Season's Greetings

The Elmo car was a big hit. In typical Wynn fashion, she drove it around for a while, honked the horn a bit, and then started looking underneath it to figure out how it works. We glanced over, and there she was - on the floor like an auto mechanic about to change the oil. She is perpetually fascinated with how things go together - and how to take them apart.


We love that Wynn and Grandpa have the same fashion sense. Christmas Eve was a celebration of plaid this year.


Wynn's gift from Grandma Barb was a homemade Curious George quilt and pillow. Wynn loves them both and started playing "snuggle" with them as soon as we got home. She still enjoys watching George on TV but has discovered Clifford and Sesame Street as well.


Here's Wynn and Grandma Marilyn figuring the classic Sit and Spin. She doesn't quite have the upper body coordination to spin herself around yet, but, based on the look on her face when we spin her, she's motivated to learn. It has a switch on the bottom to turn the music off. Guess how long it took her to flip the thing over and find the switch?


What Minnesota winter would be complete without a ride in a sled? Baba and Wynn took it out for a spin around the yard during our lovely Christmas Day snowfall. We need to find a small hill for her to ride down because pulling that sled gets to be tough work.

The time off from work has given us a chance to not only relax around the house together; we have also been busy taking care of more adoption paperwork and such. We had our six-month meeting with our social worker last week. All went well, and Wynn willingly agreed to accompany Baba to the bathroom after she dropped an extremely stinky load in her diaper during the interview. :-)

The day after Christmas was spent in the waiting room at the Social Security Administration offices; after ninety minutes of waiting, our number was finally called so we could have our three minutes at the window. Wynn was great during the LONG wait; she stayed on Baba's lap, was sufficiently amused by opening and closing the zippers on our jackets, and got to watch a baby drinking out of a bottle, which she found FASCINATING.

Today we took care of applying for a US passport for Wynn and getting ourselves fingerprinted (for the THIRD time) for yet another background check - this time because Minnesota changed its process and is making *everyone* who completed an adoption this year get screened again - even though we have already been screened by the state and, obviously, passed.

Now we have another week of vacation to relax and enjoy the snow.

- Ann

That's Wynn Too

In case you're sick of all the cute, smiling pictures of our daughter, here's one they took of her at daycare.



They swear she was cheerful and fun while the other kids were getting their pictures taken, but as soon as the camera turned to her, she put on this face. All their cajoling could not get her to crack a smile. We hope this answers any questions you may have about taking her to have her picture taken with Santa this year.

We love how delightfully grumpy she looks, but we have no idea whose mittens she's wearing.

Snowsuit Model

As we were out walking in the snow today, Scott and I were commenting on the fact that it was only about six months ago when our family walk was in the sticky heat of Renmin Park in Nanning. Half a year ago and half a world away...

Snow!

Wynn got her first look at real Minnesota snow today. She's been in cold weather denial lately - refusing to put on her coat when we leave daycare. Today as she pulled her bare hands into her coat sleeves at the Christmas tree lot, I got a glimmer of hope that she just might figure out this protect yourself against the cold thing we do here.


Her First Reaction to Standing in the Snow


Showing Off Her Footprints


Her Friends in Guangxi Wouldn't Believe This


Warming Up Over Dinner with Baba

Notice that our Christmas tree is safely sequestered on the three-season porch. She can see it through the glass, but she can't touch it. I miss having the house smell like fresh tree, but not having to pick up broken ornaments makes it all worthwhile.

November Happenings

Thought we'd bring you up to date on some of the events and milestones of the last month.

Wynn didn't know WHAT to make of Halloween. She went to the Zoo Boo at Como Park dressed as a leopard. As we passed all the volunteers dressed up in costumes, she looked at them with a rather skeptical expression on her face. Who are all these people and why are they dressed so weird? Only at the very end of the event did she show any interest in a costumed character - Darth Vader. She sat straight up in her stroller when she saw him.



The cold she caught at daycare progressed into a full-blown sinus infection. Never ran a fever. Never complained. Lots of gooey sneezes and coughing, though. It was time to go to the doctor when the green slime started oozing out her eyes. Ten days of antibiotics pretty well cleared things up; although, she's started coughing again ... Fingers crossed it's just a cold this time.

She has made the leap to being able to put her LEGO's together; she used to just take them apart and hand them to us for the construction part of the game. She's spent the better part of the past week sitting on the floor putting together LEGO's to her heart's content. She's also getting better at holding a crayon and drawing on paper. We know she's been working on that at daycare - mostly while the other kids are taking a nap.





Wynn has decided that pumpkin pie is the best, but is also fond of pecan and blueberry. Basically, she'll eat anything with whipped cream on it. Though she still loves the McD's chocolate shake, she has been thinking Arby's lately. (She also loves organic mac & cheese from Trader Joe's and is strangely enthusiastic about spinach.)





Our thoughts on Thanksgiving this year were about the joy Wynn has brought into our lives. We are, of course, occasionally exhausted, but watching her grow and learn is rewarding beyond anything we could have imagined. We are also truly thankful for her foster mother in Qinzhou. She so obviously loved and cared for Wynn, and we will always be grateful for the role she played in bringing our daughter to us.


Checking out the Fall Garden with Grandma Marilyn


Bundled up Against the November Cold

Every Picture Tells a Story

Wynn's favorite thing about her doll bed is that she is small enough to fit in it too - usually on top of her baby doll. Sometimes she moves the doll out of the way first, picking her up by the hair and thunking her on to the floor.


No one eats ice cream alone at our house anymore.


Along with wanting to pick up every leaf in the yard by hand, she also wants to pick up all the sticks. Most of the time she stacks them under her picnic table, but on this day she was helping Baba out, so the sticks ended up in the fire pit.


Welcome to the snot factory. Wynn caught her very first genuine American cold. We're sure that her coming down with the crud the same week she started daycare is purely coincidental. Who ever heard of a child getting sick at daycare?

Doing Just Fine

We realize we haven't posted for quite some time. Here are some new pictures so you can check out how our girl is growing.

She loves the leaves and desperately wants to pick them up one by one and put them in a pile under her picnic table. We can't wait to see how she reacts when Scott gets out the rake.

Her obsessions with all things Curious George has expanded to include monkeys of all kinds. She picked out a monkey hat and mitten set at Target today, and Grandma bought her a pair of leather slippers with monkey faces on them.