Photos from the Portrait Shoot

I prefer outdoors or less formal shots, but these had to match what I have of the boys (or at least blend in) and they had formal portraits taken at 1 year. Yes, JM was in overalls in one, but the style was more formal.

I bought this dress around the time we decided to adopt from China. I chose a 12 month size because we were thinking NSN and knew our daughter would most likely be less than 12 months old when we got her. I thought we'd be traveling to get her in the summer of 2007 at the latest as well...thus sleeveless white dress. Not to mention it was on big time sale at Children's Place when I did get it! LOL

1 year portraits - a little late

With the boys we had their portraits taken on their 1st birthday (or very close to it), and then did a collage in a frame of them. One "good" shot and 4 personality shots. Each morning for the past month we've thought "We need to get Katie's done!"

Today was the day. We tried it. She's so mobile though it was like an aerobics workout. Up down turn around....dance dance dance....up down...fly like an airplane...up down...sit down...crawl...up down up down, and that was just US the adults. It was a long experience, and I'm not sure we got anything. We'll see though. I'm sure a few will turn out cute, might be the screaming her head off ones though.

Out-takes are good for a few laughs though...well more than a few laughs!

At the end, when it was dinner time and Katie was beyond done, we attempted all 3 kids together. That series of out-takes had us rolling in the floor laughing so hard! Samuel made these faces the entire time (well other than a couple shots), and there were a few where Samuel's faces rubbed off on JM...and then Katie. I might just have to show those.

Grandparents, yes, this means you should be getting photos of Katie in time for Valentine's Day! :)

Sweet!

While the boys were at Friday classes, I had Katie alone and I tried to get some portraits done. I have a few, but to say she only wanted to cooperate on her terms is an understatement. This was when we were all done, and one of the only smiles I got. :)

She's so sweet though that even the non-smiling images are cute!

1 month with us

Everyone asks how Katie is doing when we talk to them. She's really doing well. We all have moments here and there, but for the most part she's amazing. She has now been with us for 1 month (a little over 4 weeks). We've been home for 3 weeks.

Katie babbles constantly. We suspect she was speaking Chinese. She is saying a few words (those listed previously). Only now we are more convinced she knows what they mean. At least she pats me and says "momma" and when the cat meows, she says "MOW?" She says "uh-oh" when she drops something (on purpose mind you). She falls down, or "crashes" a toy on a table and says "Ka-boom!"

Katie is truly walking now. Before we said she was taking steps. She has started walking across the room, and is getting much faster. In fact she is almost running. It's not super great as she is super curious as well. We're having to relearn how to keep a curious active toddler out of things.

Katie is eating very well these days and trying to feed herself. She's only eating Gerber Stage 3 stuff (thickened with rice) but gobbles down the food. She's also finally started letting us know in some way she is thirsty or hungry (mainly she points and whines...particularly at the kitchen). It was tough there in the beginning when she did not give us clues that she wanted a bottle or some food. We had to guess.

She is laying her head on both of us, more so on Dh than myself. She runs to us and squeals when she sees us. She cries if one of use leaves the house (no longer when we leave the room unless we are the only one in the room with her...she still doesn't like being left alone). She will be okay if JM is in the room and pays her attention (hey I can finally go to the bathroom!).

When we meet new people, she no longer buries her head. She no longer flaps the hand at them that means "Go away." She smiles at them from our arms. If we put her down to walk, she laughs and giggles (but stays near us). She will give anyone "five." She will not go to anyone but Dh and I though (with the exception of a special person at Dh's work who spoke Chinese to her which she liked). If someone tries to hold her, she will turn in toward us (of if on the floor run and hug our leg and lift the arms up to be picked up).

