ALL DONE part II

Yesterday Reb picked up Jed's US certificate of foreign birth. So that's all for his official paperwork (except for periodic updates which get sent to China).

Therefore, this blog has completed its function for now and will be put on hold if and until there is another future O'Donnell upon whom to report.

In the meantime, we'll be blogging at odonnellolio.blogspot.com. (Olio, derived from the Spanish olla, means a miscellaneous collection or hodgepodge.)

See you there!

The O'Donnells do Disney

Almost all of them; well, almost all that don't live in St. Louis at least. Our crew met Grandma and Granddad and Aunt Erin and Uncle Kyle at Disneyworld. Here's the review.

We flew down on Tuesday. The flight was over naptime so I hoped the kids would sleep. Nope. Jed's in this phase where he has to get really mad before he falls over asleep at naptime. A helpful parent asked me if his ears were hurting. No, he's just mad. And then he didn't sleep anyhow, so we gave up and watched a movie until landing. Saw those same parents at baggage claim, who were coming home from visiting Boston, so they know my kid isn't always howling.

We may have discovered a new home remedy for ear pluggage. My chronic cold (thanks, kids!) means that my right eardrum tends to swell shut and take a painful while to reopen. This flight I spritzed a little olive oil into my ear before takeoff and things went significantly better. We'll have to test the lubrication hypothesis further on later flights, but if it means less Motrin for me I'll be happy.

We landed in Orlando and there's a fountain INSIDE the airport. Gus was wet before he even left the building. Picked up our rental car and headed for the outlet mall (it was on the way!). The kids played and snacked while I went to the Disney outlet for some tshirts and coloring books. Then we went to our hotel near Downtown Disney. They saw Jim's Expedia reservation and upgraded us to a suite. :) Made the repacking a lot easier.

We pulled out the strollers, ready to walk for dinner. Two raindrops fell before we had the strollers set up, and then the sky opened. Took the car.

Ate at Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney (really good). Jed was so hungry it took him three times his usual scarf time. He ate half a sandwich and almost all of a bowl of soup. The kids did a little playing at the Lego store, decided they didn't like the dark chocolate at Ghirardellis (more for me), and helped pick out silly Mr. Potato Head accessories (Storm Trooper Potato Head) at the toy store. I also gave them permission to choose one new toy: they both chose noisy light-up battery-powered stuff. Silly me. But they love them. Then we finished off the day with some playing in the splash pad and headed back for bed.

Jim made a quick run to the grocery store for snack/breakfastage, and I repacked from airplane mode to Disney mode. Crash.

On Wednesday we headed over early to the Pop Century. At about 6:30 a.m. our room was ready. Note to self: always arrive on a Wednesday. The Pop is basically a motel, but it's really well done. Clean, very soundproofed, and with a great pool/kids pool area. We met the rest of the crew and caught the bus to Epcot.

First ride the kids have ever ridden was the Seas. Jed enjoyed it so much he started running back to the opening, but we had to talk with Crush instead. I have no idea how they had an animated turtle holding a conversation with a roomful of children, but it's the closest thing to magic I've ever seen. Then Jim took Gus and company to the hang-gliding simulator (Gus loved it) and I took Jed to the splash pad on the way to World Showcase. Jed now has a real love for splash pads. He would chase the fountains and search for the tiny dribbles and sit on the big ones.

After a change into dry clothes, we met Figment and rode Maelstrom. Gus LOVED Maelstrom, and kept talking about how the troll said "Get out of my lake!" "and then we went BACKWARDS, Mommy!" He appreciated Norway even more when we saw that they had contributed Billy Goats Gruff to the world. Lunch at Biergarten (good).

We were hoping to put the kids down for a nap in American Adventure (which I did not entirely enjoy), but they only slept for the last 5 minutes. Oh well. We toured a bit of the World Showcase and enjoyed a performance of Off Kilter (which Jim has loved for ever). The last ride was Spaceship Earth, which has been retooled for the better since we were there last. The final part was a simulation of Gus and Jim being astronauts, which was the best thing EVER.

Thursday was the Animal Kingdom, bright and early. It's a good zoo, but we know other good zoos so maybe we'll skip this next time. Kids were underwhelmed by Lion King (the rest of us enjoyed it), but loved Triceratop Spin. The Boneyard playground is really really hot.

That evening we went to Fort Wilderness for the Hoop-de-doo Revue, which is a silly dinner show. Gus unexpectedly loved loved loved it. And he got to be center stage: during a "my side versus your side" holler competition, the sound system played a loud Tarzan yell and the spotlight searched for the hollerer. It ended up on Gus, who was shocked and denied everything, then smiled and enjoyed the attention. He talked about the show all week.

Friday was Hollywood Studios. We rode Toy Story Mania first thing, which was fun but is also a good Wii game without the long wait. Then Grandma and I took the little ones to the Playhouse Disney show. My kids have never seen Playhouse Disney but enjoyed it anyway. And this time Jed was the star; every time the human actress made her rounds through the audience, she stopped to hang out with Jed. My kids are chick magnets.

Then we hoped to see Muppets 3D but they were having technical difficulties so we just went to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground. Jed spent almost the entire time on one big slide. He would sit at the top and wave and yell "Hi, Mommy! I coming!" then slide down, give me a hug, and climb the stairs again. Gus raced around the whole place like his usual grasshopper self, once bumped into Jed and rode the slide with him, then took off again. I must say that this playground got nasty reviews in the guidebook and that's the only part we disagreed with. Yes, you can't keep track of your child the whole time in this playground, but they come back into sight often enough that you can just stake out the place where they were last seen, and find them easily enough.

Lunch at Hollywood and Vine. Food was decent, characters were fun. More Playhouse Disney that my kids don't know. So Gus was reduced to calling "Girl! Hey, Girl!" for June's attention. Mini mac-daddy. Pomegranate lemonade is good stuff.

Back to the Pop for nap and then finally got to try out the pool. Jed loves to climb out and jump back in. Gus is learning to float and practiced some swimming. I love rashguards; so much less burnable skin area to worry about!

Then out to dinner at Chevy's Fresh Mex, which is across from Downtown Disney. Good food and the most amazing balloon man we've ever seen. He made the boys a Spiderman and a dragon. It was like watching performance art.

Disneyquest was a bit disappointing. They had a new bumper cars ride in which you also get to shoot balls (okay, asteroids) at the other cars. Seems like the perfect answer, but the execution was lacking and so you left sad for how much fun it could have been. The whole place was fun, but not as much fun as you felt you ought to be having.

On Saturday morning Gus tried to decide which park was his favorite. I told him that today's would probably win... we were going to Magic Kingdom. We rode Dumbo, but thankfully only once. Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan were other winners. Peter Pan had minor technical difficulties so I told Gus more of the story and Erin and Kyle showed Jed how many things glow under those lights (teeth are especially fun). We saw Philharmagic, when Jed blew off but Gus loved and seriously interacted with. Quick trip through Small World (which is still not my favorite place for a number of reasons, but the kids are too young to know them yet). Climbed the treehouse with Gus humming the song. Then Crystal Palace for lunch with Winnie the Pooh and friends. The kids loved it. Gus declared that Magic Kingdom was in fact his favorite park.

More nap, more pool, dinner was pizza by the pool. Then Jim and I went to Cirque de Soleil and the grandparents wrangled the boys to bed. I think I'm done with animal circuses, because human tricks are much more fun! But after the really neat things they did with jump ropes and bicycles and diabolos and trampolines, I feel that my play abilities are subpar. It was amazing.

On Sunday the rest of the crew went to Universal to meet Harry Potter. We went back to MK and rode Space Ranger Spin and the Astro Orbiters ("Mommy, these are FASTER than Dumbo." Sure are; we rode them twice in a row and then I felt sick). Rode Peter Pan again and Gus had to be dragged away ("Mommy, that's MY flying boat!") Rode Aladdin (Dumbo with camels), had a very dry Jungle Cruise guide, and made pirate hats for the boys to ride Pirates. We'd forgotten about the drop in the dark, but both boys were thankfully unfazed. Bought two spyglasses to be used with great frequency.

Jim's fit of brilliance of the day was to take the Monorail to the Contemporary. There's a little cafe there right near the tracks, and the boys cheered the arrival of every train through lunch.

We were all exhausted and went back to nap, but the kids refused to sleep. For two hours. Although they were completely wiped out. Naptime ended at 6:30, and we went to dinner, then back to MK for the Electrical Parade. Now I want a lit-up swirling snail. And since no one was sleeping again for a while, we enjoyed Disney by night and had a blast. Grandad's fit of brilliance was necklace glowsticks, which identified the boys in the dark. They rode Astro Orbiter again and loved it in the dark!

Monday the grandparents took the boys back to MK, and we went to Typhoon Lagoon, which was just what we needed. I think all roller coasters would be better on a tube.

And then Tuesday we flew home, had lunch, and everybody had a nap. I think sometime around Saturday we were finally caught up on sleep.

P.S. I was clearly tired when I wrote this post, b/c I forgot to put in what was for me the funniest part of the week.

