Our World Revolves Around Sophie

Sophie Every Day

2011-06-12T20:19:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to keep posting up now, and to that end, here's a brand new post - only ten days since the last one!

Sophie is a tech head already (so surprising considering her dad, huh?) and we have fun playing games together. Here we are playing New Super Mario Bros. Wii. She does do a pretty good job, and has no problems using normal controllers and pressing multiple buttons with her nubby - she's pretty adept at using it.

Again, Sophie takes after both of us, and she is becoming a good Ms. Pac-Man player (and still not 5 years old!). She can now get to the 6th board completely by herself (which means she has seen both the "They Meet" and "The Chase" intermissions). I am very proud! ;)

As I am the tech side, Stacy is the crafty side, and Sophie loves doing anything crafty with mommy. Here she's learning to use rubber stamps, using her own stamps and ink pads that mommy got for her.

I mentioned reading in the last post, and Sophie is learning to read very quickly. Stacy and I got a set of Usborne First Reading books at the Home Schooling convention a few months ago, and Sophie is now up to reading the 8th one out of 15 (they build on each other and get harder as you progress). Here she's reading that book, Moon Zoom, in Stacy's lap.

We like to get Sophie the crafty kits at Target or Wal-Mart, to help her develop her creative skills, and this is a sticker-based mosaic picture project that Sophie quickly picked up and enjoys.

Sophie still loves to jump and run around, and here she's showing off how high she can jump on the mini trampoline that we have in the house.

Sophie and her friend, Olivia, were eating giant marshmallows, and then decided it was more fun if the stuck the marshmallows out of their mouths while smiling. They could barely stand, they were laughing so much.

And to close this entry, here Sophie and Olivia are giving each other a big hug!

We have a lot of stuff happening over the next month or so, so I should post again in a week or so, and hopefully I can keep the pace, as there will be pplenty of material to work with. Later!

Larry

Sophie Episode IV: A New Hope (Spring 2011)

2011-06-11T18:50:00.000-07:00

Alright, I've got the final of the four updates to get us up to date (well, within the last week or two)...

We had originally bought this whiteboard easel almost two years ago for Christmas, but it went unused until a few months ago, when Sophie wanted to learn reading. As you can see, she also does some artwork as well.

We're pretty proud - she's very creative!

Sophie graduated from pre-school just before Memorial day, and here is a picture of her with the two other boys who attended that day with her mortar board hat.

This is Sophie's pre-school teacher, Miss Krista - wishing Sophie a good summer.

Sophie is a big ham, as you probably know, and here she is licking a bowl clean just to get messy.

This year we had Easter with our friends Tim and Cassie at our house, so Sophie had a familiar place to search for her Easter eggs. As she was opening her eggs, Tim was re-closing the plastic eggs with nothing in them and putting them back in her basket - it took her a few to realize the joke he'd played on her.

Sophie loves rainbows, so after the last big rainstorm, I ried to get a semi-artistic picture of her and a rainbow. I'll keep working on it :)

Now that she's at an appropriate age, and to encourage her to play outside, we decided to give Sophie a playset for her birthday. As is standard practice, Sophie wanted to help me put it together.

I put it together about a month ago, and the day was both cool and extremely windy! Here Sophie is testing out the fort structure after it was halfway built (it still needs a roof and side panels).

It took me another day (and after 15 hours in the sun the previous day, I was exhausted and sick), but I got the set completed, and here Sophie is swinging on her swingset for the first time! The birthday present is obviously very early (by about two months), but we definitely wanted her to be able to enjoy it the whole season. She loves it, and plays on it nearly every day!

Last but not least, Sophie started playing soccer in May. Here Sophie is stretching with her teammate Hannah.

Here Sophie is practicing passing with Kyra.

This is the whole team from the first practice. The two teenagers with them were their coaches, April and Anna.

Here April is passing with Sophie before the first practice.

When I said "were" the coaches - it wasn't a typo.

At the second practice, we found out that they wouldn't be able to be the coaches for the Lime Tigers after all, as they were both on the Princeton High School traveling team.

Guess who volunteered when they saw the need for a coach of ten 4 and 5 year olds?

That's right, the geek who's never played soccer! Me!

Just as we expected, it looks like Sophie is going to enjoy sports, and her parents who don't really care for or even watch sports, are going to have to learn 'em!

Coaching them isn't about technique so much, as it is about herding cats.

The other parents appreciate it, and the kids have a good time, which is what is important.

We have two more weeks of Soccer, and just got the formal pictures, which I'll scan and post very soon.

That's about it for now, I intend to get some more stuff posted in the next week or two, and try to stay regular.

Have a good night!

Larry

Catsup Part III: The Winterer

2011-05-25T13:06:00.001-07:00

Well, this is the final update for today, and it'll get us caught up to February of 2011, so that's a good thing.

Now, I know that this is much abridged from the old style, but I do only have so long to do updates, and, well, the memory isn't as strong a year later.

The good thing is, now that I've broken the streak, and caught up, then I will be able to go to more detailed and frequent updates of the site.

Without further ado, here are the things that happened last winter (2010 - 2011)...

We begin with sad news. Sometime around Thanksgiving (I can't honestly remember exactly when it was) our cat Teddy had a stroke and passed away. Teddy was Sophie's friend the minute that we brought her home, and they were very close. That made it even harder to explain to Sophie what death was, and that Teddy was gone. We were plain with her, no lying, and after crying for a little while, she accepted it.
Every once in a while, she will want to pray for Teddy, or tells us that he's with God. She remembers him, but has accepted that he's not here anymore.

Here's a great picture of Teddy and Sophie hugging / playing. He was always good to her, and let her do just about anything, even carry him.

This is the last picture I have of Teddy, laying on the floor near the kitchen heating vent with his "brother", Puddin.

Buddy has always been a watcher over Sophie, but after Teddy passed away, he started playing with her more, and she with him.

Now, let's move toward celebratory stuff!

For the first time, this year, Stacy and Sophie made a Gingerbread House. While I helped a wee bit with the lattice on the roof, most of the house was made by the two girls, and it looked very nice.

Of course, Sophie got messy, as well as a sweet treat out of the whole thing. This house lasted for about four months before we got rid of it - very sturdy!

This Christmas Sophie got her usual haul, but we didn't take a lot of pictures of every single thing. Here is the Strawberry Shortcake house that she wanted, and Aunt Aunt got her a remote control Strawberry Shortcake car that Sophie plays with to this day.

Sophie got this home version of the Build-A-Bear Workshop bears from grandma and grandpa Johnsrud - she had a lot of fun putting it together!

Every year, we continue the tradition of our grandma Ziegler, and make Christmas cookies together as a family. Sophie loves helping with everything, so she digs in. Here, everyone is turning my admittedly dry (I'll get it right next year) peanut butter cookie dough into balls for peanut blossoms.

Sophie loves spreading the frosting on the sugar cookies, almost as much as dumping a *ton* of sprinkles on them afterward.

You have to keep your nubby clean!

And what does everyone love the most about Christmas cookies? Eating them, of course!

As she did last year, Sophie helped decorate our small Christmas tree.

Like we do every year, we had our immediate family (Stacy, Sophie, and me) gift opening on Christmas eve. We knew she'd like it, but we weer very happy that Sophie immediately started role playing with her McDonald's cash register - even telling us what they were out of after asking us what we want - very cute and funny.

Sophie and grandpa Orsund seem to be in cahoots here - I'm guessing that they gave Buddy some table food...

This is a book that grandma and grandpa Orsund gave Sophie for Christmas, which has a recorder so that you can recite the book, and the child can then replay it as if you are there reading to them. Pretty neat.

As I said earlier, Sophie wants to help / do everything, and loves to learn and try absolutely anything (well, except for foods that she "can't like").

I am slowly teaching her some simple cooking, and this time she is helping me make a Mexican lasagna...

And here she is proudly displaying the finished product.

Sophie got a Fisher Price doctor kit from grandma and grandpa Gabriel (just like the old ones) and Sophie decided that she was going to play doctor with her Zhu-Zhu pets.

And the shot "is going to hurt a lot"...

Stacy and I aren't outdoor people, by and large, but when the weather cooperated, I went out with Sophie so she could enjoy the classic wonder of winter in Minnesota.

Of course, the snow angel is a must.

And here Sophia is trudging though the back yard, next to some deer tracks.

This is a really nice picture of Sophia kissing her mommy. I really like the more candid look Stacy has here as well.

Sophie is famous for her looks, and she's been working on a few that make you bust out laughing. I believe this one is her coy look.

While playing checkers with me, she pulled this look out while literally saying, "Let me think."

She is too funny, and too cute.

Of course, that what keeps her alive - she *is* a four-year-old ;)

That's all for now, I plan on doing spring with the next post, and I might need one more to bring us into June.

Talk to everyone later!

Larry

Ketchup Part II: Autumn 2010

2011-05-25T09:46:00.001-07:00

Howdy!

Welcome back to the cathing up style posts. I expect there to be four posts in toto, to catch us up with Sophie for the past year, though there may by more, depending on how I break things up as we get closer to May 2011, which is still a long ways off at this point...

We begin with Sophie's 4th birthday, which was August 6, 2010...

Here is Sophia with her grandma and grandpa Gabriel...

Here she is proudly displaying a new shirt that she received.

Sophie is putting a pretty bow on her head.

This is Sophie opening up a gift from us that is from one of her favorite cartoon movies (at the time - Wubb-Idol, a take-off on American Idol with the Wubbzy characters).

Here's Sophie eating a plain english muffin (she is weird) while wearing another gift from her birthday, a towel with a crown on the top, so it's kind of a dress-up thing, too.

We have started a tradition, of sorts, of traveling out to Virginia every year so that Sophie and Stacy can visit Stacy's dad, Cal, and step-mom, Julie. Sophie's uncle Cory was helping her play basketball in their driveway.

Here is Sophia and uncle Cory taking it easy.

Sophie loved giving big hugs to grandma Johnsrud...

...and grandpa Johnsrud.

This year, they took us to what was billed as a children's museum, but was really more of an indoor play area. It was pretty cool, with a lot of different things for kids to do. Sophie had a great time, and not surprisingly, didn't want to leave.

Here, Sophie is inside a tube in the giant gym set that they had. She loved climbing.

Sophi also liked riding the sring animals, and I showed her how to do the "no hands" move.

Here's something else she came up with, the "freeze game" - where she would be frozen, then we'd have to thaw her out with heat from our hands. Dispite not having seen Star Wars yet, she looks just like she's mimicing Han Solo in Carbonite. Thats my girl!

A few weeks later, we had friends over, and during their visit, we had a major thundertorm, and lost power to the neighborhood for the first time. After the storm passed (we went down to the basement to be safe, as their were tornado warnings) we went back upstairs, found some candles, and played Yahtzee in the dark. It's not that easy, to be honest.

Late August bring the Minnesota State Fair, and this was Sophie's first visit. She loved the animals, as we knew that she would, and got to take a picture with this cute sheep.

Right after the State Fair, comes the beginning of school. We enrolled Sophia in a local preschool, and here she is on her first day, ready to go!

Stacy and Aunt Aunt (my sister Allison) took Sophie to a pumpkin patch in October.

Here she is with mommy in one of those picture stand-ups.

The Pumpkin patch that they visited had a petting zoo, and Sophie loved feeding these goats.

Here's my cutie taking a quiet picture in a field with some pumpkins...

And here she is with Aunt Aunt at the store.

Sophie and I then went to work on the pumpkins that they brought home.

Sophie liked the messiness of the whole process - look at her smile while holding the pumpkin guts!

Here are the finished Jack-O-Lanterns, a traditional face, and a silly face.

Right before Halloween, Sophie's preschool class had a party where all of the kids could dress up. It's cool to see her having fun with the kids.

Once again, that's all for now.

I'll be following up with at least one more today to cover winter, but spring won't get done until this weekend, as I don't have any pictures with me after February.

I'm going to go get some lunch, so I'll post the rest that I have this afternoon!

Later,

Larry

Catch-Up Part 1: The Summer of 2010

2011-05-25T09:06:00.001-07:00

Wow!

I said it would be a week, and it's been a whole year since I last updated Sophie's blog.

Well, I've been very busy and all that, so let's just take the apologies as read, and take a look at what Sophie's been doing the last twelve months (quite a lot, as it turns out).

I'm breaking up the posts into manageable sections, mostly so you don't have a ton of pictures in one shot, but also it allows me to keep the posts manageable from a writing and saving perspective...

Here we go, we'll pick up where we left off, in Disney World...

On our last night at Disney World, we went to a midway style area, which had more of a carnival style to it, but also had plenty of shopping. This is a Winnie the Pooh diorama for pictures, so we indulged and had Sophie sit with the characters.

Near the entrance to the area, they had a water fountain play area for the kids (the bursts of water come out of the ground at random, and the kids can chase after them). Sophie loved it.

At the Disney Lego Store, they had a gigantic Woody from Toy Story made out of Legos.

We returned home from Florida, and our normal days picked back up.

Sophie is helping Stacy put frozen (don't worry, I made the dough) cookie dough on a pan for a treat.

Stacy and Sophie have started to do crafts together. It's really neat for them to have a special thing that they do together, and Sophie is learning a lot.

Here is the finished bouquet that they made.

Sophie finally got the hang of pedalling in the early summer, and was riding her tricycle very well. She eventually applied the movement to her bicycle a little later in the summer, and started riding it by herself. She still had trouble going up hill, but we told her that practicing will not only give her better motion, but also strengthen her legs.

We bought an inexpensive pool for her to play in, and Sophie, like always, demanded to help. She started by playing with the hose, of course.

More playing...

And finally, getting down to business. How many times did she go in the pool? Twice, I think.

Grandma and Grandpa Ziegler came over for a visit, and here she is getting a nice group hug.

Here's a cute picture of Sophie eating a cupcake.

