Christmas of another kind...

Our 2nd Christmas with Maya wasn't really what we were hoping it would be...

My parents arrived Dec 14 and within 2 days, my dad was quite ill with a cold, sore thoat, fever, etc. Within a few more days, the rest of us were sick with the same cold and, in my case, a sinus infection as well. The 5 of us spent the majority of our 12 days together holed up inside the house.

We managed a brief outing to Van Dusen gardens to see the beautiful light displays and another one to the Granville Island kids market but Maya didn't get to see Santa. The only photos I have of her in her Christmas dress were taken one morning after her fever briefly broke. The rest of the pics are from Christmas morning where most of us took turns 'resting' to recover from fatigue and looking after Maya.

Oh well...

Memories...

I've been looking back at the blog entries that I made just one short year ago. I've also been looking at all of the YouTube videos we had posted up to this time last year. Maya has changed SOOOO much! It's wonderful to see how much she's grown, changed & developed. Maya loves watching these videos too and squeals excitedly 'That's baby Maya!!! Play it again!' So cute...

Maya's memories are really developing too. At breakfast this moring she said that Lyn (caregiver) wasn't going to be at daycare today. Sure enough, when we arrived, Lyn wasn't in. They must have mentioned it on Friday and Maya remembered! At least once a week, Maya holds up her toothbrush and says 'Doctor Charmaine gave me this!'. Maya had her dentist appointment 5 weeks ago! On the weekend, Maya held up a red t-shirt and said 'Emma gave me this!' Emma is my friend Leanne's daughter and they came to BC to visit us in September. September!! On occasion, she'll hold up her teddy bear and say 'Joshua gave me this!'. She got the bear from Joshua for her 2nd birthday - in May! How is it that a 30-month-old can have a memory like this?!

I'm REALLY going to have to watch what I say in the years to come because she's going to remember it (and likely use it against me)...

Yesterday...

I could start singing the Beatles song but I can't sing so I'll spare you. Maybe I'll hum. 'Yesterday, dum, dum, all my troubles hum hum hum hum-hummmm...."

It's been 4 months since my last posting. 4 months! Can you believe it? I can't... So much has changed since then so instead of giving you a long monologue about our occurances, I'll summarize them:
-Yesterday, our girl turned 2 1/2 (going on 12)!
-M has grown 1" since September but has only gained 2 lbs since Feb. Tall & skinny!
-M started a new Daycare September 1 and loves it
-M speaks in complete sentences now and understands abstract ideas. Wow! She is so far advanced over her daycare playmates that we wonder if she's challenged enough. Time will tell...
-We finally got M's Nexus card which was the last bit of documentation we needed to get for her. Yeah!
-We go swimming with M every Monday and she's become a complete water-baby jumping off the pool edge without assistance & swimming under water
-We took M skating 2 weeks ago and within 45min went from not standing up to standing and shuffling. Such fun!
-We took M tobogganing today and she is a speed junkie too. Was going down on her tummy, alone, head-first. Skeleton athelete in the making for Olympics 2026.
-John has 2 businesses now and is considering starting a 3rd.
-John was sent by PMI to Washington, DC to speak at a national PMI conference in October. Whoot, Whoot!
-I trained for and completed a sprint distance triathlon in September. Yeah me.
-I've signed up and have begun training for an Olympic distance triathlon in April (which will be held in Kona, Hawaii - Holla!)
-I'm in phase 2 of my Project Management course and will be done Dec 8
-I haven't started studying for my PMP course yet. Big surprise!
-We've spent lots & lots of time with friends and are planning on spending lots more with them over the holidays. (Come January though we'll be sick of y'all!)

That's all I could come up with in my short 5 minute writing sprint.
More later...
Christine

(BTW, please post a comment or send me an email as I'm interested to know how many of you have dropped off and don't check this blog any more. After 4 months of neglect, it can only be expected)

Passport

Maya's Canadian Passport arrived this week! We're now free to flee the country with her. Not that we will... but we could!

Re-infection

Well, the course of anti-biotics that I took last week to 'cure' my infected throat, sinus and ears didn't work. 4 days after the meds finished, I started feeling symptoms again so it was back to the doctor. Sure enough, he confirmed that the infections are back so I have to take another, and longer, course of anti-biotics this time. The good news is that I don't have to completely stop my training this time. Swims will be limited but my running & cycling can continue as I see fit. Yeah!

Triathlon Training

My Triathlon training was going well... right up to last week. I wasn't feeling well for several days and so, finally, went to see the doctor. It turns out that my 'summer cold' was a throat, sinus & ear infection! I'm on antibiotics and training has been put on hold but only for this week. I'll be back at it next week...

