Kai was a monkey for Halloween this year. I wanted to modify this costume to make it into The Monkey King, but I didn't get a round tuit, so he was just a monkey. We invited ourselves over to our friends Heidi and Kim's so Kai could see his good buddy Mimi. Mimi was dressed as a beautiful ballerina and the two of them trick-or-treated a few houses together.

Our big treat this Halloween was getting to complete Kai's "re-adoption". That's right, we adopted him again! This wasn't "necessary" as our adoption in China is fully recognized here in the U.S. but there were a number of good reasons for us to take this extra step. Kai's name on all of our documents in China was recorded as his Chinese name, so his citizenship papers and Social Security Card show his name as Hui Dang, this let us officially change his name. It also let us get him a Washington State birth certificate with his new name. Another pressure we felt was due to the fact we had lost our original Chinese Adoption Decree while we were in Guangzhou!

The process was pretty easy once we got the documents assembled. We were lucky to get copies of these we could modify ourselves without having to hire a lawyer. The court staff was helpful and the judge was very friendly. Our "hearing" was a brief meeting in his chambers where he swore us in and then signed a couple documents with us. He had special pens with his name on them for signing documents and gave Kai the one we used.

Kai has been working hard on saying his new last name: "Ocheltree".

One of the reasons I had originally decided to stop updating Kai's blog was that we had come through a full year together and had completed a good number of "firsts". I didn't want to start posting a bunch of reruns, but this is actually a pretty interesting way to see how Kai has changed over the last year.

Last year we visited two farms with Kai, the first was "The Apple Farm" with the preschool class. This was one of our very first outings with Kai last year, we had only been home a few days with him. HERE'S A LINK to last year's entry on our Apple Farm Visit. And here are photos from this year's visit...

The other farm we like visiting in the fall is Stoney Ridge Farm. The apple farm Tina's preschool visits is a tiny little family farm. Stoney Ridge isn't a real big farm, but it focuses on tourism, it has much more of a carnival atmosphere. It's a great place to get a pumpkin and have a slice of apple pie with ice cream.
Again, HERE'S THE LINK to last year's visit. And here are photos from this year...

In Which Kai celebrates his Family Day, and We Say Goodbye.

A year ago on September 18, the five of us were in China. Tina, Cam, Ben and I started the day waking up all together in a small hotel room in Beijing; the four of us anxious and excited for what lay ahead. I assume Kai started his day waking up for the last time in his crib at the S.W.I. with all his roommates. We wonder how much he had been prepared for our arrival. We had sent a gift package to his S.W.I. that included photos of us, a disposable camera, and a questionnaire in Chinese about Kai. His nannies had used the camera for us and answered our questions, but we don’t know what became of the rest of the package. Had he seen the pictures of us? Had they told him about our impending arrival? He seemed very apprehensive upon our first meeting and was understandably hesitant to interact. He clung to his nanny and balked at letting Tina hold him. I had a little Hot Wheels car with me (a green BMW convertible) I rolled it to him across the floor. He stared at it as it rolled into his foot, but he wouldn’t smile or pick it up. This little car is now kept in a special box on top of the piano. Kai plays with it sometimes, but it stays separate from the large basket of “working” cars he inherited from his older brothers. The other night I took the little green bimmer from its box and rolled it across the floor to Kai. It bumped into his toes just like that day in Baoding, this time Kai laughed and rolled it back to me. We rolled it back and forth a few times like we often do with cars; Kai didn’t seem to think anything special of the moment, but it was quite poignant for me.

Kai has been with us for one year! Sometimes it seems like he has been with us forever, other times I can’t believe it’s been a whole year since we went to China to get him. It’s difficult to see a child's growth when you're with them everyday, it’s such a gradual process day by day, but over a year it adds up dramatically. Kai has grown three and half inches in height and gained nearly ten pounds. Even more impressive than his physical growth are the gains he has made in language and other cognitive areas, he is an amazing little boy! He is much more active and physically coordinated than when we received him. He has developed a very powerful imagination and loves make-believe. He enjoys playing with his Brio trains, he likes coloring, and cutting paper with scissors. He likes listening to stories and will listen to whole chapters of the original Winnie-the-Pooh and Beatrix Potter stories. He takes long walks with me and is learning new words every day.

So how did we mark our special day? We had our 12-month post placement interview with our social worker. JoAnn Vesper! This was actually quite nice, as it made us sit down and really focus on how the last year has gone for Kai. Tina had made a cake. It was round and white so we called it a "Moon Cake". This was to signify that the day we received Kai in China last year was on the Moon Festival. (This year Moon Festival will be on October 6th). Kai didn't want to eat any but he enjoyed blowing out the candle about a dozen times and he shared his piece with Stinky Mouse.

One other tradition we started was an idea we borrowed from another family. We dressed Kai in the clothes he came to us in and took a picture to see how he had grown.



In his hands Kai is holding a little toy his nanny gave to him, we keep this with the outfit he wore. He's not wearing the shoes as his feet will no longer fit into them...


Here is a video montage I put together celebrating our first year with Kai.



And now, as I said at the beginning of this post, we come to a close. I was first inspired to start this blog when I discovered the blogs of other families adopting from China nearly two years ago. It seemed like a good way to let family and friends know about our progress as we made our way through the pre-adoption paperwork, and to stay in touch while we traveled in China to unite with Kai. I didn’t really think about what would happen with the blog after we returned; it had become a fun habit and I enjoyed documenting our life with Kai, so I continued journaling his first year with us. Now that year has come to a close, and so too does this blog. I want to thank everyone who had read our story and sent us such wonderful email messages and comments; your encouragement has been very much appreciated. The content of this blog and all email messages and comments it has generated will become a part of Kai's Life Book. Again, thank you for reading along.

Just north of Bellingham, almost right on the Canadian border, is a pretty little town called Lynden. Every August Lynden hosts the Northwest Washington Fair.

Going to the fair is a tradition in our family. Ben's birthday is almost always during "fair week". In fact Tina and I went to the fair with her parents 16 years ago the night before Ben was born!
We used to love taking our big boys to see all the animals and exhibits when they were little, but as they grew up they would leave us behind to spend their time on the midway and the carnival rides. This year was a bit of a flashback for Tina and me as we once again had a little guy in overalls to visit all the animals with! Here's a little slideshow of Kai's first visit to the fair...

We have two cars, a 94 Caravan and a 99 Beetle. Kai's car-seat stays in the Caravan. This is the only one of our cars he has ridden in. The Bug is my little commuter. And I do mean "little"; I live less than 3 miles from work. Kai loves the Bug. Since I'm the one who mainly drives it he calls it "Baba's Car".

Last week I took the Caravan in for service on Friday, so we moved the car-seat into the Bug and Tina had it for the day. It had gotten pretty dirty so I washed it the night before and invited Kai to help me. Washing things is one of his very favorite activities so this was pure heaven for him. We have kept the car-seat in the Bug for now and have traded cars for a bit. Kai is quite pleased about this and talks about Baba's car a lot. He is VERY pleased to be getting to ride in it finally.

Pretty well lately.


Kai has been in his own bedroom for couple months now. When we came home from China we had his crib in our room. At first we left some space between it and our bed, but found that Kai woke most nights and needed some comforting to go back to sleep. So we pushed the crib right up against Tina’s side of the bed and lowered the side. This made a little “half-wall” between us and him, and was a nice compromise to co-sleeping with him. He could crawl in with us when he wanted, and we could put him back in the crib when we tired of fighting him over the blankets.

