FOR MOMMY

DH here. Since Carol has been out of town the past few days, I thought she needed to see a least a few seconds of Jack. I hope she enjoys it.

Chris

October pictures

Mid-Autumn Moon Festival with Jack in full Chinese garb!

Chhaya and Jack sharing a Moon Pie and looking for Daddy's ship.

Jack enjoying his birthday cake.

Pumpkins and Wheelbarrow

Strong boy!

Jack had surgery this morning and is napping now. Let me just say he was making me soooo nervous when we got home from the hospital because he wouldn't stop running and jumping and climbing. Obviously, all went very well; so much for anesthesia jelly legs! Also, get this: he weighed in between 27 and 28 lbs and measured about 34 inches! Two and a half months ago, he weighed 23 lbs 8 oz and measured 32 inches. I allow for some error in measurement, but still, that's a lot of growth!

Here's a picture that Carol (who we thank so much for being here) took of us in the recovery room:

Whirlwind, Part 3 - Meeting Granny

And then, lucky enough to overlap with Grandma and Pop Pop's visit, Nai Nai returned to visit and brought along a very special person: Granny!!! (Jack's great grandma)
Jack thoroughly enjoyed showing Granny how many words he knew and how much he could eat and eat and eat. And when he was through with that, he would take off with Granny's cane across the yard. What patience Granny has! We can't wait to see you again soon.

Whirlwind Part 2, - Grandma and Pop Pop

After the Gumble cousins visited and we went to my brother and sister's house for the Welcome Jack party, my parents came to visit for the week! We prepped Jack by telling him that Grandma would say to him, "Good boy, Jack!" and Pop would say, "Hey you!" in a gruffy voice. Jack sure caught on to mimicking "Hey you" in his own gruffy voice.

We enjoyed a trip to the botanical garden where Jack took the opportunity to identify facial features on Pop Pop. Pop Pop now wears an eye patch. (Just kidding.)

There were lots of giggles with Pop Pop! And Jack latched on to how Grandma's little piggy goes "wee, wee, wee" all the way home.

As their plane home flew over our house, Jack blew a big kiss up into the sky. Awwwwww.

Whirlwind, Part 1

It's been a whirlwind the past few weeks, and here's Part 1:

Cousins Lauren and Dave and their daughter, Hailey, arrive with a climber slide for Jack! He can climb up it himself, exclaim he is up on top, and slide down - head first, too! They also brought a bajillion puzzles and books and -- most exciting for Chris and me -- gave us the gift of a date night out!!

Hailey loves her baby cousin Jack and has been reported to have cried twice since leaving because she misses him.

Then we whisked off to a "Welcome to the Family, Jack" party in Richmond where Jack did stunningly well meeting... let me count... 18 members of my family from as far North as Allentown, PA, to as far South as Columbia, SC. Carol and Mike, my sister-in-law and brother, ALWAYS throw an excellent party, and I think this one topped them all! We can't thank them enough! Below Jack shows a custom frame made by cousin Jill. Too cool!

Who can go without having "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" book in their collection?


My last post referenced the next (this) post as being titled "He poops", and I will spare you the details of Jack's first diaper leakage -- while napping. All I will say is that I am thankful for Lauren's command to me, "Take him into the shower!" Also will spare you Jack tearing off his shorts to try on new ones from Aunt JoAnne and Uncle Joe.

Whirlwind, Part II coming as soon as I download the pictures off the camera.

He eats, he...

Oh yes, Jack's an excellent eater. He must have gained at least 2 lbs over the past two months.

He gets jiggy with it. On Daddy's truck bed, no less.

He draws. Here's one of his drawings from the first week at school.

Stand by for next post: "He poops, he..."

JACK AND DAISY

Here's Jack walking Daisy.

A visit from Grandma Joyce

Grandma Joyce visited this past weekend -- and brought a bag FULL of goodies! Jack's favorites seem to be the teddy bear cookies and the "big truck" (words which Jack says many, many times a day undoubtedly tied to the fact that Daddy has a big truck). We all had lots of fun playing, eating, and watching jack swim.

It was a bittersweet visit without the physical presence of Chris's dad, but I could feel him smiling down on all of us, giddy with excitement at Jack's silliness.

Just hang in there, the rest of the NC family, you will meet Jack soon! Until then, enjoy Jack through the pictures and videos that Grandma Joyce took while she was here with us.

Meeting Cousins

This weekend, Jack got to meet his cousin, Jill, her husband, Chris, and their son (Jack's "second" cousin? Cousin "once removed"?), Nathan. Nathan will be three in December.

Nathan was so sweet to Jack! He shared his pine cones that he found in the botanical gardens and showed Jack how to open a present from Chris's parents.

Random pics for your pleasure

Daddy and Jack after and during their hair cuts a few weeks ago. Yes, that's right, we took him for a trim, courtesy of our friend Natalie, soon after we arrived home.

Who's idea was it to give this boy so much sugar?!?! He is eating a cake topping saved from a baby shower given by my friend Margaret.
Riding on his new horsey from another friend named Margaret. He's learning to swing his leg over to hop on like a real cowboy!
I believe 21 months of age is far, far too young to be given carte blanche with chalk. Note the chalk around his mouth, too. If you could see his teeth, they would be blue, too. Speaking of teeth, he is cutting his first "US tooth" - it's number nine for his mouth.

