Elmo birthday party snapshots

two year checkup

Today we went in for Hannah's two year wellness checkup with our pediatric nurse practitioner. Hannah is 31 inches long and weighs 20 pounds. She's down a pound from a month ago, but up a half pound from last week. All of this illness has really put a damper on her appetite. Thankfully, she's back on full feed now doing a really good job putting down a soft taco for dinner tonight, asking for more juice, then climbing back in her high chair asking for noodles. We're more than happy to make you some noodles, baby! Looking at a US growth chart for her adjusted age, she's at the 10th percentile for height and way below the chart for weight. She wears size 12-18 months clothes and 4 and 1/2 in shoes. So... we get to go back in six months for a checkup just because she's itsy bitsy and to make sure she's following her own little growth curve. We're continuing with the whole milk for the extra calories for now.

I giggled a little when Hannah was asked to stack four blocks to assess her fine motor skills. She averages stacking 7-8 blocks at home, with a personal best of 13!

birthday suit

last day as a one year old

Today was our daughter's last day as a one year old. Her big birthday present arrived in the mail. Dada put together a toddler sized table and two chairs, and Hannah and I played with play-doh for a long time before bedtime. We got out both yellow and blue colors and started working on those new words. She loves ripping the play-doh to pieces, rolling it in her hands and on the table, and putting bits of play-doh into containers.

Tonight at bedtime, Dada and I rocked her to sleep in her room while we told Hannah her life story. I hadn't started doing it yet because I didn't know what words I wanted to use, but I've had great advice from other adoptive families just to start young and that I'll figure it out after telling the story several times. Of course, the story will change over the years as she's old enough to understand more adult details. I think I did a pretty good job with word choice, but cried the whole way through. I'm one of those people who cry easily, making a red-eyed runny-nosed mess of myself at any wedding that I attend. I hope that Kevin will tell the story the next time, and together we'll have our word choices consolidated by the time that Hannah really understands what we're talking about.

I think a lot about our daughter's Taiwanese family, and how giving a child a name that means "worthy of celebration" shows how much they love her. She's certainly worthy of celebration!

Thankfully she's perking up and feeling a lot better already. There's significantly less coughing, boogers, and whining coming out of that cute little package that is ready for play time and is asking for "cack-uh" and cheese. The Elmo cake has been ordered, and our little family party is still on for Sunday after Dada's done jumping up and down after the Colts victory.

Daddy's girl loves the iPhone

This pic is of Hannah and my grandma. We visited her at the nursing home on Christmas day, and Hannah showed her photos and videos on my iPhone. There was no way that Grandma (who has a five minute loop of short term memory) was going to learn how to work it, but it was pretty cute to see Hannah find photos for Grandma to look at.

Hannah's favorite iPhone apps are by Duck Duck Moose. She interacts with the songs of Itsy Bitsy Spider, Old McDonald, and Wheels on the Bus... three of her favorite songs. What are your toddlers' favorite apps?

still sick?!?!

Miss Hannah has been feeling really crummy this week. Not eating. Irritable. Needs Tylenol all.of.the.time to act something like her normal self. Cough. Cough. Cough. Last night when I came home from work I felt crummy myself, took some Tylenol, and went to bed... making some phone calls and e-mails under the covers with my phone before falling asleep. Kevin says that she cried for an hour knowing that I was home but wasn't holding her. When the crying woke me up outside of our bedroom door, I took her to the couch and just let her lay on me for an hour while she sniffled. Yep, this has gone on too long. We're taking you to the doctor tomorrow.

Today we learned that Hannah shares a birthday with our pediatrician. Hannah was born on her 50th birthday. Pretty cool! The doctor listened to her chest for a long time while Hannah screamed bloody murder. Peeking in the ears wasn't much fun either. Diagnosis: one ear infection and possible pneumonia. We could do a chest x-ray, but the antibiotics given for the ear infection would treat the pneumonia anyway, so why spend several hundred dollars a chest x-ray to confirm a diagnosis? Most likely the broncholitis resolved a week and a half ago when she started feeling better, but later a bacterial infection started in the remaining mucus.

We picked up the antibiotics, stopped on our way home for some lunch for our french fry eater, and went home for a nap. Little stinker takes her Tylenol but spits back the good tasting antibiotic back at me. Stinker!

