Mommy is going on Vacation!

I'm on my way to Puerto Rico for 4 days of sunshine with 3 of my best girlfriends. This is our 14 or 15 year (we lost count). We sit by the pool and do nothing and I CAN"T WAIT!!
Here's the good new /bad news on the house: good news: i sold my house- bad news: i have to be out by march 22. good news: the soil sampling on the new house is fine- bad news: I can't move in until April 27th. I am trying to move up closing on the new house but we be homeless for at least a week or so. We are going to move in with a friend of mine (one of the PR trip girls). I will start packing like a madwoman once I get back from my trip. I just realized I better get my home study done while we still have a house!
Stefanie is very excited to announce that she has her first loose tooth! She will be the first one in her class to lose a tooth and is bringing her 'tooth fairy' box to Amahs in case it falls out while I am away.
Here are a few pictures to tide everyone over until I get back. Just some night time crazyness and sparkly pink shoes. there is also a photo of Stefanies class after out CNY celebration.

a weekend of fun

We had a lot of company this weekend. First Aunt Sarah and Uncle Dave stopped by to get in their dose od heavy weight lifting. Our friend Kathy and her family spent Sunday night over on their way to the philly airport early monday morning. Stefanie loves loves loves Eliza, who is soon to be 7, and Jena was sure to keep herself part of the action. Pardon the mouth full of oreo cookies in the picture!

Little Sisters are Handy to Have Around!

Jena is always willing to pitch in and help out, even with a shampoo. Now that's service with a smile!

Feeling Better!

after a very long week of respiratory treatments every 2 hour Jena is finally back to her old self. I now only have to do the treatments every 4 hours, which is sooooo much easier to do! Still trying to come to an agreement on the new house.

next time get the extended warrenty!

We have had quite a few crazy days here, highlighted by Jena spending a night in the hospital. The cold we have all been sharing turned into a pneumonia and gave Jena the chance to show us that she has asthma. I took her into the ER on sunday when she had a 105 fever and was breathing like she had been working out! After several respiratory treatments and steriods she was looking better but the wanted us to stay and contine treatments every two hours. Jena did fine with the hospital experience and really liked the fact that we got to sleep in the bed together. By monday morning she had enough and was pointing to the window crying 'jena home, jena home!' the let us go monday afternoon and she is feeling better today. Much less coughing but seriuosly miserable!
Stef was a trooper, hanging out in the ER with us for hours until she decided she would let margurite take her home. i handed her twebty buck and told her to go pick something out at target.
during all of this i am still trying to get everythign done with the house. The inspection was OK and it looks like we should be able to work a deal on the things they need to fix. My house has started showing and we still have the painters here fixing things up.
Thankfully we all got a good night sleep last night, which has done me a world of good!
so- what's up with you :) ?

quick update

I wanted to give everyone an update as it has been a few days since my last post. After 3+ weeks of wiping runny noses x 2 i finally caught the bad cold that has been hanging out at our house this winter. The girls have been very sweet- Jena loves to bring me tissues and Stefanie suggested i really needed some chicken soup. A great jewish mother in the making!
I am in the process of buying a new house. It looks like we will agree on a price soon. My house offically went on the market on friday and I spent this morning cleaning like a mad woman. I have no idea how I am going to keep it in 'show' shape with the girls running around making messes as fast as I am cleaning!
Jena is now sleeping on her own in her own bed in the room with Stefanie. The first week after she moved she would cry if i left the room before she was asleep. The first night i was at work she climbed into bed an waved goodbye to Margurite and happily went to sleep!! the next night I put her to bed, she pointed to Stef's bed (where i had been laying) and I told her 'no- that is Stef's bed- mommy sleeps in her own room' and walked out, she cried for 2 minutes, i came back and repeated the process, the second time i came back she realized she wasn't going to win this one and rolled over and went to bed. Total crying time 4 minutes! Now she goes to bed and I walk out without a problem.
I visted the day school Stefanie will be attending next year- can't believe my baby is going to kindergarden next year!
will try to get some new pictures posted this week--

Big Smiles and Bunny Ears

your basic tuesday night at our house.

a Play Date- The Aftermath

two four year olds and one two year old can demolish a playroom in no time at all! Stef had a friend over to play and Jena made sure to keep up with the big girls. Jena's vocabulary is rapidly expanding-Jena's- Mine- My turn! Funny how the new words all have to do with Jena staking her claim!
BIG NEWS in our house- I'm afraid to even type this for fear of 'jinking' it but--- Stefanie and Jena are now sleeping in their own beds in their own room! The nest has been dismanteled. Jena likes me to lie in Stef's bed until she falls asleep but we can work on that next week. I'd have a picture but I afraid it might wake them up.

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!

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.

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!

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:

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!

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!

no one told me Fedex was an option..

she only weighs 24 lbs....would have been a lot cheaper than a trip to China!

dressing up for dinner

you can never have too many jewels--

Mommy can be replaced with a lollypop

After a wonderful thanksgiving dinner is was time for the girls to spend their first night at my parents without me. When I work my 24 hour weekend shift I drop the girls off the night before I work and pick them up the day after. Since I had to work during the day on friday and there wasn't any daycare, it was Amah and Zayde to the rescue. I was worried because the girls wouldn't be in their "nest" and I wasn't sure if this was going to be a problem. As Julie T said- why do we even worry ? I am told there was less then 10 seconds of crying. I walked out the door, she started to cry, and as soon as a lollypop appeared, I was but a memory! Jena was her same happy self when I picked her up on friday night and even went willingly back to Amah and Zaydes house on Saturday, since I also have to work sunday. I can breate a big sigh of relief- final hurdle jumped!