No Ordinary Family

Just some points from this morning: Up at 4 am for a early morning bottle and diaper change Can't go back to sleep make coffee, drink coffee order some things online  Check and respond to email drink more coffee 5 am say hello to husband browse Facebook try to sleep. eat a bowl of Cheerios drink more coffee Wake up call from Little Miss Realize it is raining like crazy outside Change another diaper Dress baby Say good bye to husband feed baby yogurt  watch baby spit yogurt all over her shirt  get baby clean shirt read Christmas book read water book read Christmas book again  Put dinner in the crock pot pick up poopy baby search for poop containers Change baby while scooping up poop get poop everywhere! wash baby and redress Take diapers outside Change my clothes Wash clothes on hot I still smell poop :( WHY? seal up poop bag  still smell it, Ugg look at clock, it is only 8 am!! Take baby step out in the rain to clear the s...

I love winter, I really do but I am ready for it to be spring!  I think the extreme cold in Beijing and Changsha and then the spring like weather in Guangzhou made me more than ready for the next season.  However, the past couple of days mother nature has other things in mind.  It has gotten bitterly cold. I had intended to stay in today but I have been putting something off and I finally got the courage to do it.  I called a local lab about getting Chloe's stool samples tested.  Yes, you read that right, poop.  I happen to hate poop but apparently living in an institution for the first few months of her life means she is at risk for parasites, YUCK!  I am a microbiologist but parasites kinda freak me out.  I don't think she has them but better to be safe than spreading intestinal bugs around the whole family.  I mean I don't mind sharing but I draw the line there. So all that to say we (Chloe and I) ventured out in the frigid w...

Here is the real deal.  I go back to work in 2 weeks and a few days.  This time has gone too fast!  Where in the manual did it say that time was going to start speeding by like a freight train.  Oh yeah, I forgot I lost the manual and it was written in Chinese any way.  To be perfectly honest a bit of me is excited to go back to work.  I need a break where I am an adult who does adult things.  I never thought I would miss going to work this much and don't get me wrong I love my daughter to death but she is exhausting.  On the other side of the coin I am going to have a really hard time leaving her.  YES, I know I am leaving her with my mom but I am still leaving her.  What if I miss something?  What if she smiles really cute and says mama when I am not there? How is she going to handle me dropping her off and daddy picking her up?  I know she will be fine but I am really having some mixed feelings about this return to work thin...

We got our flip a couple years ago, yet I think the last couple weeks it has really gotten good use.  I really must say I love this camera it is so easy to use and it is small enough to be right next to you so you can try and catch all the little things, well I can try to catch them. I have been trying to get a good video of Chloe walking but she seems to decide to crawl every time I pick up the camera.  She is walking more and more so I am sure I will get a good one on camera very soon. I was also trying to teach her how to blow kisses and instead I taught her MMMMWWWAAAAHHH.  She is stinkin' adorable. We finally got a video of the giggling.  She is a joy for sure!

Yep we have survived the first month!  I am sure I should write something wonderful and full of sentiment and meaning but I just don't have it in me tonight.  Instead I will just post some pictures to show you what a happy baby she is, even though she was not feeling well today.   Her Lovie makes a fun hat. She still loves the doggies, Gypsy is a bit more tolerant than Toby. The jealous older brother. The mirror is supposed to be on the wall but she pulled it off.  It is very light and not going to hurt her so I left it on the floor for her to play with while I was watching.  She loves mirrors!

Thank you for all of your suggestions.  Over the past 2 weeks I have been putting diapers to the test. I ruled a couple out after a very short time.  Wal Mart brand did not get high marks, although they ones we took to China were Wal Mart they were an older style and they have changed a lot since then. Kirkland also did not fair well but not because they were not great diapers they were just too big, when there are gaps in the legs you know they are going to leak and they did.  Huggies, we tried in China and they are very similar to Kirkland in my opinion, if your baby has leg chub these brands will work great, if they are a skinny mini like Chloe better plan on leakers.  Target is good but not the best (actually they come in a close second) they are slightly smaller but they are just not a Luvs diaper.  The clear winner of our Chloe's Diaper challenge is the Luvs!  I LOVE them. They fit and they don't leak!  I think we will have to reevaluate the dia...

