Christmas 2011

First time visiting Santa!

Christmas Eve fun

Our happy girl on Christmas morning...

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Halloween, Birthday, and Preschool!

So much activity to catch up on over the past couple of weeks! No wonder I can't find time to blog...

First of all, Lia celebrated her second Halloween with us and this year dressed up as "Belle" from Beauty and the Beast. She decided on this costume a couple months ago and I was glad she didn't end up changing her mind at the last minute. She understood and was able to say "trick or treat" (or "rick or ree" as she says it). We were pleasantly surprised that the small town where we now live celebrates Halloween in a BIG way! They close off a six block radius of main street for three hours and all the businesses stay open late to give out candy to the kids. Some businesses even do group-themed costumes. It seems like the entire population turned out for this event. I'd never seen so many folks in town at once! My parents, sister, and uncle Dave all joined Steve, Lia and I for trick or treating. It was a fun night.

Next up? Lia's 3rd Birthday, which we celebrated last Saturday. She again wanted to wear her Belle costume, but this time the theme was (again, her decision) "Purple, Princess, Pony" (her three favorite things currently). The party was a great success with lots of extended family and friends present for her big day.

The biggest moment (for me) was watching her blow out her own birthday candles. Redirecting air flow to her mouth (from her nose) has been a big goal in speech therapy the past several months, so it was awesome to see her blow air with enough force to extinguish those three candles.

After the big party, we were lucky enough to have won tickets (for the second year in a row!) to see Yo Gabba Gabba Live, so we headed downtown and took in the big show. Needless to say, we had a very tired little girl by the end of the night... 

Last (but definitely not least), Lia started preschool on Monday! This was a big deal because she had to be three in order to qualify for the school's early preschool program, which is communication-intensive and integrates kids with speech and hearing deficits into the same classroom with "typically developing" three year olds. During her time there (3 days/week, 2.5 hrs/day), she will also receive two half-hour sessions of one-on-one speech therapy with the therapist she has been seeing the past four weeks (who we love!) All in all, a terrific situation for us. We are so happy to have found this program in our local community! 

Definitely a busy and exciting few weeks around here, with only more to come as she gets used to school, and the big holiday season just around the corner. She's already excited everytime she sees Santa and his "ponies" (reindeer). "Rudolph, the red-nosed PONY..."

Fall is Upon Us

We are coming up on a big season for our family. For us, this includes Halloween, Lia's Birthday, Thanksgiving, and of course Christmas and New Year's...all within the span of two months...Zoinks!

It seems like it's been forever since I found the time to blog. Things have been super busy at work and lately many days I feel like - although I'm only paid to work part-time - I'm really not doing a good job at either my job or being a mommy. I guess all moms feel this way. If I could only clone myself...or have more hours in the day. *sigh*

As I mentioned, Lia's 3rd birthday is quickly coming upon us and people have been asking me whats she's currently "into"... Let me tell you, she's very opinionated! We still have three purple tutu dresses in high rotation, now joined by a pair of purple fairy wings, and a purple princess tiara (which are usually paired with purple rubber rainboots!) She goes around the house collecting purple items and carrying them around together in her purple Halloween candy basket. We go to restaurants and she pulls the purple crayon out of every kids cup or box of crayons and asks me to put it in the diaperbag for safekeeping. She only wants a purple blanket on her bed, and picks the purple Fruit Loops out of her cereal and hands the rest to me. Do you see a theme here?

She has specifically requested a "Purple Pony Princess Party" for her birthday. In addition to the color purple, My Pretty Pony and Disney Princesses are her favorite things on earth (even better when they come in purple!). Unicorns are also high on her list. It seems Mickey and Tinkerbell are now considered "for babies" and she has moved on from those previously beloved characters... Lia also has developed an affinity for "kitties". She likes to crawl around on the floor and play kitty and "meow" to us. She loves visiting grandma's kitty (when it will cooperate and let itself be seen!)

All this said, she shocked the heck out of me when we started talking about Halloween and she said she wanted to be "Belle" from Beauty & the Beast. WHAT??? She's never seen "Beauty and the Beast"...but more importantly, Belle wears a yellow dress, not purple!!! But over and over again she has confirmed that Belle is who she wants to be. I asked her if she wanted to be Belle because Belle has brown hair like Lia. She said, "no, brown hair like mama." That made this mama's heart sing! So Belle she will be...

