handsful

The solution to Lainey’s dislike for the bath seems to be a) putting a towel under her so she’s more stable and b) adding bubbles. She’s loving bathtime now. Still hates the water-over-the-head moment…and, I did snap a pic of her unhappy self, but I won’t post it! Here are a few more happy ones…

We had a nice Sunday, with Lainey’s first debut at church. Well, since we forgot to change our clocks forward (couldn’t someone have reminded me of that??), we only made it to kid’s church. Everyone enjoyed meeting Lainey and she hammed it up as she’s getting used to doing. She loves a crowd and isn’t the least bit phased by having lots of people around, noise, etc. It’s a good thing, since she’s joined a chaos-filled family like ours! After church, we ended up bringing 2 extra kids home, friends of our big kids. So, we had 9 around the lunch table! Fun…

After lunch and her nap, we (Randy, me, Lainey, and Marley) spent some time in her room. It’s been a bit unorganized (gasp), so I busied myself with figuring out what goes in drawers while everyone played. The pic of her above is her finally liking her rocking giraffe. She’s still not thrilled that it has a face, but she was rocking the thing almost to the point of tipping backwards!

A fashion disaster, right? Red shirt, hot pink sunglasses, sweat pants, and black patent leather shoes? Like I’ve said, the girl loves shoes and insisted on trying these on as I was putting all her shoes away. I say “all” because she already has quite a collection! She clopped around in these with joy.

My middle girl and her dad! I’m so glad that all my girls are such daddy’s girls.

Randy grabbed the camera for a couple of black and whites…

She’s a beauty, truly inside and out

She’s been trying to get her hands on his camera ever since China! It’s caused at least one memorable “fit” when Randy refused to hand it over.

Lainey had her first visit to Golden Corral tonight…weird that I mention that probably, but Randy and I have fond memories of taking our then 4 year old and 3, 1 year olds and all 6 of us eating for a total of $16! Their “free for kids 4 and under” policy was taken advantage of many times…they probably hated to see us coming. Lainey loved her peas, carrots, biscuit, pears, potato, corn, cut-up popcorn shrimp, and mac ‘n cheese. You can see how her cleft is really holding her back with eating, huh?

We made some progress with bath time tonight. We added some bubbles, which she loved and by the end of it, she was even splashing. She still hates to have her hair rinsed, but I think all babies hate that.

Last thing…I have a helper around the house. Thankfully, we had a child’s broom. Today, we realize we need a child’s mop (someone spilled their drink at the lunch table…). Off to Target, I guess.

Yes, another picture of her eating. I wanted to get a shot of her with her homemade “Lainey” bib, made by Kelly B from my Ladybug believers yahoo group. Isn’t it the cutest? In case you’re wondering, that’s broken up blueberry muffins on her plate.

Lainey had her first check-up at the pediatrician today and it went well. She was very cooperative, and it was a long appointment! She weighs 23.5lbs. and is 32 inches long…that puts her 25% for height and 50% for weight on the US charts. She’s a healthy little thing :) The poor girl had a TB test (which they’ll read the results on on Monday) and 4 vaccinations! Her face turned a nice shade of purple somewhere between shot 2 and 3. She recovered quickly, though. We were told that we can start transitioning her to milk…we might gradually switch her to US toddler formula (she’s still on the Chinese) and then slowly replace it with milk. I’m sure she’ll love it. We also asked about a small scar that’s on her upper left arm. The pediatrician said it’s a mark from her small pox vaccine, which they stopped giving to children in the US sometime in the 60′s! That surprised us.

Oh, and I forgot to mention what happened yesterday…she pulled out a can of whipped cream from the fridge door and it fell directly on her big toe. Almost immediately, it turned purple under her toenail. (hmm…2 purples in one post!) So, today the pediatrician used this torture-looking tool to BURN a hole in her toenail, which relieved the pressure. It didn’t hurt her a bit! But, she said Lainey might lose her toenail.

She is scheduled for several tests and bloodwork on Monday and more shots in 4 weeks. We could have done the extra testing today, but we thought we’d give the girl a break!

I told Randy that we should give her Motrin (because of her shots) everyday, because she was in SUCH a great mood today. She had a great time playing and even starting picking up the sign for “more” at lunchtime.

Tennis anyone?

Even with her big toe bleeding (see her sock), she’s still this happy

Tonight was the girls last Upward cheering game for the season. They did great, and after missing the last 3 games because of our trip, I was so happy to be able to watch them shine. Marley is 1st on left and Abbey is 6th.

Lainey loved her first basketball game! She really watched the game and her sisters cheering…she was clapping, waving, and smiling at everyone. The girls squad did a lot of praying for us before and during our trip, and we are so thankful…they were thrilled to see Lainey and she was eating up the attention!

Lunch today was a hit…the girl loves fruit, so the peaches went first.

