I'm trying not to let the fact that I'm going back to work in one week get me down or let it spoil the time I have left to be home with my children. I've really enjoyed the 12 weeks off with my children. I could get use to this! I do understand that just because you are a stay home mom, doesn't mean your house is clean all the time. LOL!
So much to report about Rachel in just a couple of weeks time. She is cruising now! Yes, our little girl is full blown crawling now. She is so funny too. She reminds me of that baby doll that crawls and wiggles her butt as it's crawling. She went from belly flopping every few crawls, to crawling across the room without a hitch. She is also pulling herself up on things. She started off pulling herself to her knees, but while we were at the beach this past week, she has mastered pulling herself up completely. Dave finally had to put the gate at the top of our stairs and Rachel loves to pull herself up to her knees and shaking it. She likes the rattling noise it makes.
Rachel has hit so many milestones lately. She is even eating table food now. Her first meal was macaroni and cheese and she devoured it. I couldn't shovel it in fast enough. She would yell at me in between each bite. She loves fruit too, especially mandarin oranges. She sucks on them before chewing them up and swallowing. Rachel got her sixth tooth in last week. It's a top one on the right next to her top front teeth. She is drooling constantly and she is always chewing on her fingers. She loves when I get in her mouth and massage her gums. She has had some rough days where nothing makes her feel good. I think it is the teething. I ended giving her tylenol one night to help her sleep.
Last Sunday I had a visit from my friend, Tina, and her two girl's. I can't even tell you how wonderful it was to see them. Tina moved a little over two hours from me shortly after her first daughter was born to be closer to her parents which was over 3 years ago. I think we saw each other twice within the first year, but I hadn't seen her since. Her girl's are beautiful! My other friend, Mikell, stopped by too and it was just like old times. The three years between visits just melted away. We picked up right where we left off 3+ years ago. Friendships seem to work that way. I want to make a better effort to stay in touch. Hopefully we will get together in October. Tina invited me to scrapbook for the day in October, so we are going to try and make a weekend out of it. Hopefully the plans fall in place. The little town she moved to is adorable and I would love to see if for myself.
We just got back from the beach yesterday. It was a good week for the most part. A vacation to me is where you don't have to cook and clean. But unfortunately, finances didn't allow us that luxury. It was funny to see Rachel in the sand and Jake playing in the waves. I remember when I wasn't afraid to play in the ocean. I don't like that I can't see to the bottom. I'm petrified of jellyfish, although we didn't see any at all. The water was absolutely freezing, but the kids didn't seem to mind. Rachel loves the water and she was splashing away. Jake dug a moat and Rachel was playing in it, and the next thing I knew, she fell in head first. It was a comical scene and surprisingly she didn't cry. The first day on the beach, we only had a little pink bucket and shovel. It was so funny seeing Jake with this tiny little pink bucket. We made a note to buy Jake a bigger bucket and shovel when we went out the next day. 10 year olds don't want to play with little pink buckets!
I don't remember the sea gulls beings so aggressive. You can't eat anything that is out in the open or they will practically attack you! There were times where I thought the things were going to take my head off. You also had to watch for flying poop. It was quite scary! Rachel was extremely intrigued by these flying nuisances.
Rachel grabbed quite a bit of attention from board walkers. I'm not sure if it's because she is so darn cute or it's because she is with a white family and obviously adopted. She did put on quite a show with the way she danced when she heard music or when she would do a double-hand wave to those that walked by us. She looked so cute in her over-sized hat too. All the comments that were made were very nice and everyone loved her fat cheeks. We saw lots of white families with Asian children, so it's very common these days. So I'm not sure why we get so many stares. Our last day there, Jake and I went to the beach while Rachel napped and we sat right next to another family with an older Asian daughter who looked to be about 5 years old. I saw the little girl go towards the ocean, so I walked over to talk to the family and guess what? They were another Living Hope family and we met at the Living Hope Reunion in June. We really do live in a small world. The family actually stayed right across the street from us. There daughter was 5 years old and she was beautiful. We met another family who had a 13 year old daughter adopted from China. I love connecting with other adoptive families.
