Happy Jollydays to the whole wide world!

TubaDad is at the shopping mall with the girls right now, picking up "just one last present" (yes he is a brave, brave man). And I figured I'd better post the Christmas card picture while I can. The next two days will be a joyful blur of Christmas activities, cookies, presents, family, friends, and more cookies, and we probably won't go near a computer. The girls light up when the cookie plate is passed around the table, by the way. They put their tiny fingers on their cheeks, carefully deliberate over the choices for what seems like 10 minutes, all while saying their new phrase du jour "umm, ummmm, um!" and stealing glances at us to see if we're laughing. We are. Wishing you the merriest of merry holidays, from our family to yours. Here are our Christmas cards/pictures from the last few years. (click any pic to enlarge) 2007 (the girls are just over two-years old and although they love waving to Santa every chance they get, they are very clear that they still do NOT like sitting on his lap): 2006 (the girls were just over one-year old, and we'd been home from China with them for almost two months): 2005 (our last Christmas without the girls, but we did have the chocolate fountain to console ourselves): Amazing what a difference each exciting new year brings. Love to all.

The funniest thing they've said yet?

Y'all know these little girls crack me up. No secret there. They push my buttons like mad (in tagteam formation, no less), but they compensate by being truly funny. This morning my mom and I took them for a neighborhood walk -- which they love -- and they had a ball looking at all the flora and fauna, calling all the local dog-dogs, and walking up and down any stairs they could find. In mid walk, I thought it would be fun to teach the girls the names of their two namesake flowers -- roses and marigolds (or mariegolds as mom-in-law Ma cleverly suggested). And this picture tells how they innocently responded: I'm still smiling. Love them! Ree is wearing the brand-spankin-new yellow Crocs we had to mail-order for her, by the way. Ro's favorite color is "peeeeenk!" and Ree's is "yeh-yowe!" and someone has been pretty sad that we only have pink Crocs in the house. Not very fair, we decided, so today the happy girl got to open a box containing her very own, special, Ree-only yehyowe shoes. She did the happy dance in those things for about 10 minutes. So worth it. In other news, we trekked over to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk on Sunday and were astounded that we stumbled onto the warmest, clearest day in my nearly four-decade Santa Cruz beach history. It was 89 degrees with crystal-clear blue sky. Unbelievable! We had packed the standard turtlenecks, jeans, windbreakers and sweatshirts for the girls, thinking we'd endure a typical chilly, foggy, freeze-your-butt-off-but-still-have-fun Northern California beach adventure. We didn't even bring swimsuits or sandals for the girls, and boy could they have used them. Go figure. Here are the rest of the pictures, including the world-record blue-sky Santa Cruz day, first sushi, and first pie, among others. View them all on one page or view the auto slideshow (click "i" on the first slide to turn on captions). Cheers! PS: Thanks for all the fun comments and votes on "Bangs or Not?" We loved reading them all and I am SO making a little scrapbook page for the girls out of it. They will be tickled pink later on to read that nearly a thousand people across the world voted on their hairstyles. Too fun! We're still torn, by the way, TubaDad voting one way while I vote the other, so I might take the chicken's way out and give them a tiny trim this month and delay the final decision by a teeny bit. Bok bok bok!

6 months as a family

It's hard to believe we've been a family of four for 6 months now. The time has gone by glacially slow and mind-bendingly fast at the same time. To capture this special moment in time, we're participating in perhaps my favorite FFFF Challenge yet. This week's challenge was to dress your children in the clothes they were wearing when you met them for the first time. Let me tell you, the memories came flooding back when I unpacked these precious clothes and pored through the snapshots to see whose outfit was whose. That day, October 24, was such a blur that I am thankful to have invaluable pictures and mementos like these to revisit. I didn't remember, for example, that the girls' outfits were similar but different. In my mind they were the same. So as I lovingly dressed the girls, smelled that wonderful China clothing smell, and snapped countless photos of tiny details, sequined shoes, and bright colors, I smiled and smiled. So fun, and what a neat way to document 6 months as a family. Here are the heart-warming results (well at least they warm my heart). The girls have changed so much in just 6 months -- they've each grown about 4 inches and 4 pounds on the physical side, and they amaze us with their resilience, spirits, humor, and daily development on all other fronts. Happy Family Day to the whole family. And thank you to my mom for helping with the always exhausting task of getting the girls to sit still and look in the same direction for a photo (or 164 photos as she counted today, heh.).

