Malia

Malia - 4 years old

2010-02-17T16:10:00.001-08:00

Soccer Girl!

JCCC performance in CO

Happy Birthday!!!

2008-12-17T20:57:00.000-08:00

Today was Malia's 3rd birthday! Woohoo! We stretched the celebration over a few days for maximum enjoyment. On Sunday, my cousin and his family joined us for pizza, cake, and ice cream. All of the kids had a great time playing together. This afternoon, we had a little party at Malia's day care and tonight the three of us celebrated by opening presents, going to Malia's favorite restaurant, and having more cake. Here's a few pics from the fun.

Happy Gotcha Day!

2008-12-10T05:31:00.000-08:00

Hard to believe it's been two years already.

Last Gasp of Fall

2008-12-02T19:55:00.001-08:00

OK, so we finally had our first measurable snowfall here in Denver, almost 6 weeks later than normal. We're expecting more over the next couple of days. It's pretty and all but I was really enjoying the abnormally warm November that we had. Well, despite the cold and snow there's no reason it can't still be Fall here in blog-o-world so here's a few more pics from our final leaf-raking of the season. By the way, a few weeks ago I went out and did some raking on my own without Malia. When I came back inside she gave me the dirtiest look and in the saddest little voice asked "Leaves all gone?" So from hence forward, she is my official leaf-raking assistant.

You think these two like each other? Some of Tucker's actions over the past few weeks have been reminiscent of the "Marley and Me" book (coming to theaters soon!) but stuff like this makes me forget all about his shortcomings.

Not sure if this is a good or bad thing. Malia still fit into her Halloween costume from last year. We asked her over and over what she wanted to be for Halloween and she routinely answered "Hot dog". We tried but ultimately failed to find a hot dog costume but she happily settled on last year's chicken.

I took a day off of work before Thanksgiving and knocked out the little step stool for Malia. I know I could have run down to the local big box store and gotten a plastic one that would work just fine but I got a new miter saw from the mom-in-law so I needed a little project to test it out. Malia really likes it so when time permits I'll make a couple more for other rooms. Unless you are a woodworking fanatic, you can skip the rest of the paragraph. The joints on the step stool involved hand-cut dovetail joints, something that had always intimidated me as being beyond my meager skill level. I was amazed that they came out OK. On the other hand, you can fix some pretty big goofs with some wood putty.

December should be exciting. Malia's 3rd birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks. Mama and Baba have each had birthdays over the past 6 weeks and Malia routinely asks "Is it my turn?" She is also much more aware and excited about Christmas this year. On Christmas day, we are flying to Florida. It's nai-nai's birthday and to celebrate all of her kids and their families are going on a 3-day Bahamas cruise. My brother and I decided that it would be a crime to be that close to Disney World without going so after the cruise we'll spend 4 days (including New Year's) at Disney. Talk to you later.

Fall is Here!

2008-10-25T15:09:00.000-07:00

Maybe I should remove the exclamation point from the title as I would prefer that the cold weather hold off for awhile longer.

We went down to New Mexico in early October to see family and go to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Unfortunately, the day we planned on going to see the balloons the wind was too high and they were not allowed to take off. Having grown up in Albuquerque, I highly recommend going to the Fiesta. It's pretty amazing to see anywhere between 500-900 balloons in the air at the same time. Also, there's nothing better than a cup of hot chocolate and a breakfast burrito on a crisp NM morning.

On the plus side, no balloons meant getting to spend more time with family. We got to spend a couple of days with each set of grandparents. Here's Malia enjoying grandpa and nai-nai E's rocking chair and Malia and grandpa playing with some leaves.

Back home, most of the leaves fell from our trees after a couple of cold and windy days. Malia had a blast playing in the leaves.

I'll end things with a cute story. It was my birthday last week and I took the day off and kept Malia home from preschool so we could hang out together. It took me awhile to convince Malia that it was my birthday and not hers. I was busy doing something in the kitchen while Malia was playing in the family room. I saw her tear the cover off of a magazine which was strange because she's typically not real destructive. I didn't really thing much of it and went back to doing what I was doing. A few minutes later, Malia walks into the kitchen and say "Happy birthday ba ba" and hands me a gift. She had taken that torn-off magazine cover and folded it around a little note pad that she doodles in, her version of wrapping a gift. Of course I made a huge deal about it. Well, since for all 2 year-olds, anything that is fun is worth doing over and over so she quickly took the gift back, re-wrapped it and and gave it to me again. This repeated for the next 15 minutes. It was one of the best presents I've ever received!

Where has the summer gone?

2008-09-08T19:39:00.000-07:00

OK, so I thought that when I did the last post way back in July that it would either a) inspire me to continue with it or b) guilt the permanent blogger into a triumphant return. What actually happened was neither but I've been informed that the job is now mine to keep so hopefully I'm up to the task.

It's hard to believe that Malia is just three months short of being 3-years-old. I guess that's something to look forward to since it signals an end to the 'terrible twos'. Although really the 'terrible twos' has not been all that bad. Well, not that bad if you're not bothered by 180-degree changes in mood, nap-time defiance, food refusal, and lay-down-on-the-ground-kick-your-feet-and-sling-your-teddy-bear-through-the-air-in-the-middle-of-Pottery-Barn, that is. Of course, I've been warned that 3 is the new 2.

One of the best things about Malia being two has been some of the funny things that come out of her mouth (I'm not talking about food refusal!). For example, the other day on the way to day care, which she calls 'big school', I asked her if she knew where we were going and she said 'going to big school.' I asked her where mommy was (she works at the day care) and Malia said 'at the big school.' Finally, I asked her if she knew where I went after I dropped her off at school. She gave me a puzzled look, paused a few seconds and said 'a different school.' Oh I wish that were the case!

Another big highlight recently is that she's now close to 100% potty trained. She even did her business on a big toilet at Target. I don't even like to use those!

Recently the music group 'Bare Naked Ladies', came out with a children's CD (can we even call them CDs anymore if we download them from iTunes?). Being somewhat of a fan of BNL and, more specifically, not a fan of most children's music, I got the CD. While most of it is pretty good, Malia's favorite song is one called 'Popcorn' which has got to be the most annoying song of the group. It's like castor oil for the ears but Malia was addicted to it for a few weeks straight. It's possible to listen to that song 8 and a half times during the short drive from our house to day care. Trust me, I know.

Anyhoo, enough of my rambling and on with the pictures. Some of the summer highlights include:
- we got a mid-June LID for Malia's mei mei! Now, we wait.
- a visit with some friends that travelled to China the same time we did
- trip to Winter Park, CO with my dad, stepmom, my brother and his wife and son
- balloon festival outside of Denver
- Labor Day weekend trip to Grand Lake, CO with the in-laws
- the start of Chinese language classes for Malia

They were just eating cookies, but in their mind, they were up to something much more devious.

On one hand, Malia is still pretty small. On the other hand, Tucker is a moose trapped in a golden retriever's body.

Malia loves this pink hat. No truth to the rumor that she'll dress up as Super Mario for Halloween.

13,000 feet above sea level!

Mugging for the camera before her first day at the Chinese school

Baba to the rescue

2008-07-21T19:41:00.000-07:00

Well, we've received some complaints (ahem, Nai Nai) about the timeliness of blog updates so Baba is taking a stab at it. It's been a pretty busy month and a half since the last post. We took Malia to her first professional soccer game. Do you think she enjoyed it?
In mid-June we spent an extended weekend in and around Monterey, CA visiting grandpa and nai nai. Malia loved playing in the sand dunes near grandpa and nai nai's place.
One of the main highlights for Baba was getting to meet Forrest Gump. Malia, on the other hand, was more interested in the treat she got from Forrest's box of chocolates.
I guess you can't have a post about Monterey and not include some scenery. Here's the famous Lone Cypress. It has a system of cables holding it in position. I speculated that the original tree has been replaced with a replica from Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks studio. We had father's day brunch at The Lodge at Pebble Beach. From our table we were able to watch players finish up on the 18th hole. The verdict: you need $$ to play Pebble Beach but you don't necessarily have to have talent.
Here's a link to some more pics from the trip. I'll post more within the next few days to bring you up to date. Highlights will include the 4th of July and potty training. I bet you can't wait!

Waiting for DTC to happen

2008-06-10T11:13:00.000-07:00

We are waiting for our second dossier to finally get moving to China. Hopefully this week. As we know it, we are still in critical review and translation. I am already back to stalking RQ. We have at least a 3 year wait at best I think. I need to try and forget that we are waiting as I don't want to wish away any time with Malia.

Malia is doing great aside from sudden late night wake ups and screams. I am hoping that these are not night terrors. Perhaps she is just feeling a little bit under the weather.

We are looking forward to the CCAI reunion here in Denver in a few weeks. Any bloggers out there planning on attending?

A few weeks ago we visited some extended family who live nearby. Malia had lots of fun running and going to the park. Below are a couple of photos.

Sleep

2008-05-21T11:41:00.001-07:00

One of the neat little things about working in child care is seeing all the cute tushies raised in the air during naptime. Here is Malia.

Butterflies and swimming

2008-05-14T09:20:00.000-07:00

First of all, thoughts and prayers go out to the millions of people affected by the earthquakes in China. The stories are so sad that I can barely stand to think about them. Half the Sky has information on the latest news of the orphanages in the area. CCAI is also raising much needed funds. Sadly, not all have been deemed as safe and unaffected.

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Malia is re-taking her toddler swim class. She had a bit of a hard time the first time around, so we decided on a re-do. She is doing great. Other than the first couple of minutes of clinging to Jeff, she loved it and did super!

Last Saturday we met up with some friends, T and G, and their cutie, Autumn, at the Butterfly Pavillion. Autumn and Malia did super together and really seem to like each other as you will see from the photos below. The exhibit was pretty neat with bugs, spiders and then a neat butterfly atrium where the butterflies flew all around.

T was really brave :)

I always knew he was smart ...

