smooshy face

  

From the first few days home

 

How many kids can fit into an old pack and play?

From the very second they met her, the kids have been completely in love with Mary Clare. They spoil and bother her all day long. MC's expression looks like 'get these crazy people offa me!" She loves them right back and good naturedly tolerates lots of poking, prodding and squishing until she decides she has had enough and then yells for me to rescue her.

FWIW, we only used this pack and play for MC for about a week while she adjusted to her new room and crib. We kept it in our room but now it is put away. She uses the jumper thingy when I am in the shower. Or when I just need a break from following her around making sure she doesn't eat carpet fuzz, which she enjoys along with paper, toys, shoes and other various other bits of misc. stuff that my vacuum misses and her eagle eyes spot. This child eats EVERYTHING she gets her tiny fingers on. Yes, doctor, I do believe she has mastered the 'pincer' grip,. you can check that off your little chart. 

allright, allright!

She fell asleep during dinner and faceplanted into her book.

I moved her head to get a good shot of her face, still, sounds asleep.

first park playdate with Emma

Always something

Mary Clare had her first US doc visit and seems to be in excellent
health. She weighed in at 17.4 which is exactly what her weight was in
China. She is below the 50 percent mark on the US growth charts for
weight, but still a very respectable size. Also she is very tall. She
is on the 75th percentile on the US height charts, amazing for a
southern China girl! The blood draw was horrific though and we have to
go back on Tuesday for another try. It was a nightmare. I am hoping
the Tuesday nurse is better at this and that MC's veins are in strong
pumping mode.

She is sleeping well and eating well. She eats cereal and we have
started on some veggies and fruit. Last night she had her first bits
of lasagna at my moms house! All in all seems to be your normal 9 mo.
old baby. In the past week the baby babbling has increased and there
is lots of squealing too. She is sitting up unassisted and is army
crawling around. Her fine motor skills are progressing too, but she
isn't quite ready to self feed or pick up cheerios for example, but
she concentrates and tries very hard.

I am keeping my eyes and ears open and trying to be aware of any
underlying issues, but truthfully, she has adjusted so quickly. I look
at how she interacts with our other kids, with me and Lee and how she
handles new situations and I continue to be just shocked that we have
only been together for less than a month!

One of the bonding or attachment problem flags is a baby that is too
good. One who never cries at all or demands any attention could be
having some bonding problems. I was a bit concerned at first. (I can
always find something to fret about) MC is just so, so good. However,
she is crying to be held and even holds out her arms for me. She
fusses if she is bored or no one is paying attention to her, though
with 4 siblings that is pretty rare. She fusses when she is sleepy or
hungry and also when she is getting too much attention or squishy hugs
and just wants everyone out of her face already. At this point I am
fairly assured that bonding and attachment is going as it should.

We're home

After a travel marathon spanning thousands of miles and hours, we're home.

Lee and I were just dying to see the kids. I missed them so much that at the end I felt nauseated with wanting to see them.

My dad, step-mom, sister and her fiance came to pick us up at the sirport.

Mary Clare is one amazing kid. She slept for a good 7-8 hrs total on the plane and when she was awake she was not fussy and in pretty good spirits. She has already begun to adjust to the time change, in fact she seems to be handling it better than I am.

She is curious, but wary around the kids. She has already grab/scratched them all. They are just so happy to have her here. Jake said, "I can't believe she is finally here with us!" The first time we all rode in the minivan together, they immediately wanted to add her to our Cullom family song. It is really more like a chant or cheer where everyone's name is called.

It feels unreal to me too, for her to finally be physically present here with the rest of our kiddos. She has been with us in our hearts sonce the beginning of our paperwork, bt to be able to hold and kiss her and see her smile at her brothers and sister is just magical.

Cutie

Some things we have learned about our new daughter:

1. She likes to grab and scratch at things, like blankets, our arms, faces,
Lee's underarm hair (ouch!)
2. She is very curious and is interested in what is going on around her.
3. When she gets mad and cries, her eyebrows get very red.
4. She prefers a bath to a shower with Dad.
5. She is finally ticklish and has a fun squealy laugh.
6. She likes to be upside down.
7. She is a squirmy restless sleeper and we never know where she will end up in her bed in the morning, sometimes the opposite end of where we laid her, sometimes perpindicular with her feet hanging over.
8. She likes rattles and the stacking cups (which I brought bc everyone said to bring those even though I secretly thought she probably wouldn't like them)
9. She laughs most of the time when we make goofy noises and faces, other times she looks at us as if we are insane
10. She likes being outside and having the wind blow on her.

