Utilizing a little child labor.
No cars were moving in the making of this picture. The girl knows how to have a good time.

There is a little girl that is standing behind Regan. She is a month younger and makes Regan look like the Jolly Green Giant. Failure to thrive my rear end. (Referring to earlier post of doctors being worried that Regan is underweight) For those of you who have seen the size of her thighs, you know she is as underweight as I am.
You don't even want to know the places that mulch can hide.

Just Stuff

I had to post more pics from Disney, because I love the only one that we were able to get with a character without Regan crying. She was sleeping. Right now, she is shaking it to the music of JoJo's Circus.

Regan's new accomplishments this week are as follows:

1. She can call Daisy the dog. "DayDay"

2. She now will say "what!" in response to be asked a question.

3. She LOVES the phone and pretends to talk on it, saying "hello", "bye", "what", "ouch", and yoidee yoidee yo. The yoidee yoidee yo is actually quite a popular saying that comes out of Yunnie's mouth. I have yet to figure out if it means anything. Well, it obviously means something to Regan because if you say it back with a lot of gibberish she smiles, nods, and laughs. I also have to confess that I have to eat my own words. When I used to watch Konnor, I wouldn't let him play with the phone telling him that it wasn't a toy. I used to think he should know the boundaries between play toys and serious things. I have now learned that when your baby is being somewhat noisy in a place where it isn't really appreciated, you will give them anything to get them to hush up. The cell phone has now been used as a hush up toy.

4. Regan loves to yell. We are working on, "shhh, we don't yell". Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Usually, I put her somewhere and walk away and she will usually stop when she realizes that yelling isn't getting her the attention she wants. Thank goodness these spells only occur once or so a week. But, Murphy's Law, it is usually somewhere like the library.

5. She laughs all the time. What is funnier is when she cracks herself up! She will think she is so clever and will laugh and laugh at her own cleverness. Unfortunately for me, her cleverness is usually doing something she knows she is not supposed to be doing (like table dancing).

Regan went and had her final (we hope) bloodwork done. I had to get it done so she could finish her immunizations. Luckily, they got her on the first stick (which has never happened before). We met a lovely lady in the waiting room who wanted to know all about Regan and paid attention to Konnor. I sometimes don't feel the need to talk to everyone about Regan, but this woman was asking questions out of sincere interest and so I don't mind. I knew we would attract attention when we went out in public, but it still surprises me sometimes at how much attention we draw. It seems to come and go in spurts. Somedays, there is no extra attention and others we get quite a bit. Sometimes, I don't really focus on anyone because I don't feel like answering questions. I know it seems rude, but when you have about 10 minutes to get into and out of a store, you don't have 20 minutes to chit chat.

The second picture is of Regan taking a break from our second job. When Regan came out of the hospital, I had to get a second job. The hospital and medical costs combined with the extra time off I had to take because of her being sick took its toll on my bank account! In the past, I worked home health. Lee Memorial closed their pediatric home health division and so if I wanted to go back to work home health I would have to work adults. I would also have to find baby sitting and would not be able to see Regan as much. I decided to work a less paying job, but one that would allow me to be somewhat flexible with hours and be able to see Regan. I deliver papers. Not glamourous or fun, but you do what you have to do.

Joel and I have decided to end our engagement and the relationship. It was a hard decision that has been coming for quite awhile. Regan deserves to have a father who is 100% committed to her. It was a very difficult decision and I will miss Allison and Elizabeth terribly.

Two Einsteins, a clown, and a lion

On May 20th we used our Disney passes for the last time. They expired on the 20th. We weren't sure we even wanted to go, but we are so glad that we did! It was only my mom, Konnor, Yunnie, and I because everyone elses passes had expired. We weren't going to stay the whole day so everyone else opted not to go.

I woke up around 5 AM and realized I had forgotten to check what time the park opened. I got on the internet and logged onto the Disney website. I think it is one of the most difficult websites to navigate and somehow the MGM site opened. They have shows that are kid related (Playhouse Disney and Bear in the Big Blue House being my absolute favorite!), but other than that, I don't think it is the most kid friendly park. I was about to close the window when I noticed it said you could dine with JoJo and Goliath. I like that show so I looked at the picture and it had a character I didn't recognize. I went ahead and clicked on the info button and was amazed to see that you could dine with JoJo, Goliath and Leo and June from the Little Einsteins. The Little Einsteins is Konnor's favorite show. He is always trying to play Leo and making the girls play Annie and June. I told my mom about it and we decided we would try to have one last splurge and see if we could get reservations. I had to wait until 7 to call and when I did they had one reservation left! Yeah! We were scheduled to eat lunch with the gang at 2:15.