When we first came home with him we tried to rock him to sleep, or cuddle and sing to him in our bed tell he dozed off before putting him in the crib. He began fighting this though, and we found he did better if we put him in his crib awake and let him go to sleep on his own (like he would have at the S.W.I.). In time his typical bedtime routine evolved into joining me on the big bed for stories, then we’d turn off the light and he would climb into his crib. Then I would sing a few lullabies before saying goodnight. I would leave the bedroom door open so he could hear us out in the living room, and he would go to sleep on his own. When we came back in later to go to bed ourselves, we could have the lights on low and talk, brush our teeth, etc. and it never bothered him.

After a while his night wakings diminished. He would sleep through till early morning, then crawl in with us to cuddle a while before getting up. Once this pattern seemed established we decided to try moving him into his own room. The room we have for him is right off the living room by the front door and has a twin bed in it. We initially tried putting him in the twin. It’s against the wall and we got a side-rail to put on it. We left the crib in our room just in case. The first night was a bit too hard on us though. He went right to sleep like normal, but when it was time for us to turn in I couldn’t take it. What if he wakes up and worries that we aren’t there? I caved, and scooped him out of the bed and carried him down the hall to the crib in our room. The next morning I had to go to work early and left before he woke up. When he did wake he was confused to find himself back in our room. He was actually bummed about it. So Tina moved the crib out and put it next to the twin bed in his room. He’s been in there ever since. He still wakes up some nights, usually around 4:00 AM, and will come down the hall to our room. When he does we bring him into bed with us and he goes back to sleep. But more and more now he’s sleeping through in his own room. We plan on transitioning him to the twin eventually, but he loves his cozy crib, and he likes having his own room too.

Where's Hui-Hui?

That's what we say when we play peek-a-boo. When our older two boys were little and played this game we would say "BOO!" when they uncovered their faces, but "bu" in Mandarin means "No!" So we don't shout "Boo!" at Kai, we say "Peek!" instead.

Okay, so where has he been lately? He's here at home having a great time.

Summer isn't the best time for blogging for me. The company I work for has a very seasonal work-flow. Summer is our production season and this has been a rough one for I.T. systems. This equals me being busy with work stuff at all kinds of weird hours - I'll be going in tonight at 1:00 A.M. to do some stuff during a narrow window of downtime. Between work and summer family schedule I just haven't made time for keeping up the blog. For those of you checking in regularly (are any of you left?) I apologize.

But believe me Kai has been very busy around here...

Tina writes...

"Home"

This has become Kai's favorite word. He says it often, and gets very excited when we are out and hit the familiar main road that leads to our street. He says it gleefully after getting into the car when we have been somewhere. He says it first thing in the morning when inventorying our family, "Cam?" "He's at school." He says, "Ben?" "He's at school too." He says, "Baba?" (if Scott has left) "Baba's at work," I say. Then he will say very happily, "Kai HOME!"

It has been incredible to watch him make sense of this new world we have put him in. To become familiar with the people, places and routines of his new life. And this recent constant declaration of "home" seemed to be much more than just a comment about his
physical location. He seemed to be feeling something very deep and something most of us experience as infants, too young to verbalize or even think about consciously. So I decided
to look up the word "home" and see what Webster thought about all the meanings of this word, and I think I found the one Kai is describing;
"-adv. 3. to the center or heart of a matter; closely; directly; deeply."

Ah. There's no place like home!

On Wednesdays Kai has his friend Mimi spend the day with him. They have been having a great time together, and Tina has been having fun taking pictures of the two of them together. I have been playing with the latest version of iMovie and put together this little video. I'm hosting it on videoegg.com. They're new, and currently don't have any ads on their site. I really like their interface; easy to use and they support Windows and Macs. The song is a White Stripes song, but is the Jack Johnson version from the soundtrack to Curious George (highly recommended!)

Oh, it's a jolly holiday with Mimi.
Mimi makes your heart so light!
When the day is gray and ordinary,
Mimi makes the sun shine bright!
Oh, happiness is blooming all around her.
The daffodils are smiling at the dove.
When Mimi holds your hand you feel so grand,
Your heart starts beating like a big brass band.
It's a jolly holiday with Mimi,
No wonder that it's Mimi that we love!

Now that Stinky Mouse has his own site we can return the focus of this blog back to its primary subject: Hui-Hui!
Life has been good here at Hui-Hui's world. He is developing like any 3 year old seems to, with fits and starts. Some days we are amazed at how far he has come. Other days we marvel at his determination to dominate us into submission. here's a few pictures of some of what he's been up to:

First, this one was amazing, He was doing the cutest thing, but I've got one of those really cheap digital cameras that has a glacial delay between pressing the button and the picture being taken, during which he wandered off so use your imagination...

Okay, caught him this time. He's got the side rail from the toddler bed we thought we might need before he came home. We still may someday, who knows? In the meantime Kai has been putting it to use as a ladder.







And now just so you don't think we are totally negligent when it comes to Hui-Hui's safety, here's some pictures of him out on his new bike. See, he's wearing a helmet! Of course it's so big it may be obstructing his vision. If he wipes out though, we'll have it on film!






Oh yeah, Stinky Mouse got an update too, so click HERE

We have been home for five months as of today. I've tried to blog updates on our monthly anniversaries but have missed a few. Today seemed like a big day in lots of little ways, so I'm glad I remembered to write.

One of the parents at pre-school asked me a funny question a couple weeks ago. She asked, "So is it what you expected?"
I know it doesn't seem like a funny question, but it made me stop and realize, I really didn't know what to expect before we got him. I think I was actually afraid to expect anything. Of course I had fantasies about reliving all the fun toddler stuff we did with Cam and Ben, but I consciously prevented myself from creating too many expectations. I do remember being more than a little scared as we boarded the plane out of Seattle. "What are we doing?" I thought. "What if this is a big mistake?" "What if he has serious problems?" "What if he doesn't like me?"

I think if you've been following along on here for a while you probably know that none of these fears were warranted. In many ways it has been like a fairy-tale. Hui-Hui is an amazingly affectionate and joyful little guy. It amazes us how cuddly he is!

I'm not going to tell you that every single second has been sunshine and roses, we do have some concerns. Developmentally Kai has delays, particularly in the large motor and language areas. He still won't eat any solid foods. We worry we don't know enough about his thalessemia. We haven't decided for sure whether or not we are going to have anything done about his hand.

But all in all, things are going well and the progress he has made so far is amazing. The big news today was that he actually used the potty! This was something that we didn't even really try with him at first. We got a potty for him when he first got home, and he knew what it was for, but never produced anything on it. Then tonight when Tina was changing him into pajamas for bed he said, "pee mamma". This is not a routine, we ask him occasionally, but I had pretty much figured we would just wait till summertime and weren't even trying. But Tina asked him then if wanted to pee, and he went into the bathroom. So Tina went in and put the little potty-seat on the toilet for him and sat him down on it. At first it looked like he was just going to sit there and do nothing, but then after a little prompting he peed! Tina yelled for me to come in and we were both praising him big time. Then I said to Tina, "now if we could only get him to go poo on the toilet." And then as if on cue he got that look on his face. Yes, THAT look! And he pooped in the toilet!!! I know this was probably just a miraculous bit of luck as he shows few signs of being ready but it's a step in the right direction!
(for those of you wondering why I don't write much about the older boys on here, they just don't seem to want me sharing these types of details regarding them with all of you)

Now even better than potty achievements, when he and Tina were on their way home from the store in the car, he was chatting away as usual, (he usually talks away about cars, lights, bikes etc.) but he had a funny giggle and was covering his mouth and being silly. Tina asked him what he was talking about. He giggled and said, "Ai ni Mama, ai ni!" and giggled and covered his mouth again!!!! He said, "LOVE YOU MAMA, LOVE YOU!!!" Now, we've cajoled and tricked him into saying Wo Ai....but never Ni! If we say, "wo," he will repeat. If we say, "ai," he will repeat. When we say, "ni" he will just stop or laugh and turn away. And it's never self-initiated!