And this is a cute picture of her taking a nap (a rarity indeed) after apparently crashing while playing on her V-Tech game.

We were putting together a book of Sophie pictures that was going to be a Christmas present for our family, and we wanted something current for the back cover. I asked Sophie to do some posing for me out on the grass, and this is (I think) the picture we put on the back of that book - I think she looks awesome.

Okay, that about covers the summer, so the next post will be fall...

See you then!

Larry

Disney World 2010 Part 2

2010-05-20T18:29:00.000-07:00

Good evening, again!

Well, I'll try to catch you all up on what we've been doing the last few days...

Because of the heat directly from Hades, we decided to try a water park on Tuesday. I don't have any pictures from it (don't want to kill another camera) - but we had a pretty good time, even though I hit my head very very hard on a roof of the kiddie water slide clubhouse type building (why yes, it was concrete!).

Yesterday, Alli and I took Sophie back to the Magic Kingdom. Stacy wasn't feeling very well, so we made her stay back at the room. It was a good thing, too, because it was insanely hot - Alli and I barely lasted 3 hours, and Sophie was actually sweating and had rosie cheeks. (Yes, we kept forcing her to drink water, and we all were staying hydrated).

Anyway, it was a good day for characters, because Sophie was able to get a few meetings with the ones she had missed on Sunday.

First and foremost, Daisy Duck!

Then we got in line for Pluto...

And then I took Sophie to Pinocchio (we didn't want aunt-aunt to skin her other leg).

We went on the Aladdin's Carpet Ride, which Sophie wasn't too sure about until we were done, ad we started making our way back toward the castle, with the intention of seeing the show that runs in front of it every hour and a half. We found Woody and Jessie from Toy Story, and got in a line that was longer than it looked, and we began baking...

Sophie did get her pictures and autographs, finally...

And then we decided that it was enough heat, and we managed to get back to the bus area and beck to the resort before we burst into flames.

Today we went to Epcot, because we had a reservation for Sophie's lunch with the princesses...

Funny story. I had in my head that the lunch with the princesses was on Thursday around 2:00 - maybe 1:30. We knew we'd check the reservation in the morning, so we weren't worried about the exact time.

Wait for it...

So I opened up my email with the confirmation information in it...

Wait for it...

And the time was 1:55pm - so I thought, okay, that should work just fine. Then I looked closer...

Wait for it...

And the reservation was for...

Sunday the 16th.

Yes, we had missed it by four days.

Because I am a moron.

I literally hung my head in both hands, and was about to cry. I managed to pull it together when Sophie came into the room, and asked me, "what's wrong, daddy?" I called the dining reservation number, in hopes that we could get squeezed in anytime before we left (i.e, today or tomorrow). They were very helpful and understanding, and we were able to get a new reservation at 3:20 today, so the day was saved!

It was a very very hot day today, and we clung to the shadows of the buildings as we got into Epcot. This was a very good thing, as it allowed us to run into both Stitch, and Daisy Duck again.

Sophie can't get enough Daisy, so we got more pictures, and another signature.

Aunt-aunt found the Character Spot, where they have five characters lined up, similarly to the princesses from Sunday, and you can get the autographs and pictures with all of them in one swoop.

It was very nice that it was inside, and air-conditioned. It was good and bad that the line took an hour to get through. Good, because we had time to kill, and it was way better to do it in air conditioning, like God intended, and bad, because it was an hour long line.

Sophie saw Mickey again...

And Minnie too - this time separately.

And here she is, dancing as she is waiting to see Donald Duck.

Here's Donald...

And the elusive Goofy!

Aunt-aunt wanted her picture with Goofy too! That is aunt-aunt, not a lobster-woman (hard to tell, I know).

Next up, we found Chip and Dale, just outside!

Chip is on the right, and Dale is on the left, in case you don't know which is which...

And then the time finally came - we went to the restaurant in Norway, and Sophie was greeted by Princess Aurora, who she happened to be dressed as...

Included with the meal is an actual photograph (hard copy) of the two together, and the princess was so impressed with Sophie, that she hand-delivered the picture to Sophie at our table. She didn't do it to any other girl that we saw... It was very nice!

After the meal started, we finally saw the other princesses start making their way around the restaurant, stopping at each table. All of the princesses were very kind, and were genuinely happy to spend a few minutes with each little girl.

First to visit was Jasmine...

And then the also-elusive Snow White...

And here's Sophie waiting patiently for her favorite to come...

Princess Ariel!

Sophie was so happy to meet them all, and she had a great time that I hope she remembers. At least she'll have a bunch of pictures and this blog to help...

Somewhere along the line, Sophie had a conversation with our server that we weren't privy to, and the server thought that Sophie was celebrating her birthday. She got a button, a cupcake, and a special card, signed by all the princesses. It was very very cool. We're calling it an early 4th birthday celebration...

Well, we have one more day here, and then we head home on Saturday. I'll possibly get another blog entry done before the end of the weekend, to wrap things up, but it may also take a week or so - please be patient!

Talk to you all later!

Larry

Disney World 2010 Part 1

2010-05-18T18:49:00.000-07:00

Good evening, everyone!

As you have probably guessed already, the Internet access here at the DW is not included in the terrific cost of your room, so we opted to go for hitting just a couple of days, and bulking our Internet activity up.

Today is the first entry to chronicle our fun time here, and it won't be the last. Expect another blog entry Thursday evening, and a final wrap-up sometime next week...

I'm going to be very heavy with the pictures, and try to tell a few stories too. This is not all of our picture es by any means, (we have about 200 so far, and I'm posting just under 50. That also doesn't include the pictures we'll get on our Photo Pass CD from the Disney photographers)

We got to the airport on Saturday with plenty of time, and were able to relax before the flight boarded (including grabbing a lunch).

The flight itself was pretty good - Sophie was a little harder to keep occupied this time, and she had to go potty every other minute. It's a good thing the guy sitting in the aisle seat was a good natured fellow, and it didn't bother him at all.

When we got to the airport, we realized I had screwed one thing up - I had failed to put the special "Disney Magical Express" tag on our stroller, so they wouldn't know to retrieve it from baggage claim and deliver it to us later. I went to the counter, and had them add all of our claim tickets to our vouchers, so that, in theory, they'd be able to find the stroller. It turns out I wasn't the first one to veer do that!

We got on the bus, and started our trip to Disney World, which took about a half hour.

Aunt aunt and Sophie in the Disney Magical Express bus - that took us from the airport to the All Star Music resort.

Alli is pointing out the entrance sign for Sophie, who has a very appropriate "wow" expression.

When we checked in., Sophie was focused on getting a balloon (as she often is) - so we asked the lady behind the counter for one. Later on Saturday evening, the cast member (employee) who delivered our dinner came back with a bundle of balloons for Sophie, which she loved, and was really cool for her to do.

Sophie enjoying her dessert on Saturday night - apples with caramel sauce.

A very cool thing, at least in the resorts, is that they have a kid-sized sink that doesn't require a stool - it was very cool to not have to hold her up as she washed her hands. As Sophie says, "It's my size!"

Sophie eating her breakfast - you may recognize the shape of the straw...

Sunday we started our week of fun at the Magic Kingdom.

Her Cuteness, as we entered the Magic Kingdom.

Alli decided to leave something of herself behind on a sidewalk, not long after we got into the park. She was trying to run up a curb with Sophie in her hands, and instead of falling on Sophie when she tripped, she put Sophie down successfully, and sacrificed herself...

Cinderella's Castle!

One of the first things we found was a little nook to the side that was labeled Storybook Garden - the show was set to start in a few minutes, so we sat down. It turns out that it was a small play where the story of Beauty and the Beast was told by Belle, with the help of kids from the audience. Sophie was very excited!

Sophie went up on stage with no problem at all - we were amazed and happy to see her just dive into the whole experience!

They gave Sophie a prop to be Lumiere from the movie...

She had a great time!

She wasn't scared of Beast at all, and she was very happy to see him.

Being newbies to the whole thing, we didn't know until Sophie and I were in line for pictures with Belle that there are autograph books that all of the characters will sign for you. Aunt aunt ran and got one from a close-by stand, and we were able to get her first signature from Belle!

Our next character meeting was with the White Rabbit and Alice - to be honest, Sophie only wanted to see the bunny. We had a close call on this one, too. The people who dress up as the characters, especially in the full suits, are not only insane, but their time out in the heat (thus the insanity) is controlled very carefully so that they don't start dying off in the middle of the day. We were in line for about 15 minutes, and about three kids back, when the rabbit was taken away to be replaced. There were two kids who only got to see Alice, and then, for the kid before Sophie, the White Rabbit came back, and she was able to meet him. That was a close call...

The next stop was to meet the princesses in the own place. There was a room with three tents, each with a princess in them. This was half the reason for us coming here, so that Sophie could meet the princesses...

Princess Aurora, aka Sleeping Beauty...

Cinderella...

Finally there was Belle, in her yellow outfit...

All of the princesses and characters were very kind, and genuinely loved the kids that came to see them (especially Sophie). I was very happy that not only was Sophie very comfortable with all of the characters, but also that they lived up to Sophie's expectations - it was very very wonderful... (I'll stop crying in a minute)

Here's Minnie's house. Inside were a bunch of places that you could sit down and get pictures taken...

This is the kitchen, where there was a tea set permanently attached to the table - although Sophie started to try and get the kettle off...

Next door was Mickey's house - unfortunately, all you could do was walk through it.

Behind Mickey's house was the judges tent, where Sophie got to meet both Minnie and Mickey!

Kissing Minnie on the nose...

Giving Minnie a big hug while Mickey signs...

Mickey gets a big hug too!

And he gives her a big hug back!

Sophie was so happy to get to meet them both!

We went to a few things in Tomorrow Land, like the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor, and the Buzz Lightyear ride, and then we left for the day around 3 in the afternoon (we got there around 10 AM).

On Monday, we went to Hollywood Studios, getting there around 10 AM again.

The attractions here centered on the movies, and we did a few things that Sophie loved...

First, we wen to the "Voyage of the Little Mermaid" show, which was a blend of live action, puppets, and movie in the background, which told the story of the move in about 10 minutes.

Ariel, with one of her Whatsits...

The Ursula was a huge puppet, with glowing eyes, and a head the moved pretty well.

The finale had Ariel being transformed back from a mermaid to a human form, it was a pretty neat effect, done right on the stage.

Sophie was so happy to get to see the "real" Ariel!

More characters were there for Sophie to meet, including Hand Manny...

June, from Young Einsteins...

and both Lightning McQueen and 'Mater from Cars!

As we were getting tired, we stopped in the animation building, and Sophie got to meet one of the new characters from the upcoming Toy Story 3 (opening June 18th - there were literally posters for it everywhere) - Snuggly-Bear!

I love this picture, because whe alomost entirely disappeared into his fur!

And here's the more traditional picture.

We left Hollywood Studios around 2, and then cam back, ate lunch, and then Stacy and I started to get ready for our special night out at Victoria and Alberts.

We had a 7 course formal meal, over about two and a half hours, and had a very nice time. A once or twice in a lifetime event.

Whle we were enjoying fine dining, Alli and Sophie had ice cream for dessert, and then went swimming for two hours, followed by watching a movie or two in the room.

Well, it's very late, so I'm going to get going. I'll provide info on the next few day's when I blog again, hopefully on Thursday.

By the way it is VERY HOT down here.

Talk to you later!

Larry

On Our Way To Disney World!

2010-05-15T05:49:00.000-07:00

It's 7:50 in the morning, I've had about 3 and a half hours' sleep, and we'll be leaving the house in an hour to head to the airport!

On the way we'll be picking my sister, Allison ("Aunt Aunt"), and dropping our dog, Buddy, off to be watched by my brother-in-law while we are all away.

The flight leaves at 1:00 pm our time, and we arrive in sunny, humid Orlando a wee bit after 5:00 pm, Eastern time.

I am assuming that we'll have Internet access, so I plan on blogging daily, like we did while we were in China (when the girls are napping, or early in the morning when they are still asleep). If you don't see a post by Monday, that means we don't have access to the 'net, and I'll have to do a series when we get back.

Here's to Sophie and us having a great vacation!

Talk to you soon,

Larry

Daily Life - Early Spring 2010

2010-04-25T19:07:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from the last couple of months of Sophie doing her normal stuff...

Eating Oreos...

Snuggling with mommy...

Eating cupcakes...

Making sure that her toys have diapers on properly...

These was our outfits when we got our latest batch of professional pictures taken...

Sophie playing with Teddy...

Sophie's unique way to eat a Jimmy John's sandwich...

That's all for today!

Larry

Finally - Pictures From Our Trip To Virginia, Last Year!

2010-04-25T15:33:00.000-07:00

Well,it only took me what - about three months since the last post to finally get these pictures uploaded...

I can only say that I have been very very busy, and I've finally made time to get this moving again!

Here we are being greeted by Cal and Julie at the airport.

Grandma Julie gave Sophie this wonderful baby doll.

Sophie looking at a fountain in their yard.

Me trying unsuccessfully to lift Sophie high enough to make a basket.

Chilling a a Sophie-sized camping chair.

Grandma Jule made us Mickey Mouse pancakes.

Sophie playing with her cousin Braydon.

Sophie and Braydon with grandma and grandpa.

Grandpa Cal playing the shaker game with Sophie.

Sophie and Braydon with grandma and grandpa again.

Sophie is happy!

Sophie helping grandma knit.

I think you have a knot.

Grandma and Sophie snuggling.

Sophie and her cousin Cody.

Sophie giving Cody a nice hug.

Sophie lounging at the airport before our flight home.

Sophie and grandpa saying good-bye.

That's all for now...

I have a bunch more pictures that I'm going to post from Easter and the last couple of months. Maybe tonight, definitely soon.

I want to get all caught up before our big trip to Disney World in just under three weeks... When we are there, I hope to do more of a daily blog, like we did in China, so I don't want to be behind when we get there...