Jim goes to get ice to refill the breakfast milk cooler. Instant flurry of distress. Rush to the window to await his return, because they miss him already. Brief bout of hypothetical thinking.

"If we had long arms, we could grab Daddy and bring him back." "Uh-huh." "If we had a rope, we could tie Daddy up before he gets the ice and drag him back to Mommy." "Uh-huh."

Calling the Roll

Jed likes to gather attendance. At anything. At the dinner table, for instance. "Mommy milk. Gus milk. Daddy milk. Jed milk." Followed by a nod of the head and a sigh of contentment that the dinner table is what it ought to be. In the car this morning as we are all driving out to breakfast: "Mommy coming? Gus coming? Daddy coming?" (Daddy is DRIVING the car to breakfast.) Brief pause. Daddy finishes it up: "Jed coming." Sigh of contentment.

And the cutest thing I think I ever saw happened tonight. The guys all got shaggy, so we scheduled tonight as haircut night. Jed was really excited, which surprised us because last month he cried through the whole thing. So Jim buzzed him after dinner, and although he howled through the whole thing at least he wasn't shedding salt water onto the towel. It took him most of Gus's subsequent haircut to calm down. Gus has a lot of hair, and is getting impatient by the end. "Daddy, am I done YET?" And Jed puts his arms around as much of Gus as he can reach up there in the chair, and comforts him. "It's okay, Gus. I gotcha."

They had a blast in the park this afternoon while Daddy was getting his haircut. Chasing each other around, taking turns on the big slide, and once climbing the rock wall side by side while laughing hysterically. Watching them makes my heart happy.

A Boy and His Sweatshirt -- A Love Story

When Gus was three, I bought a spring green sweatshirt from the secondhand store. It was soft and cozy, and we have lots of pictures of him wearing it (because we're always outside). Then he got too big for it, and I put it away for Jed.

When Jed arrived it was summer. In fall he was introduced to Sweatshirt in an offhand "Are you cold, honey?" sort of way. They hung out together for a few weeks. And the acquaintanceship ripened into more.

I was dressing the kiddos one morning and said to Jim, "Jed needs a sweatshirt." Jim went into their room and Jed dropped everything and ran after him, yelling, "I pick! I pick!" Stopped in his tracks once he arrived and saw Daddy was holding Sweatshirt. He didn't want to pick, just wanted his Sweatshirt.

He misses it when it's in the laundry. One day he spied it folded in the basket during breakfast and ran to welcome it back.

I finished scrapbooking last year and showed the boys their new pages. Jed loved everything about it. Looking through it another day, he pointed at a picture of him with the jack-o-lantern on the Halloween page. I was sure he was going to say, "Pumpkin!" because he was obsessed with that pumpkin. Instead he said, "Sweatshirt!"

Last Saturday we went out to see a show and left the kids with a great babysitter. Got home to find Jed in his pajamas but wearing Sweatshirt on top. If you can't have Mommy, at least you can have Sweatshirt.

Six-Month Report

Our social worker came by last week to do Jed's six-month progress report. Jim was worried he'd miss his 10 a.m. meeting, but we were done in 20 minutes. Guess it's hard to hide when a child is healthy, happy, and smart as a whip! He's gained 3 inches and 7 pounds in the last 6 months. Our social worker was impressed with his attachment and his language skills. Now with this report in hand we get to fill out more paperwork to do his readoption in Massachusetts (need that to get a US birth certificate).

New Year's

Sorry I'm so behind. My eyes are much better, thanks for all the concern. At my last visit the doctor pronounced them "good" (which is an adjective that hasn't been used for them in a long time), took out the Band-aid, and cut my meds in half. Woot! Back there in a month.

We went to Austin over New Year's and had a second orgy of presents with Jim's family. The kids met the new puppy, who is 50 pounds. It took Jed most of the week to touch her at all. Gus was willing to play with her in the backyard until she started nipping at his heels (she is a puppy, after all). But he did enjoy telling her to sit from the safety of the other side of the gate, and would pet her as long as she was being held tightly by someone else. Jed invented a game called "throw the stick to the doggie from the safety of the top of the picnic table", and that was not bad progress, I think. Next time will be better when they're all older, but happily they could all coexist without terrible anxiety by the end of the week, and I'm sure the puppy was happy to have her house back!

We spent some quality time at Zilker Park and took the obligatory trip to Chuy's. Jed dug into the salsa. That kid will try anything. Jim warned him it was spicy, and he nodded, and then continued to tuck it in. I guess if you can put it on a tortilla chip it has to be good. We also took the boys on their first mini-golf outing to the charmingly sketchy local spot. No one was brained, and the boys spent about ten minutes dropping their balls into one of the more interesting holes.

