Monkey Business

In past weeks, Eliza has shown some resistance to to the monkey costume. But last Sunday that all changed. During her first experience with trick-or-treating, she made a solid connection between the monkey suit and sweet sweet candy. She cleverly changed the chant to "treat or eat". Now she slips into her monkey persona with the ease of a banana slipping out of its peel.



It seems that Eliza very much enjoys Halloween [week]...and scarecrows.

Halloween Prep

Most of the trees in Arvada are either yellow, red, or bare. Our tomatoes are finished for the season and the mountain tops are white most of the time. We've had lots of fun playing inside and out during these days of fickle weather.

We and Eliza are engaged in a long and heated debate regarding her Halloween costume. Her faithful parents believe the monkey suit is the best choice for both aesthetic and practical reasons: it is very cute, cozy on a cool night, and sports a ripe banana. Eliza on the other hand, prefers the fish-head-ballerina costume. It's fashioned from her own developing sense of beauty. She does have some strong points in her argument.



This morning we drove to a pumpkin farm just to the north of town. As we approached from a few miles off, the land appeared to turn from brown to bright orange. This place had acres and acres of pumpkins. A hard freeze earlier this week minimized surrounding foliage leaving the gourds exposed. Given the ample selection, Eliza had no problems picking two of the best specimens.



Eliza and Mom have been attending a weekly Mandarin class for the past couple of months. One of the little girls who traveled back from China with us is also in the class. They have fun. Weekly art projects magneted to the fridge are a great addition to home decor. Eliza seems to pick up the new vocabulary quicker than we do. She knows her colors and body parts as well as please and thank you in the official language of China.

The Summer in Retrospect!

We have had a wonderful and happy summer. It's been great spending time with our families. Eliza has a fantastic memory and really warmed up to everyone. She was free with hugs and kisses for the grandparents and aunts and uncles.

She has taught us lots about fashion. Pink boots go with everything...so do purple flower headbands. Bows, however, must be removed promptly and without argument.

Eliza learned all about the wonders of the great outdoors. She spent hours in her car, sandbox, pool, dumping sand into the car and pool, leaving piles of sand all over the back yard, hauling little cups and water pails from the pool to the flower pots and tomato plants, picking red tomatoes and green cucumbers (with absolute glee)...the list goes on and on. A highlight of her outdoor experience was hiking in the mountains with her grandparents.

She clearly understands the importance of the telephone. She calls her dad every morning (using a meat thermometer) and tells him all about the plans for the day.

Belated Birthday!

Since our last entry Eliza celebrated her second birthday, grew two new teeth, traveled to Texas twice and the mountains once, learned to run, started Mandarin class, and grew another inch. There is so much more, but I realize it is much less interesting to you all than it is to Kyle and myself...we are slightly over the moon, you know.

Eliza's birthday outfit was hand crafted by her late great-grandmother, "Nana". What a wonderful way to celebrate Nana's gifts as a seamstress and Eliza's bug themed birthday.

The guests sported antennae, ate ladybug and bumblebee cake, and helped us release 1750 live ladybugs.

The highlight of the event was releasing the lady bugs into the yard. Everyone seemed to be pretty thrilled by all the orange critters.


Eliza seemed to enjoy the party, but the truth was expressed quite clearly during the night when we heard her cry from her slumber "NO BUGS!" I guess we'll have to rethink recycling birthday party themes.

Almost 2

Well Eliza just finished up her 726th day. It was a happy one; the joys in her life are many.

• Smiley face stickers--one for each pudgy hand
• Strawberries and blueberries
• Peek-a-boo--an old favorite
• Proudly pronouncing her own name on request
• Gently patting the feet of a baby we met at a store
• Cruising around the block on her trike
• Planting hear head on the ground from a standing position and waving her hands around
• Helping to feed fishy
• Getting close to doggies, but not too close
  
• Throwing rocks in the creek
• Putting anything we allow in the trash can
• Walking in other peoples yards
• Dancing to the 1980 rock band Duran Duran
• Seeing her reflection in her dinner spoon
• Watering the pavement with her yellow pail
• Flushing the toilet and saying "bye bye"

The joys in our lives are many as well.

A Tricycle!!

Eliza's God parents gave her a tricycle...and it's a hit! The second she saw it she got excited, requested help to climb aboard and boldly said "bye-bye" as she looked up at me with "O.K. lady push me" in her eyes. Her feet don't quite reach the pedals, but it won't be long at the rate she's growing.


Mother's day was fantastic. It was the kind of day you can't plan. Everyone was happy, the weather was perfect, and we had a great day together. We worked in the yard a little...Eliza included. She was very helpful.


The two pictures below were taken one year apart on Mother's day. It's hard to believe it's the same sweet girl, but it is. Where did the baby go?

Related News

Several years ago, the founder of our adoption agency, Joshua Zhong, started a great organization called Chinese Children Charities. For years, he and his wife have traveled to China to lead medical missions, to teach child care training courses at orphanages, and have successfully lobbied the government as child care advocates. The have founded several well equipped child care facilities in China all the while applying state-side cash donations to the purchase of critical orphanage supplies such as formula, clothes, blankets, and heaters.