There was construction and so we ended up getting slightly detoured and didn't make it to the Magic Kingdom until 10 AM. We did make good time though - only 3 hours to get there. I realized I had forgotten Yunnie's shoes and I tried to find cheap shoes for her to wear but didn't have any luck. She was bummed because now she couldn't walk around. We rode a couple of rides and then park hopped to MGM.

We told Konnor I had received a phone call from one of his friends who wanted to invite him to lunch. He was very excited, but had no idea who would invite him to lunch. He thought it might be his friend Quinn, from school. When we got in the doors his jaw dropped! It was totally worth it to see his reaction!. He was so excited! They had a great arrangement. There is no racing to see characters because they individually come to your table. They also had intermissions every 15 minutes or so where they got everyone up from the table to dance with the characters. Konnor was a hoot and I loved seeing his reaction. He hardly ate a thing except two bowls of ice cream. He got up and danced and sang with the characters and was in awe that Leo was there. We had great reservations. We ended up being one of the last groups sat and so we were sat in front and as time went on, the place was less and less crowded. We also got lucky and every character came around twice. Yunnie didn't want them near her and so Konnor got all their attention. It was good for him because he has really had to take a back seat since Regan came home and he has handled it beautifully. It was a nice surprise that he got something just for him. He kept saying he was so surprised that he got invited to lunch! Leo told us he loved us all and Goliath came up and hugged me because I guess he heard me tell Konnor that he was my favorite. June kissed Yunnie on the head which was not very appreciated by the Yun. It was such a good time. The whole experience was a great time and it made the trip up to Disney totally worth it.

We then headed back to the Magic Kingdom to ride more rides. Yunnie did much better on this trip and wasn't too scared during any of the rides. She like It's a Small World the best. She even sat up and watched all of Pirates of the Caribbean. We left later than we intended and didn't get out of the park until 8:30, but we still got home okay and Konnor still talks about his best friend Leo and the lunch party!

Bed Head

Two posts in two days! Wow, can you tell I am coasting until summer break?!?!? We actually have some 1/2 days so I might actually be able to answer emails, talk to people, etc! I had to post some of my favorite pictures of Regan. The ones I will blackmail her with later in life when she is bringing home boyfriends!

The picture of her eating was when she started to eat solid foods. Before I could stop her she picked up one of the dog's rawhides and started munching! I figured two seconds of rawhide licking wouldn't hurt just so I could snap a picture!

The bathtub picture was when I was waiting for the bath water to cool a little bit. I now keep the door completely shut. I noticed her crawling down the hallway and when I got to the doorway she was sitting in the tub, happy as can be! She wasn't going to wait for me to get her in the tub! I quick removed her shoes and then snapped the picture.

She does keep me on my toes!

Mother's Day

A little bit late, but I had to post about my first official Mother's Day. On Friday, Allison and Elizabeth came home from school bearing gifts. Elizabeth gave me strict instructions that I was not to go near her backpack until Sunday. Allison wanted to tell me right away what she had made and I had to keep telling her to keep it a secret until Sunday! My brother was up to something and kept insisting he had to borrow Yunnie for awhile on the weekend. I know he loves her dearly, but after spending Monday through Friday with her all day I knew he didn't feel the need to see her for hours on end on Sunday without being up to something! My mom already warns him that the weekends with Yunnie are hers and he gets to spend more time with her than all of us. I can't wait until summer when school is over and I can spend good, fun time with Yunnie. Anyway, on Sunday we went to church and I came home and took a nap while Jason borrowed Yunnie. (the nap is needed because Yunnie is still having problems sleeping ahhhhhhhh!) When I woke up I was surprised with a ladybug cake Jason made for me, presents from the girls, and we made dinner at my house. The Chinese writing on the cake reads "Happy Mother's Day".

Allison made me a cup with paper flowers stapled to it with " good-fers". Pick a flower and it is "good-fer" one favor (clean the room, take out the trash, etc). She was so excited to give me her gift, it was really cute. Elizabeth had made a picture and wrote about why she loved me (fill in the blank style). It was really nice and she stood in front of everyone to read it aloud. Konnor and Yunnie painted big flower pots, one for me, one for my mom and they had planted flowers in the pots. I wondered why Yunnie smelled like a kindergarten classroom when she came home! Yunnie borrowed some money from my mom to get me a gift card. The gift card is so that I can go buy Regan a toddler bed to try and start transitioning her to sleeping on her own. I am desperate for a decent night's sleep. It was all great and it was nice to have everyone together.

