Her sense of humor continues to grow.  She loves to make people laugh.  She loves to help cook, do laundry, and wash dishes too!  

Cadence is speaking in 3-7 word sentences most of the time now!  She uses most pronouns, counts to 3, names all of the colors and shapes, and knows about half of the letters of the alphabet.   Her vocabulary includes words like disgusting, aquarium, and chrysalis! 

The  summer is once again upon us and we are planning lots of great events including art and music classes, play group, a trip to DC for a reunion of girls from China, and a trip to Disney.  This fall Cadence will give up her "Gymbo" classes (play classes at Gymboree) and begin taking Chinese language and dance classes.  

Cadence has moved into her big girl bed (or "gig girl bed" as she says) and has a much more grown up room now.  The rocking chair that once sat next to her crib is gone and in its place is a babydoll pack 'n' play and stroller!  

Cadence loves to eat at Chicken Lay (Chick Fil A), loves to play with Dora things, and STILL loves to watch Barney.  She also has a Thomas blanket that has to go everywhere, but has not replaced the towely.  She loves to wear jeans better than anything else (like Ba Ba).  A fish is now a fish, but it makes the sound /p/ and should not be confused with sharks or dolphins.  Nimmo fish (clown fish) are the best!  Her current favorite stuffed animal is a Happy Feet penquin my brother bought her.  

Once again, we feel like the luckiest parents in the world!

Old News

September 27, 2005: We are finally home and working on getting our internal clocks set to the local time. We hope to continue updating the site with our precious Cadence's pictures.

October 23, 2005: Cadence is doing so much more since coming home. She says, “Mama”, “Baba” (Chinese for “Dada”), “Dada”, “Nana” (for her grandmother) and “There she is!” (for playing peek a boo). She uses a sign for “up” and is beginning to use signs for “towely”, the washcloth she carries about, “eat”, and “more”. She winks, albeit with both eyes, walks, babbles, and is beginning to run. She has a hearty laugh and eats nearly anything.

Cadence likes Gerber meat sticks, Cheerios, sliding, and swinging. She loves to play with other children. She sleeps 10-12 hours each evening and takes a nap each day of 30 minutes to 2 hours. Most evenings are great, but occasionally, she wakes and will not return to her own bed.

Just today, she learned to stomp her foot when I do! She is learning something new everyday.

Today, she spent 20 minutes in a daycare setting and 3 hours with her Nai Nai (grandmother). She did very well in both settings, but seemed a little cranky when we came home. Tom and I also made it through this time with relatively little anxiety!

Cadence is a true joy and blessing to our lives. I am so excited to share each day and each new experience with her.

December 18, 2005: Cadence is doing remarkably well. She has taken a hiatus from speaking since early October. We believe she has been focusing on learning to walk. In the last week, she has begun to speak again, saying “teeth”, “door”, and “bye bye”. She also now uses the signs for play, change diaper, bath, eat, drink, more, airplane, book, want, towely, and up. She has even created signs for music and phone – 2 of her favorite things!

Cadence likes most food, but is particularly fond of anything made with bread. She does not like blueberries. She has decided that kissing is for the top of the head. When she kisses a doll or stuffed animal, she heads straight for its mouth with her mouth wide opened, but when we ask for a kiss, she bows her forehead toward our mouths like royalty. Then she busts out giggling!

On December 2, our last outing before I went back to work, Cadence and I went to the zoo. We looked at all of the animals and took our time in the petting farm. Afterwards I bought her a stuffed tiger, which Tom has decided to call Hobbs and a book called Zoo Poo, which completely disgusted Tom. Then we had lunch at McDonald's, and in her Toddler Happy Meal, she got a Chinese girl Little People! We were so excited! It made me a little sad to end the day.

On December 5, I went back to work. Tom picked Cadence up after half a day in daycare throughout the first week. She is staying at the home of a former room mom of mine and mother of three. There are three other little ones there – ages 1, 2, and 3. She has been there 10 days, and seemed to actually enjoy the last two of them. On Thursday, she took a little boy's shoes to Ms. Christine and had her put them on her, then she walked around in them laughing hysterically. She likes the other children and gets plenty of exercise, learning time, rest, and nutritious food. This time has been difficult for both of us, but we are so proud of her success.

Thanksgiving was wonderful. Cadence let my Paw Paw and 3 of her aunts and uncles hold her without a fuss. She seemed to enjoy everyone there much more this time and slept through the night. We are looking forward to a wonderful Christmas!

January 7, 2006: Cadence has begun to relax and even enjoy time with her babysitter and the three other children. She has even fetched a sippy cup for another child, when he tried to take a drink of hers.

I am back at work this week after a seemingly short holiday. Cadence is definitively saying and using three words now (besides her names for us and grandma), and they are: door, bye bye, and teeth. Her choices are quite strange. She is using eyebrow movement to express surprise, joy, or to entertain us. It is the most adorable thing I've ever seen. Her favorite game is Pat A Cake, which sets her into peels of infectious laughter.

