She's doing just fine

It amazes me how the time has flown by.  On one hand it seems like we were just in Taiwan and on the other it seems like she has been a part of our lives forever.  I look back on our pictures and tears still come to my eyes remembering what it was like to see her for the first time...to hold her and know that she was ours. Claire has an endless amount of energy and we are always on the run with her. She fills our lives with laughter and excitement for life like only a child can.

 

She has an infectious and devious smile all at the same time.

Jon and I were just talking the other day about her caretakers in the orphanage...we wonder if they get updates on the children that they loved and cared for. Claire had one caretaker in particular that was very bonded to her. She wept when we picked her up.  We send updates like we're supposed to but I wonder if those are just for the birthfamily...I wonder if these women care for and love our children while we aren't there and then with heavy hearts hand them over with faith to foreigners, never to know how it all turned out. How hard that must be. So we've decided to send an email to the orphanage explaining that we didn't know if the caretakers were updated,  but we wanted them to know how happy she is..how happy we all are and that she's well taken care of...and of course we'll attach the cutest pictures we can.  And we hope that it will get passed on to "Lilly" and she'll know for sure that that little angel is doing okay...

Back on track..

Well so much has been going on...let's update.  The past 5 months have brought some changes in our household.  About 4 months ago..Jon got hurt again..he fell at Pump it Up, which is an inflatable party place for kids..he and Claire were climbing up a high slide thingy, Claire squirmed and they fell...far.  Jon cradled Claire and she was okay, but he shattered his ankle-requiring surgery and Jon was out on disability for 4 months.  He is doing ok now, but will have problems for the rest of his life probably requiring more surgery as he gets older.  Didn't I say that he wasn't allowed on high things....geeesh..
I changed jobs. I was working 5 days a week(like most normal people) plus call shifts, but I didn't feel like the quality of my interactions with Claire were very good.  She's a day person and was just grumpy when I got home and I felt like I never saw her. So I went back to 12 hour night shifts and am now working in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.  I love love love my new job and I love all the time I have with Claire now.  I'm with her everyday and I only miss the nighttime routine 3 nights a week. Plus I'm a true night person at heart so I need less sleep.  I hated hated hated getting up at 5 am 5 days a week.  The relationship between Claire and I has changed..she's not grumpy around me as much and we're able to do so much now.  I almost feel like a stay at home Mom.
My oldest nephew has moved in with us for the school year.  So now we have the terrible twos and a 16 year old.  Claire loves having him around and he's a tremendous help to us and is very good with Claire.  But let's not forget that he's 16.  Seriously he makes me feel old......
Our phone lines went down one night..I thought it was the computer so I pressed buttons..a lot of buttons..and reset things I probably shouldn't have reset..so our entire computer network was down...for many months...so after about 5 months we have it corrected and now finally I'm back on track...with more time to enjoy the things I like doing...like updating our blog...

3rd and final post of the day..Baptism..and I didn't lie

We finally had Claire baptized, last weekend. First off I had to make sure we had the right church for our family. I kept changing churches trying to like the ones closer to us. I really 'wanted' to like the ones right around the corner from us, but it just didn't feel right to me. But we kept going back to St. Matthews and really like it there. We're catholic and had to attend a little class before we could baptize Claire..when the Deacon told me that we would hold her during the ceremony...my heart panicked....Claire won't let us hold her for any extended period of time...she's two..really did I mention she was two..."it's okay" the Deacon said.."we're used to babies crying during the ceremony"..."no really, did I tell you she was two?!!"

So as you can see in the first picture..it was after Mass before the baptism...she's being held by one of her older cousins...looks like she might do okay right...we usually drop Claire off at the nursery for Mass, so when we walked into the church and up to the alter..she said.."wow"...so I was thinking "please God, let her be good for the ceremony..."
Then we had to hold her...and hold her and hold her...as you can see she didn't like it. Not only did she cry during the ceremony..she squirmed and SCREAMED!!  DURING THE ENTIRE CEREMONY.  See I didn't lie..I looked into the pews and saw our family in tears from laughing so hard..I was up on the alter with a squrimy screaming two year old..sweating..we're passing Claire off to eachother trying to get her to calm down..if you'll notice in one of the pictures..I'm blocking Claire from kicking the Priest...that's gotta be some kind of sin..right?haha....nothing was working..until they actually baptized her...once the holy water was poured over her head she calmed down a bit...but once it was over..it started again..Finally it was over and the Priest gave her her candle...well holy candle that calmed her down...where was that at the beginning...whew...then we had a nice reception for her and as you can see...Claire stripped off her shoes and pantyhoes for the party...
Now friends and family...you are caught up....

Ni Hao...2nd Birthday

Her second birthday was a Kai Lan party. We bought her the smallest dress we could find in Taiwan and it was just fitting her. We knew that if we didn't create an occasion for her to wear it, she would out grow it soon.

