Phuket

We have always raved about how Gioia is such a good traveler. Well. That was true until yesterday. On our four hour flight to Thailand, she was THAT CHILD. You know the one. To be fair, it wasn't all her fault. She had a hard time napping on the noisy plane where they announced stupid things every five minutes: "And now the flight attendants will pass out juice and water." Argh, people. Do you really need to be that loud? In multiple languages? Sigh.

As soon as she got to the hotel, though, her mood cleared. Gioia loves hotels, most especially the fluffy beds with fancy sheets. She learned how to say "pool" this morning, and she seems unlikely to forget anytime soon. Pool. Pool. POOOOOOL. In addition to swimming, she has also met the hotel's resident baby elephant. A pretty good start to the trip, I think, despite her shenanegans on the flight.


More pictures from the trip so far are here.

Operation Nap

Ever since we met her in Fuling, Gioia has been taking two naps a day: one in the morning and one in the afternoon. This was the status quo for eight months, and it was working well until lately. She has been going down fine for her first nap, but she fights the second one like a champ. It takes her 45 minutes to an hour to fall asleep, which in turn pushes her wake up time to late in the day. Which interferes with dinner. Also, she has been staying awake in her crib at night longer than usual, sometimes all the way through her music. Not good.

Something had to be done.* Specifically, we need to make the inevitable transition to one nap a day. The key to success (we think) will be keeping her up through the morning without too much crankiness and tears. After all, her body is still used to going back to sleep at around 10 am.


The plan: keep her awake and distracted. Today was the first day. Operation Nap. We got up, went out for breakfast, came home and showered (I know - gross), and then went for a strategic, distracting walk in the park.

By the time we made it out the door for the park (10:45 am), Gioia was a little woozy. She demanded that we take bunny along, teetering on the edge of tears. We quickly caved in, even though we generally do not like for bunny to leave the house. God forbid he go AWOL. That would be a disaster akin to a nuclear war. Thankfully, no bunny was left behind on this mission.


It was a gorgeous day for the park - the sun was bright, but the wind was gentle and cool. When it got too hot, we ducked beneath the shade where students were practicing drumming exercises and old ladies were doing tai chi. We saw fish and birds, and Gioia danced around with bunny, tap tap taping in her new shoes.

At 12:20, we headed back home for lunch. She ate well and was yawning by the end. She went down at 1:30 with no fuss at all. And then, she slept for two hours and ten minutes. Enough time for me to take a deliciously long nap as well. You know - sleep when the baby sleeps and all that. Ha.

It was a success, this first day of Operation Nap. Let's see how tomorrow goes. And tomorrow. More pictures of today's outing are available here.


*She also is going to be attending Montessori school every morning (9 to 12) starting in January, so she needs to learn to be active in the morning and save the sleeping for later in the day. Truth be told, though, this decision was not 100% driven by Gioia's needs. We have a beach trip coming up next week and a larger family vacation to Turkey in December. Two naps a day is not so convenient for traipsing around Istanbul. Like I said, something had to be done.

Learnin'

Our Pediatrician Needs a Crash Course in Statistics and Inference

Chris took Gioia to the doctor today to discuss a little rash on her face. No biggie there, but they took her vitals for her records (as they always do when we come). Turns out she has gained 0.4 kilos since her 15 month visit, which was a month ago. So the doctor says, "She has gained too much weight this month. You need to watch what she eats. No more rice or noodles. Only fruit and veggies and meat."

Um, what? Before we dissect Gioia's diet, let's take a step back and see if the conclusion that Gioia is gaining too much weight holds up to scrutiny.

Data Review #1 - Peer Group Comparison

First, let's look at how she compares other 16 month old females.

• Height 32.5 inches/ 83.6 cm (88th percentile)
  
• Weight 11.5 kilos/ 25.3 pounds (75th percentile)

So the data confirm what we can tell by just looking at her: Gioia is big for her age. But not fat. She is very tall and of an appropriate weight fer her height. Taller than 88 percent of her peers, and heavier than 75 percent of them.

If she were in the 75th percentage in weight, but 40th percentage in height, then we might have an issue.