The following set of photos were all taken in our front yard. From the look of these pictures it appears that Hui-Hui lives in an enchanted forest. It's actually just a quarter acre lot on a suburban cul de sac. Still we do get a fair amount of wild life. Nothing terribly exotic, big gray squirrels, stellar jays, etc. Last week we saw a big red-headed woodpecker, and on Saturday we had these four deer wander through. We have a little clearing in front where I laid out a 7-circuit Cretan labyrinth a few years ago. The deer looked quite magical out there. It's been such a wet winter that Hui-Hui hasn't gotten out there much, so today I took him out to walk the paths and look for gnomes. He almost caught a couple!

For those of you living in warm sunny places, maybe you're used to it this time of year, but here in the Pacific Northwest it's been WET! In January it rained, and it rained, and it rained. We didn't get 40 consecutive days and nights, but we got 40 out of 43. I don't mind the rain most the time, but that's because normally it doesn't rain MOST of the time! Even up here north of Seattle, sure it rains, but not ALL the time. Okay, you probably get the point now, it's been wet.
But it finally stopped, and the sun came out to remind us why we live here; because when it's sunny here, it's the most beautiful place on earth! So here are some pictures of Hui-Hui playing outside this week...

Click on the picture to go to the slideshow...

I meant to blog about this last week, but didn't. Since I waited though, I have more accurate data to report. Tina took Hui-Hui to our doctor today for his "Three Year Check Up". Since his last visit in October he has gained over three pounds and grown two inches. We are very proud of this! It's nice to have him measured by professionals, our scale here doesn't seem to be very accurate. And while we think he's growing it's hard to tell when you see him all the time. So I changed the picture of him at the top of the blog. The old picture is one we took the day we got home from China...

He's had his hair cut a couple times now, trimmed is more like it actually. The first time was a couple months ago, when I was getting mine cut. His China buzz cut had been growing out and was getting shaggy around the edges so we sat him on my lap and had the stylist clean up around the back and over the ears. Then last week we took him downtown to the hip salon, Jake's B.S. (stands for Barber Shop) and tried getting a real cut. He put up a pretty good fuss when it started but he fell for the old "have a drink of water" trick - that always distracts him. We were trying to get the long thing in front to blend in without chopping his bangs too bad. It almost worked. We're going to just let it grow for a while now and see what happens. Forgot to take the camera with us so these pix were snapped with my cell phone...


On Sunday Hui-Hui was invited to Mimi's 2nd birthday party. Mimi is the daughter of our friends Heidi and Kim, they have three daughters adopted from China. In addition to Mimi's sisters and Hui-Hui there was another little girl named Eliza who came home with her family from China at the same time as Mimi, Eliza's four year old sister, and a pair of teenage girls who are friends of Mimi's family. So there were 7 girls and Hui-Hui. He had a great time. Tina and I aren't used to "girl" parties. It was really nice, the big girls kept the little ones entertained and played games with them. At one point the big girls were holding Mimi and Hui-Hui on their laps and trying to get them to kiss. Mimi's dad, Kim, called them on that one though. All in all, Hui-hui had a great time, he does really well with other kids. Here's a few pix...

I have been very busy at work this week with a committee project that has been very intense. This means I have not been able to accompany Hui-Hui at pre-school on Tuesday and Thursday morning. In order to accommodate this schedule my mother has stayed with us and taken my place at pre-school. This has been great as it has given her a chance to be with us in a relaxed "real life" setting. She was able to really get to know Hui-Hui a bit better. This schedule has left me little time for playing with the blog, so I missed posting a "anniversary" post yesterday which was the four month anniversary of the day we received Hui-Hui.
Today however is the actual anniversary of his adoption (unless you shift things for time zones, as Cameron pointed out). So I wanted to write about how much he has changed and grown. Maybe I'll have some time to do that this weekend. But I do have what I think is an even better entry. On this day, four months ago, after we completed the adoption at the civil affairs office in Shijaizhuang I had to drive 2 hours back to Baoding alone with our guide. Tina was alone with the three boys. While I was gone she wrote an entry for the blog that never got posted. Neither of us remembered that writing for some time, until I found it again the other day. So here is Tina's story of how Hui-Hui came to us...

