Wow...where does the time go

Well, the time goes to Samantha. Having turned 2 on August 2nd, she is certainly demanding a lot of attention from us. Which boils down to not a lot of time to update the blog. She continues to grow, both physically and mentally, and never ceases to amaze us with what she understands and can repeat.

She truly brings a great deal of joy to our lives every day. The same can be said for all the other families that joined us in the wonderful adoption journey. It was our pleasure to host our first anniversary reunion, drawing in our fellow travelers from Belle River, London, Iron Bridge, Burlington, and Elmira. A couple of the other families were unavailable, or one of the family members was ill, however we all had a great time and it's amazing to see how quickly the children become reacquainted and play well together.

The summer, although extremely wet this year, was a lot of fun. Especially with us and the "Wong" clan spending a couple of weeks on the west coast, including an Alaskan cruise.

We all had a wonderful time, and Samantha really got to know her cousins. Unfortunately that also meant that she experienced new things, like a "chip" party. Thanks Uncle Terry.

Unfortunately that brings me to the end of this post, and what will be the last posting. We've enjoyed sharing this journey with everyone, and hope that you have enjoyed following our travels and the beginning of Samantha's life in Canada. It has certainly been an incredible journey.

Thanks...Shirley, Ron and Samantha

Christmas '07 and Then Some

Samantha turned 18 months yesterday, and it reminded me how long it has been since I've posted anything to this blog. My apologies to everyone who checks this site to find out how she (and hopefully "we") are doing. I'd like to say I promise to do better in the future, but let's be fair and say I promise to TRY to do better in the future.

Since the last post was Halloween, there's a lot of ground to cover. She continues to have a better social life than either Mommy or Daddy, and no sign of things changing in the near future - playgroups, KinderGym, and the library keep Samantha and Mommy busy every day of the week. Saturday is still Daddy's day, and she absolutely loves the water and her swimming lessons. She completed her "Starfish" at the end of last year and is now in the "Duck" program. This girl is definitely not afraid of the water, or being underneath it. I think her new instructor was a little concerned when we were in the big pool and I had Samantha jump off the side of the pool into my arms, except rather than catching her I let her plunge into the water. Under water she kicks her legs to get back to the surface, and when I pull her up she's all smiles. Mommy hasn't seen this yet either, so this is probably a heads up for her as well.

The other thing that happened between Halloween and Christmas was a reunion of some of the families that we traveled to China with. It was great to see everyone back together again, and amazing at how quickly they became reaquainted. It was almost as if no time had passed at all and they were all playing well together - or as well as 7 kids can play together.

We also took the opportunity to try to get a "couch" picture of all the kids. Needless to say it's not that easy to get them all sitting, smiling, and facing the camera, all at the same time, but I think we did a pretty good job.
Now to get all the names straight. From left to right its: Holly, Haddie, Rachelle, Zack, Kaia, Samantha, Amelia.

We've got another reunion scheduled for late April. Let's see if they'll sit nice then, when we expect to see even more of them reunited.

So now we move on to Christmas. This year was a "Wong" Christmas and we unfortunately were not able to get down to Leamington to see the "Penner's". Although Samantha wasn't sure what to make of this large man in a red suit, the fact that he came with boxes wrapped in bright paper seemed to make him ok. The ones that she was handed directly were pretty cool, but that was nothing compared to what he dropped off for her Christmas Eve. Samantha woke to a huge pile of presents, so many that since that morning she has only seen a fraction of them. Mommy and Daddy are rotating in new gifts as time goes on; one because there is no way she can play with that many toys at any one time, and two because there is no way we could have them all in the family room and still have room for us to move. She certainly doesn't seem to miss them, and it's a joy to watch her play with a new toy as it's brought out.