Check out my training progress, or if you want to sponsor me and help fight blood cancers, please go to my website:
http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=2611998

Canada Day

Maya's first Canada Day as a citizen was mellow. Due to multiple reasons, our plans for the day fell-through so we just took things easy. With the weather being as drizzly and cool as it was, it didn't really motivate us to do much anyway. Erinn & Ryan has slept over the night before. When they awoke, they were craving Dim Sum which suited us just fine so we packed up the whole family and headed out. After Dim Sum and Maya's nap, we walked over to the Clark Park kids party to see what was going on over there. The games and bouncy things were packed with older kids so we didn't bother to put Maya inside - she'd be crushed. She did want a pony ride but, once on it, wasn't thrilled and promptly wanted back off. She was content with swinging on the swing she always swings on. Home for a BBQ, bath and bed then mom & dad sat outside with some wine. Mellow, but nice...

Photos

We had new photos of Maya taken for her 2nd birthday. They are so cute!
Scroll down to see them posted here...

Citizenship!

It's with great excitement that I opened the package today with Maya's citizenship card and certificate inside. What a great day! We are now free to apply for her passport and then, once that is received & logged with our agency, we'll be done with the whole adoption documentation process. Yipee!

Coincidentally, the citizenship date is May 20, 2010 - 2 years to the day of her abandonment. Now even more for Maya to celebrate/grieve in that week...

2nd Birthday x3

Well, Maya's birthday 'season' is now over. It started 2 weeks ago with a Dim Sum with our adoption group. The kids all got to see each other and, really, 'meet' each other as they were all infants when we travelled last year. It was a fun day AND NO DISHES!!! The babies have all changed so much...

Then, on her actual birth date last week, we had a nice dinner at home. My parents even managed to be here as they were on a lay-over enroute to Hawaii. All eyes were on Maya that night - she loved it - but she didn't seem too sure what all the fuss was about. The highlight for her was chocolate, wood food & a new blanket. She's becoming a real girl...

Yesterday, was her third (and final) birthday celebration with 'the gang' and their kids. After a rocky start, we all managed to find each other in a very crowded park and settle in for some playtime and a nice BBQ. I'm continually amazed at how well the kids, aged 5 to 9, can show such care and tenderness to a little toddler. They love playing with her and she loves playing with them. I think the big kids were more excited about giving Maya her presents than she was in receiving them. And that says a lot!

It was a good (1st) 2nd birthday (in Canada) but I'm relieved that it's over for this year...

My Own...

Not flesh of my flesh
Nor bone of my bone,
But still miraculously my own.

Never forget for a single minute,
You didn't grow under my heart,
But in it.

May 20...

Despite having such a wonderful birthday celebration with Maya yesterday, today is full of mixed feelings. Somewhere in China there is a woman who gave up her baby 2 years ago today. Who is she? Where is she? How is she? What is she feeling today? Does she think about Maya? Does she regret her decision? We'll never know and for that I feel sad for Maya...

2 years old today!

Maya is 2 today! We went for a walk with Gamma & Gampa, had sushi for lunch, had a good poop & a nap, lots of play before dinner, good food & chocolate for dinner with friends, then more play & a bath before bed. Could life be any better!?

1 year ago...

One short year ago today, May 18, we finally met baby Maya in the Guangzhou Registry Office. She was 'temporarily' placed in our care for 24 hours so that we could 'decide' if we wanted to adopt her. Really, did we need the extra 24 hours?! It was a done deal long before we held her... Today could be considered our 'family day' as its the day we met.

Tomorrow, May 19, could also be our 'family day' as that is the day we signed all of the documents to officially accept and adopt Maya. Tomorrow is also Maya's 2nd birthday so maybe it'll be nice to celebrate the 2 occasions apart... or maybe celebrate them together. We haven't completely decided on that yet...

The hard part for Maya in the future will be the day after her birthday, May 20, as its the day she was abandoned by her birth mother. What a hard thing for a child to understand. There are so many changes that happen in these 3 days that one day Maya will have to try to grasp what has happened and how the direction of her life was so drastically changed on her without her permission.

Triathlon Training

I've started my training for the Vancouver Triathlon that's happening on September 6. There's 2 distances you can do for this event so, as it's my first triathlon, I'll be doing the 1/2 distance. That involves a 750m ocean swim, a 19km bike ride then a 5km run. The official training groups start on May 30 but, due to my inclination for injuries, I wanted to get a head-start on things. I've already managed to complete all of the required distances individually, now I just need to do them without stopping and all at the same time. Last week, I did 75% of all 3 events inthe same day and I was tired that night! Let's hope my training will continue to improve my 'abilities' over the next 15 weeks...

New video

John managed to put together another video for YouTube. Check it out... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI_bFHVOUPI

Gender identity (crisis?)

