Putting this picture first for my RQ friends :)

Color sorting

Baby girl is a pro at color sorting!

Update

Lili is recovering nicely from her tonsil and adnoid surgery.  She has rejected pain meds, she didn't like how they made her feel.  She's on soft food for a week and she's hungry!  She's still napping lots.  Eric moved another couch up from the basement and we've made a bed for her on one of the couches. 

Tree got decorated last night, school is done until the new year and I've planned Jia's second birthday party in the last few days.  Time to relax a bit this weekend.

We just watched Mr. Poppers Penquins, loved it.  Very funny. 

Home

Lili is home and resting on the couch.  It's good to be home and have the worst behind us.  Thanks everyone for all of the support.  We appreciate it.

Nurses

Wild day, the nurse in recovery was a friend from school too.  Two old friends today.  Both absolutely amazing with Lili.  Sure did help with my day!  Benefits of a small town ;)

Her care here in the little/old hospital has been stellar.

Lili is napping.  She's sipped some water and tried some jello.  Swallowing is too hard.

In peds.

Awake, holding Lucky, using her phone to talk to me in text and ask questions.  Love these phones!  I brought paper and pens for her. What was I thinking?!

Waking up again

Getting ready to move to peds.  She's doing just awesome.  Pain meds working.

She's doing great.

She looks awesome.  Good color, breathing well.  She's in pain, so they've given her morphine and some codine.  She's dozing again.  One happy Mama to have the hard part over!

She's in the o r

Her nurse in the surgery room was a friend of mine from school.  Lots more tears.  They forgot to put the numbing cream on her hand so the anathesiologist (sp?) said I couldn't walk her back.  Honestly she is so drugged it really wasn't necessary.  So, I'm waiting in the main waiting room in my scrubs.  Still getting to be in the recovery room.  I'm told she'll be in the o r about an hour.

Dozy

She's waking a bit and super dozy.

Sleepy juice

Worked in five mins.

9:30

Surgery at 9:30.  Lili just drank meds to make her relax and possibly sleep.  She wants to be awake for her needle.

Cartoons

She's rejected the offered cartoons and is playing on her phone instead.

Mom's ready too.

Didn't expect my costume change.

She's in.

Not happy, but she's all checked in and waiting.

We're off

We're off to the hospital.  Surreal.  Sucky day for sure.  Lili seems strong so far.  Not a lot of talking.  Lucky Bear is in my bag.  We need to be there at 8.  Should be home around 5. 

Butchart

The girls and I were having a perfectly lovely jamma day and woke up from a nap to find Eric home from riding and offering to take us to Victoria for dinner and a stroll through the gardens.  Yay.  We had an awesome time there.  So relaxing.  Jia LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the carousel.  When we first arrived the first person we saw was a wee Chinese baby toddling on her way out.  Turned out she lives in Nanaimo and just came home with her new parents a couple months ago.  Our girls were just so thrilled to meet a new baby home from China, another Emily, and man-oh-man was she a cutie.  Didn't catch the parents name, but I'm sure we'll see them again :) 

It wasn't as cold as I thought it would be, perfect night.  Jia was sporting her new baby gap snowsuit, totally adorable in it.  She looks like a pink marshmallow.  She was toasty warm in there though.

Piano Recital

***You Tube Video*** 

http://youtu.be/nBCz5-wq0nE

***You Tube Video***

As usual, we just couldn't be any prouder or our girls!  They both did a fabulous job.

Lili's 9th Gotcha Day.

Happy Gotcha Day Little Lili!  We are both so delighted that you are our daughter, I wonder all the time how we got so lucky.  The day you were placed in my arms remains the best day of my life.  We love you our wee peanut.  Love from Mom and Dad.

Lili gets to pick dinner today and she's decided on the pancake at Smitty's with the ice cream and chocolate sauce on it :)

I've been too busy lately to take many photos.  Lots of missed opportunities for sure.  The girls and I are going to a Celtic show tomorrow night and Sat. after music class the girls are dancing at Cairnsmore.  At five it's piano recital time and we're all pretty excited about the girls first duet.  They've practiced lots for that.  They have their gowns and we're all set.  We've been trying to get Jia to play bells while the big girls play but so far it's just not working.  Would be soooo cute at the recital though.  H & H are spending the night Sat. too so it's a pretty big day all around!  Next week is school concerts, Lili's surgery, gingerbread houses at school and then pancake/movie/Santa day!  Phew.  Looking forward to the 16th and down time with the girlies at home.

