Merry Christmas to all!

Some holiday pics

First, the China Moon that Ken refers to will be published in January.

Here's a great pic of Evan and Abby with Santa:

Here's us all with Santa (Elaina screamed when placed on Santa's lap, so once again I must be in the picture).  A picture from Thanksgiving of the sisters.  A picture of the grandkids and the grandparents.  Finally, a pic of the 3 kids after decorating our tree.  Elaina "supervised" the process from the comfort of her exersaucer :-)

Welcome, China Moon Readers!

A warm welcome to everyone who found their way here by reading the article in China Moon. If I knew I would get such a wide audience, I would have proofread more closely.

You can follow our entire trip through the archive bar on the right.

We've been home with Elaina for three and a half months now. She's really come out of her shell and is much more active, happy, and and curious. She's in the rampaging-toddler-grabbing everything mode, making us regret no longer having a baby-proof house. Plus, she's in favor of family equity, in that she hurled on Katrina last night. Kids puking on Ken: 2, kids puking on Katrina: 1. I'm still in the fight!

A few new pictures

Here we have a family picture with Katrina, Evan, Abby, Elaina, and somebody resembling Karl Rove; a shot of Abby in soccer action; and Elaina at her first haircut.

Settling In

Off to the pediatrician today. Elaina is at the 90th %ile on American charts for weight AND height :shock: My arms could've saved them a trip to the scale. Abby is petite always hovering around the 25th %ile while Evan is at the 50th %ile. Wonder if she'll say at the top of the charts? The dr was very impressed at her overall excellent health and her development. Elaina is now playing peek-a-boo with much glee as well as waving bye. Her newest thing is standing for seconds on end with great balance. I am thinking she will be taking some first steps VERY soon (note to self--buy more baby gates). We are SO blessed and so in debt to her foster family!

In the sleep department, we are making baby steps. She definitely is grieveing at night, but slept for 4 hours straight on top of or right beside me last night. Ken and I are switching off so we can get some good solid sleep in between wakenings.

Evan and Abby are totally in love with her and are such great siblings. Of course, Abby is trying to constantly mother her. Abby has shown some acting out which is not unexpected, but overall she is very happy to have her sister finally home. They LOVE getting her to smile and laugh and are quite good at it!

The pics are from this evening. The nasty heat wave her in CA finally broke and we enjoyed dinner outside.


Thanks for all your support!

Home Again

The trip home was remarkably easy. Elaina slept most of the flight, either splayed out in her seat or on our shoulders. She didn't care for the car seat and wailed for most of the 110 freeway.

We're slowly and gently trying to transition her to this time. She's doing pretty well -- slept from midnight to 3 and then from 5 to 730, and one nap so far today.

More later, with pictures.

A few pictures from our last day

One of the antique-choked hallways of the ground floor of the White Swan:



A local street with some of the many children's shops:



Tourist row, the dense pack of souvenir booths closest to the hotel:



Starbucks, site of the new opium war:



One of the broad plazas running down the middle of the island: