Back to the land of the awake...

Hi everyone! Sorry I haven't been posting in a few days....I was stricken with a horrible case of jet lag and pure laziness I guess! I have finally recovered (I hope...we'll see if tonight brings another solid night of sleep for me).

Roger and the girls have been sleeping just fine and on a normal schedule, so that's good. I have forced myself to get up at the normal time (just like work) to get my shower, dressed & some makeup before taking Natalie to school at 7:35 each morning. It would be so easy to just be lazy & sleep later but I want to try to keep on as much a normal schedule as possible. Even Anna doesn't mind getting up that early to have her breakfast and get dressed for the day! Whew!

She still amazes us every day. She has given up on us learning Chinese, so she just gives us the hand or head motions & points out clearly what she wants. She's not a fan of Southern American food (imagine that!?!?) But we're figuring it out together. She did drag me to the pantry the other day to let me know she wanted something in there. I pointed out several things to which she shook her head....then she grabbed a bag of Ramen noodles....she saw that Chinese looking food and went for it! She couldn't get enough! ha! She's learning English every day & can now say stuff like NO :-), hello, hi, bye bye, more, thank you, Hi Simon, one, two, three. She calls Natalie "Nat Nat" or Jie Jie and she calls us Mama and Baba (in a cute almost French sounding accent).

Natalie is doing great in school and had good test scores this week. She was glad to get back, but boy is this a busy week for her! She has dance on Monday and Friday, along with Trunk or Treat at church Wednesday evening, Friday at school she will perform in the Fairy Tale Ball (Little Red Riding Hood), followed by the Fall Festival at school, and then cap off the evening with a big Brownie event.....a sleepover at the church to celebrate Juliette Lowe's birthday (founder of the Girl Scouts). How am I going to keep up? Next week she starts basketball practice.

We took Anna (and Natalie too) to the pediatrician today. He proclaimed her healthy as a horse! She's a whopping 23 pounds of kiddo. They poked her toe for a blood test....and then she got 4 shots to which she protested loudly (as my eardrums can attest!) As soon as I grabbed her off the table to comfort her, she quit screaming & glared at the nurse. But a few seconds later when offered a choice of sugar free lollipop, she amazing calmed down, never to cry of fuss again! The doctor said he couldn't even detect a murmur in her heart, but we'll still see the cardio next week or so. And he said she had the best hemoglobin he's seen in a long time! He also said she was also obviously very well taken care of, as evidenced in her teeth and overall good health. Yay!

We went ahead and got Natalie a flu shot (she knew she had to be brave and not cry in front of Anna :-) She did great. I had the dr. also look at her hand....it seems the night before we left China, Natalie was bitten on the hand by some spider. We didn't know it until we were at the airport. I remember her saying her hand hurt, but we were too busy to even look (bad parents!) Then we noticed her hand was really red and swollen. I put itch cream on it & then later when I looked closely, I saw two big puncture wounds! Like fang marks! I kept antibiotic cream and a big bandaid on it. The next day the swelling went down, but even now, almost a week later, you can see the 2 holes and the area around it (approx 2" in uneven diameter) is darker.....almost like a bruise, but brownish not blueish. She's obviously not in mortal danger, but it is creepy to think of what was crawling around in the hotel room that night! A big hairy tarantula?? Ewwww!

Overall, we're really doing just great and we couldn't be happier that we finally found our second daughter! It has been a very long road, but it was all worthwhile. She is a complete joy to us and she is definately the funny one of the family! I predict she will be the class clown in school! She is our monkey (and that's actually her favorite word...MONKEY! She will pat her monkey's head, say Monkey, then pat her head, say Monkey and laugh like it is the funniest thing in the world! :-) I know everyone who has met her doesn't believe us that she is so silly....because when she's around anyone else, she clings to me and just gives her stoic expression. The only time she'll speak is when it is time to say goodbye.....then she waves happily...ready to get away from all those admiring strangers.....and says "bye-bye" with a smile.

Pumpkin patch time!

Baby and BaBa on such a beautiful clear day! So nice to see blue skies again!

She's really digging the backyard swing....good thing it is a bit cooler.

This was the first morning in her crib....she was pretty sacked out!
Can you even find her amid all the animals? The girls are 2 peas in a pod when it comes to sleeping.