First grade!

Thankfully, Emily didn't seem nervous at all about her first day of school this morning. I think it helped that when she went to "meet the teacher" last week, she found at least seven kids in her class that she already knew. She was looking forward to eating there and spending the whole in school, but I imagine she might be tired when she gets home this afternoon! It was bittersweet for me, letting go of the apron strings just a little bit more, but I know she's in good hands.

Summer is ending :(

As we transition from summer vacation to back to school, I'm behind on everything, including picture sorting and blogging. Not to mention laundry, grocery shopping, etc., etc. I still hope to get around to posting some cruise pix, but in the mean time here are some recent pix of the girls.

Emily is excited about starting first grade on Monday, but I'm feeling a little sentimental about my baby going off to school ALL day long. She's growing up and I guess I have to let her :)

Sometimes multiple posts in the same day trump each other...so if you missed the earlier entry about our visit to the cardiologist, you can see it here.

Visit to the cardiologist

Olivia had the works with an exam, an EKG, an ultrasound and x-rays. The gist of our visit was that the doctor confirmed that Olivia's 2005 open heart surgery in China was a success :) Aside from her organs being a mirror image of the norm, everything looks good!! He suggested that we come back every year or two to make sure scar tissue from her surgery doesn't present a problem down the road, but he didn't anticipate any issues. He did however, suggest getting her a medical alert bracelet or necklace that states that her organs are reversed (situs inversus)so that she is never misdiagnosed with appendicitis (or anything else) if she has pain on her right side (since her appendix happens to be on her left side!).

The good and bad news is that we now we have medical clearance to go to the dentist. I'm not looking forward to that visit because I can see what appears to be a big cavity (brown spot) in one of her molars. That should be fixable, but not fun.

So, for anyone who's keeping track...her heart looks good, and her thyroid also ended up being fine (despite initial concerns from our pediatrician's first blood test). Another issue flagged by lab tests was anemia which may still be unresolved. After being on iron supplements, her lab results hadn't changed much which leads me to wonder if she has Thalasemia, a type of anemia not uncommon to Asians that is not caused (or cured) by iron. We'll have to keep that on our "watch" list, but I'm not too worried since it was near normal levels and she shows no signs of lethargy.

In spite of a clean bill of heart health, the cardiologist added another issue to our watch list; while looking at her X-rays, he noticed that Olivia has a slight "S" curvature of the spine. It's not evident to me and I'm not sure if it's curved enough (10+ degrees) to be considered scoliosis, but we'll have to keep an eye on it.

So, overall, she's a pretty healthy kid. We just have to take care of her teeth and follow up on anemia and possible scoliosis, none of which appear to be very serious conditions. And, I might add, a whole lot easier than dealing with the open heart surgery we initially expected when requesting a child with congenital heart disease! Although she was an orphan classified as "special needs," she, like many other so-called kids, is actually pretty healthy and doesn't really have any ongoing medical or "special" needs. But she is still special to us!

Sometimes multiple posts in the same day trump each other...so if you missed the other post with photos you can see it here.

My American dream

Today marks our fifteenth wedding anniversary. If I tack on the seven years of dating (age 16-23), we've actually been a couple for 22 years. As I reflect today, it strikes me that we've been blessed with a life that's pretty much as I once dreamed it would be. Of course we didn't anticipate the obstacles we'd encounter in growing our family, but we always knew we wanted kids. And I always knew I wanted to be at home with them. When I stop to think about it, I really am living my American dream with a great husband, two wonderful kids, a nice home, financial stability, and even a cute dog to complete the package. That's worth celebrating :)


I've attached the last two clips of the girls from our cruise. One shows Emily swimming in Bermuda and the other shows both Emily and Olivia hamming it up in an empty theater aboard the cruise ship. Andy was not feeling well and while he was trying to sleep I found an empty space where the girls could run around without getting lost or into too much trouble. You can see they love to sing and dance!

video clips from Bermuda

We had a great time on our cruise and now we're slowly settling back in to "real" life. I have not yet sorted through all the 600+ photos, but since I only had a few video clips, it's easier to post them.

