Movin' and groovin'

Willa is crawling! Must be because we sent her to Baby Boot Camp.

Got that idea from the comments...thanks! Thanks for the birthday wishes too!

The other day I felt like Willa needed better motivation than her boring old toys, so I put my cell phone on the rug in front of her. She army-crawled all the way across the rug to it. Then tonight we went on a picnic at a park near our house. I noticed that she was eyeing our sandwiches. She started to army-crawl, then decided it was too slow and got up on her hands and knees and zipped right over to them! I then kept moving our food around the blanket for her to follow (and gave her some, of course). Guess that's the best motivator of all! She appears relieved to have this ability. She already seems much calmer!

She's also officially Willa Joan Hsin-Yen! We received our Order from the Court yesterday!

What fun a popsicle brings

Milestones: Willa's and Mine

Willa is learning to crawl! She started by doing what I call "the plank" and now also gets up on her hands and knees and just hangs out. She wobbles a little bit on them like she is considering moving, but has yet to do so. She did her first army style crawl yesterday. And she got herself up into a sitting position yesterday as well!


She can get around quite well already by rolling and scooting, especially backward. In fact, the other day we were all playing in the basement when I ran upstairs to get something. When I returned I panicked because I couldn't immediately see Willa. She wasn't anywhere near where she had been sitting playing. I asked Jia, "Where is Willa?" Jia said, "Under the couch." And so she was.


After I arrived Willa thought it would be a good thing to try to hide completely under the couch.


Jia later thought she needed to do that too. With her banana.


We were eating the other day and I went into the kitchen. Willa started to fuss and I heard Jia say, "It's okay, Willa. Mama always comes back." I'm just astounded by how sweet she is to her! She takes her big sister role very seriously. In fact, I recently heard Jia remark, "I can do it! I'm a big sister now!"

Tonight Jia kept running around Willa and both girls were shrieking with laughter. It was simply wonderful.

Here's another of Jia with our cat Harry - just because it's so cute.


I had to laugh because a good friend just said, "It's your birthday next Tuesday. You turn 35." Yep. I had sort of forgotten. I did tell Joe earlier about a metal water bottle I wanted for my birthday (how boring is THAT?) but then I forgot about my birthday, and I forgot my age. But that is what friends are for, right? This same friend just treated me to an awesome outdoor zydeco concert though. It was the first time I'd been truly "out out" in over two years. Nice!

Sibling fun

We had our first incident of what I consider to be true sibling behavior. Up until this point Jia has been overwhelmingly, shockingly nice to Willa. If Jia sees that Willa's sock is falling off she'll run over to put it back on her. If Jia hears that Willa is awake from her nap, she races up the stairs yelling, "We're coming, Willa!"

Jia got an early birthday present. It's a sink. All Jia wants to do all the time is wash her hands (play with soap in the sink). It's an outdoor sink, it recycles the water, the faucet is battery-operated and shuts off after a few minutes. I also gave Jia her very own container of foam soap (whenever we wash our hands anywhere she always asks, "Is it foam? Is it foam?").

So back to the story. In her great excitement about the sink and foam soap, Jia forgot herself for a moment and deliberately dumped an entire cup of water over the unwitting, clothed victim sitting nearby, i.e. Willa. And guess what? Willa LOVED it!

Some Jia-isms

As requested by my buddy Stefanie. These are all exact quotes of stuff Jia has said.

* Jia has been contrary at times lately so if I suggest "two books" she will always say, "No, three books," etc. She was eating a cracker at my parents' house and I said, "Jia, can you please just sit in one place to eat it?" She said, "No, I want to sit in TWO places!"

* Jia has been spending a lot of time in her little outdoor pool. Unfortunately we find many butterflies floating in it. We saw another one recently and she said, "Hmm, maybe he wanted a drink! Or [sigh] maybe he just wanted to die."

* Joe's friend sent him the movie "Blades of Glory." Jia saw the DVD cover with Will Ferrell on it dressed as a flamboyant ice skater.


She said, "Oh, that scares me!" (We found this especially funny because NOTHING typically frightening scares Jia.) Then she asked, "Is it a boy or a girl?"

* If you recall, I posted about our dinner routine where we say what we liked about our day, what we didn't like and what we're thankful for. Before, Jia always talked about food. Now she only reflects on baby sister (and remembers everything in great detail). During a typical dinner she'll say: "I like that Willa is eating some cheese. I don't like that she fussed when we were upstairs in her room earlier today." But she still almost always ends with: "I am thankful that we're all eating dinner!"

