Thursday, December 28, 2006

look what I found!



Ok fellow China travelers-- take a look at what is in Jena's snack bowl. Yep- it's Baby Crack! I found it at our local asian market and had to bring some home. Jena was thrilled to see an old friend. For those of you who don't know what I am talking about, those little round crackers were a lifesaver in China. I don't know what they put in them but the babies loved them and there were many times that they were the only thing that could make cranky babies happy. Jena ate her way thru a large bag on the flight home. We jokingly called them Baby Crack because of their seemingly magical and addictive qualities. I'll be happy to ship bags to anyone who needs some!

Friday, December 22, 2006

a good time had by all



Much to Stefanie's dismay tonight was, in fact, the last night of channuka. Both Stefanie and Jena were very happy with all their gifts. I spent tues trying to get some sort of order back in the house. Here is a picture of the girls with the menorah and a picture of them playing with their wooden sushi set.

Friday, December 15, 2006

the miracle of Channuka




There was much excitement in the Rose household as my two miracles celebrated the miracle of Channuka. You can get a sense of the high level of excitement as evidenced in their inablility to sit still long enough for a picture! Tomorrow things should be a little calmer and I'll try to get a photo of Stefanie lighting the menorah-
Happy Channuka everyone -- hope you house is filled with as much laughter as mine!

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

now it's personal!

OK- I really thinkthis is it...

if at first you don't succeed--

here is my second attempt

good news/ bad news

the good news is I have figured out how to get a video onto the blog. the bad news is I still can't seem to get the video from my computer onto the youtube site.....a work in progress....

Stef's piano recital

hope this works:

Friday, December 08, 2006

Luckiest Mommy in the world


There is word tonight the CCAA (china government office of adoption) has announced that starting May 2007 they will no longer allow singles to adopt. They claim they have twice as many applications for adoption as they do available babies. I spent the evening looking at Jena thinking how empty our house was before she joined our family. I am so lucky I started the process when I did. Here is a picture of the girls being silly and finally getting some wear out of their Chinese dreses!

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

early intervention update

After three 'planning sessions' we were finally able to start Jena's early intervention on Monday night. The PT/OT person (michelle) came first and she thinks Jena looks great. She thinks Jena just needs some practice transitioning between positions. For example, when she is lying down she will get up by using her abdominal muscles in a sit-up fashion. great exersize, but not the way we would get up! She also thinks Jena 'w' sits too much and suggests I repostion her when I see her sitting that way. Jena is a very quick learner- whne I started to move her legs tonight she immediatly put herself in "cross legs ring seat" - the new PC term for indian style!
Next the teacher (Jayne) came to work on communication. Jena has alot of words now but chooses not to use them. Janye thinks that in the orphanage she probably didn't have much of a chance to communicate her needs, so the fact that she is making herself known non-verbally is great in itself. Jayne says she just needs to learn that she will get alot more with words! It is hard because we do understand her so well. We were playing a game and jayne was trying to get her to say 'more' "do you want more,jena?" Jena was nodding her head and saying 'yeah' --i'm sure Jena was thinking 'how stupid is this lady? can't she see I'm nodding and saying yeah?!' Both Michelle and jayne were impressed with Jena's play skills and attention span. They think she is working hard to keep up with Stefanie.
Speaking of Stef, she has her first piano recital on Saturday. She will be playing Yankee Doddle, Muffin Man and B-I-N-G-O. I am going to video tape it and, if you guys are really lucky maybe Dave can help me get in it on the blog.SHe is skipping school tomorrow to go shopping for an outfit so no matter how she plays she will at least look adorable!