Happy Baby!

Anslee is always smiling and laughing but when I get the camera out she stops. I want pictures of her smiling so now I keep the camera with me and quickly take a picture before she realizes what's happening. Isn't she the cutest?!

Having fun!

Anslee loves it when Andrew has a friend over to play. The great thing is that they are all so good with her and don't mind her "playing" with them (for a little while at least). She is also so entertained just watching them play ~ because usually the are wrestling, jumping around or just generally acting crazy!

See the space ship that Andrew is in? A friend of his had a Star Wars birthday party last summer. The dad made a space ship for every child with R2D2 on top! They were made out of boxes and R2 was a decorated cool whip container. Andrew and his friends still play with them. The children were also all given jedi robes and they all brought their light sabers. It was a fantastic party!

T

Pictures ~ playing with Maddy

Playing at Barnes and Noble

Eating at Chick-fil-a. Maddy ate her food without making a mess. Anslee on the other hand, makes the hugest mess and stuffs her food into her mouth as fast as she can!

No one is safe eating beside Anslee. She started taking food away from Maddy when she ran out of food. She won't stop eating even when she's full. She really fits perfectly in our family!

T

The temperature is in the 70's here but it looks like this in Beijing today...


Two Chinese walk along a shore covered by heavy snow in a park in Beijing February 28, 2006. CHINA OUT REUTERS/China Daily

I'm so thankful for Tina!!

I returned to teaching my preschool class today. It was so wonderful seeing all the children and they seemed really excited that I was back. The teacher who took over for me has such an incredible personality and is so lovable that I was a little concerned that the children would not be as excited to see me as I was them. Many people have asked me why I am going back this year since after paying for childcare the money I bring home is almost nothing. I am teaching because I love it.

Keith laughed the other day when I told him I just love the smell of Andrew's elementary school. I love the smells of the sweaty children, the yucky cafeteria food, and the paint, markers, crayons all mixed together. Hopefully when Anslee is in kindergarten I'll resume teaching kindergarten or first grade.

I was really nervous this morning as I was getting ready to go. A lady named Tina is keeping Anslee at her house with a couple of other children. Tina has taken care of several children I know and they and their parents adore her! So I wasn't nervous about the care Anslee would get, I just didn't want her to be sad while I was gone.

When I took Anslee this morning I hugged and kissed her and then slipped out when she wasn't looking. I am leaving her from 8:15-1:15 on Wednesdays and Thursdays and from 8:15-12:15 on Mondays and Tuesdays. I only called once during the day (aren't you proud of me?!) and Tina said Anslee was doing great.
As soon as I arrived to pick her up, Anslee started crawling towards me as fast as she could. I held her and loved on her and then she wanted down to play some more. She had a blast!!

Now she'll probably be bored with Andrew and me over the summer!
T

Anslee's old friend Maddy :-)

Today Anslee and I had lunch and played with Bernice and Maddy. Bernice and her husband Darren were in our adoption group. They live in Ohio but were in town visiting family. It was so wonderful seeing Bernice and Maddy and the bond they have. Bernice's dad and her adorable niece Elise came with them and were both so enjoyable! Anslee and Maddy had fun playing together (as much as 12-14 month olds do!).
I'll post pictures from this play date later in the week.

Maddy, Darren and Bernice in China

After we drove home I put Anslee down for a nap (thank goodness she didn't fall asleep in the car!) and looked at some pictures from our trip. The memories from the trip already seem so fuzzy and distant. It seems as if Anslee has always been here. Keith and I love her as much as if we had given birth to her.

Each family had to have their picture taken for the adoption certificate. We came straight here after we left the orphanage and ate lunch. Zhou took this picture with his camera before the offical camera guy was ready. Keith had just said he can't believe we finally have Anslee with us. Terri

On the search for Buster

One of Anslee's favorite morning activities is chasing Buster around the house. He actually seems to enjoy it for a while.
His favorite morning activity is waiting by the highchair hoping Anslee tosses lots of food down to him (he's usually not dissapointed!).

making a blow pop

Andrew got the Charms Blow Pop Lollipop Shop for a Christmas gift. He couldn't wait to use it. I know you might think it would be easy to stop by the store and pay 25 cents if you want one BUT it only took about ten steps and a total of one hour to make this one lollipop (and this doesn't include clean up time)! Although Andrew loved making it, he did decide not to make one for all of his friends today like he had planned. :-)


T

The Greatest Show on Earth!

We went to the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus on Sunday. Keith stayed home with Anslee. We didn't think she'd enjoy sitting still for a couple of hours. Andrew and I took some friends and had a blast.

If you get there an hour early you can go down to the rings and meet the clowns and see the animals up close.

The children got to go inside the center ring and learn a dance.

I always feel so sorry for the elephants. This one painted a picture. Then afterwards the trainer walked him around the ring a few times so we could all see him up close. I planned an escape route in case he charged into the crowd!

This cute clown wanted to try on my friend's boots.

Waiting for the show to begin.

Some acrobats chose Andrew to help them make a walking pyramid. He was so excited that he's now thinking this may be the career choice for him!
T

sick little baby

Poor Anslee was so sick last week. I took her into the doctor on Thursday because three of her fingers from her top knuckle up were red, hot to the touch and swollen. She had also been fussy for two days. The doctor found that she had strep throat and an ear infection. She thought Anslee's fingers were infected hangnails. She used a scapel and drained them a little (ouch!) then put antibiotic ointment on them. She also prescribed an antibiotic for her strep and ear infection.
The next day we went back to have Andrew checked for strep (he didn't have it) and I wanted her to look at Anslee's fingers again. They had started streaking. So the doctor gave her an antibiotic shot and drew a line where the red stopped. She said if it progressed past that she'd have to get an iv. Luckily when she woke up on Saturday morning she looked much better!!
By Sunday she was her happy, normal self.