Data Review #2 - The Historical Record

Second, looking at Gioia's historical weight data, we see that she has been between the 68th and 81st percentile in weight since we brought her back to Taiwan.


Data Review #3 - The Height Perspective

Third and finally, the same pattern holds in her height data: she has been in the 82nd to 94th percentile since February.


So she has been tall (OK, really tall) for a long time. Again, if she were heavy and short, that would be one thing. But she is not.

To top it all off, here is a nice little internet tidbit: "Toddlers aged between six and eighteen months can have widely fluctuating growth curves because the rate of growth is higher in this period. So the doctor will especially be looking for changes in the percentile ratings to see if the relative size of your baby is stable."

Conclusion: Dr. X's* assessment that a one month weight gain of 0.4 kilos (taken in isolation) is cause for a diet was not consistent with the data. I have a sister-in-law who is a pediatric nurse and a brother who is an internal medicine resident, so I am sure that if I am wrong here someone will correct me. Please do. But for now, I stake my claim that my daughter's doctor needs a refresher in statistical inference.

She eats a balanced diet - no junk food - with lots of veggies, fruits, and other healthy things. She is fine.

For those of you who have made it through this boring rant, I leave you with a sneaky night shot. Note the position of her beloved bunny. Today, we fed bunny lunch and tried to put shoes on him, all at Gioia's request.


*Not his (or her?) real name. Ha.

Lifebook (version 1.0)

One of the things that social workers encourage you to do for your child is to create a lifebook, a book to help tell the story of her early life. Research has shown that is good to encourage open and honest communication about a child's adoption, about her story, even from a very young age. Little ones will spend quite a while just listening to you, but one day they will start to ask questions and have a real discussion about some pretty deep issues. It is our job as parents to help our kids learn about their story and to feel safe in asking all the questions they need to ask.

Adopted children have some pretty big holes in the story of their life. We cannot answer all questions, not even most questions. We only can try to tell her what is known. How much she was and is loved: by us, her parents, by the ayis at the social welfare institute who bathed her and fed her, by the person who placed her near the gate to be found instead of killing her.

I have been meaning to make Gioia's first lifebook for quite a while. This is hopefully the first of many, as she will need a deeper and richer story as she gets older. Perhaps one day she can help assemble her own lifebook.

For now, we started with the basics: a blank board book, some pictures from her time at the social welfare institute, and a simple narrative of her life from birth to the day she officially joined our family. A book to foster a conversation about who she is, where she came from and how much she was loved and cared for, by God and by man, even in the bleakest of times.

The Genographic Project

Image source: Wikipedia

I am in the US this week for business. Guess what I am carrying around in my backpack, in a small envelope ready to drop in the mail? Gioia's DNA samples. Yep. Kinda weird, huh?

I read about the Genographic Project a few months ago and ordered a kit right away. If you are not familiar with the project, this is an effort by the National Geographic Society and other researchers to track and catalogue the paths of our ancestors by examining our DNA. If you send in a sample, you receive an overview of the migration path of your ancestors - your specific haplogroup - over tens of thousands of years. Women can test only their matrilineal line, while men can test matrilineal or patrilineal lines (those crazy Y chromosomes). Participation in the project not only allows you to obtain personal information about your ancestors' path from Africa to wherever you landed on this green earth, but you also are contributing to the advancement of human knowledge about such things. Pretty cool, if you ask me.

My daughter was adopted from China. She does not know anything about her birthparents, her birthgrandparents. One day, that fact will be a hard one for her to bear. It is hard for me to bear some days, frankly. One of the things that drew me to this project was the opportunity to give her some connection to her ancestral past, to her genetic heritage.

So that is why I am sitting in the Dulles airport this afternoon with two little tubes of DNA. Weird, yes. But also very cool.

Reading

Gioia loves, loves, loves to read. In the morning, after she finishes her milk, she immediately signs "down" and "book." If you ask her to go get a book from her room, she will bring one of her favorites:

What Do You Say?
Where is Baby's Belly Button?
And the whole Baby Be of Use series*

She doesn't have the patience for longer books yet. We keep trying to foist them on her, with a false cheerfulness. Hey! Let's try this one! What do you think? Because frankly, reading the same books OVER and OVER is ... ummm ... tedious. But she is not fooled. Oh no. Get away from me with your Guji Guji and your Mister Seahorse, she says. Now let's do the belly button book again, Mom.

