Another trip to the doctor

So we were in to the pediatrician again this morning (A was there last week, because she was sick), for another set of shots. Two more needles, and the girls handled them pretty well. A few tears, but they stopped pretty quickly. And so far they don't seem to be having any reactions to the needles.

Of course, I forgot to write down the height and weight of them, but they may be the same height now. The reason I say "may" is because it's pretty hard to get an accurate measurement on squirming babies. But the nurse said they were the same height. I just don't know what it is. :-) They are now two pounds apart in the weight. A is about 20 lbs, 8 oz (I say about because we tried to weigh her three times and she fought it so much that we got three different weights) and E is 18 lbs, 7 oz. A has lost weight since she was there a month ago, but that's what happens when you stop eating for five days. Or so I'm told. I've never done it myself. A's left her fever and sore throat behind though, and is now eating again like the little sumo wrestler we know she is.

I didn't think I had any new pictures for you today, but then I downloaded the photos off of our camera, and I do have a couple...

This is a picture of two beautiful "scarfghans" which we were given when the girls were dedicated at our church. They are called "scarfghans" because they are five scarves which were knit by a wonderful lady at our church who is over 90 years old and then crocheted together into afghans by another woman in the church. They came with a lovely note about them being provided in an effort to unite the different generations within the church. Anyhow, I think they're just great. The photo doesn't really do them justice.

And these two, I think, show how enthusiastically the girls are embracing their new Mennonite heritage...



Well, that's it for today. Have a great week, everyone!

Okay, now I see the resemblance...

My brother sent me some photos today that he took when we were all in southern Ontario. Good thing other people keep taking pictures of our girls. If you had to rely on us -- their parents -- you'd be seriously deprived. I blame it on the fact that we have two kids now. Don't all parents take less photos once they get to the second kid? When looking through the photo albums at my parents place, you'll notice a whole lot of pictures of my older brother (the first child), and a lot less of me (the second child). So, since we're now at the second child stage, we naturally are taking less pictures. Yeah, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. (I also have a younger sister. Don't even get me started on my middle-child tales of woe.)

Anyhow, my brother sent me some great photos today, and I particularly liked this one...

Although most people that we know have trouble telling the girls apart, I've never thought E and A look that much alike. E's always been smaller, but even aside from that I thought they looked different. Well, in this photo, E is a bit closer to the camera than A is, so the photo makes her head look, relatively, a bit bigger and A's a bit smaller. And, boy, now I can see what everyone else sees. These two do look a lot alike.

A hasn't been eating much the last couple of days (she's not feeling too well) so maybe E's going to catch up to her in weight and then we're going to have to give them tattoos to tell them apart.

Two posts in one day!

Wow, who'd have thought it possible. :-)

Anyhow, just wanted to ask for any suggestions anyone might have on keeping shoes and socks on kids' feet. I must put socks back on the girls (especially A) at least 20 times a day. And we've come really close to losing shoes a whole bunch of times. (I'm just about to head out to the mall where one of our shoes has turned up in the lost and found. Kudos to Bayshore for contacting me so quickly. We just lost it yesterday.) I'm thinking maybe a variation on the mittens on a string approach, but haven't quite ironed out the details. Any suggestions are welcome.

A rainy day update...

Hi, all. It's pouring buckets here today and A, E and I got quite wet in our brief jaunt out this morning. (I try to get out with them at least once a day... today we ran errands.) I need to find a couple of raincoats for them. And I could use one too!

So, as you'll have noticed, I'm not updating the blog as often as I used to. Believe it or not, I do feel guilty about not updating more often. Just not guilty enough to get me to sit down in front of the computer and update the blog. Especially now that DoT is back to work full time. During the week I don't seem to have a minute of time to do anything. I guess I could update the blog when they nap, but generally then I'm busy cleaning up, trying to get something started for supper, or checking my emails. And often it is all three.

Sleeping has improved for all of us. There have now been a handful of times when both girls have slept through the night (including last night, yeah!). And when they don't sleep right through the night, usually only one of them is up once and often only for a few minutes. They are now down to only one nap. I find that they go to sleep better with only one nap, which happens around mid-day. The crying in their cribs at naptime and bedtime has improved too. Generally it is only 5 to 10 minutes of crying, max. So that's good. And it is bothering me less, and that's a good thing too. The problem I'm encountering now is that E has learned how to pull herself up. So, after about 5 minutes of crying I go into the room and usually find her standing up in her crib. Kind of hard to sleep when you're standing up. :-) If I stand next to her, though, she'll stay laying down and is usually asleep within about 5 minutes.

So when I went to the play group with the other Children's Bridge families a few weeks ago, I forgot my camera. But lucky for you, the other moms in the group have better memories than I do, and they graciously sent me photos. Here's a shot of the three other babies that were at our get-together.

Aren't they cuties! Notice the full, thick heads of hair. A and E are still working on that. :-)


We've also started attending a Chinese Mother Goose playgroup. It's pretty good. I'm mostly going to it so that the girls continue to hear mandarin occasionally. It's a lot of work for one person with two children. So far, one of the leaders has taken one of the girls each week, which has helped. I think I'm going to try to get someone to come with me though, so I will always have a one-to-one baby-to-adult ratio. A friend of mine has already said she may be willing, so hopefully that will work out.

Finally, I'm joining two other playgroups, too. One is a playgroup in Ottawa of parents with Chinese adopted babies. My first get-together with this group will be next week. My two girls will be the youngest of the group, but I think it will still be good for them. I'll let you know how that goes. The other playgroup is at our church, so I already know the moms and tots. That should be fun.

So, I guess you're all now thinking that all I do is play. Well, you go ahead and believe that. It makes you more likely to want to babysit.