As a reward for breaking a bad habit, Gus got to watch Jungle Book for the first time. I watched it with him in case he was scared of the big mean frightening tiger. But he was fine. The new scary movie was actually Curious George. I know, right? But there's a part where the man in the yellow hat sends George back to Africa and he's all by himself on a big boat in a cage in the dark, and Gus was petrified. We talked about it a bunch and he worked through it.

The boys had a blast being loved on all week, and by the end were lifting anyone's iPhone in the hope it was Granddad's (his has games; Mommy's does not. Put It Down). They were pretty spectacular on the flights home (two layovers so quick we couldn't even get off the plane). Jed and I toured the aisles a lot, and Gus plugged into his videos. The boys were wearing matching sweatshirts from their aunt and uncle and were much adored by the ladies in the flying public.

And then it was good to be home.

Wars of Rosacea

I haven't blogged since Christmas, and that's because I've had a recurring problem with using screens. The glare is awful. Apparently my ocular rosacea flares up when it's very cold, and so as soon as we got back from Texas and the temperature plunged, my rosacea went nuts. What happens to me is that the oils in my tear glands are blocked in from the inflammation, and so the oil parts never get into the tears (I can now testify that they are very important). As a result, I wake up crying projectively and have to force drops into my eyes to hydrate them properly. Repeat every hour or so, all night. It takes about 2 days for my eyesight to recover in that eye, and a few more for screens to be comfortable.

The first week this happened, I had three flare-ups in a week and then one of my corneas got over-wet and exploded (it's like a waterbed; too much water in between the cornea and the basement membrane and boom!). Since that has happened once before, I had a pretty good idea what had happened and hauled into the opthamologist's office and he cleaned it up for me. (First time he took dead tissue of of my eye with tweezers, horror movie. Second time, eh. I guess it all depends what you're used to. Personally, I am tired of the receptionists knowing my name.) So now I'm on drugs but still had a couple flare-ups this week. Jim got me a pirate patch just in case. Saw the uber-specialist again today and he put a contact lens bandaid in my eye (preemptively? he doesn't say much, but the last flareup might have caused a bit of a fissure, too). In three weeks we'll see how much better I am.

Humph. Now you know why there's precious little news coming out of this house. But the drugs are helping and the weather is warming, so soon I'll update on New Year's and etc.

Christmas!

It was Jed's first Christmas at home, and he was a bit overwhelmed. We start with stockings in bed, but he had trouble understanding that he could open everything in his stocking, and actually stopped about halfway through, content to scarf down a breakfast bar and watch everyone else. Gus exclaimed with almost every small present that this was "the best one EVER!" My favorite things are the wind-up caterpillars, which the boys mostly ignored until today. If they don't play with them, I will. The hits were the airplanes which make lots of noise when you zoom them.

After breakfast we opened the presents under the tree. That wasn't too overwhelming, since our family presents don't come until 3 Kings' Day, so all that was under the tree was from out-of-town family. Gus feels that the presents should never stop coming, even though today he can't remember half of what he received yesterday. The boys most enjoyed their Philadelphia sports slippers, the Viking-esque ship from their cousins, and the big box from Mike and Sarah. We had some friends over for dinner who are too far from family (Scotland!) to head home, and the 3 boys spent about an hour in and out of the box, yelling "Surprise!!!"

Today we are awaiting around a foot of snow, and will probably have part of tomorrow off to go sledding. Later this week we will go visit Jim's family in Texas, where there will not be enough snow to go sledding.

No More Shots!

Oops, I forgot until now to celebrate online, but the fix to the Hague has finally been passed and signed by the President. Now kids coming home under the new rules can be exempted from shots in China as long as their parents promise to bring them up to date at home on a reasonable schedule. Woohoo!

Monster Ball

It's been a weird eye month, with a scratch in my eye for which I have now seen three opthamologists. The third one actually snorted at the advice the first one gave me. I don't suppose he'll be at that practice for long. The scratch should be healed by now, and next week I have another appointment which will hopefully take the bandaid out of my eye and be fine. I also have rosacea which affects my tear ducts, so that explains the dry eye and eyelid pain I was having. Anyhow...