OK baby. Let's do.

*I bought these books as a joke, especially the Baby Mix Me a Drink book, but she adores them. Perhaps they are the right size, the right, length, the right amount of pictures. So now she knows how to balance my checkbook and to make me a margarita.

Xie Xie

One of Gioia's favorite phrases lately is Xie Xie, or thank you in Mandarin. Each morning, she repeats:

Xie Xie. Xie Xie. Xie Xie. Ma Ma. Ma Ma. Xie Xie. Ma Ma.

Well, you are welcome baby. Certainly.

It is interesting because I don't think many English speaking babies are saying Thank You at this age. Thank you is hard for a fifteen month old. They have to put the "Thanks" with the "you," which is hard to do. But Xie Xie is easier, at least for Gioia. It is one word, really, just repeated. She tends to turn words into repeated phrases anyway - like saying "fu fu" for Dou Fu (tofu). Xie xie is much easier for her than thank you. The pleasant result of all of this is that I have a fifteen month old who thanks me all the time.

On an unrelated note, we just found out that babies should not be given bubble baths. They can cause yeast infections. Umm, ooops. Because she has had a bubble bath every other night since...well... we got her. Yeah, oops.

So bubble baths are now a thing of the past. But, as a remnant from our previous, ignorant days, we have this massive tub o' bubbles sitting in the bathroom. Tonight as I gave her a (bubble free) bath, she repeatedly pointed at the container. I finally brought it over and asked, "Is this what you wanted?" She looked straight at me and said: "bubble."

Oh dear. No more bubbles, kiddo. How do you explain "Mommy screwed up" to a toddler?

Catching Up

I have been a little discombobulated lately, primarily because I took a quick little business trip to Macao this week, from Sunday to Tuesday night. I forgot my camera, which was frustrating. It was probably just as well because I never left the Venetian during my entire stay. The rooms there were quite fancy, as was the spa pedicure I sneakily arranged after my official day was done on Monday evening.

If you have been to the Vegas version, then you would recognize the Macao one for sure. But the interesting thing is that in Vegas, everyone drinks while gambling but no one smokes indoors. In Macao, everyone is sober, but the cigarette smoke is so thick it could kill a horse.

It was a good time, though. Not a bad place for a conference, really.

While I was gone, Chris took Frankie to the vet to see if a spot on his tummy was cancer. It wasn't. Thank God.

Speaking of medicine, Gioia went to the doctor today for her 15 month check-up and Japanese Encephalitis shot. Because ... WOW.* Yes, we let the nurse stick Baby G in the leg with a big ol' needle. Last time, with the MMR shot, she cried out in surprise and anger, one of those silent screams which break your heart to watch. You know the one: the scream where she squeezes her eyes super tight, opens her mouth in a noiseless yowl, and turns bright red, shaking with rage. Ya. Scary.

But this time, it was more of an indignant scream. A "what in the world" and "ow, my leg" kind of scream. Baby G is growing up. She is fierce and independent. On the way out of the hospital, she walked all by herself. We kept offering her our own hands as support, but she kept shaking her head - no. No.

* Full disclosure - I was worried about safety and efficacy, so I did a *little* research. Reassuring.

Playdate: Yu Kids Island

Gioia had her first playdate today with a daughter of one of my co-workers. We met up at a Yu Kids Island outlet, which was basically a playcenter full of balls, slides and bouncy things tucked away in a corner of a shopping mall. Gioia was very tentative at first, but by the end she had to be carried away kicking and screaming because she was having so much fun.


Gioia seemed to like the ball area most of all. She didn't even care when an older boy pelted her in the head with a big bouncy one. Intentionally, I might add.

It was a good day. The little ones didn't really play with each other, more around each other, but I think that is normal social interaction for 12-14 month olds. We need to find more opportunities for Baby G to get out an socialize, though. Chris and I decided to put her in a Yo-yo Ban (which means toddler) class at a local Montessori school, but that will not start until January. We want to make sure she learns how to play nicely with her peeps before then.



