First Glimpse

Our weekend in Kentucky was wonderful! Lily had the best time visiting family. It is late, and we have just gotten home. But, my Aunt Sharon has already emailed me some pictures she took of Lily today. So, I thought I would post these. Then, I will post some more tomorrow. For those of you who knew my Mom, the first picture might really bring tears to your eyes. My Aunt Sharon and my Mom were so much alike. This picture makes me think of how things could have been for Lily if Mom wouldn't have taken off to Heaven quite so early. I love Lily spending time with Aunt Sharon because she is the closest that Lily will ever get to knowing someone like my Mom- her Nana Claire. Aunt Sharon and Uncle Tom have a beautiful home. Aunt Sharon always decorates her house beautifully for Christmas. Lily loved looking at her themed Christmas trees...

She really loved that Aunt Sharon let her touch the Gingerbread Tree.

Here is a picture of Lily with her two cousins, Wyatt and Alex.

Lily is discovering the Music Tree in this photo.

Another Update

Well, it looks like the Lily we know and love is slowly coming back to us! She did much better today. She has started eating a little more, and she didn't say the word "shewy" every time we went to the bathroom today. That is a new word she learned over the weekend. (Wonder why?!) She also learned "uh-oh" and "ow" this weekend. She has been dropping things on purpose all day long, and then she says "uh-oh" with a huge grin on her face. At dinner time, she was running through the house screaming out "Baba" and "Mama". So, clearly, she is on the mend. However, I have had a fever all day today. I think mine has to do with my endometrisos. I cannot wait for my surgery which is only 9 days away! We are leaving tomorrow afternoon to go see my family in Kentucky. Lily is thrilled at the idea of going to see Pop. She has been working hard to say his name, and she can finally say "Pa". That is as close as she gets. Hopefully, that last p sound will come this weekend. So, there won't be any posts until late Sunday evening or early Monday morning. Thank you again for the prayers, and THANK YOU Amy, Ira, and Kenli for the delicious Congee you brought over for Lily. Nothing like some home cookin' to make a spicy girl feel so much better!
Happy Thanksgiving! I promise to post lots of pictures when we return!

Update on Lily

Lily is still not feeling well. After being on the phone with the doctors and nurses for hours this morning, they decided that they weren't really positive that Lily had a chronic sinus infection, anyway. (What?) They said to completely take her off both antibiotics, and they have prescribed Nasonex (for an 18 month old?) and more Singular. I really hope they know what they are doing. We also talked with our pediatrician, and they are okay with the new diagnosis. In the meantime, Aunt Mindy brought over some Acidolphulus for Babies to help with the diarrhea. (Since the doctors just said to let it take its course!) Now, she is peacefully resting. Please continue to send those prayers up. They are working- she did eat some grits for lunch today. It is the first time she has eaten since Thursday, other than yogurt and a tiny amount of mac and cheese on Saturday afternoon. I will let you know when she starts to feel better!

Please Pray for Lily!

Lily has been sick since Friday from the antibiotic that she was given to fix her chronic sinus infection. She has had constant diarrhea, no appetite, and she cannot sleep for long periods of time. She is also very irritable which is not at all like her. She is also running a fever. We have taken her off of that medicine, and we will be starting on the much stronger antibiotic today. Please pray for her. It has been a rough weekend for us.

The Cat Stalker

Lily went to her first school basketball game last night. She had a blast! She loved watching the cheerleaders, but she could not keep her eyes off of the other school's mascot. She was passed around from one teacher to another all night long. They all asked her if she wanted to see the Big Cat, and as soon as she signed the word "please"- they would take her wherever she wanted to go. Everybody knows how crazy Lily is about cats anyway- but now she has the nickname of the cat stalker! That poor fellow couldn't even take a break and take his head off for Lily wanting to go see him. Needless to say, we had to get a picture with him. The funny part about this picture is that another teacher, Mrs. Amy, was taking this picture for us. Lily was reaching for her! She wanted to see the cat, stare at the cat, and follow the cat- but she did not want to touch it! Before we left for the game, Lily enjoyed a wonderful dinner. She had it all over her!

The other day, we caught her performing up a storm for us. Enjoy her dancing!

Lily's Allergies?