2008-04-26T20:19:00.000-07:00

Baba or Jeff is who I am talking about. Jeff is a sports fanatic and has played fantasy sports for years. He was invited into an elite basketball group from ESPN where if you come in the top two you win something special. There were about 50,000 people/teams playing in this elite group. Well ... he won the whole thing. Not only does he get the bragging rights of beating 50,000 other teams and people, he also gets a nice hefty gift card from Circu!t C!ty. How did he do it? He has some kind of stats program that he built years ago and continues to tweak constantly. It runs all kinds of stats, does some ranking and then picks the players for each game. Okay, so I know it does much more technical stuff than that, but I am not a math person or a stats person so I will use the average intelligence of myself to explain it. I am known for calling my dear husband and his engineer buddy both nerdy and geeky .... but now I have to like show some respect or something :)

Other news includes second adoption woes. Here we're waiting for all our paperwork to get back from the Chinese Consulate so that we could finally get our dossier submitted ... well it all came back with one small issue!!! Our police clearances were over six months old. Now we are delayed another month! What a bummer. We were hoping to be DTC in May. Now ... hopefully June.

Malia sleeps on the floor on a couple of comforters, pillows, etc. We moved her out of her crib long ago and tried making it into a toddler bed (it is one of the 3 in 1 kinds). She hated it, so we put the mattress on the floor. Hated that

too. We are now trying to find her a cute big girl bed. I am amazed at how expensive a cute big girl bed can be. Shocked actually. At this point though I am ready to give into anything to get her off of the floor. At least tonight she finally decided it was time to sleep on the mattress. Not sure why.

Both kitty cats had to go to the cat dentist. They each had a tooth pulled. Ouch! We've had to give them antibiotics during the last week. They now hate us!

Happenings

2008-04-13T10:40:00.001-07:00

Happenings? Not too much really. We are just waiting around for a big warm up! Of course it is scheduled to come tomorrow ... a Monday.

We haven't done anything exciting since coming back from NM a few weeks ago. We did take a trip to the Denver Aquarium with some friends who traveled to China at the same time we did. That was a lot of fun. We hope to take a trip with them to the Butterfly Pavillion this spring!

Malia is talking up a storm and just continually asks questions. We think she just gets cuter and cuter every day. Of course she has yet another ear infection. Number 7 in about so many weeks. We took her to an ENT specialist at Children's Hospital, but he said no tubes unless the infections continue into spring and summer.

During the first week when my dad was still living, only Malia and I went to NM. Jeff stayed home and made a new adirondeck chair for the deck. It is still sitting INSIDE however because it needs to be painted.

Malia visited with Nana Frances & Gramps G. in Santa Fe. She had the best time running around the front of their house sweeping and climbing on the short wall.

After we got home from NM, we received a Flat Stanley ... renamed Flat Jason from our 8 year old nephew. Flat Jason hung out around our house and park and then traveled with Jeff to Portland for a business trip.

On the warmer days of this early spring, we spend time playing at the park and walking the dogs. Malia, of course, loves the slide. Won't go near the swings though. She has no idea what she is missing!

And finally, here a few photos of our trip to the Denver Aquarium!

Dad

2008-03-26T17:16:00.001-07:00

My dad died last week. He had pancreatic cancer. I am sure many of you know someone who has died from this particular cancer. Here is his obit. The saddest part of his passing is leaving my two brothers who are 12 and 15. My sisters are 43 and 41. I hope to check out all my cyber friend blogs soon! I have missed the blog world these past few weeks!

Quentin Dwayne Appert

Appert – Quentin Dwayne Appert, 70, Los Alamos, died on March 19, 2008, in Los Alamos of pancreatic cancer.

He was born Sept. 11, 1937, in Hazelton, N.D., the son of Tony and Marcella (Garske) Appert. He grew up in North Dakota and attended the University of North Dakota, graduating in 1959 with a B.S. degree in physics and in 1961 with a M.S. degree in physics. In 1961, he moved to southern California, where he worked in the aerospace industry at North American Aviation Inc. and Northrop Corporation until 1979, when he began working at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, N.M. He retired from the laboratory in 1998, but continued working there as a contractor until 2007.

Quentin had a distinguished scientific career contributing to cutting-edge research and development in support of the laboratory’s national security programs. He came to LANL initially to work on the Antares Project (Internal Confinement Fusion Laser), and was manager for the alignment systems. He later worked on the Free Electron Laser project, leading the program in cooled laser optics and resonator development. In later years, Quentin s work centered on R&D to make the world a safer place, by developing methods for destroying old weapons and converting their materials into peaceful purposes.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Tony and Marcella Appert; sisters Georgine Peeper, Columbus, Wis.; Mary Neumiller of Hazelton, N.D.; and Genevieve Lipp, Pueblo, Colo.; and brother Donald Appert of Eugene, Ore.

He is survived by his wife Tien, their children Andre and Ivan Alexei Appert, his children Lenore and husband Alan, Adrienne and husband Danny, Valerie and husband Jeff and four grandchildren, Isaac and Jared, Mateo and Malia. He is also survived by three sisters, Marjorie Chaulkin (John), Geraldine Kuntz and Yvonne Lee (Loren) and four brothers, Clem (Joanne), Jerry (Renee), Fred (Dorothy) and Damian (Doreen).

Quentin enjoyed spending time outdoors by watching his sons‚ soccer and hockey games, camping with family and hunting with his friends. One could often find him in his boat either towing a skier or skiing himself. On warm and sunny days Quentin would spend time with Tien working in his flower or vegetable garden. He was a devout Catholic and an active parishioner at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Los Alamos.

A Rosary will take place at 7 p.m. Monday, March 24, at Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) Catholic Church, Canyon Road, Los Alamos. A memorial service will be conducted at 11 a.m. Tuesday, March 25, followed by a reception at the Karen McLaughlin Parish Hall at IHM and interment at Guaje Pines Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be sent to the LANB, Quentin Appert Memorial Fund (account #85480801) for Pancreatic Cancer Research. Berardinelli Family Funeral Service, Santa Fe is in charge of arrangements.

Growing up

2008-03-02T08:19:00.000-08:00

Well Malia is growing up. Stringing words together, naming things, running around saying "NO" a lot, throwing tantrums, wearing pull-ups, being cute and giving super good hugs. We had our final SW visit a few weeks ago and need to send some final pictures to the CCAA. Here are some that will make the trip to China.

AND one that won't go. Boy was she ever mad at me!

How many diapers do you change a day!

2008-02-17T12:19:00.000-08:00

In the past 8 weeks, I have had a stomach virus at least 5 times at varying degrees. Is this possible? I do work in a childcare center and change on average .... 40 diapers a day ... not including my own child. Clean up several spit ups and wipe noses about 60 times a day! What gives. This last bout has left me feeling horrible for three days. I am off to the Dr. tomorrow to see what the deal is!

Oh and I should mention that I wash my hands and STERILIZE them about 75 times per day.

Anyhow here are some funny videos of Malia. They are a little dark. I have not been able to browse my favorite blogs in about two weeks. I am going through withdrawal!

Weather in China and Malia swimming

2008-02-03T15:00:00.000-08:00

First of all, we are so sad to hear about the horrible weather conditions in China. Hunan, Malia's province, as well as several others, have been hit very hard and are struggling to stay warm and provide food and other necessities for the children! Half the Sky Foundation is providing information on the needs of the orphanages across China. If you can donate to the Little Mouse Emergency Fund, please do!

On a cute note, Malia had her first round of swimming lessons! She disliked the first day and showed her displeasure by crying and wailing the entire half hour. By the end though, she did super! We will be signing up for the class again.

Short video clip!

Ah!!! Swimming is over. Time for a snack and a nap!

Latest and greatest

2008-01-25T16:26:00.000-08:00

I have nothing really exciting to write about other than I have been working a lot of hours. Malia ended up with a very bad cold and is still fighting an ear infection in both ears. Jeff had a business trip last week, but Nana drove up from NM and Malia got to spend a few days hanging out while I trekked out to preschool on my own. I spend less and less time on the computer now that I work in childcare. I admit that I miss my old desk job and being able to spend time on the internet and emailing with my friends. Now I just talk to two year olds all day!

We are supposed to have some warmer weather this weekend, so we hope to get ourselves and our poor, bored dogs out for a stroll. Last weekend it was cold and we ended up buying a few new appliances. Okay so we bought three ... a new dishwasher, washer and dryer. I also bought a nice new pair of expensive jeans from the Gap ... worth every penny!!! It is dangerous when we don't plan activities for the weekend because we end up shopping!!!! Are we alone with this shopping issue??? Please tell me No!

Update: A ladybug hat that cute could only come from China. Nai Nai bought it in Guangzhou!

So ...

2008-01-07T10:14:00.000-08:00

I guess I took a little break from the computer. Between working through the holiday, dealing with yet another stomach bug and taking a little trip to NM, I must have been busy. Malia has a little cold and cough, but otherwise all is well. We had a great Christmas and New Year ... including a snowy day on Christmas.

We are quite a boring family right now so here are a few photos!!!

Tucker enjoying the Christmas snow storm!

Reading with Uncle Andre

Chatting with Uncle Alexei

Playing with Grandpa

Having fun with Uncle Andre and Po Po (grandma)

And how could I leave out this cute picture of Malia and Baba!

Happy 2nd Birthday!

2007-12-16T15:39:00.000-08:00

December 17th is Malia's birthday. She is two years old!!! We had a little party for her on Saturday with Nai Nai and Grandpa. Today she will have a little party at school with her friends and teachers.

Happy birthday to our sweet Malia!

Cake!

So many presents!

She loves the Legos and the container in which they are stored!

Tea party with Nai Nai! You can tell Nai Nai was a teacher as she had Malia learning all her colors, how to have a tea party, how to say her ABC's ....

We had a little party for her at school. Her teacher made her this super cool hat. Malia loved it!

Sporting her birthday shirt and neat balloon!

Gotcha Day!

2007-12-11T08:38:00.001-08:00

Baba is taking over the posting duties today. Since Malia will probably have cake or ice cream later to celebrate Gotcha Day, I thought I should snap a picture of her in her special shirt while it's still clean. Hard to believe it's been a year.

And here she is in the oufit she was wearing one year ago today. I think it fits better now than it did then!

No!

2007-12-03T16:17:00.000-08:00

There is a lot of "No" being said in our house. Malia is about two weeks away from being two. Is this the beginning of the terrible two's? She just likes to say "No" to everything except if the words we say have anything to do with food! I have also noticed that she has been sent to time out a little more than usual. She is an angel at school. Hhhhmmmmm!!!!! Maybe it's the pigtails?!?!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-22T05:44:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

For anyone who loves animals, especially dogs ... the Golden Retriever variety, you will enjoy this bittersweet story. There is both text and a video. I recommend the video! Once you click on the link below, the video can be found at the very bottom of the the light blue box on the left side of the text.

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=81455

Here are a couple of photos of our GR, Tucker! Malia included.

