Well, I spent 3.5 days in Shanghai on a quest for a suitable furnished apartment that we can live with for three years. It was not an easy task. As you may remember, John and I made separate scouting trips back in November, and based on what we had been shown then, thought we had found the right compound for us.
So for this trip, our realtor basically picked out several apartments in that compound for me to choose from. Problem was, none of them even resembled the cool, hip, stylish ones we had seen there before, which it turns out, were owned, managed, designed, and decorated by a major property investor. The apartments I was shown this time around were landlord-owned and much cheaper, and not nearly as nice.
But I asked about another compound that I had heard about, and even though the agents kept saying it wasn't as child-friendly, decided to take a look, out of curiosity and desperation. Turns out these places were much bigger, brighter, newer, and nicer overall. And I didn't think the compound was child-unfriendly at all. It has an indoor and outdoor pool, a wave pool and a sandy beach, an indoor playroom and an outdoor playground, and lots of green areas to stroll around.
So the very last apartment I saw, right before I had to leave Shanghai, was the one I liked the best. The big question is what the furniture actually looks like, since the current tenant had taken the place unfurnished and was a major collector of Chinese antiques and had the place packed to the rafters with furniture. If we get it, we'll have to agree on the place without actually seeing the condition of the furniture, but they did show us pictures of the furniture and it looks fine. I liked the space itself. It was bright and had great river views, and it had beautiful bathrooms and floors, and a nice kitchen. So we're putting in a bid on that one and really hope we get it. Fingers crossed. If not, we're going to have to start from square one when we arrive in Shanghai next month.
Back at home, John and his mom, who we flew back in for the week so John could continue planning our relocation, kept Leah busy. According to their reports, even though they all had a great time, Leah really missed me. And I certainly missed her. When they picked me up at the airport, it was so cute seeing Leah running towards me as soon as she saw me. And ever since I've been back home, Leah has turned into a velcro-baby, who won't let me put her down and do anything.
I got back in time to go to Leah's last class at the Little Gym. I didn't want to miss that. She's so good at everything these days, that people are calling her a little gymnast. We're definitely planning on finding gymnastic and dance classes for her in Shanghai.
Oh, and Leah now has a passport! The day before I left, we made a trip to the passport office and applied for it in person. We had it expedited, and received it just a few days later. Her social security number is also on its way soon, and we'll also apply for her Certificate of Citizenship this week. So things are starting to come together.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Jumpin' Jin-Ri
In the past few days, Leah has started hopping and jumping. I think her jumping butt-plops were the preparation for this. These have also gotten a lot better since that one video over the holidays, and in addition to the ottoman, she now tries it on the floor (carpeted, thank goodness), in the bathtub and made a big splash! (fortunately with a cushioned bath mat), and on the beds. She really throws her legs out from under her and plops down.
But nowadays, she is really starting to jump. And whenever we even say the word "jump", she'll do it. You can see how proud she is of herself! And we are too.
But nowadays, she is really starting to jump. And whenever we even say the word "jump", she'll do it. You can see how proud she is of herself! And we are too.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Birth Certificates
We were very happy to receive Leah's birth certificates in the mail yesterday, so we can finally apply for her passport. It only took a month and a half, instead of the 3-4 months that we were originally told.
We're hoping her passport doesn't take too long, since the timing of our move is dependent on when she will be able to travel out of the country.
We're hoping her passport doesn't take too long, since the timing of our move is dependent on when she will be able to travel out of the country.
Monday, January 11, 2010
18-month check-up
Leah had her 18-month check-up today at the Cleveland Clinic and did great as usual. She's a very healthy and happy little girl and the doctor has no concerns about her. She is still right at the 50th percentile for height, weight and head circumference, which is great since when she first came home, she was between the 10th and 25th percentile for everything. She had to get two shots and hardly cried at all. We're so proud of her!
Here she is in her little hospital gown. How cute is that?