We took Lily to our allergy doctor today, and we were so worried about the allergy tests that she would have. But, Lily was so good. She sat there in my lap and faced me while they poked away on her back over and over and over again. We looked at an Elmo book and Polar Bear, Polar Bear during the visit, and she was just so wonderful. The nurses and doctors kept telling her how good she was to sit so still during everything. So, the great news is that she wasn't allergic to anything! Our doctor said that she might have a chronic sinus infection that needs to be treated with a much stronger antibiotic. However, for a week, he just gave her some samples from his office to try and dry up her sinuses. Then, if that does not help her cough, we have a prescription for a strong antibiotic that Lily will have to take for 21 days. Regardless, we are just so happy that she isn't allergic to the cats. She actually had no reaction to anything. Of course, she could develop allergies to things as she gets older. But, right now, we are going to worry about that. We are going to pray that we can get her well!
We are super busy this week, but I will try to get more pictures posted by Friday afternoon after school.

18 months and one day!

I meant to put these picture on yesterday, but we were just too busy. Lily's Nana and Poppa came to visit her yesterday evening. She had a wonderful time with them. This morning, Mrs. Cindy was sick, so we had to find someone else to take care of them. We called her Aunt Ruella, who just popped right over at 7:30 this morning. Lily was delighted to see her! She had the best day! Thank you, Aunt Ruella, for helping us out with our little angel. So, this last month has been full of amazing accomplishments for Lily. She finally learned how to drink from her sippy cup, brush her teeth by herself, put on her own Orajel, feed herself pretty well without too much assistance, and play hide and seek. She has also discovered her motherly instinct with her babydolls, learned how to cook on her new stove, and has begun imaginary play with food. Most importantly, this past month, she learned how to pray. We have really got to get that on video. It is so sweet!

She has a love of reading that is undeniable! She wants to be read to for hours on end. She is also able to point out characters or things in the books as you read them to her. She is just beginning to learn all kinds of new words. Some of these words or phrases include: daisy, No, tee (tree), tain (train), see ya, there, that, thank you, Mama, Baba, all cats names, Aunt Suzette, Cindy, Tessa (Cindy's daughter), Tina (Trina), Nana, what are you doin', banana, moo, touchdown, cat, mow (meow)... and every day we are hearing new words. I am sure this is not all of them, but it is all we can remember at the moment. We are really looking forward to what this 18 month of Lily's life with bring! Yesterday was also the 8th month that we have been home together! Happy Gotcha Day to all of our Groupmates from China!

Our Lilybug

For 3 years, we searched high and low for clothes with ladybugs or pandas on them. We had some great friends that also searched for these outfits, too. The ladybug outfit is one of these gifts. Thank you, Dyan, for this adorable present. I could not wait until Lily could fit into this one.

Then, here is one of our panda outfits that I have been saving forever. Notice the little panda in Lily's pocket...

This morning, Jamie got her dressed for church in this outfit. She thought this panda was hilarious. She laughed and laughed at it, and then she kept pulling it out to kiss it. Of course, it is connected. So, she thought that was funny, too!

Here she is just about to give her panda a big kiss!

And here she is with her wonderful Baba! What would we ever do without him! I could not imagine, and I pray that God does not ever allow us to find out. We love him more than life itself! As I sit here typing this onto the blog, Baba and Lily are in the recliner asleep together. I have got to go get the camera. Lily has officially been asleep for 3 hours today, and I am thinking her nap is going to last a bit longer... Tomorrow Lily turns 18 months old! She has been with us for 8 whole months, and they have been the best 8 months of our lives!

Pineapples, Touchdowns, and Purses

I guess we will start off with purses. Last night, after bathtime, Lily found my stash of purses. I actually sold a lot of my purses on Ebay before we got Lily to raise money for her adoption. But, I kept a few just for her to play with. So, like her Mama, she already loves purses! It was hilarious watching her put these on. I also use a Vera Bradley ID container for my wallet. Lily found another one, and she was trying and trying to see what was inside. She was upset when she opened it and found nothing. She enjoys going through mine to find my insurance card, credit card, and driver's license. She has just started getting it and pointing to my driver's license- then she will say "Mama, Mama." She will just grin when she looks at me. That is her new thing now- seeing pictures of the three of us and telling us who we are. Every time we pass by the fridge, we have to stop and go through the pictures.

Onto Touchdowns... We are a serious football family. Every Saturday, we watch GameDay, and we go into mourning when football season is over. We weren't sure how football would fit into our schedule with Lily- but she loves it! As soon as she sees it on tv, she says touchdown! She also says touchdown at the correct time, too. When we get excited about our teams scoring- she gets excited and she cheers, too. So, Jamie was feeding her some pineapples (for the first time) on Thursday night, and football came on. She immediately looked at the tv, and she said touchdown! See, she is in the middle of eating a pineapple- look at her juicy lips!

