This is a picture of one of our guides that worked with our group when we were in China last year, to adopt Xiao Yu. We had a different sets of guides in each of the three cities we traveled through and she was in the city where Xiao Yu's orphanage and foster home was. Whenever she takes a group of families through, she shepherds them through the whole process--from visiting Walmart to buy diapers and formula to giving up a pep talk on the bus ride to the actual place were we met Xiao Yu.
She is very committed to her job and role--you get the sense that this is a vocation for her. We learned that she has been doing this for almost 20 years, and so must have coached thousands of families through their first days of adoption. She also happened to have a special little place in her heart for Xiao Yu. For some reason, he caught her eye back when he was a baby and she kept track of him until he joined our family. The only reason we have baby pictures of him is because she took some on her phone during one of her visits to the orphanage, a couple of years ago, and later emailed them to us.
Fast forward 1 and a half years later... One of the families we traveled with in China is now back in China picking up their second adopted daughter in the same province and orphanage that Xiao Yu was from. Knowing this, we printed a half dozen picture of Xiao Yu so that they could hand carry this to the orphanage, so that the orphanage workers could pass them along to Xiao Yu's foster parents. (We thought they would appreciate getting an update about how Xiao Yu is doing and see pictures of him.)
This guide was again the guide for this family and they asked her for help on getting these pictures to the foster family. The guide took the opportunity to see the pictures for herself and we are told started crying when she saw them. She was so happy that he seemed to have settled in with his new family. It was touching to know that she not only remembered Xiao Yu but still cared for him even after all these months...
Our Gabey is growing up very quickly! Both physically and also in his personality and his abilities. He is finishing up his first year in preschool and whereas in the beginning of the year, he would cry when being dropped off, now he walks right in, loves his teacher Ms. Nuce, and says he LOOOVES preschool!
The preschool classroom has a tablet with games on it. Of course, our electronics-loving boy likes to play it.
He also had a quirky side to him. When it was time for the class to go into the gym for some structured physical activity, Gabey refused to participate and sat himself on a chair the whole time.
There is Gabey sitting in the front during story time. This is the seat of honor for whoever's parent was the Helping Parent that day.
The Helping Parent's kid also gets to stand at the front when it's time to recite the days of the week.
And lastly, but certainly not least, the Helping Parent's kid gets to bring something for show & tell. What did Gabriel bring? His frying pan! Which happens to be an old, but real frying pan.
He is into artwork and can actually draw recognizable things now. The other day, he actually drew a cat and then colored it! We were very impressed.
He can also write out his name. At first, he would follow the outline written in yellow but now he can write his name freehand. Although more often than not, he writes "Ruffy" instead, since he preferred being called Ruffy.
Writing "Ruffy" in large letters! He is still working how making sure there is enough space for all the letters. And also working on the left-to-right thing.
Our funny boy still has "unique" dietary habits. Such as piling kalamata olives onto his pizzas.
He has other funny habits, such as taking his blanket that he sleeps with and using it as a placemat.
Green and orange are his favorite colors; so this drink needed to be drunk with double straws.
Gabey has somehow picked up the habit of pointing at things with him middle finger. So don't be offended if in the middle of telling you a story, he does THIS to you!
He is our touchy-feely kid, who likes to give lots of hugs and kisses. He also likes to manhandle and give huge bear hugs, but in the process tackle others; and we are trying to teach him the difference between appropriate and not so appropriate physical touch. Such as all during dinner, he likes leaning, touching, and otherwise somehow be physically touching Emily much to her annoyance as she's trying to eat a meal.
He is also very fond of his favorite sibling, Karina, and expresses it by snuggling with her or holding her hair. And she takes it all in stride; she is a very patient big sister.
He doesn't do this as much, but still enjoys being in the kitchen and helping out. Here he is "helping" to wash his favorite veggies--bok choi. (Although he'll only eat the dark green part.)
Here he is lining up cookie cutters.
He has gotten very creative with his toys and plays with them in novel ways. He built a big construction site with these pegs.
We're not really sure what he is doing here. Well, he is trying to get to the watermelon--one of his favorite fruits, but is it really easier to cut through the saran wrap with a pair of scissors instead of just unwrapping it?
Something else that make us scratch our heads was when we entered Gabriel's room to find all the diapers spread out like this. When asked, Gabriel said he wanted to spread them out, because they were steaks that he was grilling!
All the kids like to use the head lamps and go out at night. Amazingly the headlamp fits his head just fine, even though they are designed for adults--because his head is so big.
Here is Gabey wearing his Darth Vader PJs. Elvin made him wear it on the opening night of The Force Awakens.
And as tradition in our family, a few months ago, we celebrated his 3 and a half birthday. Here is the cake, ready for some decorations...
We just cut a slice and Karina helped put in candles and some green and orange frosting.
"Happy birthday to you!!!!"
He wasn't able to get all three candles to blow out, so Mommy helped out.
And Xiao Yu was happy about getting his piece of cake as well.
