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!!
