The girls, Chinese New Year and some other stuff I'm sure

So the boys left this morning for their cruise. I'm a bit sad to be missing out on Barenaked Ladies (read Ed) and some awesome music and the warm weather, BUT the new addition sleeping in her crib is well worth it. For those of you who don't know us personally...Doug and I have cruised the past two years on a chartered ship with Barenaked Ladies and numerous other bands. These trips are not about the destinations but about rocking with our favorite band for a week. Last year we took the kids and had an amazing time and had planned to all go again. We booked and paid the required deposits. As we were deciding to bring Keeghan home we knew laying out the rest of the money for a vacation wasn't going to happen but also didn't want to totally lose what we'd put down so we decided that the boys would cruise and I'd stay home with the girls. So, it's girl's week at our house.

Chinese New Year celebrations are abound. Monday I went into Carson's classroom to do a short presentation on new year traditions and customs. It went well and the kids enjoyed seeing some of the things I'd brought home from China and asking questions. Monday night we went out for Chinese food after Keeghan's Dr appointment. Then Friday, I went into Kennedy's class to do a presentation. The middle school kids are split into teams of 60ish kids and Kennedy's team of teacher's do a party at the end of every month. The kids earn "sea notes" throughout the month for completing tasks and doing good deeds and then they can use their "money" for things like a trip to their locker if they've forgotten something or if they have enough they can buy their way into the team party. So, about 45 kids were at the party and I brought pictures and souvenirs and talked. The kids had tons of questions...some good and some not so good (like "How much did she cost?"). They were a well behaved bunch and I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did.

Happy Birthday Keeghan!

Keeghan's referal picture...we think she was about 9 months old there.

I know...it's not REALLY her birthday. It's her 1/2 birthday, she's 18 months old today. 6 months ago we had decided she should be ours, locked her file and wrote a letter of intent. So, we didn't get to celebrate her 1st birthday with her. I wonder if it was celebrated at all. BUT, she's here now and since it's her 1/2 birthday I'm hoping to make some cupcakes and we can sing to her tonight. I'm thinking her 2nd birthday party will end up being a big deal : )

We've been home for 6 weeks last night. Keeghan is really amazing. She's saying lots of things though we don't always know what they are! She is understanding pretty much everything we say and follows directions pretty well. She is starting to get a bit more picky about food and will not eat something if she doesn't want it. Unfortunately we just point and say "uh uh uh" until I figure out what she really wants which is tough because there are just too many options. The other day at lunch I tried about everything on the table until I figured out she simply wanted my water! She also likes to get down and walk around more especially when we are out. So far I can usually get her to hold my hand but I'm sure the true fun of a toddler will begin when she decides that is no longer ok. She kisses Doug and the big kids goodbye most of the time now. I don't so much get to go anywhere so I don't get those kisses. The other night at soccer we went to say hi to Kennedy, Carson and Doug during half-time and Keeghan ran to Doug with a huge smile on her face. It was so nice! Then she charged back at me with that smile too! I guess we're making progress on being ok as the Ma Ma and Ba Ba.

A picture of Keeghan from two weeks ago...so grown up!

Mr Brown can Moo...

Can you? It's a good book, I'm going to have to dig it out. Keeghan likes to make animal noises and will find books with animal pictures to make you do animal noises for her. She can woof, meow (though we aren't sure if she's saying the Chinese word for cat, which is "mao" or actually meowing), grrrrr, moo, and make an elephant noise. And not only can she do those noises, but she'll do the correct noise when you ask her what noise _____ animal makes. So if you ask what does a kitty say, she'll meow. It would certainly be more helpful if she was using more regular words to tell us what she wants, but the animal noises are fun so we'll take them.

On a much less cute note, Keeghan is sick. Her nose starting running NON-STOP the other day and now she's got an awful cough (bordering on the croup sound) and her breathing gets a bit wheezy if she's upset or been running around. I'm pretty sure it's just a nasty cold. She's certainly fussier than she has been but she's still mostly eating and isn't a total nightmare. Naptime today only lasted 1/2 an hour because she started coughing. I'm hoping that some drugs will help us sleep tonight.

Finally, tomorrow is the start of Lunar New Year...Chinese New Year...Spring Festival. We are excited to be celebrating this year though we have a Dr's appt an hour and a half from home tomorrow late so we won't get to go out for Chinese food as I would have liked. I am going into Carson's classroom to do a presentation tomorrow morning. I've got red envelopes (a tradition for kids in China on New Year...typically with money but we're doing chocolate coins), chopsticks, oranges, and some treats Doug has make to bring in. I copied a zodiac word search and am bringing in some of the things I brought home from China as well as my photos. I also managed to convince Kennedy's team of teacher's to have a Chinese New Year themed party for this month so I'm going in there on Friday with some stuff as well. Devon is treating his advisory group to red envelopes as well. Hopefully the kids will enjoy learning a bit about another culture. Kung Hay Fat Choy!!!

