Halloween

Eric took the girls to a pumpkin patch!

Jia joined in with the girls dance class.  The mirror was removed because the dance studio is moving, to explain the icky wall.

Carving a pumpkin with Fei at school.

Still the center of attention at school.

Come on Lili!  Let's get at that pumkin!

Nap time is still nap time where ever you are.

No way Mom!  I am NOT wearing the rat costume!!

I'll just wear this 'Boo' shirt that is too small for me instead thanks.

How cute!

Visiting Mom at work for the first time, LOVED the ladybug ride on toy.

Ready for the school dance, Isabel wanted to come too.

At the Halloween train with Chloe.

Just hangin' with the witches.

Headless Horseman, who knew he was in our town.

This isn't the whole group, but I didn't get the other group shots...anyone have one they can forward to me?

Great family shot.

Doing the big candy trade right away!

We were home a week on Friday night.  What a week.  Phew.  We survived, we're semi on schedule.  Everyone is sleeping through the night except me.  I'm going to need more time to come home.  Jia has been amazing and we could never have imagined an easier/better transitioning to home.  She just doesn't skip a beat.  As long as there are more bottles she's all good.  She was on 6 bottles a day in China, now that we're home, she's on three to four and eating a whole lot more.  She is full of smiles and giggles.  Doesn't fuss very much, eats well, is crawling really fast already and getting better at standing on her own.  She is a great mimic and masters lots of little skills every day with her toys.  She LOVES the toy room and even better when there are kids to play with her in there.  Right now I'm on the floor with the net book on a little kids stool and the girls are playing with her.  They get bored easily with the baby toys and tend to whip through them pretty fast, they aren't grasping how much time Jia would like exploring each new thing.  Can you all say sensory overload :) 

Friday night was the girls school dance, too loud, seriously, when one of Lili's friends said they were leaving to ride the Halloween train, I took the chance to get out of there and we whipped home for warmer coats and then rode the train which was completely lame and funny.  Fei had a couple little scares, Lili thought it was all just funny.  Then on Sat. we slept until 8:30 and had one hour to meet our FCC friends for Trick-or-Treating in town.  Lili chose this morning to push me to my limit.  Refused to get moving, and took 40mins to clean the rat cage (it normally takes her 10mins).  I ended up in tears.  As usual Eric and I had different agendas.  I'm trying to get everyone fed, cleaned up and in costume, he was vacuuming.  Men!  So, after asking Fei a dozen times if she had on an undershirt, a t-shirt, a long sleeve shirt and then her costume and still not having an answer and her pacing around and going up and down stairs.  I started yelling.  Goodness 30mins up and Lili wasn't close to finishing her chore (we had friends coming over later, they didn't get cleaned the night before re: the dance and train, so they HAD to get done) and Fei wasn't dressed after the same 30mins.  Jia was fed and needed her bath and I was just amusing her waiting for Eric to finish vacuuming and then there were tears.  Lots of tears.  Loud sobbing, total melt down.  Demanded that E start helping me or make calls to let people know we weren't coming.  Awful morning.  Once my tears started everyone started paying attention and things started happening, but we were a half hour behind and we missed breakfast (except for Jia).  I was thinking that the adjustment had been going too well and we were due this breakdown with the older girls and I was doubtful we'd get through the events of the day but all went well and I think fun was had by all.  We got to see pictures of Shannon and Ken's son that they are adopting through the Ministry so that was the high-lite of the day.  Soooo happy for them and we can't wait to meet him.  Nothing warms my heart more than a good adoption story.  We also got to meet Mary and Charle's new daughter May who is just home from Vietnam, what a little doll.  She is 8mo. and Jia was a bit of a bully taking toys away from her.  Hopefully Jia and May will get to spend some time together.  We don't know many babies anymore. 

We partied with friends all day, ate a late dinner at 7.  Jia had spaghetti and couldn't get enough of that.  Yuk.  I still don't care for noodles and everyone else loves them here.  Even the rats! 

Today we had two families coming to meet Jia and both cancelled.  It was an effort for the girls and I to get the house tidied up from yesterday, dishes, breakfast, dishes, snack, bottle, nap, lunch and finally more dishes.  Just waiting for signs of a sleepy baby for another bottle and another nap :)  Jia was still sleeping when I got in the shower so I told the girls they were in charge of amusing Jia if she woke up (they can't reach to get her out).  Lili came to tell me when I was in the shower that Jia was up, but not to worry they were singing and dancing and she was very happy.  So cool.  It is easier to have a baby when they help!  When I got out, I went and lifted her out and Lili asked if she could change her diaper!!  YA SURE!!  She did great, it was just a pee.  Then Fei picked out clothes and got her dressed while I got dressed in my room.  It was a shining moment especially good for this Mama to see after the dysfunction of yesterday morning!