Ok, ok, fine, here are the Easter/spring photos

Alrighty, as one or two (haha) folks requested, the results of our first professional studio portrait sitting are presented below.

Whooooeeeee, I think I'm still a little tense after this one. (I'm sure the photographer is.) I'll probably forget the agony after a few years and just look at these and think the girls look cute in their little dresses. For now though my shoulders get tight as I remember the intense doctor's-office-like crying and the many electronic touchups the studio had to do to remove the tears and mucus. I also laugh when I think of my naively high expectations that the studio would magically capture them both beaming from ear to ear.

Click the image below to see them all on one page, or click here to see them in an auto slideshow.

We ended up ordering 8x10s of the montage and wallets of the rest. So family members, look for a few beauties arriving in your mailbox soon. Happy Easter. Heh.

Happy Easter to the whole wide world :-)

I feel so full of love on this Easter day my heart might just burst. Happy Easter to my husband TubaDad, my daughters (my daughters!!!) Ro and Ree, my awesome parents, my sweet little brother and his wife, my loving in-laws in Texas and family back East, and dear friends near and far. Last spring we were worn down by the never-ending adoption wait. Our referral was originally "supposed" to come in January 2006, then February, March, April... blah blah blah all the way through the summer without any answers. We foolishly kept saying "This is the last holiday we'll spend without our child. Oh. Ok this one is. Oh. Well, this one for sure." And each time we were so wrong... Our birthdays came twice during the adoption wait, and we had two sad Easters, then a second Mother's Day and Father's Day came and went without being parents -- it was so difficult. And this Easter could not be more different. So full of bursting joy, exciting hopes and dreams, gooey grins, and contagious baby belly laughs. What a difference a year makes. What a difference being a family makes. What a difference... Happy Easter to the whole wide world. Love, M3, TubaDad, Ro and Ree ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PS: I just heard that the referral group this month had only two days of LIDs in it. Two days?!! It's so sad. I know how incredibly hard this is for all the waiting families, and just wanted to send my heartfelt good wishes to everyone who is feeling despair right now. I hope you can feel some joy this Easter day, and you're surrounded by people who love you. And I hope that next Easter you're giddily filling a gigantic yellow basket with delicious treats and a huge stuffed bunny for your child and this soul-eating wait is just a distant (and fading) memory.

Our girls are getting bigger by the minute

It's hard to believe, but our babies turned 18 months old today. Wow. Now when people ask how old they are we *could* respond with "a year and a half" instead of our typical Rainman-like count of the months and days. We had an action-packed day to celebrate, starting with storytime at the library, and culminating with the girls' first taste of icecream. I don't even need to tell you how well that went over, do I? Here are a few pictures and videos from the big day: We love you Ro and Ree!

Three things that amused me

1. Words you do not want to hear over the baby monitor when your husband is alone upstairs with the kids: "Ree! What did you just throw in the toilet?!" 2. Ro and Ree both get a big kick out of their new sandbox. And they love carrying around little cups, bowls, and spoonfuls of sand. Here's Ro, doggedly determined to carry her cup everywhere, even up and down the slide. Watch the second time she slides to see exactly how she gets the cup up there without spilling it. 3. We've mentioned before that Miss Ree doesn't miss a thing, right? During bathtime the other night I whipped off Ro's diaper and plopped her in the tub. Miss M toddled around the corner, saw the diaper on the floor, let out a loud "Oh!," picked it up, marched over to the Diaper Champ, dropped it in, then floored us when she flipped the lever over and "flushed" the thing. I think I spit up my gallbladder I was laughing so hard. From that point on she has been the designated diaper disposer. Here she is demonstrating her skills. Ahhhh, they make me laugh.

