High-Five struck today

I had to drop something off at work and had the girls with me; by the time I got home Penelope had fallen asleep. I was able to lay her on the couch and she kept sleeping so I quick ran back to work to get in as much time as possible. Todd called when she woke up and said she was doing fine, 45 MINUTES later he called and said she was starting to look a little panicky so I high-tailed it home and walked in the door to a big wrestle party. Not only that but they showed me Penelope’s new thing for the day… high-five, low-five, high-five, low-five again. Too much fun! That must have been the last of Todd’s energy because he went right to bed with a compress and an emus pan. Todd’s was at the peak, but we we’re doing better so hopefully he will only be down a day or two. Not so good after being gone from work for three weeks.

Back to the doctor for the other two girls in the household

The last two days Violet and I have been miserable. We caught a virus, so we’ve been real low key, sleeping on the couch watching Violet’s movies. Todd has continued to install more of the kitchen cabinets and Penelope went to Todd twice today, just walked up and held out her arms, she let him hold her for about a minute, another big step. Penelope has been our source of entertainment as we lay on the couch. This evening Todd started to not feel well, not a good sign.

Thanksgiving and we DO give thanks!

! She did so much better today with her eye patch, she is very low key during her patch hours. It seems we have two good kids as far as medicine, when I pull out the Amoxicillin, Penelope backs up against my leg and leans her head back ready to take her medicine, Violet has always been the same way and they usually taste awful. Penelope had a great time at Thanksgiving, we have a food grinder and she ate everything except the salad. We don’t know where she puts the food, I think her new nickname will be the girl with the wooden leg; she is continually hungry and eats more than all three of us combined. After dinner, we were once again relaxing in the same room around the fireplace, playing games and later watching a movie, she felt adventurous and wandered around. She was a very happy girl. Thank you Lord for all our blessings!

The happy ‘little squeaker’ and the not so happy ‘eye patch’

Today Penelope walked to Todd, he hunkered down and she plowed into him trying to push him over, he crashed over and she giggled. Talk about huge strides! She got off immediately and started walking to me but turned around as if to say, “Will you still be there?” Todd is so patient with her, it has to be so tough!
We started the patch today, she was NOT happy! After too much screaming and crying, I distracted her with a bribe of M & M’s, worked like a charm. Every article I’ve read says that the first three days are the big hump and after that her eye should improve just enough for her to not fight it as much. Later Violet helped distract her by picking up her foot and tapping the heal getting the squeaker to squeak. They are so beautiful together.

Today… the ophthalmologist

Today we learned that Penelope loves the little kitchen and Violet loves playing with her in it. She is content for a short while to play with her sister. Another step in the right direction! Violet still loves wearing matching outfits and if the couple we have are dirty she wants to wear matching colors, it is so endearing, she has been such a wonderful older sister and is so helpful and thoughtful, she is such a blessing!
Looking at the some of the photos we got before we picked up Penelope, we wondered if Penelope had a lazy eye, most times her eyes look just fine but then one would look slightly off. Most Asian children’s noses develop slowly so we kept hearing that it was most likely an optical illusion and once her nose developed it would be fine. We made an appointment with a pediatric ophthalmologist anyway just to be sure. Today we learned that “lazy eye” can be defined as two things: an eye turn or loss of vision, Penelope has both in her right eye. Her ophthalmologist set up a vigorous plan for the next year, patching her eye daily to start to get her eye muscles equal in strength, then glasses to get the vision equal and if those don’t work we will then discuss surgery. It sounds like the percentages of success from the surgery aren’t so great so even if we get to that point that may not be the right road for us. Looks like we will be seeing him regularly over the next year and we are back in his office again in three weeks. He and his assistant were somewhat positive and said they were impressed that we caught this early, most children come in around 4 or 5, when they start school and have failed a vision test at school, so that’s a positive sign, the earlier it is caught ‘usually’ the easier it is to retrain the brain.
Poor girl, lots of pokes and shots yesterday and eyes dilated today… tomorrow we start the eye patch.