Rachel's personality is really blooming. She has quite a temper on her when things don't go her way. We really got to see it while we were at the beach this week. Since she is really crawling and pulling herself up on things, we really have to keep an extra eye on her. The shore house we stayed at was not child-proof. We would remove her from an unsafe situation and she would thrash her body and scream bloody murder! I would take her and lay her in the middle of the floor and let her have her little tantrum. I was not feeding into that behavior. The other thing she is doing is pinching and boy does it hurt. I would firmly say no no and move her hand and she would go right back to doing it again! OMG, she is stubborn one. I finally had to take her and firmly sit her in her stroller telling her no no! The lip would come out and she would wail! After a minute or two, I picked her up and she did it again to me! Can you believe this little stinker! LOL. I'm hoping this is not a sign of what the future holds! LOL. I'm also seeing her funny side too. She likes to tease! If she's sitting in her highchair eating cheerios or anything for that matter, she would hold her hand over the side pretending that she was going to drop whatever it is on the floor and look at me devilishly. I would say, "don't you drop it" and she would put it in her mouth and laugh. She also likes to feed me but then pulls the cheerio away shaking her head no and quickly puts it in her mouth. She cracks herself up! I crack up at her too! She is our little comedian!
We came back from the beach somewhat early yesterday because Jake had his first football practice from 6:00 PM until 8:30 PM last night. The coaches worked them hard. It will probably get worse when they have to wear their equipment which he picked up this morning. Think Jake is a sweater now! We have to work on Jake loosing a few pounds since the team he's on is a 120 lbs. He can only weigh 128 lbs with pads and he weighs a little more than that. I'm sure with practices 4 nights a week, he will loose a few pounds.
Not sure if the kid's ate bad chicken yesterday when we stopped for lunch on the way home, but they both got sick last night. Rachel got sick as soon as I finished bathing her and Jake got sick in his bed around 11:30 last night. Other than a few trips to the bathroom for Jake, they seem to be okay today. I was told that there is a stomach bug going around. Hopefully it doesn't go any further than it has.
The other day I got some bad news. My mom had a mole removed from her arm and it came back as stage 3 melanoma skin cancer. She will be meeting with a surgeon to find out what is next. Please pray that she will be healed and that she won't have to go through chemotherapy or radiation. Apparently she's had this mole for quite some time and finally after my dad hounded her, she got it checked. It's a shame she didn't have it checked sooner. I just ask that you please keep my mom in your prayers.
Well, that's pretty much what's going on our household. I need to savor the next week, because I go back to work! I'm really going to miss staying home. I hope you enjoy the photos!
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Daddy's Little Girl!!
Hello all, Rachel and Jake's dad here again. Long time since my last post. And if you know me it will be a long time for another one too. Anyway I know in my heart that Rachel is meant for this family because she likes PEPSI!! lol. Have some pics of her in China with a can of Pepsi too. I think these are great pics.
As for the kids. They are doing great. No complaints here. Jake starts football August 1st. We are going down the shore next week, Monday to Friday. We were going to stay down there and leave after dinner on Friday, but practice starts Friday. So we are going to cut it short. Football is a dedicated sport. And both Sherry and I hope Jake likes it. I think he will do great if he puts his mind AND body into it. Oh well my finger is hurting, from typing. See ya.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Another Milestone
I feel so blessed that we are able to witness some of Rachel's milestones. She has totally mastered sitting up from a laying position. The funny thing is, she is so proud of herself because she will laugh out loud once she is sitting. Hopefully you will see her excitement in the photos above. I posted a series of photos to show how she gets up to a sitting position. LOL. She is so proud of herself which you can see from her photo. I'm pretty sure she will be crawling in no time. She gets on all fours and rocks. She can take a step with one leg and one arm, but then she belly flops! LOL. Jake keeps telling me that she stood up all by herself, but I haven't witnessed this milestone yet. I'm really not ready for her to walk yet. I'm enjoying her being a baby right now. Dave does need to get going on putting the gate at the top of our steps into the living room. I don't need any accidents!
Did I tell you how much I'm dreading going back to work and leaving Rachel? I get choked up every time I think about it. We are very fortunate that my mother in-law will be caring for her while we work, but it's still so hard. It was tough leaving Jake at 2 1/2 months old, but I think it's going to be more difficult leaving Rachel at 11 1/2 months old. Rachel is older and she is very attached to me. We were down visiting mom last week and I tried putting Rachel down for a morning nap at her house and she absolutely flipped out. I haven't heard her cry like that in a really long time. I just don't know how I'm going to do this. Mom and Dad are on vacation this week and then we will be on vacation when they return. So, we will have a week to get her adjusted to mom and dad's house before I go back to work. Should be interesting. I'm truly going to miss being with her during the day. She is so much fun and boy is she funny. I don't think I've ever met a baby with so much personality at her age. Please pray for an easy transition.