One clip shows Olivia trying to catch a bird in a park in Hamilton, Bermuda and the other shows Emily getting ready to snorkel in her cousins' gear. I have another clip I'll try to post tomorrow of the girls singing and dancing on stage.

We're off!

Today we're hopping on an airplane and tomorrow we'll be on our way to Bermuda!! Andy's parents are celebrating their 50th anniversary and treating the whole family to a cruise!! Not a bad deal, eh? Olivia will get to meet more cousins and test her sea legs and Emily, who knows how much fun cruising can be, can't wait!! Signing out until next week...

I don't think these sunglasses will do much good on the trip though!

more scrapbook pages of my girls :)

Olivia's 15 seconds of fame

An interesting thing happened today in church. In the middle of the sermon, we were surprised to hear the pastor recount an interaction he'd had with Olivia yesterday when we ran into him at a local Chili cook-off! He didn't mention names, and it's a pretty big church so we were all anonymous for her 15 seconds of "fame," but but I felt like standing up and proudly saying "Hey, he's talking about MY kid!!" Speaking of fame here...ummm...he was using her as an example of childlike humility. Guess I need to work on that some more.

Here are a few more recently finished scrapbook pages:

Five months!

Today marks five months since we first met Olivia! On the one hand the time seems to have flown by quickly, but on the other hand, our family seems much more comfortable and established than that short time frame would suggest. She is truly one of our own and we feel blessed to have two wonderful girls.

This week I've been trying to catch on some scrapbooking. I've posted a few of the latest here.

Counting and silliness

This video gives you a glimpse of Olivia's personality :) Check out her silliness as she counts. You'll also notice she's pretty observant and camera savvy!

video clips

This first clip, Tickle Time, is very short and goes with the pix taken on Sunday that were posted here .



The second one gives you a peek at Olivia at play. She is fun to watch with her expressive eyes, pantomiming gestures and vivid imagination. I captured her while she entertained herself with some tasty (pretend) dishes she'd set out for her dining pleasure. Midway through, you'll see her react to a passing truck that she assumes is the garbage truck and somehow that leads her to talk about commands for our dog, Chelsea. I'm not quite sure how that train of thought came about, but it apparently made sense to her! Then, at the end, you'll see us play the "what's your name?" game.

Singing and dancing

Andy captured some of Olivia's singing and dancing (with a little tai chi??). I'm not sure what she was singing, but I think I heard "A, B, C, D" somewhere in her high pitched ballad.

Chinatown Summer Fair

After church on Sunday we headed downtown to Chinatown for their Summer Fair where we all had a good time. I'm not sure if Olivia noticed that there were more people there that looked like her, but one well meaning (Chinese?) young man must have thought Olivia was lost as he asked with concern if she was with us. He seemed to have intentions of finding her "lost" family and was embarrassed when he realized she was already with her family. I suppose we do cause some confusion at times!

Though not particularly Chinese, the girls loved the petting zoo. For more of a cultural experience, we watched some fancy girls on stage dancing with drums, drank out of a coconut and had smoothies with giant, chewy tapioca balls. We also did a little shopping in the street and I was happy to stumble upon shoes for the girls that are made of the same fabric as dresses we got in China.

Daddy's girl

One would never guess that Olivia ever had misgivings about her Daddy! We are so happy that she bonded with ALL of us so quickly and that she continues to be very affectionate :) Both our girls love to cuddle and it'll be a sad day when they decide they're too old for such nonsense.

Recent pix

We enjoyed visiting my former teacher's famous, huge, and beautiful garden in Dixon while we were in town for our 20 year reunion. As we talked, I found out they are expecting a grandchild from China :)

Surprise, surprise! Olivia likes eating s'mores (and wearing them, apparently)! I thought it was funny when she unknowingly called them by name, asking, "Can I have s'more?"

