Day 4: A turn for the worse and a surprise from Grandpa and Grandma!

Thanks guys for your concern.

Jake woke up really lethargic today and the fever was worse, so we took him back to the doctor and found out he has the beginning of an ear infection (hopefully that explains the fever) and possible RSV, which he tested negative for earlier in the week, but the doctor said it is possible he has a touch of it.
Rather than run the swab again, the doctor said he was going to treat it as if he had the virus and put him on a nebulizer breathing treatment. That, with the other things we've been doing and the antibiotic for the ear hopefully will do the trick.

Meanwhile, he started great guns on supper but only ended up eating his potatoes. He then got his surprise from Grandpa and Grandma.
Here's how it went down:

Baba made pork chops. Sorry Baba, not so much.



Wow! Grandpa and Grandma got me watermelon!



Wait a minute! Is this a trick to get me to eat again?!?



Hey, this is pretty good.



Thanks Grandpa and Grandma!

Still sick: Day 3 ...

Jake seems to be feeling a little better today, though the nose is a faucet and I hope it doesn't all drain into his chest. Fever's still hanging on, so we stayed home today.
Here's what we did, in part:

Wow, look what I made:



Oh no! it all comes tumbling down:



Oh well, I'll just put them up then:



Oh no! Mama's got the camera:



Oops, she's still got it:



Looking out at the kittens:



They're silly Mama:

Icy days and icky feeling

Jake spent the night waking up every few hours crying with a fever, so it was off to the doctor today.
He tested negative for flu and respiratory virus, which means he just has the junk that is going around and there is nothing to do but give him tylenol and ibuprofen for the fever.
To top it all off, we are in the middle of an ice storm, which really wasn't too bad for our part of the world, just enough to make it slow going.
So, it's home until the fever breaks, which could be four days.
Here's a few pictures of our world today.

It's rare he watches TV, but today just seemed right to curl up with blanket and juice. Mama was shameless with the camera, but he wasn't feeling that bad.







OK, I was only going to post 2, but I couldn't resist. There was an extra, and here's one more.



OK, here's the trees just to show the ice.

Chinese New Year

We had a wonderful time this evening. Our Great Wall China Adoption representative, Paige, always puts together a Chinese New Year dinner for all the families in our area who have adopted from China (there are more than 20).

We meet at one of the Chinese restaurants and have a whole room to ourselves, and we fill it up for sure. This was the third one we have attended, but FINALLY our first with Jacob. We enjoyed ourselves at the previous two, but we really had a great time this year. Isn't it amazing what having a little one can do?

We wondered how Jake would react being around so many children, especially children who look like him. He hasn't been around this many children at one time since we've been home, and this was his first time seeing most of the Chinese children from around here. He was shy at first, but then really got into it. He ran around a lot and interacted with a lot of the other kids.

It's a tradition to take a group photo of all the kids. It's so cute seeing them all (we have all ages, from teens on down). Jake fit right in, being the camera hog that he is. He stood next to one little boy and put his arm around him. Violet said the other boy got this look of "what are you doing?" but he didn't move away or anything. It was so cute. At one point, the other boy took a step forward, and Jake moved along with him, keeping his arm around him. I said Jake did it because the boys have to stick together since there are only 4 of them and all those girls!

All the kids pass out gifts to each other. We bought a bunch of rattle drums in China and passed them out. When all the kids started playing with them we were sure the other parents would ban us from next year's dinner. LOL. Just kidding. It really kind of added something to the celebration, we thought.


Party Pic! Jake and Mom having a good time at the Chinese New Year dinner.



Jake with Baba and his rattle drum.



Here's a group pic of most of the kids.



Jake and a new friend.

I turned around last night and ...

... Jake was giving insane puppy (he barks quietly and then shakes crazily when you squeeze his paw, hence the name) a ride on his tricycle. It was so cute I had to get the camera. Of course when I did Jake started to pose, but it still was cute.

He knows Momma's got the camera:



Just pushed insane puppy's paw:





I wonder when Mom's going to stop this photo-taking stuff



Let me see the picture:



A few nights ago, Jake donned a griller's apron Baba found him and helped make chicken-fried steaks:

3 months!

Wow, it's been 3 months since Jacob physically came into our lives in our Xian hotel room. By that time, he already had a big place in our hearts, even if he didn't know it.

What in the world did I do with my life before I became a father? It seems like such a long time ago.

Here's hoping 2009 brings our family more blessings. I also want to wish everyone else a happy 2009.

Kevin