More pictures are available here.

Pinafore

I have been wanting to make Gioia a pinafore dress for a while now. In my mind, it needed to be A-line and have a pocket in the very front. Nothing less would have been acceptable.

The base pattern for this dress was a vintage ebay find: the Jiffy play-set from 1964 (#5480). This is a size 1, but I think it is a little bit big for my 14 month-old kiddo. But it should be useful for a while, even perhaps as a top as she grows taller.


I fiddled around a bit with the pattern. I made it reversible, mainly because I strongly dislike facings. I also used buttons in the back instead of a zipper closure. I added the pocket to one side, and an applique heart to the other.

The floral fabric is a Liberty lawn, and the plaid is of unknown origin (but matches the weight and hand of the Liberty).


For the record, MissG was not too keen on posing in her dress. She started by the chair, dropped quickly to her knees, then moved to her crib to kiss bunny. When I moved her back to the chair to see if I could get a good shot, she pitched a big fit (as you can see in the lower right quadrant above). Nice.

Like Father, Like Daughter

First Haircut

Gioia had her first haircut today. We took her to the Tony and Guy stylist who does both Chris' and my hair. He seemed a bit surprised to have a baby for a customer, but he did a great job.


Gioia was really good. She sat on Chris' lap, and hardly fussed at all. She only needed one water break.


As a treat after the haircut, she was allowed some gelato from the Italian restaurant across the street. She hated it, as you can clearly see from the picture below (jk).

Breakfast Photo Shoot

It has been a while since I posted pictures of my pretty little baby. Since I was away last week, I have been using all of her awake time for playing instead of picture taking.

This week, she is working on walking by herself. The nanny is teaching her to hold her shirt while she walks, which keeps her upright and balanced. Without that trick, she tends to race along with her arms stretched out, zombie-like. Not sure how zombies do it. For little Miss G, arms outstretched while tottering is a recipe for a crash.

Look who uses the sippy cup without any help now. If you ask her how big she is, she will definitely tell you: So big!

This Past Week

Our life in the past week was a bit unconventional, even by our standards. We lived in a hotel for four days (unexpectedly) because our landlord agreed to replace the AC units in the apartment - all at one time. Which produced a tremendous amount of dust, noise and mud from 25 year-old pipes. Chris called me at work on Tuesday morning (about 1 hour after all of the workers arrived) and said - "We are moving in to the Hyatt." I responded - "Whatever you say, baby." Sign us up!

At the end of the week, we moved back home to a completely filthy house. Dirt is splattered all over the walls, floors, pictures, and papers. We seriously need an industrial cleaning crew to come scrub-a-dub, but we have no idea if such a thing even exists in Taipei. I am sure our comlpetely useless maid will come on Monday, do some half-hearted sweeps with a rag, and then delcare herself finished for the day. Meawhile I am not able to clean a thing as I am scheduled to be in Orlando and Chicago this week. As I sit here, sipping my business class lounge coca cola, I am very a little guilty to be skipping town immediately after the wrecking ball descended on our little apartment. On the bright side - Chris and Gioia are now much, much cooler.

Some neat experiences from this past week:

- As we were leaving the hair salon last Saturday, my stylist noticed that Gioia's hair was a bit long. He said - oh let me trim her bangs a little. As he leaned forward with the scissors, Chris immediately snatched her away, almost instinctively. NO THANK YOU. Please don't cut my baby's hair. As he said to me later - we haven't even talked about that yet!

- Gioia is understanding more and more every day. Yesterday she crawled to the bathroom and gave me a shoe. I said - now go get the other shoe. And then she actually did.

- We were taking Frankie out to go potty this morning. As he was doing his business I said: "Frankie's poopin'." She responded with "Da bien," which is the Chinese way of saying #2. Well, yes sugar. That is correct.

A Girl Needs Shoes, Doesn't She?

About a month ago, Chris came to me and said, "the credit card company just called. Did you really buy US$XXX.XX worth of shoes over the internet." Ummm, yes. Busted. But they were not for me. Oh no.

I bought nine pairs for little Miss G in sizes 5.5 and 6, the next two sizes up. Oddly how they all seem to be different sizes now that I see them. One shoe is supposed to be a US6, but it is smaller than another shoe that purports to be a 5.5.

