Sharing our birthday

Helen sporting her Tiger Hat (thanks Allyson!) on her First Birthday.

Chinese Folklore - babies wear this hat on their one year birthday to catch all the heavenly goodness falling between the tiger's ears.

Yukking it up with Dad.

Yukking with mom.

On our birthday, I took Helen to Stew's work and the three of us had a nice lunch together. Later at home, we did the birthday cupcake thing (still poking through those photos for a good one - stay tuned) and opened cards and gifts. On Saturday, we had brunch out with friends. Have to say, my best birthday ever - sharing it with Helen!

My Uncle Roger and Aunt Connie visiting us in MN this past weekend.

Helen continues to do so well. She had her 12 month check-up last week and had grown almost 3 inches since her medical exam in China, putting her in the 56 percentile for height! The doctor was so happy with her progress that she said Helen is now within the normal range developmentally, as well. I have to admit, I got a little weepy (with joy) over how quickly she's caught up. She has amazed Stew and me every day but it meant so much to have the doctor confirm her progress!

Thanksgiving

Day after Thanksgiving at Grandpa Pokorny's.

Check it out - she's using a sippy cup!

With cousins Ashley, Brianna, Ellie and Elizabeth.

Posing with cousin Abby.

Playing with cousin Gabe.


Bonding with Grandpa Pokorny.

Giving herself a kiss.

Classic bath shot.

We had a great time in Iowa over Thanksgiving, spending a few days with my sister and her family and a few days with the Pokornys. Helen made the ride down with barely a peep - she slept and hung out for 4.5 hours! Couldn't believe it as she'd really been stuggling with sitting in her carseat. Once in Iowa, she napped and slept through the nights like a trooper. We're SO lucky she's a good sleeper. Was fun watching her take-in each new family member and a couple even managed to successfully hold her for a little bit without tears! Baby steps on that front, but making progress. She had fun playing with all her cousins and aunts, uncles, both regular and great, and grandpa. So many wonderful people! Really wish a few pictures from our time at my sister's house turned out, but alas, they didn't so we'll give it another try at Christmas.

Thursday is Helen and my birthday! Will post the obligatory baby with first birthday cake photos so stay tuned. Will be thinking of Helen's birth family on her big day. We hope they have some sense that she is well, happy, and surrounded by love.

Highchair shots

Things are going really well at home! Helen is sleeping great, two naps and through the night. We've got our sleep routine and most of the time we're able to put her down with very little difficulty. Couple rounds of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and the kid is reaching for her crib. Is she tired or does she just want us to stop singing, I don't know but it's working so either way, right?

Mondays are hard days so far, as Stewart goes off to work. Helen and I both get a little fussy. We've had lots of visitors and done a fair amount of visiting ourselves. Last week, I took Helen to Stew's work for lunch and to meet folks (shoutout to the kind folks at UHG!). We also trekked out to our good friends, the Sahrs, for a super fun playdate for the kids and their moms. It was great practice for our Thanksgiving trip to Iowa since it was a longer car ride and I was able to put her down for a nap in the pack-n-play with no trouble. The girl is a trooper, seriously. Also managed to make it to playgroup with some friends who have previously adopted from China. We're so happy to have these wonderful families in our lives.

Helen has gained over a pound in the past couple of weeks and if you check out the photos below, I think you can see it in her face. Even her legs are getting a little pudge to them and it does our hearts good to see her thriving.

She likes that foot.

Um...wrong end, sister.

Is that the beginnings of a double-chin I see there? YAY!

First Halloween

If she's already giving us this look, can you imagine the teen years?!

Digging having her socks off.

Our little pumpkin.

Pumpkin pie, Helen? No, I've got my pumpkin foot, thanks though.

AND A VERY HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY TO OUR DEAR NIECE ABBY KOPRIVA!!

Photos from home

First ride in the Cadillac of strollers!

Started sitting up on her own as soon as we got home.

Boogers and drool - girl knows how to work a look.

I'm so relieved she thinks we're funny. I think that'll carry us a long way.

Nonplussed about her first time in her highchair.

This is what happened when we turned on the TV, for a minute, just to see what would happen.

Progress!

Helen is making great progress in getting through the night. Three nights ago, she awoke a couple of times and fussed but was able to go back to sleep. Two nights ago, she had a hard time settling down to go to bed but once down, she stayed there. Last night, she went down like a rock at 7:30, woke up a few times early on and babbled but did not melt down. When Stew went in to check on her this morning at 7:00, she was still out. Such good news for all three of us. You can see it all over her face, that's she's started to "catch-up" on her sleep. It does our hearts good to hear her waking up babbling instead of crying - knowing that she's getting more familiar with her crib, her room, and us - that when she wakes up, she knows where she is and feels safe and happy. We've been leaving a nightlight on in her room and that seems to have helped tremendously.

Will get Stew on loading new photos at home, so stay tuned!

Home, Safe and Sound

Hey everyone, sorry to leave you hanging out there like that for a few days. We've just been getting our butts kicked by the time change. We've got 13 hours to find and I think we're only finding about 1 hour a day. Poor Helen. She is struggling so with the switch to opposite days and nights. Progress is slow but we're trying to maintain our sense of humor and do everything we can to try to help her transition, not only to the new hours, but also to everything being all new again.

The flight was fairly uneventful, with Helen sleeping a good portion of the time. She had her own seat so we made a little bed for her. Stew was able to catch a few winks, as well, but I was bug-eyed awake for all but about 20 minutes. Enough about us...back to Helen...

Arriving in the U.S.

Showing everyone how she can stand like a big girl!

Welcome home, peanut!

