Spring Babies!!!!!

Home Depot Craft Day

2012-02-09T14:53:00.004-05:00

Hanging out with daddy on the first Saturday of the month has been lots of fun for the 3 of them.

And Chloe takes the lead!!!!

2012-02-05T09:42:00.012-05:00

Just for fun here's a chart on the heights of C&C. I'm just so shocked because for so long Chloe was pretty short compared to Cassie. At this rate they will both be taller than me!!! How can that be?!?!?! So not fair.

730 days!!!!

2012-02-01T15:25:00.006-05:00

That's how long I've been Chloe's mommy. Or 2 whole years today if you are trying to do the math in your head. It's crazy that this amazing, way over curious little angel baby has been with us for 2 years. Seems like yesterday that we were sitting in the Civil Affairs office in Nanjing waiting for Chloe and her nanny to arrive. I still remember thinking that these people can't be crazy enough to give us another sweet little baby girl -- or can they. Well they did just that. That day makes the top 5 on my list of the best days of my life. That day -- February 1st, 2010 -- made our little family complete. Chloe is/was the perfect addition to all three of our lives. God's plan is always right and he did a perfect job in matching us up with the perfect daughters.

Chloe is still the most gentle, kind, forgiving, always happy, sometimes-defiant, loving, little girl. And she loves to be gross and give me puppy kisses -- that makes her giggle the most. Basically she will lick my lips at the last minutes to be funny -- however, I think it's gross. And that makes her do it that much more. And I love her for it -- in a strange sort of way.

In the past week or two Chloe is showing all her teachers (art, gymnastics, & dance) that she can talk non-stop and be completely silly with her little stories. We get to see that all the time with her but now she has decided to show the world her funny side.

Chloe had also really grown. She's now 38 7/8 inches tall. And actually taller now at 43 months than Cassie was at 43 months. Right now Cassie is still 1/4 inch taller -- but I'm thinking this summer Chloe just might take the lead in height. And the crazy thing is her legs are getting so long. I guess I just assumed her body would grow all together. But I guess not. Chloe is also about 33 lbs right now -- just like her sister.

With our past Disney trip and us planning another one the girls are really into princesses so here's Chloe posing with her new Belle nightgown on from last night.

Merry Christmas!!!!

2011-12-24T23:37:00.002-05:00

God bless everyone tonight and every night.
Merry Christmas from all of us to all of you!

Luke 2:15-16

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the LORD has made known to us." And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Baby lying in a manger.

Second trip to see Santa

2011-12-23T12:33:00.002-05:00

Chloe could not be convinced this time to see Santa.

First trip to see Santa

2011-12-23T12:27:00.001-05:00

Princess 1 & Princess 2

2011-12-23T09:28:00.006-05:00

We had pictures done of the girls at the end of October -- normally that would be very cold here in Michigan. However, it was about 68 degrees this day. We were lucky as we have an appointment at 10am. The night before I had to quickly plan out new outfits for the weather. In the end they smiled and that's all that matters.

Puppy love.....

2011-12-14T15:00:00.000-05:00

More Halloween

2011-12-14T08:15:00.010-05:00

See I am trying to catch up.

Chloe wore an adorable kitty-cat outfit to both dance classes (no pictures) and then did the whine and pout as she was suppose to put it on again for the Gymboree Halloween party. She wanted Zhen-Zhen to wear the kitty-cat outfit so she could be the princess. (haha -- there was no way Zhen-Zhen was going to give up her princess dress for anything.) Not wanting to disappoint my baby and not wanting my head to explode from the stress of not being able to get her ready for the party, I quickly went into plan-b mode. Or the stash of clothes for 2012 -- remember I shop WAY to much. Needless to say the kitty-cat outfit was ADORABLE on Chloe -- the mermaid-princess -- not so much -- plus it was at least a size too big. But Chloe got to be a princess like her sister so that's all that mattered to her. By the way, she's the one who wanted to be a kitty-cat.

Fall leaves

2011-12-12T11:07:00.004-05:00

The girls couldn't wait for to go jumping in the leaves. But it didn't really live up to their expectations as they quickly got bored with it. However, having daddy blow leaves on them with the leave blower was loads of fun.

Excuses

2011-12-12T08:46:00.008-05:00

So it is now December and I haven't updated the blog since Halloween. And then for October that was the only blog post. So here is my list of excuses as to why that happened:

1. I'm lazy.
2. I don't get enough sleep.
3. I spend way too much time online shopping -- my 25 online orders to Gymboree just in the month of November is proof of that.
4. I started taking Saturday morning for myself -- 3 hours of alone time at the mall is wonderful for soul. Not so good on the wallet since that means more trips to the Gymboree store.
5. Two 3 year olds keep me really busy.
6. My 3 year olds have activities 3 nights a week and 2 times a week during the day.
7. The fairies don't clean my house or do my laundry while I'm sleeping.
8. My laptop died. Spent 1 week waiting for parts. Laptop still wasn't right. Ordered new laptop that took 2 weeks to arrive. This really cut into my computer time and online shopping abilities.
9. Coffee doesn't have the same kick as it use too.
10. But it all really comes back to number 1 -- I'm lazy. My plan is to update the blog with tons of posts this week. And then try to be less lazy.

And now I can't hit the publish post button on the new laptop. Have to run upstairs and try the other computer. Anyone have any ideas as to why? Figured this one out. IE9 and blogger don't work together. Nice. Not.

Happy Halloween!!!

2011-10-31T20:48:00.003-04:00

Wow -- where did October go?!?!?! More updates -- coming soon. Promise.

The most magically place on earth.....

2011-09-14T10:40:00.007-04:00

for 6 days it was for 2 little girls.

6 days, 5 nights, 9 character meals, eating breakfast and dinner at Cinderella's Castle, fireworks and dessert on the Toworrowland Terrace, balloons, rides, way too much food, swimming, and snacks....makes for so many memories of our time at mouseland.

All I want for Christmas....

2011-08-20T20:28:00.004-04:00

...is my two front teeth, OK just one. Or so Chloe would say if she knew what was really going on.

OK, I'll explain.

Last Sunday night, Chloe didn't sleep well. She woke up crabby, complained a little that her lip and nose hurt, but was otherwise normal. Monday night she was up 3 or 4 times crying and couldn't get comfortable. Tuesday morning started with more complaints of "my lip and nose hurt", but now her upper lip and the inside of her top lip were a little swollen. I still wasn't sure what to make of it. So we went through a few days of Chloe being grumpy, over-tired, laying around, being clingy, and just not her self. And more not sleeping. Wednesday we went to art class at 9:30am. At some point a little boy backed into Chloe and his back touched her mouth area. She screamed and cried for 5 minutes over it, all the while crying that her lip hurt. And it was still a little swollen. After we got home, Chloe curled up on the couch and fell asleep -- so unlike her. I knew something was wrong. I called the dentist and he said he could get her in at 2pm. I called Sonny at work and had him come home early to stay with Cassie. The dentist did x-rays and didn't really see anything, but said that one of her front top teeth didn't look right in surgery and he almost pulled it then but thought it would be OK. This is a tooth that was filled in April. He sent us home with antibiotics, instructions to call him on Friday, and with another appointment for the following Wednesday. Chloe didn't improve and her lip started to swell a tiny bit more. We canceled all our activities for the week and just hung out on the couch watching TV, mixed in with me walking around holding Chloe. We did go to speech on Friday morning at 7:30am, and Chloe really wasn't herself. When we got home, I called the dentist. He decided Chloe needed a CT scan to see what was going on. He called the oral surgeon who does the CT dental scans and he was working at an office an hour from here. Chloe would need to be sedated for the CT scan, but Chloe had already had milk, so the surgeon would not do the scan. So our dentist said to be at his office at 12:30pm and he would sedate Chloe and do full x-rays and see what he could see since he was worried about waiting until Monday. I had to literally take a banana away from Chloe as the Dr. was telling me this because she couldn't have anything else to eat or drink. That made an unhappy girl even more unhappy. Again, I had to call Sonny home but this time to go with me and the girls since I had no idea what to expect.

After Chloe was finally in la-la land, the fun began. More x-rays, then still more x-rays, lots of poking, pulling surgery x-rays, poking more, then drilling in the front tooth under where the swelling was - the same tooth that was questionable from surgery, but drilling didn't really prove anything either. Then he said "I think I need to pull it." I said "Can you do it now?" and he said "yes." By the way, Chloe has been moaning in pain and crying since the drilling started. She had already had two meds to sedate her, stuff to numb her gums and lips, and was getting nitrous-oxide the whole time, and had two shots of Novocaine, and was still in pain. It was very tough to watch them drilling into my child's tooth while she's screaming and I'm saying "it's OK, mommy's here", all the while I'm crying inside for her. All I can say is it sucked. After another two shots of Novocaine and he pulled the tooth. Then he said "There is puss." Music to my ears. I've never been so excited to see puss. The tooth was abscessed but in the very early stages and didn't really show any signs outward yet. We took a shot by pulling the tooth, and it paid off.

So Chloe is missing her top right front tooth. There will be lots of toothless pictures in my baby's future but that doesn't matter because she's adorable with or without teeth. Chloe fell asleep on the way home and slept on the couch for about 3 hours after we got home. When she woke up she told me "the doctor bit me." So cute. :) Her Dr called around 8pm to check on her and by then she was doing much better.

Today my baby girl is back to her self. It's so nice to see her smiling and playing again. It's been a long week.

Surgery for Chloe

2011-08-07T10:26:00.008-04:00

On Friday we were at Children's Hospital at 6am for a 7:30am surgery for Chloe. Getting up at 4:15am is tough but exciting when you know that at the end of the day your baby will be pain free. That's enough to keep you going -- along with coffee of course. Chloe was scheduled to have her ear tubes replaced, an ABR (hearing test), and some dental work.

Chloe should be getting frequent flier miles for all the time she's spent at the dentist this year. Chloe went to the dentist in January, February, and again in March to try and get some fillings done. Unfortunately, they couldn't do anything in January or February because they had trouble finding the right amount of sedation. It wouldn't do to have a screaming wiggling child while the dentist drills her teeth. It also wouldn't do to have her over-sedated. Finally in March, we got 2 fillings done. Our dentist is very patient with her and will only work on her if she's relaxed and not screaming/panicking/etc. That's makes for a lot of trips to his office but I'm glad he does it this way. However, Chloe needed crowns, so we knew she'd be going to the operating room eventually for lots of work. Meanwhile, in April we saw an ENT specialist. Chloe's ear tubes looked good but would need to be changed out before fall -- they only last 12 - 18 months before needing to be replaced. Then in May we did our yearly cleft appointment for both girls will the full team. It was then decided that it was time to schedule Chloe's dental work and new tubes. Both girls were already scheduled to have their teeth cleaned in June but I only had to take Cassie in since Chloe's teeth would be cleaned during her surgery. Cassie has her first cavity which is scheduled to be filled in the office in September. In July we had no doctor appointments -- shocking. :)

So that brings us to Friday. At 7:05am, we were taken back to pre-op. Dental was going first. We spoke to Chloe's dentist before-hand and he said that it would take him about 2 hours. Seemed long to me but ok, it is what it is. Then her ENT would replace her tubes, then her ABR test, then recovery and then home. Piece of cake.

I took Chloe to the operating room to assist in putting her under -- she did really well with it -- much better than she did last time. The dentist was already in there waiting for her. Then I went back to the pre-op room to gather up all our belongings, and Sonny and Cassie to head to the waiting room. I sent Sonny and Cassie to go get some breakfast and I sat down at 7:39am. At 9:30am I figured they should be done anytime -- after all he said 2 hours. Then at 10am I started to get nervous, at 10:30 panic started to set in and I started to pace. Finally at 11am the resident came out to talk to us. Chloe had needed a lot more work than they thought going in. They did x-rays (it appears that all her adult/permanent teeth) are there, she also has 4 shiny new silver crowns, and 8 new fillings. Wow -- poor girl. I feel so bad for her but so happy that they are now all fixed. About 30 minutes later her dentist also came out to talk to us and said he now needs to see her every 3 months since her teeth are so soft. He also said he could have put crowns on every one of her teeth but he ran out of time with the sedation. So we will be doing more work down the road. He also wants her on a prescription-strength extra fluoride toothpaste at night -- besides the recommended toothpaste we are already using and the rinse. Now we just pray that her adult teeth are in better condition when they come in. But, on the silver lining on all this -- Chloe's teeth are pain free for the first time ever!!!! That will be worth the huge bill we will be getting for all this dental work since our dental insurance won't cover most of this work.

Chloe's ENT called us around 11:30 to tell us he was done too. Tubes are quick. Her right tube has just fallen out -- it was still sitting on her ear drum and the hole was still there -- talk about perfect timing. And her left tube was still in place but had lots of fluid built up behind it -- more prefect timing. She needs antibiotic drops twice a day for a week in her ears but that's it for the ears.

Next was the hearing test -- that's done in recovery and takes about an hour. I had called Chloe's audiologist (Angela) the day before surgery to let her know Chloe was coming in and to see if she could do the test. Of course she said she'd make it happen. And yes, Angela did Chloe's ABR for her. And for the first time -- after 6 to 8 hearing tests in the past 18 months -- Chloe's hearing tested in the normal range!!!!!! We are so excited about this. God is healing and watching out for our baby girl in so many ways. It's just amazing!!!! We do need to check Chloe's hearing every 6 months to monitor it but Friday was very rewarding as a parent to see God's work and all the wonderful medical personnel take such good care of our baby girl.

Winnie the Pooh

2011-08-06T10:05:00.000-04:00

On Saturday the 16th we went to the show to see Winnie the Pooh. It was the girls' first time too. They did great and had lots of fun. We went to a 10:25am showing so that helped too. We all gave the movie two thumbs up!!

Spiders

2011-07-11T18:00:00.002-04:00

I was just doing laundry and ZhenZhen (Cassie) brought me this. Saying, "Look mommy, I made spiders. I love spiders - don't you?"

I had to share.

And for the record -- yes, I do love these spiders.

