Happy Halloween!

This year we celebrated our first Halloween! Last year we had been home only 5 days when Halloween rolled around and between jet lag and pure over stimulation we took a break from it...we were one of those dark houses.

Not this year, no sirree! We whooped it up! We went to 2 Halloween parties and Trick-or-Treated twice, once at a Senior Living apartments and then on Halloween night.

We practiced and practiced our "Happy Halloween!" "Trick-or-Treat!" and, of course, "Thank yous." She also didn't want to keep her hood up at first either, as evidenced in the above pictures. But once we were out on Halloween night, every time we went up to a door she put up her hood and practically whispered "trick-or-treat." Most of the "thank yous" were a smile and a wave. It was so cute. She totally got into it and wanted to keep going and going for "more candy?!"

But by 7:45PM we were done and she had plenty of candy. She got to have one piece tonight and then it was off to bed to dream of more candy.

The Costume

"Mingos," as CiBaby likes to call, them are her most favorite animal, so it was appropriate that she goes as one this Halloween. As costumes go, a flamingo isn't one that is easy to find for a reasonable amount of money, so Crafty CzaMama got her thinking cap on (and consulted with her very crafty friend, Hippy Goodwife) came up with a plan on how to go about attacking this one.

First, I found a pink fleece jacket at Old Navy, then off to JoAnn's for matching fleece. Each "feather" was cut and individually sewn onto the jacket.

Recently, CiBaby received a Miss Mingo "Build-a-Bear" from Grams. Using that beak as a rough pattern I drew out a pattern on one of those annoying pieces of campaign junk mail and cut the pieces from fleece as well.

Before sewing and stuffing the beak, I added cording to the bill to make the "opening." The whites-of-their-eyes are done with white fleece and the pupils are large black buttons (that idea came from my friend M, thanks dear!)

To top off the outfit, I used a little fabric paint I had in my stash of crafts and made a coordinating bag for her loot.

I also made a pair of fleece pants, but the weather was so warm they weren't needed. She wore some pink velour pants instead.

There were some loooooong nights of stitching and cutting, but in the end it was well worth it. She was the cutest Mingo ever! And she loved it too.

One year ago today - October 17, 2007

One year ago today we visited beautiful East Lake in Wuhan. While we were there we saw adults doing morning exercises, 1,000* primary school children attending an outing to the park and its amusement park due to their good behavior, were asked by some very curious mothers as to where we got the very comfortable looking baby carrier, saw a huge koi pond and the spenders of the area.

While walking through the park our guide, Grant, learned that we were very interested in plants, which called for a trip to the Wuhan Botanical Garden. These gardens housed the largest aquatic plant research area in Asia** which was working on finding plants to help clean up their water systems. So cool! Along with the aquatic plants they had desert plants in a conservatory, large ponds with gigantic lilypads, many walking paths and beauty all around.

Again there was a very large group of primary school children who were facinated with CiBaby. However, when they got too close she began to cry. We were like celebrities there, and were asked by some people if they could have their picture taken with us. What a riot.

After walking around for hours we found ourselves starving. We caught the bus (very cool) back to town and found a wonderful restaurant for lunch. Of course, CiBaby not knowing her manners decided that putting her feet up on the table was a really good idea!

I also believe this was the day that our sweet baby began NOT sleeping through the night. We got cocky and told people she slept great, which she did for the first 2 nights...must have been due to stress. It wouldn't be a good couple of months until she slept through the night once again...and that was only once!

Two years ago today our adoption Dossier was logged into the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) system!

Today we had a very busy day. We met up with friends at the library in the morning and then we attended our second prospective adoptive parents panel that afternoon. We met a very nice couple that was planning on going with the China program as well.

After the panel we raced home, got changed, gathered our things and raced off for a photo shoot. I had decided that due to CiBaby's shyness around strangers that we wouldn't be able to capture the real CiBaby, so we rented a photo studio to take our own pictures. T-Daddy, G-Mama and I wrangled and herded the wild CiBaby during the photo session while Bopa took the pictures. Here are a couple that I got with my camera before craziness completely ensued.

