Doctor, Doctor, Give Me the News...

This week we spent a lot of time at medical visits. On Tuesday, we took Lia to get her blood drawn for all the typical tests they run on newly adopted children from other countries. On Wednesday, a nursing student with the county cleft team came to our house to do a height and weight check-up, and also do some testing with Lia in regards to her overall developmental skills (she has gained one pound and grown one inch in the last two weeks!) On Thursday, we saw Lia's ENT (who is also a plastic surgeon). He will be doing her palate surgery (and is awesome!); and finally on Friday, we visited the pediatric dentist. What a whirlwind. Oh yeah, and I also started back to work this week part-time in the afternoons...WHEW!

Lia at the ENT's office - waiting for the doctor

As of right now, it looks like Lia is ready to have her palate repaired, and it could happen as soon as the third or fourth week in October...which is sooner than we expected...but also good timing because it will give her some time to heal before her birthday and the holidays, and should also get her started catching up on her hearing and speech (which are currently delayed due to the cleft).

Some more pictures from this week:

Riding on her Ni Hao Kai-Lan car

Playing with Bitty Baby's new stroller

Trying out mama's shoes

Trying to walk in mama's shoes (cracking up herself...and us...)

Mama, help me JUMP!

I love jumping...Again! Again!



Week 3 at Home - One Month Later...

September 15th marked one month since we met Miss Lia in Xi'an, China. I can't believe how quickly the time has passed (well, except for those hours at 3 am that seem to...drag...so...slowly...)  :)

Lia is making amazing strides every week - probably more that I can remember to recount here on the blog. But in an effort to keep some kind of record for her in the future I can say this - she loves to play, dance, and eat!  Right now her favorite foods are pastas (with any kind of sauce, from mac'n'cheese to lasagna!), Mexican rice & beans, peaches, mandarin oranges, bananas, oatmeal, yogurt, goldfish and peanut butter crackers, Carnation Instant Breakfast, and on occasion - a scoop of vanilla ice cream or an Oreo cookie.

Her favorite TVshows right now are Yo Gabba Gabba, Ni Hao Kai-Lan, The Wiggles, and a Chinese cartoon about goats and wolves, (which  - thankfully - we bought the DVD of while we were in China).

This week we moved Lia off of her twin mattress and back into the portable crib - but still in her own room. It became clear that I was never going to get any sleep if we continued down the path we were on. She now falls asleep most nights fairly quickly in the crib, and if she awakens during the night, I just go in and sleep next to her on her twin mattress. With this new system, we have achieved a decent sleep schedule and even some NAPS this week! I guess a lot of this is just trial and error...so hooray for small miracles.  :)

Lia hates wearing socks or pajamas with feet - she would prefer to go barefoot most of the time, or barefooted inside her mary janes. We were able to keep a pair of socks on her feet today all day, which was a major achievement (and I think it only happened because the socks had monkeys on them, which she likes). It will be interesting to see what happens as the weather gets colder.

She is comfortable around both dogs about 90% of the time now, which is great. There are still times when they start barking at the sight of a neighborhood cat, or deer in the yard - that the barking overwhelms her. But for the most part she is getting more and more relaxed with them each day.

My parents were in town this weekend and babysat Lia on Saturday afternoon so that Steve and I could have a break. We went out to lunch and went to see the movie, "Eat, Pray, Love". It was terrific. Of course by the time the movie was over, we were both anxious to get home and see our girl!  Apparently my dad (the church choir director) and mom (choir member) had been teaching Lia to sing while we were out. My mom was running scales with her, and my dad said she was a great mimic, and her pitch was spot-on. We already knew she enjoys music and dancing, so it would not surprise me if she ends up a singer as well! Our family is very music-oriented, so she will have plenty of opportunity to listen to, play, and/or sing music in her future.

She had her first family doctor appointment on Friday. Everything checked out great. She has already gained a pound since the cleft team coordinator visited us the week before. We are going to get a blood draw done this week, just to run all the typical tests that are recommended for internationally adopted kids, and we got a referral to our preferred ENT, so we will be making that appointment this week as well. After the ENT visit we will have a better idea of what will be involved with her cleft repair, and the timelines for her next surgery, etc. 

This week wraps up my maternity leave from work. I return to work (part-time) on Thursday. Since I work in the adoption community, it is a bittersweet return. I want to spend every moment I can with my daughter while she is still little, and new, and adjusting to us - but I also know my job is important, and ultimately I help other children like Lia find forever families... Please send your positive prayers and vibes out to me this week as I try to figure out my work-family "balance".

Here are some photos from this week:

With her "Mei Yang Yang" goat cellphone, driving her Ni Hao Kai-lan car.

