Christmas Wrap-up

Well, it was a crazy first Christmas for our little family. Pre-Christmas was busy as ever, with Christmas parties, shopping, getting our first family photo card prepared, choir rehearsals, Christmas concerts, etc. Maeve did really well throughout, despite her aversion to Santa (or Ho Ho as she calls him).

But then a couple of days before Christmas it all caught up with Maeve. She developed a chesty cough and a fever that we couldn't keep down with infant tempra and baths. She was tired all the time and wouldn't eat anything except Clementine oranges. So after 2 days, on Christmas Eve, with a fever that reached 39 degrees C we took her to the doctor. He put her on penicillin (banana juice) and the next day she was much better. But alas, that was not to be the end of our holiday medical adventure...

I guess she must look like our daughter because the doctor asked us if either of us was allergic to penicillin. We answered that she was adopted. :-)

Maeve had fun opening presents Christmas morning. Santa brought her a tricycle that Mama or Baba can steer. She got to ride it around the Living room for a while, but it has been put away in the basement until spring now. And then she continued to get lots of love and fun and presents from everyone we visited over the holidays!

We went to Uncle Peter, Aunty Carolyn and cousin Connor's house for Christmas brunch. She was feeling much better and managed to wolf down sausages, french toast and lots of fruit. Her appetite was back with a vengeance.

On the 27th we had the whole Forde clan over. With 16 adults and 7 kids it was a pretty full house. We had a wonderful time and Miss Maeve stayed up until 10pm! Needless to say her sleep patterns have been completely out of whack since then. The next day we cleaned the house, visited Grandma and Grandpa and then hit the road for Ottawa to visit my parents.

Once in Ottawa we noticed that Maeve had developed three suspicious spots. Maeve had the Chicken Pox vaccine in October, but with little cousin Robyn also visiting, we needed to rule out Chicken Pox. We took her to a clinic. The doctor could not say one way or the other if it was Chicken Pox and she never developed any more spots. Our friends George and Carolyn graciously put us up so that we would reduce the risk of exposure to Robyn. Poor Maeve didn't know whether we were coming or going. But she had a wonderful time visiting all our friends and their kids. She did get a bit of time with PoPo and GungGung, and was sad to leave them.

Despite being sick, Maeve had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. Thanks to all of you who love our Maevey so much. It means the world to us.

Heres to an amazing 2008!

Some random shots from the holidays.

**Added note: Maeve appears shy and retiring, but there is a daredevil lurking under the surface. On her first toboggan adventure, she couldn't get enough and insisted on going on the big hills with the big bumps. She's full of surprises this little one...


Putting decorations on Grandma's tree.
Big kisses for Mil and Bram!
Hey Maeve, check out this pot holder.
Santa brought the trike, but Mama had to assemble it!
I think Santa's been here!
Hey lady! You gotta license for that?
Feeding Calin with her new baby bottle.
Trying out Baba's new walking sticks. Arizona here we come!
Making friends with Connor's stuffed animals.
Eating grapes with Grandpa and Grandma.
Visiting with Robyn.
Maeve's amazing new advent cabin from Cousin Robyn, Uncle Andrew and Aunty Evelyn.
Playing with her new best friend Julianne.
Bracing herself for the toboggan adventure.
Down the hill with Baba and Violet. Maeve is out front!
The rosy cheeked cherub apres toboggan.
Hanging with the Ottawa gang.
Baba come play with me!!!

Wishing you a Merry Christmas

I can't believe that Christmas is here already. This year we've gotten our wish and will be celebrating Christmas with our darling Maeve. She has brought indescribable joy and wonder to our lives, along with every germ that runs rampant through daycare. She has a bit of a bug today. Must have gotten it on the last day of school. Hopefully, she'll be able to fight it off by Christmas Day. She usually burns through these things pretty quickly, so she'll probably be ok.

We are so blessed to have such a beautiful daughter, wonderful families and amazing friends. What more could we want?

A special Christmas wish to Maeve's Xinyu sisters and their families. We miss you guys. We're glad we can share some virtual time with you once in a while. We look forward to your updates (even though we're not so good at keeping our blog updated).

If you like to see us as dancing elves, visit our family elf page.
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1624167092

A few photos from my friend Anita.

The Secret Revealed

Last year at this time (and for the two years before that) Pat and I had a secret which we kept from most of the Forde family... her name is Maeve. We didn't tell most of the family because we knew the wait would be long and we weren't really sure how long. We wanted to save them from the torturously long and frustrating wait that we knew we'd be enduring. As it turns out, the wait was more than twice as long as we expected because we were originally told that we would be expedited and that turned out not to be the case. We're thankful that is one disappointment we didn't have to put the family through.

But finally, on December 1s, 2006 we got the news and the pictures of our darling Maeve followed shortly after. What an amazing weekend! We wanted to tell the world, but decided to wait until Christmas Eve when most of the family would be together to spring the news.

Our nephew Christopher, who was one of the family members in the know, filmed that revelation. We wanted to share that wonderful moment with you. As you know, my darling hubby is the Venus in our relationship. So while he had prepared an eloquent and magical way to share our news, he was so emotional that he had a hard time getting the words out.

Its a bit long, so you might want to grab a tea and a kleenex first.

Breakfast with Santa

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I was away in Chicago for 5 days last week at a tradeshow, so things have been a little busy.

Maeve and Baba did very well while I was away. Although she's extra concerned that she knows where both of us are at all times now that I'm back. When she's with me, she wants to know where Baba is. When she's with Baba, she wants to know where Mama is. I think she still has quite a bit of separation anxiety. Yesterday, I went in to get her up and dressed, which is usually a Baba task. That got her very worried that Baba had now left so she kept asking for him.

