Home Sweet Home

Walking down the hall to my room for the first time

First look in the Toy closet

I knew I bought this high chair for a reason

Falling asleep sitting up (first night home)

I love my Lau Lau

and my Pop Pop

Grandparents are the best

She looks like my Mom but she's my Aunt Linda

So good to be home

It’s sure good to be home to sleep in my own bed (boy are the beds hard at the White Swan Hotel). Annalise woke up the first 3 nights and I brought her into my bed and we slept together until morning. I think she slept but for me getting kicked just does not fit into my normal sleep patterns. This girl is a bed thrasher and I am afraid she is going to roll off when I’m asleep. She did roll off on day 3 when I put her down for a nap on my bed. That is the end of that. By day 4 she was sleeping through the night and waking up around 9:00 am way cool! My parents were here and it was a big help to have them around the house. Annalise is crazy about her Lau Lau (my mom) when she sees the photo album I sent to her in China she says Lau Lau. She also points to the computer now to see Lau Lau don’t you just love Skype. Annalise would crawl in to the computer if she could just to kiss her Lau Lau. It was wonderful to watch Annalise fall in love with her Lau Lau and Pop Pop that first week. Linda my sister and her son David came up at the need of the week. Annalise loves David and I can’t wait to get them back together. So Annalise did well with the jet lag but it was brutal on me. Not sleeping on the plane and then not getting a full night sleep for days when we got back just whacked me out. Will on the other hand was back to work the next day. I almost forgot to mention Will’s 2 brothers and a friend showed up for Hot August Nights a car show with 2 classic cars also the first week. Ya I was way whacked out! We are now into our 4th week home and have only had a few days without company and I now know why people say you need time once you get home. We are looking forward to things quieting down. Now that Labor Day is over. This little girl just cracks me up all the time she is very busy and loves all of her toys but still her favorite are the stacking blocks we bought for her Birthday in China. She is picking up more English every day and understands more and more. As for eating I have given up on the American baby food and have her on an Asian diet of rice porridge also known as conge, rice or rice noodles mixed with chicken, fish, beef, tofu and veggies. It’s just not worth the battle to get her to eat American style. It will come soon enough. Our other big challenge is getting her to walk on different surfaces like grass, sand, tanbark and dirt. She will have nothing to do with any of these and coils up like a snake when you get her close to them. But the good new is she is coming around faster then I would have expected but we still has a long way to go. As for mother and daughter we are bonding incredibly well. She definitely knows who her Mama is. I think she wanted a Mama more then anything in the world and she got one now. He eye contact is great and she loves to feed me and look me in the eye when she does. She will now let me hold her bottle or sippiy cup I have to give credit to Half the Sky for the incredible work they did with the getting her prepared for adoption. She was ready for me as much as I was ready for her. I love this little girl more then anything. She is my world and I am hers.