We are now a stereotype

Well, it has happened. We've become the stereotypical family unit -- double income, two kids, one pet (Abby the cat) and a van. Regardless of the fact that I vowed to never own a minivan, practicality took over and today we bought a 2006 Grand Caravan. We drove one at Christmas when we were in New Brunswick, and it just had too many things going for it, so we waved the white flag and started looking for one when we got back to Ottawa. And today is the day that we made the deal. So, from now on it's KD and Mr. Noodles for all meals. Just kidding.

You will also notice a new addition to this blog. I've added a guest book. It seems that many of you who are reading the blog are just too shy to add a comment. (I just don't get that.) So, I'm hoping that you'll sign the guest book so I'll have an idea of who's reading. Don't worry, all are welcome here. Unless you start being rude or insulting, at which point I, with the ultimate power, will delete your posts. :-)

My mom and dad were here visiting for the last couple of days. Once again I was amazed at how easy it is when there are others here who will happily entertain the kids. And mom brought along food too, so we didn't even have to cook. How great is that?! Oh yeah, DoT and I went out to a movie last night for the first time since before we got the girls. We saw the new James Bond movie, Casino Royale. Actually it's not that new anymore, but we hadn't seen it. It was incredibly violent. I was amazed that it was rated PG, but I guess in our warped North American society as long as it doesn't have sex in it, anything is acceptable for kids. Sheesh. I think I'm going to be a really un-cool mom when the girls get older, 'cause there's no way I'd let them see a movie like that until they are firmly established into their teen years. Oh, I can almost hear the whining now. :-)

Winter's here

Well, I should have known. After I said, in my last post, that spring had arrived in Ottawa, winter has now entrenched itself and we are getting more seasonal temperatures. We have about 15 to 20 centimetres of snow, I'm guessing, and the temperatures have definitely been colder lately. That's good news for Winterlude, but I'm not that thrilled by it. Earlier this week we were going to be outside with the girls a bit, so I decided we would put on some tights underneath their leggings to keep them a bit warmer. We received lots of tights as Christmas gifts this year. Well, the picture to the left shows you three pairs of tights that we received -- all of which were size "6 to 18 months". That's quite a difference. The pair on the far right I think could have fit me with a bit of stretching. :-)

The girls had another doctor's appointment this week, for a check-up and more shots. They now weigh in at 20 lbs, 2 oz (E) and 22 lbs, 4 oz (A). We talked a bit about their development, but I think I'll have more info on that this week after we go to the International Adoption Clinic for their third visit. The visit with the social worker was also supposed to happen this week, but has been rescheduled for this coming Wednesday.

I don't really have much to tell you, but I know that you really come here for the pictures anyhow, so I've got a couple more for you. The one on the right was taken by DoT in their room. We bought this table and chairs for them at a garage sale this summer. They don't sit at it often, but occasionally they'll sit down (or actually DoT sits them down) and they 'read' at the table.

I also have a video for you (or at least for all of you who can see videos on this blog). I'm entitling this one "Mary Shelley's - 'The Next Generation".

A new look (or not so much)

Well, you may not have noticed, but this blog now has a new-ish look. Blogger recently went to a new version, and in order to take advantage of some of the options available I needed to switch to this new version. Well, that meant losing any customization I had done to the blog. Not a big deal, but it means I'm going to have to put in a bit of work to get some of the stuff back (e.g., the counter which lets me know if anyone is reading my posts -- and I'm not willing to give this up since, if I went by comments, I'd have to believe that I have on average 2 people reading this blog in any given week.)

I've added, to the list of links, the urls for some of the blogs I read on a regular basis. So now when you visit here and are disappointed that I haven't put up a new blog entry you can just jot on over to one of my favourite blogs and read them instead. They are much better writers than I am, and have more interesting lives too. :-)

Tomorrow we have our six-month post-placement meeting with our social worker. One of the requirements of Chinese adoptions is post-placement reports to the CCAA six months and twelve months after the adoption. So we meet tomorrow with our social worker to talk about how it's going and how we're all adapting. Maybe our social worker will have some tips on how to get them to eat vegetables and sleep the whole night in their own beds. :-)

Thursday we have another appointment with our pediatrician for a check-up and to get a couple more shots. I thought that would be the end of the shots for awhile, but unfortunately they both still need three needles and they can only get two tomorrow. So that means we'll have to go back for another visit.

Then, finally, next week we have our third visit to the International Adoption Clinic at the local childrens' hospital. I'm looking forward to that one since we'll be talking to the doctors about their development. I know they are still somewhat behind but I'm anxious to get a sense of how much, and on how the docs feel they're progressing. DoT and I are happy with their development and don't have any real concerns, but I'd like to have their opinion.

So, that's it for now. I've already spent too much time on Blogger tonight -- it's going to be a short night given our "alarm clocks" seem to want to wake us at 6:00 a.m. these days. I'll leave you with a few pictures though. The first one is of A and E after a collision with their modes of transportation. The next two I took last night when DoT was reading them a story (which turned into 5 or 6 stories). I wonder what he said to them before I snapped the second picture... and how do I get them to pay that close of attention to me?

Don't they look nice?

