When Are You Going To China?: July 2011

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!