First Halloween

This is Leia's first Halloween so we thought we would start it off right. We took her down the road to Snead's Farm where they have fall weekend where they sell pumpkins, do tractor rides, kettle corn consumption, and hot cider. Leia loved it. Especially the chickens. She has actually learned to communicate with them using the "buck buck buck" chicken vernacular. There were cows there also whom she saluted with a "moooooo". With that done we picked out our pumpkin and headed home to put on Leia's Halloween costume. Pics above.

BBQ

The other day we had a BBQ at our house with friends and family attending. It was a great time. I even had 5 gallons of home brew for everyone to enjoy. Leia enjoyed all of the attention especially from Mary Cunningham who taught Leia how to shake hands.

Leia is doing exceedingly well. She runs all over the house climbing chairs, sofas, stairs, and even the dining room table She loves playing on the phone and has even accidently called 911 from my cell phone. Luckily I was able to catch the operator before firetrucks and ambulances were dispatched to our house.

Leia is also learning many new words and is making a strong effort to get her point across. Our next trip out of town will be Thanksgiving to our family in New Jersey.

Some pics above.

Pics of Princess Party Pants

Cool Hand Leia

Leia is so cool!!

She is full of smiles and play. In the morning after she has been given a bottle or food we will go into the living room and read a few books. The literary kind like Duck In A Truck or Gorilla Goes To Sleep. Her favorite choice of book are the ones with the colorful pictures of animals or fruit. She will point to them and blurpble out her interpretation of the object. Usually you can make out the word. Banana is "nana", Giraffe is "ur-aff", or Lamb which is "lamp". For some reason Bottle is "dadieee". Like in the cartoons I must be a walking plastic jug full of Similac.

Nina has developed a new hobby of buying Leia cute outfits and dresses. Cannot say I blame her. Leia is the coolest baby to don on purple pajamas. Above is our latest picture of the Super Star "Lady Leia", thats her rap moniker.

Other than that life is great. I love watching her grow and change. Everyday we see something new from her.

Jesse

Update

It has been a while since we have updated the blog. Things are going well. I am home from work now on a permanent basis. My employer is keeping me on with the company on retainer. If there is some work I would like to do they will throw it my way.

I will soon be starting school again to beef up on my web development skills. Meanwhile I am home with Leia half the day while Nina takes the latter shift. Together time is usually around 2-5 PM where the whole family does something like going to the pool or a hike. At night I am still teaching Jiu-Jitsu classes in Fredericksburg.

Being a stay-at-home Dad has been great so far. I can really appreciate the changes that Leia has made over the last 3 months. When we got her she could not walk yet, did not speak much, and was insecure about leaving our side.

Now she sits confidently in the same room with us playing by herself if need be. She is still always seeking our attention especially if we are on the computer. She wants to play with the keyboard too! She loves to play with us both and I keep coming up with new games to keep her busy. Like lifting her up in the air with my two feet while holding her hands as she 'flies' over Dada.

She is running all over the place now and is always trying to talk. I bought some flashcards online from a teacher's supply store that shows a letter of the alphabet and a related picture of an object with the first letter. She may not be able to say 'elephant' but she can differentiate the correct object when asked.

She also is a great fan of dogs. It is probably her favorite word. Nina and I will have to get a nice little dog for her when she gets older. My vote is for a Jack Russell.

Well that is about it for now. I will try to post some pictures next time.

Jesse

Weekend In Ocean City New Jersey

This week the three of us went back to my old stopping grounds in South Jersey. We spent the weekend on a hotel on the board walk. Right outside were the dark green waves of the Atlantic gently rolling across the sandy shell ridden beach. The smell of funnel cake and pop corn gently wafted across the air with the shrill sounds of 50,000 children begging their parents for a quarter for the arcade. Brings back memories. Leia had a great time playing in the surf. The sand itself was a minor barrier for her. She felt safest on our lap while she let the sand pour through her little hands.

While playing feed Dada sand I accidentally bit one of her fingers. Not hard enough to bleed or leave a mark but enough for her to bawl up with the most mournful cry a parent could ever hear. I quickly whisked her away into the ocean where she quickly forgot the sharp bite and began laughing as we jumped the breakers.