And of course we can't forget our little Italian Greyhound, Rocky!

Warm days!

2007-11-18T13:50:00.001-08:00

We have had some really nice days here! Sunny and in the 70's. The weather folks say that is about to change. Next week we are expecting snow! I don't really have anything to blog about this week as we are just super boring right now! I would, though, love to share some photos of Malia from the past week!

Crazy hair! Malia's teacher did her hair for the Thanksgiving feast at school last Thursday.
Here is how it looked after taking out the pigtails. There were three! Nice facial expression there too.

New potty!

CCAI had a big annual sale a few weeks ago. We couldn't resist the Hello Kitty chair!

Although the days have been warm, nights are still cold. Malia refuses to sleep with a blanket or socks, so we layer. The other night we resorted to putting her in the big puffy pants we bought at the mall in Changsha!

Home vs. School

2007-11-11T14:10:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, Malia and I go to school together. I changed careers and am now a Lead Teacher at Malia's school. She of course is a student :) Thankfully not very often am I in her class 0:

Jeff and I find it interesting that ...

* Malia eats just about everything put in front of her at school ... veges included! At home she is picky, often doesn't eat and plays with her food. I used to worry that she didn't eat enough until her teacher started telling me that she asks for more and often gets three servings! Three servings. She is still a little peanut.

* Malia naps at school for at least two hours, with a blanket, shoes and socks on and wakes up happy. At home she screams and cries when she wakes up, refuses a blanket and gets outright mad if she finds one on her, or in her crib. She will scream "help please" if she wakes up to find that we have snuck socks on her after falling asleep.

Do we spoil her at home? I didn't think so, but perhaps?!?!

The other morning Jeff dropped her off at school and I was still in her classroom (I open the center at 5:45am and Jeff drops off around 7am) because I didn't have enough kids to open my classroom. She said hi to me, gave me a little hug and then toddled off to one of her teachers and climbed in her lap. She could have cared less that I was in the room after that. Whatever!

Anyhow she likes "cool school" as she calls it. She understands that I am there and will run up and give me hug if I have to go into her classroom to move kids or find something, etc. I make sure that I "have" to go into her room several times a day just because. After the hug, I tell her to go play. She smiles and then runs off to her friends.

Napping at home!

Match Day Anniversary!

2007-11-03T12:28:00.001-07:00

One year ago today we received our first photos of Yong Xiao Fang. Fang Fang (pronounced Fong Fong) was her nickname. Now Malia XiaoFang!! A sweet, smiley, funny and happy little girl who can throw a major spicy girl tantrum!

MATCH DAY!

TODAY!

Pumpkin Fest and First Snow

2007-10-21T12:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we hit a wonderful 80 degrees. It was windy, but nice. We headed down to the Pumpkin Fest with Jeff's cousin's family. There was so much to do. Scarecrow making, petting zoo, hayrides, food, pumpkin picking! We got two pumpkins, did the hayride and stuffed a scarecrow! We were tired by the time we got home at 5:30pm. Jeff actually stood up our interesting and ugly scarecrow in the backyard. Tucker, the dog, thinks this is a new friend and has been wanting to be outside.

Below are photos of us working on our rather scary scarecrow!

We think this is the ugliest scarecrow on record. Tucker thinks it is a person and spent the day trying to get it to throw the ball for him.

We wake up this morning to freezing temps and snow!

Life is busy

2007-10-15T16:05:00.001-07:00

Busy, busy and more busy. I am still trying to figure out what happened to July, August and September. The leaves are turning here in Colorado and it is getting cooler and cooler. Malia was sick all weekend with a fever and bloody nose that wouldn't stop. I was calm and cool until we took her to see the doc on Saturday and suddenly blood was coming out of her mouth. Yikes! Doc said it wasn't uncommon for babies to get bloody noses when they have fevers. The blood coming out of her mouth was from her nose. He said it was a virus and gave us a few suggestions. He said we would have a long weekend. We did.

She is better today and eating everything in sight. Well ... except for any veges!

Las Vegas!

2007-10-06T21:31:00.001-07:00

So we are back from our fun trip to Vegas. Jeff had a nerd, um I mean, math programming type conference and Malia and I tagged along. Grandpa and Nai Nai went too as Jeff's step-sister lives in Vegas. I went not knowing what to expect as I had never been with a toddler. I must say it was a lot of fun. There is a lot more to the strip than gambling. Lots of fun things to see, lots of places to shop and great food too! Malia did great on the plane, slept in her crib in the hotel room and ate TOO MUCH junk ... but hey isn't that what vacations are for anyway? She played with Grandpa and Nai Nai one evening while Jeff and I cruised around and she met her Aunt Heidi! Okay so I admit that Jeff and I only made it until about 10pm on our free night. We were soooo tired.

The absolute highlight of the trip was visiting with one of Malia's orphanage sisters! It was great to see the two together. Okay so maybe they fought a bit over toys, but hey isn't that what sisters do?

Here are Malia and Annie saying goodbye after an afternoon playtime!

Malia playing at FAO Schwarz Toy Store! A big piano that played when she walked on it.

The Strip!

The roller coaster. I shut my eyes the entire time. We were already on top of a building and the first thing we did once on the ride was take a long trip up and up. Too high!

Malia rocking out on the plane ride home!

Preschool and Chores

2007-09-28T12:55:00.000-07:00

So I have been working a lot at Malia's preschool! We are short-staffed. I was worried about Malia being there more than normal. Well heck she appears to now love it ... well most days anyway. Yesterday, I had to move kids in and out of her room a few times. Both times she just looked at me as if to say, "You are not taking me home now." When Jeff came later that afternoon to pick her up, he had to wait for her to finish her book. She wouldn't budge until she was done. I am getting more comfortable with her being there for longer than just a few hours as she now seems to know that I am there too. She also no longer freaks out if she sees me. She waves or comes over to say "Hi" if I go in her room or peek in the window.

I think this was a good career change for me and family idea for us! Anyone who is at home with their child and needs or wants to work should think about this option.

We are off on a little vacation to Las Vegas, but will be having work done in our house while we are away. Will have some cool pics to share when we get back of Ms. Malia hitting the Las Vegas scene!

Here are few pictures of Malia at "cool school" as we like to call it. She is happily having a snack and at first lets us know that she isn't leaving. Once she realizes we aren't taking away her snack, she finally gives us a little smile.

One of Malia's chores is to help Baba feed Tucker. She does pretty good even though we add water to his food and she has to carry it about 10 feet.

Citizen Celebration

2007-09-17T19:12:00.000-07:00

CCAI held a Citizen Celebration last Sunday at a park near Denver. There were several families there, a playground to play on, a picnic lunch, cake and sunshine. It was fun. We met several new families! Below are a couple of pictures.

Eye!

2007-09-14T19:17:00.001-07:00

Malia had her eye procedure today to clear out her tear duct. Because she is older, we had to go to a surgical center. I wish we had taken the camera so that I could show pictures of the hilarious whole body suit Baba had to wear so that he could go for 15 seconds to help give her the "go to sleep" gas. Oh he also had to wear a cute blue bonnet. While there were lots of big tears from Malia before and after the procedure, all went well. No tubes were needed and it appears that there was a good "pop" sound clearing out the blockage.

After a BIG popsicle at the hospital, some snack cereal on the drive home and a three hour nap, Malia was roaring to go. We headed out to eat at Lil' Ricci's for some pizza, lasagna and meatballs and then headed over to Target for a little shopping trip. We broke out a new pair of squeaky shoes and Malia walked around Target like she owned the place. Lots of comments on the squeaks!

We are finally getting back to good health! Sunday is the CCAI Citizenship Celebration, so I hope to upload some photos on Sunday.

My friend Tucker and I reading a good book!

More of that funny dancing Baba.

What is up with my shoes?

Oops! I put them on the wrong feet!

Um. Is that good book over yet?

Another week flies by ...

2007-09-07T19:26:00.000-07:00

Oh wait ... it really didn't fly by. That doesn't happen when you are sick. Yes, the ole preschool got us again. Malia had a super bad cold and I had a horrible stomach virus. Baba made it through unscathed! We did have some fun though prior to the sick week.

First off. Boyfriend update! Yesterday when I dropped Malia off in her classroom, a little boy just walked up to her and pushed her down. Her teacher and I were sorta shocked, and as we looked at each other we see the biter marching over. The biter walked up to the little boy and pushed him over. Boy cried. Teacher had to go and put both in timeout. Malia was a bit wide eyed but then scurried off to play at the little kitchen set. Later, I saw the biter trying to hold her hand. Oh and I should point out that this classroom does have a few mean kids, but overall the kids are pretty good. The teacher is great.

Two weeks ago we headed over to Chatfield State Park for their annual balloon fiesta. We had a great time. This was a little warm up for Malia this year. Next year we hope to head home to NM for the big Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. If you ever have the chance to visit the state of New Mexico, we highly recommend going during Balloon Fiesta time. Early October. About 700 balloons there!

Chatfield!

Malia looking up at the balloons in the sky!

Last weekend we headed out to the zoo. I won't bore with the usual zoo photos, but I will show you this cute old guy. A camel. Malia wasn't as impressed with him as I was.

Old camel! Is he a cutie or what?

Waving hello!

How about a blast from the past? Here is Malia just after we arrived home from China.

I am off to get some hopeful good zzzzzs!

Malia's boyfriend

2007-08-29T19:44:00.000-07:00

Not even two yet and already there is boy trouble. Remember this kid ... yup that would be the one that bit her last month on her pretty little face. The bad boy. The class troublemaker. He now appears to like my sweet daughter. At the beginning of the week, I wasn't too happy with the biter as he seemed to be picking on her. He also kept taking her doll. I saw this all take place when I would look in the window of her classroom. Yesterday, I peeked in several times because I was ready to go in there and tell the little bugger to back off. Well there appears to be a complete turnaround. Most of the time he was holding her hand and walking her around or patting her on the back. One time I saw Malia take off her shoe and throw it. Another little boy picked it up. Well the biter saw this and rushed over to the little boy, grabbed the shoe out of his hands, pushed the kid and gave it back to Malia. She just giggled.

Getting dressed!

2007-08-26T19:58:00.000-07:00

I guess for the time being, I am a once a week blogger! Oh well. Times will hopefully change soon and I will have more time.

Malia is going through the dressing stage. She likes to take off her clothes, shoes, hat, etc. The other morning ... early morning ... after Malia had an absolute fit that I dressed her, she decided to dress herself. Quite amusing.

