Bath time!

Until today, we did not let the three kids take a bath with Xiao Yu.  This was a caution from our adoption pediatrician--in case Xiao Yu had any contagious diseases.  We found out this weekend that all the tests came back negative and so the kids were finally granted permission to take baths together.

This was very exciting to the girls, as they have been asking to do this since day one.  They are still enamored with Xiao Yu's cuteness and want to do everything with him.

So at first, Xiao Yu joined in on the bath Gabriel was just ending.  Gabriel was unimpressed but they were mostly able to share the toys.  There was some tussling over things, but for the most part, they did fine.  Gabriel does enjoy making Xiao Yu laugh, and they enjoy laughing loudly together, so they goofed around for a while.  Gabriel was very tired (which was why he was already in the bath, he needed an early bedtime) and starting acting up, so we got him out.

 Then the girls got in and these three had lots of fun.  Eliana was very excited to get in with Xiao Yu, and they quickly taught him how to pose for a picture and smile.  After this picture was taken, Xiao Yu kept trying to put his arms around their necks and pull them close again.

Next step...all four in the tub at once!  Maybe next time...

First visit to the doctor

Last Sunday, we all packed our bags for a drive up to Seattle where Xiao Yu would have his first check-up with his pediatrician.  We chose one in Seattle because this doctor specializes his practice on international adoptions, so he has seen a lot of kids adopted from overseas and knows exactly what issues to look for.

The plan was to drive up Sunday afternoon, stay in a hotel, and see the doctor the next morning.

On the car ride up, Eliana got to listen to her book-on-tape on her iPod.  Karina, unfortunately, does not have the attention span to do that, and so ended up getting pretty bored on the 3-hour drive north.

We timed the drive to coincide with the boys' naps and Xiao Yu took a two hour nap.  Gabriel, however, chatted all the way up and resisted sleep successfully.

We finally made it!  Our hotel room came with a "complimentary" view of the Space Needle, according to the guy at the reception desk.  It also came with a view to a construction site, also free.  The kids asked of the Space Needle: "What is that thing?"

As soon as we got there, we got all the kids changed, and ready to go swimming!  We figured if we were going to go to the effort of staying in a hotel, we might as well make it a fun event for them.

Everyone is in!  Xiao Yu really likes the water, although he is clearly not used to swimming pools.  He didn't like standing on the steps, and every two minutes would squirm in our arms, trying to "get down"...not sure where he thought he was going to go if we actually let him slip away!  Gabriel made huge pool progress on this trip, and starting jumping to us from the side!  He usually doesn't even like the pool very much, and never ever wants to get his face wet.  He was splashing everywhere!  

After a nice swim, we bathed everyone, and went over to Emily's sister's house.  Gretchen, her sister, has a little dog, Asia.   Xiao Yu had clearly been around dogs, and really wanted to pet it.  He struggled with being gentle, and we had to hold on to his arm while he pet Asia.  He thought it was pretty fun, though!

We also toured the house, and the kids got to see their cousin's rooms.  (Anders is 14, and has a HUGE Lego collection -- here Gabriel is checking it out.)  We had a hard time having the little kids not touch the toys.

Kelly, Gretchen's husband, had made a very nice dinner for us.  There were even candles on the table!  Because we have celebrated three birthdays in the short time Xiao Yu has been with us, he now associates candles with blowing them out.  So, he spent the first five minutes blowing/spitting his food, until we successfully distracted him to just eat his dinner!

What was the real turning point to just eat, was when we gave him a rib bone.  Kelly had made pork ribs, and it turns out that both boys really liked just gnawing the meat off the bone.  We had cut it off in little pieces, which was not nearly as much of a hit!  Xiao Yu gnawed on four or five bones.  Gabriel on the other hand, only had two, but he cleaned them completely!!

Monday morning, we dropped the girls back off with Emily's sister, and headed for UW, for Xiao Yu's check up.  This was a one hour appointment, to review all his medical history (that we know) and do a comprehensive evaluation of his health and development, order labs and immunizations, and make recommendations for follow up.

The waiting room was very well equipped...and the boys sort of played together...or near each other.  There were no biting incidents or fighting.  Yay!