Later!

Cristmas 2009 Pictures

2010-02-11T11:50:00.001-08:00

Hi everyone!

Sorry that it has been over a month since my last post - it's amazing how quickly time flies...

Here are the best of the best pictures from the various Christmas get-togethers for 2009:

Sophie played in the snow on Christmas Day with her cousins Maddie and Jake.

She fell a few times, but she had a great time!

Working on a super sized snowman...

Sophie with Grandma Orsund.

One of Sophie's favorite gifts this year was a ViewMaster - who woulda thunk it?

Aunt Aunt and Uncle Brian got her a nice art box with her name on it.

Part of Sophie's big gift from us was a bunch of furniture sets for her Dora house.

And here's the Dora house. It's basically a 3 year old version of a normal doll house, with Dora as the theme - and a bunch of furniture and figures (sold separately, of course).

Sophie happily unwrapping another gift in her haul.

Sophie got a large activity book, and both Maddie and Jake played with her on the kitchen floor.

That's about it for now - I recently found the pictures that Stacy's dad and step-mom took when we were out in Virginia in August, so the fabled Part 2 of the Virginia trip pictures will be coming very soon!

Larry

More Cute Pictures

2009-12-23T07:59:00.000-08:00

Here are some more pictures from day-to-day life of our Sophie-bear...

Sophie just keeps growing up - now she is drinking like a big girl! We still use a sippy-cup in the car and when she is playing, but she is doing very well drinking normally.

Sophie is getting more and more interested in reading, and is using her Bugsby reading toy that she got for her birthday frequently now.

Sophie has also graduated from infant / toddler puzzles to full jigsaws. She's hoping that she gets some more for Christmas!

Here is a pic of Sophie and Stacy snuggling together...

Sophie likes to give Buddy his treats after he goes outside, and this time I asked her to give it to him like she was a doggy. Buddy nicely grabbed the treat from her mouth - it was very cute!

That's all for now, at least until after Christmas - expect a ton of pictures this weekend (or so)!

Merry Christmas, and safe travel!

Larry

Dance Pictures

2009-12-23T07:52:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures that I took on Sunday before and during Sophie's dance recital.

I apologize for the blurriness of some of the dance pictures - the auto-focus was tracking a closer girl to Sophie...

More soon,

Larry

Mismas Cookies 2009

2009-12-23T07:21:00.000-08:00

A week and a half ago, my sister Allison (aka "aunt-aunt") came over to make Christmas cookies. This has been a tradition that our grandma Ziegler started a very long time ago, and we wanted to get it started up again this year, now that Sophie is old enough to participate...

We made cookies all day, with about an hour break, and ended up with a huge number of cookies that we will still have for Christmas eve and day tomorrow and Friday.

Sophie had a ton of fun, and helped with everything from rolling peanut butter cookie balls, to putting sprinkles on the iced sugar cookies.

More to come soon!

Larry

Dance Recital II - The Videos

2009-12-22T06:32:00.000-08:00

Sophie had her second dance recital on Sunday, and despite the room being packed to the gills, I was able to get a good spot to see my darling girl stand mostly still as she was overwhelmed by all of those people watching her.

She did at least look at her teacher most of the time, and Stacy didn't need to be in the room, so Sophie is getting better at this!

I've grabbed the video, and present it here for your pleasure:

Christmas is coming soon - there will be a few big posts coming up, so stay tuned!

Larry

Video Extravaganza!

2009-11-28T10:44:00.000-08:00

Good afternoon, everyone!

I've found some time to grab the video from a couple of more tapes, and here's what we have!

When we were in Virginia, grandpa Johnsrud started playing this game with Sophie - she got a real kick out of it...

As she does with me, she liked to play jungle gym with grandpa...

Her uncle Brad exhausted himself playing super-jump with both Sophie and his son Braydon...

The day before Halloween, our church held the annual Pumpkin Party - a trick-or-treat alternative with carnival games, a bounce house, and a slide Here are a few snippets from that night...

From a couple of weeks ago (it's long, but worth it)...

Sophie is "reading" her Dora Pumpkin Patch book. She is starting to remember the stories, and even roughly what each line in the book is - it's pretty funny and cool at the same time!

That's all for now - more to come soonish!

Larry

Around The House

2009-11-20T08:43:00.000-08:00

I've collected a few pictures from the last two months of just some daily life kinda stuff.

I hope you like them!

More to come soon!

Larry

Trip To Virginia, Part I

2009-11-18T09:54:00.000-08:00

So, I'm back to posting, and as alluded to in the last post in... August (wow!)... we went to Virginia to visit Stacy's dad and family.

Sophie met Cal (grandpa Johnsrud) last summer, because Julie (grandma Johnsrud) flew him out to meet her - but now, the whole family was going to get to meet Sophie, and she them...

The trip was dreamed up by me as a surprise to Stacy, but I couldn't keep my trap shut for long... I wanted Stacy to get to see her dad again, and also to bring Sophie out to meet everyone.

Stacy and I were very hesitant about the travel component - our last plane ride with Sophie, which admittedly was under extreme circumstances, was the worst sequence of flights we'd ever taken. And yes, Sophie was the one and only reason for that misery.

Again, I understand that she was 19 months old, on flights that took us literally halfway around the world (which can wear many people down), and she'd known us for just over a week, but, it was the exact opposite of fun.

Anyway, we hoped and prayed that Sophie would be okay on the flight, and thankfully, she was. Now that she was into Dora and Kai-Lan, giving her a portable movie player helped A LOT. Combined with Stacy and I describing playfully what the airplane was doing at takeoff and landing, all contributed to us having a good flight in.

There was one hiccup, which was kind of a blessing in disguise.

When we checked in at the desk in Minneapolis, we were told that our flight was delayed by two hours, and that we were going to miss our connection in Atlanta to get to Richmond that night, and would have to stay in Atlanta overnight, and they were booking us on an early flight out the next morning.

It was a blessing, because we were originally scheduled to get to Richmond at around 10PM, which would have been pretty late. This way, we, and the Johnsrud's, were able to get some sleep, and we could start again in the morning.

Here are some pictures of Sophie in the big bed in our hotel room in Atlanta:

Everything went pretty smoothly, and we got into Richmond just fine the following morning.

Believe it or not, this is the only still picture I took while we were in Virginia - the rest is video, which brings me to the fact that part two will be coming soon, with video, and a selection of the portraits that we had taken of the family while we were out there...

I'll try to get part II up this weekend - so stay tuned!

Larry

Punkin Patch

2009-11-18T09:40:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'm back to posting, and the first catch-up item I'll post about is our visit to the local pumpkin patch / farm the first weekend in October.

The pumpkin patch marks the point where we lost our camera, one of the big reasons for us not posting for the last two months (sorry!) - but it was safe and sound in our glove box he whole time, so we still have our good camera, and more importantly, have all of the images that were on it...

We will now be downloading the pictures on a regular basis, just in case...

So, it was a cold Saturday morning in October, and we had our first (and so far only) snow of the season. Because of the weather, we called to make sure that the place would be open - they were (obviously).

When we arrived, there was only one other car there, and we were a little hesitant - but the owner came out and greeted us, and we started to look around at what they had.

This was Sophie's first pumpkin patch, so she was wandering around, just looking at everything, until we moved toward the petting zoo area. She loved every one of the animals.

As we walked around, we saw a rabbit hutch with a fence around it. They started coming out, and eventually there were 8 or 9 rabbits all walking around and being cute. Sophie wanted to climb in a pet them, but we made sure she didn't fall in.

After the animals, we went to a cart they had set up that had smaller pumpkins, and each of us picked out a pumpkin to bring home and have on the stoop.

We got home just fine, and Sophie was happy to have seen the bunnies...

More to come soon!

Larry

Just Some Pictures Before We Go

2009-08-22T06:13:00.000-07:00

Well, we are leaving for Virginia in a couple of hours, but I wanted to get these pictures from Sophies 3rd Birthday (and a few bonus ones) up for you all to see...

UPDATE! - I now have taken the time to res-sort and comment on the pictures! Yes, I'm posting again!

Sophie is a Dora Freak (and secondarily Diego and Kai-Lan) - so it was natural for her first "aware" birthday party to be a Dora party. We went all out, Dora plates, cups, napkins, cake, and a banner!

In the time-honored tradition of children everywhere, Sophie sneaks some frosting...

Here is the "Giggly" Kai-Lan doll that we got for her - it reminds us of how she looks when she does her big smile :) That's grandpa Ziegler looking on...

At this party, she was really figuring out presents, and this present had a bunch of different things in a bag big enough for her to fall in, and she almost did, trying to get the stuff on the bottom...

Sophie got her first Barbie, which she is showing off to her friend Jayden, as grandma and grandpa Ziegler watch...

When Sophie has stayed with grandma and grandpa Gabriel, she and grandpa share some super big marshmallows, so grandpa got her a big bag for home use...

Just a small portion of the pile o' presents...

Sophie had such genuine enthusiasm for everything she received (whether she knew what it was or not) - I hope she keeps that...

Giving grandpa Ziegler a big thank-you kiss...

Eating her lunch with her baby and grandpa Gabriel.

"How old are you?"

The previous evening, Stacy and I gave her the bulk of the presents from us (so it wouldn't be just a mom and dad fest with everyone else there).

I had been finding some awesome deals, and we got her a V-Smile learning system and a bunch of games so that she could get started with some other types of fun learning.

Sophie loves playing with hair, so we got her a set of hair toys...

She also gt her first Cabbage Patch Kid (we tried to get one that looked like her)...

Sophie's aunt-aunt gave her a couple of games that she already had, so I traded them in for something we knew Sophie would love - a play vacuum. Every time I vacuum, she wants to hold the handle and help - now she has one made just for her. The middle section pops off, and can be used like a dust-buster. She loves it! Thanks, aunt-aunt!

Another thing we've started, which should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me, is to get her started with Legos. Right now, she has all of the Dora and Kai Lan sets (actually Mega Bloks, but they work with Duplos) - and she loves to build and play with them. She's getting much better at stacking and arranging them, and she loves being able to play with her favorite characters too.

Grandma Orsund got her a couple of costumes, including this cowgirl outfit, which looks very cute on her...

See you later!

Larry

Catching Up - Dad and Daughter Weekend II, Silly Gril, and the Zoo!

2009-07-19T12:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I apologize that it has been so long since the last post - we've been pretty busy...

I'm going to just unleash a ton of pictures here, with no real description, as I am extremely tired right now, but I want to get the pictures posted.

I may come back in here and edit the post with descriptions... we'll see...

I hope to dive back in with a full-on status report soon, but for now, I hope this satiates those clamoring for new stuff...

Saturday In The Park

2009-06-25T05:28:00.000-07:00

It's been a very long time since my last post, but I thought I'd sneak one in about our first trip to the local park a couple of weeks ago...

We've been living here for over 5 years, and until two weeks ago, had never even thought about going to a park, but we finally did, and Sophie had a lot of fun!

A few days earlier, I was cleaning out the garage, and Sophie wanted to climb up on my yard tractor. Since it was in gear and I had the keys, I let her up there and she pretended to drive...

In ten years I'll be asking her to mow the lawn - we'll see how much she smiles about it then :)

Anyway, we went first to get Sophie's hair trimmed (you can see how long her bangs are in the above picture), then we hunted down Mark Park, which is about two miles from our house. They have a splash park there too (not pictured), but we were interested in the playground equipment...

This is the larger of the two main pieces, there are also two swing sets at the park.

Sophie on the bridge to the slide:

And here she's sliding down the aforementioned slide:

Like many playgrounds, a steering wheel attached for no particular reason is included:

Mommy helping Sophie up after coming down the big slide:

Sophie sliding down yet another slide:

And climbing a spiral ladder:

You can see from all of the pictures that Sophie loved the park. Next time we'll bring a swimsuit so she can play at the splash park.

It's also important to note that with very few exceptions, Sophie did all of the climbing and sliding completely unassisted. She's getting better coordinated every day, and playing like this definitely helps build more strength too!

Stacy should be popping in here in the next day or so to give a report of their trip to the local nursery, where Sophie fed some deer and pet some puppies!

Later!

Larry

New Leg Fitting

2009-06-04T07:35:00.000-07:00

Well, Sophie's had her current leg for just under a year, and she's really outgrown it.

We were told that typically, these prosthetics last around 18 months, but of course it all depends on how the child grows. Since Sophie is growing like a weed, she's ready now for a new leg! (actually, she was ready a few months ago - we won't let it get this tight on the next one).

On Tuesday we had the check-sock fitting for her second leg, and it went very well.

Sophie's leg had changed / grown / mutated since they made the cast a few weeks ago, so her doctor Dick, had to make a piece of the socket adjustable to be able to fit her properly.

Of course in Sophie's typical "Help!" and "Fix it!" approach, she had to help Dick adjust the screws on her leg. She was very well behaved here, listening to what Dick told her, and was actually effectively turning the screwdriver, not just the typical back and forth most kids do. Yes, I've been teaching her that :)

Here they are checking the height of the socket to make sure that once the prosthetic is finished and her foot is attached, Sophie's hips will be level and her legs will be where they need to be.

As I said earlier, Sophie was very well behaved. She didn't cry or have any tantrums, and she was responding to Dick's questions about how it fit (if it was tight or hurt).

We are expecting to have a follow-up fitting in a week or so, and then have the finished product in two to three weeks.

Last night, Sophie started gymnastics, and the report from Stacy was good! Sophie had a lot of fun, but she still needs to learn to focus on the teacher (which we will keep working on). Also, the crab-walk was tough for Sophie, which is understandable, considering she has no right hand and her right leg doesn't have the flexibility that her left does. Again, we can practice at home and let her figure out how to best do it.

On the potty training front, Sophie is doing better each day. I think she is going in her chair twice a day on average, and is getting better at knowing when and telling us she needs to go.

