A few things...

-Annie has a little pink stool that we use in the bathroom to brush teeth, sit on la toilet and wash hands. This stool has a hole in the middle to make for easy carrying and although it is almost as big as she is, Annie carries it around the house. Today I was doing dishes and she brought it in to help. I was folding laundry on the bed and she brought it in to try and climb onto the bed (we have a very high bed!!). Annie carries it from room to room (without being asked at all) and is figuring out ways to use it. It is neat to watch how her brain is working.
-Annie has now climbed to the top rung of her loft bed ladder by herself. This ladder is not a "children's" ladder per say and at the top, it is 6.5 feet off the ground. This child is not scared of heights but she can't figure yet, how to get down. Not a good scene for Mommy who likes her to figure her own way out of situations and I think Shawn's hair has become more grey over this one!!!! We may be taking the ladder off the bed and only putting in on when guests are coming!!
- I feel that I can share this now. On returning from China and the trauma that we dealt with there as well as the loss of my Mother-in-law (she died while we were flying back to Canada), I suffered from post-adoption depression. There is a staggering figure that 60% of AP's suffer from this but there is very little out there about it. Luckily, our agency was wonderful and set us up with some counselling and I felt comfortable talking to my Dr. about meds. Many people don't have these resources. A BC adoptive parent Elizabeth Elias has just written a memoir of her experiences with PA depression and I wanted to put it out there for others to see. The title is "Don't Call Me Mother" and it is available here . As a side note, I tried once to write about this on the "big Chinese adoption" yahoo list and the moderator wouldn't post my messages. I was in conversation with two other AP's at the time and their posts were blocked as well. Very interesting that this is a topic not many want to touch when sooooooo many suffer...
I am just glad that I was able to recognize and deal with it quickly as well as having a wonderful attachment therapist who took us on pro-bono because of all the trauma we had been through.

Weekend away...

Evening stroll. On the ferry.

Sunset. "Hanging" on the balcony.

We had a lovely weekend in Vancouver with Veronica. She lives in English Bay and it is a beautiful part of the city. Lots of walking, surf watching and GREAT restaurants which we took advantage of. Annie loved the balcony and every evening we were sitting out on the balcony when Shawn was putting her to bed. She didn't want to go and kept trying to come out and "hang" with the girls. So sweet. The next day Annie came out on the balcony, showed us all where to sit and then sat in the beach chair which fit her perfectly.

We went to visit Chinatown and to the Granville Island Market. Of course, we stopped off at Ike.a and then V took Shawn to the airport. A great weekend all around. Thanks V for the fun and hospitality!!!

A hug...

Today, Annie and I were dancing as we do most days. I fell into the couch with exhaustion with my little girl facing me. I looked her right in the eye and said "I love you". She reached around my shoulder and neck and gave me a HUGE hug. Wow, we really really have come a long way!!!! There is nothing like the feeling of little arms hugging you close, NOTHING!!!!!
Now I just have to get her to say "peas" after "up" like she does for Daddy!!!!!!

Too bad...

it won't fit for Halloween but how cute is she!!!! Oh and for those in the know, Annie is doing the actions for the Tiny Turtle song in this photo...

Pink Leopards like to crawl and read books!!!! Can you see the ears on the top of the costume...

The bottom is my favorite photo, my cutie little leopard!!! Guess Annie will have to be a bunny this year because even though she and Mommy LOVE the princess dresses, Daddy says NO!!!!

Six months...

March 2009 September 2009

ago yesterday we became a family. It has been a long and short six months with so many trials and tribulations. Annie has grown so much and come such a long way. It is amazing to think that six months ago, she couldn't sit up by herself and now she is chasing us down the hall. The photos of then and now are so very different. I won't say that the transition to becoming a parent wasn't a challenging one and that Annie's transition to accepting us as her parents is complete but we are getting there. I feel as though I can breathe a little better now. Shawn took to being a Daddy like a duck to water and enjoys every minute. He and Annie have a beautiful relationship - they adore one another.

We are sitting and watching the DVD which was made for us of our trip to China, for the first time. I am happy to say that we aren't in it much (we were exhausted and sick) but the videographer did a wonderful job of capturing all of the sites we visited. A walk down memory lane. When we were there, it was hard to focus on anything other than Annie so seeing all of the adventures we went on as well as the people we travelled with is super. Even though at the time, it felt like the videographer was in our space, I am so pleased to have this DVD of our trip. Thanks to Yulin our FOI facilitator for everything she did for us, including having this DVD made. Here's to many more years of family life together!!!!! And no, we aren't going to adopt again, Annie is our one and only!! We are so thrilled to have her.

