It's Grace's birthday today and to celebrate, our little "Chinese Snow" has brought us just that; an ice storm last night followed by a predicted 12 inches of snow today which is falling steadily and looks like it will live up to its billing. School has been cancelled so the morning play-date with the twins from Sophie's class has turned into five kids racing around the house just waiting to get bundled up and go outside. We are all decorated for Christmas already in anticipation of Grace's surgery next week. We thought it would be a good idea to get everything done before that since we'll all be a little sidelined for the next few weeks. The tubes in the ears and the unexpected root canal all went very smoothly. Can't really tell yet if there's any difference in her hearing but she has started to say "Mama" in the appropriate context, so we think there's something getting through. She also mouths the words "baby" and "bye-bye" but doesn't vocalize them yet.
She continues to amaze us all with her level of happiness. People who meet her for the first time can't believe how well adjusted she is. She goes easily to the nursery at church and doesn't even cry any more if a sitter comes and she sees me leave. She still gets really excited when there is a big group of people around, especially kids. Thanksgiving with Dave's family was a blast and she played with all the big kids, even let several strange relatives (double meaning there certainly not meant :-) pick her up. The biggest help is that she's starting to settle down around the house as far as what she's interested in and what she can touch. She understands more about what a toy is and what things are off limits. She understands if we say "no" or "don't touch" and doesn't have a problem with it. She's even left the Christmas tree and decorations mostly where they started out.
We switched bedrooms around as Sophie really wanted a turn sharing rooms with Grace and Lily was ready for a break. Now Grace is in Sophie's room and Lily got the double bed in hers. It seems to be working out fine. Sophie is a little more tolerant of all the noise Gracie makes when she's going to sleep and sleeps right through any fussing at night. We've been told to expect a long stretch of sleeplessness after the surgery, so I'm considering moving into the basement with Grace. I could sleep on the futon and we could put up the port-a-crib for Grace. That way we could also sanitize the area of sharp stuff and she and I could hang out down there when everyone else is eating. That's definitely going to be the hardest part about it: the eating. She'll be on a total liquid diet for the first three weeks, then a week of baby food, then two weeks of only soft stuff. The test for what passes as liquid is that it has to pass through a cheese cloth (if anybody has one of those any more) The hard part will be that this kid loves to eat. I think she'd sit in her highchair and eat all day if we'd let her. She also notices everything that I give to the other kids or eat myself. Forget trying to give them something and not her. She cranes her neck and points and starts throwing a fit the second you put it down in front of them. So obviously she is not going to be happy if she sees them eating away and is not allowed to join in; hence the basement idea.
We took her out for her first excursion in the snow today and she really liked it. When she first saw the kids getting their stuff on to go outside she went into the hat/glove basket and assembled her own ensemble (see rather gangster-like picture) Then I decked her out in everything and put her in the little sled. I pulled her up and down the street for a good half hour and she was smiling and dragging her mittens in the snow. It was coming down pretty heavy so by the end she had a nice dusting covering her hat and coat. She even liked to be pulled down the little hill in the neighbor's yard with all of the other neighborhood kids. I took pictures until the camera battery died, but I think I captured her first snow experience on her second birthday. How appropriate for little HuaXue (chinese snow) Her foster family sent many birhtday wishes by email today and told us that their other foster child, Grace's "little sister" is being adopted by a family in Spain and will be leaving them on Dec. 18th. How funny to think that she will be growing up speaking Spanish while Grace is here speaking English and they both started out together in China. It is a strange world we live in.
Funny birthday story: Yesterday we received a card from Dave's Aunt and Uncle in South Bend and I remember thinking "that's a really nice card," because let's be honest, greeting cards aren't always the most memorable of works of art, but this one was really sweet with a nice little rhyming story and a pop-up flower on the inside. So today two cards came for Grace in the mail; one from my Mom and Dad and one from my Aunt. Our mail gets delivered directly through a slot in the front door and the girls always run to get it as soon as it comes in, so they found the cards right away and asked if they could open them for Grace. Sophie opened hers first and we all started laughing because it was the same card we had gotten the day before, and then Lily started yelling because she opened hers and it was also the same card! So I guess everyone agreed with me that it really was a nice card :-)
It has been noted by several dogged blog followers that Dave does not appear in any of the pictures posted since we returned from China. Even the foster family asked, "what has happened to Grace's father, Dawei?" So in response I have made it a point to post a picture that includes Dave. You may all rest assured that Dave still exists.
If you're wondering about the picture of the big ship, that is the Queen Mary 2 arriving at the port in Hamburg to be repaired. Some of you may not know that I took a quick, five day visit to Hamburg last month to surprise a dear friend, who is not in the best of health, for his birthday. While I was there the "Queen" arrived and it was quite the happening. She came in around 8:00 p.m. and there were thousands of people lining the port just to catch a glimpse. It is an astonishingly large ship. It's probably hard to tell from the pictures, but those buildings looking dwarfed at her side are not as small as she makes them look. Anyway, it was an event to say the least. I had a very nice, but too brief visit with the Fahls, who were sort of my family away from home when I lived in Hamburg. We celebrated Lothar's birthday and had lots of Kaffee und Kuchen. Edda and I got to wander around the city for a day and visit all of the old hang-outs. We even found the Seebeck, the ship Dave and I were married on. It was hard to say good-bye as Lothar has been diagnosed with a cancer that is not treatable and I will probably not see him again, but we all did surprisingly well and it meant a lot to all of us that we got to have that good-bye.
We'll try to keep you posted about Grace's progress after the surgery. Keep us in your thoughts on Tuesday (and Wednesday, and Thursday....) Happy Holidays!
Susan
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