After a very exhausting photo session (by the end CiBaby was rolling on the floor) we headed out for some dinner that included a lot of dip! And cocktails for CzaMama.

*Had all the children from that school been there it would have been about 3,000 young children in the park!

**If I'm remembering my facts correctly.

One year ago today - October 16, 2007

One year ago today CiBaby was officially ours.

Before going off to that grey government building to sign the official papers, we went down for breakfast...with our spoon and bottle cap. Although very basic and wouldn't be considered a "toy," both provided much needed entertainment and diversion for our overstimulated babe.

This hotel also had a breakfast buffet, as I think most of the hotels do, but this had even less "American" style breakfast items. One of my favorite things was a spicy noodle soup our new friends had introduced me to. He (who has the same name as T-Daddy) was of Chinese heritage but grew up in Canada and she was also Chinese and had grown up in Vietnam, I believe.

CiBaby, in addition to her jarred baby "paste" was indulging in steamed eggs* and Congee with bits of pork. Unfortunately one thing we found out later is that poor CiBaby was SO constipated from all of the rice, bananas and apples they gave her in the orphanage she was in serious pain that evening. I won't go into all the gross details like T-Daddy thinks I should tell, let's just put it this way, I have NEVER pooped anything so large, even as an adult! This drastically changed what she was eating while we were in China, and it helped.

The following is a picture of school children doing morning exercises in one of the many school yards near our hotel. The hotel was located in what is known as the Education District. Wuhan is broken up into 3 districts...Education, Industrial and Business. You will also notice the haze in the picture. I actually took this picture out of an open window, so it's not from a dirty window. This is how the air was all of the time. It was a little darker then because it was before 7AM, but other than that you could tell the sun was out, but it was never clear.

Today CiBaby and I met our new friends for breakfast. Her new little friend is also China and only a couple months younger. They were so cute together. They fought over crayons and toys on the table while the moms got to sit and chat over breakfast and coffee...for 1.5 hours! Once we left the girls walked hand-in-hand down the street. It was adorable, and of course neither J nor I had our cameras with us.

*It's almost like an unsweetened custard.

One year ago today - October 15, 2007

Gotcha!

One year ago today CiBaby was in our arms. It was not the experience that I had imagined either. The crying and clinging to her nanny I'd planned for. For some reason I had this all played out in my head that we would be in a cozy room with couches and someone would walk down a long hallway and bring her to us. Nope, to quote CiBaby. It was a cold, hard, grey building and room with big banquet-like tables and lots of folding chairs. There was one other family there getting their 11 month old daughter, who was fast asleep in their arms.

Our darling daughter saw us and started crying...her little hi-yah! cry, squishy face and all. Her nanny was going through the photo book we sent with her, showing pictures and pointing to us. Still lots of crying. The two of them left the room for a few minutes and came back with a small bottle of tea* We signed some papers. These papers were giving us 24 hour custody of CiBaby, and we would return the next day to sign the real ones. Kind of like a dry run, I guess.

Finally it was time to go. The nanny placed CiBaby in our arms and we were off, into a cab to CareFor, the department store to gather known** supplies with a hysterical baby. We wandered through the store, guessed how much she weighed so we could buy diapers and guessed what kind of baby food she would like best. They definitely had some interesting food combinations...beef marrow and vegetable paste***, water lily and lotus seed paste...all very well received! Too bad we didn't have our baby carrier with us, she got really heavy carrying her for so long and of course I was the only one she would allow to hold her. At that point, any time T-Daddy or our guide would look at her, or she would look at them, she started to cry. Poor baby.

Once back at our hotel she went down for a great nap, right on schedule and for the amount of time they told us...2 hours.

10/15/2007 - 10/15/2008

We had dinner at our hotel and talked with the other family that had received their daughter that morning as well, as they were staying in the same hotel.

Today, to celebrate we had Chinese food, and CiBaby was super excited about it! "I eat Chinese!" she said over and over. Of course it came out "I Chinese" but we knew what she was saying, but it was still technically correct.