The start of the medical appointments – today, the pediatrician

We started renovating our kitchen and were in the middle of putting in kitchen cabinets when we left for China. We hired a friend to put in concrete countertops and he came with his friend to install them today. As they were leaving his friend waved good bye and Penelope waved back. Needless to say we’ve been doing lots of waving. I had forgotten how exciting it is when a child learns each new thing. Today was Penelope’s first pediatrician visit… titers on vaccinations, blood work for a list of other tests, and the poop collection for parasites starts… YEAH!
The most important thing is to make sure she firmly adjusts to us. So we asked about how long we should wait to try and instill a sleep and nap pattern. Penelope will fall asleep in her crib but when she wakes up in the middle of the night and we try to put her back to sleep in her crib, it ends up a disaster. So, when she wakes up we’ve been putting her in bed with us, which allows us to all get almost a good nights rest. We’re still curious when we will get our bed back… Our other question, how long we should meet her needs immediately and hold her as continually as she wants and needs… his recommendation to both… give it a month, and then reevaluate. Here’s to a quick 30 days!

Family Sunday

Sleep is still and issue, we crash between 7-8 pm, Penelope wakes up at 3 am crying so we’ve been bringing her into our bed at that point so Violet can sleep but then I’m up an hour or two later. We’ve been trying to stay up a half hour later each night but it hasn’t been working. I don’t remember the jet lag being this bad last time. Todd took a couple more days of vacation since it’s Thanksgiving this week, so he’s home for another week, maybe later this week we’ll be back on schedule.
We’ve asked that no one pick Penelope up or feed her until she bonds better with both of us. We did the same with Violet for the first two months and it was the best thing we ever did. At Church this morning Penelope meet lots of new people and did really well with all the people, Violet sang in the Cherub Choir and Aunt Denise had a great time playing with Penelope in my lap. By the end of mass they were the best of friends.
Penelope swats and when it’s directed at your face it hurts. We’ve been trying to teach her to be gentle so when she does that we take her hand and gently stroke our face and say “gentle”. After the reprimand I always kiss her. This afternoon she leaned in and puts her mouth on mine after I correct her before I could kiss her. It was so endearing; like she was telling me “I know you love me”.
We had Family Sunday dinner at my parent’s house to celebrate all the November birthdays and Penelope got to meet Aunt Rachel and Uncle Ryan as well as some other family friends. She had a good time and while I was standing there played a game of “pass the object” with Todd.

Continual Amazement

The three girls were up at 3am and Todd shortly after, lots of time to start laundry, go thru the mound of mail, and play board games with the two girls. Later that morning, Penelope initiated a game of holding her arms out and going to Todd, then immediately putting her arms out and went to me, back and forth again. Another step forward, small, but forward. Since we only had eggs in our refrigerator we all had scrambled eggs for breakfast. Penelope loved it and even ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on a soft croissant for lunch (each with rice cereal of course). Once again, Penelope has made another large step, especially for a girl that has not and does not eat solid food.
Mother Hubbard’s cupboard is bare and grocery shopping is on the agenda along with MANY loads of laundry. Another major step was that while I was putting loads of laundry away I was in and out of the bedrooms with Penelope and Todd in the bedroom, for a brief moment she was fine without me in the room. We needed to do grocery shopping and return books to the library. Penelope once again did not like the car seat and screamed all the way to the library, screamed all the way to Costco, screamed all the way to Meijer and after we finished shopping I had bought a piece of chocolate and gave her a tiny piece as I put her in the car seat, she was distracted and hasn’t cried in the car seat since.

It’s Thursday and our plane ride home

We got up at 5am, finished packing, had breakfast and took two taxies to the airport. Penelope did great at the airport, once again, we were all sitting not moving so she felt comfortable walking around and had a great time walking from Todd and I to Pa and Grams to Gramma and back again. She was so happy, thinking she is such hot stuff, walking, even wobbly, all on her own.