We also visited with the other half of my family. They were thrilled to see her. We all shared in a BBQ. My brother and grown up sister was there. Boy time sure flies when you are away.

Pictures are attached for all to see.

Grammy makes a visit.

Grandma Handal stopped by to play with Leia today. Leia had a great time. It looks like she also is fond of hand bags.

Leia Conquers Walking and Fescue

Leia has been walking around much more recently. She toddles throughout the house showing more balance and determination each time.

I am home now on a permanent basis. I still go into work on retainer once a week to help tie up loose ends. I love being home with Leia. There is a lot of one on one interaction between us and I think it has helped her develop so much during the last few months. Above are some videos and pictures.

Leia in West Virginia

We have been in WV for the last few days. Leia has been visiting all of her family here and a few farm yard friends. Pictures above.

Summer Fun

Just some pictures from 4th of July and of the family goofing off around the house.

Fun with Leia.

Over the last few weeks we have seen Leia grow and become more comfortable with her new family. She seems very attached to Nina and I and I cannot help but feel so attached to her. Every day she shows me something new about herself. Gratefully she loves our attention.

My favorite time with her during the day is play time and nap time. When we play we are together on the carpet chasing each other around the house. We play sort of a hide and go seek tag game. She will crawl a way from me for a few feet and then look back with a devilish smile. I will stare at her for a few seconds still as rock. Then quickly I bounce up and crawl after her. This sends Leia into a fit of laughter as I chase her around the table on all fours. Other times I will hide behind an object like her crib and just peer at her with my eyes before disappearing behind the corner. She will quickly giggle and begin to follow me. Sometimes she will see through my plan and do a U-turn to cut me off at the pass. What fun!!!

Nap time is great because we just sit in the rocking chair while she lies on my stomach. I will sing to her the Intsy Wintsy spider song and an old Scottish ballad. As she drifts off to sleep I will hum the tune and then slowly stop. Either I will fall asleep with her or I will plop her into the crib.

Lately we have been going to the pool. She is a real water baby. I cannot wait until she learns how to swim and we can do some snorkeling.

Below are some videos from today's event.

Jesse

One small step for Leia.......

Leia is doing very well. We came back from Richmond yesterday after seeing the doctor who is also a specialist in international adoption. She gave us an evaluation on her health and a second specialist evaluated Leia in relation to none-adopted babies. Physically she is doing fairly well. She is slightly underweight so the doctor recommended we put more food into her belly. And we thought we were stuffing her already. Remember when Garfield would eat so much lasagna his feet could not touch the ground. Leia almost seems to have the same type of belly. She could out compete your typical NFL watching couch potato in belly size.


Milestones wise she is close behind what would be considered normal. Our doctor commented that she seems very well attached to both of us. I guess all of that time rolling around with her on the floor paid off. She is a very physical baby and shows a lot of spunk. I hope she wants to do Ju-Jitsu like her dad because she will be a terror on the mat. She still says Da-Da a lot. Da-Da is me one minute or the remote control the next followed by a cucumber sitting on my plate. Eventually she will learn that I am much more cuddly then a vegetable.


Tomorrow Nina and I plan on taking a big trip out to the farmers market to buy some vegetables and fruit. It is hard to by organic food around here so hopefully the farmers market will have a better selection.


We hope to unveil Leia to the general public on Fourth of July. We think she is ready to see more of her family and in slightly larger numbers. Until then. Below is a video of Leia's first attempts at walking. We hope she leaping over horse jumps by the end of June. We will keep our fingers crossed.

