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!

Memorial Day Weekend 2011

We had a great Memorial Day Weekend. My parents, uncle, and sister traveled to our house and got to spend some quality time with Miss Lia. My sister Tracy brought Lia a Tinkerbell gift bag filled with goodies. A "Barbie-sized" Tinkerbell doll, a couple pairs of Hello Kitty socks, purple sunglasses (Lia's favorite color) and large Koosh ball type thing. Lia was very excited over her new treasures and dolled herself up like a diva strutting around the house:

We also received very good reports back from Lia's doctors last week. Her surgeon was very pleased with how her palate has healed since her surgery May 4. At this point her palate looks completely intact, and she *should* not require any further palate surgeries until her adult teeth come in. We all have our fingers crossed that no more fistulas appear in the meantime. She is still eating only soft foods for one more week, and then she will be released to a normal toddler diet. We also hope that this set of eartubes will last longer than the first set did (only 3 months!) If we can keep them in place for 10-12 months, it is possible that her ears may not need them after that - or she may need another pair placed. We'll just play that one by *ear* (haha)... Her pediatrician also had blood drawn during her surgery for a variety of tests, and called today to let us know that everything looks good. All of her counts are within (or close to) the normal range for a child of her age. So all of that is good news!

In other news, my sister will be starting her third round of chemo (in three years) in the coming couple of weeks, so we appreciate all positive thoughts and prayers sent her way. Lia LOVES her Aunt Tracy! She loves to watch Tracy put on her make-up (something mama does very little of!) and she lets Tracy do her hair up in all sorts of cute styles:

Right now Lia is ALL girly-girl and absolutely loves Tinkerbell, Minnie Mouse, Princesses and Barbie, etc. She also loves "puppies" (what she calls dogs of all ages). But she mainly loves anything that glitters or sparkles. Her favorite color is purple, (with pink coming in a close second). She is also becoming somewhat of a clotheshorse, wanting to change her outfit several times each day and shoes by the hour. People always comment on how cute we have her dressed, and I always explain that SHE picks out her clothes!  She is a strong-willed kid and no longer wants me to pick out clothes for her. But you know what? She has a great sense of style! Right now if a piece of clothing has one of her favorite characters on it, it is likely to be in high rotation...and shoes embellished with sparkles or flowers are also a high priority. We are going to work on potty training in the coming weeks. I'm hoping all the cute Tink and Minnie panties will be enough motivation to get this kid out of diapers. She seems ready. Wish us luck!

Adoption Day #2

Thanks for everyone's well wishes. Physically, Lia is doing really well recovering from her last surgery. She was off the pain meds completely by the following Monday (her surgery was on a Wed.). Unfortunately, the stress of the surgery and her hospital stay seems to have triggered some fears and sleeping issues that we weren't dealing with previously. We've been assured that these are completely age-appropriate behaviors and that they are typically brought on by stress in a child's life. Of course we tend to jump to the conclusion that any fears or behaviors she displays are adoption-related, but we also need to remember she is a toddler and often times toddlers go thru phases where they are afraid of the dark, or afraid of the window curtains, or afraid of the bathtub, (or in our case, all three of these at once!) But even now, those fears seem to subsiding with each day that passes, so we are hopeful that this is a short-lived phase she is going through. In the meantime, she is getting most of her sleep either in our bed with us, or on her little Mickey sofa that flips out into a small bed in our family room:

In other news, today was our court hearing to finalize the adoption in our state. In Washington, you only have to have custody of the child for six months in order to finalize, so after our six month post-placement, we decided to file the paperwork and finalize. The judge was so kind and he, our attorney, and the court clerk were all smitten with our girl. They closed the courtroom to just us and afterwards we took some photos for Lia's scrapbook. 

HOORAY!

Happy Birthday, Happy Mother's Day, and Get Well Soon...

Wow...busy week! Today is Mother's Day. My first "official" one. Last year I had been matched with Lia, but had not yet traveled to get her, so it was bittersweet. The four years prior to that were even more depressing as I waited...and waited...and waited...for a match. There is a lot of "hype" around Mother's Day, and I've received a lot of congratulatory messages from friends and family which is lovely, but the fact of the matter is while I am so happy Lia is in my life and I feel so blessed to have her call me mama...I can't help but think of her birthmother and the terrible decision she had to make, that ultimately led me to my daughter. I pray that somehow she is at peace with her decision and that her heart somehow "knows" that her sweet baby girl is in good hands and receiving the care she could not provide for her.

Speaking of which, thank you to everyone who held us in your thoughts and prayers this week as Lia underwent palate surgery #2. We arrived at the hospital at 6:30 on Wednesday morning, and she was rolled back to surgery just before 9 am (I cried, but she didn't thanks to the drugs they gave her beforehand). Around 11:15 we got the news that she was out of surgery and in the recovery room. Unlike last time, she was still asleep for a good hour in the recovery room...we hoped this was due to the change in her not getting morphine, which seemed to have caused a lot of extra anxiety (to put it mildly) last time. Unfortunately, she still had a very rough time coming back out of the anesthesia. Our poor girl screamed and fought everyone - us, the nurses, and pretty much the entire world for about 2 hours. Around 2 pm she finally started calming down. There was a lot more blood this time too. Not to be graphic, but rather than the blood running down the back of her throat like it did last time, this time more of the surgery was up at the front of her mouth, just behind her teeth, therefore a lot more blood ran out of her mouth - for hours. It was pretty traumatic for her and for us.We spent the night and all day Thursday (my birthday) at the hospital as well. She slept most of Thursday with one or the other of us holding her...

Lucky for us, her surgeon happened to be the on-call ENT at the hospital that night, so he popped in to check on her around 9 pm and decided she was in good enough shape to go home. So after signing all the release papers and a visit to the 24 hr pharmacy across town, we got home around midnight.

Since being home she has been perking up a bit more each day. She's still not eating much and can only eat very soft or pureed foods for the next couple of weeks. She's on several meds, so we did have one Mother's Day vomiting episode this morning (lucky for me she was sitting on daddy's lap at the time!) But other than that, she's been fairly chipper, and wearing her arm restraints without too much fuss. We appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers as she continues to heal. Our hope is that this surgery "takes" and that we won't have to go back again for several years.