Emily definitely has the gift of hospitality :) She was begging to make a birthday cake for her twin friends next door and was sooo excited tonight when I let her do it. She can hardly wait to give it to them tomorrow!

An egg. Who knew?

I underestimated the power of an egg. Bet you did, too!

Sunday morning Emily woke up on the wrong side of the bed and throughout our morning routine, we were unsuccessful in changing her mood. In a hurry to get off to church, I looked for something quick for breakfast. Trying to limit sugar and offer more protein, Andy suggested I give her one of the hard boiled eggs in the fridge. Running late, I peeled an egg for each girl and put them in sandwich bags for the road.

Once we arrived at church and were climbing out of the van, Emily said, with a little wonderment, "do I feel normal now?" Andy and I were both a little by surprise by that comment since we had both just noticed that during that ten minute drive to church her demeanor had changed dramatically for the better. At the time, we didn't put two and two together, but we were surprised and curious about her sudden change.

Heretofore we've been at a loss to explain or resolve these occasional mysterious Jekyll and Hyde episodes. As I was retelling this latest episode with a friend and wondering what snapped Emily out of it, the unusual breakfast on-the-go came to mind. We joked about the power of an egg (protein), but I had doubts any food could really react that quickly. Just in case we were on to something, I figured it wouldn't hurt to boil up some more. If nothing else, they could be a protein snack.

Fast forward to this morning. Emily woke up in a funk again. Crabby, whiny, irritable. After two hours of fussiness and unfinished chores, I was starting to get annoyed. That's when I remembered Sunday's turn around and brought out the eggs! Truthfully, I didn't expect much (or I would have tried it earlier!), but I was at a loss for what to do with my little basket case and figured I had nothing to lose. To my surprise, within ten minutes, I had my happy go lucky kid again! Just a coincidence? I'm not so sure. Now, I'm almost eager for her to be in one of those moods again just to test this remedy again! If it works a third time, it'll leave no doubt. And I'll be busy boiling more eggs! She was great the rest of the day!

I'd heard others testify about the power of protein, but hadn't yet made the personal connection--until this morning. I was so amazed and did some Googling to make sure I wasn't making too much of a leap. I'm happy to report that I don't think I'm crazy. I actually found quite a few articles that support my finding about the importance of proteins as mood stabilizers. Here's an excerpt from one:

"Brain chemicals, called neurotransmitters, are the frontline regulators of our moods. Some neurotransmitters, such as serotonin and gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA), help calm us... And there’s an important connection between the food you eat and the neurotransmitters your brain produces. ... The protein in eggs quickly stabilizes your blood sugar and provides amino acids for your neurotransmitters."
-entire article here:http://www.foodmoodsolution.com/Food-Mood_from_Experience_Life.pdf

Got eggs?

P.S.
I also came across many related articles that tie diet to ADD. She has not (yet?) been diagnosed as such, but we've long seen difficulties with focus and distractibility. I'd heard all about the diets/supplements before, but was skeptical it'd make much difference for all the effort involved. However, now I'm beginning to wonder. If an egg can cause such a dramatic change, I can't help but think of other possibilities. It's both daunting (to try to unravel) and exciting! And all the more reason to be hopeful :)

Happy July 4th

After a July 4th cookout with the cousins, the girls were excited to get to canoe on our neighborhood lake. Thanks, Uncle Ed and Aunt Laurie :)

Reunion, reunion, reunion!

Tis the season for reunions! A few days after returning from my family gathering in New England, we packed up again for a bigger family reunion, my mom's siblings on down. Now that we're back home again, we'll have a few more days and it'll be time to pack up AGAIN this time for our 20 year high school reunion in Dixon. Although we've enjoyed ourselves, I'm kind of looking forward to some down time where we're not living out of a suit case :) Three separate trips in three weeks is about all I can handle!