A Typical Day In The Bellavance Family - Nina's Post

Today was CLASSIC. i go to town for my Dr apt in the am, meet Jesse and baby in Fred town afterwards for a stroller ride around town. baby is feeling insecure and wants to be held NOT pushed in a stroller. We feed her, hang out have iced tea from Hyperion and then go to head home. She's never ridden in my car, in my car's car seat. So she started crying the moment we started off. I drove about 20 feet before being pulled over by a cop!!! Only place in busy city street to pull aside was in spot right next to some guys pressure washing the front of a building. UGH, so baby red faced tears streaming, sweat beads all over her head, pressure washer on my left and cop behind me. Turns out my plates expired in February. OOPS. Cop writes ticket, baby still melting down. I call Jesse on my cell since he's only a block away (he was at a store where I had dropped my wallet retrieving said item for me.....motherhood WILL Kill your braincells and you will do stupid things like give baby your wallet to distract her while you pay for a purchase and when she drops the wallet you will forget to pick it up because she will cry at the very instant your brain says "pick up wallet" and that message gets overwritten with "must calm baby down" so you forget to pick up the wallet) Some time in all of this ticket writing mess I am sitting in the back seat of the car with the baby trying to calm her down. I realize that since the windows were down and the pressure wash spray was coming in the car that it might be a good idea to crank the AC an roll up the windows. So I fumble with the door to get out. In the process my iPhone slips from my lap, and gets crushed in the car door. It decided to die on me. Oh well, who cares right? I mean what else could go wrong? Right so shortly after the iPhones death Jesse shows up, rescues Leia from the car seat of DOOM and she calms down the instant shes in his arms. Cop finishes writing me the ticket (80 some bucks cha ching expensive day in Fred Town...that will teach us country folk to stay out of the big city!)) Jesse takes Leia home (she likes his car seat) I drive to city hall 2 blocks away and park and pay my registration fee. Cop is behind me says that he will call the judge and tell him to waive the fee IF I show up for my court date. Visions of Leia in the car seat earlier surface in my tired brain and I say "Thanks but I think I'll pay my fine by mail" So here I am unencumbered by baby all of a sudden. I drive to Morton's to pick up the weed-wacker Jesse had dropped off before we went to China. But lol and behold Jesse and Leia are already there. As I pull up Jesse is walking out of the store with the weedwacker in one hand, baby tucked under the other arm. I love this man really I do, but there is NO ROOM for a weed wacker and a Baby in his tiny Subaru Forester. So I convince him that it is best for ME to take the weedwacker home. (I think he was going to place it in the front seat and out the sunroof. But the image made me think that Leia could possibly get bonked in the head during any phase of this weed wacker transportation mission). So once again my spouse and baby head off for home and I go to the ATT store and find out what they can do for my phone. Which turns out to be NADA In some miraculous twist of fate the things TURNS ON and actually works. Wow. So my phone works for now,it's weird, before when I smashed it in the car it was a bit confused about what it's purpose in life was, but now it seems to act like an iPhone again so I am relieved that I won't be spending the big bucks to get a new one.WHEW, what a day!

Nina B

12 Hours of Sleep = Nice

For the last few days Leia has been sleeping a fairly consistent 12 hours a night. Her schedule is to go to bed at 7:30 PM and wake up at around 7:00 AM. Six days ago it was chaotic as she was in China time and adjusting to Eastern Standard Time.

We sort of have her on a schedule now. Up at 7:00 AM, feed, play on the floor for a few hours, nap, feed, play for a few hours or take a stroll at the park, feed, play, and then sleep. It has been fun so far. Every day we see something new come out of her.

Today she showed some courage by playing in a big empty cardboard box with me. We laughed inside together. Later we went to Nina's barn where she flipped out when the very nice yellow lab came close to her. It takes time of course.

She is really the guiding star in my life now and I love seeing the small changes and steps forward she makes.

Jesse

Hey Its 3 AM What Are You Doing With Your Baby?

Nina and I are up. Forgot to mention Leia is up also. I have been taking care of Leia and Nina. Leia is fine and just gets into things. Nina must of caught some chicken flu zombie virus in China because the only thing I hear from her room are moans.

Leia must love books because she has pulled all of them from our lower book shelves. Other than that nothing is new. Our grass is so over grown that in another week or so it will revert to forestland. Lots of things to do while away from work. Hope everyone else on our trip is doing well. We miss all of you guys already. Also miss Xixi and the wonderful food.

Jesse.

Shhhhhh. She is asleep.

We came back from China last night. What a hellacious return trip. Nina has come down with some bug and is laid up in bed with tissues in her nose. I started my antibiotics a few days ago and have begun to feel a lot better. I think we caught something from Leia. Ahhhhh parenthood.