Sophie is also getting better at saying multiple word phrases, and has even given us a couple of small sentences, so her language development is coming along nicely as well!

I will be posting a video of Sophie's dance recital, I just need to get it down to size.

That's all for today,

Larry

First Dance Recital!

2009-05-18T12:27:00.001-07:00

It's been mentioned earlier (I think) that Sophie has been in a dance class at the local YMCA for the last month and a half.

She's really been enjoying it, and according to Stacy and her teacher, Sophie's been getting progressively better at listening to the teacher and being physically away from Stacy during class, which is a very good start.

Needless to say, Sophie has been loving dance class, and she has been great about practicing at home.

Some were afraid that she'd be upset at her first recital, which was yesterday, but unlike some of the girls, Sophie did her steps, stayed in the stage area, and beyond having to have Stacy within 15 feet of her, had a great time!

I apologize for the odd angles of the pics - I didn't know where Sophie was going to be, or where she'd be looking (mostly at mommy and the teacher). I also apologize for the graininess of the pictures, Our new camera either stinks and needs to be returned, or there is a setting for it to not compress the heck out of the data that I need to find...

Sophie and class coming out for the first dance:

She's doing the steps!

You may notice Sophie's costume is different than the other girls in her class - that's because the costume shop screwed up and we didn't get her costume until the day of the recital, and found that they had messed up so bad that they couldn't get more of the same costume! Sophie and another girl were to have the pink, so they wouldn't look so out of place, but the other girl didn't make it to the recital, so Sophie got to wear pink, while the others had to wear plain white :)

More moves that she is doing right - though she is supposed to spin (which she didn't), so I didn't get her face..

From the second dance, a montage of Sophie's moves:

At the end, all the girls from all the classes came out:

Sophie was still focused on Mommy and her teacher:

And at the end, Sophie sitting with her friends:

When all was said and done, I realized what I'll need for camera equipment next time (which will be in the fall), and most importantly, Sophie had a lot of fun and was able to get started in the whole dance and school thing.

On a side note, Sophie is a soup fiend:

Also, Sophie has had a new casting made for her new leg (her current one is rapidly getting too small), and we hope to have the check-fit in the next week or two.

She's growing about 1 cm a month, and is already over 3 feet tall!

We are very glad that she is healthy and happy!

Talk to you later!

Larry

Happy Easter 2009!

2009-04-13T10:50:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!

We went out to Dawson this year to visit Stacy's family for Easter, and Sophie had a great time.

Here is Sophie in her pretty Easter dress...

And eating some hard boiled eggs for breakfast...

Earlier in the morning, right after Sophie woke up, there was an Easter Egg hunt for Sophie throughout the living room. Grandpa Duane was her go-to guy whenever she found anything...

Her cousin Angie gave her a kid's Bible...

Once she got into it, Sophie was not leaving any stone unturned, or basket unopened...

Th spoils of her search...

And the inevitable "sorting" of her candy and toys...

On a side note, last week Sophie started trying to ride our dog, Buddy. He's pretty calm about it, and she thinks it is the funnest thing ever - even though she'd just standing there :)

Later!

Larry

Weekend with Grandma

2009-04-08T18:06:00.000-07:00

Larry went out of town for a much needed weekend of relaxation. While he was gone Grandma (Bee-da as she likes to call her) Gabriel stayed with us. Sophie had alot of "firsts" that weekend.

First time making cookies.

First time decorating Easter eggs.

First scrapbook page.

She had a great time.

Larry shaves his head.

2009-04-07T15:52:00.001-07:00

The clipper is "NOT" on in case you were worried.

Our good friend Cassie is going through chemotherapy for ovarian cancer. As a fellow cancer survivor and to support her Larry has shaved his head.

Way Too Long To Wait For An Update

2009-03-23T06:12:00.000-07:00

Sorry everyone, it's been almost three weeks since the last update, and we have been busy, so I'll get started!

A week ago, Stacy and my sister Allison went out of town for a girl's weekend, so Sophie and I had some extra time to spend together. On Saturday, I took her to Chuck E. Cheese (CEC for short) for the first time.

Things have changed alot in the last decade - places like CEC are not everywhere like they used to be, and they certainly don't have 3 Pac-Mans, 2 Donkey Kongs, and all of the other machines from my youth. Things are now aimed squarely at redemption games - the things that give you tickets and then you redeem the tickets for prizes. That is fun for little ones, though I miss the days where you could go to the local 7-11 and play a few games of Mr. Do!

Sophie and I played a bunch of games - all of which Sophie really enjoyed...

She did have a couple of favorites. The first one, shown here (kinda) had her pushing buttons to launch balls into a frog who would open and close his mouth, so you had to time the launching. Kind of like a Mr. Mouth game from wayyyy back.

Her favorite game, though, was this one - it had a bunch of moving things, and a conveyor belt that took plastic eggs around a farmhouse, and if you hit the button at the right time, it would knock an egg into a chute and score points. I think we played this one for ten minutes solid.

CEC also has kiddie rides - some of which Sophie was okay with...

Some she liked...

Some she loved...

She actually had her one melt down when I had to pull her out of the bus so another girl could ride it. She did not want to leave, she really loved it.

That same weekend I was scheduled to work in the cafe at church, so Sophie came with me to help me for both services.

First, she had to say hi to her friend, Emma:

You may recall the she went sliding down the inflatable slide with Emma on Halloween...

And of course, she wants to "help" with everything. She helped us to put donuts onto plates for the families going in and out of the children's area...

Sophie has finally started playing Play-doh with us. She really enjoys it, and it's helping her to build her dexterity.

Stacy was playing with her the other day, and they were making animals with the Play-doh and some pumpkin adornments Sophie got from her grandpa Cal and grandma Julie.

They then switched to making bracelets...

Another thing to note - Sophie now has a big girl bed! We bought a Cinderella toddler bed for her, and it finally arrived a couple of weeks ago.

We haven't had any problems switching from the crib to the bed - I guess the only thing is that she can now get out of bed and play when she should be sleeping. That's mostly an issue at nap time, but she hasn't tried to leave her room, and we have always found her in her bed when we wake her up, so I call that success!

I'll get some pictures up of it soon - I just need to find the pictures I took of it.

Our social worker came over last Monday for our final visit. Everything went well, and we have no further documentation to provide to China!

That's all for now, talk to you later!

Larry

Princess Party

2009-03-04T09:01:00.000-08:00

Sophie and I went to a princess party Saturday at Northwestern Bookstore. They were doing a promotion for a line of books they sell called "Gigi. God's Little Princess". They served a little snack of cheese cubes and some sweets (brownie bites, mini eclairs and cream puffs) and pink lemonade. It was all served in princess style. There was a square of cloth in the table center with princess pictures on it, pink plates and napkins and pink balloons. Then the girls worked on some princess projects: a paper craft, a necklace and a crown. While at the party we saw other little girls all dressed up. I kind of regretted not bringing Sophie's Sleeping Beauty costume with but she was wearing her princess shirt and shoes :) She was pretty quiet while we were there. But afterwards she kept saying "Pripa Party, Pripa Party. One more?"

Whenever you ask Sophie to smile, you pretty much only ever get her "cheesy" smile (squinty eyes). The picture above just caught the tail end of that.

The other "princesses" at our table, Rebecca and Claire.

A group little princess picture.

Gotcha Day! (1 Year Later)

2009-02-25T21:06:00.000-08:00

Happy Gotcha Day!

It has been a whole year since we met Sophie for the first time...

Wow. I think back, and I am getting very close to crying. I love her so much - I always have!

I try to think about all of the changes all three of us have gone through in the last year - and as I sift through all of the memories, it just boggles my mind that so many things have happened in such a short time...

What will the next year bring?

...

And now, for something completely different...

I have one of Sophie's table and chair set in my office so she can color or play when I'm working in there, and a few days ago she decided to grab a couple of spare keyboards and play like she was typing. She had earlier set Elmo up on his own chair so she and he could color together.

On the same day, she was playing with he fishy puzzle, which has a bunch of fish with tacks in them, so that the included magnetic fishing pole can grab them. I think this is her favorite puzzle because it's not only a puzzle (which she loves) but she likes the fishing play mechanic as well.

She also plays with the fishing game we got her for Christmas for the same reason.

A week ago we got Sophie her first purse! It's a Hello Kitty, of course.

I can't believe how in one year she has really gone from the baby look to looking like a little person. Amazing.

Now that her hair is getting long enough (almost) we're trying to get Sophie used to having it pulled back, rather than the bowl look. Stacy put a headband in her hair, and she actually liked it (she hates it when we play with her hair - must get that from her mom). She looks so different with her hair pulled back!

Sophie's uncle Cory sent a valentines gift for Sophie - a nice doll and a Twinkle Twinkle Little Star book. She loves them both - thanks, Cory!

Tomorrow, Stacy and Sophie are going to a Princess Party at the local Christian book store. I'll see if I can get Stacy to not only take pictures, but to hop in and write about it!

Later!

Larry

January Update

2009-01-31T17:37:00.001-08:00

Hi everyone!

We've been so busy lately, I haven't had much chance to post, but I've managed to find a few minutes tonight to get some new Sophie stuff up.

A week ago, it was warm enough again to play with Sophie outside - this time Stacy was home so she could take pictures. Here I am pulling Sophie in her sled up and down the driveway - she loves it!

A rare picture of Sophie and daddy together...

I have been building up a pile of snow everytime I clean the snow off of our driveway, and I finally got started digging out the inside of her fort...

So far, we have a nice throne for our princess...

So that's the fun we've been having in the snow!

Yesterday, Sophie got a very nice gift in the mail from her cousins Maddie and Jake:

They made a fish and ladybug for her - they are really nice, and it was very cool of Jake and Maddie to do that! Sophie loves them - thanks guys!

Well, time for me to kiss Sophie good night - see you all later!

Larry

Fun In The Snow

2009-01-07T10:57:00.000-08:00

About a week ago, on one of the few days it's been warm enough that I feel comfortable letting her go outside, Sophie and I played out in the snow for about a half hour (until it got dark and colder)

Of course, I got Sophie all bundled up in her coat, snowsuit, hat, gloves, and boots...

The first order of business was to play with her new sled that she got for Christmas. I dragged her up and down the driveway a bunch of times both slow and fast. She loved it. I can't wait to go sledding with her for real!

I'd be a bad Minnesotan if I didn't teach her how to make snow angels! Not bad for her first one - okay, I moved her arms and legs to make it, but still...

Over the last few weeks we've had an average of two snowfalls greater then 4 inches per week, and all of that snow from our driveway I have been piling into a big hill on the far side of the garage (where we don't normally drive) so that Sophie and I can make a snow fort.

Unfortunately, the weather here has been cold - and I'm hesitant to take her out when the air temp is below 15 degrees (with wind chills near or below zero), so hopefully we'll have a warm snap soon and we can get that fort carved out.

Later!

Larry

Christmas 2008

2008-12-30T08:32:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I'm a few days late - but here is the wonderful Christmas 2008 post!

To begin, we already had the big family Thanksgiving / Christmas celebration with Stacy's mom's family, so we now move onto last Tuesday evening, December 23rd...

We went over to Stacy's mom and step dad's house, and had a small get-together that was just for the five of us.

We had a good meal, and then it was time for presents.

It didn't take Sophie long to figure out the whole presents thing. She had previous experience both on her birthday, and at thanksgiving, but that was just a warm up for the next few days...

Sophie got a lot of nice gifts from Deb and Duane, and was especially thrilled with the last present, a sled!

Duane and I pulled her across the carpet several times (until we got tired) - she loved it.

It didn't take long for her to figure out just how much stuff she could get into her sled, so that she could drag it around herself...

We had a nice evening, and then went home so I could get sleep before work the next morning...

On Wednesday (December 24th - Christmas Eve) - I had to work a half day, and then we hopped in the van with my sister Allison, and I drove us all up to Aitkin (so close to the edge of the Earth you can see the dragons lurking) to see my mom and step-dad.

Again, we had a good meal, and then it was off to the presents! But first, Stacy and Allison took Sophie upstairs so that we could pretend the Santa had come with presents (the tree was pretty bare when we first got there.)

One of Sophie's first gifts was some dress-up stuff - a crown and earrings...

Now would be a good time to mention Sophie's unwrapping style. She tears a small piece off, then must give it to someone or set it carefully on the floor before tearing again. We had to keep egging her on to get her to get the paper off in any reasonable length of time - it was pretty funny.

Sophie got a nice porcelain doll with a music box, a "Moses basket" with stand, and a whole bunch of play kitchen stuff (to go with our big gift for her - the Rose Petal Cottage - see more on that below)

We left around 8PM, and headed home so that we could try and get Sophie's gifts from us all ready before Christmas morning.

Well, it took a lot longer than we thought it would to wrap all of Sophie's gifts and set up her play room withe the cottage and fort. We got to bed about 1:00 AM, and had to get up at a decent time so that we'd have time for our Christmas, as well as for me to make the meatballs for the Ziegler family celebration on Christmas afternoon.

We finally got out of bed around 8:45, and went downstairs to see what Santa brought Sophie this time!

By now, Sophie knew what presents were, and knew they were for her. She wasted very little time in digging in...

From us Sophie got an easel, a guitar, a Geo-Trax train set, a couple of kids games that we can play with her, and a mini mixer for her kitchen - which she had yet to see...

Which we set up down in her playroom...

The cottage is taller than she is, so it fits perfectly. She love playing house with us with all of her new stuff...

We also got her this modular fort from the people who make the Cranium games. It's kinda like the old putting blankets over living room furniture style, but modernized. She loves playing peek-a-boo in here.

All of this fun took us until after 11 AM, which put me wayyyyy behind on the meatball making.

Stacy gave Sophie a bath, and I cooked like mad. We were able to arrive at my step-sister's house only 30 minutes late.