She thoroughly enjoyed Christmas, especially the paper and bows and being with everyone. She has turned into quite the people person these days, and seems to think that we all exist to worship her. Where can she have gotten an idea like that? Her favorite toys seemed to be a xylophone and a toy radio. She also loves the music cd Nai Nai gave her which plays songs that have her name in the lyrics. She is a happy, loving child, and it is a joy to be around her.

April 11, 2006:  Obviously, we are far busier now than when I was home.  Work is keeping me on the go.  Cadence spends 4-5 days with her sitter.  She is very happy there, and enjoys playing with all of the children, especially Coleman.  Tom works from home at times.  He is currently at a client that is keeping him extremely  busy.

Cadence has continued making incredible progress.  We have added pictures from January and February, with March to come soon.  I have had to learn far more about programming and html, than I wanted in order to keep this site up!

In January, we had a playdate with Caroline.  Cadence and Caroline get along very well and seem quite comfortable playing together.   The Jordans cooked a wonderful breakfast.  We hope to host something for them soon.

We also visited the Children's Museum with the Hodgins Family.  Cadence liked shopping and driving the fire truck.  Cadence is a curious child and enjoys trying things for herself.

Ba Ba joined us for a trip to the Virginia Aquarium, where Cadence pointed out all of the /p/ (her word for fish is the sound of p!).  Tom took some great pictures - but don't tell him I said so.

We also went to the Chinese New Year with the HRFCC (Hampton Roads Families of Children from China).  Cadence loved running loops around the ballroom and brandishing her chopsticks.

In February, Cadence was baptized.  She made it all of the way down the isle without crying, but couldn't handle the photograph at the end of the service!  She was beautiful in her white dress.

Cadence now says about 20 words, uses about 20 signs, and knows several lines from three different songs.  Her favorite foods are eggs, spaghetti, and french fries.  She likes to wear big people's shoes, dance, talk on the phone, and participate in everything Tom and I do.  She continues to be so much fun.  We are very proud of her.

Today, Tom dressed for work in a pair of new shoes.  When he came up to Cadence to say "goodbye", she pointed at his shoes and said "oooooohhh!"  I think we're in trouble!

July 6, 2006:  Cadence continues to grow and change, almost daily.  We have noticed that she has a new, more grown up smile now.  Her face has thinned a bit and her lips have changed shape.  She is over 20 pounds!  

She is also slowly warming up to family and friends.  Coleman's  mommy can hold her as well as Paw Paw (my mom's dad).  Also, her Nai Nai is the best thing since sliced bread!  There are also about 10 other people she will at least look at and say their names, although she has no desire to speak to them directly!

Cadence can repeat almost anything and she has a vocabulary of over 50 words.  She can even put together the occasional 2 word sentence.  She still uses a number of signs, especially when her mouth is full.  That seems to be quite often these days.  She is eating almost constantly and will eat most foods.  She avoids anything slick or gooey though (like cut fruit or yogurt).

I am staying home with her for the summer.  I am having such a great time.  We joined Gymboree for two classes each week and we have a Deep Creek Central (my job) playgroup on Wednesdays.  Cadence is also particating in the reading program at the local library.  We took a short vacation to Danville last weekend for July 4th, and we will go back in August.  We also hope to spend a weekend in Buxton, visiting old friends, including my first best friend from Kindergarten!

During the last few months, we have celebrated our first Mother's Day and Father's Day.  For Mother's Day, Cadence was dressed in her Sunday best and we took great pictures outdoors, posing by a bush.  We had a great breakfast with close friends and family.  For Father's Day, Cadence wore floral shorts, a tank top, a denim hat cocked sideways, and a plaid jacket, only half on.  We took pictures of she and Tom wrestling on the floor!  We went to Guadalajara - alone!

We have visited many museums and parks.  It feels as though we spend every weekend (and now every day) on the go!  Cadence likes to - as she says - "roll" all of the time.  We are having the time of our lives!

November 13, 2006: Cadence continues to amaze and entertain us everyday. She has really begun to look like a little girl now, with few of her baby features left. She has longer hair and can wear hair bows (This is her word for ANYthing that goes in her hair and for the resulting hair style.) She weighs in at a heavy 22 pounds!

She has become quite friendly and enjoys talking to others, even strangers, though they must not speak to her unless she speaks first! She has an incredible sense of humor. She will openly contradict us to get a laugh and is really fond of physical humor, acting silly or wearing silly things to make people laugh.

We can no longer measure her vocabulary. She says anything she hears – and I do mean anything! She will sometimes even put 2 words together. She knows Letters A and D, the four major shapes plus star and heart, and can identify red, yellow, blue, purple, pink (that was first!), white, and black. She picks up a new color about once a week! Sadly, she no longer refers to chickens by their sound, uses signs for elephant and bunny, or calls fish by the /p/ sound. Now, instead, she uses the correct words to refer to them. She is just so grown up!

We had an amazing summer. We were able to visit my best friend from Kindergarten. Pictures of Angie and her family are in the August photos. We continue to make almost weekly visits to the zoo and aquarium. We are also becoming quite fond of the Hunt Club Petting Zoo. I am hoping to hit many of the holiday displays in the coming weeks as well.

God has truly blessed our family and we are thankful for every moment together. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!