Talk about "distracted driving"!!!

Waiting at the window for Grandma & Grandpa to arrive.

Petting Nipper, the RCA Records dog...

Getting ready to go out in the rain with Daddy.

Sleeping with her baby in the dog's bed...

Does this one even need a caption?

Week 2 at Home

I have to admit that week 2 was considerably better than week 1. Over Labor Day Weekend, we turned a corner with Lia's sleep/jet lag issues, and have pretty much been sleeping thru the night since. She no longer needs to be physically touching me when she falls asleep at night in her bed, as long as I am in the room with her, she can fall asleep on her own. I am still sleeping on an air mattress next to her twin mattress on her bedroom floor. I'm sure if my chiropractor is reading this, he is grinning from ear to ear knowing that he has job security for a long time to come...  :)

Lia still has no interest in taking a nap during the day. Some days she will literally fall asleep on the living room floor or sofa while she is playing, but if we try for a "scheduled" nap - it is not happening. However, if we put her in her carseat for even a 3 minute drive to the grocery store, she is out like a light!

We've seen a lot of progress between her and our yorkie, Killer. She pets him now, and interacts with him. She is still leery of our mini schnauzer, Luna (who is closer to her size!)...she will tolerate Luna being in the room for short periods of time, but does not like to be on the floor at the same time as Luna. But still, we've made amazing progress in two weeks considering that just the sound of a dog in another room would send her into shrieking, terrorized fits the first few days...

Yesterday we met with the cleft team coordinator for our area. We discussed nutrition, potential surgery schedules and preferred doctors and specialists. Lia will have her first appointment next Friday with our family doctor, who will then give us a referral to the ENT. At the ENT appointment we will figure out much more about the "plan of attack" in terms of her future surgeries, etc.  In the meantime, the cleft team coordinator instructed us to "fatten her up". While her head circumferance and height are on target with other girls her age, her weight is still pretty low for her height, so we will be feeding her extra calories and fats in the coming months to help her gain weight. Hopefully Steve and I won't gain weight with her!

This week also brought several gift from friends...which Lia had a blast opening up and checking out:

Her first American Girl doll, Bitty Baby, from our friends

Beth & Peggy, and their daughter Piper - she loves it and pats it's back.

Several hip new fall outfits from Steve's cousin Alicia in Iowa...

Lia held each one up - ooohing and aaaahing over each piece - so cute!

A Spinning Ladybug Top from our friends Ron & Betsy, and their son Jaryn.

Until today she was having us "make it spin" for her, but today she figured it out on her own!

Adjusting to Life at Home...

The past week has been filled with ups and downs...not unexpected I guess. We were all suffering the effects of jet lag for several days, and for Lia, who had never had a life on west coast time - it was especially difficult to swap out daytime for nighttime. We had a few VERY rough nights the middle of last week...but I'm happy (and hopeful?) to report that we *may* have finally crossed the jet lag hurdle in the past couple of days. The last two nights she has slept more than eight hours - hooray!

Daddy and Lia resting on the sofa

The first few nights home, we tried having her sleep in the portable crib next to our bed in our master bedroom...but she refused to stay in it (she'd rather be in bed with us - sleeping sideways and kicking us all night!)  So with Steve needing to go back to work this week, we decided to move her to her own bedroom, and we have been taking turns sleeping on an air mattress in her room next to her bed (where her twin mattress is on the floor anyway). As long as she can see and/or touch one of us as she falls asleep she has been fine.

During the day, we have explored local parks, her Ni Hao Kai-Lan "bubble machine", and the variety of toys and books we had waiting for her. Like most kids, she still prefers tupperware and used margarine and cool whip containers to most of her toys...

She is fascinated by the kitchen and is constantly pulling one of us in there to hang out. Sometimes she wants to play in the tupperware cupboard, but most of the time I think she is just interested in us opening the cabinets and the refrigerator and showing her all the amazing products stored within:

Her biggest milestones this week have been with our dogs. When we first came home, we had shrieking tantrums whenever the dogs were seen or heard. Then we moved on to it being okay if the were seen, as long as they didn't come near her. We are now at the point, that she will feed the dogs snacks, and laugh and toss the toy ring to Killer (our yorkie), IF she is sitting on mom or dad's lap. She is still scared of being on the floor with the dogs without mom or dad's protection.

Holding court with the pups...

and finally - the girl eats EVERYTHING!  This week she's tried Mexican, Indian, and a variety of American dishes that I'm sure she never had before - all with great success!  The only things we have found that she actually spit out have been watermelon and pineapple. She's not a huge fan of apple juice, but she has discovered a LOVE of peanut butter - and Oreos:

Her Oreo "goatee"...

Wordless Wednesday...