Spring has sprung!

The puddles have been great the last couple of days so I made sure to have the camera with me on one trip outside:

In the following picture, you can sort of see how Ren pumps his left arm as he walks or runs. What you don't see is that his right arm stays still!Just when I was putting the camera back inside, I saw one last photo op. How cute are those faces looking up at me?!

March wrap-up

Hooray - it's April! Big sister Claire is thrilled because her birthday is now less than one week away. It's hard to believe our first baby will be three and that our newest addition isn't that far behind.

I'm short on time (as usual) so I'll just post photos for now.

Ren (with Claire close on his heels) enjoying our little climbing structure in the backyard.

Dr. Ren W. performing a house call during a tea party with big sis:

With the weather being warmer these days, we have been spending a lot of time outdoors. One favourite haunt is the zoo. Claire has always loved the painted train there and now Ren does too! Check out Claire's pose in the first photo below and notice how closely Ren is observing ...

Monkey see, monkey do!

Beautiful boy.

Settling in

It's hard to believe we've been home for almost four weeks already. But I guess the first couple of weeks were kind of unreal with jetlag and weird sleep patterns, and then my mom was here for the couple of weeks after that. This week is the first on my own and it's going well so far. (But it's only Tuesday so who knows what's to come!)

Ren's understanding of English is really coming along, we think. We're sure he understands our basic /regular words, phrases and instructions and I wouldn't be surprised if he understands more than that as well. It's still difficult at times but definitely better than at first when we really couldn't communicate much at all. We were told that he only spoke a couple of words in Cantonese but I have doubts about that. He is already saying several words and phrases in English: hi, hello, bye-bye, goodnight, more, please, thanks, Mama, Daddy, Jie-Jie, Kitsya,kitty, puppy (sounds like uppy), Grandma, Baba and Dido. Granted, we wouldn't understand what he's saying without the context because the words are not coming out very clear, but the words are there. He is also attempting some short sentences: "Hi Kitsya", "more please", "Where is Jie-Jie?" "all done", "here you go". I suspect that he had more Cantonese words than we were told but that it wasn't really known by the orphanage, perhaps because he had several caregivers (either they didn't compare notes or they weren't able to see the context to discern the sounds he was making).

Meal preparation time has really evolved around here. When we first came home, Ren was incredibly impatient for food the moment he saw it. We soon realized that he probably never saw food being prepared. In the orphanage, food preparation would have happened behind the scenes; when food was visible, it meant it was time to eat. Not so here! Thankfully it seems that Ren has gotten somewhat used to food having to be prepared before it is time to eat. I don't know what I would have done without my mom here for the last little while because it really did take someone to keep him occupied while the other made breakfast, lunch and dinner. He is still impatient to some degree but much less so!

It seems like this post is turning into a series of theories related to Ren's life in the orphanage so I might as well offer a couple more:

• At meal time, the perception of fairness is huge. If someone helps themselves to more of a certain dish, Ren immediately squawks for some too, even if he already has some on his plate. If Claire wants more of something, we have to remember to give him a tiny bit more too, even if he already has some. I wonder if this too relates to his time in the orphanage.
• We continue to marvel at Ren's ability to play independently. The other night, we were watching a bit of kids' TV. He soon lost interest and spread out a blanket for himself on the floor. He then proceeded to play with some Duplo train stuff for a good 10 - 15 minutes! Again, it's likely an attribute of having been in an orphanage but I'm happy for it sometimes. He really seems to have amazing focus.

Here are some random photos of the kiddies around our house the last couple of weeks.

Ren meets his Grandma

We were incredibly lucky to have my mom here for just over a week and a half. She left for home yesterday. Not only was she great fun for the kidlets but she was a lifesaver for me in that she kept me company and helped me out big-time when Paul went back to work. I don't think my house will ever be so clean again!

Mom and Ren sitting on the quilt she made for him:

When Mom first visited us after we brought Claire home from China, she brought with her the Christmas stocking she had stitched for our girl. We chose the same pattern for Ren and once again, my mom came bearing that special gift for her grandchild:

We are very lucky to have the wonderful family we do. Thank you to both sets of grandparents for visiting us and helping us out!

Ren meets his Baba and Dido

Paul's parents, Joanne and Wally, came to visit on Thursday, March 12 and stayed for a few days. It was exciting for Ren to meet more of his family! Almost immediately, we could see a special bond developing between Ren and his Dido whom he is named after (one of Ren's middle names is Walter).

Time is limited these days so I only have time to post pics - no chatty news update this time! I'll try to post something soon, but I think the last time I said that was two weeks ago!

Unfortunately, I didn't get many pics of Joanne with Ren and it seemed most of them are only of her back (with Ren facing her and the camera). I'll do better at our next visit!"Look Ma, no hands!"

Home for a week

We've now been home for a week and we're starting to feel more settled. Jetlag didn't last as long as it did when we brought Claire home as a baby, thankfully. Getting Ren to sleep has been more of an issue here than in China but for the last two nights, he slept through the night at least, so that's progress!

Ren is doing remarkably well, considering all the immense changes this little boy has faced in the last two and a half weeks. I'm really impressed with his resiliency and his go-with-the-flow attitude. He seems more attached to us every day. Back in China a few days after we received him, he began throwing his arms open wide and coming forward for hugs. That has continued with more and more enthusiasm, and with a tighter hold on the hug, as the days go by. He is kissing us more too and will often approach Kitsya and air kiss towards her. He now calls us by name: not a lot, but some of the time at least.

