Halloween

Jasmine wore her zebra hat for exactly 10 seconds, just long enough to get this picture.

Jasmine surrounded by the Tebbs clan at their downtown bike shop. This will not be the last time that Jasmine is surrounded by boys, but Shane has made a vow that she's waiting until 18 years old.

Jasmine is not intimidated by a flock of brothers. She definitely knows how to hold her own. Jasmine maintained her composure until the car seat.

My little zebra. We attended Auburn's downtown trick or treat. Jasmine got the hang of accepting gifts from strangers and when she saw the hoards of other costumed children she started to get in the spirit of things. She continues to stop people in their tracks. Within 1 minute of exiting our car, 2 people asked to take her picture.

Here is my friend and bike shop owner, Dawn, meeting Jasmine for the first time. With her own crew of 3, she is ultra-comfortable with a baby in her arms.

Quality control

Jasmine wants to make sure her new potty holds up in the bathtub.
Shane insisted on making sure Jasmine's zebra costume will be safe for her first Halloween.

Pumpkins! Chickens! Tractor!

Jasmine loves to be outdoors. Who can blame her, with 80 degree days and a cloudless blue sky? I am ready for the seasons to officially change but it is still glorious to be outdoors.



This weekend we made our way to a local pumpkin patch. While Jasmine still does not enjoy the car seat for long rides (anything longer than 10 minutes is long to her) it was worth it in the end. She loves to see new things and to run around outdoors. She also has the remarkable ability to wear out all adults who are with her for any substantial period of time.







Jasmine is growing faster than we can keep up. She is wearing 18 month clothes, has outgrown her squeaky shoes from China and no longer fits into most of her cute summer clothes. We are running to keep up with her! She is mobile, demanding, coy and devilish. She is developing a discerning palate, doesn't much like leftovers (so much for mama cooking a batch of something to last a couple of days) and is interested in everything. She loves to figure out how things work and will scream in frustration when she can't get it right. I routinely find her doggedly working to screw a cap on a bottle or putting things together over and over. She is in her problem-solving phase and I can almost see her neurotransmitters firing as she develops all her new skills. It's wonderful to witness and I try to not interfere too much. The downside is we cannot take our eyes off of her for one tiny minute or she will be taking apart our stereo or wandering down the street to meet the neighbors.

Reflections

Our 2 month anniversary of Gotcha Day approaches this weekend. I have been thinking a lot about the changes in all of us as this remarkable anniversary nears. Of course, the changes in Shane and I are undeniable as we stretch and grow into parents, adjusting every thread of our lives to accommodate our daughter and to meet her needs as best we can. I can't deny that it has put a strain on us as we shift our focus off of ourselves and each other and focus onto her. We are still learning how to balance it all. Isn't this the case with all new parents?

The changes in Jasmine are stunning to me and as she changes on a daily basis, introducing new tricks, I cannot help but delight and ponder how much of this is part and parcel of parenting a toddler and how much of it is about her catching up on lost time. She eats with vigor and enthusiasm, helps get her bath ready by tossing her toys in as it fills with water, laughs and screams when Baba walks in the door and runs to him for a hug, discriminates between strangers and parents but still gives out hugs when she she feels compelled, claps at her accomplishments, and sleeps through the night. What I have noticed recently is subtle but wonderful. When I go into her room in the morning after she calls out, she latches onto me like a little monkey, giving me a big and delicious morning hug. She's always reached out for me and climbed into my arms but this is different. This feels like LOVE. She also gets mad at me now and I really like that she does. She feels safe enough to struggle with me about what she wants and doesn't worry that I will reject her. Somehow when she gets mad at me, I see her developing little self asserting for what she wants. I don't mean throwing a fit or fussing. It's how she is starting to relate to me as a person. And what also amazes me is how much my love for her keeps deepening as I get to know her better. While this sounds simplistic, I fell in love with her months before I met her but I now get to experience the joy of that love deepening for a real human being. I love getting to know what her likes and dislikes are, like the fact that she loves having her feet rubbed with lotion after her bath, or that she likes squash on somedays and not on others or distinguishing between what her fussiness is about. This is the intangible joy of parenthood.

I can only wonder now about our 6 month anniversary of Gotcha Day, how time doesn't accurately reflect life's experiences. By then, she will have her palate repaired and will probably be talking. I'll save that reflection for later.

Fall activities

Waiting to get loaded up into the stroller.
Preparing the vegetable bed for a fall garden.
Back to the cemetery for more walnut harvesting. This time I took a broom for a more robust harvest. It's a meager crop this year. Normally Stephanie and I collect bushels, but the only effective way to harvest is to knock them out of the tree. Jasmine finally understood that we were actually doing something interesting.


