A year at home...

Nyah Kate Jinpei has now been in our family, here in the US, for one complete year. We arrived home on September 12, 2008. It has been a wonderful year and while we have questioned our parenting skills plenty of times over these 12 months, we would certainly not change a thing. Nyah is so much more mischievous and wild than our other kids. She has not only tested our childproofing skills, but she has also done some redecorating for us... just yesterday she decided our dining room chairs would look much better fluorescent orange ~ thankfully she finished only one before we got to express our opinion on her choice. But with all the frustration has come a new level of joy and we have been truly blessed to have Nyah become part of the S family.

Nyah continues to want to be a big girl... she insists on doing everything herself from putting shoes on, to getting dressed, to getting in her crib, to putting the mail in the mailbox, to buckling her car seat. She also has quite a stubborn streak and will throw a tantrum, and a huge one at that, at any given moment that has not gone according to her plan. We have never had a child really be a "terrible two" and I think a lot of it is Nyah's lack of language. She understands everything but still has a limited speaking vocabulary and in just the past few weeks starting saying two word phrases. Our others were more challenging at three... we are keeping our fingers crossed that she is just topping out early. I don't have a picture of a tantrum in progress though we do see this pouty face a lot, though usually not with smiling eyes and always with the sound of "Nooooo" in the air...

It is a good thing she is so stinkin' cute because she can be quite rotton at times! :)

Nyah is very into routines, especially when it comes to cleaning up and putting things in the right place. She has an incredible memory. She is giggly and silly. She loves Dora the Explorer the best, though Mickey and Minnie Mouse are pretty cool too. She continues to love music ~ both singing songs and dancing. She started gymnastics class this week and music class last week and she LOVED them! I think she will end up being a good gymnast. She has amazing arm strength and is flexible and I don't see her fearful of swinging around the parallel bars. Here she is ready for gymnastics class... hair by Nyah.

From here on out, I will post updates about Nyah to our family blog. I plan on leaving this blog up for a few more weeks and then making it into a book for Nyah. Thank you to everyone who prayed for us and followed along on this amazing journey!

Nyah... one year in the S family...

Nyah has been with us 1 year today. Going through all the pictures tonight, to pick one from each month, was pretty amazing... how she has changed from being such a baby to being a spirited little girl in just 12 months. She is our wild child and while I must admit that her mischievous and stubborn ways have led to some gray hair for mom, Nyah's antics and silliness have brought lots and lots of laughter and joy to our house. We are blessed to be her family!

In the middle is Nyah (though we called her Pei Pei most of the time back then) one year ago today, after we cleaned her up from being car sick on the ride from the orphanage to Nanchang. Then clockwise from the top left is a picture from each month she has been home, starting in September. The cheesy grin makes a few appearances along with her crazy hair styles!

I'll post later this month with an update on all Nyah is up too...

A Bit of Nyah's Past Revealed

The other day I received an email from someone who does work in the Jiangxi Province of China and offers books, cd's, and information to adoptive families. He mentioned that he had recently done work in Wanzai, where Nyah is from, and had found many foster mothers' names and addresses. I already knew Nyah's foster mom's name but did not have an address. We have the name and address for Brynn's foster mom and we write several times a year to her and have received letters back that include details about her early life we would never know about otherwise so I was eager to have that for Nyah. I inquired about the price and gave him the foster mom's name I had been given by the orphanage directors when we met Nyah.

He emailed me back and said he had a different name and asked me to send the picture I had shown the directors (from Nyah's 1st birthday in March 2008) to see what he could find out.

It turns out Nyah had two foster families. She lived with one until she was 7 months old. Then, in September 2007, Nyah got sick with a high fever and had to be hospitalized. Since the family had another child at home, they could not care for Nyah at the hospital so a new foster family took over (the one I knew about) and they raised her until we met her in September 2008.

I now have the names and addresses for both families and next week I will be writing and sending pictures to three very special women in China... to Brynn's foster mom about her first day of school and a letter to each of Nyah's thanking them for caring for her and requesting to know a little more about her early months. What a blessing!

11 months in our arms... or wiggling out of them!

Nyah has still kept us busy this month... she is a bundle of energy. Not a lot of changes... just a lot more singing but you still can't understand a word of the songs even though she carries a good tune. Here are a few favorite captures of the month.

