Pics of the nursery

Today, someone at work asked how the nursery was coming along, so I'm offering the evidence that it's pretty much done:


The larger chest of drawers on the left is a "vintage" piece (that is, old and used from a moving sale!) that really matches the furniture in EJ's room. I'd like to strip this and paint it to match the pieces that are in her room (the same cream color on the closet door and trim in this photo), but we haven't had a need for it yet. For now, it will stay in Sophie's room and serve as extra storage.

See the little rocking chair on the left? That was mine when I was a toddler, given to me by my godparents, my great Aunt A and Uncle J. At one point, it had a little music box on the bottom so that it played music as you rocked, but that was lost somewhere along the way. Behind the little chair is a small wooden toybox from PapPap and Mamaw S, and the yellow eyelet crib bedding was from them as well.

And in this photo you can see Sophie's book collection (compliments of EJ) and a rocking chair that once belonged to K's paternal grandmother. This chair had red vinyl upholstery on it when we took custody of it many years ago, and we decided to refurbish it when EJ was born. I love the new upholstery, but the chair continues to need structural work, so I'm not sure if it's safe to sit in right now!

I still need to hang some artwork on the walls. I have a cute baby quilt with the alphabet on it to hang on the wall, and K's parents also bought us a really nice panda print to hang as well. See the green bulb-shaped thing on the left in the 2nd picture? That's one of three fabric lanterns that I'd like to hang from the ceiling, but I'm waiting to see what other cool things I might find in China - maybe a kite? And the windows have mint green roman shades that K's mom and I made, but I need valances. Perhaps I'll find some pretty embroidered silk in China for those.

If you look closely at the walls, you will see they are mint green and lavender stripes on the bottom of the chair rail with butter yellow on the top. The colors aren't very bright in these pictures, as I took them at dusk, but let's just say that I WILL NEVER PAINT STRIPES AGAIN! Perhaps it had something to do with being 6 or 7 months pregnant at the time I was trying to measure and tape nice straight lines. Perhaps it was the paint fumes. All I know is that it was a not-so-fun way to spend a few weeks, and therefore, it shall not be repeated in my lifetime.

DAY 21: Our TA (travel authorization) is on its way!

We found out this morning that our TA is on its way, so that means that we will most likely leave on Wednesday, 5/23 (EJ's 8th birthday), barring any complications setting up consulate appointments and such. That's only a little over three weeks from now, so there will be some serious consideration given to the packing list this week.

Anyway, we would most likely meet Sophie on Sunday 5/27 or Monday 5/28. And then we'd return home on Thursday, 6/7, which is K's birthday.

The travel clinic is also recommending shots for malaria and typhoid, so we have to get that straightened out and scheduled. Lots to do in the next three weeks!!!

DAYS 19 and 20: Where the wild things are...

...they're in our front yard. Tonight around 6:45, EJ called Mamaw S to wish her happy birthday and a few minutes later while I was on the phone with Dad, EJ spied this doe in the front yard EATING THE SHRUBS!

We've seen a lot of deer of the years, but hadn't seen any all winter. Perhaps all the yard cleanup we did last weekend made those fresh tender buds look all the more appetizing. She doesn't look too big in this photo, but from the ground up to her back was probably close to 4 feet tall. After she nibbled around for a few minutes, she headed down the driveway to the first lamppost, decided the azalea bush there wasn't as tasty, and then walked behind the camper and disappeared into the woods in front of the house. EJ went out to look for her but couldn't find her. We also saw a really large woodpecker today, but were unable to get good photos of it.

On the Sophie front, the nursery is just about complete. I did the final load of laundry today, cleaned out the other chest of drawers in the room and moved more stuff to the attic (you know, the one that I've been trying to empty of stuff, but now that I'm losing the nursery as storage space...). Perhaps I'll try to take pics of the nursery to post later in the week.

I also finished EJ's Harry Potter quilt this weekend and we started on Book 6, The Half-Blood Prince, while cuddling under it tonight.

DAY 18: Evening in the city

Last night, we had an early dinner in Boston and then took EJ to the newly-renovated Boston Children's Museum. The museum just re-opened a few weeks ago after being closed for nearly four months for a $47 million dollar expansion and renovation project. The museum was a bit dated and, as you can imagine, quite abused from all the pint-sized visitors over the years, but we have to give it two thumbs up!

EJ has aged out of a lot of the exhibits there, but that didn't stop her from enjoying them all. There is a really cool new climbing structure right inside the entrance, and even the older exhibits look refreshed. For Arthur fans, there is an expanded exhibit that now also includes Postcards From Buster.

Anyway, if you live in the Boston area and have kids under 8, it's worth a visit. Friday night visits between 5 and 9 PM only cost $1, thanks to a partnership with Target. And while there aren't a lot of kid friendly restaurants within a few blocks of the museum (we ate at the Cheesecake Factory at the Cambridgeside Galleria first), you'll be happy to know that the McD's at the museum was replaced by an Au Bon Pain.

This photo was in the science exhibit...she had to pull her weight up on a pulley system:

This is from an exhibit with a video system projected onto a wall and the video interacts with you when you stand there. This particular one had butterflies fluttering around and when you stood in front of the screen, they would land on you:

Climbing on the rock wall:


On the lighted game board floor:

With David Ortiz. Congrats to the Sox for beating the Yankees AGAIN last night in a marathon four-hour (but still only nine innings) game. That's seven losses in a row for the Yanks.