Shopping trip

Yesterday we had a shopping excursion with our group. Lee stayed at the hotel with Mary Clare. The place where our hotel is and where most adoptive parents stay is on Shamian Island. it is a man made island seperated by a canal fom the rest of the city. It is connected by bridges. It was originally the place where foreign diplomats and businessmen would live and work. many of the buildings are western style colonial like. Most of them are in disrepair though and are empty or have been turned into apartments, some are used as souvenir shops. There are lots of big banyan trees that remind me of live oaks. Overall it is a pretty westerny place to be while we're here.

Our guide led us accross one on the bridges and over to a big shopping district. Those guys are selling animal parts, claws and horns, for medicines I think. This area is very different from the island where we spend most of our time.

The scorpions are for soup. They are alive and the ladies will grab the ones you selet with chopsticks. They are very quick!

We continued down the alley. And then went around a corner and
were on this modern pedestrian shopping walk. It was like entering another century!

How about some ice cream?

catching up

Sorry for the delay of blogging.

Yesterday was Palm Sunday and we went to a tiny church called Our Lady of Lourdes. It was very old and a section of the wall was being held up with wires. The people were friendly and a sweet old lady insisted I take her seat and she moved over to a tool. Another woman tried to share her missalette with me but eventually realized i couldn't read it so she just gave me her well used and loved rosary, I was so touched by the warmth of the people. It was very special although we didn't understand what they were saying except for 'amen'. We know the basic form for a mass so we could follow what was happening even without knowing the language. cool. We had a leisurely day and enjoyed spending time as a family and with some new friends here.

Today we went to the zoo. It is a big zoo but needs some maintenance. There were lots of monkeys who began to make such a racket it sounded like they were organizing a break out. We saw a giant white rat, maybe it isn't really a rat but it really really looks like one



I wish I could have gotten a better picture. Most of the animals are in pretty bad conditions, small concrete cages with little vegetation or natural habitat. It was pretty awful for the animals. It did look as if they are working on improvements though.

Today I had the chance to be mobbed by teenage girls. Beverly, the mom of Emma, another Lianjiang girl, and I were standing with our strollers when a group of girls came up giggling and pointing. They especially liked Beverly because she is tall and blond. They took a zillion pictures of us and with us and then spotted Lee and Shane (Beverly's husband) and ran over to take pictures with them.

Emma and Mary Clare enjoyed the attention and were smiling at the silly girls.

Jake, Ryan, Luke and Laine, we miss you very much. I can't wait to hug and smoosh you! Mary Clare is just going to love you so much, she thinks big kids are funny and she loves to bop their noses.

This girl is pretty active. She is curious and can be quite squirmy. She is incredibly flexible and could probably be in an advanced yoga video. She has become more vocal and babbles so much. She is starting to reach for me and it justs melts my heart when she clutches on to me and snuggles close.

Right now she is napping, Lee has gone to check out the pool. It may be too cold for her to get in, but I would love to try. The weather is hot and humid. It feels like Florida in the middle of the summer. Most of the people that live here wear long pants, jeans and sweaters though. Even the children are very layered up in tights sweaters and jackets. Even if they are sweating they keep the layers on.

More pictures to come....

today we had many 'firsts' with Mary Clare. she is smiling more and more easily and tonight was the first time she laughed out loud. We were at dinner with our whole group at a cantonese restaurant (it was really gOod, but I do think they stuck to very safe things and we didn't eat anything very unusual like the canton style is known for) and there was a mirrored wall behind us. she was in a great mood so I was bouncing her hight on my lap and then I lifted her up over my arms into the air and she giggled! Of course I did it over and over and she just laughed and laughed. I swear it was just the sweetest sound. It is making me teary just to write it out. then I had to pass her to Lee because my arms were getting tired!

another first was she ate a small amount of solids. she tried some asian pear this morning, just a nibble and seemed to like gumming it after she held it in her mouth and thought about it awhile. tonight we gave her a bit of rice too. She seemed to be working it around her mouth with her tongue well.

she is just a sweet easygoing girl. oh and she is going to be mobile soon! she was rocking on her hands and knees and doing an abrieviated army crawl thing. she will roll around and move all over the king bed. All of this from a girl who was like sack of potatoes when we first met her. I think that I was wrong about her muscle tone and that she was just so limp because she was overwhelmed and freaked out.