Little shoes, all in a row. So cute.

Big Day

Gioia's daddy has been in the US all week for work, so it has been just the two of us (OK, and the nanny during working hours). Yesterday, we went to my friend's house to swim in her super phat pool.

It was a seemingly small thing - go to pool, swim - but it took a whole lot of effort. First, Miss G babbled in her crib for a whole hour at naptime and then slept for another hour, so we were miserably late even getting started. When we finally made it out the door, I struggled to find a taxi with seatbelts, install the carseat, get Gioia settled, and then get in myself so we could get going. Stupid me remembered later that I could have just called up our car guy and had him drive us around for the day. That would have been immeasurably easier.*

We made it to the pool - albeit two hours later than promised - and had a fun time. The nice pool dude even blew up Gioia's floaty thing, so she was able to splash around with ease. She was much more comfortable in the pool this time, perhaps because she had so much practice in Indonesia.

We went to Costco next, to stock up on baby wipes and vittles. By the time we made it home, it was 6 p.m. We had missed Miss G's second nap and she was starting to lose it. I decided to lay her down in the crib for a quick cat nap. She slept, and slept, and slept. The catnap turned out to be "down for the night." Oops.

It is hard to work it all out alone. How in the world to single parents do it? Wow. Hats off to ya.

*We decided not to buy or lease a car here in Taiwan, primarily because it works out to be much cheaper to just rent a car and driver whenever we need it (which is usually for four hours or so on the weekend). But in order for this deal to work, I have to actually remember to hire the car service on days like these.

Rash

Baby has pretty bad diaper rash.* Probably because it is four billion degrees in Taipei and humid as a rain forest. Poor thing.

I had the pleasure of staying home with Gioia today. The nanny's brother in-law passed away suddenly last night, so I told her to go be with her family. Kiddo and I had a nice little unexpected day. Every time I asked if she wanted to have her diaper changed, though, she would cry sadly. When I laid her down on the changing table, she looked up at me and made the baby sign for gentle. This happened two times today, so it was not a fluke.

I was (and still am) shocked by this. It makes sense when she uses signs back to us for concrete things, like cheerios or doggie. But "gentle" is a very abstract concept. Yes, we have been teaching her the sign for gentle for a few months now, mostly using it when she yanks my hair or bites her daddy's chest (ha ha). Goodness, doesn't it just seem crazy that my thirteen month old child can instruct me to be gentle when I am starting to change her diaper? It signals that a bunch of things are going through her brain. 1) Her bottom hurts. 2) If I touch it roughly, it will hurt more. 3) If she tells me to be gentle, I MAY HURT HER LESS.

Dude.

Baby G is sleeping bare-assed naked in her crib tonight in hopes of letting the fresh air heal her little bottom faster. I hope it works. I also hope she doesn't poop on Bunny.

What a crazy thing, to watch her grow.

*No pictures on this post because........ewwwwwww....

Crazy Cakes

One of the foundational books in the Chinese Adoption cannon is I Love You Like Crazy Cakes. Written by a lady who went through the China adoption experience, this book focuses on a single mom's trip to China and back again to adopt her daughter. Before we got Miss G, I thought it was a sweet little book. I still think it is sweet, but probably will not read it to her again.

Tonight, as Gioia and I read Crazy Cakes together before bed, I was struck at how personal the story was. It is written in a direct, clear voice - "Your nannies brought you and your friends from the countryside to the city to meet us." "On the long trip home, you stood up in your seat and smiled at the man behind us."

A nice story, yes, but not our story. First of all, there is no Daddy. If there is one thing which is fundamental to our family's adoption story, it is the fact that Chris and I were both 100% participants in the process. He and I shared everything about that trip, from the day we received Baby G's first photos to the three and a half weeks of traveling to bring her home to Taiwan. We fought over carrying her in the mei tai, and traded off rocking her back to sleep when she filled her diaper at 3 a.m. Single parenting is fine, of course, but not our story.