WE'RE the lucky ones.

Keeghan gets told all the time she's a lucky girl. I totally disagree. How is it lucky to have some strange people come take you away from everything you know? It's not. WE are the lucky ones. Lucky to have gathered all the paperwork we needed. Lucky to have met a terrific social worker who helped us complete our homestudy and talked to me when we decided we'd like to consider some special needs. Lucky to have worked with our FANTASTIC adoption agency. SO SO SO lucky to have found Keeghan and that no one else locked her file before we did. Lucky to have been approved by China to not only adopt, but to adopt our daughter. Lucky to have put together the money we needed to get Keeghan home fairly quickly. Lucky to have made this amazing addition to our family. Lucky that even though Keeghan has a medical condition that will be with her forever, she is otherwise healthy...and smart...and beautiful. Really, we are lucky. I can only hope that Keeghan comes to love us as much as we love her.

And on that note...this is a picture of Keeghan sound asleep last night with a "chewy" (as I've come to call the stuff she sucks/chews on) and a pillow. Devon made this pillow in 7th grade right after we decided to embark on this adoption journey. He had to make a pillow in home economics (ok it's called family and consumer sciences now) and picked Chinese themed fabric to make a pillow for a sister that was only a dream then. Now, his sister is cuddling up with her pillow to sleep. Yes, I know babies aren't supposed to have pillows in their cribs, but honestly, after seeing how this child slept in the orphanage...the pillow is fine!

Homework

So this afternoon I had to make a phone call and Keeghan wanted "up" with Carson. Carson picked her up and gave her a pen and paper so they could do homework together. It was so sweet to watch and I was smart enough to pick up my camera!

Cuteness

Six weeks ago today...

I was given the most amazing gift. Keeghan was handed to me about 10am on 12/8/08 (China time that is). In some ways it feels like I've known her forever, but in others I don't know her at all. Keeghan is getting more adventurous about wandering away from me (well at home anyway) and is babbling a ton. She was spinning around in the kitchen last night. Doug was sitting on the floor with her while I was in a chair at the computer. Keeghan would spin once and look to see if I was looking and yell "ma ma" if I wasn't. I'd look...and she'd go back to spinning. It was funny. She's now learned to tell the dog "OFF" if she is on the gate at the top of the stairs and not only do we "woof" but we "meow" and "grrrr" as well. She'll ask to go "night night" if she is tired and typically goes down without a sound if she's asked to go to bed. Hopefully we'll continue in the right direction and settle in more as time goes on.

An odd habit

I think I've mentioned that Keeghan came to me with a small blue checked washcloth kinda thing. I was told, very explicitly, that she would want it to go to sleep. Ok, sure thing. Or she'll look at it with disgust and not touch it. That's what happened the first week so I tucked it away with the other orphanage stuff and didn't think much about it. That is, until we were home and not sleeping and I was willing to try anything...oh and the night she was sucking/chewing on my pajama shirt. Hmmm, maybe there was something to what they said about that blue cloth. So, I pulled it back out. Still hasn't been something Keeghan HAS to have but she will chew/suck on it once in a while. Ok, I'm good with self comforting...Keeghan totally would have been a guhkah (that's a pacifier in our house) baby! Anyway, more and more over the past two weeks I've found Keeghan sucking/chewing on different cloth stuff. I say it that way because she doesn't discriminate...she'll suck on a burp cloth, a blanket...whatever. I guess it's good she doesn't get wound up about having the ONE 4"x4" piece of washcloth but I still find the habit a bit odd. Anyone else got a blanket sucker???

Famiy Pictures

We had family pictures taken yesterday by a great friend and photographer...thanks Val!!!

Carson

Doug and Kennedy
Kennedy


Devon...such a teenager!

Keeghan and I

Holy cow are we a mob!

The girls

Keeghan

The kids

Keeghan, Mom and Dad

WAY too smart

So we taught Keeghan to sign "more" and "all done". Granted they are loose interpretations of the signs, but we know what she means. We figured it would help us out as far as food goes and so far we're right. Today, however, she was signing "all done" one second and "more" the next. At first I was a bit confused, but then I wondered if maybe she meant she was all done with one food but wanted more of another. It happened at lunch but I just passed it off...but then she did it again at dinner. Yeah she was all done with the bread but wanted more of the meatballs. Keeghan continues to amaze us at every turn!