"Too young to understand" -- bwah ha ha

Ro just walked over to Ree, yanked her diaper down, and then gave me the "poopy" sign and laughed with glee. And damnit if she wasn't right. Ree was pretty disgruntled to have been ratted out as I slung her over my shoulder and made my way over to the changing station talking to myself the whole way. Oh, and in that same vein, here's a quick video I took before the whole projectile weekend. Ro was signing "help me" and wanted me to come over and pull two pieces of plastic fence apart. I (was too lazy to get up so I) asked Ree to go over and help her pull the pieces apart. Guess what? She DID. And then she casually tossed the piece back at Ro as if to say "Yeah? Need anything else sistah?" Yep... They understand EVERYTHING. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Waving the lovies fervently

The toddler equivalent of throwing your undergarments on stage at a rock concert:

The aftermath

Did you hear about the terrible storm that swept through Northern California late yesterday? It left an incredible trail of destruction and carnage in its wake. We were hit particularly hard in our kitchen and family room. They're calling it Hurricane Hubei and rating it as a category 5 in intensity. Wow. We're just calling it lucky that no one was hurt. Here's some on-the-scene video footage:

Twin tv

A quick slide sequence of the girls tonight, making sure we don't even think about turning on the boob tube instead of paying attention to them. Note that there are literally hundreds of toys in this house and what do the girls play with? The kitchen curtain and an old plastic bowl. I know, I know, we're probably the only ones who think they're so amusing. But hey, they make us smile, what can we do? The girls have been Active with a capital A and TubaDad was out of town on a business trip. The bags under my eyes are living testament, dontcha think? One evening the girls wanted to talk to Wela and Grambob on the phone (being the perceptive mom that I am, I intuited this when Ro started waving her toy phone around and yelling "Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob" like the Rainman on a sugar high). But the instant I pressed speakerphone, they burst into an earsplitting supersonic wailing. I had to yell "I can't hear anything, I'll call you right back" over the din and then hang up to try and quiet them down. By the time I called back my mom was freaking out, had already conjured up horrible scenarios in her mind, and had her dialing finger hovering over 911. Nothing was actually wrong, but we did get a pity invite to come over to their house immediately. Have you ever gotten two toddlers diapered and dressed, packed a diaper bag with milk/snacks/pjs, closed up the house, and gotten in the car in 9 minutes? I think I set a new world record. I hope someone is mailing the trophy soon. The girls played as hard as I've ever seen them play, by the way. I think my mom and dad were in bed and asleep before I even pulled out of their driveway that night. Click here to see some captioned pictures of the evening at the grandparents and a few other pics this week, including Ro and Ree's special version of a parade. (If you'd rather see a non-captioned slideshow, click here.) Thanks for all the thoughtful, perceptive comments and emails on the last post - you guys rock and that was (and is) a great discussion.

I can still hear the screams echoing in my head

Oh wait, it's not my head - TubaDad's home now but the girls are still making a horrendous racket. Ro and Ree are sick, I'm sick, and our new Mother's Helper is now sick. So it was just me and the two unhappy kiddos with runny-faucet noses today. All day. And it was a looooooong day. Here's the rundown: 7 = total hours of fighting, whining, screaming, or crying 6 = number of times I picked up sippy cups that were angrily flung from highchairs 5 = number of times someone spontaneously crumpled to the floor sobbing (the kids? me? I'll never tell) 4 = number of times I ransacked the cupboard and freezer before finding a sanity-saving carton of Bob's mint chip icecream with Scharffenberger chocolate chips 3 = number of times I called TubaDad to politely (haha) inquire when he was coming home 2 = number of boxes of Kleenex used 1 = number of minutes remaining before I pour a big glass of wine and slip into a bubblebath Here's the soundtrack of my day - I cut it down to 17 seconds so no one would sue me for bleeding ears or anything. Don't bother calling - I'll be in the bath and TubaDad has his hands full...

