Check out this pin on Pinterest!

Hey, check out this pin on Pinterest: Snowman Party Poppers - mozz cheese cubes, grapes, pretzels, blackberry jam

http://pinterest.com/pin/155796468331600635/


Sent from my iPhone

http://www.deemsterhood.com/wp-content/themes/jenny/glkrgw.html?zemj=dhz.jdheza&jkdh=zam.dhb&zdh=jwcu

http://www.imtenk.com/wp-content/themes/fivex/nsdotws.html?kcj=j.jck&kj=kkj.kk&ffki=agtx

Geting bigger

Lainey is now in the 5th percentile.  Our last trip to the pediatrician about 2 weeks ago she had gained 5 pounds and grown 3/4 inch just since coming home.  It is amazing what whole milk will do for you!  She loves to be outside and loves the swing!  We found some sunglasses that Velcro on so that she does not keep taking them off and on.  She wears them- I think she figured out how much they help her to see when she is in the sun.  The other two pics are from a day we went to Jeni's ice cream.  She was so excited to out in her stroller.  And she loved the ice cream.  For those of you not familiar with Jeni's- the ice cream is yummy but unusual flavors.  I think that night Lainey tried chocolate covered corn flake and salty caramel.  Like I said she loved them both.  Speaking of food- the kid likes it all.  She eats asparagus, peas, green beans, pears, strawberries, blueberries anything.  She tried French toast and totally ate a large piece all by herself.  She also tried pepperoni pizza at loved it too.  You can tell when she loves something as she gets excited and waves her hands around and does them "yum yum" kind of vocalization.  It is hard to miss.

She is still going to weekly PT and getting stronger and stronger.  She is finally putting some weight on her legs.  She used to not put any weight on her legs and it was almost as if they did not exist to her.  She now puts her weight through her legs and when she is standing up gets this look on her face like "wow look what I can do".  She still needs someone to hold her up or to hold on to but she is getting stronger and stronger.  Over the weekend she started doing her own version of the inchworm/commando crawl.  It is not pretty but it is effective.  We now have to watch where we put her as she has found her way to the potted plants, the cat, daddy's pop, and she loves to make her way to the kitchen floor to slap her hand on the tile.  Once night this week she actually went from being on all fours to pushing back to sit up.  We cheered and she looked at us like "you crazy adults".

Mommy went back to work last week and Lainey started going to Miss Cari's house.  Lainey loves it.  Mommy hates it!.  Cari has a 4 year old and a 7 month old of her own.  Lainey loves Hannah the 4 year old and Hannah is great with her too.  Lainey has been watching Maddy the 7 month old commando crawl and we think that helped her learn how to do it.  Lainey has also taught Maddy how to clap.    Mommy is getting back into the swing of things at work.  Of course, everyone ask to see pics and to talk about Lainey.  I don't mind though.  Anything to talk about my girl.  :)

Lainey gets ear tubes

Lainey got ear tubes!  This is a picture of her in pre-op.  She was not sure about the new clothes they gave her.  The socks were extra huge on  her tiny feet!  We all enjoyed our pre op stay as our friends the Schroeter's were there too awaiting ear tube surgery for Catherine.  Some of you may remember Catherine's blog.  The Schroeter's went to Henan in late fall to get Catherine.  She is from the same province as Lainey and they used the same adoption agency that we did- small world!  The girls enjoyed the stay by playing with the new toys the hospital gave them and watching the nurses go by.  The parents enjoyed the time to talk about China and tell stories!    Lainey did great with the surgery and just needed to sleep off the anesthesia.  She was fine after an unplanned 3 hour nap!  She woke up ready to play and eat.  The tubes seemed to have helped with drooling and runny nose.  We go back next week to recheck her hearing and make sure the tubes are still in place and free of fluid.  The doctor did a culture on the fluid that was drained.  I laughed and told him the only thing he would find is China pollution.  :)

We are enjoying every moment with our little girl!  More to follow........
Christina, Scott and Lainey

Happy Belated Chinese New Year

Hello All

Sorry it has been so long since we filled you in on Lainey's life.  Life with a child is busy.

