Tuesday, March 27, 2007

A message for Uncle Mike



We're sending him a hard copy of the photo via snail mail as well, to make sure he gets the picture.

We're also sending a copy to our friend and former therapist Rob, whose health has been far too rocky as of late.

Please get better, both of you -- and anyone else who feels like being sick.

-- Dan

Sunday, March 25, 2007

CJ in Milwaukee

As I mentioned in the previous post, my brother Mike's health has taken a serious turn for the worse. We spent the last six days in Milwaukee, visiting him in the hospital.

CJ worked extra hard to keep everyone's spirits up. Here she is with her cousin Sara after dinner Saturday night, playing Beethoven's Fifth Symphony on one violin:



And here she is, brazenly flaunting her belly button while strutting about the Milwaukee airport:



-- Dan

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

CJ on the subway, and more

We're in Milwaukee right now, as my brother is having serious health problems yet again. To try to take my mind off things, I thought I would post a few photos from the weekend.

We took the subway on Sunday to visit with two of the families that traveled to China to adopt with us. Here's Meg and CJ heading downtown on the #1 train:



And here's Gabriella, holding on to her Mom's legs, with Cara flaunting the fact that she can stand (and squat) on her own:



Cara and her mom Lois:



And here are CJ, Gabriella and Cara:



We tried real hard to get the three girls to smile at the same time, but they wouldn't hear of it. So we tossed the mommies on the couch to try to lighten the mood. Melissa, Lois's other daughter, joined in as well:



I took nearly 50 photos in all and couldn't find one where more than one girl was smiling. The moms were having fun though.

When we got home, we had spaghetti. CJ had a little more fun here:



But what kid doesn't like spaghetti?

-- Dan

Saturday, March 17, 2007

First walk in the snow/slush

We had a snow/sleet storm yesterday, with an accumulation of 4 inches of granular ice that vaguely resembled snow. It started to melt right away, of course, but before the day ended the three of us went out for a walk in Van Cortland Park.





-- Dan

Catchin' up: Photos from the past few weeks

Like I said earlier, we've been too crazy busy for past few weeks. But the cameras have been active, of course:


CJ met her Teddy Bear last week. She actually remained still enough for a family shot.



Here is CJ, ignoring the educational toys and playing with Daddy's stinky running shoes. Go figure.



Here she is reclining on the bed. Somebody should have peeled her a grape.




Nai Nai (Mandarin for grandmother on the father's side, or Dan's Mom) was the first person other than Meg and Dan to hold CJ. That was Nai Nai's birthday present. CJ sat still long enough to show off how flexible she is.



When cousin Jay came to visit CJ, neither one could look at the camera with a straight face.



Gabriella was one of the girls who was adopted at the same time we adopted CJ. Here's Meg and CJ in Flushing Mall with Gabriella and her mom Jana.

Lastly, I finally finished the captions on the photos and videos from our China trip. It may take a while to go through, but hopefully will be worthwhile.

-- Dan

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Complete China Trip Photo/Video Slide Show

Finally uploaded our photos and videos from the China trip. Although the captions only contain the location of the shots (the narrative will come soon, promise!), it could be worth a look.

We will post again once the captions are complete. And a special shout out goes to our friend Rob, who pointed out that photos.google.com gives oodles of memory and allows for photo and video to be placed in one all-inclusive slide show. For free.

-- Dan

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Finally getting back to blogging

Many apologies for the radio silence. Meg and I have been completely crazed lately. But we are resolved to keep feeding the blog, since so many people have responded so positively (in conversations mostly -- the complaints about posting comments keep coming).

Anyhow, last Sunday I took CJ on her first hike, in Van Cortland Park. It actually started out as a run, but the trail was too bumpy and the jog stroller had no shocks (!). So we turned it into a nice walk and then stopped for the obligatory photo shoot:



We're also working on a more accessible presentation of the photo and video from our trip to China and CJ. If anyone has any thoughts on how and where to post a 35mb powerpoint slide show, by all means feel free to speak up.

-- Dan