First Day at the Beach for Jack

Yesterday morning we took Jack to the beach at the bay. Surely it must have been his very first time at the beach, right?!?

At first he was hesitant about walking in the sand, but it only took him a few seconds to get into the swing of it. He enjoyed being in the water, of course - as he is half fish, and quickly became content shoveling sand into his bucket and watching seagulls.

Daddy-O chills with Jack:

"What up, Daddy-O?!? Keep your sand on your own side!!"

Presents and a pic for Ye Ye

Here's Jack with his first set of cars from Wei and family!
And here's Jack with his first desk from the Ludwigs! So studious!

This one is for Ye Ye (Chris's father who passed away earlier this year). Ye Ye was a huge UNC Tarheel fan, and Jack is practicing his layout with this UNC ball!

One month since Gotcha Day!

It is hard to believe it has only been one month!

Here are some pictures from the past two weeks:

Splashing in the fountains at the Norfolk Botanical Garden. We go there a couple of times a week.

Feeding Maxine some Cheerios.

Feeding Daisy some Cheerios:

Splashing in his pool:

Working on the puzzle from Aunt JoAnne, Uncle Joe, and Cousin Danny:

Nai Nai is in town!

Nai Nai came to visit on Thursday. Nai Nai is the Chinese word for paternal grandmother. It isn't enough to say that Jack loves his Nai Nai.. Nai Nai ADORES and LOVES her grandson, too! Here is a picture of the introduction:


Jack may be looking a little woozy in the above picture, but that's because he had doctors' appointments that morning. And would you look at the smile on Nai Nai's face?! If you could hear her laugh when she hears Jack's laugh - it is GREAT, infectious! Nai Nai thinks Jack is awesome and super smart, and that is not a biased opinion.

What is that saying? That grandparents are there to spoil the child? Well... Jack now has the coolest red wagon - with room for two (don't get any ideas Nai Nai)! It is really an awesome gift, and we know Jack is very familiar with riding in wagons in the orphanage in Chengdu. Plus, Jack got lots of hugs and kisses from Nai Nai, too!

We have really enjoyed Nai Nai's visit and will miss her when she leaves. But Skype provided a great way to introduce her to Jack and will continue to be a favorite way to keep in touch until we see each other in person again. And Granny, we missed seeing you and are happy you are doing well!

There's truth in those recommendations

The adoption literature recommends that the few few weeks at home with your child be low key with no big parties or too many events lest you welcome sleep and attachment problems. I've seen the truth in that. Although Jack seemed to enjoy his trip to Hooters on Thursday night (Chris has the pics on his FB Photos) and a picnic and swimming yesterday (man, does he love swimming - he even went down a slide on his own several times), the past two nights his sleeping has been quite fitful with tossing and whimpering. I think Chris has been able to sleep through most of it though, thankfully!

Today we take our poop in to the doctor's office. I can't say that I will miss scooping the poop. And after all, there's always dog poop to scoop. Speaking of the dogs, Jack, Maxine, and Daisy have been getting along just fine. Jack isn't scared of the dogs, but he doesn't mess with them either (except to put pots in their water bowl and knock it over). He's reached out to touch them a few times, but without sustained interest. His lack of interest in the dogs seems to parallel his lack of interest in stuffed animals/toys.

We are establishing a routine, which other mothers have told me is the key to happiness: wake, stretch, get dressed, have breakfast, go for a walk with Daisy, playtime, lunch, play briefly in his bedroom, read a few books in our room, nap (his crib is in our room), then wake and snack. The after lunch routine is still being figured out, but dinner is to be served by 5:30 or else we have a bit-o-monster on our hands.

We love reading the comments that friends and family have posted on the blog! Thank you so very much!

Yay! Doctor!

Jack actually liked (read: tolerated very well) the doctor with the exception of the stethescope. Chris and I love the doctor. Dr. Mitchell has a sub-speciality in international adoption, and he reviewed Jack Yiyun's files when we first considered adopting him.

Jack is still weighing in at 22.4 lbs which is at a lower percentile than those for his height and noggin, so the doctor recommended that his drinks be Pediasure, and that we continue to feed him the regular food we've been giving him. The doctor also said to keep him greased up with cream to prevent the itching and scratching. As proud parents, we were delighted to hear Jack is at the top in terms of his developmental ranking compared to what he's seen for other children that were adopted.

His vaccination records showed he was pretty good on shots, so prior to getting the titration results, he only needed two shots and a PPD test; we'll return to the office on Saturday morning to have that test read and to bring in the poop. Yes, multiple samples of poop. Oh please, like we all haven't taken poop samples before - if not for our kid, or our self, then for our dog or cat, right? Don't lie.

Then we went off for a bunch-o-lab work; mainly gallons of blood plus some. The main point here is that Jack didn't fight it too hard and even though he wailed and cried, within 15 feet of leaving the lab room, he was smiling and waving goodby to the technicians.

