August bib from Danielle

There really is something to this good mail on Monday thing. Today we received the cutest frog bib from Danielle. It is very fluffy, soft terry cloth and has a teether on the edge. We love it and can't wait to see it on Nora. Thank you so much, Danielle!

Success and failure

Today is both a good day and a bad day.

BAD -- Rob and I have decided to discontinue our Mandarin lessons, at least for a while. Neither of us has been committing enough time to study between lessons and aren't progressing as we should. It made for classes that were stressful and unproductive. We hope to try again someday, but this is not the right time for us.

GOOD -- Even though we weren't feeling super-motivated this morning we did both go to the gym and exercise. Rob is actually very good about going and exercise is a habit for him. That's not so much the case for me, but I'm working on it (going to need to keep up with the little one!). I've found that music does a LOT to motivate me. My current playlist is:

• Crazy - Gnarls Barkley - 2:58 (I use this for warm up b/c I like it, but it will probably come off the list since it's really not a great exercise song)
• Get the Party Started - Pink - 3:11
• Crazy in Love - Beyonce - 3:55
• Yeah! - Usher - 4:10
• In da Club - 50 Cent - 3:13
• Pump It - Black Eyed Peas - 3:35
• Lose Yourself - Eminem - 5:20 (Possibly the best motivational, hill-climb song EVER!)
• Hot in Herre - Nelly - 3:48
• Rock Your Body - Justin Timberlake - 4:27 (cool down)
• Sexy Love - Ne-Yo - 3:40 (cool WAY down)

Two others on this playlist are Work It by Missy Elliott and Dirty by Christina Aguilera, but I usually skip both of them. I haven't decided yet if they are bad choices or if I just don't have them in the right place in the list.

If you have a playlist that you love (or individual songs that work really well), please share!

Now I know exactly where China is

I am approaching my 5-year anniversary at my job and as a reward I got to choose a "gift" from the recognition catalog. Although this is far longer than I've ever worked anyplace, it isn't all that long in the eyes of my employer. I say this to set expectations around the items in the 5-year catalog. There were watches and crystal bowls and framed prints - all of which I assumed would somehow be branded with the company logo. So I searched looking for something useful that wouldn't look too creepy with a big 'ol logo on it, eventually I found this globe that I think will be a great addition for Nora's playroom.

It came in the mail today and the best part is that the logo is on a little plaque that I get to apply myself (or not). So Nora gets a globe and it doesn't even have to say G****** on it! To my company - I think you are the best; I admire your work and love my job. However, I really don't want your logo on my globe. Sorry about that. I'll stick it to a frame on my desk instead.

Some depressing math

The rumor boards are lighting up tonight with news that referrals are on the way and that they only include LIDs through 7/22/05. I did a little bit of Excel math, extending the timeline with the current average wait, and I'm very sorry I did. According to my spreadsheet we'll get our referral in October of 2007! Isn't that horrible?! I'm going to go pour myself a glass of wine.

Hair bobber from Evelyn

Nora has received her second hair bobber - this one is a chopstick hair stick with red cord and jade. It is so pretty. She also receieved a gorgeous red silk jewelry case. Thank you so much, Evelyn, for the lovely gift!

Preparing the dog for baby

For those of you who don't already know her, this is Maddie.


Maddie is an almost 18-month-old golden retriever and the light of our lives. She is terrific with other dogs (a benefit of doggy "school") and we're hoping that she will be equally good with children. She's already got a fan club in the neighborhood kids, especially baby Avery next door. We also had some other waiting families over on Sunday night, giving Maddie the opportunity to experience the joys of little kids who drop food.

Even though everything about her disposition says "kid friendly", we still want to be sure that we properly prepare her for Nora's arrival. Some things we're working on:

1. sit to be petted
2. walk next to or behind people (and eventually stroller) on walks
3. wait at the top/bottom of stairs for people to go first and give the "ok"
4. lie down and be calm in Nora's room

For some good pet preparation tips, check out the following links:
American Kennel Club
The Humane Society of the United States

Hair bobber from Rhonda and Mike

The January DTC group is doing a hair accessory (or "hair bobber", as they are known at our house) swap. We each send hair accessories to two people, and receive hair accessories from two people. Today Nora's first one came from Rhonda and Mike -- it is a darling asian girl pony tail holder. Soooo cute! Thanks Rhonda and Mike!!

A Shopping Coup!

When shopping on the web, always always visit the clearance section. If you don't think it will pay off, check this out!

I found this at Land of Nod. It was originally $249 on sale for $39 and is just the right color for Nora's room! It even fits in with the other bug stuff. I ordered it on Sunday and it was waiting on the porch when we got home today.

To make the day even better, I stopped at Creative Kidstuff on my way home from work and they were having a big sale - I got this great doggy pull toy for 75% off, a musical flower for 60% off and gorgeous building blocks for 50% off!

Mostly, though, I'm thrilled about the rug. I don't think I've ever found such a bargain before!

January DTC Secret Pal - August

More great mail came today! Of course it was for Nora!

This package was our January DTC Secret Pal gift for August. The theme is "Something to Keep Baby Safe" and our secret pal sent lots of great safety stuff for Nora -- cabinet latches, outlet covers, toilet lock, security latches, band-aids -- and a pair of pretty dangly earrings that I think must be for ME!

Thank you very much, secret pal! I'm going to look for something blue to wear tomorrow so I can wear my new earrings!