The pictures of the girls and I in green were from last weekend.  We took Jia to meet Santa.  She wasn't so thrilled about that and I ended up in the picture.  Thought that might happen, hence the matched shirt.  The girls and Santa look great in the photo, me not so much, so not posting it.

The pink skirt is from Meiling and Jia just LOVES it.  Another girlie girl for sure.

 

Tinkerbell

Today at her mother goose class, she was dancing with big sweeping gracefull moves, yelling out 'Jamba (gramma), Mommy, yook, I'm Tinkerbell!'.

Egg's

Egg's being put to bed while Momma is on the potty.  All aspects of my life are interesting ;)

More updates for Lili

I seriously LOVE this photo!  Miss Jia liked the face painting at Halloween so much that we've now got all the make up in the house hidden.  We're not sure what it is but she says it 'pretty'. 

I've always avoided taking the girls to book stores.  The little book store in our little town it ok but I've always worried about the wish list if they ever saw one of the big stores.  We did take them to Bolen Books and oh my...they were beyond delighted.  We were there a LONG time and they both made long lists of all of the books they now want.  Both of them are asking to go back, without Dad and Jia.  They're even telling me I can sit in the food court at the entrance and read a book while they're in there.  I knew this is what would happen if they found out such a place existed.

The new thrown.  It even makes a water flushing sound.  Jia truely loves her Pooh Bear potty.

I talked Sue into buying this bubble blower last summer for her grand babies.  A few weeks ago she turned it back into the thrift store.  Then Jia developed her facination with Nemo (Memo) and when it hit the shelf I bought it!  Too funny.  Fifty cents.  Jia was delighted with it and had a great time chasing bubbles (bubboos). 

Friends from Lili's travel group came last weekend.  Kids had a blast playing with Jade, Lian and their cousin Sean.  We're so glad they could make it over.

Lili enjoys looking at the pictures on the blog and often brings up really old posts and says "mom, remember this?".  It's always shocking how much younger they look.  Amazing how fast they all grow up.  She's been bugging me to put some new pictures up.

Jia is all about the potty right now.  She's had some success and she occasionally gets it right, announces what she needs to do and gets her clothing off and makes it to the potty, but really, way more pee gets on the floor than in her potty!  I've had days where it seems I've spent hours washing floors.  It doesn't upset her at all to pee before she's on the potty.  She's also taken' to peeing in the tub so now none of us want to bath with her right now.  She seems in better control of the poops and we are having some success with getting those in the potty.  It's such a HUGE deal for little kids.  Can't say that the rest of us are enjoying the process, I sorta wish she'd just stick with those diapers for a while yet instead of stripping down and peeing on the floor!   

Lili's tonsil/adenoid surgery has been moved up to Dec.14 so we're trying really hard right now to keep her from getting any colds.  She's staying away from any kids with a cough.  I've been keeping her in when it's raining.  I don't know, BC mold is everywhere and I'm not convinced that some of our gloomy mouldy weather isn't partly to blame for some throat issues.  I loved that our Lili could spend time in the library during school lunch in all of her previous years at our school.  She is always cold, so slight that it's hard for her to warm up once she's chilled and with the on going throat issues it was a blessing that she was in warm and dry.  This year her teacher prefers the kids go outside for fresh air.  I don't disagree with the fresh air.  However we do live in a 101 year old house so I'm pretty sure we're all getting fresh air all of the time :)  The kids do spend time outside regularly.  I'm not worried about the kids not getting enough fresh air.  I don't like being out in gloomy wet weather if I don't have to, Eric doesn't like it either and our kids have certainly learned this from us.  So it's hard to hear her come home from school telling us she had to go run in the rain.  I feel for her.  I'd hate to have to run in the rain too.   Pretty sure our Lili won't ever head to a career that will have her working out in the disagreeable elements.  So for now we're fingers and toes crossed that she can keep the colds, flues, strep and tonsillitis at bay until after her surgery.  We're still on a wait list hoping for sooner. 