4 Months Ago Today

Yes! I am finally officially mama to didi KaiHui Ocheltree~and getting a moment to check the computer! Kai is resting, Scott went back to Baoding to hand deliver the paperwork to make sure we get our passport for Kai by Friday. Our guide Bob didn't want to chance the mail~he was concerned it wouldn't come in time for our flight. Very nice man.
Our day yesterday was an odyssey that has continued into today on our journey to Kai. I have to say that China is an incredible, awesome, enchanting...and completely foreign land! The people have been more than gracious and kind to us. Our guide Chen Chen in Beijing was fantastic, and we had a wonderful time exploring Tian An Men Square, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall and the Jade factory with the Oppliger family. We really enjoy their company, and their son Adam is a trouper! Looking forward to meeting up at the White Swan! Chen took very good care of us, and shared so much about her own life growing up in Beijing. As we headed out Sat. morning for our adventures she announced to us that we would be visiting the orphanage after all, and receive Kai the next day. Dare I say we lost it!!! So much for focusing on our day ahead!
She recommended that we take the East Great Wall, so our family did that, and the Oppligers did the West. (main one) I made it to the second to last tower and found myself completely alone for up to 20 minutes at a time. It was a crystal clear day, and the beauty and power of it was overwhelming. I highly recommend the East Wall.
Yesterday we wandered to the local grocery store for water and moon cakes before our new guide Bob picked us up to head to Baoding to meet Kai. We headed southwest on a hazy warm day out of the explosive population and building of Beijing into miles and miles of farms and deserted communes. It seems China is in the midst of another revolution. Out with the old, in with the new. We would pass truck after truck loaded with "stuff." We are guessing it is the remnants of all that is being torn down to make way for the new. Very curious. We also got to catch a glimpse of the Marco Polo bridge, and where the Japanese invaded China.
As we pulled into Baoding and worked our way further into the city I began to realize just how lucky we all are. And yet, with what appears to us to be such poverty, the people are happy, kind and enjoying a kind of community we just can't seem to grasp in our culture. As we drove up to the orphanage it looked like a palace next to it's surroundings. We were welcomed by the director of the children's section, and another man. They brought us water bottles, and soon Kai's nanny Tseng Chin-yen brought him in the room. He had just woken from his nap, and was very confused. We spent a few minutes getting acquainted and then it was decided we should all go to lunch! So, Chin-yen went with Kai (Dang Hui) back to the children's building. As we got to the van she reappeared with him, both in new clothes! So we all piled in and headed to "deep China." We were also told we would take Kai's visa photo while we were out. The whole day was so surreal. It soon became very apparent that Chin-yen was more of a foster mother to Kai than a nanny in the orphanage. She did not want to let me too close to him, and would only reluctantly let me hold him when told to by the director. So there we all were, in a back room with our family of 4 and 6 others, men smoking and drinking beer, eating chicken's feet and ???, plus little Kai in complete befuddlement. It was actually a great way to warm him up to us, and begin the transition to his new life. From there we went to a photographer's place a few blocks up the street. (walking) OK, at this point I could go on and on, but all I can say is that the whole time felt as though we were in some foreign film, but didn't know the whole story or our lines!! We got the photos, and family and all group photos inside and out, and then went back to the van.
When we returned to the orphanage (Chin-yen sat in front away from us. ) We went inside, answered questions, gave gifts and then were told we would be taken on a tour of the orphanage!! And yes, our sons could take pictures and video tape! The moments in the babies rooms were beyond what we could describe, or really process. Let's just say that we really need to do more to help them. The deepest depth of human need, and strength of those caring for them in one place.
On a much happier note, we asked about Liam (Carol's son) and we got to see him!!! I can't say more yet in case Carol hasn't seen my post!
They took us on a tour of the grounds, and showed us a new building that is being constructed for the older babies...all donated by Jackie Chan!!! Really!!! We'll post pics on our blog. It is beautiful, and will be ready for winter! We finally were given Kai, and after many teary goodbyes and thank yous (even our guide was wiping tears) we got in the van and I held Kai for the 2 hour trip to Shijaizhuang with him sleeping in my arms. He is pretty much in shut down, but is very cuddly with me and Scott, and warming up to his brothers. We even got a couple of smiles! He slept well, and is still on a bottle!!! Happy mama dance!
As this is getting really long, and Kai is going to wake up any sec, I will just give a brief story of today. We went with Bob to the Civil Affairs Office. The staff from the orphanage arrived, and Chin-yen swiftly had Kai. This was SOOO hard, but they both needed it. She brought him a beautiful amulet for long life on a red thread and tied it on him, and a shirt that she put on him. As we left for the notary she really wanted to take him in her car. (freaked us out!) The director made her give him to me, and he cried hard for about 30 sec. He was fine in the car, and I gave him a bottle of cereal and formula. When we got there....they pulled up and he was hers for this paper work session too. After a while the director once again told her to let "mama" hold him. He of course was not happy, but only cried for a few seconds, and then fell asleep (shut down). We waited for a long time, so I passed him back to her in the blanket Scott's mom made so that she could hold him one more time.
He was still sleeping when we departed. He is very tiny (20 pounds), and it will take a while to really know what he will need to catch up, but we know he will eventually let us see the wild side of Kai!
This has been the most difficult and wonderful 2 days of my life. As hard and long as this "gotcha" was, I know it was as it should have been. Kai needed to transition, and even more, the woman who has cared for and loved him since he was 9 days old needed to be given this time. I will never be able to thank her or express my gratitude for the what she has meant to him, and to me. I can only weep for her sadness for having to say goodbye to such a beautiful and sweet boy. Even the director was crying. We have been given a very precious gift.
Time to play, and eat some dinner!!
Hugs to you all!
Tina, Scott, Cam, Ben and "Mr. Peanut!"
P.S. The big boys are having a grand time and are off to the mall across the street to buy a guitar and harmonica to play for their didi!

On Saturday Tina and I took Hui-Hui to Whatcom Hills Waldorf School's Holiday Faire. This is the first time in eight years that we have not been parents of students at the school. It's funny how excited the two of us were. We have gone to this event since Cam was three, long before we were a part of the school community. Now we were returning as alumni parents and we were anxious to show Hui-Hui all the cool things! We have many good friends at the school we have not seen since our trip to China and we were excited about having them meet Hui-Hui for the first time.

Tina has brought Hui-Hui to the school a couple times before to visit the Roots & Wings store so this was not his first time there. Still, he seemed very apprehensive when we got there. Maybe we were too eager. We rushed to the Gnome Village and got in line.

We have been very cautious about taking Hui-Hui out very much. He goes to the store with us, and has been to some of the boys music events. These have included not only orchestra concerts, but brief visits to football half-time shows as well. However, visits to large social settings have been rare for these first two months. The few we have attended though have not been a problem for him. But this time he was not too sure about what was going on, and was very clingy. He wouldn't let Tina put him down, and was not interested in meeting Pocket-Man or digging for crystals in the Gnome Village. So we decided to slow down and break for lunch. We went to the "Wooden Spoon" cafe they host in Alia Hall and found a table. The place was packed and there was live music playing. We bought our lunch and had brought along custom Hui-Hui chow we knew he would eat.

Somehow, the noise and chaos of this room seemed to be just what he needed. After he ate, he got down from the table and started to wander in gradual circles away from us. He moved among the other tables then looped back to us as we visited with friends. Eventually he worked his way out of the hall and saw the swings on the upper playground; suddenly he seemed to be in his element. He wanted to swing and run across the snow-dusted courtyard.

We visited with old friends while he tugged on us to follow him. We wandered through the craft vendor displays at the rate of a distracted parent of a toddler - glancing briefly at treasures then chasing off after our little charge. It felt right. We whacked his schedule we have worked so hard to maintain, but it was a good thing.

The School Courtyard

Entrance to Gnome Village

A little leery of Gnomes

In The Gnomes Crystal Mine

Today is our two month anniversary of being home with Hui-Hui. Things continue to go amazingly well with him.

So far in regards to general health we haven't had many concerns. Our biggest surprise and worry was when our doctor told us that he tested positive for thalassemia. This is a genetically inherited form of anemia (sort of like sickle cell anemia) where the red blood cells are too small. The lab results we got on this labeled his form of the disease as "asymptomatic alpha thalessemia". This is pretty good news, as it means he doesn't show signs of problems which would require treatment. For some people thalessemia requires ongoing blood transfusions, and consequently a difficult and uncomfortable treatment called "chelation". We are going to see about further testing to make sure we understand the exact nature of this condition in Kai. If you would like more information on this, CLICK HERE to view the March of Dimes information page on thalessemia.

We have an appointment on December 6th with Dr. Hanel at Children's Hospital in Seattle to look at his hand. We have no idea what, if any, treatment this will require. We think he could use his left hand more than he does, and wonder if he was discouraged to use it at the S.W.I. Either way, it is unlikely he received any helpful intervention regarding this, but the reality is that we simply don't know. He does compensate for it amazingly well, and it's almost hard to notice it when you watch him.

Because Kai was in an orphanage for the first 33 months of his life he has a number of developmental delays. This is normal for children in this situation, and they will usually gain ground rapidly once they are placed with their family. Our doctor suggested we have him evaluated by the hospital's children's neurological development center to see if there are any local programs which may help him in this area. We went to the center and had a fun time with an O.T. there who did a basic evaluation of him. Because language is an issue she was not able to give him the full battery of tests, but she seemed to think he was doing just fine. We are going to have a follow up visit with them in our home this week.

Eating continues to be a bit of an issue. We have adapted to his diet and see that he gets plenty of nutrition, but he still refuses to eat any foods that require chewing. That is, no cookies, crackers, dry cereals, solid meat, cheese, etc. The most common daily diet consists of organic instant oatmeal for breakfast which we make with Boost supplement instead of milk, then we mix in unsweetened applesauce. This is very sweet tasting, and is the only sweet thing he seems to like. For lunch he usually has Top Ramen with eggs and maybe a little milk added. He also likes jarred baby vegetables and will usually have a jar for an afternoon snack. For dinner he usually has some type of soup. We have also taken to liquifying things in the blender to make "soup". This way we can get meat and other types of vegetables into him.

