Saturday, October 10, 2009

Between two Gotcha Days

A little more than a year ago Melinda joined our family. A little less that three years ago, we were in Taiwan picking up Alex. On either side of those travel anniversaries, they each have birthdays. Alex turned four a week before we celebrated Melinda's '1 year home' adoption day, and Melinda will turn two just two weeks after Alex's '3 years home' adoption day. So from mid-September to mid-November it is one celebration after the next with these two. I can't think of a better way to spend the Autumn!


One Year Ago


Today (believe it or not, that's a smile)


Three years ago

Today


Thursday, March 26, 2009

Writing, finally

One of the things Alex has shown absolutely no interest in - ever - is picking up pen (pencil, marker, crayon, chalk or any other writing implement) and putting it to paper (or any other surface). In fact, from early on he was down right emphatic about not participating in anything remotely related to writing. Finally that is changing! He's taken an interest lately in the big chalkboard easel in the playroom, drawing great sweeping circles around and around. He's always loved circles and it's been fun to see him enjoy creating his own (finally!). Tonight we had an even bigger breakthrough. His very first person:



and his very first attempt to write his name (I've highlighted each letter to help you read it - A in yellow, L in blue, E in green and X in magenta):


I am one proud mama!

Friday, March 13, 2009

wow, where does the time go?

I can't believe it's been so long since my last post. I guess we've been busy! Alex had another eye exam under anesthesia in early February. His condition remains stable - no better and no worse. They determined that he is nearsighted on top of everything else, so he now has glasses, which should help a little 'at places like the zoo', according to the doctor. They are just a hindrance when he's indoors and doing work at the table, so we don't see him wearing them very often. But he sure is cute when he does!

As a gift from my company the four of us spent a week at Club Med Ixtapa Pacific in late February. It was heavenly to be 'in summer' after the long cold December and wet February we've had at home.

Melinda was a pro at lounging. She's now 16 months old and has really come into her own in the last few weeks. Suddenly we're seeing lots of smiles and hearing lots of laughter, after five months of very serious study and observation on her part. She takes learning very seriously. And her work pays off. She's feeding herself with a spoon and fork, and not far from using a knife. She drinks from a cup without spilling (most of the time) and is down to just a bottle or two a day - one of which remains in the middle of the night. She's even used the potty a couple of times in the past week. My little overachiever. We invested in a Learning Station and both Alex and Melinda love being at the counter helping prepare meals. Stirring and pouring are favorite contributions.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Happy Chinese New Year

Wishing you health and prosperity in the year of the Ox!

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Our day in court

Yesterday was our California re-adoption day. Yippee! Regardless of which type of immigrant visa you arrive with (IR4, which means you are a US citizen upon arrival in the US or IR3, which requires a formal court process in the US for citizenship), the state of California requires the formal court process to recognize the foreign adoption. Between Christmas and New Years Melinda and I spent a nightmare-ish 2 hours at the courthouse to file our paperwork and receive our hearing date. I naively thought we were simply going to drop off some forms and did not prepare for a wait. And we went right before lunchtime! 90 minutes of crying later, we finally got to the front of the line to hand our packet of forms to the clerk. 30 minutes after that we were finally out of there. The silver lining is that we received a hearing date for just a few weeks later. And yesterday was our day! Some time in the next 12 months we'll receive a Delayed Registration of Birth (new birth certificate) listing us in the Mother and Father sections and listing her as Melinda Hui-Min. In the meantime, we have our official court order as proof that she is legally ours. The hearing took mere minutes, leaving us alot of our afternoon left. So we sped off, with order in hand, to the Social Security office to apply for her SSN, where we learned there's some 'discrepancy' with her immigration paperwork and they will need to investigate before issuing a SSN. Hmmmm.

Here's an adorable photo taken during our swearing in....I didn't notice at the time that Melinda has also raised her hand for the swearing in. Too cute!


And here we are after the festivities. We had the same judge who performed Alex's readoption hearing.