But Christmas isn't all about toys, and the family aspect was front a center. It's definitely a great time to get that picture of Papa and all his grand kids, as well as the whole Wong family.
The other thing that Christmas is known for is food. Aside from the Christmas Eve standards, egg rolls and chicken balls, If there is one thing Samantha has plenty of it's appetite. She never ceases to amaze us at how much she can put away. She typically eats her entire meal and then eats a similar amount from our plates.

Samantha also surprised cousin Taylor showing her the amount of food she can stuff into her mouth at one time.
Christmas found Samantha exposed to her first real hit of sugar - a candy cane - thanks Aunty Sandra and Aunty Lana.

The other thing we know is that Samantha loves music and absolutely loves to dance.

She managed to lock on to Uncle Roy and Aunt Sandra and show them a thing or two. Hopefully that's as close as she gets to table dancing for a long, long time.

But when you play hard, there's the crash and burn, and Samantha can do that with the best of them - even if it's right in the middle of giving one of her best friends, her Polar Bear, a good hug.

But with the holidays finally over, it's nice to be able to sit back and reflect over the past year as Samantha sits back and explains to Uncle Vic and Aunt Jean who all the people are in the 2007 Wong family calendar. Rumour has it that the 2008 calendars should be here any day now - not that there's been any pressure on Aunty Lana to get them done. After all, it's only February.

So we leave you with Samantha sitting on top of one of our driveway snow piles saying goodbye until we post again.

Trick-or-Treat

I SEE LADY BUGS!

It's hard to believe that summer is over and it's been almost 4 months since we were in China. So much has changed in our lives, and it's all good.

For Samantha the summer has meant three trips to Leamington - cousin Lisa's wedding, cousin Kristin's wedding (both shown playing balloon with Samantha) and Thanksgiving/Oma's 80th birthday, so Samantha isn't the only one whose life has taken a new direction. Each of these have meant a 3 1/2 hour car ride which she has for the most part handled quite well. That was until the last ride back when she choked on a Cheerio and cleared it by throwing up, once again proving my decision to fabric guard the interior of my car was a good one.

The other major challenge for Samantha is her doctor appointments. Not having much of a medical history for her from China we need to put her through the full gamut of tests. Fortunately our pediatrician referred us to a hospital to get her blood work done. Although she cried through the whole procedure, I think mommy actually came through it with the most emotional damage. After it all Samantha still managed to wave bye-bye to the nurses on the way out. We have also decided that we are going to redo all of her vaccinations. Although we were given information from China on what she has already received, there's no way to confirm that they were actually done, or that the drugs used were full potentcy and not expired. This way we're sure that she's received all the right shots and she is fully immunized. It is painful for Samantha, and for us to watch, but well worth it in the long run.

Now for the really spectacular part. We were beginning to believe that Samantha has mystic powers. As you can see, Samantha appeared to be able to put herself into a trance. At first we thought it might just be sleep walking, but then we started to notice that some of her toys had mysteriously gone missing, and were just as mysteriously starting to re-appear. We had done a thorough search for the missing items, but they were nowhere to be found.

Finally Shirley noticed the secret behind the mystic. Samantha was hiding her toys under the entertainment unit. It is just a small opening, so it was tough for us to get under there to recover some of the toys, but Samantha's small hands had no problem. It was almost like she wanted them someplace where nobody could get at them. Her trancelike state was merely a ruse to keep us from looking too hard to find them. The next time Samantha faked going into her trance Shirley exposed her, and Samantha could no longer contain herself. She knew that she had been found out and there was no way that we were going to continue to believe her act.

Now Brian is another story. Not having been around Samantha much, and with his wife Michelle expecting, Brian was open to understanding what goes on in a child's mind. Samantha picked up on this immediately. Once again Samantha fell right back into her old tricks, and knowing she only had one shot at it went for broke. The picture tells it all - Samantha has Brian totally convinced that she can make the object on the floor disappear. She put herself into her "trance" and started the con. Fortunately mommy was watching and stepped in, but not until Brian learned lesson #1 - kids will play you for all their worth.