We ate, and then came the presents, which were heavily focused on Sophie and her cousins Maddie and Jake...

Sophie got a set of twins, with a stroller and rocking seat, as well as some more play food and some bigger girl Legos (Duplo now, not the super big mega-blox).

Needless to say, she was very happy to get even more babies...

Here's Madison, Becky, Sophie, Steve, and Jake, posing together

Sophie also got some CDs, and the "Horton Hears a Who" DVD - so now we have a new movie to put into the van and listen too 500 times :)

Sophie has been working on playing catch with me and Stacy, and she needed to try some more playing with Grandpa...

We got home late in the afternoon, and crashed for basically the rest of the weekend...

Now we are a little more than a day away from the new year. 200i8 went by really fast!

I'm still working on the China DVD, but it will take some more time - there's a lot to do to make it coherent.

That's all for now - see you next year!

Larry

More Pictures Before Christmas

2008-12-15T18:08:00.001-08:00

Well, things are getting crazy, what with Christmas coming up on us at light speed and me starting a new contracting job, so here's some more pictures from the last few weeks to get you through until right around the end of the month...

Her toy bag makes an excellent helmet...

Sophie LOVES pockets!

Playing Rock Band and eating prunes (prumes) - I don't think life could get much better for her...

It's fun to get the lint off of the couch...

Coloring on mommy...

Helping bring the dirty clothes downstairs...

And then helping us fold and hang the clean clothes up...

Visiting her new friend Baby Knox...

That's it for now, time for bed!

Larry

Trimming The Tree

2008-12-12T07:02:00.000-08:00

Last night while I was doing a bunch of grocery shopping, Sophie helped Stacy get our small tree set up and trimmed.

As I wasn't present, I'll skip any commentary, but here are some great pictures that Stacy took:

Sophie's First Thanksgiving!

2008-12-04T21:00:00.000-08:00

We survived Sophie's first Thanksgiving!

We drove out to Dawson, MN last weekend- where Stacy's mother's side of the family gathers for holidays - and had a combined Thanksgiving / Christmas.

Here is Stacy, her Grandmother Velva, Mother Deb, and the Sophinator...

Sophie is a weird kid - she makes going to bed a pretty unfun affair (like most kids her age) - but one of the games she has made up we call "Nie Nie" (short for "night night"). She'll lay on the couch or in this case, on a bed, and pat the pillow and ask us to go "Nie Nie" with her. Then you spend the next ten minutes playing modified peek-a-boo with her as she will wrap you in a blanket, and close her eyes, then try to catch you with your eyes open...

To save travel for the whole family, we combined Christmas and Thanksgiving into one event this year (finally) and Sophie got a lot of stuff that she loved, including two Cabbage Patch Kids, two Care Bears, and a new play cell phone.

Mommy helped her to unwrap the gifts, but already she's getting the hang of it...

It was a good holiday, until we went shopping...

We didn't do any early morning madness this year (what was there that was such a good deal? We couldn't find anything), but did drive into Watertown, SD to do some afternoon / evening shopping.

Sophie didn't want to be in any carts, and started throwing tantrums in every store. That meant that either Stacy or I had to take her out of the store and into the van right away and wait for the other person to get finished shopping.

Not exactly fun or relaxing.

It's been a while since I've had a chance to take a picture of Sophie at her most innocent (actually we may have been in China for the last one) - but We woke up Friday morning, and Sophie was dead to the world; flash photography, as well as the both of us talking at a normal level in the same room, didn't wake her up...

Normally she has over a dozen stuffed animals in bed with her (seriously) but for travel purposes, we whittled it down a little bit...

That's all for tonight - I've got more pictures queued up for the next post, hopefully tomorrow...

Larry

Halloween 2008

2008-11-14T10:00:00.001-08:00

I'm only two weeks late on this one - I'm getting better, I think...

So, two weeks ago - October 31, 2008, was Sophie's first Halloween!

Since we aren't pagan Satan-worshippers, we celebrated the lighter, more social aspects of one of the few American holidays that can be spoken above a whisper. We dressed Sophie up as a beautiful rendition of Sleeping Beauty (the redundancy is intentional) and started the day's festivities at my work.

As Halloween can still be mentioned in the workplace in our beloved state, it is celebrated all day at Allianz. Teams are encouraged to decorate their areas, and in the afternoon kids are allowed in to trick or treat through the cubicles.

Our theme this year was penguins / the Antarctic - which tied into a big sales initiative from earlier in the year, so we scored some big points with the muckity-mucks. It also had the benefit of not being scary, which was the approach last year - we wanted to lighten things up a little bit.

Stacy and Sophie came about 2:00 in the afternoon, and Sophie instantly took to the glasses we made up for our "costumes" as Rock-hopper penguins.

As you can see, once she warmed up, Sophie was her usual hammy self :)

Afterward, we went to our church's pumpkin party, which is a safe alternative for families to go to to get candy and have fun without partaking in some of the other trappings of Halloween. It's a very positive thing.

Here's Stacy and Sophie in the parking lot before we went in. Again, notice how despondent Sophie is...

One of the neat things about the pumpkin party at church is that they bring in a christian magician who not only plays well to the kids, but also ties in his tricks with teaching from the Bible.

Sophie hasn't had much candy at all (and we'll keep it that way as long as we can - now if we could just reduce our own candy intake...) but she did gnaw on a sucker during the show.

The room where the show was held is called the Video Cafe. It's a more relaxed atmosphere with tables and chairs that also has screens for people to watch and participate in services.

We were sitting in a raised section of the room, and there was a ramp leading up to it. About midway through the show, Sophie wanted to walk around a little, so I took some pictures (we didn't have much of her in the dress otherwise).

This is an adjusted picture that was taken in the dark, so the colors aren't quite right, but you can see her beauty clearly...

Sophie is already a flirt (in that she know how to through her smile and charm around, and she likes), and while she was walking around, she decided to schmooze with some "older men." She is going to be trouble in a dozen years (or several dozen if I have my way - no dating until 40)

The carnival in the gym was definitely the highlight of the party.

We met many friends who and their kids, and here, representing the Wizard of Oz, are Chris and Jen, and their kids Emma and Andrew. Emma and Sophie get along great, and Emma is a sweetheart. Though I don't have a picture of it, went down the slide a few time together holding hands, it was really nest to see. Hopefully Jen's attempt to capture that were successful...

This inflatable slide was the best thing in the world, as far as Sophie was concerned. She was cautious on the first run down, but was hooked after that.

We went down the slide a half dozen times before the magic show, and at least two dozen times after.

And every time, I had to carry her up the 20 foot long ramp going up. By the end of the night I was exhausted!

Here's a montage of her coming down the slide - she liked sliding down both backward on her stomach and forward on her butt.

Good times were had by all, especially Sophie, so it was a successful evening!

Sophie's been learning many more words, and is getting better with object and color recognition. It's really neat to see her trying to learn, and wanting us to tell her what things are so she can find out what things are. Some of her favorite words now are: "Moom" (Moon), "Proom," (Prune - she loves them,, and they have been essential in curing a major bout of constipation last week), "Pool" of course, and she has started saying "Wuv You" when we tell her "I Love You" - which is just the best thing in the world, next to her hugs.

Sophie is also getting much better at using "please" when she wants something - we're steering her away from the "My" / "Mine" that she started using a little while ago. When she says please it's pretty cute too - she puts a lot of energy into it.

That's all for now, talk to everybody again soon!

Larry

Our Helpy Helper

2008-11-05T05:51:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's been a very long time since the last entry - I apologize profusely!

We've showed you a few videos of Sophie helping us around the house before, but two weekends ago, she really helped us out with cleaning up.

She helps us empty the dishwasher, of course. She now helps us with the silverware and puts it in the drawer for us - of course they aren't sorted - but it's a start!

She loves to help load our pop into the fridge...

She also like to help me vacuum and swiffer the floor...

I had to post this picture, she looks almost like she's drugged up (though she isn't - just timing of the picture)...

It's been a while since we've had a bath picture (and you can see her artistic talent)...

We've started going to the YMCA, and Sophie loves going swimming. Every day she asks "pool?" about a thousand times...

Sophie has also begun her photography career - she's in an experimental stage right now...

That's all for now - I'll be doing a Halloween update very very soon!

Larry

Sophie at the Build-A-Bear

2008-09-23T05:56:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we needed to get out of the house, and I had to work all day Sunday, so we we wanted to have some fun and do something we hadn't done in a long time. So, we made a trip to the Mall of America and right there in front of us when we walked in was the Build-A-Bear Workshop. We had to go in, of course.

We took about 20 minutes looking at all of the different bears and animals they had. This was our first time, so it was really cool to see all that they had.

Sophie's still pretty young, so she doesn't quite get the whole "pick one" concept - we tried out just about everything they had, and it was a challenge to see what she really liked best.

In the end, she chose a nice soft rabbit, which I call Flopsy.

After you pick the shell, you can choose different sounds to go inside. we picked one that says "I Love You" and one that has 6 different soft and positive phrases. We put one in each arm.

They have a cool machine in the middle that fluffs the cotton and also loads the stuffing into the shells. What's really neat is that you can choose just how firm or soft you want the animal (like a Select Comfort bed!), and we made her bunny nice and soft (so she can snuggle with it).

You also choose a heart to go in, and depending on which one you choose, the cost is donated to different organizations. We chose one to go toward children's cancer research.

The tradition is that you and the child kiss the heart before it's put in. Stacy kissed it first, but despite Sophie's love to kiss stuff, it was hard to get her to do it, and of course I missed the split second that she did it.

But I do have a picture of Sophie putting the heart in!

Stacy chose a nice princess-y outfit for the bunny, and here's the final result! A late Birthday present - yeah, that's the ticket!

Sophie loves her bunny, and we'll take her back - it was a good time. They also have adjoining the store the Build-A-Doll Workshop, which we'll have to visit next time.

Larry

Sophie Goes To The (Wet) Zoo

2008-09-15T19:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we went to the First Annual Family Fun Day held by Gillette Children's Hospital at the Como Zoo.

It was very wet (a 30% chance of rain, and as my dad would say, we got all 30% of it) so all of the people were huddled under the tents.

Sophie was really excited to be at the zoo. We ate some hot dogs, hamburgers and chips, and talked to a few other families at our table.

Miss Hope 2008, Mackenzie (I forgot her last name), volunteered her time to visit with the kids, and Sophie was happy to have extra attention.

We got a butterfly face painting for Sophie, and the first thing she did was smear it down her cheek. We called it "motion blur" - you know, because the butterfly was flying so fast...

Sophie also got a temporary tattoo of a bird on her hand.

Once we got inside and could see some animals (most of the ones that are normally outside were hiding), Sophie was able to get up close (on the other side of thick glass, that is) to lions...

And her favorites, the monkeys. Sophie was very excited to watch the monkeys, and had a great time just pointing and walking around as she tried to get a better look.

Despite the rain, I think Sophie had a very good day, and we look forward to taking her to the zoo again. Next time I think we'll go to the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley, and do it on a sunny day :)

That's it for tonight - talk to you again soon,

Larry

Dedication Video At Last!

2008-09-12T20:01:00.000-07:00

It may be four months late (Holy Moly, has it been that long already?), but I can finally present to you the video of Sophie's dedication at our church. I've included the entire segment of the service - it's about 6 minutes long, but it's worth it.

Sophie's character comes out at about the 2:30 mark, and continues as we pray over her for the subsequent minute... it is so Sophie!

I'm trying to convince Stacy to blog about their girls weekend up in Duluth and Hill City from a few weeks ago - they have a bunch of good pictures, so we'll see if I can convince her.

That's all for tonight,

Larry

Sophie's 2nd Birthday!

2008-08-03T18:48:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, I'm updating not only twice in one week, but even on the same day as the events of the blog - pretty scary, huh?

So, today we celebrated Sophia's 2nd birthday. Family and friends all came to our house and enjoyed good company and good food, and of course, Sophie's birthday cake...

The theme for the party was the ladybug, which is the symbol for chinese adoption.

Here's Sophie gazing at her cake with her friends Grace, Lexi, and Jayden...

Here's her Grandpa Ziegler and Grandma Orsund feeding her some nummy spaghetti noodels with swedish meatballs...

Sophie's aunt Alli and uncle Brian got her an outdoor climber that also has a slide - I think the is the first time she's been on a silde, and she's already getting enjoying it after a few runs!

Sophie really loves music, and we wanted to foster that, so we got her a cat keyboard - here she's playing it on the newly assembled art / picnic table that she got from her grandma and grandpa Orsund.

You may notice a scratch on her face - this morning while Stacy was getting ready in our bedroom, Puddin (one of the cats) was hiding under the bed, and scratched Sophie when she was trying to play with him.

Stacy noticed it pretty close to right away, but there wasn't any noise to indicate that anything had happened - Sophie didn't make a sound at all.

We put some neosporin on the scratches, and things are already looking better.

Puddin now has only 1 of his 9 lives left.

On a brighter note, Sophie is wearing her arm about an hour a day now, and was even kind of using it to lift some of her presents.

That'll do it for now - hope everyone has a great week!

Larry

We Have The Technology...

2008-07-30T16:03:00.000-07:00

At long, long, long, long, long last, Sophie has her prosthetic arm!

We had an appointment last Friday to get her leg checked up on and adjusted, and at that appointment, the doctors let us know that Sophie's arm had finally cleared customs from Canada, and that we'd be able to get it on Tuesday!

So, on Tuesday, we went back to the clinic and waited for Sophie to be called in...

When we got into the room, her arm was waiting for us...

Sophie has been getting better and better with Dick and Christine, so we were happy that she had just seen them a few days earlier and she was very well behaved. No crying this time!

They gave Sophie the arm, and she was very interested in it, and wanted to hold it and even tried to kinda put it on her arm - it was pretty cool.

