A Little Catch Up

So far behind on blogging. :-(

We've just been busy with summer fun "stuff". Here are some pics from the past couple of weeks:

Claire having fun on the trampoline

Max in daddy's shoes/hat - and Max just looking cute

Ally *finally* celebrated her birthday with a party - #11 !!!

Little drummer boy & riding on big sister's shoulders

Monkey see, monkey do

Great Wedding Video

This is one very cool couple....love their wedding party entrance!

(can't embed the image, so you'll have to click on the link....but it's worth watching)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0

Shades of "Cool"

Max found his sister's sunglasses and tried them on. What a cool dude! :-)

Singin' in the Rain

We've had some rain the past couple of days...and since it was just raining one day with no thunder or lightning, I let the kids play outside. They had an absolute blast stomping in the water and playing with the umbrellas.

One Month with Max - long

An eating machine...making sure he gets every last bite of food off the plate!

July 16th - one month with Mr. Max. How time flies once we have our children home with us!

Max didn't have a great one month anniversary though. :-( On Monday and Tuesday, I had to discipline this boy quite a lot due to hitting and biting. He knew the minute he did something wrong and would immediately start running from me....so we weren't liking each other so much by Tuesday afternoon. :-) (Don't worry, he has a strong hold on my heart!)

On Wednesday, we saw the pediatrician again and started the dreaded shots. The doctor also wanted to go ahead and draw blood for the tests required by our agency. I made daddy help hold Max for the shots since he was already mad at me from the discipline. As soon as Max saw the nurse enter the room with the needles, he immediately began shaking his head and saying "no!"...he knew what was coming. :-( They had to do 3 sticks for the blood draw and ended up getting samples from his foot (ouch!). Poor baby!

Because Max struggled so much during all of this, his legs were REALLY sore where they gave him shots. He ran a low-grade fever Wednesday night and just sat in my lap, screaming every time I had to move, change his diaper, put on his pj's, etc. I guessed that bedtime was going to be a disaster...and it proved to be just that. He slept for about 2 hours and woke up screaming again. After getting him calm, Max then proceeded to throw up...twice. I cleaned him up and by around 3 in the morning, the two of us snoozed a little while sitting in the living room. Max could never get comfortable enough to lay in the bed, so he slept on my chest (just what we both needed after all the discipline issues earlier in the week). At 5 in the morning, I was so exhausted and decided to try sleeping in the bed again. Thankfully, I was able to get another hour of good sleep, and Max got about 2 hours....enough to get us through another day!

On Thursday, Max had more fever so he clung to me like a baby koala (so sweet). His legs still hurt, and he didn't want to walk. By Thursday evening, he was feeling much better though...and was completely back to normal by Friday morning.

Other items of note: While we were at China Camp, we saw our ped who informed us that Max's tests for parasites came back positive for giardia...yippee! (NOT!) We started the meds on Monday and it must taste horrible -- Max says NO and covers his mouth when he sees me get it out of the fridge. I've tried secretly putting the meds in other drinks, but he must be able to taste it, so that hasn't worked. Thankfully, we're almost done with the meds...then we get to do another round of poopie samples....woohoo! (again...NOT)

Speech: Max's speech is progressing well. Sometimes when he gets frustrated, it sounds like he is speaking Russian though. When he was sick this week, I first patted his back and said, "I know it hurts". Max picked up on that and constantly moaned, "I know" every time his leg hurt....we heard "I know" over and over and over! Another new phrase from Max is "Here you go!" He says this each time we hand something to him.

Words he clearly says: look, Jazzy (the dog), Puckles (for Freckles the dog), Allyee, Claire, Emmayee, momma, daddy, baba, ball, what's that, all gone, where'd it go, diaper, I poopoo, muck (for milk), I know, here you go, more, hello, bye-bye, wei (Chinese way of answering phone), beep-beep, I wuv ooh, up, all . There may be more, but this is what I can think of right now.

Sisters trying to teach him how to go backwards down the stairs.

Church Camp

E & A left for church camp on Monday....came home on Friday afternoon. It was a long week without them here, and we missed them a lot. For the most part, they had a good time at camp (sadly, they just had to deal with some drama from the adults). If only we could all learn to be more open-minded and accepting like kids.....