4th of July weekend

2011-07-09T09:05:00.011-04:00

For the past two years, the girls have been using an old metal hand-me-down swing set that Sonny painted pink and purple. We had attached two baby swings to it. This worked great for when we just had Cassie and even last year with both girls. They loved the swings and it was always a great activity for Sonny to do with the girls after work when I needed a break, or when I was cooking dinner. Then my baby girls grew too much. Since the swing set isn't bolted down in any way, it's unsafe to swing too 30lb+ girls on it. If you get them going just right at opposite points in the swinging movement it's ok, but when their swinging movement matches up so they are both moving forward at the same time, the swing set would begin to tip over. Not acceptable. So it was time to look into buying the girls a 'real' swing set. By real I mean bigger, more fun, safer, more things to do, and of course lots more money.

I started pricing the large wooden outdoor activity sets and oh my, they are crazy expensive. But the girls are worth it, right? And then of course I had to research how to make them the safest. Oh my, that makes it even more costly, by alot. Yikes. According to the information I found online, these playsets need at least 6 inches of mulch around the thing and it has to be 6ft from the playset in all directions. Wow. That's a lot of mulch. But again, they are worth it, right?

We finally found a playset that we thought the girls would like, and that wouldn't totally break the bank, and would still provide years of fun for them. I found it online and needed to order it. I was too tired to mess with ordering it a few Friday nights ago so I decided to order it in the morning. The next morning Sonny was outside and the girls wanted to go out. As I was letting them out the patio door I noticed the top of the playset in the neighbor's yard next door. They have their house for sale and their girls are like 10 & 12 and don't really play with it. Such a shame - they bought it two years ago and spent 3 days putting it together. Their girls used it for about 1/2 a year and then they decided they were too old for childrens' toys. When I was their age, I'd have loved something like this. But then, we didn't have 18 million cable channels or the ability to "text" the day away with friends.

Anyway, at the moment I was looking at this playset, the woman who lives there just happened to be out cutting the grass. We asked if she wanted to sell it, and she said "No, but you can just take it." Wow -- that was a nice surprise! However, we weren't really comfortable with that. That particular model runs about $1500 at Sam's club. So I made a deal with her -- since she happens to be pregnant -- I gave her a ton of baby things so that she didn't need to buy them and I didn't need to worry about selling them in a garage sale. Deal done, win-win. Sort of.

The fact is that moving a 900lb swing set from one house to the next is no trivial matter. With our trailer, two more helpful neighbors, a whole day of sweating (did I mention it was 101 degrees here on July 2nd when we did this), and a really sore mommy and daddy, we got the playset taken down in large pieces, moved, put back together, and powerwashed in a single day. And we still had time to get 6 yards of mulch that day too. Did I mention it was hot that day? Then on Sunday we picked up 2 more yards of mulch -- for a total of 8 yards. That's a lot of mulch to keep our little girls safe. But yes, they are worth it. And we had it all done by the 3rd so that we could spend the 4th just hanging out and enjoying the new playset.

Since these pictures were taken, we've added a new 3-piece band set. A telescope and steering wheel will be delivered next week.

So I will stop rambling and get on with the pictures.

Happy 3rd Birthday Chloe Jewel!!

2011-06-20T22:18:00.000-04:00

It's had to believe both my girls are now 3! Chloe has changed so drastically over the past 16 months it's had to keep up. Just like her wardrobe changes for her party -- she started off in a purple and white two piece then changed for lunch and presents into a green two piece before more playing outside at her new beach -- custom made for her by daddy.

98 degrees - so what do you do?

2011-06-09T16:20:00.004-04:00

Put on fancy dresses and go outside and take pictures. At least that's what we did. Cassie insisted on having a fancy twirl dress on yesterday after her nap. And I figured, why not get out the fancy camera I've owned for almost a year and only used once and take some pictures. I took 444 pictures and narrowed it down to 10 that I really like. I'm going to 'try' (try being the key word) and use photoshop elements and see what I can do with them. Right now these are straight from the camera - no editing of any kind. Nothing too fancy about that.

Really!?!?!

2011-05-27T12:24:00.003-04:00

This is what happened last night while I was cooking dinner.

Why, oh why, am I surprised.

2 years ago today.....

2011-05-03T21:33:00.001-04:00

A very scared, quiet, tears in her eyes, thumb-sucking, very tan little 13 month old girl was literally dropped off on our hotel room bed two hours after we landed in Kunming.

This was that girl:

Two years later, that scared, quiet, thumb-sucking sad little girl is gone. She has been molded with our love into an always smiling, always dancing, funny, confident, talking up a storm, happy, loving, little angel.

SHE. HAS. COME. SO. FAR!

Cassie still has some issues at night -- as night time is still scary for her -- but even those issues have begun to fade, if only a little.

I can't imagine my life without her. I am amazed and feel so blessed every, single, day that I get to be her mother.

These are pictures from today:

What a difference time and love makes in all our lives.

More Easter pictures

2011-04-30T08:38:00.002-04:00

"I no like RABBIT!"

2011-04-24T20:33:00.003-04:00

That's what Chloe said when asked if she wanted to sit on the Easter Bunny's lap on Saturday. Shockingly, Cassie ran up and hugged the Easter Bunny and couldn't wait to get her picture taken with him. Cassie sure has come a long way.

Happy Easter to everyone!!!

Happy 3rd Birthday Cassie Noel!!!!

2011-03-22T20:42:00.004-04:00

Home at last

2011-03-09T14:37:00.003-05:00

Cassie was discharged today around 1pm. The swelling on her lip has almost completely disappeared. Before discharging her, they needed to know what kind of backeria had set up shop in her lip. The lab results showed it was nothing too bad, so they sent her home with a 14-day course of antibiotics. This is more of the same stuff she was getting through her I.V.

She's upstairs sleeping the sleep of kings (OK, "princesses") at the moment. We'll let her nap as long as she needs. She didn't get much sleep at the hospital. That's one of life's great ironies: a hospital is no place to be if you're sick.

Now we're home, so hopefully we can get back the groove around here.

Still at the hospital

2011-03-08T22:33:00.003-05:00

Just a quick update from mommy. We are still here - at the hospital. It's Tuesday night. I at least have the laptop with me and it helps at night since there is nothing for me to do -- that includes sleep. The policy here is to check the patients every 2 hours during the night -- vitals and diapers. Cassie also gets a dose of antibiotics around 3am. The 'good' news in all this is we were lucky enough to get a private room. That alone was worth the extra wait in post-op. And the hospital volunteers bring coffee, bagels, and muffins around in the morning for the moms. The nurses will bring you coffee too. In the afternoon they also bring the moms snacks too. I feel so special. Really I do -- I didn't expect this at all for me.

We are still here because we need to wait for the culture of the 'stuff' they drained from Cassie's lip to come back. It takes at least 48 hours -- which should be around 9am tomorrow morning. Not that I'm counting down or anything like that. Once they know exactly what kind of bacteria it was they will be able to adjust the antibiotics and give us the right ones to go home with. The dr also stopped by around 5pm and said it's possible that we might be able to go home tomorrow. She also said that Cassie's lip looked softer since this morning -- it was really swollen and hard because of the infection. It's looking great now compared to how it's been the past two days.

I'll update the blog tomorrow, hopefully with some good news. Until then please pray for my baby girl.

#&@! happens

2011-03-07T14:35:00.005-05:00

The weekend started like any other, with the exception that all three of my girls had mild colds and low-grade fevers. This is Daddy's post, in case you hadn't figured that out yet. Sunday morning the girls all registered 100 degrees, and Cassie's been a little lethargic lately. I would be too.

It's been 7 weeks since Cassie's surgery, and her recovery had been going well. Or at least we thought it had been. Cassie is naturally high strung, and a bit of a drama queen. It's not unusual for her to scream in agony if she drops a foam toy on her foot, so we didn't think much of it when she complained when we rubbed silicone gel on her upper lip (part of the post-operative protocol, to minimize visible scarring). But Sunday night she protested a bit too much for mere drama's sake. Upon close examination (which she resisted like death itself), she just didn't look right. Her upper lip was swollen and slightly discolored. That's when both Sherry and I recalled privately thinking that her mouth lately hasn't looked any better than it did pre-surgery. Both of us were quietly wondering if we had put her through the surgical ordeal for nothing. At that moment, however, it looked worse than it ever had. Something was wrong.

We called the 24-hour number for her surgeon, and she called us back within a few minutes. We described the situation to her, and she sent a prescription for antibiotics to a local 24-hr pharmacy. Meanwhile, she asked to see us at 7am Monday morning.

Monday morning, we dragged the girls out of bed and took them downtown to see the surgeon. One look at Cassie and her surgeon knew that she'd require surgery today. My poor baby.

The surgery revealed a hematoma resulting from what she presumed was a post-operative injury. Most likely this occurred within the last 7 days, since that's when we started to think that her surgery had not yielded the results we had sought. The surgeon was able to evacuate a bunch of fluid (blood, et. al.). Meanwhile, she is being held overnight to complete a course of I.V. antibiotics. As I type this entry, Sherry and Cassie are in the post-operative recovery area, awaiting a room. I took Chloe home, fed her lunch, and put her down for a nap. Here I sit in the comfort of home while two of my girls are stuck in a cramped recovery room waiting for a hospital bed to open up.

Excrement happens.

4:10pm Update:
They are in a room - FINALLY. Sherry called me with a shopping list of goodies
(clothes, toiletries, special toys, blankies, etc) to bring her for the night. As soon as Chloe wakes up from her afternoon nap, we'll head back to the hospital. Poor Cassie. She's in for a long night, as is her mommy. At least mommy will be there with her.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

2011-02-14T20:48:00.002-05:00

This picture was taken 17 days after Cassie's lip revision surgery. She is an amazing girl!!! And I just love Chloe's toes in this picture -- sooo cute!

More on Chloe's dental work later -- the short story is she had a fever that morning, they were able to do 2 fillings and we go back in a month to try again.

Happy cupcake Friday!!!

2011-02-11T12:43:00.005-05:00

At least that's what it is at our house. The girls and I made cupcakes together -- from start to finish -- for the first time. And they did great!!!! It was fun 'yelling' at them for tasting the batter, frosting and sprinkles. They knew I was not really yelling at them and then they kept doing it. They are so cute. Below are some pictures of my little bakers in action. And aren't these the best looking cupcakes ever?!?!?!? They are growing up so fast. I can't believe they will both be 3 this year.

Some other news and tidbits:

Cassie's lip is doing great. We are back to our normal routines and even normal sleeping -- which is wonderful!!!! We go back for our 5 week after surgery check-up this Thursday. Most of the swelling is gone and there is just one stitch left on the inside. This stitch is also bothering Cassie so we'll ask the dr about it.

Both girls are now sleeping in the same room 98% of the time for naps. I moved both toddler beds into the room with the crib and we'll be redecorating that room into the princess-ballerina room. Having a princess-ballerina room makes all the difference to almost 3 year olds. Chloe is still napping in her crib with the crib-tent but I'm hoping that soon we'll be able to trust her in her toddler bed.

The girls are just about in the same size clothes now. Chloe is too big for her 18-24 month clothes now and 2T's are just a tiny bit big on her and 2T's just fit Cassie. This will make life easier for me that they will be able to wear the same size this summer. And in shoes they are only one size apart.

One year ago today we arrived back home as a family of 4! Wow, it's already been a year. And man oh man have my girls changed this past year.

Tomorrow we have another dentist appt -- try number 2 -- for Chloe's crowns. I'm really hoping we can get them done tomorrow. Every night poor little Chloe complains that her teeth hurt. She's so good about taking her meds -- even yucky oral-gel.

That's about all that's going on here. Oh, one more thing -- Chloe's now at a 27 month level for her speech -- making her only about 5 months behind!!!! I'm so proud of her.

One year with Chloe Jewel

2011-02-01T13:57:00.006-05:00

Today marks one year since we were handed blessing number 2. I can still remember it as if it was yesterday. The same feelings come flooding back and I can feel the same butterflies in my stomach. Chloe was in the last group to arrive at the Civil Affairs office and I was getting nervous. The extra 10 - 15 minutes of waiting seemed like hours. But then she appeared in her nanny's arms outside the window. Then disappeared quickly as they were walking fast due to the cold weather. Then in a instant she appeared in the doorway. This tiny little 19 month old girl in a white snowsuit. The look on her face was of confusion -- who the heck were all these people. Then the hand off -- another moment etched in my heart forever. Sonny actually captured the picture perfectly -- me anxiously reaching out for her as her nanny reluctantly handed her over to me. Just thinking about it now makes me cry. Oh, how I long to go back and visit China and her nanny. I want to show the world what a special little girl Chloe has become. I want the acceptance of Chloe's nanny who spent a little over 14 months caring for Chloe. I want her nanny to tell me how much Chloe has changed but remains the same. Those are the things I dream of for myself and for Chloe. I want her to grow, learn, take the world on head first but still remain the same inside. She has the biggest heart and truly loves with it all. She tells us everyday that she loves mama, dada, He-He (Cassie), kitty, butterscotch, God and Jesus. And I know that she does. She's just the sweetest little thing ever. Chloe can be a snot face too -- who gets into everything -- but I'm glad she's so curious about the world and things around her. And when she smiles it lights up the whole room. He-He is her very best friend in the whole world and her baby animals are a close second. But if He-He asks for one of her favorite baby animals Chloe will give it up with a smile. She's just that generous. Chloe might have lived in a orphanage for 19 months and 10 days but God protected her heart and kept it safe with His love while she waited for us. There is really no other explanation for it.

Gotcha day - February 1, 2010

Our baby now - January 2011

Day 9

2011-01-21T19:19:00.004-05:00

Today was the first day that the girls both took naps since the day before surgery. YEAH!!!!! Last night's bed time didn't go so well but Cassie woke up when she heard me getting dressed to take Chloe to speech this morning. Then she insisted on going too. So all 4 of us went to speech this morning. Thank goodness we have a great speech therapist and she didn't mind the extra company. Both girls were really tired all morning long and getting them to take naps today wasn't a real struggle. We are hoping to string a few good days and nights of sleep together for everyone. We could all use it.