It's a new technology that Dick is actually pioneering, using soft silicone instead of the traditional hard socket (like the one for Sophie's leg), which gives the child a lot more feeling and flexibility. It does still have a rigid part to carry the cable to the hand, and a hard end to attach the hand to.

Sophie helped to push it on, and was able to use it a wee bit.

We'll start occupational therapy soon to help her learn to use it.

While we were waiting for the doctors to make adjustments, Stacy and I would walk up and down the hall with Sophie, and not only did that give her more practice walking on her leg, but we started teaching her to hold our hand when walking next to us.

It's not something you can really do at home, the space and arrangement just doesn't suit it very well, but going up and down a hall was the perfect opportunity. She did very well, and I have video of her walking with Stacy up and down the hall that I'll get posted soon. I made a point to hold her prosthetic hand as we walked out of the room and out of the clinic, so that she would feel comfortable with it, and know that we were comfortable with her new arm as well.

Well, that's about it...

Oh, Sunday is Sophie's 2ND Birthday, and her first with us!

A lot of family and friends will be joining her on this special day, and I intend to take lots of pictures and video, so look for a new post in the next week about it!

Larry

Time Keeps On Slippin' ...

2008-07-15T19:06:00.000-07:00

Good evening, everyone!

I know that it's been three weeks since the laast post - things have been so crazy it's... well... crazy!

We stayed up at my sister and brother-in-law's cabin over the 4th, and we all had a very good time.

Since there isn't any tub at the cabin, we had to improvise...

I know that this is also an obligatory baby type picture (the sink bath), so now we can check that off the master list :)

We were planning on going swimming...

(that's a smile, by the way, not a grimace of pain)

but the water was really really cold (Stacy was brave enough to try it) so Sophie didn't end up swimming in the lake, but she get to splash in a wader pool that her grandma Orsund got for her.

We went out on the lake on the night of the 4th to see the Hill City fireworks.

It was really neat to see them from the lake, and Sophie did fine during the show (she stayed up, watched them, and didn't get upset). She really didn't show any excitement at the show, but she was really tired, so just staying up was a positive.

Sophie is doing very well with her leg - she was able to walk and sprint along the uneven ground at the cabin without difficulty. She falls some, as she is working on her speed and balance skills, but she gets right back up!

I have some video, still on tape, of her getting around - I'm gonna try to get that up soon.

Have a good night,

Larry

I have some video of Sophie walking with her leg

Video Extravaganza

2008-06-20T21:04:00.001-07:00

Well, it's been a while since my last post - mostly because I've been very busy at work, but I made time to do a quick post tonight with a bunch of videos.

I can't find the tape that had Sophie's dedication on it - I'm hoping it's in the diaper bag or something. What I do have is stuff from Sophie's fittings, and even tonight when she took her own first stepd on her prosthetic leg - heretofore called her "super leg" - that's what we call it with her :)

Sophie kisses her kitty, Teddy:

Sophie Playing outside with bubbles on Memorial Day:

Sophie lays down in the kitchen:

Sophie's first fitting - this is prototype prosthetic for her leg:

The second fitting (Monday - June 16)

After working with her every night this week to just keep her prosthetic leg on for more than five minutes without a huge temper tantrum, we had our first big breakthrough tonight:

It's time for bed - I'll update again soon!

Larry

Sophie Meets Grandpa Cal

2008-06-04T19:38:00.001-07:00

On Friday, Stacy's dad Cal came to visit us (mostly Sophie) from Virginia.

The trip was a surprise for him from grandma Julie.

Sophie has been having a great time with him, and has really become comfortable with him (she even let's him pick her up now!)

Cal will be staying with us until Sunday, so he's trying to get as much Sophie time as he can with her between now and then.

Grandpa Cal surprised Sophie with a very nice wagon as a gift - she loves it!

I think she's getting ready to tie Buddy up and have a good old fashioned dog powered wagon... okay maybe not for a couple of years, but you know it's coming!

I still have to pull the video from the dedication and get that posted - I'll try and get that done this weekend at the latest...

Everyone, have a great day!

Larry

Sophie's First Fitting

2008-06-01T18:01:00.000-07:00

Well, at long last, another update!

First of all, on Thursday night, we had or first "crayon on the wall" incident...

Fortunately, it was the bath crayons, and they cleaned up with a little water and a little scrubbing - no big deal.

Friday morning, we finally had Sophie's first fitting for her prosthetic leg.

Sophie was fine as they put socks on her in preparation of the fitting.

But when they actually fit the socket on her, it was tantrum time...

Mostly it was because she didn't know what was happening, and she wasn't familiar with her tech, Kristine.

We made it through., and the socket fit very well.

Once we were done, I asked if she could handle the socket, so that she could get used to it and maybe settle her down for the future.

Sophie held the socket, played with it a little, and was even playing as if putting it on her arm and leg. So the plan worked - we hope that at the final fitting (hopefully in a week or so) she won't go into tantrum mode again.

They told us that her hand was already in (the arm socket is still in process), so we asked to see it and have Sophie hold that too. The more she gets comfortable with this stuff, the better off we all will be...

This is the actual hand appliance that she'll be using in a few weeks...

Again, we hope that they are able to fabricate the leg socket soon, so Sophie can be really running around.

More to come soon!

Larry

Hug Your Child Extra Hard And Long Today

2008-05-23T10:43:00.000-07:00

I feel compelled to write this post, as I am very emotional about the recent news from Steven Curtis Chapman's family.

Steven Curtis Chapman is a well known and respected Christian musician who, like Michael W. Smith, has also had several crossover hits. Steven is also one of Stacy's favorite musicians.

On Wednesday, their youngest daughter, Maria Sue, was accidentally run over and killed at their home. Maria Sue was their third child adopted from China, and was adopted through our agency, America World Adoption.

It was Steven's involvement with AWAA that helped us to decide to go with them as our agency to adopt Sophie, and he and his family have been very strong advocates of adoption for quite some time, including setting up a foundation, Shoahannah's Hope, to help families afford to adopt.

When I heard the news yesterday (Thursday), I instantly felt tears in my eyes as I imagined the same thing happening to Sophie. My God, I can't imagine a more terrible thing in the world - just thinking about it brings the emotions and tears back.

Everyone reading this, please pray for Steven and his family in this tragic time.

If you would like to donate on behalf of their daughter, they have set up a special fund under Shoahannah's hope in memorial to Maria Sue:
https://secure2.convio.net/ccsh/site/Donation2?idb=1605530296&df_id=1560&1560.donation=form1&JServSessionIdr007=gvb9a64xz4.app8b
Every dollar goes to a family waiting to bring their child home.

I hugged Sophie extra hard and extra long when I got home last night.

Cherish every minute you have with your kids - every second is a precious gift - don't let it slip by!

Larry

Sophie's First Orthopedic Appointment

2008-05-14T12:21:00.000-07:00

Monday was, in many ways, a monumental day for us.

First, and most importantly, it was Sophie's first orthopedic appointment at Gillette Children's Specialty Health care. The appointment with a dream team of doctors and professionals that would help Sophie to get her prosthetics.

Secondly, it was the first time Sophie threw up with us. A lot.

About halfway to the clinic, Sophie had her first smaller attack. We scrambled to get her cleaned and changed into a spare set of clothes, and to clean the car seat.

She didn't have a fever, and after the spell was over, she was her normal cheery self. Until she threw up again on 35W, with us less than 10 minutes away from the clinic.

Stacy was adamant that she was sick, and that we needed to go back home (an hour's trip). I told her that we had to go, and that I truly didn't think Sophie was sick - that maybe she had a nervous stomach, or had some bad milk. Her lack of other symptoms had me feeling certain of my conclusion.

We continued on, and with less than 10 feet before being parked in the poorly designed parking ramp, Sophie threw up again, completely covering the blanket Stacy was covering her with, and getting Sophie's spare shirt messy as well.

We didn't have another shirt, we were at the clinic, and Stacy was upset, nearly demanding that we go home - she was convinced that they would see her as sick, and turn us around. I convinced her that we'd need to go in anyway to clean Sophie up, and that we could ask the clinic staff what we should do.

We went in, checked in (and there wasn't a problem with Sophie having an upset tummy) and Stacy went to the gift shop to get a new shirt for Sophie. Unfortunately, at the children's hospital gift shop the smallest shirt they had was for a four year old...

But it worked.

Sophie got her height and weight measured, screaming the whole time. She's now 77.5 cm and 21.5 pounds - which, if accurate, is a pound and 1/2 cm more than she was 2 months ago. We'll have a better measure when she goes to our GP next week and she's measured by the same person who did it before.

Sophie also hated getting X-rayed, and screamed for about twenty minutes as they took the needed pictures of Sophie's right arm and leg.

We then went to room Blue 3, and met our pediatric orthopedic team!

We had the head doctor, Dr. Lang, as well as a surgeon and three people on the prosthetic team.

Fortunately, Sophie doesn't need any surgery, just some bionics! Okay, maybe not bionics, but give them a few years...

After some consultation, and finding out that we could do our follow-ups in Maple Grove (only 45 minutes away, not 90). We went to get Sophie's casts made.

Surprisingly, she almost enjoyed it. I admit that her sitting on my lap probably helped a lot, but she was very patient and allowed the doctor to hold the casts as they set.

Here's her finished arm cast:

Then came her leg:

Hopefully we'll have an appointment yet this week for the first "check sock" fitting, and after that it'll probably be another week for the "final" fitting of the nearly finished piece where final tweaks and adjustments are made. A few days later, we should have Sophie's new leg!

So, it looks like she might have her new leg before her grandpa Calvin comes to town at the end of the month!

The arm will take longer, and probably won't be ready until late June - though we aren't that worried about the arm right now.

I admit, I can't wait until she can walk and run completely on her own - it's going to be awesome.

That is all for now - I'll come back later in the week with some video - may be this weekend, depending on what is going on the next few days...

Talk to you later!

Larry

Sophie's Dedication

2008-05-13T19:12:00.000-07:00

On Sunday (mother's day) Sophie had her dedication at our church.

Our church is part of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, which is very similar to the baptist denomination, where children are dedicated (parents promise to raise their children in a christian home) instead of baptised (baptisms are a choice later in life)

Sophie's aunt Allison bought her a very nice dedication dress - she looked beautiful in it!

Sophie's only been to church with us a few times, but she loves music and claps or raises her hand when she likes the song.

I'll get the video up this week - but Sophie was a card during the dedication portion of the service - shaking her head at the pastor when he asked to hold her (the entire church laughed!)

While the pastor was praying, she was poking my eyes, since I had them closed...

She received a beautiful blue an green dedication quilt from the church, and I was a very proud papa.

After the service, we took our moms (and my sisters and aunt) out to a Chinese buffet for mother's day.

I made a card for Stacy as if it came from Sophie (who signed it), and she really liked it.

It was a good day!

Sophie Gets Her Ears Lowered

2008-05-09T18:45:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm getting this post up within two weeks of the actual event, so that's not so bad, is it?

Two weeks ago tomorrow (Saturday April 26th) I took Sophie through a blizzard to get her hair cut. (It really was snowing badly that morning - gotta love Minnesota!)

Sophie was looking a little shaggy, so it was definitely time for a trim...

Sophie, if she was a mob boss...

The stylist that helped her was very nice, and showed Sophie the clippers and let her touch them before she used them...

Sophie was the most well behaved kid I've ever seen getting a hair cut (of course, she is perfect). No crying, no fidgeting -she just sat there calmly.

And here's my pretty girl wanting to be picked up after getting all prettied up!

Afterward we stopped at the grocery store and picked some soup up - when it's that cold, wet and snowy, it's a soup day!

Since then the nice people I work with threw Sophie a welcome home shower, with cake and tons of presents - it was very nice to have that kind of support from my friends and coworkers!

It's two days until Mother's day - I have to make up some cards for Stacy soon... maybe tomorrow? :)

Just a reminder to friends and family - Sophie's dedication will be at 9 AM on Mother's day at Riverside Alliance Church, and we will follow that with lunch at 11 at the King Buffet in Big Lake. See you all there!

Larry

Dedication

2008-04-26T07:14:00.000-07:00

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!

You Asked For Video

2008-04-23T21:08:00.000-07:00

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!

Spoiler space

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

Hi Kitty!

2008-04-12T14:42:00.000-07:00

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

Sophie is 20 months old (4 days ago)!

2008-04-07T20:00:00.000-07:00

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

Gotcha Plus One Month

2008-03-24T18:46:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been one month since we first met Sophie!

All of our friends in our travel group are also celebrating being with their children for one month as well. Wow. It's weird, because it feels simultaneously like it was just a few days ago, and like it was years ago.

It's a huge blessing that all three of us have adjusted very quickly to our new lives together.

Stacy and I love to just watch Sophie as she tears the living room apart and jabbers. It's really cool. Of course, I like to get it on camera when I can too!

I mentioned Sophie's welcoming party last weekend where she showed us a new way to eat a peanut butter sandwich...

And here she is in her pretty new Easter dress from yesterday...

Isn't she the cutest little girl in the world?

I think so. :)

More to come later!

Have a good night!

Larry

Some Videos Before Easter

2008-03-22T00:14:00.000-07:00

Since we won't have our still camera until Sunday, I thought I'd post a few little videos from the last week...

Sophie loves to investigate everything, including cupboards, the refrigerator and dishwasher. A few days ago, she decided to help me unload the clean dishes...

Our friends Nick and Kendra lent this Leapfrog learning table to Sophie, and she loves it, especially the ABC song it plays...

We went to Creative Kidstuff, and bought a set of cardboard bricks for Sophie (we both remember playing with them when we were kids). I tried to put them away after we played with them for a while by stacking them into a neat pile. Sophie made short work of my nice pile...

I hope that holds you all for a while, I'll post again soon...