Foot is stuck! End of the world.

Pulling up! Took a LONG time to get to this point.

Ready to go out!

A rear view!

A rare smile for the camera!

Where did the week go?

2007-08-19T19:29:00.000-07:00

Have I really not read blogs or posted a new post since last Sunday. Guess I have been busy.

I'll start by saying that the preschool I work at has had a stomach virus ALL WEEK. Ten babies went home after throwing up numerous times. Some parents LEFT THEM AT SCHOOL ... sick and all. Can I say that I am over cleaning up barf? I was so tired by the time I got home every day that I could barely check email. Luckily, Malia and I did not get it. Oh, we also have a strep case and a hand, foot, mouth disease case. Lovely.

I actually quit my job and gave a two week notice last week. No ... not because of the barfing, but because I was tired of working with people who don't work, don't care and in one case mean to the kids. If they can change my hours to morning hours, I'll stay. We shall see. I like the teacher that has Malia's room in the AM, so that is when I want to be there.

Other news ... We think Malia has a blocked tear duct. Not sure ... only because she gets hysterical at the sight of a doctor (even the vet) If so, she will have to be put under for the clearing out surgery. She is too old to be locked down in the horrible contraption they use for babies. We weighed Malia at PetSmart today. Yes, on the the dog scale. It really is the best way and appears to be the most accurate. She was 19.2 lbs. We are just dying to hit that 20lb mark so we can turn the carseat around. So ... we continue to wait.

We officially entered the paperchase phase for baby #2. We had our homestudy update and have begun collecting all the necessary papers. A few name choices being tossed around. It is Jeff's turn to choose the name. It is killing me to not be the chooser. I do have a 49% vote.

Malia has a new castle, new stroller for her baby, new jogging stroller, new clothes, various other new toys and new crocs. Crocs were a gift. The other stuff we got just because we felt like spending some $$$ on our cutie! Heck, I don't work at a preschool for free ... I do make a few bucks ;)

Castle
Opening and closing the door is super fun.

Peeking out the window

Secret trap door

Slide out the back door

Crocs

Stroller for baby

Malia's pets

2007-08-12T19:49:00.000-07:00

TUCKER

Patiently waiting by the door every morning. He waits to hear her crying herself awake.

We hope that soon she will wake up with a smile (-:

I hear her ... Hurry up and let me in.

Yay! It is breakfast time. She throws cheerios and various other items for me.

ROCKY

Rocky, the oldster, prefers to sleep in. He does though sit close when Malia reads.

Suddenly the other day, Leia, who USED to be the princess of the house, decided the crib was a great place to take a nap. Uummm nope sorry.

We do have one other cat, Frosty, who prefers to keep to himself. ALL the pets like Malia. She does prefer Tucker as he is a nice seat, soft pillow, bouncy chair and vacuum cleaner.

Photos of Malia

2007-08-08T19:08:00.000-07:00

Early this summer, Jeff's co-worker, a pro freelance photographer, took some photos of Malia. She was in a terrible mood and out of the many, many, many photos he took, he was able to get a few good ones.

Taking care of baby

2007-08-05T19:19:00.000-07:00

Changing baby.

Powder for baby. We rarely put power on Malia so it was amusing that she did this part. Oops, power should go first!

Feeding baby. Okay so she had to subsitute the powder for a bottle.

My hair after pigtails.

Colorado Dragon Boat Festival (CDBF)

2007-07-31T05:29:00.000-07:00

So we trekked out to the CDBF on Sunday. It was hot and Malia was a bit tired, so we just stayed for an hour. Long enough to buy a cute red rooster umbrella, find someone's lost yellow fan and watch a few races. We had a fun time despite the heat. Denver has so many neat things to do. We have lived her for almost seven years and never really took advantage of it.
With Malia, we will now though.

Below is cute photo of Malia and Baba napping in the shade of our backyard. Are they cute, or what?!?

A trip to the park!

2007-07-28T18:59:00.000-07:00

Grandpa and Nai Nai are in town. Grandpa wanted to catch the Dodger vs. Rockies game with Jeff, so he and Nai Nai drove up from NM! Grandpa is a Dodger fan and Jeff is a Rockies fan.

Today we went to Belleview Park in Littleton. A neat little park that includes a flowing river, lots of grass, a play area, a petting zoo and a train ride.

Slowly but surely we are getting the all the sickness out of the house.

Malia continues to struggle with sleep. No fun )-:

The sick house!

2007-07-23T18:46:00.001-07:00

My house is the sick house. It began last week when I had a tinge of a cramp in the upper part of my stomach. I felt a little sick. Then Malia got it. A bit worse. Took her to the Ped, but found out is was a virus, so no meds! Then the Baba got it. Way worse. He even had to take off work. He never takes off work for being sick. Finally on Sunday all seemed to go well. Then a little cough from Malia. Got much worse overnight. Back to the Ped. Virus again with an eye infection attached. Eyedrops for the eyes, but nothing for the cough as the Ped said that the cough is good. YIKES! Looking for some fun to be happening around here. Soon ... hopefully very soon!

This photo has nothing to do with this post. It is just one of my favorites. While we were at the White Swan, we celebrated Malia's first birthday. CCAI provided this fabulous cake! Malia liked it!

2007-07-19T18:53:00.000-07:00

Christine from Sophia's Journey Continues awarded me the Rockin' Girl Blogger award! Christine's blog is a daily (sometimes two or three times a day) blogger hit for me. I urge you to visit Christine's blog if you don't already to read all about Paige, Noah and Sophia. Oh and the cute dogs too! Thanks Christine for letting me know that my blog is not a total bore :) I'd been wondering lately.

I have several favorite blogs! I must nominate Kristi! Mom to Kylie. Please visit Fireworks and Fireflies and read about their cool adventures. You'll even get a peak at their Golden Retriever, Maya. Leave a comment or two! Kylie came home a month after Malia and I have been following them ever since.

20th reunion and biter

2007-07-17T18:49:00.000-07:00

So I thought my post would be about this past weekend! I traveled down to Los Alamos, NM USA (yup many people still do not know that New Mexico resides in the good old USA!) We stayed at Mom's house in Santa Fe, but I grew up and went to school in Los Alamos. For those that don't know, Los Alamos is a scientific lab town where the atomic bomb was built. Used to be a secret city back in the day. Okay anyhow I went to celebrate my 20th high school reunion with a bunch of classmates. I'll get to that, but first I have to tell you that a little brat bit our sweet Malia today at preschool. Yes, I know ... it happens all the time, or well she shouldn't be in preschool anyway. For those of you who don't know, Malia and I both go. I work and she plays. Anyhow the brat had to go and bite her on the cheek. Couldn't pick an arm or leg, had to go for her sweet little face. Didn't break the skin, but what a nice bruise.

Fortunately and unfortunately, Malia wasn't his first bite and he was promptly suspended from preschool for biting! Poor Malia. Any tips on what is best to help clear it up fast. I was going to call my mom, but she would just get all upset and threaten to drive up to Denver to bite the kid back!

Okay so on to the reunion! Saturday we went to the big family picnic!

I'm here. Get this party started!

Oh wait, here I am early Saturday morning. Didn't sleep much, kept everyone up!
If I'm not happy, you're not happy!

Saturday night I left Malia and Baba with Grandma and headed to the big dinner with friends. Here are two! I'm in the middle. Nice fake smile.

Here I am back in 1987 (on left) with my exchange student sister.
Don't you love the 80's rocker-chick hair?

On Sunday Jeff, Malia and I strolled around the plaza in Santa Fe. While we visit SF a lot, we rarely cruise the plaza.

Malia was tired being pushed around in the stroller.
Hmmm perhaps she was tired from her Friday night wake up!

Malia on the bongo drums!

Not much sleep around here

2007-07-10T06:21:00.001-07:00

Malia has been waking up at night. Sometimes for a brief time where we can just go in for a couple of minutes (several times in one night) and rub her back and sometimes for three hours. Oh and both scenarios can happen in one night! She screams, cries and can be awake or asleep. Bad dreams? Hungry? Your guess is as good as mine. So last night was the Baba's night for bedtime and wake up calls. He received a short one at 11pm and then a long one at 2:45am. No one slept. Not even the dog! Malia stayed awake until now ... 7:04 am. Baba has since gone to work. He goes at 6am so that he can pick her up at 3:30pm. Malia and I go to work/school at 11:30am. Needless to say we are all tired!

Here are a few photos between 4am and 5am!

And here she is asleep on sofa with her worried pal, Tucker!

test words: Pain and Hurt.

This past week ...

2007-07-06T05:49:00.000-07:00

Just posting pictures of this past week! Hope all Americans enjoyed the 4th!

Walking in the park parade!

Hanging out on the Baba's shoulders!

Come on! Hurry up!
Playing with my new kitchen!

It's for me!

Discovery that the piano has a seat!

Time for a nap!

We're going back to China ...

2007-07-01T19:05:00.000-07:00

Well in about three years or so. CCAI has our application for baby #2 and we now officially begin the paperchase phase. We admit that filling out the application was not as exciting this time around!

A cruise down memory lane. Gotcha day.
Malia and me on the bus in Changsha!

Holding hands. Photo courtesy of Ava Mei's Grandpa!

Malia and Baba at home in March.

My first pony tail

2007-06-28T18:40:00.000-07:00

Malia's teacher at school was somehow able to get Malia to sit long enough for a new "do", not sure how!

Dog Park

2007-06-26T18:44:00.000-07:00

During the warm months we frequent Chatfield State Park. It is about a 10 minute drive from our house and has a large boating, fishing lake and lots of biking and walking trails. The best part, and well the only reason we go there, is the dog park. There are two small lakes where the dogs and can swim and also lots of walking trails. Tucker loves to swim while Rocky only likes to get his toesies wet. This past weekend we went both days. It was hot out so Tucker swam a lot while Rocky spent most of his time barking and howling with an occasional toe dip in the water.

Tucker swimming. He loves to hang onto VERY LARGE branches. Loves to fetch the ball, but rarely brings it back to the shore.

Heading out to the parking lot.

Malia got to swim Saturday afternoon.

AC is all fixed. Life is good!