Talking is starting to come along. He clearly says Mama and Baba, and Daisy (our dog), which he says in a high "sing-song", like when we are calling her. He's getting close on "water" (again in a sing-song) but usually says "guh" when he wants to drink. He says "gah" for car. Cam and Ben are both something like "Hem", sometimes Cam is more like "Ham". He says "c'mon" when he wants you to come to him or follow him. We have gotten him to mimic a few words including "Tuesday" and "Black Shoes", again these were both sing-songy chants and not really in context. Over the last couple days he has begun to babble almost constantly. He looks at you and "talks" away in a very deliberate manner. I really don't think it's Mandarin, but rather just toddler babble. When he does this he appears as if he is trying to communicate, but he's such a little mimic that sometimes I think he is "play-talking", and just imitating what he sees and hears us doing.

We continue to use a small range of Mandarin expressions with him:
Wo Ai Ni - I love you
Wo Shi NiDe MaMa - I am your Mommy
Wo Shi NiDe BaBa - I am your Daddy
Ta Shi NiDe GeGe - This is your older brother
Zhe Shi Gei Ni De - This is for you
Bie Ku - Don’t cry
Gui Heidze - Poor Baby
Mai Gui Shi - It's going to be okay
Ai kwan shui shui ba - It's time to sleep

I am trying to expand my Mandarin vocabulary in this area, both to help him understand us, and because I really want him to maintain his native language.

He has overcome his fear of dogs. We no longer use gates to keep Daisy out. He's still not particularly fond of her, as she is big and gets in his way. I know I would not really want a dog around that was taller than me and over four times my weight. But he will pet her with us, and he enjoys chasing her with his ride-on car, or with his toy broom.

This is such a funny stage to start a relationship with a child at. I really wonder what things will be like in a year. I imagine all of this will seem like a dream then. Sometimes I think I want him to develop more quickly: start talking, be potty-trained, eat regular foods, etc. But really, we are enjoying him so much just the way he is, that I'm not in a hurry for those things. They will all happen for him, and I want to enjoy watching the process. I guess my desire for faster development is really about wanting him to be less frustrated by the current obstacles in his path.

One of the things that Tina and I loved doing while we waited to adopt Hui-Hui was to watch other people's "Gotcha" videos on the internet. I admit that after you watch enough of them you see patterns emerge, and it's kind of like watching wedding videos; there's the same songs, the same scenes, the same things happen. And yet, while I can't imagine watching other people's wedding videos, I continue to watch adoption "Gotcha" videos. I think it's because of the drama inherent in the fact that the children don't know what's happening. Everybody in a wedding video is a willing participant and it's like a little play. Gotcha videos have much more of that "reality television" thing going on.

I wanted to make one of our experience, and I feel very lucky because our two older sons, Cam & Ben, shot great video during our trip. Cam will be using this material to make a presentation for his senior culminating project, but he is letting me go through and make some family videos.

French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard said, “Film is truth 24 times a second, and every cut is a lie.” I have made a short movie showing the truth only 15 times a second, and have riddled it with lies. The video I have put here on the web is a VERY condensed version of our home movie. My intent was to share a bit of the flavor, and let people see where we were. My most liberal act of "reality distortion" is the actual "gotcha" sequence. In this video it appears that we enter the S.W.I. get Hui-Hui, and drive away. We did all three of those things, but the actual process took about 4 hours. And it involved leaving the S.W.I. with everyone for lunch, a photo studio appointment, returning, and touring the facility. In this version all of that is missing, and clips are rearranged for artistic purposes.

So, with my apologies for playing loosely with "reality", I hope you enjoy watching this short film about our first meeting with Hui-Hui...
CLICK HERE FOR THE MOVIE PAGE

I'm still using most of my computer time to edit the video. We have 6 hours of tape and 1200 photos to sift through. It's coming along, but so far it's looking long. My first draft of it is really just for our family so I'm putting in as much as I can.

We had a great phone conversation with Carol Wickstrom this evening. Carol and her husband Tim are adopting Liam, a little boy living in the same orphanage Hui-Hui is from! They leave December 6th to go get him!!! We are so excited for them, and feel so lucky to be connected to the family of another little boy with this tie to Hui-Hui! They currently live in California, but we are hoping that we will be able to arrange visits for the boys from time to time as they grow up.

I finally unloaded the pictures we've been shooting over the last couple weeks, so here's a bit of what Hui-Hui's been up to...

He likes to help his big brother Cam practice piano...


He's pretty much over his fear of Daisy. He still doesn't like her much, but he's not as afraid of her anymore. Actually she's starting to be afraid of him!


Playing with soapy water in the sink while Mamma cooks is good fun!


Sometimes we worry that aliens may be listening to our thoughts, so we wear protective equipment...


We like to cruise the living room with our Monkey!


We're starting to like Play-Dough


Our good friends Alex and Kim came for a visit. Hui-Hui played them both hard!




Big Brother Cam helped me rake the leaves...

Today Hui-Hui got a package in the mail from Hong Kong. Inside was an autographed photo of jackie Chan! I am really impressed with this man, I think he is an excellent role model for all three of our sons. Here's a scan of the photo...


On top of that it was a pretty busy day. Hui-Hui and I went to Tina's preschool! This was our first shot at this and we think it went well. He's not really old enough for this program, and with his developmental delays and size it shows. But all in all he did well. I came and stayed with him from 10 to 11:30, then took him home for lunch and nap. Because we're all up at about 6 am on Tuesdays and Thursdays he's pretty tired by this point and it was a trick to keep him awake on the drive home. He had a good time though. We played in the water table, and the cornmeal table, and the play kitchen. We did the circle time too, but this is a bit beyond him. To be fair, some of the other kids have a hard time with this too. We're going to try it next week too and see how it goes.

Then this afternoon We were guests on a local radio station! This was again at the request of our local adoption agency, Children's House International to help them with their efforts to raise awareness during National Adoption Month. I am going to get a copy of the program and hopefully will post it here.

Okay, my apologies...
This really isn't an updated entry. I have been using my time to edit the video of our trip to China. I promise that as soon as I can, I will post some clips of it here. In the meantime, I couldn't leave Joe Bates picture at the top of Hui-Hui's blog anymore. So with apologies to Mr. Bates, Hui-Hui's face is back at the top!

This entry is still about the KVOS TV news spot that featured our family a couple weeks ago. You Can Click on the Picture above to see the clip...

Dear Fellow American:

I am pleased to congratulate you on becoming a United States citizen. You are now a part of a great and blessed Nation. I know your family and friends are proud of you on this special day.

Americans are united across the generations by grand and enduring ideals. The grandest of these ideals is an unfolding promise that everyone belongs, that everyone deserves a chance, and that no insignificant person was ever born. Our country has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by principals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests, and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every citizen must uphold these principles. And every new citizen, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American.

As you begin to participate fully in our democracy, remember that what you do is as important as anything government does. I ask you to serve your new Nation, beginning with your neighbor. I ask you to be citizens building communities of service and a Nation of character. Americans are generous and strong and decent not because we believe in ourselves, but because we hold beliefs beyond ourselves. When this spirit of citizenship is missing, no government program can replace it. When this spirit is present, no wrong can stand against it.

Welcome to the joy, responsibility, and freedom of American citizenship. God bless you, and God bless America.

Sincerely,

George W. Bush

Hui-Hui is a very passionate thumb-sucker. At night sometimes I hear him working it so hard in his crib I worry for the thumb's safety. It is, after all, the only thumb he has!

