LINK TO OUR JOURNEY TO JILLIANA

LINK TO OUR JOURNEY TO JILLIANA
CLICK ON JILLIANA'S PHOTO TO FOLLOW OUR JOURNEY TO CHINA

Friday, March 27, 2009

Cast Off, Spring in the Desert, mixing colors

After four weeks it was time to get Miss Tippy Tails cast off.  I was a little worried about how she was going to react since waiting in the waiting room was terrible.  She was pushing her face into my chest and was clinging on.  On the walk to the room where we were getting it off she was hanging on to me and whining. I had left Meilynn home with Daddy because I knew this might happen and I didn't know if I could  handle both.  When we went for the blood tests the one watching was crying as much as the one getting the test. We had talked about what it would be like and that the machine would be very loud.   I could tell that the Dr. taking it off was thinking oh no, this is going to be difficult.  He even told me that this was usually very hard at this age because the blade and the noise scared the kids.  Well Emma just hopped up on the table and was ready.
Here she is being very brave! Not a peep out of her.  She was very interested in what was going on.  The Dr. was pleasantly surprised since he had seen her coming down the hall hanging on me.  We were able to keep her cast and she calls it her "little arm".  Needless to say, every baby in the house has had a broken arm since. Right after getting the cast off we headed out to go motorcycle riding in the high desert for the weekend.  Here is Emma giving a little pose.  I don't know where they come up with this stuff.
Meilynn with her pose Playing outside the  motorhome.  We usually go where there is just dirt and sand, but this time we went to the upper desert and spring was in bloom Wild Flowers There were yellows and purples everywhere The girls in the Rhino Emma fell asleep on our long ride to find a monument to fallen riders Daddy takes Meilynn on a potty break The Husky monument, where riders are remembered
My friend Debbie and her daughter Courtney came over to our motorhome with some new markers that were like paints.  The girls loved it. At Target we found these little fizzy pills you put in the bath (kind of like Easter Egg dye)  Emma chose blue and Meilynn chose yellow.  They found out that yellow and blue make green. Playing in the bath.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Is This Right?

  
This is a question I get asked at least 10 times a day.  The girls, Emma especially, change their shoes anywhere from three times a day to 5 times.  From slippers in the morning, to dress up shoes, to tennis shoes, to flip flops or sandals and back to slippers again.  They do not seem to be getting the idea of which shoe goes on which foot.  They don't put them on the wrong foot, they find me and say, "Is this right?"  Sometimes it is, but usually not.  They think that I can tell if they have it on the right foot when I am downstairs and they are upstairs.  After I hear this five times times two it becomes a question that I don't want to hear.
I have tried showing them the curve of the shoe and their foot.  I have tried telling them it buckles on the outside, the big part is where your big toe goes, etc.  I don't remember this being an issue for Kami and Meghan.  Maybe it is because I have two at a time asking. If anyone has a better solution to teach them which shoe goes on which foot, please let me know! They do have the most adorable feet and they wear the same size. Out on a ride on a Sunny day London Bridge
Take the Keys and Lock Her Up Sunglasses Daddy giving them a snack.  Chocolate for Meilynn and Graham Crackers for Emma.  She still will have nothing to do with chocolate.  Lucky girl!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Rice Krispie Treats

At our Chinese Dance Class the girls tasted Rice Krispie Treats for the first time.  I had some left over marshmallows that were pink from Valentines Day so I told the girls we would make some that night.  Big sister Kami dropped by so she was given the supervision duty of the Rice Krispie Treats.
Meilynn and Emma excited to make rice krispie treats. The ingrediants The best part is picking the rice krispies off of the wax paper and the spoon! Yummy!
I don't really recommend making rice krispie treats for three year olds.  There is not really much for them to do.  But I think that they will agree that even though they are not that much fun to make they are fun to eat!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Great Week

We had a really great week.  Daddy was away in Florida so we filled it with activities.  The FCC in Irvine had a Chinese Cultural  Dance class.  They are going to be offering it weekly, but Irvine is just a little far for a weekly class.  Emma loved it and Meilynn tolerated it.  Meilynn would still like Mommy to sit with her and this class was without Mommies.  They did great and it was fun to meet up with some other girls from our local FCC. (Families with Children From China) Emma doesn't let the cast slow her down one bit. It was a great group of girls and even one boy.  He was so cute. Loving bananas and coloring at the same time. These girls can eat!  Even if they are still tiny.  They still weigh in at around 26 or 27 pounds.  They can each eat a whole banana, that is if I give it to them the way a monkey would eat it.(In the skin) Yummy! Only a true friend would do this!  This is my friend of over 26 years.  She had her children when I had my first two.  And then she had her last son Jacob much later.  She has welcomed our daughters with open arms.  Even though our lives have changed from what we expected to be doing at our age she has stuck with me and still loves me.  Here she was up helping Emma cross the bridge.  She, (Emma) has suddenly developed a fear of walking across the bridge where you can see the ground through the slats.   I noticed that my girls are more fearful than the other kids so we are making a point of visiting the parks more often. This is a major improvement for Meilynn.  She usually will just go down the slide on her tummy.  She doesn't care so much for the swings. Emma loves the slides but is afraid of the jiggly bridge.
Here are the girls at Church Sunday singing in the Choir.
One of my friends had a opening of her art show.  We had a great time looking at her work.  She has amazing art.