Bad dog

2007-06-21T19:14:00.000-07:00

Malia's vocabulary has grown immensely over the past month. She says numerous words and a couple of small phrases, one being I love you! Other words include apple, Tucker (dog), mama, baba, shoe, all done, yes, baby etc. Yesterday morning though I heard two brand new words much to my surprise. I was calling in our dog, Rocky, because he was barking his head off (our neighbors do not like dogs and hate barking) and I was at first threatening him with the water bottle (hates water on him) and then sweetly offerered him a treat. Finally he came strolling up the deck stairs as I told him he was a bad dog. From a distance, in the kitchen, I hear Malia yell out ... BAD DOG! Yikes, I must be saying that a lot lately. My poor dogs.

Malia also now finds it fun to climb up on the sofa and run around. I got her to sit for a bit to watch Teletubbies (she watches about 10 minutes and then that is it) while I cleaned up her breakfast mess. As she was lounging, Rocky, who has been showing interest in her lately, climbed up next to her. I like to think that he was being a good dog by protecting her from falling.

Another new thing lately is Malia's interest in a doll. When we read all her paperwork from China (I know it may not be accurate) it said her fave toy was a soft doll. Well she has shown little interest in stuffed animals or dolls except for a bright pink teddy bear from great grandma. Suddenly she wants to carry a doll around and feed her a bottle. Very cute. You can see from the photo below that she often drops her beloved dolly head first on the floor. Oops.

In other news ... our AC is broken. It was 95 today. Not fun. As of right now, no fix it guy until Wednesday.

Spoon

2007-06-18T19:30:00.000-07:00

Malia now eats with a spoon. In fact, she insists that she now feed herself both her yogurt and oatmeal using the spoon. She makes a complete mess! Here she is after just her second bite of yogurt. Any attempt to take the spoon away before she is "all done" (about 15 minutes or 25 bites) will cause a temper tantrum, pointing at the spoon and BIG tears.

Another week goes by ...

2007-06-17T19:42:00.000-07:00

Another crazy week for us! We started out great and were looking forward to this weekend and the CCAI Reunion. Work for me was hectic because the babies were all kinds of moody. I went home exhausted every night. Oh and also Malia seems to like waking up at 5am during the week. On Tuesday, I received news that my Aunt Gen had passed away. My dad's sister in a family of 12 siblings. She lived in Pueblo, CO so I knew I would be able to attend her services. The only issue was it was on Saturday ... the same day as the CCAI reunion. After thinking it through we thought it best that Jeff and Malia attend the reunion for a short while and I would go down to Pueblo. Jeff and Malia would show up later.

Okay back up ... Friday Malia's and my daycare had a little ice cream social in honor of Baba Day. I gave Malia a couple of options on what to wear and she chose what is in the photo!

So Saturday comes and off I go down south and off Jeff and Malia go to the Reunion. VERY HOT at the park so they didn't stay long. BUT long enough for Malia to get a little ice cream treat.

Wow! She looks like a little girl eating that ice cream cone all by herself. No more baby!

After a quick lunch at home they headed down to Pueblo!

The service for my Aunt Gen was wonderful! Both of my sisters, my dad, one of my little brothers and other cousins, aunts and uncles made the trip. Sort of a mini family reunion!

After a lovely reception and lunch we headed over to my uncle's house to gather and chat. Soon after arriving, Malia made herself quite comfortable.

The day ended a bit late, but we all got home and were in bed by 9pm or so. Oh but wait ... I awoke at about 3am with my eye bugging me. I get up to look at it and as I am walking back to bed, I pass out cold. Jeff was awake and is shaking me to wake up. I was cold, clammy and super quesy. I think it was food posioning or dehydration. I woke up a bit quesy this morning, but it eased off as the day moved on. HHHmmm?!?!

Today was BABA DAY! Poor Jeff was tired from staying up with me and from going back and forth to check on Malia who cried out several times. Attention? Um yes. Anyhow, today we went to Costc#, ate pizza for lunch, put Malia in her little pool (Jeff had to sit with her in the pool), went out for ice cream, went to T*rget, ate a small dinner, and now off to sleep. Hopefully an uneventful night awaits!!! (-:

Malia is 18 months old today!
She will celebrate Tuesday with a trip to the Ped for more shots. Poor thing!

Back from OK!

2007-06-11T18:23:00.000-07:00

We headed out Thursday evening for a family reunion at Boiling Springs State Park. The park is located in NW Oklahoma near the city of Woodward. Since the drive was about 8.5 hours, we stopped halfway in Raton, NM. We woke up early on Friday morning hoping that the early start would entice Malia into sleeping part of the way. Didn't work, but we did get lots of crying, screaming and flailing arms. Stopped in Clayton, NM. No, not for a lovely breakfast ... for a ticket. Jeff was driving 38 MPH in a 30 MPH zone. A nice $65 ticket was issued. We cruised outa there quickly promising not to spend a dime there ever again.

I was an angel during the drive.

We arrived at Boiling Springs around noon and headed over to the grandparents (Jeff's side) grand motorBUS, had lunch, chatted a bit and Malia took a much needed nap with grandma. Headed on over to the cabins where we had lovely accommodations. All the aunts, uncles, great-grams, cousins, etc. arrived and we had a great cookout.

Lunching with cousin Jason!

Saturday we headed out to Alabaster Caverns State Park and Little Sahara sand dunes. The dunes were taken over by motorcycles, quads, dune buggies, etc. But pretty nonetheless. We then cruised up to the Caverns where we toured inside the cave for 45 minutes. Malia loved it. It was a cool 58 degrees!

About to enter the dark cave with Baba!

Sunday we had the official reunion lunch at a nice hotel in Woodward. We enjoyed meeting other family members and looking at pictures.

Just hanging out with the cousins!

Headed back Sunday evening hoping Malia would sleep. Nope! Not til dark and since NW OK is on the edge of the time zone, it didn't get dark until 10pm. We crashed out in Raton again. Up early this morning with hopes again that Malia would sleep. She did until Pueblo, CO. Fed her a little breakfast, played with some toys, ate some cheerios and then woohoo .... HOME!

We had a fabulous trip!

Today also marks our six month anniversary for Gotcha Day! See how Malia has changed.

I never knew that I could ...

2007-06-05T18:31:00.000-07:00

be this tired.
survive on less than needed sleep.
be sick and still take care of my kid.
be sick and still take care of other people's kids.
have such a backache.
have my feet hurt so bad.
look this bad.
do so many things after 8pm when Malia goes to sleep.
do so many things when Malia is napping for a whole one hour.
work at a daycare. Who knew?
work for such a bad hourly wage.
actually get over having to punch a time card. Did you know that still happens today? I didn't.
get over the fact that I don't get to take a shower every day.

there is more, but I can't remember.

Do birds nest in the same place year after year?

2007-06-03T04:16:00.001-07:00

Last year a bird nested on our front porch. Twice! She chose a spot above our outside oven vent fan using our chile ristra as padding. This year we have another nest. It can become very stressful for us because it is a rather cramped spot for a nest and we worried that the baby birds would fall out and get munched by a bunny. Last year Jeff even built a little wood support for the nest. Anyhow here is a photo of our little bird friends not quite yet hatched.

On the sick front, Malia is feeling much better. I on the hand now have the day care crud! Oh well I am not allowing a little illness get in the way of my precious weekend time. Today we are going to downtown Denver to lunch with visiting Aunt Karen at the 16th Street Mall. Aunt Karen, from NC, is here for a conference!

Well I can't post a message without adding a photo of Ms. Malia! Lately she thinks it is really neat to sit down. She is real proud of herself when she finds a comfy spot.

For anyone who doesn't know what a chile ristra is, it is a string of dried red chiles. A New Mexico, USA thing.

Daycare

2007-05-30T18:28:00.001-07:00

Okay so Malia and I completed our first two weeks of daycare together. She is doing okay, not horrible and not great. We walk in and I drop her off in her classroom and then I walk across the hall to mine. I have the 6 week to 1 year olds. I have to say that this is the hardest job, worst pay job, but most rewarding job I have ever had. I like that I can look out my hallway window and right into Malia's window. I don't like that she cries when I drop her off. I have major guilt. Her basic schedule is

Arrive 20 minutes before nap time to settle in.

Nap for about two hours.

Wake up and play for a half hour.

Have a snack.

Home with the Baba!

Sounds fabulous to me. Malia isn't so sure yet!

On the bad note, she did get sick. She had a little cold, cough combo going, but seemed be getting better. Last night at about midnight we took her to an after hours dr. office because she couldn't stop coughing in her sleep. We got a couple of rx's and got home about 2:00 AM. I spent another hour holding hands with her until she fell asleep in her crib and then I slept right next to her. I admit that I am not a fan of medication and wanted to make sure that nothing went wrong. She seems to be doing a bit better.

I am exhausted to say the least. She stayed home and I had to go to daycare all by myself. I forgot to eat (yeah I know ... what the heck is up with that) and finally had my first meal of the day at 6:00 PM. Luckily the Baba grilled some fab chix!

Oh well off to watch a little TV with a big bowl of ice cream! Dreyer's Slow Churned - Take the Cake ice cream to be exact. Must make up for the missed meals!

Memorial Weekend!

2007-05-28T20:13:00.000-07:00

We had a great Memorial Day weekend! We did a lot of walking, a little shopping, a lot of eating and got some good sleep. Today was a beautiful day in Denver. We walked the dogs, grilled burgers and french fries and visited with neighbors.

Have I mentioned lately how much Malia LOVES the dogs. We have two, a Golden Retriever and an Italian Greyhound. The IG doesn't pose much for pictures. Sadly our GR, Tucker, appears to be looking for Gracie. She used to lie on his bed and he would gingerly try to lay down beside her. Sometimes he messed up though and would lay ON HER which would cause a bit of hissing! Rocky doesn't appear to care that she is gone .... well as long as he is still allowed under the covers (-:

I am having trouble with our picture software, but here is a cute picture of Malia and Tucker!

Oh and I should mention that the 24th was our 10 year anniversary. Time has flown by! Happy Anniversary ... late to my sweet Jeff!

Gracie 1996 - 2007

2007-05-24T19:30:00.000-07:00

Our sweet Gracie cat died yesterday. She had been sick on and off for about two years now, but we could never determine what it was from. She has had numerous blood tests, many different foods, etc. I finally decided to have an exploratory surgery done on her so that we could hopefully find out what was up. Her sweet little heart stopped at the end of the surgery. My guess is that she was just too weak and was ready to go. When our vet called to ask what he should do, I of course told him to let her go. We will miss her sweet personality!

Gracie always thought she was a dog!

A friend to all!

Goodbye sweet kitty!

Dumb question of the year

2007-05-21T05:03:00.000-07:00

So I think the Baba got the dumb question of the year the other day ....

