Rough September

Grandma sent the fairy outfit and the Dora slippers home with Dado. Naty loves them. Boy, was September ever a rough month for Naty's face. She got a bug bite under her eye. It doesn't look to bad in the picture, but of course this the end of day 1. At the beginning of September, while Kevin was enjoying Colorado, Naty fell at daycare and hit her head. She had the strangest looking goose egg. She had two black eyes or corners. They aren't as noticeable in this picture, but the fairy picture you can see them a little. Of course all these pictures are at least a week or so after she hit her head.

Personality

It is amazing how much of Natalee's personality we are seeing. She is fighting Maks for the right to run the house. Natalee is quite the little girl; she has a sense of humor, she is a chatter box, she loves to dance, and she loves to eat. She says daddy (dahdo), doggy, and boo. She will sign more and eat. She loves her squeaky shoes. She has grown attached to blankets since we returned home. Maks loves to play with her. We do have to remind him that he has to be careful with her still. Maks has decided he wants to take up ice skating, which is just fine with mom (Tonya has always wanted him to be a hockey player). It seems to be the only activity that wears him out.

Sleep?!?!?!?

Sorry we are slow posting after we got home. Natalee is very confused about when to sleep. She is a very happy baby even when she is tired, but when she is ready to sleep she just goes to sleep where ever she is. The plane ride home was really easy with her. She is so easy going and I think the whole plane ride we had 5 minutes of crying and that occured when we did not get the bottles made quick enough or she was fighting going to sleep. This was in Tokyo airport. Pucker Up!!!! This is what I'm talking about. Just one minute before the picture was taken she was playing. We took Maks to Day Out With Thomas on Friday, June 1. He so enjoyed his morning and playing. Natalee and I were up the whole night because she was exhausted and slept the whole day before. We had a birthday party for Natalee on Saturday, June 2. Aunt Dawn got the invitations out while we were in China, that was a big help.

Signing off from China

Well, we are almost on our way back. Sorry, already have the camera packed up and ready to go, so no pictures this time. The Consulate appointment went very smooth this afternoon and we (barely) managed to get all of our stuff packed. We bought a pretty large suitcase to pack the rest of our stuff for 110 yuan, which is about $14, so you know it is high quality! It is almost 11:00 here and we are getting up at 4:00. We leave for the airport about 5:30 and our flight to Tokyo leaves around 8:30 in morning. After Tokyo it is on to Detroit where Natalee will officially become a US citizen when she clears customs. Then it is off to Kansas City and finally Topeka. It has been a great trip and we are really going to miss our travel group. It was nice having such a small group of families to travel with - especially since we all got along so well. Looking forward to seeing everyone when we get home!!!!

So close I can taste it . . .

or maybe that is just some of the chicken from supper stuck between my teeth. Either way, it is great!

We only have one full day left in China and although it has been a great trip, we are really, really ready to be home and see Maks. Apparently Maks is climbing the walls himself, but that was another post.

Today Todd Larson and I had to go down to the U.S. Consulate with our guide Cordeliato fill out a form. Tonya and I managed to leave the notarized copy of ours at home and bring the blank one, while Todd made a mistake on his and had to redo it. Normally just the guides go down and turn in the paperwork, while the families stay at the hotel so the Consulate can call if they need any information. In addition to the Cordelia, there were a couple other adoption guides for other agencies down there at the same time turning in their families' paperwork - and we counted at least 15 other packets being turned in, in addition to the 3 that Cordelia had to turn in. Todd and I were the only ones down there to redo any paperwork. Cordelia must have been proud - 2/3 of her families screwed stuff up while every other agencies were batting a thousand. It was very simple process and the lady at the Consulate acted like we were not the only ones to have to redo that form. It is so nice when other people try to make you not look so stupid. (No offense Todd.)

Other than that, we just walked around and did some (more) shopping today. I think we are about done now. There is one shop where we have bought most of our stuff, and man are they going to be sad to see us go. They had a new Lexis parked out in front of their shop today with a big sign that said "Thank you Kevin and Tonya" but we weren't sure if it was talking about us or not.

Natalee is still doing great. I have never met a child (or adult for that matter) that likes to sneeze as much as Natalee. No matter what mood she is in, when she sneezes she is nothing but smiles.

This afternoon we did our tradition photos at the White Swan. Our travel group dressed all the newly adopted children up in Chinese outfits and took a picture on the red couch at the White Swan Hotel. As you can see in the photos, Natalee was not too pleased about us having to wake her up after a 5 minute nap. Maybe we should have taken some pepper with us for the picture to make her sneeze a few times? We had a group dinner tonight at a great Chinese restaurant. Tomorrow we have to go to the US Consulate and get Natalee's entry visa and then we are done except for the packing!

Getting ready for the big picture at the White Swan in my pretty new dress.

Nothing but smiles, can't wait for that picture.

Wow, what a difference a few minutes can make.

Ok, back to happy.

Staredown at the White Swan Corral! (Natalee and Alanna Larson having their first organized play time - or not so organized given who their parents are.) (Again, no offense Todd.) (Or Wendi)

Natalee trying to climb inside the camera.

3 Days to Go

Today we had a free day for the most part. We had to meet with Cordelia at 2:00 pm to give her our paperwork for our Consulate appointment. We spent part of our morning just lounging around in our room and then we went shopping. I guess you could say it was pretty relaxing.

Miss Natalee found the nightlight and was fasinated by it.

Then she found the prettest girl ever and was playing with her.

Our exchange student, Arystan, left today to go back home to Kazakhstan, but he left a gift for Natalee. I can't believe how wonderful the mural turned out. It is more than I could have hoped for.

Here are our Kazakh boys, Arystan (aka- A from K) and Maks (aka- Spiderman).

I didn't believe it when my sister, Dawn, told me Maks, I mean Spiderman, had been climbing the walls since we left. We can't wait to get home and give him lots of hugs and kisses.

It's a Small World, Part II

Ok, yesterday we talked about meeting a woman who grew up just a few miles from where Tonya and I grew up in SE Colorado. Well today we met the Other Larson Family who is working with our same adoption agency but is on a little different schedule than us and arrived in Guangzhou two days ago. Actually we met them on the elevator the first day they got into town, but did not realize they were the Other Larson Family. They ended up with a room right next to ours and they also have a 5 year old son, whose name is Max. Kind of cool, huh. Oh yeah, they also live at 69th and Wanamaker in Topeka, or just a few miles from where we live now. We had no idea someone else from the midwest was going to be part of our travel group, and really did not expect someone who lives in Topeka was going be staying next door to us.

We have not gotten out and about yet today (Natalee slept until about 9:00 after waking up a few times during the night - once to eat some formula and a couple times to spit it back up). Here are some pictures of Natalee from this morning though.