After one of the first opthamologist appointments, my eyes were still hurting. Jim came home from worship practice to find me with a baseball cap pulled way down over my eyes. "Honey, you look like Gwyneth Paltrow on the way to the grocery store." Glare from screens was especially painful, but since it was movie night I put on the hat and sucked it up. It was Jed's first turn to pick a video, and Gus was not pleased. But then Jed picked Gus's favorite video ever, Robin Hood (with the fox) and all was well. That night they both wanted to wear their new monster pajamas, and I'm pretty sure that Jed picked Robin Hood because of the music in the video, because he's Jed and he loves to dance. Even a sore eye can't dampen how much fun it was to watch both boys in their monster jamas gettin' down together with Alan a Dale.

I think we talk enough about why we discipline, because Gus can say it all when Jed is in trouble. "You don't talk with boys in timeout." "He can make a better decision next time." Of course he doesn't seem to remember it when he is having trouble behaving. And I can't say I like the preemptive whining: "Jed isn't sharing!" "Have you asked him to share?" Well, no. It's so much faster to jump to conclusions.

Just got back from a week in Pittsburgh with my family. Gus was a bit miffed that Great PopPop belonged to Jed too. The cousins were the big hit, of course--it took the boys a little while to figure out how to play together, and then they were great, and we played with the girls. A day without the cousins was a day with lots of whining, so we got them together as much as we could. At one point Jed went up to his oldest cousin (6) and said something not particularly memorable. She said to me, "You sure can tell he's a Chinese boy!" Wondering how she had learned that from him saying "Hi!" I asked her how that was. And she looked at me like I was a complete moron and said, "Because he looks like one!" Moral of the story: sometimes the thought is not all that deep.

Jed spent the week impressing everyone with his prodigious appetite for poultry and pasta (one night he ate chicken faster than my sister could cut it), his determination, and his progress with English. He started three-word sentences early in the week "That's my daddy!" "I want this!" and progressed to a 5-word sentence before we left, "I want do that again!" Pretty much everything he says has exclamation points. "Mama!" "Sweatshirt!"

When we got home I rushed to get out the advent calendar that I made last year. Yes, I'm crazy, but I couldn't find what I wanted anywhere so I ended up making it. It's a felt calendar which tells the Christmas story (I felt a little less silly when one of my coworkers told me that she has a felt menorah for Hanukkah). We have another "calendar" made out of socks on a string, and in each sock is a piece for the Christmas calendar (and sometimes a treat). It's only day 3, and Gus is already overjoyed when it is his turn for a sock and despondent when it is Jed's. Jed loves all things foot-related, so he will stand there and say "Sock! Mama, sock!"

"SOCK!"

Indispensability

Remarks on Halloween: as Reb was raised with a healthy dislike of trick-or-treating, we also stayed away from other people's doors last night. We did, however, dress up the kids in their costumes (Gus was a monkey and Jed a headless toucan (no blood, he just doesn't like to wear the beak part)), take pictures of them with the pumpkin, and take them out for ice cream, where they were appropriately sugared up and oohed and aahed over. We saw the Cat in the Hat and a whole family dressed as the Little Engine that Could. Anyhow, after Jed went sugar crazy after 3 pieces of candy at Jim's work party, I don't want him acquiring much more. Also of note, we saw a mom *pushing* two kids in a stroller trick-or-treating! No way--no walk, no more candy. "We're trick-of-treating as future participants in the obesity epidemic." Jim noticed how different the costumes are here than in Houston, b/c either they have to be warm enough to walk out in the chilly fall weather or you can't see them b/c of your coat. We voted as "most inconvenient" the hockey player complete with rollerblades. It must be awful to climb the steps to 30 porches in rollerblades. It was sweet to see one house that was clearly staffed with college students excited to be grown-up enough to hand out the candy.

Jim and Gus picked out the perfect pumpkin to carve on Saturday. Undisemboweled, it weighed 24 pounds. That's only 3 pounds less than Jed weighs. Jed loves the jack-o-lantern. It's currently sitting on the coffee table and he will point it out to me several times a day. "Mommy! Pumpkin!" with a huge grin.

We also had our first three-word-sentence this week: "I WANT SHOES!" I was very impressed and told him so, but he was too busy howling to take the compliment.

On Sunday afternoons I often crash on the couch while the kids take their nap. When Jed woke up and came out to the living room, he immediately climbed up for some more snuggle. Only half-awake, I settled him in next to me and thought how quickly someone can become indispensable to your life. I don't mind at all him climbing on me while I'm mostly asleep, and I miss him when I'm not home, and he's only been here 2 months.

Hallelujah!

On Monday Gus said to me in the morning, "I don't have to cry when I go to preschool." He repeated it to himself several times, last right near the door--and HE DIDN'T! He had a great transition in all week, and we celebrated with brownie sundaes tonight. It took a whole month, but he is now comfortable at preschool. Whew!

