Update

It's been a long time since we've blogged. With both of us on FB, the blog has kind of taken a backseat.

Things have been busy, but good. We've all settled in at the new house and love it here. I was really worried about losing the extra bathroom, but it hasn't been an issue at all, and the additional 650 square feet of living space is amazing. Stanzi is doing fantastic. She's really become a typical 2 year old in many ways. On the other hand, she's super affectionate, has a great imagination and astounding comic timing. She's a joy to be around. She is also bonding with family members we don't see all the time. The picture above is of Stanzi watching hummingbirds with GG and Boppy. They were so happy that she remembered them from our last visit 2 months ago. She even remembered where GG keeps the toy box! She lalso oves talking to relatives on the phone and wished Papa and Pap Pap a happy father's day. We have a second babysitter now and Stanzi has adjusted so well to going to the sitter's on work days. She sleeps in a toddler bad and I got her off the bedtime bottle (finally :) All in all, life is pretty darn good here. We couldn't ask for anything more.

Halloween Fun

I wasn't sure how Stanzi would handle the idea of "trick-or-treat" but she picked up on the concept in no time: "If I'm cute and hold out my hand, they will give me candy". She's never really had candy but immediately realized it was a good thing.

Just some pictures...

Random pictures of watching football and eating Chinese take-out...

Oh, and about Stanzi....

Okay, this blog is supposed to be about our little girl, and the last post didn't say a thing about her. Everything's great. She sleeps extremely well (about 11 hours a night, plus a 2-3 hour nap during the day), and she's

growing like crazy. She's fully mobile (including going up and down stairs) and her vocabulary is growing every day. She now calls us "mama" and "dada", and the dogs "LaLa" and "RuRu." Just this morning she started saying the name of her hot breakfast cereal: "Coco" (it's Coco Wheats). She's still very much into music, so we're enrolling her in a "move to the music" class at the Salvation Army's Kroc Center. And she loves television, particularly Dora the Explorer and Yo Gabba Gabba! She's an absolutely delightful little girl, and the light of our lives. And she's going to love her new room, which is already painted pink and decorated with Tinkerbells.

Long Time No Blog

Let's see, the last entry here was from just after Father's Day. But those of you who know us are already aware that we've had an incredibly busy summer, because over Father's Day weekend we decided to put our house on the market. Just the weekend before I was riding my bike down Samaritan Avenue here in Ashland when I stumbled on an open house. We weren't even thinking about moving at the time, but I liked the look of the place, so I decided to go inside. It was love at first sight. Cherry hardwood floors, high ceilings, a gorgeous sunroom, and, best of all, lots and lots of space. It's nearly 50 percent larger than our current house, in fact. And the asking price was extremely reasonable.

When I got home I told Monica about it, and told her about the place's biggest negative--it only has one and a half baths (we currently have two full baths). She looked at the photos of the house online at the Coldwell Banker site, but she said that the bathroom situation was a dealbreaker. Okay, no big deal--as I said, we weren't really looking to move.

Two days later Monica informed me that she had a confession to make. She'd been surreptitiously visiting the Coldwell Banker site to look at the house, and now she wanted to see the real thing. So next day I made a phone call, and that very evening we were there. And Monica fell in love with it as well. The following day we left for Pennsylvania, our minds reeling. By the time we had reached Monica's parents' house in Sandy Lake we'd decided to try to sell our house.

The next couple of months were a blur, full of open houses and last-minute showings. Early on there were a few people who seemed really interested but no offers came. We looked at a few other houses, but didn't see anything we liked nearly as much as the place on Samaritan. After about six weeks Monica and I agreed that if the house we wanted sold to someone else, we'd take our current house off the market.

In the end things moved very quickly. While we were in Pittsburgh in mid-August (we celebrated our fifteenth wedding anniversary by going to a Steeler game, but that's a subject for another post) an agent showed our house. It was a Saturday afternoon. On the following Tuesday we got an offer. It was lower than we had hoped for, but still within the reasonable range. We contacted the agent for the people selling the house on Samaritan to see what kind of deal we could make, and I spent much of Wednesday on the phone engaged (via our agents) in a three-way negotiation with our potential buyers and sellers. By 5:00 that afternoon we had a deal, and that evening we signed the paperwork. We're scheduled to close--and move--on September 25.

If you'd told us back in March, when we'd just returned from China with our little girl, that we'd be moving in six months, we would've laughed in your face. But here we go. On the plus side, we have the sort of home I've always dreamed of living in. But it's going to be a bumpy few weeks.

Happy Father's Day

We had a wonderful weekend in Pennsylvania. We arrived on Thursday afternoon and my parents looked after Stanzi and the dogs so John and I could go out for a "grown-up" dinner. We decided to go to The Springfield Grille in Mercer. We both had beef and it was a lovely evening. On Friday my mom and aunt took Stanzi to the Pittsburgh Zoo and John and I went to Waldameer Park and Erie Brewing Company. Later that day we had dinner at the infamous Jules Tavern. It's a pretty typical dive bar but they have a "family section" for dining and they do "deep fried" to perfection. Yesterday we spent the afternoon at the Pymatuning Century Club. The weather wasn't ideal for sailing, but we had a great time on the porch (long live the porch rats!) My Aunt Betty & Uncle Butch, Uncle Ralph & cousin Danny were there. And Stanzi's Great Grandma and Great Grandpa came up from Boyers. And of course my Mom & Dad were there. We had a picnic supper and Stanzi got to finally meet many of the club members who waited 3 years to meet her. It was a really nice Father's Day celebration.

Now we're back in Ohio and today was kind of nuts. We've decided to put our house on the market and, since we have another house in mind already, we want to move as quickly as possible. The next couple of weeks are going to be a little crazy with trying to get everything in order and starting to pack, but the end result is going to be more square footage so it will be worth it.

In closing I want to thank my wonderful husband. I know he had a terrific Father's Day weekend and he knows how I feel; but I want everyone to know that I love that man and I couldn't do any of this without him. Not only did I get the best baby but I got the best husband, too. :)

Long Weekend

I'm sitting in the den listening to Stanzi cry, make that howl, herself to sleep. She usually fusses a bit, but she's really putting her lungs into it tonight. She was in a super nasty mood by the time I gave her a bottle and, even though she's completely exhausted, she's going to torture me some more. Actually the worst part about it is knowing she'll be covered in dried snot in the morning. At this point it's not really crying, it's more yelling. Very dramatic yelling. She'll stop for a couple of minutes and then pick it up again. I keep thinking she's finally asleep and then, "AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!! BBBBLLLLLAAAAAA BBBBBBLLLLLLAAAAA!!!! (gag, gag, cough, deep breath) AAAHHHH AAAAAHHHH AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!" Poor Stanzi.

I'm back to work tomorrow after a four day weekend. It was a nice weekend, too. I had a spa day (courtesy of my wonderful husband) on Friday, the Pizza Gang had a party for us on Saturday night (Jill made the adorable panda cake), a rather lazy Sunday with our very own pool party (see pictures) and a rather boring Monday since I worked some this morning and John worked this afternoon.

This weekend we did get Stanzi off of formula and onto whole milk which simplifies life a bunch. I took her in for a check-up on May 29 and Dr. Boyd (our local doctor) suggested it was time for the transition. He said that her diet is great and she's gaining weight appropriately so the formula is unnecessary at this point. I've also got her sleeping through the night again after a very long three weeks of midnight bottles. I will not be giving her late night bottles ever again! That's something else Dr. Boyd said is unnecessary. I blame myself for slipping back into it. At 3am it's easier to give her a bottle than listening to her whine for an hour. The next big step is for her to sleep in her nursery at night. That has to happen soon. It's not like we have a "family bed" but a pack-n-play next to the bed can be rather distracting if you get my drift.

The past month was huge as far as Stanzi's development goes. Not only is she walking, but she's crawling, rolling all over the place and her transition movements are outstanding. I can tell she understands a lot of what is said to her and she babbles quite a bit. She loves music and she dances and "sings" along. Ducks are still her favorite animal but she's grown fond of dogs as well. She loves giving hugs and kisses and waves goodbye. I'm a little shocked by her ability to just be quiet, content and affectionate. Considering she's 15 1/2 months old I'm surprised at her abiltiy to enjoy "happy, quiet time". What better way to decompress than with a loving baby in your arms, just content to be there?

I've also included a picture of my darling daughter having a meltdown at the dinner table last night. I know many of you think she's absolutely perfect, and she is in many ways. For instance, she saves her most dramatic fits just for her mama and dada. She's an angel in public and generally well behaved with new people, but with us she lets her hair down. We have a dozen pictures of the incident but the one I'm posting is my favorite. As John would say, it's a very "gibbon-y look".

More Pictures

I know Stanzi's Great Grandma & Great Grandpa miss her so I'm posting a few more pictures for them. A couple of them are a several weeks old but still cute. Oh, and I had to sneak in a picture of Ruby. I'm going to try harder to at least post pictures on a regular basis for those of you who don't get to visit regularly.

Just Photos

I don't really have time to blog but I wanted to share some photos for my Stanzi starved family. All is well in Ashland and, while "summer" doesn't really hit northern Ohio until July, the weather is lovely.

Day Care

This week Monica started back to work part-time. We both spent a lot of time wondering if this was the best thing for Stanzi, but after talking with several people we agreed that it wouldn't be a bad thing for her to spend a few days each week away from us.  That is, assuming we could find a decent child care provider.  We visited a few local centers, and each time we came away with the impression that this wasn't all that different from the orphanage where she would've spent her entire first year.  There was no way we were going to do that to her.

Then we went to see our friend Jill.  She and her husband, Stuart, own the Ashland Road Animal Clinic, which is where we've been taking our pets ever since we lived in this area.  While both of them are veterinarians, a few years ago Jill stopped being actively involved with the clinic when she had her first child.  She now has two beautiful kids--Dryden, age three, and Claire, who's just about to turn one.  Well, she's a great mom, and has a houseful of toys, so after some conversations she agreed to take care of Stanzi three days a week.  We're very happy with the arrangement, because she gets lots of attention while still being able to socialize with some kids close to her own age.  This photo was taken at their house, in fact.  Okay, she may look a bit shellshocked, but it was her very first day.  On the whole, things are going very well.  In fact, watching little Claire charge around the house seems to have inspired Stanzi to do a lot more crawling!

Everything's Ducky

Stanzi has officially spoken her first word. We think. She was in the tub when she pointed to her rubber duck and said "duck," or at least something very close to it. There was much excitement, of course, and now every time she points to something she says it. Each of the dogs is now a duck. So is a cup of hot coffee. I'm a duck, as is Monica. So is, well, just about everything. But it sure is cute. In this video you can see her calling the camera a duck, too.

Stanzi has never shown much interest in crawling. As soon as she learned that she could support herself by leaning against something her instinct has been to try to walk. No doubt this had something to do with the fact that her first year would have been spent almost entirely in a crib, where she could grab the bars and pull herself up into a standing position, but didn't have any place to crawl to. And Monica have been encouraging her desire to walk (letting her hold on to us, or putting her in her walker), and pretty much ignoring her inability to crawl. But then I read an article in the newspaper claiming that crawling is an important step in a baby's development. There are even studies suggesting a connection between not crawling and ADHD. Generally speaking I scoff at these "scientific" studies that will undoubtedly be disproven by the next study that comes along, but I must say that I'm sufficiently bugged by the prospect of my daughter being prescribed Ritalin that I'm now encouraging her crawling. So I've been putting her on her belly on the floor, and setting things she likes out of her reach. And while she's not quite crawling, she's creeping (or what they call "combat crawling"), dragging herself along the floor. She can go at a pretty good clip, but she's not at all happy with it, and is quite vocal about her displeasure.

Monica called this morning to tell me that Stanzi threw up for the first time since we've had her. We'd always considered ourselves pretty lucky in that regard, but apparently she barfed all over the place. Hmm, that probably explains why she was so cranky this morning, and why she barely ate any breakfast (she even turned up her nose at a waffle). But apparently she's fine now.

Happy Easter (well, almost, anyway)!

Well, how do you like that? I finally get a moment to blog, for the first time in, like, two weeks, and the darn site won't let me upload anything! Grrr. Well, at least I can count on Facebook. Long story short--everything is wonderful. For the past two nights Stanzi has slept through the night. True, she's woken up around 5:30 or 6:00 each morning, but we can certainly live with that. Heck, I'm an early riser anyway, so I don't have a problem getting up with her and letting mommy (who's not a morning person) get a couple of hours' extra sleep.

Monica took Stanzi to the Oak Adoptive Health Center this morning for a marathon of appointments, mostly dealing with her development status. She could tell the story much better than I can (I was stuck in faculty committee meetings all morning), but the gist of it is that, for a little girl who spent her first year of life in a Chinese orphanage, she's doing remarkably well. She's a bit behind when it comes to her gross motor skills and her communication, but the fact that she does little things like jabbering to her toys, and initiating hugs and kisses, means that she's communicating quite well, even though she hasn't yet spoken a word.

All right, Stanzi's now in bed, so Monica and I are going to watch some television. Good night, and Happy Easter!

"The Phone...the phone is RING-ing!"

Stanzi was in a bad mood yesterday. Maybe it's the teething--who knows? But here's the effect that the Wonder Pets have on her. There are a few television shows that she likes, but nothing compares to the Wonder Pets. As soon as she heard that music she stopped fussing, broke into a big smile and started moving to the beat. I downloaded the theme song from iTunes so I could play it for her anytime.

But now I can't get that music out of my head....

Older Video

This video takes place in the lobby of the Galactic Peace Hotel (I still love that name) in Nanchang. It's the first time Monica and Stanzi met face-to-face. The original video was much longer, because I had failed to turn off the camera and it kept running for nearly four minutes. Only the first fifteen seconds are at all interesting, but I didn't bother trying to upload a video that was mostly useless, and because the file was huge (nearly 300 MB) it would have taken ages to upload. Anyway, I finally figured out how to edit video using the Flip software, so I cut out all the superfluous stuff. Here it is--Monica and Stanzi meeting for the first time. Wow, it really is amazing how much our little girl has changed in just over a month's time.

There's POOP! In the POTTY!

Over the weekend we bought Stanzi a potty chair. We figured that since it's so glaringly obvious when her bowels are moving (our little drama queen) we might as well start getting her used to dropping her payload into some toilet-like receptacle.


She had just finished her supper tonight when she got that look on her face (a look not wholly unlike the one in the photo; and no, she wasn't pooping when I took that) and started grunting. I whisked her into the bathroom, where Monica quickly removed her pants and diaper and sat her upon the potty chair, which is made to look like a frog. And about thirty seconds later--well, you get the point.


This has been a good day all around. This morning she went with Monica to the library for story time. Midday she had a nice long nap, and in the afternoon a lady from the county's "Help Me Grow" program came by--at our request--to assess how she's developing. As we expected, she's a bit behind, particularly in communications skills. But the lady reassured us that it's nothing to worry about, and in a couple of areas, such as fine motor skills, she's right where most 13-month-olds are. Stanzi and I had some playtime this afternoon, and now Mommy is giving her a bottle and putting her to bed.


Poop in the potty. It doesn't get any better than that. Maybe that should get mentioned on her "Help Me Grow" assessment....

New Toy

I don't really have a lot of time to blog today as Stanzi will wake up from her nap soon, but I wanted to share some new video. John and I didn't even think they made baby "walkers" anymore, but we found one at WalMart yesterday and "The Gibbon" absolutely loves it. I wish we had more floor space, but the weather should start getting nice enough for her to use it on the patio. If you want to hear her giggling (and grunting), make sure you pause the music player at the bottom of the screen before playing the video. This kid is adorable!

Tomorrow morning Stanzi and I are going to the public library for "Baby Lap Time" which is a story time with music and movement for children up to 18 months old. I'm not sure what to expect, but it's free and it gets us out of the house. Tomorrow afternoon a representative from "Help Me Grow" is coming over to assess Stanzi's motor skills and verbal development. I'm very curious to see where she stands.

On Friday afternoon there was a wonderful party to welcome Stanzi to Ashland. Many thanks to John's colleagues for all of the work they put into that shindig. Stanzi has so many delightful new toys, clothes, blankets and other goodies because of our thoughtful and generous friends. You all reminded us, once again, why we love calling Ashland home.

Status Report

Can you believe this is the same little girl who used to SCREAM at the top of her lungs every time we tried to give her a bath? We laughed when we read suggestions in parenting books about making bath time part of a relaxing pre-bedtime ritual. But now she seems to enjoy being in the tub. She sure likes her rubber duck, anyway.

It's been hard to blog since we've been back from China, particularly now that spring break is over and I'm back to teaching. Last week was wonderful, though. When I got back from Idaho last Sunday night I saw big improvements in Stanzi's development in the four short days that I was gone. And in the past week I tried to make up for my absence with a lot of daddy-daughter time. It seemed to work, and now it seems hard to believe that she wanted nothing to do with me during our first few days together. Now whenever she seems me she flashes that million-dollar smile. Man, I'm in serious trouble with this one....

Stanzi's sleeping has gotten much better. She generally wakes us up once per night to take a bottle, although one night she surprised us by sleeping straight through. Generally speaking, though, she hates to go to bed, and kicks up a major fuss almost every night when we try to put her down. However, everything we've heard suggests that that's perfectly normal. She appears to be laboring under the delusion that Monica and I are doing something super-exciting after she goes to sleep.

Everything else is working out just fine! Most of the time she's a wonderfully pleasant little girl. She loves the dogs, except when they start barking too loudly for her, and they seem awfully fond of her, except when she tries to pull on their ears. She's still eating like a horse, but she's become far more discriminating in her choices. She has no interest whatsoever in baby food. She has ten teeth now, and she wants to USE those chompers. She enjoys some television shows, like "Wonder Pets" and "Imagination Movers." She still loves the jumperoo, but she's also on the verge of walking--I took her for a stroll around the house this afternoon, with her just holding on to me by one hand. She isn't saying any discernable words yet, but she babbles all the time, so she might be close to speaking as well. And--fingers crossed--we think we've found a child care arrangement that we'll all be comfortable with. I'm not going to jinx it by going into detail, but things are looking good.

Life is Good

I’m sure anyone with a baby has a tale to tell about sleep issues. Ours, so far, has been quite interesting. While were in Nanchang, Stanzi slept pretty well. She woke once in the night for a bottle and tended to be an early riser, but basically her sleep pattern was consistent. The trouble first started after we arrived in Guangzhou. Different crib, different hotel, different climate all added up to a rough first night. In fact, most families in our group had difficulty that first night in Guangzhou. Stanzi, however, developed a habit on that first night that she hasn’t yet kicked – fighting sleep. She’s become an expert at it, too, by the way. I, on the other hand, have become an expert at fighting Stanzi fighting sleep. Naptime is never an issue but nighttime is a total drama. There are countless theories as to why our adopted children have trouble sleeping: fear of the dark, fear of silence, fear of waking up alone as they have on so many mornings. Frequently, as she’s trying not to fall asleep, Stanzi will gaze into my face; sometimes she’ll reach out and gently touch my cheek or lips. There’s such depth in the dark pools of her eyes. It’s as if she’s afraid it may be the last time she ever sees me.

Stress and exhaustion make you do crazy things and the craziest thing I’ve done in quite some time is to go to battle with my one-year-old daughter over bedtime. Do I want my kid to sleep from 8 p.m. until 8 a.m. and nap everyday? Hell, yes! Who wouldn’t? Do I have that kid? I don’t think so. Does that child even exist? I wonder.

Yesterday I discussed the situation with our pediatrician, Dr. Kempf. Essentially she said there are no “right” ways to get your child to sleep. In the interest of both Stanzi and me getting enough rest “do what works” she said. So last night I called a bedtime truce. Eight o’clock rolled around and Stanzi showed no indication she was ready to sleep. By 8:45, however, all the signs were there. We went upstairs and snuggled in bed and she was asleep in my arms by 9:30. She was awake for two hours in the middle of the night which was kind of annoying, but we’ll work on that. All in all I figure I got about 7 ½ hours of sleep and six of them were consecutive. Not bad, and a lot better than the three to four I was getting during the “Great Bedtime War”.

So for the first time in a long time I had the energy to eat breakfast, shower, put on “real” clothes, apply a small amount of make-up and do a couple of loads of laundry. I even shaved my legs. Life is good.

Daddy-Daughter Time

Monica decided to make a solo trip to Wal-Mart, so Stanzi and I had our first extended (as in an hour and a half) Daddy-daughter time. Everything went fine; I was afraid she'd start demanding her Mommy, but she seemed content to hang out with me. I fed her some supper, and shot this video of her and Ruby. Then I changed a poopy diaper (I've finally gotten the hang of it), we played with the dogs a bit, and practiced her standing skills. She's started trying to stand on one leg; true, she's holding onto my hands as she does it, but she had a certain grace, almost like a tiny ballerina. Maybe dance classes are in her future?

Regarding the dogs: I don't know how many people, during the lead-up to the adoption, told us, essentially, that our dogs were in for a "rude awakening" when the baby arrived. Now granted, it's only been a few days, but I don't see how things have changed all that much for them. They're still sleeping on our bed, they're still playing with their toys, they're still getting attention from us. Yes, Stanzi's needs take priority, but if anything they're getting more attention, because Stanzi is fascinated with them (and vice versa). If anything, their lives may have gotten better, as they're now getting the generous bounty of dropped food from Stanzi's booster seat, and we're at home with them a lot more than we were before. Maybe I'm missing something, but I sure don't see any "rude awakening" for them--at least, not yet.

Tomorrow I have to get up early and drive two hours to Van Wert, Ohio, which is due west of here, close to the Indiana border. For the past few years I've been going there twice a year to do all-day seminars for high school teachers. Last October I spoke on the Cold War, going from 1945 up through the Cuban Missile Crisis; tomorrow I take the story up through the collapse of communism. Anyway, Wednesday I have to leave again, this time for Idaho, where I'm doing a workshop for high school teachers that'll run through the weekend. The good news is that the subject is World War II, so it'll be fun, it's sponsored by the Gilder-Lehrman Institute, which is a great organization to get involved with, I'm being paid rather well for it, and I've always wanted to visit Idaho, which is supposed to be beautiful (although I'm not sure how nice it's supposed to be in early March). The bad news, of course, is it takes me away from Monica and Stanzi so soon after our return from China. Fortunately Monica's cousin is coming to town later this week, and her parents (and perhaps her grandmother) will be coming on Saturday, so she'll be getting a little help--and some non-baby company.

New Photos

Bowing to popular demand, I just uploaded a bunch of Stanzi photos from our time in China. Right now I'm buried under a ton of grading, but I hope to do some more substantial blogging later this week. Maybe Monica will, too!

The photos (including the one on the left, with her in her adorable polar bear hat) may be found here.