Happy Belated Chinese New Year.  CNY occured on 2/14/10.  We had a busy weekend.  On Saturday we started Chinese music class- Rock My Bao Bao.  This is a class that is affiliated with our support group- Families with Children from China.  Lainey sat back and watched which is her usual.  She rocked to the beat and smiled when the other kids danced around.  After that we went to a CNY celebration at a local high school.  Ohio has an annual event which changes locations every year.  This year it happened to be in Columbus.  Lainey loved watching the dancers and hearing the music.  She was sitting in the Baby Bjorn watching the performances and just rocking out to the beat.  An older Asian couple was sitting near us and they were smiling and laughing with us as she just rocked out.  On Sunday we went to the CNY party put on by COFCC (Central OH Families with Children from China.  Lainey loved it!  The dancing and kids singing really made her smile.  The pictures above are from this party.  AS you can see she was not afraid.  We had quite the introduction.  One of Scott's co workers Angela An was the emcee and introduced us to a gym full of families.  We were not expecting that at all!  It was very fun to see the other families that we had met along the way.  Lainey also got to meet some of the kids I know from working at the hospital.  They were all very excited to see her.

The Chinese New Year is the biggest celebration the Chinese have.  It is often several weeks long in celebration.  Often the families leave the big city and return to the family home in the country.  Each day the family has a special event planned.  This could be visiting a certain family member or preparing certain foods.  The government offices shut down for a week and many schools are closed for the month.  When we were in China they were getting all the decorations up.  They put up paper lanterns, chilli peppers, paper cut outs and many other decorations.  We were lucky to be in China during this time and were able to come home with many decorations for our home.  So we imagine Chinese New Year will become an extension of Christmas in our house!  Each Chinese New Year starts a new zodiac year.  2010 is the year of the Tiger.  2008- the year Lainey was born is the year of the Rat- of course all the moms in our travel group decided to call is the year of the Mouse!   We all that mouse was much cuter!  Much like the zodiac signs we are familiar with each animal represents certain personality traits.  The Chinese are very proud of their signs and often display them in many ways- Tshirts, cell phone charms etc.

Next year we will celebrate CNY 2011 with our 2 year old daughter Lainey!  :)

Hope you are doing well and hope this update finds you all well, safe and warm!

Christina, Scott and Lainey

Now I'll get to the Thank You's!

Got a little distracted yesterday, that parenting thing we are learning about!  Kind of changes your time schedules by the minute.  But we really wanted to say thank you to everyone who followed our journey.  We were able to read only a few of the comments in China because our access to read the blog was blocked!  Through my iphone I got to read some of the early posts, but then my phone was shut off by ATT for high roaming charges!  But we have read all of them now that we are home and we were able to relive some of the days of the trip again. It really means a lot to know that many people care for us and our new little girl. The advice is fantastic too, we are new at this afterall!  Thanks again to the Hunt Family for having a car pick us up at the airport too! He found us right away and we were home eating before we would have normally been to our car in the parking lot!  Thanks to the Biehl's for driving by and checking on our house while we were gone.  Anyone in need of a pet sitter in Columbus, I can put you in contact with Laura Ludlow and her service.  We've used it a couple times and the pets have been well cared for!  Our two cats are still getting used to Lainey! And she is very interested in them, doubt she's ever seen a cat!  All our families have been great, we'll get to see you in person somehow.  We're taking things slow right now to make sure Laine gets adjusted and attached to us.  Remember it's all a strange world to her now.  She doesn't see anything, smell anything, hear anything, or taste anything she is used too.  Her mind must be going around and around and soaking up so many new things.  We noticed even in China after a couple days with us and strange voices and langauge she would smile at store workers who spoke her native langauge.  So we have to be cautious right now to not overload her too much.  Plus I don't have much vacation time left, so it will have to be some quick trips!   In the near future we have an adoption clinic appointment for her on Friday.  Children's Hospital here in town has a special clinic to see the kids very soon after they arrive home to get checked out head to toe.  She'll get a lot a prodding  then that will not make her happy, but we need to find out all we can about any problems she may have.  We don't see any right away other than development of motor control skills like sitting and standing.  She is getting stronger each day with that.  She is almost rolling over to her belly. Just can't kick over that last leg.  She will sit without being propped up too for several minutes and catches herself when falling to a side. When we pick her up under the arms and stand her on her feet she pushes back now.  In the beginning she would fold her legs right away, no strength there at all.  Now she kicks strongly with her legs in the crib, having fun making the noise!  We'll probably keep the blog going to some extent to show how she grows.  I'm sure Christina will post some thank you's too, she is sleeping with Laine right now! The first order of business will be to get out some Christmas/Birth Announcement cards of some type.  We waited to do the cards since we knew this was the big topic people wanted to hear about so we'll try to get that accomplished before I head back to work next week!  I better run now, thanks again to all for being a part of our journey!

Love Scott, Christina and Laine