Is she your daughter or is she adopted?

He smiled politely and then decked her.

Okay so he didn't deck her. I am not sure how he responded.

Tagged by that Crazy Lady! All about ME!

2007-05-17T19:02:00.000-07:00

I've been tagged by Crazy Lady (a.k.a Search and Destroy's Mama) If anyone out there hasn't visited Crazy Lady's blog, I highly recommend that you do.

FOODOLOGY
What is your salad dressing of choice? Thousand Island
What is your favorite fast food restaurant? Toyko Joe's with an added bonus of usually seeing another Chinese girl with her adopted parents.
What is your favorite sit-down restaurant? Little Anita's ... a restaurant born in New Mexico that transplanted to Colorado. It is one my only links to that great state!
On average, what size tip do you leave at a restaurant? 20 to 25% I was a waitress during college and they get the sympathy $$$.
What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of? Avocados or mangos
What is your favorite type of gum? Chicklets

TECHNOLOGY
What is your wallpaper on your computer? Boring yellow flowers
How many televisions are in your house? I am embarrassed to say that we have 5 plus a computer that works as a TV. Three of the TVs are in the workout room so that we can watch from every piece of equipment.
How do you listen to music? Loud and in the car. I sing too! Scary.

BIOLOGY
What’s your best feature? Green eyes I guess.
Have you ever had anything removed from your body? My crappy torn ACL ligament. I now have lots of hardware where it used to be.
Which of your five senses do you think is keenest? I am blind as a bat without my contacts, my hearing is bad from listening to the radio too loud, I have a small nose so smell isn't great. Touch and Taste would probably be best. Taste is especially good when green chile is involved!
When was the last time you had a cavity? Never had one. Perhaps my teeth are my best feature. They are pretty white too due to Cr#st White Strips!
What is the heaviest item you lifted last? A 40 lb child at the preschool I now work at.
Have you ever been knocked unconscious? Several times. Most of the times were from soccer games.

BULL____OLOGY
If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die? NO!
Is love for real? Yes.
If you could change your first name, what would you change it to? Something with one syllable
Have you ever swallowed a non-food item by mistake? Not that I know of.
Have you ever saved someone’s life? No thank you God.
Has someone ever saved yours? I don't think so.

DAREOLOGY
Would you walk naked for a half mile down a public street for $100,000? I don't even like to walk down the street in shorts. I am very modest and uncomfortable showing too much skin.
Would you kiss a member of the same sex for $100? Family and friends yes. On the cheek most of the time, but Malia gives the sweetest on the lips kiss ever!!! She even makes mmmmm muh sound. Adorable!
Would you allow one of your little fingers to be cut off for $200,000? I don't think all fingers are necessary. Put me out and then give me some pain killers.
Would you never blog again for $50,000? I think so. I would miss it though. Can I still comment?
Would you pose nude in a magazine for $250,000? No way.
Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1,000? No way. $1000 is much money these days and it would be spent on hospital care anyway if I did that.
Would you give up watching television for a year for $25,000? I think we would have to get rid of our 5 TVs, so yes. I don't think dh could handle missing March Madness (college basketball tourney) though. Oh and it couldn't be World Cup year.

DUMBOLOGY
What is in your left pocket? I do not have one single shirt with pockets.
Is Napoleon Dynamite actually a good movie? Yuck. I thought it was dumb.
Do you have hardwood or carpet in your house? Main level is hardwood, the rest is carpet with bathrooms decked out in white tile and white or brown grout. We need new tile.
Do you sit or stand in the shower? Our shower is about 2 feet by 2 feet, so no sitting. I would love a shower with a courtesy seat though.
Could you live with roommates? Not at this point in my life.
How many pairs of flip-flops do you own? One cute pair of black flips with sparkly straps and about 1 inch high. These are girl shoes, not woman shoes. I love them.
Last time you had a run-in with the cops? I can't even remember.
What do you want to be when you grow up? I have no idea. I have gone all the way through grad school, but I am still just floating around.
Last friend you talked to? I think it was my friend Annie. She and I have a soccer coaching connection. Well ... we did, now we are smarter and don't coach anymore ;0)
Last person you called? Our vet's office to make yet another appointment for our sick cat.

RANDOMOLOGY
First place you went this morning? Shower
What can you not wait to do? Drink my morning coffee
What’s the last movie you saw? I have no idea. We haven't seen a movie since way before Malia entered our lives. Do parents ever really get to go to movies?

I tag the following bloggers who have babies around Malia's age!
Malia's sisters from Dao County, Hunan Province. Jodi and Caroline
Kristi Mama to sweet Kylie.
And last, but certainly not least Ms. Truly Blessed!

And fellow Denverite and waiting Mama Julie.

Jobs!

2007-05-14T14:27:00.000-07:00

Malia and I will be starting our new job tomorrow. Today we went to visit. Okay so Malia won't be working, she will be playing. I will be working as a Group Leader at a preschool in the afternoons and Malia will be coming with me. When we first visited last week, Malia didn't appear to be very happy, so the plan was that she would start out in my room. I will be with the one year olds and Malia would have been with the 18 month olds. Well today I started her out in the 18 month old room just to see how she would react ... and well ... she loved it. I left the room for over an hour to visit the room I would be in and when I went back to get her, she was sitting in a chair happily swinging her feet. I tried to take her so that we could go home, but she didn't want to go. So we hung out for a bit more then came home. She crashed out in the car on the way home.

Malia will only stay for a couple of hours as Jeff gets off of work around 3 or 3:30. I will be staying until 6pm, so she and the Baba will have a few hours to play.

I admit the pay is not great, but since Malia will only be there a few hours, I won't be charged for her time there, so that will be a huge plus. The best part is that I can visit or check in on her while she is there (=

Numbing and Hot Chicken

2007-05-10T19:00:00.000-07:00

The Baba made Malia a special dinner this past weekend. After going to a couple of stores for all the ingredients, he was finally able to find the necessary stuff! The recipe, Numbing and Hot Chicken, is from the Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook - Recipes from Hunan Province. This recipe, according to the cookbook, is the signature dish of Hunan cooking. Jeff toned it down a bit spice-wise so that Malia could eat it. It was fabulous and of course Malia LOVED it.

Malia happily running and back and forth from the kitchen to the family room!

Malia terrorizing poor Tucker. She loves to throw herself on him and then finds a comfortable spot to lounge. Tucker is such a good dog. His only fault is that he will sometimes just stand up and walk away, sort of just tossing his little friend aside.

Finally .... some good shorts weather. Malia here modeling her new shorts!

Malia's Spicy Dance!

2007-05-06T12:56:00.000-07:00

Click on picture below to check out Malia's spicy moves!

IMHO the best moves are from the middle to the end. The Baba made this video using Adobe Premiere Elements. The video is just over 2.5 minutes.

Ready for hiking!

2007-05-05T14:41:00.000-07:00

We finally went out and bought the baby carrier for hiking. We also bought Malia a new hat. She loves the carrier, hates the hat. We think she will grow to love the cute hat!

Here are Malia and Baba trying it on!

Here is Malia trying on her new hat!

Now, if only we could see the mountains ...

Last Day of Baba Time

2007-05-01T08:46:00.000-07:00

This is Jeff, taking over from Valerie for today's post. Today is the last day I get to spend at home with Malia. For the four months since we brought Malia home, I've been working a M/W/F schedule and staying home Tu/Th while Valerie worked. I'm grateful to work for a company that has allowed me this time. More than anything, it has been such an incredible gift to spend so much quality time with Malia and witness her transformation from a timid and unsure little girl to a walking, talking, dog-loving, kiss-giving bundle of love and energy. People in my office talk about how difficult it will be to be back in the office 5 days a week but the real difficulty will be not being home with Malia. I fully expect Malia to visit me in the office on a regular basis!

10 year olds

2007-04-30T18:42:00.000-07:00

I have coached soccer for many, many years. This season I am training 10 year olds who are working towards playing in our club's competitive program next fall. It is a fun program because even though the kids are young, they work hard, behave and listen. This evening the coach of the team I was training jokingly asked if I was going to stay late and I said, "No, I have to get home before my daughter goes to sleep." Saying this of course generated a lot of oohhs and aahhs from the girls. Of course they started asking questions about Malia. I told them that she was 16 months old, her name was Malia and that we adopted her from China last December. More oohhs and aahhs ensued. Of course one little girl said the usual, "I have a friend that did that." I am guessing her friend was the sister ... not the parents. Another one eyed me suspiciously and asked, "Are you married?" That one cracked me up, but I told her yes and that up until just recently China allowed single people to adopt too. She smiled at me then. One little girl though, very quietly asked, "Do you have any of your own." I smiled and just as I was going to very gently say that she was my own, the little girl stopped and as her eyes got really big, she said, "I mean have you had any children." I could have just hugged her, but hey can't do that ... anyhow I told her that I hadn't, but was going to adopt a second child. She told me that she thought it was a really good idea.

So hey many people, mind you they may only be 10, understand that adopted children are our own children. Very funny and sweet bunch of girls!

I love you!

2007-04-27T19:16:00.000-07:00

Oh my, our little sweetie now says and tries to sign "I love you." She is very cute with her kisses, hugs and I love you's!

We also taught her cheers with her sippy cup in an attempt to get her to drink from it more. She thinks the cheers is pretty cool, but the sippy cup is not quite there yet. Almost though.

We are working on switching from formula to milk. We are putting milk mixed in with the formula and rice cereal. Slowly we will weed out the formula and rice cereal and replace with milk. She seems to be okay with the switch as long as it is not too different. Good idea or nay? We also put milk or water in her sippy and we try just milk in a bottle. She drinks a little, but not much.

We are finally supposed to hit 80 degrees this weekend!!! We are psyched to finally have some nice warm weather.

Goodbye friends!

2007-04-24T18:53:00.000-07:00

Malia's grandma and grandpa visited this past weekend. She had SO MUCH fun that when they left at night to go back to their nice and quiet hotel and POOL, she cried. I take it as a very good sign that she feels comfortable now to venture out and be more social instead of holding on for dear life to our legs. It took about 20 minutes for her to warm up, but boy after that Jeff and I were nothing more than chopped liver!

Saying goodbye to G & G. Of course Tucker has to be right in the middle of EVERYTHING!

Malia loves the mandarin chicken and fried rice from Panda Express! Can you tell?

