New Intro(finally), My girl can scream!

Introducing:
Jin Yu Ni
Aka: Gianna Yu NI
Aka: Gia, Gi-Gi, Gige (thanks Vick for the last one!)
Born 10/10/06 - Residing in Guangxi Province (directly West of Guangdong -where Chloe is from).

Are those cheeks squeezable or what?

Hoping to travel in mid-november.

Scroll all the way down to see Chloe's reaction (Ahem, I think big sister will be teaching little sister how to scream, ya think?)

Cheers

10/09/07 - 10:48 pm- All Clear/Independent Minds in Process
Received the "all clear" from the Pede on Monday and fed-exed the acceptance form back the same day- Wooo Hoooo!!! Not sure if all of our group of 8 have sent them back yet but they can not be forwarded to the CCAA until all are received by the agency as they send them back in a group. Received some Beijing travel touring options from the agency today so things are becoming more real by the minute. I wasn't that enthused about Beijing since I am a btdt but now that I've seen it in writing - why the heck not??? There is a lot going on there now in Olympic Prep so wouldn't mind picking up a few of those souvenirs (geesh, shopping seems to be on my mind already!). If I get my way, we will do Beijing-Nanning-Guilin-Guangzhou-Hong Kong-Home. Its going to be quite a trip - exhausting but exciting - I can not wait!

BTW Someone left me a comment (Thank you Monica!) with the proper pronunciation of Giannas Orphanage nickname of Xiao NiZi and it is She-Ow Knee-zuh. Which reminds me - thanks to everyone for their well wishes they all have really warmed my heart! - its pretty darn cool that I've had so many hits here but I know y'all are comin just to see the pics!!! and I can't say I blame ya! :-)

Chlo-ism. Chloe is a very independent girl. She gets $1 per week if she wakes up gets dressed, brushes her teeth and makes her bed on weekdays. She also gets a bit pissy when I wake up and greet her before she has completed all of these things (no kidding - it is the plop on the floor, cross the arms across the chest "I wanted to get ready BEFORE you got up!!!" kind of mad). She loves to get ready and then come in my room and wake ME up!!! I have tried to get her to set her alarm for 6:30/6:45ish so that she can sleep a little longer but she refuses and always sets it at 6:20 or so. This is the way we have been playing this for several months now. I got her started on this in hopes that it would take some pressure off of me before the new little one came because I was stressing a bit about how I was going to get them both up, ready, fed and to two different places (daycare and school) all before I had to be sitting at my desk by 8am. It has really been going well and Chloe has managed to get her dollar every week since this started.

Yesterday I pick her up from school (she looked so cute in her pink ruffled jean skirt, pink shirt and pink cowboy boots - just had to slide that in here:-)) and she is sitting in the backseat (this is the time we have some of our best conversations):

Chloe: Mommy, You know what?
Me: What hon?
Chloe: I was thinking today - Why can't I sleep late in the morning?
Me: What do you mean?
Chloe: Why do I always have to get up SOOOOO early and get ready?
Me: [laughing my butt off indiscreetly because I could tell that she had been thinking about this whole revelation during her school day]. Well, if you want your allowance, you do have to get up and get yourself dressed, brush your teeth, make your bed, etc just like you have been doing for a few months but you don't have to get up so early - I told you not to set your alarm so early!
Chloe: [speechless - yep, I was surprised too - I think she is still thinking about this!]

I think Chloe's revelation was also prompted by the fact that it is so darn dark now in the mornings since we haven't switched times yet so no wonder she is wondering!

I read on one of my egroups that a mom had taught her kids that food on the plate should be eaten in a special order - can't remember the order now but more or less, eat the healthiest stuff first and the unhealthiest stuff last. Which is kind of what I've been teaching Chloe (she pretty much knows what is healthy and what is not and asks if she doesn't know), the hope is that they will fill up on the healthy stuff and not have room to eat to much of the crappy junkfood. But the poster stated that she was just waiting for the time when her kids figured out that food could really be eaten in any order they wanted - they wouldn't die or keel over or anything. So it's funny and not to mention amazing to actually witness the revelations of an independent mind in process. One of the great wonders of parenthood for sure!!!

10/6/07 12:35 a.m. - Updates (10/2 referral, 10/6 medicals)
I received Giannas translated medicals reports tonight - (yeah, that's right, my agency works on the weekend!!! Aren't they great?). Everything appears to be normal so that is good news. Oh and her official Chinese name is Jin Yu Ni (means as clean and pure as ice and jade) and her nickname is Xiao NiZi (not sure of the pronuciation on the latter - maybe Chow Knee Zee? Not sure). She is described as an "extroverted active little cherub [that cracked me up] with an open character who likes to smile"

I forwarded the reports to the pediatrician (who is also fabulous-she completely loaded us up with sample meds for the trip - for the baby and Chloe! - how cool is that?). I suspect I will be sending in the acceptance on Monday so we can get this ball rolling.

There are 8 families in our travel group 5 moms/dads and 3 singles (including me). One other single is bringing her 7 year old so I am pretty excited that Chloe will have a pal during the trip. All of the rest of the families are getting babies from Yulin orphanage while Gianna is the only baby from Guiping Orphanage (foster care actually). We all go to Nanning on a Sunday and typically receive the babies on a Monday. The babies will be brought to us at the local Civil affairs office. I believe that Yulin is 5 hours from Nanning and Guiping is 3 hours. I'm also told that Guilin is about 3 hours from Nanning by bus so I am really, really hoping to head there the weekend after we meet Gianna - stay there over the weekend and then fly out to Guangzhou to finish up the American side of the paperwork. We may just end up doing Beijing again on the front end (before Gianna) and then grab a few days in HK on the back end before boarding that plane to come home :-(. That would be absolutely perfecto!

Agency is stating that tentatively we will travel after T-giving but maybe if we hurry and get all this stuff in, we can leave before Tgiving? That would allow time to recover from the lag before Christmas.

Ciao for now.

10/3/07
Some updates: I did receive the official paperwork on Gianna today (typing her name seems so strange!) and her Chinese name (as printed on these documents) is: JIN YUNI - I am still waiting for confirmation on this though from the agency because for some reason they thought it was JIN YUYI and I am not seeing that anywhere. Important as this will be her middle name.

One thing I did not mention yesterday is that the pics below were taken in April 2007 so she was 6 months old at the time. She is now almost one and I'm told I will not be getting updated pics. Her medical/developmental reports are being translated right now but I am able to decipher the following from these documents (again this is all as of her 6 month check up):

Weight = 14.77 lbs
Length = 25"

• No teeth
• Was in foster care as of March 2007
• Moderate sleeper
• Expresses refusal in a simple way (My kinda girl that stands up for herself)
• knows name, turns when called
• imitates words (Dang!)
• eats biscuits w/o help (yeah get ready Gige we're comin' with the CHeerios!!!)
• transfer a block from one hand to the other (we're comin' with the blocks too!)
• reach and grasp a toy (we're comin' with the toys! - egad one suitcase packed already)
• fond of listening to music (Bringing my Ipod!! w/Chinese lullabyes already loaded!)
• active (Lets go dancin!!!)
• restless (uh-oh)
• having a ready smile (not in MY pictures!)
• fond of playing games (uh....what kind of games?)
• closest to caretaker and another baby with whom shares crib (awwwww)
• favorite activity: #@$%^&*() (my idea of chinese letters)
• favorite toy: @#$%^&*()_@#$%^& (more chinese letters)