Our girl has caught up!

Soon after Jadyn came home from China we had her tested for gross motor skill development, I knew she was very behind.

I really wanted to make sure we got her the help she needed. She tested at approximately a 12 to 14 month old, she was 30 months old. She did not know how to run or jump, she was very unstable on her feet. She looked like she had just learned to walk when we received her. Stairs were something she obviously had never been exposed to.

Her little legs weren't strong enough to even step up or off a curb.

Fast forward 4 short months since her great friend and therapist Jenny has come over to "play" and our girl is graduating! No more physical therapy. Jadyn just needed the opportunity and time to catch up!

She runs, she jumps, she climbs up and down our stairs all on her own!!

This is how it's done

One foot in front of the other!!

She has made huge strides and we are so proud of her!

I cant wait for springtime so she can play outside and continue to explore with her strong little legs.

Happy Chinese New Year!

The last 3 years we have had to celebrate Chinese New Year without Jadyn!

This year was different, we celebrated with Jadyn!

We went to a local celebration here in our town.

Jadyn enjoyed coloring with the other girls


and eating!


and posing for a group photo!

While in Portland this last weekend we celebrated once again, by going out for Chinese dinner with family.

Quinten and Jadyn deciding what fresh fish item to order....just kidding


Tea please!


Can you tell the Sweet & Sour Chicken was her favorite?

6 Months ago today......

We were handed this beautiful little girl, known as

Yang Jun Qi aka OUR DAUGHTER.
She was so tiny and scared.

This is our first glimpse of her!


I'm sure she was thinking who are these weird looking people!

One month after coming home, Jadyn had open heart surgery

there has been no stopping her since!

She has gone from wearing size 18-24 months to a 2-3 toddler, gained 7 pounds and grown over 2" She has learned how to run, how to climb stairs, to speake over 100 English words and count to 20. She is also fully potty trained.

Jadyn transitioned into our family so easily, she has had no problems bonding. Our adoption has been such a awesome experience for our entire family. I worried for almost 4 years about attachment, would I be able to love her as I do my biological kids?, will she love us? ect, ect. There was no need for worry!

I told our Home Study Social Worker the other day, if I could have handmade a daughter, I would have handmade Jadyn. Her personality is so outgoing and silly, she is loving, very smart, almost always happy and to top it off, she sleeps 12 hours a night. We are lucky parents!

She has recently been showing us a little 2 year old attitude at times, most often when she's tired. We will count in a firm voice, usually only to two and she figuers out that Daddy & Mommy are still in charge!

In no certain order, here are some things Jadyn loves...
to eat
her siblings
baby dolls
candy
Aunt Kim
playing outside
pre-school with Mommy

Salad (I have to mention this as she is the only child of ours that will eat salad!)

And here are some she doesn't love...
going to the doctor
fruit
our dog
being chased
telling her it's bed time
hair cuts (you'll understand why when you see the picture below)

Here is a picture I dont think I have shared on our blog. This is Jadyn in June 2009. Right after we accepted her referral and about 2 months before we got her.

6 months ago, August 2009

Our girl now!

Pre-school

Jadyn loves to learn, she shows a big interest in learning so I figured I better make the most of this time with her. We have started doing Pre-school at home 3-4 days a week.

After having 2 boys who would rather play with cars and blocks at her age, this is has a big change.

She will ask for "skool" and run to the cupboard where I keep her stuff. It amazes me how smart this little girl is and how fast she learns.

She can already count to 20. She can sing the ABC song (her version) she has the tune down but not the order yet, it's funny to listen to her try. She loves to do puzzles, glue, sing songs with finger play and color with markers.

Counting the strawberries

Big Girl!

Jadyn has some big news to share.....

I'm a big girl now.

Jadyn is POTTY TRAINED.

It took 1 day! She caught on really fast and hasn't looked back!
My boy's took weeks to get this far.

I'm still in awe at how incredibly smart this little girl is and how far she has come in the short 5 months that she has been home.

We are so proud of her.

The look of happiness on her face when we clap for her is so adorable.

I took her shopping with me today in undies (I know, I'm brave) but she has mastered this potty business so well, I trusted her and she did great!

Sunglasses required!

Because her bubble gum colored Gap snowsuit is really bright in this pure white snow!

We are pretty sure this is Jadyn's first time experiencing snow! or as she calls it "nose"
She loved it.

We put her in the sled and Daddy pulled her around!

Then Daddy decided she needed to try out the HILL, OK it's more like an incline, he waited at the bottom while I closed my eyes and gave her a push. Yes, she loved that too!!


Enough sledding, she was ready to try and figured this stuff out!

She took us on a long walk, I kept trying to turn around and head back home and she would say "no home, just walk Mommy"

Jadyn had a great time in the playing in the snow, so did Daddy and Mommy!

A Disney Christmas

We ventured away from our traditional Christmas celebration this year......With a trip to Disneyland!! We flew there Christmas morning!