This weekend we headed down to southern Ontario for our first real trip away from home since we got the girls. We drove there and back at times when we thought the girls would just sleep the whole way. We should have known better. They did sleep most of the time, but they woke up a lot more than I would have expected. I guess not being able to move in the carseats makes it a bit uncomfortable after awhile. Anyhow, it was a great weekend, and we had a chance to see family and friends, and we ate like kings (and queens). Big turkey dinners two days in a row. Saturday was the Gerber family Christmas dinner with all my dad's extended family. And then Sunday, mom did up a big Thanksgiving dinner and my whole family was there. Once again the nephews did a marvelous job of entertaining the girls, and E's dad and I appreciated having a bit of a break.

Well, gotta go. The girls just woke up from their naps and they are not going to be patient too much longer.

She's mobile!

Okay, so E has learned to crawl. I've been trying all morning to put a video on this blog, as proof. Not sure if this is going to work, but hopefully it will. Oh, and that's raisins she's eating. Had to give her a reason to crawl, and right now raisins are a good motivation for just about anything. :-)

Oh, happy day!

Okay, folks. This is a day of days. Yes, it has finally happened. Last night both E and A slept through the night! Yeehaw. I'm not naive enough to think that this will now occur every night, but it does give me hope that in the not to distant future it might be a regular occurrence. It was quite a shock this morning to wake up and realize that it was morning and I hadn't gotten up at all during the night. A and E are waking up at around 6:00 a.m. these days, which is still way too early for me, but if they sleep through the night I've decided I will be happy with that.

Now, to balance off that good sleep news, DoT and I are going through a bit of a hard time these days because, as of last Thursday, we have been putting the girls in their cribs awake in the hopes that they will learn to go to sleep on their own. Everyone says that it takes about 5 days and that the crying gets progressively shorter each night, but so far I'm not seeing a pattern. The first night, they screamed for about 20 minutes. And when I say "scream", I mean scream. If it was just crying it would be one thing, but I find the screaming really upsetting. It's hard to listen to that and not respond. But if we do go into their bedroom to try to calm them down it just seems to make it worse -- I guess they see that they're having an effect and it gives them a second wind.

Basically the screaming goes on for anywhere between 2 or 3 minutes to 45 minutes. Last night, DoT's brother J was visiting. He was amazed when we put A to bed and she went from screaming to sleeping from one breath to the next. (E fell asleep in my arms last night and I decided that there was no way I was waking her up just to put her into her crib.) And the screaming isn't reserved for bedtime -- they'll also scream like that when we're not feeding them fast enough, when they want out of the stroller, or when we don't respond to them quickly enough when they want us. So I don't think the screaming necessarily indicates that they're in real emotional turmoil. At least I hope not.

They are both napping right now. They went into their cribs at 3:05 p.m., and the screaming stopped at 3:15 p.m., so that's not too bad.

They were to the pediatrician again this morning for a check-up and their next set of needles. They got two needles today - one in each arm. There were a few tears, but they got over it really quickly and were all smiles since then -- until they were put in their cribs. :-) For those of you who are interested, they weighed in today at 17 lbs, 11 oz (E) and 20 lbs, 11 oz (A). So A is gaining weight a bit quicker than E. Not surprising - she's not nearly as picky an eater.

This week marked the start of my piano lessons and choir practices again. The piano lessons are late enough at night that the girls are asleep before I leave home, but on choir night DoT gets them to bed. As much as I love being off work with these two girls, I must admit I've really enjoyed the start-up again of some of my 'adult' activities. It's nice to occasionally have something to focus on that is not related to the kids.

Later this week, we will be going to two "play dates". On Thursday we're getting together with the other Ottawa families who traveled together to China when we adopted. This will be the first time the little girls (and their parents) will see each other since China, so it will be nice to catch up. Then on Friday, I've registered the girls for a Chinese play group. I want the girls to learn Mandarin when they are a bit older, and I think it will be helpful for them to continue to hear it occasionally now so that they don't lose their ear for it. So, Friday morning I and the girls will go to a Mother Goose Chinese play group. Apparently we'll all be learning some Mandarin games and songs. I can just imagine how well I'll do at that. :-) Of course, these two play dates are going to interfere with the routine I'm trying to establish. After waffling back and forth for quite awhile, I've decided that these girls need both their morning and afternoon naps. I was toying with dropping the morning nap, but it makes them really cranky and not too willing to eat much at lunch. So, they're getting a nap in the morning and afternoon now. Except Thursday and Friday. Oh, yeah, and Sunday. There's just way too much going on in church for them to shut their eyes. *Sigh* So much for my "routine".

Well, that's it. No new pictures for you this week. I'll try to remember the camera when we go to the play groups, so I may have something for you next week.

Top Five List

After checking out the latest issue of Parenting magazine (which, in case anyone is wondering I wouldn't recommend)...








E & A have decided it's time to hit the road...












Apparently DoT and I are not the ideal parents this magazine presents. (Like I said, I wouldn't recommend the magazine. :-) )

Anyhow, we are learning as we go, and thought we would pass along all our newfound wisdom, since if we've learned one thing with this adoption it's that everyone (almost) has an opinion on how best to parent. So, in that vein, here is our top five list of parenting wisdom ...

1. Always make sure the lid is closed when setting baby powder within reach of a baby.
















2. Babies can kiss each other too! It's not just about biting.
















3. If you want a hat to stay on a baby's head, make sure it ties under the chin. (Although they may be less than thrilled about it.)

4. Kids will lay down anywhere (unless you're trying to get them to sleep in which case laying down becomes the absolute worst thing in the world).

5. Utensils are optional when eating spaghetti. And whether you use them or not, the end result is much the same...















That's it. All our words of wisdom for today. Feel free to ask us for more though. Because I'm sure we have them, and if not we can certainly relay lots of tips from others. :-)

K...