Double Happiness

How does Gwendolyn grow?

I emailed some pictures of Gwen to Ewa (a volunteer at Gwen's old orphanage) and she shared them with the staff at the SWI. Ewa said nobody recognized Gwen! So that made me want to search through our gazillion pictures to see how she's changed from month to month. I needed to find pictures where she wasn't smiling since she looks so different when she smiles. It was hard but I found these. Then I removed the background so it would be easier to compare her facial features. I'll update this every month or so (probably less often when she's older).

Here's what we have so far:

	This is the earliest picture we have of Gwen. It's the one used in her finding ad. I'm guessing that she was less than three months old here.
	This was her referral picture. Based on the length of her hair (compared to when we got her), we estimate that she was about 11 or 12 months old.
	This was on one of her official documents. Again, based on the length of her hair, we estimate that she was 12 or 13 months old.
	This is her passport photo. We'd been her Mommy and Daddy for about a week in this picture. Age 14 1/2 months old. 29 inches tall 20 pounds Size 12 month top Size 12 month pants (a bit too long) Size 4 shoe
	You can see that her hair is growing. She's nearly 16 months old here.
	Gwen is exactly 17 months old in this picture.
	She's exactly 18 months old here. It's Christmas Day!
	She's just a couple of days away from being 19 months old. 32 inches tall 24 pounds Size 18 month top Size 18 month pants (a bit too long) size 5 shoe

Ten things Meg Ryan and I have in common

1. We were born the same year
2. We're both 5'8"
3. We had dark brown hair in high school
4. We graduated from HS the same year
5. Meg's character was married to a Navy Pilot in the movie Top Gun. I married a Navy Pilot
6. Meg starred in the movie "The Presidio". I was stationed on The Presidio.
7. We currently have teenage sons from a prior marriage.
8. She found true love over the internet in the movie "You've got mail". I found true love over the internet too! (Mine was real life though - sorry Meg)
9. Remember that famous scene in the movie "When Harry met Sally"? I can do that too. ;)
10. We both recently adopted a daughter from China!

News of her adoption here: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2006-01/27/content_515866.htm

Thanks to Pati, here's a link to a pic of the new mom and baby (and nanny): http://www.gossipish.com/sitebuilder/images/meg_asia1-538x468.jpg

Congratulations to Karen and Scott!

My dear friend Karen and her husband, Scott, just saw their daughter's pretty face today. Congratulations! Here's their blog: http://onceuponacadence.blogspot.com/

Doctor visit yesterday, Social Security office today

Gwen went to the Doctor yesterday. Thankfully, she didn't remember her last visit there and she was super cheerful and happy -- at least for a little while.

We wanted our Doctor to look at her legs. She seems a big bow-legged to us and that could be a sign of rickets which are not uncommon to Chinese adopted children. Usually a good diet with plenty of vitamin D is all that's needed to correct the problem. Well, Gwen doesn't really have that problem it just seemed to us as if she did because she is a little bit pigeon-toed. The Doctor called it "in-toeing". He said it's just a mild case and she may or may not outgrow it but it shouldn't pose a problem. He also reassured us that her frequent (but not constant) toe walking isn't anything to worry about either since there's no sign of neurological damage and she's on track in all other ways.
....

Next, we talked about poop. Specifically super smelly poop and (potential) parasites. I've been somewhat worried since talking to friends who casually commented that they could sleep with their Diaper Genie right next to their bed. We can't even have our Diaper Genie in the same house with us! So just before her nap, I had the more-grim-than-anticipated task of spooning doo-doo out of her diaper into little containers.
....

Lastly, we talked about her immunizations. Last time we visited the Dr, we tried to draw blood and after too many minutes of baby torture consisting of multiple stabs and jabs and digs from two different lab tech's (while mommy and daddy used all our strength to try to get her to hold still), we gave up. It just wasn't worth it. So, we're repeating all of her shots. She got four yesterday: DTaP, IPV, MMR and PCV7. It was all over in less than 30 seconds and she screamed her heart out but immediately recovered as soon as the nurse produced a Sponge Bob Square Pants sticker. All in all, it was MUCH easier on her (and me!) than trying to draw blood again. She has more to go but I'm not dreading it like I was the blood drawing. Besides, there was every chance that she'd need to repeat the shots anyway since another family who adopted from her SWI had bloodwork that confirmed that the shots their baby got there were no good.

Gwen is exactly 19 months old today. She weighs 24 pounds and is 31.5 inches tall.

We went to the Social Security Office and applied for her SS#. For anyone who's curious, here are the documents we needed: Her Chinese passport, our passports, our adoption certificate, the notarized translations of her Chinese birth certificate and adoption certificate and her Citizenship certificate. Only one parent needs to be there (Andrew is in Los Angeles giving a talk at UCLA today). All in all, it was pretty painless! We'll have her SS# in two weeks.

She's almost 19 months old!

The time really flies. I know this all too well because I have a 17 and a half year old son upstairs sleeping in the room next to Gwen's. It really doesn't seem like it's been 17 years since he was my little guy. I know it'll be a blink of the eye before Gwen stops being my baby too. But for now, she is my baby and she's such a little treasure. She's recently learned to give puckered up kisses. And she's talking more too. Her personality is showing more and more every day and she's a person I'm honored to know. I love her with all my heart!

Here she is showing off Daddy's camera skills and her growing hair.