What is that coming out of her ear?

On Sunday, it appeared that Sophia had a bit of yogurt in her ear. As she is prone to mess with her hair and ears while eating, this didn't surprise us and we wiped it away. Meanwhile, Sophia has been having a rough couple of days. We took the bottle away at breakfast, lunch, and dinner starting Friday, so we assumed she was mourning the loss.

Well, on Monday, the "food" again appeared in the same ear, but it looked a little less like food and a little more like boogers. Alas, Sophia has an ear infection (that happens to be oozing yogurt...curious!) Actually, after a visit to the always helpful Dr. Jarvis this morning, we discovered that both ears were infected and so are her sinuses. Excellent! That explains a lot actually.

She has already taken her first dose of antibiotics and is probably on the road to recovery. She played by herself for a little while, which hasn't happened much over the past couple of days, so she must be feeling a bit better. Pray for a speedy return to health and no relapses.

On the bottle front, Sophia is doing OK. she doesn't particularly like the cup, but the bit of chocolate syrup that now goes in her 4 oz of formula seems to help some! She took 3 oz today at lunch (this is a big victory, cause usually it's about 1 oz.) Probably 1 of those 3 ozs. was on her bib, but that's still progress. We'll have to worry about getting rid of the chocolate later, after she realizes that cups are her friends!

We haven't tackled the thumb sucking yet. I don't have it in me! Maybe next week...If anyone has any brilliant ideas, let me know!

Doctor Week Done

On Tuesday, we spent the morning at Payton Manning Children's Hospital at the international adoption clinic. We saw an infectious disease doctor and a medical geneticist. They were both thorough and kind. We were there for a whopping 2 hours and 40 minutes when all was said and done!

The Doctors both thought Sophia looked pretty healthy. There were no red flags at all. She is a bit on the wimpy side, both in size and muscle tone, but nothing major. We kind of knew that already. She's 18 pounds already, so we're kind of proud of her! We learned more about the cleft formation and other issues that can be related, but there is no indication that any of these are present at this point. It's good to know what to look for as we go forward, though.

The worst part of this appointment came at the end...THE BLOOD DRAW! I don't know why the people in the lab can't be a little more efficient with their use of my child's blood. Did they really need 6 separate tubes? Come on! Couldn't they test the same blood for everything? This was traumatic for everyone involved, including the phlebotomist, as she commented at the end, "That caused pain in my hernia!" I held her body with all my strength, and the lady held her arms straight. When the right arm only produced 3 viles, we had to try the left arm. The vein was mildly elusive, so there was definitely some rooting around to get it. I never want to do that again. Although I'd do it 20 times over if I never have to fly from Asia to Chicago with a 1 year old.

As if the blood wasn't enough, we also get to collect stool samples over the next couple of days! Fun. I love being a mother.

On Thursday, it was on to the Craniofacial Plastic Surgeon. Dr. Sadove is the best there is! He was very nice and gave us a pretty realistic picture of what we're looking at to fix Sophia's lip. She will probably have a surgery in late March that will repair the cleft. Then when she gets a little older (like 6 perhaps) she might have another to fix it up just so. She will also need orthodontic work at some point, but all that comes later too.

The big downer of this appointment was the daunting tasks the doctor assigned to us (especially Sophia) over the next month before she gets surgery. We have to try to eliminate the bottle in her life and get her to stop sucking her thumb. Apparently both of these don't work well post-op. Oh torture! She loves her 4 bottles she gets every day and her thumb is the perfect sleep aid for a little one still getting her bearings.

We started the cup today. There was screaming. She prefers a cup without a cover to the sippy-cup variety, so there was also some mess. You can pray for us. It's so hard to withhold something I know she loves and is really not hurting her right now. We also need her to get her fluids. I'm trying to talk David into waiting with the thumb until after we've adjusted to the cup...one thing at a time! We only have a month though, so we may not have that luxury.

He also threw in that it would be helpful for her to be walking. Apparently crawling is complicated with 2 splinted arms (they have to be splinted so she doesn't touch her healing lip.) We have a lot to do. I should go to bed.

Other than these visits, Sophia has had a pretty normal week. She is eating table food regularly (and more neatly!). She had her first pizza and really likes mangoes (she is her mother's daughter!) She wasn't sleeping through the night regularly for a while, but now is again. We'll see how long that lasts.

The rest of the Roux clan is doing alright. I'm perpetually tired and David is now the designated breakfast cooker. He makes a mean omelet. Marcus prayed tonight that Sophia would be good tomorrow, which made me chuckle. She had a bit of a crabby day and he has very little tolerance for crying. He has earplugs handy at night. Lauren is Sophia's joy ( and consequently, mine!) When she comes after Sophia, Sophia crawls frantically to me, and buries her face in my lap and laughs! I should get that on video.

She likes brownies, of course.

After another week at home, things are back to normal for everyone, it would seem, but me! Lauren is back at gymnastics and piano, Marcus is totally enjoying the winter wonderland in our yard and David has been back at work. My life is entirely different! I stay home with a cute little baby all day! Mostly, this has been wonderful. Besides having to think about everything I do a little more, I have really enjoyed the slower pace. Slower, that is, until the big kids get home from school, and then we are doing double time around here!

As the title suggests, we've been experimenting with new foods. After a week of happily trying every possible type of baby food we put before her, she decided to go on strike. Being a mature 13 month old, she feels like she is beyond this pureed humdrum and wants things she can gum. The new favorites are cubes of ripe pears and cooked sweet potatoes. Really, that isn't true. Those are the current healthy foods that she eats. Her real favorites are Valentine cookies from Grandma and brownies from Mary Beth Harper. Thank you very much. We captured her enjoyment of the brownie bits on film. Note, she did get a bath immediately after this event!