Now that little miss can sit up on her own, she think she doesn't need a nap in the morning. She wants to play. I walked into her room after 35 minutes of off and on complaining and she was sitting up in the crib playing. Ha! Guess what, after eating lunch, I gave her some cheerios while I cleaned up the kitchen and I turn around and the little bugger is sound asleep in her highchair. I couldn't even wake her up to give her a bottle. She is a piece of work. LOL.
Hope you enjoy the photos. Wow, you all got two updates from me in less than 3 days! I just had to share Rachel's new milestone. I'm just in awe over our little girl. With the changes Rachel has endured, she is just thriving.
I also included some photos of Jake jumping off the diving board at my friend, Heather's pool. Jake is such a dare devil. You know, as I'm typing this, I'm thinking about the young man my son is turning into. He really is such an awesome big brother. I'm not just saying that either. He is so incredibly good with his baby sister. Maybe we are still in the "honeymoon" phase, be he hasn't shown any jealousy at all. I figure with him being an only child for over 10 years, he would have a real hard time sharing us with a sibling. Boy, he proved me wrong. He shows nothing but love and pride for his sister. We are truly blessed to have such wonderful kids. Jake was meant to be a big brother in every sense! I think the feelings are mutual for Rachel too. She just lightens up when Jake walks into the room. He is so good watching her for me too. I'm so proud of Jake!
Monday, July 14, 2008
We got our 5th Tooth!
While visiting my sister on Saturday to welcome my nephew, John, home from six months of army training, she found Rachel's fifth tooth! Rachel has been drooling a lot and gnawing on her fingers like crazy. I've been feeling around in her mouth the last few days and found nothing! It literally must have finally broke through Saturday morning. Rachel is still gnawing, so there may be another one or two that will break through sometime soon.
We were excited to see my nephew after six months. It didn't feel like he was gone that long, but I'm sure it did to him and my sister. LOL. John looks great and has lost a ton of weight. My sister thinks he got taller too, but I think being so thin now makes him look taller. Jake was thrilled to see his oldest cousin. Jake really looks up to John. John will continue in the army reserves once a month and will have to attend 2 weeks every year. He is even considering going active in another year or so and making army life a career. I just wish we weren't at war right now. It's scary to think about it. We are very proud of him for completing boot camp and serving our country.
We are all doing really well. I'm sorry that it's over two weeks since my last post. I'm sure you all must be getting bored with our family life. Rachel is thriving in every way and is right on target for a 10 1/2 month old baby girl. We are waiting for her to crawl any day now. She is getting up on all fours, but then flops on her belly. She absolutely loves to stand and hold onto things. I won't be surprised if she goes right to walking.
Rachel started her vaccinations last week with four shots. It's very difficult for a parent to watch her child getting stuck like that and screaming with tears running down her face and reaching her arms out to you for you to rescue her. I just can't stand it! Rachel ended up with a 101.5 fever the next day with some vomiting in the morning. Thank God it only lasted a day or so. She seemed to be back to normal the following day. She will have her 12 month well visit at the end of August where she will most likely get four more vaccinations. She is quite behind on her shots, so most of her visits will include shots for awhile. I just hope she doesn't get to a point where she screams every time we enter the doctors office. Rachel currently weighs 22.5 lbs. She gained 2 1/2 pounds from her first well visit in early June. Believe me, my back, arms and legs are feeling it!
We are in the process of planning Rachel's first birthday! Hard to believe that it's next month already! We are having it at a local park under a pavilion. We checked it out yesterday while we were out and I think it's a great location. The kids should have a blast with the awesome playground that's there.
We are really starting to see Rachel's true personality. When something doesn't go her way, she will let you know with her little temper tantrums. She is truly our "spicy girl!" LOL. She gets so mad at times and she will scream her head off. Jake thinks this is funny and will tease her at times, then I have to yell at him for teasing her. She loves to scream while we are in the car. I guess because we can't pay full attention to her, she screams to remind us that she is there in the backseat!
Rachel attended her first girlfriend birthday party on Friday. We were invited to Annie's 2nd birthday party at Romp & Roll. Annie is the sister of one of Jake's classmates, Claire. Even though the party was geared for 2 years and older, Rachel still had a blast! She really loved the bubble machine at the end. She let everyone know she wasn't happy when they stopped making bubbles! Rachel loves to dance to music too. As soon as she hears any type of music, she will start bobbing her head up and down. It's so cute. We love to dance in the car with the radio on.
