One Month Anniversary
Sunday, the 15th, was our one month Anniversary being home from China. Nina is doing great. Since we got her a month and a half ago, she has learned to roll over, sit up (this is sounding like dog tricks), pull herself to a stand, and then, finally, crawl. She’s been off antibiotics for a week now. Though she’s still on Pediasure, otherwise she’s a normal kiddo.

One of the questions that I get asked is how she’s adjusting to English. Well, I think a baby babbling “dah dah dah” is about the same in Chinese as it is in English. Well, Nina is saying “Dah Goo” when we hand her something. We always say “Thank You” when she hands us something.

Speech Impediments
I’ve informed Alison, and when Nina is old enough I’ll let her know. I will not permit any child of mine to have a speech impediment. I wasn’t able to pronounce my R’s the first 8 or so years of my life. It’s actually hard to figure out when it ended. It was the state who ridded it from me. In second grade, they put me in speech class. I was done with that and allegedly pronouncing stuff correctly at the end of that. But I was made fun of, by both students and teachers, until the end of the 8th grade. Sure, character building, but it sucks. The mocking ended when I entered Dead Astronaut High School. One of my regular taunters made fun of how I pronounced my name (real name has two R’s in it) and another person said, “What are you talking about?” I responded that I used to have a speech impediment when I was a child and people still made fun of me because of it. “Oh.” And I never had anyone make fun of my speech again. It was a historic day in my life.

Nina’s Big Change
Yesterday was Nina’s first day with Mommy working. Alison’s mom babysat her from around 8:30 until 5:20. I showed up at 3:40 though. But since Nina isn’t 20 lbs yet, she can’t ride in my car. She was good all day, except when she crapped herself the threw a fit. I can understand that. I’d be upset if I pooped myself. I don’t think she was used to Alison’s mom or the little kiddie potty she has over there so she didn’t get baba mmm on yesterday morning.



Nina uses a normal size toilet with an adapter thing so she doesn’t fall in. We got the same unit as a potty for her grandmother’s TDY apartment, but since Alison’s mom can’t get the little one into the bathroom in her wheelchair (broken leg, remember) and you just can’t carry an infant with a walker, so we got the lil potty.

We met Zoe and April
For the first time since we got back home, I did a real wash on my car and put some more wax on the areas where is had worn off mostly. While I was doing this, the neighbor two houses down came outside. Their 11 month old, Zoe, is already walking and knows hot to say one word besides “mommy” and “daddy”. She knows “hot.” And odd word to know, but it’s an important word. Alison has Wednesdays off, so maybe April and Alison will hang out a little. Alison needs a little more support system than just her mom et al.

Brad’s Call
Oh, and speaking of support system. Brad, our nephew and junior baby sitter, called last night and told us how much he liked spending time with Nina. He said he had to go quickly though, as he wasn’t allowed to use the phone.*

*Teri (Brad’s mom), if you’re reading this. Don’t get onto Brad for this, Ok?
- posted by Nick Postagulous @ 10:03 AM