The Big Snow of 2010

On Friday, we received an unusual phenomena.....Snow! "Snow?", you may ask. Yes, snow. Five inches of snow! In south Alabama, snow is a huge deal. Everything stops here when it snows. People storm the grocery stores to buy up all of the bread and milk. Schools close. Banks close. You name it, it closes.

The snow was gorgeous, and the flakes were huge, but what a mess when it all started melting. It was somewhat of a bummer, though, because I was home alone during the snow. There's something not so fun about making a snowman by yourself. Anyhoo, I did get out and make some pictures. Hopefully it won't be another 13 years before it snows again. I will be too old to make snow angels, if that's the case!

Enjoy the pictures!

Snow on Saturday morning

Happy New Year!

Today, February 14, 2010, is Chinese New Year! We celebrated a little early by going to the Chinese New Year parade in Fairhope last weekend. It was a family affair this year. My parents and sister went with us, as did Tim, Michele, Nick, Anna Kay, Michael, Jessica, and Merrill. It was a beautiful day, and we had a great time!

Next year we will participate in the parade. It will be the year of the rabbit, so if anyone has any ideas for decorating a float, please don't hesitate to offer them!

Update on Sophie!

Sophie is 1 year 5 months old

Since we are now waiting on our Travel Invitation, we decided it would be a good time to get an update on Sophie, so we put together a list of questions and sent them to our agency coordinator. She's wonderful about translating questions for us and staying up all hours of the night to talk to someone at the orphanage. Remember China is 12 hours ahead of us, so while we are sleeping, they are in the middle of their work day. This morning we woke to an email back from our agency with answers to our many questions from Sophie's foster mother. And as an added bonus, we have a picture of Sophie holding a picture of us! How great is that?!

Current Measurements:

Height: 75cm (29.5 inches), weight: 10.5kg (a little over 23 lbs, gained about a pound) , head size: 48cm (~19 inches), chest size: 50cm(~20 inches), length of her feet: 12cm(~5 inches - Her feet have grown a good bit!), number of teeth: 6 (She has cut two teeth!)

Sleep Schedule:

She goes to sleep at 9:00 p.m and gets up at 7:00 a.m. (Sounds like she's a good sleeper!) She takes one nap a day, from 12:00 noon to 1:30 p.m. She goes to sleep easily. When it is time for her to go to sleep, she only needs to have a cloth in her hand and she falls asleep on her own without having to be rocked or drinking a bottle (I may have to rock a little anyway after we get home!).

Eating habits and schedule:

She is not a picky eater and likes all foods. (Yea! I was worried I was going to have to learn to make rice and fish congee!) She likes rice, noodles, rice porridge(congee) with minced meat in it, fruit, corn, crackers, candy. She doesn't like vegetable very much. (What kid does though, right?) She takes a bottle after she wakes up in the morning and one at night before bed.

She has started walking on her own. She calls "Wa Wa" for father. She babbles a lot.

We also hear that Sophie did receive the care package we sent her a few months ago. We are so relieved and hopeful that we will seem somewhat familiar to her since she's seen our pictures.

Praying for TA!