Visit To Stoney Ridge Farm

Tina and I headed out north today on an afternoon adventure. We went about as far north as we could and still be in the "lower 48". Our Destination was Stoney Ridge Farm. All three boys were invited but the only one who came along was the one who didn't have a choice. The big ones had been before, and apparently both had more pressing social events to attend.
Hui-Hui, the boy who came along, was quite interested in the whole operation. Stoney Ridge Farm is basically a roadside attraction out in the county. Today was their last day for pumpkin stuff and by the time we got there it was pretty quiet. We took advantage of a couple of the photo ops they have set up...


Hui-Hui was pretty suspicious about what was going on with all of this, and was even less sure of the animals they had on display...





So when we saw the old guy with the barrel train we thought, "no way is Hui-Hui going to do that."
WRONG!

He spotted it and wanted in! I'm thinking, "yeah, right. I'll put you in, but as soon as this guy pulls out you are going to freak, and I'm going to have to chase this guy down and save you...
WRONG!



And the old guy driving it was a nut too! It was a fast, bumpy, whip around kind of train ride. Loved every minute of it!

So once again we are shown, you cannot predict how kids will react. Fun Times!

One Month Home

Yesterday was our one-month anniversary of being back home from China with Hui-Hui. It’s been an amazing time in our family’s life. There has been a lot of change in our routine, and even more change for Hui-Hui, but the addition of a toddler to our family has been less disruptive than I had thought it would. There is more clutter about the place, and we are a bit more housebound, but he has actually brought a calming rhythm to our lives.

It’s also amazing to see how he has changed. He is much more confident and assertive than when we first got home. I joke with Tina by asking if she’s seen that quiet, cooperative, little orphan that was around here a month ago? That kid’s pretty much gone. We now have another wacky Ocheltree boy in the house!

When we first got him he was so helpful when we dressed or diapered him, holding out his arms or legs, laying still. Now he runs away, and wiggles all over when you catch him, much more like what I remember from our first two.

At mealtime when we first got him in China, we had to feed him. Now we are not allowed to touch his spoon. He has also gotten over the non-stop eating. He will usually eat a pretty big serving, but when he’s full he stops, and sometimes he will balk at eating anything, even when we think he should be hungry.

His overall energy level seems much better. I think this can be attributed to being rid of the intestinal parasites, as well as better nutrition. We have him on vitamin and iron supplements, and pump extra nutrition and calories into his food by using PediaSure and formula powder. He still only eats soft foods, but we have him on a pretty good diet, so we’re not worried about the chewing thing yet. He will see the doctor again on Friday, so we’ll have an accurate weight check then, but he looks like he is starting to round out a bit.

When we first got him home he had a real hard time using ride-on toys, like his Little Tykes car. He had trouble straddling them and getting on or off, as well as difficulty pushing them. We actually acquired 3 different models, trying to find something he could use. Now he’s quite proficient with all of them, but prefers the Little Tykes one because it’s good to use for standing on when climbing to get things out of reach.

He still looses his balance sometimes, but we see much less of that “drunken sailor” gait that he had a month ago. He runs the loop through our house with confidence and loves being chased, especially after bath time when all he has on is his hooded towel.

He still is apprehensive around the animals and doesn’t like it if the dog is between him and us, but he is no longer terrified by their presence and will even smack the dog around a bit if she’s laying down and we are there to back him up.

All in all, it’s been a really great month we’ve had a number of adventures and we are looking forward to the ones ahead of us!

Senior Pictures

Some Big Brother Time on the blog. Cameron had his senior portraits taken last Thursday. Hui-Hui went with Tina and his brother to the studio and was very well behaved. The photographer, Heather Elliott, is a parent at the Waldorf school. We are going to have her take some family portraits for us as soon as possible. Cam wasn't very interested in having his portrait done, but he was pretty compliant for us. I love the ones with his violin. The instrument was originally Tina's Dad's. And the hair, damn I wish I had hair like that!