Both big girls are practicing daily for their Christmas recital.  They get to do a duet this year, so they're both pretty excited about that.  Jia likes to dance to their music.  So cute. 

I've finished my Christmas shopping for the girls.  Hoping to get it wrapped soon.  I'd love to head into December with free time to enjoy the extra events.  Can't wait to see Jia's reaction this year.  She was too young last year to have any clue.  The girls have been showing her pictures of Santa and trees.  So far she isn't interested.  She is however very interested in Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Nemo or Memo as she calls him.  She requests Memo in the car constantly and every time there is a Disneyland commercial on she screams Mickey Mouse!  We're all excited for her to see Disneyland and Mickey Mouse in Feb!  I remember when Fei met Winnie the Pooh when she was three, she ran to him and hugged him so hard.  I cried it was so sweet. 

My Mom hosted a ladies craft/lunch party at my place this past Sunday for the women of our family.  It was a lot of fun and none of us thought to take even one picture.  Mom brought a craft for Jia and it took both of us working in a flurry to keep it going and under semi control.  It was a paper chain and once it was done, we hung it in the kitchen entrance and Jia was so thrilled with it that when Eric came home she showed it to him right away. 

All is basically good.

Lap rides

Lili says it's time to update.  She filmed Jia getting a lap bounce last night so I'll start with that.  We did the lap bounce in music class and thought it was pretty fun, so last night before bed we showed Dad how it was done.  She's been playing a lot with an old Wrinkles puppet that was mine as a girl and Fei decided to give him a bounce too, Jia was simply thrilled that they were both getting a bounce together, we did the song about 30 times last night and it didn't get old for Jia at all, she said 'again' after each go.  We had to distract her with snacks to end the game.  Notice the dog is wearing a diaper.  It's all about diapers and potties right now.

Halloween

Waiting for the train.

My sweet butterflies.

She has no idea what is going to happen but she's ready!

A few missing from the group shot.  Didn't get a better group shot later.

Right in the middle of the chaos and quite happy to be there.

Ready for the symphony.

Hard to imagine four little cuties making such a mess isn't it?!

I love this picture of Fei. 

Lili's grade 4 class.  They got to have a party after the parade.

Jia was so excited to get going, she was yelling 'lets go!'.

Lili's classmate Chloe who lives down the road from us was dressed as a butterfly too, so it was great for the girls to do a few houses together.

Phew.

What a weekend.  Friday night, dinner and the spooky train with friends.  We went last year, this year was similar.  Kids enjoyed it and want to go again next year.  Jia was wide eyed but went along with everything.  She's such a trooper.  Saturday we met as a group and trick-or-treated in old town.  11 kids in our group.  Pure chaos.  Total fun.  Lili held Jia's hand for over an hour and took her in and out of every store.  Major praise to Lili for doing that.  Then we had a group lunch and five families went onto see the symphony.  Lili slept through the whole thing.  Fei slept through the second half.  Eric and I were too busy keeping Jia quiet to sleep.  It was ok.  Not our thing.  Ended the day with a play at our house.  Lili and Fei went to Haley and Hanna's for a sleepover so it was just Eric and I with Jia.  Almost a half date except that she chose Sat. as the night she would finally sleep with us!  She kept waking up so we brought her into our room and for the first time since we've been home she slept through the night in our bed.  Huge deal in the attachment realm.  Sunday Penny brought the girls back and they stayed for lunch then the big girls and I whipped to town to see Puss-n-Boots.  LOVED it.  Totally hillarious.  Disappointed that yet again in a kids movie, there were orphans and an orphanage.  Arg.  Monday was my flex day and I got to see the kids school parade.  I grinned through the whole thing.  Jia got to go around in the parade with both of her sisters.  Amazes me how brave she is about stuff like that.  If her girls are doing it, she'd doing it.  Then we ended the festivities last night with some trick-or-treating in the neighborhood.  Did the same route as normal.  It took twice as long with Jia there, there were more blacked out houses than normal and they still managed to bring home twice the loot.  Jia walked the whole way.  She said trick-or-treat and thankyou at each house.  Seriously WAY TOO CUTE.  Could explain the increase in candy!