As I read through the book, the small details that were not quite right kept leaping out at me. Baby G, you slept in a pack and play that we carted from hotel to hotel so we could establish consistency in your bedtime routine. You did not sleep with linens from America, but in a sleep sack that your mommy made and a little elephant from Bangkok.

When we finally made it home, we opened the door to our apartment in Taipei and collapsed in a pile of suitcases. We did not have a welcome committee of family and friends that first day, but they all came to see you over the next four months - one by one, flying 24 hours just to meet you, hug you and say hello.

This was your adoption day story, not the one in the Crazy Cakes book. I was perhaps so bothered by it all because little Gioia seemed to be listening so seriously to the story. Here I was, saying things like - and then we dressed you up in crazy hats and took funny pictures. But we didn't. And I don't want to tell you a story that is not yours.

Maybe when you are much, much older Baby G. But for now, I will put this book away and instead tell you your story.

Father's Day

Chris, you are a wonderful Father.


Happy Daddy's Day.

Bunny (again)

Several of you States-side peeps offered to keep your eyes out for the elusive bunny. Even if it all comes to naught, I am so tickled that people are willing to help a little bitty girl who lives so far away.

Here he (she?) is, admitedly a little more worn out than a brand new one. Originally, this bunny had a super soft fuzzy fleece exterior, with slightly darker soft fur in the ears and feet. Bunny is approximately 12 inches high from his toes to his head (ears not extended).


If anyone finds another bunny, I'll happily pay for any and all associated acquisition and transportation costs. Such sweet internet friends you all are.

More pictures from today's photo shoot are here.

More Bunnies... Must Have More Bunnies!

Gioia has been sleeping with a little, soft bunny rabbit. My mom brought it as a gift for Gioia when she and my Dad visited us in Beijing for Christmas in 2006. When we first met Baby G, she was pretty indifferent to her sleeping companions. She needed something to suck on, yes, but was not concerned if we substituted the elephant for the Waldorf baby.

Apparently much has changed. We - stupid parents that we are - decided to wash the bunny today. Because it was stinky. Because we are all going to Beijing tomorrow and we thought it would be a good idea to take a clean rabbit on the journey. Surely we can give her another rabbit to fall asleep with tonight. Or the elephant. Whatever.

Oh my gracious, were we ever wrong. She cried and cried. The bunny was still in the dryer, so we rocked her for the longest time. Chris burned his hand checking on the bunny in the dryer early in the crying episode. Still wet.

Guess what finally calmed her down? Yeah. Only the bunny. When he was finally dry.

As soon as she fell asleep, I scoured the internet to find more bunnies. But hey - guess what? Pottery Barn no longer carries that exact type of bunny. I even checked Ebay sellers. No luck.

I ordered two new PBK bunnies that look semi-close, but aren't exactly her bunny. How much you wanna bet she will know the difference? I think so.

Please Lord, do not let us lose this bunny.

She Loves to Swing

How Big Are You?

When he was growing up, Chris and his sister had their measurements marked on a wooden stick made by his Opa. The stick said, in Dutch, the following:

This stick shows you
at all times
how small you were
how big you are



A few months before Miss G's birthday, Chris asked his parents if they could make her a measuring stick too. Wow, did they ever.


Chris' dad designed the stick to fold in half for easy storage in our apartment and traveling life. He cut out the wood, printed out the images, and painted and varnished it from top to bottom. There even is a custom carrying case that Chris' dad designed and sewed. The top has a circle for easy hanging, and the back has precise measurements marked in inches/feet and centimeters/meters. Chris' mom selected all of the images; some even came from this website!


What a fabulous, thoughtful, homemade gift. Thank you Rod and Linda!

Almost There

Just three weeks ago she would cry when we put her hands on this push toy thingy. Now look at her go.

First Bday Party

A successful birthday party is one in which you have "happy birthday" sung to you in three different languages (English, Dutch and Mandarin). One where you have your first cupcake and suck the frosting all off. One where every person at the party wanted to hold you (but you only wanted mommy and daddy).

The cupcakes were good, the guests were so lovely, and you were adorable, dearest Miss G. We love you baby girl. More pictures here.


This was also a party where the dog swiped a cupcake off the coffee table and dropped it on your mom's boss' feet. Nice.