CHI Gathering

Sunday was quite the day! We went to a get together hosted by our adoption agency, Children's House International. The gathering was at a little park just down the street from our home. There was food and crafts, and balloons. We went right after nap time and had a fantastic time! Hui-Hui was actually quite the little animal! He took right off into the fray and had a blast! Ran around with his balloon and fought over the ride on toys. It was really the first time since we've been home that we've had him in a large group event. We were pretty surprised to see him so at ease. He did keep an eye on us, but didn't seem the least bit worried about stepping out a bit. We think the slow, quiet pace we have given him is paying off.







Hui-Hui with Aimee Oppliger. They first met each other in Guangzhou. Aimee lives near my sister's family about an hour south of us.

Finally an Update

I've gotten a number of complaints again about not posting for too long. I'm sorry about that. I was working on a little essay I wanted to write. I don't know if I really expressed my thoughts as well as I wanted to, but I really wanted to write something about Guanyin Pusa. I have put the piece in a separate page here on the blogsite. You can CLICK HERE to read it, or select it from the menu on the right.

So, Back to how Hui-Hui is doing!

(Please note, I have increased the size of the pictures I'm posting. I was using smaller ones when we were in China, because I was concerned about uploads. But now that we're home, I think this size works better for seeing just how cute this guy is.)

We've been making some steady progress. We are working hard on establishing a consistant routine for him here at home: meals, naps, baths, bedtime, etc. Not easy with two teenagers to look after as well, but we're doing our best. He does much better when we keep things simple for him.

He is starting to get a little braver around our animals. This is still an area where he is pretty anxious, so Daisy is not allowed in the house much when he's awake. He does like to help feed both the dog and the cat...



This is good because now he can get out on the back deck a bit more. Here he is in his swing, and riding around the deck on a scooter...

Are these great dimples or what?



Another great development is that we got a major upgrade in the stroller world...

Pimp My Ride!

You call this a stroller? The free strollers in China were sturdier!

Dude! Now THIS is a STROLLER!

Our next door neighbors, Eric and Jennifer gave us this beautiful jogger stroller. Their daughter Makenna is now 7 and they don't use it anymore.

We are still exploring different foods. We made Phad Thai noodles the other night and he really liked these. He didn't actually get that many in, so we had some of Tina's homemade soup too. But check out that chop stick action, he's a natural!



And a few more cute picture:
Flying around the house with our cape on...

Playing with trucks - This truck was made by RoundHouse toys, where I worked with my sister over 20 years ago...

Playing with balls is always good!

Compulsive Blogging...

Okay, I'm blogging out of habit now, so you can skip this entry unless you're obsessing over this site too.

Side note: while I'm writing this Cam is trying to tune his er hu, and get a tolerable tone out of it. Check it out, one of the brothers made it into the blog! Yes I feel guilty for not devoting whole websites to each of them, but they blog on their own. You'll have to figure out what they call themselves on MySpace.com if you want to see what they write.





Today was my third day staying home in the morning with Hui-Hui while Tina went to work. We are actually getting a bit of a routine to our days together. So far it's been nice enough each day that he and I can take Daisy the dog for a little walk. I also like to spend time rolling around on the floor with him listening to music.

He is a really messy eater. I probably could have been better at containing the disaster, but I'd rather spend my energy mopping than battling a two-and-a-half year old over a bowl of Top Ramen. Besides, I got distracted by the woman from the Public Health Department who called right in the middle of our meal. It seems they have been made aware of the little menagerie he's housing in his lower GI tract and wanted to make sure we weren't putting him in daycare or letting him work in restaurants until he's rid of his little friends. And then she and I got all chatty because she told me she had just adopted a daughter from China four months ago. So we each shared a bit of our experiences and she emailed me the link for a Play Group in Whatcom County for Children Adopted From China.