We let our pediatrician know about our move to Shanghai, and she's going to get us in touch with a pediatrician/colleague of hers who is the CEO of an expat hospital in Shanghai, in the event we need help. But Leah doesn't need anything more until she turns 2 years in July, and we'll probably be back home around then for a visit so we can go back to our regular pediatrician.
Here she is in her little hospital gown. How cute is that?
We let our pediatrician know about our move to Shanghai, and she's going to get us in touch with a pediatrician/colleague of hers who is the CEO of an expat hospital in Shanghai, in the event we need help. But Leah doesn't need anything more until she turns 2 years in July, and we'll probably be back home around then for a visit so we can go back to our regular pediatrician.
Role Swap, part 2
A week from today, I'll be back in Shanghai on a mission to find our home for the next three years, while John stays home with Leah and plays Mr. Mom. Hopefully, he'll remember how to change diapers since he hasn't had any practice since November, when we did our first role swap.
We have pretty much decided on getting an apartment instead of a house, and there is one compound we both saw that we think might work for us. It seemed to be very family-friendly and had a very active and busy outdoor playground, with a pre-school on-site. Plus, there was lots of open space to roam.
In addition to househunting, I'm going to take a closer look at what's available there in terms of English language books, clothes, toys, groceries, toiletries, etc., so we can decide what we need to bring and what we can leave behind.
I'm not really looking forward to the long travel days and the jet lag, but I have a feeling I'll become a pro at it after three years of going back and forth.
We have pretty much decided on getting an apartment instead of a house, and there is one compound we both saw that we think might work for us. It seemed to be very family-friendly and had a very active and busy outdoor playground, with a pre-school on-site. Plus, there was lots of open space to roam.
In addition to househunting, I'm going to take a closer look at what's available there in terms of English language books, clothes, toys, groceries, toiletries, etc., so we can decide what we need to bring and what we can leave behind.
I'm not really looking forward to the long travel days and the jet lag, but I have a feeling I'll become a pro at it after three years of going back and forth.
Friday, January 8, 2010
18 months old today
We can't believe Leah is 18 months old already! It's so amazing to watch her grow and change day-by-day. Cognitively, she can understand so much and can communicate so well these days. It won't be too much longer before she starts putting words together.
She was supposed to have her 18-month check-up today, but we had a snow day here and the appointment was rescheduled for Monday. Lucky for her, since she's due for some more shots, including her second H1N1 shot. Turned out we didn't get that much snow after all, so while we were out running errands, we ended up going downtown to the Korean restaurant for some delicious food. Leah loves Korean food and pigs out whenever we go there. We can't believe how much she can eat. We've become regulars there and will really miss the great food and the nice people there, and that will definitely be one of our stops during our home visits.
Over the holidays, we finally switched her car seat to forward-facing. Even though you can do this at 12 months or 20 lbs., we wanted to keep her backward-facing for as long as possible for safety reasons. But she is starting to get taller and heavier and it was becoming hard for me to get her into the car seat, plus, her feet were touching the seat back, so we decided it was time. The only bad thing is that I can't reach over the seat and hand her things anymore. Now I have to throw them, but she thinks that's pretty funny, too.
Here are some of the cute, funny, and smart things Leah has been up to lately....this is a long one.
Touchdown! Since John is a huge NY Giants fan, we've spent a lot of Sundays this season watching football together (at least until the Giants were out of the running). Leah loves hanging out with us in front of the tv and sharing snacks. We taught her how to say "touchdown" and now when she sees football on tv, even a short tv commercial or something, she raises her arms up over her head and shouts "tah dah!".
Mom-Mom. Ever since the holidays, Leah has started calling me "mom-mom". She had already been calling me "mama" before this, but just not that often. And she would say "Hi da da" to both of us. Now, I'm finally getting my turn. She loves repeating "mom-mom" or "mama" over and over again and will call out for me when she doesn't see me. If I'm upstairs or something, I'll hear her shouting "mom-mom!".
New animal sounds. She already knew duck, dog, cat, sheep, cow, etc......and now we can add horse, frog and monkey to that list.
