When Are You Going To China?

The Cincinnati Children's Museum

2012-01-16T17:47:00.001-05:00

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?!

2012-01-14T15:53:00.001-05:00

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!

2012-01-08T15:08:00.001-05:00

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

2011-12-27T09:24:00.003-05:00

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!

2011-12-23T00:05:00.004-05:00

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

2011-12-17T11:58:00.001-05:00

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...

2011-11-24T09:08:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-15T17:00:00.001-05:00

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

2011-10-25T11:59:00.001-04:00

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

2011-10-20T11:36:00.002-04:00

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

2011-10-14T10:30:00.001-04:00

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!

2011-10-11T15:31:00.002-04:00

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

2011-09-30T14:26:00.001-04:00

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

2011-09-27T16:59:00.001-04:00

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!

2011-09-24T18:47:00.001-04:00

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

2011-09-22T14:38:00.001-04:00

2nd year checkup

2011-09-20T14:49:00.001-04:00

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

2011-09-16T11:02:00.003-04:00

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

2011-09-16T10:52:00.003-04:00

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!

2011-09-14T16:32:00.001-04:00

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

2011-09-13T10:49:00.001-04:00

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

2011-09-07T14:55:00.001-04:00

A Pony

2011-09-07T14:41:00.001-04:00

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

2011-08-30T14:58:00.001-04:00

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?

2011-08-24T13:56:00.002-04:00

Growing

2011-08-20T12:56:00.001-04:00

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

2011-08-20T00:00:00.001-04:00

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

2011-08-19T16:34:00.001-04:00

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

2011-08-16T10:56:00.001-04:00

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

2011-08-02T17:01:00.001-04:00

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

2011-07-28T16:13:00.001-04:00

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

One year ago...

2011-07-22T14:25:00.001-04:00

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

2011-07-22T11:56:00.001-04:00

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

2011-07-20T16:36:00.001-04:00

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

2011-07-18T17:21:00.001-04:00

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

2011-07-17T21:27:00.002-04:00

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

2011-07-05T10:57:00.001-04:00

Happy 4th of July

2011-07-05T10:55:00.002-04:00

Ice, Ice Baby

2011-06-29T16:30:00.002-04:00

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

2011-06-21T09:57:00.001-04:00

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?

2011-06-16T16:22:00.002-04:00

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

2011-06-15T13:02:00.002-04:00

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!

2011-06-13T22:06:00.001-04:00

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

2011-06-08T15:58:00.001-04:00

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

2011-06-01T14:07:00.001-04:00

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!

2011-05-30T14:02:00.001-04:00

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

2011-05-18T10:10:00.004-04:00

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.

2011-05-05T09:48:00.001-04:00

Emma's First Easter in the USA

2011-05-05T09:33:00.003-04:00

I don't recall what Emma has in her mouth in this picture as she likes to "savor" her last bites...I think this was after lunch, so it was probably a carrot or a Vanilla wafer. We didn't go overboard with celebration on Easter because Doug was working, Emma woke up with the sniffles and let's face it, Emma can't comprehend Easter or the Easter Bunny yet, so hopefully next year we will have more fun hiding eggs and talking up the Easter Bunny. Her basket was filled with some candy, new outfit, shoes and swimsuits...she starts swim class in June! We invited Uncle Jeff and Auntie T. over for dinner and had a nice evening of family time and playing. Emma really enjoyed taking things out of her basket and the bag that Jeff and T. brought her...she loves walking around with gift bags and taking objects in/out of them, so the bag was days of entertainment.

We gave her a piece of chocolate from her basket and we aren't sure if it was coincidence or not, but she went bananas afterwards, so we ate the rest of her chocolates, lol.

Emma is really into arranging and organizing objects right now. She has 4 chairs that stack together and she likes to move them about the room stacking, unstacking and putting the chairs in places adults would never dream of. I have a cellphone picture of the chairs after a bit of her redecorating and wish I could transfer the image to the blog because it's hilarious. At one point, she had the chairs arranged like a concert or wedding was about to take place!

Playdate

2011-04-15T14:10:00.001-04:00

We had a playdate at the Dayton Mall last Saturday with another little girl from Nanchang. It took Emma awhile to warm up, but in the end, well, you can see in the pictures that Emma more than warmed up! We had lunch together and Emma sat in a big chair all by herself since there was only one highchair available...I did not expect the newness of a big chair to go over well and expected her to fidget vs. eating, but she did great!

By the time we left the mall, it was approaching naptime, so I had to sing, count and do whatever it took to keep Emma awake on the 40 minute drive home. She passed out on me for about 2 minutes, so I pulled over to pump gas and handed her a snack cup to keep her busy the rest of the ride. We look forward to another playdate!

Shoes and stuff

2011-04-12T19:45:00.001-04:00

Emma is addicted to shoes right now.  If there is a pair of our shoes in the open, she has to try them on.  Emma also knows that shoes belong near the door...tonight Gramma Cheryl stopped by and Emma put her shoes by the door.