Eric is riding today.  We're not sure which one of us is Trick-or-Treating with the girls but once they're done the plan is to go to the old Anglican church down the road, they're having a bon-fire, graveyard tour and fireworks.  Hopefully we're gone before the fireworks.  Lili is excited about the graveyard tour, Fei says she'll go, but after walking amongst the witches, werewolves and goblins at the train event, I'm guessing Fei won't follow through, but I'm always happy to be proven wrong in these situations.

Ok, lots of people asking about Jia and the sleeping.  She is amazing.  Eric was right.  I was wrong.  I take her up, feed her a bottle, burp her, sing to her and cuddle, if she falls asleep in my arms, great, if not, I just put her in the crib say goodnight and leave the room.  If feels cruel sometimes but she really only cries for a couple minutes.  It's really more of a whimper and then she's out.  She wakes up happy every single time. 

The kids are into the fake food box, Jia is confused about the fake milk baby bottle.  She is happy to munch on fake plastic food though.  She keeps her eyes on me but is happy to just play with the girls.

Paperwork stuff, we finally made it into town to get Jia a medical number and the woman working there was a  -----!  Arg.  Welcome to Canada folks.  She told us we couldn't have a number, she had to live here for three months.  I told her not for adopted babies, same rights as birthed children, she then told us it isn't the same though.  REALLY?!!  We didn't say anything but oh how many things I've had to say to her since then.  I got nasty back, asked for a supervisor, another office, asked her if we'd get better service if we went to Victoria, suggested she make a call.  She clearly was unhappy with me and very grudgingly made a call and then very quietly told us we'd have number in an hour.  Then we went to get Jia a SIN number and they refused to do it in her new name.  Again with the equal rights, you can name your birthed child but we can't name our kids?!  China accepted her new name and it's on all of the documents, including her landing paper.  How incredibly frustrating.  I told the woman working with us that we managed to get our older girls on the cards correctly so I expected the same thing for Jia.  We ended up doing a paper application because there was no way to make the computer accept Jia's name.  I was too tired after that to do any more advocating.  I know we're a small town and we're not presenting the 'norm' but anything short of 'congratulations on your new child and how can we help you?' is just not good enough!  When we were at immigration at the airport we had the Canadian officer there asking us with great annoyance why we were still going with the old landed immigrant process.  I told her my reasons that we consider valid and she was angry with our choice.  We told her there were lots of forums discussing how the new system isn't fair yet and that adoptive parents were largely going to stick with the old route to make a point.  Ya' know...really Canada could step up the welcoming party thing a whole lot.  OK, stepping off the box.

It's a lot of work having a baby in the house again but we're having fun and we all just love her so much.

Shout out to madisonchayse66, I'm sooooo thinking about you!  Fingers crossed for your match to arrive this week!!

Jolly Jumper

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNcrY4zAj3Y

I tried loading to blogger and the file was rejected, so this link will take you to a video of Jia in the Jolly Jumper on You Tube.

I know I said the walker was the best thing ever.  Have to say though that the Jolly Jumper is pretty darn cool too!  We bought it at Wal-Mart.  Yup, home for a few days and our first family outing was to Wal-Mart.  Hey, got film developed, flea treatment for the pets, groceries, baby supplies, hooks to put up all the Chinese crafts I bought for the girls rooms and a Jolly Jumper all in one place.  Perhaps Wal-Mart should pay me for some advertising.

Tuesday

I bought this cape for Jia in China and she loves it!

Anything cuter?!

Meiling brought over the best thing ever!  A  walker from China! 

Things are crazy busy here.  Home on Friday.  Jia met 22 people over the weekend.  Back to work and school on Monday.  Phew.  Jia continues to do fabulously, she is simply amazing.  Aside from sleep issues we're all doing great.

Half of us are lagging.  Lili had to come home early yesterday and she crashed until E's sister dropped in with five kids and Lili just couldn't miss that :)   Last night I was up from 12:30 to 3:30 with Jia and then 3:30 to 5:00 with Lili.  Jia and I then slept in until 10:00.  Thankfully Eric and Fei have landed on solid ground and  seem to be done with any jet lag.