As an adoptive parent, I think you appreciate all these milestones more but only being an adoptive parent I guess I really have no idea.  But I know that I have spent a lot of time think about milestones lately and what I have missed and what we have yet to see.  There is so much that happens on a daily basis in a babies life that when you are not there for the first 16 months you miss.  I have morned for a few of those and I wish that I had been there when Chloe first rolled over or when she was getting her first tooth but I was not and that is just the way life was meant to be, I don't have to like it but I can't change it. As much as I did not want to miss these milestones, one month ago when we met our daughter, I was saddened by all the things that she had not done yet.  There were a lot of mixed emotions because although I was happy for me that we would see her expression the first time she ate from a spoon, I was sad that at 16 months old that she had not...

We helped celebrate our youngest niece's 1st Birthday last night.  Leah is such a sweet little girl, she wanted to enjoy her birthday cake one sprinkle at a time.  Chloe enjoyed sharing in wrapping paper and ribbons.  Happy Birthday Leah!

Please take a look at Chloe and Maire featured in the February photo challenge here .

I am not talking about our daughter because she is most likely a genius but there is this baby toy brand that is called Baby Einstein.  Of all the toys we have these are her favorites and especially the book, " Water, Water, Everywhere. "  I have had to read it no less than 500 times.  Seriously, I have the book memorized and she digs it off the bottom of the stack every time.  She LOVES it.  I however don't think that it was even inspired by Einstein, there are a couple lines that are just incorrect, I think I am going to have to start correcting as I read it.  I don't want her to get false ideas about the creation of snow :).   Chloe really loves books, which absolutely proves she is perfect in our family.  Right now she prefers simple pictures with short rhyming sentences.  She will bring you a book ask to get in your lap and listen to you read it over and over again.  She got really mad at me this morning because I need to put my s...

I have been sick and tired, quite literally, I got a cold that will not let me sleep with out coughing.  It is really quite annoying.  I have also developed an allergy to the cold medicine I have been taking, because I broke out into hives even though the night time version has an antihistamine in it.  Jim stayed home today at my request, to help chase the speed crawler and let me get some rest.  We ended up making a quick trip to Wal-Mart and to the one of the schools where Jim teaches for a quick visit. The trip to the store was for a different brand of diapers, I have a box of Costco brand but they don't seem to fit her skinny bum.  The leak a little and her onsies get damp when she pees, I don't think that is normal.  We had some Wal-Mart brand ones that I took to China and they seem to be a little smaller so we are hoping less gapping.   Please if you have a miracle no leak diaper suggestion for skinny mini kids let me know!  Jim ...

I can not believe the changes this little girl is making after just the week at home.  Our little girl has some food "issues" for lack of a better word.  When we met her in China we assumed that she would be eating solid foods, I was prepared for a bit delayed but not where she was.  We were told that she was only eating formula/rice cereal bottles and they weren't lying.  The first day she was with us we could not get her to eat a thing. That night in the middle of the night she sucked down an 8oz bottle in about 30 seconds.  I am sure it was made all wrong but she must have been starving.  One problem was the nanny's told us to mix the formula and cereal 50/50 and make it thick but they did not tell us how to mix formula.  Tip for future adoptive parents: Take a formula scoop, the Chinese formula did not have one and the directions were in (yep, you guessed it) CHINESE.  We had the brand right we called and asked but we did not have a clue ...

This blog update was brought to you by the letter C and NAP TIME!  FYI - I love my girl but I heart nap time. So we tried an impromptu photo shoot with our dear daughter last night and we got these adorable shots.  (Which I need to crop and adjust but my computer's hard drive is nearly full so I need to put pictures on the external hard drive and so I have room to edit the new ones. ) But we got several of these shots, have I mentioned that she never stops moving... And then she was done and chasing the dogs again.