The plane ride home was relatively uneventful. Violet was completely focused on watching every cartoon movie available and didn’t have any nose bleeds. Penelope was fussy every once in a while but slept some and played quietly and I even watched a couple new release movies. It is amazing how appreciative and quick 15 hours seems when our last experience was 24 hours. We were home in no time and Uncle Stocky, Aunt Clara and Aunt B came to pick up our party of seven.
Penelope did NOT like the car seat, and that is the understatement of the week! 35 minutes of screaming and afterward we felt like we took several steps backward in the progress department. But time is a great healer, later that night Penelope reached up to Todd and he quick picked her up, tossed her in the air and quick set her down so she was back on her own feet. She loves when he tosses her in the air and catches her, her gales of laughter are music to our ears. Progress again! We changed and crashed around 5pm after being up for 24 hours!

Kowloon & Hong Kong

After breakfast we took the train from Guangzhou to Kowloon, right across Victoria Harbour from Hong Kong. Penelope had a great time on the train and enjoyed playing with the fold out table and charming the two men across the table. After checking in at the Metropolis which is right on Victoria Harbour, we walked along the river front thru the Avenue of the Stars, the Chinese version of Hollywood Boulevard with the handprints in the pavement.

We took the Star Ferry across the Harbour to Hong Kong; Penelope loved it, maybe with all of us not being able to go anywhere and surrounding her she was more comfortable to be adventurous and enjoyed being on her own.


We walked thru downtown Hong Kong to the Peak Tramway, a funicular railway, from the Central district on the island to Victoria Peak.

Once we arrived at the peak we took escalators up seven flights to the observation deck. It was a spectacular view of both Hong Kong and Kowloon and by the time we got up there it was dark and all the building lights were on, it was breathtaking.



We wanted to catch the 8pm Symphony of Lights back on the Kowloon waterfront and since timing was so tight we took the bus, that just happened to be there, to the dock and then the ferry, which just happened to be leaving in one minute, to the Kowloon waterfront. The timing was AWESOME, we just arrived at the waterfront and walked to the observation area and the light show started. At 8pm each night the buildings on Hong Kong Island and Kowloon participate in a light show for 20 minutes. It's all set to music that can be heard over the harbor speakers. It is very fun and unique; there are building lights, lasers in the sky and spotlights. We enjoyed the walk back to the hotel, the lights on the boats were wonderful. Penelope has repeated mama and dada but only when continually prompted and only when she wants to. She has yet to name anything or say anything on her own. It will happen.

Last day in Guangzhou – Shopping and Soaking it in

Penelope is still continually and directly attached to me but makes progress each day. She is walking more but definitely has Jell-o legs and still walks like a drunken sailor. This morning for breakfast we tried a high-chair again and had SUCCESS! Breakfast in her own chair, the first degree of independence! She is quick to share her food, there are usually three options: either a Cheerio for her a Cheerio for me, or a bite of a Cheerio for her the rest for me, or the last option (grin) she puts the Cheerio in her mouth then bites it in half and takes out half a wet piece for me… the fact that she shares her food is huge, and unusual for orphanage children! She is quick to laugh and smile, and we encourage this as a main means of attachment. Today after Todd reached over and showed the pincers exaggerated before tickling her, she turned around and took her hands and by swiveling her wrists she flipped her hands and fingers face down then face up repeatedly while laughing. Amazing, she initiated tickling and when Todd laughed in response she went absolutely giddy.