Right now Leia is snoozing away in her crib. Our old family rocking chair has come into good use now. Leia will rest her head on my chest and I we will both fall asleep. Once I am sure she is in dreamland I will carefully place her into the crib. It is like defusing a bomb. One false move and BLAMMO, she is up. I call it cutting the red wire. But I think my technique has improved.

One piece of our luggage was lost. The one with all of the gifts. Luckily they found it and are dropping it off at our house today. Sunday at that. So despite the headache we will give American Airlines kudos for getting it back to us.

Nina and I would also like to thank all of our friends and family that have helped us out. Jeff for watching our house. Rachel and family for stopping buy to water our plants and for providing us with food on our return to we did not have to go out shopping right away. And also my Mom and Jady for driving us home from the airport.

Well its onto parenthood. I hear a faint whimper coming from upstairs. Until later.

Jesse

Earthquake Up North

Hello everyone.

We are fine. The Earthquake was way up north. We barely felt a tremor.

Will post again soon.

Jesse

Leia's Mile Stones

It has been busy for us the last few days taking Leia here and there.  Yesterday we went to the gardens in Guangzhou.  They are really beautiful in their own right but with the 2008 Olympics around the corner the gardens have been Disneyified with cartoon like anime creatures and gaudy looking building props.   It was a really nice day though.  Visibility was about 2 miles which really makes the city look bigger than it is under normal conditions.  

Yesterday we also went out to dinner with the other families to a Thai restaurant on Shemian Island.  I got my traditional Masaman Chicken and mango sticky rice for dessert.

Yesterday we also had the traditional family photo done at the hotel. All of the families in the adoption group buy a traditional Chinese outfit for their daughter and have their picture taken on the White Swan's red couch.  Because we were rushed Nina and I ran into a store right around the corner and almost picked one at random.  We will get her a real one later.  The ones in town seem cheap.  Photo is below. 

Leia is really starting to open up with only 5 days of one on one attention.  When we picked her up she seemed very introspective.  She would quietly sit in your arms and look around.  Today sits on the floor with us and loves to play.  She is a great mimic.  When I yawn she will open her mouth right after me.  I have a game I play with here where I thrown my arms in the air or grab my stomach and she will follow along.  I cannot wait to play Simon Says with her.  I think I have taught her to say Da Da but it could be Mandarin for "white man with big nose".  She is great fun to play with.  She also has a great laugh.

She is also actively crawling around now and can stand with some help.  She can pull her self up to a standing position with the help of a stationary object but has yet to master the balance for standing on her own.  She is a quick learner though.

Nina is feeling a little sick.  Probably something we ate or fecal poisoning from handling diapers.

Sick Baby

Since we have had Leia she has had a snotty runny nose and a gurgly cough.  It cleared up a day or so ago and it came back today.  So we took her to the hotel Doctor who told us she has a mild case of bronchitis.  The doctor recommended some antibiotics that they could give us or use the ones on hand they our own pediatrician prescribed.  After placing a 10:00 PM call to our Dr. in Richmond she concurred and suggested that we also give her some benedryl to clear up some of her chest congestion.   

Leia likes to be held a lot.  She is most comfortable when we are walking around with her or just standing.  But if we sit down in a seat half the time she will begin to whimper, cry or squirm.  My routine for getting her to sleep is to rock her for about 1/2 hour before bedtime, which here is about 9:00PM.  Once she is limp I slowly ease her down into the crib while rocking.  She will usually wake for about 30 seconds throwing a minor fit and then will just switch off and go back to sleep.  She sleeps pretty soundly.  If I hear here wake at night and cry I just walk over and use my hand to rub her back or belly.  After 5 seconds she will switch off again.

Yesterday we went to a traditional Chinese restaurant with our adoption group.  It was really fun as I got to eat chicken feet for the first time.  What a delicacy. Tastes just like chicken.   

When we are out in town I carry Leia in one of those baby Snugly like a kangaroo.  She seems to like it.  I try to mind meld with her when she stares up at me.

Leia is also officially ours according to the Chinese Government.  Now we just have to get the U.S. government to accept her.

Hope things are well at home.  I have attached some pictures.  One of them is of a pool they sell here in China for children.  Not sure if it would be allowed in Toys R Us for sale.

Jesse