After his lunch I headed him back to bed, and did my best to restore a semblance of order to the house. We read Good Night Moon together and I sang a bit, then I put him in his crib. Like usual, he was happy to lie down, and I left him with the bedroom door open so he could hear me moving around. After about 15 minutes of virtually no noise out of the bedroom I peaked in to see if he was sleeping. Not. He's in there standing at the foot of the bed with all the stuffed animals tossed out, and he's trying to reach the little bedside lamp between our bed and his. He flashes me this look that says, "busted!" and quietly sits down. So I came in and sang to him some more and stroked his head. Such a funny little guy. While I'm busy cleaning, he's in his crib being very quiet and naughty! He didn't want me back there with him, he needed some time to himself.

When Tina got home she took him to visit at the neighbors house and they also got out and used the little swing we hung on the back deck for him.





It was kind of a wacky evening because it's Tina's "Friday" (she doesn't work tomorrow) and she wants to take Hui-Hui up to the Waldorf school for the assembly in the afternoon because it is her former class presenting.

When we did finally get him headed to bed we got out the "Chinese Language For Adoptive Parents" phrases on the computer and played things like "It's time to go to sleep", and "lay down", and "Daddy's tired". He actually seemed to understand this, and got a funny look on his face.

Well now it's time for me to go to bed too.
Thanks for reading.

Eating And Health Update

Today the eating thing settled down a bit. Okay, he still won't eat food you have to chew, but for now we're going to let him get by with attributing that to being two and a half.

For breakfast we made him a bowl of "super" oatmeal. We used Pedialyte for the liquid and added a scoop of formula powder. After zapping it in the micro we added PediaSure to cool and thin it, then added applesauce as well. It's like cooking for a body builder. He eats this stuff though so we're going to stick with it till he starts bulking up.



Our doctor called us this evening and told us that Kai tested positive for

entamoeba

, you can click on it for the CDC webpage, but basically it's another single cell parasite. Fortunately the medicine he's taking for giardia should kill this bug too. And he's taking the medicine more easily now. This is good because these bugs are not good things to have living in you.

The other news we got from the doctor is that Hui-Hui may have a condition called thalassemia. We are not going to start worrying about this until we get a confirmation of the diagnosis and know exactly what it means for his future.

So for the fun stuff today. Tina dug through the old children's videos we have from when the Big Boys were little and found Winnie The Pooh and The Honey Tree. We know he shouldn't be watching TV, but it's something he's used to, and we're getting a bit tired of Big Bird in China everyday. It was pretty cute though, because he wanted his Winnie-The-Pooh toy to watch with him.



We finished our day by taking Hui-Hui to Bellingham High School's orchestra concert to see his brother Cameron play violin. He really enjoyed the music and was very well behaved. We only stayed about 45 minutes. He would have been fine to stay for the whole thing, but we were late getting him to bed as it was and we didn't want to press our luck.

What Does Hui-Hui Eat?

Hui-Hui's nursery is decorated in a "Classic Pooh" theme. Actually "nursery" isn't the right word really. The room that was to be, and still may be Kai's room in the future is really more of a playroom. His crib is next to our bed in our room. The crib is decked out in all the "Classic Pooh" swag you can imagine: bumpers, blankets, ruffles, and a good number of the inhabitants of The Hundred Acre Woods.

I love Winnie-The-Pooh. And by that, I mean A.A. Milne's original books. Disney did an OK job of the first Pooh films, but like everything else Disney touches it becomes a corporate money machine, so I'll stick to my little hardbacks of the original text. I read these books countless times to my older sons, and can't wait to start reading them to Hui-Hui.

I think everybody possesses characteristics of all the inhabitants of The Hundred Acre Woods. Hui-Hui is a lot like Winnie-The-Pooh, in that he is basically happy most of the time. But like Piglet he is A Very Small Animal and can be easily intimidated. And he has a number of qualities of Tigger too. Hui-Hui has come along a little later in our family's history; Tigger didn't show up until chapter two of the second book:
In Which
Tigger Comes To The Forest And Has Breakfast

Pooh is quite concerned that Tigger might eat all his honey, but as it turns out Tiggers like everything except honey.