Over the weekend and into this week, Emma is experiencing the terrible 2 behaviors.  Everything gets a "no" and we even had our first meal refusal last night.  We tricked Emma an hour later by feeding her a snack which was really her dinner.

She is getting fits of frustration where she throws objects at the ground or us and in general has moments of unreasonableness.  I googled, "how long do the terrible 2's last" and wish I hadn't, lol.  Apparently they can last all the way until 5.  :O

Bed Head

2011-04-06T11:27:00.000-04:00

She is addicted to showing off her belly...

Best of Friends

2011-04-06T11:14:00.003-04:00

They are really only best friends when the patio door is open. The rest of the day, Sport watches Emma perched on the back of the couch trying to avoid her. Sometimes Sport looks at me like he is saying, "Why did you bring this other animal into our home?". We try to encourage Emma to be gentle and pet only their heads, but no matter how many times we tell her, she goes straight for their tails and gets hissed at. Miah is more tolerant of Emma's "petting" and she runs versus hissing when she has had enough. At 15 years old, Sport is a grumpy old man and less tolerant! Emma loves the cats though and will chase after them making a kissing sound, wanting to give them a hug and the cats are like, "No way, I'm outta here" and run behind the couches. Emma doesn't give in easy though and will chase them all the way to the hiding spots.

No more zipper/footed pj's

2011-03-20T09:43:00.001-04:00

We have had a pj war going on for the past few weeks. Emma unzips her PJ's which at first was cute, but then it turned into diaper removal, then full undress immediately upon us shutting the door at bedtime.

Last night we put her in a non-zipping pj set, with a top and bottom. Everything stayed on! So glad to not be washing bed sheets from a leaking diaper or worrying about her warmth at night! I had my doubts different pjs would work because Emma can remove her shirts when we tell her to.

Baptism

2011-03-15T10:25:00.003-04:00

Holy Cow

2011-03-12T13:12:00.001-05:00

I was changing Emma's diaper this morning, which was really wet. I exclaimed, "holy cow" and Emma responded, "mooooo". We both laughed our heads off. She is so cheeky! What a wonderful way to begin the day!

Pj Houdini

2011-03-06T15:22:00.001-05:00

Imagine this...a 17 month old fast asleep, then all of the sudden her head pops up, she rubs her eyes, yawns like a roaring lion and 30 seconds later the PJ's are untabbed, unzipped and Emma is working them off her feet, with 100 percent success in 5 seconds flat, tossing the PJ's about like a victory flag. We witness the PJ Houdini around 8am every morning now and have to fully re-pj our mini magician before we tread downstairs for a cup of warm milk.

Parent Toolbox

2011-03-01T11:48:00.001-05:00

The number one item needed in our "parent toolbox" at the moment is Duct tape. Like Her Uncle Jeff, Emma loves removing her diaper...I'm sure flipping herself out of the crib will be next as she is standing more than a head taller than her crib rail at the moment. Yesterday morning, we discovered Emma with PJ's unzipped and laying chest down in her open-faced diaper. Emma, the crib sheet and her "wubbie" were sent directly to the wash. Last night we broke out the duct tape and all garments remained fresh during her slumber in "The Land of Nod"!

When we remade the crib before her nap yesterday, Emma was very helpful...she stuffed her monkey, wubbie and baby through the crib rails after I put the fitted sheet back on...what a monkey!

Chalk hoarder

2011-02-27T13:30:00.003-05:00

Sent from my iPod
From: bunnrupert@hotmail.com
Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2011 13:29:43 -0500
To: bunnrupert@hotmail.com

Sent from my iPod

Blacktop chalking

2011-02-27T13:30:00.001-05:00

Sent from my iPod
From: bunnrupert@hotmail.com
Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2011 13:29:22 -0500
To: bunnrupert@hotmail.com

Sent from my iPod

Sound effects

2011-02-26T18:54:00.001-05:00

Emma has an awesome sound effect...grunting with her actions or our actions that look like exertion might be taking place. I pick up a piece of paper or a 10lb weight and she makes a grunt like she is lifting a sack of apples. Tonight, I was scooping ice cream and she made this grunt with every attempt of mine to scoop the hard as a rock ice cream. I got to laughing so hard, I lost all my strength and could not scoop, at which point Emma wanted to kiss me. So, between the laughing and kissing, this was probably a Guinness record for longest time to fill an ice cream bowl.

Lots of learning

2011-02-22T17:59:00.001-05:00

The last few weeks has been a whirlwind of new developments.  Emma is a quick learner and is able to remember the sign language for more, bubbles and thank you.  She especially likes the bubbles sign.  We have to be really careful now because she is repeating a lot of what we say.  Example:  dirty butt when Doug was discussing a diaper change.  It's fun to listen to her say multiple syllable words like vegetables and bubbles.  She was telling vegetables through the grocery store the other day.