BFF's (Sisters)

These two can be enemies one minute, and then the best of friends the next. When one is away from home, she is so missed by the other. Last week, they decided to dress alike, and then went out to play. Thank goodness for a zoom lens that allows me to have a peek into their world. :-)

China Camp

Getting the campers ready for a group pic - not a great shot, but I wanted to post one that showed how many campers there were,but didn't show the campers faces

Last week, our girls attended China Camp in Tulsa, OK (hosted by Dillon International). This was our 11th year to attend camp -- we started when Emily was just 2 years old. As usual, a fun time was had by all! This was a year of changes for our camp time though...a new facility with more room, a new child for us (which means we didn't help with anything during camp), staying in a hotel instead of with our friends (they moved), and Emily was a CAP (counselor apprentice) instead of a camper! Wah! Can't believe she's old enough for that!!

Allyson was in the dragon group this year; Claire was in the Ox group. The girls participated in classes of Chinese language, cooking, kung-fu, art, etc., and came home with some really cute projects. Emily led a group of 2nd graders to all of their classes, and said she really enjoyed her time with them.

Claire with friend/fellow camper, Lilli -----------Allyson making a Chinese "book"

After camp each day, the hotel pool was THE place to be. There was a great indoor pool play area for little ones, and Max fell in love with the frog slide.

Allyson celebrated her 11th birthday while we were in Tulsa. Since we had to postpone her birthday party due to camp, we took her out to dinner at a restaurant of her choosing for a small birthday celebration with another China family. Allyson chose Casa Bonita because she loves their simple cheese enchiladas (& their arcade).

Since we stayed in a hotel this year, Emily's travel group wasn't able to spend the special time together that we've enjoyed in the past. Thanks to the K family though, we had one special evening at their home. They aren't part of our travel group, but they opened their home to our group and served us a nice dinner, allowed the kids to play in the pool and hot tub, and gave the adults our social time. Thanks Rebecca and family!

Max enjoyed the swings at the K family home

Late Saturday afternoon, we headed home. The girls watched a movie, and Max went back and forth between napping and crying (ALL the way home! ugh!).

This was the view from my rear view mirror on the way home. At one point, there were two sets of feet, but one pair went down just before I took the shot. Not a bad shot from a driver who just held the camera up, hoping for a good picture eh?

Busy Week

No time or energy to blog lately....we've been a tad busy with our new little guy. It takes some adjusting to having a toddler in the house again. :-)

Randy's office held a shower for us last Wednesday (photos to follow once I receive them from his office). His assistant arranged the whole shower while we were in China. She even filled out a new wish list (of her choosing) for us at WM! lol The theme was red/white/blue (like Max's room). Randy's co-workers were so kind to us...we received many nice toys and clothes for Max. We also received a much needed car seat for our 2nd car.

One of the ladies gave Max some of the punch which was made with sprite and orange sherbet. When I saw him drinking it, I quickly changed exchanged it with a sippy cup of water. Not sure why, but it just didn't seem like something he should be drinking.

We left the shower and went straight to piano practice. Just seconds prior to arriving at the piano teacher's home, Max began throwing up....ALL of the orange sherbet punch! What a way to break in a new car seat! I quickly parked the car, sent the girls inside, grabbed a slimy Max and sat him on the driveway, and began cleaning the car and car seat. What a mess! I used every diaper wipe I had, and even an extra couple of diapers to clean up the car seat (not to mention everything that leaked out onto the van seat. Max was FURIOUS because I had to strip him down to his diaper....he screamed all the way home (and even while I worked at home to continue cleaning the car). Once I had him clean and clothed again, he was in a better mood and we went back to pick up the sisters.

I was so worried that the car and his seat would remain smelly, but thanks to Febreeze, there are no lingering odors. :-)

These are fun times!!

No pics of the shower yet, but here are a few from this past week.

Medical Check-Up

Max had his first medical check-up today. He weighed in at 27 pounds, and is 34" tall. We will go back in two weeks to begin redoing all of his baby shots. Even though the orphanage said Max had shots in China, our doctor (who is a 3x China dad) just thinks it's best if we do all the shots again. In the meantime, we get to do the poopie samples to check for parasites (oh what joy!). :-)

Blogger Vs. China

Just wanted to let everyone know that I *did* try to post on this blog while we were in China. Unfortunately though, the rumors were true and blogger was blocked....so I had to post our entire trip on the babyjellybeans site. You can click on Max's photo at the top left to read about our trip. I'll leave the babyjellybeans site up for a few more weeks, and will then order a keepsake CD and close the account.
Thanks to all who followed along on our journey. We very much appreciate all those who prayed for us and the other families during the trip. God is so good!

We are HOME!!

We are finally HOME and are now a family of 6! I never would have dreamed that we would be SO blessed with these 4 precious children. I am so thankful that we were chosen to be their parents.

