More Laina

Oops, I missed a picture that I said was there yesterday of her and I at the beach so here it is. Also added a funny one of her cousin Jacob, who is actually about 19 months old when he was feeding her a huge bite of breakfast. I handed him the spoon when he indicated that he wanted it, thinking that he wanted to try her food himself, instead he gave it to her! She ate it and thankfully didn't choke, and he gave her some more. What a big boy!

Baby Girl Walkin'

Today, Laina took her first steps! There were about 4. Lately, she had been doing a new crawl, sort of a hop-a-long with one leg tucked underneath and one stretched out. She has now decided that crawling is just not the way to travel. Her cousin Jacob was visiting with his grandparents for one night and she saw him walking. He's about 16 months old. We all saw her do it so it was good family excitement, and boy, was she proud of herself! We didn't have our cameras for the first time but I am posting a photo of her standing all by herself that we took only moments ago to verify her achievements. There is a photo of Jacob at the beach, one of Laina and I as she was trying a drink of my vitamin water. Another is of her and her friend Taylor(the boy she kissed on the 4th of July,xxoo) They had a playdate and I guess all the fun in the kiddie pool was pretty exciting because this is how they ended the lunch date at the table. I think there's 2 more..one of her with her first raspberries, YUMMY! And one just to confirm with all the other mommies that we shouldn't let Daddy pick out the clothes for her to wear when we are out. Stripes and plaids?!

A Girl's Best Friend

Before a girl gets diamonds, she also likes things that are soft and cuddly.This is a cute photo of Laina and our big, nice kitty named Nick. They have really bonded. He lets her poke and inspect all his body parts, even when she pulls his tail pretty hard. He cries when she cries and sometimes it's like I have 2 babies!The second is of Laina and her stuffed flamingo, aka Pinky. She was originally scared of him, and cried when we took him out of the gift bag, but as you can see, he has proven to be a great pillow. Also, we have some major progress in the crawling department. Laina has invented a sort of inchworm technique where she kicks her feet so her butt is in the air, then pulls with her hands to move forward. She still wants only to walk, and can do that pretty well holding someone's fingers. It is difficult now to get her to sit down and play, just always wants to be on the move.I don't have a crawling photo yet, but hopefully I can get one soon.

More China, At your request

On our first 3 days in China, we were in Beijing. This is before getting the babies. They kept us very busy every day; this is when we went to the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City among other things. Here are some photos; one is of Jimmy in front of the massive portrait of Chairman Mao, another is of some guards that posed for me(a couple of them got all serious and puffed up their chests).One is of our agency guide and Pediatrician,"Dr. Steve" with our friend Peeps and a guard. That photo was taken at the Guard's request. There are a couple of the Forbidden City too. One, not a great photo but it shows the imperial chair at the "Hall of Supreme Harmony" and above it hangs a bronze ball that looks like a giant pearl. Supposedly, the ball will fall on any "Pretender" to the throne and crush them. There are many Halls and many thrones, used for different functions and ceremonies. We were zoomed through the whole place at a frantic pace, following our guide, just barely seeing him sometimes up ahead of us. There is a photo and in it you may see a pink flag way up ahead, that's what I am supposed to be following. Our guide, Tom was very nice and informative but FAST. The 28 families were divided into 2 buses. The other bus group actually did lose some people! They made their way back to a restaurant that we had been to the evening before somehow and made their way to the hotel from there. We managed to stay with our group, but felt as if we didn't absorb half of what we saw. It was all very impressive and the history just wraps around you. We just recently watched the movie "The Last Emperor" just to see all the places we had been. The movie was filmed on location within The Forbidden City and really gives you a sense of what it was like for the Imperial family to live there, and never go outside the walls.

Laina's first 4th of July

Laina went to her first 4th of July parade and loved it! We went to our friend, Laurel's house where the parade actually goes by twice. Jimmy was asked to be in it and march with a fife and drum corp from Fall River. He was given the uniform to wear from an older man who stripped down to his tighty-whiteys right there and handed them over! He was having knee surgery soon and really didn't want to march anyway. Jimmy really enjoyed himself and wants to do it next year too. I'll put up a picture with him. Laina clapped and waved a lot, she especially responded to the horses as they went by, and a huge inflated rat that was on an extermination co.'s truck.Laina also met a nice baby boy named Taylor, we put them in a chair for some photos and they were very funny together. She actually leaned over and kissed him. My photo isn't great, but you get the idea. We caught some beads and wore them, and stayed until the very end. As soon as she got in the carseat she was sound asleep. We have also been playing in our new kiddie-pool and she loves the water. She is taking a long nap as I write this, she was splashing and kicking so hard that she wore herself out.