Cassie's lip looks amazing. Our surgeon did a wonderful job!!!! We are very pleased.

This will be the last post of daily updates. I don't think there's going to be much change from day to day now so I'll update every few days.

Day 8

2011-01-20T20:22:00.006-05:00

Day 8 and another day with no naps. But the girls both were asleep last night by 9:30pm -- that hasn't happened since before Sonny went to China. Maybe the trend will continue. Or not.

Our doctors appointment was at 4:50pm today. The dr said Cassie's lip looks great. See you in a month. Then we spent some time with the nurse. She was shocked when I mentioned something about the antibiotics. Meaning she needed to verify this info with the dr. When Peggy - the nurse - checked, she found as she expected that Cassie should not have been prescribed the antibiotics. So much for the intern/resident helping out. That's one less thing to worry about now. The dr also said to stop using Tylenol and only use ibuprofen -- that it would work better for this type of pain. And that the remaining stitches would dissolve in another week or two, but we could hasten the process by using Neosporin on her lip because it would help dissolve the stitches faster. Another week with the soft diet and no-nos at night and then back to a normal diet and no no-no's. Cassie can even suck her thumb if she wants to in another week. So basically keep doing what we are doing for another week.

Cassie was promised an umbrella last night if she would wear her no-no's. So after the dr appointment we went to Target and the girls weren't impressed with the two umbrellas they had. Instead they got Crayola fingerpaints for the bathtub, dresses and new baby penguins. We'll see what else we have to promise to get her to wear the no-no's for another whole week.

Day 7

2011-01-19T17:19:00.003-05:00

So it's been one week since surgery. And we made it this far without any major injuries to Cassie's lip. However, she did wake up with dried blood on her bottom lip and part of the incision site. I'm sure she rubbed it on the blanket or something similar to that. I got scared when I first saw it then figured there was really nothing to get upset over -- what was done was done -- but in the end it was fine. Just a little more swollen than it was yesterday. Plus, she handed me another stitch that fell out -- I sure hope it's ok that they are falling/coming out. I guess we'll find out tomorrow at our Dr. appointment.

To add to the excitement around here, Chloe decided not to nap today and to start potty training herself. She actually did really good for an hour or two and peed 3 times on her potty. But then Cassie had an accident -- creating two loads of laundry -- then requested a princess pull-up. That ended the potty training for Chloe -- she only wanted a princess pull-up and was then peeing in her pull-up. Actually I'm kind of glad -- I don't have the energy to potty train them this week or next or maybe even the week after that. Why do they have to make pull-ups so appealing?

Here are the mug-shots from tonight. Cassie just hates having me take lip pictures. And if she would actually keep clothes on I could take normal pictures of her -- not just head shots.

If her lips look a little gooey, it's because I keep Aquaphor slathered on at all times. It's not a good look, but it keeps them from drying out.

Day 6

2011-01-18T16:53:00.005-05:00

Today was a good day. Things are pretty much back to normal during the day. Other than no nap for Cassie. Unless you count the 15 minutes on the living room floor right before Chloe woke up from her nap. Cassie normally takes a 2 hour nap everyday. I sure hope she goes back to napping at some point. She sleeps more sound at night if she's had a nap during the day. Plus the 'alone' time with both girls napping is my tiny escape during the day -- I'd like that back.

Cassie's lip looks amazing for it only being 6 days after surgery. Everyday you can see the changes. Can't wait to see what it looks like when it's fully healed.

Here are some pictures I just took -- around 5pm -- as you can see from the look on her face she's getting tired of me taking lip pictures.

Day 5

2011-01-17T19:19:00.005-05:00

Today, Monday, is the 5th day after surgery for Cassie. Her lip is really showing changes. Last night I gave her a bath and noticed something interesting. Until last night I thought she had two kinds of stitches in her lip. It looked like she had black (or very dark colored) stitches going up the center of her lip and a little above her lip. These seemed to be under the skin. Then it looked like two rows of white fabric stitches running almost the whole length of her lip. There is also a stitch or two way up in the middle-inside of the lip that appears to be going all the way through her lip. Now that a lot of the swelling has gone down, you can see that the dark stitches are not on the inside of her lip. They are most definitely on the outside of her lip. We can see the ends of the thread. Her lip was so swollen that it had engulfed the stitches, making it appear that they were under the skin. That's very interesting, and goes to show just how swollen her lip really was. Tonight I noticed that those dark stitches aren't as dark as they once were-- they are getting lighter. I'm beginning to think they once were white in color - the same white fabric stitches as every where else on her lip - and that the dark color is just blood stains. I have been putting aquaphor on her lips about 5 times a day -- most of the time at her request -- and I think it's helping to dissolve/remove the blood. I know -- kind of gross -- but very interesting to watch the changes. Her lips are starting to show glimpses of their new shape -- of course I think they already look adorable and kissable. But think it will be quite sometime before she will let mama kiss them.

Sonny was off today for MLK Day but has to go back to work tomorrow. Then it's all up to me to keep the girls quiet again. Daddy took Chloe to gymnastics tonight and Cassie and I stayed home and made cookies. This was a simple mix in a bag - just add butter and water. At least they both got to do something fun tonight. It's getting pretty boring around here. And if I have to watch one more episode of Dora, well, I just might scream.

Cassie is feeling more like herself the past two days. I know this because she begged to take her pajamas off yesterday morning so she could be a ballerina and just wear a diaper and tutu. Slowly, she's getting back to her spunky self. We let her keep the no-nos off during the day. She still has to wear them at night, and theoretically at nap time. I say theoretically because she has yet to take a nap since her surgery. I expect that to change soon. Cassie usually loves her sleep. She doesn't seem to mind the no-nos at night. The nights are still difficult for everyone. If it's not Cassie waking up, it's Chloe. Add in the no-nos and a sore mouth or a sore mouth with very dry lips and stitches, and everyone ends up losing an hour or two of sleep.

I think we have turned a corner with the issues stemming from surgery -- the first 3 days were really tough. But we seem to have figured out what works for everyone. Poor Chloe is still getting the short end of the attention stick but we'll make that up to her when we can. She does seem to understand it sometimes, even if just a tiny bit.

Below are pictures from today -- day 5 -- from about 6pm.

Day 4

2011-01-16T16:24:00.003-05:00

Here are two pictures of Cassie's lip on day 4 after surgery. I had to trim two stitches today that were hanging down about 1/4 of an inch -- not sure how they got that way. Oh wait -- I know -- we are dealing with a 34 month old -- anything is possible. And neither child napped today. Only 4 days until we see the surgeon and hopefully get these stitches removed.

This first picture is from around 10am.

This second picture is from 4:30pm.

Dental appointment update

2011-01-15T16:34:00.003-05:00

No crowns today. The dentist was running an hour behind. About 2:10 Chloe was given more sedation medication. At 3pm I had to lay her in the dental chair. It wasn't happening. I had to force her to lay down. She cried mama and screamed, while I held her hands down and out of the way. All the while she kicked my arm -- thank goodness she had removed her boots about an hour before this. The dentist talked softly to her -- he actually told me not to talk to her. He cleaned her teeth and gave another fluoride treatment. He said she did better this appointment with him than the last. I'm not too sure about that. Anyway, we are going back on February 12th to try it all again. This next time he'll use a different sedative medicine in the office and a nasal spray. This time we have to be there at 9:30am. That means breakfast will be really early this time, because Chloe can have nothing to eat or drink after 7am.

We must be crazy.....

2011-01-15T10:25:00.002-05:00

to be going back downtown for Chloe's dental work today -- just three days after Cassie's surgery. For the record, we didn't really plan it like this. Cassie's surgery was scheduled for February 1 but there was cancellation in the surgeon's schedule this week so we jumped at the chance to get it done early.

Yesterday was a LONG day for me. Sonny went to work and that left me alone with both girls. Actually the day time was really ok, other than the fact that Cassie didn't nap until 3:30pm. It also appears that the codeine is making her nervous and a little wired. This happened after her morning dose yesterday and her dose at dinner time. It was a long night. It was 1:15am when Cassie finally gave in and went to sleep. She is just "not herself". This morning she got plain old children's Tylenol. I think as long as we keep her quiet and just plopped on the couch watching tv, other than today's trip to the dentist, she'll be fine.

At dinner last night, she hit her mouth on the kitchen table and it started to bleed a tiny, tiny bit. Then at night as she was jumping around and doing somersaults in her crib -- with her no-no's on -- it started to bleed yet again.

I totally lost it and screamed at everyone to go to sleep. Hahaha. Like that worked. That was around 9:30pm. This went on -- not the screaming by me -- until after midnight.

All things considered, Cassie is doing great this morning. And her lip looks good too.

Today is the big dental crown day for Chloe. She gets nothing to eat or drink now -- since 10am -- but we packed her full of eggs, yogurt, milk and juice. She should be good until we have to leave at 12:50pm. Yes, it's timed that precise since she has to have some anti-anxiety meds 30 minutes before we get to the clinic. Then when we get there she'll have some more. Please pray for Chloe today. Prayers for mama wouldn't hurt either. Here's a picture of Chloe from this morning. Poor baby isn't getting a lot of attention these past couple of days. I feel so bad.

Day 2 -- morning & evening

2011-01-13T21:36:00.004-05:00

How our day started after both girls refused their scrambled eggs. And this is how Cassie spent most of the day. Chloe spent most of the day trying to bounce off the walls or drive mama to the funny farm or to the bar.

This was tonight -- while daddy was on his one and a half hour long conference call -- not that I'm complaining or anything. Cassie is doing pretty good all things considered. I think I'm having a harder time with it -- trying to keep Cassie still and her sister under control. I have high hopes that tomorrow will be easier.

Day of surgery -- 1/12/11

2011-01-13T09:50:00.007-05:00

An update on Cassie's surgery (this post is from Daddy, as Mommy is currently occupied.)

Cassie's surgery went well. There were no surprises and no complications. Of course there is still recovery, removal of stitches, and a few other things to keep us awake but the riskiest part is behind us. The next three weeks will be, shall we say, interesting.

Cassie was sent home with a "no-no". A no-no is a pair of arm splints designed to keep the elbows from bending. These are connected by a strap that runs behind her back. The end-game is to keep her hands away from her mouth. Not surprisingly, Cassie is not amused. She would very much like to NOT have a no-no. But for the next three weeks, she will. I like to think that the term "no-no" is a reference to the amount of sleep the parents get while a child is wearing one of these things. There is no truth to this, but I'm having fun with the idea anyway.

Also in store for the next three weeks is a soft diet. Soup, oatmeal, purees, etc. Also, no valves in any sippy cups, as she must not be allowed to suck. Right now, she prefers to be fed through an oral syringe. This works well so long as the food is pureed. The only trouble with this is that Chloe wants all the same things as Cassie gets. That includes being fed through a syringe.

Cassie seems to be herself today, which is to say that she is smiling, laughing, and wanting to run around the house. We've got her on Tylenol 3, so her trademark energy is tempered just a bit. Last night, she was not herself. I think that was the Versed working its way through her system. She's telling us when she's in pain, so that's a big help.

FYI - for any parents out there who find it challenging to get your child to take Tylenol 3, here is what we are doing. The medicine comes in liquid form with no flavoring, which means it tastes like industrial chemicals. We pull the prescribed amount into an oral syringe, and then fill the remainder of the syringe with vanilla syrup we normally use to flavor coffee. That's a so-called simple-syrup (two parts sugar, one water, brought to a boil, then cooled) flavored with vanilla extract.

Cassie has a followup appointment next Thursday (Jan 20). Hopefully her stitches will be removed then. She also has some dissolving stitches which will need no further intervention.

Now for few things to make you smile:
1. Detroit Children's Hospital does a lot of really nice things for the kids. There was a "Life Coach" assigned to Cassie. A Life Coach's job is to keep the kids at ease, and I have to say that the one we had was very good at her job. She had a bag full of toys and a bright smile and soothing voice. Cassie still has a lot of anxiety issues, so strangers are always hit and miss with her. When she's upset, it's more miss than hit. However, her Life Coach won her over in just a few short minutes. She stayed with Cassie all the way to surgery, leaving only when Cassie was completely under.

2. When we got home, I went to the local pharmacy to pick up Cassie's prescriptions (antibiotics, Tylenol 3). I took Chloe with me to keep her out of Momma's hair while she tended to Cassie. At the back of the pharmacy, while waiting for the prescriptions to be filled, an employee came up to me and said "There's been a report of unbelievable cuteness near the pharmacy counter. I've been sent to investigate." Then she asked me if she could give Chloe a balloon. (Gee, I thought she was talking about me. Bummer.) Of course I said yes, but that turns out to have been a small mistake. I should have said that I can accept zero or two balloons but not one. When I got home, a squabble ensued over the one balloon. So I packed Chloe up in the car and went back. I told them the story and they gave me five more balloons. They SELL these balloons at the pharmacy, but today they were free. There is nothing people won't do for you when you've got a cute kid in tow.

And now, some pictures.

Before surgery, enjoying a Slurpee. Doctor's orders. See prior post.

All smiles. She knows she's going to the hospital today so they can fix her lip. We've been telling her for a few days. She knows, but she doesn't fully understand what's in store.

Pre-op. Playing with bubbles given to her by the life coach. Chloe's in the background wearing a resident surgeon's hat. The resident had come to see Cassie earlier. In the world of "hits and misses" (see above), this guy was a miss. He knew it too, so he took off his hat and said "See? I'm not a doctor anymore. Wanna wear my hat?" She wasn't having any of that, so Chloe ended up with the hat.

Here is a close-up of Cassie's lip, pre-op. The surgeon has been in the room, and made a few marks with a purple marker.

Several hours later, Cassie wakes up. Momma is there to hold her. She's really feeling the anesthetic at this point. Barely awake.

Here's a closer view.