Birthday Welcome

Welcome to my party!



I turn one this week, and everyone is invited to celebrate with me. Come on in. Have a cupcake (or two).


Door hanging made from nursery fabric scraps (yes, I still have some), fabric stamps, and sitchettes made long ago from a WeeWonderfuls pattern.

Mother's Day Outing

This has been a crazy week. We are at the peak of the peak season at work, and it is hard for me and my team. As a result, I am writing about our Mother's Day outing almost a whole week late.

While Mother's Day may be a bit of a commercial holiday, designed to get people to buy cards and flowers and things, it is nonetheless nice to have a whole day in which you are reminded every minute that is is a sweet and wonderful thing to be a momma.

People take Mother's Day very seriously in Taiwan. The restaurants and sidewalks were packed with families in their Sunday best. Everywhere we looked, we saw little girls in nice dresses and mothers - young and old - with flower bouquets.


Our family went on a walk to the flower market to buy a tree for the balcony. Then we stumbled upon Da'an park, which is a large and verdant space very close to our house. I was so excited by the farmers' market at the entrance. We bought seedless (!) grapes, corn and other delights. The corn turned out to be gross (fit for only pigs back home), but everything else we bought was yum.

I have always been puzzled why Chinese people eat chewy tasteless feed corn. Why not plant some sweet corn? Do they just not know how delicious a good ear of sweet corn is in the summer? Lately I have begun to wonder, though, if they really do prefer the non-sweet kind...But I digress.


All in all, it was a lovely Mother's Day. We walked around in the sunshine and breezes, bounced to the beat of a group of geriatric drummers marching in the park, and snacked on street food and stray grapes. Wonderful indeed.

More pictures here.

Invites

Come help us celebrate with
a cupcake or two…

Little Miss Gioia is
turning ONE!

Sunday, May 25
4:00 p.m.

The party invitations are finished! Phew.

I had a difficult time with these. First, the laser printer did not want to print my text without smudging. So my tech support (Chris) and I printed almost 20 of them to get to a useable number. Then, the cardstock I used for the invites was not really watercolor paper. So the paint tended to sit on top instead of soaking into the paper like normal.


But I wound up with eight passable invitations. They are pretty close to the idea I had in my head.

Chris asked what the party theme was, and I said "cupcakes"! He says - that's not a theme. That's a food. Hmmm. My position is that - for a one year old - I am not sure if I have the energy for anything more elaborate. Wine for the adults, juice for the kids and cupcakes for all. Good enough, I say!

On a related note, we have searched all over Taipei for cupcake baking pans and cannot find them ANYWHERE. We have conscripted my mother-in-law to bring some pans when she comes. That means no practice cupcakes, but at least it is something. Although, she did ask if we had been to IKEA yet. Stupid us, probably IKEA does have cupcake pans. If I get any spare time, maybe I will check there too.

Completing the Gift: Mattress

Gioia's birthday gift is nearly done. I made a mattress and little bitty pillow. The mattress is anchored in four points to simulate the indentations of a real one. It would have been cuter to use covered buttons in each of the four points. Perhaps I can add those later when choking is no longer a risk.


The pillow is cute too, but a little too small. Maybe I can make another, bigger one. Maybe not.


So much to do still this month. I have to:

-Make invitations for G's party (this weekend)
-Start on the doll quilt for the swap (this weekend)
-Find a cupcake pan (this weekend)
-Make dolly outfit, perhaps knit a little sweater (on my flight to/from Shanghai next week)
-Finish the swap quilt (next weekend)
-Make trial cupcakes for party (next weekend)
-Prepare for the party: shop, cook, decorate (whenever possible)

If I have extra time, maybe I can also make some party decorations, perhaps some bunting....Hmmmm. Better get started.

Hug Me

We have been teaching Gioia baby signs, and she has learned quite a few. She recognizes /makes signs for more, doggie, eat, stars, and others. This week, though, she made up her own sign for hug (shown above).

This sign derived from hugs with her stuffed bunny rabbits. We would say - give bunny a hug - and then wrap her arms around her bunny and encourage a hugging, rocking motion. After a few times of being directed, she now can hug any toy on her own after you say "give (insert toy name) a hug."

