I'll have pictures up at the gallery before long, and I'll throw in a link to them, but Emma's first Christmas was a bang-up affair. She got lots of toys and, more importantly, lots of books. She was absolutely the center of attention for more days than was probably healthy for her. She ate chocolates, she tore wrapping paper, and she pointed at the lights -- pretty much everything your rising 2-year-old is expected to do at this time of year.

On a different note, I've enabled comment moderation on the site, solely because of stupid comment spammers. So if you post a comment, it may take a few hours to appear. Sorry about the inconvenience. :)

Merry Christmas to everyone, and a Happy New Year! Blessings, peace and good fortune for you in the coming twelvemonth.

Much to report, so here is a summary. Emma is walking now, and getting better at it every day. She is learning to do stairs and climb onto low surfaces. And this gives another dimension to the dancing she loves to do - in addition to swaying to the music, she can now stomp her feet! The other night she also started putting her arms into it. Our gal's got rhythm!

Healthwise, we have a little Yao Ming on our hands. She is 24 pounds, which is normal weight for her age, and she is 2 foot 9 which is 90th percentile - on the American growth chart! The anemia is cleared up, the eczema seems to be better, and the exotropia is improving.

She is also turning into a little sweetheart. When we first got her she would turn her face away if we tried to hug or kiss her; pull her hands away if we tried to hold them; etc. Now she gives US hugs and kisses, unbidden, crawls into our laps just to be held for a minute, and is generally acting more lovey every day. She also bestows kisses upon the animals, live or stuffed, and occasionally cartoon characters such as the Pooh on the back of her mittens.

She is clearly understanding quite a bit of language, and can point to most of her body parts when asked. She is beginning to learn the motions to the "head, shoulders knees and toes" song. She can point out other objects as well, and happily follows commands such as "bring me the ball". She is very good about putting her toys away when asked, thanks in large part to Jamie!

It is amazing...each day we love her more, and each day we realize even more than she is exactly the child we dreamed of. I melt every time I hear her laugh, her smile brightens even the worst day, and I sometimes get teary just looking at her thinking how wonderful she is. Emma is truly a blessing.

Brian has redone his photo gallery. All the China pictures are up, as well as many pics of Emma since she's been home. I am working on getting some video online, hopefully that will get done soon!

We are definitely proud of ourself this week, and it's only Tuesday!

Emma is now standing up, unassisted. For as long as 15 second, mind you -- but still standing. We'll take what we can get.

She's also “cruising,” which is to say she's walking along the edge of the couch, the coffee table, the dog...whatever will stand still long enough for her to get a grip on. In short, Emma has just become dangerous.

Let's see, what else have we learn. Oh, yes...we now say “duck” to anything bright yellow and vaguely (and I do me vaguely) ducky-looking. We have produced our first definitive “Dada” in relation to the approach of our father figure. We can also now produce, with great regularity, the famed bilabial fricative -- more colloquially known as the lip fart.

My daughter is truly a multitalented individual, even at this tender age.

Eczema continues to be an annoyance, so we'll inquire of the doctor about possible treatments beyond “put lotion on it and wait for her to grow out of it.” Long afternoon naps continue to be the order of the day. We tried splitting the long nap into two shorter ones, with results that Aunt Jamie described as “a disaster.” Sign language skills are still rudimentary, but are developing (“more” is in common use, “eat” is known but less commonly used, and others are in the works). Play and social skills are being developed as well -- along the lines of “don't poke your 6-month-old cousin in the eye, don't slap her head, and giver her that toy back.”

Oh, and dogs are now much loved. Especially Cody, who is much more reciprocative than the friendly-but-somewhat-distant Jack. I won't go so far as to say Jack disdains Emma...he doesn't. But he doesn't seek her out the way the Code-ster does.

Cats are things to be admired, but not often touched, as the three light wrist rakes demonstrate (grabbing Molly's belly is a activity engaged in only with great care even by adults, and is inadvisable for anyone without fast reflexes -- a class which generally includes toddlers). Conversely, the cats are learning that, while Emma will drop food from on high when being fed, she is otherwise prone to over-enthusiastic petting and dogged floor-level pursuit, and is best avoided by spending the day on the parents' bed.

