Beware of Toddler

I'm having some trouble uploading video onto the blog right now, so I've created a youtube account. Here's David's latest video. Watch as he not only chases but attempts to bite the dogs.

As I have time, I'll upload more video to youtube and put a link to all of our videos along the right side of the blog. I hope to make a link to all our pictures eventually, too.

Videos du jour

Something tells me low self esteem is not an issue.

Sleep eating

Workin' 9 to 5

We had a nice, low key Memorial Day. David's great grandma Lil came over, and we went for a walk in the park. David really seems to like kicking things. He's always kicking the dogs' tennis balls around, so we got him a soccer ball and took that to the park, too. He seemed to enjoy himself, though I think Lil probably had the most fun.

Walking to the park with great grandma. Future forward for the Chicago Fire.


Kevin's first full day back at work was all I'd hoped for and more. It was in the 50s (yes, that's Fahrenheit), cloudy and windy making outdoor activity possible but unpleasant. I did have the great pleasure of collecting poop in little plastic containers (we're making sure David doesn't have a parasite--because he came from China, not because there's anything wrong). We drove that to the doctor's office, and David cat napped in the car thus ruining any hope for an actual nap later in the afternoon. Other than the poop and the minimal napping, we had a good time and managed to keep the dogs from destroying anything of value while appropriately supervising the child, which is no small task. We read some books and played with almost every toy we own. We attempted a walk late in the afternoon, but there were a few raindrops and I wasn't feeling adventurous.

Distraught that there are no more puffs. The fishbowl toy bought me time to start dinner.


In other news (with no associated pictures), David is making progress on the sippy front. He's taking liquids pretty well from a sippy cup. Sometimes he makes an enormous mess and sometimes he is super neat. The last couple of days we've only used the bottle at night, so I think we'll be at 100% soon. He's also started holding his cup or bottle on his own more. Clearly this kid never fed himself prior to Gotcha Day. Half the time he doesn't hold the cup at an angle that actually allows him to get any liquid out, but he is clearly proud of himself and gets a huge smile on his face any time he brings the cup to his mouth.

Hot Donuts Now

We haven't gotten David Krispy Kremes straight from the grease (yet), but we did the next best thing this weekend. We went to our local farmers market with Evie and Nate on Saturday and enjoyed some fresh, warm donuts. We eventually had to cut him off after about a donut and a half. I think if he'd had his way, he would have eaten the entire dozen.

Today we hit the zoo as soon as it opened, once again with David's friend Evie. We saw elephants, a brown bear eating his breakfast, baby camels and a very noisy tiger, none of which impressed David in the least. He probably gets his fill of wildlife in our living room.

This afternoon he got to meet our friend Adam and great uncle Roger and great aunt Barb. It took a little while, but David warmed up enough to give all his guests some smiles, nonsensical shouting and, of course, the faux sneeze.

Happy Memorial Day, everyone! Hope you're enjoying your holiday weekend.

Time to eat the donuts. Evie and David holding hands.

Dueling slides at the zoo. Kevin and David checking out the tiger.

Give the people what they want

Here's video of David riding his school bus complete with a classic fake sneeze.

Posting to appease the grandparents

All is still well chez Maas. David had his first appointment with his pediatrician yesterday. He weighed in at 20 pounds 14 ounces (5th percentile) and was 29.5 inches long (10th percentile). He had a lot of blood drawn, but the nurse could not have done a better job. They got everything they needed with just one stick. No shots yesterday. There were a few immunizations he received in China that, despite an English translation, we still don't know what they are. Once that's done (one of the physicians in the practice speaks/reads Mandarin) and once we decide whether to completely reimmunize (a lot of people recommend not counting any of the shots he got in China for a number of reasons), we'll figure out what he needs and go back for some shots.

David's focus remains almost 100% on walking, and he's very very close. He has only a passing interest in toys and books right now. If he had his way, we would spend every waking hour walking with him holding on to our fingers. He's requiring less and less support and has even taken a couple of very shaky steps on his own. He's been using his little wagon and his school bus for support sometimes, too, so thanks to Tracey, Katie, Charmaine and Nate for giving our backs a break if only for a little while.

We got an email from the Heath family who travelled with us to China. Marsha and Paul have two beautiful daughters, Rebekah (10) and Emily (8), and now a son Jackson (4). Marsha said she showed Jackson a picture of David on our blog, and he kissed the computer screen. When she asked him who that was, he said "achoo!" I thought that story was too sweet not to share.

David with his dogs. David flopping over his toy school bus for no apparent reason.