If you're wondering about the cake...we ordered a Do*ra cake from Publi*x then asked them NOT to put on the Do*ra figurines on it..then we bought Kai Lan figures and put them on ourselves..I bought some take out boxes from the craft store and printed out pictures and invites from the NickJR website

She of course was spoiled again and had a blast and looked beautiful in her dress.
post 2 done...

OK So I lied...

So I lied...things are a little busy here and I haven't kept up..so I'll try to catch up today

Halloween came and went...Claire was supposed to be a ladybug as her cousin was a bumble bee, but once that ladybug costume went on..the tears started flowing.  I guess the princess wasn't feeling the bug vibe, but felt the fairy wings flapping.

We're still here....

Really it's been forever since I posted. Things are going very well aside from the fact that we are in the terrible twos.
Claire is a happy, energetic, nonstop, independent little girl.
I can't believe that we are on the cusp of her 2nd birthday.

She wants to be so grown up already it seems.  She wants to do everything herself and has a temper to boot.  Really her temper rivals both her Daddy and I.  But we are working on it and usually by days end we are exhausted.

She is growing by leaps and bounds and her speech is really coming along.  It seems like she went to bed one night and we couldn't understand what she was trying to say...then she woke up and we could understand a lot more.  So flippin' cute... this little one...

I've changed jobs and am now working in the PICU. Working 5 days a week(gasp)...was making me feel like I wasn't seeing her a whole lot, then I was tired and I felt like the quality of our interactions wasn't there. Fortunately for me, I was able to change jobs and will be working 3 nights a week(once I'm off orientation)..that way I will be able to be with her every day and will only miss 3 dinners and bedtimes each week vs 5 all days. Jon will be changing his shift to days and now Jon and I will be able to see eachother more now....we'll see how that goes....haha!
With my new schedule I'll be able to keep up with the blog now....and will try..I may even post a second one today....

Conclusion....

So we've come to the conclusion that we suck as parents...
...and Claire must just laugh at us behind our backs...
Claire has been giving us a really hard time lately. Not wanting to sleep, or take a nap, or listen...AT ALL. Stubborn is an understatement. We've tried really hard to be patient and consistent. It just doesn't seem to be working. See that look on her face..we get that often. And we swear that there are times that in her own little toddler babble..she is cursing us.
Fast forward to today. The GI bug has run rampant in our house. We were both exhausted and needed some help. So we asked our Mom to watch Claire today so I could go back to work and Jon could catch up on some sleep.
Well when I got home Claire hadn't had a nap(despite getting up at 0530), yet Jon said he never heard my Mom or Claire all day. Claire was NOT whiney. Went down for a nap with narey a whine and my Mom said she was great all day. This has also happened when Jon's Mom watched her. "oh she was great, never cried, never fussed" We've heard this before. We're not sure what the heck we're doing wrong. She usually wakes up with us, does something wrong and is crying w/in 10 minutes. Seriously. So we've come to the conclusion that we pretty much must suck at being parents.

Our 1st Family Day

Can you believe that it's been a year since our little angel was placed into our arms...gosh the time has flown by. So in honor of our first Family day we headed again to the gulf coast, crystal clear water, sugar sanded beaches and a lazy river at our condo. We had a great time and Claire again was a trooper.






What a difference a year makes. I remember so vividly what it felt like to hold her for the first time. I also remember Jon and I going back to the hotel, looking at our new daughter and saying aloud "Now what?"....Now what, how naive we were. Now what...now we have a running, screaming laughing toddler that has so much energy sometime I wish she had a pause button.... For just ten seconds.... Claire has grown and changed so much this past year. The last couple of months has uncovered a little girl that so much wants to be grown. Her desire to be big has really thrown caution to the wind. She wants to try everything herself, climb all things, jump off any thing and argue in her own little jumble of words and nonwords. She has grown in her affections and has become quite cuddly here of late. She can be sweet and devious in the same minute. Is she starting to sound like someone you know?
Poor Jon doesn't stand a chance with the two of us.....Anyhow....enjoy the pictures....

WE SURVIVED THE FIRST YEAR!!!

A Big Girl bed...already?

Can you believe that this little monkey climbed out of her crib already? At 19 and 3/4 months she scaled that sucker. Jon put her down for a nap(which is not always a desire of Claire's), next thing he knew, he heard drawers being opened and closed..
Darn that kiddo...that meant conversion #1 happened a little earlier then we hoped. AND by the way little Miss Claire just thought it was the neatest thing not to have one whole side of her crib....that is until the lights went out...