The drive to work, which is now twice as long due to the need to deliver Emma to Harrisburg, still sucks. Or blows. Or both. But we're looking at ways to make it more economical and tolerable, and these plans should shortly come to fruition.

Look for more pictures soon. I've finally managed to consolidate my disparate image libraries, and I'm planning a total overhaul of my .Mac site.

Aunt Jamie, who cares for Emma during the day and actually sees her more than her parents do (hazard of being a working parent and all) emailed me this evening to file a report on Emma's progress from her perspective. Without further ado, her comments:

Wow! Emma (The Bean) has certainly come along way since her debut at the airport.

Eating: She has gone from 1. finger to mouth eating and taking a spoon when placed to her mouth 2. helping with the spoon going from bowl to mouth 3. using a spoon by herself to eat with occasional guidance with the scooping part. She has also gone from using whichever hand is available to using the spoon with her left hand. She still picks food up with either, but I think more the right hand. She readily tries to share food with Kyra and notices/protests when Kyra is not in her chair next to Emma.

Drinking: She has gone from: 1. Requiring me to hold and tip the sippy cup. 2. Giving her the sippy cup and occasional assistance. 3. I put the cup on her tray and she drinks whenever she pleases. Sometimes I remind her about her cup.

Play: She is very curious and plays and explores easily by herself. She likes to test the limits on occasion to make sure that you are
paying attention (yes, she looks back as she tries to undo the latch to the kitchen gate). She adores guitar time with G' Pa and now eagerly advances to the guitar to strum the strings (harpist in the making. She and Kyra love music and absent-mindedly bounce to the beat as they play. Emma is fond of things that make noise and figures them out quickly. G' Pa has taught her to tap the wind chime gently (he doesn't have to say anything to her) and not grab it. Watch out for this little mechanic, she is just like her Uncle Fig in that if it comes apart she WILL be the first to figure it out /test it! Her favorite pastimes are scooting backwards on the hardwood floor in the hallway and rocking the swing back and forth.

Reading: She likes to be read to and has become very active with her books. She used to just sit there and you would have to put her hand on the various tactile bits, but now she does it on her own and even has favorites. She recognizes ducks, likes the dogs page, and sometimes becomes fixated on the sheep page. She is not much for reading the book cover to cover...meandering to a fro through the book is her style.

On the Move: Gee whiz! She has gone hog wild when it comes to movin' and groovin'! She has gone from reaching with all her might for things on her belly to zooming around the house on her hands and knees. She has days where she remember she has knees and others where she forgets and does the FrankenBean walk. For her mom and dad she requires two hands to help (suckers! ;)) BUT G' Pa and Aunt Jamie insist on at least half of her daily constitutionals outside to be done one handed. She is unsure about it at first but is learning that we are always there to catch her if she gets off balance.

Standing: My bet is that she can pull up on her own but she still wants a hand there for reassurance. However, in the past two days we have worked on her pulling up on the couch and signing 'more' if she wants more snacks (I learned today that since goldfish trump 'nillas they work better).

Ah, Communication: She continues with the various tonal grunts, whines, and groans...an occasional girlie squeal. But new and improved communication is on its way...signing! While she is in the process of learning words and is probably trying to repeat them, I am not fluent in babygruntish. Sooo...onward we move into sign language (alongside English as well). Which works out since Kyra is old enough to start learning it and you want to work with Emma on it. She is doing very well with 'more' and almost understands it. We are also trying to use some others, but it seems to be taking me a bit to remember to use them when the opportunity presents itself.

Really you do. For instance, two nights ago I learned that, George Carlin's observations notwithstanding, it is possible to sneeze and fart at the same time.

And I thought I would be the one instructing her in the coarser, boy-type amusements.

Well, it appears that Emma has figured out how to drop things into the commode. I base this on my finding this afternoon of Spongebob Squarepants, smiling from a little blue raft, floating in my toilet bowl. Along with a plastic orange fish. Guess we need to do a better job of keeping the bathroom doors closed!

Other bits of note in the last couple of days: Yesterday Emma got the "ck" sound on the end of "duck". She has begun pointing to all the pictures of Brian on our table and saying "dada". And, most importantly, she has learned how to blow a raspberry! :)

I thought I'd take a moment and pull together a variety of notes and observations from the last few days, and give everyone a general status update:

• With a few months' distance from our illness and general travel fatigue, Lara and I are starting to look more favorably on our time in China, and even to enjoy the prospect of taking Emma back some years from now. Sometimes, it's hard to see the forest for the trees, isn't it?
  
