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.

Let's not forget about Jie Jie

Carlyn has been busy this beautiful, crisp autumn with important tasks like preparing her wedding dress (she has decided to marry her stuffed horse Pegasus); raking immense piles of leaves; playing outside with Maryn during that otherwise-fussy period after dinner but before bath-time; and caring for her five fabulous cats in various ways.

It's a lovely time: the sort I imagined all those years when I was waiting to be a mom.

Standing & Snacking

Last week, Maryn woke up from a nap and, by the time I got to her room, she was standing up in her crib. She'll pull up on anything to stand, safe or unsafe, including pantlegs, sofas, and, if no one intervenes, the bathtub! She also learned how to use a sippy cup last week after her doctor suggested that 6-9 months is a good time to start experimenting with cups. In the top photo, the cup looks as big as she does and, now that I think of it, proportionally, it would be like my taking a drink from a five gallon bucket.

Scenes from our life at home

A staring contest in the car. The carseat is better when big sister is present.
First swing ride

Feeding ducks and geese at Lake Reba

In the pool with Jie Jie.

Hanging out with Crystal Grayheart.

We came home to unseasonably warm weather, so there have been adventures on the deck, in the plastic pool, and at the park. We're still somewhat jet-lagged, but Maryn's sleep patterns are becoming manageable - she wakes up for a bottle about 4-5 hours after going to bed , and then sleeps for another 5 or 6.

She's spicing up our lives in all kinds of ways and Andy has described her as "driven." Her primary objective? To stand up. She practices pulling up using our hands and then becomes reckless - trying to let go. She looks astonished when she plops down hard on her bottom but doesn't cry. We might have a climber on our hands, too, which will be new to us. Carlyn was never a big physical risk-taker.

Among other adventures this week were Maryn's introduction to car seats (not popular), meeting ducks and geese at the park (mildly entertaining), and eating sweet potatoes and tidbits of California sourdough bread (fabulous), and visiting our local Starbucks location (she slept through most of it).

Now that was an odyssey

On the way to the airport in Guangzhou.
Let's get on the plane, already!

The final leg of the journey.

Meeting Nana at the airport.

The flight crew that brought our baby to Kentucky.

Our trip home from China, you ask? Three words: ai yi yi! Long story short, thanks to Dragonair, we missed our flight out of Hong Kong. After running through the airport, we watched our United 747 push back from the gate and taxi off for America. It was the only heartbreaking moment of our entire trip.

The consolation prizes, such as they were, included 12 hours in Dragonair's first class lounge and a transPacific flight on Cathay Pacific. Drawbacks included 12 hours in Dragonair's first class lounge and a circuitous route home (rather than Hong Kong, Chicago, Lexington and arriving home on Saturday evening, we went to San Francisco, Chicago, Lexington and arrived around lunchtime on Sunday).

But can we talk about my daughters? I have no idea how we were fortunate enough to adopt another adventure baby, but it appears to be the case. Maryn slept for six hours on the international flight and fussed loudly only for about two minutes on the San Francisco-Chicago flight. Every other time, she could be quickly consoled. But in the final mile of our drive home with Nana, whoa Nellie! did she holler. It would appear that 39 hours, 14 minutes of travel is her upper limit. Not bad for a six-month-old baby.

We all have jet lag and are sleeping at bizarre times, but Maryn is our dream baby and Carlyn is the most amazing big sister we could've hoped for. I am so blessed to have these two daughters.