Yesterday, we had breakfast with Santa! We were about 45 minutes late as our daughter/alarm clock didn't wake up until 8:30. She usually gets up between 6:30 and 7, but not on the day when we have to be somewhere early. Oh well.

She is pretty much deathly afraid of Santa. When he came into the room she didn't even want to look at him. She just clung onto Baba for dear life. She did get to see some of her friends who are also from China and got a nice board book from Santa. Or should I say I got the book from Santa and passed it on to her.

In the afternoon, we decorated our Christmas tree. Maeve was more interested in taking the decorations out of the boxes and then putting the boxes neatly away than in hanging them on the tree. I don't think she likes the feeling of the needles against her fingers.

Well the cold weather has hit us. Today we spent a few hours in the morning shovelling out the driveway and walk only to have the plow block us in with a 3 foot wall. Thankfully, we have a snowblower for just such occassions. Needless to say, I didn't make it to church. Maeve had fun helping us. I would take a shovel full of snow and she would push it off into the pile. She kept saying "WOW!"

Someone mentioned wanting stats:
-> as of last Friday 20 months
-> 30.5 inches tall
-> 22 lbs
-> just graduating to 12-18 month clothing (but they are big on her)
-> size 4 shoes (sometimes 5 depending on the make), it was pretty tough to find winter boots for walking that were small enough; her Robeeze boots fit, but they are soft soled
-> we still have her carseat facing rear

She's still just a slip of a girl. She still eats like she may not see food again for days. I'm not sure where it all goes because she is still so tiny. She does have quite the Buddha belly going though.

Some recent photos:
Helping to put the snow tires on the cars.
Don't let the scary Santa guy see me!
The other kids seem to think he's ok. I guess I can listen to a story.
Lauren and Maeve check out their new books.
Maeve's not big on posing for photos. "Down?! Down?!" As in please let me run around.
Maeve helps Baba take the ornaments out.
Hello? Is this the Santa hotline?
This tree is prickly!
Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings...

I'm Still Clinging To Her Babyness

I know she's growing up fast. Although she still fits into some of her 12 month sized clothing, she's even getting taller (30.5" now). But part of me is still desperately clinging on to her being a baby. I know its a bit selfish, but can't she stay small a little longer?

That being said, I do love to see all the new things that she is learning:

• Her vocabulary is expanding... not as much as some of her Xinyu sisters mind you, but coming along. She's certainly babbling more than ever! Her favourites: "I dooo"; "No, no", giggle giggle, run away; "Owtdide" which I think is outside; "BabaMama" which is all one word because it isn't good enough to have just one of us there; and of course "MORRRE!" which mostly applies to food, but sometime applies to tickles and teasing.


• She can feed herself a complete meal with her spoon and barely spill a drop. She's very fastidious and will pick up every grain of rice that falls. At daycare they say that she uses her spoon better than some of the kids who are a year older than her. What can I say. She loves her food!


• She loves to help clean up. Both at home and at daycare. She pushes chairs back against the table. She puts her books back on the self or in her book bins. She puts her clothes in her hamper. She puts her tea set away in it's plastic bag and does up the zipper (with a little help).


• She even comes over and presents her nose when I say, "Can Mama wipe your nose for you?"

Pat and I keep saying we have to take more photos and video because these days of metamorphosis from baby to little girl and all of her little sounds and sayings will be gone soon.

And she is getting used to daycare. She still cries a bit sometimes when I drop her off, but only for a few minutes. One day last week, she was having so much fun that she didn't want to leave when Baba arrived to pick her up.

Here are some random photos:

I'll take that piece please!
Ah, banana bread. One of life's little luxuries.
This is your forehead Uncle Peter.
Little brown riding hood.
No, no. Giggle, giggle.
Putting halloween stickers on my crib.

Bunny at Play

Maeve's cousin Robyn was the cutest bunny ever this Halloween! Grandma and Grandpa were down visiting at the time so they got to see the darling hop hop (as Maeve calls them) in person. The rest of us have to settle for photos.

We're looking forward to seeing you at Christmas sweetie!

Hugs and Kisses,
Maeve, Aunt Kathleen and Uncle Pat

Boo!

Maeve has been walking around the house for a couple of days now saying, "Boo". Not sure where it came from. I guess they taught it to her at daycare. She had a great Halloween. Her daycare is in a tech park, so they took their kids in their costumes to one of the tech companies across the street. Apparently the kids were a big hit. Maeve is one of the smallest in her class so dressed in her little love bug costume she is a quite the little bundle.

Then Baba picked her up early from daycare and went to Grandma and Grandpa's house where her cousins the great wizard Miller and the scary ghost Bram where also visiting. They had a hoot running around in their costumes.

After that Maeve came to visit Mama at work where the adoring crowd cooed over her (Maeve that is, not Mama).

Finally, after supper, Baba took Maeve out in her red wagon to visit a few neighbours. At first she was wondering why she was going up to the houses and ringing the bell. But once she figured out that people would drop goodies into her bag it was , "More! More!" Her favourites were smarties boxes and chip bags because they make lots of noise. She hasn't had any candy or chips yet, so she doesn't know the sugary goodness that lurks inside those packages. She just likes the noise.

She also enjoyed handing out the candy as the kids came to the door. I think it frustrated a couple of kids because Maeve took her time picking out just the right candy out of the bowl. But most of the ghouls and goblins were patient and thought she was cute.

Wizards and Love Bugs and Ghosts! Oh My!
Kissing cousins
Bumping up and down in my little red wagon
Queen Maeve in her chariot