Today I am thankful for Justin getting home in a few minutes and actually having a weekend off, which almost never happens. We should have planned something, but surely we can think of something fun for us all to do. We are all very excited to see him.
Do y'all watch So You Think You Can Dance? It is soooooooooooooo good. Love it and so glad that it has started again. I have had a hard time getting this done because I can't stop watching it. If you have never seen it, watch it. It is fascinating. Not a cheesy reality show, but extremely talented dancers who do amazing things.
We had therapy for Annie today to make up missing on Monday. I was so excited to go because she has started doing so much since we were last there 2.5 weeks ago. Her OT was definitely pleased with her progress. She is getting close to crawling, but we have to stay right beside her to prevent her from pulling her legs under her to sit and scoot. She really needs to work on her upper body strength, which is still lacking. So we brought home these neoprene short things that make her keep her legs in. They are so funny. They look just like what a deep sea diver would wear. She didn't mind them a bit and they did seem to help. We are supposed to work with her in them for 20-30 minutes a day. I hope they give her the extra confidence to take off crawling.
Annie had a great night eating tonight. She ate almost an entire piece of deli turkey. It is a BIG deal when she swallows table food. She loves to put food in her mouth, swish it around, and spit it back out. But tonight she actually ate and swallowed. I have never given her deli meat, but we will start doing that more often. I was eating a sandwich and Cheetos puffs so I handed her a puff. Um, yeah, like Justin, Lucy, and I she thoroughly enjoyed it. She scarfed several down. Yeah!
I am off to enjoy Justin being home!
This might have been our messiest dinner ever. She was a wreck afterwards, but so stinkin happy about it all.
Bruiser and Bianca just hang out by the highchair while Annie is there. She LOVES to throw stuff off of her tray to them.
Do you want some more Bianca?
Cheetos rules!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
147/365
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18 comments:
Annie looks really tall in those high chair pis! And I seriously love 'So You Think You Can Dance'...glad you reminded me it's on again!!!
Yea! Dada is home!!! I am so happy about Annie having a great meal! Lucy looks like she was doing quite well, also. Hugs and kisses to all, LeeLee
I know this is after the fact - but I backup my blogger account on a typepad account - ie - make a copy - and run an update about one a month...Just in case - good luck!
Carol in FL
Has Annie had cottage cheese? Cottage cheese was a breakthrough food for our Hannah because it didn't need chewing, she could work on swallowing chunks, AND she could pick up pieces of large curd with her fingers and work on fine motor skills.
Go Annie! Some of the kids at the center where I work wear those hip pants-- one of the g'mothers calls them baby Spanx!
Yay! I love to hear good reports on Annie. She really is moving right along with her milestones.
Both girls are just beautiful, as always. Enjoy your family weekend, Kelly!
Karin & Caroline
LOVE the I heart faces pic you entered for this week! amazing! way to go Annie on the turkey! Believe me I know your joy-our new little one ate about 3 grains of rice the other day and it about brought tears to my eyes! anyway, enjoyed the pics!
love love love SYTYCD!
Last season there was a girl who seriously looked/reminded me of you...I can't remember her name at the moment...
Yea she's found something she loooooves to eat!
Hi , i'm from the the Netherlands , Europe and follow your blog since Lucy came home , but i have never commented before . I enjoy reading your blog and your daughters are adorable. I made my first comment today because i want to share this story with you and and readers of this blog especially for adoptive parents . i don't know if you or any readers here have watched the fascinating documentary tittled '' Daughter from Danang'' . A couple of days ago i search on youtube , and by chance , i watched this amazing documentary , i have to say , Daughter from Danang is one of the best documentaries i have ever seen . A fascinating , moving , sad story about a Vietnamese adoptee looking for her birth mother since their separation at the end of the Vietnam War . This documentary also serves as moral lesson for adoptive parents how important it is to teach your adoptive children about the culture , tradition of their native countries . you can watch this documentary by typing '' daughter from Danang on youtube . Sorry for my English i'm not an native English speaker . Here is one the reviews of Daughter from Danang that i found on the net
Here is one of the reviews of Daughter from Danang on the net
by Brian McKay
Hey kids, do you like tales of sadness, abandonment, and general human misery? Would you like to experience brief moments of joy before being drop-kicked to the head with the realization that the human condition generally sucks? Well break out the kleenex and the razor blades, and get yourself a copy of DAUGHTER FROM DANANG
Heidi is a married woman in her thirties with a thick southern accent. Despite her slightly darker complexion and slightly almond-shaped eyes, you'd never guess that she wasn't just a tanned white girl from Louisiana. Heidi was in fact born under the name Hiep, the daughter of an American soldier and Vietnamese woman. She was sent to the states during "Operation Babylift" at the age of 6. She was then adopted by a single mother, told not to discuss where she came from, and completely Americanized.