And here's a shot a few hours later, at home. You can see the stitches protruding from the bottom of her lip. On her right arm is one half of a "no-no". When Cassie gets tired or stressed, her thumb finds its way into her mouth. She's going to be in this no-no for three weeks. It will be interesting to see if the habit gets broken.

Another shot - with better lighting.

And now a close-up. Poor baby.

Another close-up, with flash.

Surgery update

2011-01-11T14:33:00.004-05:00

The hospital just called with our surgery time and instructions. The surgeon has a very full schedule tomorrow and Cassie's surgery is scheduled for 1:30pm. We were hoping it was going to be early in the morning but we'll of course make this work. Here's the breakdown of our schedule:

11:30pm tonight -- I think we'll be having a snack. Maybe some soup -- Cassie loves soup. It's going to be a late night for everyone.

Midnight tonight until 10:30am -- Cassie can have apple juice, slurpees, and popsicles. The colder the better -- is the instructions. I think daddy will run out for slurpees when Cassie wakes up - that will be our breakfast. By the way, my girls have never had sluprees -- this will be the first -- I'm hoping it will keep Cassie distracted enough that she won't notice that she's not getting food. I'm also hoping that between the slurpees and maybe playing with some play-doh, it will keep her busy until we have to leave for the hospital.

10:31am until surgery -- Cassie can have nothing to drink/eat.

10:31am until 11:30am -- Work magic to keep Cassie busy since she can't anything to eat or drink. We only have to do this for an hour -- as we'll be leaving at 11:30am for the hospital.

11:31am until 12:00pm -- drive to hospital.

12:00pm until surgery -- Registration and then I have some mini little play-dohs that have molds in the lids -- we'll be taking these to the waiting area for the girls to keep busy with. I also think I have a roll-up placemat thing that will work for the play-doh. Plus their laptops will help keep them busy and will help keep Chloe busy during Cassie's surgery. Yes, we are taking her with us.

I'm also going to beg for them to give Cassie some versed when we get to pre-op. Our hospital doesn't normally give it to the kids before surgery. Only in certain cases. I'm praying I can make it happen tomorrow.

I took this picture a couple of days ago while the girls were playing with their play-doh. It's a great pictures to show what Cassie's lip looks like now. The before. The lip mama loves. The lip that brought us together. Now, it's time to reshape her lip like we have reshaped her life the past 20 months. Her lip won't ever be 'prefect' and neither will her new life with us. But with God guiding the surgeon tomorrow and God guiding Sonny and I to raise her I think both will end up being amazing -- just like our little girl. Please keep Cassie in your prayers.

Surgery, sedation, and soft diets...

2011-01-08T14:23:00.004-05:00

That's what the next week or two holds for us. Let's back up a few weeks and I'll explain.

I'll start with Chloe. Both Cassie and Chloe had their routine 6-month teeth cleanings on December 8th. Cassie's teeth looked great and no cavities. I'll leave out my disappointment with the way her cleaning was done and the stress Cassie was put through -- let's just say it won't happen again that way. So back to Chloe, Chloe's hygienist did a great job with Chloe and her cleaning went well. However, Chloe has two more cavities. She had two when she came home from China and they were filled and sealed when she had her ear tubes done on May 21st -- both were in her one year top molars. This time I was told Chloe would need two fillings and would need to be sedated. I had no problem with that but I did have a major problem with their sedation policy. I refused to comply or make the needed appointment. After a few phone calls with different office personnel, we were asked to bring Chloe back in to see the head dentist/man in charge on Saturday December 11th. We complied with that request. :)

After the dentist examined Chloe's mouth and she got prizes for her and her sister, I got a very informative biology lesson on teeth formation and problems that can occur with these formations. The bottom line is that all Chloe's teeth -- except the one 2 year molar yet to come in -- have major amounts of hypercalcification. Basically that means her enamel didn't form correctly on spots of her teeth -- you can see this by the discoloration -- very white spots - on her teeth. This of course means these spots/areas are very weak too. Most of Chloe's hypercalcification is at the base of her teeth -- making it very hard to fill should the need arise. If they drill in these weak areas her teeth might crumble. That means that instead of two fillings, Chloe will need two crowns. One crown will be on a 2 year molar that's only been around for about 3 months and the other will be on a bottom front tooth. Oh, and that front tooth also needs a partial root canal. Nice. Not! Her crown on the back will be silver and the one on the front tooth will be resin. And one more thing -- Chloe will more than likely end up with a mouth full of crowns on her baby teeth. Thank goodness baby teeth crowns are much cheaper than permanent teeth crowns. So we'll be able to afford the special xylitol toothpaste and oral rinse Chloe (and Cassie) will now be using to help ward off future dental issues. We are also considering putting them both on oral fluoride treatments -- yes, it does cause discoloration of the teeth -- a white floral pattern -- but it's better to have discoloration of your teeth than no teeth at all.

Then the dentist and I discussed and debated his office's sedation policy and we both agreed that complying with my request was going to work out best for our family situation. Score one for mama -- she move mountains for her baby girls.

Chloe will be having this dental work completed on Saturday January 15th. And the 'main/top dentist/director guy' will be doing the work himself. :) That also makes mama very, very happy. We will give Chloe an oral sedative at home just before we leave for the clinic and then she'll be given more when we arrive. 40 minutes later, the procedure will start and nitrous oxide gas will also be given. I will get to stay in the room the whole time -- as I promised I would be good and not interfere. As long as the sedation works -- sometimes it doesn't -- please pray for her -- we'll be able to ease the pain she has right now with her teeth and get the repairs/crowns done. Yes, she complains that her front tooth hurts -- my poor baby girl. With Chloe having a cleft lip and palate we expected lots of issues with her teeth, palate, braces, palate expanders, and so on -- but never did I think she'd have two crowns before she was 31 months old.

Back to Cassie. When we got Cassie's referral pictures, she hadn't had her cleft lip repaired yet. Cassie's lip was repaired in China and we didn't find out this info until right before we traveled to get her. Once seeing Cassie we knew she would need a lip revision at some point. For the record I LOVE Cassie's lips, her slightly over collagen-filled look -- even if it's only on one side -- but I know that she will disown me as a teenager if we don't do what we can to even out her sweet little lips now. I guess part of me knows that God gave her that lip so that we'd find her and she'd find us. Having surgery on that lip takes away that visual reminder on how we found each other. It's one of those times as parents we have to do what's right as opposed to what we want to do.

When we saw the cleft team in May we mentioned that Cassie has some problems with biting her lip where it's very thick and that in the winter it gets very dry on that side causing her to pick at it and it gets a tiny blister on it sometimes. Because of this the surgeon wanted to see Cassie in 6 months to talk about doing a lip revision. She wanted to wait until Cassie's speech was better before doing the surgery. Our appointment to see the surgeon was on December 2nd. Everyone agreed that it was time for Cassie's lip revision to be scheduled. For the record, Cassie didn't get a vote. She HATES doctors or anyone who belongs to the medical field. We scheduled Cassie's surgery for February 1st -- the first available time on the surgeon's schedule. It's going to be an outpatient surgery. She'll have some dissolving stitches on/in her lip and will be on a soft diet for about a week. The surgery itself seems pretty straight forward and they have only booked the operating room for 2 hours so we think the actual surgery part should be fairly quick. The hardest thing about the recovery is going to be trying to keep Cassie or her sister from bopping her in the mouth.

Everything was set for the 15th (Chloe) and the 1st (Cassie) and then the surgeon's office called this past Wednesday. They told us that they had a cancellation on Wednesday January 12, and wanted to know if we wanted to move Cassie's surgery up. After a few phone calls to Sonny at work to see how his schedule looked, we decided to take the opening and Cassie is now having her surgery on Wednesday the 12th -- this coming Wednesday. Chloe will be having her dental work 3 days later on the 15th. This going to be a busy, crazy, stressful week for all of us. Adding to the chaos will be the fact that Sonny has evening conference calls on Wednesday and Thursday nights from 8pm to 9:30pm. This always messes with the girls' bedtime routine. I'm hopeful that both the surgery and dental procedures will go well and that by February 1st things will be back to the normal crazy busy around here.

Please keep both girls in your prayers next week as they have tough weeks in store for them.

Blessings

2011-01-07T15:37:00.004-05:00

This morning the girls and I decided to head out for some shopping. I already had Chloe buckled in her car seat and was buckling Cassie in. Here's our conversation.

Cassie: Where did dada go?
Me: To work.
Cassie: I LOVE dada!!
Me: I love dada too.
Cassie: I love mama. I love YiYa. (Chloe's Chinese name is YiYu -- Cassie calls her YiYa) I love kitty. I love Butterscotch. (our new 'fake' pony)
Then she paused for second and said, I love God.
Me: (shocked) You love God?
Cassie: Yes mama, and I love Jesus too.
Me: (near tears and kissing her nose) I love you baby girl!

This week was long and very stressful for me -- just over tired, trying to get back into a routine after the holidays, etc, etc. This was the prefect ending to my week and a reminder that everyday is a new day and another chance to get it right. Hearing those words pass Cassie's lips helped me put everything back into perspective. And heartwarming too to hear 5 days before my baby girl has surgery. (more on that in the next post)

Short and sassy

2011-01-06T14:53:00.010-05:00

the girls and the new hair!!! Last night both girls got their hair cut into super cute little dos. I just love them and so does daddy. Cassie refuses to have anything in her hair, no pony-tails, barrettes, headbands, hats, etc. She'll play with them and act silly putting them on -- for about 3 minutes then she takes them off. Plus, Cassie's hair is very, very, thin and fine.

For church on Christmas Eve I asked her to let me put her hair in a pony-tail for Jesus' birthday. She said ok. I asked her and Chloe to please not take them out because Jesus really wanted to see them with pony-tails. (That's not a lie -- I really believe that Jesus did want to see His baby girls with pony-tails.) They left them in through the service and for pictures, then before I could turn the camera off the pony-tail holders were out. I'm just thankful they left them in that long.

As for Chloe, she seems to have nerve endings on each piece of hair. If she even sees you coming towards her with a comb she starts in with the 'ouch, ouch, ouch'. It's even worse once you use the comb -- real tears appear.

Now they are sporting new dos and this morning when I combed Chloe's hair there where no tears, and not one ouch. I did have to chase her down but that's only because she was being a snot. :) And now Cassie's hair looks so cute, healthy and so much thicker.

I know I posted way too many pictures of their hair. But they look so cute and grown up I couldn't resist.

And by the way -- this was our first day with play-doh. It went really, really well. It must be the new hair dos.

Q&A -- the duck potty chair is this one:

Fisher-Price Ducky Fun 3-in-1 Potty

I got them on Amazon for $25.00 each.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

2011-01-01T12:08:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year to everyone!!! We wish everyone a year filled with hugs, kisses and lots of great surprises!!! Those just happen to be our three favorite things at our house.

And here's a sample of why I don't post pictures as much as I used too. Our girls have decided that clothing is optional if you are a ballerina. I think they need New Year's resolutions to wear more clothes!!!!

Look closely at the doll.. It says "Cassie Noel" and has a special bible verse we picked out just for her. "...hide me in the shadow of your wings." Psalms 17:8

New Year's Eve

2010-12-31T23:57:00.005-05:00

We took the girls to the Christmas lights display -- the 31st was the last day -- at the Toledo Zoo. It was such a great display of lights. Didn't see any animals as they were all snug in their beds but there were plenty of animals done up in lights. And the bonus of the night was it was 54 degrees!!!!! Just a prefect night for us.

This was Cassie's 2nd New Year's Eve and Chloe's 1st with their forever family -- lots for us all to reflect back on in 2010. We are all complete now that we have each other.

What you can't see with many of these pictures, this one included, is the animation. Here we see two monkey's on the palm tree. If this were a video, you'd see them climbing up and down the tree. Very nice.

It may not be evident in the picture, but this tree was really spectacular. It had to be at least 100 feet tall. Getting all those lights onto it must have been a real trick.

And even more presents

2010-12-27T11:05:00.004-05:00

These trampoulines were presents from Grandma Jones. The girls just love them. Daddy made the mistake of putting the first one together before the girls went down for their naps. Each one takes about an hour to assemble, so when the first one was complete, it became a "mine"-field of sorts. But all's well that ends well. They have two now, so no more "mine"-field.

Christmas morning...need I say more

2010-12-27T10:50:00.004-05:00

Cassie's sitting on her new privy, but she doesn't really know what it is. An hour after this shot, she was putting food in it.

Feeding a carrot to Butterscotch the Pony. Grandma and Grandpa Spring worked with Santa to make sure that the girls got Butterscotch this year. Butterscotch is pretty cool. She chews on the carrot, and responds to all kinds of things - sight, sound, and petting.

Chloe's first lipgloss. Apparently this is a tasty variety, as it became a snack shortly after she opened it.

Cassie jumping for joy. It was a pretty neat trick for Momma to capture this because the camera usually has a 1 second delay between the time you push the button and it takes the picture.

After Santa arrived....

2010-12-27T10:39:00.001-05:00

and before the girls were up....maybe even before Santa and his elves finished for the night. This is all their loot for being super adorable and such good girls and because Santa's helper loves to shop.

Christmas with family

2010-12-27T10:20:00.001-05:00

Opening gifts with Grandma. Check out the McMansion-sized doll house!

And if you're going to have a doll-house, you've got to have dolls, and stuff. Lots of stuff.

Uncle Ray made some penguins. The girls LOVE penguins.

Sonny & Sherry's Moving & Storage company, shortly before the move from Grandma's to our house.

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-12-24T20:37:00.002-05:00

We wish everyone a blessed and magical Christmas!

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased!"
~Luke 2: 13-14

Away in the Manger, no crib for a bed,
The little LORD Jesus laid down His sweet head.
The stars in the skies looked down where He lay,
The little LORD Jesus asleep on the hay.