That is until Tigger tries a bunch of other things that the other characters eat. He's certain that he likes haycorns best, what Piglet eats, until he tries them. Then thistles, what Eeyore eats, but Tiggers don't like those either.

This has been a bit like finding out what a Hui-Hui eats is like. Talk about fussy! And now we are trying to sneak a variety of medicines and vitamins into him. We thought he was picky about food before! Don't try hiding a little bit of medicine in his bowl!

Hui-Hui has giardia (click here to see the CDC page) so we are concerned about dehydration, etc. I tried giving him some diluted instant GatorAid in a sippy cup. You should have seen the face! Not good. Handed me back the cup, shook his head and waved me off with his hand. Tina brought home some unflavored Pedialyte. He's not drinking that either. I tasted it, tastes like very slightly salty water. He just looks at us suspiciously. He won't take a bottle or sippy cup with milk or formula. He was drinking formula from a bottle in China, but has refused it since we've returned. Because we're concerned about his size and nutrition we also gave PediaSure a try - "Talk To The Hand".

In the food department we've tried a few variations on pasta: spaghetti, mac&cheese, crab fettucini. He'll eat the skinny noodles and the sauce, but any lumpy stuff that would require chewing comes back out with a disgusted look. The mac&cheese was the fancy little "Annie's" brand shells. He made a valiant attempt at these but didn't really get very far.

So far we've got a few things we know he'll eat: oatmeal with applesauce in it, Top Ramen with egg and yams, mashed potatoes with yams and shredded chicken, and Tina's chicken-rice soup. He will also eat a number of different jarred baby foods, but those are such nasty (not to mention expensive) things to feed a kid.

Tina tried giving him oatmeal today with his iron supplement in it. Wasted. Dinner was yams with some milk and formula and his giardia medicine. Wasted.

Since he has been having more frequent loose BM's, (more like diarrhea) a symptom of giardia, we are concerned about dehydration. So we tried whipping up a modification of the BRAT diet (BRAT is an old pediatric acronym we remember from when the Big Boys were little, it stands for Bananas, Rice, Apples, Toast and is used for diarrhea), we made rice cereal using Pedialyte for the liquid, and added applesauce and mashed bananas. Hui-Hui definitely does not like that! At least we didn't waste another shot of expensive meds in it!

So Tina cranked out a plain bowl of oatmeal with applesauce (actually she did smuggle a bit of vanilla PediaSure into this) and he ate it. Of course it was going on 8:00 PM by this time so he was probably getting pretty hungry.

I did get quite a bit of water into him at bath time too. NOT bath water either! Which has been an ongoing battle. Now I keep a sippy cup with clean water with us during the bath and poke it in his mouth while he works on all of his pouring experiments. After his bath we let him have a Dixie cup and unlimited access to a running tap, so I think he went to bed pretty well hydrated.

We finally decided to just force the giardia meds down his throat. We figured this was going to be the only way we could make sure he got it. So I held him and Tina shot it into his mouth with a syringe. I hate making babies cry. And this guy just seems like he's gone through enough already. But he got over it quickly and we moved on. Now it's just three times a day for the next week. I'm guessing he's going to get better at fighting us off.

So do you remember what Tiggers do eat?



Roo's "Strengthening Medicine": Extract Of Malt! Which Roo hates!

Okay, and so you'll know we aren't too freaked out about all this, here's a picture of Hui-Hui eating Top Ramen:

When it's something he likes, he packs it away.

And some advice: don't turn your back on an eager toddler when you're filling a bath! I distracted Tina for a split second and Hui-Hui climbed over the side of the tub as it was filling and slid in fully dressed! We were both in the bathroom with him!


He actually thought this was pretty funny!

Product Endorsement

I meant to write about this while we were in China, but failed to do so. When we were preparing to go, we brought with us a number of snacking foods to have as backup for me and Tina and the Big Boys. The idea was to have quick and easy high energy foods for when we didn't have time, or simply couldn't find, food we were "comfortable" with. We took things like nuts and dried fruit, and beef jerky, and instant GatorAid. But the Best thing we had with us, which was really a lifesaver, was Belly Timber! Our friend Mary Goit makes these and gave us a case to take along!

You can find them in places like PCC Natural Markets, Town & Country Markets and Central Markets in the greater Seattle area, and at Whole Foods Markets in Portland, Seattle and Bellevue.

In Bellingham you can find them at Terra Organica, the Old Town Café and the Community Food Co-op REI, Fairhaven Market and the Mt. Baker Ski Lodges.

Click on this picture to go to their website!

A Busy Weekend Comes To An End

Friends and family came to see Hui-Hui this weekend.

On Saturday our friends Paul and Mei-Mei came by to say hello. They have been very kind, and Mei-Mei has translated a number of things for us. We had a nice quiet visit and Hui-Hui warmed up to them pretty quickly. Mei-Mei spoke Mandarin with Hui-Hui and after a bit he took her by the hand and led her through the house. He even let her hold him for a bit. It was nice to have someone who speaks Mandarin spend some relaxed time with him here in our house. She was able to understand a number of his expressions, and could tell that he understood some of the things she was saying to him. We really want to be able to preserve and develop his Mandarin along side of English. I try to use Mandarin interchangeably with English for the few words I know. I wish I knew more because I know he will have an easy enough time learning English. The trick will be not forgetting Mandarin.

Paul and I worked on a couple magic tricks while they were here. Hui-Hui found this very interesting so I got him his own deck of cards to work with. Right now he spends most of his time taking the cards in and out of case. I told him that he needs to develop a good force, a couple false shuffles, his double lift and the classic pass. I figure once he gets these down we can begin some basic "ambitious card" routines and maybe even a gambling demonstration.

On Sunday Tina and I took Hui-Hui on a shopping spree to Target. Our friends Pat and Paula had sent him a very generous gift card. Here's the loot we got:

Here's a picture of Pat and Paula's son Jasper. Jasper and Hui-Hui are going to continue in the tradition of their fathers, and their grandfathers by being Great Friends!

After nap time on Sunday our house was invaded by my mom and my sister's family! You could see the tension within them as they did their very best not to overwhelm him! They brought in huge gift bags with crazy amounts of loot inside. Hui-Hui managed to get through some of it. My sister Kris had said she just wanted to scoop him up and hug and kiss him. She did really well at holding back. Here's a picture of Hui-Hui at the table with his Grandma, Aunt Kris, and cousins.


They were all watching him very closely trying to read his body language in an effort to determine how soon they could begin ravishing him.

Devon, who was dying to play with his new cousin finally got to spend some quality time in person with him.


But the kicker was that the one who Hui-Hui really reached out to first was my Brother-in-Law Mark! Mark had been in and out of the house to check the game scores in their car because I wouldn't let him have the TV on in the living room (Hui-Hui turns into a vegetable when the TV's on). When he was inside he kept his distance so as not to intimidate Hui-Hui. But after a bit Hui-Hui decided he wanted to hang with his 6'4" bearded Uncle Mark!


And best of all, Mark got the "pat-pat" invite to "come lie down on the floor with me"! Who can resist?


Aunt Kris was pretty jealous but she did get some one on one playtime too.


It was a fun visit and really good to see everybody. Hui-Hui is handling the excitement of his new life quite well. We are trying to make his adjustment as easy as possible, and we worry about over-stimulating him. But when we think about what our week and half with him in China was like, it would take a lot more than a few relatives to shake up this kid!