Not to get maudlin, but I have spent alot of time lately thinking about Yunnie's birth mother. I look at Yunnie and she is doing so many wonderful things. I see the things that her mother is missing and it makes me sad. Yunnie loves to hug and she will squeeze your neck and pat your back as you pat her rear end. I also think of Yunnie's first eleven months and wonder who she loved when she was just one of many in the orphanage. She desperately craves love and to imagine her sitting in a crib, wanting to give and receive love and having no one there just breaks my heart. She comes to me when she is hurt, wanting comfort. Who comforted her in the orphanage? My guess would be no one comforted her. She just sat and wanted love. She is actually going through a very clingy stage and doesn't like for me to give anyone else attention. If one of the kids is touching me, she will come up and push them away. If one of the dogs is on my lap, she tries to push them off. She cries like her heart is broken when she is told she has to share me and we don't push. Given her background, I feel for her, but it is an important lesson she has to learn. She even gets jealous of my books if I am reading and tries to push the book away or tear the pages.

On a more positive note, Regan is making such progress! These are some of the new things she has accomplished in the past month or so.

1. Waves hi and bye

2. New words: hi, bye, mama, mah (my mom), bad baby, ouch (she usually says this as she is pulling on someone's hair!), no is still the most frequently used word.

3. She has a baby doll who she knows is named Baby ( I know, not very original!). When asked "Where is Baby?", she will go and get Baby for you. She also pushes Baby around in the baby stroller. She also puts her over her shoulder and pats her back just like I pat hers. She says ahhhh in a nice voice while patting baby's back. It is the cutest thing! Right after loving on Baby, Baby usually is tossed to the curb.

4. Drinks out of a sippy cup or a regular cup with a lot of overflow!

5. She pulls her pants up and down. She is usually being ornery and does the opposite of what I want. If I'm trying to pull them down, she is pulling them up. She's quick!

6. She can now climb on the kitchen table and do chin ups on the bathroom counter.

7. She loves purses and walks around with them over her shoulder.

8. She can climb up to the top step of the bunk bed (the ladder now spends most of its time on the top bunk)

9. She has 6 and 2 half teeth.

10. She is now almost completely out of twelve month clothing and into 18 months.

Those are just a few things! She is so amazing. I can't do anything about the first eleven months of her life, I am just so glad she is here with me now.

Finally, my mom was driving home and came across the most amazing thing. She came back to get me so that I could see what she found. Along the side of the road was one of the eagles eating a carcass. We have two eagles' nests in the area. One is down by my mom's house. The other nest is on my street. We love watching the nesting process. Nesting season is just over and the two babies from my nest still fly around the neighborhood but are rarely in the nest. To see an adult eagle on the ground is something I have never run across. We were so worried it had hurt a wing or something that we stayed around until he flew away. He was magnificent.

Park Pictures

A couple of weeks ago we went to the park. I completely forgot to download the pictures! What was so amazing was that Regan played in the dirt. She has come a long way from the little girl who freaked out over a blade of grass! Her shoes are not quite the same anymore, but we've gotten alot of use out of them. I actually had to take the squeakers out of her white shoes because they were quite distracting during church. She is now refusing to walk, lazy bones and I am worried her knees are going to be permanently black. Crawling is so much faster for her that she refuses to take the time to learn how to walk more than a couple of steps. Anyway, her pink shoes don't see as much squeaker action because it is the tops of the shoes that are feeling the abuse! She did enjoy climbing all of the playground equipment. She can scale the rock wall thingie, climb up the small slide, and she can hang by her arms from the bar for several seconds. As you can see, she is still refusing to smile for the cameras. Little stinker.

A Little Disney Magic

My mom, Konnor, and I had a very pleasant surprise several weeks ago. We used to be annual passholders to Disney World. What with expenses from the adoption, trip to China, and Regan's hospitilization there have not been any added splurges. I got a letter from The Mouse a couple of weeks ago with the usual savings, please renew you pass, save 35$ if you do it by your anniversary date of May 20th. What! I backtracked and reread the anniversary date because I think it means my pass is still good until the 20th of May. I called Disney and sure enough! My mom, Konnor, and I had all bought passes on the same day and they were still valid. Yeah!!! Mickey Mouse here we come! With everything that has gone on, we figured our passes were expired and never thought another thing about it!