Museum and the ballet.

Can't see the woolly mammoth, but he's iconic, so we take his picture every time we're there.

Lili loves the old kitchen and the smell of apple pie, Jia was sniffing like crazy and asking "what's that? num numbs?"

She walked the whole museum and then crashed in the car after one bite of cookie.  We thought the crumbs on her lips were so cute!

We found these dresses at Costco, got a little one for Jia too but she didn't go to the ballet with us.  Anyone looking for Christmas dresses, they're on for $18.99!!

Fei and I couldn't believe we got this shot of Sophie!  They move so fast.

Love this one of Stella, looks like she's peeking at Sophie.

They seemed to really like these Halloween decoration rats!  Too funny.  Sophie sat posed for quite a while.  Wild.

The girls had a pro-d day Friday, Eric was taking them to the museum and at the last minute I skipped work and went with them.  We all had a great relaxing day.  On our own, it was raining so it was a perfect day to stroll and explore the museum.  The big girls have been often enough that they're familiar with the exhibits and have favorite sections.  They were awesome with Jia showing her around.  Jia has been before but this was the first time she wasn't in a stroller.  She walked the whole thing. 

Saturday Jia and I went to her music class.  We have so much fun doing that.  She loves it there.  Then the big girls and I went to see Footloose.  It's corny, total remake, storyline the same but it was fun and I grinned through a lot of it.  Then the big girls and I went to see Ballet Rock with Avery and my Mom and Dad.  I'm a bit worried about the symphony next weekend though, there were 12 dancers, all of them beautiful and amazing to watch but the music was sleepy time for the first half and I had a really hard time staying awake through parts of it!  Ballet isn't our thing for sure.  Both girls said they much prefer to hear the bagpipes, it makes them want to dance :)

Sunday we had an occupational therapist come to the house to meet with Fei and work on ideas for her sensory issues in the classroom.  It was a bit lame, all the same stuff we basically know already.  She did talk to us a bit about Fei using crunchy food and that was new to us and so Miss Fei will be allowed potato chips etc in her lunch now.  She's underweight so it won't be a big deal for her and if crunching on snacks will help her make everything feel right in her body then how great is that?!  What a lesson we're having on sensory issues.  It's clear to us now that although Fei's sensory issues are huge, it's clear that Lili has lots too and now we see as Jia gets older, her need to be moving constantly is clearly sensory seeking.  So we have three kids with sensory stuff going on.

Then we had our social worker come and do Jia's 12month post placement.  She said all signs of babyhood are gone.  Sniff.  The also said she's hit all of the three year old milestones.  Sniff.  Then asked if we wanted her to look at the four year old milestones, we declined.  Yikes, she's only 20mo.  I still see a bit of baby left.  Anyways, she asked if we were done and I said I still think about my son who I've named Ren Di and Eric pretended to hit me over the head with a plastic stool leg so I guess he's clearly still saying he's done. 

It was a busy weekend.  We tidied quite a bit for the SW.  I know on all levels that's it's no big deal.  I know that too clean is a problem.  I know that our house on any day is plenty fine.  And I still fretted.  Cleaned the toy room the morning of the visit and then realized it looked like no one played in there, so I sent Jia in to make a bit of a mess and she wasn't messy enough for me so I scattered a few things just before our SW arrived.  I do know the levels of my insanity and I'm ok.  I think.

The big girls stayed overnight with Gramma and Grampa on Sat. so they needed to come home early Sunday for the appointments.  Their stuff was all dumped, they had chores to do  (critter care) and they both needed to bath.  I ended up sitting Sophie (Lili was cleaning and she's a bit afraid of getting bite again by her so Fei brings her to me).  I ended up doing a wee photo shoot of them and we got some great pictures.  I'll just post a few.  Sophie is almost 6mo. and Stella is 4mo.  They are just sooo sweet.