Airborne

Our dog, Airborne, who would have been 18 years old this week went to doggie heaven this weekend. In honor of her, our first child, I wanted to share some photos....

Smiling Watermelons

Dallas took Lin-Ley to Home Depot today. They looked at the usual items you need this time of year: lawn tools, plants, seeds, etc. Lin-Ley was allowed to pick out a cup of seeds for Tru and herself. She picked out gourds for Tru and watermelons for herself.

Here is a photo of the cup Lin-Ley picked out for herself:

On the way home she asked Dallas,

"How long will it take my watermelons to look like that?"

"Look like what?"

"You know, with the smiley faces on it?"

Dallas smiled and told her that her watermelons would not have smiley faces - it was just a picture.

Lin-Ley was instantly upset. She said she never would have chosen those seeds if she would have know that!

When Dallas told me that story I could not help but laugh.

A few minutes later Lin-Ley came over and I told her that I could not wait until her watermelons grew because I had never seen watermelons with faces on them. She looked immediately at Dallas and we all started laughing.

It's the little things....

Lin-Ley's Special Day

Six years ago last night we held this precious, chubby cheeked, baby girl for the first time.
Six years ago today we were officially a family.







Fast forward six years....

"Gotcha Day"
Yesterday was Lin-Ley's "Gotcha Day". That is the day you hold your baby for the first time.
The first prize of Lin-Ley's two-day, special-day extravaganza was a snow day! Dallas worked half-day and then I worked half-day and the kids played all day.
Once I arrived home Dallas and I sat a grinning Lin-Ley down so that we could tell her, once again, "Lin-Ley's Story". Just as it is a tradition to read "The Night Before Christmas" on Christmas Eve it is a tradition at our house to tell "Lin-Ley's Story" on Gotcha Day.
It seems that each year the story becomes more elaborate. Dallas like to slip in tidbits about the frequency in which baby Lin-Ley pooped, drooled, etc. She loves it all. This year she wanted to add to the story as well. She was a happy girl and went to bed last night knowing that today would be another special day. Her special day!

"Adoption Day"
Today marked the official start of our family. Although we had Lin-Ley with us for around twelve hours before the first piece of paper was signed (I still find that hard to believe) it was not official until we finished all of the paper work the following morning.
Two years ago we began allowing Lin-Ley to chose the dinner of her choice on this special day. And for the second time she chose Carrabba's Italian Grill. Ok by us!

Let the celebration begin!
















Party!












The menu item of choice - noodles of course!

















Ditto!















Lin-Ley stopped eating her pasta at one point and told us that she was full and that she was ready for her surprise cake.

"What cake? We did not order cake."

"Come on! You know I'm going to get a surprise cake on my Special Day!"

Of course she was right!

It is a school night so it was home for bath and bed. But we had more reminiscing to do first.

Here Lin-Ley lays with the clothes she was wearing the first night we held her. Yes, she was wearing all of these layers of clothes. We will never forget that night when we began undressing her for her bath. We kept peeling off layer after layer of clothing. We thought it was quite funny but soon learned that it is very traditional for young children to be dressed like that in China.



She loved the little kitty cat jacket.
















While were in China (in 2003) we visited a book store where we purchased these books for Lin-Ley hoping that she would some day learn to read them in Chinese. It was time to give them to her. She was thrilled and immediately began flipping through them for the characters she already knew.





Before tucking her in I brought out the clothes she wore the first night we were together. This was the onesie and cotton pants we changed her into after her first bath.











Six years!
Six years of growing!
Six years of learning!
Six years of family!
Six years of love!!

The books we gave Lin-Ley tonight inspired her to begin reading one of her Chinese textbooks. She requested that I video her speaking Chinese and send it to "all of the people who know me." So here you go:

Here Lin-Ley reads from her Chinese textbook... until she gets stumped...



Here Lin-Ley shares the names for some body parts and then she counts to 100. The counting has a few glitches but she eventually makes it through. This video is a little long but she refused to stop until she made it all the way to 100.

Tru's New Leg (#2) !

About six months after receiving his first prosthesis the Prosthetists began making Tru a new one. By that time he has already had around four height adjustments and continuing to lengthen his prosthesis was not a problem. The problem was (and it is a great problem to have!) that Tru's right femur was growing longer (taller) so he was growing out of his socket (the part of the prosthesis that his residual limb fits into).
So our little, three year old boy, who had only been walking for eight months at that point, was already ready for a new, bigger, more advanced prosthesis.
It was not a quick process. His first prosthesis was made from rather simple measurements. This time they actually casted Tru's leg, ordered parts, had it assembled, had fittings, more adjustments, a final fitting with his physical therapist present, and then the ultimate prize...


Goodbye red leg. Precious baby leg. Cute leg. Starter leg. Amazing leg. The leg that started it all.














In comes the new leg for a final fitting. With a new leg comes a new foot. Unfortunately I did not think about that - Tru needed bigger shoes!