All of us with strong emotional ties to China, have been deeply saddened by the recent earthquake in China's Sichuan province. The epicenter was only several hundred miles from Eliza's orphanage. Recently Joshua did an interview discussing the situation in the earthquake area. Here is a link to the video.

Barney Leg

May 2nd was a rough day for Eliza. She fell...over and over and over! By the end of the day she wouldn't put her left leg down for standing or walking. We didn't know if the falls were a result of the leg pain, or if the leg pain was a result of the falls. I talked with a nurse at Children's hospital and the verdict was..."bring her in". We ended up in the Children's urgent care center from 8:45 pm to 12:45 am...YUCK! Xrays were negative, but little Eliza still wouldn't put her leg down. The nurse practitioner on duty decided to splint her leg and recommended we follow up with our pediatrician on Monday. So, you see above the splint. Eliza got a little upset about it until we called it her Barney leg...ahhh, Barney. Turns out "Ba Ba No Wak" (translated: Barney legs don't walk). We are fortunate in that our pediatrician has office hours on Saturday. I called and we decided to give her leg a test run before any more visits or diagnostic testing. The test run occurred Sunday at 4:00pm and she was fine. No more Barney leg, no more doctor's visits, no idea what happened. Just happy it's over!

Now back to work.

Spring!

It is amazing how fast the time is going. I am amazed every day at how big Eliza is getting and how much she is learning. She got two molars for our "Gotcha Day" anniversary. Two more and we're through with teething. I can't wait. I am sure I speak for Eliza as well.

She is fun, fun, fun! We go to the park, the zoo, music class, swimming...she loves it all. Our first really warm day occurred on April 15th. Eliza wore shorts and ended up getting her first skinned knee/ "boo-boo". We had to keep a band-aid on it for 10 days even though it had healed. She would burst out crying at the sight of her well healed knee and say "boo-boo" over and over. Very funny.

The video below was taken on the April 15th. It was quite windy, but over 80 degrees outside. The following day it snowed and was below 30 degrees all day. Crazy. I apologize for the sound...the wind is bad, but the girl is sure cute.

One Whole Year!

How is it possible to put the gratitude, joy, love, compassion...into words. It is absolutely incredible to be celebrating our one year anniversary with our sweet Eliza.

The memories of our trip to China are fresh and sweet. Seeing her for the first time, watching her while a nanny from the orphanage soothed her, watching as the same nanny approached us and presented Eliza to us!! Remembering the first few days with Eliza is still very emotional.
She was so weak, gentle, and scared.




Now our dear girl has such fantastic energy and joy. We are beyond blessed. She is changing so quickly. Thank goodness for pictures and video. My memory just can't retain all the information I want it to. My heart is a different story...it remembers everything and grows in love everyday.

Easter

Eliza is walking independently now. She took off on March 14th and is better every day. She's making some attempts at walking outside, but has less success on uneven surfaces.

She spent the week before Easter battling a cold and sleeping rather poorly. She perked up on Easter Sunday and seemed to enjoy Easter festivities. For Kyle and myself, Easter was very sweet. We brought Eliza home one year ago on Good Friday.

Today is the one year anniversary of our arrival in Hong Kong. We were crazy excited, anxious, and ready to love our girl. Not much has changed...although the source of the anxiety is different (will she sleep, hope she doesn't fall, did she eat enough, is she sick or is this teething...poor kid has neurotic parents).

The Explorer!

Eliza's first steps were witnessed on February 15th. It was very exciting. Since those first steps she has blossomed into an all out explorer. She went from a kid that could care less about the outdoors to one that sits in front of the glass door pounding, crescendoing into a very loud "OOUUSS" (for outside)! She holds onto one of us and plods around the yard bending over to touch mud, sticks, rocks, grass, rotten crab apples....the list goes on. Periodically she cues us to sing one of her favorite Barney tunes or the itsy bitsy spider (evidence that she has a soundtrack in her head that supports whatever activity she is engaged in at the time). A very wonderful benefit of all this activity is a very sleepy Eliza at the end of the day.

A trip to Texas at Christmas, followed by a brief attempt at daycare sent Eliza into a tailspin. It was rough for about 7 weeks, but things have settled down into bliss. She has been so happy lately. She squeals in delight over little stickers on her hands, giggles endlessly when tickled and bursts into spontaneous laughter at forks.

She continues to amaze us with her language development. She is using at least 10 words that most people can understand and over 30 that mom and dad can understand. She still incorporates sign language regularly and has 18 signs that are different than the 30 or so words she uses.

We think we have a budding musician on our hands. She is constantly asking for music. She has her own CD library and is quite particular about the music she likes. She prefers upbeat music to ballads or slow tunes. At least once a day she pulls herself up at the piano and walks along the keyboard from low notes to high notes and cheers for herself and her clearly superior piano talent.

Eliza is such a happy, loving, sweet girl. She is free with the hugs, kisses, and smiles. She has overcome so much and continues to amaze us. We are speechless in the joy of our blessings.

Oh...I almost forgot. We have initiated the process to adopt our second daughter. We are in the paperwork phase and expect to have our information in China sometime in May. Once the paperwork gets to China the waiting begins. We anticipate the wait to be anywhere from 2 to 4 years this time. The good news is, Eliza will be old enough to travel with us when we go to complete this adoption. I can't believe she will be close to 5 years old when we meet her sister.

First Steps