Enjoying Some Sun and Uncle Dave

Continued Fun with Family

Some additional pics of our day with the family. Hello to the Illinois clan - we miss you!!

p.s. I promise my hair doesn't always look this bad. I do manage to comb it before work. heh heh. To all the future moms out there - it is possible to look good AND be a mom - it just means getting up REALLY early and having your picture taken within a couple of hours. Otherwise - well, you can see what happens. Maybe some moms can pull it off but by 4pm after rolling around on the floor with a 14 month old for 10 hours, I don't really care. :)

A Tissue Box Equals Big, Big Fun

Spend all the money you want (we do) at ToysRUs but give a toddler a box of tissues and life is good! We had a wonderful day at the grandparent's house today - I'm attaching many pictures. They'll take up a couple of posts. Enjoy.

Managing Sleep

This is our latest challenge - we have the eating under control, our little urchin seems to be absolutely famished and will eat pretty much anything she is offered. We are careful not to introduce too many new foods at one time since we must monitor for any allergies. And along with this increased appetite has come an amazing increase in what Jia is doing physically. She is crawling, standard not just commando, very well. She'll take off after her Aunt Lisa's cat and fly across the floor. Plus she can now pull herself up on almost any surface - her little legs are amazingly strong and her arm strength is clearly improving too. But in the middle of all of this little Jia (and the mom) are struggling to get a good nights sleep. Our once wonderful sleeper has had several nights over the past week (2 in a row this week) where she cries and cries and I get up of course to comfort and rock her back to sleep. It could be any number of things but we're going to back off the yogurt. She LOVES it but we've always suspected a bit of a milk problem with her. I'll be purchasing soy yogurt today to give that a try. I'll also try making some soy milk based fruit smoothies this weekend. Jia is approaching a complete rejection of baby food and only wants big girl food. She likes tuna, chicken, eggs - can we say BRAIN food!?!? Yeah! So we're keeping a food diary (thanks to Aunt Lisa) and I'll begin a sleep diary to try to figure out if her sleep issues are food related. If we can't find a pattern it might just be our baby is getting to be a little girl and may be having bad dreams, growing pains, who knows. But it's worth a try. Something has to work before the mom finds herself sleeping on the job! Happy Labor Day to all - hope you have a great weekend! Here are a few pictures taken earlier in the week - she's been tough to capture on film the past few days - maybe due to my exhaustion! And truly - Jia is pretty daggone tired when she gets home from Aunt Lisa's house - that house actually vibrates with kids and activity!

Must have more caffeine - sugar ....energy!

Jia has the ability to wipe out 2 adults in one fell swoop - and in only an hour! Jia's daddy got home from the boat and gave the mom a break but I couldn't resist so I went upstairs to her room for family fun. We had a great time. You can see Jia's room is a little out of control - I need to get organized! But it is a playland for her!

Cruising!

Jia is seriously cruising. She still doesn't care for crawling - she'll do it, usually commando style, but she has never liked it. But she loves to stand, walk and dance while holding our hands, and cruise around the coffee table slinging magazines to the floor. Oh, the fun! We still try to do plenty of floor time to strengthen her upper body and she will play independently for a while since she can now easily get to a sitting position on her own. But she is itching to walk. We thrilled and nervous at the same time! Here are some pictures from a couple of days ago. As you can see, she gets prettier every day!

Fun with Aunt Lisa and the Cousins!

Here are some pictures Lisa has taken while Jia is in her care. No need to go on and on about what fun she is having with her cousins and Aunt Lisa. That is evident!! Lisa also shot video of Jia at the pool but I haven't figured out how to post that. If anyone reading this knows how to upload video to Blogger, please feel free to share! I've tried the obvious icon - upload video - and it just won't work!! :(

Home 3 Months!

Today marks the 3rd month home with Jia. It seems like she has been with us far longer. We are settling in as a family although we are still adjusting to a routine just like all new families do. I said to Jia this morning that today is the 3rd month she has been home - and that a miracle took place on May 7th when China allowed us to create our family with her. It is as mysterious and as much of a miracle as childbirth that she, of all the people on earth, came to us so that we became a family. My sister said something similar in one of her wonderful comments while we were in China. She said how wonderful that in all the world the three of us found each other. How true. It is more mysterious than childbirth really. And it is truly a miracle. Here are some pics taken in China and you can see how much Jia has changed in 3 short months.

This is August?

It is a beautiful morning here - August 16 no less - nice cool-ish breeze, bright sun. Jia absolutely loves being outdoors. Her dad chose a great day to aerate the lawn and Jia was fascinated by the process. But she was more fascinated with the toy car her grand ma gave her to play with one day. And anything with a little hole in which to put her finger is even better. Hope I caught some good shots of her. She is eating soooo well these days. Her Aunt Lisa, mom extraordinaire has coaxed her into eating yogurt (so much for the suspected milk allergy) and chicken nuggets! Who'd a thunk it??? So this morning I gave her some scrambled eggs and she gobbled those up too! I think our baby is getting to be a big girl! We're having some sleeping issues - she was awake and screaming at 4:30 am - I managed to soothe her back to sleep by cuddling and rocking her. Then just as the mom was falling asleep again around 5:30 am she was up again! Once again I rocked and soothed and she fell back asleep - this time until 7 am. Whew. Good think it's a Saturday! She's been a bit fussy the last couple of days so it could be her teeth - doesn't' seem to be her tummy. But most of the time she's smiling and happy - bath time last night was a real treat. She squealed (literally) and laughed hysterically when I was playing with the toy duck in the bath. Jia is so much fun (most of the time!). Enjoy the weekend!

TGIF!!

Got Teeth? Got Daddy

Jia loves her Daddy. Well, so do I, so I totally understand. Enjoy the pictures. Jia now has 6 teeth with many more on the way. I'm anxious to see what she looks like with a full mouth full. She's also finding the joy of a binky. Do we want to go there? Binky addiction? When Jia is expressing herself in that unbelievably annoying whine that only moms and dads know - well, anything to stem the tide, that's my mantra at the moment. Jia is one happy, happy baby. We are lucky beyond words.

Sun and Sailing

Jia and the Mom survived our first weekend on the boat. It was a beautiful weekend and the sailing was great - as I understand - Jia and I spent the entire time except for a few photo ops, below decks. Jia didn't care for her PFD. I think that will take some time to get used to. But it was a wonderful day and while I was the epitome of the neurotic mom Jia loved her bunk. She slept better than she has in a week. I, on the other hand, was up most of the night checking on her! The dad (Captain extraordinaire) made up a super safe and cozy bunk and she loved the floating sensation and slept like a champ. Here are a few pics - I'll include more in another post.