1-800-222-1222

If you know the phone number in the title of this post, you know where I'm going. I hope most of you never need to call this number, but it's a good one to have memorized for when you need it.

Hannah took a turn for the worse yesterday with more coughing and has mucus like stuff coming out of the corners of her eyes. No wheezing, but we're still not back up to 100% around here. And when the girl doesn't feel well and her nose is stuffed up, she tends to gag and throw up sometimes during and after eating. No fun.

She was doing a little better this morning and we went out to take care of some birthday party shopping. (The party theme is ELMO, of course. She asks us to turn the TV to Sesame Street multiple times a day by pointing to the TV while using the word "Elmo." She doesn't always get her way, especially when she requests Elmo's appearance in the middle of a Colts game, Conan O'Brien, or any variety of Law and Order.) When we got home, I changed her into her jammies, sucked out her boogers, gave her some Tylenol as that makes her less achy and fussy, and hooked her up with some Elmo while relaxing in her easy chair before bed. Uh oh. Mama's gotta go potty, so I let her watch Sesame Street while I used the bathroom around the corner. When I finished and walked back into her room, I saw Kevin finishing up giving her some Tylenol. OH CRAP! WE DOUBLE DOSED THE BABY! I was pretty sure that everything would be okay, but went ahead and called Poison Control right away rather than research it myself. That's what they're there for, and I wouldn't be thinking too clearly while trying to figure out how bad of an ooops this was. I have the number to Poison Control memorized after listening to a very bad Poison Control radio jingle too many times. "1-800-222-1222. 1-800-222-1222. If you think it might be poison and you don't know what to do, call 1-800-222-1222." Anyway, a poison control nurse did the calculations with Hannah's weight and the dose she got, and she'll be fine. Just no more Tylenol for 12 more hours.

Yep, keepin' it real. We're both certainly not perfect. I would have just as easily have given her a second dose after Kevin gave a first dose. New rule: When both parents are home, this mama delightfully assumes all responsibility for the meds from now on.

I also learned tonight that Dada already had the phone numbers programmed into his cell phone for poison control, the city police, and the sheriff's office. Pretty good idea, isn't it? Go ahead, you can whip our your cell phones right now and program them with these numbers, too. Anyone else have good suggestions of other important numbers we might not think to program into our cell phones?

words at age two

Dear Hannah,

You are turning two this week! To mark this milestone, this weekend we sat down with the help of Nana and Papa and made a list of words that you can say. Your First Steps Speech Therapist told us that a two year old should be able to say at least fifty words, and age two is when we should stop measuring skills at adjusted age. We are so excited that our list reached SIXTY-FOUR WORDS, and surely there are a few words that we are forgetting.

Your word list at age two: Mama, Dada, Nana, Papa, Ash, Santa (sounds like Tanta), Elmo (sometimes sounds like Momo), Pip (approximation for Uncle Pip's name), no, diaper, poopoo, peepee, bed, night night, sock, shoes, bird, moo, quack (sounds like cack), woof, dog, meow, baa, nay, horse, car, go, fast, baby, help, up, fries, apple, milk, juice (sounds like ooce), byebye, hot, open, please, cookie, cracker (sounds like cacker), bath (sounds like baff), wawa (approximation for water), pop, bubble, out, nose, eyes, head, teeth (sounds like teef), ears, noodle (sounds like doodle), chips, T (approximation for TV), beep beep, achoo, more, ice, bottle (sounds like bobble), see, balloon, uh-oh (which you can use appropriately, such as when you spill your milk), clock (sounds like cock), and hi.

We are so proud of you, big girl. We love you so much!
Mama and Dada

All week long I'll be adding in words that we've forgotten to put on our original list: coat, play, candy, and chocolate (sounds like chalk-it).
New tally = 68

New word on 1/20/10: down
New tally = 69

little baby bulldogs

Just had to snap a pic of my little bulldogs before taking Hannah over to Nana and Papa's to play while Dada and I put away the Christmas decorations. Butler doesn't have an engineering program, so Hannah can go there when she goes back to school for her MBA. :)

2010 Census: write in Taiwanese campaign

The Taiwanese American Citizen's League is encouraging Taiwanese Americans to check off "other Asian" in the race and ethnicity section of the 2010 Census and write in "Taiwanese." HERE's a link for more information. Census forms will be mailed in mid March 2010. Hannah Claire Ching-Ling will be identified as other Asian - Taiwanese. Gotta represent. :)

picking up a few things at the grocery

anti-viral

I know... I know. It's been forever and a day.

