Sydney's First Birthday!!!!

This is AM finally posting something...back from the dead!!! It has just been so insane that I just do not have any spare time to sit down peacefully and post or email or rejoin my friends from the referral wait on my groups...I am very sad, but there just aren't enough hours in the day. Any spare time I have is cleaning, doing laundry(which has doubled since Syd has been home), showering, doing projects like cleaning out closets and drawers etc...no time for mommy :(

Anyway...back to the original reason for posting!
Sydney Marie XinYan Rogers celebrated her 1st Birthday on January 21st!!! We did not have time to plan any type of get together for her B-Day so it was just a quiet night at home with just me, daddy, Kyle, Spencer and Syd. She had her dinner and then stripped down for surprises that awaited. She wore her birthday suit, plus a diaper. While Spencer and I were getting her presents out of boxes and undoing those awful twisty plastic things (that you need bolt cutters to get the darn toys out), daddy was entertaining her in another room. We tied balloons on her walker and got all the toys out and ready.


We set up all the toys on the floor and then she came in...her eyes got even bigger than they already are!






She got stacking stars that play music,and a play phone










a remote control from Kyle,


a rattle that plays classical music from Spencer,

a push it walker thing that is like a mailbox,








and a silly monkey that has wobbly arms and makes monkey sounds and music when you touch his head...he also rolls around the floor for Syd to catch him!!!!





She had fun playing with these new things for a while. After that was cake time! Daddy had chosen those disgusting cupcake things with the mile high pound of icing that is like a fat and cholesterol injection to your heart. The color dyes in these things would stain human skin permanently so needless to say...this was the reason for the stripping of clothes!! I was NOT going to ruin any shred of clothing for her to eat this!












She sat in her high chair and was presented with the box of cup cakes and needed to choose which one she wanted...she took one look at these things and slammed her fist down in a gross green one. Ok...green it is. She didn't know quite what to make of this thing and was more interested in squishing the icing in her fingers.


As soon as we showed her this was to eat, she went to town on it. The pictures below will give you a visual of the carnage that became of her cupcake.





After the cake was done...we had completely forgotten to sing Happy Birthday to her...OMG, are we bad or what??? So we quickly lit a candle, stuck it in another one and sang to her. Only a keen eye would have noticed that we faked the events by switching the cupcake color in the photos...LOL.













Ok...now it is bed time and she was tired and full of cake, so after a bath that clogged the tub drain with cake particles, into PJ's, a bottle and bed...Ahhhhh.

The next week we decided to try to have the party we couldn't do for her B-Day. We called some close friends and neighbors and had a little get together. Queen Sydney decided that today she did not want to take a nap which would have been the set up for a good afternoon...NOT!!! She was so cranky the whole time, so sad as there were quite a few people there who were meeting her for the first time...Oh Well!!! She got some adorable clothes, cute dollies, great books, and a toy electronic drum!!! Thank you everyone who came and Sydney thanks you for the gifts. We put on the "Gotcha Day" video for a few folks to watch and before we knew it, she had passed out and fell asleep. Didn't do the cake(again), didn't sing Happy Birthday(again)...oh well...try again next year. Here is the pic of the cake that was eaten by everyone BUT Sydney!!!



PS... If you haven't noticed by now...she LOVES Elmo!

She's Walking!!!

Syd took her first steps (by herself) this past Friday. AM, Kyle, Spencer and I were all on hand to witness the act. Sydney's been threatening for at least a week now and I guess she finally got up the nerve to try it (on the hardwood floor no less). She took about 5 steps to retrieve a toy that daddy stole. She knew that she had done something very special as she was smiling the whole wobbly way to daddy.

Life is still trying to make the adjustment to full "normal" (what's that?) around here. I'm getting slammed with having to travel for work in the coming weeks so I'm sure that normal will have to wait for another time. On the plus side of that, I should be closing alot of work so the Q3 bonus should be nice. Need to pay off those international travel bills!

The boys are both doing well adjusting to the expanded family. Kyle is helping out a bunch and changed his first diaper the other day(well, not HIS OWN diaper but his first time changing Sydney's). In the afternoons, he takes Sydney for mommy and plays with her so mommy can choose one of the following...make dinner, have a much needed shower, do housework...none of which are fun, but absolutely necessary in order for mom to keep her sanity for the day.
Spencer is trying to learn how to share everything and time/attention with an almost one year old and get used to the idea that his role has changed from "baby" to Big Brother (not an easy thing to master) There has been some issues here that have not been pleasant, from talking to a few other people...it sounds like he is behaving normally for such a huge change, but anyway...we all have to put much extra effort into trying to maintain the family unit so it works for everyone and no one is left out...never thought it would be so tough!!!

We have not had a lot of time to grab the camera lately, but we will post some action shots soon...stay tuned!

Other than that, not too much else to report. We'll keep you updated on anything important, interesting or funny that pops up.

Joe, AM, Kye, Spencer and Syd.

Happy Holidays

Well, belated Happy Holidays to everyone. It's been mildly crazy with the adjustments, Christmas, New Years, back to work and school, etc... so the holidays are a bit behind us now howevere, our daily routine is becoming substantially more established now.

First off, we want to congratulate our friends Heather and Ricky Wells on the referral of their daughter, Abigail Mae Shao Wells. Here is the link to their blog where you can see pictures and the like: http://www.journeytoabigail.blogspot.com . Abigail is from Guangdong so that should make their journey a little bit more tolerable from a weather standpoint.

Any how, the boys are back to school. They both brought home excellent report cards yesterday which will hopefully continue for the second half of the year! Great job guys.

Anne Marie took Sydney for her checkup and first round of shots last week. Like any child, Sydney doesn't really like the doctor too much. Six shots at once is enough to make anyone a bit grouchy.

Christmas was fun at the Rogers house. My parents where able to stay on until Jan 1st and believe you me, we needed all of their help during those first couple of weeks back. Thanks again Mom and Dad for all of your help. We wouldn't have been able to do this without you.

Here are a few Christmas Morning Pictures:







New Years was a blast. If you've never had the opportunity to stay at a friends house in Texas on New Years, you're missing out. Fireworks are pretty big down here and most subdivisions sound like warzones from about 8:00pm until a little bit after midnight. We of course chipped in with our $180 worth of fireworks (luckily we hit the store on 50% off day!). The boys got the arsenal ready while we hung out with Syd inside. We slowly made our way outside as our neighbors were lighting their batch and low and behold, Sydney loved it. The bigger the boom, the bigger her smile. We couldn't believe it. She actually made bad faces when the little ones were being set off. Kinda like "is that all you have?"
Shown here is a few pics of our fireworks...and in Texas...these are some "mild" ones!


















We're getting settled in pretty good now. Sydney sleeps through the night (and sometimes well into the morning) no problem. This is nice as it gives Anne Marie a chance to get the boys off to school, relax with a cup of coffee and then put the mom hat on.
Syd isn't too big on napping so bedtime is in and around 8:00pm.

We're going to start making plans for Syd's first birthday on January 21st. We're soo happy that she's home for her 1st birthday. Not too sure what we're doing yet but we'll figure something out.

Also getting ready for chinese New Year in February. The Chinese community center in Houston usually has a really nice fair\crafts show\performance so we're looking forward to that. We'll also have a dinner with the FCC (Families with Children from China) of Houston.

All for now, we'll try to update the blog regularly to let everyone know how we're doing.

Talk to Y'all later.

Joe, Anne Marie, Kyle, Spencer, Sydney and the dogs.

How to tell if your baby is suffering from Jet Lag...

The following pictures were taken over the course of about 90 seconds:

Back Home!!!!

We made it back. Jet lag is a bad thing.
We left GZ Friday night on CS at 9:00 pm. Am did a good job spending the last of our Mao money at the gift shop in the airport so we left China with only some of the Monopoly type yuan worth less than dimes and nickels. I counted a total of 14 babies in Premium Economy and atleast another dozen in coach. It was like a flying daycare. Very funny. There were a few screamers but all in all, the babies (and bigger brothers and sisters) did really well. We landed in LA at about 5:00pm and did the immigration and customs dance for about an hour before making our way out. Not too bad here. The baggage claim was a bit of a pain as the area is very small and there are a lot of people and luggage on a Boeing 777. Syd was very good all the way through. She slept for maybe 7 or 8 hours on the plane and didn't fuss too much at LAX.
We spent the night in LA at an Embassy Suites that was close to the airport. Other than having to wait 30 minutes for the shuttle it was wonderful to stretch out in a sutite and have a good breakfast the next morning. We ran into a couple with their kids the night we arrived who were enamoured of Sydney(I can't blame them) they were on their way to a vacation at Club Med,I think, and they were so sweet... they bought us a round of drinks on the sly after they left:)
We flew back to Houston at noon on Saturday and were met at the airport by my parents, Kyle and Spencer and a bunch of our good friends(Cricket-documentation queen, Cindy, Sarah, Desi, Maddie, Daniel and Cindy's newest foster girl( can't remember her name but she sure is cute!). Also, last but not least...were Heather and Ricky who are next in line to get their referral. We can't wait to return the favor when they come home.
Here's a bit of good advice - Before you leave, borrow a friends baby or something to properly setup the size of the straps in your carseat. We didn't do this and couldn't get Syd strapped in properly. I couldn't figure out how to adjust the things in the parking garage so we had to drive home with Syd strapped halfway in and Anne Marie holding her other half down. Not fun- Sydney does NOT like to be restrained, so the car seat is a BAD and horrible MONSTER to her and she screamed until she passed out. Thankfully it's only a 20 minute ride. We got home to a house filled with welcome home posters that Spencer and our friends Cricket and Cindy and her kids put together. Very sweet. There were also tons of red ribbon strung around the house...AKA, The Red Thread... and red balloons.