But the drama is not over. Jed starts daycare with Lois on Tuesday. Dun-DUN.

Language acquisition is fun. Jed wants to say "Bus!" He started with "Bu!" Then it went to, "Butt, Mommy, Butt!" That took a minute to figure out. Now it's "Buck! Buck!" I think that's progress.

We were invited to the lab for lunch this week so that everyone who liked could come meet Jed. He had an absolute blast being the complete center of attention, and was ridiculously cute. Thanks for making me look good, little man.

Weekly Wrapup

Any day is better when you're not dealing with a chloral hydrated two-year-old, I can tell you that.

The past couple of weeks we've been chasing squirrels in the park. The first time Jed saw one he hollered something at it that wasn't "doggie" or "squirrel", which he didn't yet know. But he sure knew the Mandarin word for squirrel! We've since been working on the principle of conservation of squirrels: you can chase them and they will go somewhere else, but they do not disappear. He tracks them in the trees and continues to yell at them. But one today just paid him no mind and shelled his acorn onto Jed's head.

Language is coming along beautifully. He has around 30 words now, 2 of which are "Dinosaur Train". He babbles almost constantly. And he's starting to pick up Gus-isms: Gus's magic words to play with other children (well, to everyone, but it works best on other children) is "Can't catch me!" followed by a dash. As soon as he finished his last swallow of dinner tonight he was right over by Jed's chair: "Can't catch me, Jed Junwei!" So at the park today I was chasing Jed around and he turned and said something, then took off. It took me a few times to nail it down. Yep, "Can't catch me!"

He's also getting very good with "No". Today he hollered "No" at a girl who wanted to play with a toy he was no longer playing with at the park, "No" at a squirrel who was in the park, and "No" at the automatic door at the grocery store which was closing. Jim says that he hasn't yet learned the limits of its application. He really does seem to take the presence of squirrels in the park very personally.

We had some old friends over to dinner this week, and one of the families included a 7-year-old girl. The result was extensive use of playsilks and a night walk through the park. Gus woke up the next day talking about her, and I now have toga-wearing pirate superheroes racing through the house and jumping on the sofa (one sofa is designated as the jump sofa, at least until someone falls off). Jed was ridiculously comfortable with the guests, only two of which he'd met before. He does not usually give the time of day to other adults, but he ducked through legs and played peekaboo and even let one of them hold him for a few minutes with me nearby. I guess he assumed that since they were in our house, they were good people. I'm encouraged that he's trusting our judgment, and have invited Lois and her husband over for dinner so that he can see she's "our people" too. He starts daycare with her next Tuesday. We've been hanging out with her crew at the park whenever possible, and he's starting to warm up to her a bit.

Got our family photos taken last weekend. Jed was pretty weirded out and would NOT smile, except when we had Gus play peekaboo with him through the backdrop. Hence the cute smiles on individual shots only. And Gus is clearly preparing for a gubernatorial run with the wattage of that smile. As one of his aunts says, "He needs to use it for good."

And we got the pictures developed that were taken by Jed's nannies in Shenyang. It seems very well equipped with different kinds of toys, so I can see why he doesn't have sensory issues. They sent back a couple hats and toys (which I didn't expect), but I can see from the pictures that various kids were enjoying the rest, and that one of his nannies was explaining his photo book to him, so I feel very happy about the pictures. It's funny that the playroom in the orphanage has the same rubber tile flooring as we have in the boys' room, so that must have seemed very familiar to him.

Cardiology

Last Thursday Rebekah took Jed to his appointment at the cardiologist. We had scheduled an echocardiogram because we needed a clearer picture of what condition his heart was in. We knew that he had been born with an atrial septal defect, that it had been operated on last year, and that's about it. We had a stack of medical reports in Mandarin, but in none of them does it ever say what exactly his procedure was or what they did.

So we needed an echo, and for that to happen, Jed needed to be able to lie still for about an hour during the test. I'll pause for the laughter to die down.

Clearly that wasn't going to happen, so the doctors would need to knock him out for the test. And that meant that we had to wake him up at 4am to feed him breakfast so that his stomach could be nice and empty by the time his appointment happened.

Rebekah and Jed went to the appointment, where they slipped Jed some chloral hydrate (the same stuff that's in a Mickey Finn, I've been told) and did the test. That's some powerful stuff. I came home to find Jed completely stoned out of his gourd. He wasn't able to walk until about 7 that night. Even his baby babbling seemed slurred.

