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Nice weekend, but HOT

We went to an FCC party and met my mother at a church nearby.  We got there a bit early, so we got out and let The Bing run.  Dontcha love the flyin’ hair?

We all enjoyed the party.  Thanks, so much, A~ from Mei Mei Journal.  Bing-Bing really loved bouncing.  That and the egg drop soup.

 

A~ gave us this dress, a hand-me-down from one of her girls.  I just love it on her.  Wish we could go bib-free, but this girl is a constant drooler.  Still, we were able to find one that went fairly well with it.  Anyway, thanks, A~.  It’s wonderful (as are all the glorious Lauren hand-me-downs). 

Ps. A~, I think my mother wants a Ruby-puppy.    She’s the cutest!

The amazing self-cleaning belly button

The Bing has the most amazing belly button ever.  It is both an innie and an outie, but not simultaneously.  She tends toward the outie when cold or wet and the innie other times.  It’s like a little thermometer, plus she never collects belly button lint because of the changeable quality.  I’ve never seen one like it and I gotta say, it is the best!  Anyone ever see a belly button so cool?  Oh, and she seems to prefer it as an innie.  When it’s out, she tries to push it back in.  Heh, too cute.

“I am a tiger!”

Important ketchup

For which there will be bullets:

• The Bing went to the doctor today for her 18-month visit.  Her weight is 22 pounds, 2 ounces (25th %ile), her height is 31 3/4 inches (50th %ile), and her head circumference is 18 inches (50th %ile).  The biggest gain is her head circumference, which is up from the 15th %ile.  Wowza!  As usual, my interpretation is, SHE’S GIGANTIC!  Yuppers.
• Tonight my sister, Q~, asked honored me by asking me to come with her to her high school parent-teacher night.  She wanted someone to hear her teachers rave about her.  Now, how cool is that!  And rave they did!  Yeah, I have an awesome sister.
• I tried a McDonald’s iced latte yesterday.  I was not impressed.  It was over a dollar more than their medium iced coffee and no better.  Don’t bother.
• Still coughing some, but having less pain from the pulled muscle.  Delsym is good stuff for the cough, but it makes me stupid.  I have little room for that.
• We got The Bing’s Halloween costume – a tiger.  She is tigerish.  Now, I ask other parents, how do you get a little one to try on a costume?  She’s just not feelin’ it.  I put the head over my head and she looks.  She points to the tiger’s nose and my nose, so she understands, but she has no desire to become this tiger.
• At The Academy, The Bing is sitting on the potty.  What does she do there?  She sits and her teacher sings.  Education is a wonderful thing.

And I’m kicking back

The morning was bad when I was using narcotic meds, but the I switched to Ibuprofen.  Don’t know why that is, but I’m less stupid and in less pain, so I’ll take it.  My coughing is better on Delsym.  This evening I was able to take care of Bing-Bing, including give her a bath, her bottle, and put her to bed.  Last night I couldn’t pick her up.  And, I’m getting bored.  The cold symptoms are improving and I’m even beginning to think I would like some iced coffee.  I don’t like coffee when I’m sick, so this is a VERY good sign.  I haven’t wanted iced coffee for 2 weeks.

My cough kicked me…

… and it HURTS!  I’ve had this cold, courtesy of The Bing, and have been coughing for 2 weeks.  On Friday I pulled a muscle below a rib.  It hurt, but not horribly.  Then yesterday, in the middle of a therapy session at work, I coughed and it felt like my side blew out.  How I managed not to scream, I can’t tell you.  I kept coughing and had no cough drops, so I delicately (heh) excused myself, offering to make tea for the both of us (tea with honey feels good on my throat) and took off to the water cooler/heater room.  There I nearly doubled over, as the coughs kept coming.  Lucky for me, our nurse was there.  She went to our Physical Therapy Department and got a heating pad, which I shared with a client for the rest of the day. 

In the evening, I went to the doctor who prescribed, narcotics, cough syrup, heat, and a day off.  I feel terrible, as I’ve taken several days off over the last 3 weeks – at least one day each week.  Happily, I can say my cold is improving.  The pain isn’t so bad, as long as I don’t move or breath deeply.  Sheesh!  I tell you, this is the craziest thing.  It happened to me a year and a half ago, although not nearly this badly. 

