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Kendall

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Kendall Kendall Harlicka

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Kendall

Happy 3rd Birthday Chloe "Sun Sun"!!!

We celebrated Chloe's 3rd Birthday today, her first with our family! The day started off with Avery very excited and antsy to show her mei mei the gifts waiting for her in the living room! She of course offered her services in opening said gifts...she semi-politely declined as any good 3 year old would with a quick shove of Avery's helpful hand, away. They do love each other at some points of the day, I need to capture the hugs and kisses exchanged that would melt your heart!

Chloe and I then headed to her first official play date at the home of our friend's the Murphy's with her new friend Jack who is 3 1/2. Jack's mom Amy shared with me that Jack was so excited about our visit and that he told her that he would share all his toys with Chloe, and he would even share his bed! ;) Cute now, not funny about 15 years down the road! ;) They had a great time, Chloe playing with all Jack's cool toys and Jack enjoying feeding Chloe's new baby doll her bottle. They were too cute! Jack and Amy were also so sweet and made Chloe some delicious cupcakes for her birthday! Thanks Murphy's!

Here are some photos from the day! Sorry some are "sideways", this is my first time posting and I am too tired to fix it tonight! :) Good night!

Back a Month and life is good

Time has flown now that we are home, and day to day life has overcome the ability to post very often (or at all). The occasion tonight is that Kendall and I must keep Chloe from sleeping for more than 5 hours since we are taking her to a pediatric neurologist tomorrow morning for an EEG to study the brain and see if there are any signs of the epilepsy she was diagnosed with at one year old. She has (knock on wood) not had a seizure since that time and whatever symptoms she had have been controlled by daily medicine to this point. It is now almost midnight, and Chloe is still going strong-we have played Wii, cards, lettter and number toys, played with beads (Pixos-her dexterity was surprisingly good for such small beads), with the kitchen, computer games, and for a good period of time I have had to pretend to either be hurt, crying, or a baby (what is it with kids wanting to see their parents cry?). The follow up MRI is in early May, but the good news is she can sleep for that one (although she can't eat or drink, and its at 6 am-so much for sleep. To make up for it they will actually have to put her under so she stays still-we'll take sleep anyway it comes).

Anyway, over the past month Chloe has adjusted to us beautifully-she has fit right in and her personality is off the charts. She is a tremendous eater, very playful, and she understands most of what we say now (needless to say her English is better than our Chinese). She is repeating words quite a bit, and knows a few staples with the list growing by the day (good morning, yummy, i love you, uh oh, be patient...wonder where she got that one from...) and most of her words sounds like she is a little Italian (she adds an A in the middle of most words-too cute). She eats just about everything, and has no hesitation in trying new things-the best is when we get one right, as I did earlier this evening letting her try a pop tart-there is no better smile. She has a great sense of humor-surprising us by pretending to pout and then bursting into laughter as if it was the funniest thing ever (and when I say burst, I mean it-she falls to the floor laughing because she lacks the ability to hold herself up when she gets going). She loves to ride bikes and trikes down the street, has just started enjoying riding on a swing (Avery's favorite), loves playing dress up, loves to "talk" on a phone (and anything ill pass as a phone-iphone, deck of cards, banana...and she typically says the same thing over and over-"way...Holly Holly..." which means "Hey...ok..." as if she is having a real conversation). She still rattles off long diatribes in chinese which we have no idea what she is saying, but always get the same response from us..."Yeah?!?"

Avery meanwhile is trying very hard to be a great big sister, and has some moments that make us sooo proud, and then others that drive us off the wall. While most kids have to adjust to a new sibling, Avery's task has been even more difficult because her younger sister showed up walking, talking and able to play with anything and everything. The most trying times are when Chloe picks up something Avery hasn't played with in a decade (yes, I know she is only 5) but at that exact moment it has become the most important toy since the first pet rock. All in all though they are finally getting in a rhythm after a fun week of spring break together-couldn't hve been timed better-capped off by big hugs tonight at bedtime (for at least one of them). Chloe (who still answers to Sun Sun most of the time) has also come around on me, and will let me hold her, give me hugs and will even give me kisses (although when I kiss her she wipes them off without fail...again to see me cry).

Chloe is also getting the wrong impression of her new home-two weeks ago was Easter, where she had four Easter egg hunts, candy out her ears and lots of gifts. This week is her birthday (April 15th) which I'm sure we won't overdue (it would be a first if we didn't). Needless to say, she may be a little disappointed after this week when she doesn't get treats and presents until Halloween.

