May 04 Update - 1 Week Home

Announcement: Having considered this over the last week, and in response to a number of folks who have encouraged me to continue blog updates on Emily, I have decided how I want to approach this. Because the purpose of this Blog is all about completing our adoption in China and bringing Emily home, I want to preserve that spirit and so I will complete my final post to this blog on May 6 (one month anniversary of our departure to China), and then begin a new blog for Emily now that she is at home. I feel this is an important distinction as many families who are in the adoption process have access to this blog and it has important context for their future journeys. I want to insure that the true spirit of this blog (Bringing Emily Home) is preserved and not somehow lost amongst all the wonderful new journey we now begin. That said, I also want to honor the new journey and share it with others.

Leap Frog is the Bomb!!! Hee Hee!!

Today is the 1 week anniversary of arriving home, for Emily. All I can say is that Emily has done really really well adjusting into her new home. As you can see in the photo above, her Leap Frog Table Top is a big hit. She just loves to move the slides and push the buttons to make the sounds and movements go. Giving Mr Banjo Frogs banjo a tug and seeing the little colored wheel spin is her most favorite.

That said, I have to admit that her number one favorite play toy continues to be diaper package wrappers! Go figure! :) She latched on to one of the Antic Duck (local Chinese brand) of diaper wrapper way back in Changsha and we have carried that one wrapper every since and still have it set aside to bring out when we are there to directly supervise her while she plays with it. And at diaper changing time, she loves to try to pull diapers out of the bin next to where we do the change-outs.

She blew-off the jet lag by day 2, like it never existed, and moved into a normal routine of sleep, eat, play, cuddle. We have successfully expanded her diet some over the last week, moving her into new tastes and ultimately foods with a bit more fiber content. Dad still makes a steamed egg at night to put in the fridge for the next day's meals and she just loves to gobble it down. She will take Gerber fruits now without gagging, and we are beginning to move her from rice cereal to multi-grain. In China, what worked best was to slip new food tastes (we packed and carried Gerber fruits) into her milk/rice bottle meals. Here at home, we are having similar success by introducing new foods via mixing some into her rice cereal to get her used to the tastes. This even worked with Grandma's super duper thick congee with ground carrots (which on day 1, she did a world class gag fest and made us pull back in anticipation of a "return for refund" on that food) and she will eat the congee straight now.

This weekend, we are going to begin doing sign work with her to help her distinguish to us "tired" vs. "hungry". She uses the same "fuss routine" for all needs at the moment, and we have to do some guess work to determine the real request. The dirty diaper is pretty easy to get the cue on (puuueeee!). The others requires guess work and we succeed usually by showing her the bottle and if we see the arms go up and the rant begin.. we know it is food rather then sleep.

She sits on her own for long periods of time now, even when dad gives her a little latteral push from one side or the other to test willingness to overcome and balance. She is showing the first signs of crawling now (can hold on all fours and is beginning to show signs of chugging the legs), is less hesitant about being on her tummy, and I think will be on all fours moving and cruisin within the next few weeks.

Emily is more and more talkative each day. Though Nancy and I are still clueless as to what she might be saying. It isn't Mandarin, and it certainly is not English. She has developed full blown laughing outbursts over the last week, as well as little "squeals of glee" when she is jazzed about something. She generally has an excellent disposition and is happy and fun loving, while being the analytical type that studies every new thing and every new face in detail. She is very alert and catches even small details (not much gets past her as long as it is in her sight line, or attracted to her sightline via some noise). She will play with a handful of toys in the den, with almost no interaction by us at all for better then 15 minutes at a session. Her only requirement is that she is able to look up from time to time and see that one of us is there (still a bit insecure after all the changes in the last month) As with all babies, she has her moments as well, and if she becomes tired, hungry, does not like the status of her diaper, or loses contact with mom or dad while playing and we leave her sightline, she can temper-up and fuss with the best of them. And regarding tempers... Emily has quite a temper and will let you know it if she does not like the situation.

Of course, as the proud daddy, I have my own squeal of glee when I come home at the end of the day and Emily gives me the great big smile and reaches out to me to take her in my arms. We are indeed very bonded and want to reach immediately to each other for some quality cuddles. Mom just shakes her head and playfully mumbles something about how I am so very much owned now by my daughter.

And that folks, is all the news to report today :)