Saturday, April 26, 2008

Dedication

Everyone is invited! Sophie's dedication will be on Mothers' Day May 11th. It will be at Riverside Church at first service (9:00). Afterwards, we are going to a Chinese buffet called King Buffet in Big Lake for lunch at 11:00. The restaurant doesn't open until 11:00 and first service will be done around 10:15. So we will have to all meet there. You may want to eat a light breakfast since we are eating lunch early. Please let us know if you are coming so we can let the restaurant know. If you need directions, email or call us. Hope to see you there!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

You Asked For Video

Well, better late than never... I finally got the latest two tapes captured last night and tonight, and have a few more videos to share!

A couple of weeks ago Stacy's cousin stayed with us and we all played Rock Band (my favorite game right now). Sophie was not to be left out, so we let her sing away!

As Sophie is our first child, there are some things about having a toddler that you just don't expect, especially after having a routine for several years...

And this is from today.

I first witnessed this last Thursday, and was absoultely amazed - Stacy says she's doing it more and more now, and we have to encourage it!

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Spoiler space

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That's right, she can walk! This is without a prosthetic (the appointment is still 2 and a half weeks away), and her right leg being about a quarter of an inch shorter than her left.

It may only be a few steps now, but if she keeps working on her balance and leg strength, she's going to be able to literally run the minute that we finally get her a prosthetic foot.

I'm trying to find, "Hi kitty," but it's too late tonight - hopefully by the next post...

Good night!

Larry

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Hi Kitty!

Good evening, everyone!

Another update, in less than a week!

I haven't had a chance to process the latest tape, so the video I promised is still forthcoming, but I did want to put up a post today, since new things are going on.

First, Sophie and Teddy are getting along really well, and Teddy is getting to be more at ease with her style of "play".







Which brings us to Sophie's latest words...

So far, we had "Momma" (of course), "purple" once or twice, "ta da" which is still a favorite game (Sophie says "ta da" then we say "ta da" and then repeat), "sunset" once, "Kitchen Aid" (She wants me to pick her up when I'm cooking, and she touches the emblem on the hood, so I taught her the brand name for all of the best kitchen electrics). We now have "Hi, kitty!" which she says whenever she sees Whizzo, and now sometimes Teddy. This just started yesterday, and rivals "ta da" on the cuteness scale.

The other big thing is that we had our one month visit from our social worker, Karine, today!

I don't think we've seen her in person in well over a year (it might even be closer to two years)



We talked, and she asked us about how things were going with Sophie, her health, and other things that China needs to know, and then left to write up our report after a very enjoyable hour or two. It was good to see her again!

She did say that we needed to make the air hole in the dark box under the stairs where we keep Sophie a little larger, but we can thin the gruel out a little more and still stay within the guidelines. So that was good to know - gruel is so expensive these days!

Things are going well, and I hope to have some more video for everyone available soon!

I'll also encourage Stacy to pop her head in here soon.

Have a good night!

Larry

Monday, April 7, 2008

Sophie is 20 months old (4 days ago)!

Hello everyone!


It's been a couple of weeks since my last post, and a lot has happened since then, so let's catch up!


First of all, the star of the blog turned 20 months old last Thursday! Only four months until her second birthday, and her first US-style birthday - I think we have to start planning now :)





We went to my mom's yesterday and had a collected Birthday meal for my sister Alli, my brother-in-law Brian, my step-father Wally, and myself.

Sophie got some un-birthday presents, of course...





Sophie loves her new Strawberry Shortcake doll!





And of course, like most kids, she likes playing with bows and packaging - she thinks her uncle Brian looks great in a bow!

Last week we went to Ikea and got a nice toy storage unit for Sophie's room, as well as a couple of floor cabinets that we have next to each other as a coffee table in the living room, also for Sophie's toy storage.



They look nice, and we are able to walk in her room and in the living room every once in a while.

I went back to work last week, which I did not want to do at all, but things have been going pretty well. The hardest part is getting my schedule in order - I get a couple of hours with Sophie before she goes to bed, then a couple more hours either with Stacy or as Larry time.

We're planning on having Sophie getting dedicated at our Church on mother's day, and then the next day, May 12th, is our appointment with the orthopedic doctors.

Sophie is getting better about going to sleep and getting her hair washed - the crying for both has greatly reduced - down to almost nothing for the bath, and only a minute or two for bed time.

Her latest thing is to spit when she doesn't want something to eat. We much preferred her just shaking her head "no".

Well, it's kinda late, and I have to get to sleep - talk to you all again soon!

In the next installment I'll post a neat little video from the weekend of March 28th
, when Sophie played Rock Band with us and Stacy's cousin, Angela!

Have a great night!

Larry