Tina the Tech Writer

For those of you who don't know me, I manage a technical writing group, so Tina the Tech Writer is my favorite Dilbert character. She's going to be writing blog content too, but not for her, for her boss...

DAYS 16 and 17: Yikes, I REALLY need to think about travel!

Today, I have a whole bunch of little things to report on. First up is news that our agency is hoping to have our travel group depart for China on 5/24. Since we've requested to go to Beijing a day early, that would be 5/23 (EJ's 8th birthday!) for us. She thought that would be the coolest birthday adventure ever. CAWLI is hoping that our travel authorizations are mailed from China before 5/1, the start of a holiday week in China.

From wikipedia.com: In the People's Republic of China, International Workers' Day marks the start of one of the country's three so-called "Golden Weeks". Three days off work are given, and the surrounding weekends are re-arranged so that workers in Chinese workplaces always have seven continuous days of holiday starting on the first of May and ending on the seventh. This holiday, known as "Wu Yi" (五一, literally "5.1") also includes Youth Day on May 4, and is the peak period for Chinese citizens to travel around China and abroad. Also on this day, a huge parade goes through Tian'anmen Square (天安门). It is the largest national parade of the whole year, always televised on CCTV. Most of the parade consists of military demonstrations like air shows and marching soldiers, and many who are selected to join the parade see it as a privilege and take pride in it. The government mandates the "Golden Weeks" holidays more for the purpose of rejuvenating the country's tourist business than its political purpose.

Anyway, let's hope those TA's come through in the next week! I mean, I could be in China in LESS THAN FOUR WEEKS!!!

Next up was an interesting post on an adoption site today about a T-shirt that was included on the UrbanOutfitters.com website. It was a yellow T-shirt with large black text that reads "Adopting is the new black", implying that adoption is trendy. Well, the adoption community took offense to this and started making phone calls and sending emails and within a few hours, the T-shirt was removed from the website. It is interesting to think that hundreds of thousands of international adoptions have probably taken place in the last 25 or 30 years, but as soon as a handful of celebrities choose adoption as a way to expand their families, it is considered fashionable. I'm all for anything that would promote positive messages about international adoption programs or multi-racial families, but they also have T-shirts that say "Rehab is the new black" so let's just say that adoption was not in good company here. I'm glad the T-shirt is gone.

And finally, all the sports talk in Boston today was focused on the possibility that the blood on Curt Schilling's sock during the '04 World Series was really paint. You can read all about it here. Doug Mirabelli said he was misunderstood, and Red Sox Nation can sleep tonight knowing their legendary win was truly legendary, complete with self-sacrifice and blood and all. But I wouldn't be surprised if DNA tests were ordered just to be sure.

DAYS 14 and 15: Thinking about travel

You might remember this post about the timeline of how things work after the referral call, which we received on April 9th. Based on these estimates, we hope to travel in late May, but we won't know for sure for another 2-3 weeks.

We do plan to leave for Beijing a day early, and it looks as though several members of our travel group will be doing the same. CAWLI arranges almost all of its trips to depart on a Thursday and arrive back home on a Thursday two weeks later. So, we would leave on a Wednesday morning, and with the time change, probably arrive in Beijing on Thursday afternoon. We will most likely be there until Sunday, when we will fly to Nanchang, the capital of the Jiangxi province, where Sophie is from. Sophie will probably travel to Nanchang with several other children and some nannies. We will meet her Sunday evening or Monday morning. Here is a little more about the province of Jiangxi. Looks like it's known for its porcelain, so we might have to buy a piece of that for Sophie...how I'll travel with it for the remaining 10 days is another worry!

We will probably be in Nanchang until Friday handling all of the necessary paperwork. Then, we will depart for Guangzhou, the capital of the Guangdong province. There, we will stay at the White Swan Hotel on Shamian Island, one of the finest hotels in China. If you look at the link, you will see that President Bush, Queen Elizabeth, and Bill Gates have all stayed there! In Guangzhou, Sophie will receive a physical exam and then be granted a visa by the American Consulate's office to come home with us.

I'll update you soon on the packing dilemma. For the flights to and from China, the weight limit on the bags is a little higher than it is for the in-country Chinese flights, which limits each bag to 44 pounds. So, the plan is to take three suitcases and about four days of clothing (and take advantage of the hotel laundry service), and then fill the rest of the suitcase with diapers, granola bars, Cheerios, and other snacks. By the time we get to Guangzhou, the other half of each suitcase will be emptied out, and I can pile in all my shopping treasures! If necessary, we can purchase another inexpensive suitcase for Sophie for the flight home. And, we'll each have a backpack with a day's worth of clothes, the cameras, all the important documents, and things to keep us busy on a 15 HOUR FLIGHT!! Ugh. I'm stir-crazy on a plane after three hours.

Finally, EJ and I finished the fifth Harry Potter book tonight and plan to start book 6, The Half-Blood Prince in the next few days. It's ONLY 650ish pages, as opposed to the 874 in book 5, so we shouldn't have any problem finishing it before book 7 is released on July 21st. Whew!