When Lili was a baby I never let her cry at nap/night time and I created a sleeping  monster.  Knowing I couldn't survive two like her at night we were forceful with Fei and let her cry it out right away and she is an awesome little sleeper still.  Now I was hoping for a nice middle ground for Jia and I've been working really hard to get her to sleep 'nicely'.  She does NOT want to go in that crib.  She wants to sleep ON me.  Not working for me.  She is awful in our bed, beats us up kicking and punching.  So, I went to work and Eric put her in her crib at nap time and walked out.  I wasn't pleased with him, but really, darned if he wasn't right with her!  I ended up trying it at 3:30am and she was asleep after 9mins!  Tonight I got her to sleep in my arms 3 times and she kept waking up when I layed her down so I told her good night and she whimpered for 4mins and that was that.  Very cool.  I think it is slightly possible that she could be the most perfect baby of all time!  I'm likely bragging the sleep thing too soon of course...and heaven only knows what will happen in the wee hours around here tonight.  My gosh, I sure hope that it's me who gets some sleep tonight.

Our agency sent an e-mail welcoming us home and giving us a list of paperwork to complete.  I'm not even going to look at that again until next week.

I only cried a little leaving her yesterday to go into work.  She did great here with Daddy.  It was a little easier leaving her today.  It sure is nice to get home and see her little smiling face!

Since we've been back I'm hearing from and about so many people who were reading the blog.  I'm shocked at how many readers are out there.  I'm surprised to realize it wasn't all fellow adoptive families which is basically who I was writing for.  I'm so glad everyone has enjoyed our little adventure.  I'm afraid the rest of our daily life although exciting to us won't have quite the appeal of a trip to China to adopt a baby! 

The rest of the week is busy.  Girls are back to dance tomorrow, piano on Thursday, Jia has more family and friends to meet.  Thursday the girls are carving pumpkins at school, every year Eric goes in and helps, Fei and her friend Laurel have a plan that I'll come in and babysit Jia so he can help them again, because he's the best helper :)  Anyways, tonight while we were discussing it, Eric said he'd just take Jia in some grubbies and let her play in the pumpkins.  How fun is that?!  Lili and Fei wouldn't have liked the cold squishy texture but Jia will LOVE it.  Fei's other idea is to carve a huge pumpkin and put Jia in it for pictures.  Then on Friday there is a school dance, Eric and I are both politely offering to take the girls and let the other stay home with Jia.  Neither one of us wants to go, they're always way too loud and dark.  We'll see which of us ends up getting to stay home.  I do realize how old that makes us sound.  Saturday there are a few families getting together for Trick-or-Treating downtown, then out for lunch and a play back here at the house.  I'm already looking forward to Sunday girls jamma day.

At home

First car seat and it wasn't so bad.

Making friends with Lily and Braydon on the ferry.

Thankyou Anna and Abigail for the welcome home sign!

And I didn't think I did much shopping!  Even I was shocked at the pile on the table!

Isabel isn't willing to give up Eric's lap.

Snacks with the kids!  It's all good.

We were welcomed home by Grampa, Catherine, Abigail and Anna.  The girls made a lovely sign for our front door and it was nice to have a welcoming party.  Catherine even picked up the essentials for us, formula, diapers, milk, bread and eggs.  Which was greatly appreciated. 

Sat. evening Nicole, Steve, Willow and Meiling came and had dinner with us, they brought back the rattykins and we were shocked to see how much Mia grew!  They also brought us five lucky bamboo sticks in a red vase.  Love it!

Jia has been great about meeting new people.  She seems much more relaxed here at home and is happy to occasionally just sit in our laps.  She is eating like crazy here.  We all are.  Up at odd hours and every time we wake up we're starving.  Gotta' just love jet lagging.  We went to bed at 9:30 on Friday and woke up at noon the next day but we were all up at 2 for a play and a bottle for Jia.  Tonight Jia went to bed at 9:30 in her own crib!!  She woke up at 12:00 and then we all went to bed and she slept again until 4.  She woke up screaming and that got us all up again, so we had a huge snack, grapes, strawberries, bananas and pancakes with peanut butter.  Wild.  So, I'm up blogging, Lili is chatting to me and playing her DS.  Fei is laying in her bed with Maoduke and Eric and Jia are downstairs doing laundry.  At least none of us are sick.

I haven't talked to Mom since we've been back so I'm not sure if she is jet lagging or not.

We were worried that Isabel would have forgotten us or the rules at home.  Nope.  She came home as if nothing happened.  She submitted to the baby right away so all is good.

Lacie was a gong show when we got home (Thank you Dad for picking her up for us) she seems to like the baby but the baby isn't too thrilled with her.  They're both trying.  Lacie tries to kiss her and the baby hits her in return.  It will take a while to find middle ground and it's hard with them both wanting the lap space.  Lacie has already accepted that the rocking chair is for Jia.

Eric unpacked the suitcases and has most of the laundry done already.  I'm slowly working through the pile he made on the kitchen table. 

It's good to be home, but a lot of work.  I already miss the easy pace of holidaying.