Sleeping? Why is this the first question asked from everyone? LOL Katie has settled into a pretty good routine. She wants to nap around 2pm. She'll sleep for 2-3 hours. Getting her INTO bed at bedtime is hard these days (cries at being left alone...in the darkened room). But once asleep she does not wake up until the next morning (or at least she hasn't for about a week). She sleeps until 8-9am. We try for 12 hours of sleep at night, and 2 during the day. Daytime naps are easy to get her to go down for. We bought the Crib CD thingy and it's helping. I play lullaby music at night (same one nightly), and during nap she gets her Chinese CD or Little People CD, or another if I can find some more. :)

She does voice her displeasure at being disciplined. She likes to playfully hit me (at least I hope it's playfully). I catch her hands, hold them, look her in the eye and say "NO HITTING!" rather sternly. She cries. One night she hit hard, and I was a little more stern. She melted in my arms and cried her little heart out and CLUNG to me. I patted her, hugged her, and told her I still loved her but I did not like being hit.

I can not believe it has already been a month!

Wow, that's a lot of pink!

Tonight Dh was helping me with some laundry (well, he was standing there as I was putting the load in to be washed). As I was putting handfuls of PINK items in the washing maching, he commented, "Wow, that's a lot of PINK! I don't think we've had that much pink total in our washing machine in the 11 years we've been married."

I think he was exaggerating a wee bit, but I do admit that it IS a lot of pink. But in our defense, we had 2 boys. That's a LOT of blue and green. Katie looks really good in pink. She does not, however, look good in green or yellow or orange or peach or coral which are other "typical" girl colors. So, we are limited to pink, purple, and red clothes for the most part.

Of course I'm not complaining!

Now if I could only stay off that big auction site. I'm resisting so far on buying items, but it's been close a few times (been outbid). I've fallen in love with 2 outfits in particular...both shipped would be just over $50. I'm resisting greatly. It's going to be a contest though between my will power to NOT buy anything and Dh's willpower to NOT eat out. Who do you think will give in first?

Katie LOVES her brothers

Oh look it's my brothers! I just LOOOOVE my brothers.


OH MY GOODNESS!!! They are coming over to play with me! They are going to pay me attention!!! Wonder what they are going to do?


*GIGGLE* Oh JM's tickling me! Make him stop!!! *GIGGLE* Oh I love when he tickles me, I just laugh and giggle. When he does stop I grunt and whine until he tickles me again.

No, this is the BEST news!!

Tonight, holding Katie getting her ready for bed, she patted me on the stomach and said "Momma" and then she patted my arm and said "momma" and then she blew me a raspberry.

Cardiology Appointment News

Okay, the rest of the family has been told...I think. If not, it's all Dh's fault! I felt like I needed to tell them in person Katie's good news. :)

The doctor did the ??? and looked at the heart:

#1 - NO tricuspid valve regurgitation
#2 - the PFO really did close as per the 8 month ultrasound that was done
#3 - the PDA is still "barely" there. It is so itty bitty tiny that there is nothing that they can do for it at this point. Likely she'll have it the rest of her life, but it might still close (doubtful though).
#4 - No other abnormalities found

I asked what this meant. The doctor said that we should consider her as having a normal heart. I asked about restrictions. He said none. Thinking this was almost too good to be true, I asked specifically about going to Disney (priorities you know). ;) He told us that the signs on the rides that say "Do not ride this ride if you have a heart condition" do NOT apply to Katie.

He wants to see her again in 3 years just to check and make sure the PDA is not any larger (he doesn't expect it to be).

Isn't that the best news?!

and she's OFF!

Katie is really walking around these days. She's almost running as well.



Who else has this ability? I sure don't!

rejects for 366 challenge

It was rather nice today, and we were able to finally take down the lights that were up outside. Christmas is gone until November 2008. Katie enjoyed getting outside and playing in the grass. I would stand her up, she'd sit back down and explore the grass. Oh well. She had fun. Looked really cute in that bunny rabbit hat as well. ;)



After lunch we took the boys to ride bikes, and put Katie in the stroller. I think she enjoyed it. At least she didn't cry at all, she even giggled and smiled some (especially when I ran with the stroller).