We headed to DW on April 18th. I thought my little adventurer would love Disney World. She did not. One of my favorite characters is Jiminy Cricket. This started when Konnor was little and he loved Jiminy Crickwit. We were walking around Tomorrowland when a Disney person stopped us to tell us Jiminy was down in a gazebo and only comes out a couple of times a year. I have never seen Jiminy (probably becomes he only comes out twice a year!) . We got to wait in a very short line (I don't do character lines unless is is a true favorite, they are all so long) under a gazebo with a fan blowing on us. Not too shabby. Jiminy was there in honor of Earth Day and was teaching everyone how to save the earth. The kids also got to release lady bugs because they are natural pesticides. Because ladybugs are considered lucky in China, I thought this was fitting. Regan had the same reaction to Jiminy as she did to the Easter Bunny only not as loud because the giant green cricket didn't try to hold her.

Unfortunately, Allison did not get to ride any rides or see Jiminy because she made the mistake of being dishonest during several incidences in the two week prior to our leaving. She also called her daddy a liar when she was caught being dishonest and so she did not have such a magical day. That is why she is not any very may pictures.

Anyway, we rode all the rides and it was a beautiful day. Regan did not smile much throughout the day. She was sober for much of it and I think it all worried her. She did not even like the carousel ride. I couldn't believe it! She is such a daredevil, I thought she would love every minute.

The Magical Part:

Regan took her first steps!! We were hanging out in a restaurant eating dinner and Regan was sitting at a seperate table with my brother, his girlfriend and my mom. Regan wanted more of my chicken fingers. My brother stood her on the floor and she walked three steps toward me before hitting the floor. So exciting! She also learned to clap and she did so appropriately during the Monsters, Inc show. She also learned to point (we've been working on this forever!) and she finally pointed on the It's a Small World Ride. I was pointing out all the things to her and telling her to "look". She pointed up in the air and copied me saying "ook". She hasn't quite mastered where to point and will often just point up in the air and throw her head back to look up. She does do a cute new dance though with her "pointers" out - kind of like a John Travolta disco dance move with pointers up in the air!!!

Pictures:

1. The group with the best dressed giant cricket in Florida.

2. How to do Disney cheap: Bring in all your own drinks, uncrustable sandwiches, goldfish and cheese and only eat snacks at the park.

3. The kids posing (well, two kids posing, the little one trying to pick Konnor's nose)

4. My brother and I have pictures when we were younger on these things, the tradition has been passed down

5. Regan's new trick: refusing to look at cameras. About two minutes later she was looking for me though. As soon as the teacup really started spinning she was looking for her mommy!

Spring Break and Catch Up

It has been awhile since I posted....Spring Break seems like forever ago! The kids and I did an art project. I had promised them back before China that they could paint their own pictures of Hello Kitty to match the Hello Kitties I had painted all over the girls' bedroom wall. This was in compromise to having three very "helpful" children in the room with tons of open paint cans "helping" me to paint the room. Finally, we completed their project and the pictures are happily hanging on the wall and there was no paint over the carpet or baseboards!

The girls spent a couple of days at their maternal grandparents house and Konnor, Yunnie and I spent an afternoon at the Nature Center. We found a path we had never walked before and had the brillant idea to check it out to see where it would lead. Yeah, it lead for over two miles all over. It was a great path, but it was miserably hot and we weren't prepared for a 1 1/2 hike. We had to take a couple of stops so Konnor's legs could rest, but it was a pretty scenic tour.

The last picture is of Yunnie getting busted for climbing up the step stool after being told several times to stop. This was after she spent some studious time learning how to undo her onesie. AS you can see, she is letting it all hang out! We finally got everything moved and cleaned out of the house my mom had been renting while her house was being built. With China, the hospital, and just life, it had been delayed long enough! Regan hated the vacuum cleaner and would dive between my mom's legs whenever she heard it turn on. It was hysterical to watch!

