Little Hands and Big Heads

Earlier today, as I'm cleaning up the lunch dishes, Quinn is busying himself by playing with a robot and a racecar. He creates the following dialogue...

Robot (speaking to car): Did that baby just drop you? (Indeed, Keira had just thrown the car onto the floor from her perch in the highchair.)
Car: What's a baby?
[I can't wait to hear this, I think to myself.]
Robot: You know, they have little hands and big heads!

Ah, yes. The world according to a preschooler.

So, for your viewing pleasure this week, some photos of the small-handed/big-headed ones.

He cracks me up.....
....unless I'm trying to take his cars!

Now that he's not looking, I'm sure I can get this Mater....

Those somersaults look easy!

Huh? It wasn't me.

Stop following me! I can climb these stairs by myself!

As you can see Keira is getting along pretty well here. We've been home almost 2 months. At times, it seems like she's been with us forever; but there are plenty of times when we are reminded that this is all new. For all of us, but especially for her. For example, we had a fabulous time at a family birthday party this weekend, and she really enjoyed herself. But big social events like that are usually followed by a couple of nights of no-good sleep and a few days of extra-mommy-clinginess. We haven't yet left her with a non-parent. She's always been with either mommy or daddy. And mostly, it's been mommy. She might get her first taste of being away from both of us this Sunday at church. She hung out with me in the toddler room last Sunday and liked it a lot. New playmates; new toys. So now we will see how she likes it sans momma. I hope we are both ready for it! In the meantime, we will load up on kisses, hugs, snuggles and smiles. There are plenty to go around!

Xin Nian Kuai Le!

We are a day late, but Happy Chinese New Year! It is the year of the pig, if you haven't heard. The pig (boar) is your Chinese zodiac sign if you were born in 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, or 2007. I'm sure you caught the 12 year pattern here. There are 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac. Anyway, check here if you want to see what characteristics are possessed by those born in pig years. It's good stuff, really, and the Chinese consider babies born in pig years to be very lucky. They are expecting a bit of a baby boom this year, and for your viewing pleasure, here's how our babies are doing.

Ahhhh, baby.....

If I have to wear this thing, so does Elmo!

A foot and a half of snow is good for something....like making giant snowballs to throw at my dad!

Toothy smile on Valentine's Day!

What do you want? I'm trying to make out my birthday list here!

Happy New Year everyone. Oink oink!

And a very happy birthday to my monkey mom! We love you!

Where's The Beef?

Where? Right here in central Indiana! Courtesy of a Super Bowl bet with my sister-in-law, we were eating mighty fine last night. It all started over a picture she doctored up, to make our nice little Indy family appear to be Bears fans. You see, my hubby's family is from Chicago. He was born and raised in the suburbs. So, according to SIL's thinking, hubby should be a Bears fan. But, as it turns out, he was never much for the Bears. The Blackhawks he likes; the Cubs he likes; but the Bears, and football in general, were never a big deal to him. Then along comes me - we fall in love, get married, yada, yada, yada, and here we are in the middle of Colts country. So, the first year we move to the Indy-area, I buy some Colts season tickets (which unfortunately we no longer have thanks to our 2 lovely kidlets; but it was fun while it lasted!). He goes because he's a good sport. And the next thing you know, well, he's in a Marvin Harrison jersey on Sundays. I can be persuasive like that. Plus the whole, if-momma-ain't-happy-ain't-nobody-happy thing.
Anyway, after this whole photo, um, incident with my SIL, I say we need a wager. She agrees. And as you all know, to the victor go the spoils. And here, for your viewing pleasure, are all the delicious spoils.

This box arrived at our house 2 days after the win. I'll say, those Bears fans aren't all bad. And SIL sure is prompt on paying up!

Inside, sandwich fixins! Yum, yum. Thanks to subzero temps around here and an uninsulated garage, this box was frozen solid until we were ready to prepare the meal.

Is it ready yet?

Yummmm!!
Gimme more!

A mighty tasty sandwich!

Mine tastes better with my Super Bowl Champions hat on!

Thanks Aunt V and Uncle P! We loved it!

That's One Small Step for a Girl....

...and one giant leap into official toddlerdom! Yup, Keira took her first steps this weekend. She had been taking about 2 at a time in the previous weeks, before diving to me or daddy, but this weekend, she finally took more than 2 at a time! She walked about 5 steps from grandma to mommy on Saturday!
Keira was on her first ever trip to Ohio to visit my side of the family, and it was full of good times. She loved being around her cousins, aunts and uncles. And the grandparents too, of course. And she even got to meet her other great-grandma and a great-aunt and -uncle. She seemed to be very at ease and was laughing and smiling and playing. She's not mobile enough to get in on the big kid fun and games, but she loved watching and will be putting herself into the middle of the action soon. (You know, that Ohio atmosphere must be powerful - Quinn crawled for the first time at my parents house, and he took his first steps a few months after that while I was visiting some college friends...hmmm....of course, I can hear my mom now: see? move back!)
But anyway, Keira isn't totally mobile yet, but she was taking a few more steps around here earlier this morning. She is also doing other totally fabulous things like:
initiating peek-a-boo on her own,
giving me kisses on her own, and
picking up her doll and giving the doll big hugs and pats on the back.
Did I mention she gives me kisses??!
It is so much fun to see her learning new things and feeling more and more comfortable with us and her surroundings. It is hard to imagine sometimes that we just met her about 2 months ago. Of course, it is not always sunshine and roses, as any parents knows, but we keep growing, one day at a time.

Below are some recent pix of the kids.
Here, K is opening a gift from great-grandma, with the help of her big brother, of course. Does anyone other than the first child ever get to open gifts all on their own??? (By the way, she loves these singing Valentine's monkeys. Um, thanks a lot, Aunt L!) :-)

And of course, I'll imagine she put this in her mouth of her own accord (and not that it is Quinn's idea of some peace and quiet!)

The Indiana sun reflecting off all that snow is just too much!!

And here is Miss K by the Little People Garage, aka her own personal step ladder. This girl will try to get a leg up on pretty much anything. If only we had been able to catch her on camera when she was hanging from the edge of the pack-and-play, trying to hoist her leg up on the side, wanting to climb in!

That's it from here for now. We just got a new digital camera, so hopefully even better pix to come soon. And since they are calling for about a foot and a half of snow around here today and tomorrow, there should be lots of time to learn how to use it. I think our next photos will be of us enjoying some yummy Italian beef sandwiches we won from hubby's sister in our Super Bowl Bet. More on that later.

Zai jian!

We're Doing Just Super, Thanks for Asking!

Yes, all is well here in Indianapolis. No one really seems to notice the sub-zero temps. It feels all warm like Miami (but with snow instead of rain). Indy is basking in the glow of the first Colts Super Bowl Championship since the team moved here. (For trivia buffs, the last Colts Super Bowl victory was in Super Bowl V, I think, against Dallas.)

Anyway, the kids have been almost exclusively in blue for the last month or so. Well, OK, K has been in a lot of pink too, but you get the idea. The day before the big game, we attended a surprise b-day party for a friend in southern Indiana. There isn't the sea of blue down there like there has been around here, but nonetheless, we spruced up the place with Miss K looking smashing at the party in her Colts cheerleader outfit and Q wearing the 88. (Keira says the dress is for partying and the jersey for gameday. It is tough having to make such important wardrobe decisions at such a young age!) Anyway, besides the fabulous game, here are some other super happenings here....

Number 1, and most importantly, Keira continues to adjust well and is sleeping better too. Woo-hoo! She was kind enough to hold out until half-time on Sunday, and then she went right on to sleep and we didn't hear another peep from her the rest of the night. She has 4 teeth now (#4 broke through on Sunday) and has a pretty cute snaggle-tooth grin. Her big brother is doing well also, and manages to refrain from tackling her, although you can tell the temptation is there sometimes. They both fight over my lap occasionally, which is the kind of necessary roughness I like!