Why yes I do have other children!!! See, JM is still alive. :)

more of Katie from the challenge

this was my 2nd choice for the 366 challenge tonight...well Saturday. ;)

She's telling me off in her head, I know she is. She wants a bottle and wants it NOW. Not to mention she's on the floor and I'm holding the camera. In her mind, that camera should be put down and she should be picked up! ;)

So I went to the Post Office...

and I shipped 3 packages and bought a sheet of Disney stamps (have you seen them? oh so cute)

and then I thought, I'm right here by Wally-world, why don't I go check to see if they have that Crib CD thing. They did not, but they did have socks for Katie, Dh's diet cola drinks, Luvs diapers, Goodnights, and that Baby Einstein Mirror book. They also had extremely LOOOOOOONG check out lines. 2 express checkouts were open, with about 20 carts each.

30 minutes later, I was walking out of Wally-world.

and then I though, I bet giant baby store has that crib CD thing. So I drove across town to giant baby store. I bypassed getting a cart because I was ONLY getting the crib CD thing.

and then I saw a red balloon. Huh? What's with the red balloon? Extra 30% off of clearance prices? Making this DRESS $8.75?! Okay, size 24 months for next Christmas for Katie.

and then...3 more balloons? Really? A pooh sweatsuit for $4.80? OH this pretty outfit for $4.80? and this ONE? Pretty soon I had 20 outfits in my hands.

and then, you know, I really need a cart. So I head to the front of the store to get a cart. I pass by a table with pacifiers on it. STRAIGHT nipple pacifiers. Only in blue though. Hm...perhaps if I go look over there with the other baby supplies. I pick up the blue pack just in case, get my cart, and head to the baby supplies. I find a pink set. Perfect.

and then, OH YEAH, the crib CD thing. So I walk to the back of the store and look around the cribs. No CD player thing. I walk to the toys. No crib CD player thing. I walk to the special gift area. No crib CD player thing. I walk by the "Red Balloons" again, and OH look that's a cute outfit....and another and another....oh...ummm...crib CD thing.

I head back to baby supplies (the only place other than the car seat aisles) that I had not checked. I look down through the monitors. No luck, but there is a new Deluxe Angel Care baby monitor. If we ever have another newborn, then that is the one I would want. Next aisle was bath toys. Then diaper pails (and I wonder if we need one or not). Last aisle and I'm giving up hope when I spy...

a PRINCESS bib!!! Katie doesn't have any real "toddler" style bibs. I debate on the plasticized cloth ones or the white terry cloth one that has PRINCESS embroidered on it. I go with the one that says Princess.

and then I remember my quest for a crib CD thingy. So I look on the other side of the aisle and find a "I-crib" thingy. It's on clearance for $20. Not included in the extra 30% off as that only applied to clothes and shoes. But it needs us to have an MP3 player or an I-pod.

seriously, we don't OWN any.

and then, I spy, right next to it, the crib CD thingy!!!! It's $40. Has a night light a timer...and attaches to the crib. Oh joy joy joy!!!! I can go back to the clothes. Priorities you know. I walk to red balloons, park the cart, and pull out my only calculator - my cell phone.

and then I enter in all the clothes (well half) and make a mistake and accidently clear the screen. I re-enter all the numbers and am about to press equals...the phone rings. It's Dh. He wants to know where I am and if I'm okay. Because I was going to the Post Office and it's now been about 2 hours. I tell him all of the above.

and then I remember he has access to a calculator so I ask him what is 70% of $12.50? of $6.90? of $5.50? Then I start trying to figure out which outfits I truly LOVE, which I like, and which I can live without. I'm down to 3 outfits.

and then I spy some sweatsuits and outfits on clearance but without a red balloon! They are included, just the red balloon was taken off. Sneaky people. I'm back up to 6 outfits now. I swear to myself that I am leaving. I really am....but I spy Valentine's outfits. I find a cute shirt for Katie for this year. I'm really leaving this time.

