"Daddy, I want a pony" to "Daddy, I want a Cessna"

Thea is only in school Wednesday and Thursday this week, so in an effort to provide constructive and stimulating activities to occupy our time, we went on the weekly tour of Princeton Airport. Thea was very excited about this, and woke with "Today is our tour of the airport." And then she asked if there was going to be moving sidewalks. The moving sidewalks at the Newark, Beijing and Hong Kong airports were a bit hit with her, so I had to help her scale back her idea of the tour to the size of a small airport.
We got to see a lot of small planes taking off and landing, and two helicopters that also flew in as well. The highlight of the morning was getting to climb into the cockpit of a two-seater Cessna and work the controls.
Micah was just along for the stroller ride, but he was on good behavior thanks to a tiny beach ball given out by a representative of the Princeton Health and Fitness Center.

After lunch and Micah's nap, we remembered that it was the release date of the new Backyardigans book, Super Spies. Backyardigans are very big deal to Thea - a child who doesn't like dolls, isn't 'into' Disney - princesses or otherwise, and who has a passing interest in Dora and Diego. So I got tasked to calling Borders and Barnes & Noble to see if the book was in stock. B&N won, so we set off on our adventure to Princeton Marketfair. After we picked up the book, we went to the ice cream stand in the food court, Thea got her usual, vanilla with rainbow sprinkles. Micah is not a big fan of ultra-cold stuff, no interest in vanilla or the German chocolate cake ice cream that I got. Thea was "still hungry" after that and wanted sushi. Huh? Where this came from, I don't know; I do know that the raw stuff isn't going into my kid. So I got a shrimp and scallion roll - and then had to remove the seaweed wrapper and the scallions before she'd eat it.

By late afternoon Micah was in whacking mode and Thea was getting cranky, so we decided to do a mini backwards day: baths before dinner and pancakes, fruit and o.j. for dinner. Thea was really into the idea, so it was sort of fun.

Jillian's Christening, etc.

We went on a trip to Hackettstown today for Micah's birthday-and-orphanage mate's baptism. It's been about five weeks since we got back from China, but I still can recognize her voice when she cries (and she only fussed while she was having water poured on her.) Micah and Thea were remarkably well-behaved even though we took seats at the back of the group gathered for the baptism, just in case a quick escape for a screaming heathen child (or two) was needed.

Thea did her usual slow to warm up, but not ready to leave when it was time to go home shtick at the party afterward, and Micah chowed down, walked around, and otherwise was Micah. He pretty much goes with the flow unless he's really tired.

Making the trip up there was good practice for going up to the Summit Speech School for Micah's evaluation in mid-September.

My mother got an upgraded computer on Sunday, and my internet connection was used (with my permission) and in the process all the emails in my in-box got downloaded to the hard drive of her new computer. So if you're reading this and you sent an email over the weekend and are wondering why I haven't responded, it will be waiting for me when we get to my mother's house on Friday.

"You have a messy house."

This comment I got from a little playground friend of Thea's who had stopped by to see if she could come out and ride bicycles. I hope tact comes in to his life soon, because if he lets fly with another comment like that around me, he won't live to see his next birthday much less get invited to Thea's birthday party. The house was in total disarray last week from Thursday through Saturday because the living room was rearranged to put up the play yard for Micah. But it was neat piles of stuff, not wading through debris or even anything close.

A victim of reordering our world to incorporate Micah was the chair that matches the sofa. There will be no memorial service for this hideous doesn't-know-if-it's-a-chair-or-loveseat, and the couch should be nervous because it's made out of the same butt-ugly fabric. Once the play yard was up and the living room put back in a little bit of order, the parts of the crib were pulled out from under furniture throughout the house, and while Steve, Micah and Thea were out in the pool, I put the crib back together. Only eight screws, but a pain in my neck. Thank goodness for an old Nordstrom's hatbox that I used to prop the bottom/spring thing to be able to keep it within reach of the screw holes instead of growing an extra set of hands.

Anyway, the bottom line is Micah has a room, even though he's still camping in the Pack-N-Play in our room. I've been rocking him to sleep in there, and once a few more things are exiled to the attic or wherever else we can stash them, and the baby monitor gets plugged in, he'll move.

Micah had his first visit with the local ENT last Wednesday. The guy had the personality of a paper clip, but his office staff was nice. And I met another family with a child with bilateral microtia/atresia. The little girl is now six years old and is entering mainstream first grade. Thanks to surgery, she went from moderate/severe hearing impairment to mild impairment. She also had the plastic surgery to create auricles, and even though I'm not as concerned with the cosmetic aspect as restoring as much of Micah's hearing as possible, the appearance of those ears was amazing. On September 6th, Micah is scheduled for an audiogram to test his hearing.

Update

Today is Micah's first appointment with the ENT, who will be the gateway to the audiologist, which will lead to an evaluation of Micah's hearing that we can send to the Somerset County early intervention program, which will lead to getting speech and hearing services. He's oblivious, and napping upstairs. We're finally getting into a routine - after one week in Wuhan, one week in Guangzhou, a third week in Bethany Beach, he's finally coming to know what being in the same place day in and day out means.

Thea's in school - she's been more balky the past two weeks at going to the Chinese immersion program than she was the first two weeks she attended (prior to the trip to China.) I'm losing my taste for forcing her to go even though she's happy once she gets settled in, I hate the idea of her dreading going to school each day.