Xiao Yu was totally fine with the exam, didn't really seem phased by the doctor checking him out.  And, the doc said that Xiao Yu looks great!  Also he is in the 50th percentile for height and weight.  The doctor did recommend we contact Early Intervention, to see about getting him into speech therapy, and possibly physical therapy, to strengthen his muscles and help with his coordination.  Xiao Yu is, in a strict sense, delayed in a couple of areas, such as verbal speech, but the doctor said this was normal and expects Xiao Yu to "catch up to his age" in the next 12 months.  Also, as far as speech is concerned, we have been teaching him sign language and he has already picked up on about 6 signs.  We plan on teaching him more and use that until his words come in.

He did need three shots, which he did not really appreciate.

Then, the worst part, he needed blood drawn, to test for various illnesses, as well as to do titers on his immunizations that were done in China.  This part, he hated, and screamed the entire time as the 2nd lab worker pinned his little arm down.  They had to take 11 vials of blood, so it was a looong time to scream!  You could hear it throughout the entire lab as well as the entire lab waiting area outside.  It made the other children in the waiting area a little nervous.  Having said that, the lab staff were professional, relatively quick, and obviously used to taking blood from young kids.

Thankfully, he recovers quickly, and was back to his normal self when we went back to pick up the girls.  He found Asia again, and tried to get in a few more pets.

Asia wasn't so interested, so Xiao Yu decided to try out her bed, instead.  Apparently, he liked it!

Anders and Lena, the cousins, have a swing contraption in the tree out front.  The kids all took a try on it...Eliana, flying high!

Karina, a little lower....

And Xiao Yu, just sitting on it, with Elvin holding on tight!

Back in the van, a quick stop at McDonald's...which was perhaps the longest fast food order we have ever placed -- extra cups and straws, this burger with no onions, this one with ketchup only, on and on!  At least this order was in English instead of Elvin's version of Chinese.  Xiao Yu's first time (probably) eating french fries and chicken McNuggets.

And soon, three of the four were asleep!   We made it home in good time, and were glad to (once again) be back in our own house and in our own beds!  Also, grateful to get the thorough medical evaluation, and to know what our next steps are.

Happy 4 and 1/2 birthday, Karina!

Because of everything that's been going on at our house, we almost forgot that yesterday was Karina's "half birthday".  Emily remembered at about 3:00 in the afternoon.  Karina was THRILLED when we told her, and jumped around the living room in delight.  We celebrate half birthdays at our house with cupcakes and candles.  However, Karina doesn't like cake so instead she got a sundae.  

Her sundae consisted of vanilla ice cream, gummy bears (which are actually vitamins), and...that's it!

We sang for her...

And she blew them out and made a wish.  Happy Birthday, Karina!

Xiao Yu made a face when he got the ice cream into his mouth.  Too cold?

Regardless, he powered through it.  Even though he made a face with every mouthful, it must've been worth it because the bowl was empty in the end.

First week at home...

We are almost done with our first week at home.  The first part of the week was spent getting over jet lag and getting our feet under us.  We sorted through our mountain of mail accumulated in the past weeks and also did a mountain of laundry we brought back from China.

Xiao Yu has made a ton of progress in learning about our family.  He is definitely more calm and throws a tantrum only every once in a while, and oftentimes only when he is ultra tired.

We are happy to announce that he rarely bites anymore and doesn't hit much either.  He has come such a long way and now we see that he has a laid-back, chill, cautious, and fun-loving personality.  He always wants to play...here he is being playful with Gabriel, who is not really reciprocating.

The two girls, however, really like him and think he is "so cute".  They give him hugs and kisses, and want to help out dressing and undressing him, putting his bib on, etc.  Basically treating him like a life-size doll.  Incidentally, they have picked up some of the simple Chinese phrases and Elvin and Emily have been using with Xiao Yu (such as "wait" or "do you want to eat?").  So their Chinese has actually improved a bit during and since our trip to China.

Xiao Yu is constantly walking around the house, poking here and there, looking for something of interest to play with.  He loves telephones, that's for sure.

Here he is playing tug-of-war with his siblings.

He likes putting things over his head.  He, unfortunately, keeps walking forward though and ran into the chair.  Elvin wanted to see if he would actually run into the chair and didn't intervene...we are not sure that was very nice.

