Dad's First Day Home Alone

Today was my first day back to work since October 26th. The last time I sat at my desk and logged onto my computer, I still had all kinds of freedoms and counted myself a member of the "dual income no kids" club.

Today was also the longest stretch I've been away from Ian since November 6th, the day he was placed in my arms and called my son. Last Sunday, I made my first venture away for any length of time and left him with Shawn for 4 whole hours to see a musical with my Mother In Law and Sister In Law. It was great to get away, even if only for a few hours. We've been home for 6 weeks and that was my first time in the car with an empty back seat. I kept looking back to see why he was so quiet (I'm still looking for one shoe that made a disappearing act back there the other day). It makes me wonder why I hadn't stole some time away for myself. Maybe it's because going on errands or to the mall is just as enjoyable with a stroller as without. Maybe I just didn't want to leave the little bugger. Who knows.

I didn't have time to miss him on Sunday, and I made it through today without much issue. Everyone wanted to talk about him, and I knew he was still asleep the first 3 hours of my day, so I wasn't concerned. I came home for lunch and he was already down for his nap, meaning we didn't get to see each other, which was kind of a bummer. In all, I have to say I'm glad I started back to work. I loved our time together and wish I had stayed home longer, but it was really nice to get back to a "grown up" routine again. I think it's good for me and will make me a better mom in the long run to have balance in my life. Disagree if you will, but that's just my opinion.

So, Shawn has the month of January with Ian. Just the two of them. Alone. Did I say just the two of them? Alone? Just the two of them? ALONE!!!

At Shawn's request, I made a big list of what to do and when. Where certain foods are located in the kitchen, etc. My biggest mistake was that I didn't include exactly when to do diaper changes. When I came home, he reported that he did change his morning diaper and again after breakfast, but there wasn't anything about diapers the rest of the day and, in his words, said the diaper at 3pm could have been popped like a balloon it was so wet. Great. I rewrote my list to include WHEN to check/change. Good grief. I've made some additions to the list, so hopefully there won't be an issue tomorrow. We'll see.

Below are a few pictures from the day. I sneaked in a couple at the beginning that show Ian's attempts to use a spoon. He likes to hold it and knows what to do, but there's a finesse to it that he just hasn't figured out yet. He sees his fingers as a much more logical feeding apparatus. I'm proud of him for his attempts, though. He always goes for the spoon with his left hand. I wonder if that means he might be left handed. I don't know enough about how that works, so for now I'll just assume so, since he's pretty analytical and a lot of geniuses are lefties (wink). For the record, Shawn and I are both rightys, but a bunch of smart people I know are lefties, so I'm pretty sure we have a Little Einstein on our hands.

Ian trying out a spoon yesterday. He's actually not that bad at it, but it will take a bit of work to get past the disgustingly messy phase. You've got to love this face. That's determination!

In the end, he decided that his fingers do a better job. Seems logical!

Shawn's "Home Alone" game with Ian today? Lobbing tennis balls at his walker with his hockey stick... It was a big success. Ian loved it and only one hit him. Don't worry, he didn't cry. He actually never saw it coming. (Just kidding! Settle down, folks!)

Shawn read an article...yes, I said Shawn read an article... that new toys should be rotated in every few days. This was today's new introduction. A whisk. Who needs a pricey LeapFrog system when you have a whisk?

Ian multi-tasking: Standing unassisted AND drinking juice from a straw...and saying AHHH!, which he does after almost every drink.

Walking with no help. There is a sea of floor in front and behind...and there's Ian in the middle! So exciting. I can't help but comment here that Shawn's choice of dress today was to simply put overalls over his PJ's. Why haven't I thought of that before?

Welcome 2008!

There's no question that 2007 was an overwhelming year for us. It was completely consumed by the adoption process and was pretty exhausting at times.

From the 5 hour wait to have our fingerprints done at the Homeland Security office, to the day we laid eyes on Xiang Xuan's picture for the first time, to the day we walked into the Civil Affairs office in Hangzhou, China to sign on the dotted line and recite our promise to love and care for that little boy as long as we live... it was quite a year.

I have to say we are glad to have 2007 behind us, but it is filled with memories we wouldn't trade for anything. Now, we're excited to see what the coming year has in store.