We are also working on our art skills with crayons and an Etch a sketch.  Today I bought sidewalk chalk since the weather has thrown us some nice days lately and I'm sure Emma will love the chalk.

Bouncing on balls is her favorite thing to do this week and she has great balance when doing so.  In general, she likes to sit on everything; sippy cups, legos, books, balls and various other toys that are nowhere near comfy to sit on.

Masterpiece

2011-02-20T14:35:00.001-05:00

Sent from my iPodEmma is learning to use crayons and will sit for about 10 mins to color. She had some help from Dad on this one, but most of the scribbles are all hers. She would rather not color using the tip of the crayon and prefers to use the other end, so I sing "point on the paper" to encourage using the point.

Subject: Masterpiece
From: bunnrupert@hotmail.com
Date: Sun, 20 Feb 2011 14:29:52 -0500
To: bunnrupert@hotmail.com

Sent from my iPod

"They're back"

2011-02-15T12:20:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, Doug and I ventured out for Valentines Day lunch, without Emma, for the very first time since returning from China. Gramma Cheryl came to to watch Emma for us and when we left, we didn't sneak out, but kissed Emma and said, "bye-bye, we'll be back". She started to whimper a little, but Gramma scooped her up and ran to the bay window to wave to us as we left which immediately calmed her down. We pulled out of the driveway with Emma smiling and kissing the window as we drove off.

We had a wonderful lunch at First Watch, just the two of us... it felt odd, but wonderful all at the same time to be eating and not managing E. at the same time. When we returned, Emma gave us quite the greeting and said, "They're back". We looked at one another in astonishment because we don't know how she put those words together because no one had said, "They're back". It is becoming very clear over the last few weeks that sentences are right around the corner and are just waiting to erupt. Everyday Emma repeats 3-5 word portions of sentences I say which throws me for a loop everytime, i.e., "no big deal" and she's also trying to sing the Barney song. I need to start writing these surprise bursts of language down because by the time Doug makes it home at night, I can't remember what she has said.

Stylin'

2011-02-12T18:37:00.001-05:00

Sent from my iPod
From: bunnrupert@hotmail.com
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2011 16:37:30 -0500
To: bunnrupert@hotmail.com

Sent from my iPod

Naps

2011-02-09T13:49:00.001-05:00

Emma's naps have re-adjusted and the morning naps on most days are gone unless she is exceptionally cranky and says she wants to nap. Yes, Emma really does shake her head yes when you ask her if she needs to go night-night. She is waking up around 8am on most days and takes her nap from 1:30 to 3:30. For a few weeks she has tried napping from 11am-1ish, but there is just too much time between 1pm and 8:30p bedtime, so she gets cranky. We tried to get her a second nap a little later in the afternoon on those days, but she woke up angry from those 30-40 minute cat naps, very angry and crying, which usually resulted in sobbing at the dinner table, so we decided to try and keep her up for as long possible through the morning; feeding her a mid-morning snack and lunch usually revives her for a bit if she's on a downward slide and there are days we just have to give her the 11a-1pm nap...yup, she runs the show for now because we love the naptime break.

I am LOVING the 2 hour naps and sometimes she gives me an extra special nap for 2.50 hours. The only downside of one afternoon nap is that if we are running errands before lunch or go out to lunch, I have to race home afterwards so she doesn't fall asleep in the car because that messes the whole thing up. When we go to Little Gym, the class ends at 11:30ish and I am cursing every red stoplight on our 10 minute drive home because given the chance, Emma will fall asleep in less than 30 seconds. We spend the drive home singing songs and practicing 1-2-3 to keep her awake. Emma has become hooked on "Barney" and will usually hum/sing the "I love you song" back to me if I start the song, so I save the singing for when she looks like she is really fighting the snoozies, which is always the last 2 minutes to the house.

Cheesin'

2011-02-09T10:56:00.001-05:00

Daddy reading time

2011-02-09T10:55:00.001-05:00

Night-night reading time

2011-02-09T10:16:00.001-05:00

Cracking herself up

2011-02-09T10:03:00.001-05:00

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

2011-02-03T21:58:00.001-05:00

Happy Chinese New Year! Best wishes and congratulations for a good and prosperous year.

Doug had to work this evening, so we invited Gramma Cheryl to China City Buffet and indulged in rice, veggie egg rolls, mushrooms, chicken and broccoli.

Emma wore her red shirt with a gold star to ring in the New Year as red is a lucky color in China. She was fairly wound up before bed time from our busy day of lunching with a friend, then the restaurant, so she went to bed later than normal and is hopefully having sweet dreams!

As she gets older and comprehends more we will add more to our Chinese celebrations.