Maya has mastered things like colours, shapes, animals, sounds, etc. She's moving on to letters and numbers... and genders. It's an odd thing but she wants to know who is a boy and who is a girl. When we tell her, she pauses... then say 'yeah!' like the information has clicked in place and that person/animal has now been categorized. But what categories does a 2-year-old have and what does that category look like in her head? Images of Picasso's are rolling through my thoughts...

Summer Lovin...

My 'Parental' Leave ended Jan 31. My extended Leave of Absense is due to end May 29. The time has come for me to decide what I'm going to do with my life... again.

Maya's daycare is only 7 hours MAX a day (9-4) which really only leaves me with about 6 hours a day to do anything. Until we can get in to one that has longer hours, that is what we've got to work with. With being a landlord, running the house, doing all of the cooking/cleaning/shopping/laundry/bills/gardening/volunteering/etc, looking after Maya, all of the 'extra-curricular' activities, etc... I don't have a lot of time to myself. (I know, you parents out there are laughing at me right now but this is my new reality). John & I have discussed the best options for us individually & as a family and have decided...

We've decided that I'm not going back to work right away so have taken another Leave of Absence until late summer or early fall. In that time, I've decided to enjoy the summer AND fulfill 2 wish-list (or bucket list) items:
1/ Participate in a Triathlon
2/ Get my PMP (Project Management Professional) designation

What?! Huh? You say...
The Triathalon I'll be participating in is the Vancouver Triathlon on September 6 and will be doing it as part of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society 'Team in Training'. Many of you may know about them but for those that don't, TNT is a fundraising group that will support & teach & guide you through high-endurance training and events. They do events all over north America but I've chosen to do my first event here at home. Don't worry, I'll be hitting all of you up for donations/sponsorship soon... :-)

Secondly, I've signed up to complete the Advanced Project Management Certificate through Langara College. It's an intensive on-line course that will take 7 weeks initially to complete + a 3-month project in the fall. After the summer session, I'll be able to take the PMP exam prep course and write my exams. If all goes well, I'll have my designation by Christmas!

Both of these events are quite time consuming and both are things that I likely wouldn't be able to do if I was working. So, we decided that I would use my 'free' 6 hours a day to do these things and just be home for the summer. It won't be an easy summer but I'll be lovin it anyway...

Happy Mothers Day!

It's Mother's Day today... I've had 12 Step-Mother's Days with Erinn & Ryan and I had a mini-Mother's Day last year en-route to China but this is my first full-on Mother's Day with Maya.

To celebrate, John sent me a beautiful bouquet of purple roses, orchids, tulips, lillies with curly willow & greenery. It's gorgeous!

Maya made me 2 cards this year - one at daycare and one with daddy. The daycare one has a photo of us, colourful stickers and a sweet poem on it. The daddy one has colouring and 4 photos on it - 2 of Maya at 1 year & 2 years old, and 2 of Maya & I at 1 year and 2 years old. Very sweet!

We went for Dim Sum today... at the YVR airport. I know its an odd place to go but we had Dim Sum there last Mother's Day, just before we boarded the plane to China so it was a very sentimental gesture on John's behalf and one that was not lost on me. This afternoon there is 'something' going on and tonight we're just going to hang around the house and have a BBQ.

It's been a great day so far...

Blog Comments

I know I don't respond to many of the blog comments people make but I LOVE reading them! Keep sending them...it makes me feel like I'm not talking to myself.
Hello?
Hello?
Anyone out there...?

What's your name?

After MANY months of trying to get Maya to say her name, she finally said it today. It was clear, perfectly pronounced & very matter-of-fact.

Just to be sure it wasn't an accident, we asked her who she was in a dozen different ways and clapped & cheered wildly when she said it correctly. Self-awareness has hit another milestone. Yipee!

Daycare Pt 2

Well, Maya has survived her 2nd week of daycare and is doing GREAT!!! The biting has settled down to only 2x this week, her sleeping has increased to 60-90 minutes a day, she's eating a lot, playing a lot and having a wonderful time. She even runs from me once I say it's time to go so I know she's not traumatized by being there...

The care-takers LOVE her enthusiam during story & play time as she cheers and claps very loudly. They also like her sense of humour (she laughs very heartily at funny things) and her empathy (she comforts other kids when they're crying). She's also an easy child to look after as she's a very clean eater, she tidy's up after herself, is quiet overall and not wild or destructive. They all obviously really enjoy having her there (I've watched them with her when they didn't know I was there)

Personally, I'm loving having her in daycare too. She's learning group social skills that I wouldn't be able to teach her; she has toys & play activities there that we don't have at home; she gets more tired-out so is easier to put to bed. Plus, I get 6 hours free a day to be me, run errands, get stuff done around the house & just enjoy life... (more on that later).