We are getting to know more of what he can do every day.  The other day, he picked up a pen and scribbled on a piece of paper.  At least he knows what pens are all about!

In contrast, we are not sure he has seen blocks before.  We had to teach him how to stack blocks.  Also, we had to teach him what a toothbrush was all about.  That wasn't hard for him, though, because he sticks everything into his mouth anyways.

Xiao Yu is often in the pantry (he's always thinking with his stomach) and often Gabe is there too.  Working opportunistically, Xiao Yu will wait at Gabe's feet to see what gets thrown down by Gabe the monkey.  This time he scored...a bag of miniature marshmallows!

As far as meals, we made congee (rice porridge) for Xiao Yu as it seems like he really likes this stuff.  So we made a bunch, put some in the fridge and froze the rest.  He will drink, or rather slurp, vast quantities of it.

Speaking of slurping...maybe slurping is a learned skill?  In China everyone slurps their soup; it's not rude and just means that one is enjoying the tasty meal.  I guess this means that Xiao Yu is enjoying the beef noodle soup that Daddy made.

We had these noodles and he ate lots of them.  Although he eats a lot all the time...often as much as Gabriel, he is 10 pounds lighter.  It will be interesting to see if he gains weight living at our house.

Other things that we discovered he likes...

Apple sauce...  He loves it.  Once the pouch is opened, the nozzle goes into his mouth and it does not come out until he has sucked it dry.  We are not sure if he does it all in one breath.

 Bananas.  He eats a man-sized banana every day.  He would eat more if we let him.

He however, did not know how to PEEL a banana.  When the banana part ran out, he would hand the thing over to an adult to peel.  Elvin had to show him that if he pulled down on the banana peel, more banana would magically appear!  It seems like everything was done for him at his past home.

He also likes quesadillas...

And we gave him milk today for the first time.  He made a face, maybe because it's cold, but liked it and slurped it down.  Hopefully his digestive system is able to take it.

He tried a tube of Go-gurt, which we keep frozen.  He did not like this at all.  He actually couldn't figure out how in the world to eat it.

He also wanted to try a can of Coke.  Has he had soda before???  Needless to say, he did not get to drink Coke.

And sometimes, when we don't give him something he wants...

So overall we are doing well and getting back into the swing of things.  Karina went to preschool this week and Eliana went to her homeschool class.  Elvin goes back to work next week, where he will get to work part-time for four more weeks.

Tomorrow, we are all driving to Seattle because on Monday, Xiao Yu has a doctor's appointment at a clinic with the Seattle Children's Hospital.  This clinic specializes in kids adopted from overseas and we are taking him there for a comprehensive work-up.  We really like our pediatrician, but we figured that these pediatricians in Seattle have seen kids from China every day and know what to look for, whether a "delay" can be attributed to how foster kids are raised in China, etc.  His appointment is on Monday at 10am and we then drive back home that afternoon.

Gabriel, even more than Xiao Yu, has had the hardest time adjusting.  He has definitely been dethroned and feels it.  This comes out in behavior such as hitting and kicking (he learned this from Xiao Yu, but ironically, Xiao Yu has now stopped that behavior) and he also has completely stopped following directions from Mommy and Daddy.  He also continues to needle Xiao Yu by snatching toys, or stepping on toys that Xiao Yu is playing with, or pushing Xiao Yu out of the way to get to the toy that Xiao Yu was playing with.  We are trying to gently but consistently discipline him and we hope that he comes out of his funk sooner than later.

Getting over jet lag...

Right now, jet lag is at the forefront of our minds, but we are happy to announce that some of our kids are getting over it.

Two nights ago we could not have said that.  At 1:30am, two nights ago, all of our kids were awake! But generally, Gabriel has been able to sleep through the night from day one.  We have been skipping his daytime naps to make sure that his body doesn't think those are night-time sleeps and to make sure he is extra tired when he goes to bed.  He wakes up every once in a while but we can soothe him back to bed.

Emily is still recovering from her cold and that is making her extra tired on top of getting up with the kids, so she is exhausted enough that she is sleeping through at night as well, although not so much, last night!