Where does the time go?

We've had visitor after visitor and attended party after party this past week, and the girls have taken it all in stride. Their little eyes light up and they strut around in their party shoes, even when TubaDad and I are dragging. God help us when they're teenagers and we're *really* old... It doesn't hurt that they're met at each door by adoring fans who love them, give them belly raspberries, feed them delicious food, and tell them they're the cutest thing since sliced bread. They're also really getting into the Christmas spirit. Not from our copious decorations since we, ahem, haven't put any up yet. (Um, maybe next week?) No, they're learning that really fun things come in the brightly wrapped boxes and bags. Like Elmo! And wagons! And toys, toys, toys! And heck, those boxes and bags taste pretty dang good too. Ro and Ree are walking up a storm. We bought a few pairs of Robeez shoes and started singing/chanting a little song "she's walk-in... she's walk-in... she's walk-in..." and they puff up their little chests, stick their bellies out and motor around like there's no tomorrow. Ree knows it's good stuff and never fails to make us laugh with her hilarious "Whoa Ho Ho! Look! At! Me!" expression (shown at left). Ro started walking this week too and is making great strides to catch up to her wily sister. She doesn't have the triumphant facial expression down yet though - give it a week. On the not-so-fun front, we had to do blood draws and, uh, (not sure how to put this delicately) poop samples for the girls this week. We had the blood drawn by a lady named Alex at the hospital, and that Florence Nightengale nailed it with just one stick for each squirmy girl. I was banished to the hallway to hold whichever sister wasn't getting tortured at the time (Alex took one look at my face after she said they couldn't take the blood from their feet because she needed "too much blood" and said "why don't you wait outside, honey?"). So, anyhow, we'll see how that all goes. They're just standard tests that our pediatrician orders for every child, so hopefully no worries. Here's a montage of the girls in motion. Honestly, they never stop, not for one minute. I've lost 13 pounds since we've met them and I'm not even trying. Here are the rest of the pictures from this week, just click on one of the tiny images below to see all pics on one page with captions that tell who's who, or click here to see them in an auto slideshow without captions. Happy Holidays everyone! Love, Team Salsa

We

Ro and Ree, Day 1, 2 and 3!

First, sorry for the lack of blogging - it's not indicative of a lack of bloggy love or anything, just that blogging is coming in a distant fourth to sleeping, eating, and showering. And frankly those first three things aren't getting done either. Holy moly. If we hadn't brought the entire team of awesome grandparents with us I don't think we'd have made it this far. They are saving our butts and keeping smiles on our faces. We actually dressed the girls in real clothes today and ventured downstairs to eat for breakfast and lunch. They completely destroyed our little corner of the restaurant each time - for which we profusely apologized over and over - but they sure did enjoy themselves and all the attention they got. They're napping right now because boy it's exhausting being adored. Everyone who sees them says "they're lovely, just lovely," and, quite simply, they are.

The first night was so rough I'm afraid to even talk about it because I don't want to scare away any potential adoptive parents. Suffice it to say I got 1 hour of sleep, and the twin screaming and wailing (which went on for something like 9 or 10 hours) was so loud I'm amazed the hotel windows didn't shatter. The girls were so, so sad. It was heartbreaking.

Yesterday (day 2 with the girls) started off kind of tough because we had to be up at the crack of dawn to get back on the bus and head to the office for our adoptive interview and paper signing. It took 7 adults (the 2 of us, the 4 grandparents, and our incredible guide Joanna) to get us and the girls dressed, medicated (they've got upper respiratory infections), fed, and out the door and on that bus. And we were still about a half hour late. Looking back now, it's pretty comical.