So, what am I doing when not sleeping?  Updating blog stuff, checking my murderer email after 3 months, only to discover that friends have written too (sorry, Michele), reading political stuff and thinking I would prefer not to have someone in the White House who would have us banning books and whose church seems to believe we are in a religious war and who reminds me of a cheerleader ( but oh, I try tend not to rant and I’m not politically savvy, so it’s not a good place to go) reading, deleting emails, preparing Good Wishes Quilt wishes from China.  Aside from being sleepy and stupid, I am bored.  This is good.  I want to want to go to work tomorrow.   I just hope I can move and do things with my girl without feeling my side is splitting out.

Catching Up

It was raining hard and we needed a few things, so off to the mall we went.  The Bing enjoyed the playground there.  The last picture isn’t the best, but I like it because it shows her “working hard face,” which I just love.  She’s coming through a tunnel.  We had dinner at a Mexican joint (she likes cilantro, yay!) and got her a new pair of sneakers.  I’m a sneaker hound and I can only say – yowza!

I’ve been slow with blogging lately.  I’ve had a nasty cold.  The Bing gave it to me.  She handled it well.  Me, not so much.  Finally, the coughing caused a pulled muscle in my side – OUCH!  Now I’m taking cough medicine, Ibuprofen, and trying to manage.  I’m pooped all the time, but I’ve been to the doctor who says it’s just a cold and I can work.  Hi ho, hi ho, off to work I go.  It isn’t pretty.

Family reunion & catching up

Train ride

Driving

The Hubs’ family had their annual summer family reunion last weekend.  There are now 19 kids under the age of 8 in the gang.  The grandparents were all there and a great grandmother (great grandfather couldn’t make it).  It is a big clan.  Bing-Bing started off a little shy, but quickly got into the fun, including train rides, riding bikes and motorized cars and bikes (with help from older cousins), water games…  Yeah, it was a good time. 

In other news, Bing-Bing has been to the eye doctor as we continue to monitor all of that.  As long-time readers know, Bing-Bing’s right eye is smaller than her left.  She was born that way.  The doctor says things are status from her last visit, 6 months ago.  He does think there is extra boney tissue around they eye and you can feel a sharpness under that eye.  Now that she’s a busy toddler she is prone to black eyes, as it bruises more easily, so you may see some shiners on The Bing, if you haven’t noticed them already, but isn’t because she’s taken up boxing!  We’re sticking with swimming for now.  She does have astigmatism in the right eye due to this bone malformation, as it pushes on the eye causing pressure.  So we’re watching that, but the doc thinks she can see well.  I do remember him telling us, on a previous visit, that this could have been caused in the womb by her face being pressed against her birth mother’s pelvis for an extended period.  I’m fascinated by that.

What else?  Bing-Bing is finishing her first week in the toddler room at The Academy.  Part of her new curriculum includes time to sit on the toilet.  At 18-months, she’s probably a little young to really take off with this, but I’m glad for the exposure.  The toddler room and the next most advanced room share a bathroom, so she will see older kids using the toilet, getting some good modeling.  Of course she gets that at home, too, but I think seeing it from peers is better and probably more motivating.

Speaking of 18-months, she turned 18-months-old yesterday!  Yowza!  She’s chatting and signing up a storm.  We have 2 Baby Signing Time videos with a third on the way.  She loves them!  She doesn’t watch much TV and I’ve read that there is no such thing as educational TV for the under-2 set, but I think these are.  She watches them and she is learning language from them, so I’m okay with these.  She augments her speech with the sign, which helps, as her speech isn’t the best yet. 

Anyway, she’s growing, developing, and changing like a weed.  It’s hard to keep up!

Saturday evening

Flyin'

Check this out!

Croquet anyone?

I'm ready

Wack!

Chilling for 30 seconds with Mom

Blah week looked up

It was a yucky week.  I won’t go as far as to say the week from hell, but it was not fun.  I was head-achy all week – not sure why.  Then Friday morning we determined for sure that Reba, our kitty, was missing.  We weren’t sure the night before, but Friday morning she didn’t come running for breakfast.  Then Hubs discovered her fur in a screen hole in the back screen door.  I was a mess – not so much because I thought she’d be hit.  She was feral her first year and quite street wise.  I just didn’t know if she’d come back.  She knows how to make a living out there.  In the morning, I took a few fliers around, then in the evening Bing-Bing and I took them all over.