We've made several visits to Seattle Children's Hospital over the past month to get Lia set up with all her new specialists on this side of the mountains. All the providers we've visited have been wonderful. We learned that our girl currently weighs a whoppin 28 lbs. and is now 3 feet tall! Long and thin for sure, but healthy and while still picky with food, she is eating more now than she was in the past. Her blood and liver tests all came back with the normal range.

We had a six-hour marathon "cleft team" evaluation last Monday. The majority of the news we received was good, and it was great to get a second opinion on what we'd already heard from our providers in Spokane. Lia's hearing checked out the same, with very minor conductive hearing loss in her left ear, and normal hearing in her right ear. We were disappointed to learn that her palate does have tiny hole in it again, at the very top of the arch (right where it happened last time), but this one is much smaller, it's barely the size of a tip of a pen, so the doctors aren't going to worry about repairing it for now. The ENT does have some concern about the amount of air coming out of her nose when she talks, and believes an endoscopy and possible p-flap surgery may be required in the future to close the gap at the back of her throat, but we all agreed to let her work through speech therapy for another year before we decide whether that is really necessary. So as long as her ear tubes stay put, we *should* be able to go surgery-free this year! YAY.

After eight weeks in transition, we finally got Lia started in speech therapy again, and I couldn't be happier. We saw a speech therapist at the hospital, who was terrific, but we were really hoping to find someone closer to home (since it's at least an hour commute for us each way to the hospital). I was so pleased to find out that our local elementary school has a great speech therapist we can see 2x/week right now while Lia is still 2, and then once she turns 3 next month, she will qualify for the school's early preschool 3x/week and her speech sessions will be built-in to her mornings at preschool! As it turns out, the speech therapist recently moved back to Washington from the Denver area too and we had actually worked in some of the same professional circles there, so that was a great "sign" for me that I was making the right decision about all of this. Another YAY.

We were able to visit the preschool classroom one day when the students weren't there. Lia got to look around the room, meet the teacher, and play with some of the toys. Since then we've been going to the school for her speech sessions (in the therapy office), she has been exposed to all the kids running around, the school bell, and all the other action a K-5 school has going on a daily basis. One thing I love about the small town where we live, is that there is a dad (or teacher?) that stands out front of the school while the kids are arriving, playing bluegrass on his banjo and greeting everyone. It makes for such a happy, welcoming atmosphere. You can't help but smile. Again, all this just makes me feel really good about the decision we made to move and to live in this town.

In other news, my sister Tracy finished up chemo a few weeks ago, and her tests have come back clear from cancer, so that is awesome news! As you can see from the photo at left, Lia loves her Aunt Tracy.

Also, Steve and I celebrated our 5th Anniversary together last weekend. Time flies...sort of? In some ways it feels like we've known each other much longer than five years. Same with Lia. She's only been home 13 months, but it's hard to remember life before she was in our lives. I feel so lucky to have both of these amazing people in my life. Very blessed.

I almost forgot to mention...Lia had a blast going on her very first carousel ride last month! My friend Megan came to town and we all trekked to the Western Washington State Fair for a few hours of fun. Lia got to see real horses and ponies, and visit the animals in the petting zoo... She had her first cotton candy, and took a ride on a mini choo-choo train - but the merry-go-round was definitely the biggest hit! Each time she picked out a white horse (with a purple saddle of course!) She rode it six times in all. Thank goodness Steve was willing to go round and round in circles over and over again in the heat of the day, because just going on it once made this motion-sick mama kind of dizzy.  :)
 
 

Getting Adjusted

It's been almost a month since I last blogged. Where is the time going??? We believed that our move west would simplify our lives (closer to family, work, smaller house, smaller community) - but I just feel like we've been even busier! Of course, the first few weeks post-move are always a mess, and even moreso with a toddler. Then there is job of getting all Lia's medical records transferred and set up with new doctors, which in itself could be a full-time job. Dealing with insurance companies, state agencies, and billing depts. to obtain the right referrals in the right sequence, and to the right new doc's and therapists. I'm still wading my way through it all. We are getting closer on having her back in speech therapy (she's now gone seven weeks without), and we have initial meetings set up with all the various cleft "team" doctors she needs to see, since in October she will be six months post-surgery from her last palate repair.

