Apple Picking with Doug and Morna

It was an absolutely beautiful Fall day today and we went with Morna and Doug to a local farm in Maryland to pick apples. Jennifer enjoyed it and we got some good photos.

J.

Jennifer, Katie, and Caitlin B-Day Get Together

We all got together yesterday (Saturday) at the Sullivan's house to celebrate the first birthdays of the three girls. It's the first time we have all gotten together since we got back from China. It was a lot of fun and everyone is doing great. Here are the photos from the party. In particular, I like the one of the three girls in their birthday hats (reminds me of the Red Couch Photo Shoot in Guangzhou, China). Notice that Jennifer was crying - was not too pleased about the party hat and having to sit still for the photo!

J.

Jennifer Rose Turns One!

Here J Ro is playing with her cake. She had fun
playing with the frosting.

Yesterday (September 25th) was Jennifer Rose's first birthday. We celebrated with a family dinner at Chef Geoff's and had a really nice time. I have attached some photos. J Ro was just so cute and beautiful and she continues to light up our lives.

J.

A Few Other Good Photos

As I was getting ready to shut down the computer tonight, R came in and said she wanted to look at the photos. She found a few she really liked that I have posted. I believe these are from the day that Andrew and Michelle visited with Hannah. Enjoy!

J.

A Beautiful Fall Day

It was a perfect Fall day on Sunday. We started out the day with swimming class. As you can see from the photos below, J Ro liked her floating plastic dolphin. After class, R put J Ro in a big pink velour sweatsuit (see photo). We had a nice family day -- including afternoon coffee with Grandma Thedie andGrandpa Oskie at Leopolds in Georgetown. That's it for now.

We wanted to give a shout out to Lee for continuing to check the blog even though we have been bad about posting to it. We'll try to be better going forward.

J.

J Ro in Swimming Class

Since Jennifer liked her first experience swimming, we signed her up for a swimming class on Sunday mornings. She loved it and it was really funny seeing all of the babies in the pool with their fathers (mostly). I had a great time with her and have attached a photo that R took.

J.

We've Been Home for One Month

As everyone can see from our poor record of posting blog entries since we came home with Jennifer Rose, we're realizing that it's hard to stay up on the blog postings when we have such a demanding customer in J Ro and also when we're having so much fun just being with her. But we woke up this morning (R's birthday!) and R suggested that we go ahead and update the blog. So, here's a quick recap of what we've been up to in the last month:

• J went back to work the Monday after we got back (made for a very tired week of work!)
• Ellen (our wonderful nanny) started and she has been terrific
• R is home from work until mid-October which has been wonderful but we are both realizing that being home with the baby is a LOT of work in addition to being fun -- we are convinced that J has the easier job during the day!


• We got the house more baby-friendly, including a play area near the kitchen with two baskets of toys!


• We taught J Ro how to eat solid foods and she now enjoys it (although she still complains when R tries to clean her face and hands)!


• We spent the Labor Day long weekend at Rehoboth Beach, DE and had a wonderful time with J Ro -- she enjoyed her first trip to the swimming pool and she loved it. We found out that she and also liked eating soft serve ice cream and that serving her this right before bedtime is not a good way to get her to go to sleep.


• J Ro got to meet her Grandma Theda and Grandpa Oscar -- see photo of Theda reading to J Ro. It was so incredible to have Grandma Theda and Grandpa Oscar finally meet Jennifer Rose. She was so happy to be with them and it was an instant bond for them as well. Oscar took a lot of photos and video and I'll post them to the blog as soon as he sends them to me. Lately, if I'm not careful I'll completely forget to take photos myself since I'm just enjoying playing with Jennifer.


• J Ro has also enjoyed playing with her counsins and with friends who have stopped by to meet her. She continues to be the joy of our lives and we can't imagine life without her.

Ok - so that's the quick update. I have also posted a few photos from our trip to the beach when she went swimming in the hotel pool (thanks to Auntie Elana for the very pineapple cute bathing suit!). Hopefully more later.

