Wednesday, October 13, 2010

One year ago today…

I saw Feng Jiang Yan’s face for the first time. Our little Tiger, Abby. I can’t even describe the joy we felt upon first seeing her picture. All those years and years of waiting melted away, and we knew without a doubt that she was meant to be our little girl.

Fast forward to today… we love this child with every cell in our body. She is the light of our lives and continues to amaze us each and every day. At 19 months old she is into everything. All hands and feet and go go go! She is really starting to use words more and more. I can ask her her name and she will say Abby. Then I can ask her what’s my name and she will say mama. She knows the dogs name is Maggie and has recently started calling Derek Daddy instead of always dada.

She is stringing together her words now to form short sentences. Bye bye dada. Up peas. (please). no, no, no maggie. (when maggie is trying to steal her food). She loves to be outside and can say grass, trees, flowers, bee, bird, doggy.

She loves animals (elmos as she calls them) and can oink, moo, and bah with the best of them.

Our little girl is rapidly leaving her babyness and is fast becoming a toddler. Oh. My. Goodness. In some ways I am ready for her to be able to talk more and communicate and understand more. But I will morn the loss of my sweet little snuggly baby.

Here are some recent pictures, these were taken at her first Clemson Football game on 9-4, so they are about 1.5 months old…IMG_1259 IMG_1261 IMG_1255

Abby and her daddy

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Ready for Football season!

Today we made our annual trip to the Valley for some new Clemson gear… of course we ended up outfitting our newest little Tiger….

and I present CJ Spiller’s #1 Fan!

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Here’s a few more… just because she’s so stinkin’ cute…

Abby at 17.5 months..

(BTW, the overalls are a size 12 months and they swallow her whole, but hey, they’ll work for next year too!)

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Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Words Abby can say….

Uh Oh, Bye Bye, Dog, Mama, Dada, Hi, Bird, Ball, Backpack, Dora, More, and she can growl like a Tiger.

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Windows Live Writer… does this mean I’ll Post More often?

I just downloaded Windows Live Writer after reading about it on another Adoptive Mom’s blog. Her posts are always so funny and well put together, so I thought I’d give it a whirl. Here’s a picture to get things started… Abby and Mama

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Is it Spring yet?

This mama has SPRING FEVER!!!! Hurry up warm weather, I'm ready for you!
 
Abby is learning so many things since she's been to school (aka daycare). Recent things she's picked up since starting daycare are:
 
1. drinking from a straw
2. clapping
3. mimicking us when we cough
4. standing for a few seconds
5. trying to get into cabinets
6. jabbering on and on loudly about something. Anyone speak baby?
7. wants to feed herself all the time now and does so well!
 
We are very excited that we are going to have a mini-reunion with some of those in our travel group over Memorial Day weekend. YAY!! Asian Invasion in Hotlanta!


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Thursday, March 04, 2010

snow and stuff...

Well I am back at work. Daycare for the most part has been going well. But I hate only having about 2 hours with my girl before bed time. I can't WAIT for the weekend to get here. Lots of play time. Lots of mommy-Abby time.
 
The daycare teacher has said that Abby's only problem is that she wants to be held all the time. Heh. Imagine that. Probably because we hold her all the time. Who wouldn't want to? I told the teacher that Abby had 8.5 months of never being held and from the day we got her, we have held her and loved on her, and you know what? Abby decided she liked it and it was good. So it's a good thing she wants to be held all the time!
 
This weekend is Abby's first birthday!!!! I can't imagine that she's already one. She has changed so much since we became a family. When we got her she could just barely roll over and couldn't sit up by herself at all. 3 months later, she is crawling and pulling up and wants to walk so badly. She was toothless but now has 4 teeth. She had never been fed anything but the bottle and now she wants nothing to do with babyfood, only wants table food! She can say Mama, Ma (for maggie), uh oh, and bye bye, though she won't talk on command at all. When asked where's daddy, she looks at him, when asked where's Nai Nai, she looks at Edra, and has no problem picking Maggie out either!
 
She won't leave poor Maggie alone. She crawls over her, pulls on her, "pats" her and in general just tortures her. But Maggie must love it, as everyday when we get home from "school" she runs around in circles jumping up and down and tries to kiss Abby. It really is cute!
 
I'll leave you with some pictures, because I know that's what you want to see!


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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Abby is Crawling!

And it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact she was wearing a Clemson onesie....




Friday, January 22, 2010

For no other reason than she's so stinkin' cute

I decided to whip out the camera today. I love this green on her!!
She loves to stand and can do so for a long time, and is almost crawling!
 


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Wednesday, January 06, 2010

So you've probably already figured this out...

but I am not the best blogger. Heh. We are home, everyone is happy, healthy, and growing! I have been super busy trying to work part time from home as well as take care of Miss Abby and we are having sleep issues. As in she isn't. And that is making my life very challenging!
 
Parenting an adopted child is different from regular kids in that you can't just let them cry it out. Abby spent almost 9 months in an orphanage where she didn't learn that crying would get her needs attended to. She is just learning that and we are building a level of trust between us and we are in a crucial bonding period. So I must answer her cries. At first we went with her getting up 5-6 times per night. And then there for a while, she was up 5-6 times in the first 2-3 hours of her nighttime sleep. And she wasn't napping good during the day. I had a very sleep deprived baby.
 
A dear friend (thanks Sandy!) who adopted and who is a child pyschiatrist gave me some wonderful advice which we are following and it is slowly getting better. last night she went down at 8 and was up at 8:30 and then not again until 12:30 and then she slept until 6. I got her up and fed her and tried to start some housework with her in the carrier and she fell back asleep at 7:30. And now it's almost 9 and she is still asleep. The key to our success the past few days is that after she's up this morning (whatever time that is), I won't let her nap again. I will do everything in my power to keep her up. We won't do this on and on, I know she needs an afternoon nap, but we won't start those again until her internal clock is reset to sleep at night. I think a few more days may be all we need. Thank Goodness. Mama needs a break!
 
I also am feeling very lost without my exercise. I really need to get back into it and plan to try a trainer ride tonight after she eats just as Derek is coming home from work. I may not get an hour in, but I'll take what I can get. I've had several friends offer to come and sit with Abby so I can run (Thanks Missy and Jan!) and will probably take them up on their offer next week. When it warms up a bit I can take Abby in the jogger, but it's a bit too cold right now. I love training and racing, and I really want to be able to do that this year, though I realize I am going to be limited to sprints, 5Ks and 10Ks until Abby is a little older and we are in a good groove. Maybe 2010 is the year of short course and in 2011 I can move back to longer distances.
 
Now, back to Abby. Still no teeth, though I am sure they are just about to break through. She is not crawling yet, though we expect that to happen at any time. She is up on all fours rocking back and forth and pushing backwards. Very soon she will get the hang of it and be all over the house and then the fun will really begin!
 
That's about all I have time for right now... need to get a few more things done before precious wakes up. Here are some pictures to keep you entertained!
 
Suzanne


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