* Speaking of eating dinner, we were eating dinner outside recently and at the end of dinner I went inside to get something. When I returned outside and sat down, a puddle of something on my chair instantly soaked through my pants. I jumped up and said, "Why is my chair all wet?" Jia, after a great pause, then said, "There was pepper in my mouth and I had to spit it out." Being that this was no minor amount of spit, I went in and changed my pants. When questioned why she didn't use her napkin, Jia later said, "My napkin blew away and got stuck in the deck." I informed her there were alternate solutions. My parents were over at the time and laughed all the way home.

* Moving along the gross factor: Jia is already a very skilled negotiator and has an answer for everything. She was protesting bedtime and then told me she had to poop. I asked (not really expecting a response), "Do you really need to poop or are you stalling because you don't want to go to bed?" She replied, "I actually need to poop, but it's going to take a while. I don't want to strain myself. Can you get me some books please?"

* And ending with a sweet one: Joe said, "I can't believe you're turning 3, Jia!" She said, "That's okay, Baba. I'll still be your and Mama's baby. I just need to grow up and be a Mama and help people."

That's all for now, folks.

Travel Group Fun!

We got together with the two other families from our travel group. Back in 2006 we all traveled to Qichun to adopt our girls Jia, Carrie and Jia. Marie, Carrie's older sister, also traveled with us.

I was astonished at how amazingly well the girls all got along. Perfectly, really. They were cohorts immediately even though it had been a year since they last saw each other. The Jias both called each other "the other Jia" and they both happen to call their dads, Bobby. Willa even made it up past 8:00 p.m.! It was a truly wonderful day.

Family Day Festivities

Like last year, we went to Underwater Adventures, a huge aquarium, today to celebrate Jia's Family Day. Jia loved touching the rays and seeing the sharks swim overhead. Willa liked it too and peered around while kicking her legs the entire time.

We returned home and had Chinese food for dinner. Jia asked me to read her fortune cookie. I normally read what they actually say and then explain it but, for fun, tonight I said, "It says, 'You're a cutie pie Jia and your family loves you very much.'" Jia then exclaimed, "Oh, that's a good one!"

When we were in China we bought Jia a present for every Family Day until she turns 18. We gave her a sleeping doll last year. This year we gave her a matching awake doll. She was more thrilled than I imagined! She promptly put both of them to bed and then she "went to bed" as well.

Jia's Two-Year Familiversary!

Today is the two-year anniversary of when Jia joined our family! It some ways it has been a really long two years, and in some ways very short.

Our first year with Jia was likely one of the toughest we've ever faced. We wrote about it here. Being a parent is hands-down the hardest job we've ever had. It's, of course, also the most rewarding by far.

Jia has made huge strides in the last year when it comes to attachment and development. It has truly been astonishing. She is also becoming the sweetest little girl.

For example, Joe and Jia went to get sandwiches the other day. When they returned Jia raced in excitedly yelling, "Mommy, they put tomato on it for you!!" There's something very touching about a kid who cares so much about sharing this joy with me.

I was wearing my Lucky Mommy t-shirt yesterday and I asked her if she knew why I was lucky. She said, "Because you get to be with me!" She couldn't be more right.

Little update on Willa

Willa has been making some fun developmental strides lately. She is seven months old. She can now successfully pick up a puff and put other easy-to-pick-up food into her mouth on her own. We can tell this pleases her greatly because she sometimes yells at us if we don't feed her quickly enough after she's finished her last bite!

She has also begun to stick her little bottom up in the air so it looks like she's making the steps toward crawling. She can get around really well just by rolling and scooting anyway. She scooted from room to room today and ended up all the way under the dining room table.

She's starting to babble more and it's fun to hear all her noises. She has great eye contact and instantly smiles when we look at her. When she laughs her smile is so big that all you see are huge cheeks and a wide mouth with two tiny teeth.

The below images were taken when she just started to laugh so you can't get the full effect, but you can get an idea...

Happy 4th of July!

Our two little citizens celebrating the 4th!

Just a few photos

Here are a few recent photos. The ones of Jia were taken tonight so you can see how much her eye has healed. (Thank goodness!) We were planting our cherry pits and avocado seed from our dinner tonight, just to see what happens.


And some of Willa, of course...