It’s been 18 days since Gotcha day! We’ve been home for 7 days, we returned home a week ago tomorrow. For the most part, Lainey’s transition (and ours) is going well. She has her “moments” which I believe is just a result of a lack of discipline (i.e. pitching a fit in the orphanage meant treats were given…), so we’re gently showing her that the fits won’t work around here and sometimes we just have to say “no” to something she wants. Generally, she’s a very happy girl, unless she’s tired or hungry. But, isn’t that any 20 month old? We are heaping on the love and attention, which is easier given there are 6 of us to do it!

What else have we learned about Lainey so far??

She can wave hello / bye-bye

She loves shoes…gets very excited to see them, and sticks her foot out ready to go!

She has many, many facial expressions. Some are silly, some are adorable (her eyes turn to closed slits with a big smile!), some are pitiful (the girl can cry), and some will make you fall over laughing.

She’s very good at imitating actions and some sounds.

She has few vocalizations so far. She can say “ma” which usually is accompanied by her handing you something…so, we’re interpreting it as “here ya’ go”. She can say other vowel sounds, like “uh”. Nothing meaningful yet, that we can tell. She’s not responding to “go to dada/mama” yet, but we’re working hard on that.

She knows her name, Lainey, and responds to it. She never responded consistently to QingQin, so we dropped it early on.

She knows the word no, immediately backs away from what she was trying to touch, and grins.

She still does not like stuffed animals, though we made some headway on that today as I helped her play with some of Marley’s. She actually touched them herself.

She REALLY hates the big, stuffed animal Barney of Payton’s. We use it to block off the opening in the family room between the chair and couch. It’s our Barney gate. She doesn’t scream or anything, just backs away.

She seems to like her blanket now, and has stopped throwing it off of her.

She likes the stroller (as long as it’s moving) and tolerates the car seat.

Her favorite game is taking the toy magnets off the fridge and chucking them over the gate.

The only food she’s turned her head to is babyfood green beans (who can blame her?)

We introduced her to her swing yesterday…

Lainey has her 1st pediatrician appointment tomorrow morning, and it just might involve shots. Thankfully, she knows nothing about it. :)

Lainey is having no problems at all adjusting to new foods, as you can see! Mrs. S’s spaghetti and meatballs was a hit!

Here, Randy is attempting to turn my little girl into a sports fan. She looks like a daddy’s girl!

Everyone says to get out in the sunshine to help re-set our bodies to US time, so outside we went. We took a stroller ride around the block, and then enjoyed the beautiful day in the yard. Lainey wasn’t so sure about the grass, most likely her first time with it. She eventually sat right down and started exploring.

Hmmm…wonder what a leaf tastes like…

One day, I’ll climb that tree just like my brothers and sisters!

Cool Jack, enjoyed the day as well. Lainey still wants nothing to do with the poor guy.

This was a sign in front of the neighborhood that the kids and D’s folks arranged for us. We were also greeted by all sorts of decorations, signs, etc, at the house that the kids and some great friends at our church set up. Even at 1:30 AM it was great to see . . . almost as good as seeing the kids come running out of the house. They were tired (especially the boys), but happy just the same.

Let’s backtrack a bit . . . This was Lainey’s first “step” ever in the U.S, in the airport in New Jersey. Donna was born in Jersey and was there for a year before going south. For Lainey, it just felt that long.

Donna and I in the airport in Jax. Can you tell how both exhausted and relieved we both were?

The picture above is the whole crew at ~ 2:00 AM. What a crowd . . . it’s still hard to believe they are ALL ours.

Ahhhh…..finally. Can you believe that there is apparently not ONE of these in all of China?

The following pictures were taken the next day, with each of the kids taking turns holding Lainey. She was reluctant and a bit withdrawn around them at first, but warmed up much more quickly than we had hoped. It was all Donna and I could do to hold it together.

Donna’s folks got a chance, too, before heading back up North. Lainey was getting a good taste of life in a big family. I know that Lainey can’t wait to meet the rest our “people” up in North Carolina . . . we’re pretty excited about that, too.

Thanks again for EVERYONE who helped us with this trip . . . for watching over our kids here in the U.S., for your comments on our website, for your thoughts & prayers, and for your advice. It all made this trip easier than it could have been.

By the way, this is what a 19 month old looks like at 3:00 AM who is still living on China time. She was perfectly content to run around the kitchen, stack DVD movies, play peekaboo, etc, until ~ 4:30 AM. Did I mention that we are tired?

After an amazingly long day (more than a day, technically), that included a 9 hour lay-over in Newark, NJ, we’re home. There was a point that I thought we’d never make it! We finally walked in the door at 2am, and had a wonderful homecoming with our kids and my parents. Our wonderful friends had posted welcome home signs and balloons all over the yard and we were also blessed with cookies, gift cards, meals, snacks, etc. Even in our sleep deprived state (did I mention that Lainey hardly slept at all the night before our flight?), we were SO happy and thankful to be home.

Our first day home has gone great, better than we expected. Lainey is warming up to the kids really well, but our dog Jack is still “in the doghouse”. :)

I’ll post pictures tomorrow, she’s had her bath and we’re ready for bed! I just wanted to jump in quickly to let everyone know that we’re fine and enjoying our 5 kids.