When He sucks his thumb, he prefers having something to hold onto. The very best thing right now seems to be Baby Eyeore's tail. But if Eyeore isn't around he is not that particular. Above I have a few pictures I snapped on Sunday afternoon to show some of the things he will use for what I like to call: Thumb Snuckers!

Crayons are a particular favorite, and are actually used more for this purpose than coloring. He is starting to let us play with the bumble-bee finger puppet, but usually if he sees it, he will want to have it and immediately put it to work as a "snucker". In a pinch he will grab a fold of his shirt, and I have even seen him use a scrap of paper.

Tina and I headed out north today on an afternoon adventure. We went about as far north as we could and still be in the "lower 48". Our Destination was Stoney Ridge Farm. All three boys were invited but the only one who came along was the one who didn't have a choice. The big ones had been before, and apparently both had more pressing social events to attend.
Hui-Hui, the boy who came along, was quite interested in the whole operation. Stoney Ridge Farm is basically a roadside attraction out in the county. Today was their last day for pumpkin stuff and by the time we got there it was pretty quiet. We took advantage of a couple of the photo ops they have set up...


Hui-Hui was pretty suspicious about what was going on with all of this, and was even less sure of the animals they had on display...





So when we saw the old guy with the barrel train we thought, "no way is Hui-Hui going to do that."
WRONG!

He spotted it and wanted in! I'm thinking, "yeah, right. I'll put you in, but as soon as this guy pulls out you are going to freak, and I'm going to have to chase this guy down and save you...
WRONG!



And the old guy driving it was a nut too! It was a fast, bumpy, whip around kind of train ride. Loved every minute of it!

So once again we are shown, you cannot predict how kids will react. Fun Times!

Yesterday was our one-month anniversary of being back home from China with Hui-Hui. It’s been an amazing time in our family’s life. There has been a lot of change in our routine, and even more change for Hui-Hui, but the addition of a toddler to our family has been less disruptive than I had thought it would. There is more clutter about the place, and we are a bit more housebound, but he has actually brought a calming rhythm to our lives.

It’s also amazing to see how he has changed. He is much more confident and assertive than when we first got home. I joke with Tina by asking if she’s seen that quiet, cooperative, little orphan that was around here a month ago? That kid’s pretty much gone. We now have another wacky Ocheltree boy in the house!

When we first got him he was so helpful when we dressed or diapered him, holding out his arms or legs, laying still. Now he runs away, and wiggles all over when you catch him, much more like what I remember from our first two.

At mealtime when we first got him in China, we had to feed him. Now we are not allowed to touch his spoon. He has also gotten over the non-stop eating. He will usually eat a pretty big serving, but when he’s full he stops, and sometimes he will balk at eating anything, even when we think he should be hungry.

His overall energy level seems much better. I think this can be attributed to being rid of the intestinal parasites, as well as better nutrition. We have him on vitamin and iron supplements, and pump extra nutrition and calories into his food by using PediaSure and formula powder. He still only eats soft foods, but we have him on a pretty good diet, so we’re not worried about the chewing thing yet. He will see the doctor again on Friday, so we’ll have an accurate weight check then, but he looks like he is starting to round out a bit.

When we first got him home he had a real hard time using ride-on toys, like his Little Tykes car. He had trouble straddling them and getting on or off, as well as difficulty pushing them. We actually acquired 3 different models, trying to find something he could use. Now he’s quite proficient with all of them, but prefers the Little Tykes one because it’s good to use for standing on when climbing to get things out of reach.

He still looses his balance sometimes, but we see much less of that “drunken sailor” gait that he had a month ago. He runs the loop through our house with confidence and loves being chased, especially after bath time when all he has on is his hooded towel.

He still is apprehensive around the animals and doesn’t like it if the dog is between him and us, but he is no longer terrified by their presence and will even smack the dog around a bit if she’s laying down and we are there to back him up.

All in all, it’s been a really great month we’ve had a number of adventures and we are looking forward to the ones ahead of us!

Sunday was quite the day! We went to a get together hosted by our adoption agency, Children's House International. The gathering was at a little park just down the street from our home. There was food and crafts, and balloons. We went right after nap time and had a fantastic time! Hui-Hui was actually quite the little animal! He took right off into the fray and had a blast! Ran around with his balloon and fought over the ride on toys. It was really the first time since we've been home that we've had him in a large group event. We were pretty surprised to see him so at ease. He did keep an eye on us, but didn't seem the least bit worried about stepping out a bit. We think the slow, quiet pace we have given him is paying off.







Hui-Hui with Aimee Oppliger. They first met each other in Guangzhou. Aimee lives near my sister's family about an hour south of us.

I've gotten a number of complaints again about not posting for too long. I'm sorry about that. I was working on a little essay I wanted to write. I don't know if I really expressed my thoughts as well as I wanted to, but I really wanted to write something about Guanyin Pusa. I have put the piece in a separate page here on the blogsite. You can CLICK HERE to read it, or select it from the menu on the right.

So, Back to how Hui-Hui is doing!

(Please note, I have increased the size of the pictures I'm posting. I was using smaller ones when we were in China, because I was concerned about uploads. But now that we're home, I think this size works better for seeing just how cute this guy is.)

We've been making some steady progress. We are working hard on establishing a consistant routine for him here at home: meals, naps, baths, bedtime, etc. Not easy with two teenagers to look after as well, but we're doing our best. He does much better when we keep things simple for him.

He is starting to get a little braver around our animals. This is still an area where he is pretty anxious, so Daisy is not allowed in the house much when he's awake. He does like to help feed both the dog and the cat...



This is good because now he can get out on the back deck a bit more. Here he is in his swing, and riding around the deck on a scooter...

Are these great dimples or what?



Another great development is that we got a major upgrade in the stroller world...

Pimp My Ride!
You call this a stroller? The free strollers in China were sturdier!

Dude! Now THIS is a STROLLER!

Our next door neighbors, Eric and Jennifer gave us this beautiful jogger stroller. Their daughter Makenna is now 7 and they don't use it anymore.

We are still exploring different foods. We made Phad Thai noodles the other night and he really liked these. He didn't actually get that many in, so we had some of Tina's homemade soup too. But check out that chop stick action, he's a natural!



And a few more cute picture:
Flying around the house with our cape on...

Playing with trucks - This truck was made by RoundHouse toys, where I worked with my sister over 20 years ago...

Playing with balls is always good!

Okay, I'm blogging out of habit now, so you can skip this entry unless you're obsessing over this site too.

Side note: while I'm writing this Cam is trying to tune his er hu, and get a tolerable tone out of it. Check it out, one of the brothers made it into the blog! Yes I feel guilty for not devoting whole websites to each of them, but they blog on their own. You'll have to figure out what they call themselves on MySpace.com if you want to see what they write.





Today was my third day staying home in the morning with Hui-Hui while Tina went to work. We are actually getting a bit of a routine to our days together. So far it's been nice enough each day that he and I can take Daisy the dog for a little walk. I also like to spend time rolling around on the floor with him listening to music.

He is a really messy eater. I probably could have been better at containing the disaster, but I'd rather spend my energy mopping than battling a two-and-a-half year old over a bowl of Top Ramen. Besides, I got distracted by the woman from the Public Health Department who called right in the middle of our meal. It seems they have been made aware of the little menagerie he's housing in his lower GI tract and wanted to make sure we weren't putting him in daycare or letting him work in restaurants until he's rid of his little friends. And then she and I got all chatty because she told me she had just adopted a daughter from China four months ago. So we each shared a bit of our experiences and she emailed me the link for a Play Group in Whatcom County for Children Adopted From China.