Little Miss shared her viral boogies with me. After a week and a half of fighting with Mr. Mucus I think I've won the battle. Hannah is breathing much better and just has a lotta gook in her sinuses that we're sucking out every day.

It's nice to be back home. I know that Hannah missed her crib, and it's so cute to have her walk over to her crib at night, pat it, and request, "bed. bed."

I haven't taken any photos yet in 2010, and hope to have a chance to this weekend!

Diagnosis bronchiolitis

On New Year's Eve Hannah's runny nose turned into something a little more. She didn't want to eat, started coughing, and was clingy and irritable. Every word was "no no no no" and she wanted to be held all of the time. She was tugging at her ear a bit, so I figured ear infection. New Year's morning the fever was back and she really was't acting right. We found a pediatric urgent care center and brought her in. Dr. B said both ears were clear but she didn't like the sounds in her chest and ordered a chest x-ray. She had some air trapping, and a nebulizer treatment was ordered. Diagnosis is bronchiolitis, a viral infection. Hannah wasn't cultured, but it could very well be RSV. We're giving her Tylenol around the clock which really makes her feel better, saline in her nose and sucking out the boogies with a bulb syringe, encouraging her to drink plenty of fluids even though she doesn't want to eat, and doing a lot of holding and rocking.

Needless to say, the Disney trip was canceled today. I fly back home tomorrow and Kevin and Hannah will be here another week visiting with the family. Hopefully she'll perk up soon. This can last 5-12 days.

first taste of Taiwanese beef and noodles

We are in the Orlando area visiting Kevin's family for Christmas. Tuesday was our first Hannahversary, and we spent it together with family. We dined at a dinosaur themed restaurant called T-Rex at Downtown Disney that is a lot like Rainforest Cafe. Hannah was pretty overstimulated and looked around the whole time, but wasn't afraid of the dinosaurs. I walked her around to visit some of the dinosaurs. We watched some preteen girls petting a baby animated brontosaurus. I asked if she'd like to pet him. Hannah stretched our her arm and was ready to touch him, but pulled back and buried her head in my neck. Think she changed her mind. I asked if she'd like to see more dinosaurs, and she enthusiastically said "more" with a big nod. We visited several more dinosaurs, always with requests for "more."

Today we went to Sun Pearl Bakery, a Taiwanese Bakery in Orlando. I read reviews online that they had great noodles. I had beef, Kevin pork, and we both had boba milk teas. Mmmm... the smells of the spices of the soups we so good. We could close our eyes and the smells took us right back to Taiwan. Hannah loves her noodles, and made several requests for more. She had her first boba tea. I tried to keep the big straw at the top of the glass so she wouldn't suck up any unexpected boba, but she did get one piece and immediately spit it out into her bib with a surprised look on her face. We also picked up some rolls and pineapple cakes to snack on with the family. There's a huge Asian grocery in the same strip mall. We bought some trays of candies and dried fruit for Chinese New Year. I also found some thousand year old eggs in the refrigerator case. Kevin's excited to share them with his family, but I'm not so sure that they'll share his level of enthusiasm.










First trip to Disney is Saturday!

Christmas morning snapshots

After Christmas Tea Sale

For my friends who are also Tea Collection fans, the big after Christmas tea sale is on now. I've also found a coupon code "teaten" that works to save you an additional ten percent off. I'm putting away a few things for Hannah for next fall, and couldn't resist getting a few things from the new Korean inspired line for Hannah for this spring. Cute cute cute prints! Getting the sets instead of separates are a good deal if you like everything in the set.

I checked out the Hanna Andersson online sale but there wasn't anything that I just had to have.


Another mom told me about Corky and Company coats that she buys for her daughter on Ebay. I bought this pink and brown swing coat for Hannah and love love love it. So warm and so cute, and the quality is great stuff!