Today while Q was at preschool, K and I had a little girl-time and went walking. At the mall. Where they happened to be selling all the latest Super Bowl Champions merchandise. Well, how about that. Our lucky day. So, we will be sporting duds similar to what you see here.

Actually, K is going to have to hold out for hand-me-downs from her brother, but I think she will be OK with that.

Well, I think I'll sign off for now. I was going to offer my opinion on the game, but, well, we know that the best team won and there isn't much more to say than that. I won't comment on how the Bears and their fans were so confident that the "Bears football weather" would not be a problem for them. And I won't comment about all we heard about how fabulous their defense was and how the Colts were going to have trouble with their 2 running backs. Somehow, I think everyone got that reversed. Seems like the Colts handled the weather better than the Bears (not fabulous, but not Rex Grossman-ish either...and first "dome team" to win the Super Bowl outside). And I think it was the 2 Colts RBs that more or less ran (and caught) at will. And it was the Colts D that came up big (thank you, Kelvin Hayden and Bob Sanders).

Ooops, sorry. I said I wasn't going to comment. Well, guess I couldn't help myself. Still on that Super Bowl high.

Anyway, it was a fun game to watch, once I got over the opening kick off and Peyton's early throw for an interception. After that, as Stuart Scott on ESPN said, it was a "straight up beat down". (I don't usually quote ESPN, since I don't think they typically show enough respect to the boys in blue, but you know I wouldn't come up with a quote that hip all on my own!)

OK. I'm done talking Super Bowl. For now. I can't promise that there won't be more cute pix of the kids in blue. And I'll save my Why-My-Dad-Is-Like-Tony-Dungy essay for later.

Have a super week, everyone!

Welcome to Mister Rogers' (Blue) Neighborhood

As the Super Bowl hype continues to build, our good friends at the Indianapolis Star keep us informed on what the other guys (knuckleheads in the Second City....or rather, the 3rd or 4th city by now...) are saying about us and our team. The other day, a tribune columnist called Indy the Mister Rogers of metropolises. Hey, we've been called worse. He went on the describe how troubling all the niceness between Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith is. (Thank goodness it isn't our coach named Lovie, or we'd really hear it!) And he went on to list a few others things that were weighing on his mind, trying to stir up a little trash talk. I was going to go on and on about the fact that this is what's wrong with the world today - people have trouble with nice. But instead, since we are all for having fun and playing games around here, please find below, as un-nice as they could be, the thoughts of my kids on the evil Chicago Bears:

Nevermind that the entirety of their dad's side of the family lives in or around Chicago. These kids call a spade a spade, a Colt a winner, and a Bear a big loser. Geniuses already, eh?

And here is Quinn's prediction for the big game: Colts 40, Bears 1.

GO COLTS!

That's 15 Yards and an Automatic First Down!

Personal foul, number 88, roughing the sister:
Nah, not really.....not sweet ol' Quinn. The Patriots, sure, but not a guy wearing the Shoe!
Although admittedly, he was called for a block in the back later in the evening.

And here is Keira earlier in the day, warming up for the big game by loosening up her throwing arm: (Thanks to our super Cincy friends for keeping Miss K in some nice Colts duds!)

The week before, she was ready for the game in her "cheering girl" outfit (Quinn's term):

And here, taking a break to confiscate one of Quinn's favorite cars....afterall, what are sisters for if not to annoy their big brothers?!

And later, she's thinking "Well, if he won't let me have his Lightning McQueen, maybe I can swipe this firetruck while he's not looking...."

Life is good! (Ok - that's what I'm thinking....I hope she is too! I know that's what Q is thinking since he's in the background watching a TV show on Saturday morning!)

Keira has been in our family for over a month now, and I think we've all been doing pretty well. Minor sleep issues aside, the adjustment is going as well as I had hoped. Maybe not as well as daddy had hoped, since she still has a strong preference for me...but well, knowing us both, wouldn't you??! (Ha ha!! Just kidding, sweetie! Really, I'm joking....mostly...!)

