Why Haven't We Been Writing?

We are pooped!!

It has been wonderful being back in the USA! Wonderfully exhausting!! Living away for two and a half years now, I'm normally quite busy during my trips home... re-connecting with family, visiting friends, shopping, endless doctor check-up's, frequent visit's to Taco Bueno and Chick-fil-A :) Prior to this trip, I had NO IDEA how NOT busy I was before!! The calendar was pretty much full several weeks before we even touched ground in Tulsa. Olivia has been one popular girl.

She's been such a trooper. She's smiled and flirted as she's been passed from person to person, stared with curiosity at puppy licks on her toes, performed all her new tricks time and time again (watching her grab her feet and blow raspberries provides endless entertainment) and fussed for mom only when she's been super hungry/sleepy.

We've done our very best to spend time with everyone... saying it's been hectic is an understatement! I suppose this will always be a challenge while we live so far away and have such a wonderful, beautiful daughter who's so popular. And wonderful family and friends who we want her to build relationships with :)

The trip back to Shanghai looms ahead.. Although we feel that we're called to be there longer, it's always a tough trip back. (I've already packed 2 suitcases and 2 boxes.. the packing gets old fast.)

Enough about that! I'm looking forward to the last part of the trip here.. trying to make as few plans as possible so that I can have some personal relaxing time.. I'll be posting more pic's of our recent activities as soon as I find time to get them on the computer!

Olivia's First .....

TRIP TO THE MALL!!!

Yesterday, we ventured out to Woodland Hill's Mall in Tulsa with Olivia's friends: Owen, Ben, and Lucy.... and their moms: Heidi, Jessie, and Sarah Ann (all sisters!). "Nana-Ann" (Owen, Ben, and Lucy's Gma) also joined us!

We were quite a site! Olivia - 3.5 months; Owen - 10.5 months; Ben - 3 months; and Lucy - 7 weeks!

What a group!

Olivia and me! She's a drooling Queen :)

Heidi and Owen! He's having a great nap!

Jessie and Ben! He's chillin' in the pack!

Sarah Ann and Lucy! Beautiful girl and such a sweet dress!

The babies were SOOO good...

Olivia hung out most of the time awake in her seat.. Ben took a great snooze on his tummy.. Owen hung out playing with toys.. and Lucy passed out and lost her pacifier :)

At Christmas time, we all laughed and talked about how fun (and crazy) it would be all going to the mall together once all the babies were born! You'd think that an outing with four babies might be stressful, but it wasn't at all. I loved it! Lot's of laughs and pictures! We were even able to sit and eat in the food court and all the kids were in their strollers!! Happy or asleep!! I'm not sure what the odds are of that happening again .. but I'm sure we'll find out!

One more pic of my sweetie pie.. she loves playing with her rattle bugs on her car seat bar!

FUN IN THE SUN

Today was a great day! Olivia hosted her very first pool party! She was so excited to meet several of Mommy's Kappa Delta Pledge Sisters and their kiddos!

"The Ryan Family Resort" as I call it!

What a wonderful group of friends!!

Katie (w/ Lilly), Christi, Abbie, me, Kristy, Ilena, Amanda (with Maddy), Charity

So cute - Brody and Jack in background..

Katie's daughter Claire, and also our honorary pledge sister, Heidi (and Owen) didn't make the group photo! Oh - and Olivia and Kenzie were in napping!!

Mary Katherine and Meg - we missed you two sweet babies!!

We had a wonderful time.. hanging out.. swimming.. trying to figure out Katie's secret trick of having all three beautiful children behave so well... watching Brody jump off the dive rock... catching up... laughing... It was a fantastic day with some great friends.. What a blessing you all are to my heart!

When everyone had to say Bye Bye... Miss Olivia was sad!

Only for about two seconds though... and then she was a big cheese for the camera!!!

Olivia and her Mommy want to say a BIG HUGE THANK YOU to Olivia's Nonna and Grandaddy for letting her host the swim party at their house :)

We Made It!

We made it to the USA! I will say that traveling around the world with a baby is d0-able... Olivia was an angel. She smiled and slept a lot and even made her first razzing sounds with bubble blowing to go along with it!