We seem to be settling in more. Keeghan is now willing to walk down the hall away from me...especially if one of her siblings is there to play with. She doesn't get as upset about being new places and is sleeping better. She gets very excited to see Devon, Kennedy and Carson when they get home from school. She loves to woof like the dogs but loves to take her shoes and socks off in the car more. I often find her barefoot with the shoes taken apart when I go to get her out of the car. Oh, and I caught her eating dog food yesterday morning! I should have known better when she was being too quiet in the corner with the dog bowls. It worries me a bit she actually crunched it up and didn't seem to mind the taste. Good thing the dog didn't mind sharing.

And a few pictures...

My cute smile

Ok, we get this look once in a while and I'm not totally sure what it means, but it sure can't be good!

Bath fun

Cute in my hat

The Orphanage

Ok, I think I can talk about my trip to the orphanage without ending up in tears...

I debated this trip heavily. Keeghan was NOT happy to be handed to me and we'd been told several times over that she was very attached to her nannies and didn't like strangers. After our first day together I was pretty sure this information was very accurate. But after hearing that this particular building was being closed and knowing that I may never have the chance to see where Keeghan had spent so much of her first two years I had to go. I'd had Keeghan for three whole days when we set off on this trip. It was an hour and a half car ride through some rural parts of the countryside to YiYang which is actually a big city (4 million people I believe we were told). Upon reaching the orphanage my stomach was in knots. I was immediately greeted with the clothing police who didn't think the long sleeve dress and leggings Keeghan had on were enough so they went and put a winter coat on her. Who and I to argue? We were greeted by the orphanage director and assistant director who welcomed us with food. Then we had a chance to go up to where the kids play and sleep. The building is pretty old and certainly not overly clean but it wasn't filthy by any means...just dingy by our standards. As soon as we were up the stairs Keeghan's nannies were grabbing for her. I, was horrified. I knew it was going to happen but I was feeling so completely protective of Keeghan at that point that I didn't want to put her down. Keeghan looked confused but was happy to get picked up by her nanny. I let her carry her down the hall where they showed me Keeghan's room (see crib photo below). Keeghan kept going to the next crib back where,I eventually found out, there was a younger baby (who Keeghan called mei mei) in that crib but you couldn't see her because she was totally covered in blankets! That completely freaked me out. Then we went back into the playroom where there were other kids...all younger toddlers and babies. Keeghan was happy to see a familiar place and familiar faces. Seeing that many children there without families, however, was very difficult for me. There was one child in particular that I will never get out of my head. My guess is that this child was probably around a year and was literally folded in half sitting on the floor. Like, the baby's face was flat on the floor between it's legs. I wanted to scoop everyone of them up and bring them all home but I couldn't so much as stay and play with them. I was also told not to take pictures of any of the kids so I went on the side of caution and only took photos of Keeghan with her nannies, her crib, and a few outside the orphanage. One of the nannies showed me that Keeghan liked to put her head on the floor and do a somersault...and even showed me pictures of Keeghan doing that on her camera. It happened that I had caught Keeghan in that pose in her crib with my camera so I showed the nanny that photo which made her laugh. I saw how much they loved my little girl and I hope they saw the same from me. I am glad we went and that I have these memories and photographs for Keeghan when she's ready but it sure was a tough day. And it was VERY odd to see the toys from Keeghan's referal photographs in person!

Keeghan and I with some of the heads of the orphanage
Keeghan and her crib...there is a baby in the next crib back AND the one behind that.

The front of the orphanage.

Do I really look that bad?

Keep in mind this picture was taken on a snowday...all four kids at home and me without makeup and not having done my hair.

Ok, so twice in the past 36 hours I've had people tell me that I look really exhausted. I'm thinking that translates to "you look like crap" but no one wants to say it. I am tired, sure. I've got four kids and am trying to figure out how to parent the new one. But really, I'm not anymore tired than I normally am. Maybe it's the fact that I've lost a good 15 lbs since we got our TA in November? I had this problem before when I was at this weight where I was getting told I looked sick but how can it be that I'm at an ok weight and I look sick? Seriously...it's not like I'm weighing in at 100lbs or anything! Ok, done venting...off to bed so maybe I don't look so tired.

AND...

Right after I posted the things Keeghan does yesterday I went to get myself together to get Carson to school and go do a few errands. I was doing my hair while Keeghan was emptying the drawers in the bathroom for me. I took some hair stuff, turned the bottle upside down to put some one my hand, and then put it in my hair. Closed the bottle and put it back into the drawer Keeghan was emptying...Keeghan took the same bottle, turned it upside down in the palm of her hand and then put her hand to her hair to rub the stuff in! Obviously, the bottle was closed so she didn't get anything in her hair, but this kids picks stuff up WAY too quickly!!