Donut time

2011-01-30T17:01:00.003-05:00

Emma and Mama's big day out

2011-01-30T15:11:00.001-05:00

All this snow has given us cabin fever and this is Doug's loooonnggg weekend to work, so we took a special trip to the mall for lunch, a Yagoot and a mall walk. Since Kenwood Towne Center is in Doug's police area, he met us in the food court and was able to introduce Emma to one of his co-workers. After lunch, we strollered to the Vera Bradley store and on our way back to the other end of the mall, Emma walked and held my hand the whole time, with no hesitation. She is such a good girl! I keep waiting for a public tantrum, but so far, so good. She has become very flirty in public and tried to make smiles at anyone who looks her way. It is truly amazing how many people she smiles at who do not smile back. People are odd.

Midway through our walk back, we stopped at Yagoot for a strawberry yogurt, topped with fresh strawberries, then sat in the middle of the mall to eat it. Emma quietly ate and pointed to everything, wanted me to tell her what it was she was pointing to...chair, man, table, 2nd floor...over and over again. Afterwards we finished our long walk back to the car, then stopped at the grocery on the way home. After all the walking, I'm hoping for a very good afternoon nap! This was a lot of walking for a wee one...this excursion usually wears her Daddy out, so her legs have to be "barking".

If you have never had Yagoot, give it a try! The first time I did not like the tart aftertaste, but now I've warmed up to it and they have nice fresh fruit toppings and of course some not so good ones too. Their mainstay flavors are vanilla and strawberry, but then they usually have a special, limited time only flavor as well. This month's is pomegranate...interesting.

January pics

2011-01-27T14:20:00.001-05:00

A very good week of victories

2011-01-26T14:25:00.001-05:00

Emma has had some very good progress over the last week. She is really warming up to people more when we have visits and does her "grabby hands" at whoever is leaving, in an effort to keep them with her. I am sure Nana Karen and Gramma Cheryl are in heaven over this new development! Then of course she pulls out the kisses to prolong the actual leaving when we pry her from whoever it is we are leaving. I didn't think I was going to be able to leave for work this morning because Miss Kissy was pouring it on very thickly as I was trying to make a break for it! Doug finally yelled at me to shut the door because I was letting cold air in the house by falling prey to the kissing tactic.

Over the weekend, I went out with girlfriend's to an art exhibit and dinner, leaving Emma and Doug to fend for themselves in the evening hours. Doug was able to get Emma to sleep without her howling at the top of her lungs for 45 minutes. HUGE accomplishment for both Emma and Daddy. Doug has actually had a few days when I went to work that she took her naps gently, so we hope this trend continues for Doug because it's not pretty when she doesn't go down quietly.

We have been working on 1-2-3 over the last few weeks, counting on our fingers and lining objects up for counting to 3. Emma likes the word two and likes to show you number 1 with her pointer finger...number 3 she could care less about. However, when we were at The Little Gym yesterday and jumping off every apparatus Emma could jump off of, she was counting 1-2-3 with me before plunging off. Adorable. The Little Gym experience is priceless and I can't get over how much she loves the environment. Emma is still not too sure about the teacher touching her when we use the parallel bars, but she is all about giving cheesy grins to anyone who will look at her. Towards the end of class, Emma didn't want to sit and sing the goodbye song, which resulted in me getting popped in the mouth when she decided to arch her back and rise up, so now I have a blood blister on my lip. Geez that smarted! I sat there in stunned silence before finally asking the woman next to me if I was bleeding. My friend Kim said I showed excellent verbal restraint post-impact, lol.

The Little Gym

2011-01-18T14:48:00.000-05:00

Today was our free introductory class at The Little Gym (TLG) with our friends Kimmie and Sophia. I've had numerous recommendations from other moms on how much fun the classes are and I believe this will give Emma the opportunity to work on her social skills and confidence. The class is SO much fun and Emma loved running on the mats, playing with balls and climbing on every object she could. The first 10 minutes she wasn't warming up, partly due to the loud ringing bells as everyone files into class, but once the "free time" portion of the class began, she went nuts running and smiling across the mats to explore all the equipment. We walked and ran to music, then they brought out a parachute that we twirled and puffed up. Towards the end of class they bring out balls and bubbles... well, those are two of Emma's favorite things! She was taking balls away from other children and standing in the middle of the bubbles floating around. I had numerous people ask if Emma is always this happy...she really is this happy when she's comfortable and today you could see every tooth in her mouth she was so happy.

Doug made the comment that TLG interacts/plays with the children in the same way with do with Emma at home and did we want to sign up for the classes, but the social aspect of the classes are going to be a great stepping block to Pre-school and of course they have all the cool equipment plus more space for Emma to run around in that we don't. So, along with Kim and Sophia, we signed up for this semester which runs for 20 weeks and we hope to sign-up for swim classes this summer, then go back to TLG in the fall for another 2 semesters until Pre-school begins. Preschool sign-ups are only a year away and Emma will be attending pre-school in the Fall of 2012....that seems TOO soon!

15 month checkup

2011-01-12T16:57:00.001-05:00

Emma passed with flying colors. She is now 23lbs and 31in tall...her weight is now in the 50th percentile and she was only at 14th in September! The Dr. is quite impressed that Emma knows the difference between feeling hot and cold, not just knowing the words or associating the words with an object. This "knowing" shows abstract thinking development that most children don't have until much later. The Dr. suggests we start working on feelings of happy, sad etc. since she is showings signs of advancement and that this may help us through the terrible 2's when frustrations relating to not being able to fully communicate begins.