******notes from Lee*******

Today I connected with the Peoples of the People's Republic of China in the city of GuangZhou. It began with a jaunt into the city, by way of taxicab, deep into the heart of the shopping district. The shopping district includes stores such as "Grand Buy", "Carrefour" and "Double Happiness Luck and Harmony Gifts of Jade Pearls for Love Dragons". I chose Carrefour to find the illustrious cutom-made silk suits of China. What I found was that Americans are rock and roll stars in China! Especially if you are tall. And by tall, I mean above five foot seven. No one speaks English, which makes me an incredible negotiatior, I'll explain later. I moved from department to department looking for my suit, and at each department, I found a more excited saleswoman. Each saleswoman was exponentially more excited than the last. I ended my journey at the Georgia Childes counter where I had my friend (Shane), 4 saleswomen and 2 managers haggling over the price of a suit. I think that they all thought that I understood Manadarin and was an expert negotiatior, because they kept on showing me the calculator with a price that begun at @ 3000 Yuan for a Suit, Tie and shirt and ended up at 1258 ($150) Yuan with a mysterious 600 Yuan store credit and a 4 star (I never knew there were ratings) ping-pong paddle. I'm sure that part of the amazement of the sales people was that the suit could be purchased by anyone in the entire country since it was made for someone so tall. Anyway, it was nice to be showered with praise and discounts. The trick is to hang around forever and finally reveal to them that you can only pay with American Express. No one takes American Express. Then, they panic and keep showing you a calculator that has a lower price since there is no other way to communicate. People were always apologizing for their poor english, but I did want to somehow tell them not to feel too bad. It's not as if I speak a word of Mandarin other than Ni How (it means Hello, I thought this was Me How until yesterday). After Carrefour, we went on a walk just trying to get lost (which isn't hard) in the city. You might think it's a little intimidating being in a place where you don't know the language, but Chinese people are just too friendly. I played a pick-up game of hackey sack with 5 women that owned/operated an herb store, watched american-style ballroom dancing in an outdoor park with thousdands of people (which was indescribable). It's hard to tell when the Chinese are mocking Americans versus appreciating us. It really is. They almost always giggle when you walk by them, but I think it's because they are truly excited to see such different people. Shane and I then had a group of teenage girls come up and ask us if we could take a picture with them. If that happened in New York City, it would definitely be a scam of some kind. Definitely. But, they were just giggling about how tall we were and then showed us the picture of they took it. I would also like to understand the complex and varied emotions around the adoption of so many Chinese orphans, because I have seen such a number of different reactions, but it's probably too much to disucss on this blog. Anyway, I need to hit the road, tomorrow we're going to Mass early. That should be interesting!

this is the day we met her, right after they called our name. I was really trying to hold it together and not bawl all over her
hello little one, over here...

at last!

MC and her Atlanta and Lianjiang buddy, Emma
this is just too beautiful

pics from yesterday

here we are waiting back at the government building. we had a couple of official adoption interviews where we promise to love her and take care of her. it was very difficult, but we finally agreed.

this was her first bath with us

Frogger

today we went to some shopping mall the real story is the cab ride there. I had read others experiences in china cabs, but you have to do it to understand the complete nuttiness. previously we have been riding around in buses. In a bus you feel somewhat safe, above the crazy mishmash of pedestrians, bycicles, mopeds cars and vans. in the bus there were a few close calls, one where I am almost postive a man trying to cross the street had his toes run over by our bus. But,i never really felt the panic and sudden loss of breath I felt today in the cab. it is just a free for all on the street and the one with the most courage, biggest vehicle or fastest footwork gets to his destination timely, or even at all. yeah, and no car seats. so far though i have never heard of a foreign adoptive family and or their children being in a car accident over here so odds are still good. (Or bad if you are a pessimist and think well that means one's gonna happen soon)

later we took the girls to a dr to get the required check-up for their visas. we were in and out very quickly. Mary Clare is 17.9 lbs. She seems healthy aside from an upper respiratory infection. she was smiling and alert through the whole thing and that surprised me because it was very chaotic, lots of crying and noise and poking and prodding. She is very easygoing and is coming out of her shell more and engaging.

she is wearing 9-12 mo. clothes and they are just a bit loose on her. I know they won't be for long! she drinking her bottle well, but she is not ready for any solids at all. I gave a her tiny pinch of mooshed up banana and she was just stunned. She didn't really know what to do with it. She has 4 teeth though. Her upper ones were cut probably a couple of weeks ago and aren't in all the way I think.

I will upload some new pictures here and video too, just keep checking the dropshots site for those.

so far *short update below*

Yesterday(thurs) we had some paperwork and stuff to do. We had just returned back to the hotel with the babies at around 6 the previous evening so to have to turn around and trundle the babies off early the next morning was hard. these babies have been through so much in the past few days. On wednesday early in the morning they had to ride away from everything they knew, in a bus for 6 hours. They were handed over to these funny looking, sounding and smelling people who just don't do things the way they are used to. it really is amazing how well they are handling this enormus change.

MC seems very calm and I know that is part of her coping mechanism. she has given us a few glimpses of her personality, but for the most part she has been very reserved. she has been sleeping a lot. she is very watchful and has only cried like twice for 3 seconds, much less than me! yesterday she was a little sturdier and we had some fun watching her bounce on her belly, doing the baby airplane on the bed. some of the girls in our group are a bit older and as you can imagine this transition has been most difficult for them, but i think overall it is better that most of us expected.

her smiles come the most easily for Lee. he can get her to really grin. today we all have a dr's appt. from what I understand it is a mere formality, a step required for the paperwork. just a weigh in and check off kind of deal. we also might go to a huge 9 story department store.