She's becoming quite the chopstick pro!

Baby, I can't believe a year has come and gone. You have brought so much joy to all you meet and fill our life with lots of love and laughter.

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

*She still loves tea. And it must be tea and not herbal concoctions.

**We'd asked our guide to bring us there the day we arrived so we would have everything but he'd advised against it. We waited until we were able to talk to the orphanage director and find out what kind of formula and food she'd been eating.
***The call the purees "paste."

One year ago today - October 14, 2007

One year ago today I was feeling so ill in the morning from exhaustion that I thought I had eaten something bad! But no time to feel bad, T-Daddy and I were off to Wuhan, the provincial capital of Hubei.* One little tid-bit that I learned before traveling was that Hubei was known as the Province of a Thousand Lakes. Coincidence that our family lives in the state known as the land of Ten-Thousand Lakes?

It was a short plane ride, 1.5 hours, from Bejing. There we were met by our FABULOUS guide, Grant. He briefed us on the area and our timetable...we were to meet CiBaby the next morning! So with some time on our hands, T-Daddy and I got our room all ready, unpacked everything, as we were going to be there for 8 days. Our room was all set for a new baby. The hotel even had a small crib, a baby bathtub and potty chair already in our room for us.

Once unpacked we napped and then went out to do a little exploration of the area. We got a lot of stares...we didn't see too many Caucasians on the streets of Wuhan. So we did what we could to be very respectful of their culture and tried to blend in as much as possible.

Today was a super fun day! Thankfully for T-Daddy, CiBaby and I had lots of plans, as he was not feeling well. And since Daddy was home, CiBaby couldn't have him be alone! So off we went to coffee with some friends, a yarn shop, storytime at a local bookstore, wandered and had lunch. When I asked CiBaby if she wanted pizza or Chinese for lunch, she chose Chinese. We also stopped by one of my favorite epicurian shops and had popcorn from a cob.

Once home it was time for a nap. CiBaby and T-Daddy napped and off I went to United Noodles, Inc. What fun to be able to really look around at the different ingredients. I stocked up on some staples and got a few new things to try out. I also got a bamboo steamer. Why I didn't have one before, who knows. For dinner we had chicken soup with fresh Odon noodles and scallion cakes with duck sauce for dipping. Yum!

*The other families traveled to different Provinces.

One year ago today - October 13, 2007

One year ago today we were standing on the Great Wall of China. What an amazing experience.

That morning I woke up around 3:00 AM and could not go back to sleep until about 6:00 AM, and we needed to eat breakfast and meet the group by 8:30 AM. To my enjoyment, the hotel's breakfast was unlike the buffet kind we have here. Sure they had a few sweet rolls and I believe you could even have a chef prepare you an omlet of sorts, but the array of vegetables and what we would normally consider either "lunch" or "dinner" food was wonderful! I am not a huge breakfast food person to start, so this was right up my alley.

We found one of the families* and they introduced us to the other. It was like a big family meal from the get go. Once fed, we ran up to our rooms to grab our day's gear and off we went. It took a good 1.5+ hours to get to the section of the Great Wall that we were going to tour. The drive was great. Not only did we get to know the other families better but we also got to see China. When we think of a street sweeper here, you invision a big truck like machine. Not there. It's an actual person sweeping the street with a broom.

Our group took a gondolla/tram up the side of the mountain on the furthest left section (shown on the map above) of the maintained wall. Only a fraction of the Wall is still maintained to this day.

I'm not quite sure how far we walked on the wall, but we were up there for about 3 hours, walking most of the time. It was amazing. The stone work, awesome. And to think people built this by hand!

Our whole group walked to the end of the maintained section. It wasn't what you would call an easy walk by any means. Both T-Daddy and I were thanking our cycling instructors as we scaled sections of the wall that were more like ladders than stairs.

On our way back we stopped at a great restaurant and had lunch. I wouldn't be able to find the restaurant again without going this route and without our guide.

