One month in our arms

It's hard to believe that yesterday marked one month that this precious little dumpling has been in our arms.  In that time she has come out of her shell in a big way.  She cried every time we walked into our hotel room in Taiyuan.  Nights weren't easy either.  We occasionally heard her babble. She was grieving, and if you have adopted, you know it's hard to watch.

 Today she's a very different girl, a typical toddler.  She screams when she wants something and screams just to be heard.  It's really nice for when you want to make phone calls.  Um, not really.  She really does pester poor Madeline.  Oy!  She's always wanting what she has and will scream, pull her clothes or hair, or, usually, squeeze her arm.  Yep.  Everything is mine, and I want it now.

She loves her chocolate milk and can drink it by the gallon.  She'll generally eat what I fix the big dumplings.  This girl LOVES to drink water....like all day and a lot....which means lots of pee pee diapers.  I still do put her on the potty to pee, but she drinks so much stinkin' water, I have a hard time keeping up. lol  She's sleeping well, both for naps and bedtime.  We had a few days of big time crying and thought it was grieving.  But my wise sister who has parented this age before told me it just might be that she doesn't want to sleep.  Ding ding ding! We have a winner.  Thankfully those times of crying about sleep were short lived.  She sleeps like a champ without any crying now.  

  Since coming home, she has learned a few basic signs- water, milk, more, please, and thank you.  She can say water (wa wa) and diaper (bi bur) and mommy (though she says mommy when pointing to herself, so she doesn't know it means me yet.)  I originally wanted to her call me mommy because I know she called her foster mom "mama", and I didn't want to upset or confuse her, which it did (upset her) in China.  She says mama and baba but only to babble, not in reference to us.  She babbles quite a bit and will even act like she's having a conversation with you.  It's so funny.  She loves swinging at the park, swimming in the pool, riding in the wagon or on her tricycle, brushing her teeth, dancing to music, and anything she can grab out of her in her sister's hand.  She loves to fake laugh so she can join her brother and sister in their laughing fits too.  She reminds us that we have to check her mouth for loose teeth because both her brother and sister have loosey-goosey teeth that need checking.  Oh she won't be forgotten.  Nope. Well, I could go on and on, but I think I'll stop right there.

As I said in my previous post, I knew I had to start taking some photos of Havi at home because I need to send them to our agency as part of our post placement report.  So one night I decided to take my camera with me on our evening walk.

 I thought I would take this snapshot of the three dumplings together because China wants to see the child experiencing their new culture.  They were thrilled to go on the walk, though not to stop and smile for my camera.  Oh well, it's good enough to send to China.  Done.

 We spotted this small but pretty rainbow as we were nearing home.

Happy 1 month with us, Havi Xue!
You have turned our lives upside for the better, you loud, spunky little girl!
We love love love you like crazy crazycakes!!!!

Her first trip to the park

I'm a bit behind in sharing about Havi's first week home.  That's because I have been busy in the kitchen or in the pool with the dumplings.  Anywho, last week when Bammy was here, we went to the park late one morning/early afternoon.  The lighting was harsh, but I brought my camera anyway.  Havi loved the slide and swing.

Now, don't get any crazy ideas, like I allow my kids to go down slides head first.  This is the toddler slide, so very short and low to the ground.  Madeline has to crawl her way out.  So she's completely safe going head first.

So there you have it.  A short, sweet little trip to our favorite-y favorite park by the river.  It's the first of many more for this little girl.  

This week saw Bammy heading back to Connecticut.  The dumplings were so sad to drop her off at the airport.  We hadn't even left the airport parking lot when they were telling me how much they missed her already.  It was a great visit!  

Yesterday Havi had a doctor's appointment.  She did fairly well.  She got 3 out of 5 vaccines in order to make her current for her age and to comply with the Hague requirements.  She did cry but not for long.  She cried harder and longer when she tripped in the waiting area and hit her cheek hard against the leg of a chair.  It bruised up right away.  Poor girl.  Oh yes, and right before our social worker comes out tomorrow for our one month post placement visit.  Nice.  Anyway, I plan on writing up a post to share with you more about our precious little Havi.  For now, I'll leave you with one word to describe her- LOUD!

Happy weekend everyone!

Coming down to the wire

I apologize for sharing the big news of our TA and then disappearing.  I have good reason though.  We have nailed down our travel plans and will be leaving this Monday!  We have been busy making lists, crossing things off them, add new ones, etc...shopping, packing, making decisions.  Now that we have finally nailed down the details, like flights and hotels, we can breathe a little bit better.  So that's some good news.   (And for those of you who were also losing sleep like me over the camera backpack, have no fear; I found one! lol.  You can sleep well at night now.)  Anyway, here is the quick rundown on our itinerary:

June 10: Fly to Beijing (arrive June 11)
June 11-16: Sightseeing (Summer Palace, Great Wall, Forbidden City/Tian'an men Square, and maybe Bei Hai Park), train to Taiyuan, Shanxi
June 17: Forever Family Day- receive Havi
June 18-21: Process adoption paperwork, visit Jinci Temple and Pingyao ancient city
June 22: Fly to Guangzhou, Guangdong
June 23-25: Medical exam for Havi and process her immigration visa, visit the Zoo, train to Hong Kong
June 26-29: Sightseeing...TBD
June 30: Fly home

That's it in a nutshell.  We are actually preparing for Madeline's dance recital, and today is the big rehearsal.  I had planned on snapping a few photos of the girls in her class before the rehearsal gets started.  However, today is going to be a soaker, thanks to Tropical Storm Andrea.  So dancing around the streets of downtown won't be happening.  Bummer.  Maybe I can still pull something else off.  The actual recital is Saturday afternoon.  I hope to share photos before we leave for China, even if it's just a few.

Now to completely change subjects with no segue at all... we took the dumplings down to the river to go fishing a few weeks ago.  They just casted from the pier. Although they didn't catch anything, they had a blast.