We love our playgroup!

Right now Anslee is the youngest in playgroup but there are several moms waiting to go to China and get their second daughter. Their paperwork is done and logged in. They are just waiting for the referral.




We are excited about the long President's Day weekend! Andrew and Anslee both are a little under the weather. Anslee had to get an antibiotic shot that stung for at least an hour. Andrew and I were so sad for her. :-( Hopefully they can both get a lot of rest and get better.
T

McDonald's in China

So Keith was actually eating health food when he ate McDonald's fries in China! :-) In the article it says the taste of McDonald's is the same all over the world. Even though the fries would be better for us with no trans fat, our USA trans fat filled fries taste much yummier!

McDonald's says no trans fat in China fries
www.chinaview.cn 2006-02-15 08:40:56
BEIJING, Feb. 15 -- McDonald's Corp. says french fries sold in its Chinese stores contain no trans fat, following revelations that its fries sold elsewhere contain a third more of the potentially artery-blocking substance than previously thought.
In a news release, the Oak Brook, Illinois-based McDonald's said yesterday it uses only fatty acid-free palm oil to make french fries in China.
"The taste of McDonald's is the same all over the world. However, we adjust our ingredients to match the different situations in disparate markets," the company said in the statement issued by its China headquarters in Shanghai.
Often used by restaurants and in packaged foods, trans fats are thought to cause cholesterol problems and increase the risk of heart disease.
McDonald's said results of a new testing method it began using in December showed that the level of trans fat in a portion of large fries is 8 grams, up from 6 grams, with total fat increasing to 30 grams from 25 grams.
The disclosure came as McDonald's begins rolling out packaging in the United States containing facts about menu items' nutritional content -- a move made voluntarily but with the fast-food industry under pressure from consumer groups and the government to provide more information.
China is a key growth area for the company, which already operates more than 740 stores here and plans to open hundreds more.
On Monday the fast food giant admitted that wheat and dairy ingredients are used to flavor the popular menu item -- an acknowledgment it had not previously made. The presence of those substances can cause allergic or other medical reactions in food-sensitive consumers.

Meeting more family members

After our trip to Montreat we went to Asheville to stay with my mom and dad for a night and to let Anslee meet my sister and her family. My sis made Anslee the greatest doll. She made one for Andrew when he was a baby too.

Andrew loves his cousins! They gave him the School House Rock dvd.

Do you remember those cartoons on Saturday mornings? We've been walking around singing: "interjections (Well!) show excitement (Oh!), emotion (Hey!), they're generally set apart from a sentence by an exclamation point, Or by a comma when the feeling's not as strong." :-)

A little vacation.

Our first road trip as a family of four. We went to Montreat, North Carolina. Every year our family and three other families meet for a weekend. This year there were 8 adults and 7 children. Next year there will be 3 more children!

Each family is in charge of making a meal. Keith always makes low country boil for our night which is spread out on paper bags on the table.
Samuel was born 9 months after Andrew. They have been buddies their whole lives. They had a blast sledding, throwing snowballs, playing gameboy and wrestling all weekend.

Anslee did not love the snow. We only took her outside twice. I thought she would enjoy it more since she loved watching it from the window inside. She loved watching and playing with the other children and getting lots of attention from all the adults!
This snow sure beat the little bit we had at home last week!
T

Not much going on around here...

Keith, Andrew and Anslee playing in the office. She already has both of them wrapped around her little finger. I love it!!

Some friends were asking exactly where Chongqing is. Here is a map. On our trip we landed and spent a few days in Beijing (Northeast). Then we went to Chongqing (SW) then to Guangzhou (SE). I can't wait to go back one day. We enjoyed everything about China.
Have a good day. Keeping our fingers crossed for more snow!

Terri

It snowed today!!

It was so exciting when it started snowing big, wet snowflakes this morning! Anslee watched it while she ate breakfast. She almost couldn't even concentrate on shoving her pancakes into her mouth. After breakfast she kept going to the window to look outside.

Thank goodness my friend Sandy came over and took her out to play for a couple of minutes ~ I didn't have any desire to head out there! Now if we had even an inch I would've gone outside. We were so sad when it turned into rain. I know it is so pathetic to get so excited about our 30 minutes of snowfall but that is probably about all we'll get this year!

I hope everyone else gets some snow today :-)
T

playing in the pool

When we were preparing to go to China we saw pictures of babies doing this in the Fuling orphanage. When we met up with our group we were all wondering about this on the bus. I am so glad I finally found out what they were doing. My guess is that it was more for physical therapy at the orphanage.


I found this on yahoo news today.


In this photo released by China's Xinhua news agency, babies have the swimming training at a Maternal and Infantile Health Care Center in Suzhou, east China's Jiangsu province, on Friday February 3, 2006. Swimming for newborn babies, which is becoming increasingly popular in China, is not only good to the growth of babies' bones and muscles, but can strengthen heart and lung functions, Xinhua said. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Hang Xinghui)

Families of Chinese Children

We've started going to a playgroup with all Chinese children. They have been adopted from many different areas of China. They are all so beautiful. I love that Anslee has all these little girls to play with. It is great to talk to everyone about their different experiences and to continue to get more information about the Asian culture.
On Tuesday night the moms in our group are meeting with a Chinese doctor to hear about medical information unique to Asian people. I know I have so much to learn.

Anslee and her friend Callie

Terri

Playtime!!

Anslee playing in her room.

She loves pulling out all her books and looking at them (and sometimes eats them too).

Anslee is one!

She is such an incredible additon to our lives.

Happy Birthday sweet girl!!