Firsts...

*Annie ate her first piece of corn on the cob yesterday. I have cut the kernels off a fresh piece before but she REALLY wanted to eat like Mommy so I gave her a small piece. She LOVED it.
*Annie spills her water from her cup quite a bit and I showed her the cloth to clean it up yesterday. When I asked her to bring it to me, she did. So tonight, I had her soup cooling on the counter and Shawn knocked it over onto the floor - chicken, noodles, vegis, tofu and broth everywhere. Annie went and found the cloth to help clean it up!!!
*Yesterday I asked Annie if she wanted to go "out" or stay "home". She said "ome" and we stayed home for the day.
*We use a blue cup to rinse Annie's hair when we are washing it. Tonight she put on a pout, took it out of Shawn's hand and threw it into the water!!! This child needs her hair at least rinsed every night as she has food in it constantly!!!
*Annie has two "baby dolls" one is hard plastic and one is a cabb.age patch of mine. These "babies" go everywhere and must eat with us. The funny thing is that Annie only remembers half way through her meal. We then go get baby, pretend to feed baby (Annie makes the slurping sound) and then the spoonful goes into Annie's mouth. It is very cute!!
* Shawn really snores loudly and Annie has noticed from day one that he makes alot of noise when he sleeps. So now when I ask if it is time to sleep, she makes a snoring sound!!!!!
*Annie will climb anything. She is not however, fearless. She works at it and does get scared but she gets herself out of whatever she gets into with our encouragement. She has a butterbox beside the couch so she can get on and off of the couch on her own.
* Annie is eating with a fork and she is eating out of a bowl or plate on her chair tray. At the end of the meal the bowl or plate is turned upside down and she hands me the empty plate with her fork/spoon on top. Annie then proceeds to finish eating her food from her tray!!! We are getting there!! She also loves to dip and her favorite sauce these days is honey mustard. It is adorable to watch.
* Annie's favorite word these days is "Uh-oh". It is so much better than "no". She uses it perfectly too.

There are so many other little things that happen every day. I am trying to capture them all so that I can write her story for her...

Today...

We went to visit the bunnies that are all over the UVIC campus. They loved Annie!!!

Annie LOVES food, LOVES to watch us cook and ALWAYS wants to help. I thought maybe she could wait for a play kitchen until Christmas but it was just too far away. So I went on Used Victoria (my fav site these days) and found this kitchen with tons of goodies, the high chair (which is also a baby swing for dolly), a dolly, a princess doll bed with a canopy (it is in storage for later giving) AND a beautiful old doll stroller. All this for next to nothing. It was fabulous and Annie is having a blast with her kitchen. She has used her red ladle forever and mixed soup in any kind of "pot" she can find and then she feeds it to all the "babies", her stuffies and us. Yep, she is into her new kitchen. I love it because it is an 80's kitchen and it waxes nostalgic for me. Now I have to get some Ikea stools and.

I have to dig out the pots and pans my great secret pal sent us...

Oh and I have always wondered why all dolls MUST be naked!!! It really bugs Daddy who keeps dressing them all... too funny!!!!!

Annie LOVES her quilt...

We had a little "photo-shoot" and these were the best photos. She is such a ham!!!!! The photos aren't the best because Shawn had to camera set for taking photos outside-we were supposed to go see bunnies this afternoon but that is another story.

Shawn says that everyone thinks this about their own child but I think that she is the most beautiful little 18month old in the world!!!!! Annie is smart AND beautiful - we are so very privileged to have this little person in our lives.

I might be winning the battle...

Shawn and I lost our 20 year old kitty 1 1/2 years ago and I miss her so very much. This is the longest I have been without a cat in my life since I was a child and I have found it to be very hard. I want to get two kittens and everyone who knows us, knows that Shawn is against this idea - mainly because he says he ALREADY has two kitties to care for, haha.
So I gave Annie a little grey stuffed kitty and this morning she started meowing for the first time. It was the cutest thing!!!!!! She is looking at her book right now that has kitties in it and she is meowing for her Daddy.
So, because his little Empress is showing signs of wanting a kitty he said this morning, "if I end up taking care of the cats, I am sending them back". Yippee, I think I may be winning the battle because whatever the Empress wants (no she isn't a princess!!) from Daddy, she gets. Stay tuned!!!!