Then Hubs and I went out for our first full date since The Bing entered our life in November.  We went out once before without her, but were back to put her to bed.  This time Aunt A~ took care of everything and off we went.  Less than a block away from the house we abandoned our dinner and a movie plan, which felt rushed, and went for a leisurely meal and then to an awesome ice cream place.  I had baked Alaska, cooked with a blow torch.  Not really baked, but yummy just the same!  We walked around outside, holding hands, suddenly wondering — did we remember how?  There’s always a little one between us!  We did think of Bing-Bing, but we never worried.  We bought her a watch and a growth chart at a gift shop near the ice cream joint.  The girl loves her tick tocks, so why not?

When we got home, there was Reba on the top step to our back door – waiting.  She’d just gone a walkabout.  We welcomed her back.  She was happy to get some water and warmth for the night.

Nicky & Reba (on right)

The Bing and her aunt survived their first babysitting evening and we’re looking forward to more.  Thanks Aunt A!!! 

Family

And we’re all smiling!

Months in pics

Collage Meme

I got this from Third Mom.

Here are the rules:

1. Type your answers below into Flickr Search.
2. Using only the first page, pick an image for each of your answers.
3. Copy & paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.
4. Follow the flicker instructions for copying the mosaic into your blog.

 

1. Charlotte A. Cavatica, 2. simple salad : home, 3. Cazenovia, NY, 4. Blood-Red Flower, 5. Michael Phelps in Seventh Heaven, 6. Hazelnut Iced Coffee @ McDonald’s, 7. Chongqing City, Sichuan Prov. China 2004, 8. tiramasu, 9. Spooky, Flying Space-Cat

1. What is your first name? Cavatica
2. What is your favorite food? Salad
3. What high school did you go to? Cazenovia Central High
4. What is your favorite color? Red
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Sheesh, I don’t know. Probably Michael Phelps, this week.
6. Favorite drink? Iced Coffee
7. Dream vacation? China
8. Favorite dessert? Tiramasu
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? Me, only better
10. What do you love most in life? My family
11. One word to describe you: Kind
12. Your favorite animal: Furry

Now I tag, April, Jammer’s mom, and Ms. Dragonfly.

Oooops, I see I only put 9 of the 12 items in the collage.  Family is much more important than Michael Phelps and he made it right to the center!  Oh well.  Other than that, the other items would be a little hard to picture.  It’ll have to do.

At the park

Intent

At the wheel

Silly

Flyin

Hand in hand

This morning we went to an Art in the Park event.  Bing-Bing wasn’t too interested in the art activities this year, but her friends and the playground were a hit.

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Later this evening, we went to Hubs’ parents’ house so he could pick lima beans.  Meanwhile, the Bing and I went to the neighbor farm to feed the cows (“moos”) and play with the neighbors’ grandkids.  The 4-year-old boy was very nice with Bing-Bing. 

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Between this morning and this evening and tonight, I gotta say, it’s nice to see her play with older kids.  They bring out some nice things in her – really stretching her.  She gets out of parallel play mode and really interacts.  She’s loves chasing and being chased.  This is fun with Mommy and Daddy, but I love seeing her do it with kids.  It’s just so cool.

Wishes for Bing-Bing

This weekend a good friend gave Bing-Bing a book called, A Quilt of Wishes. It inspired me to write to our CCAI representative in Chongqing and ask for wishes for Bing-Bing’s quilt.  It occurred to me that it would be wonderful to have a link to Bing-Bing’s beginning in China represented in the quilt, as these people are critical to her early life and bringing her to us.  Also, the 100 Good Wishes Quilt is a Chinese tradition and it would be nice to have a Chinese connection within it.  On Monday I wrote to Marie and I heard back right away.  I will make up cards with their wishes and provide the cloth.  I’m so thrilled and honored!

SWI Adoption Director - Goodbye Kiss

SWI Adoption Director’s wish: Kai Xin ( 开心）, which means delightful

 

Our Chongqing reps – aka, our midwives

Chongqing Rep’s (left) wish: Wei Xiao ( 微笑 ), which means smile

Chongqing Rep (right) wish: Jian Kang ( 健康 ), which means healthy

Stripes

Stripes

The Bing will be moving up to the Toddler Room at The Academy in  two weeks.  Yowza!  Our girl is growing up fast.  Thank goodness for this blog, or I’d never be able to keep track.