and then I see it...a perfect outfit for next fall - Disney Princess windsuit! It's 3T though. I want 2t. So I chase down the sales clerks, and ask "Where did this come from because I've been all over the store and I can't find it's rack and I really want a 2t so do you have anymore somewhere?" It's from giant toy store affliate. So I buy it anyway and pledge to go to giant toy store affliate to find the 2t and exchange.

and then....yes THEN I head home. Where I feed Katie dinner, tell Dh I want to go to giant toy store and I need C batteries for crib cd thing. So we go out to eat, drive to giant toy store - I find 2t outfit and exchange, we drive to computer store closing down to get laptop bag...we remember C batteries...there are none there...and drive to Red bullseye store, where I get batteries and container for receipts....

and then, yes THEN I'm headed home for the night.

What did I do?

She is a little anxiously attached these days, and if you put her down for second she cries. It only lasts a few seconds, but these huge crocodile tears well up in her eyes and she looks at you like you just killed her best friend. Yes, I'm a wimp, I will give her a big hug and typically pick her back up.

I give it a few more months then I will start working on my strength to resist those tears.

(I'm doing a 366 challenge - you take a photo a day for a year, this was today's)

Can I have a do-over?

It started BRIGHT and early this morning, like at 6am. Katie had her cardiology appointment at 7:45am. Getting us all up, out the door, and find this new doctor's office was a chore. We were about 5 minutes late.

Report from this appointment will be forthcoming! :)

We got home around 8:30am (yes really quick appointment, being first does have it's advantages). The boys did some schoolwork, Samuel took a nap, Katie and I took a nap...I burned some rice. I fed the boys and Katie lunch. Called my Mom.

12:30 and I remembered Karate! Yelled at the boys to find their Gis, tried not to laugh at Samuel wearing JM's gi pants from his old gi. Found the new ones. Got everyone in the van. We got to Karate about 5 minutes late.

Sat and visited with the other Karate Moms. Talked to one mom there at the end of class and remembered...the RICE. I forgot to turn off the boiling pot of rice. Begged my friend to bring the boys home, raced home (with Katie) to find my rice was well and truly burnt. ;)

Put Katie down for a nap (it was 2pm after all). Had Samuel work on school work. Had JM study his spelling words. Tried to stay awake. Katie woke up at 4:15pm. I realized it was past time to make it to JM's birthday party (luckily only 5 minutes up the road). On the way I remember that I forgot pizza, drinks, plates, party favors....good thing Dh was picking up the cupcakes that I had only ordered the night before.

Get to the party and I remember I forgot the Lunchable Pizza for my friend's little boy who is allergic to eggs and tomatoes. I felt TERRIBLE. The party location had "favors" I could buy, we ordered Pizza and drinks as well. We're at the party, visiting with friends and someone is using my camera to take photos of all the kids! YEAH!!!

I forgot the CF cards for the camera.

Luckily I had the point and shoot in the diaper bag, but all those first good images were not on any memory card.

I hope tomorrow is a better day. LOL

Katie's Words

I've been asked if Katie is talking yet. Well she babbles. However she has said a few things.

My-Mom (this is what she said over and over in China, and we think it refers to her Foster Mom)

No-no-no-no (this means No)

Momma (not sure if she means me, or just babbling. She might mean Dh though)

mow - she says everytime she sees a cat, yes a cat says "meow" :)

and I swear today, when she saw our cat she said "Kitty" and visions of Monsters Inc. popped in my head. LOL

Miss Katie - 3 weeks with her family

Backtracking to China Photos

I finally am getting around to editing more photos from China. These are from Beijing - Forbidden City and Tienanmen Square.

I loved the architecture that we saw everywhere. The stones/bricks in the courtyard in front of the one building were 15 somethings deep. LOL It was so that no one could tunnel under the Forbidden City and attack the emporer. The little dragon creature is a rain spout! I thought that was neat, the rain would run down the roof and come out the mouth.

