Happy Birthday, Cassidy!

Celebrating Cassidy continues! She turned on on June 11; her party was Sunday. Family & friends made it fun. Did you see the cake?? I've been saving the picture of this cake for almost five years, knowing I'd be adopting again. I found a pasty chef, and I must say, she did a great job. And it was delicious. Not everyone was able to make it to the party so I have lots of leftover cake (bummer!)

When a baby is nine months when you first get her, the time to the first birthday flies! The days up to her birthday were bittersweet...knowing a year ago she was growing in another woman's tummy and now she's half way across the world calling me mama. We lit a candle at the party, recognizing her birth mom, who I'm sure still has a heavy heart.

Otherwise, Cassidy is doing well. She was sick a couple weeks ago with an ear infection and viral sore throat (blisters). That and teething six teeth made it an interesting weekend! She's very loving and has a "new" smile that almost looks like she's showing off her new teeth lol

Keep checking back for pictures.

We had a fun albeit chilly Mother's Day at Como Zoo. We didn't stay too long then headed home for a picnic on the living room floor! Emily thought that was pretty cool. Last weekend Phoebe, one of the girls from our adoption group, came over to play. She's a pretty stoic kid in unfamiliar places! A smile couldn't be forced!

Day care is going better than expected. Geri has given me faith again in home day cares. We're looking forward to a fun summer. Emily got a new bike and has enjoyed our bikerides. I do wish I had taught her how to ride a two wheeler last fall, because it will be tough with a baby in a stoller! I guess she'll have fun until then.

Cassidy is sleeping through the night about 50% of the time. I'm counting the days!! Keep checking back for pictures and updates!

We've been home over a month, and I cannot believe how well Cassidy is doing and how much she has grown and changed. Although she does not regularly sleep through the night (only four times) and her naps aren't as long as they should be for her age (50-75 min), she has a great disposition. Next week is her follow up appt at Children's Hospital for her thyroid; hopefully she's responding well and levels are normal.

She's been "scrunching" her face on command and when "standing" (holding my fingers), she'll do knee bends with Emily's ballet dvd lol Funny kid! Here are some recent pix.

Home Sweet Home

It's sooooo good to be home...and sleep in my bed...and have Emily here! Emily loves her little sister. She kisses her and tells her she loves her all the time. I get dead tired at 4pm, like I've been at an all night party (too old for that, I guess!). Cassidy's been waking up a couple times a night, the worst being at 4:30am with the intention of staying up so she's been coming to bed with me then and will then sleep until 8:30.

Cassidy fusses in her sleep for about an hour before she wakes up. I heard Emily say, "Cassidy, would you be more quiet, please?" in the middle of the night lol She was personalizing her crying but has learned not to. She also sets up her sleeping bag in the living room in case Cassy is fussing too much and is keeping her awake.

I have no idea how we're going to get Emily to school on time! Maybe I'll get up at 4:30 lol All of our friends are very excited for us and have been thrilled to finally meet Cassidy. Today I broke down and took a nap--naps are underrated.

We got the VIP treatment all the way home--before we left China, they found an error with our Japan to Detroit flight and tried to fix that for about 45 minutes (when I originally booked the flights, NWA had Cassidy on the flight to Japan; they caught it before we left but then forgot to add Cassidy back on the flight home) "We'll try to get it fixed so you can make this flight." Oh no! I wasn't missing that flight because then I'd miss two connecting flights!! So a supervisor put our carryons on a cart and whizzed us through a VIP line and pushed the cart all the way onto the plane. Then when we landed in Detroit and had to go through Immigration, we had probably several hundred people in front of us, this short woman came up to us, "This line isn't good for baby. Come with me" and she made a line just for us! Lastly, getting our heavy luggage, I asked a young guy if he'd mind getting it off the conveyor. I should play this baby card more often lol

I'm not able to upload photos at this time. Check back later. All in all, because I wasn't alone, I was able to enjoy this trip, and Cassidy, much more than I did my first trip with Emily. Check back for pix.