Dec DTC Secret Pal Gift - July & August

Another mega mail Monday!! I never much liked Mondays, but these swaps and secret pals have changed my outlook! Today was a doubly-good day because we received July and August gifts from our Dec DTC Secret Pal. Thank you so much, Secret Pal, for all the terrific goodies!!

It is taking all my energy not to rip into the mega bloks package and claim the dog/cat as my own. I think that I am going to like this as much as Nora. I've never seen anything like it -- you push the nose on the cat side and it "sings" in meows and on the dog side it "sings" in barks. So much fun! That was July.

For August we got cool bath toys (floating fishes!!), a water thermometer and a sponge. In the note was also a pretty white shell which now has a new home in our summer sand-and-shell kitchen table centerpiece.

Thanks again Secret Pal, you made my Monday!!

Four (?!) sets of panda twins

For some reason panda news is harder to come by than you'd think. I've been hearing snippets of panda births on the news and am having trouble coming up with a good count. Piecing together the various news stories, I think that four sets of twin panda have been born in the last week -- on Sunday, Monday, Thursday and Saturday. That makes ten baby pandas born in Chinese breeding centers this year. Does that sound right? The latest news story is here. I also found some more panda information on China.org.

Mega Mail Monday

Continuing the tradition of great mail on Mondays, today I received the best box of scrapbook supplies from Jennifer B as part of the January DTC scrapbook swap. Look at all this great stuff!!

"Welcome to Asia" papers, Asian mini tags, fortune cookie rub ons, Chinese character and letter rub ons, Chinese stickers

First five year stickers (year 2 was on top, but there are five pages, one for each year), adoption stickers, Mom embellishments, 3-D baby stickers

Summer fun stickers (4 pages) and a whole box of eyelets, brads and fancy paperclips.

Thank you so much Jennifer, you have outdone yourself!

Holy Arachnids!

I was out pulling some weeds today and looked up to see the biggest spider I've ever seen outside of the zoo. Its body is at least an inch long! I came in and "googled" for spiders and found Black-and-Yellow Garden Spider - Argiope aurantia which looks very much like it. For now I've decided that it is harmless and welcome to live in my garden. I hope that I'm right about that. If anyone out there is an arachnologist, or is otherwise spider-savvy, could you please let me know if this is something that I should be concerned about?

I know that most spiders are harmless and, if anything, it is probably beneficial to the garden. However, it is also HUGE and freaky and right next to my house. I can't decide whether I want to sit there and watch it or run screaming.

This one is in context - in a very large daylily

A closeup of the spider itself

(but still smaller than the actual spider!)

Pinned!

Normally there isn't any good mail on Saturday. Today, however, was an exception -- the December DTC pins that I ordered were waiting on the front porch when I came down from painting! The idea is to have these pins on our bags when we go to China to help find all our cyberpals from the DTC group.

The pins say 小 朋友 (Xiao Pengyou) which means, literally, "Little Friends". We selected that as the name for our group. Wendy, of Children's Book Club fame, worked with Rochelle at Celebrate Adoption to come up with the design and to produce the pins. They came out great - thank you so much Wendy and Rochelle for all your work on this. I am going to be sure to set one of our pins aside as a memento for Nora, they really are incredibly cute.

Finally - a place to put all those books!

Today we finished painting and installing the shelves Rob made for the niche in Nora's room. The paint is still drying and I have a bit of touch up to do on the wall, so they are sitting empty for now. But I said I'd update on Saturday and update I will!

We color-matched the paint on the trim, but chose an enamel for durability (probably needed if a wee one will be pulling her toys and books off them every day). I got satin which was the lowest sheen available in enamel and they still seem very shiny, especially in comparison to the very flat walls and trim. I hoping that I'm just sensitive to it because I've been looking at them so closely and that the difference will be less obvious once we get some of her stuff on the shelves.

Don't just sit there ... PAINT something!

For several months I've been admiring those pretty painted letters at places like Posh Tots and Pretty Personal Gifts, thinking about ordering, but never quite taking the plunge. Then the other day I went to JoAnn fabrics to get thread, and some plain wooden letters caught my eye. On a whim I decided to paint my own.

I wanted them to coordinate with the bug prints that I got a while back at Target. Remember the bug prints? That post is here. I'm no artist, but I think I got pretty close. I'm still trying to decide if I want to put bows on top of them like they do at Posh Tots. I like the look, but Rob won't let me put holes in the wall, so I'd have to figure out a way to hang them with Command adhesive and still have them look right.

While I've been making letters, Rob has been working on his own construction and painting project - shelves for Nora's room and our bathroom. We hope to have them finished and installed on Saturday, so stay tuned!

Happy Birthday Su Lin!

Su Lin, a panda cub at the San Diego Zoo, celebrated her first birthday today! Her name means "A little bit of something very cute" - how appropriate! Please support conservation efforts, it would be horrible to lose these gorgeous animals.

Even better than a free lunch!

They say there's no such thing as a free lunch, but there is, apparently, such a thing as FREE ROBEEZ!! Really. Look!! Somehow I signed up for USA Baby's eMom Rewards (which I think is just an email notification list) and wound up with a coupon for a free pair of Robeez in my email. Today I trekked over to USA Baby - which is sort of a long haul for me - and sure enough, free Robeez! They even had one of my two favorite styles (Red Wildflowers) in the size I wanted (12-18 months, because I want to be absolutely certain that Nora will get to wear them).

I'm off to get my Powerball ticket now, because I think this must be my lucky day!