So that's our Gabey--growing up so quickly. He is already thinking about his upcoming birthday in June and wants to invite lots of people, he says. We will see how that turns out!
A couple of weeks ago, we went on a trip to Denver, Colorado to visit Emily's sister and her family. The last time we had visited was several years ago when Eliana was 3 and Karina was just a baby.
So on Thursday morning, with all of our bags packed, car seats and boosters loaded, we headed off to the airport. After dropping off our van in the lot, the kids got a kick out of riding in the shuttle with NO seat belts.
Flying Southwest is the way to go for us since they don't charge for checking in bags. We had 8 pieces to check in between the 6 of us. (four car seat pieces, a present for their cousin, Eliana's personal bag, and 2 large duffels)
The "flat escalator" as the kids called them, was fun to walk on.
Our two "honeys" sat together of course. Here they are brushing up on the security procedures for the plane. They reviewed this for a loooong time!
We flew over the Rockies on our way to Colorado.
Once we got there, we sent the kids outside and they found a plethora of new toys to play with. The big hit was the battery-powered John Deere riding car that they could drive themselves.
All the kids enjoyed driving this. Eliana, being the great big sister that she is, would team up with Xiao Yu and let him step on the gas pedal while Eliana steered. Xiao Yu is not so good at steering, to say the least.
Afterwards, it was dinner time and the kids got to sit at their own table.
At night, our whole family slept communally in the loft area. Our kids are such good travelers that they can adapt to new sleeping arrangements like this. It also helps that we kept them busy the entire time, so by the evening, they were TIRED!
They have a chocolate lab named Libby who is the nicest dog in the world. At first, they were apprehensive around the dog, and were especially wary of her licking. Eventually, the kids got used to Libby and the kids were no longer a novelty to Libby either so that by the end of the 5 days we spent there, they kids were loving on Libby constantly.
Gabriel would also put his head on Libby and even tried to ride her once or twice.
There were plenty of things to do in the backyard, such as riding their cousin's bikes.
They got creative and wrote their names out using little pebbles.
Xiao Yu enjoyed climbing a tree in the backyard. He's gotten a lot more adept at physical stuff like this.
Their cousin invented a game where he was shot putting rocks and eventually Gabriel joined in. Boys!
One of the first days there, we went to the park to let the kids run around.
It goes without saying that the girls were enamored with their newest and littlelest cousin, who is 11 months old.
The park is next to a river where the kids enjoyed throwing rocks into. (Elvin enjoyed throwing rocks too.)
Karina collected rocks by using her dress as a pouch.
And eventually, the activity turned into wading. Most of them stayed relatively dry except for Gabey who slipped on one of those smooth round rocks and got his pants all wet!
Later on in the day, we got ready to go to an indoor water park. The boys were very excited because they ended up wearing matching t-shirts.
The place was simply enormous. It had three different large pools, several slides, and lots to do.
There was a area where you could navigate from one floating platform to another, using a rope as a guide. It is harder to do than it looks and took Eliana several tries.
But her persistence payed off...
And she did it!
Karina was content to wade in the shallower area and hang out. She didn't have her life jacket so couldn't swim out into the deeper areas by herself.
The kids' Uncle Darin is an avid hunter and they got to see all the skulls that Darin has collected over the years. They've been learning about the pronghorn antelope from their little nature TV show that they watch and got to see one up close.
They also got to touch the skull of a wild boar, including the super sharp pair of tusks to the side.
Here are the girls paying more attention to their little cousin.
They loved playing with her and talking to her and saying to her, "You're so CUTE!"
They each got a turn holding her.
Getting passed around is the price you have to pay for being the baby of the entire extended family!
We had some down time, and Jen's house has a big TV, so our kids really enjoyed watching Paw Patrol on the big screen! The two "honeys" lay on the couch together.
Screen time is something we try to limit at home, but our rental car came with a DVD system, and the little TV screen that folded down from the ceiling. We had a Magic School Bus DVD with us, and the kids thought it was very cool to be able to watch a video while we were driving! One side benefit we discovered from this, is times when the boys would probably have fallen asleep in the car, they stayed awake because they were engrossed in the show, which was great!
Saturday was Jace's 4th birthday, so we went to an old fashioned amusement park, called Heritage Park. Turns out it is the oldest theme park in the US! There were lots of preschool friendly rides, and our kids spun and rode to their heart's content!
This airplane ride had a controller that you could use to make the plane go up and down, as the ride spun. It was a major favorite with the boys. Gabriel preferred to ride with a grown up, and Elvin was pretty sick of this ride by the end!
They had a tea cup style ride, which the kids loved. Emily chose to not tell Xiao Yu about the spinning feature in the middle...they just sat and rotated around. He later rode with Elvin and discovered the true potential of this ride!
Uncle Darin went for it!
On many rides, Karina was our one kid that wanted to ride on her own! Here she is! Go, Karina!
This was a "roller coaster" train. Very jostly and bouncy! Once again, Karina wanted to ride by herself.
