

After a 3 hour trip to the Zoo, it took a lot of singing and Tom-Foolery on the way home to keep her awake, but the effort was worth it!  Emma slept nearly 3 hours!  The Zoo will wear a kid and a mom out...I took an hour nap myself.

Lots to catch up on over the past week

Emma had her eyes checked last week and her prescription stayed the same.  Doug went with me for the appointment and Emma handled the testing so much better sitting on Daddy's lap, with me standing behind the Dr., so Emma could see me while she was being examined.  I also asked the Dr. to please pretend like she was examining me with each step of the process to show Emma it was ok, because Mommy was getting her eyes checked too.  Our previous eye Doc left Children's Hospital and the new Dr. is a female which also helped.

Since the beginning of last week, we have had MAJOR nap and bedtime issues.  It all started when I transitioned Emma from the car straight to nap last Sunday.  Every nap and bedtime, has been a war zone.  The last few days she has stopped doing this with me, but she is still putting Doug through the ringer.  I think Emma got disoriented during the car transition and it flipped a switch on her....she has been showing nervous/anxious behaviors all week, similar to the issues she had when we met in China and first came home.  I think she equates sleep time with major changes and gets scared she is going to wakeup in a different place.  I can't wait until she can talk, so we can talk to her about this more.

Today we went to swim class for the first time.  Emma didn't mind going underwater, splashing, jumping etc., but she wanted nothing to do with floating on her back.  The last 10 minutes of swim class was a bust because of the back floating incident.  She kept clinging to my neck and wouldn't let go to participate in the other skills that were being taught.  Emma also saw the floating noodles towards the end of class, which she played with at Gramma Cheryl's pool this weekend and when she realized she couldn't have one during this class, she was not very happy.  Hopefully we can practice back floating some more and she will get comfortable enough to continue.  The class was a little more hardcore/intense than I expected.  We were told that if they wouldn't go underwater without a bunch of panic/crying etc. that we wouldn't be coming to the next classes...they weren't kidding.  I guess they would just refund our money???  Thankfully, we dunked Emma in the pool last Sunday for the first time and she didn't care, so today wasn't the first time she went underwater.  I'm glad I decided to do this before swim class!  Something in my gut told me I should do this, so she wouldn't freak out in swim class and boy, I'm glad I did!

"I Wuv You" and Music

Emma now says, "I wuv you"...brings tears to my eyes just typing it!  She has been a cuddly love bug the last week, hanging onto us like a Koala Bear when we try and put her down.  I taught her to point at her eye, then her heart and point at Doug or I as an alternative way to say "I wuv you"...it's sooooo cute!  I have to watch her though, because most of the time she is cramming her finger in her eye!

Last night we let Emma play on a piano/keyboard I have and she was in Heaven!  However, she tried to pull an Elton John and stand on her piano bench (really her picnic table) while she played and got into trouble.  She loves music and singing so much...I can't wait to see what talents emerge as she gets older.  Whenever a teenager drives by our house blasting music, Emma stops what she is doing and busts a move...the girl likes to dance!

Outdoor times!

The rain has finally stopped and we are living outside for probably 5-6 hours everyday.  Emma loves to help me water flowers, weed and pick up sticks in the yard.  We have a rain barrel and she is addicted to filling her watering can...gets so excited she can't wait for her can to fill up.

 

Gramma Cheryl bought her a water table that Doug set up this week and within 10 minutes Emma had herself completely drenched..more water was on her and the deck than stayed inside the water table.  To say she loves the water table is an understatement.

 

Today is Memorial Day and we are spending most of the day outdoors, despite the 90 degree temps.  Emma was helping Doug wash and wax the cars this morning before it got too warm and I think we are going to bust out the sprinkler after nap time.  Emma is getting ready to have her nap now, but I brought her inside for a few minutes to cool down.

 

In a few weeks, we are having a new deck built and I am positive we are going to live on the new deck this summer, playing with the water table and sitting in the baby pool.  Emma starts her pool lessons next week and hopefully she is still as much as a water baby as she was in Hawaii last September.  Only a few more months and we will have been a family of 3 for a year now...what a difference a year makes!

Busy, Busy, Busy

The best word to describe Emma is busy...she really doesn't stop all day long and sweats non-stop even if everyone else in the house is cold. Emma loves to "exercise" and especially loves butt lifts...they really aren't butt lifts, but it is the funniest movement you have ever seen a 20 month old perform. She breaks into "exercises" that she sees her mama do a few times a week, but Emma's movements resemble the inappropriate and awkward dance from "Little Miss Sunshine". Emma has a fondness for kickboxing and downward dogs...her downward dogs are pretty good. Last night we were going through one of her picture/word book focusing on the movements page and we got her to do a supported handstand and an almost back bend. Emma thought the back bends were hilarious and got to giggling so hard, she really wasn't in one, but kept asking to get into back into back bend formation just so she could laugh.

The rain is driving us nuts, we have had practically no outside time in 2 weeks now. We try to do as much as we can to get Emma burning energy everyday without the benefits of sunshine and grass under her feet. We have been "exercising", dribbling/passing balls, and marching around in circles through the kitchen, sunroom and family room. Emma's coordination is spectacular...not that I have any other children to compare this too, but she is already able to dribble the ball and she is jumping, albeit clumsily. Our Little Gym session ends June 4th and we will move onto swimming for the summer, then re-enter the next grade up at Little Gym in the fall. The next level up they focus on more gymnastic like activities and I'm excited to see how she takes to it. She is able to walk across the balance beam without missing a step unless she becomes distracted. Once she realizes people are watching her, she wants to ham it up and her balance is gone because she is showing off her smiles and looking at everyone.