After his lunch I headed him back to bed, and did my best to restore a semblance of order to the house. We read Good Night Moon together and I sang a bit, then I put him in his crib. Like usual, he was happy to lie down, and I left him with the bedroom door open so he could hear me moving around. After about 15 minutes of virtually no noise out of the bedroom I peaked in to see if he was sleeping. Not. He's in there standing at the foot of the bed with all the stuffed animals tossed out, and he's trying to reach the little bedside lamp between our bed and his. He flashes me this look that says, "busted!" and quietly sits down. So I came in and sang to him some more and stroked his head. Such a funny little guy. While I'm busy cleaning, he's in his crib being very quiet and naughty! He didn't want me back there with him, he needed some time to himself.

When Tina got home she took him to visit at the neighbors house and they also got out and used the little swing we hung on the back deck for him.





It was kind of a wacky evening because it's Tina's "Friday" (she doesn't work tomorrow) and she wants to take Hui-Hui up to the Waldorf school for the assembly in the afternoon because it is her former class presenting.

When we did finally get him headed to bed we got out the "Chinese Language For Adoptive Parents" phrases on the computer and played things like "It's time to go to sleep", and "lay down", and "Daddy's tired". He actually seemed to understand this, and got a funny look on his face.

Well now it's time for me to go to bed too.
Thanks for reading.

Today the eating thing settled down a bit. Okay, he still won't eat food you have to chew, but for now we're going to let him get by with attributing that to being two and a half.

For breakfast we made him a bowl of "super" oatmeal. We used Pedialyte for the liquid and added a scoop of formula powder. After zapping it in the micro we added PediaSure to cool and thin it, then added applesauce as well. It's like cooking for a body builder. He eats this stuff though so we're going to stick with it till he starts bulking up.



Our doctor called us this evening and told us that Kai tested positive for entamoeba, you can click on it for the CDC webpage, but basically it's another single cell parasite. Fortunately the medicine he's taking for giardia should kill this bug too. And he's taking the medicine more easily now. This is good because these bugs are not good things to have living in you.

The other news we got from the doctor is that Hui-Hui may have a condition called thalassemia. We are not going to start worrying about this until we get a confirmation of the diagnosis and know exactly what it means for his future.

So for the fun stuff today. Tina dug through the old children's videos we have from when the Big Boys were little and found Winnie The Pooh and The Honey Tree. We know he shouldn't be watching TV, but it's something he's used to, and we're getting a bit tired of Big Bird in China everyday. It was pretty cute though, because he wanted his Winnie-The-Pooh toy to watch with him.



We finished our day by taking Hui-Hui to Bellingham High School's orchestra concert to see his brother Cameron play violin. He really enjoyed the music and was very well behaved. We only stayed about 45 minutes. He would have been fine to stay for the whole thing, but we were late getting him to bed as it was and we didn't want to press our luck.

Hui-Hui's nursery is decorated in a "Classic Pooh" theme. Actually "nursery" isn't the right word really. The room that was to be, and still may be Kai's room in the future is really more of a playroom. His crib is next to our bed in our room. The crib is decked out in all the "Classic Pooh" swag you can imagine: bumpers, blankets, ruffles, and a good number of the inhabitants of The Hundred Acre Woods.

I love Winnie-The-Pooh. And by that, I mean A.A. Milne's original books. Disney did an OK job of the first Pooh films, but like everything else Disney touches it becomes a corporate money machine, so I'll stick to my little hardbacks of the original text. I read these books countless times to my older sons, and can't wait to start reading them to Hui-Hui.

I think everybody possesses characteristics of all the inhabitants of The Hundred Acre Woods. Hui-Hui is a lot like Winnie-The-Pooh, in that he is basically happy most of the time. But like Piglet he is A Very Small Animal and can be easily intimidated. And he has a number of qualities of Tigger too. Hui-Hui has come along a little later in our family's history; Tigger didn't show up until chapter two of the second book:
In Which
Tigger Comes To The Forest And Has Breakfast

Pooh is quite concerned that Tigger might eat all his honey, but as it turns out Tiggers like everything except honey.

That is until Tigger tries a bunch of other things that the other characters eat. He's certain that he likes haycorns best, what Piglet eats, until he tries them. Then thistles, what Eeyore eats, but Tiggers don't like those either.

This has been a bit like finding out what a Hui-Hui eats is like. Talk about fussy! And now we are trying to sneak a variety of medicines and vitamins into him. We thought he was picky about food before! Don't try hiding a little bit of medicine in his bowl!

Hui-Hui has giardia (click here to see the CDC page) so we are concerned about dehydration, etc. I tried giving him some diluted instant GatorAid in a sippy cup. You should have seen the face! Not good. Handed me back the cup, shook his head and waved me off with his hand. Tina brought home some unflavored Pedialyte. He's not drinking that either. I tasted it, tastes like very slightly salty water. He just looks at us suspiciously. He won't take a bottle or sippy cup with milk or formula. He was drinking formula from a bottle in China, but has refused it since we've returned. Because we're concerned about his size and nutrition we also gave PediaSure a try - "Talk To The Hand".

In the food department we've tried a few variations on pasta: spaghetti, mac&cheese, crab fettucini. He'll eat the skinny noodles and the sauce, but any lumpy stuff that would require chewing comes back out with a disgusted look. The mac&cheese was the fancy little "Annie's" brand shells. He made a valiant attempt at these but didn't really get very far.

So far we've got a few things we know he'll eat: oatmeal with applesauce in it, Top Ramen with egg and yams, mashed potatoes with yams and shredded chicken, and Tina's chicken-rice soup. He will also eat a number of different jarred baby foods, but those are such nasty (not to mention expensive) things to feed a kid.

Tina tried giving him oatmeal today with his iron supplement in it. Wasted. Dinner was yams with some milk and formula and his giardia medicine. Wasted.

Since he has been having more frequent loose BM's, (more like diarrhea) a symptom of giardia, we are concerned about dehydration. So we tried whipping up a modification of the BRAT diet (BRAT is an old pediatric acronym we remember from when the Big Boys were little, it stands for Bananas, Rice, Apples, Toast and is used for diarrhea), we made rice cereal using Pedialyte for the liquid, and added applesauce and mashed bananas. Hui-Hui definitely does not like that! At least we didn't waste another shot of expensive meds in it!

So Tina cranked out a plain bowl of oatmeal with applesauce (actually she did smuggle a bit of vanilla PediaSure into this) and he ate it. Of course it was going on 8:00 PM by this time so he was probably getting pretty hungry.

I did get quite a bit of water into him at bath time too. NOT bath water either! Which has been an ongoing battle. Now I keep a sippy cup with clean water with us during the bath and poke it in his mouth while he works on all of his pouring experiments. After his bath we let him have a Dixie cup and unlimited access to a running tap, so I think he went to bed pretty well hydrated.

We finally decided to just force the giardia meds down his throat. We figured this was going to be the only way we could make sure he got it. So I held him and Tina shot it into his mouth with a syringe. I hate making babies cry. And this guy just seems like he's gone through enough already. But he got over it quickly and we moved on. Now it's just three times a day for the next week. I'm guessing he's going to get better at fighting us off.

So do you remember what Tiggers do eat?



Roo's "Strengthening Medicine": Extract Of Malt! Which Roo hates!

Okay, and so you'll know we aren't too freaked out about all this, here's a picture of Hui-Hui eating Top Ramen:

When it's something he likes, he packs it away.