An early Christmas present for Daddy

2010-12-24T16:05:00.001-05:00

Hey - time for a rare post from Daddy, or "Dadda" as the girls say it. We've been home with Cassie for a year and a half. The first few months were tough on Daddy because Cassie acted like Daddy was the devil himself. Of course, that put a heavy burden on Mommy too, because she did all the work. Eventually, Cassie began to "tolerate" Daddy, which is to say that she wouldn't melt down when Daddy changed her diaper or made her a bottle. Slowly, and I do mean slowly, Cassie began to warm up. Just a few weeks ago, she turned a big corner. She started "preferring" Daddy over Mommy for certain things. Things like who sits next to who at the dinner table, who puts her down for a nap, who changes her diaper.

Then just a week ago, she said some magic words: "I love Dadda"

Now she says it about 40 times every day. Yes, I know this is "a phase". There will be other phases, not all of which I will like, but I'll take this one and milk it for all it's worth.

Chloe is still a work in progress. She's never raised her defenses quite like her older sister, but she still hasn't fully opened up yet either. That too will come. Soon, I hope.

Meanwhile, Cassie says "I love Dadda".

I love you too, my sweet child. I love you too.

Balcony Santa seems to be okay

2010-12-23T15:14:00.007-05:00

Last night we went to the Holiday Nights display at Greenfield Village (part of Henry Ford Museum). It was actually warm -- 32 degrees (Fahrenheit, for my Canadian friends) -- and there was no wind for this time of year. Really, I'm not kidding - that is warm and we were very excited about the weather. If it had been too cold we might not have been able to go with the girls. I had the girls dressed in 18 layers (onesies, long-sleeved shirts, sweaters, tights, pants, socks, boots, winter coats, scarves, mittens and hats). They were in the stroller most of the time with a blanket. They loved watching the people dressed in 19th century clothing, the carolers, the horse and buggies, Model Ts, and the fire pit warming stations on almost every street corner. We had dinner there -- cafeteria style indoors, as opposed to the only other option, which was having sausage and sweet potato stew on a street corner. Mama and dada thought the stew sounded tasty since they also severed beer at the same place. But, we thought the girls would like to warm up a bit inside. We also got to see Santa and two of his reindeer. Santa was waving and talking to all the kids from a balcony and both Cassie and Chloe couldn't wait to get out of the stroller to see and wave to him. They also thought the reindeer were pretty cool too. Then it was off to the carousel horses -- on a 97 year old carousel -- for a ride to Christmas songs before heading home. It was a late night for the girls as we left for home at 9:30pm. They were cold and tired but really enjoyed themselves as did Sonny and I. Here are a few pictures I took while we were there.

Christmas fun

2010-12-21T11:05:00.003-05:00

We have a great little park about 2 minutes from us with a lake, historic buildings from the city, library, and an activities building. They do a Christmas display every year and we finally got to go on Saturday. The girls loved it and had a really fun time -- until we asked them to sit on Santa's lap. Cassie went into complete meltdown mode. And she was so excited to see him before we got there, we preped her and talked about it and from a distance she was fine with seeing Santa. Up close -- another story. Then of course Chloe fed off of Cassie's distress. It was ugly -- at least we were smart enough to wait to see Santa until the very end. Since we already paid for the picture when we paid to go in -- it was for a local food bank fundraiser so we couldn't use our own camera -- Sonny and I ended up sitting in front of Santa and Mrs. Claus with the girls on our laps. And mama ran out of time getting the girls ready and didn't do my hair and makeup. That will teach me to get up earlier when we have plans. And no -- I didn't include that picture. I couldn't get the girls to stand with their backs to any of the displays -- they were a little afraid of that -- maybe next year.

Because I'm the Grinch....

2010-12-08T17:52:00.002-05:00

and having the tree knocked over twice in less than 20 hours of being put up was more than I was willing to take. So there. It's out there. I'm the Grinch. And I don't care who knows.

Didn't take long......

2010-12-08T15:05:00.004-05:00

This was the crime scene at exactly 12:00pm. And what's with the purse smuggling?

Taking bets.....

2010-12-08T09:03:00.003-05:00

on how long before the tree is knocked over. Chloe has already carried her little chair over to the table and 'stolen' ornaments. That was within 10 minutes of them decorating the tree. It might be years before we can have a big tree with glass ornaments on it.

Notice the many ornaments near the bottom. The girls put on about 80% of the decorations themselves. They had a ball.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

2010-11-25T23:02:00.001-05:00

What I'm thankful for:

My big girls

2010-11-10T14:52:00.003-05:00

Progress. My babies are growing up. As of today we have no more highchairs. (we still have them - they have just been moved to the basement). My girls now have booster seats and sit at the dining room table like big girls. They are thrilled about being big girls.

I'd post pictures of the two cuties in their new seats but there new thing is to run around the house with with just diapers on. No matter how much I beg them to leave their clothes on they just look at me and laugh. They are nice enough to throw their clothes in the laundry room for me -- even if they have only been on them for 7 minutes and 14 seconds. Because that's what we do with dirty clothes.

Speaking of diapers, my goal is to start potty training in January. Once the holidays are over. Cassie has been ready for a while and Chloe is 'ready' but her speech/communication is still not the best so I have been waiting until she can communicate her needs better. I'm thinking by January we should be there.

Last week Chloe said her first three word sentence -- "I did it". Thanks to Dora that's a big phrase around here these days and Chloe has mastered it. Her speech is getting really good and a lot more understandable.

And Cassie is really talking up a storm these days and very clear. She even asked for orange juice yesterday instead of just juice. And she's now trying to explain things to me -- like when dada tells her no or her sister pulls her hair or her sister decides to take her diaper off. You know, the important things that mama is suppose to know about.

And one last thing about my big girls -- as of today we have moved to level 6 at Gymboree -- the 28 to 36 month class. I was keeping the girls back until Chloe could master all the skills a little bit better and she finally started to jump off the platform onto a really thick mat -- it's about a 3 foot drop. Since she mastered that skill I figured it was time. We tried the level 6 class out today and both girls did fabulous and had a blast.

That's it for now.

Tutu Minnie cute!!!!

2010-10-23T20:21:00.004-04:00

We had a Halloween Party tonight and here are the girls before we went. Can you guess what/who they are?

Cider, donuts, cookies and pumpkins!

2010-10-20T20:11:00.005-04:00

Guess where we went on Monday?

Long over due

2010-10-17T09:49:00.006-04:00

This blog is in a much needed -- very over due -- post. Things have been a little crazy around here lately. I guess this is the new normal for us.

The girls are both doing great. I'm amazed every day to see how close they have become and how much they truly love and care for each other. They both have very busy social schedules too. Weekly we are now doing gymnastics, art class, music class, and play & learn class. Of course they are all on separate days - which keeps mama hopping. Chloe's not really into art class and Cassie's not really into music class but I figure they need to participate in things they don't really like too. Chloe's also not too sure about gymnastics either. She's excited to go and get started but then is either afraid of the activity or the instructor. The instructor, Alicia, is great about it all -- but she's a little sad that Chloe is the first kid ever that doesn't like her. Alicia's trying extra hard to win Chloe over. I think we might have turned the corner with the swing (see picture below) last week -- we'll see if she does any better this week. Cassie LOVES gymnastics. She's little Miss Independent when there. It's great to see her opening up so much around others and to see her confidence shine through. We get to see it everyday at home but most of the time when we leave the house her confidence seems to stay behind for a little nap at home.

Cassie is becoming such a big girl. She's no longer a baby in any way - other than diapers. She's communicating so well, using some reasoning skills, says "sorry" at the right times, tries to comfort or correct Chloe at the appropriate times, and has turning into a truly happy, well adjusted little girl. She's also still growing too -- she's now 35.5 inches tall. Sleep issues still come and go with her -- I'm sure they will for years to come -- and naps for the past month have been in our bedroom in the pack-n-play. The big-girl toddler bed in her own room is just too much for her right now. The night time sleeping and naps are a day-by-day guessing game -- but like I said this is the new normal around here and no one is really fazed by it anymore. Although I long for a week of sleeping through 5 out of 7 nights.

Chloe -- what can I say other than this girl impresses me all the time. She's such a happy girl. Her hearing issues are now in wait-and-see mode -- waiting until she's a little older to do more intense testing. At home and while out, I really can't even tell she has any hearing issues. We haven't had any problems with her ear tubes and/or ear infections with them. We actually see the ENT tomorrow for a follow up. We are now doing speech therapy every other Friday and will be switching to every Friday after the first of the year. Chloe is doing wonderfully with her speech but we want to make sure to stay on top of it. She's about 6 - 9 months behind but I see her catching up every day. She's now using 2 words together on a regular basis -- which is new in the past three weeks. She's also off of toddler soy formula and is drinking rice milk for her milk intake. She's tolerating it very well. As long as we watch her diet closely and give her probiotics everyday, she's not having any poop issues. Plus, I found some coconut milk ice cream that the girls both love - so they can now have ice cream!!! That makes them very happy. She's also really growing too -- Chloe's now 33.25 inches tall. Just 2.25 inches behind her sister but I see that gap closing over the next 6 months. She seems to love following and doing whatever her sister does. Even picking up the wonderful word "MINE" this week from her sister. Who invented that word, anyway? I've decided I just don't have a need for it. :)

So that's enough for now. I'll leave you with some pictures of the girls -- since that's all you came to see anyway :)

Olympics here we come!

2010-09-29T10:47:00.004-04:00

The girls are now in Gymnastics -- here they are getting ready for class. They are just so adorable. And I'm not just saying that because I'm there mother. Really -- they are cute. :) We have gone to two class so far. Cassie loves it!!!! Chloe is okay with it and did better the second class. I'll try to get some pictures of them at class -- it's just too cute to watch.

A letter to Cassie, from Mommy and Daddy

2010-09-16T12:04:00.001-04:00

Today Mommy took you and Chloe to Gymboree, just like any other Thursday. Today in class, everyone was pretending to be bears. Bears eat berries, leaves, and fish. The class leader, Miss Jen, had pretend berries, pretend leaves, and pretend fish placed everywhere so all the little bears could collect them and pretend to eat them. It was all very cute, and you and Chloe were your usual cute selves. While Miss Jen was setting up for another activity, you started carrying pretend fish to Mommy. Mommy shared a laugh with Miss Jen at the sheer cuteness of this act. But then Mommy noticed something odd. Even though these were only pretend fish, you were holding them by the tail, away from your face, very much like anyone might do if they didn't want to get any slimy fish goo on them. This was odd because as far as Mommy knew, you had never seen a raw fish or smelled one, much less seen how someone might carry them. Then things got serious. As you carried more and more fish to Mommy, you seemed to get scared. Something was wrong. With each one, you became more and more withdrawn, and more and more disturbed. Something clearly was bothering you. After that, you clung to Mommy for dear life for the rest of the class. Mommy wondered what you were thinking. It is in moments like these that we are reminded that we don't know everything about you. We don't know what life was like for you before you joined our family. You were 13 months old when you joined us. What were you doing two weeks before that? Two months before that? What experiences did you have? What people did you know? Who made you happy? Who made you sad? Who do you miss?

Clearly you had a memory today. But what was that memory? Was it is something that happened before we became a family? Were you scared? Or did you remember some people or place that you had forgotten. Or maybe you were thinking about something that happened before we became a family, and maybe that reminded you that you've had a lot of upheaval in your life. Maybe you're wondering if there is more upheaval to come. Or, maybe not. Maybe you just remembered that fish smelled funny, and were thinking really hard about why these pretend fish don't smell like anything. But then, why were you so upset, and so clingy afterward?

Whatever it is, Mommy and Daddy wish we knew.

The Queen and her court

2010-09-14T15:12:00.003-04:00

4 tiny words......

2010-08-31T20:41:00.002-04:00

...that melted my heart. Last night while I was trying/begging/pleading with Cassie to go to sleep, she said the best 4 tiny words......"I have a mama.". Not only is this her first ever 4 word sentence, but they were the sweetest words ever spoken. Cassie first called me mama in March of this year -- I think that's when it was -- even though she's known who I was for a long time now. She has just not been able to say the words -- commitment issues I guess. :) Or attachment issues is more like it. And she's had more than her share of them. But, I think we have turned another major corner in that department. Being able to verbalize that she has a mama is huge for Cassie. And having her repeat it about 15 times didn't hurt either.

My first born is finally 'getting it'. And the wait to hear those words has made them even sweeter than if I would have heard them 6 months ago. I have one smart cookie for a daughter. And she has a mama. And a dada and a sister.

We are one blessed family.

Bad blogger....

2010-08-30T10:12:00.007-04:00

okay -- that's me. I've planned on updating the blog many times over the last few weeks and then something happens and I just don't have the time. I also haven't read any blogs in weeks either. I need to do that today too and catch up with all my blogger friends.

The girls are doing great and getting so big!!!! In the past two months Cassie has grow .75 inches and Chloe has grown 1.75 inches!!!! That's just crazy. My baby girl - Chloe - is catching up in so many ways. She's actually on target -- according to Early On - who evaluated both girls two weeks ago -- in all areas now except for fine motor skills and speech. We are going to do some speech classes with Chloe and hopefully get her talking more. She's now saying about 60 words and learning more words and things every week. Cassie on the other hand is on target or advanced a little bit in all areas except in speech. And she's only now behind a few months in speech. Like I have said before -- these girls just amaze me.

Both girls are still great eaters and love fruits and veggies. Chloe would live on bananas if we let her and Cassie would live on sticky white rice and tomatoes. Those are their favorites right now.

Even after having Chloe on two different -- expensive -- brands of probiotics she was still having lots of liquid poop issues, even with no dairy at all. I did some research on some other brands and read a ton of reviews for them and decided to switch Chloe's probiotics....again. The brand we switched her too is very cheap compared to the other two brands we used. But I figured it was worth a try since we weren't getting any positive results with the other brand she has been on for the past 3 months. She's been on them for a little over a week now and since the 4th day on them we have had solid/normal poop. That's very exciting news around here. For the past 7 months that has rarely happened. I'm going to give it another week and then try to slowing add some dairy back into her diet and see what happens. So far I'm very impressed with these probiotics.

Not much else going on around here and I'll end this post with the promise to update the blog more often and I'll add some pictures too.

