Thank you

Without a doubt, I am so grateful for all the thoughts and prayers from the past week--so grateful, in fact, that I posed my daughter for another photo. Yes, it's a posed shot. Hard to believe, I know.

Seriously though, without everyone calling, emailing, writing, et. al., I don't know where I would be. I am blessed to have such wonderful friends and family to show me there's more to life than crappy diapers.

Thank you.

-- Dan

Saddest News from Wisconsin

My brother Mike passed away last night, after an incredibly arduous journey through kidney failure, two failed transplants, and subsequent internal infections and complications. His drive and determination through so many physical and emotional insults inspire us all.

Through it all, his wife Sara has been loving, steadfast, and devoted. The bright spot of the day yesterday had to have been when CJ took her first unsupported steps towards Aunt Sara while we were trying to comfort her. But that's CJ for you. I think CJ has a keen emotional intelligence that senses when it's her responsibility to entertain a bunch of completely dejected family members.

Arrangements will be determined later today, probably taking the form of something in Milwaukee and New York City. I will post them here when finalized.

-- Dan

CJ on the phone, and at play

Yesterday, CJ was "evaluated." We took her to our adoption agency, where the conference room was decked out with toys galore. She met up with her buddy Gabriella, and the girls had a fun time with all the toys while occupational therapists assessed where they were developmentally.



The girls managed to have a good time I think.

On Friday, Meg bought CJ her first kitchen set: pots, pans, a colander, even a potato masher. CJ loves the set. Only catch is, right now she thinks everything--even the mixing spoon--is a phone:



I think the specialists would call this behavior "early-onset teenager."

-- Dan

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chinese New Year - We never got a card out but...

When we say we're overwhelmed with the amount of love and support that the three of us has received--we mean it. Although we have been meaning to send cards out proclaiming our gratitude and flaunting how cute CJ is, we just couldn't get to it.

This year is the year of the golden pig, which only happens once every six decades. It is an especially auspicious year to begin new ventures -- or families.

So please accept our wishes for a happy and healthy new year through our blog. And if you would like, you can click on the image to get a photo with large enough resolution to print out.

Chinese New Year

On Sunday, the Chinese New Year, CJ went on her first visit to the hinterlands of Brooklyn. We went to the home of Wendy, our Mandarin teacher, for a huo guo (hot pot) feast. Joining us at Wendy's table were her fellow social work students at Columbia. Wendy is in the front on the left; Li Zhu, one of our Mandarin conversation buddies, in in the middle on the far side of the table.

This is what huo guo looks like in action:



You basically boil water on a burner, which runs on a can of butane, and then drop all sorts of raw things in the water. We had shrimp, fish, squid, oysters, fish cakes, bok choy, watercress, noodles, and tofu. Quite tasty!

Meet the cousins, part two, plus bonus video footage of first phone conversation!

Many apologies for the length of time between updates. We are, frankly, way behind.

This past Saturday, CJ met her cousin's on Meg's side of the family, Grace and Jay. Grace is one month younger than CJ (who will be 15 months on the Feb 20) and eight pounds heavier. The two girls got along famously:





Jay is five, and was real keen on playing catch with CJ. Only she doesn't throw the ball back or even roll it, she just hands it back nice and politely:





The day before this momentous meeting, CJ had her first phone conversation with Aunt Lisa, Sara and Alyssa, the stars from "Meet the cousins, part one." We recorded the conversation (which may or may not be a violation of anti-terrorism laws):



Coming up next will be photos from Chinese New Year Dinner...

Meet the cousins, part one

CJ met her cousins Sara and Alyssa today. And before that, CJ attended a Black History month reading given by our friend Caroline (and also met Linwood, Caroline's husband, and their son Ben). And then we met a whole bunch of people from the local Ethical Cultural Society parish. And yesterday CJ met Aunt Annie, and got to know Uncle Frank a little more. Yup, it's been a whole lot of meet and greet lately.

Anyhow, here's CJ and Meg with Alyssa, Sara and Aunt Lisa:



And here she is, crawling around after temporarily defeating my efforts to put her to bed:



Not to gloat or anything, but I eventually won.

--Dan

New high chair

On Sunday, CJ got a new high chair, with cool toys to distract her from eating...



We've had a lot of fun eating this week. Here she is eating her first bagel:



After the bagel, she wasn't as keen about eating a peach:

When CJ met Bogey...

Bogey is Dan's parent's dog, a hyperactive yellow lab. That's Dan's mom (nainai, Mandarin for father's mother) holding Bogey.

No photos in this post -- some things are best left undocumented

Glad tidings all!!

We visited the pediatrician's office yesterday, and CJ was pronounced to be not only cute-as-a-button (which we knew already), tiny, but otherwise quite healthy.

The blood work and other tests have to be completed before she receives a clean bill of health, but while we were thrilled with the results of the exam, CJ was not quite so jubilant. In fact, she was pretty pissed off.

The only way the doctor was able to draw enough blood from CJ was with Dan holding her body, me restraining her arms, and an intern holding her head. Even then, CJ did a great job reprising Linda Blair's role in "The Excorcist." (Confined as she was and with little time to prepare for her theatrical debut, CJ was darn convincing. The doctor was impressed.)

Getting her to lie down again to be weighed and measured was like asking her to lie down on a bed of hot coals. Had she started to levitate, we wouldn't have been the least surprised.

The parting shots (pun intended) she received at the end of the visit merely added insult to injury.

I had brought a camera to record a thumbs' up shot from the doctor with CJ, but after the ordeal no one had the strength to lift a finger. Sorry folks.

CJ is a tough little cookie but also a sensible one: after one valiant attempt to stay awake -- arching backbend with head almost touching feet, arms extended (degree of difficulty 8.6) -- rather than starting to wail, her head fell gracefully forward and she was out like a light. And, btw, she's the only one still asleep this morning.

Rock on, xiao hai!!

-- Meg

Too cool for words

Our apologies for not posting too much lately. First Meg was sick, then Dan got sick, then Meg's back went out, but CJ? She's just plugging along.

Here's one of the ways she cracks us up. When she moves from a sitting position to a crawl, she spreads her legs wide and goes into a split!

The time-lapse photography:









And here's how it looks "real-time," when she's on the move:



However, she's already getting tired of crawling and can now hoist herself up on her two legs and walk around a bit (provided she's got the coffee table as a support, of course):



Enjoy!

Two more photos

Breakfast and Dinner from yesterday:





And yes, we're still suffering from jet lag...

Happy at home

We haven't unpacked yet, but at least we're having fun:



And here's a few nice shots from a photo shoot with Mommy: