Pictures & Updates

We've had a very busy last few weeks, between Steve traveling to Denver, us traveling to Seattle, and then my family visiting here for a few days. Lots of activity, but not a lot of time to blog. In between all these activities we've been making the rounds to all of Lia's doctors - ENT, Audiology, Speech Therapy, Primary Care, etc. - and also trying to find time to work. Whew!

Lia was being very picky about food for about a month, and then suddenly about a week ago, she started eating again. Her current favorite snack items are: Nutrigrain bars and cheddar cheese sticks. She also continues to love items with a strong garlic or slightly spicy flavor. However, she is still not a big fan of meat. Our big girl now weighs 26 lbs and is 35 inches tall!   

Lia now has a longer attention span and can sit still while you read her a book. She can sit through a 20-30 minute cartoon and follow the storyline. She interacts with educational programs and points or shouts out answers to their questions. She is currently obsessed with pictures of animals and the sounds different animals make. While her speech is still based on vowel sounds, we hear the occasional "D" or "T" and it blows us away! Her speech therapist has us working on "B" and "P" sounds currently by learning to put those lips together and make a pressure sound by blowing air. The therapist recommended putting some chapstick on her lips to get her rubbing her lips together, and now we have a chapstick addict on our hands!

Here are some pictures from the past week or two:

You take a picture of me? I'll take a picture of you!

Like mama, like daughter, rocking and texting...

In the sound booth at her Audiology appointment.

Rockin the "Bee" crown from OCB.

Show me your ears!

Six Months My Love...

Such a busy week. Today Lia has been with us six months. Hard to believe time has passed so quickly, but then again, she seems like she's been with us forever.

Sandwiched between Valentine's Day and the Chinese New Year Lantern Festival, we have our six-month post-placement visit with our social worker. This week I had to send her all of the pre-placement child profile information we received about Lia from our agency. It was so strange reading through it all again.

To think that this premature infant that I read about, who was literally starving due to her cleft lip and palate, could be the same child that I see flying through our kitchen with a smile on her face today...leaves me speechless.

I wish I could tell her birthmother that not only did her baby girl survive, but she is thriving! She is so loved.

Happy Year of the Rabbit

Chinese New Year 2011 kicked off last Thursday, and we took the opportunity to get Lia dressed up in the special outfit we bought for her while in China, along with the Jade necklace we got for her. This is one of my favorites from the photoshoot:

Steve was out of town this weekend, so it was a "Mommy & Me" weekend for Lia. This was the first time Steve and I had been apart for more than a few hours since we got Lia, and with very few friends and no family in this town where we live, I was indoctrinated pretty quickly into single life with a 2 year old - and let me tell you - it is HARD work! It made me appreciate and admire all the single moms I know even more than I already did, and it also made me appreciate Steve and everything he does to support me in caring for Lia on a daily basis! We were happy to be able to Skype with him while he was out of town, and Lia really got in to interacting with him via the laptop. Now when he calls on the phone, she immediately points to the computer, wanting to see him as well! Here's a pic from one of our Skype sessions:

On Saturday, I decided to take Lia down to our local Asian grocery for their annual Chinese New Year celebration. It is sponsored by the "sister city" coalition, and I was shocked at how many people were there! The grocery store itself is not big, and it was packed wall to wall with people. As Lia and I wedged ourselves in amongst the crowd, I had to laugh as I heard a Chinese woman singing "Like a Virgin" over the loud speakers inside the store. I was having flashbacks to our time in Beijing (with the "Winston Cowboy")... We left the store and went out to the parking lot where most of the activities took place. There were young men beating drums and setting up to do a lion dance, and older men throwning garlands of firecrackers (unlit) off the roof in long strings. As the "lucky" time (11:11 am in 2011), the crowd got big. The lion and dragon started dancing and the fireworks started going off...and off...and off... We finally left and the firecrackers were STILL going off. The red "ribbons" hanging from the roof in this photo are actually firecrackers. You can tell from the shadows that they were looped over several times...There were literally thousands:

Gong Xi Fa Cai

HAPPY YEAR OF THE METAL RABBIT!