Miss K had her second visit to the international adoption clinic here. They've been fabulous and she seems to be in great health. She's only managed to gain about 0.2 kg since hitting US soil, so we are working on that. And, in case you couldn't tell by looking at us, here's proof that she is not genetically related to me: the doctor said "she needs more fat in her diet...you should put butter in her vegetables...whipped cream in her formula...." Ahhh, now that's a diet I can follow!

And now in closing, I leave you with the words you all are assuming you'll find somewhere in my first post-Patriots beating post: SUPER BOWL!

The Stand-Off Continues

No - not between Keira and Quinn or K and her parents. The stand-off between our computer and the digital camera. They apparently hate each other right now and refuse to speak to one another. So, I cannot download the super cute pix of Miss K in her little Colts cheerleader outfit (fabulous gift from her youngest aunt --- xiexie!). She was all decked out for Saturday's showdown between the Colts and the evil Baltimore Ravens. We all know how that turned out. Score another one for the good guys. I am hoping the camera and the laptop can settle their differences soon so we can post some pix in time to bring on good karma for Sunday's showdown versus the also evil Patriots. Until then, here are a few parting thoughts:
1. She called me mama! I was putting her in her PJs on Saturday evening and she looked up at me, smiled, and said mama! Yippee. I gave her big kisses and hugs. And she did it again. Of course, she hasn't done it since, but we are making progress. And I thought the Colts win Saturday was a big deal. This was even better.
2. I may have spoken too quickly about how well she has been sleeping. All in all, still better than I thought. And still in bed some days til almost 9am! However, a new habit has appeared: waking up about 1-2 hours after going to bed, and refusing to close her little peepers for another 1-2 hours! She's the drowsiest looking girl, but those eyelids won't shut. Thankfully, this doesn't occur at 2 or 3 am. But still. The trade-off is that I get these adoring little stares. And periodic smiles. And pokes at my chest to "wake" me up. Apparently me closing my eyes to show her how it is done is not making much of an impression.
3. On a non-baby note, this to the city of Baltimore and the media in general: Stop it already! The Colts have been here since 1984. Granted, leaving in the middle of the night was probably not Mr. Irsay's greatest idea, but it is done. Stop talking about it. And, for the love of pete, would someone please remind them that they stole a team only a few years back! They are playing with the Cleveland Browns. As former Indy Mayor Hudnut commented on game-day, "....get a life!"

R.O.C.K. in the USA

With apologies to fellow Hoosier, John Mellencamp, we r-o-c-k in the USA in a chair. At night. When it is bedtime. And to borrow from Readers' Digest, Life in These United States has been going well so far.
As you can see, there is no shortage of brotherly love for little Miss K. And she loves it. And of course, so do I.

As for day-to-day life, I think we are now all over jet-lag. I was prepared for this to take about 2 weeks (I had heard 1 day for every hour of time difference), but I think we were back on Indiana time in less than a week. And for those of you who know the history of time in Indiana, that is no small feat!

Keira herself is doing great! She's been sleeping 14 hours overnight these last few nights. Although apparently for her, afternoon naps are optional. Very optional. But if the girl can go from 7pm to 9am, I can let that one slip by. She's been eating well and feeling more secure here, I think. Quinn still gets the biggest smiles from her, but she's got plenty for mom and dad too. And, today's "first": first time not crying when being put into a car seat! Yippee!! As Quinn puts it, he can now finally have some peace and quiet in the car. Oh, and by the way, as far as her noodle affinity goes, it apparently only applies to noodles of the asian persuasion. This girl has little use for spaghetti. Except for as a hair decoration.

And now, a little look at what the Guangxi Girl has been up to.

Taking a minute to read. Well, a second, really. She's much too busy to sit down for a story or two. She'd much rather have a crawling race with her brother. (Hey, she knows she's in Indiana...and it's all about racing here.) She hasn't caught him yet, but she can hold her own.