I finally went to the ENT last week. Mostly because I started with the pain in my head again. All the tests that were performed that day were normal. I go back on August 4th for a 2 1/2 hour balance test. I don't want them to find anything for sure, but I do wish I could get an explanation of the dizziness and head pain that I've been experiencing off and on for 2 months. It's quite unnerving to not know what is wrong.
My brother Paul came home from the hospital last week. He has moved in with my sister, Sandy, who has been a tremendous help to him these last few weeks. The infection has improved in his leg, but he's still not out of the woods. He needs to loose weight and get his breathing under control so that they can operate and remove the pins out of his ankle. My brother broke his ankle quite a few years ago now and the pins are what is causing the infection. My sister has been working on him with his calorie intake, so hopefully he will keep up the will power to loose weight. Moving is very difficult for him, not only from the infection in his leg, but his weight his another huge barrier. Please pray for him.
We are planning a short vacation to the beach the last week in July. I'm looking forward to getting away for a few days before heading back to work on August 11th. Today reality was truly setting in about going back to work. I'm truly not looking forward to it. I found out a week or so ago about a co-worker who is leaving. Our office staff will be down to 9 employees. I didn't mention this before, but a week and half after returning from China my company informed me that they have cut everyone's salary, including mine. It was pretty drastic too. It put quite a damper on our summer. When you get used to living a certain way and you have your salary cut without much notice, it really makes life quite difficult. I'm glad I still have a job to return to, we just have to re-adjust our lives. We think twice before eating out or stopping and getting ice cream. It's hard saying no to your child when he wants to stop for ice cream on the way home from the playground. I even have to second guess Jake's activities now. We wouldn't even be going to the beach if we weren't my friend's brother. We gave him our used family room furniture last summer in exchange for 5 days in their beach house this summer. We will be taking all our food with us so we won't have to spend money eating out! I just have to have faith that we will be all right. Like I said, at least we still have jobs!
On a more positive note, we received Rachel's U.S. Citizenship Certificate last week. She is officially a U.S. Citizen. The certificate was accompanied by a letter from the White House welcoming Rachel. There was even a stamped George W. Bush signature! LOL! On Friday I went and applied for Rachel's social security number and I went to the courthouse to register her adoption with the Orphan's Court. I learned that we do not need to re-adopt Rachel in our state. I have to fill out some forms and make copies of some of the adoption documents and we will get an English birth certificate. I was thrilled that I didn't need to relinquish any of the originals which are very precious to us. Not having to re-adopt Rachel in our state saved us about $500 or more. They recently made this change and I couldn't be happier.
I can't believe we are more than half way through the summer. Hopefully you all are enjoying the summer. I'm going to try and enjoy the few weeks I have left with Rachel & Jake before heading back to reality!
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Another Update...
Can I just tell you how funny Rachel is! She is so comical and all we do is laugh at everything she does. We will probably pay for it later! LOL! If I'm holding Rachel, Jake will come up and say do you want to come to me and Rachel will violently shake her head no while laughing at the same time. She thinks she is so funny and of course, we do too!
We attended the Living Hope Reunion this weekend and it was a lot of fun. This was our fourth annual reunion with Living Hope and our very first time attending with Rachel. She caught everyone's attention, especially because she was the youngest and newest one there. She looked so adorable in her blue Chinese outfit. Rachel's smile just captures everyone's attention. We started the weekend off at the hotel last night with a movie and snacks. Jake thought he was too big to watch Happy Feet. We pretty much just networked with other adoptive families and caught up with those we met last year during the reunion. Saturday afternoon we went to the Homewood Suites where we enjoyed a picnic and Jake played in the hotel pool. Saturday night was a banquet which was held at St. Helena's catering hall. The food was delicious and hot, which is unusual for buffet. Following dinner, we got to enjoy some Chinese culture with a Chinese school performing traditional Chinese dances for us. We really enjoy watching these little girl's perform for us. Rachel was tired at this point, so daddy fed her a bottle. She did very well considering it was way past her bedtime. I just love seeing the kid's each year and seeing how much they've grown over the year.
I think I may have found a way to put Rachel down for bed/nap without any hassles. Normally as soon as we walk toward her room, she starts crying. I would pull her shades down, kiss her and say night night and then leave, even if she is still crying. She would cry for about 5 minutes or so and then fall to sleep. But sometimes it would take longer and me going into her a room a few times to calm her. Two nights ago, I started staying with her and talking to her softly for a minute or two until she isn't crying at all. I would rub or pat her back or bottom and tickle her face softly while I softly talked to her. She will smile at me and then I would say night night and walk out and close her door behind me. I don't hear a peep out of her! YES! I think I found the secret. This is only taking a minute or two of my time, but she is completely calm when I leave her room and she doesn't fuss whatsoever! Now I just need to train Dave. LOL! It's the small things that make us happy.