We have also made a little bit of time for fun. I have been lucky to become part of the larger group of "Starfish Families" on Facebook. All of us have children adopted from the Starfish Foster Home in Xi'an. Through this group I learned that one of Lia's foster brothers was recently placed with a family in Vancouver B.C. It so happened that his family was coming down to Seattle for the annual Dragonboat Races, so we were able to meet up with them for awhile one recent afternoon:

Proud mamas and their "Starfish"

Lia scooping up sand with River's sandal!

Then I had the awesome opportunity to finally meet a friend of mine from the "adoption blog" world. Kim and I started the China adoption process around the same time back in 2006. Kim lives in Tennessee, and went on to adopt her daughter from Kazakhstan in 2009, and of course we brought Lia home in 2010. How fun that Kim and her daughter were out in Seattle for a family wedding, and we were able to meet up with our girls for dinner one night! It is almost surreal, when you see these children in person. The hopes and dreams of a family-fulfilled. It was also very cute to see Lia interact with Kim's daughter, (who is 7). Lia is generally shy around kids her own age, but she really warmed up and had fun that night with a friend who was a little bit older.

Lia continues to come out of her shell more and more. She is using more words (especially the word "NO"). She is starting to learn how to spit when brushing her teeth, and she helped me in the kitchen for the first time making brownies the other night! We've been going to the local library storytimes, and while it's much smaller than the group we had in Spokane, this seems to work better for Lia. She is more engaged in the books, and also more willing to participate in the silly songs and dancing. We are back at square one on potty-training. She really is just not that interested - at all - right now. She is not motivated by stickers or M&M's or "big girl" panties...so I figure I'll let that slide for a bit and try again in a few weeks. I'm definitely ready to be done with diapers, but as the doctors and others have told me, there's no point in pushing her if she's not ready. Here are some more pics of her many "firsts"...

First shoulder ride with Daddy

First Princess Nightgown

First pony ride at the grocery store

Some Pics of our New Place

We made the move back to western Washington a couple weeks ago. We are finally starting to get organized and unpacked. Moving is such a hassle - ugh. But overall, we are very happy that we made the move. Lia loves the new house!  Rather than "growing pains", we have experienced some "shrinking pains" since we downsized quite a bit for this move. This house is half the square feet of  our house in eastern WA, but it has an open layout, and we are making it work. The views of the surrounding wooded ravine and towering evergreens are beautiful, and we are just five minutes from the shores of Puget Sound. This town has a slower pace of life, and we appreciate that, but the city is also only 20 minutes away, which allows us the best of both worlds. We feel very blessed to be living here, and the weather has been beautiful...

Our American Citizen...One Year Ago & Today!

A year ago today, our plane from China landed in Seattle and Lia officially became an American citizen. My, how our sweet baby girl has grown and changed in the past year! Last September we had a developmental assessment done. At the time, Lia was 22 mos. old and her only word was "mama". Her hearing was 85% blocked, and she came in at a 17 mos. old level for gross and fine motor skills. Yesterday we had a second assessment, and our lively, chatty, 33 mos. old is now doing things that many 3 yr olds can't do! The only area where she is behind is speech (which we will continue to work on in the coming years). You've come a long way baby - WE LOVE YOU!    

Lia's first time at a local park...one year ago tomorrow!



...and in our backyard on her very own swing - TODAY!



Our First Family Day!

Lia: Then and Now

We successfully got moved across the state last weekend, and now we just have a huge mess of boxes on our hands. With all the craziness, I didn't have a chance to blog about our first Family Day on Monday. We DID celebrate (Chinese dinner with Grandma & Grandpa). It was low-key and perfect. Lia doesn't really "get it" yet, but it was certainly important for us to mark the occasion. She was just thrilled with the Disney Princess balloon that grandpa brought for her.  :)

A lot of adoptive families celebrate "Gotcha Day", but I deliberately chose the term "Family Day". Mainly, because our "gotcha" moment in Xi'an wasn't really something to celebrate. Of course we will always remember that moment, but it was intense and upsetting for Lia and for us... She was terrified, sad, and screaming, and we were nervous and worried and sad for her. Not exactly a moment you want to "celebrate" for all time...