Lock-down

2007-04-20T08:46:00.000-07:00

Well we have finally reached lock-down status here at our house. Our little toddler now finds joy in opening up the cabinets and taking out whatever she can find. She threw a little tantrum this morning when she discovered that she could no longer open the doors.

Her sweet kitty, Gracie, ran over to provide some comfort!

16 Months Old

2007-04-18T05:41:00.000-07:00

Malia turned 16 months old yesterday. We also had our second of three post adoption follow-up visits with our sw. Malia was great. She provided giggles, smiles, a few 5 second dramatic mini-tantrums and she even gave Jeff and I each a prized open mouth kiss on the cheek. Very sweet. The visit went great!

A girl and her dog!

2007-04-16T05:42:00.001-07:00

Tucker is enjoying a peaceful moment ...

but Malia is ready to play.

Tucker is a soft chair.

And a soft pillow.

Someone to play talk on the phone with ...

And a good friend for sure!

A cold day

2007-04-13T10:28:00.000-07:00

The warmest room in the house on a cold (but no snow ... big storm went south of Denver) day is Malia's room. Here is what it looks like after spending the morning playing in there. Not too bad!

Happy baby wakes up from her nap.

Four months

2007-04-11T05:36:00.000-07:00

Today marks the fourth month and she is almost 16 months old! Malia has been with us for a mere 16 weeks. Wow. She has grown so much. She is walking now and loving the freedom. We are too! She says hi, all done and yea. We think she says other things, but can't quite make out what the words are. She also knows sign language for more, all done, change, bottle and cookie. Since she learned cookie ... we get that one more and more. Oh and the cookies aren't full of sugar and bad stuff. She gives more and more kisses and hugs. She loves her pets, but most of all Tucker, the golden, which she crawls ALL over, pulls his hair and even tries hard to toss the ball for him. She will often share her coveted cookies with him ... much to our dismay. Malia has gained 5 lbs since China. She is now 17 lbs and getting stronger.

As parents we have adjusted far better than I thought we would. I think the reason is because Malia is such an easy baby and very accepting of new things and surroundings. Other than some sleeping issues in the beginning, she has been perfect. Now of course this can change at any time (-:

She is a joy and loved very much!

Match Photos

Today

We are sad to hear that the CCAA only matched a mere two days.

We hope that those waiting can find peace during this time.

Easter

2007-04-08T09:52:00.000-07:00

Today is Easter and we have snow. We were supposed to have temps in the upper 50's today, but instead it is a mere 31 degrees. We will be spending the day indoors playing with Malia. Below are some pictures of our morning fun.

A look out Malia's window

Hanging out with the Baba and Tucker

Baba's head makes a great drumset

Playing with Mr. Pig

And finally ... the sign that nap time is here!

Happy Easter to you!

The five B's to bedtime

2007-04-04T18:41:00.000-07:00

From the first day we arrived home with Malia, we started the bedtime routine. It took about two months for her to catch on. We are now at the point where after putting her in her crib, we can leave the room and she will happily kick her feet and giggle until she nods off to sleep ... well most nights anyway.

1- BATH

2- BRUSH

3- BOOK

4- BOTTLE

5 -BED
This is a photo from long ago. It was Jeff's night for bedtime and he was afraid a photo would wake her up.

The BIG weekend!

2007-04-03T18:39:00.000-07:00

Over this past weekend we traveled down to Albuquerque for Malia's baptism. We had decided long ago that we would baptise her at Jeff's childhood church. Also all of our family, minus Jeff's brother's family, live in NM. His brother's family flew in for a little trip. We had a great time visiting with everyone, getting many green chile fixes and just seeing beautiful New Mexico!

Malia had a lot of fun playing with grandmas, grandpas, cousins, aunts, uncles and friends!

She also decided that she would start walking all on her own! She still walks a little bit like Frankenstein, but is getting less wobbly day by day.

Here is the cutest little drooling UNM Lobo ever!

Nap photos

2007-03-28T05:44:00.000-07:00

The other day I snapped a few pictures of Malia waking up from a nap. I thought someday she might want to see her sweet self. Yeah right!

and finally ... having fun with baba!

Scrapbook pages

2007-03-26T07:15:00.000-07:00

I belong to a Yahoo! group for Malia's orphanage. One mom in the group is putting together a scrapbook to send to the orphanage. Below are the pages I am sending. What do you think? These are my first scraps ever and I am a little self-conscience that they aren't very good. Oh and are there scrapbooking rules that I broke?

I think this photo has become my favorite of Malia. Shows her sweet personality. Also, I think she looks cute in red!

I should add that Malia has made some big strides in the past week. She has become much more vocal, she laughs and smiles a lot more, sleeping pretty good, walking with just one hand on her scooter and also becoming very adventurous with climbing on stuff and people.

Rainy day, so I'll just post some photos

2007-03-24T12:39:00.000-07:00

Reading!

Hugging Mr. Frog. (Note to G and G E.: We are trying to make Mr. Frog her lovie. Seems to be working.) For anyone interested, Malia has pretty much dodged playing with anything soft. She is slowly warming up to her barrage of stuffies.

In motion!

Playing

All done

2007-03-22T19:26:00.000-07:00

One of the best signing and words Malia says is, "all done."

She puts her arms straight in the air.

Here she is with some static cling.

Malia and Tucker playing house.

He is such a good dog!

Our counters are all done too. Two days and what a pain for the poor guys ripping out the old and putting in the new. They did a great job!

Gone are the chipped and scratched up tile. Oh and the white grout that wasn't so white anymore.

White tile and white grout

2007-03-21T05:58:00.000-07:00

Today is the last morning that I have to get up and look at the ugly white tile and white grout in my kitchen. We are getting a dark corian with a light accent put in today. Oh and a new sink and faucet too. Heck ... we have only lived with it for the last six years?!?!?!

Playdate aftermath

2007-03-19T07:53:00.000-07:00

We had friends over yesterday. Jeff and his co-worker were in the garage working on router tables and us girls were either playing inside or playing at our neighborhood park.

Malia was a bit clingy the entire time and had very few smiles. She just sat back and absorbed everything going on around her. She did share toys with her new friend and definetly liked her, but was quite cautious. At the park she wanted nothing to do with the baby swing and she wasn't sure or not whether the baby slide was fun or scary. She did though like to sit on my lap while I swung on the big kid swing.

After everyone left, she was giggling and playing independently. We were psyched that we could stretch out on the sofa for once while she played all by herself on the floor. Lots of hugs for us too.

Here Malia is "helping" with cleaning up!

15 Months

2007-03-17T19:56:00.000-07:00

Malia is 15 months old as of today! To celebrate, she decided that the party should begin at 1:30am til 4:00am. It was so hard to get up this morning, but we had so much to do today ...

visit the new dog kennel --very posh
go to the outlet mall -- didn't buy one thing
go out for ice cream --M*ggie M**s ... very good--
go to C*stc* --not fun at 2:00pm on a Saturday--
go to the grocery store --is it ever fun?--
walk the dogs -- loved that!
clean the house and make dinner -- no comment.

Of course Malia refused a nap during the time we were home, but chose to crash in the car after C*stc*. So we spent 45 minutes driving around so she could sleep and not be disturbed going from the car to the crib.

Needless to say, I am very tired. We have a playdate tomorrow here at our house. Jeff and his co-worker are building router tables and his wife and daughter are coming over. Should be fun. Tucker best be on his very best behavior.

Coupons

2007-03-15T18:57:00.000-07:00

Why buy toys when Malia would rather spend an hour playing with coupons sent via mail?

She had the best time folding, scrunching and ripping up. Well that was last night ... tonight we had a whole new set of coupons from the mailbox, only smaller. Baba and Malia made paper airplanes and had a grand time. Mama cleaned it up!

Three month mark

2007-03-14T05:59:00.000-07:00

We've had Malia for just over three months now. Every week she progresses a little bit more. We get more and more real hugs now. Real meaning that she actually puts her little arms around our necks and snuggles her head into our shoulder. One funny little thing is that we always patted her back when we picked her up, especially in the morning. Now, she always pats our backs when she hugs us. She also gives kisses, but is a bit more stingy with those (-: She is sleeping better and naps well. Eating is good too. She is getting more confident about walking all by herself and can stand for several seconds without holding on to something.

The weather has been great the past few days ... near 70. We are taking longer walks and she seems to enjoy them as long as the sun is not on her face. Yes, we lather on the sunscreen and put a hat on her!

On March 17th, Malia will be 15 months old!

Pictures

2007-03-10T18:54:00.000-08:00

Malia LOVES bath time! There are tons of toys in the bathtub, but none made it into the picture.

Cuddling up to Tucker! He was freshly bathed and oooohhhh so soft!

Malia discovered that the baskets contain toys we forgot about.

One of her favorite things to do is flip pages.

Upset that she can't have the remote control. We gave her an old one without the batteries one day after we got home from China. Of course she wants nothing to do with that one!

Little red shirt, sleep and Tucker

2007-03-09T11:32:00.000-08:00

Malia is doing well. Today we went out on an outing to find a long sleeve red shirt. NOT an easy task after Valentine's Day. We are having a big family photo and our family is designated to wear red long sleeved shirts. We will be traveling down to NM for an April 1st baptism at Jeff's old church and since all of Jeff's family will be there, we will take the opportunity for a big family photo. After going to about five places, I didn't find Malia a red shirt, but we did find a red fleece that will do in a pinch. I don't really like it though.

Malia is doing better with sleep. Most days, for naps, we can just put her in her crib with a few toys and then leave the room. She will eventually fall asleep after giggling and playing for 15 to 20 minutes. At nighttime, we stay until she falls asleep.

As you can see from the photo above, Malia likes Tucker. She loves him actually. Crawls all over him, pulls his hair, ears and fur. She throws the ball for him, takes toys out of his mouth. Tucker of course takes it all in stride and finds her to be quite the neat little friend. Tucker is not the best behaved of dogs, but when it comes to Malia, he is the BEST! Oh I should mention that Malia likes all the pets in residence, and they all like her. Tucker is just number 1 in her book right now!

Jobs

2007-03-02T05:55:00.000-08:00

We decided last weekend that it was time to purchase an all-terrain stroller for Malia. We like to walk on trails with the dogs. We also like to hike, but will need one of those crazy backpack carriers. We also decided that Malia needed a super cool toy for the basement. We have a workout room down there and we need something that will keep her entertained. Jeff hasn't missed a beat with working out. I have not found the groove yet.

We all had our jobs ....

Malia slept!