Xiao Yu has been sleeping through the night since day two.  Although if he wakes up in the middle of the night, he will crawl right out of bed (he is on a twin mattress on the floor in our room) go to the hallway, stop at the baby gate (we've set up baby gates at the top and bottom of the stairs) and yell out: "Yah yoooo!"  We are not sure what this means exactly, but it's Xiao Yu-ese for "Hello, out there!"  Unbeknowst to him, it's the middle of the night (maybe the pitch blackness would have been a clue?) and no one is downstairs.  We have to carry him back to bed and lay down with him.  After rolling around next to and on top of whoever is laying down, he eventually falls asleep in as little at 5 minutes or as much as 1 hour.

On day two and three, Karina woke up at 1:30am, but has gone back to bed.  Last night, she did not wake up in the middle of the night at all and we think she's back to the Pacific time zone.

Eliana will be the toughest nut to crack, probably, because she is our night owl anyways.  On all nights since we got back, she has woken up at 1:30am and sometimes cannot fall back asleep till 4am (when in China, it is 8pm--her normal bed time).  She is obviously getting sleep deprived, but her body, like Elvin's, has a hard time adjusting to different time zones.  Hopefully she'll turn the corner in the next couple of days...

Adjusting back to life in Vancouver...

We are adjusting to life back in Vancouver.  Some things are falling into place easily and others are taking a little bit of time.

Xiao Yu continues to eat well and is being exposed to a lot of new foods that he has never had, we are sure.  For breakfast one day, besides his scrambled eggs, he had Tillamook cheddar cheese for the first time.  He approves.  Even though drinking milk is more and more common in China, most people in China don't eat cheese.

Xiao Yu also had a cupcake with frosting on top.  This was one of the cupcakes left for us by our friends.  He ate all the frosting first and then some of the cake part.  We weren't sure if he was going to like it because his paperwork said that he does not like sweet things.  But it also said that he drank formula and that turned out to not be true either.

From our kitchen, Xiao Yu kept looking at our backyard and so we took him out when the rain stopped.  He loves the swing and really enjoyed it in our little swing in the back.  This has more of a bucket seat so it's easier for him to stay on.

Although he doesn't say that many words yet (that we can identify), he catches on quick.  When Gabey was having a midnight snack, he wanted to get in on the action.  So he went right to the silverware drawer to grab a spoon for himself.  He's pretty good at communicating what he wants...

And for some reason, he has an obsession with shoes.  He always wants to have shoes on.  Here, he found Eliana's purple shoes and put them on, even though they are 5 sizes too big.  

The girls are adjusting well.  They fell right back into life at home, with their books to read and toys to play with.  Two of the three animals Karina put on her stroller she acquired in China.  When Daddy asked what her favorite part of China was, she said: "Buying so many things!"  

Eliana continues to be a good big sister with him.  She is extremely patient with him and is willing to play little games at his level just to keep him entertained.  As a result of spending time in China, she also has started using some short phrases in Chinese to communicate with Xiao Yu.

Gabriel, on the other hand, has had the hardest time.  Since they are so close in age, Gabriel and Xiao Yu compete for many of the same toys and also compete for their parent's attention.  Now, Gabriel will purposely snatch a toy away from Xiao Yu in order to instigate a bite from Xiao Yu, at which point Xiao Yu gets in trouble--which is Gabriel's ultimate purpose.  We are having to discipline both of them heavily at this point and we hope that the coming days or weeks, this struggle will be a passing memory.

As far as jet lag...on the first night home, everyone was so exhausted that all went to bed and slept through the night.  The 2nd night, however, Eliana and Karina woke up at 1:30am and declared: "We're not tired anymore!  We are hungry and we want breakfast!"  Elvin got up with them, fed them a little, they watched a video and then went back to bed with the help of Benadryl.  Gabriel has been waking up at night several times but going back to sleep immediately and Xiao Yu, too.  We have heard that the little ones will often adjust the quickest to the time change.  

Here are the three "big" kids having a "sleepover" with the sleeping bags on the floor last night.  They lay their heads down and in about 2 minutes all three were snoring.

Elvin has this entire week off and this coming Monday will start work part-time.  "Normal" life will start back up again soon as tomorrow Karina has preschool at 9am and later Eliana has her piano lessons, etc.   Hopefully, we'll all start sleeping at night, and being functional during the day!