Lili and Fei are looking forward to heading back to school on Monday.  Can't say I'm as excited about getting back to work.

Home

Home safe and sound.

Beauties in the Park

I ran out of picture space when I was blogging in the middle of the night and for a very small amount I could get more but my visa card was in the safe and I didn't want to wake either of the girls to get into it :)  So, it's morning, Fei got me my wallet and I've purchased my space, now I wait for changes to happen to my account.  I'll post the pictures in here when we get home of the girls at their little photo shoot in the park.  It's time to pack up now!

Last Day

This didn't look like a park, but we followed the crowds anyway.

We're not sure what we're getting for a treat but there was a long line up and that usually means good food :)

It's amazing that she can nap anywhere, through any noise but we can't get her in a crib!

There is a park!

Simply spectacular.

This is the daily newspaper, each page us behind glass.

We found more Koi to feed to Lili and Fei's delight.

Even Jia feed some fish.

9 dragons scroll.

Jia's not afraid of cats.  There were lots of cats in the park.  We found wiskas packages around the park, so the locals are feeding them in there. 

Back out of the park, into old Beijing.

Yams, cooked over a fire, mmmm, Jia loved them.

We think he's a pet, he's on a whole salad!  Tiny little thing.

Another Mom letting us know how HUGE Jia is :)   Her little guy is over one year.

For our last day we followed Mr. Yangs directions and had an amazing day.  Our driver dropped us at an active huotong.  Old area where the locals live, eat, shop, excercise etc.  We were the only foreigners there.  We had no idea what we were in for, it was such a pleasant surprise, we just kept walking through the masses of people and eventually came to a ticket center and got ourselves into Beihai park which was spectacular.  We didn't go into the park before we bought snacks (pastries with some odd sugar, spices and yellow bean paste, they were delicious), Mom got a vest and Eric bought Jia dragon shoes.  The people were so welcoming and everytime they came to look at Jia (sleeping in her buggy) I'd say "isn't she lovely" and they all would nod and pat my shoulder.  A lot of the older ladies pet Lili on the hair and tell us that she is really beautiful, she's been getting a lot of that and she's starting to get used to it.  Then they tell me that Fei has a round face and she looks like me.  Ah, hem, we obviously aren't as lovely to them, but Fei and I disagree :)  Apparently Jia looks like Fei and I.  Clearly since she's so cute, Fei and I must be 'cute'.  Oh and we hear repeatedly that Jia looks like a boy and that she is huge.

We all agree that we couldn't have found a more perfect way to spend our last day.  At one point in the park we were surrounded by ladies admiring the girls and once we'd established who was Mama, Baba (Daddy), Waipo (Grandma), Jie Jie (older sister), Mei Mei (younger sister) and Bao Bao (baby) and where the girls were from and where we live they were all happy and walked with us in a big group.  You could feel the love, I turned to Eric and said "I'm walkin' with my peeps".  I was worried to be in China with three kids when the rule here is to have one (strictly enforced in Beijing) but so far everyone has been pleasantly great about that.  They are surprised that we have all girls but not that there are three of them.

We left the park and wandered through some more of the old streets by the palace museum until we were just too tired to walk any more.  We got a cab after a long struggle.  They don't like so many in the cab.  We went to the Pearl Market.  I easily exchanged the outfit I got for Jia that was supposed to be a size 2 but was actually a 12 with the one cut off.  We weren't there long, none of us were in the mood.  When we left a driver that rescued us in the rain the other night was there and he ran to get us.  He remembered which hotel we're in but we wanted dinner, we asked for Pizza Hut (there's one near our hotel) but he took us to 'the Pizza place'.  We gave up trying to explain the difference and just ate at 'the Pizza place'.  It was ok.  He came back for us in an hour :)  Gotta' love that.  We were home to the hotel by 6:30.  Tired and had a relaxing eveing in the room all cozied in. 

Our room is a disaster.  I should have taken pictures of that!  I don't really want to go home, we're having fun here.  I've had to remind myself often that we're on an adoption trip.  We leave the hotel at noon.  Eric got Jia's stroller packed back up into the box, everything else we'll just slam into the suitcases. 

Miss Jia has already figured out that she'd prefer sleeping with Mama and getting her into the crib is quite the chore.  Basically we wait until she's asleep on me and Eric attempts 'the move'.  Sometimes it takes several times of her waking up and then he puts her back on me and we try again.  Last night it didn't work and she just stayed with me but she flails and I get hurt so we tried harder tonight and she's been in the crib most of the night.  Yay.  We are certainly going to need a better routine at home! 

Jia has made such an amazingly easy adjustment to all of us.  We've been very blessed.  See you all soon!