Stuff Keeghan does

Keeghan is learning lots. She says (and keep in mind she's a toddler so half of this sounds nothing like it should) ma ma, da da, ba ba, up, night night, diaper, woof (sometimes while crawling around), xie xie (that's Chinese for thank you), cracker and juice. I'm pretty sure there are lots of Chinese words thrown in and I just have NO clue what they are. We've also taught Keeghan to sign "more" and "all done" in relation to food. I think we're both a bit frustrated that the communication barrier is so big right now. Hopefully it will get better as we settle in more. On a less frustrating note...Keeghan can charm the pants off anyone with a smile or wave. She waves bye bye and is starting to blow kisses as well...and we're working on "giving five".

We've been to a few basketball and soccer games this week and done pretty well. Soccer was a bit easier as there is plexi-glass separating us from the players. Basketball, however, we have to keep Keeghan off the court. Devon played last night and during half time we let Keeghan go say hi to her brother...he was a bit horrified and us letting her go out on the court wasn't such a good plan! She did mostly listen and come back if she got too close to the game though. At one point, one of the refs came over to trade her the basketball for my keys that she was holding. She wasn't too sure what to make of him but did give up the keys.

We're still having some serious sleeping (or lack thereof) issues. We woke up three times last night (11, 2, and 5) and for the most part, I just have to tuck Keeghan back in but having to get up that much is killing my sleep. After I tuck her in I end up awake for a good half hour (at least) to make sure she's really back to sleep and if she fusses around at all I end up awake for longer. This morning I gave up and went running at 5:30 and basically told Doug "good luck". Keeghan went back to sleep and I got to shower and climb back into bed for a bit.

Keeghan continues to be a very good eater. She really likes lots of different foods and we haven't found too much that she doesn't like. She does get pretty mad if we have food that she doesn't...like chips and salsa. So, generally, she tries it and likes it!

Sleep (aka I'm a mean Mommy)

So I decided since everyone was going back to school/work this week that I was going the we're sleeping and doing it in the crib route. Keeghan had been sleeping in a pack n play in our room. It was about 6 inches from my head next to our bed (due to space issues) and we were not sleeping well at all. Remember in China we slept a good 11 hours a night and napped as well. Obviously we had to get past the time change once we got home but that is well past us and we were still not sleeping well. I think being on something of a schedule is important and I really needed some solid sleep so we embarked on this mission yesterday.

I decided to keep Keeghan "up" until 1 before a nap. It was a bit after that when I tried to put her down and she wasn't so interested in being put down despite being mostly asleep. I let her cry for 5 minutes, went back in to settle her down and reassure her I wasn't going to leave her...and let her cry for 5 more minutes. Just as I was getting ready to go back in she seemed to be settling down so I let her and she fell asleep. Less than an hour later she was up and that was in no way enough of a nap so I settled her back down and left...more crying but only a couple of minutes and to sleep she went. Overall she napped for about 2 hours...decent! Well, last night was the first night I tried the crib. Went in about 7:45ish and spent some time rocking/cuddling. Set Keeghan down mostly awake but settled and said goodnight. She fussed a bit but went to sleep. We did wake up a few times in the middle of the night but I went with the back patting for a minute and left. Only took about 10 minutes the first time and she went back to sleep (though Kennedy was convinced I didn't even come up here and then when I told her I did she was like "That was loud!"). The other time I just set Keeghan back down and left and she slept until 7:30 or so. Seems like a good start but I'm not counting my chickens just yet!

Just Pictures

First nap in my crib.

Oreos are tastey!

That's my friend Shoshi and I

Happy New Year

Well, New Year here in the US anyway. Chinese New Year is the end of the month and we'll be celebrating that for sure. I, personally, spent New Year's Eve throwing up...not so fun especially when certain 17 month old little girls didn't think sleeping was such a good idea and that climbing all over Mommy who felt awful was way more fun. New Year's Day was a tough after not feeling well and not sleeping well either. We made it through though and have slept a bit better again the past two nights. We are still waking up a few times a night and typically go right back to sleep but now Keeghan also has a cold which is adding to the trouble.

Last night we had Val and her crew over for dinner which went pretty well. Then we traded girls and had sleepovers. Keeghan was thinking we were up for the day at 5:30 but I finally got her settled back down just before 7 and decided a run and shower were more essential than sleep and I was right. Got done just in time for Miss K to be awake. We had some breakfast and then went out to do a few errands. The big girls came along and we got to see some people at work that I hadn't seen since I've been back. It was awesome to see Mark and Kelly! Then we were home for a nap but got to see some other friends this afternoon. Some college friends who have two bio boys and also a daughter from China came to meet Keeghan. Keeghan was completely fascinated with Shoshi. I think someone who looked like her was a welcome reprieve from we crazy blond people. We had a great visit! Ok, now we're standing on a box of cheerios so I have to go...