Okay, so what is really happening with Samantha? Well, in terms of crawling she may as well be planted on a skate-board. She can get from one side of the room to the other in no time flat. She can also get from crawling to standing up against furniture, then walk the length of what she's holding on to without any trouble. This of course has meant that practically everything is within reach. We've secured the family room and kitchen and put gates on all the doors. Unless she develops new super-human strengths, I think we're good for the time being.

She has also produced 3 new teeth - 2 on the bottom and one on top. Clearly this isn't the end of it as she continues rubbing her gums and pulling on her ears, but I think we've been saved from all the drooling by the fact that her teeth are coming in considerably late. Her lack of teeth certainly hasn't slowed her down from eating, and is eating just about everything put in front of her. Clearly showing signs that she's a Wong girl, she follows in her mother's footsteps with her appetite for ice cream and her uncle Terry's love of potatoes. Not sure that she'll get to the point of ordering potato pancakes with a side of fries, but time will tell.

Activity wise, she absolutely loves to swing. She goes down to our local park almost every day, and spends about 1/2 an hour with mommy pushing her. She is absolutely content just going back and forth. She also makes a couple of trips a week to the Ontario Early Years, which is provincially run and provides programs and activities for children and their parents. She has already made a few friends there, and is learning how to socialize with other children. She also has weekly Kinder Gym and Swimming lessons, so she's actually got a better social life than mommy or daddy.

She continues to amaze us in regards to what she picks up, and we really need to be careful of what we say and do. Not that she's talking yet, but she certainly mimicks our actions and sounds. Much to Shirley's dismay the first words spoken were Dada, but Mama isn't far behind. Before we know it she'll be walking, talking and creating huge challenges for us. And we can't wait.

Samantha continues to grow, both physically and in her capabilities. Two weekends ago we had the challenge of putting Samantha in our car and driving down to Leamington. This was her first true long trip. We have to say that she really surprised us - she played for a while, then slept, then played a bit more when she woke up. The trip was about 10 minutes too long, and it was almost as if she could tell we were almost there and she was running out of time to give us a hard time. Considering how she could have behaved, 10 minutes of whining in a 3.5 hour drive is nothing to complain about.

The trip to Leamington was for our niece Lisa-Marie's wedding, but was also the first time that the Penner clan had the opportunity to meet Samantha. The wedding was fabulous, and Lisa-Marie looked absolutely stunning. Her now husband Herm took a lot of shots for his black on black tuxedo, and the name Johnny Cash came up more than once over the course of the day, but Johnny would never have been caught dead driving a T-Cup. Not your typical limousine, but somehow it was fitting.

Aunt Jean took a bit of abuse from Samantha, but all was forgotten once the Cheerios came out. That is until Samantha started to choke a bit on one of them and proceeded to demonstrate how Cheerios can become projectiles. Thanks Uncle Vic for taking one in the chest to make sure none of the other wedding guests were injured.

Since our normal accommodations were fairly busy, with the wedding reception taking place in the back yard, we elected to stay with our nephew Tim and his family. This gave us a couple more new experiences for Samantha. For one, she met her first dog - Hershey. Hershey is a full-sized Golden Retriever, and we weren't sure how Samantha was going to take to an animal that was considerably larger than her. On their first meeting Hershey came up to Samantha and gave her a big wet lick on the face. Samantha just laughed and waved her arms, not in the least afraid of this beast.

The second thing she was exposed to was a big swimming pool, which she absolutely loved. She's done well in the bathtub and the small plastic one on our deck, and showed no fear here. The splashing and laughs just kept coming, even after daddy backed away a couple of feet and Samantha decided to find out if everything looked the same from under the surface as it did from above. Daddy swooped in and pulled her back up to where there was air, and the smile was still on her face. We're starting to think that she's going to love the water as much as her mother does, so we've enroled her in the swimming program at our rec. complex. The chaufering has already begun, and this ones for daddy. Mommy's turn starts soon as well when she starts taking Samantha to "Tumbling Tots". Daddy may have to go and watch that one to see who's going to be doing the tumbling.