Jasmine has been on the go the last couple of days. She's been a busy girl with Mama, meeting lots of new people and getting errands done. I'm learning that trying to make "normal" plans with a 14 month old is merely my former self, forgetting how much life has changed. Her moods dictate a lot of what we accomplish but we are both learning how to carry on with housework, cooking and even exercise. She is the most expressive, animated little person that I've ever met. Every experience is joined by an expression of some sort, either guttural, facial or physical and she gets her point across. She's also a total show-stopper out in public. Everywhere we go people stop and stare, smiling and engaging with her. She's bright and lively and she knows exactly what she wants. There are some days when nothing seems to please her unless she's glued to my hip and getting my full attention. When she plays independently in the house she is so busy it almost seems like she's actually going to accomplish something important, and then, sadly, it is just all the tupperware and cooking utensils spread throughout the house.

Kuglof

In honor of my father, who made us fresh Kuglof last weekend, I decided to make my own loaf of this hungarian pastry. It is a yeasted dough rolled with chocolate and rum-soaked raisins. It's really easy to make and oh so yummy to eat. Although I grew up eating hungarian pastries, I don't bake them much. My parents are both very skilled bakers and so we enjoy these delicacies mostly around the holidays when my mom goes crazy baking. Jasmine, who doesn't get much in the way of sweets, was quite content to eat as much kuglof as she was allowed. Although I'm not crazy about my own Sunday morning appearance I couldn't resist showing her chocolate-smeared face. She really loves to eat and I'm enjoying trying all kinds of new foods with her. We're a great combination since I love to cook and all 3 of us love to eat. When she has her palate surgery (soon I hope!) I'm not too worried about the feeding issue, since it's not hard for me to think of soft foods for her. I'm mostly concerned about her very active nature, but I know all toddlers are active and she is in good company of babies who have to wear arm restraints for several weeks and survive.

A weekend in Autumn

Jasmine loves to sit on the step and clap her hands. She cracks us all up. She is a HUGE drooler. There are very few pictures of her without a wet face and a long stream of drool hanging to her chest. Too cute. We have the most gorgeous collection of bibs as a result. Drool on, baby-girl.




Autumn blew in today with a stiff, cool breeze. This is the time of year when we go to the beautiful Auburn cemetery and start harvesting walnuts. Last year, Shane and I collected bushels and bushels and we contemplated what it would be like to have our daughter with us. She wasn't quite as excited about it as I was--it's hard to get around the cemetery when the earth is so unstable, and Mama is not as attentive as normal since she's hunting around for walnuts. So she had a few unhappy moments, but she also had moments when the green grass and the blue sky intoxicated her as well. She is so interested and interesting. She introduces a new mood or reaction every single day. My heart continues to burst in my chest as I fall deeper and deeper in love with her. I can't believe our extraordinary good luck to be her parents. We also have heard back from Shriner's that we have an initial consult in about 3 weeks. We are very excited about that too. We're still not sure where her surgery will get done since Kaiser has a cleft team too, but we sure hope it's done long before Christmas so she can fully enjoy the holidays. I cannot imagine this kid in arm restraints! Tomorrow we work in the garden, getting our fall garden planted (first year!). We built planter boxes this spring and fed the local deer population all summer, but we're hoping our yard is now deer-proof and ready feed our family.

A visit to Grandparents

Checking out Nagypapa's garden. The watering can was the big hit since her little fist could fit right into the hole.


Enjoying her Grandma Marj, and Grandma Marj enjoying her right back. Even though Jasmine looks so big in these pictures, she's still such a baby. She's not interested in drinking from a cup and we are in no hurry to push her off the bottle. Once it's gone, it's gone forever.
Jasmine finished her first week of part-time daycare last week and we are onto week 2. We are all remarkably content with the arrangement and when I walked into Jennifer's home today (our home care provider) and saw all the little people just like J sitting at the table eating their lunch, I was definitely at ease. All those children have parents just like us who have to leave them in someone else's hands during the day. They are all so cute and happy and she fits right in. We are very pleased. Jasmine comes home happy; happy to be with her parents and in her own home, happy to eat, happy to bathe. We are all adjusting. We are pushing to get her palate looked at by a team--that is the next step in her overall well-being. We hope to get a call from Shriner's but Kaiser also has a good cranio-facial team. It's a long drive to Oakland from our house but we'll do what we have to when the time is right. I know that after her surgery there will be a big shift for all of us. But I'll save those thoughts for a later day.

Changing seasons

A day of Indian summer, Jasmine loves to be outdoors. We look forward to the day when we can take our eyes off of her for 2 seconds, since right now it is acorn-dropping season. Nothing like testing a perfectly oval shaped acorn to see how it tastes.



Today we went to the Children's International Adoption clinic in Oakland. Jasmine is our little Buddha, our Tibetan poster child. Thanks again to my wonderful sister-in-law, Jasmine has a full wardrobe of cuteness with 8 years of hand me downs. Jasmine isn't thrilled about a 2 hour car ride to see a doctor. She was a real trooper on the way home after having her ears cleaned and poked for 30 minutes. She worked about a real sweat with her screaming and struggling--Dr. Curtis referred to her as a "formidable alpha female". Shane just shook his head with resignation. He's definitely outnumbered in our household.