The term "Family Day" just makes more sense for us. It is the day we became a family...and that IS definitely something to celebrate!

Yep! It's Happening Again...

That's right, we're on the move again!  For those who have been following this blog since the very beginning (Nov. 2006) - this will be my sixth move in five years...*sigh*.  This time however, it's not because of a job. It's just a quality of life issue. While we've enjoyed our three years in eastern Washington, we are ready to head back to the west side of the state. My job is headquartered there (although I'll still be working part-time from home for the most part), and Steve is able to run his consulting business from anywhere - so given that our current landlord decided to sell the house we've been leasing, we had to make the decision to move to another house here in town, or move back closer to family and friends on the west side of the state.

It was not an easy decision. Moving is always expensive, and because all of Lia's medical providers are here, the thought of setting up new relationships with all new doctors and therapists was daunting. But with the help of some great contacts here in town, I've been able to make connections on the west side which I feel will be good for Lia. We were also sad about leaving our local friends who traveled with us to China last year, but we hope they will visit us at our new home so our girls (and we!) can stay connected.  

I was a bit worried about how Lia would handle all the hustle and bustle around the house. Packing and moving boxes, various rooms and surroundings changing...but she has not seemed the least bit stressed about it. We've told her that we are moving to a new house - mama, daddy, Lia, the dogs - and all her toys, and her bed, and our TV and all the food, etc. and she seems OK with it so far. I'm not sure she really understands it yet, but so far, so good.

I think I've had the hardest time with all of it. I don't like feeling "pushed" out of my home, especially my daughter's first home with us. I also took a nasty fall while packing last week and ended up at the ER! Let this be a lesson to you all - never underestimate the damage that can be done by slipping onto your bathroom floor. A sprained ankle, bruised tailbone, and big bump on the head later...UGH! It could have been a lot worse, and I am thankful that it wasn't, but I am still sore 10 days later...

In better health news, at Lia's visit to her ENT last week, her palate was looking really good (still 100% closed) and her audiology tests came positive as well. Her right ear appears to have perfect hearing, while her left still shows a little bit of impairment (but not too far outside the "normal" range). Hooray!

We also finished our final 12-month post-placement report with our social worker two weeks ago. This fulfills our final requirement with the Chinese government. I was thrilled to send along four terrific photos of our happy, smiling girl for the government adoption officials to see. It's hard to believe that one year ago today we were boarding a plane to China!

Splish Splashing Away!

Way up here in the Northwest, we've had a cool summer thus far. Too cold for an unheated pool anyway. We bought a kiddie pool for Lia last summer before we left for China, but by the time we got home it was September and the weather was already cooling down. So we were happy to bring it out this weekend, our first truly warm weekend this year - and Lia loved it!

Summer 2011 - July 4th

Last week we packed the car and headed west to spend the holiday weekend with my parents at their beautiful island home. An anonymous donor on the island funded a spectacular fireworks show over the marina, which just happens to be located in front of their house. So we all had "front row" comfortable seats on their deck for the show!

You couldn't have asked for more beautiful weather on Independence Day in the Pacific Northwest. I remember MANY Fourths growing up as a kid that were rainy and/or cold and cloudy... But with sunshine and temps in the 70s, we really had a perfect weekend this year.

Sunset on the marina

View of Mt. Rainier from the island

We had wondered how Lia would react to the fireworks...and whether our sensitive and sometimes over-stimulated little girl might get scared and I had been prepared to take her in the house, turn up some music and wait it out. But we needn't have worried. She was completely enthralled by all the "pretties" and "boom booms" lighting up the night sky. Of course Lia always enjoys spending time with grandparents who dote on her:

Her first picnic in the park with Grandma

Waiting for the fireworks to begin with Grandpa

We also had the chance to visit with Lia's great grandma, great aunt & uncle, and "aunt" KC (my cousin):

The car trip went better this time than in the past. We rigged up a DVD player in the backseat with all of Lia's favorite cartoons, and also provided some "surprise" snacks and toys (such as a "travel" magna doodle sketch board - which was a HUGE hit!) So she kept busy or slept the entire trip. 