As I type, Emma is working hard in her kitchen, reorganizing the pots, pans and pantry items...she likes an organized kitchen!

Church mouse

2011-01-09T13:50:00.001-05:00

Last night was our third attempt at church service and like the time before, she was as quiet as a church mouse can be. Our first attempt a few months ago wasn't so great and Doug vowed never again. We are having her Baptism in March, so I'm trying to get her a lot more comfortable before then. She is not a child who sits, ever, and I'm really proud of how well she controls herself and listens when I need to hush her. There may have been an Indian waw waw at one point...thanks Doug for teaching her that!

Mommy brain

2011-01-08T10:47:00.001-05:00

In addition to extreme memory loss upon becoming a mother, apparently I have forgotten how to count as well. We've only been home 5 months, lol.

6 months

2011-01-06T21:29:00.001-05:00

Six months ago we deplaned at the Dayton Airport with our little mouse...6 months ago...

The first few weeks are a blur and as we flip through our photos, we can't believe how much we don't remember from the first couple months home, but glad we have the photos to prove the days existed. We are taken back at the sight of Emma from August and you can literally see through these images, the new life infusing her. She now has so much color in her skin and the sparkle in her smiling eyes is priceless! Never in a million years did we think in this short period of time she would love us this much plus be walking, talking, belly laughing and planting our faces with slobbery kisses 20 times a day! There were weeks we never thought we would sleep again or be able to sit on the couch vs. the floor...the most difficult of days I wondered what we had done to our lives.

Emma now sleeps almost 11 hours a night, consumes every food put in front of her with pure joy, explores every cranny of our home, sometimes dragging us along with her, sometimes flying solo and as her parents, we want her to have the confidence to fly away, just a little bit. If we had known who she was going to be, I think part of her middle name should have been Joy...she lives everyday with so much joyfulness that makes even strangers in the market smile and comment on what a happy child she is. I've lost count of how many times we have been told how lucky she is...I think being chosen to be her parents is pretty lucky too.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T10:54:00.001-05:00

What a wonderful Christmas this year is! This morning I still really couldn't believe my eyes that we had a little one in footed pj's running around the tree. We almost had a Christmas disaster, but Doug had the mind to open up Emma's kitchen earlier in the afternoon yesterday and much to our horror, most of the parts were missing from the kitchen set we purchased. We packed it back up and Doug ran to the toy store to see what they had in stock. In the end, she received a better kitchen because they were all on sale yesterday.

We didn't expect much reaction from Christmas morning, but there was more than we expected and we captured some of it on our flip video. There may also be some footage of her partaking in her first jelly donut! Emma loves the kitchen and was pushing buttons, sticking pots in the oven and serving coffee. The few other gifts from Santa were trumped by the kitchen. We are hoping by the end of the day she is warmed up and starts tearing into the wrapping paper but she still looks at us with dismay as we try to show her the ropes of unwrapping.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Forks and Spoons

2010-12-18T15:32:00.001-05:00

Emma started holding a fork or spoon while we fed her a few weeks ago and now she is starting to figure how to keep the utensils upright while there is food on them. Yesterday I started scooping whatever we were eating then handing the utensil to her, to feed herself. She is very joyful about feeding herself! Once she took her bite, she would hand the fork or spoon back to me, clap and then grunt for me to get her next bite ready. Sometimes she tries to grab whatever is on the silverware vs. putting it in her mouth, so I have to keep a close watch. This morning she grabbed a fistful of oatmeal as I handed her the spoon. She still doesn't have enough focus or control to scoop up her own bites without flipping a plate or bowl, so for now this will be our meal time routine.

She likes to know what everything is right now, but no new words have been spoken. At every meal, she points to my watch, ring, shirt, table and light fixture. If you say watch, she will point right to it. Everyday we pull out our "word books" and she points to each object, "asking" us to say the word. I think one day the word flood gate is just going to unleash, but for now, her only words are Mama, Dad, ball, cat, ba, bite, hi and bye. About once a day, she gets very animated and a long babble of who knows what comes out. Whatever she is saying, she is cracking herself up, because she bends over, slaps her knees and laughs. When I run the vacuum, she follows behind me, practically shouting a stream of babble. It's funny that she knows she has to "speak" louder when the vacuum is running and thank goodness she finally likes the vacuum! She can't not touch it now when I pull the vacuum out.

This week we attempted a visit with Santa. I have been talking him up for weeks, pointing at his figure everywhere go and telling her how nice he is. Emma has a Christmas "first words" book and I would point to him, say how nice he is and she would give him a kiss. After all this prep, I was thinking the Santa visit might have a better chance....NO CHANCE. As soon as she felt me removing her from my body, she started kicking, screaming and turning ruby red. I have to say, I felt like a complete butthead for the rest of the day doing that to her.