Name that ornament. One of her favorite activities right now is to drag us over to the Christmas tree (yes, we're planning on dragging it out of here this weekend), and have us quiz her on all the ornament names. She is such a quick learner and has a great memory, so after quickly naming everything for her, she can identify and point to all the ornaments by name. In fact, she can't get enough of it and she probably won't let the tree go without a fight!
Knock Knock. I've had the show "House Hunters" on the past few days. During the intro to the show there's a doorbell sound. Whenever Leah hears that, she says "nah nah", she made that association on her own. If she can't get a door open, she knocks on it and says "nah nah". It's really cute. She loves saying knock knock, and we always hear her saying that in the car while reaching towards the door and trying to knock on it.
Hugs and kisses. Leah is so incredibly affectionate. She spontaneously, without any prompting, gives hugs and kisses all the time. When we say "I love you" she has to give us a kiss and a hug. She often comes up from behind and just hugs us. When we're out in stores or in restaurants, she often reaches for us and pulls us over to hug our arms, and won't let go. We call it, "Leah's having a moment". It can get a little embarrassing even! But hey, I'm not complaning.
Leading us around. She still loves to grab us by our fingers and drag us around. She'll lead us over to the Christmas tree and make us lift her up, or she'll lead us to her kitchen and pull us down to sit and play, or push us up from sitting, etc. She definitely lets us know what she wants and is very strong and persuasive!
Bye! Leah loves to say "Hi" and "Bye" and wave. She says it all the time, to people in stores, to us as we are walking away from her or going to another room, in the car, or on the phone when she's making pretend phone calls. These days, with her pretend phone calls, she's actually making calls instead of just receiving them. She presses the buttons and says "beep beep beep" for dialing the phone, and then a bunch of babble, and then "Bye!".
"Hi Beppe". After over two weeks with Beppe, Leah definitely now knows who Beppe is, something which we will help to reinforce with pictures since she won't be seeing Beppe often. Towards the end of the holidays, she was starting to say "Hi Beppe".
"Drink your milk". At meals, I just have to say "drink your milk", and she'll take a sip (if she's in a cooperative mood, that is).
Tick Tock. Leah got a little clock for Christmas and I taught her that the clock says "tick tock" and showed her by putting it up to her ear. She found a clock in one of her picture books and ran over and got her clock and put it to her ear and tries to say "tick tock". Too cute.
Play kitchen. She loves playing in her new kitchen. It's her hangout, and the first thing she goes to every morning. We get a kick out of watching her stirring something and then tasting it. Today, she was pointing to the cookies in the display case and saying "ka ka" (cracker, we sometimes just call cookies crackers) and then she ran and got a little goldfish cracker and put it next to it. She also started using the price scanner as a telephone and made a bunch of phone calls today. It was hilarious. I took a video of it and will post it soon.
Hot Hot Hot. When her food is still a little hot, I've always said "hot hot hot" and blown on it. She knows what this means and will do the same. If something is a little hot, she'll say "hot hot" and blow on it.
Hup. When she wants to be picked up, she'll say "hup" or "up" and hold her arms out.
Ah-choo. Leah thinks sneezing is pretty funny. I was sneezing the other day, and then doing it in an exaggerated way, and now she knows the word sneeze and will say "ah choo".
There it is/There you are. She doesn't really enunciate, of course, but she uses the correct intonation and uses it appropriately when she sees something or when she sees us.
Potty update. I haven't pushed this at all lately. But she still climbs out of the bathtub quite often and pees in the potty. And at other times, she will just sit on it with her diaper, and when I check her diaper it is warm, so she does pee. It's funny, because even if she has her diaper on, she will check the potty to see if there's anything in it.
Stomp Stomp In one of her Kindermusik books, there's an elephant stomping. So whenever she sees an elephant, she will say "top top" and stomp her feet. The other day, she was in the closet pointing to something and stomping and saying "top top". When I looked to see what she was pointing to, it was one of John's ties (that he never wears) that has elephants on it. She loves this Kindermusik book and can do all the motions for each animal. She especially loves the page with the ladybug who can "stop and make no sound". I mentioned this already before, but she just loves doing this. She says "top", and makes the hand motion for stop and then the Shhh motion. She does this spontaneously all the time.