Have you found some great deals in after Christmas sales? Tell us all about it!

visiting Santa Claus

A couple of weeks ago we made our first trip as parents to see Santa Claus. We ventured to the mall about eight o'clock on a weekday night, and were fortunate to pass by Santa when he had no one in line waiting for him. Kevin held Hannah and talked to her about who this white bearded man in the red suit was. Hannah was very cautious, but was interested in looking at him. I asked, "Can Santa hold you?" "No," she quickly replied and held her dada a little tighter. Kevin sat down with Santa on his big chair and they talked to Santa about what a good girl she's been this year. She didn't cry, but there was no way that she was going to agree to let this strange man hold her. Kevin and I both didn't want a crying kid with Santa photo, so we all jumped in the photo. No smiles from Hannah this year, but she did take a coloring book from his hand.

1 of 253

The US state department has released their statistics for international adoption in fiscal year 2009. In 2009 there were 236 IR-3s and 17 IR-4s issued for Taiwan born children totaling 253. Hannah Claire is one of those 253. Six of those children came to our state. Feeling blessed to know a few of those six! Pretty interesting to peek around these statistics and see how much things have changed in the last few years with the China slow down, Guatemala changes, and Ethiopian surge.

Hannah's first phrase

Dada and Hannah visited me at work this past week. As Hannah approached me she said to her Dada, "I see Mama!" (Mama beams!)

my world... an explanation

I've had a lot of uncertainty in the last five months. My old job was really stressing me out as professional hours were cut with the company freaking out about the recession. I didn't loose any hours, but I was often doing the job of two people instead of the job of one and a half that I was already doing. I was miserable. I decided that I needed to take a professional leap of faith and something less stressful for my own mental health, and found a job that paid just a little better, had more management responsibilities, lower volume, a drastically different corporate culture, but required me to work worse hours, ever other weekend, and included a 45 minute commute in good weather... and well over an hour in bad.

After working at the new job for three months, I discovered that I didn't like the direction new company was taking my profession, I felt like I wasn't fitting into the corporate culture, and the long drive stole precious hours of Hannah time away from me. I didn't like one of the company's new initiatives that made me feel like a used car salesman, and had an incident with a supervisor that pushed me over the edge. Do I want to move my family to live closer to this job so I would have more family time? Nope. We really value the close relationship that Hannah has with my parents, and don't want to take her away from that. After being gone for four months, I hadn't been replaced at my old job... but they were working hard to find someone for the role. When I left, my old supervisor told me that there'd always be a place for me at old company as long as he was there. But a job close to home might not always be available. What to do... what to do.

I contacted my old supervisor, and was offered my old job back like it was before. I gave new job two weeks notice and started back at old job on Thursday. Then, I learned Thursday night that old job wants me to work every other weekend instead of every third like I'd had with them for nearly five years. Not happy about this news. Old job is pretty stressful, but the better hours for my family life were the plus side. What to do... what to do. Suck it up and stay with old job, make the hours thing a bigger issue and threaten to quit (again), or find another new job with another 30-45 minute commute?

The grass wasn't greener on the other side of the fence. It was just another shade of brown.

My priorities are so much different now than what they were two years ago, but in a way I'm still sorting out what is an old priority from what is a new priority.

I long for the optimism I had fresh out of college. I had excellent role models and was stepping out to make a difference in the world. I wish I could pick up the pieces and put together the remains of that person. She's inside here, somewhere. I'm working on finding her.

All this stuff obviously isn't adoption related, but it's life. My life. Real life. Things changed a lot when I became a mother. I learned that becoming a parent comes with a lot of guilt, and being an adoptive parent just adds on an extra layer of that guilt. Did I feed her any vegetables today? I should have been more patient when she was trying to use the cup and was spilling milk on the carpet. There's still a poop smear on the bathroom floor that hasn't been mopped up in three days. Does that make me a bad mother? I'm the only mommy that has never been to story hour at the library and Daddy always gets to go. What am I missing out on?

So, there's my world... an explanation of what's on my mind these days.

Video: littlest chef

We had family Christmas with my family Sunday afternoon. It took over an hour and a half for to open presents with our 22 month and 9 month olds. There were so many new things for the babies to play with... blocks, cars, Elmos, toy food, pots and pans, and books galore.