Anyway, one day she wrapped her arms around herself and looked at us. One of us (I can't remember if it was me or Chris) said - do you want a hug? And then we hugged her. She immediately made then sign again. So we hugged her again. The first session was such a fun surprise. I think we gave her four or five hugs in a row that first time. You can see Chris responding to her baby sign for hug below.


Yesterday, she was sitting in the middle of the floor after a crawling and exploring session. I caught her eye and she made the hug sign. So I went over and gave her some hugs, all on her command. Then Lisa came over and continued the hugging under Gioia's direction. After about eight hugs in a row, she suddenly made the sign for "all finished," so we stopped. All finished is a sign we make after eating, when it is time to get out of the bath, and when the bottle is done.

So she now has the ability to command a hug and to have the hugging stop, all under her own direction. At 11 months old, I think that is incredibly cool.

Quilt One

The first doll quilt is finished. I am actually pretty happy with the final product. I used my new walking foot to machine quilt around each little rectangle in the Chinese coins pattern. For the binding, I loosely followed Heather Bailey's tutorial. I say loosely because I was all like - oh yeah, I totally get the mitered corner dealios. When I did not get it. At all. So, on the next quilt - the REAL swap quilt - I will pay more attention.

But despite the crazy corners, the binding looks nice overall. I sewed it up quickly the first time and it looked like crap. Then I spent 20 minutes on the internet saying dear Google, show me a better way! Two times is a charm, apparently.


So the birthday quilt is done and draped over the assembled IKEA dolly bed that Chris brought back from Atlanta. Yes, I am desperate enough to import doll accessories for my daughter's birthday. We even have an IKEA in Taipei, but they don't sell doll beds. How stupid is that?

I want to make a little mattress and pillow this week to complete the bedding. Then on to other projects.

Dear Daddy

We have missed you this week. Mom says you are bringing my doggie home. I am not sure what a doggie is, but perhaps I will like him.

While you were gone, I have been crawling more, mostly with the nanny. When Mom's around though, I want her to hold me instead. She is a sucker for sure.


Today we went for Mexican for lunch. I think I looked pretty hot and stylin' in my borrowed shades.


Jack let me play with the water at lunch, which made me giggle.


We are having a good time, but we can't wait for you to come back.

I love you,

Gioia

Pile o' scraps

I have been in a creative rut lately. I am missing my normal urge to get off the couch and make something. I contemplate, yes. But the actual "doing" is a problem.

I have, however, birthday gifts for my baby to plan. After seeing all of these fabulous doll quilts, I decided to try my luck with a pile o' scraps.


To make sure I follow through with actually making something, I signed up for a doll quilt swap. By the end of May, I need to make two bitty quilts: one to mail out to my swap partner and one to give to a little girl who is getting bigger everyday.

Speaking of whom, I know that some of you care not one whit for my crafting plans. You only come here for kiddo pics. OK, fine. You twisted my arm.

Adoption Announcement Outtakes

I ordered Gioia's announcements when we got home in February. For many reasons, they just arrived last week. Of course it would have been best for me to have the photo inserts shot, printed, and ready for stuffing. But no.


So we had a little mini photo shoot this weekend when we had an extra pair of arms. These are some of the outtakes from the day.

I dropped the final photos off at the print shop today. Now I just need to find time to pick them up. And stuff and address 100 envelopes. Else we will be sending these out when she graduates from high school.

Bubbles

What!? I'm not supposed to eat the bubbles?

Dude. Where's the fun in that?

Mail Goodies!

We just got a fabulous package in the mail. Well, not really we. It was a gift for Gioia. But I like it so much that I am secretly calling it mine. When we opened the package, I said, Gioia these are from your first cousins... once removed... and second cousins... Hey, how about we just call them family.

Our cool relatives from Texas sent wonderful embroidered gifts. First, a cotton blanket that is a perfect weight for the stroller on these cool-then-warm-then-cool-again spring days in Taipei. Gioia also got a sweet monogrammed shirt and these fantastic bloomers. I think bloomers are one of the best things about having a daughter. Seriously, aren't they fabulous?


Thank you guys! We love them. Megan, you do very nice work.

Ruminations