And some advice: don't turn your back on an eager toddler when you're filling a bath! I distracted Tina for a split second and Hui-Hui climbed over the side of the tub as it was filling and slid in fully dressed! We were both in the bathroom with him!


He actually thought this was pretty funny!

Hui-Hui's first week in America drew to a close on Friday.

It was a very busy day. Tina and I took him to the doctor for his first examination here in The States. We have talked about wether or not we should be using a pediatrician or try to seek out someone who specializes in foreign adoption, but have decided we are very happy with our family physician, Harry Herdman. We are confident in his skills and approach to medicine, and today just confirmed our impression of him again.

Harry was very gentle with Kai, and I think Kai could sense our level of comfort with Harry. Kai is usually very timid and withdrawn around strangers, but today he relaxed pretty quickly and let Harry give him a pretty thorough exam. He let him look through the scope into his ears and nose, but didn't allow him to see inside his mouth. Harry was so cool about it too. We had told him about Kai's issues around his mouth: the not eating any hard foods, and not letting us brush his teeth. And Harry moved back the instant Kai showed distress. Because he's eating okay and doesn't seem to be in general discomfort or show obvious signs of mouth injury or infection, we figure he has enough going on right now that this isn't an immediate concern. It was really nice to see our doctor be so in sync with Kai's feelings and to really follow his lead as opposed to just forcing his way through an exam.

We had to have two "sticks". One for a TB test in the doctor's office, and again across the street at the hospital lab for a blood sample.

The hospital lab was another amazing visit. the phlebotomist who saw us was a young guy whose namebadge said "Elton". When we first went in he asked us if Kai spoke Mandarin. We explained that he didn't really "speak" a whole lot yet, but we are sure he understands more Mandarin than English. He then began speaking to Hui-Hui in Mandarin. His mother was from Taiwan, he explained. He shared some of his family history, including a great story about his grandparents during the Chinese civil war and how they fled to Taiwan in 1949. He seemed quite sympathetic to Kai, and took extra time to make sure he knew exactly how much blood he needed to take before beginning. He was very skillful and hit a good vein neatly on the first try, all the time saying reassuring words to Kai in Mandarin. Kai cried a little but quickly regained his composure when the procedure was over, and happily waved "zaijan" to Elton as we left the lab.

When we got home and had our lunch the mailman rang our doorbell. He had a pair of big boxes for us which came from the Wickstroms in California. The Wickstroms are the family of Hui-Hui's friend "Liam" at the S.W.I. in Bao Ding. They sent us a whole bunch of goodies, including 14 pounds(!) of cheese from their dairy farm, as a thank you for the pictures we sent them of Liam.

Liam seemed like such a sweet boy the day we met him. We are hoping that the Wickstroms will travel soon to bring him home, and that he and Hui-Hui will be able to stay in touch with each other as they grow up. Here are a couple of the pictures we took of Liam back on Hui-Hui's "Gotcha Day":

Another part of our “regular life” is that Tina works two mornings a week teaching pre-school. So on Tuesdays and Thursdays I come home from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM and have fun with Hui-Hui. We hang out, do lunch and go down for nap.

Today was the second day this plan was to go into affect and already we are changing things up on him. Tina's class went to an "Apple Farm" today to pick apples, hazelnuts, carrots and pumpkins. This is a small family farm in the county that is open for U-pick stuff and class visits. Tina thought it would be fun if Hui-Hui and I came along too. So we gave it a go!

And like an idiot I forgot to bring the digital camera! So I shot few images on my little camera phone and emailed them to myself. This explains the fuzzy/wonky quality of the farm shots below...

Hui-Hui was pretty apprehensive at first, like he is in most circumstances meeting new people, but he got into it and really had a good time. It didn't rain while we were there, but everything was pretty wet. Hui-Hui liked how the water dripped down out of the trees on us when we picked the apples.









Tina brought a picnic lunch for us, Kai had a big soup thermos full of leftover mashed potatoes and chicken. The guy is still very serious about his eating. One of the other preschool families there had brought a bag of the little frosted animal cracker cookies which they were sharing with everybody. They asked if Kai could have one. I told them I didn't think he'd eat it. Everybody thought he should be given the option as this might be the thing he finally decided to chew, so I said, "sure, go ahead." But Hui-Hui gave them "The Hand". and turned his head. If it ain't "hot soup" he ain't eating it!

In my department at work, Hui-Hui isn't the only new arrival. Two of my colleagues wives also had babies just before, and during our trip to China. The wife of another friend in the department decorates cakes so she sent in special cakes for all three new babies!
Hui-Hui was interested but was willing to share with the rest of us.


This was a very busy day and when it was finally time for bed he went down hard. It looks like Tigger is giving Pooh Bear a little competition in the "favorite snuggly" department...

Our household is returning to its normal patterns. The big boys are back in school. They come and go like they always have. Their friends are slowly being introduced to Kai, who seems to take all of this in stride. He continues to be this joyful, inquisitive, little boy.

He's becoming a little more comfortable with the dog and cat. We keep Daisy gated in the garage while Kai's awake. He can now go down the hallway past that gate when she's sitting there. He also "asks" us to bring the cat in for very short spells.


When I say he "asks" I mean he gestures this is what he wants. He's quite the little pantomime and gestures at us all the time. He beckons us to follow him, to sit down beside him, to get up, etc.

He continues to eat quite well, but he's not drinking milk or formula, so we sneak it into his cereal and other "bowl foods". I think we're going to try him on PediaSure and see if he'll take that.


"Hey! These aren't chopsticks!"



He goes to bed about 8:00 PM and will sleep as late as 8:00 AM. He naps from noon to 2:00 PM. He needs all this sleep because when he's up he's going all out!



A few more pictures...









Hui-Hui's impression of Babba...

When we were at The Temple Of The Six Banyan Trees our guide, Connie, said something to us that was so sweet it made Tina and me both cry…

She was telling us about the pagoda tower in the center of the temple grounds. The pagoda is 17 stories high inside, but is designed to appear 9 stories high on the outside. This is because the number 9 has special meaning to the Chinese. It is considered the biggest, and therefore, the most auspicious number.

Connie told us that building a 9-story pagoda to honor Buddha is considered an act of great virtue, and will insure much happiness in the next life. The only act considered more virtuous is that of saving a life. Then she told us that she believed people who adopt orphans with special needs into their families, have in fact saved a life, and so in affect have built a 9-story pagoda in their hearts.

We did not begin this journey in hopes of attaining any rewards in our next life or even this one. We set our feet to this path with the wish of bringing another child into our lives. It’s funny though how life works out. We didn’t even have to wait for our next lives. This has truly been the most miraculous event we could ever have imagined. Who would think that you could travel halfway round the world and find the very child meant for you waiting there?

Tina, Cam, Ben and I are all so in love with him. It will be another miracle if he doesn’t end up spoiled rotten! We are trying very hard to convince Cam and Ben that when he misbehaves (ie: throwing cups of milk!) it’s NOT funny! Teenage boys may not be the best influence on toddlers.

Ben is determined to teach him all the necessary skills though, beginning with skateboarding!


Hui-Hui seems less affected by jet-lag than the rest of us, but he was still up at 4:00 AM. Once he got going in his ‘Squeaky Shoes” The rest of us all got up with him too!


I brought Daisy the dog back from the kennel today, but we have kept her in the garage or in the back yard. Hui-Hui knows she’s here, and has seen her, but he is very afraid of her. We are taking it slow and hoping he desensitizes quickly.

Other than that, it’s been a quiet day, and he just keeps warming up more and more to us.