We had a great time, the park was beautifully decorated for Christmas. Disneyland goes all out, just about every ride was in some way decorated for Christmas or changed to have a Christmas theme.

Even the Haunted House was decorated!

Jadyn loved all the characters, as long as they didn't come too close!

Mickey was no exception, here she is when she first noticed him, and then for the photo I had to join in so she would sit next to him.

While waiting in California Adventure park for Daddy and Garrison to finish up on a scary ride we went for a walk, look who we found...

Mulan... the one and only beautiful Asian Princess.
Mommy and Jadyn were so excited!
Jadyn went right to her and gave her a big hug!
I was so glad I had brought my camera to the park that day.

We had a great 5 days in sunny California. I don't think we would go back again at Christmas time, as the park was packed with people who had the same idea as we did.

The kids had a great time, that was our goal. We had to do a lot of one on one time as a 15 yr. old, 8 yr. old and a 2 yr. old have very different ideas of what a fun ride is!!

Jadyn was very cautious, telling us at times "I no like it" meaning she had no interest in going on that ride! It was pretty funny. She did learn to love the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, after about the 4th. time on it!!.





enjoying their balloon art

Hair Bows!

Here is one of the bows I posted about, the link is over on the right side. All the profits from this bow were donated to a special orphanage in Beijing China called New Day Foster Home.

While taking these pictures, Jadyn was enjoying her lunch and not even paying attention to me, so I just kept clicking. I just love the innocence in her beautiful little Asian face.

we are so in love with this little girl!

For Auntie's friend Marti

Hi Marti
I just got up and found my 2 brothers home from school because we had a ice storm!

Mom says today is going to be a long day!

I want to show you my new Cin-da-relalalala. I love her and I show everyone how pretty she is.


This is what I do when Mommy tries to take pictures of me now, I play peek-a-boo!



I think I'm pretty funny!

Santa

Her little expression reminds me of the day we met her!

Jadyn loves all the pictures of Santa in books, our decorations of him and seeing him on the store shelf. So I was pretty excited to take her to the mall and let her experience Santa for the first time. As we drove there, I kept asking her if she was going to let Santa hold her? she would say "yes, hold Jadyn".

All was fine until she saw him perched in that large green chair. I don't think she understood he was a real person until he reached out for her, she firmly told him "No Sant-na". She wouldn't even look at him. I was able to talk her into sitting on his lap just long enough for this uncomfortable photo that they charged a ridiculous price for.
All for the memories, maybe next year they will be friends!

4 Months ago today

Jadyn Aug.3, 09

Jadyn today

Jadyn met us, her new family and we met her, our new daughter.
The 3rd. of each month will always be special to me.

Jadyn is doing wonderful in every aspect. She loves routine, her Daddy coming home from work, her brothers, her baby dolls, eating, her Auntie, going to her brothers hockey games, she also loves all kinds of animals.

Jadyn has a very sweet and loving personality, she is always happy, as long as she gets a nap.

Her English vocabulary is at age level even though she's only heard it for 4 months. She can say anything we ask of her or that she hears us say.

Not always good!!

She weighs 27 pounds and is 36" tall today.

She was 21.5 pounds and 34" tall four months ago.

Hair Bows & China's Orphan's

As most of you know from just looking at pictures of Jadyn I love hair bows, she has a few LOT.
I wanted to tell my fellow adoptive Mom's and everyone else who loves bows about a wonderful web site. The owner gives 100% of her bow profits to 'New Day Foster Home' in China when you order an "adoption" bow(s). Deals like this will always get my business, plus they are just plain adorable! Yes, you will soon see Jadyn sporting one of these and possibly one with her name embroidered on it.

You can view all the adorable bows she makes by clicking on the link to the right.

How cute is this!

During our wait for Jadyn, Ames & I were interested in adopting a little girl who lives at New Day Foster Home in Beijing. Unfortunately China does not allow you to "hand pick" a child. So I read their blog regularly to see how she is doing. She is an adorable heart baby, who I hope gets to meet her new parents very soon! Hint..thats her little face in the "N" of the New Day Foster Home link.

What is Jadyn Up to?

Giving herself a black eye on the coffee table. This shiner changes daily, the color deepens and seems to spread further under her eye! Boy does Mommy wish this thing would go away! Ouch....


She is finally well from her mild case of pneumonia, she was sick for about 10 days, 7 of those were pretty rough on her. Were not sure if she had the Swine flu or some other flu.

See what she learned when she was sick- how to clean out her dolls nose!


She is talking so much, she can put 4-5 word sentences together, it just shocks us how fast she has picked up our language. It is rare that she speaks Mandarin now. She will still use Mandarin names, like BooBoo for baby and YaYa for Grandpa, she calls her brother's GuGu. But other than that, she is an English speaking toddler.
One more thing....

She is busy "working on" potty training too!