Ella turns two!!!

I can't believe that our little one is now two. She likes exclaiming "Two! Two! Two!" She's such a joy. Here's a picture of her in frosting heaven, eating her cupcake at her birthday party.

She's saying more and more--and more and more of it is becoming intelligible. She is her own little person. Generally a good-natured kid with a wide mischievous streak and a great sense of humor. I could go on and on about her, but I won't. If anybody is still looking at this blog, I think all you care about are the pictures. So here are some more. :)

She talks too

Ella is growing, growing, growing. She's a happy, silly, clever little person. She's getting to the stage where she parrots much of what you say and almost everything you do. I can proudly say that mommy's potty mouth has been quickly and thoroughly cleaned. She does, however, have a habit of saying "Bye" with a slight Texas twinge to it. Perhaps we've played her one too many Lyle Lovett CDs.

Regardless, here are some recent pictures of Ella from this summer (just in case anyone is still checking this). I can't believe it will be one year on September 21 that we met her. I'm not sure I remember what life was like before her anymore. What I do remember just seems so pale in comparison to life now.

Just a Picture

This is one my favorite pictures ever (with me in it).

That is all. Life is beautiful.

The Cruddy Snows of Easter...

Well, it's Easter Sunday and there are about 10 inches of snow on the ground. This didn't seem to bother Ella too much on her first Easter celebration. She caught on very quickly to the whole Easter egg hunt concept and spent a delighted hour or so finding the same 10 eggs that Mom and Dad kept hiding for her.

She really is a fun little kid and a joy to be around. She understands a lot--she hears everything we say and sees everything we do. It's like living with God or something. On one level, there isn't much new to report. She's just growing and being a toddler and we're all doing fine. On another level, there are a million things to talk about. She seems to change every day, or at least learns or does something new every day. It's a delight to see the world through her fresh, new eyes. She loves to pat the dogs and to watch squirrels, birds, deer, other dogs, etc. outside. Watching her play with snow for the first time was great. She just couldn't stop playing with it and handing it to me.

A couple new and newish pictures follow.














On Easter morning, playing with the little rabbit pull toy that was in her Easter basket.









This is in the garage chasing bubbles (because it was too windy in the backyard) .

And here we are eating bubbles.

A new year, new changes

So I haven't posted anything on here in nearly two months. I don't know if anyone is even still checking this, but on the off chance that they are...

Some recent pictures of Elal. She is doing so well. I can't imagine having a smoother adjustment--she's such a resilient, adaptable little person. I went back to work about a month ago--I'm working three days a week and Ella is in daycare. After about two weeks, she stopped crying when I dropped her off and now she really seems to like it. When I pick her up after work, it's fun to see her playing with the other babies (as much as kids that age play together). And it's such a joy to see her big smile when she sees me. She literally bounces and jumps up and down in my arms. I feel the same way.

She definitely knows who mom and dad are and, I think, now trusts that we will come back. And last week, when I picked up from daycare, I said, "Hi Ella!" and she looked up at me and said, "Mama." She babbles mama and dada and baba and other things indiscriminately, but this was the time time she had directly addressed me and seemingly made the connection that I am mama. I melted.

It's so amazing to see her pictures from Gotcha Day and the more recent pictures. She's growing so quickly and turning into a happy, confident toddler (okay, almost toddling. She's furniture walking and will walk if you hold her hands, but I have no doubt she'll be walking on her own soon soon soon).

We also had a fun meeting this past week with one of the babies who was in the orphanage with her. Our original referral group included seven other families. Due to a number of reasons, we just weren't ready to travel when they did, so the other families traveled about 8-10 days before we did. One of those families is from the west side of Cleveland, so we've been in touch by telephone, but the babies finally saw each other on Monday. I have no idea if they recognized each other or not, but they seemed to have fun together.

At any rate, here are more Ella pictures. And here's to more wonderful days ahead with our darling daughter.

Home again home again...

Ella and I in Nanchang in the People's Park, and Ella at the library about a week ago. She's definitely growing.


Okay we've been home since October 1, I suppose I'vejust been too busy/lazy/exhausted to update this blog. Ella is doing wonderfully. You couldn't ask for a better adjustment. We all got sick on the plane ride home (amazing what 15 hours in an airplane can do to your respiratory system), but we all finally got better. Ella's been gaining nearly half a pound a week. She had her first doctor's appointment three days after we came home. She was 27.75 inches long and weighed 14 pounds 4 ounces. The height put her at the 50th percentile but she wasn't even on the chart for weight. At her most recent appointment, she weight 16 pounds 3 ounces and was 28.5 inches. So she's definitely growing.

Ella actually ended up being on the news as a result of her last doctor's appointment. There was a crew from Fox 8 news doing a piece on whooping cough vaccinations. The nurse poked her head into the office where we were waiting and said, "The news crew would like to get some footage of a younger patient. I told them that the cutest baby in the world is in the next office. Do you mind if they film your appointment?" I said, sure, so here's Ella on the news.

I'm really enjoying parenthood, as is Mike. It's tiring and sometimes draining, but incredibly rewarding. Ella is so much fun. She's very playful, very curious about everything, and has a good sense of humor. She babbles along in baby talk all day and sounds just like Pebbles Flintstone. It's more fun than I ever hoped or thought it could be.

She's gotten a ton of wonderful gifts from so many friends and family and neighbors. I feel compelled to at least put up a few pictures of Ella modeling a gift from Len Carrick--one of my printer friends. I believe he said he used a proof press for these.

The End of the Line

Well, the end of the trip anyway. Our life with Ella is just beginning (as is her life with us). We took the bus from Guangzhou to Hong Kong yesterday. Our guide suggested that it might be more convenient to take the bus than the train because the bus went straight to the airport and we wouldn't have to deal with our luggage going through the subway or paying exhorbitant fees to a taxi. So it seemed like a great idea, except that tomorrow is China National Day, which is like July 4th x 1000, so traffic was horrid. We had to get ourselves and all our baggage off the bus to go through customs to get out of China. Ella's departure card was supposed to be filled out in Chinese, but since neither she nor I write Chinese, we got in line with a kind female customs officer who wrote out Ella's card for her (sometimes it pays to have a cute, drowsy baby strapped to your chest). Then we got back on the bus, drove for five minutes, and then had to unload everything again to go through customs to get into Hong Kong. All in all, we were on the bus for about five and a half hours with a tired, damp, hungry baby and two tired, hungry adults. It was a long and trying day. We did manage to make it through the day without killing each other or anyone else, so we've got that going for us.

We fly home tomorrow. We'll probably do some sightseeing today and a lot of just sleeping and relaxing. It'll be nice not to live out of a suitcase. I'll keep trying to put up pictures of Ella as she grows, since so many friends live out of town. Thanks for sharing in our journey.