I finally ordered actual prints of our pictures - in this same time frame after Thea's adoption I had pictures to send to friends, her album for the trip put together, and all my thank-you cards written. The second time around I feel like a complete slacker.

Micah surveys his empire. . .

We're still sleeping in three to four hour shifts and are out of synch with time. Steve took over at around 3:00 am and was up with Thea and Micah, then I got up at 6:30 am and we fed Micah. Until our trip to ShopRite, the cuisine is rice cereal and prunes - but he's loving it so far. I need to get formula because what I do have on hand, Micah does not like one bit.

After getting online to make sure the grocery store is open, Micah and I set off for ShopRite - the one with the Dunkin Donuts because Mom wanted coffee after two weeks of tea. Micah had his first ride in Mom's car and in a shopping cart. That early in the morning, the store is being restocked, so we were navigating amidst boxes and stock clerks.

Then we took a ride down 295 to see my office and those lucky few working on a Saturday morning. It gave Micah a chance to meet a few new people, and he was a little more clingy than he usually is. In China, he'd go to practically anyone - and he's definitely a Daddy's boy, so it was nice to have him hang onto me a little bit. He did well though and even though he wouldn't go to Maryann and Earla, he was willing to share his Cheerios with them and with Monique. It was so good to see them. We also stopped at the vegetable stand for tomatoes - a Jersey tomato is pure summer to me.

My little man fell asleep on the ride home, so we didn't stop at our neighborhood CVS to see if it still has the little squishy Fisher-Price fire truck he loved in China - of all the things we could misplace or lose on the trip, we're missing three stacking cups and that fire truck. He and Steve were back upstairs having a nap, Thea had her first breakfast which I hope will start getting her back into real time. I need a nap, but Thea wants company, so I'll fold laundry instead.

Off to the beach tomorrow, packing later tonight.

Photos Added - Micah Unveiled

I've put a few photos into the various posts and will upload them to www.kodakgallery.com as well. It's 11:30 pm Friday, Thea's eating pasta, I'm on the computer and working on laundry, Steve's trying to get Micah to sleep. I hope jet lag passes faster than it did last time. . . .

It is so good to be home, mostly for our own bed. Mattresses in China are rock hard and the beds seem lower (especially with our pillow top mattress). It's also nice to be able to go to the sink to brush my teeth without thinking about having a bottle of water handy. Minor complaints in the grand scheme of things.

We're home!

Our Continental flight had great tailwinds (70+ miles per hour) so we were slightly more than an hour early. Steve was in the center section and had an empty seat next to him, so we had five seats to use, which was very, very nice. Even with being the last in line at immigration, things moved quickly - and even the car service was at the airport waiting for us. The children won't be riding in a limo again until they go to their proms.

The flight was long, but uneventful. The same three episodes of CSI, CSI: Miami and CSI: NY were playing on the video - all total they ran about 150 minutes, so after two thirteen to fifteen hour flights, I could almost recite dialogue.

Micah's immigration officer was Charles Olah - I picked his station because the one next to him with a short line had an officer who looked about twelve years old. I thought the officer we met at the San Francisco airport actually went through the sealed brown enveloped we brought home for Thea in 2004, but this guy just took the packet and said Micah's Certificate of Citizenship should arrived in about six weeks. (The brown envelope is given to each family the same day the child's visa is issued and the Chinese passport is returned to parents; the instructions are to hand carry it, don't open it on pain of death and hand it to the immigration officer at whatever port of entry into the US families return to.)

Last night we were in Hong Kong, but way out on Lantau Island at the Regal Hotel at the airport. We could walk from customs to hotel, and could take the baggage cart with us. The hotel was something out of a neo-, techno-, disco-ain't-dead decor. Dieter from the old SNL skit "Sprockets" would be quite at home there. A nice clerk with the unlikely name of Angus (he's Chinese) at the check-in desk upgraded our room, so we were down the hall from the Cash family instead of in the other tower. On our way back from dinner I was pushing the double stroller and oblivious to the world, but a classmate of Thea's from YingHua was calling out "Thea, Thea..." She and her mother and grandmother had just arrived and were leaving the following day for Wuhan on an Our Chinese Daughters Foundation tour. Small world. Thea was also sort of oblivious due to tiredness.

Micah's first act as a newly-minted American citizen was to poop and stink up the limo. Fifteen hours on a plane, and he chose this particular moment. Thea and Micah were wonderful on the plane; both slept well - Micah with three naps and Thea with one long one. She missed the plane landing at Newark because she was fast asleep.

Pictures will be uploaded soon - Steve ran off to Princeton to register Micah on his health insurance. Micah is discovering the toybox with Thea's old baby toys, but until we get the play pit up, this kid needs to be watched like a hawk. I've got to get to the store to stock up on baby food and diapers; I didn't buy much ahead of time because I wasn't sure of his size and what he'd be eating.

We survived, no illnesses, no glitches. Everyone's starting to crash (it's 6:30 am according to their internal clocks). It's going to be a few days of being out of sync with real time.

My most pressing question right now is: where in the world did all the dirty laundry come from? We sent out laundry once in Wuhan and once in Guangzhou and I still have a mountain of stuff to be washed.