Here are some pictures of our FCC picnic and also Cassie and Chloe giving lessons on the proper way to set a table. With your favorite fuzzy blanket of course. And just some other cute pictures of them. Since mama thinks they are cuties things ever!

11:56pm

2010-08-05T23:57:00.003-04:00

At 11:56pm on August 5th 2009 -- one year ago today -- we got the best telephone call we could have imagined. It was the call about Chloe -- the second we saw her face we knew she was our daughter.

We have loved her since then and more each day since she's been home with us. We are blessed.

6 months with Chloe

2010-08-02T17:20:00.005-04:00

Yesterday was 6 months since our Gotcha Day for Chloe. We are so blessed to have her as a daughter and sister. She's just perfect for our family. I can't believe what a happy little girl she is. And she is perfectly happy to assume the little sister role -- at least for now.

Here's the progress Chloe has made in the past 6 months.

1. She learned how to walk!
2. She can climb.
3. She can jump.
4. She can hear -- thanks to the ear tubes.
5. She has grown about 2 inches and gained 3 lbs and 1 shoe size.
6. Her red blood cells are now normal.
7. She can say 38 words.
8. She will now walk on grass with no shoes on.
9. She has cut her first 2 year molar.
10. Best of all she has a mama, dada, and a 'big' sister.

How did we celebrate the day? The zoo of course.

Cutie-pie

2010-07-30T13:17:00.002-04:00

I had just watered my herbs -- you can see my basil was very thirsty -- Chloe decided this was a good way to also get a drink of water.

Pictures and hearing updates

2010-07-20T13:23:00.011-04:00

On Friday I took Chloe in for her hearing evaluation. It appears that we'll be doing this every 2 - 3 months for a while. Chloe's attention span and age has a lot to do with it at this point. She gets restless and then we are basically done for the day. If we force it, we won't get good data and she will learn to hate it. So that means we stop when she wants to stop. We did find that she's more relaxed with the tests if mama puts all the things in her ears not the audiologist or the student working with us. The audiologist we are seeing is great about this and gave me the crash course in how to do things the right way. She is very willing to make this as easy on Chloe as possible and to make it a positive experience for her. It helps that our audiologist has a son who was born with hearing problems so she completely understands. This is a big help to both Chloe and me. And for some reason it makes me trust her more.

We were able to get baseline data on Chloe's left ear, the ear we know there are problems with. This is a good starting point. We'll go back in September and try to get the same type of baseline on the right ear. The test Chloe has during surgery test groups of tones together, the tests we are doing now breaks each and every tone out so we really know what's going on. As of right now -- based on just this one evaluation -- Chloe is borderline for needing a hearing aide in her left ear. But, it's way too early in the process to know for sure. We also don't know yet if her hearing loss is conductive or neurological -- that will be determined with more testing. However, it really doesn't matter what type of hearing loss she has -- the treatment for both right now would be the same -- wait and see. So we are continuing on with our summer and not worrying about this or anything else for the time being. We are spending lots of time in the pool and at the zoo. These are our two favorite things to do. And the girls don't know it yet but mama ordered them a new and bigger pool. I'm sure I'll be regretting that when the water bill comes. :) But seeing the smiles and giggles will make it all worth it.

Another day at the zoo

2010-07-11T13:30:00.002-04:00

Speech

2010-07-07T18:17:00.006-04:00

I took both girls in for their speech evaluations on Tuesday. The girls did very well with the woman doing the evaluations. They were very relaxed with her. You can tell she's good with kids and had been doing this a while.

Cassie 'tested' as being about 6 months behind in her development on her speech/language/communications and Chloe about 9 - 12 months behind. I was very pleased with those results - based on what the girls have been through and how long they have each been home. I was asked if I wanted to do speech therapy and I declined for now. Chloe is still figuring out what parents are and since she just got her ear tubes in I expect her vocabulary to start exploding soon. I'm not against taking the girls to speech therapy but I want to see what I can do on my own during the next 6 months. That's when the girls will need to be reevaluated. They gave me some things to work on and told me to call if I have any questions so that's where we will leave it for now. My goal for January is to have Cassie on target for her age and Chloe at 6 months behind. So we'll see what the three of us can do together on this.

Here are some pictures of the girls from this weekend. We hung out in the backyard in the pool and went to the zoo on Saturday for my birthday. We love the zoo.

Sleeping, napping and not sleeping

2010-07-02T13:22:00.004-04:00

and not necessarily in that order.

Background info -- Cassie has been napping in her toddler bed -- used to be her crib -- that she never slept in -- since two days before we left for China in February. That would make it since January 27th. Chloe has been napping in her pack-n-play in our bedroom since coming home. And they both sleep in separate pack-n-plays at night in our room. Yes, we have crazy sleeping arrangements but it's what works best for everyone. Ok, another lie -- that's what works best for the girls.

We now have a 2nd toddler bed in their bedroom with the hopes of moving them both in there for naps and at night this fall or winter.

About 2 weeks ago Chloe figured out how to climb out of the pack-n-play. The first time this happened she quietly climbed out, made it all the way downstairs and to the baby gate in the foyer before I heard her. She was so proud of herself. At least she had already napped and didn't fall down the stairs. But now we had a problem. The next few days it was a fight to get her to stay in the pack-n-play at nap time. Then once I got her to sleep I had to run up and check on her every 15 minutes -- even with the baby monitor on since she can be very sneaky. Of course this was driving me crazy. Then I had the brainy idea to just put both girls in the same room and maybe they would just nap. Ok -- I know -- not the smartest thing I have ever done. But I was desperate -- plus there is a baby gate in the hall from their room so they couldn't get to the bathroom or stairs. On paper it was a perfect plan. The reality of it was, in a word, pandemonium. After three days of this, and the girls deciding that naps were no longer going to happen, I needed a new plan -- or lots of duct tape. :)

Last Thursday night after the girls went to sleep I got up and moved the new toddler bed into the playroom and rearranged some things in both rooms. The playroom is now Cassie's bedroom. On Friday Cassie actually napped in there during the day. I made a big deal out of her getting a new "big girl" room. And she bought it - hook, line and sinker. Then Friday night after the girls were sleeping, Sonny and I made the other toddler bed back into a crib. Of course Chloe would be able to climb out of that too. So on Saturday we went and bought a crib tent. After some work we got it to 'fit' on our crib -- we have a sleigh style crib and the crib tents don't work with them -- nice. Thank goodness for zip ties.

So now was the big test -- nap time on Saturday. Chloe resisted falling asleep but finally did. Sunday was about the same. But as of Monday -- so 5 days today -- Chloe is napping for 2 - 3 hours a day in her new crib. Mommy is very pleased. And now she's safe too -- that's the most important thing. And since Monday Cassie has decided that she's a big girl now and no longer sleeps in the toddler bed in her new room. She prefers the queen size bed. She doesn't roll much and since it's against the wall on two sides, I just use lots of pillows around the other two sides and she's fine. Plus, it's low to the ground.

I think the naptime issues of nap time are behind us for a while.

However, Chloe isn't sleeping at night now -- so that means no one is sleeping at night. This has been going on since Monday night. She's just so itchy, even with Benadryl. Her little belly is covered again with psoriasis so I'm sure that's the problem. We have topical hydrocortisone for that, so hopefully once that kicks in, night time will get better too.

And in case you are wondering, she does get out of the pack-n-play in the morning too but just comes over to wake me up. Most of the time I'm already awake and hear her stand up, since the pack-n-play is about 1 foot from my bed.

And now the funny -- not so funny -- part of the story. While I was changing the rooms around last Thursday night we were having tornado warnings and a huge storm. Sonny was watching the tv and the weather online to see if we needed to wake the girls and move to the basement. I was watching out the window while moving the rooms around. SO it was pretty late when we actually got to bed -- after the storm had passed. Some how in all this I mistakenly locked the poor cat in bedroom closet. I figured that out at 6:30am the next morning when I took Chloe in there to change her diaper. I heard Sage loud and clear asking to be let out. Then it hit me -- he had been in there all night -- that meant he didn't have a litter box in there with him. When I opened the door he took off. Right in front of the inside of the closet door was a small pile of poop. In the corner of the closet was 3ft high stack of brand new summer cloths in size 2T that are still too big for Cassie. Yep, you guessed it -- that's where Sage decided to pee. And since the clothes were leaning slightly it ran down half of them -- meaning all of them needed to be washed -- and have the tags all taken off -- some of which were wet. About 4 hours later I got everything cleaned and washed like it never happened. No so funny at the time and still not very funny. It just adds to the crazyness around here.

Here are some pictures of my sleeping angels at nap time.

Mondays

2010-06-28T12:05:00.004-04:00

I'm so behind on updating the blog as to what's going on around here. Let's just say that last week was a really LONG week.

So I'll back up a day to Sunday -- Chloe's 2nd birthday -- as you can see from the pictures in the last post, we went to the zoo and then hung out at home with cupcakes, a new water table and a new blowup jumping/climber toy. The girls had a really fun day -- so did Sonny and I. I can't believe I have two 2-year-olds now. WOW. What a difference 4 years makes. Our original LID (log-in-date) with China was June 19, 2006. The day before Chloe's birthday was 4 years since that date. I will never forget that date or the waiting but having my two girls home makes the memories of the waiting fade just a little.

Chloe had two dr appts on Monday. One at 10:30am downtown with the ENT for her follow up on her tubes and then at 2pm with the pediatrician -- on the complete opposite side of town -- for her 2-year checkup and more vaccines. Cassie also had a nurse appt for more vaccines at the same time.

First the good news -- Chloe's tubes and ears look great. The dr was very pleased with the progress Chloe has made in the past 5 weeks on her walking, running, balance, mood, hearing and overall cuteness explosion. However, he wasn't pleased with the hearing tests results on Chloe's left ear during surgery. That test showed that Chloe hears no low tones in her left ear. That meant that we were going to have another hearing test during last Monday's appointment. No problem, as we had some time between our appointments. Three hearing tests later and another 45 minutes waiting to see the dr again we found out nothing. Ok, that's a lie. Chloe's overall hearing is in the normal range and she's a normal toddler with no attention span. The audiologist and a student tried many tricks to keep Chloe engaged enough to check the hearing in each ear and the tones in each ear but Chloe wasn't having any of it.

All this means is I have to call this week -- when the July schedule is out -- and make an 90 minute appt with the audiologist and student to see if they can get meaningful results. If this doesn't work we'll have to have Chloe put under for another hearing test. So please pray that Chloe's hearing has improved in her left ear since the tubes have been in place and that we can get the test completed without putting her under.

On to the next appointment. Chloe is now 31.5 inches tall and 34 inches long -- our dr tracks both -- she said that kids don't stand straight at this age when you try and get their height. She weighs 25.5 lbs. She's in the 50% percentile for both height and weight. She's still wearing mostly 12 month clothes and some 18 month tops and dresses. Plus, her little feet are growing too. She had size 2 feet when we got her and she just graduated to size 4 shoes. Our dr was also very impressed at how much Chloe has changed and advanced in the short time home. She's still way behind where she should be for a 'normal' 2-year-old on all the charts but neither the dr nor Sonny and I are concerned since we know Chloe is very smart and will catch up when she's ready. She's only been walking for 3 months. I think she's doing amazing!!

I have had Chloe at our drs office at least twice a month since coming home. At one of the trips in April I took her in for what I thought was ringworm on her belly. No such luck -- it's psoriasis. Since then it's now on the backs of her legs, her upper arms, belly, behind her right ear and about 4 spots on her face. We are learning what works best to keep it under control as we know this will be a life long condition she'll have to deal with. We were also at the drs office about 3 weeks ago because Chloe woke up with red bumps/dots on her face and arms -- a lot of them. It's some type of allergic reaction to something -- of course it could be anything. And she's been itching like crazy since them. Because of all this and the poop problems still happening about once a week -- she's now on rice milk -- the dr decided to do allergy tests for food. Plus Chloe also needed to have her red blood cells rechecked from when we first came home from China -- they were abnormally shaped -- our dr wanted to wait to recheck them after she had been home for a few months. And we forgot to have a lead test done with we first got home -- the dr and I forgot since we had so many other things going on with Chloe when we first came home.

I will say that both Cassie and Chloe did wonderful with getting their vaccines. This hasn't been the case in the past. Cassie went first since she's normally worse. When the nurse brought in the two shots I sat Cassie on the table and told her she was going to be getting shots. I had also been telling her this all day since she got up. I told her the nurse was going to put the needle in her legs -- pointing to where -- and that it was going to hurt -- just like a little pinch. Then I pinched her leg. I told her it was medicine so she didn't get sick. She seemed ok with it at this point. Cassie laid down and was laughing. She laughed and talked until the last shot -- which burned -- she whimpered for about 15 second and then I told her it was done. Once she found out she was going to get two band aids she just wanted to see the band aids. What a change when you can explain what's going to happen to them --- and they get it. I did the same routine with Chloe -- she whimpered and cried a tiny bit more but overall a great improvement from the last set of shots.

At this point on Monday it's around 4pm. The lab for blood work is in the same building. The woman working needed to call for assistant to help us restrain Chloe. It was ugly. It was all I could do to hold it together for both girls as Cassie was in the stroller watching this all. After one try in each arm, digging in both arms, and one blown vein, I said enough. There was no way with no nap and too many people poking and prodding on my baby that there was going to be anymore. The woman doing the blood draw was very nice and kept saying she was sorry. She asked us to come back in the morning at 10am and another woman with be there with her and she was better at getting blood from kids. And to top it all off for the allergy test they needed two large tubes plus two small tubes for the other tests.

Tuesday morning we got the blood draw done -- on the second try. I also asked them to please let me hold Chloe facing me so I could hug her tightly against me for the 2nd try. They agreed and that seemed to help. I know now for blood to only go when this woman is working and how to hold Chloe to make it easier on her. This was also the same woman who did the blood draw on Chloe when we first came home.

The allergy test results take about a week so I'll call this afternoon and see if they results are back. I'm really hoping she's allergic to something we are feeding her so it will explain the itching, rashes and running poop.