Now mommy is smiling because it is nap time.

Goodness! Where does the time go?

With a toddler, apparently it goes to following them around the house, tickling, swinging, a very little bit of coloring, reading animal sound books, walks around the neighborhood and to parks, listening to chit chat and singing, feeding, feeding, changing diapers, and changing diapers.

We've been doing really wonderful. Jack is absolutely incredible and amazes us so very often with his words and actions: from dada, mama, more, please, cracker, bottle (ok, so maybe only mom and dad can fully understand what he's saying) to mimicking noises (mostly bodily and dog barking) and facial expressions (big smiles and squinting eyes) and sharing his food. He also amazes us with his appetite!

We went shopping the other morning for some smaller clothes for him - 12-month sized! I don't think it will be long until he isn't losing his 18-month-sized pants.

Chris and I are fairly tired, of course. And so, goodnight!

Home!!!

Gack! It is so hard to write when I can hear the little squirt in his playroom (formerly known as the living room), and I just want to go out and see what he's up to. Well, that and I want to sleep!

Jack's internal clock is not as easy to adjust as is ours. We were doing fine and dandy until he woke up at 4am yesterday morning and then at 1:30am this morning. Chris has taken care of him when he won't go back to sleep. Generally he has been falling asleep when we take him out in the stroller but at 1:30am today that did not work for Jack or me; it did work for Chris and him later at 6am though. Here's a picture of what Jack does in the wee hours while Chris digs out of the destruction area in the kitchen. In all fairness he does put the pots and pans back, and it gave me the opportunity to dust off that shelf.


We left the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou at 10am Thursday (10pm Wednesday in US). Here's Keri and Jack on one of the red couches in the hotel. They do not look too enthused about posing for a picture, do they? in reality we just miss a shot of their gleaming smiles.



Our flight to Beijing was delayed on the tarmac for nearly two hours, and when we arrived in Beijing, our flight to DC was delayed by two hours which meant we were not going to make our flight to Norfolk on 10pm Thursday (US). On the 13.5ish hour flight from Beijing to DC, Jack slept for four hours, and then again for a little over three hours. Other than that, he played, flirted with the young girls, ate, peed, and pooped. Now that's the way to travel! And the cost of the extra seat for him - WELL WORTH IT!

We breezed through immigration with Jack covering me in wet raspberries the entire time. Thankfully the officer didn't seem to mind and welcomed us home.

Because of the delays, the airlines gave us hotel and meal vouchers, and booked us first class on a Friday afternoon flight to Norfolk, but after seeing how many people were waiting for the shuttle bus for the hotel, Chris decided he was up for a 3 1/2 hour rental car drive home. Um, who are we supposed to call at 12:30am when trying to figure out how to get a child strapped into a car seat? Oh, never mind, we're safe. We arrived home around 3:30am Friday... that's 41 hours of travel if I can do the math. Divide that by 10 and that's probably the number of hours of sleep Chris and I -- combined -- got in those 41 hours.


Is it nap time yet? Here's what Jack is up to in the playroom:

New addition to the family is home

We made it home about 3:30am and Jack got to sleep about 6:00. I'm headed to return the rental car and Carol is trying to get some sleep as well. Thanks to the Lacher's for doing some shopping for us and the Marshall's for the welcome home decorations.
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Change of Plans

Rented a car and driving to Norfolk.
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Made it throught immigration

Jack is now a US citizen. We will be spending the night in DC. Home to
Norfolk tomorrow afternoon.
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We're here

In DC

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Spending the night in DC

Probably will not make our connecting flight to Norfolk.
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Flight dellays

The flight from Guangzhou was delayed, but no problem, the flight from Beijing is delayed as well. Let's hope the flight from DC to Norfolk is delayed too.
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For our 14-hr flight: what we expect and what we hope for

G'nite from China. We'll do our best to update in between flights tomorrow!

The last days in Guangzhou

More pictures!

 

1. Carol, aka Mommy, and Jack in the lobby of the White Swan hotel. This is a really nice hotel, and one can't help but smile at the families and children that stay here.

 

2. Jack eating his first french fry - he likes them!! There's not much he doesn't like to eat!

 

3. The family before getting on the bus to go to the US Consulate to be sworn in on the adoption information. There must have been about 60+ families there getting processed individually and then sworn in as a group.

 

4. Mommy and Jack on the Orange (vs infamous Red) Couch at the White Swan Hotel. This couch is in the playroom... it is a LOT of fun in there! Jacks shares very well with other kids. Today in the playroom he was running from side to side loudly screaming "Jack" (or so we think) when he reached each side.

 

So here we are at nap time again, and I've been doing some packing because in less than 24 hours we'll be on a plane headed to Beijing! Later this afternoon, we will swim and then Peter will bring us Jack's passport with his visa for the US enclosed. Jack will be automatically naturalized as a US citizen as soon as we land in DC on Thursday evening.

 

While I regret just a little bit not documenting the trip more, I have no regrets about focusing on our budding new family. The encouragement, love, and happy thoughts from all of you have meant more than you could ever imagine. We three thank you and are keeping all of what you've given us deep in our hearts to share with Jack every day.