Sunday Snapshot - My Beautiful Baby Girl

First Visit to the Doctor's

Xiao Na's went to see Dr. Jenkins the morning after she arrived.  She was 25.6 lbs and 33 3/4 inches.  The doctor thought she looked very healthy and strong.  She was test for TB (her PPD turned out to be negative) and had about 6 vials of blood taken for the blood tests.  So far, everything looks good except for perhaps a mild issue of anemia (maybe Thalassemia Trait...we'll find out more later).  He listened to her heart.  Her murmur is still very apparent and she will see the pediatric cardiologist in a few weeks.  Thus far, no one is terribly concerned about her VSD as she is at about the 50th percentile for height and weight and is otherwise thriving which means that her heart is doing just fine and isn't affecting her overall development.

Homecoming

I haven't been very motivated to post photos of our homecoming because the images are so terrible.  Pete bought a new Nikon coolpix camera right before leaving because he knew he couldn't manage the size of my camera, and we are both so disappointed in the quality of all the photos he took in China.  He now wishes he just bought another camera in China, but I know he had enough of other stuff to deal with (I don't know who he accomplished all he did to begin with).

Here are a few shots of me meeting Xiao Na for the first time.  I will say that adopting an independent toddler is a lot different when it comes to the moment that you first meet.  The grandmother of another family adopting in our travel group showed up to meet her family with some big, beautiful mylar balloons.  Xiao Na took off like a shot to go get one of those; meeting Mom kind of paled in comparison.  Emma, on the other hand, did capture her immediate attention and the three girls had a great time playing and running all around the baggage area together.  And though I didn't get the opportunity to actually pick her up and hold her until much later (she was pretty leery of me), she was more than willing to give me a smile and hold my hand.  She sang and giggled and kicked her feet all the way home from the airport (didn't even mind the carseat) and was so easy-going.  After a bath and a bedtime bottle and snack, all the girls, tired from their very late night, crashed together in our bed.  Sisters at last!

Emma has it now!

Yup...Emma got Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease as well and it has been pretty chaotic around her.  She's already doing better and was never as sick as Hannah, but it still is a pretty miserable illness even without all the hallucinations, etc. that Hannah had.  Josie has been okay so far, but today was really whiny and she's generally pretty easy-going, so I wonder if she'll be next.  I feel like I have spent the entire summer within a 1/2 mile radius of our house!  Help!!!  Get me out of here.  I've usually spent 6 weeks by the ocean by now.  I wait all year for our summers on the Cape and I really miss the beach....really, really miss the beach!  I hope we get to go soon!!!!

Hillary returns home tomorrow so that will be exciting for everyone.  I can't wait to see her.  Plus, my sister will be coming to visit very soon as well so hopefully August will so much fun that it will make up for our slow start to summer.

I can't wait to take Josie to the beach.  She loves playing in the bath...goes into the bathroom and attempts to remove her clothing to climb in several times a day.  I know she'll love the water, but the sand....that will be an issue.  She's just working on dealing with grass and she's not too fond of that.  I've taken her into our sandbox to try to prepare her for the texture, but she's not loving it. Before now, I think she's only felt concrete and pavement under her feet so this is all very new to her.  I hope she gets over her aversion to it quickly because summer is almost over!!!  

Here are a few shots of the girls playing together outside a few days before Hannah got sick (taken 7/25):