Today (day 3 with the girls), is feeling so much better! I think we're finally hitting our stride - still having a little trouble with the eating and showering but hey who needs that stuff anyhow? And Ro and Ree are starting to smile and laugh and show their little personalities. Ree is the brave charmer, smiling her shy little smile at a few chosen folks and clapping her little hands if someone makes her laugh. She likes to eat all by herself, thank you very much, and both girls think that eggs, baked beans, and noodles (not necessarily together) are just tops. Ro is a little shyer and sadder, but has been smiling and laughing today (when it pleases her). She loves to cuddle with mama and daddy in her snuggli carrier and can't understand why anyone would ever want to put her down. Why indeed?

Ro clearly takes after her daddy a little, because she latched onto a french fry today and gummed down the whole thing. Mmmmm. Both girls love sucking down water from a bottle and think yogurt is totally tasty. Oh, and Ro will do a little happy dance if you give her banana. If I can catch it on video I will, you've never seen anything cuter. Except maybe their smiles. I swear I would do anything in the world for one of those smiles. More later.

Much love, M3, TubaDad, Ree, Ro, and the incredible traveling grandparents.

Ni hao from Beijing!

We're here. We made it. And we came through with flying colors! Before you go thinking that we're tough as nails or extra-studly travelers or anything, I should confess that we didn't suffer at all. Because we got FREE FIRSTCLASS UPGRADES at the gate!!! Holy moly, we definitely flew the friendly skies today. We emailed my dad from the plane to tell him we got upgraded and he wrote back just 5 words: "you live in a tree." Heh. Click here to see a slideshow of a few pictures from the day. There aren't many because, well, we basically sat on our butts all day - sat in a car on the way to SFO, sat in the airport waiting area, sat on the plane, sat in a taxi, and now (thankfully) we're sitting in our hotel. I threw in a picture of the folks from their travel day on the 17th too - can you see my mom's Ro and Ree buttons and the Team Salsa stickers they put on their backpacks? Cute. Pa and Ma haven't sent me any pictures yet, but they made it to Xian on the 19th after 30 hours of travel - wow! I'm wearing my t-shirt that says "Mama" in Chinese and everyone keeps pointing to it and reading it outloud, which of course is my cue to show them our picture of Ro and Ree. (Yeah, you know I just hate doing that. Ha!) Then they look at TubaDad and say "where's your Baba shirt?" - it's hilarious. Well it's 6:30 am California time (and 9:30pm China time), and we're a little bleary, so we're going to power down a few peanut MnMs and hit the sack. Night!

Ok, ok, I get the hint...

Blog Much?: I've been getting a few (ahem) emails and comments wondering why I haven't posted lately. Well the jetlag kind of kicked my butt going home (it was easy going to Australia for some reason). Plus, I've been filling out all of our referral/travel paperwork AND have been really busy opening presents for the twins. It's like Twin Central Station in our family room. Whee! There are squeezable stuffed animals, insanely cute outfits, kick-butt high chairs, neato baby gear, fun books, and all kinds of amazing twinalicious things pouring into the house. You guys are incredible. Ro and Ree are going to be the best-outfitted girls in town, that's for sure. And certainly not because of their Mervyn's-jeans-wearing mama. Wow. Thank you all! Your generosity is overwhelming. I can't wait to tell the girls how loved they were before any of us even met them. Coming Up From Down Under: To wrap up the wonderful Australia trip (as promised sooooo long ago), here are the final pictures (click to go to slideshow): Captions: 1) bought an awesome Aboriginal painting. 2) visiting the Sydney museum. 3) the Observatory Hotel (best hotel in Sydney). 4) the hotel claims they'll bring you goldfish. 5) oh my god they weren't kidding. 6) TubaDad feeds his new friends. 7) clowning around on the Harbor Bridge. 8) Gorgeous view from the bridge. 9) First stop after landing, ahhhhh tacos. Winner, Winner, Winner: We are pleased to announce that the grand-prize winner of the Guess Our Referral Contest is Rhonda T! Four folks turned in guesses that were very close (Rhonda, Anon, Dori's mom, & Catherine R), but Rhonda was the closest with a guess of 9-month-old twin girls from Hubei who weighed 15.5 pounds each. Congratulations Rhonda! In addition to extreme glory and gloating rights, please let us know which button, magnet, or sticker you'd like from the Salsa Store. Thanks to everyone for the fun guesses - it was so cool to see all the estimates rolling in. I was wrong about everything in my guess, by the way. I was emphatically convinced we'd be hearing about our 1-year-old boy from Shandong. Oops.