Nyah and her goggles. She loves them. The hairstyles when she wears them make me laugh.

Ice is now a new word and a new obsession. She never wants water at the pool, just the ice please. Her mouth is full of it here.

Nyah's first 4th of July as a citizen. She liked the fireworks and tolerated the sparklers.

Nyah at Virginia Beach in her "Dooda" bathing suit.

More goggles. And watermelon ~ she loves it. This was at a 4th of July picnic.

Also at the 4th of July picnic. She is singing songs with an adult neighborhood friend and a few other girls.

Nyah at the beach lovin' the noodles. She LOVES noodles.

Oh, look. Nyah in goggles.

Nyah again at the beach. She would send us to get water for her in her pail. A few times she put her pail on its side facing the ocean knowing the waves would come in and fill it. She didn't count on the wave going back out again and would be furious when her bucket, somehow still in the same spot, was empty.

The Nyah-nator (as Evan still calls her) did not break this shovel. Perhaps the one thing she hasn't broken.

Playing at the park.

After being caught by a wave. She recovered quickly though.

Not the best picture but I love her expression. She loves to do what her big sister is doing. Brynn is slowly learning to appreciate it and in the past week, they have really had a much improved relationship. She did her own hair here.

More goggle hair.

And one final "CHEESE!" to hold you over until next month, the big ONE year anniversary and the final two posts... one on the first and the last on the 12th.

10 Months Home!

Nyah experienced the full craziness of the S family this month... with school out, she was surrounded by four other kids 24-7. She loves it of course ~ the busier the better for Ny-Ny. Her nap schedule has been non-existent though she has done okay with that as long as there are not too many days in a row without one.

The month started off with a trip to Disney. She loved the Small World ride but that is no surprise since she seems to LOVE music ~ listening to it and dancing to it. The toy soldier dolls were her favorite. She slept on the plane (yeah!) but not before she broke the headphones. We went bowling before our flight. Aren't those the cutest bowling shoes ever??

She also has gone from being wary of the pool to having "pool" be the first word out of her mouth each morning. She wears goggles all the time. She does NOT want an adult to hold on to her at the pool.

We spend a lot of time at the pool and the ballfields. She prefers the pool. Have I mentioned she loves the pool??!!

Nyah and Brynn continue to have a rocky relationship and Nyah continues to be distraught if she thinks someone is leaving the house and not bringing her with them.

She has become extremely talkative but there is still the issue of understanding what she is saying. Compared to other 2-year olds her language is definitely delayed. She tells long stories in one syllable... eehhhhhhhhhhhh. She sings long songs in one syllable... eehhhhhhhh. Sometimes she changes the pitch and volume but it is always... eehhhhhhhhh. Sometimes the eehhhh's go on so long that people feel the need to remind her to breathe! Words that are understandable that she has added to her vocab are Mitch (a neighborhood friend), Wawa (water), please (FINALLY!), Mickey (as in Mouse), Dora (sounds like Doda), Evan (Eda) and Nyah (sounds like Ny-Ny). She does not say "No" but her high pitched scream pretty much gets that point across.

More next month!

9 months home for Pei Pei

Here are a few of my favorite photos of Nyah from May... her ninth month in the S family!

Nyah continues to be a very active little girl! She is picking up new words everyday though you really have to know the context to understand most of them. "Ice cream" is one of the most understandable ones; in fact, since she loves to eat most of her words are about food. Nyah also has come up with her own sign language for key words that she is refusing to say or try to say. Nyah really likes the pool... she plays very seriously in the baby pool and is starting to show curiosity about the big pool, though I am not encouraging it since it is still too cold for me to get in with her. Nyah even ventured into the lake at her cousins graduation party, in the arms of his girlfriend. She loves to play at the park (we spend a lot of time there during ball games), trying to do all the big kids do and succeeding 90% of the time... some of things she can climb up at her small size are amazing and the girl can hang from a bar longer than any child I know. Nyah continues to be a collector... notice how in the one picture she looks like a tourist ~ on the way out the door she picked up the hat, her cup, her music player, and her backpack (another word she says very clearly). Nyah loves music and dancing, often wearing her sisters ballet shoes to bed and around the house and taking her brother's guitar into the crib at naptime. Nyah also continues to love animals and shoes. We are headed to Disney this month which should be quite an adventure but probably not as much as the one we will undertake when we return... potty training. She is an entire year younger than any of my other kids were when we did it but she is clearly showing interest and no fear. Wish us luck!

