Big Week

Our little girl just isn't going to do things by halves and its been an eventful week. Monday saw Cara crawling. Not just creeping, but genuine, knees and hands crawling. She isn't going too far too fast, only because she gets distracted by all the new things she passes on the way. So we haven't had to corral her away from the stairs yet. But the fascination with the floor, walls and chair legs will probably only last another couple of days and we have to get into some serious childproofing.

A bigger risk is that Cara seems to view crawling primarily as a means of getting to objects she can pull herself up on to stand. The set of things that are sufficiently stable with hand-holds at the correct height is still pretty small, but that doesn't stop her from trying! And of course the further up she manages to pull herself, the bigger the thunk when she falls down. We're doing our best to protect her from sharp corners and be there to catch at least many of the falls, but we have a feeling that she's going to be falling down a lot in the next few months.

She also cut her first tooth early in the week, resulting in a relatively sleepless night on Sunday after a slightly fussy day. The second lower incisor is on its way. Needless to say she is chewing on everything in reach and drooling. But otherwise seems mostly to be her usual sweet-natured self.

Which was a good thing since she got to meet Grandma and Grandpa this week! After initial shyness they both started to get lots of big Cara Hsiu-Wen smiles, giggles and babbles. She's a very talkative little girl at times, we all just wish we had a better understanding of what she was trying to say. Both grandparents enjoyed holding and playing with their granddaughter and were suitably impressed by her easy-going temperament. She did at least prove herself a proper baby by spitting up on Grandpa. They are looking forward to another visit and we are too, since between playing with Cara and helping out we finally made some significant progress on a few house projects!

Settling in

At long last, a post! We have a hard time believing that an entire month has gone by since we came home. But when we see how much more comfortable Cara Hsiu-Wen is now, clearly time has passed.

The first week wasn't exactly easy, especially regarding sleep. Which remains as issue, but mostly because our expectations keep increasing! She now sleeps mostly through the night in her crib, going to bed around 6:30 pm and usually requiring some pats and gentle sh's to go back to sleep when she wakes around 4 am. Some mornings we're lucky and she sleeps until 6 am, other mornings she is cooing in her crib by about 5:30 am. In either case she is okay hanging out in her crib babbling for about 30 minutes, so we never get her up until 6 am. Maybe as the sunrise gets later she'll start sleeping later?

Cara's early promise of crawling hasn't fully materialized into the full arms and knees version, but she can definitely move herself around just fine. At least on carpeting. Luckily she is still slow on the hardwoods (which is most of our house), although this morning when she really wanted to get to the cat she moved several feet in just a few minutes. The house isn't childproofed yet, but we have gates and cabinet locks so we're ready when she makes that next developmental jump.

And we are discovering that we've been blessed with a baby with generally a pretty easy temperament. Cara's on the high activity end, but in general hardly fusses and genuinely seems happy most of the time. Not extremely outgoing, but warms to new people fairly quickly. Her smile will melt steel, and possibly cameras since it is very hard to capture in a photo! We're still working on getting the full effect to post.

We saw the pediatrician two weeks ago and he gave Cara a clean bill of health. Since that time she's grown out of some onesies and pants, so all that formula she's chugging down isn't just passing through. Still working on getting her used to solid food.

Hopefully now that things have calmed down a bit and we're all a little more used to eachother we'll be able to post more often.

Addendum: I take that back. As of today (7/2) Cara is definitely crawling! We're not sure if we're delighted or terrified.

Getting to know eachother

Home at last, with blogger back in English and my own keyboard. Much easier to post.

Tuesday was AIT day, that is the day we had an appointment for the American Institute in Taiwan to apply for a visa for Cara Hsiu-Wen to come to the US and become and American citizen. In most countries this would take place at a US consulate, but since the US doesn't officially recognized Taiwan as a nation there is an alternative organization that serves most of the same functions. Again we were happy to have Mei-Ru's help to navigate the different forms and lines, especially in our sleep-deprived state. The immigration official we spoke with was extremely friendly and seemed genuinely happy to be helping us bring our daughter home. For future information, the men's bathroom at the AIT does have baby changing facilities - yes, C is becoming quite the pro.

The rest of our stay was comprised of trying to figure out how to parent Cara Hsiu-Wen, and a bit of sight-seeing and shopping. The Taipei subway, the MRT, helped the later two enormously. We carried our daughter in the sling which made manuevering easy, and people were very friendly. And of course the MRT is air conditioned, a necessity for us heat wimps.

At times I regretted having scheduled an extra day beyond the necessary picking up Cara Hsiu-Wen, but in the end it was a real blessing. The second day was probably the hardest - we think that she finally started to figure out that this wasn't just an overnight, and that her life had been totally turned upside down. By Wednesday we had gotten better at soothing her and she seemed to be feeling more comfortable with us. And by Thursday we were having a lot of good quiet, interactive play time and better still finally deciphered the sleep key - the proper application of the binky.

We didn't get to see a lot of Taipei, but enjoyed what we saw. We visited Taipei 101 a second time, simply for having a sizable air-conditioned space to wander through, and a bit of quiet. Taipei is definitely a bustling city. We also made a visit to the hospital Cara Hsiu-Wen was born in, to get some photos for her lifebook. Trips to the handicraft center and the Longshan Temple rounded out our tourist experiences. Travelling with an infant definitely changed my perspective, for instance family bathrooms with changing areas suddenly appeared on my radar. We're looking forward to returning to Taiwan when our daughter is older to explore more of the country.