It's a girl, and another girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my gosh I can barely type right now I'm shaking so hard.

We just got the call and we have twins! The older daughter is named Da (big, elder) Shuang (pair) Ye and will be called Ro (nickname for the blog) Shuang or Ro Da (we're not sure yet). The younger daughter is named Xiao (little, younger) Shuang (pair) Ye and will be called Ree (nickname for the blog) Shuang or Ree Xiao (we're not sure yet). Oh man, I had to type that sentence 5 times I can't even get my fingers to work. Da weighs 18.04 pounds, Xiao weighs 17.6 pounds. They are in Hubei in foster care. They were born on October 6, 2005 so they are 10 months old.

Waiting, waiting, waiting

We must have checked the ringer on the phone 15 times now. It IS working. And it is NOT ringing. The countdown says zero, so come on guys, call us!!!!!!!! Mr Cool Cucumber is calmly watching tv. I am simultaneously reading your funny comments on the blog, checking email, rechecking the phone ringer, numbering my referral call questions, popping Imodium, pacing, taking pictures, positioning the video camera, and a million other nervous things. We have our "the phone is ringing" blog post queued up and ready to go. It's TubaDad's job to hit "publish" on it while I vault over the table, answer the phone, turn on the video camera, chug some water, reapply my lipstick, then slide beautifully into my seat to take notes. Sigh. RING already!!!

Bloggy parade of homes - liv rm / fam rm

Shannon is heading up a Bloggy Parade of Homes tour and has designated this week to be living room/family room photos. Now I'm usually WAY too lazy (yes I know my faults) to participate in any kind of weekly thing, so I can't commit to doing this every week. But I did get moving enough to show you pics this week. (I just realized that I probably did this because I'm procrastinating on getting to that huge To Do list. Gah!) Here's the living room/dining room. This is what you see when you open the front door and step into the entryway. We're kind of artsy, so most of the decorations you see in our house are a little offbeat, and many we made ourselves. I like the brightness of this room and the way that the furniture from our wild bachelor days (mine the brown velvet sofa, his the black leather stuff) fits together just fine. It's the most (or only) modern room in our house, not sure why... Oh and that huge canvas hanging on the wall in the dining room has a little sign on it that says "work in progress." I'm waiting to be inspired. If anyone has any great ideas, do tell! The family room and kitchen are one big room in our house. When we're home, we spend a lot of time in this room - shoot we can eat and watch tv from a horizontal position, why wouldn't we? Here's the view from the kitchen. And here's a close-up view from the couch in the family room. We LOVE all the built-ins in the family room (there's another cabinet just like the tv one over to the right) although we can't take any credit for them. They were there when we moved in. I'm a huge slob and leave shoes all over the place. TubaDad likes to wait until there are about 6 or 7 pairs in the family room and then sneak them upstairs into the closet and yell "Hey the shoe fairy came..." Ha. Ha. Very funny. I love these tiny little boots that TubaDad's mom gave me from TubaDad's childhood - aren't they precious? Lastly, I know this isn't the family room, but Xena grew quite bored with my picture taking and climbed up on the high barstool. Doesn't she look like she's ready to pound her fist (paw) on the counter and yell "make mine a double!" Cheers!