• Emma is now crawling rapidly, meaning that the first thing to happen when we get home in the evening is the deployment of the baby gates.
  
• She is also, with Momma and Daddy's help, able to walk (with great assistance. For about two weeks, she's been doing the "someone hold my arms while I goose-step around like a military version of Frankenstein's monster" routine. But that's not bad for someone who didn't realize what her knees were for just two months ago, now is it?
  
• She attended church for the first time yesterday, where she spent an enjoyable hour in the nursery, and was then fawned over by several parties in Freeman Hall. Chris Paradise and Amy Brooks, now in-progress with their own adoption via CAWLI, were especially interested in our reports.
  
• We have a ton of pictures going up shortly, so look for updates and revisions to the photo site structure. It's getting a little unwieldy to navigate at present, so I'll probably combine a lot of pages and remove some older stuff in the name of simplicity.
  
• The exotropia situation seems to oscillate between "not so bad" and "really obvious." We'll know more in October when she goes back to the doc.
  
• Where she used to consume any food pretty much indiscriminately, we're starting now to see some preference in particular foods. She'll also distinguish between 3-4 foods on a plate, and pick the one she wants.
  
• Bottle-feedings are down to one a day, at night before bed. This keeps her tanked up overnight, and helps get her nutritional levels corrected. At meals, she's getting pretty adept with the sippy cup, although cups with fast flow still make her choke, and she has to be reminded to tip the cups up far enough to get the contents.
  
• She will now kiss her Momma and Daddy without being asked -- not bad for a kid who shied away from any kind of affection back in June. Credit Momma with that big step forward.
  
• I've been meaning to mention this, but we improved her room with a Gordon ODL tubular skylight. The light from this fixture is simply gorgeous, and even late in the evening, it continues to gather noticeable light and pipe it into Emma's room (which is in the center of the house with a window onto a 12-foot deep porch).

More as I think of it, but things are going well. Emma's making lots of progress, and is probably the happiest baby I've ever seen. We were truly fortunate to be matched to her.

At last, the culmination of these many weeks of attending clogging classes with Momma. Emma "performed" at Lara's clogging revue in Salisbury this weekend, to the great entertainment of all concerned. Of course, she was only on stage for one number, and then being held by Momma.

No, the real entertainment was the adults in the crowd passing her back and forth, which she found endlessly amusing. She kept wanting to come to me, which was gratifying but unfortunate, since I was busy running cameras all afternoon. She's popular though, our little celebrity.

Today we attended a neighborhood welcome party for Emma. Honestly, we hadn't expected the kind of 'do the crew put on. Fully half the neighborhood gathered at the Hatley's house for cake and homemade ice cream. Those who couldn't attend still sent gifts, and we came home with a "bounty of loot."

Krista brought little Joe, and Judy Fisher dropped by briefly with her young granddaughter, both of whom Emma found utterly fascinating -- not least because they can both walk, while she's a bit more restricted yet. For two hours, everything Emma did was the subject of much discussion, speculation and applause.

She, and we, could not have had a more pleasant time. Thanks to all the people who put this event together, and to everyone who attended and/or sent gifts. It truly does take a village, and we feel blessed to have such wonderful neighbors for Emma to grow up with.

Emma learned to crawl tonight!

After several weeks of trying to get the munchkin to move at all, then working on changing from backward to forward, she made the move just as quick as you please. With bait, anyway. Goldfish crackers, to be exact.

We were nearly finished with a visit to Mom and Dad's when I became a bit peckish. I raided the kitchen stash of Goldfish, and walked back into the living room. Emma knows about Goldfish already. Seeing mine, she set up a mighty ruckus, determined that she would have a few.

So I put a couple down on the carpet. Nothing doing. She wasn't moving for a pittance such as that.

Not to be denied, I picked up the tall, squared off paper sack with the foil lining, tilting it just so. Emma sat up as tall as she could, peering into the bag's sparkling depths...and there she spied the largest trove of Goldfish crackers she had ever seen!

Haltingly, with great care and hesitation, she put one hand in front of the other, followed by one knee. You could practically see the wheels turning as the smoke poured out of her ears. "I can do this! Yes, I can do this...as long as there's crackers, I can do this!" Another hand, another knee, and suddenly she was across the room with a hand in the bag!

The coolest thing about it is that the whole family got to see that huge step. I wouldn't have traded the look on Dad's face for anything.

We're hoping the crawling will help her exotropia, which seems by turns to improve and worsen. In the meantime, looks like we need to dig out the baby gates and get the in place.

Look out world, here comes Emma!

Sarah, our social worker, paid us our first post-travel visit today. Unlike her previous visits, this one was very relaxed. The house was clean, but not spotless as before. I felt comfortable just playing with Emma and letting Lara handle much of the talking.

Until, of course, she asked how we're incorporating Chinese culture into our home and life. The smartass in me very nearly leapt up and said "Hey, look...most everything in the house is made in China! Whaddayawant?" Needless to say, I throttled that response and took a more diplomatic approach, pointing out things like our clothes and artwork.

She went away impressed enough, I guess.

Emma continues to move around backwards with great facility. With Grandma's help, we try to get her to move forward, but it doesn't seem to take. She'll rock on all fours, and even "crawl" with help from me positioning her legs, but when it comes to making all four limbs go on her own, the secret of coordinating them seems not to have clicked yet.

In spite of being told by Dr. D that Emma's heart murmur is no big deal, we've been a little concerned. The phrase that elicited that concern was "slightly louder than normal" for an innocent murmur. Today, we laid that concern to rest.

I drove back to Concord at lunch to meet Lara, with Emma in tow, at the Sanger Clinic. While Lara filled out Paperwork™, I entertained the kid. Or rather, Barney Fife and Andy Griffith entertained her. I'm not above using TV when the waiting room contains no toys to speak of. Besides, I couldn't turn it off, and there are worse things she could watch.

In the EKG room, the nurse who came to set up the reading was a large, comfortable-looking sort of woman, with a ready smile and a calm voice. That did wonders for Emma. Rather than being terrified of yet another nurse, she instead spent her time playing with the EKG electrodes. Mommy and Daddy spent their time keeping her occupied with the two extras, and away from the ten or so stuck all over her torso.

After about 20 minutes, the doctor came in with an extremely simple and reassuring diagnosis: innocent murmur. "On any forms where they ask about health conditions," he said, "don't even bother mentioning it." We won't.

In spite of being told beforehand that it was probably nothing, I think we both walked away feeling that perhaps we had dodged a bullet. In any even, Emma's heart is healthy, and that's what counts.

Dr. D called us today to report that Emmabear's thyroid checks out fine. The diet must be helping! She's certainly consuming no shortage of it, let me tell you.

Emma continues to put on weight and grow at a rapid pace. Her "back-scooting" now makes her quite mobile, excepting a tendency to become lodged under the furniture. She received a stuffed Tigger and a handmade ladybug dress from Banana this week -- the dress is beautiful!

Second round of shots today, along with the blood draw for a thyroid checkup. Momma reports that this draw went better than the last, but only marginally so.

This kid is the center of attention where ever she goes, let me tell you. Sundays at Grandpa's are quickly becoming a favorite day, I believe.

Momma reports that Emma does not appreciate having drops put in her eyes.

The big milestone for today was a trip to the pediatric ophthalmologist -- the kiddie eye doc. More jiggery-pokery, this time with the added bonus of dilation and throwaway sunglasses. In Emma's case, more like "shred in the car floor" sunglasses, but you get the idea.

The gist of things is this: she has lazy eye, and if she's not nearsighted now, she will be.

The lazy eye is a fairly pronounced case of exotropia. It's very treatable. In the last week, Emma has begun scooting around backward and pivoting, both precursors to crawling. Crawling, we've been told, may help strengthen her eyes and correct the issue.

Failing that, the glasses that she's regrettably destined to wear might. If not that, we can patch her eye (Banana has already promised her a pirate's hat in this eventuality), or look at surgery as a last resort. So we're not terribly concerned about that, just anxious to get it under control.

As for the nearsightedness...well, what can we say? Since we both wear glasses, we can certainly sympathize. Still, there's nothing to be done for it, is there?

Short entry: We took the rugrat for a hearing check today. Slightly flat tympanic response in one ear (probably due to wax buildup or fluid from a persistent teething fever). Otherwise, basically normal.