To add to the trauma of Santa this week, we had our follow-up eye appointment yesterday, lol. She knew where we were as soon as we stepped into the exam room and panicked. Thankfully we were able to calm her down enough for them to see what they needed, without dialating the eyes. For now, the eyes are symmetrical with her specs on, but we have to go back in June. With her being so young, she is going to have growth spurts that may change her prescription needs, but hopefully in June the eyes will have remained stable and we might not have to go back for a full year. Emma still won't wear the glasses as much with Dad around, but the Doc said as long as she wears them 50% of the day, it's fine. I'm thankfull she wears them at all and I think the days she is with me and wearing them, makes up for the days she is solo with Dad.

Next week is going to busy with Christmas and I am keeping my fingers crossed we don't have night time issues with all the bustle. We have 3 days of events and we are trying as much as possible to keep all meals and naps on schedule. A schedule is definitely Emma's magic...if we spend too much time away from the house visiting, she still gets out of sorts, so we are schedule maniacs, which is ok with me, because I have similar issues, lol.

Our first solo photo session

2010-12-16T12:08:00.002-05:00

Winter playtime

2010-12-07T15:30:00.002-05:00

Brrrrrrr....it's fuhreezing outside! Our activity options are being taken indoors and it's difficult thinking of free activities to do with a 14 month old, so we have been walking laps around the house, I have been teaching her to climb stairs (Doug is not a huge fan of this activity) and we play hide and seek.

I purchased book a few years ago, which lists activities to do by age ranges and of course there is developmental learning hidden in these activities, so with below freezing temps, I cracked the binding. Even in this book, there is not much kids between 12 and 18 months can do, but we are learning to toss objects into a bucket and we broke out the crayons...I mean crayon. Do you really think I am nuts enough to give a 14 month old a whole box of crayons? I'm not. They suggest water color painting at this age...um, no way...that's an outdoor Summer activity.

Emma really enjoyed the purple crayon and scribbling on a piece of paper. She held onto my hand and we wrote her name, drew a smiley face and scribbled. I can't quite figure out if she is a south paw or not. She seems to reach for objects more often with her left, but then she also uses her right hand too, so I'm not sure which hand I'm supposed to put the crayon in...not that she can really grasp it anyway, but we tried. She didn't try to eat the crayon (BONUS), but she wanted to dig her fingernails in the tip.

We took a trip to Hobby Lobby for the jumbo size crayons to help her grasp better and bought a jumbo coloring book. Did you know that Jumbo crayons are not JUMBO anymore? They are half the size of what they used to be and double the cost! We let Emma walk around Hobby Lobby and I am proud to say, she did not pull anything off a shelf or even try to run away from us. Well, I'm not really shocked that E. didn't run away from us because she is a "velcro child", but there is a lot of "stuff" in Hobby Lobby and the fact that she minded us when we said, "only look, no touch" is quite remarkable when she is surrounded by all that blingy stuff at eye level. I figured the worst case scenario was that she didn't mind and we got a cart, but that didn't happen and she slept like a hibernating bear last night from all the walking.

Emma exercises with me now, lol. This week she joined me in the stretching, arm circles and downward dogs...she gets a "D" on form, but "A" for effort. The best part of the whole workout is when I'm doing ab work, she lays her head on my stomach and gives me the biggest grin and she stands at my knees, like she is holding them for me when I do sit-ups. How can you not love rising from a sit up with a big toothy grin greeting you? I could do 1,000 sit ups looking at that face. Maybe Emma will be the next Jackie Warner or Jillian Michaels or she will just be my workout partner when she gets older? ;)

Thanksgiving pics

2010-12-04T16:14:00.005-05:00

Scooping

2010-12-01T11:02:00.001-05:00

I turned my back for one second, to reach into the dryer for a bib, turned back around and I caught Emma trying to scoop the litter box. She must have seen Dad scooping litter as I have never scooped in front of her before, lol.

We decided to give her a first taste of fast food and she scarfed a soft taco, from Taco Bell down. E. loves to eat and even with all the hub-bub of Thanksgiving excitement, she cleaned her plate everywhere we went. She ate so well and we were so tired of eating healthy, fast food was calling our name after days and days of turkey.

Last night we took her to Home Depot and let her walk vs. ride in a cart since the store wasn't crowded and all the carts were wet from the nasty weather that moved into Ohio yesterday. Emma thought walking was awesome and was grinning so big, we could even see the teeth in the back of her mouth. She was oohing and ahhing at all the tools, dancing on the concrete floors and running. Of course she face planted and ended up with a red bump on her forehead while we were there, but I saw no sign of the fall this morning.

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T11:48:00.001-05:00

We have SO much to be thankful for this year and as we think back to the 9 year journey to receive this one precocious child, all the time spent bringing us to Emma fades and I am thankful to no longer feel like our lives are on hold. It's nice to finally focus on being parents to Emma, not just bringing her home. She happens to be standing on her head as I type this...pure comedy, everyday.