One for the Road

Heather is taking a quick shower and then we're going to finish up packing. It's about 10:30pm and we leave for the airport at 5:30am. We've had an amazing experience in China. I really hope we will be able to come back someday. Although we are sad to go, we are ready to come home. We're looking forward to seeing friends and family and having everyone meet Helen. -Stewart

Red Couch photo and more

White Swan Red Couch - traditional garb

During the photo shoot Helen gets a bit of attention from these great ladies.

Molly and Helen

Raspberries - number one favorite passtime.

Can you tell she's feeling better?!



Done with having her pix taken.
(Just in case you're thinking all she does is smile...!)

We're packing 'er up today. Stew bought an extra suitcase last night so we can haul all our extra crap home. He paid $15 for it and we have NO idea if it'll make it so we're packing our clothes in it, which are replaceable, instead of our treasures, which are not. I think we'll scare up a luggage strap or two to give it it's best chance for survival.

Can't post photos again - lame

Sorry about no pix this time. Apparently, Blogger knows about the problem and is working on a fix which I do appreciate, but... The walkabout we did today was so interesting. Just what you might think - old China meets new China at every corner. Stew got some excellent shots so hoping we can get those to you soon. Speaking of Stew, he's feeling improved but I am still down with a cold. It's funny how many packing lists I looked at but not once did it occur to me to bring cold medicine or Nyquil for myself! Next time? Helen did not have to wear her cap today or ever again. She's done - she's free! She was so happy and so were we. Her head spots are totally on the mend and I'd say she's 90% over her cold. She's still teething, so has her fussy moments but she's a baby and that's what babies sometimes do, right? She accidently scratched me good today, must trim nails... We can't believe we're coming home in a couple of days! Will post again soon if we can get those photos uploaded. Thanks for checking the blog and keeping up with our comings/goings. xxoo

Walkabout photos!

Just a short walk from our hotel, there's a street where Traditional Chinese Medicine pharmacies come to buy their ingredients wholesale.

Bags of seahorses for medicine.

Midmorning shoppers.

Bundles of snakeskins, bags of starfish, etc, for medicine.

Kitties, puppies, and birds for sale as pets (not medicine!).

That's me pushing Helen - we're getting the hairy eyeball from the woman in white on the right, the women in red on the left AND the dude with the man-purse.

At the end of this street lies a ginormous Holiday Inn, old meets new.

Turn the corner and...NEW.

The new moms with Molly, shopping plaza. McDonalds and KFC, check.

We asked Molly if this guy was advertising for a store and she giggled and said, "No, I think this man just wants to be a clown." I think so, too.

I took too long in the CD store, oops!

Cuteness overload

Big fan of the thumb.

Molly, our agency facilitator, giving the peace sign like it's 1972.

Baby needs some new shoes.

Entrance to beautiful park we visited. The water from the fountain flowed all the way down the middle section of the steps.

About to laugh or about to cry, you decide...

Crazy birds-in-flight topiaries.

The winner = about to laugh!

Golden girls take a walk.

My "US Weekly" shot.

It's not the color that needs correcting here, it's the pollution, man.

Group shot. (Sorry it's so far away, no time to crop.)

Family photo, Helen still zonked. I swear she's feeling ok, it's just our carrier puts her right to sleep.

My favorite photo so far. Peanut.

This morning the doctor said Helen's head is looking so good, we don't have to go back tomorrow! She'll be cap free starting Tuesday. This makes all three of us extremely happy. We had a great day today, free in the morning so first leisurely breakfast of the trip. It's so fun to go down to the breakfast buffet at the White Swan because all the other adopting families are there around the same time and, of course, they seat us all in a big group. We hang out and socialize and carbo-load for the rest of the day. Today, a woman from New York and her business partner approached us and said that they came over for the breakfast buffet from another hotel specifically to see all the new adoptive families whenever they visit Guangzhou.

Later, we did some shopping with The Johnson's (friends from our group) and had a nice lunch on our own at Lucy's (this joint down the street that serves American food). Sometimes ya just need a little taste of home (even if it is their interpretation of that taste). Stew had a cheeseburger and fries and I had cheese pizza. Oddly, the pizza had no sauce so was actually like cheese bread which is nothing to complain about in my book.

Speaking of lunch, I forgot to tell you this - the other day Stew really wanted noodles so we asked one of the locals and they sent us to the restaurant in the Shamian Hotel, right down the street. We walked in and the menu, though providing English subtitles, was a little vague on details and even the pictures of the choices were so poor/far away that we really couldn't make heads nor tails out of the thing. Finally, we picked out a broth soup with some steamed pork dumplings but when we tried to pick out a noodle dish, I made the mistake of stearing Stew away from his first impulse towards another photo that looked to me like pan-fried noodles with thinly sliced veggies. We should have known something was up when 1) the description said something about Chef's Special, and 2) the server gave us a rather curious look. When they brought the plate out, all the Chinese people in the room turned to stare at us - waiting for our reaction. Stew and I looked at each other and through smiling, clenched teeth said to one another, "What is that? I don't know. I don't know either. Keep smiling. It looks like bugs. I think it IS bugs." The stuff that looked like bugs wasn't bugs, it was bug larve, and the stuff that looked like crispy-fried greenbeans turned out to be crispy-fried minnows. You read that correctly, friend. Bottom line: we pretended like we didn't know what it was and we ate it. Not too bad. Hey, trip of a life time - when in China, right?

Tomorrow we're going on a walkabout with Molly to Quing Ping Market, where they sell Traditional Chinese Medicine fixins, and Shang Xia Jiu Road, a well-known shopping street. We're hitting the Pearl Market, baby stores, and a DVD/music store. Can't wait to experience all that!