1st doctor's visit

Katie weighs in at a whopping 18 pounds and 5.5 ounces! That's 1% for those who care. She was 30% for height, and the doctor was impressed by how she looked and how she was acting.

He listened and listened and did not hear the murmur either, so it's looking better and better that her PDA has closed on its own. We do have an appointment with the pediatric cardiac specialist next week for an echo.

We decided to check her titers, and will pick up with what we need to complete at her next appointment which is her 18 month check up. Overall, little miss Katie is doing GREAT!

best news? She wanted ME over Dh and came to me out of his arms at the doctor's office. Then this morning, she dove out of Dh's arms into mine at home!

Photos - First week at home

All Katie. All from our first week home.

Photos - We're HOME!!!

This first is from the airport when we finally got home...late Wednesday evening. I took this one as soon as we got off the plane at home. Our church was so nice and sent an emissary to Houston to meet us. Okay, not really, but we did run into someone we know from church fairly well in Houston as he was there on business. He actually sat right behind us on the plane. The itty bitty tiny plane.




These two photos were taken by members of our welcoming party.

Life at Home

with a toddler is interestngi...takte the words typed hd. Katie is helping, mostly by hitting the delete key, or teh shifskey or the Up or down arrow key, so it makes it quite interesting.

She is now coming to me without crying, even when I pull her from Dh's arms. :) She smiles at me, talks to me, laughs with me, and plays. She is eating really we0ll now. She devours whatever food I put in front of her, and I'm trying to make it gentle type stuff. She LOVES squash casserole though. She loves her brothers and watches them
intently. She does not like hairbows or the like however. I'm working on it though. It's a battle of wills, and at this point I'm not sure who has a stronger will. Me or her.

She likes her clothes so far, and smiled and wanted to wear her dress this morning. Of course her options were limited, so don't read too much into that. With family visiting this past weekend, she was great. She went willingly to her grandfathers, but didn't seem to want to go to any of the women. She did smile at them though. She is relaxing more and more each day, and accepting us more and more. Dh is still her very favorite, and late at night when she wakes up he is who she wants.

Nights are still a little rough for us, she is going to bed around 8pm and waking up around 1am. She gets scared at being alone, and we soothe her back to sleep. She wakes up again around 3am. Again, we soothe her to sleep, but mostly she ends up in bed with us as we're exhausted and have learned that the every 2 hour pattern will hold for the rest of the night. If we have her in bed with us, she stays asleep (or quiet) until we are ready to get up. It works for now.

Katie is extremely curious about her surroundings and has managed to de-deck the lowest foot of our Christmas tree. She's pulled on the ribbon, and tasted it. Slowly, but surely, the lowest 3 feet of our home is being explored...and put up higher out of her reach. It's amazing that you think your house has been baby-proofed only to discover how little you actually did.

Samuel is trying to learn how to "gate-hop" these days, and it's not easy. I'm trying to figure out how I am going to block the top of the stairs without leaving permanent markings on the railing/spindles. The wall I could patch. We need a walk-through something for Samuel, but I'm just not sure what I'm going to do for this area to baby proof. I know it won't be for very long as we will teach her how to navigate stairs, but I'm sure it will be longer than I think.

Pictures will be coming...soon I promise. :) Just have to get them off the camera's card, and honestly I want to include some of Christmas as well.

I hope you all have a WONDERFUL Christmas!

We made it home!

and jet lag is kicking our rears. Exhausted during the day and can't sleep at night. Katie seems to be adjusting better than we are, but then again she was still sleeping a lot in China - 8-10 hours at night and 2 naps during the day. At home right now it's more like 3 long naps a day. The flights were okay, very bumpy on all 4 flights. Only delay was in Houston, and it was less than an hour. We did have to go through security 4 times on the way home, at each airport. Mainly due to various reasons - getting on the airplane in Guangzhou, switching from domestic to international, from international to domestic, changing terminals in Houston. Such JOY filled our hearts in Houston when we realized that we had to go through security AGAIN. LOL

She's feeling much better, Dh and I are getting over a cold/chest congestion as well. We're not sure if we caught a cold or if it was all smog/cigarette smoke/mildew induced congestion. Whatever it is, we're clearing up!