And here she tries to walk to daddy's outstretched hand:

And lastly, just to teach her early on the wise ways of this house, here she is the day before the Colts 23-8 win over the Chiefs. (No, it really isn't all about racing here in Indy!)

(I can't decide if she's thinking "Gee, my big brother is so cool!" or "Stop it with the choke-hold already!")

Home Sweet Home

Sounds cliche - but it's true. We returned safely Thursday afternoon....although it was a bit like the movie Groundhog Day - since, for example, our 2nd flight left Hong Kong at 1130am and we got in to Chicago at 1130am, same day, despite being on the plane for 14 hours. It was like the day that wouldn't end, but yet a day of new beginnings! We had the good fortune of sitting next to Mr. Grumpy Middle-Aged Guy on that long flight...for about 10 minutes. He realized he was located next to a baby, and in front of and behind other babies, so he asked to be moved. Jackpot for us, since we then had the entire row of 4 seats for the 3 of us. What a great flight. Keira was a superstar flyer. We could not have had it better. (Except for maybe getting moved up to First-class, but this was almost as good.) Then, after landing in Chicago, we headed to the immigration line at the airport - the one for "visitors". Luckily, although one of the workers looked to be a sourpuss, she let us jump ahead in line. She did this for one other adoptive family too. I'm not sure why, but maybe she had a soft heart. Anyway, Keira's big moment of becoming a citizen was rather anticlimatic. Mr. INS Worker with Typical Southside Chicago Accent stamped a few papers and said OK. That's it. Woo-wee.
Anyway, after one last quickie flight from Chicago to Indy, we were home!
Here's Q - excited to see us, I think!
And now he's showing off the shoes his sister brought him from China (light-up Spiderman tennies)....a little bribery, um, I mean gifting, does wonders for establishing positive sibling relationships!

And here's Miss K, strutting her stuff around Indy International with grandpa:
We are still adjusting back to Indy time, although doing pretty well for Day 5, I think. All in all, K is doing well, although still basically a momma-cling-on. She is starting to sit and play alone in the family room while I dash into the kitchen (she can still see me - this is key), and she's OK with being in the highchair (again, as long as I am close by). She will play nicely with the boys while I am in the shower, although she stages a loud vocal protest initially. She has met her maternal grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins; as well as our bestest friends and their kids. She lives to tell. And actually enjoyed herself as well. Quinn is adjusting fine too, although ironically, yesterday, Mr. Ask-1000-Questions-Talk-Nonstop-During-All-Waking-Hours-Unless-Watching-TV declared at lunch that Keira was too loud and he needed some peace and quiet. There has never been a blacker pot addressing a kettle.

I am still hoping to get a decent picture of the 2 of them together. I never seem to have the camera at the right time. There have been plenty of really great loving moments. (And also plenty of "Keeeer-UH! That's mine!")

We hope you are all enjoying the start to 2007. We are looking forward to twice the fun and love.

Thanks for the Memories, China

So, here we are - our last day in China. For now, at least. I think it would be nice to bring Keira back sometime, when she can appreciate the trip. And, when/if she wants to come.
I think it goes without saying, what our favorite memory of the trip is. (Hint for those of you reading before your first cup of coffee: she's about 16 pounds and has a cute little giggle.) We will always have some love for this country because of the precious gift we are taking with us. Forever.
And before I get too emotional on the whole topic of how K came to us, I'll move on to another topic: Blogger's crabbiness. I upload pix in the reverse order of how I want them to show up, so I always load K pix last, sightseeing photos first. Well, guess what, Blogger decides to be grouchy on this last day, and for some reason is refusing to let me upload K pix. Sorry. Seems all you are left with now is the following.................
Our trip to a local Chinese medicine market.
For those of you who know my opinions on herbal medicine and such, you can imagine this was right up my alley. (Sarcasm intended.) But actually, it was quite interesting. They will use a bit of anything and everything.
The photo below shows the, um, Chinese equivalent of Cialis (hanging in center; an anatomical part of deer; you can guess the rest from here...)