The Rest of Easter Weekend

We had a great time with the rest of the Easter weekend. We attended Maundy Thursday church service. Well, actually, some of us attended and two of us were outside the church on a bench because one of the two of us couldn't behave. Want to guess who these two were? If you guessed me and Regan you get 5 points!! And no, I was not the one misbehaving. Luckily, the congregation are great and every Sunday somebody comes to see Regan and to tell me how happy they are to have her there. During Sunday service, we sit in the back at tables where Regan has a little more freedom to move and is less disruptive. She also "sings" and when everyone sings she blah, blah, blahs, very loudly. It is really cute. I think she is trying to drown out her mommy's voice since here mommy's voice leaves a lot to be desired. The Pastor and congregation have come up to me several times to say it is so good to hear her healthy voice during church.

On Friday, my grandparents came down to spend the weekend. My grandfather always talks about his "Little Chinee" (said with a long 'i' like in China). I have no idea where that nickname came from, but he loves to hang out with Yunnie and my grandmother (mama) says he talks about her all the time. My grandmother says they couldn't wait to see her after being so worried about her.

We went to Church service on Easter where I actually got to hear the whole sermon (wow!). We then went home and had a little easter egg hunt. Yunnie did great on her first hunt and loved picking out eggs from my too tall grass. She had just woken up from a nap and wasn't too happy about being thrown outside until she saw what we were doing. We then went to my mom's house to plant some flowers for her yard. As you can see from one of the pictures, Regan's obsession with water continues and she loves looking at water, playing with water, and everything about it. I'm going to start taking her to the pool this month because with all the water in Florida she needs to learn to swim as soon as possible. She's not too young to learn some water safety.

Regan LOVES water. I am actually going to buy toilet locks for the toilets because she is not picky about where her water comes from. Her mommy is a little more picky about what she plays with and toilet water is not okay. Ewwww!

The Easter Bunny

Regan had her first trip to see the Easter Bunny. As you can see, it didn't go over so well! We tried about four shots and then finally stopped the torture. Our final picture is a keeper, with not all the kids looking in the same direction, but it sure captures the moment! She had a little treat at home (Elizabeth's birthday cake) but she still looks traumatized by her meeting with the 6 foot fuzzy creature.

The Tooth Fairy and the Birthday Girl

This week had several exciting happenings. On Tuesday, Allison lost her first tooth! She was very excited to have lost a tooth so early. She actually has two teeth pushing through and will soon lose a second. My mom got her tooth pillow finished that night and Allison was thrilled to wake up and discover the Tooth Fairly had left two gold coins. She was nice enough to give Konnor one coin since he has yet to lose a tooth. Jason gave her a dollar to replace her gold coin and as a reward for her niceness.

On Wednesday, it was Elizabeth's 7th birthday! We celebrated that night with cake and presents and next weekend we are planning on taking her bowling. She had a good day at school because it was field day. I thought this worked out well since she wasn't doing a good job of keeping her mind off of her birthday so it was perfect no thinking was expected from her! Elizabeth has been doing well in school and has gotten all green cards for several months. This is such an improvement over last year. I think it helps that the school has a positive behavior approach, and Elizabeth is learning consequences through consistency of discipline both at home and at school. She also loves her teacher. All in all, we are thrilled with Trafalgar Elementary. Elizabeth is also doing well in school. She is an especially good reader. The public schools take part in a program called Accelerated Reader. It is a program where books are sorted according to grade level. Each book is worth a certain amount of points. For elementary school, it is generally 0.5-1 point. Students then have reading goals that they meet as part of her grade. They are awarded when they reach a certain amount of points. At Trafalgar, they have charm necklaces. The students earn charms for participating in different programs and clubs. They can then go to parties scheduled throughout the year if they earn enough charms. Elizabeth is now reading on a 4.5-4.8 grade level. This means she is reading at a level that is expected from a fourth grader five months into the school year through 8 months into the school year. Not bad for a first grader! The hard part is pulling her away from reading to do math!

Grandma Baby Shower

I forgot to mention that my mom's coworkers got together and threw her a surprise Grandma Baby Shower. My mom's secretary, Sarah, called me about a month ago and wanted to know if Yunnie would be up for coming to a shower. We touched base a couple of times and then on March 20th, they had the shower. At the last minute, I almost gave away the surprise. I came home early from work in order to get Regan ready. I called my mom to talk about something and she asks, "Why are you home so early?". I told her I was just grabbing some lunch. Whew!

The shower was great! Everyone also brought in potluck to share lunch. Her co-workers were laughing because they said they knew she was confused when nobody took their lunch at their normal times! It was a great time!

Regan also had her first voluntary bite of cake. When we had a little cake for her 1st birtday, she wasn't eating table food. She loved the vanilla half of the cake. Regan doesn't like anything chocolate. Go figure.