What a difference a month makes...

Then:

Now:




Things we know about Sarah -
*She has a sense of humor that is really starting to show - she loves to play peek-a-boo and will really slowly bring down the blanket to smile at us.

*She tends to hide her smile - there is a little smirky smile she gets instead of a big one if she is being coy.

*She has perfected the heiny-scoot and will sit down rather than practice walking if she doesn't feel like it.

*She is stubborn.

*She will eat ANYTHING and continue to eat until she explodes (well, not really of course - we do put limits on her intake!)

*She LOVES water - baths, pools, you name it she loves it. She will even put her face in without sucking in water. A future swimmer?

*She hates to take naps or go to bed unless she is extremely tired in which case she will fall asleep taking her bottle.

*She lights up when her Daddy comes home from work and can not wait for him to pick her up.

*She loves to suck on the edge of her blanket, or mommy's shirt, or daddy's shirt, or her stuffed animal's tail or ears to go to sleep.

*She is a mimic.

*She can sign "more" - a very important word, you know!

*She says "mama" "dada" "baba" (we think this is for Daddy too as baba is daddy in Chinese) "gege" ("big brother" but I'm not sure how much she attributes this to Brandon) "uhoh" (the kids taught her this one and she uses it appropriately all the time and sometimes just to babble) "ah-oo" (thank you - not consistant but we usually say it to her when she hands us something and she repeats it)

*She LOVES the cat who tolerates her and even comes close to her for some "gentle" petting - we really have to watch her because she grabs at her tail and we have to watch the cat because if you know Molly she is not the most friendly cat in the world.

*She would love to get her hands on the dog but he has become a bit standoffish with her and prefers not to have his fur grabbed and pulled so he stays away.

*She does not like to sleep with anyone - thank you very much! No cosleeping for this one. Thank goodness as we are trying to get all of them out of our bed!

*She loves to go out - when Hannah has her shoes on that means we are going somewhere and she gets very excited! She has perfected the wave to go bye-bye. She is quite happy in the car, stroller, or where ever we go as long as it is out.

*She takes 2 hour naps - unless of course she falls asleep in the car and Mommy tries to get her out to be put in her crib then naptime is over regardless of how tired we are. 5 minutes, 10 minutes, it doesn't matter - nap time is OVER!

*She knows the cat says "meow" but it doesn't quite come out that way when she says it.

*She has really started to have fun with Hannah.

*She lets Brandon help her if she really needs something and Mommy and Daddy aren't right there.

*She plays "so big"

*She loves to "jump"

*She gets very animated when we say "yeah!" to her for something she has done.



Here are a few more picturs of the week:

Pictures!

Things have been a bit hectic around here! Getting used to having three children has been somewhat of a challenge - as you can see by the state of our living room by the end of the day!

The kids are adjusting nicely to each other. I think Hannah and Sarah have had the most difficult time - Sarah mainly with jealousy of Hannah. She is allowing Hannah to give her hugs occasionally now.
She can walk! Well, she can take steps and is doing a pretty good job of it. She would do a bit better if her confidence was a bit higher but we are pretty excited that she is doing so well! She still prefers to hold on to Mommy or Daddy's finger in a death grip and go full force. She has also perfected a little scoot to get her where she wants to go. It is pretty easy - sit on your bottom and use your legs to pull yourself across the floor. I think we are going to skip crawling altogether because she has figured out how to roll in both directions and has even gotten herself to a sitting position a time or two. The heiny-scoot is a quick and easy way to get into trouble. We've had to move the dogs dishes and start closing the doors to keep her safe. We may have to break out the baby gates in a few days.
Our Princess Hannah.

Hannah has become a real little mommy. She has been bringing "Squash" (yes, that is her baby's name!) to the table so she can feed her like Mommy feeds Sarah. We put the baby high chair on a kitchen chair so it is the right height and have "food" for her and everything.


Sarah likes peek-a-boo.




We signed the older two up for swimming lessons starting next month - Hannah isn't too sure she wants to do more than put her mouth in the water and blow bubbles but with Sarah not being afraid of the water we figured it was about time Hannah learned to swim a little more.



Sarah has discovered that she loves ice pops! We have to make sure we don't give it to her if we have to be somewhere afterwards because we end up with a tinted baby. These ice pops must have a lot of color in them because a simple wipe down doesn't cut it - a full bath (or two) gets it off.

15 months old

Today Sarah is 15 months old. She is such a sweetie and wonderful to have around. It feels like she has been with us forever.

Pictures?

Sorry! We haven't had time to even pull the camera out of the bag since we have been home! The kids have kept us busy along with the lack of sleep. Brandon went back to school this morning and cried because he wanted to stay home with us. I'm taking him out of school on Thursday and Friday to go down to see my parents and my brother and his family who are on their way to Hawaii. Who knows when we will see them again - it has been about 2-3 years this time!
Sarah still has her cough but is doing well. I contacted the nurse at our doctor's office who said it sounds like a bad cold and to keep an eye on the ears, the sounds of the cough and the fevers. So far she hasn't pulled on her ears, hasn't run any fevers and there is no wheezing. I was also told to get the vaporizer out and run it in her room. So that is the plan for this afternoon.
Hannah is pretty clingy and needs a lot of love but is enjoying Sarah. She is just a mommy's girl who really missed her mommy the last few weeks and needs some reassurance that all is well.
As for me - I have pink eye. I went to Urgent Care this morning and the doctor said I am pretty congested and it caused a duct to be blocked which caused it to back up and make a bit of a mess in my eye. It doesn't hurt and we caught it really early so I think with the antibiotics and decongestant to get my nose cleared up it should be gone in a day or so. He didn't think I was "contagious" necessarily since it is just gunk backing up. We'll see in a few days though if anyone else catches it!

I'm going to have to wake Sarah up from her nap in a minute to go pick Brandon up from the bus stop.

I'm so ready for bed right now - I keep dozing on the couch snuggling with Hannah - is it bedtime yet? I thought I was doing pretty well with the jet lag but today I just feel drained.

More later - I'm hoping the kids are cheery and cooperative later so I can get a few pictures!

We are HOME!!

We made it ... finally! We left Guangzhou at 8:20 a.m. on August 2 and arrived in Portland at about 8:20 a.m. on August 2. We lost a whole day in there somewhere but we are glad we did because what a day! We really needed a do-over!

Sarah had a horrible time on the flight from Tokyo to Portland. We spent the majority of the flight gingerly holding her so the screaming would stop and not start again. I think the people around us were glad the flight ended - so were we! She did great on the flight from Portland home - she slept the whole time. Brent however, did not fare so well - he is nauseous and sick. My ankles are enormous and hurt from not walking enough on the 9 hour flight.

But what a wonderful welcome - my parents, my sister and niece, Brent's parents and his brother and his family and MY BABIES! As soon as I saw them I started crying - man I missed them! Not talking to or seeing your kids for 2 weeks is torture.

We made it home with only a little crying because Sarah has never been in a carseat. The kids love her! She isn't so sure about them yet but I thought I saw a smile tonight when Brandon was copying her.

I'll try to post pictures of the 3 of them tomorrow.Hopefully everyone will sleep well tonight - I can not wait to get into my own bed!!

Sarah is still really congested and not feeling well. Brent has to go to his Human Resources Department on Monday to make some changes (they have Hannah's birthdate wrong even though we thought we changed it earlier in the year and fixed the problem) and we need to add Sarah. I hope they do it quickly so I can have her be seen. I'm a little afraid it is going to her chest.