8 months with Nyah...

Nyah continues to keep us busy because from the moment she wakes up until anywhere between 5-60 minutes after she is put in her crib, she is living life full force. She has totally embraced being 2... I have found 3 to be the difficult age with the others and have always wondered why the 2's had a terrible reputation... now, I know. Nyah is quite set in her ways and demands we all do things her way, on her schedule, and retaliates with hitting, kicking, and just ignoring. She is now well aware of the time-out seats in our house! She still basically grunts for things but believe me, she understands it all. Just in the past week she has picked up a bunch of new words though unless you know the context, you would never understand her. She shouted "Evan" across the ball field the other day and demanded more "Pizza" a few nights this week. She still is obsessed with shoes, hers and ours, and runs to put hers on when she senses someone leaving the house. She demands hair accessories now that her sister is growing her bangs out and is wearing them and if you compliment Brynn, you better have a compliment for Nyah too because she will fuss until you notice something about her. Here are some of my favorite photos of her from April:

Nyah had her first visit to the beach... liked to swim, loved the ice-cream cone, loves her daddy, tolerated the sand...

Nyah was completely dressed when she started jumping. The girl loves to take her clothes off. Not exactly a great hobby, especially when it is in her crib at nap time; we are trying to outwit her on that one...

Nyah likes to write... on paper, on walls, on herself, on her pillow, on the crib... this is how mommy's face looks when I see where she has written...

Nyah loves her siblings... loves to play with the boys and loves to harass Brynn. Here she climbed in bed with Caleb, who was home sick from school...

Nyah loves to put on clothes that others are putting on. If it is dance day, dance clothes. If it is soccer day, old soccer shirts (she is also into doing her own hair now too)...

Nyah loves to eat and give cheesy grins and make snarky faces...

And she loves to just look cute!!

More next month...

7 months with Nyah!

At the beginning of March, we had our only major snowfall of winter. Nyah screamed and cried when I walked towards her with the snowpants (how in the world does she even know they are not typical clothes??), cried when I tried to put gloves on her, and pitched another fit when the boots went on. I debated whether this was even worth it.

She was grumpy in the yard before we went to the hill and she was grumpy on the top of the hill and let us know it.

But one slide down was all it took. Look at that smile. She spent the rest of the time grunting and looking down the hill, wanting to go again. She is the wild one!

The Wanzai orphanage Yahoo group has mentioned on several occasions while I was preparing to leave for China that Wanzai girls have a thing for shoes. I laughed. I wear the same two pairs of shoes all cold months and rotate between the same two pairs of sandals all summer. I have one pair of running shoes. Nyah simply would not have an obsession for shoes because her environment just wasn't conducive to it. WRONG! The girl is never wearing shoes... her own that is. She spends all day going to our laundry room shoe baskets and picking a pair for the hour. Typically they are Brynn's because she those are big enough for her to get on but not so big that she still can't run around the house. SO funny! Since she is stubborn and difficult and runs from me now with the camera I have no pictures of this... yet.

The girl refuses to wear things in her hair if I ask her to but at least once a day she comes to me with an elastic hair band, just one, and insists I put it in. She then giggles when she looks in the mirror.

And she loves to dance. I have no pictures of this, but she even dances to the beat of the copier at the elementary school while we wait for Brynn's speech lesson to be over.

She also loves to be like the big kids... swinging on the big equipment...

and writing...

and this one... who sits like this? Her big brother Caleb while doing his homework, so Nyah, of course, did the same thing.

Not so funny in the moment but funny later is the fact that she now loves to strip off all her clothes before her nap and bedtime. That was okay until the diaper came off too but luckily, that only happened a few of the times.

Not so funny at all are the two-year old tantrums. She is tantruming frequently now... several times a day! I'm thinking two more years of this might put me over the edge. She knows exactly when to do it to for the most impact. We may not leave the house for a while (as if that is possible)!

And last but not least, here she is at Price's birthday party. What part of the cake does she like best??

But she does get clean... CHEESE!