Settling-In

Hi Everyone,

Our little Empress is down for her afternoon nap-- hopefully she will sleep for at least 1 1/2 hours. Her afternoon nap time has been a little problematic since we arrived home. The last couple of nights she has started sleeping better-- not through the night yet, but not waking for long periods or staying up when she does wake. She has also slept until a little after 6:00 am, so I think she is starting to really settle-in and adjust.

Josie is getting more accustomed to having Daddy in her life again.
He is thrills galore for her with lots of piggy back rides and tossing in the air.

I can already hear her asking for parachuting and bungee jumping lessons when she is twelve!



Getting accustomed to Phoebe, our Golden Retriever is another story. Phoebe is being very good with Josie and Josie is very interested about her, but likes her more at a distance. Phoebe is trying to be her very best dogie-self because all she wants is for her new baby to pet her.

Josie has had a lot introductions this week. We are still keeping the visits to a minimum with only a few folks at a time, but of course, Josie just had to meet Grandma, which is Nai Nai in Mandarin (pronounced Nie Nie).

Josie was her usual nervous and shy at first, she quickly warmed up to this new and wonderful person who is now part of her family.

It wasn't long before Josie was offering Nai Nai some paper and

playing silly games with her.

Next came Aunt Becky and two of her cousins, Emily and Nate.

Josie is about 10 months older than Emily so our first introduction was pretty boring, but Josie soon offered Emily some of her toys to chew on.

This was soon followed by Josie taking Emily's pacifier out of her mouth.

Emily wasn't too happy about that and responded with some seriously

disgruntled baby grunts.

Cousin Nate is a little over a year older than Josie. He enjoyed showing her how to play with some of her toys and was really good at sharing with her.

Nate's phrase of the month right now is, "That's Right."

It was really fun to watch the younger crowd play with each other.

The next day, Mommy's friend Michelle stopped by for a brief visit.

She brought us some yummy pasta and meatballs for dinner. She

also brought us some chocolate chip cookies , which I have since discovered that Josie prefers to Vanilla Wafer cookies.

Michelle is going to be bringing a playmate from China for Josie to play with. Josie hopes her new playmate gets to come really REALLY soon. Unfortunately, with China's time line, it will probably be a few more months.

After a couple days of visitors, Josie and I decided to take it easy for the next few days and just hang out the two of us. We decided to stroll up to a nearby park and check out the swings. Josie likes to ride in her stroller-- as long as it doesn't last half the day. I first went on a bigger swing with her and then I put her in her own baby swing.

At first, it was a thumb-sucking moment.

Then she started to think about it a little bit and
what she was experiencing.

After careful consideration, she decided that she like the swing very much and she had a great time swinging away.

Josie is doing really well. We are still having some sleeping issues, but all parent of toddlers experience sleeping issues. We have jet lag to thank for ours and each day and night she adjusts a little more and sleeps even better than the night before.

Josie is also getting more into walking. Here at home, we have lots of furniture and toys to help her get on her feet and cruise around. She really likes to walk and is really trying to do it on her own. We think if she didn't get so darn excited when she stands without holding onto something, she would be able to start taking a few steps without any help. Here are some pictures of her in motion:

Josie cruising the living-room on her party-girl car. She kind of looks like she wants to run someone or something over.







Here She is cruising the kitchen with her walker scooter. She is able to walk with it without anyone helping-- at least until she hits the wall. Then we have to turn her around.

Today she started cruising around with it using only one hand. I don't think it will be too much longer before she just lets go and starts walking.

Lastly, here is a shot of her with some mail. She LOVES getting the mail! I let her have one of the envelopes and her little face lit-up almost as much as when she snuck a bite of Michelle's Chocolate Chip cookies!

That is the scoop from the Dong Dong Dynasty.

Love,

Reena and Josie