The echo gave us some good news and some bad news. The good news is that the surgeons in China did a fine job repairing his defect. They also put in some stitches near his mitral valve.

The bad news is that there's still a bit of a hole in his atrial septum, so blood's still able to pass between the two atria. Apparently this is in a place in the heart that's really hard to see, which explains why the surgeons missed it. It means that Jed's going to need another procedure to take care of that. The doctor told Rebekah that it's not an urgent thing; it would be good to take care of it before Jed turns 5 because he'll heal faster when he's younger. They'll need to perform a cardiac catheterization to scope the place out first and then operate to plug the leak.

All told, this is good news. He'll need about a week in the hospital, and then he'll be free to do as he likes for the rest of his life. We have a follow-up appointment in 6 months and then we'll decide when to do the surgery. We'll wait till after Disney World.

Test Trip

We have a developing tradition of a leafing trip in autumn, so this weekend we took a quick day up to New Hampshire. We drove out Friday night and stayed in a hotel. Crossed fingers here how Jed would react to a hotel. Fine! We put up Gus's tent, and he bounced around in it, so we set up his and put him in it. He played for a while and went to sleep, no problem. Hooray, the boy is portable!

On Saturday we went for a hike to a waterfall in Crawford's Notch (thank you, Seema!). It was a real hike, for 0.6 miles, and Gus hiked the whole way in. He was portaged out. We've discovered the keys to a good hike are 1) have something interesting at the end and 2) have really good snacks once you get there. Then we went to a farm for apple picking and fresh cider donuts. Jed was sitting on the wagon behind the tractor with the "What's coming next? What could be better than THIS?" look on his face. He did think that he was at an apple bar, though--he would eat half of one apple and then throw it away and grab another. Put a stop to that and have made two vats of applesauce today.

We went to another farm with friends on Sunday and discovered the successor to the moonbounce, a big jumping pillow. Lots of fun with the boys. More cider donuts.

Today we went to parts of the Open Our Doors festival around the Fenway. We made kits and flew them in the gym at the Y, played with different instruments and watched glassblowing in the morning, and then went for music, face painting, chalk drawing, and more kite flying in the park.

Some of our dreams are coming true. The boys played together on the playground today, and on the way home they laughed the whole way. Yeah, they were making fun of Jim's sneeze, but they were laughing!

Two great quotes from the weekend: 1) There was a lot of car time, and during one of them Jed was pretty crabby. Gus said to him, "What are you gritching about?" Now my 3-year-old sounds like my mother. 2) At breakfast on Saturday we talked about what we were thankful for before we gave thanks for our pancakes. Gus said, "I'm STILL thankful for my brother!"

Awwww.


A postscript for those of you who will not be surprised: maternity leave has got me completely addicted to the PBS kids show "Dinosaur Train." Enjoy.

Slow week

The most eventful thing that happened this week was shots on Monday. The bloodwork came back and a couple titers weren't there that should have been, so it was 4 shots. He was NOT happy, but then we were home having lunch and it was all okay.

We're also potty training, which is coming along slowly but okay. Not perfect progress, but increased progress over a number of days, which I suppose is what I should expect. I think with Gus we took a long weekend and then handed him to Lois (thank you, Lois!), so I haven't done as much of this part before.

The combination of learning to use the potty and learning a new language means that some things are not completely clear. Yesterday Jed fastened the buckle on his carseat by himself and said "Yay, peepee!"

Next Thursday is the cardiologist's appointment that we've all been waiting for. I got a call from his nurse saying that they would need to sedate him for the Echo unless he could sit still for 45 minutes. Um, try 10 seconds. So he can't eat any real food after 4:30 a.m. and only Jello and apple juice after that. Not looking forward to that day with my very food-conscious kiddo. Guess we'll go out to the park early that day and hope he's too distracted to be hungry.

Jim was home yesterday while I went into work. Jed gave Jim a very odd look when they dropped me off and I didn't get back in the car, but he was okay. Those two are bonding well now.

Mom called me today to ask for new pictures of the children. Oops. We'll try to get some from our scenic trip this weekend.

Weekend Update

This week's appointments were International Adoption Specialist and Audiology. The IA doctor thinks Jed is doing fantastic (as do we). We have a follow-up in 6 months, got a bunch of extra blood (poor pumpkin), and then booked the audiologist (b/c if you wait to test the hearing b/c the language is affected, then the language will be even more affected). Audiologist appointment today and he was brilliant, super-mellow and "a pleasure" to work with. The doctor had worked in China and said that his doctors must have been good, b/c they avoided the super-high doses of antibiotics during surgery/recovery that can damage the upper registers of hearing (I did not know that). He has perfect hearing and beautiful eardrums.