Katie is eating much better now, and does like baby food as well as her Chinese formula. She still wants to be held all the time, which is hard on Dh as she only wants to be held by him. We did find out that she will sit in her high chair and play while are in sight. I'm thinking a walker might be in our future as she seems to enjoy sitting and playing in that kind of thing. She is NOT happy sitting on the floor playing with toys.

One thing we have noticed is that she does not seem to have the ability to really roll over well, nor can she get to a sitting position from laying down. She can walk, but she doesn't seem to know how to get from laying on the ground or sitting to standing. She does seem to know how to crawl though. I'm hopeful that she does know how to do all these things, but the adjustment to us and having been sick has prevented her from showing us these tricks.

Almost over

It's sort of bittersweet that our time here in China is almost over. Today we have the swearing oath at the Consulate, we'll get Katie's visa, and then early tomorrow morning we fly to Beijing to catch our 1:40PM flight to San Francisco...to start our journey home. I'm hoping that our journey home is less eventful than our journey to Beijing. We really need it to go smoothly as Katie is still sick (doing better), I'm having breathing issues myself (asthma reaction to air pollution), and Dh has caught some sort of respiratory infection or similar reaction to the air pollution. I don't think Guangzhou is any worse than any other city we've been in, but it's just been so long since we've been in clean air.

The cigarette smoke is really starting to bother us as well, we just are not used to it. Here people can smoke practically anywhere - restaurants, grocery stores, shopping malls, hotels, and I've seen quite a few ignore the no-smoking signs in elevators. The airports can be bad as well, smoking in the seating areas and little air circulation. It's just been rough on Dh and I to deal with that, and it appears that Katie is not used to it either.

The traffic is interesting here, not nearly as crazy as I thought it would be. Sure it's different, but I actually feel fairly safe. Crossing a street can be interesting though, but if you cross with a group of people you are fairly safe. You don't have to watch carefully for cars on the sidewalk, but you do have to be aware that they can be driving there.

The people are friendly, but sometimes they will stare at us. I think they are trying to figure out why two Americans have a Chinese baby. Everyone is friendly though. Communication can be interesting though. For example, when we got to this hotel we had 4 feather pillows. As I'm allergic to feather pillows, we called housekeeping to get a different pillow. After a little bit of trying to make himself understood, the desk told Dh to go to the Business Center to get a pillow. We ended up having our guide help us the next morning. Our mistake was not asking for "Cotton Pillow" I think. When we go to a restaurant, like Pizza Hut or KFC, we have to get the picture menu to order. It's not been hard at all. We've not been very adventurous on our own for trying Chinese restaurants. However, we've laughed with our travel mates over some of the funny room service tries. One tried to order Sweet and Sour chicken. She said "with the orange sauce on the chicken and noodles." Her room service arrived and they had noodles with orange juice. I'm sure the chefs were thinking "What crazy things they eat!"

We found out recently that last Monday our flight out of Beijing was one of the only ones out that day. It was snowing when we left, and they de-iced the plane. It was a little scary for me, but right after that Beijing had lots of snow and the airport cancelled all the rest of the flights for that day. If we had not been able to leave that day, we would not have gotten Katie on a Monday, so our passports for her would not have been ready on Friday, meaning we would not have been able to come to Guangzhou on Saturday...and our entire trip here would have been extended by at least 3-4 days. Just the thought of what could have happened with that makes me thankful we were able to fly out somewhat on time.