David's kind of town

We're making progress on the sleep front. The last couple of nights David has slept from 7:30ish until 4:00ish. There's still room for improvement, but I think we're all feeling much better.

In his short time home, David has already made friends. He had a play date with the lovely Evie at the park yesterday and got to hang out with Gus and Eli this morning. He really seems to enjoy the swings.

We had a very big first today for David and Kevin--our first trip downtown. We took a quick trip to Millennium Park and the lakefront. It was a beautiful day (if you don't mind needing a coat in late May), and David really seemed to enjoy himself. He leaned forward in his stroller, pointed and jibber jabbered to himself for most of the trip. Our other big first today was his first kiss. He started and ended with a head butt, but in between was definitely an intentional kiss of the wet, open-mouthed, toddler variety.

Tonight it's dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Maas before they leave on their Alaskan cruise.

At the park with Evie and Nate

Snoopy likes to help at bathtime (and by help I mean jump in the tub and eat the toys).

Millennium Park (How great is picture #3? So pleased with myself.)

Lake Michigan

He's not sleeping. He's eating his stroller.

Who needs sleep?

We're adjusting to life as a family of 5. (My parents would file a formal protest if I didn't include Snoopy and Pete). David is getting more and more comfortable with the dogs, and they've been very gentle with him, especially considering what maniacs they are. David been sticking his hand out for them to lick. He's also starting yelling "hey!" when he wants their attention and using his patented fake sneeze on them as well. Tonight Pete would lick him, then David would open his mouth wide and make a biting motion towards Pete's nose, then they'd do it all over again. A little bizarre, but we're happy they're making friends. Pete gets very worried when David cries. He puts his ears back and comes running over to check him. Snoopy has not exactly been on her best behavior. She's a little jealous and a lot bored since we've had less time to play. She's been even more mischievous than normal, and there are shards of toy blocks, cardboard boxes and various household items distributed conveniently throughout the house.

I never expected completely flipping David's days to nights and nights to days in an environment that is totally foreign to him to go smoothly, but he is taking sleep deprivation to a new level. For the first 3 nights home, he's only managed 2-4 hours of sleep a night. He's done a little better with naps, but he's still way behind on sleep. He went down relatively easy tonight, and we're really hoping this will be the night he'll start to catch up. The poor little man is exhausted.

We got super fantastic news at our appointment with the plastic surgeon today. Kevin and I had not been able to find the cleft in David's palate, not that we'd taken a tongue depressor and really searched, but after 2 weeks you'd think we would have seen something. The only thing we noticed (Kevin pointed it out first) was a little notch along his right upper gum line. Well after a thorough inspection of his palate this afternoon, our surgeon says he has a cleft at the gum line but the rest of the palate is not involved. The cleft would have been more noticeable prior to his lip repair, but because the overlying muscles were pulled together at that time, it now looks like a little divot. What all that means is that he likely will not need surgery until he's closer to school age. At that time they'll have to do a bone graft to close the cleft, but that's actually not as difficult a surgery as the initial cleft repair we were expecting this summer, not to mention the fact that he'll be old enough to understand. We'll follow up in 3-4 months, at which point they will reevaluate his palate function (mostly his ability to make certain sounds), but that's it for now. We are so grateful that he won't have to go through that painful procedure and that we can devote the rest of my maternity leave to his adjustment. Hurray!


Picture of a very tired boy

Coming home to a place he'd never been before

After a very very very long day, we made it home safely. The fun began at 4:25am in China (3:25pm Thursday at home) when we got our wake up call. Our luggage was off to the airport shortly thereafter, and we were on the bus by 5:40. Things went smoothly until Hong Kong. The 747 equivalent of the "check engine" light went off, and our pilot informed us that we would have to be towed to a remote gate while maintenance worked on the problem. That is never a good sign. They did manage to fix things, but we were on the plane 2 hours before we ever left the ground. Add to that the fact that we weren't allowed any water to make formula in our carry ons (even the bottles we purchased after security were confiscated), and we had a crabby little man. We eventually got a flight attendant to give us a bottle of water, though he was none too pleased. (How ridiculous is that?) After the 2 hours on the ground, we spent another 11 or so in the air. About 10 minutes after our first diaper change, David had a fantastic poop that went from his chest to his knees. (Nothing says good times like toddler diarrhea in an airplane bathroom.) His onesie had to be sacrificed, and we busted out his Brand New American Citizen t-shirt a little early.

