First Haircut

After 21 months, we finally did it. Zoe had her first haircut today. We could not have been prouder, she didn't cry at all. She bravely sat on the chair all by herself and let the man at Cartoon Cuts cut her hair. We got a nice certificate and a lock of her hair as a keepsake. After the haircut she had her favorite mall pretzel, a trip around the carosel (liked it at first then wanted off), and got to play at the little tot playground. She's now fast asleep! Eric is going to take her to the pool later today while I get more packing done. Can't believe we close on the house in a week. They dug the hole for the new house and will be pouring the foundation soon. We're so glad they got started before we moved into the apartment! With a little luck, and a little drought this summer, we may be in by Halloween.

T-shirt

I'm buying this t-shirt for Zoe from beautifulfutures.com because I think it's ironical :)

When we had you, we had everything....

I can not believe it's been a year since we first held Zoe in our arms. I remember that day so clearly.... all the fear, all the stress, all the excitment, all the bewilderment that we had flown more than half way around the world to create our family, and mostly all the joy. What a year it has been. Zoe went from being a very quiet little 9 month old, to a very active 21 month old who we call our Ambassador of Good Will for all the smiles, hellos, and blown kisses she gives to everyone. (Of course she's also getting a little closer to two now and is becoming a little more bossy. Yesterday she told me to "sit down mommy." I was thrilled with the three word phrase, less thrilled with the attitude :) ) Zoe also went from being unable to sit up, to running, hopping, and climbing stairs. The transformation has been amazing and everything we had been told about the resiliency of the babies has proven to be true. Our little girl is so strong. She had gone through more in her first nine months than most adults I know. She is my hero.

I've learned so much this year, and I know Eric has too. Although I've worked with kids since I was one, being a parent and having the 24/7 responsibilities is only something you can understand when you are doing it. Even know I tell the parents I work with that it is so much easier for me to tell them how to parent than it is for me to actually do it. There are so many things that I never thought I would do, that I do. A year and a day ago I never would have thought I would co-sleep with my child....or that I would love it. I also never knew I had the capacity to worry to much, to hurt so much when I can't console her, or to love so much. Don't get me wrong, I love Eric so very much. But the love I feel for this child is (as I write and cross out many words) indescribable, as is the gratefulness I feel to her birth parents and country.

This year certainly hasn't been without it's share of ups and downs. A good friend of mine, the father of four, told me when I got married to wait to have children. He said that being a parent is hard and if you don't take the time just to establish your marriage first, you won't be able to tell if it's the marriage, or the parenting, that is hard. Boy, he was right on the mark. There are times when we are scared, or tired, or stressed that we have been less than nice to each other. But we can always look back on those 3 years (seems short I know) of marriage and 6 years of togetherness and remember that we got along really well then..so it's just the tiredness/stress talking. What my friend also should have said is to make sure you really, really love your spouse because there will be days on this parenting journey where you won't like each other very well, if at all...but you'll still have that love. Thank God for that.

This year has been an amazing journey and we're looking forward to so many more with Zoe. I know Eric and I both feel so incredibly blessed to have her in our lives. We must have done something right to have been given the incredible opportunity to be Zoe's parents.

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a great Memorial Day weekend. On Saturday we went to Maryland to visit with friends and their family. Zoe loved playing with her little friend who so generously shared all her toys! We had great food and great company. On Sunday we went to another friend's BBQ and then off to Eric's parents house for more yummy food. The weather on Monday was perfect for our first trip to our pool. We only have a month to enjoy it this year because of the move. One really nice thing about this pool is all the water features which Zoe really liked. The pool in the new development is alot smaller...but we're just happy that it's up and running being that development has stalled. We're heading to Illinois for my Nana's memorial service on Friday. Hopefully Zoe will be on her best behavior!

First New Home Photo :)

We put the sold sign on our lot last night and the sales manager took this picture. Tomorrow we go to the design studio to pick out the interior options for the house. Hopefully we'll be in the house in September/October. I'm such a nervous Nelly that I'm going to worry about our townhouse closing until all papers have been signed on June 30th! Anyway, in this picture you can see the tree preserve in the neighborhood. We also have a small tree preserve right across the street so our view will be of the trees. There are also 3 ponds in the development and when we were there last week two Canadian geese waddled down the road. Zoe's eyes got all big and she started towards them. We hope she enjoys living there!

