It's Been a Busy Six Weeks

We arrived home from China 6 weeks ago today. It is strange to think we have known Hadley for less than 8 weeks. She fits into our family really well and her older sisters are absolutely in love with her. The last few weeks have been busy with kid's birthday parties, play dates, ear infections and a brief stomach flu outbreak that hit our house. Add in the day to day distractions and messes that happen with three little kids and we are ready for winter to be over and to get outside and enjoy some room to run and fresh air. There was a couple of warm days that teased us last week but we are back to the bitter cold and there is a winter storm warning for this coming weekend.

Biker chick!

Swinging in the basement

Hadley finally got brave enough to climb into the ball pit and loves it. It is one of her favorites places to play in the basement.

I made sensory boxes for the girls. This is usually what ends up happening. Unfortunately I did not get a picture the day our two year old Isla was standing on a chair, throwing handfuls of rice out of my colored rice sensory box all over the room... totally naked!

Enjoying our play date at the Louisville Science Center with buddies Cole and Kaden. We were shocked that we were able to get all five kids in one picture!

Isla driving the bus at the science center.

Isla's passenger in the back of the bus. The "Wheels on the Bus"song was playing so Hadley was standing there dancing.

Sisters contemplating the slide.

Isla doing a little shoe shopping today! She loves high heels and unfortunately she will not find many pairs in my closet these days (Or ever really. Who am I kidding?)

I realized I didn't have any pictures of three year old Olivia, so here is a video of her. She is our climber and has great balance so I was not at all surprised to find her in the position. (She does not sit still and let me take her picture very often so that is the reason for the lack of pictures of her. She is getting better but for the last year or so she has been very hard to photograph).

Hadley continues to adjust to our family and our day to day schedule and we continue to see her make progress and experience new things. She is cruising all over our house and is bound to walk soon. Her latest trick is to pull up on something in the kitchen and cruise all the way around the perimeter of the kitchen, holding onto the cabinets, dishwasher, oven, and ending at the freezer door handle. She is over her fear of the bathtub and is excited to get in the tub and plays happily for awhile. She doesn't even mind water being dumped on her face. What a drastic change from 4-5 weeks ago.

I am so glad that the bathtub screaming has ended! What's not to love about bath time?

While she continues to be a good eater and eat a variety of things she is beginning to slow down and show more preferences, occasionally leaving behind a few bites of something. As of a week or so ago there was not a single meal where she didn't clean her entire plate. I think she has realized that we will feed her and she can start to be a little more selective in her food choices. If I had to choose I would say her favorite foods are eggs and bananas, but she will eat just about anything that we offer.

Hadley continues to babble and says "dada" and very occasionally "mama" although I am not convinced she is actually directing it at us. I have noticed that she is understanding more and more things that we say to her and even in new and different context. For example, Isla was playing the other day and told me she was going to take her baby doll in the stroller and go to the library. I said to Isla,"Okay, see you later" and as Isla walked out of the room. As she walked away, Hadley waved at her. She would wave when we said bye bye or she saw us wave but now she is putting it all together and knew that it was appropriate to wave to Isla as she left. She is starting to make connections and it is really neat to see how quickly she is catching on and understanding English. Hopefully she will start talking and saying a few words soon.

Hadley turned 18 months last week and we had her 18-month check up with the pediatrician this week. The doctor was happy and did not have any concerns with her growth or development. She was impressed that given her circumstances she is doing as good as she is and although on the later end, she is still considered to be on track for a typical American child for her physical, gross motor and speech development, which are all areas I had some concerns since she is not walking or talking. I was reassured to hear she is doing great and making good progress! We will reassess this at her two-year appointment or at any point if we have concerns before then.

We have recently renovated our house and moved our older girls upstairs, which opened up a downstairs bedroom to become our new playroom. I am so excited with how it has turned out. The girls have enjoyed it so much and I love having the majority of toys and mess contained in one room. We just got our new floor mats today. Hadley has enjoyed crawling very quickly all over the mat. It is the perfect, softest place for her to take her first steps one of these days

Our awesome bookshelves built by daddy (aka Aaron)!

The desk is our latest Goodwill find. The same kind I used in grade school!

I love this armoire more and more all the time. They umbrellas from China work nicely on top and stay away from all the little hands that would love to get ahold of them.

Old crib mattress repurposed for our cozy reading nook in the closet(often used as a bed when playing house, a trampoline or a nap time place for daddy while he is playing with the girls in the playroom. More than once I have found him tucked in there catching a few minutes of shut eye)

Our new SoftTiles play mat is an awesome addition to the room. So comfortable and perfect for absorbing all the loud noise that happens in here. Olivia has figured out it makes a good gymnastics mat too.

Chinese counting cards. I love these!

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One month ago...

I can't believe it has been just over a month since we met Hadley for the first time. It seems like she has always been in our family, yet it also seems as though we are learning something new about her everyday. Our transition to a family of five has been challenging but also very rewarding. Hadley continues to do great, but this past week she has been extra clingy and whiney and I couldn't decide if she was grieving the loss of her old life or if she was testing us or what. On Friday I took her to the pediatrician to make sure she was okay. I had noticed she touched her ear a time or two but didn't really suspect she had an ear infection. I over-exaggerated her condition when I called to book the appointment and sure enough she had an ear infection. I am so glad I took her and didn't wait the weekend. She really didn't have any other symptoms, and I am not usually one to rush my kids to the doctor but I suppose maybe I had mother's intuition.