Sophia is moving around a whole lot these days. She crawls after whoever leaves the room. She pulls up on everything and pushes her little stroller/walker around the living room with a great deal more ease than even a couple of days ago. She also is talking a lot. She says something that sounds remarkably like "Yeah!" a lot. It's very commical when she accidentally agrees to something. She also says "da" a lot. We're working on "ma" but she doesn't seem interested. I guess she already knows she has Ma just where she wants her. She is figuring out what "No" means and she's also learned to clap, thanks to Dad, as you saw in that last video.

Here's another video, just for fun:


Last Sunday, we were very excited about how well Sophia was sleeping at night. Well, this week we have a more realistic view of things, as she's been up in the night 4 of the last 7 nights. She was a kind of non-romantic interruption to our "dinner-in-after-the-kids-go-to-bed-valentine's-date" last night. Oh well! She will surely settle in shortly.

We've got a big week this week! Tuesday, Sophia and I will go to Peyton Manning Children's Hospital to the International Adoption Clinic. That will be her first trip to see a doctor in the states. They will recommend next steps and probably a vaccination schedule...poor kid. Then, on Thursday, Sophia will see a plastic surgeon for a consultation about her lip. We'll keep you posted about any new information from either of those fronts.

Happy Valentine's Day to you all. And Happy Chinese New Year! And President's Day...

Now that we're home

It still feels so very good to be home! It's been 6 days now and we are settling in to life as we knew it +1. In some ways, China seems forever ago and in others, it feels like we just got off the plane. Every time I think of the flight, I could weep for joy that it's over! Just today though, I was thinking about how much we enjoyed the food...I could go for some fried rice about now! I'll have to get creative in the kitchen.

So far, Sophia has been sleeping pretty good! We kind of can't believe it, but she generally goes down about 8:30 and gets up around 7. Can't complain! Lauren has moved back into her room for sleeping and that has gone pretty seamlessly. Sophia goes to bed with less than a minute of crying usually.

My Mom's In Touch group threw Sophia a surprise shower on Wednesday. Very sweet. Sophia did great, and I found out how much she enjoys being around other little kids! I have to get back into "playgroup" mode!

Sophia has been exploring the house quite adventurously. Mostly because I leave the room she happens to be in. She'll crawl anywhere to get to me! It's very cute when she comes around a corner, finds me, and smiles with delight.

She likes food now. She still isn't sure about the swallowing part, as some comes back out (sometimes it seems like there's more food in the "food goatee" then I put in to her mouth!) She loves banana puffs, all fruits, and cupcakes (check out the photo of her first cupcake experience!), and she doesn't love green beans.

Sophia had her first trip to Grace Community Church last night! She was a big fan of the music and sat calmly in my lap and rocked back and forth. She made her dad proud, because she actually found the beat!

Tonight we watched the Colts lose in the Super Bowl. Very sad for all the Roux's. Sophia cried at the end, but that may have been tiredness. Is football season really over? Not a happy way to end.

The rest of the family is doing pretty well. Lauren is a favorite of her little sisters, and Marcus loves to try to get Sophia to laugh. The kids and David and I were pretty much over jet lag by the time we were home from Minnesota, so we are sleeping at the right times and all that. Lauren and Marcus weren't overly thrilled to head back to school on Tuesday, but I actually think it was fun for them to see friends. They got to bring their classmates chopsticks and tell them a little about their trip, so that was enjoyable. Lauren's class actually brought their chopsticks to the lunch room to try them out! Lauren was giving lessons and her friends were impressed with her prowess.

Home-Sweet-Home

We've been home for almost 24 hours now. The thrill has not yet worn off! I am wishing that all of our things would miraculously find their place though. I was thinking I might get to some of that today while the kids are at school, but here it is almost 3pm and it isn't done! I wonder if that's how the days will go!?

Sophia likes to be in the same room as me. She actually crawled from the living room to the bedroom today, because I left her for a minute. She's a very efficient crawler when she is properly motivated. You should have seen her dash after the plate of cheesecake I left on the floor on Sunday at my parents. How did she know that cheesecake is that good? She seems to like it at home fine although she probably doesn't fully comprehend that this is really where we will land. We've tried to challenge her this past week with as many possible "homes" as we could. She's going to be one sharp cookie if she can figure this out!

My sister's wedding was lovely. The zythromax worked for the bronchitis and the imitrex killed the migrane I woke up with. I was drugged but happy and dressed and ready for photos by 11:30am. My sister is such a fun girl and she and Bevan planned a beautiful, unique, and fun wedding. David did a fantastic job giving the message and I didn't trip walking down the aisle. We actually held up rather well. I think it was God and adrenaline. Marcus hit a snag right after dinner, but a 15 minute power nap seemed to do it!

Sophia did just fine with the hoard of strangers who love her. She almost fell asleep in my mothers arms and ate mashed potatoes from Grandma Roux. Her only issue all weekend was this 2-4 hour period in the middle of the night when she wanted to play. She was all giggles and fun from midnight-3 most nights. Not so good for parents who could sleep through almost anything!

We arrived in Fishers at5 yesterday afternoon. Our community group brought supper and spent some time catching up with us. That was very refreshing and the soup was delicious too. So far, I've done 4 loads of laundry, not counting the 4 I did at my cousin Jenny and John Demmings in MN. They were fantastic hosts, by the way! Jenny even did some of my laundry! We've unpacked 5 suitcases and a very messy car. We've discovered that Sophia likes sweet potatoes and still hates cold medicine. She also had her first trip to the grocery store. She liked it, I think - at least she liked the taste of the cart. Our happiest news is that she slept from 10pm until 8am last night! It feels like we're settling in.