J.

Hannah and Jennifer Rose

Andrew, Michelle, and Hannah came over on Sunday and it was amazing watching the girls playing together. Andrew showed me how to use the Nikon D-40 that I bought after we got back from China (partly as a result of his recommendation). It was funny watching the girls sit their like movie stars while Andrew and I snapped photos with our Nikons (I have posted a few of the good ones).

Hannah has gotten so big and is now talking and running around. The two girls were just beautiful together and it felt good to finally have them together.

J.

J Ro and Ben

Uncle Ben came over on Saturday and it was great seeing him with Jennifer Rose. She tried to take his sun-glasses and also have him a musical concert with the electirc piano toy. Here are some of the photos. We also got some good video of them playing -- I'll post that later.

J.

New Photos of J Ro at Home

Adjusting to Being at Home

We have been in adjustment mode since we got home on Thursday and we are all still out of whack. Every morning for the last two days, I have woken up and had my cup of coffee and said to myself, "I'm over the jet lag". And then by the late afternoon, I'm totally crashed out on the couch somewhere. I have mainly been playing with J Ro and then sleeping during the day whenever she sleeps. At night, I haven't been tired at all so after we put J Ro in her crib, I have been banging around the house trying to organize all of the stuff from our trip, catching up on e-mail, and checking in on the little one. R has tried to stay awake during the day and then totally crashes at night. It has been hard to put ourselves back on DC time but hopefully by Monday, we'll be more adjusted. We think it could take another week to be fully adjusted to the DC time zone.

Jennifer Rose has handled the adjustment well. She was so tired after not sleeping much on the flight to DC that she slept a lot right when we got home. Now we're trying to balance letting her sleep/eat whenever she wants with getting her on a DC-time zone-based schedule. So far, the "whenever she wants" camp is winning since we know that Jennifer is still on a different time zone just like we are. But hopefully each day we can get Jennifer more on a regular schedule.

Our pediatrician appointment on Friday went well but we felt so bad for J Ro since she had to get two vaccinations and had to have blood drawn. She was very unhappy about that and made quite a lot of noise in the doctor's office (I didn't know she could produce such a loud cry!). We had to hold her down while they were giving her the shots/drawing blood and we felt so bad. R was almost crying. But the good thing is that the doctor said Jennifer appears to be really healthy. The doctor looked in her ears and says they look good - no ear infection or sign of fluid. She said that she appears to have gotten good nutrition and seems to have really good developmental progress. The doctor had us take her off the Chinese formula (we were doing a combination of Chinese formula with US formula) and go with the Similac. She also gave us some suggestions on what other foods to start feeding her as she gets interested in solid foods. Hopefully after the shots and blood work, J Ro will be willing to set foot in that office again.

Today, we took Jennifer in the stroller around Georgetown. It was a beautiful day and it was so nice being home with her. R also took her with her when she got her nails done at the Four Seasons George Salon. Everyone there thought she was so cute and I can tell she's going to get a lot of attention wherever we go. Everything is still so new for us that it is taking us more time to do the basic stuff. When we were getting ready for our outing to Georgetown, we took our new stroller out of the box and spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out how to fold it up so we could put it in the car. We are also still getting used to all the stuff we need to bring with us when we go out with the baby. After we got to downtown Georgetown, I had to return home because we forgot the diaper bag. And when we do pack the diaper bag, we're still figuring out the right balance between taking way too much stuff and forgetting essential items. Still, we have been enjoying being home with J Ro and even figuring this stuff out has an element of fun to it.

Now that we are back home, I have still been enjoying taking photos of the little one (no video so far but hopefully I'll do that later). I hve attached a few that I took Friday -- in the doctors office and then at home (note: I took the doctors office photos before she got the shots so she still looks happy). I know I'm biased but I just think both R and J Ro look beautiful in these photos. Ok - I will sign off now and find out what R is up to. She just put the baby back to sleep after feeding her -- so we have some moments of peace before the next wake up call.

J.