Thursday, March 05, 2009

Is it Spring? And Melamine Poisoning

Today we went for a morning bagel at Panera.  The girls love the cinnamon bagel.  We sat across from a mother with twin 6 month olds.  We shared about our children.  It was great for Emma and Meilynn to see the babies.  They just love babies and are full of questions about when they were babies.  I told them that they were in China when they were six months old.  They love to talk about China and sometimes they will comment about what they had in China.  What comes out is mostly imagination.  They will say things like, "I  got my Hello Kitty Doll in China", even though we bought it for them here.  So I know that they are not always remembering things that happened in China even if I hope to see some glimpse of what their lives were like.  Meilynn probably remembers more since she was over 2 when she came to be part of our family.  They get confused about what happened in China and what happened here.  Meilynn will sometimes say something about her Nai Nai (Grandmother) in Chinese.  She was with an older foster mother to the best of our knowledge and she called her Nai, Nai.  Emma will then say something about her Nai, Nai.  We believe that Emma would have called her caretakers Aiya (Aunt).  She was in an orphanage and foster care.  So they get both of their stories mixed up.  Because there were the twin babies and my virtual twins everyone was stopping to talk to us.  The funny thing was that my girls looked more like twins than hers did.  Everyone just assumed that mine were twins too.
After bagels we went to Target.  Don't you just love the dollar section there?  We found these "Easter" hats and the girls fell in love.  Even though they have a dollar section, I have to be careful there.  It seems like it is very easy to drop a hundred dollars there every time I go in.  Here are some quick pictures I took just after getting home.
Emma- What a look! Meilynn my cute little dimple girl! Meilynn looking sweet Silly Sisters Mom! Not another picture Sweet Emma I love this one.  She was looking at a bird in the tree.
I am sure that you have all heard of the Melamine Poisoning in China in the formula.  I thought that we were safe from it but it turns out that it may have been given as early as 2005.  Since both the girls were in China in 2005-2006 and Meilynn even longer till 2007 we knew we had to have them tested.  The tests our Pediatrician did were a urine test which came back normal and a blood test that we put off until this week due to all that has been happening.  We know from the past experience with blood tests and with the recent trying to get the IV in Meilynn during her febrile seizure that her little veins are very tiny so I was not looking forward to this test.  I took the girls and they decided that Meilynn would go first.  It was terrible.  The first girl tried her left arm.  She poked and poked and could not find the vein.  So then she tried the right arm.  She poked a few times and then called another girl to come hold Meilynn and another girl to try to do the test.  Meilynn was screaming and Emma was screaming because of what they were doing to Meilynn.  The new girl tried the left arm again and I saw the needle go in an out several times.  I was crying and just about to tell them to stop when she found it.  She said that her vein just kept rolling away and that it was tiny.  It was a horrible experience.  Then Emma got hers and they found her vein with the first poke.  I felt so bad for both of the girls.  Meilynn because she was poked so many times.  She had bruises on both arms and Emma because she had to witness it all.  We are still waiting for the results, but that is something that I don't think I can do again.  Because I knew that it was going to be difficult for Meilynn I found tips from people on how to make it easier like being well hydrated and keeping the arm warm, but even these did not help.  If anyone has better tips in case I have to do this again please share.

Monday, March 02, 2009

Budding Artists

First of all I would like to thank all of you for your wonderful, supportive comments.  I would like to believe that the person who commented was really trying to help, but that was not quite the kind of help I needed.  This Sunday at church our pastor said that our fellow Christians are to walk through a struggle with us and I did feel that from so many of you.  I don't know how anyone could call a Febrile Seizure  "just a Febrile Seizure".  It was my first experience with it and as I said I thought that my baby was dead.  There was no movement at all.  So again thank you so much for your support it really helped.
For Christmas the girls got an easel and we have been waiting for just the right day to paint.  Today was the day!  Even though I forgot to buy some big paper, we made do with some smaller drawing paper and then in Daddy's office we found some big graph paper.  I need to add the paper to my list of things to get.  (Need sand for the sandbox too)
Meilynn with the red and blue paint.  She discovered purple! Emma with the yellow and green. Emma's Work
Meilynn's Work
 
I have to say that I was surprised by their painting.  Judging by their personalities I thought that Emma's would have been wild and unorganized, and messy.  I expected Meilynn's to be quite organized, neat and intricate.  As you can see Emma was very organized, intent on making lines and Meilynn went crazy, making a mess and experimenting with color.  This was their first experience with paint other than when we painted rocks and Halloween.  It was a lot of fun and really not hard to clean up. (The reason I have been putting it off)  In fact there was more mess with lunch than with the paint.  Emma spilled tomato soup all over her skirt, the floor, and the cabinets.  She waked through it spreading it throughout the kitchen.  Mommy needed to mop anyways.  I need to make a more conscious effort to do "preschool" activities since they are not attending preschool.