Ni-Ou, Neo and Ne-Yo

Every once in awhile, I record "Dancing With the Stars" to watch with A & K. They love the music and the dancing. We watched last night's show tonight. A was dancing around the living room, especially after she saw the two little girls dancing. K was shaking to the music too. R&B singer Ne-Yo performed his song "Closer." A's Chinese name is Ni-Ou, and and we kept it as one of her middle names. We also gave K the middle name of Neo, the Greek spelling. When I told A that the singer was named Ne-Yo, she said: "Just like me!"

Although I'm not sure of their singing skills yet, I recently sent photos of the girls to a talent agency in Chicago...maybe my Ni-Ou and Neo will be famous too.

Future Nittany Lion

Like most of KJ’s clothes, this Penn State shirt was worn by AJ last year. I bought this shirt in June 2005--before either of my children were born. Although we’re not into football, I still want my daughters to show off their Penn State pride because that’s where their parents met and fell in love.

Dream, sweet dreams

I don’t know what my daughter slept in the first night of her life when she was abandoned at the Zhonglin Medical Center. I also don’t know where she slept the first four months of her life while she was in foster care. But I saw the crib she slept in from age 4 months until she was 9 months and 24 days old when I visited the Fuzhou Social Welfare Institute. It was small and attached to five other cribs. The baby that was sleeping in her crib was under layers of blankets, and I could only imagine that’s how she slept too.

The first night AJ was with us at the Jiangxi Hotel in Nanchang, she fell asleep quickly in a blue playpen. At the White Swan, a brown wooden crib. At home, she slept in her tan crib. Two weeks ago, we converted it into a toddler daybed or as she calls it her “big-girl bed.”

We’ve been talking about it for a while now, but as you see the time was right. She’s been sleeping in it every night! And, she even gets up to use the potty in the morning. We still haven’t figured out how to get her to go in the middle of the night, but my sister assures that it will just happen around the time she turns 3, which will be in April.