After the IA appointment we stopped by the lab to say hello and introduce Jed to the crew at work. We walked into a party! I should have known. Thanks, everyone! He loves the airplane and is working hard to destroy the balloon.

Requisite cute story: last night Jed came into our bedroom. This happens about every night between 1 and 4 a.m., both kids wake up and come into our bed, b/c it's easier for me to open the door and holler "come in" than to actually get up and go soothe them. I've slept much better since Gus has learned to snuggle in without even waking me up, but Jed can't climb that well yet. Gus has also learned that while mommy is happy to share her space, she is not happy to share her pillow, so he brings his pillow in with him. Last night Jed brought in his pillow, held out in front of him like a present for me. The kid doesn't use the pillow. He doesn't even use the covers. Usually I wake up to find him curled up on top of the covers in the general vicinity of my feet (he's a wiggler). But apparently bringing in pillows is how we do it around here, so Jed brought in his pillow.

He is really sweet. One thing his nanny must have taught him is to grab both sides of my face while I'm holding him and line me up for a smooch. Hilarious. And his mischievous side is starting to come out. He likes to let you strip him naked at bedtime and then race out the door, stopping to make sure you can see him grinning above his little bum. I'm hoping this will be less fun since he's been running around naked for the past couple of days anyhow (potty training; he's starting to get it).

Now that we've had the blood drawn, next week's appointments consist of two shots. Booooooring. But if he's got the potty mostly figured out by the end of next week, I will not complain about boredom.

We've been home for almost three weeks! It's not the new normal yet, but I think I can see it from here if I squint.

Managing Attention Deficit Disorder

Gus has been in attention deficit the last couple of weeks, what with the new brother and the broken dishwasher, and has been crazy as a result. So last weekend Jim and I each took him out for some special attention, and the weekend was so much better than the previous weekend as a result. Tonight was reasonable too.

Jim and Jed have been doing some extra bonding lately. Yesterday Gus and I went to a puppet show, so the other two sat on the sofa for an hour, watching football and eating pistachios and generally having a great time. Today I went into work in the morning, and although Jed did jump for joy when I returned (it was super cute), he's a lot more comfortable now with Daddy.

Jed definitely understands that he is working on a new language. Today when we left the house he pointed to the step, said "step", and looked up at me to be sure he was right. We've also been teaching him important words like "ear" and "touchdown"!

Wow, what an interesting murmur!

This quote of the week brought to you by the pediatrician, who says that Jed's heart repair must be good b/c he looks great, but she has no idea what it is from the sound. We'll all be interested in what the cardiologist says in a few weeks.

This week was better. Lots of drama from Gus at drop-off, but that's beginning to ease. Jed loves Gus's preschool and just wanders around playing while I wrangle the bear. Jim and I are starting to balance our time with the kids and to give Gus some one-on-one attention, with the result that Gus did much much better today.

This week Jed and I worked on climbing and jumping and some new words. He's learned that if he points at something I will talk about it. He pointed at a bunch of things on the way to the park (bicycle, sidewalk, fence) and then laughed and threw his arms around my legs. Mommy! He thinks the street is called "Ah-ah-ah!" because that's what I say when he tries to walk into it without me.

Today we played with water out on the deck and then blasted the Music Man with some tambourines and had a blast.

Next week I go into work for a bit to plan for the next few weeks, Jed has his appointment with the international adoption specialists, and Jim has a college fair on Friday.

One Week Home

And boy, it's been a long week. We all got over jetlag really quickly, just a few days, but it felt like milennia. And then Gus got bored (and what else is there to do at home but pick on your new brother?) so we've spent every day out at the park, and I've gotten nothing else accomplished besides unpacking, and we arrived home to a broken dishwasher so Jim's been spending a bunch of his theoretically free time doing dishes.

Sigh.

But tomorrow Gus goes back to preschool, to be challenged and run off his feet and away from his brother. Jed's first doctor's appointment is on Wednesday, and one child is so much more moveable than two, so we'll be able to run errands etc. together for part of the day. There are a lot of things he needs to see (even the farmer's market will be exciting for him. I made muffins today and he was transfixed).

Update on Jed: this child is almost too perfect. I can find no orphanage behaviors or sensory issues, and I've been testing him all week. He can pick up sand, eat yogurt, and roll down a grassy hill. He does like his fingers clean, but his face can be messy. He has no problems with sounds or lights. He is attaching extremely quickly. I'm almost looking over my shoulder...hopefully the person standing there is not the cardiologist (that appointment is in October).