Emma will be enjoying her Thanksgiving dinner even more as she acquired 3 more chompers to eat with in the last week. We will be on a "Turkey Crawl" for the next 3 days, enjoying feasts with different sides of our families, so by Sunday, we will be in a Turkey coma.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Zippers

2010-11-17T14:13:00.001-05:00

A few days ago, Emma was curious about the zipper on my fleece jacket, so I held her fingers in my hand while I zipped the jacket up and down. Of course she thought this was hilarious and now when she sees a zipper, she grabs my hand and puts it on the zipper.

This morning when I went into Emma's room, I found her with her PJ's partially unzipped. She still had the neck tab snapped, but her chest was fully exposed. I couldn't stop laughing and had to wake Doug up so he could see this for himself. Hopefully this was a one-time only find because the weather dipped and her room is a bit chilly for her to be climbing out of her pj's. I'm not sure she realizes yet that if she is cold she should cover up with a blanket. The blankets she primarily uses to cuddle with and to throw around/shake out when she wakes up, not really to cover up with.

Emma is catching on fast with getting dressed/undressed and now helps push arms in and is able to pull shirts over her head. We are probably only a few months away from the dressing "wars" most parents experience as kids want to dress themselves, but not fully capable of buttoning etc. That's also Emma's other new favorite, buttons. If we have one on our clothing she points to it and wants us to say "button".

Copy cat

2010-11-15T19:57:00.002-05:00

E. LOVES to copy cat everything we do this week...wiping off tables, chewing food, laughing and trying to repeat words we say. She breaks into a big grin after each copy cat move. I'm especially fond of her copying us picking up her toys and putting them away. We will be milking that move every chance we get until she realizes picking up toys is a chore and not a game.

Tonight we thought she looked taller than our last wall measurement and sure enough, she grew another 1/2 inch. Some of her 12 month pants are getting short, but the waist isn't ready for the next size, so I guess she will be wearing "high waters" until her waist catches up.

A little "off"

2010-11-12T14:24:00.002-05:00

This week E. has been a little "off", so not much time to post between working and being home with her. We went to a family party over the weekend and had to move to a quieter area of the house when Emma became distressed with too many people in the room; she seemed fine after the change of scenery, but the strides we made with naps and bedtime have reversed on us a bit since then.

At the beginning of the week she was REALLY out of sorts, but as the week has moved forth, she has improved. Now I'm a little stressed about holiday gatherings and how many days/what kind of setbacks will happen. In general, most little kids get way overstimulated during the holidays and this year will be extra hard for E. She still has not met a lot of family and friends since coming home as we've had to take it very slow with her. For the most part, "blowing her gun" when she's nervous does not happen as often as it used to and we'd like to keep it that way.

The weather really warmed up here in Ohio, so we have been taking advantage of getting outside this week. Yesterday Emma and I took a stroll to the pharmacy versus driving. It is only an hour walk to/from, but there is a gigantic hill I had to push 21#'s of mouse and 26# of stroller to get us back home. I clearly was not thinking clearly...1pm stroll to the pharmacy with the sun beating down on us and pushing 57lbs up a hill that you can't stand straight while walking up it anyway, let alone pushing a stroller. GENIUS! I am in better shape than I thought though as the calves are only a little sore; last night all my running injuries were burning and I thought, "uh-oh". Emma of course loved the ride and we played a bit more in the driveway when we returned home so I could cool down in the nice breeze we had. I am milking being outdoors every chance we get until the cold weather forces us indoors!

Love Bug

2010-11-06T23:25:00.000-04:00

We have quite the love bug on our hands the last few days. She has woken up happy as a clam, blowing kisses before I even lift her out of the crib, then she's planting them on my face and lips all day.

Yesterday I introduced E. to a rocking chair that was given to me when I was about 3 years old. She loves sitting in the chair with a book and watching "The Wiggles". She loves the chair so much, I was able to sneak in the kitchen for some dishwashing without her following me or crying at the baby gate.

Emma is such a mimic! When I feed her, I have a tendency to prop my face with one hand, elbow on the table and feed her with the other hand. The little ham is copying my moves while I am trying to feed her, then gives me the cheesy-McCheese grin she has. The funniest part is that the elbow is never touching her tray, so it's a "floating" head prop-up. She's so funny and she knows it!

Running with Dada

2010-11-03T15:10:00.003-04:00

I love crazy hats

2010-11-02T10:37:00.001-04:00

Ba no more

2010-11-02T09:00:00.001-04:00

Bottle-free bootcamp was successful! Emma is now 24-hours ba free and drinking only from her sippy cup, which we now refer to as a ba. That seemed to be the trick, calling the sippy cup a ba. Funny little brains these wee ones have!

