Dec. 27th - Our first full day in Portland

Well, I've learned my brother can have infinite patience at times! He slept at the same end of the house last night as Miss Kaeli and I, which was unfortunate for him!

We had a wonderful, exhausting day yesterday as Kaeli got to know my parents and brother. She giggled and laughed and played with them, and ran to them with her arms outstretched. She learned to navigate over the immense (to her) differences in altitudes of the slate hallway floor and the living room/kitchen hardwood floors and the area rug in the living room. She put to test the child-proofing my parents had done before her arrival, and they passed with flying colors! Nai-Nai's still not sure about the glass topped coffee table in the living room...

We had a bath before bedtime (which Kaeli loves, and cries when she's taken out), and she fell asleep in my arms in the rocking chair as she drank her bottle of hot milk and rice formula. I put her to bed, and we thought the night was over. But we hadn't cleared it with Kaeli!

Kaeli was up and vocal at about midnight, and it took until almost 2pm to get her back to sleep - walking, rubbing her back, re-heating the bottle, etc. Doug met me in the kitchen while I was microwaving the bottle and pointed out that my daughter was screaming, and I thanked him for letting me know. I collapsed back into bed exhausted after she finally fell back asleep. Then she woke up again at 3:30 and started to wail, and this time I just stayed in bed and let her cry it out, which she did until 4:30am. Then we both got some sleep finally.

Nai-Nai (Gramma) woke us at 8:30am, and we went downstairs to celebrate our first Christmas as a three-generation family! Kaeli wore her sleepers and a t-shirt that said "With Love From China" and had a big red heart with the stars from the China flag on it. Kaeli got lots of wonderful presents, and REALLY enjoyed the wrapping paper they came in, of course! She loves to open her box of Lego blocks and spill them all out and then put them all back in the box, which is quite tidy of her! She also got several wonderful presents from friends of Nai-Nai and Ye-Ye and the Danowskis across the street and Tom Danowski's parents, which will all be enjoyed and put to good use!

The Danowskis (Sorry if I'm misspelling it!) from across the street came over to meet Kaeli in person, and their youngest son Paul (4 years old) wasn't quite sure about not being the youngest on the deck anymore, but we all had fun visiting. When Nai-Nai returned from volunteering at the local public library in the afternoon, two friends came back with her to met Kaeli also. Uncle Doug had taken her outside to walk in her squeaky shoes and she had been trundling up and down the block for quite awhile when Nai-Nai and Ye-Ye (Gramp) came home from the library. I think Uncle Doug had an ulterior motive to wearing her out doing laps around the block...

Ye-Ye feed her dinner on the kitchen floor in her booster chair, and then she rolled around with him for awhile before she got a bath in the kitchen sink, which also helped hose down most of the kitchen. We'll stick to the bathtub the next time around. She is asleep upstairs in the crib right now, and we hope that she'll make it through the night! Doug had also suggested that we move the crib to the other end of the house to Ye-Ye and Nai-Nai's bedroom, but they vetoed that idea.

Kaeli is having a great time here, and is just full of fun and smiles and humor. She is constantly on the go, chattering and singing to herself or to whoever she's playing with. She imitates people readily and thinks its great fun, and cackles and giggles.

I've enjoyed reading through our whole blog and seeing everyone's comments for the first time today. Thanks so much, everyone, for taking the time to keep up with us and to post comments! They mean so very very much to me and Laurie, and will to Kaeli in the future.

Mama is heading off to bed now, and hoping for a good night's sleep. She's thinking fondly of Laurie, who probably got a full deep night's sleep last night and will again tonight!

PS - the title for yesterday's blog (Dec. 26th Again!) was reference to the fact that Kaeli and I had TWO December 26ths this week. We're definitely looking forward to only ONE day each day for some time to come!!!