We were about an hour late getting in to San Francisco, leaving us 50 minutes to clear immigration, claim our bags, go through customs, recheck our bags, get through security and make a mad dash for our gate. I was not very optimistic. Immigration went really quickly, and David became a US citizen when they stamped his visa. There was not much time to savor the moment, so we literally ran through the baggage claim, customs, recheck and all the way to security. The line was long, and our flight was already boarding at this point. We found a TSA agent who suggested we go to a different check where there was a shorter stroller line, so we ran some more (and anyone who knows me knows how I despise exercise). Despite some rather unhelpful and slow moving TSA employees, we made it through security. Kevin grabbed his shoes and ran to the gate while I waited for the rest of our stuff. We got on the plane followed by a couple of standby passengers, and they closed the doors almost immediately. Much to our dismay, the Heath family didn't make it in time and won't get back to NC until tomorrow.

Somewhere over Nebraska (I wish I were exaggerating), we were placed in a holding pattern for 30 minutes due to congestion at O'Hare. When we finally landed, the plane was parked too close to the gate, and we had to wait on board while they towed us back a few feet so that the jet bridge would reach. At this point, we'd been travelling more than 24 hours, and David had slept only 4-5. We were nauseous from lack of sleep and a bumpy landing. But we were home! We walked into the baggage claim area to meet... no one. United had called Kevin's family and informed them we were rebooked and would be arriving at 10:00pm, so we took a taxi home from the airport where we finally got to let David meet his grandparents, Uncle Adams and Uncle David and, most importantly, Pete and Snoopy.

Through all of this David was amazing. He got a little fussy and was clearly delirious from exhaustion towards the end, but he still found plenty of smiles and fake sneezes for his adoring fans and is now enjoying his first night in his crib.

It is so great to finally be home. I drank water directly from the tap and am very much looking forward to a mattress that is not made exclusively of wood.

David loves an audience, so we'll be looking for play dates soon. Feel free to give us a call if you want to stop by.

Checking out our plane in Hong Kong

First flight as a US citizen. Don't be fooled. The sleeping did not last.

When we asked for a low key arrival, this is not what we expected. Kevin with our cab driver.

Achoo

This is from the hotel playroom yesterday. You can't see it, but Emily Heath is bouncing on a ball in front of David. He thinks she is the funniest person alive and loves to make her laugh. Watch for the fake sneeze at the end.

Happy Birthday, Kendall Jane!

We got great news from SC. Baby Kendall Jane Starnes is here. She and Jennifer are both doing well. We can't wait to meet her when we visit this summer! Congratulations, Jennifer, Kevin and Haley!

We went to the US consulate this afternoon where we, along with several dozen other families, were "sworn in." That consisted us everyone saying "I do" in unison when asked if we swore that the information we provided on our visa applications was truthful. We were then handed David's passport and a brown packet of forms that we cannot touch until immigration in San Francisco, and that was it. Now all that stands between us and home is 24+ hours and 3 flights with a toddler who thinks being forced to sit still should be a class A felony. We leave the hotel tomorrow morning at 5:40 (4:40pm Thursday Chicago time), and we (hopefully) arrive at O'Hare around 5:00pm. We can't wait to get home where we can eat fruit and vegetables without fear and don't have to seal our mouths closed in the shower. We'll see you soon!

Look how cute I am.
David's wardrobe was provided by Uncle Stanley and Aunt Leslie.

Red couch

Today was a free day while Veronica took our paperwork to the American consulate. Kevin took David to the hotel playroom while I waited in the room. I got the call around 11:00 that all our paperwork was complete. We're good to go to pick up his visa and swear him in tomorrow.

This afternoon we took the obligatory group baby picture on the red couch in the White Swan. Veronica had a professional photographer take the pictures, so we don't have one to post yet. David cried during all but the first couple of takes because he wanted to be held. It was very sweet and very sad.

As I post this, David is once again enjoying the company of the Heath kids. Their 4 year old son Jackson loves piggy back rides with his dad and was offering David a ride on his own back--all in Chinese--very cute.

We also want to wish David's orphanage-mate Mason Kate a successful surgery and speedy recovery from her palate repair. I can't get to her blog, but I seem to remember the surgery being scheduled for the end of our time here in China. We'll be thinking about her.

Last night Kevin teaching David about lethargy
In the hotel after our red couch picture. Check out David's authentic duds.

Toys = weapons

Here's some video from the playroom in Chongqing.

Here are today's pictures

A big thanks to the Heath family. We've used their laptop several times for this blog, and they're saving the day again today.

In Yuntai Park
Yuntai Park

Huge jade carving in the lobby of the White Swan (at least 6 feet long)
Playing in the room

Yuntai Gardens

More computer difficulties. The computers in the White Swan aren't letting me upload pictures today for some reason. Sorry to disappoint.