Other new words she says by herself are "baby", when she sees a baby, "good girl" since I say this to her a lot, "all done" and she says this with the tune and the hand motions we learned in Kindermusik, "cracker". I'm sure there are more, but this is all I can think of right now. She can repeat just about any word I throw at her. She understands so much and can follow instructions really well. She's a really fast learner and picks things up really quickly. This is such an amazing stage!
She was supposed to have her 18-month check-up today, but we had a snow day here and the appointment was rescheduled for Monday. Lucky for her, since she's due for some more shots, including her second H1N1 shot. Turned out we didn't get that much snow after all, so while we were out running errands, we ended up going downtown to the Korean restaurant for some delicious food. Leah loves Korean food and pigs out whenever we go there. We can't believe how much she can eat. We've become regulars there and will really miss the great food and the nice people there, and that will definitely be one of our stops during our home visits.
Over the holidays, we finally switched her car seat to forward-facing. Even though you can do this at 12 months or 20 lbs., we wanted to keep her backward-facing for as long as possible for safety reasons. But she is starting to get taller and heavier and it was becoming hard for me to get her into the car seat, plus, her feet were touching the seat back, so we decided it was time. The only bad thing is that I can't reach over the seat and hand her things anymore. Now I have to throw them, but she thinks that's pretty funny, too.
Here are some of the cute, funny, and smart things Leah has been up to lately....this is a long one.
Touchdown! Since John is a huge NY Giants fan, we've spent a lot of Sundays this season watching football together (at least until the Giants were out of the running). Leah loves hanging out with us in front of the tv and sharing snacks. We taught her how to say "touchdown" and now when she sees football on tv, even a short tv commercial or something, she raises her arms up over her head and shouts "tah dah!".
Mom-Mom. Ever since the holidays, Leah has started calling me "mom-mom". She had already been calling me "mama" before this, but just not that often. And she would say "Hi da da" to both of us. Now, I'm finally getting my turn. She loves repeating "mom-mom" or "mama" over and over again and will call out for me when she doesn't see me. If I'm upstairs or something, I'll hear her shouting "mom-mom!".
New animal sounds. She already knew duck, dog, cat, sheep, cow, etc......and now we can add horse, frog and monkey to that list.
Name that ornament. One of her favorite activities right now is to drag us over to the Christmas tree (yes, we're planning on dragging it out of here this weekend), and have us quiz her on all the ornament names. She is such a quick learner and has a great memory, so after quickly naming everything for her, she can identify and point to all the ornaments by name. In fact, she can't get enough of it and she probably won't let the tree go without a fight!
Knock Knock. I've had the show "House Hunters" on the past few days. During the intro to the show there's a doorbell sound. Whenever Leah hears that, she says "nah nah", she made that association on her own. If she can't get a door open, she knocks on it and says "nah nah". It's really cute. She loves saying knock knock, and we always hear her saying that in the car while reaching towards the door and trying to knock on it.
Hugs and kisses. Leah is so incredibly affectionate. She spontaneously, without any prompting, gives hugs and kisses all the time. When we say "I love you" she has to give us a kiss and a hug. She often comes up from behind and just hugs us. When we're out in stores or in restaurants, she often reaches for us and pulls us over to hug our arms, and won't let go. We call it, "Leah's having a moment". It can get a little embarrassing even! But hey, I'm not complaning.
Leading us around. She still loves to grab us by our fingers and drag us around. She'll lead us over to the Christmas tree and make us lift her up, or she'll lead us to her kitchen and pull us down to sit and play, or push us up from sitting, etc. She definitely lets us know what she wants and is very strong and persuasive!
Bye! Leah loves to say "Hi" and "Bye" and wave. She says it all the time, to people in stores, to us as we are walking away from her or going to another room, in the car, or on the phone when she's making pretend phone calls. These days, with her pretend phone calls, she's actually making calls instead of just receiving them. She presses the buttons and says "beep beep beep" for dialing the phone, and then a bunch of babble, and then "Bye!".
