End of physical therapy!

Last Monday was Henry's very last day of physical therapy :(. We have both enjoyed playing with Miss Katie since June 2012, and it was sad (for mommy) to say goodbye to this amazing "adventure land" at Texas Children's Hospital for my little boy. To prolong our visits, I even suggested teaching Henry to work on cartwheels and back-flips, but nope, he's all caught-up with his peers :).

So, Mondays may now become our "lazy day" although I've thought about hiring a young and active Mandarin teacher-play-date to come to our house to "play" with Henry. The only Mandarin he hears on a regular basis comes from the CD Bilingual Songs: English-Mandarin Chinese by Sara Jordan. We love this CD because the songs are pretty upbeat and we usually break out into a questionable salsa shimmy. Anyway, I'll do some more research and hopefully I'll find someone soon.

As you can see, it's never a dull moment with my little one (all shots taken in April). Oh my, it's already May tomorrow! See you next month.

Future basketball star??

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Henry's starting to enjoy placing stickers
on his head, forehead, cheeks and mouth!

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Vroom-vroom!

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"Faster, daddy, faster!" As soon as daddy walks in,
Henry wants to play, play, play and play!

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Last day with Miss Katie :(.

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Our little Fire Chief. Love him!

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Having a giggling fit and
playing "spin the ball" with daddy.

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Henry would not stop talking about
this donkey all weekend long!

 

Our baby growing up

Our little boy is growing up so fast and I'm trying to treasure every single moment with him. When he's in school for only two days a week, I miss him terribly and will check in on him on the webcam to make sure he's not miserable, ha! When Henry is with me, we do have a lot of fun, and right now, we are taking advantage of our beautiful March weather. Almost every day he asks to visit the park, so that's what we do most of the time. It won't be long before the scorching summer months arrive forcing us to participate in indoor activities!

Here are some snapshots for this month :D.

This was taken in February but I wanted to include Henry's first
lion dance at our annual FCC Lunar New Year dinner. He cried when
the drums started but relaxed after a few minutes into the performance.

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Another beautiful day out at Hermann Park.

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Vroom, vroom!

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Henry LOVES parks and playgrounds!

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Catching some bubbles at our art class.

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Waiting for his second 6-month dental appointment
(he was very upset shortly after this picture was taken).

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Henry's first Easter Egg Hunt party at our friend's house.

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We were feeding the birds and ducks but they freaked me out
when they surrounded us begging for more bread!

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This boy loves the carousel!

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"Faster, daddy, faster!"
(at the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center).

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Racing down the slide with daddy
(yes, daddy is very competitive)!

 

Our first Gotcha Day anniversary!

Today we celebrate our first Gotcha Day or Forever Family Day! It has been ONE YEAR since we met and held our bundle of happiness. Look at the two photos below: 1) Henry at the Zhengzhou hotel (still wearing the same clothes he came in), and 2) Henry at our friends' son's birthday party last week. Hasn't he grown so much???

Our baby on 02.27.12 and 02.20.13.

I've been trying to find some time to write more about Henry as I know I've only been posting updated pics of our little guy (because it's easier and faster), so today I will focus on some of his wicked sense of humor.

1. Henry makes fun of his mommy's silly laugh and exaggerates until we burst out laughing again.
2. When he sees a person or animal sleeping, he makes snoring sounds.
3. When he's in his indecisive mood, he responds to mommy's huffing and puffing by saying "Eeeeeeeee!" (in an exasperated tone). This remark is commonly used, I believe, by people from Middlesbrough (northeast of England).
4. He likes to say "mommy off the computer" or "mommy off the phone."
5. When he wants to watch videos of himself on my iPhone, he repeatedly uses this series of words: "I did it, mmm, monkey, weeeee," which refer to four different video clips. Five seconds later he's navigating the toddler apps in another folder.
6. When we acknowledge something he says or recognizes, he'll confirm, "Henry's right again."
7. At the end of the "The Three Bears" book (by Byron Barton) when Goldilocks "ran and ran as fast as she could" Henry always has to jump off the sofa and run all around our living space.
8. One recent conversation between Henry and mommy:
   Henry: {He farts} "Excuse me. Henry toots."
   Mom: "Yes, Henry toots."
   Henry: "Daddy toots."
   Mom: "Yes, daddy toots."
   Henry: "Mommy toots."
   Mom: "Ooh no, mommy doesn't toot."
   Henry: "MOMMY TOOTS!" he cries.
   Mom: "Okay, mommy toots."
9. He rocks his head to the beat of the music in his car seat.
10. After every forward roll he makes, he giggles.

There are more but I've ran out of time as I hear thunderous pitter-patter upstairs! My little guy is awake from his nap....oh no, only an hour today?!

To celebrate our first Gotcha, we're heading out to a local Italian place for dinner tonight and we're giving Henry a small gift of a toddler-size Thomas the Tank Engine backpack (it's unbelievably tiny, so we can't really use it for school).

Take care for now, folks.

Linda

Happy January 2013!

Well, it's the end of January already and we're in the middle of our first ever cruise, so I'm just going to add some recent pics for now (I'm unable to add four of the ten photos, so I'll update another day!). Internet service is also very spotty and it's driving me crazy :O. Next month we celebrate our first Forever Family Day :) and our social worker will be visiting for our one-year post-adoption visit. Our little Henry still amazes us every single day with his progress, his personality and his "wicked" sense of humor.

Chat soon...
xox

Henry practicing "swimming" on the floor!

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This little guy LOVES his carousel rides!

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Waking up at 11:30 pm one night to read.

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Helping mummy make a Play-Doh ducky.

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Our first day on the cruise ship.

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An incredible year: 2012

Happy New Year's Eve! We've had an amazing 2012 and I still can't believe our little boy has been home for almost 10 months!! We've had an eventful December and I'm happy to report that Henry had a blast on Christmas Day opening all his presents. I don't have time to go into detail but here's a brief summary of our December happenings.

Happy New Year, folks!
xox

We created this photo to be included
with our Christmas card for family
and some friends (who also sent pics
of their kids or pets).

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Helping mama sealing Christmas
card envelopes with stickers!

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Learning to use chopsticks at our fave dim sum spot.

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He was totally fine until he sat on
Santa's lap (he still reminds us about
his Santa's visit like nothing happened!).

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One of my favorite pictures when he insisted on
wearing his cool shades for bath time!

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Sitting in front of the "oven mirror"
to check out his wooly beanie.

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Waiting for daddy to come home from work to open
another window of the Advent House Calendar (I made
this from an Amazon box; finding the gift surprises
were the most difficult part of the process for me!).

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Joining Henry at his preschool's Christmas party.

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My little artist squeezing in some
creative activity on Christmas Eve.

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Enjoying the swing with daddy at our
local playground on Christmas Eve.

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About to open the presents after breakfast
on Christmas Day.

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Although daddy helped Henry unwrap his gifts,
it still took about 1.5 hours (that's why we ate first!)!

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Oh my goodness, you've got to buy
"Symphony in B. Orchestra"
by B. Toys! It's currently sitting on
our coffee table and we ALL play
with it every single day! LOVE IT!

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Our happy sunshine on Boxing Day!
We saved the small toys in the
stockings to be opened the day after
Christmas Day :).

 

Our first Thanksgiving as a family: 11.22.12

Today was such a beautiful day in so many ways. My husband suggested we spend the day at the beach for Thanksgiving, so we packed up some lunch and headed over to Galveston. I'm not a fan of the sand and I didn't fancy the idea of having Galveston beach in my hair, but, man, did we have a perfect day! Gorgeous weather, quiet beach, cool sand, yummy lunch, and fun company with my hubby and baby.

It was Henry's first experience at the beach, so it was very interesting to watch him walk apprehensively on the wet sand...it was like he was walking on hot coal. His favorite part of the beach was naturally the water and he dragged daddy over to the sea about four times to get his feet—and eventually his lower body—wet. The boy loves water!! After demonstrating our lame sandcastle-building skills to our son, and over-doing the snapshots of our Thanksgiving experience, we brushed off the sand and packed up for home. We had planned on eating out for Thanksgiving dinner but we were all beat, so my husband cooked a lovely turkey-meatballs-with-pasta dish. Not quite the traditional turkey dinner, but there was nothing traditional about our day at the beach either. I will treasure this day forever: our first Thanksgiving as a family.

"Daddy, let me take care of this, okay?"

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I LOVE this picture so much
I'm going to enlarge it for our wall!

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Eating lunch and using daddy as his comfy chair

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Nibbling on sour cream and onion chip
(I just love how he holds it!)

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Probably asking for more chips here

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The little dude couldn't stop pulling my hair for this shot!

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Here it comes! Wee!!!

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Wet, wet, wet!

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The tiny size of my 20-year old beach towel
shows we are total rookies!

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A few finishing touches here and there

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Another one of my fave shots

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Henry ended up putting the "spade"
(spatula!) in his mouth!