Family Day

On Monday we drove down to Taichung to pick up Hsiu-Wen with Mei-Ru, an employee of our agency in the US. It is wonderful to have someone helping out who knows the ropes, where to go and what to expect from a newly adopted baby. We arrived at the Taichung Womens and Children Agency at about 11 am where we were joined by Samantha, a social worker for TWCA. We then proceeded directly to the nanny's house where we met our daughter.

We hesitated to hold Hsiu-Wen at first. She seemed so happy in her nanny's arms, and neither of us wanted to be first. But eventually I stepped forward and took her from the nanny. She came to me quietly, and seemed contented as the camera's clicked photos. We posed for a few, with C and with the nanny. And also asked the nanny many questions about our little girl - how many naps, what helped her sleep, if she has problems with diaper rash. The nanny clearly has cared for Hsiu-Wen very well.

Back to the agency to sign a few papers. Unfortunately the birth mother didn't want to meet with us. She did, however, send a big bag of gifts, along with some photos taken at Hsiu-Wen's birth and her umbilical cord. She had requested that she be able to keep the photo pages, which we of course assented to. In the package is a warm suit with a lined hood - I think she must have noticed the photos of us skiing, and pictures us taking Cara Hsiu-Wen up to the snow. It is clear she cares deeply for this beautiful little girl. Even if we never meet her, I hope our daughter does some day.

After picking up some necessities at the baby gear store, we stopped at a highway rest stop for lunch. C held her initially, then I took her to let C finish his lunch. And was soon baptised as a parent, as Cara Hsiu-Wen grabbed the (thankfully) almost finished bowl of noodles from in front of me and dumped the contents on to me and the floor. Artfully missing herself. She's a clever girl!

After I cleaned up C had the honor of performing his first diaper change and later gave her a bottle of formula as we were driving back to Taipei. She's a chugger - downed the bottle in under 10 minutes and soon fell asleep on my lap. We returned to the hotel room, tired but happy. And Cara Hsiu-Wen seemed remarkably content. Another diaper change, most of a bottle and we headed out for dinner, where she fell asleep in the rezobo a friend loaned us.

Sleep the first night wasn't quite as easy. The bath went well - she loves baths! But the rest was harder. We didn't know how to soothe her, and she was clearly both tired and uncomfortable being away from everything familiar. After several wakings, soothings and going back to sleep, she fell into a deeper sleep and we all got some rest. The midnight bottle and diaper change were a little traumatic too, mostly due to our ineptitude. Lesson two (one being what you have on the table in arms reach) - don't try to change a diaper in the dark if you aren't a diaper changing pro!

And we become parents

Not much energy to post, and blogspot is putting all the commands in chinese characters so I'm having a hard time adding any photos. Our trip down to Taichung yesterday went extremely well and Hsiu-Wen has now officially joined our family as Cara Hsiu-Wen M. L. She is now playing on the bed with C. and clearly will be crawling very soon. Hopefully I'll figure out which button adds the photo soon! We have lots of wonderful ones.

Big day

Our trip to Taipei was thankfully uneventful. We met up in Narita Airport as planned and flew on to Taipei where we were met by C's colleague. I was able to sleep most of the Narita-Taipei leg, so C convinced me to wander around the area close to our hotel for a bit before going to bed. Surprisingly lively at 10 pm at night! We found an ATM, picked up some bottled water from a conveinence store and some wonderful friut from a street vendor. Delicious pineapple. I'm looking forward to more of that!

Yesterday was sightseeing, the primary focus being the National Palace Museum. Fascinating exhibits of artifacts from 6000 years of Chinese history. The only drawback was that half of Taipei seemed to be in the museum as well, making viewing of some of the rooms difficult. Next time we'll try to go on a weekday. We also wandered the nearby garden - quite lovely, but also quite busy. When I have time to download our photos I'll post one from there.

The heat was getting extreme by the time we were done wandering through the garden, and good food places were not in evidence in the immediate area. So we headed back into the main part of town, to Taipei 101 where C knew there was a large food court. Not just large- huge! Eventually we choose from the vast selection of yummy looking options and happily settled down to a late lunch of noodles. The rest of Taipei 101 is essentially just a really large mall, with a selection of stores you could find in Tokyo, Paris or New York. Not that interesting for us, except for the wonderful opportunity to people watch.

We've both been waking early, with the benefit of being able to get out for morning runs. Slow ones, as the morning temperature is still around 80F with high humidity. This morning we ran through a near-by park, Da'an. It was extremely busy at 6 am, with other runners, walkers and many, many people doing T'ai Chi as well as various forms of callisthenics. We came back through campus where we have discovered a park area with a pond featuring a remarkable selection of wildlife for being in the middle of a city. Birds, fish, turtles, dragonflies. And a little marmalade cat, lurking amid the bushes.

But today is our big day. Mei-Ru picks us up in about an hour. Time for some breakfast. I'll post more soon.

Ready to go

Just a short note as I gather the last pieces together. This whole process is rather surreal, especially given that C is away. Just realizing that tonight might be my last night alone in the house for a very long time. Wondering how it will feel to leave work in a hurry to be back with my baby girl, rather than lingering over last details. And musing on how it will feel to be needed by someone in such a basic way.

I'm also very excited to be visiting Taiwan and starting a relationship not only with this beautiful little girl, but really with an entire culture. C's ties to Chinese culture haven't been exactly strong and I think we're both eager to focus a little more on that culture. Not only the foods and holidays, but to take the time to actually understand some of the history and complex philosophy/religion that is so central to that history. In all our spare time when we aren't running around trying to keep up with our little girl.

I think we've decided on a name, but it's hard to make final decisions over email and IM. We'll definitely post on the blog once she has a first name, since I know many of you are waiting to find out. Next post from Taiwan!