"Hi Beppe". After over two weeks with Beppe, Leah definitely now knows who Beppe is, something which we will help to reinforce with pictures since she won't be seeing Beppe often. Towards the end of the holidays, she was starting to say "Hi Beppe".
"Drink your milk". At meals, I just have to say "drink your milk", and she'll take a sip (if she's in a cooperative mood, that is).
Tick Tock. Leah got a little clock for Christmas and I taught her that the clock says "tick tock" and showed her by putting it up to her ear. She found a clock in one of her picture books and ran over and got her clock and put it to her ear and tries to say "tick tock". Too cute.
Play kitchen. She loves playing in her new kitchen. It's her hangout, and the first thing she goes to every morning. We get a kick out of watching her stirring something and then tasting it. Today, she was pointing to the cookies in the display case and saying "ka ka" (cracker, we sometimes just call cookies crackers) and then she ran and got a little goldfish cracker and put it next to it. She also started using the price scanner as a telephone and made a bunch of phone calls today. It was hilarious. I took a video of it and will post it soon.
Hot Hot Hot. When her food is still a little hot, I've always said "hot hot hot" and blown on it. She knows what this means and will do the same. If something is a little hot, she'll say "hot hot" and blow on it.
Hup. When she wants to be picked up, she'll say "hup" or "up" and hold her arms out.
Ah-choo. Leah thinks sneezing is pretty funny. I was sneezing the other day, and then doing it in an exaggerated way, and now she knows the word sneeze and will say "ah choo".
There it is/There you are. She doesn't really enunciate, of course, but she uses the correct intonation and uses it appropriately when she sees something or when she sees us.
Potty update. I haven't pushed this at all lately. But she still climbs out of the bathtub quite often and pees in the potty. And at other times, she will just sit on it with her diaper, and when I check her diaper it is warm, so she does pee. It's funny, because even if she has her diaper on, she will check the potty to see if there's anything in it.
Stomp Stomp In one of her Kindermusik books, there's an elephant stomping. So whenever she sees an elephant, she will say "top top" and stomp her feet. The other day, she was in the closet pointing to something and stomping and saying "top top". When I looked to see what she was pointing to, it was one of John's ties (that he never wears) that has elephants on it. She loves this Kindermusik book and can do all the motions for each animal. She especially loves the page with the ladybug who can "stop and make no sound". I mentioned this already before, but she just loves doing this. She says "top", and makes the hand motion for stop and then the Shhh motion. She does this spontaneously all the time.
Other new words she says by herself are "baby", when she sees a baby, "good girl" since I say this to her a lot, "all done" and she says this with the tune and the hand motions we learned in Kindermusik, "cracker". I'm sure there are more, but this is all I can think of right now. She can repeat just about any word I throw at her. She understands so much and can follow instructions really well. She's a really fast learner and picks things up really quickly. This is such an amazing stage!
Monday, January 4, 2010
A new year, a new journey
After a wonderful visit, Beppe left today in the middle of a major snowstorm. I bet she'll be glad to get back to balmy Louisiana. Wish she could take us with her!
Anyway, now that Leah's adoption is finalized and the holidays are officially over, our eyes turn toward our next big adventure. I might as well re-title this blog to "Our Journey to Shanghai with Jin-Ri". Yes, we have indeed decided to make the big move to Shanghai for 3 years as expats! While I have mixed feelings about making yet another international move, I am at peace with our decision and will try to make the best of it. It will be exciting to be part of all the progress and change that's happening in China.
We will spend this month working out the details of our move. An international relocation is a major undertaking, as we know from our previous moves abroad, and there is a ton of planning and preparation involved, so this will be a really busy month.
For the moment, the timing is a little bit up in the air since we still have a few loose ends to tie up regarding Leah's paperwork. We are still waiting for Leah's new birth certificate, and once we have that, we can apply for her passport, social security number and certificate of citizenship (COC).