Larry

Two Weeks At Home

2008-03-19T20:28:00.000-07:00

Well, it's Wednesday night, March 19th 2008 (my 36th birthday), and all is well.

We got home 13 days ago, and I am so glad that I took extra time off from work - it's taken so long to get back into a schedule, and both Stacy and I have been sick (Stacy is still getting over strep throat and an ear infection). At least we weren't sick in China, that would have been very very un-fun.

Let's see, I'll try to recap the last two weeks, and from here on, I'll try to do a weekly (at least) update - hopefully I can convince Stacy to poke her head in every once in a while as well.

After we got back, and everyone left after bringing us home and wishing us welcome, we took a nap. Sophie cried when we tried to put her down in her crib, so we brought her into our bed and she slept between us. When we got up we ate something for dinner (I don't remember what at this point) and then stayed up till early morning before going back to sleep for the night.

Sophie cried again when we tried to put her in her crib, so we thought that maybe her crying was because her crib wasn't in the same room as us. She never cried when napping or sleeping the night when we were in China, but we were all in the same hotel room. So, we broke out an air mattress, and I slept in her room on the mattress while she was in her crib. She still cried a little, but went to sleep fairly quickly.

The next day, we started to adjust our timing - but the jet lag was hitting all of us pretty hard. Stacy slept with Sophie that night, and after that, we tried to let Sophie sleep alone.

We spent the weekend alternately sleeping, eating, and watching Sophie conquer the house - She was going up stairs on Saturday, and had figured out how to go down by Monday! As far as we know, she'd never traversed stairs in her life. She is so smart!

Sophie also started terrorizing (in a good way) our three cats, Teddy, Puddin, and Whizzo. She and Teddy made a connection the first day - we knew they would, Teddy is a very loving cat. What surprised us was Whizzo's interest in her - he's very skittish, and normally avoids new people, but he was checking Sophie out right away.

My mom and sister came over on Saturday, to see how we were doing, and also to bring our dog home (my sister and brother-in-law watched Buddy while we were in China). Buddy isn't sure what to make of Sophie (even now), but he does give her a kiss now and then.

Monday we went to our family doctor to get Sophia her 18 month checkup, and to get her immunizations up to snuff. We spent most of the appointment figuring out what exactly she had been given for immunizations, and figuring out the best plan to get her caught up. Everything looked good in terms of heart, ears, throat, lungs, and the like. Sophie got four shots for immunizations at this appointment, and will get another four in May. At that point she'll be caught up, and will just need boosters at the normal time.

We then went down to Brooklyn Park and picked up our new minivan! It didn't take too long for me to move Sophie's child seat over, and to transfer the rest of our stuff, and we were off in our new ride. We love it - it drives very nice, and gets good mileage.

Tuesday and Wednesday were just spent trying to catch up on sleep, and taking care of our baby girl. Sophie crawls around the house without any problems, can get down from the recliner or sofa by herself, and can stand and kinda walk around if she has something to brace against - a sofa, coffee table, or similar. It's awesome to see - we know she'll have no problems walking once we get a prosthetic foot for her.

Thursday we went to our first Orthopedic appointment for Sophia, and met a great doctor who examined Sophie and then immediately referred us to a top amputee team at Gillette Children's. The only sucky part is that the appointment isn't until May 12th - but apparently the whole team will be there, and hopefully she'll be fitted for her foot at that appointment. I really am anxious to get Sophie her foot so that she can start walking and running (and maybe stop every other person we run into at the store from telling us that she lost her shoe - but that is secondary). The doctor also reinforced our expectation that we don't need to worry about a prosthetic hand yet - she's able to use her nubby quite effectively (she actually has a good deal of her right wrist), and the time for a hand will present itself as she develops.

I don't remember what happened Friday - Sleeping, eating, and nuclear diapers were probably in there... That's right - I took Stacy to the doctor - her coughing had been pretty bad, and wasn't getting better. She also began complaining of pain in her left ear. We found out she had strep throat and an ear infection! Antibiotics were started.

Saturday, my aunt Terri came over to meet Sophie, then we went to Stacy's mom and step-dad's house for dinner and some time for Sophia to get to know them.

Sunday our friends from Church, Nick and Kendra, held an open house for us at their home. They invited our friends from church to come and say hi and to meet Sophie. It was a great time, and we are very thankful to them and to all of our friends who stopped by to see the three of us and who gave Sophie such nice gifts!

Monday was a weird day for me, as I had an EEG appointment in the morning, so I had to be up from midnight on - not exactly help with getting back onto a good sleep schedule. We went shopping after that for some more Sophie stuff, then had Benihana for dinner (to celebrate my birthday early, since we wouldn't be able to go on Wednesday). It was nummy!

Tuesday we traveled an hour and a half north to Aitkin, Minnesota, to visit the workplace of my mom, and for Sophie to meet my step-dad. Sophie hammed it up for about 30 people at mom's two offices, and then chased my mom's cats after charming my step-dad. Stacy was feeling pretty cruddy, so we went home and she went to bed pretty early.

Today, Stacy was still feeling yucky, so I took Sophie by myself to my work, where she met another two dozen smiling faces, and to meet my sister's co-workers. All went well, and Sophie poured on her usual charm. Her smile is just energizing - you can't help but smile back!

You'll notice that there are no new pictures attached to this entry - well, we left our camera at our friend's house on Sunday, so we won't have any new pictures until we get it back - hopefully on Friday, maybe on Sunday. They're coming.

Sophie loves apple juice, apple sauce, meatloaf, ramen (of course), peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, scrambled eggs, and french fries. We're continually trying to feed her new things, and she's generally willing to try new things, so that's good.

Sophie still screams when we put her to bed for about five minutes, and then goes to sleep. She also throw a tantrum when we wash her hair, but of course the waterworks turn off as soon as it's done. She is a kid after all.

I have captured all of the video from China onto my computer, and am now editing it into a cohesive whole. There's a lot of good stuff in there, and I barely remember some of it, so I am very glad that we had the camera along. DVDs will be for sale soon ;)

That's it for tonight, we'll talk to you again soon!

Larry

Home - Finally!

2008-03-11T21:10:00.000-07:00

It's Tuesday evening in Minneapolis, MN, USA.

I think I'm finally getting over the jet lag, which has been brutal, to say the least. I actually slept close to a normal night last night.

We've spent the last few days trying to get sleep and to get back on Minnesota time. Somewhat surprisingly, I've had the hardest time - Sophie and Stacy have adjusted pretty quickly, but I couldn't even sleep Friday night.

Let's back up to Thursday (also known as The Long Day)...

We left for the airport right on time, and got there about 6:30 AM - about two and a half hours before our flight. I have always been a big supporter of getting to the airport very early, and today was the day that my reasons for always doing so became reality. We got to the airport, and proceeded to the Northwest Airlines counter. There was no one else in line, so we figured we'd be done quickly. We were wrong.

First, we were selected for a random checked bag search. Of course they picked the bag that was full of dirty clothes. This was a surprise, but not too bad - the toughest part was that we couldn't really communicate with the security officers. As I was standing near the security officers as they searched the dirty clothes suitcase, Stacy took our passports up to the counter to get us checked in.

I was noticing that it was taking a little too long, and when the security check was finished, I went up to the counter and found out that Sophie didn't have a ticket to get home. Yeah.
When we booked the flights to and from China, Stacy called Northwest Airlines and set us up with an infant pass for Sophie from China back to Minneapolis. They also told us that there was no charge for it. When we got to the airport to leave for China, we noticed that she was listed as an infant with us out to China. Stacy had to explain to the gate agents that we were bringing her from China, not to China. We kinda assumed that she showed up on the outbound legs because there was a limitation in Northwest's system that needed her to be with us in the computer for the whole round trip. We never for a moment thought that they had set up the infant pass for the wrong direction. Well... that's what happened.

So we spent the next ten minutes trying to explain the situation to the counter attendant, who spent all of her time telling us that they didn't have Sophie in their system (duh, we got that the first time) and that it wasn't free to add an infant pass in China. I finally said, "Alright, how much do you think it costs?"

That required her making a five minute phone call, and then told me it'd be what converted to $118. I told her that it should be free, but to get things moving along, I'd pay the fee and then take it up with Northwest when we got home (which I'll be doing next week). I gave her my credit card, and then waited for fifteen minutes when she ran the bill. I have no idea what took so long, but finally she came back with a receipt for me to sign. As I signed it, I noticed that it said from Beijing to Tokyo. I then asked if she was ticketed all the way to Minneapolis, and that what was on the receipt was just some system artifact.

Well, obviously, it wasn't, as the ticket agent started asking other agents questions, and then asked for my card back. They then contacted a supervisor, who could speak more than a tiny bit of English. She tried hard, and got everything straightened out, eventually. It took another fifteen minutes (and a new total of $250) to get Sophie's ticket and boarding pass.

I was (and still am) amazingly frustrated at the whole experience. First, it never should have happened - when Stacy called and set up the infant pass, it should have been correct (When you tell them you are adopting a child from China, it's a big clue that they will be traveling from, not to, China. Second, the infant pass shouldn't have cost us anything - it didn't get her any food, or a seat, or anything to drink, or extra luggage allowance - only an entry in the computer that she was on the plane. Third, it took 45 minutes to create a frackin' infant pass - a one minute task - maybe five minutes if the phone lines to visa were down. Absolutely ludicrous.

At this point I was pretty wound up, as you can imagine.

We went through security, threw away our water and pop (since no liquids at all are allowed through the security screen in carry on luggage in China).

After going through the security checkpoint, in the secure zone of the airport. We stopped at a duty free shop, bought some Beijing 2008 gifts for family, two bottles of water and two cans of pop. In the airport security zone. In an airport shop. Just want to make all of that absolutely clear in preparation for what happens next.

After waiting, we began boarding, and found that they were doing a search of all carry on baggage, again, for liquids. They told me that we couldn't have the sealed pop and water that we bought not 200 feet away. I was, of course, extremely upset. Then, they opened up the diaper bag, pulled out Sophie's bottle, which had water in it, and they were going to confiscate it.

I was ready to rip out his throat with my bare hands - nobody doe anything to harm my daughter. Fortunately, Stacy had a cooler head, and tried to tell them to dump the bottle out, but we needed the bottle itself to feed her. They yelled back and forth with a supervisor, and finally relented, after asking how old Sophie was - apparently a child's age makes a difference.

As we began to move along, I muttered something about "Commies", and then several people got in front of us, and I recited the line from Christmas Vacation that ends with "Happy Hanukkah" as they pushed past us. Stacy was afraid we'd get hauled off to a Chinese jail, never to see the light of day again.

We got on the plane, and we were blessed that our seating plan worked for the Beijing to Tokyo leg of the trip. We each had the aisle seat in a row in the middle of the plane, and had two empty seats between us. Sophie had room to lay down and move around, she was much happier than she had been on either of the China flights.

Once we got to Tokyo, it took forever for us to get through security.

We made it to the gate, hungry. Stacy had to use the restroom, and Sophie needed her diaper changed. After that, I went to the little noodle shop near the gate and got us a couple of items in an attempt to stave of starvation. As I got our order, people started to line up to board the plane.

There are a couple of behaviors to note here, that we saw in both China and Japan. One, lines don't exist and aren't followed. Two, there is no such thing as a lane on a road. Three, the only time that a line is even somewhat created is when boarding an aircraft, and it will begin to form about a half hour before boarding starts. They don't board by row in China or Japan.

So, by the time we had our lunch, the line to get on our plane for an eleven hour flight was already over to the next gate, and growing. I should mention here that our seats were about 4 rows from the very back of the plane.

We wolfed some of the noodles and sweet & sour chicken, Sophie barely finished her bottle, and we got in line to get home.

We got our seats (both of them, this time) - and our placement did, as planned and hoped, get us a little extra room to my left. The last few rows of seating are where the plane tapers to the tail, so there are only two seats - what would normally be the middle seat (and becomes a window, as there is only a half seat's width to the window from there), and the aisle seat. We were able to use the extra room to put bags in, and give our feet and legs the room under the seats in front of us.

Sophie screamed a few times, when we told her she couldn't throw things over the seat or pull the hair of the people in front of her, but was okay. We did the Benadryl trick, and she only slept for about three hours - not exactly what I was hoping for.

We landed right on time in Minneapolis, got in the line for immigrants, and waited a little while. After about fifteen minutes, we were called forward, and gave the sealed brown envelope to the officer. He was very nice, and chatted with us as he looked over Sophia's papers. After about five minutes, and signing some more paperwork, he told us to go on in.

There is a yellow line in front of the customs booths, and a green one behind the booths. That green line represents entry into the United States of America. Cameras of any kind are prohibited in the customs area, which was too bad, because I wanted to take a picture when Sophia Allison Ziegler, being pushed by Stacy in her stroller, became a United States citizen. As I couldn't do that, we cheered and clapped in celebration. I was very proud and happy.

We found all of our bags (we never lost a single bag through our entire trip), put them on a not free cart, and went down to the final customs check, where we declared the souvenirs and gifts we had purchased. After getting past there, we were ready to meet our family and friends who were waiting for us, and we snuck a peak at them down the stairs (we took the elevator with all of our stuff). In no particular order, waiting for us was my sister, my mom, my dad and step-mom, and our friends Nick and Kendra. Stacy's parents were waiting for us at our house (they went to spruce the place up a little).

A lot of pictures were taken, and a lot of happy tears were shed, and then we all went to our house to finally bring Sophie the rest of the way home. Of course, she slept the whole way...
We visited for about two hours, and then we all went to take a nap.

At this point I need to get to bed. I'll write another entry in the next day or two to catch us up on the happenings since last Thursday...

Have a good day!

Larry

Take The Last Plane To Princeton...

2008-03-05T12:35:00.000-08:00

Well, here we are - the last post on the blog from China!

By now, the rest of our travel group should be safe and sound in their homes, and we're four hours away from beginning our 16 hour journey home.