House Under Contract!

Our townhome went under contract in 4 days. The new owners are going to give us until June 30th to move. We're going to have to move to an apartment for a few months while the house is being built, but if you've got to do it then the summer is the time to do so! Fingers crossed that everything will go as planned and we will actually close on the townhome at the end of June. If all goes as planned we will be moving here (follow link) : http://www.greenemillpreserve.com/

Our builder is Stanley Martin and the home is the Ballou. (The website is a bit outdated, home prices have fallen A LOT).

I think I'm running out of blogging steam. We have our one year anniversary with Zoe coming up on June 3rd. I think that may be it for the blog.

Pigtails!

Pigtails! The little stinker still won't let me do her hair but she giggles when Miss Amy or Ms. Astoria (her teachers) do it so I gave them a bunch of hair ties and she's been coming home in pigtails. Since she still hasn't had a haircut, she's got plenty of hair for them!

I've lost the blogging bug as of late but a quick update on Zoe...she's doing great! She learns new words every day, is using verbs and some two word phrases, counts to 3 clearly and 4 and 5 are emerging, has her color words (but is still working on matching the word to the color..seems to know green and blue more than others), says her teacher's name, does the body motions to numerous songs, loves completing Melissa and Doug puzzles, knows and can say circle and star and can pick out a square, and just gets taller every day :) Still trying to put weight on her. She eats well but will probably continue to track on the lower end of the weight chart. She's a 18-24 month on top due to her height, but bottoms are 12-18 month and she could probably still wear 6-12 if they weren't so short. Most importantly, and in writing this I'm jinxing it, we've all been sleeping through the night for a while now :) I think she's growing again right now though so that may change. We're looking so forward to seeing all the family out in Illinois in few weeks and can't wait for everyone to meet Zoe! Oh, and our house is back on the market as of tomorrow...wish us luck this time around!

My Excellent News

No pictures....sorry family....however, I have great news to share. After 9 years of harrassing my boss, I'm finally going to get a 10.5 month contract. So, no more snow days, all the teacher holidays, and only 11 extra working days in the summer. I'm so excited. It's a paycut, of course, but instead of dropping my university teaching like I planned to I'm going to continue with at least the highest paying course to make up the salary difference. 5 weeks off in the summer. I can hardly wait!!!

I can't believe it's been a year

I can't believe it's been a year since we first saw our daughter's face. At this time last year I had just received the e-mail from our agency telling me that they had our referral. I knew they would call around 3pm so I headed to lunch with a friend of mine who helped keep me calm until it was time to go home for the call. I remember vividly my friend Melanie calling to congratulate me on our daughter. Since I hadn't gotten the phone call yet I told her that we weren't sure it was a girl. I can still here her say "They're all girls!" Apparently she had received an e-mail from our agency saying that all of the referrals were for girls. At that moment I didn't care about anything else, I was so happy to have a daughter. Eric and I would have loved a son with all our hearts, but we were really hoping for a daughter for our first child. Melanie let me go so I could get the call from the agency and with paper and pen ready I took the call. While I had all intentions of writing all the information down, I think I wrote maybe her Chinese name and birthdate. The agency sent our baby's pictures to my e-mail and in the longest 5 minutes of my life I waited for Eric to get home before I opened them so we could see her face for the first time together. Our Zoe. Then the shopping began..and really has yet to end! Every day I'm overwhelmed with the gift China gave to us. She could not be more loved and we could not be happier.

Happy Easter (more pictures)

Happy Easter!

18 Month Pictures

As if there was any doubt she was my daughter...you can put a dress on her if you'd like, but the real smiling came when she held the baseball :)

Strawberry cutie

We took Zoe for her 18 month pictures today. She was a bit wary of the process and the photographer this time had less patience than the one we had at her 12 month pictures...plus, they were really busy today taking Easter pictures. We were able to get a few we really liked. The baseball one is my favorite. Eric and I have been on Spring Break this week. What a difference a year makes. Last year on break we were miserable because we thought we would have had Zoe's referral by then. However, we were very well rested. This year we are having a ball with our amazing daughter..but we're exhausted. Zoe's decided that 5:45am is just a perfect time to be waking up. It's a bit early..and a bit dark! Her smiles and hugs make it all worth while and I do have the most amazing husband who knows I need a lot more sleep than he does to be a happy person so he's been letting me sleep in. There are no words to describe how much I appreciate that man.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Wishing everyone a lucky day!