This morning we visited Yuntai gardens for a couple of hours. It was a beautiful day, very warm and sunny. The gardens were beautiful and all decked out with the Olympic rings and mascots. This afternoon we walked around the neighborhood near the hotel and then took a walk inside the hotel. There is a lot of Chinese artwork for sale, jade and bone carvings, vases and woodwork. It's all for sale, some for more than a million dollars.


Tonight we're going to eat dinner at one of the restaurants in our hotel so that Kevin can enjoy the view of the city lights. Tomorrow we have a free day while Veronica takes our paperwork to the consulate. One of us will stay in the room and wait for her call to say everything is a-ok.

We'll post more pictures as soon as we're able.

Earthquake

We are safe and sound after the earthquake this afternoon. The epicenter was far enough away that the only thing that happened here was some shower curtains rattling. We were actually enjoying a nap and slept right through it. Chongqing was hit hard. We heard that several children died when a school collapsed. We feel very fortunate that we were safe here. One of the members of our travel group called our guide from Chongqing Sophie, and she's fine as well.

This morning we went to a clinic for David's mandatory medical exam. I think the purpose is to make sure he's not running around with raging tuberculosis or bird flu or something. (It is entirely possible that we all caught worse than that during our time there.) It was an absolute madhouse. Nothing makes for a happy toddler like chaos and people in white coats and masks. The exam was pretty much a joke. David has some molluscum, which are bumps on the skin caused by a virus, totally benign and no treatment required. The doctors at the clinic had no idea what it was, and I had to explain to them through our guide. We're happy it's over, and that we're one more step closer to home.

This afternoon while I filled out the necessary paperwork for the consulate, David took a long nap with Kevin. He woke up refreshed and ready to throw down some Cantonese dinner. He ate nonstop from the time we sat down--steamed egg, green beans, brocolli, eggplant, rice. We followed up dinner with some ice cream. Because we are good parents, we have already discovered that David likes chocolate donuts, banana bread, oreos, pizza and now ice cream. All that in only a week.

Tai chi in the park

Kevin and David in the park

First ice cream cone

David is a ham

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mothers Day, everyone! We want to say hi to our moms and grandmothers. Hope everyone has a wonderful day.

Unfortunately, there is a filter in place here that allows me to post but not to view our blog, so we can't read comments until we get home. Please please please keep posting them because we love to read them.

We had a really nice Mothers Day. We took a tour of the Chen family temple, which is now a museum for local art. We hung out at the hotel this afternoon. David refused to nap, at one point when I was trying to walk him around and get him drowsy he decided to put on a comedy show. He's really come out of his shell. He is constantly shouting and grinning, and he's started laughing in the last couple of days. He also fake sneezes for laughs. It's pretty hilarious.

The group had dinner at a Thai restaurant tonight. David enjoyed some steamed egg and soup with coconut milk.

Belts are almost as tasty as remote controls.

Hard to see here, but David is very fashionable for Mothers Day.
David with his friend Meeka (sp?). They're only 2 weeks apart and were at the same orphanage.
At the Guangdong provencial art museum
Enjoying an appetizer at the Thai restaurant

Better ingredients, better pizza

Very very slow connection today, so this will be short. We got up at 5:30am and flew to Guangzhou. David did great on his first plane ride. His ears didn't seem to bother him at all, just the fact that we wanted him to sit in a seat for 90 minutes. We met our new guide Veronica at the airport and took a 40 minute bus ride to the White Swan. It is by far the nicest hotel we've ever stayed in. There is beautiful Chinese artwork everywhere and a garden complete with waterfall in the hotel. After more than a week of Chinese food, we caved and ordered Papa John's for lunch. (Who knew there was a Papa John's in China?) David seemed to enjoy his first pizza. This afternoon we're going to take a walking tour of the area around the hotel with Veronica and then have a group dinner at Lucy's.

I received beautiful flowers for Mothers Day after we got to the hotel. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

More pictures and video to come if we can get a better connection...

Buses make David sleepy.
Hard to tell if the pizza or the remote was more delicious. (Note he had already removed the battery cover and batteries.)

Kevin and David in the lobby of the White Swan

More pictures

Since everyone had to wait a whole extra hour or two for yesterday's post. Here is a bonus for today...

Gotcha Day
Supermarket in Chongqing
Frogs about to have a very bad day
Kevin and David in the shopping district in Chongqing
The remote is delicious

Very proud of himself
Hanging out at the 2000 year old Buddhist temple