I have lots more to tell but since this post is getting so long I'll save the rest for another day.

~~~~ 7:00PM UPDATE ~~~~

Chloe goes in for her hearing tests on July 16th.

I talked to her pediatrician and Chloe's CBC test was perfect!!!! Her lead test was normal. And so were all the allergy tests. That's not so good -- since now we are starting over on what the problem might be. Our dr wants us to add in more plain white rice to Chloe's diet. She thinks that Chloe might need it to help her digestion since that was a staple in her diet for the first 19 months. We used to eat it about 3 - 4 nights a week but 2-year-olds and sticky white rice is a complete mess to clean up. It goes everywhere. But we'll go back to our 3 - 4 nights a week of white rice and see if that helps with the poop issues. As for the itching, she gave me a name of an allergist to see. Before we do that I'm going to make a couple of changes. I was using Dreft but switched to the Target brand a couple of months ago since it's so much cheaper -- I'll go out tomorrow and buy the real stuff. Plus, we'll cut out the milk powder in the bath water again. If that helps I'll just have to find another solution for Cassie's skin problems -- as separate baths just won't work.

Chloe's birthday celebration

2010-06-24T14:16:00.015-04:00

Happy Birthday Chloe Jewel!!!!

2010-06-20T17:42:00.003-04:00

More cuteness

2010-06-09T09:17:00.002-04:00

Visitors

2010-06-07T15:40:00.012-04:00

Susan and Maiya finally came to visit us. Yes, I mean FINALLY since they live less than two hours away and we haven't seem them since last summer. S&M (Susan and Maiya) arrived for dinner Thursday night, spent the night and then hung out with us on Friday for most of the day. It took a little while for the girls to warm up to each other but once they did they had lots of fun playing and goofing off. Just what 2 and 3-year-olds are suppose to do. Here's one picture from the little pond at the petting zoo down the street and then girls playing in the sprinkler in the backyard. Yes, Susan and I were lazy and decided that shirts and swim diapers were just as good as bathing suits. That is until the two 'big' girls decided that shirts were optional. We might have a problem with those two someday.

Also notice that Chloe is finally walking in the grass!!! But, with shoes on. We are slowy making progress.

Sandbox Sunday

2010-05-24T11:00:00.000-04:00

Surgery results

2010-05-22T20:54:00.001-04:00

We made it through Friday. Getting up at 4am was brutal, especially since Chloe didn’t sleep well and Sonny finally put her in bed with us around 3:30am. I think Sonny and I each got about 2.5 hours of sleep. But, this post isn’t about us. :)

Getting to the hospital and getting checked in was uneventful. Chloe’s procedure was ‘scheduled’ for 7:30am. They called us back to prep her at 7:45am. There was a slight problem with getting the hearing test ordered and approved – but again they didn’t know how persistent I was. In the end, Chloe had the hearing test.

I was also allowed to put on a gown and hair net so I could take Chloe to the operating room. Everyone at the DMC is very polite – like they are genuinely happy to be there. Well, almost everyone. One nurse or orderly (we’re not sure) stood around doing nothing and being in everyone’s way, and even said “that’s not my job” a few times while in our presence. I just love that phrase. For the sake of this post, I’ll call her “Grouchy”. When I brought Chloe into the operating room, Grouchy told me to lay Chloe on the operating table so they could put the mask on her to knock her out. Chloe wasn’t having any of that. I said it wasn’t going to happen that way and that I was going to hold her until she was out. They complied to my ‘request’. Then Chloe wasn’t going to let Grouchy hold the mask either. In the end I did that too. So I actually held Chloe in my arms while forcing the mask over her little face. She wasn’t pleased with me, but within 4 or 5 breaths she was out. I then laid her in the table, removed the mask from her face and kissed her goodbye. I then made the nice RN promise that they would be gentle with Chloe and take very good care of her. Then I was escorted back to the pre-op area where Sonny and Cassie waited for me. We checked in at the surgical reception area and got a pager so we could go get breakfast. Poor Cassie had been up since 5:15am with nothing to eat or drink. At this point, she kept asking for Chloe, which she pronounces as “Eee”. We has been telling Cassie that the doctors were going to be fixing Chloe’s ears for days. We had been telling Chloe too but she had no idea what we were talking about. So we explained the best we could that Chloe was safe and OK and that the doctor was fixing her ears. We only had to tell Cassie this about 10 – 15 times during the day. But I do think she understood – at least as well as a 2 year old can.

We were back from a quick breakfast in the cafeteria for about 5 minutes when the ENT called to say that Chloe’s tubes were in. He also said that she had fluid in both ears but that everything else looked good. We now have antibiotic drops to put in her ears twice a day for 10 days and we need to go back and see the ENT in 4 weeks.

About 40 minutes later the Dentist came out to see us. They filled not one but two cavities that Chloe had. Both in her upper 1-year molars. They also sealed the 4 molars that she has, cleaned her teeth and took x-rays for her front 4 teeth. It looks like her 4 permanent front teeth are there. The had a hard time getting good x-rays because of the intubation tube in her nose. The dentist also said that Chloe will be needing a lot of dental and mouth work as she gets older and grows. Her palate is repaired but won’t grow with the rest of her mouth. As for her tiny little mouth – it’s because of the restrictions of her palate and lip repair. Once she gets a palate expander (an orthodontic device) during her teenage years that should get better. The craniofacial surgeon will be the one who determines the timeline of all these corrections. We’ll be seeing her once a year. Other that that, Chloe needs to be seen by the dentist in one week to make sure everything looks ok.

Last up, the hearing test was started at 9:30am. Chloe can hear now. Her hearing is good. Not great – but good. To mama and dada that is wonderful news!!!! Chloe doesn’t have very good low-frequency hearing (i.e. deep base tones). This is a normal side effect when tubes are in place. Once the tubes are removed that hearing should come back. Chloe also hears better in her right ear than in her left. I will ask more questions about her hearing when we see the ENT in 4 weeks and when we go for her speech evaluation. As for now – “good hearing” is great news.

About 20 minutes later they called me back to recovery, as Chloe was starting to wake up. They brought me to a tiny room with a recliner and said “wait here”. About 3 minutes later a nurse brought me my very tired, not so with it, baby girl. She curled up in my arms just like she was before we started with the mask in the operating room. I don’t think she knew she had ever left my arms. After a bottle of juice, a visit from a couple of doctors and nurses, and 40 minutes of time, we were cleared to go home. By this point Cassie was sound asleep in the stroller – that is until she heard and saw her sister. We left valet parking at 11:58am.

It’s now Saturday night and Chloe is a different kid. She can hear, she is cruising around the house like the toddler she is. She’s not falling at all and she is climbing with no problems at all. She’s also been very vocal since we got home. She likes the sound of her voice. She’s laughing and smiling more too. And she slept for 8 straight hours last night and took a 3 hour nap today. Life is good. And my baby can hear.

This might sound strange but she looks different now. Not just happier but different. I swear her face has changed shape overnight. Sonny noticed it too. Really. And her eyes sparkle now. And as weird as this sounds, she’s more beautiful looking than she was at 8am Friday morning. Yesterday was the start of a new chapter for us all. And this one will end with butterflies and rainbows.

And one last thing. I promise to post pictures soon. Promise.

Early morning Friday

2010-05-20T17:00:00.004-04:00

Just a quick update. Tomorrow we need to be at Children's Hospital at 6am. Chloe's procedures -- ear tubes, hearing test, one filling, and full mouth x-rays -- start at 7:30am. I'm hoping to be home by noon. But then again, I have no idea what to expect. Right now I'm just praying that my baby girl sleeps tonight since tomorrow will be a long stressful day for her. She hasn't been sleeping well or taking afternoon naps lately. She's been very clingy, whiny, and tugs at her ears all the time. She resists naps like the plague, even though she is clearly very tired. Everyone tells us that we will notice an immediate improvement in her hearing, balance, and mood. We are praying for just that.

Cleft team evaluations

2010-05-06T21:32:00.002-04:00

So today was the big day we have been waiting for. Our day started with the alarm going off at 5:30am. That would be bad enough if Chloe hadn’t been up 8 times during the night, but she was. I think there were 5 diaper changes too and once having her in bed with us. But at least we knew today we’d be able to get some answers on why our baby girl was having so many problems with her little ears.

After our appointment and a quick trip to the pharmacy for an RX, I spent about 2 hours on the phone with different departments at Children’s Hospital making sure they were going to do everything they said they were going to for Chloe. Let’s just say that the ENT group doesn’t feel the need to cooperate with the rest of the groups. Little did they know who they were dealing with. Me. In the end, we all agreed that my way and wishes will be easiest on everyone. And the best for Chloe. So beside the drama and aggrevation scheduling everything went well. Here’s the scoop on the girls.

Cassie’s evaluation:

Teeth look great, no cavities either. The dentist believes that Cassie shouldn’t have any issues with her teeth as she grows. Her eye tooth on the top left – where her cleft lip was – is sideways but that’s very minor. Her bite is also very good. We are still waiting on Cassie’s 2-year molars to start coming in – but we still have lots of time for that to happen. We also scheduled a cleaning for Cassie at the dentist’s office around the corner from the hospital for early June. It’s more to get her started on learning to trust the dentist and let them brush her teeth. I wish them all the luck with that one. :)

Cassie’s hearing is excellent, no fluid or pressure in her ears.

We do need to schedule a speech evaluation for Cassie. The woman in charge of that will be calling me.

The cleft surgeon wants to see Cassie in 6-months to check on how her lip is growing to determine if we might do her lip revision early. She sometimes bites her lip on that side because it’s a little thick on the inside. Still very minor issues there too. I made that appointment for early November.

This is pretty much what we expected with Cassie. So there were no surprises.

Chloe’s evaluation:

Chloe has one cavity in a bottom 1-year molar. We weren’t surprised at all on this as Chloe came to us eating hard candy and in all the update pictures we got of Chloe while waiting for her she was eating snacks. I’m just thankful it was only one cavity. She has a split in her gum – near the cleft – and an eye tooth is coming in there. The dentist can feel the two bottom eye teeth, so other than waiting on her 2-year molars there’s no concern right now – just watch and wait. The dentist will be able to fill her cavity when her ear tubes are done so there will be less trauma for her.

The next stop was for a hearing check. I already knew Chloe was having trouble hearing. Between the fluid issues, ear infections, being a cleft baby, and me having to speak loudly to her sometimes for her to hear me. Right now Chloe has moderate to severe hearing loss in both ears. She has pressure and fluid in both ears. There is so much fluid that her ear drums are not moving at all. Not even with air forced against it by the doctor. She needs tubes – no big surprise there. We also have some Nasonex to use until surgery to try and dry some of the fluid up. Chloe will see another ENT on May 17th for another evaluation and then have that same ENT do her tubes on Friday May 21st. They also ordered a hearing test for her once the tubes are in and while she is still under to determine what she can hear. This test will tell us if Chloe has any permanent hearing loss. The worst case is – meaning the removal of the fluid from her ears does nothing for her hearing – Chloe would need hearing aids to assisting her in hearing better. I’m thankful we know the worst case as I think it’s always good to know what you are up against, but I really think we are going to get great news after that test. Then watch out world because Chloe will know what’s like to hear ‘normal’ for the first time in her life. She’s already such a happy, easygoing girl – this should make her extremely pleased. During this surgery/procedure she’ll also have her cavity filled.

Chloe also needs a speech evaluation but she needs her tubes in first. That also means Cassie will be waiting on her evaluation too so that I can take them both in at the same time.

Chloe’s lip and palate look great so we have no follow up’s for either of those right now. I think we need just yearly visits for her with the cleft surgeon for that.

As with Cassie, no real surprises with Chloe’s evaluation.

Now we just look forward to the 21st when Chloe’s quality of life will dramatically change for the better. And so will life for all of us as we’ll get to see what Chloe’s like when she’s healthy, can hear, can walk 3 feet without falling and can sleep at night. She’s going to add more life to our already lively little family.

The simple things are all we are after here. You forget sometimes how important the simple things are when you don’t have them. God has truly blessed Sonny and I with magnificent girls. Everyday they teach us what’s important in life.

I’ll keep everyone posted as we learn more. Please say a prayer for Chloe as we need God to take her under His wing and heal her like only He can do.

One year ago today....

2010-05-03T16:58:00.009-04:00

two women from the orphanage in Kunming City brought a scared and very tan-faced little girl to our hotel room. That day was the day we really learned what love was. This little girl was 13-months old, small, way too skinny, dressed in too many layers of clothing, sucking her thumb, wide eyed with tears, and holding a sucker. Little did this girl, named Xi Ming Zhen, know what was going on or how her world was going to change. Little did she know how she was going to change the lives of the two strangers she met that day. Here's our very first picture of Cassie on gotcha day, taken just seconds after she walked into our world.

Today that same little girl is a different child. She's now 25-months old, tall, the proper weight, has the longest legs, the most beautiful smile, is happy, content, and insists on picking out her own clothes. She loves the color pink, loves her stuffed animals, thinks it's a big deal to nap in her big-girl-bed, loves her new sister, and just the past week will call me mama. We have taken the long road with Cassie on attachment issues -- we have had many of them and still are working on a few. Cassie still has a hard time expressing her anger and frustration in an acceptable way to mama and dada; she still has a hard time being around too many people or being around any new people. She doesn't like routine changes either and definitely has a Type-A personality. On the flip side, Cassie has come so far in these areas in the past year. It's amazing to think back on the night terrors, the clinging, the biting, the sobbing when I left the room, and compare that to the girl Cassie is today. I would say 80% of these behavior's are gone and we are working everyday to help Cassie learn to be more comfortable in her new surroundings and how to express herself.