So, here we are, Sunday afternoon and I'm feeling like I should put up a blog entry before heading back to work for another week. During this past week, I must have said a dozen times "I'm going to write a blog about that." Unfortunately, most of the time I was alone and said it only to myself. And now as I sit here trying to think of something to say, I can't remember a single topic. I have a horrible memory. Before we received our referral, and during the first few months after getting back from China, I blamed sleep deprivation and/or "baby brain". But now, six months later, I think these excuses are starting to lack credibility. So, I'm just going to admit it. My memory sucks. As Annie Proulx would say... if you can't fix it, you've just gotta stand it. Or something like that.

For Christmas, my brother and sister-in-law, who live in Beijing, sent us two lovely Chinese silk dresses for A and E. As you may remember, when we were in China, we bought two dresses for them but we bought them so they'd fit in a few years. I've always kind of regretted not buying a few dresses in different sizes. So, now, thanks to J and L, we have dresses that fit them right now. I tried to get a good picture of them in the dresses, but both of them were in a bit of a cranky mood and I didn't get a great picture. But here's one that's not too bad...
















I also took a couple of pictures with DoT and I, in an effort to get them both smiling. As the photos below show, I was still not all that successful....





















We are all starting to settle back into a routine after obliterating any semblance of routine during our Christmas holidays. As much as I usually hate the January, post-Christmas period, it is nice to be back home and into some degree of normalcy. Or at least as normal as things get around here. :-)


My work is looking like it's going to be really, really busy between now and the end of March, but hopefully I can limit the amount of overtime I need to put in to get everything done. I'm already behind, though, in projects that are just starting up. When I was in university that wouldn't have bothered me since I used to count overnight hours as time still remaining to meeting a deadline, and as long as I could put in a couple of 20 hour days it was fine. I'm older now though, and my body just doesn't function anymore on a few hours of sleep. Believe me, I know. I'd like one of my New Year's resolutions to be that I will get at least 8 hours of sleep every night, but unfortunately I don't have as much control over that as I might like. And not because of my work. The girls continue to sleep great just as long as they sleep with DoT or I. :-0

Well, that's it for now. Have a great week. Maybe DoT will update the blog this week. Yeah, right, who am I kidding. Talk to you again next weekend. K...

P.S. Spring has arrived here in Ottawa. Today was a gorgeous day and I've now decided that we've skipped winter all together. Yeah!

P.P.S. Today E walked across a room to me. Probably 8 or 9 steps in total.

Happy New Year!

Well, we survived. That's about all I can say for our trip to New Brunswick. I was planning on doing a post talking about the trip, but the idea of it just exhausts me and it's more than I can do. So, let me just say that it was great to see the whole clan out in NB, and they seemed thrilled to see the girls. But, honestly, I would never recommend travelling with two 18-month olds. I can't tell you how many times DoT and I vowed "never again". E and A don't travel well at the best of times, but with completely mixed up sleep schedules and routines, and both being sick for the whole trip, let's just say it wasn't the best experience we've ever had. We were glad to see everyone, and everyone went out of their way to make it as easy on us as possible (a huge 'thank-you' to Aunt K, who loaned us her house for the week), but I'm glad to be home and settling back into a routine. We'll have to wait and see how quickly the memory fades before we can predict on when we might be making that trip again.

I have a couple of pictures that we took during the trip...


This first one shows the girls in their new chairs which they got from Grandma C & Grandpa G. And right between them is the "Baby Grand Piano" they also got. They both enjoy it a lot, and I think it will be the cause of some fights as they battle over who gets to play with it.

This next one shows the girls with second cousins Dylan and Aiden. It's too bad about the Oilers caps and t-shirts, but we still let the girls associate with them. :-)
















Then finally, these next two show the girls with my friends' (S & D) kids -- Marta and Jacob. Youngest son Daniel was just a bit two small to hold them.

















I was about to end this post, but before I do I think I should relay one short story. When we were leaving southern Ontario to drive back to Ottawa, DoT had started the car to warm it up a bit so we wouldn't all have to be bundled up in our winter coats on the way home. So that meant that DoT's keys were in the ignition. When I loaded E into her car seat, my keys were in my hand and she, seeing them, decided she wanted to play with them. So, fine, I gave them to her. I then started to run back into the house for something. DoT shut the back car door and before he was able to open the front door, E had pressed the lock button on the key fob and had locked us out of the car, with her and her sister inside and the car running. Ugghh. I had visions of waiting 45 minutes for CAA or a tow truck to break us into our car. By which point both kids would have been screaming. Anyhow, E was still holding the key fob, and with DoT and I both standing outside her door and encouraging her, she started pressing buttons on the key fob. Her thumb was poised right over the unlock button, and we kept begging her to press the button, which she did over and over again... just not hard enough to open the doors. Until, after about 3 or 4 minutes (which felt like a lot longer), she pressed it hard and the doors clicked open. What a relief! On the way back to Ottawa, A was playing with my keys* and she unlocked the car doors about 20 or 30 times, which made us think that maybe instead of trying to get E to open the door we should have just convinced her to hand over the keys to A. :-)

* Note: yes, you'd think I'd have learned my lesson and would not be handing over my keys as a plaything but, trust me, after listening to a whole lot of screaming in the car you'll hand over just about anything if it means a couple of minutes of silence.