For those who, like us, made a life changing journey in 2007, congratulations! For those still waiting, may 2008 bring equal miracles to you and your families. May your child make the long trip home or for those in the long line, may your heart's compass change direction and pull you toward a Waiting Child.

Best wishes to everyone for a happy and healthy 2008!


Below are a few of my favorite pictures from China that never made the blog:

We couldn't resist this teacher's shirt in Guangzhou. Can You Please Me?

Ian was a babe magnet in Hangzhou. This group of girls came flying out of a restaurant to see him when we walked by.

Shawn and Ian checking out the koi in the White Swan lobby

One of my Beijing favorites. This shot only slightly shows the grade to the wall segment we scaled.

It was about 30 degrees and extremely windy up there. I was freezing and sweating at the same time.

Me at The Summer Palace. Like most moms, I knew once we had Ian, I would be behind the camera and no longer in front of it.

Ian loved the stroller in Guangzhou, but it was like a sleeping pill. He slept like this for over an hour.

Ian with 3 local women in Hangzhou. They were mom and her two daughters.

Ian drew a huge crowd at this park. The men in the back pushed through the crowd to get a picture with us and then shook Shawn's hand and thanked him, asking if Ian would please return to China someday. This was a common sentiment.

Ian's monk blessing at Six Banyan Temple in Guangzhou

Another Day, Another Milestone

In only a few hours, Shawn taught Ian how to go up and down the stairs with ease. He sometimes whines about coming back up, but is so proud of himself when he gets to the top and loves the ride down. He now finds all kinds of excuses to go back down.

The video clip below also shows what a big help Polli has been in this learning process. I can still remember when she was a puppy and couldn't make it up/down by herself either, so she's testament that babies really do grow up!

Sorry for the poor quality video from my little camera.

Double click the play icon to start the video

Breaking News... 21 and Walking! (sort of)

Ian is 21 months old today and we caught this video of him doing what big boys do... walking! For the past few weeks, we have been able to get him to walk a few steps at a time unassisted, but it's really more like letting his feet surrender to gravity and he falls into our arms. He is always extremely proud of himself, so he knows it's a big deal. He can almost run using his walker, so it's only a matter of time before he realizes that's just a prop and he can do it on his own.

Today, he let go and made it all the way across the room, even maneuvering around Polli a few times. I was able to get a few seconds of grainy video... Enough to consider it actual walking. We were able to get him to do this 5 or 6 times before he tired of it.

(click the play icon twice to start the video)

Orphanage Pics

We sent a care package to Ian at the orphanage back in July containing a disposable camera. There's never a guarantee that they'll use and/or return it, but we did get it back when we picked Ian up in Hangzhou.

I've been forgetting to drop it off to be developed, but finally got around to it. Eventually, I suspect that disposable cameras with be throw aways with small SD cards to avoid the need to deal with Fred Flintstone film. My mother in law might disagree, but old school film is such a major pain! I still have undeveloped film laying around from our trip to Italy 2 years ago....But I digress.

Without further ado, here are a few of the better pics from the roll of film taken at the Wenzhou CWI (I suspect they're from July or August since he's in tank tops in many of them). I think he looks a bit sickly, but it could just seem that way because he's come so far since coming home. I am glad to see that they had him standing. Although it could be just posing for pictures, it's nice to see him on his feet.

Ian and the Christmas Chaos

Anyone who knows our families know that Christmas is synonymous with chaos and guarantees to be an adventure every year. This is the first Christmas in years that we didn't open presents under my mom & dad's grand tree... This year, with my parents enjoying their first eggnog in the desert, we celebrated Christmas with Shawn's family.

Shawn and I opened our gifts before waking Ian this morning. Ian isn't going bonkers for the idea of Christmas yet, so it didn't make sense to make a big mess and confuse things even more. Ian did receive more wonderful gifts from my parents, which we appreciate so much (I'm sure he will too as we're dressing him in his new outfits).

At about 10:30, we headed south for the 45 minute drive to grandma Trish & grandpa Tom's house. We fully anticipated Ian to take his nap in the car during this time, but with Polli on my lap in the front seat, obviously playing favorites again, he was too distracted to snooze.