We have been using a few signs with him and this week, he began signing back! The first was 'diaper change' on Tuesday. He did it again the following day without any prompting whatsoever, and the day after that, he did the sign when he saw the Pampers bag we had just bought. Yesterday, he repeated the sign for 'eat' and today he repeated 'more'. He's catching on! I should mention that he also says the words verbally as he signs but I'm grateful for the signs because his words aren't always discernable (diaper change certainly isn't!) He's also repeating more words like 'puppy', 'horse', 'cow', etcc, as well as animal sounds.

As for Cantonese words and phrases, he continues to use the two phrases we first heard in China: something like "dye" and "a-may" / "a-may-ya". We went to a Cantonese restaurant this week and asked our waiter about Ren's two main phrases. He didn't recognize them and thought they were simply baby talk. We are pretty sure they mean something, although it could be Ren's version of the words. For example, when Claire was little, she would often point to things she wanted and say, "Dis". We knew she was saying, "this" (as in "I want this") but if a non-English speaker had heard her say it and asked another English speaker, they may have assumed it was simply baby talk.

Today, we heard Ren say a new little phrase or song in Cantonese (we think). He was at the park on the swing and began to sing something like, "Wah woo lie, Wah woo lie". It sounds like it could be a nursery rhyme or something.

Other things to note:

- Ren has a hilarious laugh, kind of like Horshack from Welcome Back, Kotter. Anyone remember that?

- He hates his bath, every since we washed his hair.
- He eats well with a spoon - a skill he hid from us while in China.

- He doesn't seem to have any experience with puzzles but is very interested in them and seems to be catching on.

- He is good with blocks and loves books.

-He doesn't seem to like fruit or veggies much, much to our dismay and Claire's excitement (they're her favourite and she always ends up with his portion!)

- he is getting better at taking turns although is still prone to a big pout session at least once during the turn-taking.

- He doesn't yet have a comfort object despite our efforts to give him one. We weren't successful with that for Claire either. We'd really like for him to have one to help with bedtimes and other times he may be anxious. Any suggestions on how to help a child attach to an object for comfort?

Today was another week of firsts: first grocery store horsey ride, first time in the snow, first time at the park, first snowman. Ren really did not like the snow at first but today he seems more comfortable with it.

Here are some pictures of his first experience with snow:
One of my favourite moments between the siblings happened the other day. I had been giving Ren a horsey ride when I told him it was almost Jie-Jie's turn. He seemed to catch on because he 'dismounted'. But then he went towards Jie-Jie. Totally in sync with him, she crossed her legs and motioned for him to get on! I couldn't believe it! Luckily, the camera was within reach:

Now I know it looks like she may be giving him a swift kick to the you-know-whats but really, she's just giving him a nice horsey ride! Oh, and notice which leg she is using for the ride. Too funny that she crosses her legs but gives a ride on the uncrossed one.

Paul's parents arrived last night for a long weekend with us and have already created amazing memories with the kids. I'll blog about it in a couple of days.

Home sweet home

We're home! We had a great couple of flights home. Our only trouble with the kids occurred before the flights back in Beijing; it was actually a relief to get on the plane and settle in for the long haul! Once again, we sweetened the trip with lollipops:

We were met back home with cold weather (but not as cold as it had been, apparently) but it didn't seem to phase Claire one bit. She was just so happy to be home. Ren didn't cry or react to the cold other than to look around in disbelief. Thankfully, he didn't put up a big fight about being put in the carseat (so far, at least). Here are the kids just after getting buckled in to our vehicle at the airport:

And then we were home! My brother Stu gave us a warm welcome and we had a nice night on Friday visiting. Claire immediately ran to her toys and began playing, while Ren walked around the house, checking things out. He met our cat Kitsya and was quite afraid of her at first. But soon he said, "Kitty" and attempted to say her name and he's been saying it ever since. We kept the kids up fairly late Friday night in the hope of getting them to sleep for more than a couple of hours.

And sleep we did! The kids were asleep by 11:20 p.m. Friday night and, with the exception of Claire waking for a while in the night and the adults waking periodically to check the time, we all slept until 2:30 p.m. on Saturday! I honestly can't remember the last time I slept that long. We then all had a really great day. With everyone so rested and with Claire so happy to be home, there were virtually no fights, no tantrums, no nothing but happy playing, sharing practice and hanging out.

Since we've been home, Ren has been repeating more words, such as Kitty, panda, and Uncle Stu. He has a cute little voice that sometimes sounds like he's holding his tongue in one place when he speaks (try saying Kitty with your tongue in the middle of your mouth and you might get the idea). We've really enjoyed seeing Ren run around the house. He runs with a wide stance and pumps his left arm like crazy. It's super-cute. Today, he created a slide out of a booster seat box we had left in our living room for our cat (she likes boxes). We were pretty impressed with his ingenuity! He tumbles and falls all the time but I don't worry about it anymore. He seems to have good control as he falls and somehow he always emerges with a smile. Sometimes his falls look like they happen in slow motion, which is kinda funny to see.

Our sleep patterns from jet lag are still a little wonky today but I'm hoping that tonight we will settle everything out and will be back on our time zone tomorrow. It'll be good to get into our routine. I haven't even started to go through my email yet so if you're waiting to hear from me, that's why. It may be a while but I'll get to it eventually! Same thing with more posts ...