The first leg should be pretty good - I just moved us to the outside ends of a four seat row in the middle of the plane - that will give us plenty of space to stretch our legs and for Sophie to sleep between us. There's no danger of anyone taking the other two seats, as the plane is barely half full four hours before take off.

We moved our seats on the Minneapolis leg to the very back of the plane where we will have the window and aisle right next to each other (since he plane gets narrower at the back) - that'll give us a little more room, and will minimize the number of people Sophie might disrupt.

I'm running on four hours' sleep, and Sophie hasn't had a full night's sleep the last two nights - so I think she and I will sleep a good part of the way from Tokyo home.

Well, It's time to get stuff ready to go, our taxi picks us up in an hour!

See you all in about 20 hours!

Larry

Beijing II: The Rest Stop

2008-03-05T00:08:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that we got to Beijing safely.

The taxi trip to the hotel was a bit more than we expected, but now we know what to have on hand in the morning.

Sophie was pretty good on the flight here - it was about three hours. Even though she was tired, she fought going to sleep for the first half, then was a furnace on my lap for the rest of the trip.

We're going go natural for the trip from Beijing to Tokyo tomorrow morning, and probably use the old Benadryl trick on her for the long 10.5 hour flight to Minneapolis.

Please pray that we have a safe, comfortable, and largely Sophie-tantrum free trip tomorrow.

We'll see you all in 33 hours or so!

PS, we are scheduled to get in at 11:00 AM, but we also have to go through customs and immigration - so we may not be out sooner than 11:30 or noon - just an FYI...

Love you all, and thanks for your continued comments! We look forward to reading them as much as you look forward to reading our posts!

Larry

Oh, and one more thing - I cannot wait for some Taco Bell!

Last Night In Guangzhou

2008-03-04T03:42:00.000-08:00

Today we went to the US Consulate, and were sworn in, and received the US Visas for our children!

As soon as Sophia is admitted onto US soil in Minneapolis on Thursday morning, she'll be a US citizen!

Everything went well, and when we got back we took a final group photo.

We just finished having dinner with a large portion of our group, and we have now all retired to get the last minute packing done, and hopefully get to sleep early.

We will wake up tomorrow before 4:00 AM, and will leave the hotel at 6:00 AM

Then it'll be a three hour flight with about half our group to Beijing (the rest are either leaving from Hong Kong or right here from Guangzhou) - then we stay overnight in Beijing to catch our early flight to Tokyo, then Minneapolis on Thursday morning.

I'll be putting the computer away after this post, so I won't be able to post again until tomorrow afternoon / evening - which should be the last post from China!

Got to get to packing - see everyone in a couple of days!

Larry

Monday Night

2008-03-03T06:37:00.001-08:00

As promised, here are a couple of videos of Sophie before I hit the sack.

I'm exhausted, so hopefully I'll get a good night's sleep tonight.

Talk to you tomorrow, our last full day in Guangzhou!

Larry

Monday In Guangzhou

2008-03-03T01:43:00.001-08:00

Good evening, everyone!

Well, we were sequestered in our rooms until 2:00 PM today so that we would be available to answer questions if there were any when our paperwork was presented to the US consulate. I am very happy to report that all 11 families paperwork is completed!

At 2:00 we met and went to the local tourist trap - err, shopping district. The good news is that we finished getting all of the gifts that we planned on for Sophie as she grows up, as well as a couple of items for us and for family. It is always fun to bargain, but I watched our friend Mark work his magic (of the linked Mark and Kristy's blog) - and wow! If he'd negotiated the Louisiana purchase, it would have cost us about $45.

Definitely fun to watch.

I got them down to about 65% on average of the asking price for the things we bought, so I'm happy with how that worked out.

I got a neat little Chinese chess set for myself (every time we go to a different country, I get a chess set specific to the country), and Stacy got a nice tea set and a couple of mother-of-pearl jewelry boxes.

Tonight we're getting together with another family for pizza or McDonald's - not sure which it will be, but it'll be better then either of us had last night.

I promise to get some video up tonight, so check back before you head to bed!

See you later!

Larry

Sunday in Guangzhou

2008-03-01T22:44:00.000-08:00

Stacy and Sophie are now both asleep, it's my turn to blog!

I finally did something new for the blog's header - hope everyone likes it!

Isn't she the cutest thing ever?

As Stacy mentioned - yesterday we had our "paperwork party"...

There were 13 of us packed into a standard room designed for two... it was so much fun! NOT!

Well, I'd rather have a "root canal party" - because the stress level was very high. We put together documents, as well filled them out, line by line. The documents are for the Consulate appointment tomorrow (which we actually don't have to go to - the guides do it for us) - so we were all powerfully aware of just how important the stuff was. Our kid's ability to come home rested on these documents.

It was scary to be franticly searching through our packs of paperwork that we all brought from home trying desperately to find something that we all prayed we had.

The situation was helped, negatively, by the fact that a lot of the forms we had from USCIS and the US Consulate were actually expired and invalid. Thankfully our guides had plenty of copies of the correct forms to fill out.

As we went through the documents, it was painfully obvious just how much wasted time and energy goes into for filling as part of the mega-bureaucracy that is the US government. Of course, if we skipped ahead at all and followed the instructions on the form, we'd inevitably have filled something out wrong.

After two and a half hours of anti-fun, we finished!

We met a half hour later to go to the tepanyaki restaurant in the hotel, which Stacy talked about. In the lobby of the hotel, they had a violin quartet playing - which was kinda neat.

The food was good, but not the great level that we expected.

Sophie was constipated last night, so we were up till 11 waiting for the laxative to do something - it didn't, and we were all very tired, so we just went to sleep. We'll get her some prunes or something today to see if that helps.

This morning we went to a folk art museum, which used to be an ancestral (not religious) temple. The ever present gift shops yielded a few cool things, including a picture that this artist does using only his hands (I have video of him working) - pretty cool stuff.

This was a flower sculpture outside the entrance:

We had McDonald's for lunch again (as did just about everyone else) and Sophie was actually asleep before we got off the bus from the Tea House.

Not sure what we'll do tonight - we're kinda tired, yet going a little stir crazy.

Tomorrow morning after breakfast we all have to stay in our rooms so that we re available for our guides if they need to call us when they are at the consulate. After that we will be going to a local shopping district, and I think that's about all that will be happening tomorrow.

Gonna have to start packing soon - we leave Guangzhou on Wednesday - only three days from now we'll be back in Beijing for our last night in China.

Well, time to get going for now - I'll see if I can get some video posted tonight.

Love you all!

Larry

Tepenyaki and Tea

2008-03-01T21:32:00.000-08:00

Kristy and Mark's little girl Ellie feeding Sophie.

At the teahouse.

Larry went to the paperwork party yesterday afternoon and said it was anything but. He was gone for 2 1/2 hours and he said it was pretty stressful. But we're glad its done now. Last night we went for a group dinner at a Japanese restaurant. I know what you're thinking. "You went to China to have Japanese food?" Our guide suggested it and it was right in our hotel building. It was the same style of dining that Benihana has. So we thought it would be similar. Larry really liked it but I wasn't so keen on it. It was good food but the flavors are completely different from Americanized-Japanese food. Sophie loves fried rice but she didn't eat much of it last night.
Today we went to a Museum and a Chinese tea house. We were told the proper way to make tea (according to the Chinese) and tried a few teas. They were stronger than what we Americans are used to. It was interesting but too spendy to buy anything. On a side note; why can't Chinese people regulate their indoor temperatures? Its either 80-85 degrees or no heat at all. We have been roasting in all of our hotel rooms, busses and airplanes and freezing in the stores.
Sophie is now taking baths by herself! She will sit in the bath tub and take a bath without anyone in the tub with her. She doesn't like changing clothes but if we can make a game of it, we can get her changed pretty quickly. She still doesn't like having her diaper changed though. It takes both of us to get it done. But we did make a discovery quite by accident. When we were at the airport to fly from Harbin to Guanzhou, Larry took Sophie to a handicap bathroom to change her diaper. There was an elderly lady attendant there and Larry asked her where he could change her. She took Sophie in her arms and changed her diaper while holding her. I didn't even know you could do that. Sophie didn't make a peep. We are thinking maybe her Nana used to change her that way. So anytime she has a wet diaper only we change her while holding her (if she won't stand on her own).
It's so cute! Sophie will call me "Mama" and hold her arms out to be held. She says "Dada" sometimes but will call Larry "Mama" too.

Stacy

Saturday Afternoon In Guangzhou

2008-02-29T22:25:00.000-08:00

Well, it's 2:30 PM, here in the hotel room, and in an hour I have to go upstairs for our paperwork party - all of the stuff that can't be done before coming to China, like Visa applications and other prep work for leaving China has to be done this afternoon.

Sophie is supposed to be going to sleep for her nap right now, but she's standing up and talking to me so that I pay attention to her. She's hard to ignore, especially when she lays on the cute.

Here's Sophia with her white whale stuffed animal that we got for her at the aquarium on Thursday.

The face looks awfully similar, doesn't it? She is a big ham for the camera - at least when I'm taking pictures of her. This is from this morning - the whole crew went to the medical office to get the kids medical examinations done. There was a lot of screaming and crying from everybody's babies, but we all made it through okay.

I think the doctors were surprised by Sophie's condition - they took her to a different exam room for the examining doctor to consult with, what I assume was, a senior physician. But as I said, everything turned out okay - all of the kids passed.

Here's our friends Faith and Jason, and their new daughter Zoey! Isn't she adorable!

After the medical exams, we went to the "supermarket" which was really like a Dayton's - sorry, Macy's - with a supermarket floor. We bought a much needed stroller, and a Fisher Price Counting Friends phone - she loves playing with it - there's a phone book at the top that she can flip, it speaks English, and the numbers all make sounds - she even holds the handset to her ear like she's talking (of course, she also like giving the phone to you so you can talk - she likes to share).

The weather is beautiful here - it's 70 degrees, sunny - feels like late spring in Minnesota.

Tonight we'll be going as a group to a Japanese restaurant and tomorrow I believe we will be doing some sightseeing - though I'm not really sure yet...

Hope everyone is doing fine back in the USA, and we'll be home in six days!

Love you guys!

Larry

Saturday Morning In Guangzhou

2008-02-29T15:45:00.000-08:00

Well we arrived here in Guangzhou just after 9 PM last night local time.

The flight turned out to be around 5 hours in the hair, with a half hour layover in Dalian.

Sophie had a temper tantrum (we wouldn't let her kick or throw the seats in front of us) about every half hour, except for the hour she slept during the second, longer leg of the flight. It was not fun.

We have three more flights until we get home, and then I'm not getting on a plane again for a long time...

We met up with Tammi, Greg, Kristen, and their new addition Matthew last night at the airport - but there wasn't a lot of time to catch up.

We're in the China Hotel, which is apparently a Marriott hotel. It's pretty nice - definitely 4.5 stars. We have a soft bed, and there's good water pressure in the shower, Stacy is happy to report.

We aren't sure what's going on today, except that we have some paperwork to do, and we get to meet up with all of the other families!

We need to go to a store today and get a stroller and some beverages - hopefully we'll find something that's not too expensive.

Gotta run and eat breakfast, we're meeting everyone in an hour...

Hopefully there'll be a standard nap time post later on today (Saturday morning for those at home) with pictures and video.

Talk to you all later!

Larry

Two More Videos Before We Go

2008-02-28T16:31:00.000-08:00

Okay, I have time to post two videos before we head off to breakfast.

First, this is Sophie at breakfast yesterday morning:

And This is Sophia talking as she gets ready to go to sleep last night:

Share and enjoy!

Talk to you all later!

Larry

Our World Revolves Around Sophie

Sophie Every Day

Sophie Episode IV: A New Hope (Spring 2011)

Catsup Part III: The Winterer

Ketchup Part II: Autumn 2010

Catch-Up Part 1: The Summer of 2010

Disney World 2010 Part 2

Disney World 2010 Part 1

On Our Way To Disney World!

Daily Life - Early Spring 2010

Finally - Pictures From Our Trip To Virginia, Last Year!

Cristmas 2009 Pictures

More Cute Pictures

Dance Pictures

Mismas Cookies 2009

Dance Recital II - The Videos

Video Extravaganza!

Around The House

Trip To Virginia, Part I

Punkin Patch

Just Some Pictures Before We Go

Catching Up - Dad and Daughter Weekend II, Silly Gril, and the Zoo!

Saturday In The Park

New Leg Fitting

First Dance Recital!

Happy Easter 2009!

Weekend with Grandma

Larry shaves his head.

Way Too Long To Wait For An Update

Princess Party

Gotcha Day! (1 Year Later)

January Update

Fun In The Snow

Christmas 2008

More Pictures Before Christmas

Trimming The Tree

Sophie's First Thanksgiving!

Halloween 2008

Our Helpy Helper

Sophie at the Build-A-Bear

Sophie Goes To The (Wet) Zoo

Dedication Video At Last!

Sophie's 2nd Birthday!

We Have The Technology...

More Videos - You Asked For Them!

Time Keeps On Slippin' ...

Video Extravaganza

Sophie Meets Grandpa Cal

Sophie's First Fitting

Hug Your Child Extra Hard And Long Today

Sophie's First Orthopedic Appointment

Sophie's Dedication

Sophie Gets Her Ears Lowered

Dedication

You Asked For Video

Hi Kitty!

Sophie is 20 months old (4 days ago)!

Gotcha Plus One Month

Some Videos Before Easter

Two Weeks At Home

Home - Finally!

Take The Last Plane To Princeton...

Beijing II: The Rest Stop

Last Night In Guangzhou

Monday Night

Monday In Guangzhou

Sunday in Guangzhou

Tepenyaki and Tea

Saturday Afternoon In Guangzhou

Saturday Morning In Guangzhou

Two More Videos Before We Go