Tucker supervised!

I tackled the easier job. Yeah right... it had a lot of pieces to put together!

Jeff got the stoller all hooked up!

Tucker inspected!

Rocky tested!

And finally .... Malia played!

More CNY and Ellen

2007-02-28T05:42:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday afternoon, CCAI's Adoptive Parents Council held their annual Chinese New Year Celebration. It was at the Denver Performing Arts Center in downtown Denver and was SOLD OUT! We dressed Malia up in her pretty red outfit and red bow. The celebration was wonderful with lots of music and dancing. Many of the performances were children adopted through CCAI. It was great.

The highlight for us was a complete surprise. ELLEN! Ellen (picture with us above) was our rep in Hunan (Malia's province) and is currently in Denver for three months working at the CCAI office. We had no idea she was coming to the USA! What a surprise. Anyone who has had the pleasure of working with CCAI and traveling to China knows that the reps are fabulous. They are far more than just tour guides or facilitators!

On another note ...
Malia is having more and more trouble with sleeping. Her schedule is off and she is a bit on the grumpy side. She also has become quite the picky eater and has decided that when she doesn't like something she will just open her mouth and let it fall out. We also get some pretty big tears if we try to feed her something she doesn't want.

Just a little update!

2007-02-21T06:23:00.000-08:00

Malia and grandma at CNY celebration!

For Chinese New Year we celebrated at Holly's Asian Bistro with two other families. Grams and Gramps went with us. Malia, as usual, was very well behaved during dinner. Last night, however, our little princess was up for a party at 3am. We played, ate and drank formula before finally deciding that the party should end at 4:15am. She is still sleeping now and I hope to have another hour to get some laundry done before she wakes up.

Malia sure seemed to remember Grams and Gramps from China. She never smiles when she meets someone for the first time ... instead giving the furrowed brow look. She did however give a little grin when they walked in the door.

Just so you all know ... Malia is statistically significant. Grandpa bought her this special little t-shirt. Malia's dad, grandpa, uncle and aunt are all statisticians.

Do you think they are hoping that she likes math?

In April we will be heading down to NM for Malia's baptism. Our entire family, minus Jeff's brother, sis-in-law and nephew (they will be there) lives in NM. We look forward to going to our favorite state!

A quick nap snuggled up next to grandpa!

Hope everyone had a fabulous CNY!

Just a couple of cute photos of our sweetheart.

2007-02-17T05:58:00.000-08:00

Nai Nai and Ye Ye are here visiting! They traveled to China with us and Malia was happy to see them again! We will be attending some Chinese New Year festivities this week.

Happy New Year everyone!

Two Months

2007-02-11T10:43:00.000-08:00

~Click on photos for larger version~

...

We have had Malia for just two short months. She is already growing up too fast. A once shy and quiet little girl has blossomed into a smiling and babbling mover and shaker. We love her so much. She can stand on her own now and take a few steps, but she still seems to be more comfortable holding onto someone.

Malia is social, shows all emotions, laughs, hugs and is starting to give little kisses. While we continue to work on the night terrors, she does sleep well considering all that she has gone through in her short life. She also naps once or twice a day, shares toys with us and does pretty well in her carseat!

Malia is now 15.5 lbs. and is about 27.5 inches tall. She is getting stronger and stronger everyday!

Lily

2007-02-06T06:19:00.000-08:00

Lily and her dog!

Pretty girl!

Malia and Lily's first meeting!

Playing with a super neat book!

Malia and I met Lily Grace last night. Jeff had an ALL DAY long conference downtown, so he couldn't be there. We wanted to drop a few things off and ended up having a playdate!

Lily is a beautiful baby inside and out!

The Outtakes

2007-02-05T05:45:00.000-08:00

We tried to get some photos of Malia in her pretty red outfit for our announcements. It took about 20 tries to get one decent one.

A typical day for Malia

2007-01-31T09:14:00.000-08:00

7:00 am ~ Wakes up
7:15 am ~ Bottle and breakfast (egg, bread, banana)
8:00 am ~ Playtime in her room
9:00 am ~ Morning nap
10:30 am ~ Wakes up
10:45 am ~ Bottle
11:00 am ~ Playtime in family room
12:00 pm ~ Lunch (chicken, potatoes, rice, veges, fruit)
12:30 pm ~ Possible outing to the store, mall, walk
2:00 pm ~ Afternoon nap or quiet playtime in crib
3:00 pm ~ Bottle
3:30 pm ~ Playtime in family room
4:00 pm ~ Playtime in basement while mom and dad workout
5:30 pm ~ Dinner (same menu as lunch)
6:30 pm ~ Playtime
7:00 pm ~ Bath
7:30 pm ~ Book and bottle
8:00 pm ~ Sleep (-:

Between 8:00 pm and 11:00 pm ~ numerous wake ups, cries, screams and other noises. She also eats various snacks throughout the day!

Malia had her first playdate with Nell. Below is a picture of the two cuties playing together!

Shopping and cousin Kevin

2007-01-26T05:18:00.000-08:00

Malia and I went to the mall the other day! I was only to go to Bath and Body Works, but took a side trip to Baby Gap. I picked up a new jacket for Malia and an "I love Daddy" onesie. Malia is still wearing 3-6 month clothes, but appears to be gaining a little weight.

Malia and Jeff had lunch with cousin Kevin from St. Louis yesterday! He was here on a business trip. He is one of Jeff's MOST FAVORITE cousins! He and his wife, Kellie, have two boys, Andrew and Daniel, and one baby girl named Christine. They are 4 1/2, 2 1/2 and six months.

Cousin Kevin and me at Chili's!

Sporting my new sweater!

Almost ready to walk on my own!

Sitting in the rocking chair. I don't much care for being rocked while sitting down. I prefer to be walked around!

Snow, screams and football

2007-01-21T15:28:00.000-08:00

First of all, a little photo for Jeff and Amy in case they are able to read our blog and are wondering what is up at home. They just met Lily Grace today!

yay. more. snow.

Ms. Malia has been having some adjustment issues. She has been waking up every few nights in the middle of night. She refuses to sleep even though she is very tired, cries loudly, screams loudly and there is no consoling her. Night terrors?!?! I seriously wonder if our neighbors hear her! She also babbles Mandarin words, I think, during this time. Poor baby. She does though return to her sweet self the next morning. Other nights are great as she goes right to sleep and stays that way the whole night ... okay well aside from minor short crying fits that require a trip in there to readjust her.

Now can you believe that this cute baby wakes up screaming?

Our whole house is very tired, including kitty cats.

Here is Malia rooting for the Bears with baba and kitty!
Malia sure looks well rested after sleeping in until noon. Jeff and kitty on the other hand ...

Sick

2007-01-17T05:55:00.000-08:00

Malia and I both got the stomach flu on Monday evening. Luckily, I had it far worse than she did. I thought I was going to die and don't think I have ever felt that sick! It is Wednesday and I still have no desire to put any one morsel of food in my mouth. My morning cup of java is even making me a bit queasy. Jeff has only shown a few symptoms and appears to have either had a minor form of the flu, isn't going to get it, or is going to get it really soon! Last week he resumed his workout schedule, so his body is in far better shape than mine. I hope to resume next week. I have lost about 8 lbs. I wanted to lose 5!

Here we are trying to give baba a break from the hospital ward. Notice my sweet worried dog.

Yup, I looked as bad as I felt. Malia had a half smile.

Malia's personality shows more everyday and she definitely is one spicy Hunan girl. Here are some pictures of her pre-sick.

And ... a little blast from the past. Gotcha day!

Better Later Than Never

2007-01-15T15:01:00.000-08:00

Due to some computer issues and the suddenly decreased amount of free time, we've just now been able to transfer some video from the camera to our computer. So here's a short and sweet edition of Gotcha Day.

GOTCHA!!

Grandma and Auntie Adrienne's visit

2007-01-13T07:56:00.000-08:00

First off ... HAPPY BIRTHDAY to grandma Frances!

Special greetings sent from Malia and Tucker! Rocky is too cold to get out from under the covers to pose for photos. -3 here today. Brrrrrr.

Grandma and Auntie Adrienne visited last weekend. Malia enjoyed having them here as did Jeff and I. Our dogs LOVE visitors and think that all and any knock on our door is a visitor to see them. Usually after an hour they calm down and all is back to normal.

Anyhow, it took a couple of hours of staring intently for Malia to decide that these folks were cool!

My two sisters and I grew up with a singing mother. Mom has a beautiful voice and was the solo singer at our church and was also in many plays at the theatre where we grew up. She must have made up words to songs when we were little because although I do not have a great voice, I sing made up songs all the time to the dogs and now to Malia. Mom's song of the weekend went something like this ...

"Malia ... where'd you get those eyes. Malia ... your a paradise"

I now hum that tune ALL THE TIME. Gee thanks mom!

My sister Adrienne is also a beautiful singer and is now involved with the same theatre as mom was! Adrienne however didn't sing any while at our house.

I also have another sister, Lenore, who is busy with a five year old. We hope to see her soon either here or where they live in NM!

The Medical Exam

2007-01-08T12:03:00.000-08:00

Malia had her medical exam last Friday. She did not think it was very fun. Neither did we. Don't get me wrong, her pediatrician is great. Even the nurses were great. It started out on a bad note when little Malia weighed in at only 13.5 lbs. She is 27 inches in length. She weighed 14.5 lbs. in China. I have to say that I think she has eaten more since we got home and am wondering what is up with the weight loss. Jeff thinks it could be that she did weigh less in China than we thought because they weigh the babies with all their many layers of clothes on. Anyhow, we are now on a high fat diet for Malia. She is a skinny minnie, but cute. Malia put up quite a fight during both the blood draw and the shots. She may be small, but boy is she strong. There were four people in the room trying to get her still. Anyhow, this morning I had to take her back to get her TB test checked. She threw a complete hissy fit once she saw we were headed back to that room. Wouldn't you? The nurse decided instead that the hallway would be just fine to check her arm. All else is well with our little one. She is sleeping okay. Some minor wake ups and issues with falling asleep, but overall I think we are pretty lucky with her sleep habits.

Grandma Frances and Auntie Adrienne were here this past weekend, and as soon as Jeff shows me how this new camera downloads photos to our computer, I'll post some pictures.

For now, here is Malia eating some of the wonderful dinner (the potatoes) that Amy and Jeff made us! Thanks guys. You're the best. Amy and Jeff will be flying to China on January 18th to meet sweet Lily Grace.