So they borrowed Tru's old foot and placed it on his new leg. As simple as that...









Waiting... waiting...

















The first fitting of the fully assembled leg. Tru was not happy at all. He kept looking over at his original red leg and reaching for it saying, "My leg! My leg!"












Lisa, his physical therapist, was there to help Tru take his first steps with the new leg.
















After watching Tru walk it was amazing to hear all of the things they saw wrong with the fit. There were a minimum of five changes/adjustments made that day.









Finally, it was the big day, time to grow into a new, advanced, big boy leg.


After Tru and I arrived and were waiting for the unveiling there was a knock on the door. A surprise guest - Daddy! This was the first opportunity that Dallas had to join us on an appointment at Dankmeyer.












More adjustments!

The yogurt raisins ran out so Dallas offers a piece of gum to entice Tru to continue walking.












One final check.

















Tru says he has had enough! "Let's go Daddy!"














The knee on this leg is much more "bendable" (for the lack of a better/medical term).

Tru is able to have more natural motion with this leg.



It was time to try it out at physical therapy the following morning. Lisa worked with him on the treadmill which he loves. He walks as Lisa sings, "The ants go marching one by one...."


Tru loves working with Lisa.

Here is one of his favorite activities. He lays on a rolling board while Lisa pulls him around the room with a hula-hoop. He thinks it is loads of fun but it is a super workout for his core muscles.






So far so good with the newest, multi-colored leg. It is much heavier than his first leg which certainly took a toll on him (and me) for a few days. When I pick him up now I am still not used to the immediate change in his weight. And the new knee will quickly bed and snap around your fingers when you remove the leg. Yes, I know this from personal experience. Another lesson learned quickly was to be much more careful when pulling Tru up into your lap. The new, heavier, bendy leg will really leave a nice bruise on your knee if you are not careful.

Other immediate changes: Tru's shoe size when from a 6.5 to a size 8, his size 2T pants were above his ankles, and don't forget about the new socks.
So we took Tru and his new leg on a shopping spree the following weekend!
Keep growing Tru-Tru!!

FCC Chinese New Year

We attended the FCC's (Families With Children From China) annual Chinese New Year in Baltimore on Feb 7th. This is always a fun event.

The Chinese Opera was there for another performance. It was hilarious to see all of the little girls (and some boys) cover their ears immediately once they started singing.

Tru thought the Monkey King was funny. He kept asking, "Where Monkey King?" the rest of the day.

After the Opera performances the kids visited several different rooms to make arts and crafts projects including a panda bear, cherry tree blossom, New Year's cards, dragon masks, fortune cookies, etc.

Then is was music time.

"Cheese!"

Lin-Ley took a seat right beside the music instructor as if she were the assistant.

Finally! The children were given a chance to play the instruments.












While some children and parents played the bells the older children performed a small dragon dance.










There is a little boy stowing away under neath the dragon! If he stands very still maybe no one will notice.









Lin-Ley was a proud big sister to Tru. This was his first FCC Chinese New Year event so she had to show him the ropes.














The little assistant was chosen to play the triangle as the smaller children had their turn at a dragon dance.









After a nice lunch of Chinese Food it was time for the much anticipated finale. The Dragon Parade.

"Hey! There's a Dragon up there!"

"A Dragon!"

"A Dragon!"

"A Dragon!"

The Dragon started up on stage but soon jumped down right into the crowd of screaming little girls (and some boys!). The girls crowding around him to feed her their red envelopes. All of the money (in the red envelopes) that is collected by the Dragon is given to a charity sponsored by the FCC.

One of the older girls holds up the green vegetable for the Dragon.


The Dragon takes the vegetables, chews them up and then spits them back out. If the vegetable hits you that means you will have luck all year long.

I caught a piece of the lettuce and gave it to Tru. He immediately began reaching toward the Dragon trying to feed him.

(Lin-Ley is on the far right in the white skirt and red jacket.)

Try as he might Tru could not get the Dragon's attention. Soon the Dragon was back on stage to finish their show.

























Afterward all of the children had the opportunity to take photos with the Dragon and the drum crew.










Tru was still trying to feed the Dragon!











Finally! After standing patiently in front of the then empty Dragon costume for about 5 minutes and holding out the lettuce one of the performers came over, put on the Dragon mask, and accepted Tru's offering!!















Fun time!
On the way home Tru had his nap so it was time to play outside once we arrived home. It was around 60 degrees out. The yard was super muddy due to all of the melting ice and snow. That did not deter Dallas or the kids.

However, about 2 minutes after Tru joined Dallas and Lin-Ley outside I heard Dallas calling me. Somebody fell down into the mud almost immediately. And he did not like it!!












After a quick change it was back outside.






On the other side of the yard Lin-Ley was determined to stomp through as much of the remaining snow as possible.











Quote Of The Day:
True friends are those who really know you but love you anyway.
Edna Buchanan