Each Day Brings us a Little Closer

(Paul wrote today's entry while Mary washed bottles!)

Hi everybody. We are sorry we have been a bit slow in updating. We hope that you haven't given up on checking in on us. Apparently, taking care of a baby is a lot of work! From here on out, we'll try to do a short blog everyday so that we can keep up. The connection here is a bit funky, so uploading pictures is a bit "iffy." Our friend, and co-adopter, is a tech guru and has given me a sneaky way around the problem, but it is a bit time consuming. I hope to have a BUNCH of pictures up tomorrow. If you check our most recent entry, you'll see a few photos from "gotcha" day but I think they are thumbnails, so I'm not sure how well they'll work.

Wow, I'm rambling, and haven't even said a thing about the whole reason we are here. All in all, our relationship with our daughter is working out more smoothly than we expected. Joy is funny, loving, smart and HUNGRY!!!! So far, we have fed her Veggie Puffs, Cheerios, Honey Nut Cheerios, variety of noodles, eggs, pancakes, melon, variety of bread, bacon, rice, various veggies, formula, french fries, pizza crust, yogurt, congee, a traditional rice porridge, hmmm, and probably alot more and so far the only rejection has been.......Apple Juice. Who would have thought!

One of our biggest challenges seem to be bed time, which is really "all out spaz" time. Much like her mother, young Joy just does not like to see her day come to an end! However, she did get almost 12 hours of sleep last night!!! Our other big challenge is that while she likes to eat, play, kick, talk, laugh, tickle with her daddy, she does NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! particularly like to be held by daddy. There have been some exceptions, mostly at meal time, and we are confident that this will improve. She does appear to love her mommy (and really, who doesn't?).

Joy is happy most of the day. She loves to laugh and play. Stacking cups are the biggest hit. She loves to grab them and bang them and stack them. She really loves to accidently throw them off the bed for her daddy to retrieve. She can get quite silly and loves to be tickled. She is a chatterbox and her favorite word is "ma" which means nanny, but really means "give me more of that." She also says mama, dada, bbbubbu, thsssssssss, gggggggggg and the other classics. She picks up everything and is interested in everything. She likes to lay on her back and grab her toes!

Today was a big day, even though we didn't seem to do much. We ate three meals, just like other humans. We went on a walking tour of our local area and visited a department store. New socks!!!!! Mommy ran an errand and left Joy all alone with her daddy for the first time. The first 15 minutes were rough, but then she settled in to an hour of cups and cheerios. The doctor visited at 5:00 to give all the babies a checkup. Joy is healthy and on track with her social interaction, but a bit behind in her motor skills and walking, so the doctor prescribed....exercises!!!!

Tommorow is a trip to the Zoo to see pandas and probably another afternoon of.......yes! Cups and cheerios!!!!

Love you all and talk to you soon!!!!!