Really fun this time around, was that Lia was awake for the ferry ride to my parents' house. When we traveled in December, it was dark both times we rode the ferry and she slept through it. This time she was wide awake and loving every minute of it. We parked the car and walked up to the deck where she could watch the seagulls following the boat and feel the wind whip through her hair. We had a blast!

Our Barking, Swinging, Singing Princess!

Lia is going thru a stage where she wants to wear her "Ni Hao Kai-Lan" purple tutu dress. Every. Single. Day. Never mind the fact that she has a closet full of adorable clothes that have been gifted to her over the past several years. Nope, the $5.99 Walmart Kai-Lan dress it is. Everyday. God forbid when laundry day comes around and the purple dress goes in the wash...it's not a pretty sight. There are tears. So if you look at my photos here and on Facebook and notice that she always seems to be wearing the same outfit. You are not mistaken.

This week Lia went to the park and actually enjoyed the toddler swing for the first time. The last few times we have tried it, she was very nervous, and would start to whine as soon as we got any real motion going. This week she got going fast enough to feel the wind in her hair, and she loved it!

Lia also decided that a good accompanyment to her purple tutu dress is a pink feathered princess tiara. So that was pretty much the get-up everywhere we went this weekend...Starbuck's, grocery store, Dollar Tree, Texas Roadhouse, Lake Coeur d'Alene, IHOP, etc. People stop and say to her, "How cute, is it your birthday sweetie?" and we tell them no, she just likes wearing this outfit. A few of them give me the stink-eye - like I'm indulging her "diva" behavior. And maybe I am. It's certainly not worth a power struggle in my opinion. I know I don't pressure my little girl to be a "princess". We don't call her Princess, we don't play Princess, and we really don't watch any Princess movies (since they all have scary parts). God knows I am not a girly-girl type! I'm lucky to remember to run a brush thru my hair and put on some lip gloss most days... But right now she is definitely attracted to all things girly. If it's purple or pink, and sparkles or glitters, then it's okay with Lia.

Another interesting habit she's picked up over the past week, has been crawling around on the floor, following us around and pretending to be a dog. Tongue out, panting away... This seems to disturb our real dogs more than it bothers Steve or I...again, no biggie. Lia's an only-child. I'm glad to see her using her imagination!

We also continue to have daily "concerts" in our home. TV talent shows such as "America's Got Talent" and "The Glee Project", have spawned a performer!  She grabs the flexible light from our portable lap desk, and uses it as a microphone, dragging it around the room as she belts out her tunes, uses hand gestures, and throwing her head back and closing her eyes on the big notes - it's hilarious! Once she is finished and we start clapping, she stops to take a bow...what a ham! Steve caught some of it on video the other night:

Summertime!

Our big 2.5 year old girl has grown almost an inch, and gained 7 oz. over the past month! Lia is now almost 37 inches tall. We are still trying to reach that elusive 26 lb. weight mark, however we'll take what we can get. Lia no longer wears a bib or sits in a high chair to eat (except at restaurants). She now sits in her "big girl chair" (booster seat) at the dinner table with us:

We are finally getting to enjoy some summer-like temperatures here in the Northwest. Lia loves to be outdoors and look at all the flowers. Every day she asks her daddy to cut some fresh lilacs so she can "smell" them. So we've been spending time relaxing on our back patio and grilling all sorts of new foods for her to try.

Since being out of arm restraints and back on a normal diet, Lia has really been packing in the protein! She now loves chicken nuggets and tenders, shrimp, sausage, hot dogs, scrambled eggs w/cheese, etc. She even ate several green beans one night (that was a first!) We always offer her green veggies, but she'd never actually tried them (w/out immediately spitting them out) before...

Lia saw her first hot air balloon in the sky last week. She has always loved balloons, and to see one so high up in the sky really blew her mind. Everywhere we drove she kept looking for it and pointing to it.

She also tried her hand at karaoke for the first time last weekend. Our neighborhood block party was held at the home of the family who had the machine. We were outside chatting, when I realized I wasn't sure where Lia had gone. We went inside to check on her and there she was, mic in hand, putting on a show for several of our neighbors. She loved it. We may have a future showgirl on our hands!