Today was our only complete free day. We got up early and after breakfast went to Sha Mian Island to enjoy the locals exercising in the park. It was delightful watching the line dancing, Tai Chi, Tai Chi with swords, Tai Chi with fans, ballroom dancing, mahjongg, preschoolers out for a walk, Taiji Rouliqiu, (Tai Chi Rhythm ball) dancing while using two racquets and tossing a ball between the two, Chinese hacky sack ( a group of feathers with washer weights on the end), and parents doing stretching exercises on the kids playground while watching their child. Penelope must have caught the exercise bug because she voluntarily went up a random set of stairs that went to a locked gate and then back down again, she is finally starting to bend her knees. We started shopping and then when we were so hungry we got lunch and took our first purchases back to the hotel where Todd and Violet went swimming while Penelope and I went back to the island with the two grandmothers to do some real power shopping. If you buy a bunch at a store they let you borrow a stroller and I decided to try it… wonder of wonders, Penelope was fine as long as it was moving, as soon as it stopped she starts the melt-down, the second degree of independence!

I came with a list of items I wanted to bring back, and after an afternoon of some crazy shopping I had everything checked off. I love Guangzhou, the differences just within a few blocks, from post English occupation where you feel like you are in a portion of London, to crazy techno pumping clothing shopping to animals laying in tarps to be purchased for food or herbal remedies. It is bittersweet; I am glad to be going home but am sad to leave Guangzhou.

Brian and Ann asked for a recommendation for one more authentic Chinese dinner, and it was two blocks from our hotel. It was WILD! There were at least three floors, we were the only Caucasians, and there was one staff person that spoke a TINY, and I mean a TINY, bit of English. The first look thru the menu, a 50 page manual, made it easy as most of it was ruled out immediately (and this is coming from the girl that had scorpions on our last trip to China). I wasn’t sure what we would end up with but once again everyone ordered one or two things and we ended up with a FABULOUS variety of food we all raved about. What a wonderful meal to end our stay in my favorite Chinese city.

Today was Grammas (Todd’s mom) birthday so after dinner and we all went back to the hotel Grams (my mom) found a bakery to get a piece of cake so we could celebrate. Both of the girls were so tired and cranky so we were going to put them to sleep and then go next door to celebrate. Todd and I were lying in bed, Violet in the bed next to Todd’s side and Penelope in the crib next to my side. After five minutes I couldn’t hold it in anymore I burst out laughing and Todd joined in; it looked like Violet was doing some mambo dance under the covers while humming and singing and Penelope was gurgling, cooing, clicking her tongue, bouncing her leg, and babbling. Needless to say there was no sleeping that was going to happen any time soon, we got them up and all celebrated and after they were tired enough to go to sleep. Kids are so much fun!

Monday in Guangzhou – U.S. Consulate Appointment

We meet after breakfast; we needed to leave at a bright and chipper 7:30 am to get to our 8:30 am consulate appointment. After passing thru security and checking all phones, cameras, etc., we waited for the last of the families to arrive before they gave us general instructions. We all said the adoption citizenship oath (all the answers and documentation we have provided is true and accurate, etc) then each family was called up to provide the proper documents and their child’s passport to generate a US Visa which would be ready the next day after 3pm so our children can get into our country.

It was over before we knew it and we walked around a beautiful park across the street until Brian and Ann’s appointment was over and we all drove to see the downtown skyscrapers and the Canton TV Tower, the tallest structure in China and the seventh tallest in the world. After that it was off to check out the Pearl and Jade markets in the shopping corridor on the other side of our hotel. This shopping corridor has tiny stores that sell clothes, shoes, undergarments, umbrellas, socks, etc. the amount of people in the street at all hours is INTENSE.

Back at the hotel we made another attempt at swimming then walked to Sha Mian Island for one last dinner at Lucy’s. Back at the Holiday Inn Penelope went right to bed after a tiny whimper. Penelope is progressing by leaps and bounds, everyday there is major progress. For a little girl that didn’t act like she had ever walked before (Jell-O legs and drunken sailor are common nicknames), hadn’t ever had solid foods (rice cereal seems like the only thing she has had), hadn’t ever fed herself bite size pieces (she is completely enthralled with Cheerios), and there is no record of her speaking any words, and once she transferred her attachment to me it was only me and she had to be in my arms at all times, daily she is making great strides. They are like little miracles each day promising a great future.