Katie seems to be accepting me more, and last night when Dh gave her the amoxicillin (which she hates) she reached an arm out to me so she could get away from the medicine giver. That is the very first time she "reached" for me. She was crying, did not stop crying in my arms, but did not get worse either. She was looking at me this morning as well without turning away. We did not maintain great eye contact, but she did hold it for about a second or two. No spontaneous smiles from her to me, but she will smile if we are playing together while she sits in Dh's lap.

I can not believe how fast this trip has gone, it seems just like yesterday that we were having all those flight troubles to get here. I can laugh about it now though.

Those of you in our hometown, our flight is scheduled to get in fairly late (after 9pm). As of this point I think we're good to go for a welcome, but Katie may not smile for any of you. She tends to turn into Dh when we meet new people. If we're coughing, just know it probably is not something contagious, just by-product of the air quality here. If you want specific flight information, email me or leave a comment. Given our trip to Beijing, I will try to update the blog if flights change on us.

Red Couch photos

While on Shamian Island shopping we ran to the White Swan hotel for the "traditional" red couch photo for all adoptive families. It was NOT what I expected, and one day I hope to stay there. That hotel lobby is beautiful. Of course we've seen lots of gorgeous hotel lobbies on our trip, which is a by product of staying in 5 star hotels.


Isn't she just beautiful?! We are not sure if this is an outfit for girls or not, but I thought it was gorgeous on her.


Cheesy Smile, but she gave it to us! :)


Katie and Lia - Two Yunnan Beauties I think this photo is really cute...it's like Katie is telling Lia "It's okay, you just smile and they make that thing flash and it's over."


Lia and Katie exchanging that telepathy that says "These people are crazy. Why do they keep taking photos of us? I guess we're superstars now!"



I forgot to mention that I went with Lia's Mommy to the spa yesterday for a Sauna and Full body massage. I am not too sure about the sauna part, especially the moist heat portion. However, I could become addicted to those massages...especially the foot massage. I think that is why I like pedicures so much!



Dh is LOVING these jade ships. The intricacy of the carving is amazing to see in person.

The Best Translation I've heard here!!!

Okay, there are some funny translations on signs, some cute stories in trying to get ourselves understood, but this translation that our guide did for us is the absolute best!

From Katie's Medical Exam (for the Consulate):

"Orphanage notes heart defect. No murmur found. Recommend further examination upon arrival home."

Okay it was something like, I about started crying when Rosa told us. We thought that is what they were saying, but to actually hear it! Wow. Now, to verify with our pediatrician and pediatric cardiologist.

Update on Katie

We ended up going to a Western doctor here today, Katie was laboring to breathe and the doctor said she was wheezing pretty badly. Gave her 2 nebulizer treatments, some better decogestant/cough meds, and an inhaler (that should be fun). He also gave us his mobile number so if we need him tonight or tomorrow we can get in touch with him. Right now it's just an acute upper respiratory infection with dilated bronchial tubes. Not Bronchitis or pneumonia (both of which were going through my mind).

She's doing pretty good overall.

Bad part? We were at the doctors during the consulate appointment so if they had questions we were not reachable! ACK!!! Our guide knew we were there and could have told them how to reach us. But we were scared anyway. No questions thankfully and Katie should have her Visa!! Yippee!!!!

This afternoon is a museum and then shopping again. Need to check that list we have and make sure we have everyone covered. Unfortunately I can not find Pink Grapefruit Mentos...fruit ones yes...but not pink grapefruit ones. I have 4 other people looking as well, so hopefully we can find it.

Random Katie Photos

Some are from where I found the camera in the hotel room, some are from shopping on Shamian Island...notice there is one of our family (Katie is soothing herself and not looking at the camera...then I leave and take the photo and she does SMILE for me).

Our Breakfast views...

This is a view out the window of the restaurant...on the 45th floor. Katie also needs a completely clear space in front of her when we eat. She grabs at everything.

Photos from Medical Exam

The medical exam was just 3 different stations - height weight, ENT (figure out if she can hear), and then medical exam (physical and listening to the heart).





As you can see, Katie was NOT happy about it.