Rolling over nicely now, and trying to motor-vate around. Kind of talking...mostly syllables with no real semblances of words attached to anything concrete. And teeth...my God, she's cutting all kinds of teeth. Won't be too long we'll have to be careful with the fingers around that little piehole!

So Emma went back to the doc today for her first round of immunizations. The Chinese papers we have claim she's had these, but we really have no way of knowing how accurate they are. If they're anything like her development report, then they're basically bogus...but who knows?

We also got her test results back: low thyroid function, and moderate anemia. Both of these are probably dietary issues. What she was eating in China -- noodle, congee, formula, eggs -- wasn't really iodine-rich. The formula she's getting now is, plus her diet is far more widely varied. The anemia should clear up as well. Dr. D prescribed iron supplements, plus she's eating red meat (Lasater's grass-fed, we're pleased to report).

She's also putting on weight like you wouldn't believe. Her next appointment is the 28th, and I'm betting she'll hit 21 pounds by that time. For her age, we're shooting for 50th percentile -- around 23-24 pounds.

She's an engaged, alert little child, to be sure. Grandma is working with her and has her comfortable on her belly, which is quite an achievement. She can almost, but not quite, roll over too. I predict we'll be battening down the hatches around here soon, as Hurricane Emma storms through.

Poor Emma. She's been the subject of more poking and prodding in the last month than her daddy has in the last year. Today we took her to meet her doctor, the singular Dr. Stephen Douglas at Cabarrus Pediatrics.

Dr. Douglas specializes in international adoptions, and has taken Emma as one of his patients -- lucky for us. He worked with us through the pre-adoption process, getting us set up with the necessary medicines for travel and giving us his assessment of Emma's development report.

First, we went to the waiting room, where Emma amused herself with any number of toys -- particularly the "chasing beads on a wire" job. Then, it was on to the examination room. There, she located the best toy of all -- the mirror placed lengthwise along the exam table! This occupied the brief time until the doctor arrived.

The long and the short of the exam is that she's basically healthy, pending test results. She's a bit underweight (well, actually, pretty seriously underweight compared to American kids), and she has a mild heart murmur that we need to have checked out. Otherwise, no problem.

The only bad part of the day was the blood draw. We left the room when the nurses entered, and were serenaded with a chorus of wails the likes of which we haven't heard since the moment we got her in China. Five minutes later she was passed to us, wet-eyed and sobbing, consolable only with the application of Dora the Explorer stickers.

She's so easy like that. :)

Daddy broke a cardinal personal rule and agreed to travel over the July 4th weekend.

We bugged out early this morning in the VUE, headed for Old Fort and Asheville to visit assorted grandparents. Once we got past the Pilot station and the to-do over fueling (both the car and the parents...the Subway there serves breakfast), Emma got right into the swing of car travel.

Which is to say she fell asleep.

The trip to Meemaw and Pompaw's house in Old Fort is about two and a half hours. A little less in good traffic. Emma was zonked for 85% of that trip and, in fact, had to be awakened shortly before arrival.

This kid takes a real shine to grandparents, let me tell you. So far, she loves them all. She seems to reserve special love for her great-grandparents, though. Papa (Lara's grandfather) is a huge favorite, and today that list of favorites grew to include Meemaw (Brian's grandmother) and Pompaw (grandfather).

Personally, I'm thinking Pompaw got special props for his stripey train-engineer overalls.

Aside from a minor episode wherein Emma nearly whacked her head on the rocking chair -- thanks to Dad -- everything went well. She spent time on all available laps, and ate a good lunch at Meemaw's compact kitchen table. After a couple of hours, we bailed out for Mom's.

As before, Emma was good to go with both Grandjohn and Banana. We sat and talked in the cool back part of the house, and Banana played with Emma on the bed. Banana seemed to take a little more getting used to than the other grandparents so far, but was none the less popular for that.

On the return trip, Emma slept again. We stopped for dinner, which woke her up, but she was still murder to get to bed that evening.

Today Lara's Mema and Pepa Benton paid us a visit, and spend a very active two hours entertaining Emma. While we talked of family and settling in and our plans for the rest of the summer, Emma generally made herself the center of attention.

She's already turning into a little ham.

Thanks for driving all the way from Clover, guys!