The transition from crib to day bed has been okay at best. She was extremely stressed out about it at bedtime, thrashing about and such. It took a little over an hour the first night to get her to bed(which is not like her) . She refused to nap the first week. The problem is that Claire does not like to be rocked to sleep, she just likes to go to bed, no real fuss. She might cry for a few minutes but then goes off to sleep. If we stay in the room she thinks it's playtime, so we kinda have to just put her to bed and walk out. I stuck it out and kept putting her back in her bed. We did end up putting a toddler rail thingy on the bed to give her more security since she's still so young. Then we got a tap light for her room and tried to be consistent. Almost two weeks later she will take a nap and tonight it took her a total of 2 minutes to drift off. Love it. And I love that she can get up by herself go to our room and wake us up with Claire Bear kisses...

Where have we been?

Well....Claire has been catching up on the latest gossip..
Taking the time to help out her Mommy....
Trying on the latest fairy fashions....
Then taking a quick dip in the local pool.....

18 months....

Can you believe that this little angel is already 18 months old...seriously the time is just flying by as if it didn't matter anymore. I wish the wait had gone by this quickly.


At 18 months Claire is a jibbering and jabbering away. Not that we understand what she's trying to say. We understand a word here and there, but it's so cute to listen to her have a conversation with herself and laugh at what she's saying. She's 24 1/2 pounds and has grown 3 inches since her 1st birthday. She's in the 75th percentile....
I just can't believe how much she's grown..she runs around like an energizer bunny, doing exactly what she's not supposed to do. I'm so exhausted and deliriously happy at the same time it's dizzying. She's continuing with her post bath/milk snuggle which is really nice b/c Jon's not up yet, so we're not competing for her.
She's learned a few signs and will use them at times. I haven't been able to get her to learn any signs that are very helpful though.
She has this horrendous habit of putting her hand down her diaper. We tried ignoring it, so as not to "create" a reaction that she looks for...that didn't work. So we tried to reprimand her and tell her not to do it..that just made her do it more....we tried to ignore it again...until the other day when hand went down the diaper and came up with poop on it.....
Not cute!
So we thought that yes it's early, but maybe she's not too comfortable with stool in the diaper...so we bought a potty. The kind you put on the toilet. So we came home, propped her up on her new Dora toilet seat, gave her a magazine and sat on the floor in front of her. She sat there for a bit having fun...we were talking and laughing...then she did it. She pooped on the potty!! Yay!! We are under no delusion that this will happen again anytime soon. We're not going to push it, but we are randomly putting her on the Dora seat.
I can't believe she's talking, running, throwing tantrums, learning new skills, and pooping on a toilet...wasn't it just last week that I was waiting for that call!!??

The beach is officially open!!!

The weather is warm, the sun is out and that can only mean one thing for this family....It's beach weather. Okay so I know we've already been to the beach this season, but the beach is "officially" open. And the water wasn't too bad. Actually a lot warmer then I thought it would be. Not that Claire cared. Once her feet hit the sand, she ran to the water. Yup that's my girl...teeth chattering, but she didn't care....It's beach time!!

40 minutes

I got 40 whole blissful, wonderful loving minutes snuggling with my little angel tonight. She normally doesn't do that(except when she was sick). She's usually running all over the place, not giving us a mere second to sit down.
I've always felt that Claire bonded very well to us..but I've seen such strides in her trust of us over the last several months. I'm not sure what I was expecting. I guess I didn't realize that I would still be seeing measurable moments this long into her being home with us. I mean I knew that it was a process, a process that took time. Maybe it was my naivety. Maybe it was that after such a long struggle to have a family I didn't care what it took or what hurdles we had to go through as a family as long as we had our complete family. I just figured we would handle what ever problems or struggles we/she had and that was it. But truthfully I don't think I really thought that after being home this long I would notice anything that any other non adoptive parent would notice(***by the way she's been with us now longer then she was in the orphanage***) But tonight was one of those moments that seemed pretty significant to me. Aside from the time when she was sick and would cuddle, she really wasn't much of a cuddler. When it's time to go to sleep, she never liked being rocked. She liked her routine..stories, prayer bear, music, crib. And I was okay with that, I figured maybe that was just her. But tonight, so peaceful, she laid on my chest, calm, passive, and we just talked and laid there. Then it hit me..this was a MOMENT. Wow..really she wanted to love on me. So I didn't move and just soaked it all in. Jon got up and I told him what happened and so as I turned around Jon was lying on the couch...what...he was supposed to be getting ready for work...
what are you doing?
I want that..I want her to cuddle with me...
So I tried to lay her on Jon's chest...
Nope she didn't want it.
I picked her up and again she just snuggled into me..that's when I knew for sure. Tonight was my MOMENT...tonight was about Claire and me.....

Is that a bunny on your back

Easter came and went in a flurry of white fur. Claire totally got the looking for eggs gig. She's at that perfect age of putting things in and out of a basket. Her Easter was complete with 4 wardrobe changes and lots of family.

She wasn't afraid of the bunny at her Grandma's church.

And she loved waking up to her basket

Then of course......we have to clean up!!