Another week has come and gone, and our dear daughter is more wonderful than ever. The brain fog from lack of sleep is gradually diminishing and we are finally starting to carve out a routine. Li Li is sleeping through the night now which we are very thankful for, in fact the biggest issue with sleep now is the fact that she sometimes will fight going to sleep and will scream hysterically refusing to console herself for several hours. If we pick her up and carry her around she’s fine, as soon as she touches the mattress though – the waterworks and noise return. We’ll all figure it out together.

Catherine’s sister mailed us a pouch which Catherine is thrilled by – Li Li hasn’t made up her mind about it just yet.

 

We thought she looked just like a little joey poking an arm and head out of her mother’s pouch – although she’s much cuter.

I had school last week and Catherine brought Li Li up at the end of the day so that I could show off my daughter to my classmates. So we took her to the bar after class where one of my classmates remarked – “she’s way too comfortable hanging out in a bar…”. Decide for yourself.

 

I’m six months into an executive mba program at Babson college and my classmates have been very supportive, in fact Li Li is the 3rd child among our classmates since we started. And we are expecting at least one more by June.

Our warm, snowless winter is no more as temperatures have been cold and we’ve had lots of snow and ice since returning home. We took Li Li out for a short walk in some nearby woods one recent morning before her morning nap. She of course loves being out and about and didn’t mind the snowflakes falling on her face.

 

Li Li has embraced the pouch and Catherine’s back is much happier than using the Bjorn.

While walking in the trees a big clump of snow fell on us – Li Li just smiled, notice the snow on her chin.

Maggie is now Li Li’s biggest fan, especially once she realized that Li Li drops cheerios and other food – plus Maggie is now almost guaranteed a nice long walk every day, sometimes twice. Notice the happy lab in the distance standing guard as Catherine slogs through the snow.

A quick portrait – notice Li Li’s backward tilt. She likes to lean back or be carried with her body horizontal. Not sure why – it’s just what she likes.

The snow was pretty so I took a few “artsy” landscape photos. I couldn’t help myself.

That’s all for now. The days of updating the blog every day are over. We’ll try to do an update at least once a week – although we’re not promising anything.

With a little help from technology we’ve found a wonderful woman and her family who’ve agreed to provide childcare services for Li Li. Lei has two children, a daughter who is 3 1/2 years-old and a son who is 11 months old. Lei’s husband is a PHD student in applied mathematics at Brown, and they are from the Anhui province in China which is a neighboring province to Jiangxi (Li Li’s home province). They speak Mandarin at home so Li Li will be able to maintain her Mandarin skills, not too mention be extremely well cared for by Lei and her mother-in-law. We feel very lucky to have found such a wonderful family so quickly. It’s definitely a load off our minds.

So many of you have asked for more pictures so here are a few just so you can all see just how beautiful our little daughter is.

 

Catherine spends lots of time staring at the our little jewel. Like her father, Li Li has become a big fan of the morning paper. Here she is about to rant about how those darn Red Sox.

One of the benefits of being up at 5:30 is you can see the sun rise. This is the first sunlight coming through our antique bay windows. The light only stays on the door for about 3 minutes before moving across the room.

 

Maggie has adopted Li Li as a member of the pack and even seems to accept the fact Li Li is now the highest ranking female in the household. (I as the only male, am still the Alpha male but we’ll leave the relative rankings of females and males in the household for another day….).

Maggie likes to be be close to the action and Li Li is where the action is.

  

Baths are still problematic. Li Li expresses her displeasure. We’re not sure why she’s so unhappy with baths but we haven’t had much success convincing of the fun to be had splashing in water. Once bathtime is over, she returns to her wonderful happy self. Here the neighbors came for a visit and even the sun cooperated by highlighting the newest star of the neighborhood.

Sorry the posting frequency has dropped but parenthood is much harder when there is no maid service, no laundry service, no buffet breakfasts, etc. It’s all worth it, but we do miss China. -tjm