Later that evening, L & D, T-Daddy and I went out to find a place to eat and to gather some snacks for the next couple of days.

Due to shear exhaustion from jet-lag and fear that we could get sick and have a new baby to take care of we ended up back at our hotel for a so-so dinner and beer all around. We figured that the alcohol would kill any bacteria...and it sure tasted good.

It was a thrilling but exhausting day.

Tonight I took a Dim Sum class!** It was actually a vegetarian Dim Sum class, but it would be easy to figure out and add in meat wherever we'd like. So people, prepare yourself. Mmmmmmm yum yum Dim Sum!

*Thankfully I was able to meet/see L before the trip. I'd talked to one of the other families via email, but that didn't put a face to it.
**T-Daddy and I also finished The Departed...oh my, that was a great movie!

One year ago today - October 12, 2007

One year ago today we touched down in Bejing under a cover of darkness. It was 10:30 PM Bejing time.* Never have I watched so many movies in one day as I did on the plane. We were on a new A330, which had individual monitors to every seat with on demand entertainment. You could watch movies, listen to music, play games with other passengers. It was great, but not for that many hours. I tell you I'd never felt so old in my life when I wrestled on a pair of compression stockings and had a footrest** for the flight across the Pacific...but I was sure glad I had them!


T-Daddy and I departed the plane and moved like cattle towards the baggage claim, as we couldn't read the signs, just pictures. We found our bags, but we were missing one very important piece to come down the pipe...the stroller we'd brought with us! With none of the baggage people able to speak English we couldn't communicate what we were looking for. The baggage area cleared and there we were by ourselves. Finally someone came with our stroller! Yay!


Out of the claim area there stood our one of our wonderful hosts, patiently awaiting our arrival. All we saw of Bejing that night was sign after sign for the upcoming 2008 Olympics, cars flying by and lots of people. We arrived at our hotel, were briefed on the hotel and the next day's activities and off we went to unpack and sleep. It was a long trip and we were exhausted.


*Crossing the International Date Line was a first for us.
**Both were borrowed items. However, if I ever take a flight longer than 4 hours again I'm getting myself a pair, my legs and feet felt great even after all of that sitting!

One year ago today - October 11, 2007

One year ago today we were in San Francisco in the morning/early afternoon. T-Daddy and I slept in without worry. We then trudged back down the hill to Sears' Fine Foods*, where we sat at the counter and had a wonderful omlets (mine was egg whites only...allergy to yolks). One of us had seafood in it, but I don't recall which. They were both delicious.

Back up the hill we went to finish organizing our luggage and get a cab. Off we went to SFO. I remember being so nervous. I'm not an anxious flier, I think it was what was to come later that had my stomach all a twitter. We started our 11 hour, non-stop flight to Tokyo, a short layover and then onto Beijing (another 3 hours) for a grand total of 14 hours of travelling...in one day.

Today was another completely different day. CiBaby and I raced around in the morning. Gymnastics, the Farmers' Market with G-Mama and then off to a birthday party for one of CiBaby's little pals at Pump It Up, an indoor inflatables place. What a blast!** There was climbing and slides, obstacle courses, tubes and hoops and lots of smiles on the kids' faces. The adults even got into the act! What fun. I also heard a lot of "I do it!" and "Mom stay." My baby is growing up too fast.

Later we went back to Gramma and Bopa's house to have CzaMama's special birthday dinner...chicken cannelloni and angel food cake. Yum! What a great day.

*Sears, not to be confused with the department store, is right across the street from Scala.
**Little did I know they let adults jump/play around so I had to buy a pair of socks for $2, a small price to pay for big fun with my girl!

One year ago today - October 10, 2007

One year ago today we were off like a herd of freakin' turtles. Our bags were finally packed, I finished making our travel neckrolls with buckwheat hulls I'd picked up in Hawaii earlier in the summer and Auntie and Horsey were driving us to the airport on our way for a day in San Francisco before continuing on to China.*

We took an expensive cab into the city instead of taking inexpensive transport, like the BART, as we were a bit** nervous carrying a lot of cash on each of our persons in multiple locations. I shudder to think of it. It was a lovely evening, free of packing worries, fun cocktails and a wonderful dinner at Scala's Bistro with dear, dear friends. Because of the sleepless night we spent previously we retired to bed fairly early to await our adventure the next day.