We didn't see many pets on our trip to China. Maybe 2 cats and 3 dogs, total. Until today. Many a cat around. I was afraid of what their purpose might be in this market. But alas, kitty is safe: they keep them around as mousers, b/c apparently there is quite an issue with rats in a market that sells a variety of dried-up animal parts.

Some cats, by the way, were quite fat. Especially the one I saw hanging around the fish aquarium store.

Here's a general street scene, around the market:

Our guide, Cindy, did tell us about how the Cantonese like their meat fresh.

I'll spare you the rest of the meat market photos that Chris took. Suffice it to say that anything goes.

Now for something more pleasant, here's a photo of the entrance to the park next door to the hotel. The dad-statue has a video camera in hand. Celebrating adoptive parents, or mocking?

Well, that's it folks. From China, at least. Keira has made such strides since we met her. She has shown us many laughs and smiles and giggles. And she went from not appreciating the new woman in her life (me) to becoming quite a mommy's girl. Now, she hates for me to put her down or be gone for long, and she basically cries the entire time I'm in the shower or whatever. She smiles at us when she wakes up in the morning and from naps. And she seems to be very curious. We are so lucky to have been blessed with yet another wonderful child. I'm not sure how we got so lucky twice. But I'm certainly not about to complain!

Tomorrow we head to the airport at 6am (that's 5pm, Wednesday afternoon, EST). We fly from Guangzhou to Hong Kong, HK to Chicago, Chicago to Indy. We'll be home a little after 3pm on Thursday. Home Sweet Home! We can't wait!

See you soon! Zai jian! Auf wiedersehen!

(And thanks [Xiexie!] again to everyone who kept us in your thoughts and prayers. Our trip could not have gone any better. And for that, we thank you! We are lucky to have such great family and friends, and we can't wait for you to meet the newest member of our family.)

Look Out America, Here I Come!

Well, I think Miss Keira is ready for her American debut. She was busy checking out our luggage earlier today. And since she chose checking out luggage over eating noodles, she must really be ready!

We had a pretty relaxing and free day today, which was good, since K is fighting a cold or something, and we needed the rest and downtime. We did have our consulate appointment today. This used to mean that each family would have to go to the consulate for an actual interview of some sort. But now, the guides just take all the paperwork and call us if there is anything that needs corrected or clarified. We cleared that hurdle this morning, and then found out that the "swearing in" ceremony would be this afternoon instead of tomorrow. So, off we all went to the consulate - 45 minute bus ride, cleared security, and swore that all the info we provided throughout this process was correct. We did this swearing in as a big group of about 50 or so families. Then, congrats all around and visas were issued for the babies. We are now cleared for launch back to the US. We officially adopted Keira last week, and now this week the US government agrees that she can immigrate to the US to become a US citizen. This (becoming a US citizen) will officially happen on Thursday, when we clear customs at O'Hare Airport in Chicago - our first port of entry into the US after the adoption. At this time, her Chinese citizenship will also be revoked, since China does not allow dual-citizenship. Their loss - she's a really cool girl.

Anyway, we are looking forward to going home. This has been a fabulous trip and we've enjoyed learning as much as we could about Keira's birthland, but we can't wait to get back to ours and settle back into our nest as a family of 4 (six if you count the furry family members...who are in for something they probably won't be too wild about!).

And by the way, for those who have asked: K passed her medical exam yesterday. They weigh and measure the babies (she tipped the scales at 16 pounds and change), check their ears and eyes, and then also listen to their hearts and give them a general visual once-over. Apparently, this is a US requirement to issue a visa to the kiddos.

Tomorrow, we pack and pack and pack all of our goodies. One of Chris' favorite parts of the trip has been haggling with the shopkeepers. That suitcase K is playing in above he purchased for a mere 60RMB (that's about 8 USD!).