Happy 1st Birthday, Maryn!

Miss Maryn, formerly of Zhangshu, China and now residing in Kentucky, was feted on the occasion of her first birthday by a small but very stylish group of family members including Mama, Baba, Carlyn, and Nana. Also in attendance were several local felines who observed the festivities through the glass doors.

A light dinner was followed by the evening's entertainment: Jie Jie's performance of numerous cartwheels and round-offs. Cake was served. To the pasty chef's delight, Maryn pronounced it to be very worthy of squishing in her fists.

Following dessert, the party adjourned to the living room floor where Carlyn opened Maryn's gifts, and Maryn tasted the wrapping paper, cards, and each gift in turn. Especially delectable were the farm-themed bathtub toys.

The revelry concluded with a warm bath, bottle of milk, and bedtime by 8:30 p.m. Fun was had by all.

Farm toys! In a mesh bag! With suction cups! So much to bite!

The tractor is perfectly al dente.

She always reads the cards first.

I will take pictures now, Baba, thank you very much.

Nana demonstrates the new ABC abacus toy. Maryn just wants to taste it.

Our Six Month Anniversary

Six months and two days ago, we met sweet Maryn in a hotel room in China, and it went something like this:

Someone has been walking for almost a month!

But she was pretty shaky and unpredictable at first. And what a difference a week makes. The clip above was shot on December 30th; the one below was on January 5th.

p.s. I couldn't help but notice that my standard response to her tipping over is apparently a Homer-Simpson-sounding, "Oh!"

A Merry Christmas, Indeed!

Well, I've had these photos uploaded and ready to go for about a week now but have been too busy with my sabbatical project and another proposal to put any acceptable prose in the post. So, here are my sweethearts, who made our Christmas utterly and perfectly complete! Thank you, God, for all of your gifts!

Before the Christmas Eve service.

Christmas morning.

Thank goodness for this soft lamb; gift-opening is exhausting!

Maryn's First Thanksgiving & Other Autumn Fun

Someone looks mighty proud of her new size 3 (!) Huggies.

She is growing like a weed.

With our beautiful friend Lena on Thanksgiving evening.

Panda!

Rubik's cubes are not generally given enough credit

for being delicious.

Emerging from under the saucer where she had

managed to curl up.

We are so grateful to be sharing the holiday season with our two girls. Maryn seemed to enjoy her first Thanksgiving, partaking in ground ham, mashed potatoes, and some sweet potato casserole. Shortly thereafter, she observed the holiday practice of coming down with a cold - her first since we adopted her, so we can't really complain.

Carlyn has been busy rehearsing not one, not two, but three plays in which she's been cast (at church, school and her acting school). This Thanksgiving weekend, she enthusiastically helped me get the Christmas decorations out of the cubbyhole under the eaves upstairs. This was an early holiday gift, because it meant I didn't have to trudge back and forth 1/3 of the house's length doubled over, shoving boxes. She also stuck with it on the tree decorating for about twice as long as in any previous year and seemed to be interested in the stories about where we got particular ornaments.

Christmas will be doubly festive this year!

A Trip to Montana

It's official: we have not one, but two adventure girls. On October 28th, we left for a 10-day trip to western Montana, where I participated in two book festivals. My mom also came over from the eastern part of the state. What an entourage - ranging in age from 81 years to 7 months! And everyone was a good traveler, including our doll-baby!


There was some suspense. Even before we had departed from Cincinnati, we knew that weather-related delays might cause us to miss our flight from Minneapolis to Missoula. There were no more flights from MSP to Missoula that night and my presentation was the next morning.

When we arrived as MSP, we knew the countdown had begun. Ultimately, we had to abandon our stroller - we waited in the jetway for it as long as we could - then sprinted through the airport toward our next gate. When I heard on the PA system, "Passengers McDonald, this is your final boarding call..." I shrieked, yes shrieked, "We need a cart!" And miraculously, there was a cart. By this point, Carlyn was in tears from the sheer stress of it all. I'm sure we looked like a mess as we came down the aisle of that plane.

The fabulous flight attendant took an immediate shine to Carlyn and let her examine the demo oxygen mask and...get this...invited her to visit the cockpit after the flight. Keep in mind that we're talking about a little girl who is obsessed with aircraft and was planning to be a Cathay Pacific pilot for Halloween.

Upon our arrival in Missoula, she did indeed get to visit the cockpit, to push buttons, try on Captain Spencer's jacket, and - drum roll, please - shut down the plane for the night. She described it as the high point of her trip.

And Miss Maryn did beautifully. She enjoyed meeting Grandma, great aunt and uncle, and a few cousins. And she was a very cute calf for Halloween!

Who would've thought 10 more days in a hotel, just six weeks after our return from China, would go so well. We are truly blessed.

Happy Birthday, Mei Mei!

Maryn is seven months old today! She would like to celebrate with a nice game of Wii, if only Carlyn would give her the remote.