Here she is actually eating a bite! She loves pineapples and bananas. So far, those are her two favorite fruits that she cannot seem to live without. She asks for a "nana" every night.

Here is an actual video of her saying touchdown, then watch closely as she signs the word "please" for more pineapples, then she blows kisses at the tv!

X-ray News

First, I had to show you some pictures from yesterday. We got to spend the morning together until we had to go to her doctor's appointment. As soon as she was up, the first thing she wanted to do was dust. It was so cute. Those pictures are at the bottom. Then, she wanted to play with her kitchen. So, we played for about 2 hours with the kitchen. Finally, I fed her lunch, and I put her clothes on for the appointment. At that point we headed back downstairs- and guess where Lily wanted to go.... back to the kitchen! I am so glad that she loves it! Here she is turning the knobs while she cooking something good!Here she is putting her pan on the stove.

Here are the pictures of her dusting...

Onto the x-ray news---The doctor called Jamie back today, and she said that if Lily were her daughter, she would take her to our allergist. So, the doctor's office made the call today to get Lily in quickly. The x-ray showed that Lily's maxillary sinuses are messed up. One of them is completely clear, and the other one is inflamed and stopped up with mucus. Basically, that is why she has been coughing at night and after naptime, and why she gags on all of the mucus in her little body. They said that it isn't life threatening, but it needs to be taken care of soon. However, I have been doing some reading about this on the computer. I read that this infection is just a place waiting for the flu, strep, or some other bacteria to come in and live. No wonder we have not been able to get her well!

I am very thankful that we took her to the doctor yesterday. I know that God made sure they made that mistake with her shots for a reason. I am so glad that He is always in charge!!!

Update on Lily's Dr. Visit

We took Lily to the doctor today for her 18 month visit. I wondered why they had scheduled the appointment when she isn't 18 months yet, but I just figured that didn't really matter since she will be 18 months in a couple of weeks. Anyway, I was right. When we got there, the doctor came in to talk with us about the mix-up of scheduling the shots too early. She asked if there was anything else we needed to talk about, and we said that we did want to see what she thought about Lily's chronic cough. Over the past 2 1/2 months, we have had Lily in and out of the doctor's office and on 2 rounds of amoxicillon, daily doses of singular and claritin, along with cough medicine. Finally, the snotty part cleared up, but the cough has stuck around. She checked her ears, throat, and lungs. She said everything looked and sounded good, but she was still concerned about that cough. The visit was the best yet between Lily and her doctor. Dr. Ermer was the best ever! We took Lily's medical kit, and Dr. Ermer took the time to play with Lily and let Lily use her kit. Dr. Ermer commented that Lily had really changed since the last time she had seen her which was a couple of months ago- meaning that she was much more social and more trusting now.
Anyway, her doctor sent us to the hospital for an x-ray to make sure that Lily's sinus passages are okay. That was definitely an experience. They said I had to hold her down on the table while I had my big x-ray apron on and Lily was yelling, "Mama, Mama, Mama, Mama, Mama". She really did well, though. At the last minute, she turned her head upward right toward the x-ray machine, and the picture was perfect. So, we only had to do one. Jamie was standing in the back of the room watching them take the picture, and he actually got to see it. He thought it was really cool! We won't actually have any news about the results until tomorrow afternoon. I am really looking forward to knowing why Lily still has this cough.
I will post some new pictures tomorrow!

Eating with Baba

Lily is just growing like a weed! She has only gained 5 pounds since we brought her home from China, and she is still in size 3 diapers. She was in size 2 for a short while when we brought her home, but quickly moved on to size 3 and that is where she has stayed. She just keeps getting taller! She is now wearing 12-18 month tops most of the time, but she has to have 18-24 pants for the heighth. We have to buy things that have extra buttons to make them smaller in the waist, otherwise we have to roll the tops of the pants over again and again to try to make them fit properly.

Doesn't she look like a little doll!

Tomorrow is our 18 month Doctor's appointment. I am hoping and praying Lily will do well. We bought her a Dr's kit to take with her, and we have been pretending Dr. for awhile now. I will let you know how the visit goes tomorrow...

Here are a few videos from bathtime a few days ago. I just hadn't had time to post them since it takes a few extra minutes for the videos to load. In the first video, you can hear Lily saying Thank you, which we think is adorable. Of course, this is not a new word for her. It was actually the first word she learned, and she learned to say it in China. We must have really had lots of manners when we were there! It is also really cute when she starts to tell me No! at the end of this video because I am not giving her what she wants in the bathtub.