Funny Face

This is a photo taken by our friend Sandra, of Laina in China. She made this face all the time which cracked everybody up. She still does this one, as well as a lot of new ones she has invented! We have a lot of laughs playing mirror games.

Imperial Dinner

One night when we had been in Beijing for a couple of days, we decided to break away from the group and go out to a restaurant.This is before we had the babies. Our friend, Sandra(aka Peeps) found it in a travel guide, I believe it may have been called the Imperial, but I'm not sure. The taxi cost about $2 and it seemed like we drove all around the city. We had been a bit disappointed by the food served to the group in the hotel, it seemed "cafeteria style" and very americanized, there was nothing exotic or unique to us. This place was incredible, it was on Beihail Lake, with an impressive entrance manned by guards and women in full traditional dress. We were escorted to the restaurant down a lovely walkway lit by Chinese lanterns. There were meals to choose by the group, in other words, you would order together a "page" from the menu that would be served to us on the center "lazy susan" for evryone. There were 14 courses and it cost about $12 US. Jacqui and I ordered tea and the waitress served it to us in a beautiful, long-spouted teapot.Must have been a hard technique to learn! I am posting and using some pictures taken by Sandra as well as some I took myself. This is the place that offered "Camel Paw, Deer Lips, Deer tendon," and all kinds of crazy sounding stuff. I don't remember exactly what we had (not those things!)but it was all delicious!

Laina Lately

Hi everyone, here's some new pictures of Laina. We went to a BBQ hosted by our friends John and Jacqui, who traveled to China with us to bring home their daughter, Roma. It was so great to reconnect with them and now we are more anxious than ever to see the rest of the group at our reunion in August. Laina has 2 new teeth on the top as you see, and she is growing by leaps and bounds. We have been able to turn her carseat around as she weighs over 20 pounds now! One of the photos is of her under the couch, this is her crawling method, unfortunately she pushes backward and often ends up under things. Another is of her and her Aunt Betsy, one of her with her first corn lolly, and of her in Roma's kiddie-pool(she loves the water!) and maybe more...

Kids in China

Although there are children abandoned and in orphanages in China, when we were there we saw only people who cherished and adored their kids. There is no doubt that the people love their babies. The policies that control the number of kids a Chinese family can have are strange to us and hard to understand. One thing our guide Glenn told us was that when someone had twins , it counted as only one birth. I saw some adorable twins in a shop one day and here is the picture. Another strange story...we received a photo album of Laina as a gift from the orphanage director and when we opened it, there was a picture of her with an IV in her head. It freaked us out, of course, we were worried that she had had an operation, or had a medical condition that nobody told us about. Our guide explained to us that it is common practice to receive an IV treatment, at any age for a cold or flu. The IV's are put in the babies' heads so they won't be as inclined to pull it out. We were near a hospital one day, when going to all the kids' "finding spots"; one of the girls was found right outside the emergency room under an umbrella. There, we actually saw a cute little boy walking around with his mom, with an IV in his head! Later, we saw them heading home, so we felt reassured about it. I took his photo too. I am also posting a photo of a group of school kids in uniform, walking down the street one morning. There is a man on the sidewalk, I thought he was a beggar but Jimmy thought he was praying..maybe both? I'll see what other pix I can find of kids too.

Time Flies

Wow! I can't believe a week flies by so fast. Laina is a fascinating person, quite distracting in the best sort of way. She is great, has gained a few pounds since she came home. She has to be rear-facing in her car seat until she hits 20 pounds, so Jimmy is fattening her up! It will be more fun and more comfortable for evryone if we can see her, and she can look at us. Here's some new pix of our little beauty, she has recently attended an art opening, a wedding shower, and a wedding, so we have had the chance to dress up a little and get out some of her cute chinese outfits. She also likes playing with my big straw garden hat too. After this, I'll tell a China story...oops, I messed up a photo, I'll do it again but you may get 2 the same, I'll try and fix it.