Well gotta go, 45 more minutes and its getting tougher by the minute-like that guy on man versus food-sure the first 8 pounds of meat are no problem, but the last 8 are when the meat sweats start and you can't feel your appendages...I wonder if Chloe is feeling anything?

Back in the US, Back in the US, Back in the US...well, that's it

We finally arrived home Saturday morning at roughly 7am after just over 24 hours of travel (12 hour flight from Guangzhou to LAX, 5 hour layover and then a 4 hour flight home)-probably wouldn't have been so bad except we didn't leave until 9pm China time-needless to say this did not bode well for the girls sleeping. Thankfully Avery slept nearly the entire trip from China to LA, while Chloe struggled to get comfortable and looked more like a gymnast on the uneven bars trying to get comfy in the airline seats-with Kendall acting as spotter to ensure on several occassions she didn't wind up on the floor. Chloe had a difficult time sleeping, and the crankiness followed suit. We were able to get the girls to fall asleep for a little bit at the airport, Avery on the floor with dad, and Chloe in the stroller) but both were awake the entire trip back from LA to Atlanta. Kendall's mom was nice enough to pick us up from the airport (saw our second "celebrity" at the airport today-Dikembe Mutumbo, the first? Kevin Spacey in China-no kidding"). We arrived home to a stocked fridge with essentials and a few dinners in the freezer waiting thanks tp the kindness of our neighbors, and sum of the yummiest goodies from Flying Biscuit (THE best breakfast place in Atlanta)-I have never had a better muffin (not sure if it was the timing, how good it was, or the combination of both...). As we arrived home, we all wanted to crash but found ourselves chasing chloe and Avery around playing in every room in the house. Chloe ran from the front to the back of the house with the biggest smile, and while I'm not positive, I believe she has played with every toy in the house (she is either trying to make up for lost time, or wants to live the life of a 3 year old all in one day). Dress up, playing witht the stroller, bikes, trikes, baby dolls, etc-she has tried them all. She remains a momma's girl, and while Kendall wanted to take a nap, Chloe would not let it happen without her (Avery fell asleep almost immediately upon being told to hop in bed). We all slept (including grandma Kathy) for a few hours in the middle of the day (6 hour power nap or so) although I woke up earlier to watch Georgia Tech play in the ACC Tourney semifinals they won-Championship tomorrow against Duke tomorrow at 1pm-no one tell Avery, as she is a big Duke fan-don't ask...I'm still working on that one).
I also had time to finally get a chance to read the comments on the blog (remember we were just able to post to the blog, but couldn't actually see it). Thank you to everyone for your wonderful comments and we can't wait for you all to meet Chloe. Anyway, finished up with dinner (enchiladas - thanks to our neighbors), and are trying to get everyone back into bed at a reasonable time-girls are back to playing dress up.

Welcome Citizen Chloe

Today was mostly about getting Chloe sworn in at the US consulate, but we managed to sneak in some play time at the park for the girls, as well as some more shopping. We met at 2:15 and drove roughly 30 minutes to the consulate (it used to be walking distance from the hotel, but was no longer big enough to handle all of the traffic). No pictures are available since we weren't allowed to take cameras (or any electronics) with us up to the 5th floor where all of the swearing would take place-so we just added one with the girls sleeping on the way over. It was a very informal ceremony, shich began with each family being called up to one of the windows (DMV style) and then the entire group being sworn in by one of the 100 or so consulate employess-she had a few interesting tidbits-there were 3,000 children adopted to the US from china last year, and for the first time ever they had more special needs children adopted than healthy babies (roughly 57% of adoptions were for special needs children) and it was amazing to see some of the families that were officially coming together today-one of the families was adopting 2 children (one was a 14 year old girl who was barely adopted in time before she was forced to finish her time as a minor in an orphanage, and their second daughter who was 8 years old who had the most severe clubbed feet I had ever seen)-this marked the 5th and 6th adoptions for this family-truly some remarkable people surrounding us. As we left the building after promising to uphold and defend (on behalf of Chloe) Chloe reached over to Kendall and planted a kiss on her for the first time, almost acknowledging what had just transpired. She then spent the busride home singing a song that she had made up but that we had no idea what it was-turns out she was singing "Daddy is happy, daddy is happy"-a much better result than what i had presupposed.

 

We celebrated by walking over to an Italian restaurant that actually had pretty good pizza, and not bad lasagna. We are getting excited about returning home (we leave friday night) and can't wait for such simple pleasures as drinks with ice, cold milk, and the ability to brush teeth without bottled water. And believe it or not, I can't wait to get chinese food when we get home-trust me-not the same