This bus went up on a large rotating arm, first counter clockwise, and then clockwise. All four kids really liked this ride, and Elvin and Emily could tolerate it pretty well, too. It gave a nice view of the little park, as well.
The swings are always a hit...but this one was sad, as Eliana was too tall!
All this spinning and swinging was wonderful for Xiao Yu, his vestibular system got quite a workout!
From the rotating bus, you could look out over a pond, and the kids spotted these swam pedal boats. Elvin and Darin took the kids for a spin, and Elvin was reminded of the fact that we were up at 7000 feet elevation!
Elvin realized he should have had Eliana up front with him, helping him pedal, but...didn't think it was a good idea to put Xiao Yu in the back where no one could hold on to him!
More teacups...poor Elvin! He felt a little green afterwards.
This ride was some sort of sled, it went really fast around and around and around in a circle, with enough speed to press you really hard against the side of the seat. The girls really liked it, and Emily hated it.
This again shows Karina's adventurous side! This was the "big" roller coaster at the park. None of the other kids (or Elvin) were willing to ride it, but Karina went on it four times! (with Emily)
Driving home, we stopped at Chick-Fil-A. This is pretty standard in some places, but none of us had ever been to a Chick-Fil-A. It took us so long to place our order, as we tried to figure it all out, that the car behind us honked at us! I guess people really are in a hurry to eat their Chick-Fil-A! We apologized to the worker for taking so long to order and explained to her that it was our first time. We found a free cookie and a card from the manager welcoming us to Chick-Fil-A!
Saturday afternoon it was time to celebrate Jace's birthday, and open presents! His gifts proved to be pretty interesting to our kids (not surprisingly, since Jace and Gabriel are only about 8 weeks apart in age, and have many similar interests -- one of which is Paw Patrol, which is what you see them playing here.)
Then, Jace had a Marshall (Paw Patrol character) birthday cake!
Julia's birthday is just 5 days later, so we went ahead and celebrate for her, too. She was turning 1, and had a little smash cake. Our kids had never seen this smash cake concept, and were a little surprised she was allowed to stick her hands in the frosting!
A little help blowing out the candle!
Playing with Jace's new toy shotgun. It makes a shooting sound when you pull the trigger and you can also load three shotgun cartridges, which then pop out when you pump the lever.--just like the real thing. Karina was pretty interested in this gun...not sure what the future holds for that girl!?
As the weekend wore on, we noticed that Eliana spent a LOT of time outside driving around in the John Deere tractor toy. She was actually a pretty good driver...but we are not quite ready for the real thing! She did enjoy it, though.
The next day we went to a small invertebrate museum called the Butterfly Pavilion. Gabriel was very pleased with the sign as it has a GREEN butterfly on it.
There was a large aviary type area full of butterflies feeding, and flying and hanging out. There were lots of puddles on the ground, so the butterflies would land for a drink. Pretty fun to see them, although we were kind of scared our kids would tromp on one!
You could actually see the proboscis nose going into the flower, and then curling into a perfect circle when the butterfly was done drinking the nectar.
If you look closely, you can see the curled proboscis here.
Checking out the carnivorous pitcher plant.
A decent family photo!! Amazing!
They also have an exhibit where you can hold "Rosie" the tarantula. Eliana was the only kid who went for that. Elvin went with her...Emily passed on that!
Karina looked carefully but kept her hands to herself!
As we left, we checked out the gift shop, and Gabriel tried on a cool green hat...not sure what it is supposed to be? Some grasshopper or something?
The kids thought these butterfly cut outs were really cool....
Gabriel, of course, had to be in the orange one with Karina.
That afternoon, we went to a jumping place with inflatables and also some long trampolines. The kids really enjoyed trying to scale this "wall". They were exhausted when we left!
For Jace's birthday, Darin got him a duck blind. He had it set up when we got home from the jumping place. The kids thought it was a pretty cool tent! Darin has big plans for himself and Jace to spend lots of time in that out in the woods!
On our last day, we went to a candy factory! It is the largest handmade candy factory in the US. They specialize in hand pulled candy canes and lollipops in every flavor imaginable.
While we didn't purchase a giant lollipop, the kids enjoyed browsing the options -- Gabriel chooses by color, Eliana by cool sounding name. This was cream soda, which she thought sounded interesting, although she has never had a cream soda.
We did let them choose a few items. Gabriel picked an ENORMOUS marshmallow filled, chocolate covered egg, from the Easter table which was on sale. He took a few bites, and was done...it was crazy big!
We then went on the tour, and watched them boil the sugar solution, pour it to cool, pull it on this 100 year old taffy pulling machine. We learned that while the taffy starts out colored brown, the only way to make it white is to pull it so that air is incorporated into it--turning it white.
The life of a mom! Holding a baby in each arm--although in one case, not really a baby anymore.
So that was our weekend, full of fun and activities. The kids were exhausted and had lots of fun visiting their cousins in Colorado!