Although Operation Babylift is not the focus of the documentary, it is covered fairly in-depth, including the haphazard and seemingly callous nature in which the operation was conducted. Although its official purpose was to get Amerasian children out of Vietnam before they were slaughtered by the encroaching Viet Cong forces, the notion that it was a ploy to gain sympathy (and funding) for the war effort is also considered. Once the children arrived in San Francisco, they were apparently doled out to the first adoptive parents that lined up to take them. This explains how a single woman was able to adopt Hiep/Heidi so quickly and easily, without having to deal with the red tape that normally surrounds the adoption proceedings (including the standard dual-parent requirement).
After a falling out with her adoptive mother (which is never fully explained, although it's indicated that her mom was a bit of a nut), Heidi decides to seek out her birth mother with the goal of visiting Vietnam and being reunited with her. Although she is able to realize this goal, she quickly discovers after the initially joyful and tearful reunion, that she bit off more than she can chew.
Although her Vietnamese relatives seem to be very loving and receptive towards her, Heidi finds herself smothered and distinctly uncomfortable with all the attention and affection. She is even more overwhelmed by the family's request to help support her aging mother. Not understanding the cultural traditions that require the most financially stable offspring to provide for care of the parents, she misinterprets their requests as money grubbing from the "rich" American. All these factors lead to a parting that is definitely more bitter than sweet.
Whether it means to or not, Daughter from Danang is somewhat damning of the American culture Heidi grew up in. Members of her adoptive family are interviewed, and while it's clear that they have since come to accept Heidi as one of their own, such may not have initially been the case. Many of their statements seem slightly racist, although they probably don't realize it. As the viewer is shown pictures of how Heidi changed over the years, it is quite apparent that all of her Asian features were de-emphasized with American (and damn ugly, I might add) hairstyles and clothing. On the one hand this is somewhat understandable, given that the town she grew up in is reputedly the "birthplace" of the Ku Klux Klan - not the best place for a "half-gook" to grow up, perhaps. It's quite likely that her Americanized looks and upbringing saved her from plenty of persecution by some of the community's less-tolerant members.
The downside of this, of course, is that she was so completely stripped of her Vietnamese upbringing and culture, that when she finally hops the plane to be reunited with her family, she really has no idea how to relate to them once the tearful reunion at the airport is out of the way. She feels like Vietnam is "another planet", and in a way, she's right.
It's also hard to know what to make of Heidi herself. On the one hand, it's easy to feel sympathy for her and her situation. Having been alienated from her roots and raised in a household that was not overly-affectionate, her unease is certainly understandable. However, her Vietnamese family seems to be completely accepting of her, even her mother's husband who ran off to join the Vietcong (prompting Heidi's mother to take up with an American soldier so that she could afford to feed her family), then returned after the war. They seem to love and accept her unconditionally, and don't see Heidi as "the ugly American". Unfortunately, Heidi rather comes off as one at times.
While I found myself highly sympathetic towards Heidi during some scenes, I also found myself annoyed by her self-centered attitude. Naturally, some culture shock is to be expected, but she could have handled some of the situations a lot better than she did, and made more of an effort to adjust - especially since she was the one who decided to seek her mother out to begin with. She also seemed a bit too hung up on their requests for financial support. Obviously this might be disconcerting at first. Since Heidi is married to a naval man and living in base housing, it's apparent that she doesn't have wads of cash to spare. However, even though they quickly drop their requests once they realize how upset she is and that she didn't understand the Vietnamese tradition, the issue continues to be a stumbling block to her, following a rather strenuous emotional outburst. Whether she is simply too emotionally ill-prepared to deal with the whole situation, or a pampered American who is unwilling to cope, I leave for you to judge. However, one is certainly left with the impression that she could have tried harder.
DAUGHTER FROM DANANG is certainly an eye-opener to the isolation one must feel by being adopted from a different culture - especially under such extreme circumstances as "Operation Babylift". However, while Heidi certainly benefited from a better quality of life in many ways, one is left to wonder how high of a price she has paid by becoming completely alienated from her family and culture.
That annie-girl is starting to really look like a big girl! Love this post - so cute!!!
And YES! I'm obsessed with SYTYCD! My sister went to see them last year (LUCKY!) on their tour. GREAT, great show!!
Kelly .hopefully , you will write a post on your blog sharing your thought after watching this documentary
These pictures are so stinkin' adorable. That one with the bowl on Lucy's head??? She looks SO much older and grow up in that picture. Wow.
Our dog Summer stalks the kids at meal time.
GO ANNIE!!! That's awesome! And the fact that she's a Cheeto girl just added points to her cuteness score card!
Love SYTYCD! It's one of my favs.
Love the way Annie cross her legs! So girlly! So ...stylist". We can't wait to see how she would act a few more years from now. She is getting big!
I am a freak about 'So you think you can dance' I even have a few seasons on dvd!!! It's my favorite!!!
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