I have other cool news, but that will be another post.  It makes me very happy.  For now, I’m very sleepy.  The Bing was up in the middle of the night.  I brought her to bed with us and she gave me a back massage with her foot.  It didn’t feel bad, but it wasn’t so condusive to sleeping.  Well, off to work I go, hi ho… zzzzzzzzzz.

A week in pictures

The Academy had a luau to celebrate the renovations they did.  It was sweet.  More than the slide, Bing-Bing enjoyed stomping in a puddle with her buddies from the pre-toddler room.  It was nice to see her playing with her buds, especially those boys, Batman and Spiderman.  Catgirl was there, too.  She took something from The Bing, who held her own.  No physical violence, just a definitive “MINE” and Catgirl returned the coveted item (a cup).  I was pleased with how they handled themselves.  I didn’t step in.

Water slide at school luau

The Bing likes hangin’ out at her grandparents’ place.  She thinks she’s in charge.

Country Girl

 On Sunday, The Bing and I went to the Renaissance Faire where we enjoyed a nice turkey leg, among other things.

Chomp... chomp... chomp

And then, well, a lady walking her pig.  I went out for drinks after work and there they were.  Odd.

Lady & a pig

Pig

Bing-Bing’s Bings!

Bing Cherries

Bing-Bing LOVES Bing cherries, so of course for this post I had to look them up on-line to learn the source of the name.  As it happens, Bing Cherries are named for Ah Bing, a Chinese man who worked in the orchards where they were first produced, caring for them well.  It’s an interesting and sad story.  It seems my daughter was named well.  I will have to mention this in my next email our adoption rep and ask her to forward it to the orphanage, including the woman who named my girl, Xue Bing, the girl who loves Bing cherries.

Visit to the Pushys

On Sunday we went to visit our friends, the Pushys.  We had a nice picnic lunch – the weather was fab.  We played in the pool, with the dog, and talked about parenting.  Mrs. P, thanks for your advice.  Mrs. P has a wealth of childhood development info, which it seems is both a blessing and a curse for her.  For me, just a blessing.  Thanks for helping keep me off a road I do NOT want to venture down.

Bing & Pushy-Girl with the Hubs

Swimming

With doggie

Mmmm, ice cream!

Ice cream beard

Random pics

Mud Girl

Dedication brick at park

Bee

Swimming lesson

Anticipation

Under the rainbow

Back float

Kick, kick, kick

Duck hunt

Rising tall

Think she’s enjoying swimming lessons?

Hi & Bye!

 

The Bing loves to say “hi” and “bye” to everyone and everything.  She says “bye” to the cars that drive by.  Yesterday morning as Daddy was putting her in the car seat in my car before we left for day care she said “bye bye Daddy” and he was so delighted he could have fallen over.  Then we got to The Academy and put her lunch and diaper bag away and took a walk down the hall.  She said “hi” to a teacher and a toilet.  That’s my girl! 

Other words:

• Mo: more
• Mine!
• No!
• Ti To: Tick tock for clock
• Daddy
• Mommee
• Moo – cow
• Woof woof – dog
• Meow
• Mii – milk
• Bi – bird
• Ba ba – bottle, blankie
• Maw Maw – grandmother
• Paw Paw – grandfather

Trekking over China

I’m still doing this, but definitely not with the same precision as when I swam to China.  Seems I’m less precise since child, than before.  Surprise, surprise.  Here’s the update.  I’m a third of the way to my goal of 3,000 ”China Miles.”  I made it from Shanghai to Chongqing, where The Bing is from.  How cool is that!  Next, northeast toward Tajikstan and Pakistan.

• Guestimate since last post: 75 China Miles + 15 yesterday and today for a total of 105
• My new grand total is: 1025 China Miles, only 1975 miles to go!

Half her life with us

The Bing at almost 17-months

   Bing Bing will be 17-months-old tomorrow AND she will have been with us for half her life.  From this point on she will have been with us longer than she was in an orphanage.  She will have had a family and will not be an orphan.  She has brought me more joy than I knew was possible.  Yeah, I love this girl, my daughter.  And now, I must sleep, as this kind of love requires great energy.  G’night.