So, I'll keep you posted on our progress, and in the meantime, will continue to bring you Leah's updates as usual.
Anyway, now that Leah's adoption is finalized and the holidays are officially over, our eyes turn toward our next big adventure. I might as well re-title this blog to "Our Journey to Shanghai with Jin-Ri". Yes, we have indeed decided to make the big move to Shanghai for 3 years as expats! While I have mixed feelings about making yet another international move, I am at peace with our decision and will try to make the best of it. It will be exciting to be part of all the progress and change that's happening in China.
We will spend this month working out the details of our move. An international relocation is a major undertaking, as we know from our previous moves abroad, and there is a ton of planning and preparation involved, so this will be a really busy month.
For the moment, the timing is a little bit up in the air since we still have a few loose ends to tie up regarding Leah's paperwork. We are still waiting for Leah's new birth certificate, and once we have that, we can apply for her passport, social security number and certificate of citizenship (COC).
So, I'll keep you posted on our progress, and in the meantime, will continue to bring you Leah's updates as usual.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Moved by the Music
Leah got so excited when John let her in his music room and started playing a trumpet cd that she just had to get up and dance. This went on for at least half an hour. She even dragged Beppe up on the dance floor! There's no doubt we're signing her up for dance classes as soon as we can.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Our First Christmas
We had a nice, relaxing Christmas here. It was a lot of fun watching Leah open her gifts and get excited about each one. It took just about all day for her to get around to opening everything since there were so many play breaks. After the major haul she received, she now definitely knows the word "present" and when we say the word, or when she sees a picture of a wrapped present, she points to underneath the Christmas tree!
Her little play kitchen (which took John and Beppe 4 hours to put together!) was a major hit and she has been having so much fun with it. It's so cute watching her busily stirring in the pots and pans, turning on the stove burners, shaking salt and pepper into the pots, asking what the play food is and then pretending to eat it, washing her hands in the sink, putting things in the microwave and fridge, and bringing us plates of food. She also loves playing with the cash register and credit card machine, and scanning the food and putting it into her shopping bag or shopping cart. Speaking of which, she just loves pushing around her new shopping cart around and filling it with just about everything and everyone (all her dolls and stuffed animals).
She drags us very forcefully by our fingers over to her kitchen and pulls us down onto the floor so we will sit and play with her. And once we're there, we ain't goin' anywhere! Luckily, there are three of us here so we can each take our shift sitting with her on the kitchen floor!
The other "big" things she really loves are her new little vacuum and her new play tent, but she basically loves all her new stuff and it's definitely going to keep her very busy for a long while.
Oh, and she also loves her new, soft teddy bear that her foster family sent and now sleeps with it and gives it lots of hugs and kisses!
I'll put up some pics later, but you can see what we've been up to in the slideshow....
Her little play kitchen (which took John and Beppe 4 hours to put together!) was a major hit and she has been having so much fun with it. It's so cute watching her busily stirring in the pots and pans, turning on the stove burners, shaking salt and pepper into the pots, asking what the play food is and then pretending to eat it, washing her hands in the sink, putting things in the microwave and fridge, and bringing us plates of food. She also loves playing with the cash register and credit card machine, and scanning the food and putting it into her shopping bag or shopping cart. Speaking of which, she just loves pushing around her new shopping cart around and filling it with just about everything and everyone (all her dolls and stuffed animals).
She drags us very forcefully by our fingers over to her kitchen and pulls us down onto the floor so we will sit and play with her. And once we're there, we ain't goin' anywhere! Luckily, there are three of us here so we can each take our shift sitting with her on the kitchen floor!
The other "big" things she really loves are her new little vacuum and her new play tent, but she basically loves all her new stuff and it's definitely going to keep her very busy for a long while.
Oh, and she also loves her new, soft teddy bear that her foster family sent and now sleeps with it and gives it lots of hugs and kisses!
I'll put up some pics later, but you can see what we've been up to in the slideshow....
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