Over-all, this has been a good experience so far...

Volunteering

Many of you know that I'm a volunteer for the group 'Team Vancouver Volunteers'. This is a group of people that wanted to do regular volunteering for different organizations and decided to make it an official group last year. Each month, they set up a volunteering day for a different organization and invite people to join them. The group size has grown from a half-dozen people to several dozen in a few short months. I joined their group in their 2nd month of existance (Sept 09) and, so far, have done:
-Oct > sorting cans for the 'Vancouver Food Bank'
-Nov > sorting & packaging household items for 'Gather & Give'
-Dec > gift wrapping for 'MS Society' & a family sponsorship
-Jan > processing of expired foods for 'Quest Food Exchange'
-Mar > sold daffodils for 'Canadian Cancer Society'

I missed the Feb event which was food preparation at the Salvation Army as it was the day after the Olympics Opening Ceremonies & I was BURNED OUT!

Today, we worked at the 'Union Gospel Mission' in the kitchens preparing food for the homeless. It was a very organized kitchen and I was quite impressed with how they were able to make so much food for so many people in such a short period of time.

TVV is becoming more popular and they are now starting to organize 2 volunteering events a month. I really enjoy helping out and the organizers are so much fun that the whole event even better.

Daycare Trials

Maya survived her first week of daycare in pretty good shape. Each day was a bit longer there and by day 3 she was ready to try a nap there. As with any new experience there's good, bad and ugly. In this case,

The good: she's social, quiet, plays well, attentive to other children when they are hurt/crying, listens to & understands instructions, naps with the other kids

The bad: her naps are only 30 min instead of 2 hours so she's grumpier at home at the end of the day

The ugly: she's become a biter! Sometimes over a toy but sometimes completely unprovoked but she's chomped several kids this week. Yikes!

I hope week 2 is better...

Talk-Talk-Talk

Prior to March, Maya only spoke a few words but had several signs that she used to communicate her needs. This was a simple, but quiet, way of life.

Some time last month the verbal 'switch' in her turned on and she has now become a chatter-box. She's talking non-stop, even if its not understandable. If she's not reciting to us what every item is, she's telling us its colour or shape. If she can't do any of those, she's parroting back what we say or ASKING us what EVERYTHING is. Boy, oh boy. Toddlers ask a lot of questions! Plus, they hear everything so we're now having to spell certain things so she doesn't get cranky...

Life has just gotten a bit more complicated...

Daycare

Today was Maya's 1st day at daycare. Other than waking us up early (3am and 630am), she was ready for her day on time and in a good mood.

Once at the daycare, she jumped right in to the festivities, barely giving me a glance. The only attention she paid me was when she had dirt on her hands and wanted someone to wipe it off. Otherwise, I was persona-non-grata.

We spent 2 hours at the daycare and the staff was so impressed with how she handled it, we are going to speed her transition schedule. Tomorrow, I'll drop her off then leave for 2 hours before coming back to have lunch with her then take her home for a nap. Wednesday or Thursday I'll leave her there to try a nap with the other kids. Hopefully, it'll all go well...

Mo-Co-Co

John got his Ducati insured last week and today was his first day riding it to work. Maya isn't a fan of the noise of motorcycles but every one is called 'da-da' regardless of the make, model or colour.

When John left for work this morning, Maya didn't like seeing him leave but when he got on the bike and rode away, she pointed to him and said:
'Dada on mo-co-co' (Daddy on motorcycle) 3 words!!! Woo Hoo…

1 year since acceptance

Today marks the 1st anniversary of the date we signed the referral & medical documents to adopt JIANG, Xin Mei. What a roller-coaster ride that was last year getting the referral, telling our families, waiting for the referral translation, reviewing the documents, investigating translations errors, getting adoption pediatricians to review the medical files, paying the fees, signing the official documents and driving them over to the adoption agency... It was quite an experience and one of many that will come from our life with Maya.

1+ year since referral

We missed it! Thanks to my blogger friend Lori, I realized that we completely missed our 1 year anniversary of Maya's referral. It was such an important day, I find it hard to believe that we forgot. So, I've posted pictures of her now and then to show how much she's changed.

Olympics Opening Ceremonies

I've been practicing for 2 months now to be part of tomorrow nights Olympics Opening Ceremonies. It's been a tough go but we're now a few hours away from the big event. There have been several technical problems in the past 2 days which I'm hoping they will have sorted out very quickly. I also pulled a ham-string which I'm hoping won't affect my performance tomorrow. We've done this SOOOO many times it's getting boring but the overall show looks amazing! I know I'll look back fondly on this some day...

Stairs upright

Maya reached another marker today and walked up the stairs upright & holding the railing instead of crawling up the stairs. What a big girl!