Today we spent a quiet day at home, complete with spaghetti sauce canning, soup and sandwiches for lunch, a movie and very nice nap, brats*** and ratatouille for dinner.

*This was the only way we could go due to a fingerprinting issue and ticket prices. It ended up being a good rest period before going abroad.

**This is a complete understatement. I barely have $20 in cash on me ever...we're talking thousands. yikes.

***CiBaby devoured 1.5 brats!

Crazy dream

I had a crazy snippet of a dream last night/this morning.* I was living in a small house with T-Daddy and the kidlets. We had a beautiful backyard, much like the one we have now. Small, but lovely. We spent all of our time out back.

One day I was walking a friend out to their car and I noticed our front yard...like I'd never seen it before. It was HUGE! and all grass. The yard was surrounded by a very tall privacy fence, making it a little more believable why I hadn't seen it before, sort of. All of a sudden the thoughts of planting it full of fruits and vegetables was swimming around in my head. Oh the canning/preserving I would do!

What do you think I've been doing a lot of lately? I guess it's kind of like when you dream about your job. hehe


*My memory was jogged when I picked up the November issue of Martha Stewart from the mailbox this afternoon.

A rock.

Apparently that's where I've been living. No, I hadn't heard that O.J. Simpson had been found guilty until it was on Dr. Phil, which I normally do not watch but it happened to be on during CiBaby's nap on Tuesday.* Dr. Phil said something to the effect of "If you haven't heard about the OJ trial you must not be living on planet earth." Ummm I guess not since I hadn't heard about it (nor do I really care), I must be on Planet Toddler! But I digress and this isn't really what I was going to write about.

What I wanted to tell you is about YOGURT! The other day I purchased The Greek Gods traditional plain yogurt. It was in an effort to cut down on mayo and possibly, just possibly, have CiBaby eat some of it too.** I'd kind of forgot about it and pulled it out this morning. Holy Schnikes! Never, and I mean never, have I had yogurt like this.*** It's delicious!!! Even plain. It's not super sour like most plain yogurt. I tried it naked (the yogurt was naked, not me) and then with a little honey drizzled on top (again, the yogurt).

I think I'm a born again yogurt eater.

*I think it was Tuesday, but I'm finding the days all melt together right now.
**I believe I've mentioned that CiBaby is VERY sensitive to lactose and doesn't do even well with most yogurt, so it's a trial.
***This is where the rock comes in, are you following me?

One year ago today - October 9, 2007

One year ago today it was a crazy day. We were finishing compiling and weighing our suitcases.* T-Daddy and I were set with 2ish interchangeable outfits for over 2 weeks...of course they were easily washable in the hotel bathroom sink/tub as we didn't know what type of laundry services would be available in CiBaby's province.

Although our flight wasn't until the afternoon the next day I didn't sleep more than one wink that night. While I knew what would happen the next day, it was beyond that which had me sleepless. How would she react to us? How would we react to her in that instance? What would happen? What would our travel companions be like**? Would someone really be at the airport in China to meet us? See, no sleep.

We picked up Gpa (T-Daddy's dad) this day also. He would be staying at our house while we were gone. It was an over 2 week trip and we didn't want to totally inconvenience Big Sister with the dog, cat, house AND yard while we were gone as she was a young adult, going to school and had a social life. And although she was not happy that Gpa was coming it was really for her that we did this. This was a big adjustment for everyone.

Today was a totally different day. We stayed at home all day. We had a couple of friends over while their mama went to work for a few hours. We had a fun time painting pumpkins, eating pancakes, playing and watching movies. What a change.

*You may bring a suitcase up to 50 pounds internationally, the in-country flights only allowed 44 lbs. Yikes.
**They were AWESOME, just to clear that up!

Leapin' Lizzards!