Like the angel he is :-) he played quietly with the simplest of wheeled toys and barely concerned himself with anything else. He really is great at entertaining himself in other people's homes and as long as there are people nearby or at least background noise, he is perfectly content. It's amazing how he can do this everywhere but our own house. Well, he's getting better, but it's still pretty night and day.

Next to arrive was Shawn's oldest brother Mark, his wife Shannon, and their kids Alec and Ashleigh. They have yet to meet Ian, so this was an exciting event. He wasn't sure what to make of more strangers, but quickly warmed up to them. Alec and Ashleigh are teenagers now, but were so excited about Ian. They did great with him and didn't roll their eyes or say OMG one single time. Good kids, those two.

Ian went down easily for a nap (again in a strange place... too good to be true!) without a peep and slept for 2 hours. During this time, we opened presents. Ian got a few more adorable outfits (one was in a Lancome box...I was a bit disappointed that Ian didn't get a Lancome gift set for Christmas...darn it). He also received a couple of great toys from Uncle Mark & Aunt Shannon that were well used. A fire truck with a siren that giggles and races across the floor... and it had wheels. Ian's one and only criteria for a good present.

Finally, our dear family friends, the Standke's, came. Tim and Cassie are about our age, their two adorable daughters Aiden and Marlee, and Cassie's mom Nancy. We loved seeing them and their girls were wonderful with Ian. They brought presents for him, and Aiden patiently showed him how to carefully color with markers on magic paper. She secretly drew a picture for him and gave it to him before they left. It was so thoughtful. She also put on a concert with her recorder instrument and played a duet with Tom and his guitar. Ian loved the music and had a great time playing with the girls. Goes to show how much he probably misses the interaction with kids in the orphanage. He doesn't get that at all right now, so it was nice to see how well he does in a group...even one as noisy and overwhelming as this was.

He fell asleep in the truck on the way home and Shawn was able to bring him in and lay him in his crib without waking him. Polli is equally as tired after a big day of kids and her cousin Spirit. Everyone is falling asleep, ready for a late morning tomorrow.

My phone died before I had the chance to talk to my parents, brother, or niece today, so if any of you are reading this, I'll call as soon as my peppermint fudge hangover wears off. It may be a bit into the day tomorrow. My apologies! The day got away from me.

Merry Christmas to everyone! We hope your day was as joyful and chaotic as ours!

Ian in his Christmas jammies

Ian meets cousins Alec & Ashleigh and aunt Shannon

Ian loves his grandma (and her cool Santa earrings!)

Ian & Polli looking out at the snow (yes, we had a few flurries of snow in Seattle on Christmas!)

Grandpa Tom reading a story with Aiden, Marlee & Ian

Ian looking a gift horse in the mouth (ha)

The chaos that is Christmas

Grandpa Tom plays his guitar for Ian

Christmas Eve Traditions

In my family growing up, there was always the tradition for us kids to open at least one pre-determined gift on Christmas Eve. It was almost always PJ's so we were appropriately festive come Christmas morning. Sometimes there was a second gift, which was typically a Christmas book.

Ian had two presents from my parents marked "To be opened on Christmas Eve". After dinner (when Shawn and Ian had a ravioli fight...not messy at all), we started opening his gifts. He didn't know what to do with the wrapping paper. Mr. Demolition didn't seem to have that instinct in this case. By next year, he'll be conditioned for Christmas, no doubt.

Like any kid, he didn't show particular enthusiasm for the PJ's. They were footies with snowmen on them... so cute. He tossed them aside and looked at me like "now what?".

The next gift was much more exciting. It was a Frosty the Snowman book (nice theme mom, as always) that plays the Frosty song when you open the cover. He opened and closed the book a dozen times. He was enthralled. This is a good thing since he hasn't really shown interest in books at all yet, but loves music. To tie music to reading might just get him interested.

So, now Ian is nestled snug in his snowman jammies after a bath and reading of Frosty (he actually lasted about 3 pages before he lost interest...baby steps!). If only he knew that as of 7:30pm Pacific Time, Santa has been spotted by NASA over Cape Canaveral. As long as the Midwest storms don't slow him down, he'll be here in about 4 hours!