Father and Daughter

I just love this picture. My brother recently gave me the pictures he took at Zoe's baptism/first Christmas home. I think this is the best one. Warms my heart.

Nana

Four generation picture from Zoe's baptism


My wonderful Nana

My Nana passed away last Thursday. She was 94 years old. If it hadn't been for a fall out of bed and subsequent complications at the hospital, she probably would have lived to be 100. I was incredibly lucky to have such a elegant, classy, loving woman as my grandmother for 34 years. I'm even happier that we were able to take the 4 generation picture that is posted above. In recent years my Nana started to suffer from some dementia, and although I doubt she knew Zoe was her great granddaughter, she enjoyed watching Zoe toddling around. My hope is that she's now with my grandfather again, a truly amazing man. My grandparents were exactly what you would want grandparents to be. I attended college a few hours from their home in a small town in Illinois. Some of my favorite memories are going to their house to visit and catch up on sleep. I always left well rested, well fed, and with more than enough gas money in my pocket :) Until my grandfather died during the second semester of my sophomore year they also made frequent trips to campus to take me to lunch. I always invited them to stay longer but they didn't want to interfere with my life. A 4 hour round trip just for lunch. Memories I will have forever. Memories I will be able to share with Zoe someday about how people are supposed to be.

9 Months Together- Half her life

Then.......

Now...

Zoe is 18 months old today and it's been 9 months since we first met her. As of today she's spent half of her life with us and from here on out she will spend more time in America and then did in China. I have conflicting emotions about that. On one hand, the past 9 months have been the happiest of my life. Eric and I marvel everyday that we were given the amazing opportunity to be Zoe's parents. She is such a joy. On the other hand I'm sad for the circumstances that made it impossible for Zoe to be raised in China. I read the blogs of adults who were adopted from other Asian countries and sometimes there is such anger in them about having been taken from their birth country and raised by Caucasian parents, often in places with few other Asian people. I hope that Zoe will grow up happy and secure in our family. I hope she knows that everyone in her life is just doing the best they know how to do..from the orphanage where she spent the first 9 months of her life, to Eric and I. I was reading a book to Zoe the other day and it's a nice poem about adoption with pictures of both a Chinese mother and a Caucasian one as well as a little Asian girl. Zoe pointed to the Caucasian woman and said, "MaMa." I know she's too young to understand, but I made sure to point out that the other lady was the little girl's China mommy and she also loved the little girl. Adoption isn't a one time decision, it's a life style..one that is often full of trial and error.

Zoe continues to do really well. She's adding new words daily and today said a funny two word phrase...she said "bye-bye dog" while she closed the door on Herman's nose. From the pictures above you can see she still loves her dog, but sometimes he's just in the way. I think she's mad at him for eating two of her crayons yesterday and causing her parents to spend $60 on a 30 second phone consultation with Animal Poison Control. Oh wait, I'm projecting my feelings on to her :)

More Pictures

Enjoying spaghetti

Being coy

Future jockey?

Zoe and her alligator

The Itsy Bitsy Spider.......

We had a great long weekend! We went to our friends' Melanie and David's house for a Chinese New Year party. It was so wonderful to see the friends we've made on our amazing adoption adventure and to see how lovely all of the girls are! The last time we saw them Zoe was barely crawling and it was so nice to see her able to interact (albeit through toy stealing) with the other girls.

On Sunday Eric and I left Zoe with her grandparents and had a really nice date day. While I missed Zoe like crazy during the day, it was really nice to be able to reconnect with Eric. The weather on Monday was amazing and Zoe and I went to Arlington to meet up with my best friend from high school and her adorable sons. We went to a really fun park and Zoe loved running around. It had been too long since we'd seen them so it was nice to catch up. Today brought snow and cold weather with the change of more bad weather on Friday. With that, of course, comes colds and both Zoe and I are fighting one now....which seems to be par for the course of this crazy weather winter! Bring on the spring.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Zoe got a balloon (ba-oon in Zoe speak) for Valentine's Day.