Cassie has amazing climbing and balance skills, knows at least 150 words, is getting pretty good at stringing words together, knows what she wants and can sometimes tell us exactly what she wants, gives the best hugs, and if I'm very lucky she even gives kisses out once a day -- on the lips -- which is new for her. Kissing on the lips has been a big step for Cassie, as she has a hard time being that intimate and vulnerable. Having a new sister has really helped in this area. The trip back to China was the best thing for Cassie. We were scared to take her back so soon, as we didn't know what the sights, sounds, and smells of China would do to her. She had a ball there and in fact I think it helped with her attachment issues. In China and once home she seems to know that Sonny and I are her parents. She trusts more, smiles more, and calls us by name more. These are all positive steps towards learning that mama and dada are going to be her parents forever and ever. I really think she gets it now. She sees the 4 of us as family.

I can't believe that this child is the same one we met one year ago.

3 months with YiYu

2010-05-01T13:22:00.003-04:00

As of today we have had YiYu (Chloe to some) for 3 months!!! She is an amazing child. Watching her open up in itty-bitty doses every day is so wonderful to witness. YiYu is having some health issues but is still making the best of things here at her new home. She fits in perfectly and I don't know what Zhen-Zhen would do without her now. They are truly best friends now. All this in 3 short little months.

Here's some facts about YiYu.

1. She can now say - no, more, night-night, bye, hi, milk, snack, mama, dada, eye, up and kitty. I'm pretty impressed since she has had fluid in her ears since we got her -- I'm sure it's always been there -- she's hearing like she's under water. And, she's just getting over her second ear infection since coming home. Plus, she just had her palate repaired last July, and has only been hearing English for 3 months. So those 12 words are precious to hear. She's one smart cookie.

2. She's been walking for 5 weeks now. She still falls quite a bit -- I'm sure due to the fluid in her ears -- but gets up and tries again with very little whining over falling.

3. She's got the tiniest little mouth and the cutest little dimple on her right cheek when she smiles. Which she's doing more and more.

4. She's still very easy going. She's my flip-flop and margartia girl -- not a care in the world. :)

5. Her climbing skills are getting very good. Except her balancing skills are not so good -- remember the fluid in the ears. So she's fallen off the foot stool, their little chairs and table a few times. But, that doesn't seem to deter her. Because of this we just put up a baby gate to block off the stairs. Just in case.

6. Her baby-body-type is now becoming the toddler-body she so deserves. (less baby fat)

7. She hates having shoes and socks on.

8. She will not walk outside -- like on cement or black top.

9. And don't even try to set her down on grass. She HATES it. She will totally freak out with screaming and shaking. It's very sad to see her like that. Mama will be working on getting her more comfortable outside. She also doesn't like the deck either -- because there are leaves and little things from the trees on it. And if one little blade of grass is on the floor in the house she gets extremely upset over it until it's gone.

10. She loves her sister. And shares so well with her. Here's an example of what a sweet girl she is. If I'm feeding them a yogurt -- which I do before bedtime -- if I give YiYu a bite and then try to give YiYu another bite she will shake her head no, point to Zhen-Zhen and say more. Meaning -- it's my sister's turn for a bite, not mine. And she won't take another bite until Zhen-Zhen takes hers. She's just adorable.

It's been amazing having two daughters for the past 3 months. I can't wait to see what the summer and the next 3 months is like.

My girls

2010-04-29T12:49:00.003-04:00

Such a little cutie. Every day we see more and more of Chloe's personality. I have a feeling we are going to be in big trouble.
:)

This was dinner on Tuesday night -- Cassie had her first chicken leg. I think it was too much food for her -- since she had already eaten my chicken wing. Check out her still holding onto the chicken leg.

Art Class

2010-04-22T14:02:00.009-04:00

Gym class

2010-04-22T13:47:00.004-04:00

Breaking bread

2010-04-12T10:49:00.008-04:00

Sundays I head out to the grocery store while the girls are napping. And most Sundays I buy a loaf of fresh bakery bread and most of the time it's still warm. Mmmmm. I will tell you I do this because the girls really like it -- but that's a lie -- oh, they do like it -- but I buy it because I really like it. I could eat the whole loaf myself slathered in butter. And I will never admit to doing that either. I will say that the girls have picked up on my Sunday bread and butter habit. It could be worse - right? Normally I give them a piece of bread to keep them quite/busy while I cook dinner. It started with giving them bread without butter on it so that they could walk around with it and not get butter on everything. But a few times I gave them a bite of my piece with butter on it. Needless to say, I now get the bread handed back to me from both of them if there is no butter on it. Yes, I have created bread and butter monsters. But that's better than cookie monsters -- isn't it?

Yesterday was no different than any other Sunday. But yesterday, they disappeared and got really quite -- never a good sign. When I went to find the little monsters, I found then sitting on the floor in the kitchen next to the table enjoying their bread and butter. The camera just happened to be sitting on the snack bar so I was also to get these sweet shots of them.

Did I tell you I just love these girls?

Sometimes they can be so sweet and good, and sisterly.

I am BLESSED

2010-04-08T11:36:00.005-04:00

Good-bye sweet baby girl

2010-04-02T19:35:00.004-04:00

My sweet baby girl died today. No reason for it, she wasn't sick, didn't have any major health problems, didn't eat poison, didn't get hit by a car, she just died. I guess it was just her time. One minute she was playing with her best friend in the whole wide world -- her orange ball -- then the next she laying in distress. Sonny was outside with her when it started so we know the exact timeline. It only was a matter of minutes and she was gone. Gone before we could do anything but panic as we watched over her during her last few minutes on this earth.

My little spitfire girl is gone. I'm lost, shocked and so, so sad. Losing both my four-legged babies in 10 months time is just heartbreaking. Thunder and Tehya were our first kids and now they are gone.

Our vet believes it was a blood clot that ended Tehya's life, based on the exam. The only comfort we have in all this is it was quick for her and she was doing what she loved most - just seconds before it happened - playing with her ball.

Tehya will be so missed. Right now I don't know how I'm going to get through my days without her. I only hope she knew how much we loved her.

Mark 10:14-15

2010-03-24T20:53:00.003-04:00

"Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it."

Chloe Jewel entered the kingdom of God tonight -- she was baptized during our Wednesday night Lenten service. This makes her parents very happy, blessed, grateful, proud and relieved that we know she is saved.

I heard it through the grapevine....

2010-03-24T10:59:00.003-04:00

was being sung on American Idol the moment Chloe took her first steps. Yep, my baby girl WALKED last night!!!! She did it about 6 times. We caught the last time on video. She started by standing and 'dancing' with mama while I was sitting on the floor with her. I let go of her hands once and she stood on her own for about 30 seconds -- also a first. After a few times of standing alone I asked her to walk to me and she did. Only about 4 or 5 steps but hey, that's still walking in my book.

Check out my baby girl walking!!!

Happy Birthday -- Cassie Noel!!!

2010-03-22T21:08:00.009-04:00

Cassie turned 2 today!!! Wow -- I can't believe she's already 2. This is also Cassie's 'first' birthday with us. Here are some highlights of our night.

Loving her balloons.

The ladybug cupcakes mama made.

Laughing while we sang Happy Birthday to her.

Digging into the bag of presents.

Opening some of her Leapfrog Jr. books. Yes, mama wrapped each one of them separately.

Cassie also had her 24-month old "well visit" at the drs today. She did great. Maybe that's because she didn't need any shots this time. Just a prick of her finger for a hemoglobin test - which was normal. Cassie is now 34.25 inches tall and weighs 24.5 lbs. She's in the 85th percentile on height and 25th percentile on weight. This is the best she's been on weight - we have finally been able to put some weight on her. Developmentally, she's on target for everything except drawing a straight line and her language. This is to be excepted since she has been in the home less than one year. However, if it doesn't start to improve soon we might need to get her some extra help. Our pediatrician wants to wait to see what the cleft team has to say in May. She'll have her hearing and speech checked then. Otherwise she's great. The doc is very impressed with how far she has come in such a short time. Cassie will need a vaccine in June, and then she won't have to go back until she's 3!!!

Happy Birthday to my BIG girl!!!
Love, mama and dada and baby Chloe!!!

My big girl

2010-03-18T13:08:00.009-04:00

Mama decided yesterday that Cassie was done with bottles. She's been using a sippy cup on and off for a while. But since Chloe is still on a bottle Cassie wanted hers too. Cassie and Chloe are on different types of bottles (Cassie uses the drop in liner kind) and they know what bottles are theirs -- this will hopefully make this transition easier. I hope. After all, Cassie will be 2 on Monday. It's time. Bye-bye bottles. And since I'm not totally crazy -- I'm moving them to the basement -- just in case.

Posing for mama with her 'big girl hair'. This past week she will finally let me do something with her hair. Today was the first day with two ponytails.

This is what I got when I asked for a big smile.

Such a beautiful face.

But this is the girl I see 75% of the time. The very silly one. And I love it. How can you not smile when you see that face. (please ignore the dirty floor -- I plan on cleaning it sometime in 2010)

Milk Monday

2010-03-15T12:36:00.006-04:00

Sorry we've been MIA for a little while. We are just trying to find a routine that works for everyone. We have made a few changes last week to schedules and to comfort levels of sleeping areas and we are hoping this helps a little. I'm hoping to see positive changes in the next week or so. If not, we'll try something else.

Both girls have colds....again. So that doesn't help with the sleeping. And Chloe is cutting 3 maybe 4 teeth right now. Plus, last Monday we started her vaccines. She got three of them. She didn't like it one bit.

We need to redo Chloe's poop test too. It wasn't 'messy' enough for the test. Yippee. However, I called this morning and they had the results of the lactose test. There was no glucose in the poop. Well that really doesn't help much. I wouldn't expect any glucose in her poop since she's on a dairy free diet so there won't be any problems with her digesting the lactose. So we are now going to try and add some milk into her diet and see what happens. That's really the only way to see if she can tolerate it. Wish me luck this week with our experiment. Worst case we'll at least get a 'messy' enough sample for the lab.

So there isn't much going on in our little world. Just trying to adjust to life with two toddlers who don't sleep on the same schedule and praying for the weather to get warmer soon.

And speaking of milk. Here's the recipe for the milk bath I use.

1 large box of powdered dry milk (the largest box our grocery store carries)
3 cans of powdered dry buttermilk (in the baking section - comes in a round paper can)

Mix it all in the largest mixing bowl you have.

I have a small container of it in the bathroom and the rest I store in 2 gallon ziploc bags. I use a coffee scoop to dispense it out. I use 2 heaping scoops in the warmers months and 3 heaping scoops in the winter months.

I have used this on Cassie since coming home -- up until we brought Chloe home -- it really improved the quality of her skin. It's now less dry, the scaly patches are gone and the tiny little bumps are gone. Since stopping it about 6 weeks ago I have noticed it's a little bumpy again.

I did add it to their bath last night. Another part of the experiment.

Rice recipes

2010-03-02T13:13:00.003-05:00

With having to add in more white rice to Chloe's diet I came up with my version of easy rice pudding -- that the girls love. Plus, here is my version of congee that the girls also really like.

Easy rice pudding
2 cups cooked white rice (I use jasmine)
Cinnamon and sugar
2 boxes of raisins (1.5 oz size)
2 - 4 cups of vanilla rice milk

Put the rice in a bowl (I use a Rubbermaid container), sprinkle lots of cinnamon and sugar over the rice. Sprinkle the raisins over the the cinnamon and sugar. Pour enough rice milk in to cover the rice. Cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours -- until the rice has absorbed all the milk. Stir and add another 1 - 1.5 cups of milk. Stick back in the refrigerator. You are basically looking for most of the milk to be absorbed but not all -- so it's a tiny bit soupy.

Cassie likes to drink the tiny bit of milk from the bowl when she's done. Both girls love it and it makes a great afternoon snack for them.

Corn & Chicken Congee
About 4 cups chicken broth
2.5 - 3 cups leftover rice (I use jasmine)
2 or 3 chicken legs (raw)
1lb bag of frozen corn

Add the broth and rice to a medium stockpot and stir. Turn the burner on low. Add the chicken legs, cover and cook until the meat is falling off the bone -- about 30 minutes -- stirring once in a while. Remove chicken legs, cut meat into bite sized pieces and add back to the rice. Stir in the frozen corn. Eat.

I make up a batch of this and then the girls have it for lunch for a few days. They really seem to like it. My version is much thicker than the congee we had in China but you could just add more broth to thin it out too. We like it on the thicker side.

As of last night I'm also adding baby rice cereal to their bedtime yogurt snack (Chloe gets soy yogurt and Cassie gets whole milk yogurt). They have both been waking up starving around 5am -- Cassie will actually ask for snacks -- which I have given her to get her back to sleep. I'm hoping this will help keep them sleeping longer. If not, at least it's more rice for Chloe.

One month today

2010-03-01T19:37:00.002-05:00

We have been a family of 4 for one month today -- our Gotcha Day was February 1st. Since Saturday the girls seem like sisters -- meaning they are starting to play together. Really play together. Without Sonny or I sitting close by to referee. Why would be need to referee, you ask? Cassie has a habit of being nice for about 3 or 4 minutes then deciding she's had enough of Chloe and pushes her over. Chloe has no core muscle strength so she would end up on the ground and the crying would start. I can't even begin to tell you how many time-outs Cassie has had in the past 2.5 weeks. But Saturday something clicked and they just started to play. It was great -- meaning it was a break for me. At least for 20 minutes. As I'm typing this they are both crawling under the kitchen table chasing each other giggling and having a ball. Tonight is bath night but they are having so much fun together I think we'll just skip bath night and listen to the giggles instead.

Cassie is also now trying to 'help' Chloe walk. She wants me to give her both Chloe's hands and they can dance and walk together. This lasts for about 20 seconds and then Chloe falls but laughs. It's nice to see Cassie stepping into the big sister role in such a short time.

Cassie has also started to play with dolls for the first time since being home. She mostly undresses then and rocks them and tries to put diapers on them. She's watching what we do with Chloe and is imitating us. Another sign that she's always watching.

Chloe is doing great with building up her muscles. She's got no problem getting around the house now with great speed. My goal is to have her walking and running by her birthday on June 20th. That will be a milestone for me to strive for. Until then I'm going to substitute the giggles for sleep.

Long over due

2010-03-01T08:31:00.008-05:00