This last week she has started doing a lot of new things, the most impressive accomplishment, for her at least, has been her ability to get to a sitting position from lying down. Samantha has also become comfortable standing while hanging on to things, and we know this is going to totally change our lives. She is also pulling herself up, which means a whole new world has just come into her reach, and one more level of the entertainment unit that needs to be cleared.

We know the next step is just a couple of steps away - the gates. Won't be long before we're going to have to limit where she can get to in the house.

This weekend we're back to Leamington again for another wedding, our other niece Kristin. Hopefully Samantha will be good on this trip as well, and the first time wasn't just luck.

Samantha's 1st Birthday

August 2nd marked a milestone in Samantha's life - her first birthday. We were foturnate to have some of Shirley family present, namely Papa, Aunt Sandra and Uncle Roy, and Samantha's cousins Thomas and Taylor. The day before, August 1st, marked Thomas' 12th birthday, and the day that Thomas became a fully certified "Baby Sitter" having completed the required training earlier this year. After helping his dad change one of Samantha's poopy diapers we're not sure how long it will be before Thomas is ready to take on an infant by himself - if ever.

After 2 big family get-togethers last Friday and Saturday, Samantha's actual birthdate was considerably more low key, but didn't go without the required birthday cake which was shared by her and Thomas.

Samantha and her cousin Taylor kill some of the scorching heat in our backyard pool. Uncle Roy was doing Lifeguard duty.



Besides the gift of having some of the extended family come to visit, Samantha received a number of gifts from family and friends. She wasn't exactly sure what to do with all the packing materials, but will surely enjoy playing with all the toys and wearing the wonderful outfits that she received.

Samantha continues to develop at a rapid pace, and having her cousins around certainly helped.




Samantha and her cousin Thomas share her first birthday cake - but Samantha's not about to give up her Cheerio, which has become a food group of it's own.

Samantha's first hit of sugar had it's ups and downs - mostly ups.






She was really more into the chocolate cake than the icing.








Samantha has also gotten her first slide and swing set. It might be a little while before she's able to go down the slide by herself, but she does like the swing.
With everyone gone the house has become very quiet and Samantha is very sad that her cousins aren't around.

Mommy has decided that it's never too early to learn how to do laundry, but somehow I don't think that Samantha has quite figured it out yet.

Wow...Where Did 20 Days Go?

I can't believe that it's been 20 days since my last post. No wonder I've been getting some rather pointed emails asking what she looks like, since there haven't been any recent pictures posted. It's not that the pictures haven't been taken, it's apparently just that I've become lazy.

We continue to see amazing progress with Samantha. With Shirley's family visiting, she's had the opportunity to interact with other people, especially her cousins Thomas, Taylor, Tyler and Aliya who are always on the look-out for ways to get her in trouble. Oh yeh, if we're talking about trouble we can't forget Auntie Lana who's constantly on the look-out for ways to stir the pot. Fortunately "Papa" is here as well, and he is still the head of the family.

Terry, Heidi, Tyler, Aliya and Lana flew in on Wednesday, but unfortunately were only able to stay until Sunday. Sandra, Roy, Thomas, Taylor and Papa showed up on Thursday and will be here until this coming Friday. The visit from the family is a welcome distraction for us, and the extra sets of hands are probably the things that we will remember most from their visit. We also can't undervalue their child raising experience and the wealth of knowledge they have passed over to us - you know what I'm talking about, the stuff every mother eventually comes to understand but you can't find in any book.

Samantha has been absolutely wonderful in large family gatherings and her few recent visits to restaurants. She's still challenged in long car rides, but I'm sure we'll get that worked out in time as well.

Anyway, enough of the words and on with some pictures.