We had our one month post-adoption visit with our social worker this week. It went really well. We had to give her eight pictures of Hadley (both individual and family shots). Fortunately, we got our family pictures back from the photographer the night before our appointment, so I was able to include those. She asked us lots of questions about how we are settling in and adjusting and how Hadley is doing. We were able to answer everything on a positive note and checked off all the skills she asked whether or not Hadley could do. The only things we need to be working on are walking and talking. She is getting close to walking and will be doing it fairly soon. Talking is a whole other story and hopefully she continues to make progress and start using some simple words soon. She has mastered "more" in sign language and uses that regularly in search of more food. She has also perfected the moan and lean towards anything anyone else is eating. Her big sisters enjoy sharing their food and giving her a bite of whatever they have so that is good.

We got all of Hadley's test results back from the doctor and everything looks great. She is all clear and does not have any underlying diseases or conditions. There are a couple of vaccines that we need to catch up on that we will do in a couple of weeks at her 18-month check up.

Hadley has had a few adventures in the past few weeks including celebrating Chinese New Year, sledding and playing in the snow a few times with her sisters, celebrating my little brother's birthday with a dinner at my mom's house, and a trip to the dentist with her older sisters. Olivia and Isla did great at the dentist (it was Isla's first time so I was a little nervous and took Aaron with me in case I needed backup) and everyone was cavity free. Hadley will get to join her sisters at their next check up in six months, once she is two.

Hadley sledding with her sisters. She was a little unsure and preferred to sit still in the sled.

We all enjoyed our Chinese New Year celebration and look forward to learning more about the Chinese culture and celebrating the Lunar New Year each year. We made dinner and had a few friends over on January 31st which is the start of the New Year this year. It is the year of the horse. I made traditional Chinese pork dumplings which were delicious and General Tso's chicken. I will not be making that recipe again. It turned out pretty good but was so ridiculously involved and took hours to make. It definitely wasn't that good. We enjoyed the decorations that we brought back from our trip to China and made a few more of our own. We ate plenty of mandarin oranges which are said to bring good luck for the new year. We enjoyed a family day at the Crane House on Saturday which is an Asian cultural center in Louisville, KY. They had games and crafts set up. The girls enjoyed dressing up in Chinese masks, learning to write the Chinese characters for "Happy New Year", designing their own kimonos and participated in a scavenger hunt which ended with a prize from a treasure chest. We look forward to being more involved in events at the Crane House in the future.

My pork dumplings. They were better than they look in this picture.

Olivia in a mask. Her silk dress was a hit and she got a lot of compliments!

Olivia the dragon

Olivia practicing caligraphy. She really just wanted to paint with the ink and the paintbrush but was very patient and allowed this lady to help her write all the Chinese characters.

Isla taking a turn at it.

I mentioned earlier our family pictures. We had them taken about two weeks ago and it was stressful. I ran around town for days before trying to find everyone something cute that coordinated but wasn't too matchy. Trying to shop with those three quickly turned into a disaster! I have a double stroller and the older two take turns walking. That usually means they wander ahead or behind and I end up carrying someone and locking the other two in the stroller. I usually have the Ergo carrier as well and after yelling at them for awhile I get annoyed, strap the big two in the stroller and Hadley in the carrier which she is getting less and less tolerant of.  On this particular day I didn't buckle Isla in the stroller and told her to sit still and not stand up. Wouldn't you know that she stood up and fell out, face planted on the floor and I ran her over with the stroller (not once, but TWICE)!! I have since learned my lesson and insist that she is always buckled. I will not be getting the mother of the year award if it is determined by my fellow shoppers at the mall. I did however have one woman compliment me on how I was handling all three of the kids and managing to get some shopping done and get everyone in and out of the store. She obviously did see when I dumped Isla out of the stroller on her face, temporarily misplace Olivia under a rack of clothes or bribe all three of them to sit quietly by forcing snacks in their faces.

Anyone who has done family pictures with three little kids, inside, in the winter can imagine how this session went. There was lots of bribing the older two with candy to get them to participate, sit where they were told to and smile. This worked for a few minutes until Olivia decided she didn't like to color of the photographers candy selection. She is so picky! One of the three were constantly crawling or running away or frowning. We thought the whole shoot was a disaster but somehow our photographer, Hollie Colwick, managed to get some awesome shots of each of the girls individually and a few good family shoots. I am so thankful to have photos of all of us together and have been waiting to have a picture of all three of my girls together since we saw Hadley's face for the first time on Sept. 9, 2013.

Olivia (age 3 1/2)

Isla (just turned 2)

Sisters!

Hadley (17 months)

Our behind the scenes shot as we were attempting to change her clothes.

We were so happy with how well they turned out! We are continuing to try to figure out our daily routine and our new normal as a family of five which has been tricky with all of the snow days we have had lately. I am thankful with all the quality time the girls have had together cooped up in the house for the last few weeks but ready for some warm weather and to get these girls outside to play. Hopefully spring is just around the corner.