After traveling for 26 hours and being so happy, I thought we could finally get some sleep at 2am once we got to the house. Olivia started crying - actually she was screaming her head off - and nothing I did helped (which is extremely unusual = it NEVER happens). After almost an hour of this, I was worried. Typically, my mom is one of the first people I turn to to for baby advice, and she was also concerned. This is when it's handy to have a pediatrician in a time zone around the world. It was 3pm for her, so I was able to call her. After she heard that scream, and confirmed it had been going on so long, she said to go immediately to the ER. Without going into all the details, Olivia's right ear hadn't equalized after flying for so long and she was in a lot of pain. The Dr. gave her some ear numbing drops and by 4:30 am she was much better! Talk about pain - for her and for me! Hearing your own baby cry and not being able to comfort her is terrible. I'm just so glad it wasn't something more serious. That was our first night here. Welcome to the US!

Fortunately, since then she's been back to her wonderful happy self!! I was thinking it might take her a week or more to get back her previous sleeping schedule, but last night she slept from 10:30pm -8:45am!!! I hope that continues! I woke up every few hours to check on her, but she was snoozin :)

We are so excited to be here and Olivia is enjoying meeting all her family and friends.. there are so many to see!! We are blessed that my parents have so much extra room at their house and my mom has set up a beautiful nursery for Olivia, complete with a crib and rocking chair! I'll post some pics soon!

This weekend, Olivia get's to meet her Grandma and Grandpa Forth and also her Grandma Shelly and Great Grandma Doris! She can't wait!

It Was Bound To Happen

The first few "baths" of Olivia's sweet life had me worried (what didn't at that point!?) that she was going to be a bath time screamer.. Looking back now, if I could actually remember much from that sleep-deprived state, I don't think I'd even consider those first few times "real" baths. No matter how much I tried to hurry, she was probably cold during the sponging sessions and annoyed that I couldn't get her arms in and out of sleeves very quickly.

But now... my girl LOVES bath time!! Just a whisper of "It's Olivia's Bath Time" song and she's smiling from ear to ear. I'm so impressed that she lets me rinse her head and body at the end with the shower nozzle!

Sooner or later.. it was bound to happen... at least that's what I keep telling myself! Today, Olivia pooped in the bathtub! Yuck! Needless to say, I think this added to her enjoyment of bath time. She had some super big smiles after that. Here's a pre-poop (literally 30 seconds before) photo I took today:

The look on her face gave me the first hint as to what was about to happen and just as I removed the washcloth... SURPRISE... ewwww.. I hesitated for a minute thinking .. great, now what!?

If you find yourself in this predicament, here's what parenting.com says to do:

"If your baby goes to the bathroom in the tub, remove him, then the poop, drain the water, rinse the tub, and start over. It's important to use fresh water for the rest of the bath so that you're not washing your baby with bits of fecal matter, which contain bacteria. While it's obviously not ideal, don't panic if your baby takes a sip of the water before you can remove him from the bath."

That gave me a good laugh! Who would look that up online anyway!? And, really, use fresh water?? I should've thought of that.. HA HA. I would've passed out if she drank that water!

Back to Blogging!!

I must confess - a few months ago, I purchased a new VPN that allows me to check blogsites.. and uh, BLOG on emschinajourney :) I'll be quick to follow that up with a reminder of the fact that I just had a baby, and have had little time to read blogs, much less write anything myself! (How do all you other mom's do it?!)

I am going to try and start posting on occasion! And to celebrate the "back to blogging" I hope you all enjoy the video I made!!

I can't believe my baby is 11 weeks old!!!! She's the sweetest thing ever!

Blogger Ban SIlences EMSChinaJourney

Admittedly, my cousin Emily hasn't been the most frequent blogger, in spite of her wildly interesting new life in China and great demand on the part of her family.

I, her cousin and guest blogger, am here to assure you that her silence is not voluntary. She would be enthusiastically and hilariously (if sporadically) sharing the best bits of her life in China, if only the Chinese government would let her.

They recently banned access to all blogger sites, leaving this blog quiet and other good ones (ahem) inaccessible.

Stay tuned, though, because when the ban lifts, Em will surely have a whole pile of stockpiled stories to share!

(Oh, and Mei, she received your message!)