Glimpses of June

June was a busy month! I spent most of the time just trying to feed my daughter and make sure she got enough fluids and running her to doctor's appointments. Ben finished out the school year and is headed to high school in September - unbelievable!

On Father's Day we had a family outing to Mount Vernon. It was such a nice day that we didn't mind standing in line an hour outdoors to tour the house. There is an amazing new visitors center with fantastic exhibits of the same caliber as the Smithsonian. The life-like, life-size models of George Washington at different ages are very impressive. Adam and Ben really enjoyed the exhibits. Eliana was her friendly self and made lots of new acquaintances in line for the tour. Her cute little lemon yellow butterfly outfit was a gift from a fellow adoptive mom with our agency - thank you 'Duchess of Lanier'!











Eliana had her 3 week post-op appointment on June 20th and her surgeon was very pleased with how her palate is healing. No more no-no's and she can eat whatever she wants! I broke out the teddy grahams right there on the spot and let Eliana chow down! Here are some pictures from that night and the next morning, when Eliana happily fed herself breakfast, including one of her favorites - yogurt. She has her 'morning hair' in those pictures, which looks very much like a rooster's. Since Eliana is from Qingyuan (pronounced something like "cheeng-ee-wan") and they are famous for their chicken dish, we sometimes call her our "Qingyuan Chicken" in the morning. :0)





Here are a few other pictures of Eliana from the month of June:

We leave this weekend for our 12th annual summer beach trip to our favorite Florida getaway. Ben and my nephew, Drew, can not remember a summer where we did not spend a week together with our families and Grandma Bonnie, relaxing on the beach and playing games together, and star gazing at night. It was on this same vacation last year when our agency received their new list of waiting children and I first saw Eliana (then she was just "Guo"). So much has changed in a year! It will be so fun to have Eliana there with us in the same exact beach house where I sat at the kitchen counter last year and showed all the beautiful waiting children to my mother. I had no idea at that time that "Guo" would become our daughter and that we would be returning to the same beach house a year later with her as a part of our family of 4!

Have a wonderful Independence Day!

10 Days Post-Op - pictures!

I can't believe how long it has been since I have posted pictures here! I did have good intentions...

Saturday marked 2 months since "Gotcha" day and Sunday was 2 months from our official adoption day of Eliana. So much has changed in the past 2 months!

We are 10 days post-op today. My mother left on Saturday after being here a full week to help me with Eliana. (Thanks, Mom! I don't know how I would have managed without you!) Adam had to travel Tuesday and Thursday nights, and Wednesday night was our power outage, so we had quite the week last week! My mother spent several nights on the twin bed in Eliana's room so that I could get some sleep. Eliana wakes several times a night due to the no-nos and really can't reposition herself into a comfortable spot without some help. Eliana and my mother are quite attached to each other now, as you can see!

It is amazing how resilient toddlers are! Truly, by the time we got home Saturday evening, Eliana seemed almost like herself and by Sunday afternoon it was as if nothing had happened at all! The only reason that I have been so busy and unable to post is because of the "no-no" arm restraints and the effects they have on Eliana's feeding and sleeping.

Here are a few pictures. The morning before surgery, blissfully ignorant, and sleeping in late in our bed (after we intentionally kept her up late) with her favorite "toy" - our telephone:


Rough couple hours in the recovery room Friday night 5/30/08:

Poor baby! She looked so tiny in the hospital crib and so pitiful hooked up to everything!

Sleeping peacefully in hospital room Saturday 05/31/08 (thank you, morphine)!

Sunday morning eggs in the no-no's with Grandma at home (notice her hand in the bowl - she was TICKED that she could not feed herself):

And by Sunday afternoon (surgery, what surgery?)...Things to do in your No-No's:

"Help" Ben practice for his piano recital:

Dress up the No-No's with a little bling:

Multi-task: play dress up, eat, and play with toys:

Hey, I love these shoes!

And I am REALLY good at walking in them!

Sleep...sort of?

Play with play dough with Daddy:

Play Mario Brawls on the Wii with the family (hers was not actually connected, but she didn't know the difference)!

Dress up like a magical fairy who makes your No-no's disappear (oops)!

I still have pictures to post of Mother's Day weekend with Grandma Bonnie and Memorial Day weekend with Bubbe & Zeyde, so come back soon!

Laura Beth

Back in business

The power came on after about 14 hours - around 5am Thursday. Thankfully, things in the fridge/freezer stayed cool enough we didn't have to pitch anything out. However, we were without our internet/phone/cable combo until this morning and had very limited cell service. The cell towers also appear to be fixed because I now have full reception. I am trying to get caught up on my voicemails and emails, so if I owe you a call or email, please be patient with me! I will try to do a catch-up post soon with pictures. Eliana is eating and drinking pretty well now and I am finally happy with her 'output' as well as her 'input'. She lost about 1 of the 2 pounds she had gained since April, but we will catch her back up quickly.

She is so smart! She keeps doing the sign language for "baby" to me , which means she wants to practice her "Baby Signing Time" DVD with me. I think she remembers that during the chapter on 'eat & drink' that everytime she did the sign for 'cracker' I would give her an animal cracker or teddy graham and therefore she thinks that if she watches the video and does the correct sign she will get a cookie! Poor baby, we did the video, but I skipped over the 'eat & drink' chapter. Mean Mama! Two more weeks of the soft food diet and arm restraints - it feels like an eternity right now.

She is attempting more words, but still dropping consonants. She is a great mimic and gets the pitch/intonation correct. She says "egg", "up" ("eh", "uh"), and continues to improve on sounds for bye-bye, grandma, night night ("mye-mye, mah-maw, ni-ni"). She is making the lip motions for the letter "b", but no sound is coming out yet. A lot of her favorite words start with B, so we are practicing - ball, balloon, banana, bubbles, bucket, bath, Baba (Chinese for Daddy), Ben. Also working on "P" - pop! She also makes the mouth motions for the "el" sound, but she doesn't quite have it yet - we are working on saying Elmo & Eliana. She can say "melmo" for Elmo and she is trying to say "Eliana", but it really isn't recognizable yet - just the tone is correct. I am very happy with her progress!

More later!

Laura Beth

Update in the dark

I am sending this from my cell. We had severe thunderstorms this
afternoon and have been without power for 7.5 hours now, phone line
is dead and haven't been able to place cell calls. Texting & email
appear to be working fro my cell. There is no sign of when power will
be restored at this point. It is a warm & muggy in the house and I
think we may lose all of our food in our fridges & deep freeze. Not
fun!

Sorry to go so long without a blog update! Eliana seems to feel very
good and is her busy little self, despite the arm restraints. Meal
times & night time are very challenging. It is very difficult for her
to sleep comfortably so she wakes fairly often and needs help to get
in a comfortable position. She gets MAD at mealtime and is very
frustrated that she can not feed herself. We are coming up with
creative ways to get liquids and foods in her. The first 24 hours
home I was very worried that she was getting dehydrated. She will
only take one or two liquids from the syringe & tubing. Other liquids
& soup she will take from a regular cup (very messy, but no sippy
spouts, bottles, straws or utensils are allowed in her mouth). Other
soft foods we pop in her mouth with our fingertips. She is doing well
taking eggs, noodles, mac n cheese, jello, yogurt, very ripe
watermelon & banana, guacamole. I am working to keep enough protein &
fat in her so she doesn't lose the weight she has put during the last
2 months. I have pics to post but I will need power first!

-LB (powerless in VA)