Doing her favorite sign "More". As in, I want more of the chips that are in the cupboard that I just opened :)

Hey Big Kids...out of my way!

Loving the slide at the mall!

Xin nian kuai le!

Happy New Year!

February Already? 17 months old

Brushing my teeth before school (she's a little obsessed with teeth brushing lately)

I have a paper towel roll..........

And I'm not afraid to use it...Attack!!!

Aren't I funny?

Zoe is 17 months old today and has now been a part of our family for 8 months. The time sure has flown. She is absolutely loving her new daycare to the point that she swishes Eric and I away when we come to pick her up. We have her in a Chinese language play/learning class on Saturdays which has been fun. Not sure she's getting much out of it, but we're happy she's able to hear her native language for at least an hour a week. We found out about the class from another adoptive family whose daughter is less than a week older than Zoe and we're grateful they didn't mind us crashing their party :) Zoe discovered the wonders of the toddler playground at the mall today. Our usually shy little girl was fearless wandering away from us and trying to climb up the slide. She didn't even seem to mind the "big kids" who kept crashing into her (now where were their parents?) Eric is a little bummed that tonight's big game won't be featuring the Colts again...but we're going to be rooting for the other Manning brother tonight. Go Giants! (yes, I know, they're going to get killed)

You've all probably read about the snow crisis going on in China right now. Some of the orphanages are in pretty dire circumstances. We're always thinking about the babies in China that don't yet have families and if you can help them out then visit www.halfthesky.com They are raising money to help assist the orphanages during this time (and always) through their Little Mouse Emergency Fund. Thanks!

Practice.........



Makes Perfect! (notice glob of applesauce on chin)


When I grow up I want to be a teacher like daddy.

Little Miss Sunshine

This is "Ma Ball" (how Zoe says "My Ball".) The Dora soccer ball is the only ball that gets the (what seems to be ) possessive in front of it. Yes, she'll be a soccer player yet!

Rolling the ball with daddy

Having fun on the couch


Zoe started her new daycare on Monday. Thus far, it's been worth the 2 year wait. The first day she got down right away and started playing with all the toys and didn't even look up when I said goodbye. The second day she realized I was going to go though and she started crying, which broke my heart. Her teachers say she's such a sweet and easy going girl (of course) who has a lot of fun. She's eating and sleeping well and they are doing all sorts of fun activities. The first day she learned about the letter "O" and colored and octopus. Her last daycare was fine and the teachers were sweet and well meaning, but there was very little structure and very few manipulatives. This has been a wonderful change and hopefully she'll stay with the church program through kindergarten.

Today we had a snowstorm that was very pretty to look at, if not a bit hazardess to drive in. Zoe and I got to watch the snow through the window while Eric had to stay at work, but since both of us are sick we didn't get to get out and play. Zoe actually still isn't a fan of the cold stuff :) That's okay, I'm ready for spring too!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Hard to believe it's already 2008. January will bring a change for Zoe as she starts her new daycare at the church on the 14th. I know we'll have some setbacks, probably with sleeping, but hopefully they will pass quickly. After battling RSV, Zoe has another cold after getting the flu shot. Again, I'm not a conspiracy theorist when it comes to vaccinantions, but even I got sick after the flu shot. In fact, I got more sick after the shot than I ever have from the flu. Zoe had another doctor appointment and it seems she grew an inch from the beginning of December to January. Her head circumference is now in the 25% so that continues to improve too. Her weight has stabilized some now that she's off formula. She's not so sure she likes milk, but still loves her drinkable yogurt. She's really into stacking blocks now, her record is 6 and tries for 7 but it teeters over :) She also loves inset puzzles, and as always her books. If she has a word (ball, balloon, duck, bubble, etc) she'll point to a picture in a book and label it. Now that her motor skills are well developed, Zoe's language is vastly improving.

In another note, is the writer's strike totally irritating anyone else? I get their issues, but I need my Grey's Anatomy! Call it therapy. Women's Murder Club and Cashmire Mafia may make for good replacements though :)


Loves to play on the stairs (supervised of course)


Sitting in the big person chair


Really loves to push her dolly in the stroller.