Thanks Grama & Paga (mom & dad) for the adorable PJ's and great book. It's nice to keep some Christmas traditions alive!

p.s. Please pardon the lovely socks in these pictures. Shawn dressed Ian today and decided that knee highs were necessary over his thermals.

"Hey, I thought I wasn't supposed to touch these!"

"Whoa! It plays music! This is the best book ever!"

"Mom, check this out. These kids are actually having fun in that snow stuff. It must be fiction."

"I can't believe it. It says here that Frosty smokes a pipe. He's setting a bad example. He's going to melt prematurely, doesn't he know that?"

"Look at this! There are 10 books in the Read with Music series. Facinating!"

A New Motor Skill...

We decided to wait until Ian begins walking to put the gate in the stair opening and it hasn't been an issue because he always stops at the top and turns around. Today, I saw him crawling toward the stairs but didn't get there in time. I did, however, have time to fire up my camera when I saw that he was learning a new skill...going down the stairs head first after his toys.

I guess the gate will be going up!

Santa's Helpers

Polli and Ian decided to help wrap presents today...

Back To The Grind

Ian and I rounded out our trip to Arizona with slightly better weather (yay!) and a trip to the Phoenix Zoo.

I'm not sure what Ian's impression was of the zoo. He loves to ride in the stroller, but we had him in and out of it many times, which I'm sure was annoying, and it was nap/lunch time right about when we embarked on the adventure. This meant that we were on the verge of tears frequently. He did like the orangutan though, maybe because there was an active baby that looked an awful lot like a human baby playing.

He loves to people watch, so I think that was his favorite part of the day. It was a nice zoo and a bit warmer than the previous days, so we had a great day all in all. Despite the $6 kids meal of chicken nuggets (the most nutritious thing on their kids menu), of which he ate less than one, it was a fun way to spend the day. I think he'll enjoy the zoo more after he's home a while and starts to figure out that animals in the zoo are not just different sized dogs.

We did a bit more shopping (the primary passtime here), opened more early Christmas presents (!!!), and relaxed. It was a great trip and Ian seemed to really adapt to yet another different environment very well. There were only one or two 1am wake ups and he napped like a pro in the pack/play, which I half expected to be really difficult. We had tried to make his crib environment as much like home as possible, which I'm sure helped matters.

While in Arizona, Ian started trying to wave, but it's the backward wave with his palm and fingers facing him, and it is accompanied by "dada" instead of "hi" or "bye". It's really cute. Especially the sentiment that he was thinking about Shawn and really started saying dada more the last day.

He also walked barefoot on grass for the first time. Since it's the desert, the grass was a little "pokey" in places, but he did OK. I'm not sure if he understood why we were walking around on it without shoes on, but he was a trooper and survived unscathed.

On our last day, we put together a tent and tunnel, but he's not quite ready for that either. He started to warm up to the tent a bit once we bribed him with toys, but the tunnel was long and scary. That's a toy for next summer I'm afraid. At least that's the kind of thing that lasts for many years before getting old. One day he'll be begging to sleep outside in it.

The flight home was fine. We had an empty seat next to us again, so I'm very glad we didn't spend the money on a ticket for him. He was OK for the first half of the flight, bribes of food and all, but the last hour was a bit dicey. I could tell that he wanted to sleep, but couldn't get comfortable. There was a teenaged boy behind us and I could tell he was annoyed. Put on your iPod headphones kid and ignore us. Once, you were in Ian's shoes and someday you'll be in mine.

We're glad to be home and back to our old routine, but Arizona was fun and my parents were great hosts. It was hard to walk away at the airport, knowing they won't see Ian for a while. I'll have to make a point to show him pictures of them and say their names. I definitely want him to remember them and our fun trip.

Below are a few more pics of the week:

At the zoo with grama & paga

With mama and Mr. Giraffe

Ian's first piggy back ride (I put a stop to the fun right after getting a picture)

Paga did a great job of getting exercise in those legs

Ian's feet in grass for the first time

He was not thrilled about the tunnels. Grama was nearby to stop the torture...

...But he warmed up a tiny bit to the tent section