The next video is not the best thing that Lily does---she enjoys drinking her bathwater. It is just really funny!

The last video shows just how much she loves her bathwater!!

Christmas in November!

It is Lily's first Christmas with us, and we cannot wait to spend time together over the holidays. Lily also has an Aunt Suzette and a Pop that are as excited as we are. So, they have already given her a Christmas present. Lily got her Pottery Barn Gourmet Kitchen on Friday night. It was just like Christmas Eve. We had put Lily to bed, and we wanted to fix everything up for the following morning... But Lily woke up. So, we brought her downstairs, and she was too excited! So, we put her kitchen in our kitchen. She absolutely loves it. Honestly, this kitchen is well worth the money you pay for it. It has knobs that click and turn, a real sink that holds water, the soap dispenser actually pumps up and down, and the ice dispenser actually puts out blocks of wooden ice. She is amazed with the ice, as you can see in the pictures below.

Thank you, Pop and Aunt Suzette, for the best Christmas present ever!

Lots of Pictures!

For whatever reason, I have been taking loads of pictures the past couple of days. I guess I am just trying to capture every moment on film. First of all, here are some pictures of Lily's first real haircut. He just trimmed the back, but he is going to trim a little bit at a time when I have my hair cut. She was so good. She sat so still as if she had been through this a million times before.

Here is another shot of her hair while she is holding her favorite thing in the world- a book!

Here is a good picture of the back part while she is getting ready to bring us books to read to her. This is our daily ritual around 5 o'clock. We read for at least an hour, usually much longer.

These are just some pictures of her being a copy cat in the kitchen.

I wish you could see her cute, Chinese kitty shirt. She still has it on in the bottom pictures, but she just refused to be still for me to get a good picture of it. But, she loved it. She kept pointing at her belly and saying cat.

This is a perfect Lily moment. She smiles constantly, and I finally caught her with a big grin on her face.

She is helping us in the kitchen. She is going to open up the pantry door to help throw garbage away in the trashcan.

She has gotten really good at throwing things away. We can just ask her to do this, and she manages to get everything in the garbage.

Here she is with another obsession- the dishwasher. She loves helping us load and unload this piece of machinery. Her favorite thing is to get out her own spoons and forks.

She is closing it for us, and she makes sure it is completely shut before she can move onto something else.

Here is an actual picture of her helping with the dishes in the dishwasher. Lily is the best helper!

Here is Lily's first babydoll. It is Chinese babydoll who looks a lot like Lily. The O'Malley family got this doll for Lily long before she ever came home. She absolutely loves her.

She puts her little babydoll in the grocery cart, and she walks around and around stopping every once in awhile to give her little kisses- just like we do to Lily when we go grocery shopping.

Just a picture of her pushing her cart.

This shows how much she loves her babydoll!

CAT FACTS for Jen- Jambalaya (a.k.a. Jo-Jo to Lily) actually weighs 14 pounds. She looks a bit bigger in the picture with Lily and Jamie. She is also 14 years old. :0)

Baba, Lily, and Jo-Jo

This is a picture from Monday after school. Lily fell asleep in the car- and she continued to sleep on Baba for about an hour when we got home. I just thought it was sweet that he had his first baby, Jambalaya, on his lap, too. Look how happy he is! Lily and Jamie have this thing they do every morning before we leave for school. I don't think I've mentioned this before. When he puts Lily in her carseat, he gets "Lily-kisses" first, then butterfly kisses next, then eskimo kisses, and then he gets Lily-kisses again and again and again. It is pretty cute! I love seeing their kissing routine every day! Lily just laughs and laughs after every set of kisses!

Come back tomorrow for pictures of Lily's first real haircut from my hairdresser; pictures of Lily doing things around the house; and pictures of her first babydoll which was a present from the O'Malley family.

Brusha, brusha, brusha!

Lily has been brushing her teeth for a few months now, but this is the first time I remembered to take the camera with me to the bathroom. Here she is getting out her toothbrush.... and her Elmo toothpaste! Then, she reaches up to us to sit her on the bathroom counter.

Then, normally, we brush her teeth first to make sure we clean them really well. But, she knows when it is her turn to take over. We sing "Brusha, brusha, brusha" while she brushes her little teeth.

She brushes for awhile, then she hands us her toothbrush so we can rinse it off.

Then, we sing, "Rinsa, rinsa, rinsa" while she finishes up. When she is all done, she hands us the toothbrush and reaches for the handtowel to wipe off her face. I love all of this learning that is taking place every day!