My mother in-law called me last night to inform me of a friend's father dying. This young lady has a special place in my heart because she tried to help us get pregnant (before we knew God wanted us to adopt Rachel) by donating her eggs to us. The weird thing is that I ran into her last week while having lunch with another friend. She was so excited to tell me that she got married in May. She did mention that her father had cancer, but was doing very well and was in remission. Well, he died two nights ago and I am so sad for her loss. Her family is so close. She has a son who is very close to his grandparents. Please keep Becky and her family in your prayers.
Today is Wednesday, July 3rd and we just came back from visiting my Aunt Marge. She reminded me that I haven't seen her since January! I'm a horrible niece. I wish she lived a little closer. 35-40 minutes isn't horrible, but it seems hard to go all that way sometimes. I promised myself that I won't allow that much time to by again without seeing her. She got to see Rachel in person for the first time. Rachel wouldn't let Aunt Marge hold her. She was already upset to begin with when I sat her on Aunt Marge's lap, so hopefully Aunt Marge won't take it personally.
Today is Wednesday, July 3rd and we just came back from visiting my Aunt Marge. She reminded me that I haven't seen her since January! I'm a horrible niece. I wish she lived a little closer. 35-40 minutes isn't horrible, but it seems hard to go all that way sometimes. I promised myself that I won't allow that much time to by again without seeing her. She got to see Rachel in person for the first time. Rachel wouldn't let Aunt Marge hold her. She was already upset to begin with when I sat her on Aunt Marge's lap, so hopefully Aunt Marge won't take it personally.
Before going to visit Aunt Marge, I took Jake to get highlights in his hair this morning. We made a deal last fall that if he made all A's in school, I would allow him to get highlights. Well, I guess we know how he did in school. It was so fun watching him get the highlights. Jake was loving it and he informed me that he is "officially a chic magnet!" First of all, I didn't even know he cared about girls paying attention to him. Where in the world did that come from???! LOL! I don't think I'm ready for girl's yet. The girl doing his hair used a cap and pulled his hair through. Jake was in agony with the pulling. I know it is painful because that is what I used to have done before they started using foils. Of course I took a ton of photos. I really like the highlights and the longer length hair. They cut a little more off than Jake wanted, but his hair grows so fast. It took a little bit for the longer length hair to grow on me. I think the longer hair makes him look a little older and I'm not ready for him to grow up yet. I think I want him to stay young! Check out the pictures above. I know Jake really likes the highlights. Hey, if all it takes is to get him highlights to get good grades in school, I'll bite!
My friend, Heather, came over yesterday with her daughter, Abby. We had so much fun spending time together. Our daughters are only 5 weeks apart and they were so cute together. They would pull and poke each other and stare. They were pretty similar in their size too. I thought Rachel had big feet, but Abby's feet were just as long. Abby has the most amazing big blue eyes, just like her two brothers, Dylan and Josh. Rachel has her first little girlfriend! LOL! Heather invited us to her pool tomorrow and we are taking her up on her offer. I'm looking forward to it and I know Jake is too.
After swimming tomorrow, we are going to my sister's because her town is having a fireworks display. Not sure how Rachel will do with that. I know a lot of babies get scared with the loud bangs. Hopefully she won't get too freaked out.
We are truly amazed everyday of the new things Rachel picks up on. She can now clap her hands! When we praise her, we clap our hands and she mimics us! When Heather and Abby were visiting yesterday, I saw that Abby could use the claw grasp and put food into her mouth. Last night after dinner, I put gerber bites on Rachel's tray and she was using the claw grasp and putting the puffs into her mouth. I was so excited that I jumped up and down yelling and scared the living day lights out of my poor baby! LOL! She realized I was happy and started to laugh too. She isn't 100% consistent, but she is totally making progress. She is trying really hard to pull herself up when she is close to the couch or chair. I would love to see her crawl first, but I'm not sure.
Rachel got a new swing which we hung from the swingset in the back yard. She absolutely loves it! I stopped her to take some photos of her and she was not happy and started to have a temper tantrum. Oh yes, this girl does have a temper when things don't go her way.
Please, don't stop posting comments just because we are home from China. We love getting them and reading them! I cherish each comment and they all will be included in Rachel's Life Book.
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