We've been home 4 days now, and Max is adjusting well to his new home. The temper tantrums we experienced the first couple of days in China have all but disappeared. I think he has figured out that we are here to provide enough food and that we're pretty fun to be with. :-)

I need to put our little guy down for a nap right now, but will post some more updates soon.

We're On Our Way!

We're finally on our way! We've made it to LA and are now waiting for our flight to Tokyo. From there, we'll head to Beijing and should arrive around 9:15 p.m. on Thursday. Will try to post more from Beijing. :-)

Room - Revised

Ooops! Posted the pics without window treatments. This is the end result with simple window treatments. I had a very small amount of fabric left over from the quilt, so I tore it into strips and tied it across the curtain rod.

Max's Room

We *finally* have Max's room finished! We used Emily's old bed frame, but didn't have a headboard...so it just felt incomplete. On Friday I went to the Habitat for Humanity resale store and bought an old wooden door to use as a headboard. The paint on the door was peeling, but the wood was in really good condition...and for $30 it was a steal (I probably could have gotten it for less, but I was in a hurry). I had my step-dad remove the glass panel from the top of the door and then cut the door shorter for me. I then just spray painted it with a colonial red color and did the "wipe on-wipe off" thing with some burnt umber acrylic paint to age it. I flipped the door upside down for the headboard, so the part that shows is actually the bottom of the door. I am so happy with how it turned out! Oh and the r/w/b quilt on the bed is one I made (& my dad quilted it for me).

The wooden frames were just cheapos from the second hand store (both for $1). I did the same aging paint job on them as the headboard. All of the other furniture pieces are hand-me-downs: the drawer unit is the baby changing table we used for all 3 of the girls - w/o the changing part on top; the chair is one we've had for about 20 years; the table set is one that my step-dad made for Emily about 10 years ago (2 more chairs are in storage); and the lamps came from the piano downstairs. I think this is what I would call a recycled room! :-)

Last Day of School

The girls *finally* had their last day of school yesterday. ...hooray! All 3 girls made the A honor roll again. We are very proud of them....way to work those brains girlies!
It's hard to believe that Emily will be entering junior high this fall. - where has my baby gone? :-( Emily applied to be on the yearbook staff, and was excited to hear that she made it and will be going to a workshop this summer. This past week, Emily also tried out for the choir (one-on-one with the director), and just heard yesterday that she made that too. She also received a letter yesterday stating that she will be placed on the pre-AP math test track (which she had to meet certain criteria for)...so she has a big year ahead in school!
Allyson will be in all pre-AP classes as well this fall when she enters her final year of middle school. Can she really be almost 11 years old?!
Finally, Miss Claire will be entering 3rd grade. When did this happen?!
Wow...time really flies!

Little Emperor's New Clothes :-)

We *finally* did some shopping this weekend and bought our little guy some clothes and a couple pairs of shoes! Nothing like waiting until the last minute. :-) We didn't buy a lot - waiting to see what size fits best - but he has enough to get through a week at least.

Birthday Cake For Max

After reading numerous stories that the swine flu was causing travel delays to China, we decided to send a belated birthday cake to Max. It was seeming more and more that we wouldn't travel until later this summer, so this was our way of reaching out to Max. We also sent another camera just in case our first care package didn't make it.

Ann at RedthreadChina was kind enough to send an email stating that the cake made it to the orphanage, but that this particular orphanage was "very serious" about releasing information. In other words, they wouldn't share the photos. :-( I replied that it was ok because we just received confirmation that we are traveling next week. Then yesterday, I received the following photos!! I guess the orphanage had received confirmation that we are adopting Max?! Whatever the reason, I am SO thankful for these little blessings! And can I just say that I want to bring home the little boy with albinism as well!! I do hope he's on a waiting list somewhere!

Life School Musical

The Children's Choir at church had their spring performance on Sunday evening. The title of this year's program was "Life School Musical". Allyson was a teacher's helper, Claire was a cheerleader ("Love"), and Emily was a scaredy-cat drama queen. For those who know Emily, is this a FAR stretch from her personality, but she pulled it off so well. She had several "I feel faint" lines, and it was pretty funny watching her. Allyson and Claire also did a great job with their parts, and the overall program had a really good message. This was Emily last performance in the Children's Choir as she has now graduated past 6th grade (sniff). We're hoping a youth choir can be organized for kids her age, so they can continue to grow musically.

S'mores!

Last Friday, Randy went camping with his brother at Lake Eucha in OK. The girls SO badly wanted to spend the night there, but couldn't because they had choir rehearsal on Saturday. Instead, I took them to the lake after rehearsal just so they could have s'mores and ride in the boat. I think they had a yummy time!