Syd met the doggies for the first time and was a little upset with them. Ok...maybe a lot upset. But, she warmed up quickly though after a few face licking sessions. We had a quick dinner and Kyle and Spencer took turns helping out with that.
She got the tour of her new home and spent some time playing in her room before bed. Did I mention that jet lag REALLY stinks? It's worse for babies. At least grownups know why they're tired. Take an 11 month old who is is in totally unfamiliar surroundings and has no idea why the sun isn't out when she thinks that it should be and it's a very bad thing.
It's Monday and Anne Marie is running on about 6 hours of sleep since Sunday. Syd is a good sleeper, just at the wrong times. She's wide awake and ready to go at 3:00am. Hopefully this will get better over the next couple of days.

This has been such a wonderful experience. The three weeks in China were totally unforgettable and we are soooo happy about Sydney that I have tears in my eyes just trying to think up words to describe it. The families that we traveled with will be forever in our hearts. We'll sort out the pictures in in the coming days and email everyone the pictures that we have of them and their newly expanded families.
We will continue to blog here, especially all our new milestones as a family of 5!!!
I wish we could have posted every pic we took while we were there, but I think the PC would have exploded and we would have missed a few tours! Until next time...
PS..
Thanks to everyone for all their support and encouragement in listening to the gripes and complaints... to anyone reading this who is waiting... it is OK to gripe and complain, you will get your referral and when you experience the gotcha moment, you will not think back on anything you thought was so important at the time of the gripes! It will all make sense and fall into place when you are holding that long awaited baby in your arms for the first time.
AM, Joe, Kyle, Spencer, & Sydney!

Last Full Day in Guangzhou

Hi all,
back again. This will probably be our final post from China. Tomorrow we have a late check out at 3 pm since our China Southern Flight doesn't leave for LA until 9 pm... Yippe...Sydney's bed time...should work out perfect for a while, but we are all going to be so messed up for a few weeks...UGH! Today we did the swearing in ceremony at the Consulate. All I can say is that I really hope that they do away with this part of th process...it is really silly. getting all the families, babies, everything together with only diapers, and some cheerios(as you can't bring anything into the Consulate) only to go up 5 escalators, to sit in a room, show your passport and some guy ( he looked like a lounge singer) come out with a microphone and asked everyone to repeat three lines...done. He disappeared into thin air and we were all give the babies visa, then back on the bus... is this REALLY necessary? Can't we ask Don Ho to come to the WS and do it there, they can knock off several hundered families at a time doing it this way, heck, I will even pay for his cab fare and lunch! So silly. Anyway, we also went to a market that is off the beaten path of the "local" shops in Guangzhou. Not the horrible street fair one that everyone here has told us about, but another type. This one has some pretty gross stuff out for sale. Tiger Legs they were selling for the claws(you can pick the claw you want and they would cut it off for you)...UGh...a monkey skeleton, snake skins, dried bugs, embyos of some sort(maybe bird?)...and of course all the fungus you could want. The people down this small street were not too keen on taking photography so we had to go undercover a little. It didn't work very well as the video was of people's behinds...LOL but we did get a little of it. We also bought some pearl jewelry here..yes real. I bought 2 necklaces(one black one pick with white smaller ones surrounding the pink in a daisy shape) and a pair of earrings for 35 yuan...that is less than 5 US Dollars!!! If I would have known I could get these prices, I would have never bought anything from the Pearl factory in Beijing. Don't get too excited though, these pearls would probably be of the lowest quality and bottom of the barrel, but they still looked great and we tested all of them to make sure they were real and not plastic. We went to Second Street restaurant for dinner tonight and it was EXCELLENT. Big Juicy Ribeye with broccoli and potatoes, french onion soup(not the best but still good), and bananas flambee...yummy! Sydney had a bowl of Spaghetti with butter and chicken in it, I couldn't shovel it fast enough. She also sampled the soup, and daddy's custard( hated that for some reason, spit it back out twice!) She was good in the restaurant tonight. Another good recommendation when you get sick of going to Lucy's to eat. We got back to the hotel at about 9 or 9:30 pm and she played for a little while until she went to sleep. The cough was better today for sure after dosing her with Dimatapp this morning and Benedryl this afternoon. We wanted to see if the benedryl hyped her up or if she would get drowsy in case we needed it for the plane ride..drowsy won! We have a pretty easy morning tomorrow...nothing to do until 3 when we leave...except pack of course. we are buying another suitcase for our purchases. The "POLO" suitcases they have here have a great name on them but don't be fooled, these are one time use only cases that usually fall apart if they make it home at all...scarey , isn't it?
We will shop tomorrow for the last time...spencding the Mao money has been a lot of fun...yuan goes so far compared to our USD. We may be able to post again from LA when we get to Embassy Suites on the 16th, but I can't promise :( Then we leave the next morning for Houston TX...home Sweet home. We will probably look like Zombies when we get off the plane, but you understand! We hope to have her dressed in something really special when we get off the plane, BUT we shall see how that goes. Can't wait to see everyone!
PS How cute is this picture of Sydney sleeping? Can you say Angel? I just took it before I finished the post.