She had a great day yesterday playing, reading and taking a ride in her wagon outdoors. Mama froze her butt off, but Emma loves going around the block in her wagon and I made Emma wear a hat. This morning we both woke up with sneezing, sniffles and gunk in our eyes as the Fall allergens are kickin' right now in Ohio. I swear, I couldn't see anything clearly for the first 5 minutes this AM and it wasn't until I hopped in the shower that I was able to get the gunky film off my eyeballs. Not sure what the eye gunk is about as it has never happened before, but we have spent the past 2 days being outside and normally I avoid the outdoors like the plague during this time of year because of my mold allergies.

We are pretty sure Emma has allergies as she has this type of reaction in the hours after being outside every single time. The pediatrician agrees with the allergy suspicions, but they don't diagnose children allergies until after 2 years old, so we treat E. with benadryl only when the runny nose gets too much and bothers her sleep. Most of the children from Emma's orphanage have been diagnosed with allergies and excema which has already popped up on E. We have to apply lotion 2-3x's daily or she starts getting red sore spots on her cheeks and legs, especially now that the cooler weather has moved in.

More Halloween pics

2010-11-01T08:55:00.002-04:00

Happy Halloween!!!

2010-11-01T08:53:00.001-04:00

Emma LOVED wearing her costume and riding in her wagon. She was in a horrible mood most of the day, walking around with her hand in her mouth, but trick-or-treating redeemed the teething mood. We thought E. was never going to wind down for bed, so finally I gave her "the ba" even though she didn't seem ready and she nearly passed out while chugging the milk down.

Emma is drinking the whole milk in a bottle, but refuses it from the sippy cup. The odd part is she chugs water all day from the sippy, so we are bewildered as to why she won't take the milk in any of her sippy cups. We try once everyday, with no luck, so we may have to cut the bottle out completely to make the milk in the sippy happen.

Flash forward to one hour later and a failed/returned blog posting...Emma drank 6oz of whole milk from her sippy and we celebrated with homemade blueberry pancakes!!!!

Weaning

2010-10-25T17:32:00.001-04:00

We got the ok to wean E. from formula today and she received the last of her shots until the January checkup. In exactly 30 days, she has gained 1.5 lbs (weighs 21lbs now), exactly what the Dr. wanted to see. We cracked open our last can of formula a few days ago, so once it's done, E. will be drinking vitamin D. The Dr. said Emma has a very good sense of humor. DUH. We were discussing this sense of humor the other day and wondering if it's a nature vs. nurture trait. She imitates a lot of sounds, faces, etc. we make with/at her, so it makes us go, "hmmm"; this is how the Dr. noticed her sense of humor, by making a face and Emma's response to the face.

She passed out in the car seat after the appointment and has yet to take an afternoon nap, but she is a very happy camper despite the shots. We've played a little hide and seek, she's been showing us her ornery smile and was having a blast walking around the house with a paper towel, feeling objects in the room out with the towel. That's been her new thing, rubbing/banging one object against another. I gave her a wooden cooking spoon the other day and she walked around banging against everything she could reach to see what it sounded like.

First Day back to work

2010-10-20T16:47:00.003-04:00

This was not traumatic, at all. There is a lot of peace of mind knowing that Doug is with E. and SO good with her.

She wouldn't keep her glasses on while I was away and when D. tried to correct a behavior, she stopped, stared at him, then danced. I've seen this "look at me and how cute I am dance" of hers and it is impossible not to laugh. Last night at dinner, Doug was telling her to not stand on her picnic table and I had to hide my mouth so she couldn't see me laughing; the little mouse looked at him, then peered at me through the chair rungs and gave me her biggest smile, making her "hi" sounds. Emma KNEW I was laughing behind that bib! I don't know why, but it is hysterical when Doug plays stern with her...I can't help but laugh, no wonder E. can't either.

Ears, Nose, Mouth and Belly

2010-10-19T17:45:00.001-04:00

If you ask Emma where any of these body parts are, she points to them, then gives you a big grin. My personal favorite is the mouth...she thinks this is SO grin-worthy. Dad also taught Emma a fun trick/game this week. She passes us a toy coin, with her mouth, and we have to accept the coin with our mouth. I live with a bunch of silly monkeys!

The glasses are going well and the bruises are all gone from the "zebra incident".

We had an impromptu playdate with Sophia again today and the girls are starting to really enjoy one another. Emma has a few months on Sophia, so we have to make sure E is "gentle" and doesn't clobber her in the head with toys. I think this will be a good start to socialization and learning to share.

I start back to work tomorrow, working away from the house 2 days a week. For now, my schedule will rotate with Doug's off-days as Emma is still velcro-like and not ready for caregivers beyond us. Maybe later down the road, we will have a different work plan, but for right now, we don't want to disrupt the good sleeping and attachment we have going on. I've been working a few hours a week at home since we returned from China, but can only do so during Emma's nap times or sneak in bursts of work when Emma seems distracted by an object other than me. For the most part, she is at my side or on my lap all day long and wants whatever is in my hands.

Recent pics

2010-10-15T11:50:00.000-04:00