The video quality a phone isn't so hot, but I just had to post this to thank Uncle "Pip" and Aunt "Tata" for the cooking supplies. Our littlest chef loves to put her food in her pots and whisk them around! Can't wait for all of the fun when she can use these with what Santa brings her. :)

my girl

My girl. The girl that sits in the bathroom sink, watching me intently as I put on my makeup. While I'm looking in the mirror putting on mascara, she's grabbed my blush brush and is using it on her cheeks. At night she's still the baby in footed pajamas that I microwave bottles of milk for. My girl likes clean hands, and holds up her sticky fingers silently asking me to wipe them off for her. She likes to be chased, fakes coughs, and points at me and says "achoo" when I sneeze. She can spot a cat three houses down the street and quietly says "meow" to herself. She holds my finger as we s.l.o.w.l.y cross streets with her little steps. She pours me pretend tea and feeds her babydoll invisible food from a spoon. My baby blows kisses to me from her crib when I tell her "Night night. Wo ai ni." Every day she's different. Always growing. Always learning. Forever changing. But she'll always be my little girl.

little Santa and the nativity

Today we went over to my mom and dad's house to try for Christmas card photos again. My parents' tree is right next to a big bay window, and I thought I might be able to get some good natural lighting. The timing wasn't right and the sun was too high, so there wasn't good lighting by the tree. Fortunately, little Santa found plenty of things to play with.




My Great Grandmother made this nativity for my family when I was really little. I remember playing a lot with it. The hands and faces of the people are made of felt, and we stretched out a lot of the hands by having the people carry around baby Jesus. The camel's legs don't want to stand up very well, the palm tree's can't hold the weight of the leaves, the shepherds have lost their crooks, and the pipe cleaners of the star are bent out of shape, but this nativity wouldn't be quite so special if we hadn't played so much with it. Grandma is surely looking down upon us from heaven, and I'll bet she's tickled that little hands with cookie crumbs have a hold of baby Jesus.

Disney Christmas photos

So much going on and little time for photos these days. Hannah is on the go and doesn't look at the camera or sit still for very long, so that makes for difficult and very brief photo sessions.

We tried to have Hannah's Christmas photos taken professionally at a studio several weeks ago, but she wouldn't smile for the photographer. She looked darling in a little red dress and tights, but who wants to buy a photo of their child with a blank expression on her face?

We're going to Florida to visit Kevin's family right after Christmas, and I had a little dress made for Hannah's first trip to Disney World. It's so stinkin' cute that I had to get out the camera today, and even called Nana to come over and check out our little mousekateer. Hannah likes the ears and liked looking at herself in the mirror, patting her Minnie ears. I'm not sure this is what I want to use for our Christmas photos, but it was fun!




Kevin started a new family Christmas tradition with Hannah. We're going to have her pick out an ornament every year for our tree. This year Hannah picked out a large and LOUD red jingle bell.

Added 12/11/09:
By request, here's links to the Etsy sellers that made the dress and the Minnie dress and the Minnie ear hair clips.

Video: first snow

We had a little white stuff on the ground this week. Kevin opened the blinds to let Hannah look out her window and she exclaimed, "Ohhhhhhhh!" He bundled her up and took her outside to get the mail on our first snow of the season. It's a little long, but fun to watch her look at everything, and you can hear a few squeals of delight at the two minute mark.

poop

Today Kevin called me at work to tell me that Hannah used a new word all on her own with him. "Poop. Poop poop poop." She filled up her diaper and wanted that mess off. I praised her on the phone and told her what a good girl she was. Kevin said she smiled and nodded proudly. YAY! I've never been so happy to hear all about poop! I can see the light at the end of the diapering tunnel!

Review: Baby First TV

We have thoroughly enjoyed subscribing to BabyFirst TV. The programming is commercial free and designed for infants and toddlers. The shows are brief and focus on thinking, language, imagination, feelings, numbers, sensory skills, and soothing images. Hannah especially likes the live action shows Harry the Bunny, Tec the Tractor, and Squeak. It's nice to turn on for 15-30 minutes at a time to keep her busy while putting some laundry in the wash, doing dishes, or making dinner. Hannah loves the music and will dance and bop along with the characters.

Here's an episode of Squeak that we danced like kangaroos and elephants to on Sunday afternoon.