I miss the kids so much but i really love this special time we are having to get to know MC and for her to get to know us.

ADDED: I just saw all of your comments at drop shots. thank you thank you thank you. it is amazing that we can share this around the world and especially to share it with you. To my TT friends, N54 is a website I cannot access from here(maybe twin moms are dangerous)I just want y'all to know I am thinking of you too. we will have some more video and pictures soon. my techincal secretary and my favorite model are both sawing logs right now.

Videos to watch!

There are 4 videos posted for your viewing pleasure and enjoyment. They are located here: http://www.dropshots.com/lcullom

- Lee and Tracy

more

thank you for your prayers and emails. things have gone smoothly so far. we were at the civil affairs office until 5:30 or so and we just came back to the hotel. lee had to run and do just a bit more paperwork. I gave Mary Clare a bottle and she has finally gone to sleep. I know she is just so tired. Lianjiang is about 6 hrs or so away so they have been up for a long time and have been through so much. she has been very quiet, we have gotten a couple of small smiles but mostly soft, solemn puppy dog stares. she is smaller than I expected, not a chub at all. her cheeks are very smooshy though! her hair has grown some more we may have a mullet soon. as you can see she is a thumb sucker. she goes to both of us without a fuss and doesn't prefer one or the other. we cannot wait for you to meet her!

no words to explain right now

One more thing

ok I should go to sleep, we have a big day tomorrow you know.

we just realised that we can do yahoo instant messenger, Lee's id is leehmccullom how cool is that? we also have internet in our room for the whole time it will only be 32.00 for the 10 days or so we're here.

we have been mesmerized by the chinese channels, we'll stop on something and watch for several minutes before we remember hey we have no idea what they are saying!

this hotel is amazing and just teeming with adoptive parents, and their sweet daughters. we are actually the different ones bc by the time most families reach the white swan they already have their babies and are just a few days from leaving and heading home. the us consulate is here so for all americans guangzhou is the last stop.

wow, House is on here, I love that show. maybe I will sleep after it is over.....

I may be needing an ambien to actually fall asleep tonight.

Hong Kong pics

This from the sampan tour ride in Hong Kong. The woman who pilots told us she had been doing this since she was 4. she is now 56. she was so proud that she learned this skill from her mom. she was very friendly and full of smiles. all of the lanterns and decorations are for good luck.
this is a view of a houseboat. there is a group of people cultural and ethnic I think. the familes spend their whole lives on the water, working and raising their familes. it is a preference from whatr my guide was saying. it is a shrinking, but still interestingly significant number of people who live this way of lifethe man is carving 'chops' it is basically a stamp with chinese charaters of someone's name. they can be used as a seal or signature. we got one for Lian, Xin Bi. Did I ever mention Lian is her surname. It is representative of the city and orphanage where she is from. Xin means heart and Bi is emerald. All of the babies from her orphanage have the Lian surname. Also all of the girls with an age range have the name xin and then each has the other unique name, Bi, Le, Qin etc...we chose to change her name completely, but she will always be able to know that Lian Xin Bi was the name given to her at the orphanage

yah love the matching outfits, hee we didn't even think of that. it may not show up but my shirt is actuallybrownand Lee's is black so there. this is on victoria peak very hazy \

White Swan

We made it here to the famous White Swan Hotel. Our room is fabulous and we have a wonderful view overlooking the Pearl River.

We found out that we meet our daughters tomorrow at 2:00pm or so, less than 24hrs away. Now that we are here I can not actually view the blog, or comments so you can email me at tecullom@yahoo.com to let me know if these are coming accross. We are going to try to upload some pictures as a test too.

I simply can't put into words how amazing this all is.

on our way to Guangzhou

We're at the airport now, on our way to the mainland. Yesterday the tour was interesting. We went to Victoria Peak, Aberdeen Fish Market, a shopping district and then had a dim dum lunch. this is the standard tour. In the afternoon, we went to the HK history museum. I wasn't really interested in the geology exhibits, but the cultural exhibits were weel done and informative. Accross the street was church so Lee and I went to an English mass. We tried so hard to stay up late but we finally gave up and passed out about 8:30. We woke up at about 4:30.

I am so keyed up right now. I cannot believe that tomorrow we will meet our daughter. Not only is meeting this the culmination of over a year of paper work and waiting, but this is my daughter. In some ways I feel that I have been waiting my whole life to meet her. Already when I look at her picture I know her. She is already familiar to me.

I can't wait to discover her and what she likes and dislikes then to see her grow and change, what an honor to be a parent!